The Hitting Zone

Collect our winnings? I didn't understand. And Noah wouldn't give me any hints after dropping that bomb. He just told me to be patient and wait for lunch time.

Throughout the day, between every class, Noah was diligent in making sure I tried one of my snacks. Mrs. Atkins was very thoughtful and made sure they were small in size and quick to eat, so I was able to finish one every time we switched classes. There was nothing that I was unsatisfied with. It's weird that they were concern that I might not like something, but I'm not a picky eater...I couldn't be picky growing up. I ate what I could.

My old elementary school had something called a 'share table' during lunch, where kids would put their unwanted food for someone else to have. That was the only way I could have lunch so I took whatever was available. Now I have someone catering to me. It was such a turnaround that I couldn't really accept it.

At lunch, I started to get nervous as we walked to our usual bench outside. Today was cold, yet the sun was out making it nice and bright. We sat down and started to open up our lunches. We didn't even start eating when his brothers showed up with part of the team.

"Math?" Dave asked, sitting next to me.

"At least let him eat first." Kyle rolled his eyes, sitting next to Noah on the other side of the bench.

Zeke sat at the other table with the seniors, as more of the team started to show up.

As I pulled out my math homework and handed it over to the twins, I raised an eyebrow at Noah. This is the surprise? But what does this have to do with collecting winnings? Is he planning to blackmail the twins so soon?

Noah grinned. Then he lifted his head a little up, gesturing for me to look behind me. I slowly turned and a familiar group of girls were heading our way. I tensed up. The softball team. They didn't look as intimidating as when they were in their uniforms, but they still carried the same aura of arrogance as they marched over.

"Finally." Kyle spoke extra loud as soon as they got close enough. "I thought you girls were backing out."

Marie glared at him. She walked straight up to our table and slammed down a plastic container in the center. I jumped, knocking a little into Dave.

Dave frowned at his math sheet that he was trying to copy. He erased his wayward writing and fixed it to make sure it was right. Then he looked up at Marie. "Is there a reason to be so aggressive? You're frightening Jake." I blinked in surprise. In yesterday's confrontation with Marie, Dave stayed silent the whole time as if he had nothing to do with her.

Marie flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Not my problem. Here's the goods." She looked back to her team and waved them over. Soon, all of them were placing plastic containers on all the available table space. "That's enough right?"

"I don't know, let's ask the stars of yesterday's game." Kyle looked to Dave and me. "Satisfied?"

Dave opened the container Marie placed at the center. He reached in and pulled out a cookie. He waved it around. "Smells good." He acted as if he was going to take a bite and then handed it to Marie. "You first."

Marie rolled her eyes. "What? You think I poisoned it?"

"I wouldn't put it pass you." Dave laughed. "But I'm more concerned about you adding laxatives or something else. At least this way, we'll both be sick together."

A laxative? Can you add that to cookies? I gave the container a wary look.

Marie took an angry bite of the cookie, chewed, and swallowed. "Happy?"

Dave grinned, and nodded. He took two more out of the container, handed me one and kept one for himself. "Thanks for your hard work."

I mindlessly accepted the cookie and ate it without hesitation. It was weird for that Dave was telling me thanks when it was him, who did most of the work.

"You all are welcomed to join us." Kyle said benevolently. "There's plenty of room and cookies to go around."

The girls started to sit down, but most went to the other table with our seniors. Some glared at Kyle, still upset about the 'trash' comment from yesterday.

Dave looked up to Marie. "You gonna just stand there and eat? Or do you want to sit down?" He wiggled closet to me, leaving her space on the end. I didn't understand what was going on anymore. There was obviously hate going on, yet Dave was showing off an oddly nice side of himself.

Marie snorted, and plopped down next to Dave. "I'm only sitting here to prove that you guys winning yesterday had no effect on me. We made cookies like you asked. Now let's talk about the next game."

The next one? They want to compete again?

"Isn't it better if we supported one another instead?" Dave suggested, sounding more and more not like himself.

"Sure! Let's do that!" A bag was flung down and someone squeezed next to me. "In the next game, the one with the worse stats has to cheer the other team on as cheerleaders. In skirts and everything." Bailey had pushed in between me and Dave.

"No way! I'm not cross dressing for any reason!" Kyle blurted out.

"Oh, are you afraid?" Marie asked.

Kyle looked to the other table. "Zeke. You said no more betting right? Or we would get in trouble with coach and the school?"

Zeke looked over here. "No more means no more. We go to the same school. Stop trying to one up one another."

"Always relying on Zeke to bail you out, huh?" Marie smirked.

Kyle glared at her. "It's not like that and you know it. Zeke is our captain too. What would you do if your team didn't listen to you? Wouldn't that undermine your authority as a captain?"

The juniors all continued to bicker.

I went back to eating my giant sized lunch while munching on cookies in between.