The Hitting Zone

Kyle ultimately got denied by Mom for going out too late. He said he would go in the morning and asked us to help out then instead.

"She ain't my girlfriend." Dave turned over in his bed to face the wall.

"Not risking an infection." Noah said casually. "Besides, can't her parents do it? It's literally their house."

"You know her parents..." He trailed off and looked to me with a pleading expression.

"Don't think of asking Jake." Noah said. "If it's the morning, he'll be sleeping. Plus, he's the only one of us that'll be playing in the game tomorrow."

"You guys suck." Kyle sighed.

Noah laughed. "Because we're not interested in helping your girlfriend? Get lost."

"It's called being nice." Kyle shot back.

"If it was something more serious than picking up toilet paper, we would help." Noah got up and turned off the lights. "Stop acting like we owe you. It's not that serious."

"Whatever." Kyle sighed and got comfortable in his bed. "But I hope you guys help out when we find out who did this. We'll pay them back for sure."

"Yea, yea, no problem." Dave yawned for real this time. "I haven't TP'd a house in a long time."

The room got a little quiet.

"Noah?" Kyle prompted. "Jake? You guys in?"

I froze. "Uhh..."

"Jake most likely hasn't done that kind of stuff." Noah cut in. "And I don't know if we should. Would Mom really be okay with you teaching Jake these kind of things?"

I had to purse my lips together to stop myself from outright laughing.

"I don't know." Kyle said. "It's a teenage rite of passage."

"Find out first who it was first and then we'll decide." Noah told him casually. "Let's not do anything too crazy with playoffs coming up."

"That's true." Dave agreed.

"Yea, you're right." Kyle gave in. He groaned. "Gotta set my alarm tomorrow. Maybe I'll run there in the morning and get a workout in. You sure you do want to join, Noah?" He tried tempting him with the workout.

"No way." Noah rejected him. "I know Kaylee is staying the night with Alisha. Why would I want to go over when it's just your girlfriend and her weirdo parents?"

"I hope when any of you need help, I have the same right to shoot you guys down." Kyle grumbled.

He eventually quieted down and I could soon hear the light snores of him and Dave. Then Noah. I relaxed, hoping that Kyle would be gone by the time I woke up in the morning. I didn't know if I could keep a straight face with Noah's lies and Kyle's questioning.

Thankfully, he really was gone when I woke up the next morning. I slept in the latest and the room was actually completely clear. I got dressed in sweats and a practice shirt, then headed downstairs. I could hear Mom and Dad in the office, sounding like they were discussing some kind of property so I let them be. No one was in the living room. In the kitchen, was only Dave, eating a bowl of cereal.

"Morning." He pointed at the two boxes of cereal on the table. "Just cereal today. Mom and Dad are busy this morning."

I nodded. "I heard them in the office." I went to get a bowl and spoon, then sat down across from Dave. "I should tell them that they don't have to come today."

Dave looked at me, chewing.

I poured my cereal and milk. "Neither you or Kyle are pitching. Or starting at least. Noah won't play at all. And Coach told me yesterday that he's going to look for an opportunity to bench me."

He nodded. "Yea, you should tell them. Might have to go in the office to say it. Summer is officially arriving with how busy they're getting on the weekends. It'll probably help if they don't feel obligated to go to an away game today that won't have any of their kids playing."

I started to eat and spoke between bites. "Yea, I rather them not stress themselves out when it's no big deal. Where's Grampa and Noah?"

"Grampa got picked up by some other old man and went bowling." He said. "Noah was gone before I woke up, so I'm thinking run."

"You don't think he went with Kyle?" I asked, trying not to give anything away.

"No way." He scoffed. "First off, Noah was gone before Kyle. I was awake when Kyle left. Noah probably went on his run since he can't play. Maybe even a longer run than normal."

Sounds about right.

"Oh!" Dave suddenly exclaimed, making me flinch. "Did you see Instagram?"

I shook my head. "No. I only check it when I'm bored."

"Same! But I can't believe you didn't check when you first woke up this morning." Dave starting tapping on his phone, pulling up what he wanted me to see. "Look! Jason's house was hit last night too!"

I saw a few shots of our work. I tried to think of what Noah would say in this situation and could only come up with, "That's crazy."

"Right. Really weird." He took his phone back. "I thought maybe Marie's was just some on her team messing around. But a varsity baseball player too? Can't be a coincidence so it has to be the same person."

"Hmm." I focused on eating my cereal, putting a spoonful in my mouth nonstop.

"But it had to be near the same time. Jason said he got home around ten from Garret's. And we know Kyle was bugging to go to Marie's around curfew."

"Uh-huh."

"They live close but not super close so it had to be someone that could drive. So juniors and seniors."

I nodded a little faster than I should. But Dave didn't notice anything off with me. He just talked about likely suspects, actually thinking it might be a different sport that's jealous of our undefeated records.

I finished eating and took my bowl to the sink for a rinse. "I'm going to tell them that they don't have to come." I pointed to the office and created some distance from Dave and his speculations.

"Sure! I'll be in the living room, watching the A's game. They're on the east coast this weekend so they should be playing by now." He got up too.