The Hitting Zone

Once we got home, Mr. and Mrs. Atkins met us in the garage and hurried us inside, sending us straight to our rooms for bed. It was past midnight and we would have to wake up in a few hours for school.

"Mom, I have some pictures for you!" Noah handed his phone over, half asleep. We went upstairs together with his mom right behind us.

She swiped through the phone with a smile. "Looks like you kids had a fun night."

"Yea." Noah yawned and climbed into bed.

Mrs. Atkins said. "Oh? Jeremy even took some of these for you? How nice of him." She glanced at me. "Are you two doing okay? He's not picking on you or being rude?"

I almost laughed. Jeremy was worried I was being bullied by them. "No. It's fine. He's fine." I got into bed. "Can he come over for dinner on Sunday night?"

"He doesn't have a game?" She frowned.

"It's a day game." Noah explained. "He said he can come over afterwards, but it might be a late dinner."

She put Noah's phone on the charger. "I'll speak with Dad about it." She smiled at me. "Go ahead and let him know in the morning that we would welcome him." She headed for our bedroom door.

"Mom?" Noah sat up in bed, a little more awake.

"Yes?"

"Jake and I were talking..." I sat up too, knowing what was coming. I suddenly felt sick and scared. Noah shouldn't do this right now. What if I never get to sleep afterwards? "After we officially adopt Jake, can he change his last name to ours?"

Mrs. Atkins froze then turned to me. "Is that what you want Jake?"

I nodded stiffly.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." She took a step back into the room. "If Noah's suggestion isn't something you want to do-"

"I do!" I spoke up. Feeling shy, I gripped my comforter in both hands. "I mean...if it's not too much trouble."

Mrs. Atkins smiled. "Okay. I see. I'll call George and let him know that we also want to submit a filing for name change. Jake Atkins. Sounds good." She headed back for the door. "Goodnight boys."

"Night, Mom." Noah said back, still sitting up. He then turned to me. "Jake Atkins! You're going to be an Atkins boy too!" He was grinning.

I grinned back at him, relieved. "Yea." I laid back down and so did he. We should be asleep, but all I could think about was shedding the last name 'Hollander'. It was my mom's maiden name. I didn't have a problem with the way it sounded, but more with the memories it brought. It was almost as if, I could leave my mom behind if I got rid of this name. One less piece of her to tie me down.

Mrs. Atkins approval and support for my name change gave me a renewed sense of happiness. I even woke up happy with the few hours of sleep I got.

Noah was groggy with the lack of sleep, but once he saw my smile, he caught on. He grinned. "Ready for school, Jake Atkins?"

We both got ready and hurried down the stairs for breakfast. Everyone was already at the table eating some homemade waffles that Mrs. Atkins has obviously prepared.

"You two look so energetic this morning..." Dave noted, mumbling and looking like he was ready to go back to bed.

Noah grinned. "It's the weekend! And..." He paused for dramatic effect, which only worked on the twins. He only continued after Dave threw a crumpled napkin at him. "Mom said Jake can change his last name to be the same as ours."

He waved a hand my way and I smiled proudly.

"Nice!" Dave seemed to wake up a little bit. He raised his hand. "Five Atkins boys. That has a good ring to it."

"It's not like four sounded bad." Kyle pointed out, putting a damper on our excitement.

"What's your problem?" Noah got up from the table.

Kyle glanced up from his plate. "Nothing. I'm just saying." He shrugged and went back to eating.

Noah clenched his fists like he wanted to literally fight Kyle.

"Take a seat, Noah." Mr. Atkins instructed. He then turned to Kyle. "Kyle, I hope you can see how your words sounded to Noah, Jake, and the rest of us. Do you have something else to add?"

Kyle looked up again, making eye contact with me. I saw a flash of guilt. "I didn't mean it in a bad way. I was just saying, we-" He completely stopped under the glare of his dad. "Jake, I'm happy that you want our last name."

His new sentence didn't make me feel any better. I ate my food in silence, trying to digest what he meant by that.

When it was time to leave for school, all of us headed for the car.

"Kyle." Mr. Atkins got up from the table. "Hang back. I'll drive you to school a bit later."

Kyle froze.

Dave and Noah got in the car without looking back at him. I couldn't though. I glanced back, worried that he might be in trouble because of me.

Zeke rested his hand on my shoulder and shook his head. "Let's go, Jake."

"But-"

"It's not your problem." Zeke told me. "Leave Kyle to Dad. He's never let you down before right?"

That's right. I nodded and got in the car. Mr. Atkins wasn't going to hit Kyle or anything like that. He was wise and kind. He would know how to get through to Kyle without any extreme actions. I wonder if he would take him to the beach.

"Man, Kyle needs an attitude check." Noah huffed as Zeke drove us to school. "He's been too much to handle lately. If Dad doesn't smack him upside the head, then I might have to take it into my own hands." He lift his two fists like he was preparing for a fight.

I reached out and placed my hand on his fists. "Violence never solved anything. It just creates more problems."

Noah looked a bit sheepish as he put his hands down. "I'm just kidding."

"You're not wrong though." Dave said from the front. He caught me looking at him. "Not wrong that Kyle needs an attitude readjustment, I mean. That part. It's good that Dad's going to talk to him. Hopefully we don't have a moodier Kyle this weekend or my birthday is going to be ruined."

Birthday?

"Kyle and Dave's birthday is June 3rd, Monday." Noah told me. He leaned forward. "Do you want to celebrate without him? We can just leave him at home and go do whatever you want."

Dave shook his head. "Sometimes I think like that, but Kyle is just going through a phase. I don't want to look back and see how petty I was to not spend our 17th birthday together."

Zeke nodded. "Smart."

Dave grinned. "This doesn't mean that I won't be accepting better gifts than Kyle. If you guys want to show that you appreciate me more than Kyle, that is."

"I can give you a better gift." Zeke smiled lightly as he pulled into the school's parking lot.

Dave's grin fell off his face as he stiffened. "Kidding. I don't need any gifts this year. Please." He begged.

"I didn't need my locker decorated either." Zeke parked. "I think you're a more purple guy than pink." He got out of the car.

I remembered how Dave had Garret decorated Zeke's locker for his birthday. I smiled as Noah laughed at Dave.

"Your birthday is on a school day this year, Dave." Noah told him. "You should have been more careful with your pranks. Let's go, Jake, we have some planning to do."

I grabbed my backpack and followed Zeke and Noah to the school. "Are we pranking the twins on Monday?"

"That's a given." Noah told me. "It's tradition, remember? It's especially fun for the twins because we get to team up with Zeke."

Zeke's lips twitched. "I think you mean it's more fun for you."

Noah shrugged. "Same difference."

I laughed. It's not, but okay. "What did you guys do last year?"

Noah shook his head. "Just some fun stuff at home. Their birthday was on a Sunday last year. So this Monday, we've got to do something special." He looked up at Zeke. "You'll have to teach us your ways before you go off to college."

Zeke smiled. "We have the weekend to plan it out."