The Hitting Zone

"Whattt..?" Dave asked, surprised.

He wasn't the only one.

Kyle stuttered. "What, wh-what do y-y-you mean..?"

Noah got in my face, filling my vision with only him. "Jake! Do you like someone?? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

I pushed him away. "What? No." I turned red.

"Then why are you talking about relationships?" Dave asked.

I glanced back to where Chuck was, but he had left. "I don't know. Chuck said something about Jeremy, maybe dating Rose..?"

Three new sets of eyes looked at Rose. She felt the stares and looked our way. She grinned and waved. She said something to the coaches before coming over to us.

"Oh no." Kyle muttered. "Does she know that we know?"

"What do we even know?" Dave asked.

"Can't we just ask her outright?" Noah whispered as Rose got closer.

"Of course not, you dummy." Kyle slapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey Jake, you're back." Rose smiled.

I nodded. That's true. I am back.

She kept her smile while looking at me, Noah, and the twins. "What's going on? Why are you guys looking at me like this? Do I have something on my face?" She wiped her cheeks and touched her face.

"No." Kyle shook his head, taking the lead. "We were, uh, curious about, umm, the other teams. That are coming?" He looked around. "Are they going to join us soon?"

"Oh!" She nodded. "Yes, they'll start showing up in groups. In a bit, we'll send the parents and non-team members to their seats in the stands. The only people allowed on the field will be the players and coaches." She explained. "What will happen, you see, is that after all the teams are here and ready, we'll take all the groups out. Your championship will be announced and then we come back here. It really only lasts a few minutes."

"That's okay!" Dave chirped. "It's already pretty cool that we could hang out during batting practice. Was it a hassle for you and Jeremy to get all those passes?"

She laughed. "No. No trouble at all. Like I said before, the A's organization want to keep Jeremy happy so he'll stick around. We've paid a heavy price to get him here after all."

"So true." Noah sighed. He looked at me. "We definitely have to ask him about his plans on sticking around."

I nodded slowly. Not that I cared if he stuck with the A's, but what if he left? I should ask what his plans are.

"Put in a good word for us then, Jake." Rose grinned, tucking her loose hair behind her ear. "Alright, I've got to start getting the parents to go to their seats. The other teams will arrive soon. See you guys in a bit." She left to go do her job.

"She doesn't seem like she's in a relationship with Jeremy..?" Dave shrugged.

"But she asked Jake to put in a good word for her." Noah pointed out.

"For the team, you dope." Kyle slapped Noah again. He looked at me. "Just ask Jeremy the next time you see him. That's the only way to know for sure."

"True." Dave nodded. "They could be keeping their relationship under wraps because of the media attention or something."

"Do you think he has to? It's not like he's a celebrity?" Noah asked.

"He's a sports celebrity. A lot of things can happen in relationships. No one wants to announce all that stuff to the public because what happens if they break up?"

"They pretend like they never dated at all?" Noah gave Kyle a look.

Kyle smacked him on the shoulder again.

"Kyle! Stop hitting me." Noah raised his voice. On purpose.

Zeke immediately joined our little group. "I think it's time you guys split up." His eyes narrowed at Kyle.

Kyle was as stiff as a pillar. "Yep! Agreed! Bye!" He shuffled his feet away from Zeke, thoroughly scared off.

Zeke faced Dave next. "And you?"

"I didn't hit Noah though..." Dave said.

Zeke tilted his head. "How about you go mingle with your pitcher friends. I can't trust you all together. You'll cause trouble before we even get onto the field."

Dave shrugged. "Fine. I'll go." He strolled to a different group than Kyle, understanding that Zeke didn't want them together either.

Zeke looked down at me and Noah next.

Noah wrapped his arms around me, leaning down to cling onto me. "Noooo. You can't separate us! Jake can't handle it."

"I think he would especially like to get away from you right now." Zeke remarked, watching me struggle to get out of Noah's grip. He sighed. "I won't separate you two, but try to stay out of trouble for the next couple of hours."

Noah finally let go of me. "Sure thing! We'll be good!"

Zeke's lips thinned. "Don't stray too far from my sight."

"What if I need to go to the bathroom?"

"Then go."

"I don't. I was just asking."

Zeke looked up at the ceiling for a second before looking back at Noah. "Noah."

Noah shied away. "I was just having some fun. I'll be good now."

Zeke gave a nod and then went to the coaches.

"Man, Zeke is really wound tight tonight." Noah muttered.

"Well...your parents aren't around. Isn't it normal for him to replace them? He doesn't want us to cause trouble or get hurt on his watch." I told Noah my thoughts.

"Yea, I guess." Noah watched Zeke as he spoke with the coaches. "It's weird to think that he'll be leaving for college in just a few months. Who's going to get the twins to stop picking on us without him around."

"We're doomed." I conceded.

Noah laughed.

We heard some chatter and turned to see some of the space starting to fill up with more high school students and coaches.

The first group was a bunch of girls.

"Softball players." Noah whispered.

The next group was all boys.

"Golf."

"Golf?"

He nodded. "Yea. It's a spring sport. At our school, it's boys golf, boys tennis, boys volleyball, and baseball. For the girls, it's just softball. Both genders for swimming and track."

"Oh. When do the girls play those sports then?"

"Mostly in the fall." He shrugged.

As the groups came in, Noah named each sport they belonged too. It helped that some groups wore their uniform or some kind of shirt that designated their school name. Meanwhile our team was mostly decked out in A's gear. Only the coaches wore some Watsonville shirts.

There were duplicate teams since CIF had so many divisions. There were four boys golf teams, all champions of their own division. It was easy to tell them apart by their attitudes.

Noah was interested in watching the tension among all four of them. "Do you think another baseball team will come tonight?"

I shrugged. "I don't know how they decide what teams come what days." I really don't wish to see another baseball team. We were only division three so there would be a greater chance to see the division one or two champ versus something under us, right? "How many divisions are there again?"

"There's probably seven, I think?" Noah answered.

I sighed with relief. Okay, so we're higher up. If any of the lower division winners come, then there won't be any animosity on our part. I just fear that if division one or two came, it would become a little tense.

"No way." Noah's jaw dropped. His eyes narrowed at the entrance where the teams were coming in from.

I gulped and turned to see some familiar faces. Like Murphy's Law states, whatever can go wrong will go wrong.