Brianna paced herself cautiously down the abandoned side street, now looking more like a concrete jungle than a suburban neighborhood. Bri was always intrigued by this side of town, but her mother would probably have a heart attack if she knew she was walking down this particular part of Detroit.

“I can’t believe you’re going with her!” Sophia exclaimed in a loud whisper from the sidewalk, prompting Brianna to look behind her shoulder at the quarrel she and Evan seemed to be having. Brianna didn’t care really if Evan came or not, her curiosity trumped her fear, and she wasn’t going to wait around. She turned her head back toward her destination with a slight smirk on her face, _Big tough quarterback _she thought to herself, as him and the head cheerleader, stood leaning on their bikes like two little lost lambs deciding which direction they should go.

“I’m going to see whatever this is Sophia, but do you really just want to sit here alone?”

She crossed her arms in defiance..

“Yes, I do.”

“Whatever, I’ll be back.”

“Can you slow down? I didn’t know you could walk that fast.” Evan screeched from behind with a prepubescent voice. Brianna looked back over her shoulder again, now rolling her eyes.

“Maybe you should walk faster, Evan.”

Brianna was used to the digs about her weight by now, a trait she inherited from her body-building dad, and adults and children alike seemed to remind her of it every chance they got, but she didn’t seem to mind as much as they did. She was extremely artistic-minded and thought of herself like this street; beauty that was hidden just under the surface with a little extra effort, and at the age of thirteen she had plenty of time to get there. Although Evan didn’t talk to Brianna in school, she and him were certainly not strangers, they had grown to this age only two houses down from each other on the other side of town; but with age comes self consciousness and the two were content now with only seeing each other for bike rides with the other kids on the block.

“Here it is.” Brianna said, she stopped and looked ahead of her at some overgrown Timothy hay and oak leaves.

Evan was now out of breath and speedwalking toward her,

“Oh wow Brianna, it’s a tree!”

“No, you idiot” she waited for him to fully catch up before peeling back a hedge of leaves and twigs

“look..”

Evan peered through what he assumed was a chain link fence, or what was left of it, and then squinted ahead to see a few diamond pads covered in grassy dandelions, a large blue snack bar with the painted letters barely hanging on, and an old white and green scoreboard, and it hit him, _this_ was definitely a baseball field.

_“Noooo way…”_

“Way.” Brianna said with a victorious grin.