The Hitting Zone

On Tuesday, we followed the same morning routine and got to school. The twins and Zeke left us by the field and they made their way to school. We didn't have to wait very long for Mr. Miller to show up with his handy dandy golf cart.

He laughed as he watched me moved to the cart very stiffly. "All those laps yesterday made you sore? What a wimp." I made a face at him and slowly got on in the back. Noah sat up front with him. "But I'm glad to see that you're okay, Bambi. You had us worried Sunday evening. Good thing it was just exhaustion. You should really try and run more to build up that endurance. Playoff games will be the full nine innings."

"Look at you! Already planning for the playoffs?!" Noah laughed. "What happened to the pessimistic Mr. Miller? This one is already planning playoffs based off one tournament."

Mr. Miller drove us up the hill to the classroom buildings. "We beat the best in the area this past weekend. I'll be extremely disappointed if you all start losing to these second rate teams in our league."

Noah laughed. "Could you imagine Zeke losing? Especially with his bat on fire like this?"

Mr. Miller didn't laugh. He stopped in front of the building like always, and let out a sigh. "I don't have to imagine. I was around last year when we lost the chance to win league."

Noah stopped laughing and awkwardly got off the cart. I followed suit. "Right. Right. Last year. It's been soooo long. No worries. We'll win every game for sure."

Mr. Miller let out a tight laugh, before driving away.

I looked up at Noah. "You shouldn't make empty promises like that."

He slapped my shoulder. "Who told you that was an empty promise? I was sincere in my declaration."

I raised an eyebrow. "You told me that it was normal to lose. And that we can't win all the time. Just last week."

Noah's lips twitched. "That was to make you feel better before your first set of games! There are plenty of high school teams that have an undefeated season. Even you, yourself, said that we should win every game. Stick to your notes kid." Noah put his arm around my shoulder and dragged me along to his locker.

As we moved to his locker, the amount of greetings and waves he received were almost twice as much. We grabbed our books from his locker and moved to our first class. English. It was practically just a grammar and literature course that required little effort on my part.

There teacher never called on me in class. None of them did. I think Mrs. Atkins must have sent a note or something, explaining my condition. Her, or maybe the counselor that I have yet to meet.

"Noah! Congrats on the wins!" A tall, thin boy stopped in front of his desk after we had found our seats. "My parents showed me the newspaper right away, asking about you and your family."

Noah grinned, but to me, it looked a little off. "Thank you. It was a good set of games."

"Zeke didn't record a single out! And Kyle had a perfect game right off the bat. Even Dave pitched a shutout." The kid continued to talk, and with every word said, Noah's grin started to look more like a grimaced.

"Yes, they all played great." Noah agreed. "Everyone on the team put in their full effort so we could win the trophy."

The guy turned his head my way. "No kidding! I heard Jake here, also showed some batting skills! They said he was the best freshman there."

That grabbed the attention from the classmates around us. They got up and hovered over our desks and circled around us. All of them starting to talk at once, forcing the conversation to end. More and more of the kids crowded me, asking about being the best freshman in a varsity tournament. I started to huddle in my chair, praying that class would start soon.

"That's enough!" Noah shouted above the racket. There was some movement, and I saw him stand up on his chair so he could be taller than everyone else. He saw me cowering in my chair and sighed before addressing the class. "Yes. The varsity baseball team won a big tournament this past weekend. All my brothers played extremely well. And yes, I did get to play too. Same with Jake, who even got the honor of best underclassmen at the tournament."

The chattering started up again.

"But-" Noah continued and got them to quiet down once more. "Jake is really shy. Reallyyyyyy shy. And a little claustrophobic. So please don't crowd our desks. You'll make him freak out and have a panic attack or something. Which would be detrimental to the team since we have a game tomorrow. So back off."

The kids started to go back to their own respective desks. Some still hung around to ask Noah a few more questions about tomorrow's game. He gave them the start time and said they could all come and watch it for themselves.

Then he finally sat back down and sighed. There were no longer any traces of a smile (either forced or genuine.) I can't believe this tournament was such a big deal. I looked at him with amazement. Him and his whole family were just too impressive.

Noah didn't pay any attention to me though. He looked to be lost in his thoughts and not happy ones from the look of it.