The Hitting Zone

Thursday morning, I struggled to get out of bed. Not just because it was the usual morning drag. But because some of my muscles were super sore from yesterday's lifting session. The only consolation was that I wasn't alone. The twins were even worse off, unwilling to lift their arms to even eat breakfast. Instead they were fighting over who should drive.

"It's your turn." Dave told Kyle. "You drive us to school and I'll drive us home."

"And I'm saying that we should just switch." Kyle argued. "You drive us to and I'll drive us home."

"You know what, you should just take both today. Drive us to and from school." Dave sounded like he conceded.

Kyle wasn't fooled. "No, no, no. You drive. My arms are really heavy. I was lifting more weight than you were yesterday."

"That's all relative. You don't know if your arms are worse than mine just because you added a couple extra pounds."

"You guys are such babies." Noah snorted.

"Why haven't you learned to drive yet?" Kyle asked. "You could be practicing right now. How else will you be ready next year with us gone?"

"Jake and I want to do it together. But he doesn't turn 15.5 until the end of April." Noah stated. I nodded along. I rather learn with Noah or just not at all. "Besides we still have Grampa, Mom, and Dad. We aren't going to be stranded without you guys."

Kyle looked to Mom. "Mommm. Can you drive us today?"

Mom gave a kind smile. "Okay, I can do drop off. But leave your keys here so your Grampa can pick you up later this evening. Your dad and I have a dinner meeting and won't be back in time."

"Yes!" Kyle pulled out his keys and set them on the table. Grampa wasn't up yet. He slept in while we prepared for school. Not like I was jealous or anything.

On the way to school, Noah sent Mr. Miller a text saying that we wouldn't need a ride up. With Mom taking us, she dropped us all off at the top of the hill near the school entrance.

"Thanks, Mom!"

"Bye, Mom!"

The twins left the car first; a little wobbly so we laughed.

"Good luck today, Noah." Mom smiled. She looked at me. "And who knows, Jake. Maybe you'll get to pinch hit today. Have a good day, boys." She drove off.

Noah pulled out his phone. "I'm going to send Grampa a reminder text. I'm clearly going to do the best out of the four of us so he should make what I want for dinner."

"Steak again?" I asked as we walked to our lockers.

"No. I'm thinking tacos." He typed away.

Our school day went quick with us having to leave at noon. The bus met us at the upper lot and all three levels of the baseball program started to board the bus. Noah and I put our baseball bags in storage down under and kept our regular school bags to do homework.

"You sit in the fourth row, across from Garret." Coach told Noah.

Noah was thrown off. "What? Jake and I usually sit in the back."

"You're a captain now." Coach glanced at me. "Jake can still sit in the back if needed. But you and Garret are between the coaches and players."

Noah looked my way and bit his lip. "What do you want to do Jake?"

I hesitated. Sit in the back without Noah or sit where everyone is behind me. I don't like these options. I frowned. "Who will sit directly behind us?"

"We can get someone nice like Jason or Sean." Noah kept his voice low. "Maybe one of the twins as long as they sit separately from one another. They would be too annoying together." He patted my shoulder. "Let's get on first and see what we can do."

I looked at Coach and he nodded back while gesturing for us to get on. Noah went first and I followed. He scanned the bus to see who had already showed, which were mostly freshmen and Garret.

"Coach tell you to sit there?" Garret casually pointed at the seat across from him.

Noah nodded slowly. "Yea. I'm just looking to find a good candidate to sit in the row behind us." He glanced back to see who was coming on. "Oh! Here comes Sean." Noah allowed me to have the inner seat and waited for Sean to board. "Yo, Sean. Mind sitting behind us?" He pointed at the spot.

Sean raised an eyebrow, glanced at me for a second before nodding. "Sure. No problem. I'm happy to be towards the front now as an upperclassman."

With that settled, I focused looking outside the window and not on the others boarding. Noah chose to take out his lunch, opening the bag of cookies first. Seeing his reflection in the window, solely focused on eating and not the others getting on, I thought he had the right idea and joined him, pulling out my lunch too. By the time we finished, the bus was full of the three teams and we were on the highway.

Noah easily dozed off. I pulled out my phone to play with, casually texting Zeke and Jeremy separately. Zeke sent daily texts to check on each of us which I thought took a lot of effort since he had so many brothers, but he made the time. Jeremy made the time too, but I felt like there was more time in between our texts and he always sounded like he was in a hurry. I try not to compare them to one another, however I sometimes forget that the two aren't the same. They each have their lives of friends and baseball. Zeke has school and Jeremy is full time playing again.

When we got closer to Santa Fe High School, Coach got up and slowly went down the aisle stopping a few rows back. I turned to get a look, accidentally waking Noah up.

"We almost there?" He yawned.

I nodded.

"You'll get the start, but don't expect to do the whole seven innings." Coach said to somebody then came on back. With him out of the way, I could see who he was talking to. Bryce.

I nodded to myself, happy with Coach's decision. Without Garret and the twins, my next pick would be Bryce too. Then Brian. Then...maybe Joey. Too hard to say about everyone else.