June 9, 2021

A week had passed since Ella came to California. We had gotten a lot closer. She's one of my best friends now.

I had just gotten home from playing baseball with all of them up at the sandlot and for some reason, I was extra tired. Instead of eating dinner, I kissed my mom on the forehead then gave Lilly a big hug, and went to my room to lay down. I at least had enough energy to take a shower so I did that then put on my boxers and a pair of sweatpants. I crashed about two minutes after laying down.

"Crack!" I was running to first base, sure I had just hit a home run. The crowd was cheering "Jet! Jet! Jet!" I stepped on first, then second, and out of nowhere a girl popped up in front of me. She had beautiful red hair and blue eyes that sparkled. Her freckles were perfect and she was wearing a long royal blue dress. All of a sudden I felt a tap on my shoulder. She was holding the ball, with a glove on her left hand. It was Ella.

My eyes opened and I shot up in my bed. There was sweat on my forehead but I was cold. Did I really just have a dream about Ella? I mean sure she's really cool but I only saw her as a friend. People have dreams about their friends, right?

Suddenly my alarm clock rang. I had woken up just before 6:30. I got up out of bed and put dark blue jeans and a white wife-beater shirt with a grey short sleeve button up over it. I put on my favorite pair of shoes, my PF flyers, then walked out into the hallway and into the bathroom.

I put on a crap ton of deodorant because I was already sweating. I don't even know why I had a dream about Ella. I mean sure she was pretty... cool. She's pretty cool. Maybe that's why?

I jumped when I heard a soft knock at the door which I automatically recognized. I hid behind the door while I slowly opened it and saw Lilly walk in with a confused look on her face. I slowly crept behind her and picked her up.

"Benny!" She laughed.

I always loved her laugh. It was adorable.

"Good morning munchkin," I said setting her back down.

She hated when I called her that, but I did it anyway.

Her hair was a mess so I helped her brush it because she liked when I did that. We both brushed our teeth at the same time but I still had to lift her up a little bit so she could spit her mouthwash out.

We walked out of the kitchen to see my mom, who had already started making breakfast. And to my surprise, she had stopped at the bakery too.

"Did you go to the bakery?" I asked very confusedly.

"Yes, I did. I met your little friend Ella too. She's very pretty. " She said then winked at me.

"Mom. No. She's just a friend." I said grabbing a pancake from the stack of them she had just finished making.

I sat down at the island next to Lilly who passed me the syrup after pouring about half the bottle onto her pancakes.

I felt my pocket buzz so I pulled my phone out and checked to see who had texted me. It was Ella. My face got warm just thinking about the dream. I mean I know it was just about her getting me out at the third base, but the dress she was wearing looked amazing on her.

Gran let me off early, I'm walking to the sandlot with Ham and Smalls. See u there :)

alright see u there. :)

I didn't even realize it but I was smiling. I hadn't even known her for that long and she's already on my mind 24/7. I should be focused on baseball. Not her. Even if she is my best friend.

After breakfast, I ran back to my room, put on my favorite LA dodgers hat, grabbed my glove, then my bat. I kissed my mom on the cheek and hugged Lilly one more time before walking out the door and heading to the sandlot.

While I was walking there I tried to get the dream out of my head so it wouldn't be awkward. I tried to make myself believe that people had dreams about their friends, but I've never dreamt of any of the guys before. That would just be weird. Besides, it wasn't like a bad dream or anything. She just looked really pretty in it...

As I turned into the sandlot, with just my luck, Ella was the first one I saw. She had just hit the ball and was running towards first base. Her hair was flowing in the wind as she ran. She had a focused look on her face that I had never seen her make before, not even while trying to bat with Ham making his idiot comments like "Ella look! A senior with his shirt off!" Or even "my mom made bacon for Breakfast. Gives me gas, but I eat it anyway." The first one worked on her once before but she smacked him across the head for it.

I looked over into the outfield at Smalls who was about to catch the ball when it hit the tip of his glove and he dropped it. My eyes darted back to Ella who was now on second base, sprinting towards third. I watched as Smalls picked up the ball and chucked it as far as he could towards Bertram who was standing on third base. Right as Ella was about to touch the base with her foot she said something to Bertram which made his face get really red then his head shot down. The ball flew right past him, and Ella took off towards home plate. Bertram ran to get the ball and throw it to Ham but by the time he finally got to it, Ella had slid into Home.

"Oh come on!" Ham yelled while taking his headgear off and walking towards him "You didn't even try to catch the ball you ass wipe!"

Bertram, whose face was still very red whispered something in Ham's ear that made him laugh.

"And you fell for it? Idiot." He said shaking his head still laughing and walking backward towards home plate. "Good one Ella."

