272 Zeke’s Announcement 2 (1/2)

Even though Noah was the one to ask for permission to leave, I was the first to get going, rushing out of there and up the stairs. Noah was close behind and by the time we reached our room, I could hear the twins making their way up the stairs too.

Noah looked at me with concern. ”Jake? Are you okay? Mom is only mad...she's not going to do anything to Zeke like your mom. She's just angry that he's not taking school seriously.”

I held my own shaky hands and bit my bottom lip. ”She sounded really upset though. And your dad didn't say anything either.”

Noah got close and patted my shoulder, comfortingly. ”It's all going to be okay one way or the other. Either he goes or he doesn't. Nothing else will happen to him. Mom and Dad don't believe in physical punishment. If you're really worried about it, we can eavesdrop?”

I hesitated. His parents might hear us if we sneak back down stairs. What if we see something that resembles to my own mom? That last thought made me pause. Wait. This would be a good opportunity to see how Mrs. Atkins when she's really mad. I gave Noah a short nod. ”Okay, but how?”

He grinned and tugged my wrist, dragging me out of the room. ”Follow me. I bet the twins are already listening in too.” He led me to the boys room down the hall, and walked right in without bothering to knock.

The room was eerily quiet. We moved around their beds, dressers, and clutter that made the room somewhat dirty. Noah led me to their connecting bathroom, where both twins were on the floor. They looked at us and lightly patted the tile. I followed Noah's lead and sat down with the twins.

Noah put a finger to his lips to request that I stayed silent. Then he pointed to the floor. More specifically, at a vent on the floor. It must be the bathrooms AC/heater vent. After a moment of silence we started to hear some familiar voices echoing through the vent and off the tile. We must be right above the dining table!

My jaw dropped.

”Zeke, I think you know how important your education is.” Mr. Atkins was in the process of lecturing his eldest son. ”You can't just skip school to visit colleges. That just isn't logical. I know we said we wanted you to visit schools, but that would be on weekends.”

”I have games most weekends.” We heard Zeke calmly state as if that was excuse enough.

”Skip a game then.” Mrs. Atkins said, exasperated. ”And don't give me the excuse that they're more important than school, mister.”

Zeke paused before saying, ”I don't know why you're so against it. Didn't you two push me towards looking at my options? You both want me to go to college, right?”

”Yes! But not at the expense of your high school GPA!” Mrs. Atkins raised her voice once more.

”That won't matter once I'm in college. Even if I don't make it in the big leagues, no one will be asking what my high school GPA was.” Zeke rebuffed.

”Colleges will ask! They'll see that you took it easy senior year.” Mrs. Atkins tried again.

”The colleges will all take me on my baseball recommendations by the coaches. If you're so against this, then maybe I should just stay and stick to the original plan of entering the draft.”

A long silence took over before we heard their mom ask, ”Is that a threat Zeke? If so, I think it's best that I remind you that you're still a minor until July.”

”Now, now.” Mr. Atkins intervened. ”Let's go about this rationally. No need for ambiguous remarks from either of you. Mary, like or not, Zeke will be 18 this year. We can't just dictate him and -”

”Dictate?!!” Mrs. Atkins got ramped up again. ”This isn't a democracy, Wayne! This is school, this is common sense. How are you going to explain to the school that we want to take Zeke out for the week? They'll mark him truant and it'll go on his permanent school record.”

”I'm sure they'll understand that Zeke is visiting colleges. I'm sure they'll find that acceptable.”

”And the midterms? They're just gonna let him take them without any prior notice? Or better yet, take them late?”

”The school has been very flexible, I'm sure we can work something out.” Mr. Atkins said in a soothing tone.

”What about the cost of flying there? The whole planning of this trip? What about the other boys? Who's going to take them to and from school?”