30 Meeting the Atkins 4 (1/2)

Mrs. Atkins didn't look as happy as Noah did. She looked at him sternly. ”I was going to wait after dinner since we have a guest over.”

”Why? Did Noah get Jake in trouble?” Mr. Atkins frowned. ”It would be better if Doug sees all sides of us. No reason to pretend to be perfect.”

Mr. Duncan glanced at me. ”From what I heard so far, I already approve. Jake seems to be having fun and he even wants to play baseball again.”

”Well for starters, they broke a bat.” Mrs. Atkins stated. ”A wooden bat. An expensive wooden bat that Mr. Williams wasn't going to rent out in the first place. Luckily he was nice about it and let me buy a new one at a discount for Jake.”

”How did you guys break a bat?” The twins asked at the same time, obviously in the same wavelength.

”Faulty equipment.” Noah rolled his eyes. ”Jake is like a machine and can hit the ball with the same part of the bat repeatedly.” He moved his eyebrows up and down at Zeke. ”He foul tipped 12 of 12 pitches in the 100mph cage.”

Zeke's eyebrows furrowed.

”Wait, honey. That's not such a big deal. Did something else happen?” Mr. Atkins asked.

”Noah had no money on him at all so they had called me in. Apparently Noah lost it all in a bet.” She replied. ”He also was out of line when telling Mr. Williams what happened. Very rude and undisciplined. Grounding isn't a very viable solution, so I'm proposing no sweets for his lunches or after dinner for a while.”

”We were cheated!” Noah cried out. ”We would have won if the bat didn't break.”

”Noah, what have I told you about gambling?” His dad asked. ”You're too young. You shouldn't be wasting money away like that. No sweets for a month.”

”A whole month?!” Noah slouched in his chair.

”For being rude to an adult that's adequate punishment.” His mom agreed.