The Hitting Zone
chapter-79-30041322

If I thought learning Noah's video game was hard, I was an idiot. Learning baseball signs for both offense and defense was impossible. I had a hard enough time getting past the 'indicator sign'. Basically fake signs would be thrown in and wouldn't matter at all, until the indicator sign appeared which was a touch of the belt.

Noah put all the focus on the offensive signs. He said we could fake it for the defensive signs since I wasn't that great of a fielder anyways. I would just stand where he told me to and follow coach's three B's.

For the offense, I was to look at Mr. Miller, the third base coach for signs all the time. Noah taught the basics: take, hit, bunt, bunt and run, suicide squeeze, hit and run, run and hit, steal, double steal, or delayed steal. I wanted to ask what half of that stuff even meant, but I thought it was more important to know the signs. 'Fake it til I make it' was going to be my new motto.

"If you ever don't know what to do, call for a timeout." Noah wrapped it up as Mr. Atkins looked for parking. "Then I'll run out of the dugout to talk to you." We can do that?? Thank god.

"That's frowned upon." Zeke noted.

"What's frowned upon..?" Dave asked, yawning as he woke up.

"Don't worry about it." Zeke replied. He nudged Kyle awake. "Time to wake up. We're here."

Kyle was even more groggy than Dave and looked at all of us, bleary-eyed. "I didn't even remember getting in the car. Were you guys awake the whole time?"

I nodded, sadly.

"Okay boys. We're here." Mr. Atkins had found a parking spot finally and had turned off the car. "I'll help you guys unload." He got out and headed to the trunk to pull out our bags.

Mrs. Atkins turned to look at all of us as we unbuckled. "Good luck boys. Make sure not to fight with one another. It's just a game. One out of many." She made eye contact with me. "But also don't forget your goals."

I thought of my notebook and how I wrote that we needed to win games. Keep it simple. We win, we play more. I nodded and gave her a light smile.

Then me and the Atkins boys started to get out of the car. We walked to the trunk area, where Mr. Atkins handed us our bags. "Good luck out there, boys. We'll be cheering for you."

"I would hope so." Dave snorted. "It'd be real awkward if even our own parents cheered against us."

Mr. Atkins pushed Dave's cap down. "You're not even pitching in game one. You won't be getting our cheers anyways."

Kyle laughed. "Yes, all the cheers will be for me. It'll be a no hitter, shutout."

"I wouldn't be surprised if coach called me in to relieve you." Dave gave a light shove.

Mr. Atkins sighed and focused on Zeke. "Try and keep all of them in line. Your mother and I will hangout in the car until it's closer to game time." He patted Zeke's shoulder then went back in to the drivers seat.

Zeke looked at the four of us. "Follow me." He spun 180 degrees and started marching through the parking lot. We followed in a single file line so we could maneuver between other parked cars.

As we got closer to the complex, I took in the scenery. There were four full sized baseball fields with stands around them as well as stadium lights. With sixteen teams in this tournament, eight teams have the early morning game like us. The other eight will play right after. Then comes deciding the evening games and night games.

"Jake! Keep up!" Noah called out to me. As I was studying the fields, him and his brothers had already gotten ten yards ahead of me.

I picked up my pace and jogged towards them. Only to be cut off by three teens. I accidentally ran into one and stumbled back, falling on my butt.

"Jake!" Noah called out. He pushed past the guys and knelt down beside me. "You okay?"

I nodded. I just wasn't paying attention.

"Hey kid. You gonna apologize?" The guy I ran into towered over the both of us.

"Their just some kids. Leave them alone." His friend rolled his eyes. "Let's go check in." The guys snorted but followed his friends. But when they turned they came face-to-face with the twins.

"You punks think you can just push a kid to the ground and get away with it?" Dave sneered.

"Typical San Marino douchebags." Kyle put on the same identical expression, creating an eerie scene.

The three guys straightened up their postures. The leader took charge. "What's it to you? Got too much time on your hands these days? If I were you, I'd be worried about even making it through the first round."

Dave pushed past the guys and approached me and Noah, as we were standing up. He threw his arms around the both of us and faced the strangers. "These are my superstar brothers. They both have more talent than your whole team combined. So I'm not worried at all."

"And unlike you fools, we don't have to play against a seeded team. We are a seeded team instead. And we get to play a has-been." Kyle spoke. "We're not scared. Just happy to have a warmup. Hopefully you won't get mercy ruled." He threw up a peace sign and Dave dragged us along.

We ignored the three like they were air and caught up with Zeke. He looked at us, then at the three, then back at us. "Don't squander precious time with insignificant players."

My lips twitched. I didn't think Zeke would be one to take shots at others. We moved along and found some of our teammates to stand with near the check-in table. As we waited for the rest, I started to examine all the other ball players that were showing up.

I was definitely the smallest. Noah was next even though he had six inches on me. Maybe the lack of muscles made us feel smaller to. I looked at our team and really, only the seniors had good builds. A few of the juniors as well, like the twins and Garret.

"Stop looking around." Noah rolled his eyes. "You look antsy like you feel like you don't belong."

I nodded. That was very accurate on how I was feeling.

He laughed and shook his head a little. "Stop stressing. You made it. This will be your first official game."