The Hitting Zone

I drew a blank on the way home, unable to come up with any ideas for a team name.

Noah had finished sending out the texts to everyone on our small team and saw my look of distress. He looked at Zeke, who was now driving us home after lunch. "Zeke, why don't you help us? We don't know what the team name should be."

"I don't know either." Zeke said with honesty. "That's why I delegated that job to Jake."

"Must be nice to 'delegate'." Noah grumbled.

"Perks of being the oldest." Zeke had a small smile as he drove us home. It was rare of him to make a joke.

Noah pursed his lips to stop himself from smiling. "I'll just look up some ideas online." He typed away on his phone.

When we got home in the afternoon, we spotted Mr. Atkins car out on the street. They were back.

"Which Kyle do you think we'll see today?" Noah asked, sounding a little mean.

"Which...?" I repeated after him, a little confused. "The one related to you..?" I guessed.

Noah rolled his eyes. "I meant his attitude."

"Oh." I looked out the window as Zeke parked the car in the driveway. "I think...he'll be in a good mood."

"Why do you think that?" Noah asked.

I glanced at him and gave a small shrug. "I'm usually in a good mood after spending some time with your dad."

Noah scrunched up his nose. "Yea, I think it's slightly different. If I'm alone with Dad, I think he would just lecture me the whole time."

I raised an eyebrow. "You don't think he doesn't lecture me?"

We got out of the car and followed Zeke to the door.

"I think he takes it easy on you." Noah told me.

I shook my head. "He doesn't raise his voice at me, but I feel like he treats me the same. He makes me think about my actions and stuff."

"Dad doesn't give any preferential treatment." Zeke spoke up as we got to the door. "It's what you take from the talks that differentiate you from Jake, and Jake from me, and so on." He glanced at Noah. "If Kyle hasn't realized his mistakes, then that says more about him than Dad."

Noah sighed. "Okay, lets go see."

Zeke opened the door and we walked in. It was quiet...

"Anyone home??" Noah raised his voice and moved towards the office. "Mom? Dad?"

The office door opened and their parents came out with the twins. Everyone was now present.

"What were you guys doing in there?" Noah asked, suspicious of them.

"Ironing out their summer plans. Buying a lot of plane tickets." Mrs. Atkins sighed, but was smiling. She looked to Zeke. "We'll go over the dates with you so you know which dates you're watching Noah and Jake."

Zeke gave a simple nod. Then pulled out the tax write-off and handed it over. "Apparently if you put your business name down, the team fee can be considered a write-off. So I wrote on the check. Mr. Williams said to give this to you."

"Wow. That's nice of him." She smiled. "I'll go put this in the office." She turned to go back.

But Noah stopped her. "Wait! We need some more help."

She paused and faced us. "What is it?"

"Team shirts...?" Noah spoke up after realizing that Zeke was leaving it up to him. "We need to have matching team shirts. Mr. Williams said if a company sponsored us, it can also count as a write-off or whatever. Soooo, can you?"

She hummed, looking to her husband.

Mr. Atkins slowly nodded. "If it's just normal t-shirts, I think we can make it happen. I know someone who will help out. What do you want on the front of the shirts? Maybe names on the back? With a number? Or keep it plain?"

Noah shrugged, helpless. "Uhh, not sure yet. We haven't even come up with a team name yet."

The twins laughed at the same time, drawing our attention to themselves. Kyle and Dave looked nearly identical besides their clothes. It was even harder to tell them apart when they act the same.

Noah narrowed his eyes and huffed. "It's not funny. I was too busy coming up with a roster and didn't think about team names. Why don't you two help? All you've done is make fun of us even though we're saving Mom and Dad money."

Dave and Kyle stopped laughing, and looked a little guilty. Especially Kyle. He scratched his head trying to come up with one. "Bats and balls?"

"No." Noah shot down.

"Bat-itude..?" Dave suggested.

"Mhmm. Not bad. Next." He looked at Kyle.

"Benchwarmers? Like the movie!" Kyle got excited.

"Denied." Noah shot him down again.

"Misfits." Dave thought aloud. "Since you all are a bunch of misfits when put together?"

Noah shook his head. "I'm not liking it."

"One-hit wonders..?" Kyle was more unsure when facing Noah.

Noah rolled his eyes. "We got Zeke on the team...that doesn't really flow well."

"Prodigies then?" Kyle continued before Dave could say another one.

Noah shook his head again. "I don't want to make our teammates feel bad. Alisha doesn't even play softball. And we're going up against adults."

Kyle snapped his fingers. "I've got it!" He grinned at Noah. "You can't possibly say no to this one."

Noah raised his eyebrow. "Well? Let's hear it."

"Hustlers!" Kyle said excitedly.

I saw Noah's face softened as he thought about it. "Hmm. Not bad..."

Dave snorted. "Of course you think it's not bad. You've been hustling others since you were like three. There's no way Zeke is going to play under that team name."

"Zeke delegated this job to me and Jake." Noah said. He turned to me. "What do you think?"

"I think it fits..." I said in agreement.

"Is this appropriate..?" Mrs. Atkins looked unsure. She looked to her husband.

Mr. Atkins smiled. "As long as the boys are happy, I don't see anything wrong with it." The phone in the office started to ring so Mr. Atkins immediately left the conversation.

Mrs. Atkins sighed. "Alright, then. Noah, ask your teammates what number and name they want on the back of their shirts. I'm going to go to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner. Any special requests?"

"Cookies!" Noah hollered.

Mrs. Atkins gave him a pat on the head as she headed for the door. "We'll see." She grabbed her keys and purse off the hook and left.

"Hey Jake, why did you agree to Hustlers? Doesn't Bat-itude sound better?" Dave poked me.

My lips twitched. "I just think it fits..." After all, when we play against adults, they might think we suck or something. Little do they know that Zeke was on our team. The twins might think that Hustlers fit Noah, but I think it could define our team nicely.

"I'll go call Mr. Williams with our team name." Zeke headed for the stairs. "Noah, start texting."

"I will, I will!" He whipped out his phone and started to contact everyone again.

"I'm going to go watch the A's game." Dave stated. He grabbed Noah by his sleeve. "You can text and watch at the same time. Come on."

Noah didn't fall for the distraction. He swatted Dave's hand away and looked back at me. "Jake, you coming?"

I glanced at Kyle. Seeing him hang back in silence, I figured he might have something to say. "I'll be there in a bit. Go ahead."

Noah frowned. "Are you sure?"

I nodded.

Noah glanced to Kyle. After staring at him for a bit, he grabbed onto Dave and started to drag him to the living room. "Let's go watch the A's."

Dave shook his head, helpless. How did it turn into him getting taken away when he was the one in charge of taking Noah away?

I let out a small laugh. It didn't last long as the silence in the open area felt a little overwhelming. I looked up at Kyle. "Did...did you have fun, camping..?"

Kyle nodded slowly, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I did. It was cool to get out. A small vacation of sorts. It's not often I get alone time with Dad." He glanced to the living room then looked back at me. "Can we talk outside for a minute? Just us?"

I nodded.