The Hitting Zone

The day went by smoothly as we just relaxed around the house, with the exception of Zeke. Dave was right that he would turn up for lunch, but afterwards he spent the rest of his afternoon locked away in their room. He didn't come out until it was time for him to drive us to practice. We showed up ten minutes early, and started to drop our bags off in the dugout. We put on cleats and set out the waters. "You guys might as well start your laps." Zeke said out of the blue. "What do you mean, you guys??" Dave stood up a little straighter. "I didn't do anything to deserve laps!"Zeke pulled out a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket and read off it. "Kyle said he would take the kids twenty laps from game one. Jake and Noah, do you guys really want me to list every reason or just accept your discount of twelve laps?" He looked our way. Noah frowned and looked at me. "It's a gamble. We could appeal the decision and get less? Or we could end up with even more. I'll leave it up to you."I thought about the automatic five I got right before we spoke to the reporter. Then there was game three and game four. I had so many running errors and I even fell asleep before it ended. The odds aren't really in our favor. Every five laps equaled a mile. Twelve laps was only a little over two miles so it's doable for me. "We agree to twelve."Noah nodded and looked at Zeke. "We accept.""Okay, but what about me??" Dave jumped back in. "They all have reasons? What reason could you possibly give me?"Zeke consulted his slip of paper. "As a pitcher, you gave up a hit. As a batter, you had a weak groundout to first base. Then you were stupid enough to take a hit by pitch just to get on base in a game where we had a sizable lead. Fifteen laps. Five for each action that ticked me off."Noah and Kyle laughed at Dave's fallen face. Even I cracked a grin. Zeke had no mercy. Not even for his own flesh and blood. "You can't do that!" Dave finally spat out. "Otherwise the whole team would be running laps during practice all the time!"Zeke stuffed the slip of paper back in his pocket. "The rest of the team isn't related to me. I hold you guys to a higher standard. That's an extra five for questioning my decision."Noah nudged me. "Let's go ahead and start now so we don't miss too much of warmups. Dave can argue this forever."I nodded in agreement and followed him as he headed to outside the field fencing. Kyle seemed to have the same idea and followed us out, but it didn't take him long to start leaving us in the dust. "You don't have to run at my pace." I huffed out as we started the third lap. "You're faster.""Silly. Who would I play catch with for warmups if we don't finish at the same time? Besides, who would push you to go faster? Only two weeks and you've improved so much. Can't stop progress." Noah said easily.Eventually we saw Dave running around as well; apparently he couldn't convince Zeke to not make him suffer with us. We would wave as our teammates showed up and started their normal warmup. Finally after the twelfth lap we entered the field and went to the dugout for some water. A familiar face sat on the bench with a crutch in hand, and a foot propped up. Jason. "Hey, Jason. We didn't see you sneak in." Noah commented as I chugged my water and tried to catch my breath. Jason let out a short laugh. "Mr. Miller drove me down from the parking lot with his golf cart. But I saw you all running. Zeke has a weird way of encouraging you guys.""That was more like punishment than encouragement." Noah muttered. He glanced at me, then back at Jason. "After you got hurt, I did something dumb and hurt their catcher.""I heard." Jason grimaced. "That was a stupid thing to do. What if you ended up hurt yourself. Vengeance doesn't belong in baseball.""Yea, Yea. No need to preach. Jake already scolded me, okay?" Noah brushed him off. Jason looked at me with surprise. "You actually scolded him?"I nodded. Then I realized what Dr. Moore suggested just this morning. To start talking with a teammate a day. This would be a good start since it's just Jason alone and Noah is here for backup. I cleared my throat and looked at his foot. "What is wrong?"He blinked, slightly shocked. "Well...the other guys clear tore through mine as he landed. He cut up my foot to the point where I needed stitches. I'll only be out for two weeks. No biggie."I nodded. "The absorbable kind?""Yep! So I don't even have to go back once it heals over and everything. I'll be back on the field in no time." He pulled out his phone. "For now, I'll be reading up on the A's chances on making the World Series this year."I was unprepared for the shift in conversation. I glanced at Noah for help. I knew Jason was talking about an mlb team and I knew that the World Series was the thing that determines the champion of baseball at the end of each season. But I definitely don't know anything about the team or their chances. Noah perked up. "Oh right. Today is the reporting date for the pros right?! They're about to start spring training. Ahhh. I'm so excited for the season to start." Noah took over the conversation for me and they spoke about the major league for a little.",