565 V2 ch37 (1/2)

”Classmates.” Noah told him. ”They're helping us with our softball team. Alisha doesn't play, but Kaylee was on the varsity team.” He started to give Jeremy a brief overview of each girl, even explaining how Kyle dated Kaylee's sister and randomly broke up with her to focus on baseball. ”And Alisha is throwing an end-of-the-school-year party slash birthday party next week.”

Watching Noah talking to Jeremy so easily made me jealous. Not that I thought that they were close, it's just, Noah was able to get along with everyone all the time. He was a talker. And he was outgoing. I want to be more outgoing.

I cleared my throat to chime in. ”Do you think you could sign some autographs so I can take to the party?”

Jeremy was surprised. ”Why would you want to do that?”

”Because a lot of kids at school asked him for one.” Noah answered. ”Mostly everyone now knows that he's your brother. There was some kind of blog post that brought it up again and included pictures of you two talking.”

Jeremy frowned. ”Do you know which blog?”

Noah shook his head.

Jeremy looked at me. ”Are you sure you want to give them out? That's not going to make the other kids jealous of you, right?”

I shrugged and looked at Noah.

Noah thought for a moment. ”I mean, some are already jealous. Jake is a baseball star as a freshman. But no one dares to pick on him. Me and my brothers are there to back him up.”

”Okay then, if you're sure. I'll send you a stack of signed baseball cards. It'll take me awhile though.” Jeremy told us.

”You've got almost two weeks.” Noah replied.

He nodded. ”Okay. I'll work on it as I'm on the road. I come back next week for a couple of home games so maybe you and the Atkins family can make a trip to watch a game and pick up the autographs?”

My lips twisted. ”I'm not sure. Softball starts next week.” I glanced to Noah.

Noah nodded. ”Tuesday is our first game. Thursday we'll actually be missing because of Zeke's graduation. Friday is Alisha's party. And since it's finals week, I doubt Mom would let us go.”

”Oh...” Jeremy hesitated. ”We'll figure something out next week when I get back then. Are you, uh, prepared for your finals?”

I nodded.

”It won't be difficult for us.” Noah claimed with ease.

”That's good.” Jeremy looked relieved. ”At least you're don't have my bad study habits.”

”You were bad at school?” I asked.

He made a face of indecisiveness. ”Kind of. I was bad in school, but I wasn't dumb. I just did dumb things. Does that make sense?”

I tilted my head. ”Not really. But is that why you didn't go to college?” I grabbed the pen again and prepared to write down his answer.

I waited patiently, wanting to know more.

Jeremy coughed and cleared his throat. ”He never made it to the majors. I wanted to do that for him. To honor his memory. I wanted to succeed what he couldn't accomplish.”

”What did your uncle think of that?” Noah asked with no emotion.

”Uncle Jack was very supportive of my dreams. I owe a lot to him for what I'm abled to do today. He trained me, coached me, and did all in his power to make me a better player.” He stumbled a bit at the sight of my unmoved expression. ”Sorry, I-”

”It's fine.” I told him.

The conversation stalled in awkwardness.

”Really, Jeremy.” I spoke up. ”I'm glad you have them.”

Jeremy looked a little torn. ”Thanks, me too. And I'm glad you have the Atkins. They seem like nice people.”

”Of course we're nice.” Noah grinned.

The conversation turned a little lighter as I started to ask him about his time in the minors and even a little about his high school baseball team. We spoke for an hour, Mrs. Atkins brought out the dessert Jeremy had given, and the conversation finally ended when Mr. Atkins told us it was about time we went to bed.