"Thanks, Ham." She said with a smile on her face wiping the dust off her legs.

I was going to try to stay away from Ella for today so I wouldn't end up telling her that I had a dream about her in a dress... that's kinda creepy. My plan didn't work though because as soon as I set my phone down on the bench I felt her lightly punch me on the arm and say "hey stupid. You're late." She was still out of breath from making a home run.

I didn't look at her, if I did I would get nervous, and then it would be obvious that something was up.

"Uh, yeah," I said with an awkward smile on my face. "Lilly kept trying to get me to bring her with me."

"Why didn't you?" She said after taking a big gulp of water.

"She doesn't like baseball. She just wants to see Tommy." I said shaking my head.

She laughed. I liked her laugh. It was like Lilly's except not as high pitched. I laughed with her finally gaining enough courage to look at her, but as soon as I did my eyes grew wide and I looked away. I grabbed the bat and took a deep breath and said "let's play." Then jogged away from her.

It was obvious that I was nervous. But I felt a little better when I hit a home run over the fence. It was nothing new but I still got a bunch of "alright Benny!" and pats on the back.

We played till sundown, taking a couple of short breaks in between. I stayed away from Ella as much as I could. I could tell she knew something was up but I knew if she confronted me about it I would give in and tell her, so I kept my distance. We just met. I wasn't gonna ruin everything by telling her I dreamt about her. Like I said, that's weird.

When the sun set and we decided to call it for the day, I knew the walk home would be the hardest. For a while, she stayed in the back of the group talking to Smalls and Yeah Yeah about something I couldn't hear, but once it was just us and Smalls it got awkward.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" She asked, making Smalls choke on the water he was sipping on and me look down at the ground.

"What do you mean? I haven't been avoiding you." I lied, scratching my neck.

"You're lying." She said stopping where she was and crossing her arms. "You're a terrible liar. You always scratch your neck."

"Can we talk about this when Smalls isn't around?" I said stopping as well but still not making eye contact.

"No no. I'm enjoying this. Please, continue." Smalls said with an annoying expression on his face.

I rolled my eyes then gave him a look that was basically telling him to give us space.

"Never mind, uh... my mom's making dinner... I better go." He said jogging past me mouthing the words "good luck".

Ella was still standing there with her arms crossed looking at me waiting for an answer. I gave in. It's just so hard to keep a secret from her. I don't know why.

"Okay fine. Yes, I've been avoiding you, but it's not like I want to." I said finally looking her in the eyes. I could tell she was hurt. I felt really bad but I didn't know what to do.

"Why?" She said not moving.

"Look I'm sorry okay? Can we just leave it?"

"No, we can't. Why have you been ignoring me?"

Finally, I couldn't hide it anymore. "I had a dream about you okay?" I blurted out.

She just stood there, looking at me like I was stupid.

"That's it?"

"Well... yeah," I said confused.

"You were ignoring me... because you had a dream about me?" She said as if I was the dumbest human to walk the earth.

"Yeah," I said walking over to the curb and sat on it, setting my glove and the bat next to me.

She followed and sat down next to me. "What happened in this dream?"

I hesitated, but then told her. "I was running the bases because I thought I hit a home run... but then you got me out on third base... and you were wearing a blue dress."

"Did I look good in this dress?" She said trying to make me embarrassed.

"Oh my god." I said rolling my eyes.

She just laughed at me and shook her head then put her hand over mine which was holding onto the edge of the curb.

"That's not bad at all. It's just a dream." She said in a reassuring voice.

"I know. I just thought it was weird to have dreams about friends."

"That's not weird. I have dreams about my friends from Texas all the time." She said with her hand still on mine.

"Okay good." I said with a rush of relief running through me. It was like the world just got lifted off my shoulders.

We both just laughed then she took her hand off mine. I stood up and held out a hand to help her up. She took my hand then when she was standing, she pulled me into a hug. For a moment I was shocked and just stood there, then I kinda liked it. I hugged her back. She gives good hugs... and her hair smelled good, which I don't know how because we had both been really sweaty.

When we finished hugging for what had felt like an hour, but was really just twenty seconds, she said "So are we good now? You're not gonna avoid me anymore."

I laughed and replied, "Yeah, we're good."

"Good." She said smiling at me.

I turned towards Small's house because knowing him, he was most likely still watching us. As I suspected, he was looking through the window with a big smirk on his face. I just flipped him off.

It was already dark outside so we kept walking until we got to our houses, which weren't very far, then said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

I was greeted at the door by Lilly who was really excited for some reason.

"Why are you so excited munchkin?" I asked ruffling her hair.

"Mommas making lasagna!" she said with a huge smile on her face.

"Alright!" I said giving Lilly a high five.