The Hitting Zone

"Yo, you've been out of it all morning." Noah nudged me as we walked through the TSA checkpoint. "You worried about the flight?"

"No, I remembered my headphones. I'm ready." I gave a small shrug.

Noah patted his backpack behind him. "I'm ready too. All the snacks I could sneak out of the kitchen cabinet without Mom noticing."

"I heard that Noah James." Mom said, just feet away, standing with Grampa and Rhys's mom. "I let you pack that much, expecting you to share. You better not be responsible for eating half of your stash."

Dave reached for the zipper. "What'd you get?"

Noah turned to face him, putting his bag out of reach. "Secret. Besides, we're about to go through security. Wait until we're at the gate."

Dave did wait. At our gate we found six empty seats together, three facing three. Mom, Mrs. Johnson, and Grampa sat down right away. We stood opposite to them as Dave started to go through Noah's backpack.

"What the heck?!" Dave was startled and looked back at Noah.

Noah shrugged. "What? Just take what you want and close it up before Mom sees."

"Before I see what?" Mom asked warily, rubbing her forehead.

Seeing that she wasn't getting up, Noah took his bag away from Dave and started to zip it up. "Nothing. Dave is obviously not hungry right now. He can get something from me later." He placed it by his feet and sat down calmly.

Dave glanced at me. "What does your bag look like?"

I shrugged. "I didn't pack it. Noah did."

Dave's lips twitched. "Let me see."

I handed him my backpack.

He unzipped and looked. And then looked at me. "Jake…do you realize you're holding two sets of clothing for every possible day we'll be here?"

I shrugged. "I didn't know how many days or how much to bring. Noah said he would take care of it."

Dave gave Noah a look.

Noah shrugged. "My bag is heavier so it's fair."

"It's not exactly fair when you eat all the snacks." Dave rolled his eyes.

I squatted down to rummage through Noah's bag, pulling out a bag of chocolate covered pretzels. Then I sat down in my own seat.

Dave randomly looked up at the ceiling, acting like he was in distress. "I can't believe you guys sometime. Jake, you're too naive. Why carry his clothes? Make him carry his clothes and the snacks."

I shrugged. "My bag was lighter." That's good enough for me.

"Sit down and relax, Dave." Noah patted the empty seat on the other side of him. "All this concern is making me think that you're becoming more and more like Zeke. Do you want to start balding early?"

Dave plopped down. "You know what, you're right. Pass me a bag of cookies."

"Tsk. Wanting the good stuff early." Noah complained but still complied, getting a snack size bag out and handing it over.

We waited over an hour until it was time to board. My hands were sweating already as I got the headphones out and plugged them into my phone and put them in my ears. I took the window seat, Noah sat in the middle, and Dave on the aisle. Mom, Grampa, and Mrs. Johnson sat behind us, easing my nerves. No one would grab me from behind for sure.

I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. I was buckled in and ready for this flight. It was a nonstop, 3 hours and 30 minutes. The time difference pushed us another 2 hours ahead, meaning it would be lunch as soon as we landed. Normally we wouldn't eat right away so soon after breakfast, but there would still be time before we could check in.

After landing we had to line up for a rental car. Mom had to fight with the customer representative, saying she specifically requested a SUV when he had tried to give her a sedan. We lost a lot time there, but Mom got the car we needed and we loaded the trunk with our bags.

Mrs. Johnson used her phone to find a restaurant near our hotel, asking for our opinions but we were all easygoing. She made the decision and we ate relatively quietly.

Today was all about checking in and getting settled. We weren't going to be able to see Zeke and Rhys as they were with their team and had to prepare for their first game. Plus, Dad was flying in from Phoenix, Arizona tonight and we wanted to hear about Kyle's new 'place'.

Mom picked Dad up by herself and we all met at the hotel restaurant down in the lobby. Mrs. Johnson joined us, of course, since she was on her own. She felt apart of the family anyways with how long she has known the Atkins and how close she was to Zeke and Rhys at school. She said she wanted to hear about Kyle's experience too since she hoped things were different than back when her husband was in the minors.

Dad chuckled at her remark. "Nowhere near as difficult, but still not very sustainable. He's sharing a room with two other players and ended up on the bottom of the bunk bed."

"So he's right at home then." Noah joked, drawing a laugh from Grampa, Dave, and even me.

"I think he's finding it even tighter of a fit." Dad smiled. "We had a big bonus room for you boys to share. This is a much more standard room. He had to leave some extra items in his car to make space for the necessities." He looked at Dave. "You could probably take some notes from him on how to share a tight space before you go off to college. Does your coach want you to room with fellow teammates?"

Dave picked up a roll from the center of the table and started to butter it. "Yea, I'll get assigned a fellow freshman in a couple of weeks. My pitching coach says the head coach will start sending out emails in July on getting to know one another and then roommate assignments."

"We should start planning your roadtrip so you can have your car out there." Mom looked to Dave. "And while you're there, try to find out where you can park it during long breaks like Thanksgiving and Christmas so it doesn't get broken into. We also need to let your car insurance agent know that you'll be out of state. Also should look into holiday flights now so we can save some money and book early."

"I'll print out my academic calendar for you when I get it, Mom." Dave answered rather casually. "It's still June. Some schools are just letting out right now. We'll know a lot more in July. I say our next focus should be getting down to Arizona to see Kyle play. Before we get really busy."

"When are we not busy?" Noah laughed.

We really did have a lot on our plate this summer. Zeke's tournament right now. Seeing Kyle pitch in the minors. The NTIS. Dave going off to school. And those were just the big headlines. I was already taking College Algebra online with Dave. Alisha and Kaylee wanted to hang out and do things. Noah will definitely start getting antsy when we get back and will want to do all kinds of workouts. And there was also the idea of seeing a few A's games and meeting up with Jeremy.

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