The Hitting Zone

"I'm home!" Kyle could be heard yelling from the garage door.

All of us got up and hurried to the hallway.

"Jake, have you gotten taller?" Kyle squinted at me.

It was almost a repeat of what Dave had said.

I stood tall and grinned, happy that both of them thought I've grown.

"Hey! I'm growing too!" Noah cozied up to Kyle, getting as close as possible to show his newfound height.

Kyle pushed him away, laughing. "You're like a weed, always growing. Both Mom and Dad are tall so it's only natural that you be tall. Jake has it tough, fighting against malnutrition and genetics."

"Jeremy's tall enough." Noah pointed out.

"He was fed as a kid." He flicked Noah on the ear. Then looked a little apologetic. "Sorry, Jake."

I shrugged. "I'm fine." I couldn't but help but smile. "I won't have that problem anymore. You guys feed me all the time."

"We sure do." Mom claimed with pride. "Though it needs to be less cookies and more fruit." She rested her hand on my head after messing up my hair. "We should do haircuts for everyone before we go to court."

"Go to court?" Kyle asked, blinking a few times.

"Awe, Mom..." Noah started to complain.

"Especially you Noah." She pointed around Noah's head. The Oakland A's logo had started to grow out and no longer looked as clean-cut as before. "I want to be able to take some very nice pictures."

"Nice pictures for what?? Hello?!" Kyle asked.

Dave pulled me away from Mom and made me face Kyle. "May we present to you the future, Mr. Jake Atkins?"

Kyle's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. "No way! Is it official?!"

"It's about to be!" Noah exclaimed. "Three more weeks and we go."

Kyle reached out and pulled me from Dave's grasp. He put me in a loose headlock and started to give me a noogie. "Another little brother to pick on."

Noah rolled his eyes.

We slowly moved back to the living room and spent some time hearing about Kyle's camp.

He smirked as he sat down on the middle seat of the couch. "It was everything I hoped it to be." He looked at Dave. "You should have been there."

Dave grinned. "Nah. I'm good. Better than before. Tomorrow we'll find out whose camp was more effective."

"What's going on tomorrow?" He asked.

Noah explained.

"How many people are going to show??" Kyle's eyes twinkled.

"Enough to make up two teams." Zeke answered. "Might be a few pitchers though so don't expect to pitch the whole time."

"Is Garret coming?"

Zeke nodded.

"Can he not be on my team?" Kyle asked. "I don't want to split pitching time with him."

"I'll take him!" Dave waved his hand. "I'll keep him off the mound and he can hit as he please."

"Then I get Jake and Zeke." Kyle stated.

"How is that fair?" Dave rolled his eyes.

"You guys will get to pick the teams tomorrow." Zeke told them. "One for one. Like we used to."

"Who gets to pick first?" They both asked at the same time.

"We'll do a coin flip when we get there." Zeke's lips twitched, fighting off a smile.

Mom and Dad soon went to bed with the excuse that they had work in the morning. Even though it was the middle of the night, the rest of us didn't head to bed just yet. Not even Zeke who usually stuck to his strict schedule. It was fun to have everyone together again.

We stayed up until almost 2am, then Zeke called it a night, forcing us to go to bed.

Noah laughed at the bats still taking up space against the desk. "We forgot to tell Dad again."

"Tomorrow." I yawned and got under the covers.

"Yea, there's always tomorrow." He yawned too and got into his own bed.

We were out almost immediately. Next thing we knew, the sun was shining in our room and Dave was knocking on the door as he stood in the doorway. "Rise and shine, kiddos. Zeke's about to finish making lunch so you better get dressed and get downstairs." He left.

We changed into shorts and t-shirts, not bothering with shoes and socks just yet. Downstairs, the twins were setting the table and Zeke was just putting a pot of pasta on the table. We sat on our side of the table and the twins sat on their side. Zeke brought out the last of the dishes.

"What time did you guys wake up?" Noah asked, letting out a yawn.

"Just about an hour ago." Dave shrugged. "Had to finish moving our laundry around so Kyle could start his."

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Yea, I woke up thanks to him. Can't believe you're so unwilling to start my laundry."

"I had to make sure we have the same amount of rest before today's showdown." Dave said, nonchalant.

Zeke finished loading his plate with pasta and passed the utensils to Dave. "Eat while you can."

Dave shut his mouth and started to load his plate.

We ate a fulfilling lunch thanks to Zeke. Unfortunately, Noah and I got stuck with doing the dishes again since we didn't cook or help. It didn't matter too much and actually helped me feel less bloated. After loading up the dishwasher, we moved throughout the house, grabbing our clean clothes and putting them away.

Before leaving the house, I packed two of the new bats that were given to me. I no longer had to worry about breaking Jeremy's bat during a casual practice.

"Where'd you get those?" Kyle peaked at the bats sticking out of my baseball bag. We were all loaded up in the car and Zeke started to drive us to the park.

"Secret." Dave grinned.

"Mr. Johnson helped Jake get some spares." Noah didn't keep the secret like Dave intended, making Dave glare at him. He shrugged. "What? How can it be a secret? Zeke would say something soon enough."

"Wow! Mr. Johnson gave you two bats? Did Rhys ask him to?" Kyle was surprised.

"Yep. They're technically 'trash' from the players." Noah said happily.

"Bats that the pros used?! Let me hold one!" Kyle reached over.

Dave slapped his hand away. "What would you do with a wood bat anyways? You can hardly swing an aluminum bat as it is."

"I don't want to hear that from you. You're just as bad, if not worse, at the plate." Kyle claimed.

"Quit it." Zeke spoke up, making the car go silent. He glanced at us using the rear view mirror. "Don't talk about the bats from Mr. Johnson in front of the guys."

"Why?"

"Do you think they would tattle on us?"

"Can we get in trouble..?"

"Just to prevent unnecessary trouble." Zeke answered. "It's not that I don't trust the guys, I just don't want it to slip. It should be fine since Mr. Johnson called the bats trash, but who knows. If it makes a big enough stink, it might disqualify Jake from playing college ball."

"He'd be fine going straight into the majors anyways." Kyle mumbled.

"Kyle." Zeke said sternly.

"I know, I know." Kyle held up both hands to defend himself. "There's not much to say anyways. A bat is a bat. Who goes around questioning kids where they get their bats?"

Dave laughed. "I can imagine someone doing that!"