The Hitting Zone

We waited in the car for Mom and Zeke to come out. Once they were in the car, we took off. At the break of dawn, there weren't too many places we could go to beside the diner that Zeke has taken me to a couple of times now.

"Did everything turn out okay?" Dad asked his two accomplices.

Mom nodded. "Cutting the tape beforehand really helped."

"Tape?" I asked. What did they need tape for? And why did it need to be prepared beforehand?

***

Noah woke up as sunlight started to leak into his room. As he slowly blinked, getting used to the light, he suddenly realized it was morning! Late morning! His run with Zeke! He fought off his sheets and jumped out of bed.

He changed in a rush and hurried out, but ran into resistance. When he opened his bedroom door and tried to go out, he ran right into an invisible wall. On closer inspection, he realized it was clear duct tape. Covering his whole doorway.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny, Zeke." Noah muttered. He sighed and looked at Jake's bed to complain, yet realized he wasn't there. "Dang it! He even got Jake on this?"

That was one possibility. Another was Jake just playing along.

"Mom?! Dad?!" Noah called out, yet there wasn't any other sounds. "Did they all leave? Or are they waiting out there to embarrass me?" He went to his phone charger to see if he could call his parents for help. That led to problem number three: no phone. "No Jake. No phone. No way to pull off this tape." He muttered and moved to his desk, going through his messy drawer, looking for something sharp.

Noah found some scissors tucked near the back of the drawer. "Ha!" He went to the doorway and stabbed a hole through the tape. With a good size hole, he started to cut the tape downwards so he could get out.

First stop was the bathroom. If there's no Zeke, then there's no run. Noah opened the bathroom door and a loud, 'Bang!' went off and confetti started to rain down. Noah looked up and found a few confetti poppers taped to the door. "Okay...so maybe Zeke is taking this a little too seriously."

Noah took care of his business and started to be more wary as he moved throughout the house. Sure enough he came across a couple of water balloons that were set to fall on him if he tripped or stepped on this piece of string. How elaborate!

It didn't stop there. At the stairs, each step was covered by plastic cups. Completely covered! Noah looked a little closer and noticed that a lot of them had some water in it for weight. And to make a mess. He groaned and got to work.

***

After breakfast, Dad suggested we go on a walk by the beach. Originally they thought about hiking, but thought it would be better for my leg if we didn't do too much.

"Are we just going to leave Noah at home, alone? All day?" I asked Zeke as we trailed behind Mom and Dad.

"No. We'll see him at lunch." Zeke told me. "On our way home, Julian and Andy will pick him up. And then meet us at Alisha's."

Aha. I knew it. "Will the whole team be there?" I asked.

Zeke smiled and nodded. "It's a birthday celebration and one last team party. I invited some of the guys from the team too, if they were in town. Alisha said she would invite some of your classmates too."

Oh. A real party. "Sounds like a lot of people..."

Zeke patted me on the head lightly. "I know you don't really like it, but Noah likes being the center of attention. This is his first birthday since his old friends...shunned him."

"Oh." I didn't think about that. "I don't know how...they could treat Noah so harshly."

"Because they were never real friends to begin with." Zeke explained. "Some people can't fathom how your birth mom treated you either. Some people just aren't raised with compassion or general kindness."

"Didn't one of them win a baseball award for sportsmanship? That still bugs me. It doesn't make sense." I started to rant. "How can he have good sportsmanship and supposedly a good character?" I sighed.

"He's just good at deception." Zeke told me. "You have to be wary of those kind of friends. The ones that are good at faking it." He glanced at the ocean. "Rhys had a similar problem."

I vaguely remembered Rhys saying something about his teammates not being friends. It was a couple of months ago when I first met him. "Will Rhys come over today too?"

Zeke nodded. "Of course. He's like an honorary brother. Just because he's a pitcher doesn't mean that he's closer to the twins than Noah. When we were kids, Rhys really liked Noah following us. He didn't have a little brother so he wasn't admired as much as us. Noah would copy everything he did."

I laughed. "I bet he copied everything you did too. He still does."

Zeke let out a small laugh. He was especially happy this morning. I don't know if it's because he lightened up with college coming or if he just liked reminiscing, but it was nice. He told me a few funny stories about Noah growing up as we walked.

Around 10, we headed to Alisha's to help with the setting up. Apparently Mom had already brought over most of the groceries yesterday in preparation for today. Her and all the other adults got started with cooking and decorating.

Zeke pitched in, leaving me alone with Alisha. We were in charge of the door and sending guests to the backyard.

"Jake, will it be weird if I tell Noah I like him?" Alisha asked out of the blue.

I paused, not sure what to say.

"C'mon, Jake. Aren't we friends too?" Alisha pleaded.

I guess I'm not really intervening if I just tell her my opinion, right? "I think...he'll think, that it's a prank."

Alisha was confused. I quickly explained how the Atkins celebrate birthdays. She sighed. "I guess I'll just stick with giving him a gift for today. Maybe near the end of summer, I'll tell him." She looked me in the eyes, hopeful. "Has he said anything about me?"

I shook my head. "Noah only really talks about baseball."

Alisha lost the sparkle in her eyes, but wasn't depressed. "But he doesn't talk about any other girls either, right?"

I shrugged. "He hasn't mentioned any. We talk about how scary Kaylee and Marie are. On and off the field."

Alisha laughed, looking a little more relaxed. "Is now a bad time to tell you that I invited them?"

They were the first two to show up, with KJ. I waved and they nodded, heading towards the backyard. Alisha really took over door duties by herself, greeting everyone while I just stood off to the side. It wasn't long before the birthday boy himself showed up.

"Jake!" Noah ran to me as soon as the door opened, completely ignoring Alisha. "Please tell me you had nothing to do with the traps this morning or we can no longer be friends!"

"Traps?" I was unsure. I just knew that they used a lot of tape.

Noah sighed with relief. "Thank goodness. I knew my best friend wouldn't treat me so awfully."

Alisha laughed, getting closer, not offended how Noah had bypassed her. "C'mon. It couldn't have been that bad."

Noah put both hands on her shoulders and lightly shook her. "They took the cream out of the Oreos and replaced it with toothpaste! It was hell!"