Buddies

 

Buddies

When me and my buddies played ball, Maria tagged along. She was too small to play, plus she was a girl.  Yuck.  But we let her chase foul balls.  She thought she was our buddy, but no way. 

One day a guy was out sick, so we let Maria play right field.  We put her way out near the fence, where she couldn’t bug us. 

I hit a long one, a homer for sure, but she caught it, spun, and threw it all the way to second.  I never saw nothing like that before. So we gave her a shot at batting.  She grounded to shortstop and outran the throw to first.  She ran faster than all my buddies.  We let her play a little more each practice, until we had to let her start, so we could win more games.  She was still just a girl, but sort of like a buddy. 

We got used to her and let her bike home with us after games.  We let her swim with us at the quarry.  We can't stop her cuz’ she throws a mean punch.

I think Maria might be my best buddy now. All the other guys think she's theirs.