The Hitting Zone

The ride home was nonstop chatter from Noah. "This is going to be so cool. We'll get to play games three times a week all the way up until the Stanford camp. I wonder who we can get to join. There's already the three of us so we're already one-third of the way there." He looked to Zeke. "Do you think the seniors will want to play? We do need people over the age of 18."

Zeke shook his head. "Most will be preparing for college ball. Or traveling and vacations. Plus...it's softball."

"You're right! We should try the softball team. Too bad Kyle and Marie broke up. We would dominate with her pitching."

"Should we ask Kaylee?" I asked from the back. Kaylee was Marie's little sister, plus a freshman on the varsity softball team. I think she would make a great pick.

"Definitely." Noah nodded resolutely. "Hopefully Marie doesn't interfere. I feel like Kaylee would like this. And maybe, she can get some of her friends to join too!"

So the main problem would to be find people over the age of 18...

"Let's make sure Mom and Dad are okay with this first." Zeke said as he pulled into the driveway.

"On it!" Noah bolted out of the car completely neglecting his bag.

I grabbed it for him, along with mine, and followed Zeke into the house. Just from the front door we could hear Noah's excitement as he recapped what he wanted to do for the next month. We found him in the office, where both parents happened to be working well into the evening.

"I don't see why not." Mrs. Atkins smiled after Noah finally stopped to take a breath. "It'll be good for you to try something new."

"Will you be abled to sponsor our team?" Noah's eyes sparkled.

Mrs. Atkins nodded slowly. "Yes, that'll fit in our budget. I had planned on you boys spending more on camps, but if it's just this, the Stanford camp, and your high school camp, then it's alright. It would even lighten our load."

Noah pumped his fist.

"Now, wait a minute." Mr. Atkins spoke in a relaxed manner. "You have a lot to get done in a short amount of time. Finding a team, getting the release forms and money in, and reading the rule book. An adult softball isn't a walk in the park. You'll be going up against a wide variety of people. Most will be obviously older than you. Are you sure you want to do this? Even if you lose every single game?"

Noah was taken aback. "We won't lose every game. We have Zeke."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zeke give Noah's back a look of helplessness.

"I just don't want you going in with these high hopes of winning every game." Mr. Atkins gave Noah a small indulgent smile. "You're champions at the high school level, but a lot of these adults might be ex-college players. This won't be as easy as you think, okay?"

"Okay Dad, I understand." Noah nodded. "You don't have to worry about me getting down on myself if we lose every game. I'm just happy to play in a competitive game. Training by itself is just too boring. This would be fun to try for the next month."

Their parents looked pleased with his answer and gave us their blessing to play, even promising to take care of the team fees. Zeke excused himself, raising the rule book, silently telling us that he was going to look it over. Meanwhile, Noah and I went to our room to put our bags away.

I pulled out my bat and started to clean it as Noah came up with a list of people to ask to join our team.

"We should start with the seniors. Most of them are already 18. That's the problem we need to solve first." Noah wrote down their names. "Oh! And there's Rhys! We can ask him."

"I thought he didn't live near here..? Wouldn't that be an annoying drive for him?" I pitched in.

"True." Noah sighed. "Plus, he's a pitcher. He might have some kind of training planned out like the twins. Ugh. If we had him and the twins, we would only need five more players."

"Oh well." I focused on the bat in my hands. The bat that Jeremy gave me.

"You're not being very helpful." Noah complained, slumping in his seat.

I shrugged, helpless. "You know more people than I do."

Noah sighed. "We'll start with Kaylee. We need someone who can softball pitch. Then we can focus on finding adults. She might even be able to help us find more softball players." He thought to himself for a second. "Yea, that's what we'll do. We'll rope in Kaylee and get her to help with the recruiting."

I held back a laugh. "But, what if she's busy too? Aren't there softball camps?"

Noah crumpled up the piece of paper he was writing on and threw it at me. "So annoying."

I laughed.

"Hey, kiddos!" Dave came in our room without knocking, making Noah frown. Dave grinned. "No need to glare. I'm here on official orders. Zeke got a text from Coach. He wants everyone to gather at the field after school tomorrow."

"For practice?" Noah asked.

Dave laughed. "No, dum dum. He probably just wants to give us some parting words on how to spend the summer or something." He wiggled his eyebrows. "Zeke also said that you guys are planning on playing softball. How desperate can you be?"

"Very desperate." Noah answered flatly.

I just shrugged.

Seeing that his joke didn't have any affect on us, Dave could only laugh alone. "It'd be great if you guys can get Marie on the team. Kyle would lose it."

"Zeke already said that she might be busy." Noah sighed.

"You seriously considered asking her?" Dave's jaw dropped.

"We need a pitcher. For softball." Noah told him. "She's the best I know. Wouldn't it make sense to ask her?"

Dave shook his head. "You're fearless. She just got dump by your older brother, but you want her to play on your team? I think you forgot how mean this girl can be. She's probably going to be even worse after getting dumped."

Noah scrunched up his face. "Oh. Well. I didn't ask so." He shrugged.

"Dodged a bullet." Dave told him. He started to leave the room. "Dinner should be soon; I'm going downstairs."

Noah nodded and watched him leave. Then he looked at me. "Looks like we might be able to put a team together tomorrow."

"How so?" I asked, confused.

"The team is meeting with Coach after school. We'll be able to ask them all together." Noah's eyes were lit up with excitement again, happy with the way things are turning out. "So we'll find Kaylee at lunch and then talk to the guys after school. We'll fill up roster spots easily."

"I don't know..." I looked up at him, concerned. "It's kind of last minute. They might already have plans and whatnot. What are we going to do then?"

"Stop being so pessimistic!" Noah found some more trash to throw at me.

I laughed, seeing Noah get so riled up. I didn't really doubt his ability to get a team together. I just didn't think it would be as easy as he was thinking.