The Hitting Zone
chapter-409

"Jake. Jake." Noah shook me a little. "Come on. It's okay. Everything's going to be okay."

"How?" I asked, not lifting my head out of my sweatshirt. "How could everything possibly be okay?" My dad was dead. Is dead. "He's gone, Noah. I've spent a decade hating this man for abandoning me, and now, and now I don't get answers." The tears wouldn't stop.

I'm just like Mr. Atkins. This is what he meant when he wished his dad was still around. Not to curse at him, but for closure. I'm sure he had so many unanswered questions and now I'm the same.

"Jake, I can't say I know how you feel." Noah patted my shoulder. "And it feels a little wrong to say this, but, on the bright side, Mom and Dad can adopt you freely now. You're free. Your Mom is locked up and your dad isn't around. Isn't this what you wanted?"

What I wanted? This? "I. Didn't. Want. Him. Dead." I cried harder, trying to spit out these words. I wanted justice for myself. I wanted him to show and tell me he was wrong to leave me behind.

"Jake. Jake!" Noah was pestering me.

I just wanted to be left alone.

"Hold on, Jake! Stay right here!" I heard Noah get up. "I'll be right back." He left me. He left me like everyone else.

I cried into my jacket, uncontrollably. I heard the bell ring, but who cares about math when you find out you lost your father.

"Jake?" A warm voice was near. A familiar voice. It had to be Dr. Moore. I forgot that he worked here since the Golladay incident. "Noah? What exactly happened?"

I heard Noah sigh. "Short version: we found his dad...and he's gone. For good." A new round of tears fell. "Is Jake going to be okay? Should I call Mom and Dad? Zeke?"

"Noah. Relax." Dr. Moore said calmly. "What you need to do, is go to class. You're going to be late."

"I can't just leave him here! He's my best friend!" Noah shouted.

"Noah, I know it's hard, but this is the most you can do for now. You have to attend your classes. I'll call your parents and have them come for Jake." Dr. Moore told him.

"But-"

"I'm sorry, Noah." Dr. Moore cut him off. "You're a student-athlete. Student comes first in order for you to participate in athletics. I'll write you a late-pass for your teacher. The sooner you go, the sooner I can help Jake."

Noah sighed in defeat. "Fine. Call Dad first. Jake is okay with Mom, but he prefers Dad."

I wanted to laugh at Noah's instruction, but it was right on the money. I don't feel comfortable crying and breaking down with Mrs. Atkins watching. She's not my mom, and that's not a bad thing, but because my mom was never the type to comfort others, it was hard to see it from another mom. At least I don't have anyone to compare Mr. Atkins to.

"I'm calling right now. Here's a pass, get going." Dr Moore commanded.

"Let me talk to Jake for a second." I heard footsteps coming closer. "Jake, he's sending me away. I'm sorry that you're hurting, but Dr. Moore was the only person I could think of that could help you through this. Be strong. I'm here for you." He patted my shoulder one more time before leaving.

Here for me? How can he say that as he walks away? My eyes started to dry out and I yawned. Who knew why crying always made me so tired. I slumped a little in the seat, hearing Dr. Moore talk on the phone some distance away.

***

(Third-person perspective)

Classes had finished for the day and students hurried out, trying to escape sooner than one another. Noah Atkins looked to be slow-moving compared to the rest as he studied his phone on his way down to the baseball field.

He was so absorbed into the phone, that he was startled when he was suddenly pulled from behind. He found his twin brothers giving him a pair of identical smiles.

Kyle noticed Noah's lost expression first. "Something happened with Jake again?"

Noah nodded slowly.

"We didn't see him in math, so we sent you a text." Dave said as the three of them walked to the lower lot. "Why didn't you reply?"

Noah's shoulders sagged as if he was carrying 100 pounds worth of baggage. "Jake had a moment at lunch. Dr. Moore and Dad are handling it." He glanced down at his phone. "He's sleeping right now, Dad says."

"What happened?" Dave asked. "Were you bugging him about using an aluminum bat again? You gotta take it easy on the kid, ya know. He isn't like us."

"We found his Dad." Noah blurted our.

The twins stopped walking and jaws dropped.

Noah, feeling slightly better seeing the twins stunned into silence, continued. "We found him, and he's dead. If that isn't enough, Jake has a brother." He looked around to make sure their were no eavesdroppers. "And to make it even more mind-blowing, Jake's brother is Jeremy Patterson."

