The Hitting Zone

"Classmates." Noah told him. "They're helping us with our softball team. Alisha doesn't play, but Kaylee was on the varsity team." He started to give Jeremy a brief overview of each girl, even explaining how Kyle dated Kaylee's sister and randomly broke up with her to focus on baseball. "And Alisha is throwing an end-of-the-school-year party slash birthday party next week."

Watching Noah talking to Jeremy so easily made me jealous. Not that I thought that they were close, it's just, Noah was able to get along with everyone all the time. He was a talker. And he was outgoing. I want to be more outgoing.

I cleared my throat to chime in. "Do you think you could sign some autographs so I can take to the party?"

Jeremy was surprised. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Because a lot of kids at school asked him for one." Noah answered. "Mostly everyone now knows that he's your brother. There was some kind of blog post that brought it up again and included pictures of you two talking."

Jeremy frowned. "Do you know which blog?"

Noah shook his head.

Jeremy looked at me. "Are you sure you want to give them out? That's not going to make the other kids jealous of you, right?"

I shrugged and looked at Noah.

Noah thought for a moment. "I mean, some are already jealous. Jake is a baseball star as a freshman. But no one dares to pick on him. Me and my brothers are there to back him up."

"Okay then, if you're sure. I'll send you a stack of signed baseball cards. It'll take me awhile though." Jeremy told us.

"You've got almost two weeks." Noah replied.

He nodded. "Okay. I'll work on it as I'm on the road. I come back next week for a couple of home games so maybe you and the Atkins family can make a trip to watch a game and pick up the autographs?"

My lips twisted. "I'm not sure. Softball starts next week." I glanced to Noah.

Noah nodded. "Tuesday is our first game. Thursday we'll actually be missing because of Zeke's graduation. Friday is Alisha's party. And since it's finals week, I doubt Mom would let us go."

"Oh..." Jeremy hesitated. "We'll figure something out next week when I get back then. Are you, uh, prepared for your finals?"

I nodded.

"It won't be difficult for us." Noah claimed with ease.

"That's good." Jeremy looked relieved. "At least you don't have my bad study habits."

"You were bad at school?" I asked.

He made a face of indecisiveness. "Kind of. I was bad in school, but I wasn't dumb. I just did dumb things. Does that make sense?"

I tilted my head. "Not really. But is that why you didn't go to college?" I grabbed the pen again and prepared to write down his answer.

Jeremy noticed what I was doing. "It played a part in why I chose to go straight into the draft after high school. Another part was Dad." He looked me in the eye. "Our dad. He also didn't go to college to play. He got chosen in the draft, started low in the minor leagues, and then..."

I waited patiently, wanting to know more.

Jeremy coughed and cleared his throat. "He never made it to the majors. I wanted to do that for him. To honor his memory. I wanted to succeed what he couldn't accomplish."

"What did your uncle think of that?" Noah asked with no emotion.

"Uncle Jack was very supportive of my dreams. I owe a lot to him for what I'm able to do today. He trained me, coached me, and did all in his power to make me a better player." He stumbled a bit at the sight of my unmoved expression. "Sorry, I-"

"It's fine." I told him.

The conversation stalled in awkwardness.

"Really, Jeremy." I spoke up. "I'm glad you have them."

Jeremy looked a little torn. "Thanks, me too. And I'm glad you have the Atkins. They seem like nice people."

"Of course we're nice." Noah grinned.

The conversation turned a little lighter as I started to ask him about his time in the minors and even a little about his high school baseball team. We spoke for an hour, Mrs. Atkins brought out the dessert Jeremy had given, and the conversation finally ended when Mr. Atkins told us it was about time we went to bed.

Noah went upstairs to get ready for bed as I walked Jeremy to the door.

"Jake?" He asked after I opened the door for him.

I looked up at him.

"I know you aren't too keen on Uncle Jack, but I wanted to ask if you...are okay with meeting his kids...our cousins?" The Jeremy in front of me wasn't the pro baseball player that everyone saw at the A's game. Instead, I had the awkward and uncomfortable Jeremy, who struggled to even look me in the eye.

I shrugged, noncommittal. "Maybe. We'll see."

Jeremy looked relieved. "Cool. Cool. Cool."

My lips twitched. "Drive safe."

"Yea, thanks." He grinned and walked out the door, giving me a head pat on the way out. He froze and turned back to face me. "Sorry!"

"It's fine." I said for the millionth time that night.

This time his relief had a hint of happiness. "I'll text you later. You...feel free to text or call me too."

"Okay."

He left for real this time, waving and getting into his car. I watched his car leave the block before closing the door.

I went upstairs and found Noah already in bed. He looked at me as I came in the room. "Was it awkward?"

I nodded. "Yea. He also asked if I would mind meeting Jack's kids...our cousins."

He sat up. "And what did you say?"

I shrugged again. "I said maybe."

"Interesting."

"What..?"

"Nothing."

"What?" I looked at him.

"Nothing." He repeated.

I frowned and got my pajamas out. I glanced at him.

Noah laid back down. "You can change in here. It's not like I'll stare."

After making sure he wasn't paying attention to me, I hurried up and got changed. Since he was already in bed, I turned off the light for the room.

"We'll wake up at 3." Noah whispered.

I nodded obediently, but realized he couldn't see me in the dark. "Okay." Noah passed out easily, but I struggled. In my bed, I could only think about my cousins. The ones that Jeremy claimed as siblings. The way they all laughed together at the game yesterday. I was definitely an outsider, but Jeremy asking me if I wanted to meet them lowered my guard. Did he ask because he wanted me to meet them? Or because Jack wanted me to get to know them? Or do those cousins actually want to know about me? A lot of possibilities.

I must have fallen sleep at some point, because the next thing I knew, Noah was shaking me awake. He put his finger to his lips in the light glow of a small flashlight. We snuck out of our room and into the big room.

At Kyle's bedside, Noah took out a sheet of...fake nails..? I watched in fascination as he put a dab of glue on one and then pressed it to Kyle's nail, holding it for a minute. At first I was nervous that Kyle would wake up, but his snores rang out the whole entire time. Noah did all ten fingers as I held the flashlight down and did my best not to breathe so hard.

As we were leaving, Noah got close to check Kyle's hair. Pink. And not just light pink.

Noah's eyes widened and he put a hand over his own mouth, stopping himself from making any noise. We got out of there, closing the door behind us, and got back to our own room.

"Oh my god, did you see his hair!?!" Noah grabbed me. "His hair is pink! Pink pink!" He giggled, trying to keep it down. "He must have let it sit in his hair for a bit! This is way better than I expected. He's going to freak out in the morning!"

I nodded. His hair wasn't a neon pink, but it would definitely stand out tomorrow. Him and Dave must have went to bed as soon as they finished their showers.