The Hitting Zone

At his locker, Noah took away my book and replaced it with my pre-calculus book. He grabbed his own book, then started to walk me to my class in the upperclassmen hall. "Kyle is slightly nicer than Dave so try to stay closer to him. Dave will only bring you trouble. And if they start to fight, just ignore them and move on. Don't try to get in the middle, they'll just drag you down with them."

Uhh? I wouldn't have thought of getting between them, ever. It was only yesterday they trapped Noah between them and tickled him till he cried mercy.

He led me to an inner classroom that didn't have any windows. How bland.

"I'll take it from here." Kyle met us at the door. "Better hurry to geometry before you're late. You don't want detention when you have such a huge wager on the line after school."

Noah nodded. He gave me a tight smile, a wave, then ran off. Leaving me on my own for the first time since the batting cages. I swallowed down my panic.

"Well, lets go meet the teacher. He's an old man, close to kicking the bucket. Maybe we'll all get A's if he passes away." Kyle dragged me into the room. I felt my panic starting to rise back up. Who would wish for their teacher to die?? Too drastic. I thought Kyle was supposed to be nicer than Dave...

Kyle introduced me to the teacher and the rest of the kids that were already in their seats. Then he dragged me to a two person table and squeezed me between him and Dave. This is what Noah told me to avoid. Oh god. I started to breathe in and out really slow to try and calm myself.

"Jake, you look scared as hell." Dave commented as the class started. "I thought you were supposed to be good at math? Are you nervous that you won't know anything?" He pulled out a sheet filled with problems. "Here. This is from last week. What do you think?"

I slowly looked it over and nodded. This was simple. If I could focus on the problems and not the fact that the twins were squishing me, then I could make it through the hour.

"Oh? Why don't you go ahead and try them then?" Dave slid the sheet in front of me. I glanced at the teacher who was talking up front. "Don't worry about him. We already explained that you don't talk much. He won't call on you in class. Just work on that sheet."

I got a pencil out of my bag and started to work on the sheet. I don't know what it was about math, but it always came easy to me. Math doesn't lie and it doesn't have multiple meanings. It felt like the only constant I had since childhood. I finished the worksheet quickly and easily. It honestly felt just like a refresher on what I already knew.

"Wow. Done so soon?" Dave took the sheet back and looked it over. "No trouble at all?"

I shook my head no.

"Why don't you try this one too?" Kyle pulled a sheet out of his folder and put it in front of me. I finished his even faster. It was the same kind of problems, just different numbers. "Wow. Mom wasn't kidding when she said you were good in math."

"This is going to be great." Dave smiled at me, making me feel slightly uneasy.

"Okay, pass up the extra credit sheets I handed out last week." I heard the old man announced. Then I watched as Kyle and Dave both passed up the sheets I had just worked on. They put their names on my work, and shamelessly turned it in. My jaw dropped.

"Thanks kid." Kyle patted my head.

"Yea, we'll be counting on you this semester." Dave laughed.

My lips twitched. Counting on me? For what? Doing their math homework?