The Hitting Zone

Chapter 1211 V4 ch59 July 4th bbq

Friday, we didn't leave the house at all. Not for a run. Not for a shopping trip. Not for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We had jobs to do and we were determined to get it done. Grampa made all three meals, trying to use up a lot of what was getting ready to expire, and avoiding all recently bought items.

At dinner, we talked about who was coming tomorrow. Dave was going to be in charge of door duty; letting the guests in and showing them to the backyard. Noah and I were in charge of helping with set up. I didn't really know what that entailed until after breakfast on Saturday morning.

We pulled out every chair available. Beach chairs. Camping chairs. Even the office chairs; though those stayed in the dining room as some of the dining room chairs got moved to the back deck.

"I wish we had some folding tables." Mom remarked as she supervised us opening chairs and spreading them out over the grassy areas.

"It's fine, Mom." Noah reassured her. "It's totally normal to have to hold your plate for a bbq."

"Yea, but Grampa's friends from the community center are part of the older crowd." She frowned, looking at the limited spots at the outside table.

"I'll ask Alisha if they have a folding table we can borrow." Noah pulled his phone out. Before Mom could say anything else, Noah already got a reply back. "Yep, they got one. She said they'll load it up and be over here to help soon."

Alisha and her parents were the first to show up, setting up a rectangular folding table up in the middle of the grass. We moved some chairs around it and then her parents went to go find ours.

Noah lowered his voice. "With you here, we might be granted some amnesty."

"Amnesty?" Alisha repeated back with a laugh. "Come on. It can't have been that bad. It's not like you guys go out often. Grounded and chore duty is nothing much. As least he didn't ban you from driving."

Noah turned to me. "How do you feel without going to the cages, Jake?"

I shrugged. "We already haven't been going a lot since we spent the most of summer so far in Omaha. As punishments go, this is fine. We should help around the house."

"Okay, Jake's answer doesn't count. He's not normal."

"How am I not normal?" I raised an eyebrow.

Noah rolled his eyes. "Don't take this the wrong way, Jake. But you've been abused. Punishment for you is probably something physical. That's probably why you're not upset over all the work we've done these past couple days."

"But is he wrong?" Alisha asked. "It could have been worse. What if your parents banned you guys from that baseball thing you signed up for?"

"Then they would have wasted money on the tryouts." Noah seemed to have an answer to everything. "And they would have wasted Jake's potential. They're not completely unreasonable. And for the record, I didn't say they were wrong and shouldn't have punished us at all. I just wanted a break from all the work; which I'll now get now that you're here, Alisha." He said. "With you around, Mom won't want to make you feel lonely. Just watch. We won't be called away at all."

Noah was pretty accurate in that guess. While Dave was called on to bring guests in, the three of us got to sit around in the backyard, just soaking up the summer sun. Mom even came by to drop off a fruit platter for us to share as we waited for the grill to get going.

"Thanks, Mom." Noah eagerly picked up a plastic fork and made a stab at the cantaloupe.

"Thanks, Mrs. Atkins." Alisha smiled.

"Thanks." I added in a hurry as she left us.

"This is the life." Noah sighed contentedly. "These last 48 hours have been nothing but work. I can't wait until we get back to our workouts."

"And the cages." I added.

"Yea, I bet you're starting to feel rusty." Noah joked.

We talked about the plans we had upcoming for the week. The A's game on Sunday. The driving lesson with an instructor on Monday. The arcade, the cages, the pool at Alisha's. Noah wanted every free second to be taken up, and Alisha was completely on board. I merely agreed, mostly for the cages benefit.

The backyard started to fill up with an older crowd and Grampa became livelier as he started to take personalized grill orders from his friends. Just as we were asked to get our meat from the grill master, a few more familiar faces came to the back.

"Yo!" Noah waved them over right away. "You guys come hungry?" He asked Andy Wilson and his three friends. Noah gave fist bumps to all four of them.

"We're growing; we're always hungry." One of them piped up.

Noah grinned. "I feel you on that." He glanced at Alisha. "Guys, this is Alisha. You probably recognize her from helping out the coaches. Alisha, these are some guys from the program. Brandon. Miguel. And Scott."

"Did you tell him?" Scott asked Andy as he took out a five dollar bill and handed it over to Miguel. "Cuz that's cheating."

"No. I didn't even mention you guys since I wasn't sure if you all would really come." Andy answered plainly.

"Tell me what?" Noah raised an eyebrow.

Miguel gestured to Scott. "He didn't think you would remember all our names."

Noah laughed. "You should know better than that. I'm a captain. I have to know everyone's name. Plus, we played with you guys."

"Yea, one game." Scott said.

"And all the practices and scrimmages from before." Noah added. "Names come easy to me."

I couldn't say the same.

"What are you guys doing this summer?" Alisha asked, kindly. "Playing travel ball with Andy?"

"Yea, we all made the 15U team. Off to a rocky start, but things are getting better." Miguel answered.

"Speak for yourself." Scott despaired. "I've been spending 90% of my time on the bench at these tournaments."

"That's because your swing is horrendous." Brandon snickered.

"You need to stop focusing on catching so much and get back to the basics." Andy added. "Otherwise you'll never be put in for catching. We can't have a guy batting 0-21 in." He looked at me. "Can you give him some pointers, Jake?"

I nearly looked behind me to see if there was another Jake. "I don't know? I'm not a coach or an expert or anything."

"You're not an expert?" Miguel scoffed. "You didn't strike out once this season."

"Officially, anyways." Noah smirked.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "I can do what I can because of practice." I looked at Scott. "If you want, I can look at your swing, but without seeing it against live pitching, I don't know what you're really doing wrong."

"How about we go to the park?" Andy lit up.

"Maybe on Monday." Noah mused. "Today, our mom is going to want us around for the party. Then we're going to see fireworks at the beach after dinner."

"Why not tomorrow?" Andy asked, always eager to play some baseball.

"We already have plans to go to the A's game."

"So lucky." Brandon said under his breath.

The four freshmen-turned-sophomores weren't the only faces we saw from school. Dave had also extended invites to guys that graduated like Matt and Tyler. The three pitchers were all going to college so they had a lot to say about it.

The bbq was in full swing for lunch and afternoon activities. Dad had Dave help him set up the cornhole and soon a small tournament was going. I thought it was natural for me and Noah to team up, but instead Alisha asked him to pair up. Luckily Dave saved me from embarrassment. He not only paired up with me, but also carried our small team because this was only the second time I had played in my life. I was lucky to get the beanbag on the board. We eventually lost to a pair of old men, but they ended up winning the whole thing so I didn't feel too bad.

Grampa kept the grilling going all afternoon, cooking up whatever anyone thought of. He and Mom were the best hosts for making strangers relax and loosen up. They were even inviting others to carpool to the boardwalk so we could watch the fireworks as a group. Which turned out to be a great idea as the beach area was packed. We barely regrouped in time before the fireworks started.