The Hitting Zone

To say the team was happy for Zeke was an understatement. Everyone congratulated him and asked him for more details like if he thought this would be 'the one'.

Zeke was plain as always. "My parents and I agreed that I would use up all five of my official college visits given. Since we have a long weekend, I thought a nearby college would be a good place to start. Stanford fills certain criteria of mine for now so it doesn't hurt to give it a chance."

Of course, that made his parents beam with pride.

"So you're all going for the whole weekend?" Garret asked between bites of his pizza.

Dave nodded, still reigning in the excitement. "We won't get to stay in the dorms or practice with the team like Zeke, but we still get to go on the tour of the school, watch him practice, and sightsee."

"The real question is...will you bring your gear too?" Sean leaned in. "Just in case they let you practice too?"

"That's not allowed..is it..?" Noah asked Zeke. All eyes went to him.

Zeke looked around to see his brothers eyes all trained on him. I guess practicing with a college team would be a big deal. "Bring your gloves. Just in case. You never know." He turned his back to us to talk to coach.

His words got his brothers going though. The three of them got into a heated discussion on what to bring. Zeke's words of 'you never know' seemed to imply that they really might have a chance to play a little so maybe it would be best to just bring everything. Kyle said cleats and a glove would be enough, but that didn't sit well with Noah. Noah was team everything since he wasn't a pitcher like the twins. A glove and cleats wouldn't be enough. He would want his bat and batting gloves, which means he might as well pack a helmet too so why not just bring his whole bag.

Mr. Atkins settles the argument by saying they could also bring their baseball bags. If we weren't allowed to play with the team, we could just hold our own mini practice at a nearby park or something.

The rest of the evening continued to have a lively atmosphere because of the win and from Zeke's college visit. When we got home, I was mentally and physically exhausted and completely ready for bed. However, Mrs. Atkins instructed all of us to pack up and that we would leave after breakfast tomorrow.

Noah and I emptied our school backpacks to use as clothes bag for the weekend. I copied whatever he packed from sweats, to baseball pants, to a nice pair of jeans.

Noah didn't take long to notice my strange movements. "Why are you copying me?" He let out a laugh. "It's a bit creepy."

I turned red with embarrassment. "I don't know what to pack." I mumbled. "I've never been on a trip before."

"What are you saying? We went on a further road trip last week. Tomorrow is only about an hour drive. Maybe a little more with traffic."

I shook my head. "Last week it was for a tournament so I only had to pack my uniform and pajamas. Now, I don't know what to bring."

"You've never been on a weekend vacation before?" He blurted out, but realized what he said almost instantaneously. "Sorry. I should have known."

That's right. I've never been on any kind of vacation before. Not even school field trips. My mom would never let me go anywhere for too long. It never made sense to me how a certain parent could be so neglectful in one aspect, but do controlling and demanding in others. If I had to describe that woman in one word, besides monster, 'selfish' would be it. She was selfish to trap me. Selfish to treat me like dirt. Selfish to only care about herself.

"Jake, Jake!" Noah waved his hand in front of my face. "Don't worry about it okay? This trip will be mostly fun. Just think, Zeke will be with the school team for 48 hours. That's two whole days of freedom."

"You know it's not a whole two days, right?" Kyle's voice at the doorway made us both jump. He let out a laugh at our guilty expressions. "We'll still have to see him for part of the day. No doubt, mom and dad will want us at the tour. Maybe watch his full practice with the team and coach. For this weekend, all eyes will be on Zeke."

Noah pursed his lips. "Bummer." He then squinted at Kyle. "What are you doing here exactly?"

Kyle leaned against the doorframe. "Just making sure you kiddos don't forget to pack your toothbrushes and the such."

Noah waved him away. "You and Dave are more troublesome than we are. Go lecture him."

Kyle rolled his eyes and left.

Noah told me what to pack as we wrapped up. We spoke about the upcoming visit and what we each expected to happen. Noah declared that Zeke would get an official scholarship offer from the school. After we thought up quite a few different scenarios, we pushed our bags to the door, turn off the lights and went to bed.