Chapitre 67: The Weekend (12)
After talking it out with Noah and getting more baseball information, I felt more relaxed. He helped me straighten my thoughts out and I was thankful for it. He told me the boys probably ordered a pizza from the snack bar and got the food by now, so we should hurry back.
He was accurate with his assumption. The three were sitting at a round table chomping on an extra-large pizza, water bottles all over the place. They stopped eating as we approached the table. Noah sat down and looked at me, expectantly.
I took a deep breath and looked Zeke in the eye. "I want to hit."
The twins jaws dropped.
Zeke gave a simple nod. "Yes, I know. But it all depends on the situation. You have to look at who is pitching: are they good or bad? Do they have endurance? Would a hit on the first pitch throw them off? Or on the fifteenth pitch? There's a lot to take in account during games."
Noah rolled his eyes. "A simple yes would have sufficed. Jake likes to hit. You should have explained that you don't want him to foul off every pitch all the time."
Zeke frowned. "No, that would probably make pitchers angry and throw at you. Today was just practice."
I crumbled to my seat. Practice. Again. I thought today was for relaxation and hanging out. The twins laughed at my heartbroken expression.
"You really surprised us though." Kyle passed me a plate with pizza. "I didn't expect you to snap like that, at all."
I turned red, ashamed of how I acted, letting my emotions get the better of me.
Dave nodded along to Kyle's words. "Yea, no kidding. Only Zeke can piss off a mute so much that he'll speak aloud."
Noah frowned. "Jake isn't a mute."
Dave waved him off. "Yea, sure. He's pretty damn close. Normal people talk more in an hour than he does in a week."
Noah glared, then he pouted at Zeke. "Dave is bullying Jake. I think the only compensation we need would be ice cream." Zeke got the stern look on his face, making me shrink in my seat. "Look, you too! Ice cream or I tell mom you almost made Jake upset enough to run away." Blackmail. No surprise there.
Zeke caved though. He looked at Dave. "Go buy ice cream for everyone."
"Everyone?" Dave squinted at his oldest brother. "Including you?"
Zeke nodded. "We have to stick together. If one of us doesn't get ice cream, they might tattle on the others. We're family." My heart started to pound at the last word.
Dave rolled his eyes. "If we're family, then pitch in. I'm super broke after today. So many tokens and now you want me to buy the ice cream..?"
"Denied." Noah replied. "You insulted Jake so we have more dirt on you. You would get the biggest punishment."
Dave groaned and got up, stomping his way to the counter. Kyle and Noah laughed as me and Zeke continued to eat pizza.
The rest of the afternoon was spent stuffing our faces and playing video games. The twins took a strange pride in beating me and Noah at every game we stopped at. Zeke just sat in the snack bar area with our bags, playing on his phone.
When we passed by him after over an hour, I noticed he was still on his phone. I tugged Noah's sleeve and pointed at the scene, wanting to know what was so important.
Noah gave me a light smile. "The bracket for the tournament must have came out. He's probably looking up every team that we might potentially play."
"Not even probably." Kyle cut in. "He's definitely looking up every team. Even the loser ones that will play against seeded teams. Zeke is overly dedicated to his captain position."
I nodded. I know that he knows everything this is about baseball. It only makes sense that he would be checking out other teams.
"The tournament this weekend has a simple format." Noah explained. "You win, you move on. You lose, you go home."
"It's all relatively local." Dave added. "Sixteen teams including us. Everyone plays in the morning. Then there'll be eight teams left to play in the evening." So a doubleheader? "Sunday morning is the semi-finals. Sunday evening would be the finals."
They added little tidbits here and there about what schools we need to worry about, but it didn't mean much to me. I was more focused on the fact that an elimination game would be my first official baseball game experience.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
half_empty
half_empty Thanks for not being mad that I was late!
Chapitre 68: Explanation
After playing at the arcade, we all went back home to enjoy Mrs. Atkins home cooked Sunday dinner. None of the boys went in specifics about our day or about me talking more than normal. I'm slightly glad since I'm sure it would be blown up into a bigger deal than it should be.
After dinner, showers, and homework, I started to go through the notes I took over the weekend. I wanted to review before tomorrow's practice so I wouldn't be unprepared if Zeke wanted to quiz me again.
Noah came back to our room as I was looking at my notes on the floor. He laid down on his bed. "Are you nervous?"
I nodded. Extremely nervous. This tournament will hold my first game memory. I don't want it to be a bad one. If I make a mistake, we could lose and drop out just after game one.
"Is it because of this upcoming weekend?" Noah read my mind. I nodded, giving him my full attention now. "What about it makes you nervous?"
"Losing." I mumbled under my breath.
"Oh. That's not a big deal. It's normal for teams to lose. No one wins all the time. Don't get me wrong, it's not enjoyable. Think of it as a learning experience."
"But then we can't play anymore." I whispered, bowing my head.
Noah laughed outright. "That's not entirely true. At least, we still have the season." He moved to the floor so we were eye level. "I told you I would explain How league play works, right?" I vaguely remembered him saying something about it before. "So this tournament is considered a single game elimination format. Which means you lose and you're out. That's normal for tournaments. League play is different."
I grabbed my notebook and flipped to an empty page, jotting down what he was saying.
"I know you didn't really play in middle school, but you knew they had games against other middle schools, right? High school is similar. We're in a league with seven other schools. Throughout the season, you'll play each team twice. At the end of the season you'll compare conference records, and the best one will be crown as league champs for that season. That's when losing starts to matter because every league champ from other leagues will play in C.I.F."
What's that? I paused a moment from taking notes to look up at Noah. His eyes were shining and he seemed excited.
"CIF stands for California Interscholastic Federation. All California schools are a part of CIF, but within the CIF is different sections, and within them different divisions. Each division will collect a group of league champions and then find a division champion." He sighed. "But this is all far off. The season doesn't even start till next week after the tournament. Just know we want to win conference games in order to become league champs." He said with enthusiasm.
I wrote down the basics: win games. That seemed to be the theme with everything he said. If we win, we get to play more games.
Noah peeked over and then burst out laughing. He rolled to his side and started to laugh so hard, he was wheezing.
Mrs. Atkins stepped in the doorframe. "What's going on in here? We can hear Noah's laugh from down the hall."
I shrugged. I have no idea what set him off.
"Mom. His notes!" He kept on laughing, holding his stomach. I looked at my notes, trying to see what was so funny. My handwriting was neat and I didn't think I had any misspellings.
Mrs. Atkins looked on as her son rolled around the floor. "Noah. It's almost bed time. Please stop causing a ruckus."
Noah snatched my notebook and stood up. He showed her whatever made him laugh. "I was explaining to Jake what the season looks like and how it's supposed to go. This is all he wrote in the end."
Mrs. Atkins cracked a smile. "I hope you boys can win as much as you can then. It'll be the only time all my boys play together on the same team. Win it all!" She cheered and then left.
I stood up and looked at my notes in Noah's hand, trying to find the humor.
Noah saw my confusion and started laughing once more. "You wrote win games. That's all. You're so simple-minded that it's hilarious. You don't even know how we stack against other teams and you're all set on winning everything."
I guess it sounded naive once it's said aloud. Noah did say that it's normal for teams to lose and not everyone can be unbeaten.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
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