The Hitting Zone

Having Bailey between me and Dave made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Not because she reminded me of my mom, but because she was loud and used her hands to speak. I was nervous that she would accidentally knock me on the head or something.Noah saw my anxiety leaking through. He scooted closer to Kyle and patted the empty seat next to him. "Come here, Jake."I obediently switched sides and pulled my food a little closer to me. It had looked like Mrs. Atkins had doubled my normal lunch so I had plenty to eat. "Scared you'll get cooties?" Bailey laughed. "You just let someone call you over like a dog. Don't you have any self-respect?"I blinked. "Self-respect? What's that supposed to mean?""Pride!" She straightened her back, sitting tall. "What good is that?" I mumbled as I started to eat my lunch.Bailey either didn't hear me or didn't care. She just put her attention on Noah and started to give him a hard time. "And you, you shouldn't be bossing him around just because he's timid. Weren't you all into protecting him yesterday on the bus?"Noah rolled his eyes, annoyed. "I'm protecting him right now. You were flinging your arms everywhere and almost hit him. In my eyes, you're the bully here."Bailey smacked the table and leaned forward. "What! I'm not a bully!""Just super aggressive." Kyle muttered.Marie scoffed, "If anyone is a bully here, it's you guys. Doubling up the stats of one of your best hitters..." She shook her head. "I still feel cheated.""Hey! We gave you a chance!" Noah smirked. "It's not my fault that you thought a freshman wouldn't do well. Weren't you also a freshman on a varsity team at one point? Didn't you have to have a high level of skill to beat out the seniors?"Marie's lips thinned as she harrumphed. "If we look at his fielding, he's definitely not at the varsity level. He almost lost the perfect game for Dave.""Correction: He was good enough to save my perfect game." Dave replied. "It's okay." I mumbled. "I know I played sloppy."The table seemed to quiet down. "Don't let that get you down." A boxed lunch landed on the table. I looked up to see the lunch and words belonged to Kaylee. "On the scorecard, it doesn't state how the play looked. It only records the outs, hits, walks, errors and runs. No error means no problem."I was thrown off by Kaylee's speech. Was this really the same girl from yesterday? The one that didn't believe I was claustrophobic? She dropped her backpack to the ground with the rest of ours and then pointed at the space next to me. "Can I sit here?"I looked to Noah for help. Is there a nice way to say no thanks? Sit somewhere else? Noah opened his mouth to respond, but didn't get the chance. Kaylee pushed me over into Noah's side. "If you're not going to reply to me, then I'll make the decision by myself." She sat down in her newfound seat. "You can't just let someone speak for you all the time. It'll give the wrong impression. Do you want to be seen as a wimp for all of high school?"I shook my head vigorously. Not like I cared, but I didn't want to upset Kaylee anymore than she seems to be. Her and Marie are very type A personality people and they're just too aggressive.Kaylee nodded at me, satisfied with my answer. She pulled out a bag of cookies and handed them over. "Noah said the winner of the bet wanted some homemade cookies. Here's mine. Made from scratch!"Marie let out a cough. "Ah, Kaylee, we said you didn't have to give up yours remember? Besides, these guys already have mine so just keep them for yourself."Kaylee gave a look to the cookies her sister had placed on the table, then looked at her. "But, you didn't even bake any cookies last night. Aren't these just store bought?"Everyone turned to Marie. She started to get red in the face. Either from embarrassment or from anger. Too soon to tell. Kyle was the first to recover. He grabbed a cookie out of the box and started to eat it, with a smile. "So that's why we weren't poisoned. I really wouldn't have been surprised if these were filled with laxatives. Good choice!" He gave Marie a thumbs up. She threw her bag of chips in his face, but Kyle didn't seem to mind. He was content with her store-bought cookies. I didn't really mind either. I thought they were good.I reached to take another, but Kaylee held out hers in front, blocking me. "You wanted homemade cookies and I delivered. You've got to at least try one."I hesitated a second, but then ultimately decided it was okay. It's not like I was losing out. Plus, she was trying to be nice. I took one, then leaned back so she could see Noah beside me. She handed one over to Noah too. "Here ya go! Enjoy!"Noah, like me, didn't care where the cookie came from, we were just content with the sweets. We simultaneously started eating at the same time. By coincidence I saw Marie in the corner of my eye, whispering to Dave next to her. His face went from disbelief to shock to a little laugh. His eyes focused on me and Noah, making me uneasy. "It's..." Noah started between bites. "It's a little...uh. Crunchy. Did you add peanuts?""Nope." She gave a light smile. "Just plain chocolate chip cookies.""Let me try!" Kyle reached out. "Maybe they're just a little over-cooked."'Smack!' A loud sound reverberated around the table as Marie had slapped Kyle's hand away. "Ow!" Kyle yelped, pulled back his hand and rubbed it a little. "What was that for?"Marie shot a glance at Dave. Dave got her meaning. "Why are you so greedy, Kyle? Let the freshmen eat the freshman cookies. Plus you didn't even play yesterday. Why should you get any rewards?"Kyle raised an eyebrow at his twin. They shared a look and oddly Kyle didn't have a comeback. Strange. Too strange. I eyed the cookie in my hand, yet couldn't see anything wrong with it. It didn't taste bad, but not super great. I was okay with it. I nudged Noah with my knee, trying to communicate with him. Noah just shrugged, finished his cookie, and reached for another from Kaylee's pile.",