Noah told us all about his adventure this morning. Zeke and his parents hadn't done anything too big, but there were a lot of little pranks that added up. The cookie prank was his undoing though. He went to the backyard to complain to Zeke and his parents, yet was held up by all his friends, teammates, and classmates.
Noah was soon lost to the crowd. Occasionally, he would glance my way, but I made sure to smile every time so he wouldn't worry. It wasn't too forced on my part. I hung out with Alisha, Julian, and Andy. Not just them either; I said a couple sentences to classmates I had recognized and even talked to Kaylee on my own.
Kaylee wasn't as prickly as she normally was. I think with her sister around, her antagonistic behavior was set on the lowest level.
Alisha's parents had put in the same effort for Noah's birthday that they did for their daughter's. They were nice people. A twinge of jealousy ran through me, but I tried not to let it affect me. I have good parents now too. And I've come to terms that not everyone has great parents or even good relationships with their parents. Julian and Andy's parents don't beat them, but they aren't exactly close. I also wouldn't want parents like Kaylee's. I shivered.
"Dude, are you cold?" My classmate asked, noticing my small movement.
I shook my head. "No. Just a little tired."
He nodded, knowing that I had to wake up early so Noah could suffer alone with his pranks. He had told everyone about his suffering. "You can go jump in the pool. That would help you stay awake."
I swallowed a lump in my throat.
"Jake can't swim." Noah had came back and sat down on the other side of me.
The classmate was a little surprised. "That's too bad. Don't be embarrassed about it though. I know quite a few people that don't know how to swim."
"I think the statistic is one in five Americans can't swim." Someone else chimed in. I recognized her as a friend of Kaylee's. She looked directly at me. "It's never to late to get lessons. I'm sure Alisha would let you borrow her pool if you wanted."
"Thanks." I told them, relieved that no one was making fun of me.
The party lasted until the afternoon. Noah had said goodbye to everyone who came to celebrate. Then we helped Alisha and her family clean up. At one point, I noticed that Alisha and Noah had disappeared.
I was about to look for them, but remembering what Alisha had said before, I held back. I turned to help Zeke instead. Zeke grinned, yet didn't say anything.
Just as we got ready to leave, the pair showed up together, both extremely red in the face. I glanced at them, suspicious, yet neither of them made eye contact with me. We said our goodbyes and left.
Noah was rather quiet on the drive home, but with no one else saying anything about it, I also didn't speak up.
Just before we entered the house though, Noah snapped out of his daze. He grinned at his parents. "Just to warn you guys...I didn't pick up everything. And it's my birthday so I won't be cleaning up anymore."
His parents shared a look then the door was opened. If he hadn't said anything, I would have thought someone had ransacked the house!
My jaw dropped at the mess of confetti and toilet paper.
Dad rested his hand on Zeke's shoulder. "I have some work to do. Make sure to have it cleaned by dinner time."
Zeke rolled his eyes.
"Jake and I have to go pack!" Noah pulled my arm and we hurried away from the danger zone.
Up the stairs, I noticed more confetti on the floor and a lot of tape sticking to our doorframe. Noah ushered me into the room and closed our bedroom door.
He sighed. "Zeke is not going to be in a good mood tomorrow."
"At least we're leaving Sunday." I replied, sitting on my bed. "Doesn't that mean he can't do much?"
"Have you learned nothing about Zeke these last few months?" Noah rolled his eyes. "Tomorrow will be tough. Sunday, I'm sure he'll let us recover. He wouldn't want us to embarrass him on Monday when the camp starts."
Noah pulled two duffle bags out of the closet we shared. He tossed one to me and opened the other. "It's kind of cool to be going to the same camp as Zeke. I haven't done this before." He opened up one of his drawers and started to pull out baseball pants and athletic shorts. "We should bring extras just in case. We'll be there for the whole week and will probably get to play baseball all day. I don't want to smell so might as well." He moved on to shirts and started to squeeze as many as he could into his bag.
I watched leisurely from my bed, not moving to pack my bag yet. "Where did you and Alisha go?"
Noah froze. He didn't even look up at me. "What..? When..?"
"During cleanup." I told him. I was curious if Alisha said something to him or not.
Noah sighed, not reacting how I expected. "She got me a gift and tried giving it to me in private."
"What was it?" I asked.
"An autographed baseball." He sighed again. "I wanted it so badly, but I know how much it costs. She spent way more than I did on her gift."
"So you gave it back? Then what?" I asked.
Noah narrowed his eyes at me. "You seem very inquisitive today, Jake. Is there something that you know that I don't know?"
It was my turn to stay silent.
Noah laughed. "You should see your face. Jake, don't worry, I'm not mad. I could tell what was happening. I'm not dumb."
"So she told you?" I asked, surprised. How long did Noah know?
Noah blushed. "She did. After kissing me."
I was shocked. Alisha kissed him!?
Noah waved his hand around like he was waving away the thought. "Don't overthink it. We aren't dating."
"You aren't?" I scratched my head, feeling more confused. They kissed, yet they aren't dating?
Noah shook his head. "No way. High school romances don't last. My focus needs to be on baseball."
Ah. I knew it. A baseball fanatic like Noah can only think about baseball. "Was she upset?"
Noah thought about it. "Not really. She just said to tell her if I change my mind. I did promise to take her to homecoming when school starts." He grinned. "Just as friends though."
I felt a little sad for Alisha. But knowing her, I'm sure she really did expect a reaction like this.
Noah pointed at my bag. "You should really start packing now, or you'll hate yourself tomorrow."
I sighed and got off my bed, taking his advice. I started to pack any and all baseball clothes I had, which wasn't much. I had a few new clothes that Mom had bought for me and then some hand-me-downs from Noah and even the twins. I included my Stanford shirt that we all had, thinking that Zeke and Noah would do the same.
