Intro/Chapter 1: Hello

It was 1963 in "the Valley", as they call it. I looked up the small, blue house. It was surrounded by flowers and trees in the "perfect" little neighborhood, as my father described it. I watched as Melissa ran out with open arms, hugging my father. Chelsea stood at the door, arms crossed.

They're going to be our family soon. Soon, Melissa and my dad will marry and Chelsea and I will be step-sisters. I didn't mind Melissa, she was nice and my dad loves her. Chelsea on the other hand, well, we couldn't be more opposite. Looks-wise, Chelsea is by far considered more attractive. Her red hair flattered her olive skin tone and her blue eyes popped. She always wore the nicest dresses and wore her hair in bows. I have brown hair that's always kept in a braid and green eyes, the only thing remotely pretty that I have. I wear jeans and t-shirts all the time, complete with my crummy old sneakers. Chelsea was bubbly and sweet, well, when she wasn't around me. I tend to be shy, sarcastic, and competitive.

I walked up to the front door with a big box in my arms. Inside it was all of my precious belongings, which will be in my new room. I side-stepped through the door to get around Chelsea, but she stuck her arm out to stop me. "Your room is upstairs on the left."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

"Not just yet. We have a few things to talk about."

I rolled my eyes. We were the same age, and she always acts like she's the boss. She led me to my room and let me put my stuff on the bed. The walls were painted blue, and tiny flowers were scattered all around. Not exactly my forte, but this will have to do for now.

"Don't go in my room unless I ask you to." Chelsea said with a stern voice.

"…I wasn't going to anyway."

"Don't follow me around at school. Just because we're going to be step-sisters, doesn't mean we're best friends."

"But it's summer."

She scoffed. "Must you always contradict everything I say?"

All I could do was simply shrug, and that's when Melissa and father walked inside my room. "I hope you like it, Rachel. Chelsea told me your favorite color was blue and you loved flowers." She smiled.

I smiled back, taking turns looking from Melissa's innocent smile to Chelsea's devilish stare. "I do. Thank you so much."

"Chelsea," my father had started to say, "Would you mind taking Rach around town? I want her to see what it's like out here."

"Sure thing, Kevin." She immediately took my hand, and raced out of the house.

"Finally I can leave." Chelsea sighed as we walked outside.

"So, where are we going?" I asked, trying to keep up with her.

"I'm going to my friend Sarah's house. You're going to wait outside for a little bit and not get lost."

I shoved my hands in my pockets and rolled my eyes at her again. "Are you embarrassed by me or something?"

"No. It's just that I didn't think you'd want to go to some boring, pool party. And if I brought in an unexpected guest, Sarah would kill me!"

"Right." I said, annoyed.

When we finally reached the house, Chelsea told me to wait and she'll hurry up. She walked inside, and practically slammed the door to shut me out for good.

It had been 15 minutes since she had left me out here. I sighed as I sat down on the sidewalk. Suddenly, a shadow had appeared on the ground. It got bigger and bigger and bigger. I looked up into the sky and watched as the mystery object fell to the ground.

It was a baseball. Sitting there. Taunting me. I walked over to it and picked it up, looking around for where it might have come from. I went around Sarah's picket fence and found what they call "the sandlot". A group of boys stood in the middle, arguing with and punching some kid in the shoulder. As I got closer I started to hear some of the conversation.

"You lost the ball for us, genius!"

"Damn it, Ham."

"Yeah, yeah!"

They suddenly stopped and watched as I looked at them. I held out the ball. "Um, is this yours?"