"Jake was a complete statue." Kyle was telling the whole family at dinner. "My dude didn't even flinch like he normally does."
"I'm not sure that's an improvement." Dave said with a raised eyebrow.
"It's certainly better than vomiting or passing out." Kyle refuted. He patted me on the head. "Good job, Jake."
"He's not a dog." Noah slapped Kyle's hand away.
"Noah." Mom said with warning.
Noah rolled his eyes. "Why are you always busting me, Mom? Kyle's the one giving Jake a hard time."
"That sounded like a compliment to me." Mom said before turning to me. "You okay, Jake? With Kyle patting you on the head?"
I shrugged. "A lot of people pat me on the head. It doesn't bug me."
"It'll stop once you start getting taller than them." Dave assured me. "Zeke used to pat me on the head all the time."
"You mean slap you upside the head." Kyle snickered.
"He'd still do it too if he was here." Noah laughed.
"Speaking of Zeke." Dad cleared his voice to get our attention. "His game tomorrow is at San Francisco University. Your mother and I are planning to go and will stay the night up there. Your gramps will be in charge of dinner so I want you kids to be on your best behavior. Get your homework done and get to bed at a reasonable time."
"I'm going to the girl's game tomorrow." Kyle stated. "Coach already said he would give us the day off, but to expect a tough practice Wednesday."
"We're going too." Noah gestured to himself and then to me. He looked at Kyle. "Are you trying to drive there? Cuz if you are, we want to ride with you. Jake on a bus with the baseball teams is hard enough. I don't want him to get stressed being with random kids from school."
I nodded in a hurry. "Yea, I rather ride with you."
"I'm going to need to get the gas tank filled up." Kyle said, looking at Dad. "The girls play over an hour away too."
Dad pulled out his phone. "I'll transfer you the money and you can get gas and snacks after school tomorrow."
"Guess it's just you and me, old man." Dave joked with Grampa.
"Go with your brothers." Grampa waved him off. "I don't need you to keep me company. I'll hang out at the community center and have dinner ready for you boys when you get back."
Dave grimaced. "I'm so lame my own grandfather doesn't want to hang out with me."
"Do you not want to go?" Kyle raised an eyebrow.
"I would feel more comfortable about you kids taking the car if there are two drivers." Mom said, sounding a little worried.
"I'll go, I'll go." Dave said, cutting them off. "I was just going to work out on my own and maybe get some extra pitching in. It's not a big deal. I can take the day off like everyone else." He looked at Kyle. "Is Marie pitching every game until they lose?"
"She'll get the start every game." Kyle confirmed. "No pitching limits. But if she gets fatigued, they have others that can back her up."
The rest of dinner went quick. Then it was shower and bed. Not a whole lot of homework was due thankfully. The next morning was a flurry of looking for our school bags, in a hurry to eat breakfast, and then rushing off to school.
"Hey, leave the keys with me." Noah said as we started to unload the car. The twins had parked near the top, knowing that we wouldn't have to go to the baseball field today.
"What? Why?" Kyle squinted at him.
Noah rolled his eyes. "So I can take it for a joy ride obviously. No, you dope. Alisha asked if we could bring the signs she made in the car so it won't get messed up on the bus."
"She's taking the bus? You didn't offer her a ride with us?" Dave asked.
Kyle handed over the keys. "Don't forget to lock the car."
"Yea, yea." Noah took the keys and looked to Dave. "She's taking the bus with some of her other friends. They're the ones that came to our game yesterday and screamed really high-pitched."
The twins left and we waited for Alisha to come to the parking lot, saying 'hi' to a few classmates and teammates that would pass us by. Alisha showed up with two followers, and all three girls were holding a stack of posters.
Noah opened the trunk and put the third row down so there would be more space. Every poster had each player's name and number with some kind of encouragement written on it. There were bright neon posters, posters with glitter, and just so unique.
"Wow. I don't think you guys put this kind of effort into our stuff yesterday." Noah commented as we helped get everything in.
"Of course not." Alisha slapped her hands together, trying to get some glitter off. "I don't have as much free time with me helping out Coach Wilcox prepare for your games. It's a lot of note-taking."
"Our game ended late yesterday and with the drive home and dinner, you still found time to do all this?" Noah gestured. "Yet you claim you can't do it for us?"
"Way to sound jealous, Noah." One of the girls, Brittany laughed.
"Noah hates sharing Alisha with Kaylee." The other girl, Amber, pointed out. She reached out to pat Noah's shoulder. "Don't worry, Alisha didn't do all of this. We did most of the work and just did the details together just now in the library."
"I expect the same treatment next week." Noah looked at Alisha with expectation.
Alisha grinned. "It's the finals. I won't let you down."
"What I think we should do is create a banner for the guys to run through." Amber suggested. "Like the cheerleaders do for the football team?"
"When would we run through it though?" Noah asked with a laugh. "Coming out of the dugout?"
"It was just an idea." She stuck her tongue out.
Noah closed the trunk and locked the doors, putting the keys away in his backpack.
"I have an idea!" Brittany raised her voice. "We definitely should get those big helium ballon letters. M-V-P." She spelt out. "For Jake to be MVP. Get it? It's going to happen right? All the guys say that he's like the best in the state right now or something."
I felt my face heat up. "I'm not the best."
Alisha laughed. "Yea, just second best." She turned to her friend. "That's a great idea. I'll get my parents to buy the balloons this weekend. They last a long time so maybe we can use it for the girls game too if they move on."
The girls and Noah all discussed potential ideas to use for the future. I just followed along, happy that we weren't just talking about me. It was just a remark in passing. I could live with that. We reached the main hallway of the school and started to split up. Noah and I still had to go to our lockers and the three girls had class in the opposite direction.
