The Hitting Zone

"That's a pretty good sized scar." Mr. Cameron remarked. "Do you mind if I take a picture?"

"Go ahead." Rhys agreed. He held out his arm as Mr. Cameron took the pictures. Afterwards, he ran a finger along the line. "Just around Christmas time, this scar would make me sick just looking at it. Now, I see it as my hope to come back to baseball. If everything goes as planned, I'll come back even stronger."

Mr. Cameron nodded. "I heard your parents were able to reach out to Dr. Andrews to do your surgery. Does it comfort you, knowing that he had done Tommy John surgery on the pros?"

Tommy John?

Rhyd nodded. "I'm very thankful to my parents. My dad was able to use his connections to get me one of the best surgeons. And honestly, without my mom's endless support when I was trapped in that sling, I'd probably die without her." He flexed his left forearm, opening and closing his left hand. "I'm a lefty, right? So being able to feed myself with my non-dominant hand wasn't easy. My mom was very thoughtful in making foods that could be eaten with just one hand, like sandwiches."

Wow. She sounds like a Mrs. Atkins. Are all moms like that? Am I the only one with a bad mom?

"I'm happy to see you doing so well." Mr. Cameron commented as he took notes. "How has the physical rehab been going?"

"Like I said, it was tough in the beginning. There wasn't much I could do. There wasn't much that I wanted to do." He let out a small sigh. "During Christmas break though, I started the process. I also made the decision to quit my high school team."

I was shocked. But after a quick look around, it seemed like the Atkins already knew that. I'm always behind in these things I feel like, all thanks to me only being with them for one month. I was also still confused on the whole Tommy John thing...

"Can I ask why? And how you felt about it? How'd your team feel about it?"

"It was at therapy...I came to the realization that it's best to focus on myself right now. I shouldn't be putting the team on my back, more so now since I can no longer help them. I'm just about to throw again. Pitching will be out of the question until summer time. Maybe towards the end of summer." He paused. "As for my team, it's not like we were super close. Baseball can bring some people together, but in most places, you're just seen as competition. I can honestly say, after quitting, none of those teammates had reached out to me to change my mind. I was just useless to them."

"Ouch." Mr. Cameron said sympathetically. "I bet that must have hurt even more than getting injured."

"In some ways, but in some ways it helped me see who really cared." He grinned and pointed at Zeke. "This guy right here drove to see me every weekend after the surgery. It wasn't until his season started that he stopped. He still calls me every week to nag and ask if I've been running and keeping in shape."

Yep, sounds like Zeke.

"And have you been?"

"Yes. Thanks to Zeke's persistence, I've been spending all my free time on recovery. Mental and physical recovery. I've learned that you have to take care of both equally." He grinned and gave a light shrug. "It helps that my dad can relate and has shared his experience with me too."

"Your dad can relate?" I blurted out.

Rhys wasn't bothered by the interruption. He just smiled and nodded. "Yea, my dad had Tommy John surgery as well." He pointed at the long scar. "Just think of it as elbow surgery."

"It's a common baseball injury." Noah told me. "I forgot that you probably haven't heard about it. Soon, when the MLB season gets going, a few players will go on the injured list for needing Tommy John surgery. Most of the time it's pitchers, but now it pretty much affects everyone."

"Oh." I looked up at Rhys. "So you're a pitcher? And your dad is too?"

Rhys nodded again. "Yes. I am. Or at least, I'm trying to be. We'll see if I can get back at it. I might need to switch to a position player if things don't go as planned."

"You'll be able to pitch again." Zeke stated.

"What do you plan on doing after high school?" Mr. Cameron asked, getting back to the interview. "Have any colleges reached out to you? Last I heard, you were still undecided."

"I'm actually going to a local community college. For a year." Rhys turned serious. "Best case scenario, I get my pitching back and make a splash at the jc (junior college: same thing as community college) scene. With that, I'll enter the draft."

"So you're not interested in going to a big time school to try and win the College World Series?"

"Not really." He looked at Zeke. "The majors is the main goal. Everything else is just extra."

Zeke nodded in agreement.

Mr. Cameron asked a few more questions about his recovery and chances of even coming back stronger than before, but I started to lose interest. Rhys was a nice guy, yet I started to feel some animosity towards him.

I recognized it right away. He kept mentioning his parents, how thankful he was to have them, and how great they treat him. The jealousy within me was growing the longer he spoke. I couldn't pinpoint why I had this feeling towards him, but not to the Atkins who also had nice parents.

Their small interview wrapped up shortly and Mr. Cameron moved on to me. He smiled warmly, yet my insides felt ice cold. I no longer felt like talking or participating, but it'd be rude to back out now.

"Jake! You've been doing great both on and off the field, I hear." Mr. Cameron started. "Wayne was happy to tell me that you were talking more and more lately. Does that have anything to do with baseball?"

"Not really." I mumbled.

"Oh." He deflated a little bit. "Well then, let's talk about baseball. The season has officially started and you're ranked very highly in a lot of offensive categories at the moment, how do you feel about that?"

I shrugged. "It's okay."

Mr. Cameron could tell that I was unwilling to talk anymore. I've lost interest and was going blank. "It's a little soon to be talking about this anyway. How about I interview you at a later date?"

I shrugged and turned away, heading for the door. Who knows how I'll be feeling then? Better? Worse? I could hear the Atkins brothers all talking at once, but I just ignored it and went inside. I could use a nap right about now. I headed for the stairs and went on up.

Once in the room that I shared with Noah, I flopped onto my bed and got comfortable. I hadn't bothered closing the door, so when Mr. Atkins had walked passed, he saw me lying in bed. In the middle of the day.

He stopped in the doorway. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I flopped over and faced the wall. "Not particularly."