The Hitting Zone



I found the three of them on a racing game, competing against one another. 

Kaylee laughed as she won. "That's right. I knew it. I'm the champ."

"I want a rematch." Noah grumbled. He caught sight of me out of the corner of his eye. He got up. "Yo. You done already?"

"I might do more after we eat." I shrugged. 

"Good." Kaylee got up too. "Because I haven't gone out yet." She picked her bag up off the floor. "Noah told us about taking Driver's Ed together so we thought we would start practicing."

I grinned. "I don't think that qualifies as practice at all."

She laughed. "Hey, you never know. What if I ever need to make a quick getaway? Or what if I want to try to be a nascar driver?"

"Pretty sure you would still have to follow the rules of the road." I pointed out. 

She nudged me. "Buzzkill."

We headed to the snackbar area and set our bags down before lining up for food. It was nothing but junk food for us. Heck, Noah was eating an ice cream to start out with. I went with the cheeseburger, feeling hungry from the earlier batting session. 

"Oh, yea. I saw Justin again." I told Noah. 

Noah was surprised. We hadn't been seeing him around unless it was break from school. "Is that why you came in early?"

"I was hungry too." I lifted my burger in defense. Then took a giant sip of my coke. "And thirsty."

"Who's Justin again?" Alisha asked. "Sounds familiar."

"You were here once when he was here." Noah told her. "He's a catcher that hogs up the cages, going multiple times and pisses off the boss, Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams used Jake once to scare him off." He recapped. Then he looked a little sad as he looked down at his food. "We had food half off for like a month. It would have been nice if it lasted longer."

"Just have Jake scare him away again?" Kaylee suggested. 

I frowned at her. 

She shrugged. "Just saying. It's a good deal. Doesn't cost you anything. You're good enough in the cages. And you get to scare him away so he doesn't hog it."

"There wasn't a line behind him today." I said. "He was in the 90's. Not too many people want to be in there."

"You do." She pointed out. "You deliberately came inside because he was hogging it."

"I came inside because I was hungry too, okay?" I waved my burger around, exasperated. 

"Jake's a runner." Noah told Kaylee. "He'll avoid every confrontation."

"I know." She nodded. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Which is kind of funny if you think about it. Because he hates running."

"I don't hate-hate it." I defended myself. "I'm just not good at it."

"No. It makes sense." Noah said. "Jake would rather run away. Means whatever he's running from has to be worse than actually running."

"Guys." Alisha interrupted. "Stop giving him a hard time. Jake is a work in progress just like the rest of us."

I smiled at her, thankful. 

We switched to other topics like our upcoming end of season games for both the baseball and softball teams. Tuesday would be a travel day with the girls again. Neither of us has seen this school before so it held some interest. Especially for me. Non league opponents shouldn't care about walking me or not. 

"I just hope to be ready by then." Noah looked at his discolored fingers. 

"Who cares?" Alisha shrugged. "Just worry about playoffs. Those are more important."

Noah scrunched up his face. "An undefeated season is important to me too."

"What a show off." Kaylee muttered. "You guys already won league and are playoff bound for the second straight year. Why are you so greedy?"

"Because this is something we're doing without Zeke." Noah said, getting excited. "It's like a badge of honor. Like hey, 'we didn't need you'." He grinned my way. "All we need is Jake."

"Jake can't pitch." Kaylee was quick to point out. 

I nodded in agreement. "Without the twins and Garret, I don't know how we would fare."

"Guess you'll find out next year." She said. 

"We would still have Bryce and Brian to carry the load." Noah said. "Which is a little bit better than the twins if you think about it. They can contribute to the offense." We all shared a laugh. 

"For reals though, I think your biggest challenge will come senior year." Kaylee looked at Noah. 

Noah slowly nodddd, understanding. "Probably. We don't know what's coming up."

We ate and talked about upcoming players. Then upcoming classes. Upcoming Driver's Education. We agreed taking a course in person wouldn't be so bad.

After we finished eating, Kaylee picked her bag up. "Well, I still want to get some swings in. Jake, you in?" She grinned. "Or are you scared?"

I rolled my eyes and grumbled. "It's not like he's in the softball cages."

"Let's go then." She looked at the other two. "Catch up with you guys later."

