The Hitting Zone

"Jake?" Noah questioned as we were getting dressed.

"Huh?" I asked, swiveling to face him.

"You've got your shirt on backwards..." He told me.

I looked down and noticed that he was right. I sighed and pulled my arms in the shirt to twist the shirt around.

"Are you okay? You look like you didn't sleep at all." Noah leaned in to get a look at my face.

I shrugged. "It didn't feel like I slept at all."

"Maybe you're just homesick." Noah suggested.

That made me recall last night. That kid was homesick too, but he cried. So maybe I was, but didn't feel like crying? How weird. I also wonder how he's doing now. I mindlessly followed Noah as we left our room and then the dorm, heading for the cafeteria just one building over.

The cafeteria wasn't anything like I expected. First we grabbed a tray and then it was almost like a big buffet. We went around the room grabbing eggs, bagels, and fruit. Noah added pancakes, bacon, and hash browns. We then went to an empty table with four chairs and started to eat.

"Hey guys!" Landon was right behind us, grabbing the open chair next to Noah. "I was worried you wouldn't be up yet."

"And miss out on all this food?? Heck no." Noah stuffed his face. "Where's your roommate?"

Landon rolled his eyes. "He says he doesn't eat breakfast. People like that are real weirdos."

I was slightly relieved that there wouldn't be anyone else coming to sit with us. Hopefully the seat next to me stays empty.

"Agreed." Noah nodded, mouth full. "I don't know how he's going to function all morning. Lunch isn't for another five hours from now."

Landon started to eat his own food. "He's a pitcher so maybe he's superstitious."

"Ah, pitchers are real weirdos." Noah nodded again. "Our other brothers are pitchers and they do weird stuff all the time. But, they don't pass up on food like your roommate."

"More brothers? How many brothers are there?" Landon was flabbergasted.

"There's five of us." Noah explained. "Zeke. Then Dave and Kyle are twins. Me. Then Jake."

He looked at us. "Are you two twins too?"

Noah laughed and I cracked a smile.

"I guess you could say that." Noah said while laughing.

"You really can't." I shook my head before looking at Landon. "I'm adopted. No blood relation."

"Crazy." He replied. "Your house must be packed."

"It's okay." I told him. Way better than where I used to live.

Noah gave him the rundown on who was who in the family and what positions everyone played. He made sure to mention that we were all on our varsity and had even won the state championship in our division. Landon listened to all of it and was amazed by each accomplishment that Noah mentioned.

After we finished eating, we went back to the dorms for our bags and went down to the practice fields where everyone was to gather. We set our bags down and got our cleats on. Two of the counselors came by with a clipboard and a stack of giant stickers.

"Position?" The one with a clipboard asked.

"Shortstop." Noah grinned.

"Name?"

"Noah Atkins."

The other guy pulled off two stickers and put one each on either side of Noah's shirt while the guy marked the papers on his clipboard.

"Position?" The guy repeated, looking at me.

I swallowed a small lump in my throat. "Second baseman."

"Name?"

"Jake...Hollander."

He marked it and the other guy gave me two stickers the same color as Noah, but mine was one digit higher. The guys moved onto Landon.

"Position?"

"Anywhere, but I prefer the outfield." Landon told them.

"Name?"

After giving his name, he was given a different set of sticker colors and his number wasn't near ours. The two guys moved on and continued collecting names and positions while passing out the stickers.

I looked down at the colored sticker on my chest. "What's it for?"

"It's so the coaches and evaluators can mark down your scores with ease." Landon explained. "They're probably going to divide us up into smaller groups, separate us, and then we'll rotate throughout the stations they set up."

Noah started to bounce. "I can't wait."

Landon laughed. "Is this your first camp ever? I'm surprised."

Noah nodded. "Normally I play on a travel team all summer. And Jake...this is his first too."

"Just keep in mind, not to think too much about the others around you." He advised. "The hardest part about evaluations is keeping an upbeat mentality."

Ugh. Noah was going to be just fine. I sighed.

"Don't worry, Jake." Noah patted my shoulder, probably guessing what I was thinking. "It's going to be fun. You just bat like normal and everything will be fine. Plus, I think we'll be grouped together because of our stickers." He pointed.

That's true.

At 8am, all players and coaches were on the field. Coach Leroy had a megaphone with him and made a short introduction with it, also explaining how we were going to be divided. Noah's guess was right: by sticker color and then number. We were going to be together.

I couldn't keep track of how many groups there were, but each group would have a counselor as a group leader. They would direct us through warmups and then make sure that we showed up to every station while including the occasional water breaks.

I noticed that Rhys was assigned to a pitchers group and Zeke had gotten an outfielders group so there was a good chance that our leader would be an infielder like us. It was a little chaotic as everyone tried to find their appropriate group and group leader.

With Noah in my group, I had nothing to worry about. I simply followed him through the crowd of players.

Our group had about fifteen teens when the counselor finally spoke to all of us. "Hello everyone, my name is Chandler Jacobsen and I play on the Stanford team. I won't bother wasting time learning everyone's names because this group won't be permanent. All of you here are middle infielders or want to be middle infielders. Which means when we make teams for scrimmages later on, you all won't be on the same team."

Everyone shared looks, but didn't say anything.

"Great. A compliant group. My favorite." The counselor smiled. "Let's warmup and then I'll take you to the first station. Lucky for you guys, we'll start with baserunning and get it out of the way. So make sure you warmup seriously."

Baserunning? I made a face of disgust.

Chandler didn't wait for comments or questions. He took us towards a more secluded spot to group our bags together. Then took us through a very thorough warmup. For a 'warmup', I found it way more difficult than the one we normally did. If it wasn't for Zeke training us all summer, I might have dropped out already.

Noah handed me a water bottle after we were done. "Good work, Jake. You're looking fit."

I looked at him with disbelief.

He lowered his voice and leaned a little closer. "I think it was a test. Look at the others in our group. They aren't doing any better than you or me."

A simple glance revealed that he was telling the truth. Some of the guys may have been older or younger, it was hard to tell, but none of them looked completely fine. In fact, Noah looked the most relaxed.