The Hitting Zone

We were only left on our own for five minutes, before I spotted someone familiar. "Concerned citizen!" I tugged at Noah's arm.

Noah turned to where I was looking and saw the young man from the sports store. He frowned as the man kept walking towards us. "He can't be a player here, can he?"

I shrugged. How am I supposed to know?

"What? You guys know someone?" Dave leaned in to join our conversation.

"Nah." Noah replied. "Just a busybody."

The concerned citizen was walking with another young man, who had a full grown beard, looking closer to 30 than 20. They were getting closer and closer, looking at us while moving their lips.

"Ah! What a small world!" The concerned citizen spoke up first as he and his friend stood before us. He eyed me and Noah. "Familiar faces in familiar places. So you two are related to Zeke?"

I shook my head, but Noah was the one to speak. "What's it to you?"

He smirked. "Still have an attitude huh? I've been asked to babysit you. Apparently, even your parents know that you can't be trusted alone."

"Wait, Nick, you know them already? Didn't Zeke just get here this morning?" The other man spoke with an eyebrow raised.

Nick, the concerned citizen, nodded. "Met them before lunch at the sports store in the mall. They were playing with a reaction ball in the aisle and one of them let it pass."

I looked away in embarrassment.

"Hey, Hey! I thought you said you didn't know him." Dave stepped up to the two men. "I'm David. This is my twin Kyle. And these two brats are Noah and Jake. If they annoy you, feel free to slap them upside the head."

"I'm going to tell Mom and Dad that you're telling strangers to beat us up. Take a second and think about Jake, okay?" Noah folded his arms and stood as tall as he could, staring Dave down. Dave looked at me with a little bit of guilt in his eyes.

The two men laughed.

"Are you sure you're all related to Zeke? He was so much more mellow than you two." The stranger asked almost the same question as their coach. Zeke must have really made an impression on them already.

Noah moved his glare passed Dave, to the new guy. "Does a whole family have to have the same personality? Last I checked, we're not carbon copies of one another."

"Woah, cool it kiddo." Nick raised his arms and waved them a little. "It was just a joke. No need to get so angry. How about we walk around and show you boys the school?"

"Sure. Let's start with the baseball field." Kyle spoke up for the first time since their arrival.

Nick looked surprised. "You all don't want to see the school? Take a look around? Maybe stop at the cafeteria for ice cream?"

"Why?" Noah shrugged. "We're not going to college any time soon. Plus, this might not be the college we would even want to pick. Let's see the field." He looked at me. "Did you bring your reaction ball?"

I nodded and patted my pocket. I leaned closer to him to whisper. "But, can we stop for ice cream?"

Noah gave me a smile, then turned serious as he faced the concerned citizen and friend. "We agree to stop for ice cream. Then the field. We even have the reaction ball to play with for a little while."

"Ice cream?" Kyle rolled his eyes. "Why waste our free time? I want to see the field. You and Jake may not be thinking about college just yet, but I am."

"With your grades?" Noah scoffed.

"Alright, let's do this then." Nick interrupted them before the bickering started. "Shawn can take the older two to the field, while I take you kids for ice cream in the cafeteria."

"We're not kids." Noah huffed. "We have names."

"Eh?! I want ice cream too!" Dave glanced at Kyle. "We'll see you later loser."

Shawn, the other guy, walked Kyle one way, while Nick led us the other way. Nick, true to his responsible personality, pointed out certain buildings and notable landmarks of the school as we walked to the cafeteria. The cafeteria had a self-serve frozen yogurt machine. The three of us grabbed cones and started to pick our ice cream of choice. Nick paid and then stated he would take us to the field.

"Mind you, this is the field we play on for games so if someone is working on the grounds, then you can't step on it. You'll have to just settle for looking from the dugout." He explained. They did have a game tomorrow so it was understandable.

"Yea, that's fine." Noah licked his ice cream. "I just want to really get a feel for how different it is from our own."

"Ah, I remember the first time I stepped onto a bigger field back in high school. What an experience." Nick reminisced. "The first time playing on such a field, I thought I would never hit the ball out of the park ever again."

Noah snorted. "What a braggart. Are you even officially on the team?"

Nick smirked. "If you must know, I'm the vice captain."

"No joke?" Dave asked. "That's pretty cool. I bet Bradley Thompson is the captain though, right?"

"Well...yes." Nick deflated a little. "But its really me that handles the team to make sure they're not slacking off."

"Yea, because you're only good at nagging." Noah laughed.

I tried not to give in, but still cracked a smile. I focused on the chocolate frozen yogurt in my cone as we walked to the stadium.