"Yea, we'll come out to check on you guys when we get bored." Noah said. 

I picked my bag up and followed Kaylee out. 

She glanced at the guy catching pitches in the 90's cage. "He's still there."

"He can go for awhile." I nodded. 

Kaylee stopped, forcing me to stop. She gestured to the cage. "Aren't you going to line up?"

"Uhhh." I hesitated. 

She folded her arms across her chest and looked at me head on. "Jake. This is a good opportunity to stand up for yourself. No Noah to play spokesperson. Just you, asking for what you want."

I cringed. "Do I have to?"

"You should want to."

We looked at one another for a couple of minutes, in a small stalemate of sorts. Justin ran out of pitches and got up to put another token in. 

Kaylee turned to him. "Hey. Justin." 

Justin looked up, through the gate. He squinted at Kaylee. "Do I know you?"

"No. But we know you. Your turn is up." Kaylee glanced at me. 

Justin got a look at me. I saw the recognition in his eyes. "Jake Atkins, right?"

I nodded. 

He opened the gate. "I'll let you have your turn if I can catch behind you." It was worded like an offer, but it sounded more like a heavy offer. 

I made a face. "I can wait."

Kaylee nudged me. "What are you worried about? It's not like you'll let the ball go backwards."

I twisted my lips. "I really came here to just swing the bat today. I don't want someone hovering right behind me."

"Then kick him out." Kaylee pushed me again. 

I took a deep breath. And simply decided to let Justin know, "You've been in the cage since I went to lunch. I would like a turn."

He raised an eyebrow. "And I said you could have one if I could catch from behind."

"You can watch from behind the fence like everyone else." A deep scratchy voice said from behind us. I turned to see Mr. Williams. He rarely made appearances, especially outside. 

Justin scowled and looked like he was about to argue. 

"If you still want to come here and use the cages for catching, then you'll listen to me and vacate the cage." Mr. Williams said firmly. 

Justin slowly left the inside and moved to the spot just outside the fence, lining up with home plate. 

I looked at Kaylee. 

She gave a small shrug. "Okay, not a bad start at confronting others. Got some outside help, but that'll happen sometimes with good samaritans." She patted me on the shoulder. "Go ahead. I'm going to watch you for a little bit as I stretch and then I'll go to softball cages."

I nodded. I set my bag down and got my helmet out. Put it on along with the batting gloves. I chose a bat and took my bag inside with me as it had the tokens. 

"Stay in there as long as you want, Jake." Mr. Williams told me. 

I glanced at him, then at the catcher, then back at him. 

"Don't mind him." Mr. Williams ordered. "He's had more time in there than everyone else combined."

"It's not like it's frequently used." Justin muttered. 

With Mr. Williams blessing, I put my token in and set up as a righty. I did ten hits. Put a new token in and set up as a lefty. Ten more hits. I glanced back at Mr. Williams, and he nodded for me to continue so I did. Right. Ten. Left. Ten. Right. Ten. Left. Ten. Right. Ten. Left. Ten. Right. Ten. Left. Ten. A hundred hits. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. 

At some point, a crowd had developed behind me. Justin. Mr. Williams. A few other teenagers, mostly boys. A few men. Old and young. I spotted Alisha and Noah off to the side, looking my way. I headed for the exit, picking my bag up. 

"Are you done?" Mr. Williams asked. 

I nodded. "Yea, I feel better. Thank you."

Mr. Williams chuckled. "You looked like you were zoned in. Might want to check that bat over and make sure you didn't crack it."

I grimaced. Oops. Didn't pay attention too much to it. But thankfully I had a lot of backups. 

"Could you have kept going?" Justin suddenly asked. 

I nodded. "Yea." I let my arms hang at my sides. "I'm not supposed to overdo it though. We have three games this week." I slowly squeezed through the small crowd to my friends. 

"Will you be back next Sunday?" Justin asked very loudly. 

I tried not to visibly flinch. I glanced back at him to give him an answer though. "Maybe."

"Can I be in the cage with you then?" He asked. 

I made a face. "It's not like I need a catcher behind me."

"I want to see what it looks like."

I didn't get it. I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe." I caved a little, feeling bad. 

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