"Zeke just walked, I gotta go." Noah got up and looked for his bat. After finding it, he turned back to . "You’re okay. You’re fine. Just take so deep breaths and you’ll feel better." He walked away without waiting for confirmation. It’s like what he believed was the truth, and I had no reason not to feel better.
Dave sat down in Noah’s seat. "No need to be embarrassed."
"Don’t lie to him." Kyle laughed, walking over with Tanner. He looked down at . "Are you making the sa mistakes as yesterday?"
"Technically it was different." Tanner told him. "Yesterday, he didn’t step on his own feet. Just normal tripping." He cracked a smile at . "It was a good hit."
"Yea." Kyle agreed. "I’ve never seen soone ground out to right field before." He laughed and I turned red as a tomato. "Oi, this is why we call you bambi. Always so nervous and scared."
Dave reached out and put his arm around my shoulders. "Just bla it on bad luck. It’s not your fault."
But...it is. I got distracted. I wasn’t focused on swinging, hitting, or running. All because I wanted to know if Noah could have fielded the grounder that I couldn’t get to. I looked up at the three juniors around . "I need to know...do you think Noah could have fielded that ground ball?"
"That ground ball? What ground ball?" Dave asked.
"What? You’re hit just now?" Tanner questioned.
I shook my head at the two of them. They wouldn’t know. My eyes drifted to Kyle’s; he would know.
Kyle knocked on the head. "You dummy. Is that where your mind was? I already said it wasn’t a big deal."
"That’s not what I want to know." I pushed on, swallowing a lump. "I tried to ask him, but he avoided it too."
Kyle lifted his hands and shrugged his shoulders up and down. "Who can say for sure? It all happened so quick. It’s not like we have it recorded. Were you flat footed? Were you in position? Did you react late?" He paused. "Or was it sothing to do with my pitching? Weak? Slow? Easy placent? What about the batter? Good eyes? Good swing? Saw a gap and tried his best? There’s a lot that goes into each and every play." He grinned. "Starting with . I’m the pitcher. The ball has to leave my hand before it can go anywhere else. If I don’t feel bad about it, then why do you?"
"But...you lost a perfect ga..." I muttered, though the guilt lessened quite a bit after his speech.
Kyle laughed. "I’ve lost a lot of ’perfect gas’. Right from the start too!"
Tanner joined in. "Yea, yea, you should have seen him his freshman year! Always gave up hits to the very first batter. It’s like that was his way of calming down."
"Hey! Don’t tell him that!" Kyle nudged Tanner.
"Why? It’s true! Aren’t we trying to make him feel better?" Tanner defended himself.
Kyle’s eyes narrowed. "You know what will also make him feel better? The story of your first sliding attempt in little league."
"No!"
Kyle got closer. "So this guy here never practiced sliding. He didn’t like to get dirty. Our coach at the ti would try anything and everything to get him to do it but it was no use. Finally during a ga, he had to slide feet first because a throw was coming in or sothing like that. I just rember his pants hanging by his knees after his UNSUCCESSFUL slide." Kyle burst out laughing and Dave joined in. "And the best part...we were still kids so he was wearing Spider-Man underwear!"
I started to laugh and my body loosened up.
"Oh my gosh, I forgot about that." Dave gasped for air. "I think Mom still has a picture sowhere. We gotta find that soon."
"La-la-la I can’t hear you." Tanner put his fingers in his ears and walked away.
"What a baby." Kyle continued to giggle to himself. "Ah, I really need to ask Mom for that picture."
"We could take it to school too. It’d be hilarious." Dave added.
This pair of twins are ruthless. Yet...I felt relaxed with them.
Soon, everyone’s attention was turned to the field thanks to the sound of a bat hitting a ball. We all watched as Jason jogged to ho, and Garret ca sprinting in off Mahki’s single to center field. The center field threw it to the shortstop, but it was final. Jason and Garret scored, Zeke was safe at second, and Mahki safe at first. We retook the lead, 4-2.
Even the tension in my shoulders vanished.
They ca in and Noah moved to the batter’s box.
"Now that’s what a base runner is supposed to look like." Garret ca over with his helt in his hands. "You should be taking notes from , understand?"
"With the way you laughed at him yesterday, I’m thinking that’s a no." Kyle practically read my mind. "Besides, why should he learn from you when we have Zeke at ho. That’s a better option." For so reason, I couldn’t agree. Just on the basis that Zeke makes run all the ti.
"Coach said we’ll work on it Monday." I spoke up, afraid of what other suggestions they would co up with. Last thing I want to do is to be do sprints and slides on a Sunday.
"Uh-huh." Garret laughed. "Maybe Drew will be more strict with you." He walked away to his bag.
I gulped. Okay, maybe Zeke didn’t sound so bad right now.
Dave shook my shoulders as his arm was still around them. "If you could only see your face right now, you would call yourself Bambi too." He laughed.
Kyle nodded in agreent.
Ugh. I decided to watch Noah’s at-bat instead of these codians. Noah was swinging at everything, apparently inspired by his previous hit. But it’s no good just to swing if you’re not making contact. He struck out and ca back with a frown of his own as Sean stepped up to bat.
Kyle left to get his batting equipnt so he could be coming up this inning as well. He stood in the hole as Alex was on deck.
"Swing happy?" Dave said sothing odd, making look at him, but his eyes were on Noah.
"I don’t need hitting advice from you." Noah stuck out his tongue at his brother.
Dave took his arm off my shoulders. "And here I was, just being a good older brother."
"A good older brother would pay for my ti in the cages tomorrow." Noah wiggled his brows.
"You’ve got two other older brothers to hit up." Dave snorted. He lifted his injured hand. "Why would I bother going to the cages? To make myself feel more miserable? No thanks. I’m staying ho tomorrow. Since it’s a Sunday, there’ll be 10am gas to watch and then I can just keep on watching all day."
"You really think Mom and Dad are going to let you watch tv all day?" Noah shook his head.
"They’ll be working. You guys will be playing. What else can I do?" Dave shrugged like he was helpless, but his face definitely gave it away that he was happy.
"Useless." Noah rolled his eyes.
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