The Hitting Zone
chapter-1186

Post graduation involved a lot of photo taking. The twins together. Seperate. With us. With friends. With teammates. With the parents. Kyle with Marie. With her parents.

Only Noah felt restless, eager to find out more about Kyle's contract. Luckily, Ryan didn't keep us in suspense and pulled it out as soon as everyone was in the house. We sat around the table as Kyle scanned every word on every piece of paper.

Surprisingly, Noah and Dave didn't rush him. They just stared eagerly.

The doorbell rang.

"That's probably Marie and her family." Mom stood up. She paused and looked at Kyle. "Why don't you take it to the office and finish reading it. You don't need to sign right away, you know."

"This is just the preliminary offer." Ryan added. "We can talk about it some more. I know Zeke is still in playoffs and maybe you want to see him play until the end so we can discuss the start date with Milwaukee."

"No. This is more than satisfactory." Kyle looked up. "Mom, let them in. Then you can take some more pictures as I sign this. It's a good memory. I'm officially a pro. On the same day high school finished."

"I'll get them!" Noah popped up and rushed to the front door.

Mom got her camera out again.

"There really is no rush." Dad told Kyle. "A few extra days to relax won't hurt you or your future."

"Sure." Kyle grinned. "But I'm ready to get back in action. To take the field. To face live hitters. Just watching Zeke play isn't enough for me. I want to play too. I want to become a better pitcher."

Marie and Kaylee walked in, followed by their parents.

Noah scooted around them, taking his seat next to me. "Here, Kaylee. You can sit with us."

Kaylee sat down, keeping her arm in the sling on the outside. She glanced at our mom, who was taking pictures. "Is Kyle really signing right now? In front of all of us?"

Kyle stood up and made Dave move over so Marie and her parents could sit. Kyle went to Mom's empty spot and looked around. "Thanks for being there for me everyone. I will strive to be the best and prove myself."

"Just have fun." Mom reminded him, snapping pics from behind Dad at the other end.

Ryan handed him a pen. "Sign away."

Kyle did so. His name was short and the signature only took a second. But it was real now. He was a pro. Making money from playing baseball.

He stood up and shook Ryan's hand. Mom came over to hug him after. Grampa, Dad, and Marie all got up too.

Noah reached out and slid the paperwork to our end. Kaylee and I both leaned over and Noah tried to find the paper titled, financial compensation. Our jaws must have dropped at the same time. $637,600. Signing bonus.

"He could really buy his own car and barely make a dent into this." Noah whispered.

I elbowed him. It was important to Mom and Dad to treat the twins as fair as possible. They couldn't let Kyle buy his own car, yet give Dave one.

"What's that?" Kaylee reached out with her good hand and pointed at a smaller dollar amount. $300.

"His weekly paycheck for Rookie ball." Noah cringed. "Damn. He really does need that signing bonus."

"$300 a week doesn't sound too bad." I commented. "Mom and Dad will stay pay for his phone bill and car insurance."

"That's because you're thinking like a kid." Noah said. "You're thinking if he doesn't have bills, then he's fine. But what about rent? Where is he going to live? It's not like they have dorms like Dave will have in college. And food? Kyle can't cook. He can easily spend that much on food throughout the week. Gas for his car? He's going to have to use his signing bonus money."

"At least he's going to be in a better position than those picked later." Kaylee pointed out. "I'm not worried about him in the slightest. Half a million dollars. He'll live."

There was a lot of talk about Kyle and his future until the Stanford game came on. NCAA Tournament. Super Regionals. Stanford to host Auburn. Game One. We knew we wouldn't have made it in time so we planned to go there tomorrow for game two.

"I can't believe Rhys isn't the starter tonight." Dave said in disgust as we watched Stanford take the field to play defense first. "He has practically carried them in this postseason."

"That's probably why he needs a break." Dad pointed out. "They have plenty of other pitchers that would like to contribute."

Stanford had a senior on the mound for them tonight. A guy with a decent ERA and WHIP. He did his job in the first inning, getting Auburn to go three up, three down. No strikeouts though so the twins had a lot to say about that. They quit their chatter when Zeke came up, second to bat, with one out. Dad turned the TV up.

["Now Zeke Atkins up to the plate for Stanford. This young man has had an incredible season his freshman year. He had turned down the Minnesota Twins in last year's MLB draft and it's hard to see why."

"Yea, the ability he has shown this year definitely proves that he's ready for the next step, but he has said before that this was a personal choice and he really wanted to go to Omaha with this team here."

"They're certainly on their way. Two more wins and they can book their tickets. Ball up high, 1-0 count."

The screen showed Zeke and his stats for the season as he got ready for the next pitch.

"Interesting enough, Zeke has a younger brother that was just drafted yesterday." One of the broadcasters spoke up. "I didn't believe it at first, thinking it wasn't a rare last name, but sure enough he share the post to his instagram, congratulating his brother. Third round, 20th pick, to the Milwaukee Brewers."

"Yea, Zeke very much comes from a baseball family. With some relation to A's center fielder, Jeremy Patterson-" He stopped mid-sentence to the action at the plate unfold.

Zeke connected on the second pitch, ripping it to the left corner.

"And that'll be a stand-up double for Zeke. His fifth this postseason."]

The broadcasters started to talk about the next batter, Bradley Thompson, the second overall pick of the MLB draft.

"They talked about you during Zeke's at bat!" Dave slapped Kyle on the shoulder. "What do you know."

Kyle beamed and straightened up in his spot next to Marie on the couch. "Well. It is kind of a headline after all."

"I bet they would have mentioned Jake after talking about Jeremy." Noah rubbed his hands together. "Then maybe even me and Dave can make this broadcast. I rather be at the game, watching it live. But this is good too. We get to hear all the snippets and see the stats. Hear some stories about the other guys on the team. Plus, the opponents too. At the stadium, we just go in blindly." He laughed.