Kaylee’s mood lightened as the morning went on. We took our showers in a hurry, knowing that our workout was going to be done for the day. Dave took the three of us to Alisha’s so Kaylee could give the bad news to Alisha. She definitely took it the hardest and showed why Kaylee ca to our house first. Alisha imdiately started to tear up as she hugged Kaylee.
Kaylee patted her back. "Co on now. Aren’t you supposed to be the one to cheer up?"
"I just feel like everything is going wrong for you this year." Alisha wiped her eyes as little tears started to run down her cheeks.
"Adversity can make one successful." Noah said. "You gotta rise from the ashes. Just look at Jake. He had to hit rock bottom before he could see the light."
I nodded a lot to that. It was true. At one point I was at death’s door. Now I had a real family. Friends. A normal school life. A baseball team. I couldn’t be here without Noah pulling along though. I stopped my nodding. "You have to be open-minded."
"You think I’m not?" Kaylee asked with so attitude.
I cringed when I realized that ca out wrong. "I an-"
"She knows what you an." Noah laughed and slapped my back. "She’s just ssing with you."
I glanced at Kaylee again. "I think you’ll be just fine. You’re tough."
"Yea. I am." She straightened up. "Even if there’s no softball in my near future, I won’t write it off just yet. By Christmas, I should be telling you guys I made varsity at my new school. By June, I’ll be telling you guys about my accolades."
"MVP! MVP! MVP!" Noah chanted.
Kaylee glared. "You know that’s reserved for pitchers who can hit."
"Says who?" Noah shrugged. "It’s reserved for the best player overall. Do it all. Pitch. Hit. Run the bases. You’re super athletic. As soon as you get healthy and start getting in shape again, you’ll be in the race for it I bet."
"You’re athletic too, but you didn’t get MVP." Kaylee pointed out.
"Defensive MVP counts." Noah rolled his eyes.
They bickered a little longer, giving Alisha ti to clean up her face and dry her eyes. Alisha suggested a pool day, offering to buy and have pizza delivered.
Noah waved her off. "I’ll just have Dave pick so up and bring it over. Then after, he can take us to the arcade."
"Without your bags?" She asked.
"We can play so gas. Play mini golf." Noah shrugged and looked to Kaylee. "You’re the one with limited ti left here. What do you want to do?"
"I want to do anything and everything." She said. "I just don’t want to be ho."
"What about packing?" Alisha asked.
"Leave that for Marie and the adults." Noah brushed off. "Kaylee is weak right now. She shouldn’t be lifting anything. Even a closet full of clothes is too much."
"I like the way you’re thinking." Kaylee told Noah, showing him a rare grin. "In fact, I’ll be ntioning to Marie tonight. Ask her to pack up my room when she’s done with hers." She looked to . "Jake, I know you guys can see the A’s whenever you want. Do you mind letting co for the rest of the month?"
"Yea, it’s no problem. Jeremy doesn’t care who I bring. I just have to tell him beforehand." I pulled out my phone. "They’re away today and tomorrow. But by the weekend, they’ll have a ho ga stretch."
"Nine gas in ten days." Noah’s eyes brightened. "Should we go to all ten? It’ll be a little hot early on, but when the sun goes down it’ll cool off."
"Isn’t that a little excessive?" Alisha asked. "With all the driving...wouldn’t Dave be sick of it?"
"It’s not that bad." Noah shrugged. "Plus, he’s going to the ga too so I know he’ll be okay with it."
"We should at least pitch in for gas." Alisha suggested.
"Nah, save your money for snacks." Noah told her. "Jeremy pays for the tickets out of his own paycheck and I feel like if we go to so many in a row, we should tell him to get us the cheap seats. Like nosebleed section."
"Are you sure he’s really okay buying all these tickets?" Alisha was still hesitant. "I don’t want him thinking we’re using him."
"We’re totally using him." Noah wasn’t ashad about it. "But I would use any brother of mine that was in the pros. He’s got the ans for it. I wouldn’t take advantage of him if he was dirt poor." He looked at . "You’ll make it to the pros before . So make sure to get us sothing nice for your debut."
I grinned. "I wouldn’t debut without you guys." I couldn’t imagine being alone on so giant field with a bunch of people in the stands to watch . It kind of made my stomach do flips.
"Don’t forget about when you get up there too." Kaylee knocked into my shoulder. "I’ll take a day off from whatever college I end up at just to see you kick butt."
"I’ll be at the sa college as her." Alisha declared.
"What if I end up at a small place in the middle of nowhere?" Kaylee shook her head. "Don’t follow . I want a full ride athletic scholarship to cover my college if I can. Preferably not in Southern California."
"We can both aim for Stanford and then you can follow ho on weekends and breaks and stuff." Alisha squeezed her arm excitedly.
"Or you guys can try sowhere new like Vanderbilt in Nashville with Dave." Noah shrugged. "There’s a lot of options. Neither of you should narrow your choices down just yet. Study and get good SAT scores and then start visiting so schools."
"Have you thought about so to visit yet?" Kaylee asked us.
"Just where Zeke and Dave’s schools. Maybe so other local places. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter much." Noah shrugged. "We’ll look into it in the fall when things start to die down."
We talked about future plans. Near and far. I sent Jeremy a text, asking in advance about going to the multiple gas in the second half of July. He was quick to reply since he was on the All-Star break already. He didn’t say ’yes’ imdiately, instead asking if I talked this over with just Noah or with my parents too.
I felt guilty as I told him we just ca up with the idea. He simply replied that I just had to discuss with Mom and Dad. He didn’t want to get in trouble with them by imdiately saying that it was fine and overstepping their authority. He even said we could stay with him since we wanted to go to so many gas in a row. But that wouldn’t work with the girls so I declined and ntioned how this was kind of like a goodbye for Kaylee. She was going to move away. And then get busy with her rehab for her arm. She didn’t have plans to co back here, but we were already thinking about going down to visit. We just had a lot on our plate until then.
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