The Hitting Zone

"This past weekend, Watsonville High's baseball team swept their second tournament win in a row, not counting those from last season. They're having another strong start to the season and we can only go out and show support for them when we can." Monday morning our school had put on the morning announcements on every TV in every classroom. Besides some school related events, it mostly talked about us. Then the softball team. They had a tournament coming up this weekend.

"I think they're just excited that basketball ball season is ending." Kaylee whispered to me and Noah. No doubt she didn't want to offend the few basketball guys in our class. None of which were on varsity, but none of the levels were that good.

"The soccer teams had a chance to win league." Noah noted. "I heard they had a good freshman on the team. Next year will be better for them."

The pair talked more about how the other school sports were fairing while I listened to the announcements.

My phone vibrated. I got a text.

Noah looked at me. He must have heard it too. "Aren't you going to look?"

I shook my head and whispered. "No, we're in class." I reminded.

Noah shrugged. "So what? Just peek at it. I'm sure it Jeremy. He's probably at the airport by now."

"Jeremy's going to spring training already?" Kaylee asked. "It's still so early. Pitchers and catchers don't report until after Valentine's Day."

I nodded.

"Noah explained. "Him and his fiancé, Rose. They wanted to go down to Arizona early to meet up with some of his old buddies."

Guys who knew him in high school. Even old teammates. That were either living in the area by coincidence or joining other pro teams for spring training. He told us last night over dinner. He was excited to see his friends finally making it to the big leagues since he was one of the few to jump up the way he did. He still knew some guys that were still in college too, but Jeremy just had a big jumpstart between getting drafted out of high school and going to a team that needed him to debut. Then he was so amazing after winning Rookie of the Year, that he got traded to a team that happened to have an injury early on in the season. A wild ride, for sure. Some would even say that the stars aligned for him.

Mrs. Langford started to teach chemistry and we needed to pay attention and write down notes. After class, the three of us were about to split up for our next class, but Kaylee held us back.

"Do you guys know if Kyle has anything planned for Friday?" She asked, glancing around to make sure she wasn't overheard. It was suspicious.

Noah shrugged. "Practice, like usual? Why? What's going on Friday?"

Kaylee looked at him. Then me. I shrugged too. Then back to Noah. "Are you for real?" She sighed, exasperated. "It's Valentine's Day?!"

"Oh." Noah and I said simultaneously. He shrugged again. "I don't know. Probably? I think he would remember. And it's not like we have a game this weekend."

"We have a tournament this weekend." Kaylee reminded. She rubbed her forehead. "Just give him a subtle reminder. Marie likes surprises. And she likes to do fun things. It better not be something lame like dinner and a movie."

Noah gave her a mock salute. "You can count on me, ma'am."

She rolled her eyes. "I doubt it. You're blind when it comes to these kind of things. If it doesn't involve baseball then I might as well count on Jake. At least he has more empathy."

"It's a curse." I added my two cents. "I see him in Calculus after the first break."

"Okay, text me just so I at least know he's thinking of it."

"Okay." I nodded.

We three had to split up for second period. Mine was Spanish III with some familiar faces. Sean and Mitchell. I walked into the class and saw the pair surrounded by other Juniors. I sat down nearby like usual and overheard them talking about Mitchell winning the game.

The bell rung, but no one made a move to get to their seats. Coach Luis was the teacher and he seemed not to mind. Especially since everyone was interested in our baseball game yesterday. How did the guy hitting the game-winner feel?

"Don't treat him like a star." Sean laughed. "Mitchell did more work behind the plate than at the plate. I'm the one who hit a homerun. Come swarm around me."

Some of the guys laughed while others threw some junk at him.

"Jake is the real star!" One of the guys I didn't know spoke up. "I heard other teams are so scared of him, they hardly pitch to him. And when they do, he can knock it out of the park!"

"Jake can bat even better than Zeke."

"He's ranked above Garret in the rankings."

"That's crazy."

"We should go to more games this year!"

"Theyre bound to win league again!"

"Yea, the team is stacked!"

Coach Luis let the class talk some more about our baseball team for twenty more minutes, but then called the whole room to attention. "As much as I like to hear how great the team is, we do have to learn something today. It wouldn't be a Monday otherwise."

"Ah, man."

"I was hoping we could just treat this as a free period."

"That would have been nice."

Coach Luis smiled. "We'll do practical work today then. Speaking and conversing in Spanish only. No written assignments due."

Some cheered while others groaned. I didn't mind. I had a small conversation with Sean before he was pulled away by his friends. Then I spent my free time on my phone, checking the text I had from Jeremy.

<strong>Jeremy: On the plane now. Will send another message when I land. Have a good day at school!

</strong>I smiled to myself. Jeremy sounded more like a dad than a brother. I couldn't imagine Zeke sending me something like 'have a good day'. If anything, he would tell me to make it a good day. Practice hard. Don't let the twins copy my math homework. Things like that.

<strong>Me: Have a safe trip!

</strong>At break, I hung out with Noah at our lockers. We snacked and he talked about Zeke's upcoming game schedule. His season would officially start this weekend. Three straight home games: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

"Do you think we'll just go there for the weekend?" I asked.

Noah made a face.

"You don't want to?" I asked, surprised.

"I mean, I want to see the games. But I don't want to stay there all weekend." Noah explained. "Besides, we still have practice on Friday so we wouldn't make it in time for the Friday game. There won't be anywhere we could play and practice."

"Can't we play at the school?"

Noah thought about it. "I don't know. Maybe a little. Maybe Mom and Dad will talk about it at dinner."

The bell rung. It was time for third period. We finished our snacks and split up once more. I went to Calculus and found the twins already there.

I got closer to Kyle, trying to alert him of my presence but his eyes were glued on his phone.

"Don't pay attention to him." Dave told me, waving me to join him. "He's preoccupied. Looking up some date ideas for Valentine's Day."

I nodded, understanding. I quickly pulled out my phone.

<strong>Me: Kyle is looking up ideas before I said anything.

Kaylee: Great! Happy that's he's not a complete idiot. </strong>

I smiled and put my phone away.