The Hitting Zone

After my shower, I got dressed and headed back downstairs.

Noah spotted me and turn to Alisha. "Jake's done. I'll go take my own shower real quick. Be right back." He hurried up the stairs, leaving me alone with Alisha in the living room.

Alisha saw me wearing my baseball sweatshirt. "Are you cold?"

I shrugged. "Nah, it's comfortable. But Dave told me to wear this for school spirit so we can get in for free."

"Oh, man." She lightly hit her forehead. "I forgot. I should have had my parents bring me a different shirt or something." She was in a pink t-shirt which was definitely not our school colors or logo. "Do you have a shirt I can borrow..?"

I shrugged again. "Yea." I had a practice shirt with the WHS logo on it as well. "It's just a t-shirt though so you might get cold."

"Just go through Noah's stuff." Dave entered the room, and had overheard us. "He has a bunch of school gear that me, Kyle, and Zeke have passed down."

I nodded. That was true. The twins and Zeke were taller than us and were constantly putting their old clothes with our laundry. I looked to Alisha. "Do you want to come up and try to find something?" Because I wasn't comfortable picking for her.

Alisha looked hesitant. "Isn't Noah taking a shower?"

"Yea, but he gets dressed in the bathroom so you'll be fine." Dave told her.

The doorbell rang.

"That should be Marie and Kaylee." Dave headed for the front door. "We've got to get moving if we want to find parking."

I took Alisha upstairs to the room I shared with Noah.

"Wow. It's surprisingly clean." She commented. "I thought most boy's rooms were usually dirty. Or at least messy."

"Oh." I guess that was the stereotypical thought, and sometimes it was true. But I think it was easy to keep our room clean because we didn't spend a whole lot of time in here besides when it was time for bed. I opened the closet for Alisha.

"Wow!" She exclaimed and came close. Instead of focusing on the clothes though, she started to admire the bat cubbie Dad and Zeke had put in. She ran her fingers on the bats. "Are these all yours?"

I shrugged. "Kind of, but if Noah or somebody wanted to use one, I wouldn't mind." I wanted to tell her they were from Rhys and his dad, but for one, she didn't know him, and two, Zeke suggested I didn't mention it.

She pulled out some and saw that they were used. "Wow." She pointed at the one that was by itself in the corner alone. "Is this one broken or something?"

I shook my head. "No. That's the one Jeremy gave me. During the championship game, after my other bat broke." I pointed to the shelves above. "These are where my broken bats are."

"You've already broken three?!" She exclaimed.

I blushed, embarrassed. "One just happened over summer." I pointed at the one in the middle. "Championship game." Then at the last. "I broke my first bat at my first time at The Cages. Noah got them to lease us a bat, then I broke it by accident, but Noah defended me. He barely even knew me. He took on the owner and when Mom got mad, he still defended me."

Alisha gave me a warm smile. "Noah's a good person and a great friend."

"Yea." I smiled and nodded. Seeing some WHS gear hanging up, I pointed at the sweatshirts, jackets, and shirts that she could choose from. "You can pick any of these."

As she pulled a sweatshirt off the hanger, Noah walked in, fresh from the shower. Alisha blushed and hurried to put the sweatshirt on, messing up her hair in the process.

Noah laughed at her appearance and reached for a sweatshirt himself.

Alisha patted her hair down in attempt to fix it.

"Let me get my shoes and socks on, then we can go down together." Noah said, sitting at his desk in order to put his socks on. We waited for him, then went back downstairs where the other half of our group was waiting.

We loaded up all in one car, with Kyle driving and Marie in the front passenger seat. Alisha, Noah, and Kaylee all sat in the middle row, while Dave squeezed in the very back with me. I didn't really get why we had to take one car until we showed up at the stadium. The parking lot was packed. Granted, it wasn't very big, but I was still surprised how many people showed up to the games.

Dave noticed my look of shock. "They only play twelve games or whatever so everyone goes when they can. It's more like an outdoor party than people actually watching the game."

I nodded along. I had some kind of vision of what to expect from a few movies that Noah made me watch.

We lined up to enter the gates, preparing our school id's. Thanks to that and our 'spirit wear', we got in for free. We struggled to find a big enough spot in the bleachers for all of us together, but we made it work, finding some friends to sit with. I felt like all of them knew people, waving and stopping to say 'hi'. A few classmates would give me a small nod or smile, but no one really went out of their way to make a conversation.

I didn't mind at all. I wasn't a social butterfly like the others.

"Gosh, I can't tell who's more popular, Noah or Alisha." Kaylee whispered to me as we watch some teens stop to talk to the other two.

I thought about how Noah had some trouble with those in the same year as him. "Maybe Alisha. She's nice to everyone."

Kaylee raised an eyebrow. "And Noah isn't?"

My lips twitched. "Noah is the best person I know."

She laughed at my remark. "You're deflecting." Then nodded. "Yea, Noah is easy to get along with, but sometimes he can be annoying to look at." She glanced at me. "Are you guys having any trouble with those idiots in the baseball program?"

I shook my head. "Nah, everyone is pretty much focused on baseball when we play." I glanced to the football field, where players were warming up. "It helps that a lot of the more problematic ones are busy with other sports."

She nodded. "Yea, you'll have it easy these next few months."

We spoke casually about school and sports as the game started. Kyle and Marie were in charge of getting food from the snack bar. Eating stadium food reminded me of going to A's games to watch Jeremy. This was kind of like that, but at least I knew the rules of baseball. Football...was rocket science. Noah explained the basics but even he didn't understand some of the penalties we saw.

Our school ended up losing by three points, which didn't seem so bad, but I happened to see Joey throw his helmet down. Guess he didn't like the way he played? Or the way his team lost? Seeing him lose his cool made me uncomfortable and embarrassed for him.

"Typical." Noah snorted, seeing the same thing. "Throwing a temper tantrum like that...what a child."

"He's definitely a hothead." Dave remarked. "There's a few guys I know that are like that."

"Like yourself?" Noah laughed.

Dave gave him a small shove into Alisha.

"See?!" Noah laughed even more as Dave proved him right.