The Hitting Zone
chapter-710

It was a full car. Everyone but Alisha had a sports bag, which we stacked in the trunk. Then it came time to decide on who would sit where. Kyle grabbed the driver's seat, and Marie took over the front passenger seat.

The rest of us looked around.

Noah turned to me. "You want to sit in the very back?"

I nodded.

"I'll sit in the very back with him." Kaylee started to climb into the car. "I don't want to squeeze in the middle."

Noah looked to me.

I shrugged and followed Kaylee to the very backseat.

That left Dave, Noah, and Alisha in the middle row.

Dave knocked knees with Noah. "I think Alisha should have sat in the middle of us. You're getting too tall and crowding my space." He poked Kyle. "I get to drive us back."

Kyle started to drive. "Meh. We'll see."

"No. Dude. There is no 'we'll see'." Dave argued. "You drove us to practice this morning and now you get to drive to lunch. It's my turn to drive us back from lunch and from practice."

Kyle shrugged. "Well, I'm holding the keys soo."

The two started to bicker.

Kaylee looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

I shrugged. "It's fine."

"You don't mind sitting back here with me?" She asked.

I looked how close the three in the middle were and nodded. "Yea. This isn't so bad."

She laughed.

Kyle drove us to lunch in a relatively loud car. As soon as he parked, we all piled out, thankful that it was a short ride. We walked into the place and spotted Zeke sitting at a long table, all by himself.

He didn't seem surprised by the girls joining us. He just scooted over so we all could fit. I sat across with him, with Noah next to me. Then Alisha and Kaylee. Dave, Kyle, and Marie, all sat on his side.

"I already put the order in for tacos and waters." Zeke told us. "No chips and salsa. I don't want you guys just to snack on that before going back to camp."

"Boo." Dave complained. "You're no fun. I don't even get to pitch the whole game anyways. Chips and salsa won't cause any harm."

Zeke glanced at him. "Who says you won't pitch a whole game? Do you expect to perform poorly?"

Kyle leaned on the table. "Do you know something, Zeke?"

Zeke looked at me. "How was camp this morning? You were without Noah, right?"

Surprised by the topic change, I slowly nodded.

"He had Andy with him." Dave said. "He was fine. Let's talk about pitching!" He nudged Zeke with his shoulder.

Zeke glanced down at him, scaring Dave away with just a look.

A server came by with a tray of drinks. He placed them down in front of us. "The tacos will come in just a few minutes."

"Sure. Thanks." Zeke nodded at him.

The server left.

Zeke looked at me. "So everything went okay?"

I shrugged. "Probably."

"What does that mean?" Noah asked from beside me.

I shrugged. "Nothing bad happened."

"Who was in your group besides Andy?" Zeke asked.

Feeling all the attention on me, I tried not to panic. "Mostly JV players and incoming freshmen. I only had one other sophomore in the group." I shrugged. "I can't remember everyone's names."

"No one gave you a hard time, right? Like the seniors or juniors?" Dave asked.

I shook my head. "Not really."

"That's not exactly a 'no'." Kaylee pointed out from the other end of the table.

"It really wasn't bad." I tried to explain. "Andy said I may have been 'set up' on a drill, but it wasn't anything. I did well."

"Why don't you tell us in detail what happened, and we'll decide if it's 'anything'." Zeke said.

I sighed and gave them a short recap on the hitting drill.

"Korrey is a nice guy, isn't he?" Kyle asked, frowning.

Marie elbowed him in the ribs. "No way. He's a fraud. Two-faced."

Kyle rubbed the spot she hit. "He seemed pretty chill to me."

The server came back with baskets of tacos. "Here's beef, chicken, and this one is steak." He then passed out smaller plates for us to put our tacos on. After refilling our waters, he left.

I grabbed two chicken tacos, and everyone else started to grab tacos from the baskets.

"Be careful around Korrey." Marie looked at me after filling her plate. "He seems kind, but that's just a facade. He plays with girls' feelings all the time. Someone like that can't be trusted."

Dave laughed. "I don't know if that's quite right."

"It definitely is." Marie shot a glare at him. "Any womanizer is fundamentally not a good person. Those kind of guys only think of themselves." She looked at Zeke. "What do you think of the guy?"

Zeke frowned. He glanced at me. "Be aware. If he makes you feel uncomfortable or picks on you, don't keep it to yourself."

I nodded and started to eat my taco.

Zeke looked to Noah. "Were you grouped with a lot of sophomores?"

Noah shrugged. "Yea, but nothing needs to be said. We spent a lot of the time just running sprints."

I glanced at him as I ate. I didn't know he was grouped up with his former friends and teammates. "Were you with Austin or..?"

Noah shook his head. "Nah. A few of the guys were on the quiet side. It's more awkward for them than it is for me. I kind of hope the whole week goes like this."

"Yea, it's best to put the past behind you." Kyle said. "I'm not saying you should be friends with those idiots. Just be chill. Don't lose your temper."

"I don't have a temper." Noah squinted at Kyle.

We spent lunch talking about our morning, even finding out how the girls practiced. There weren't as many players for their teams so they were divided up by positions. They would also get a chance to scrimmage this afternoon.

We couldn't spend a whole lot of time chatting, and had to get ready to go back. The twins fought over the keys, but Zeke broke it up with a single look.

Kyle handed over the keys unwilling. "Fine. Marie and I call very back then."

"What about Jake?" Noah asked.

Kyle looked at me. "You can sit in the front with Dave?"

I guess I could. I nodded.

We reached the car and said our goodbyes to Zeke.

"Did you run here?" Noah asked.

Zeke nodded. "Yep. Might keep running. Go see the beach. Will probably reach home by the time you guys are done with camp this afternoon."

Wow. My eyebrows lifted. That's a few hours from now.

"Be safe." Dave said, starting the car.

Zeke nodded. He watched as we completely loaded up the car and took off. In the front passenger seat, I could see him fading in the side view mirror.

"It's weird to practice without him." Noah commented from the middle row. He sat behind me, with Alisha in between him and Kaylee. "It feels...less serious."

"He was definitely a motivator for the team." Dave nodded in agreement, eyes on the road. "The team will have to find someone new to look up to. Who dominates just as much." He glanced at me.

"Don't hold back in the box today." Noah reminded me. He started to laugh. "Especially if it's the twins or Garret. That would be funny to see them struggle on day one."

Dave rolled his eyes. "You're so annoying." He glanced at me. "Please have mercy."

The car was full of laughter as we drove back to the high school.