The twins we're frozen in time, unable to process what they just heard.

"Are you joking?" Kyle frowned, coming back to reality first.

"Why would I joke?" Noah glared. "We did our research." He pursed his lips. "We found out that in order to be adopted, Jake needs his dad to sign away his parental rights. Jake didn't know who his dad was, but he saw someone that looked like his dad. Remember the night we found out Jeremy Patterson got traded to the A's?"

"He got sick!" Dave had an 'a-ha' moment.

Noah nodded. "So we looked up Patterson's dad. He died in a car crash over a decade ago. Around the same time Jake was abandoned."

Kyle furrowed his brows. "But..." He hesitated.

"But what?" Noah asked.

"There's something that's bothering me after hearing all this..." Kyle said sheepishly. "Just, why didn't Jeremy Patterson stay with their mom like Jake?"

"An even better question," Dave joined in. "Is, why didn't Patterson look for Jake after hitting the big time? It's not like he's lacking money. Did he not know his mom was crazy?"

"Impossible." Noah frowned. "If he didn't think she was crazy, he would definitely go back..."

"There's still too many unanswered questions." A deeper voice input his opinion. All three boys jumped and found Zeke leaning against their car.

"How long have you been there?" Noah asked, squinting at his eldest brother.

Zeke pushed himself off the car. "Long enough. Let's grab our bags and hit the field."

"You've got nothing else to say?" Noah's frown deepened. "Jake-"

Zeke opened the trunk. "Noah, you're gonna have to trust that he can bounce back."

"Do you even care about him? Really? Because if you did, you wouldn't be this cold." Noah mumbled angrily, getting his baseball bag out of the car. Seeing Jake's bag left in the trunk made him more upset. He swung around to face Zeke, prepared to vent some more anger. But the words got stuck in his throat at the sight of Zeke.

The 6'4" teen was glaring down at Noah. The mountain figure spoke up. "If anything, I care more. What were you thinking, when searching for his dad? The man had been missing for a decade plus and couldn't be easily found. What good could come from finding someone like that? Did you think he was some man just hiding in the mountains, keeping to himself?"

Noah turned red, from embarrassment and indignation. "Well, to be adopted..his dad would have to sign away his parental rights. I just wanted-" His voice got smaller. "I just wanted Jake to be apart of our family."

"He was already apart of the family." Zeke's glare seemed to penetrate Noah to the core. The twins took a few steps back, subconsciously. "But you, you were greedy. You just couldn't wait. You couldn't be satisfied with what we had going."

Noah jutted his chin out and tried to make a stand. "Jake wanted to be one of us too! He wants to be a brother to us, and a son to Mom and Dad. What's so wrong with that?!"

"Heh." Zeke let out a short cold laugh. "And a piece of paper would make that happen? You don't need a piece of paper to say you're family to treat someone like family. It's a feeling." Zeke shook his head with disappointment and turned away. "Get to the field. Ten laps if you're late." He walked away to the clubhouse.

"What's his problem??" Noah grumbled angrily as he hiked his baseball bag onto his shoulder.

"If you guys were more patient..." Kyle sighed. "If you just trusted Dad and Mom a little more and waited for them, you wouldn't have gone on this ghost hunt." He grabbed his bag and followed in Zeke's footsteps.

"What does that mean?" Noah asked Dave, the last one left.

Dave hesitated for a second, but ultimately came clean. "Mom and Dad were already looking into adopting Jake. You don't necessarily need a parent to sign away their rights. If a court finds them unsuitable to be a parent, Jake would have been free."

Noah's face filled up with disbelief. "Why didn't you guys say anything??"

"It's a long process, Mom said. She didn't want to get yours and Jake's hopes up just to say 'never mind'." Dave shrugged.

"What's going to happen now?" Noah asked in a whisper, mostly to himself, but his eyes were on Dave.

Dave gave a sad smile, and lifted his hands helplessly. "I don't know. I don't know if the courts will offer Jake to his brother and uncle, or what. All we can do is play baseball. Then we'll go home and hopefully have a few more answers than before." Dave reached out and grabbed Noah by the shoulders, and started to guide him to the clubhouse. "C'mon. Let's get moving. You don't want to run extra laps today."