601 V2 ch73 (1/2)

Going up against the twins' pitching was fun. For me; not so much for them. Zeke pulled out some old catchers gear and really caught for them though. Noah explained to me that he used to play as their catcher when they were younger, that's where the gear came from. As we rotated to form different matchups, Zeke would occasionally give pointers to us. All of us. For me, it was about my feet positioning and using more of my core muscles. For Noah, it was about being more confident in his swing and trying not to pause or redirect. Zeke even helped the twins, pointing out flaws in their motion or helping them with their aim.

Zeke was amazing. He could be a coach. He knew everything. I was curious though...how could he help us so much? Who taught him all about baseball? When I pointed this out to Noah, he just shrugged. He didn't know either. It seemed like Zeke always knew what to do.

We spent the whole afternoon at the park, playing. Just another day I wish I could save in my memory bank. When we got home, Mom already had dinner on the table. We took our assigned seats and started to fill up our plates.

”Thanks, Mom!” Noah said first.

”Thank you, Mom.” Dave followed.

”Yea, thanks.” Kyle said.

”Thanks for dinner.” Zeke gave his mom a smile.

Feeling like I belonged somewhere now, I swallowed a small lump in my throat and added, ”Thank you for dinner, Mom.”

Mom's smile was big and bright. ”You're welcome. All of my boys.” She focused on me and Noah. ”How was class today?”

”It's okay.” I told her.

Noah on the other hand, gave her a minute by minute description about who are teacher is, what we learned, how Mitchell was in our class, and so on. Not only did I live through this, it was now my third time hearing about it. I was thankful Dad was here to listen too, otherwise I might hear about it again.

After dinner was another round of showers. Noah originally wanted to go downstairs to watch tv with the twins and maybe see a few highlights, but when we walked past their room, we saw Zeke at his desk. He was completely focused on the book in front of him, taking his summer classes as serious as possible. On the first day too.

Noah backed up the way we came and I followed him to our room. He sat on his bed with our new Spanish textbook. ”I'm just going to review some of the vocabulary before going to bed. We still have to wake up early tomorrow for the morning workout.”

After showers, breakfast, and a small amount of bickering with the twins, Zeke took us to school. This time he was showered too, and had even brought his backpack. It held books and his laptop, making it clear that he was going to do some studying at the high school.

After Noah asked him about it, Zeke explained to us: ”I waste time driving you here and back, and then coming to pick you up and go back. This will allow me to dedicate more time for my classes. It's not like the twins need babysitting.”

”Are you sure about that?” Noah scoffed.

Zeke cracked a smile as he parked the car. ”They're not as unreliable as you think. Growing up isn't sudden, it's a process. Didn't they behave last Friday when hanging out with you two?”

”I guess.” Noah slowly nodded.

We got out of the car with our backpacks and walked up to the school. Zeke split from us, going to the library as we went to our class.

Mitchell was already seated at the same table as yesterday, so we also sat in the same seats.

Noah told him about the twins wanting to use him for a bullpen session yesterday. ”But I told them no for you.”

”Why would you do that?!” Mitchell looked distressed and worried. ”Do you hate me??”