The Hitting Zone

I was slightly disappointed that we never got to look up what it takes to adopt a kid in the foster system. After our snacks, the twins both came home with friends in tow. Kyle was dropped off by Marie, but met with Dave and company at the door. Dave brought Garret, Alex, and Kelvin home to show off the mechanical backstop in the backyard.

Noah and I ended up watching them play with it in the backyard. Playing soon became a competition of who can throw the fastest.

"Oh yea! Still amazing!" Garret flexed his biceps after the machine flashed a '93' after his fifth try.

"Move away!" Kyle pushed him away. "Let me try again." Kyle kept repeating that, but couldn't get faster than '90'.

Dave was competing as well, but he wasn't trying to throw his hardest. I don't know if he was scared he would hurt himself before Monday's game or if he just knew he couldn't compete with Garret and Kyle.

"I wanna try!" Noah jumped up and tried to squeeze in.

I sat on the side with Kelvin and Alex. They weren't really interested in who could throw the fastest.

"No way. You're not even a pitcher." Kyle flicked Noah on the head.

"Are you saying only pitchers can throw fast?" Noah rubbed his forehead. "Because, I bet, that Zeke can throw faster than any of you."

"Yea? Where is Zeke?" Garret asked. "I want to see how fast he can throw."

"I'll go get him!" Noah ran inside to go find the oldest Atkins brother.

"Do you want to give it a shot, Jake?" Kelvin asked.

"Ha...ha..." I laughed weakly. "No...I'm good."

"You're the opposite of Noah." Garret laughed. "He was so eager to try and you...not so much."

I scrunched up my nose. "I know I throw slow...I don't need a machine to tell me so." There's also a chance that if I tried to throw my hardest, I could completely miss the backstop. That would be even more embarrassing.

"You've got to let loose sometimes, Jake." Dave said.

"Found him!" Noah burst back outside with Zeke right behind him.

Zeke was sweating and probably came from weightlifting. "Someone said only pitchers can throw fast?" He raised an eyebrow at Kyle.

Kyle tossed him a baseball. "Prove me otherwise. Garret threw a '93'."

Zeke smiled and made his way to what would be the imaginary mound. The three pitchers got out of the way and Noah came back to me. Zeke didn't do the whole set up and pitching motion. Instead, he threw it like normal. The ball hit the backstop with speed well over 90mph. The machine flashed a '99'.

"Whattt?! It must be broken." Kyle's jaw dropped. "No way can you throw 99mph."

Zeke smirked. "Alright. Now that you kiddos know that speed doesn't decide position, I'm going back to work." With a short wave, he went back inside the house.

"Too amazing." Garret said.

"Freakin fast." Noah mumbled. "I didn't think he would blow Garret out of the water like that."

"He can definitely throw someone out at home." Kelvin spoke up as well.

Kyle looked to Noah. "Want to follow that up?"

Noah shook his head. "No thanks. I rather have some dignity left."

The guys laughed at his now reluctant behavior. The guys stayed for dinner at Mrs. Atkins invitation, causing the dinner table to be extra loud and crowded.

Yet...for once, I felt comfortable with it. I was squished between Dave and Noah with Garret on the other side of Noah. It wasn't as awful as before, when I would feel uncomfortable and crippled by anxiety.

Sunday was filled with the normal craziness of the Atkins family. Mr. and Mrs. Atkins both hurried out the door to work,to sell houses. Meanwhile, Noah convinced his brothers to spend the day at the park to help me work on relay throws. The twins only acquiesced after negotiations on what they can get out of it. Noah had to promise them that they could pitch against me, and Noah had to play catcher.

Of course, with Noah being Noah, he told me to hit every pitch so he wouldn't have to do anything behind the plate. I didn't think it was a good idea, but Noah just can't pass up a chance to put down his older brothers.

Sure enough, the twins weren't happy about it. It was funny to see Kyle chase Noah around the playground...up until he turned his attention on me.

"You!" He pointed at me from a distance. "You don't get to just sit back and smile. You definitely played the biggest part in this. How dare you drag down our self esteem? What kind of little brother are you?"

My heart felt warm, as did my face. It last until I saw Kyle running at me. I quickly took off and followed Noah's instructions, trying to lose him in the playground. Except, I wasn't very adept at playing on a jungle gym like the Atkins were. Kyle easily trapped me and started his attack.

I've never been tickled before, but I was always squeamish when it came to people touching me. Mostly out of fear, but I was getting better with the Atkins. They really showed that I could trust them..when it came to anything. Maybe when Noah helps me look up how to get adopted, I'll tell him about my brother. My blood-related brother.

Monday morning, I was shaken awake; which isn't uncommon, but the fact that the lights were off really made it weird. At first I thought Noah was waking me up because I was having a nightmare, but instead, I saw the silhouette of a twin.

It was hard to tell which one it was in the dark, but then I heard a hiss, "Noah, wake up. It's time." That must be Kyle waking Noah and Dave must be in front of me.

Noah was slow at first, but with Kyle's urging, he hurried out of bed. The sun had yet to rise, but for some reason we were all awake?

"Here." Dave put something in my hand. I found it to be a party popper. "We're going to wake up Zeke with these."

I could faintly see Kyle smiling, but not with kindness. "Payback is finally here." From what? I'm not too sure? But the twins and Noah were all excited.

Kyle led the way out of our room. Then Dave. Noah. Me. We tiptoed to the big bonus room that the twins shared with Zeke. While they had shared a bunk bed, Zeke had his own twin bed on the other side. The twins lined up closest to Zeke's head, Noah and I followed. Kyle held up three fingers, and then counted down. Three, two, one!

The twins pulled their poppers, and a loud pop sounded throughout the quiet room. Zeke's eyes opened wide and he sat up, just in time for Noah to pull his party popper and the streamers went into Zeke's face. Zeke blinked. Rubbed his eyes and looked around, finding the four of us by his bedside.

Noah looked to me. "Hey! You didn't do it!"

Of course not. I was still half-asleep. I pulled the string at his urging and more confetti exploded onto Zeke.

Kyle nodded in satisfaction. "Happy birthday!"

"Happy birthday!" Dave and Noah echoed.

I mumbled something too, but was feeling too tired to be direct.

Zeke shook the confetti out of his hair and let it spill onto his bed. "Heh. Seems like you guys have a lot of energy this morning."

I shivered and so did Noah.

Dave took action, pushing Zeke back down into his bed and pulling his covers back over his body. "Okay, we were just celebrating. You can go back to sleep now! Goodnight!" He basically tucked in Zeke to prevent Zeke from chasing him. He quickly exited the room and the three of us weren't far behind.

All four of us went back to the room I shared with Noah. The three of them were cracking up and stifling their giggles, and it seemed like only I was worried.

"Did you see his face?" Kyle laughed.

"He was like the someone possessed by the devil!" Dave joined in.

With their excitement it was hard to feel anymore fear. Maybe Zeke was only half awake like me and will probably forget by breakfast time. I crawled back into bed as the three stooges continued to laugh.