Chapter 1215: V4 ch63 July (2)
Kaylee’s mood lightened as the morning went on. We took our showers in a hurry, knowing that our workout was going to be done for the day. Dave took the three of us to Alisha’s so Kaylee could give the bad news to Alisha. She definitely took it the hardest and showed why Kaylee came to our house first. Alisha immediately started to tear up as she hugged Kaylee.
Kaylee patted her back. "Come on now. Aren’t you supposed to be the one to cheer me up?"
"I just feel like everything is going wrong for you this year." Alisha wiped her eyes as little tears started to run down her cheeks.
"Adversity can make one successful." Noah said. "You gotta rise from the ashes. Just look at Jake. He had to hit rock bottom before he could see the light."
I nodded a lot to that. It was true. At one point I was at death’s door. Now I had a real family. Friends. A normal school life. A baseball team. I couldn’t be here without Noah pulling me along though. I stopped my nodding. "You have to be open-minded."
"You think I’m not?" Kaylee asked with some attitude.
I cringed when I realized that came out wrong. "I mean-"
"She knows what you mean." Noah laughed and slapped my back. "She’s just messing with you."
I glanced at Kaylee again. "I think you’ll be just fine. You’re tough."
"Yea. I am." She straightened up. "Even if there’s no softball in my near future, I won’t write it off just yet. By Christmas, I should be telling you guys I made varsity at my new school. By June, I’ll be telling you guys about my accolades."
"MVP! MVP! MVP!" Noah chanted.
Kaylee glared. "You know that’s reserved for pitchers who can hit."
"Says who?" Noah shrugged. "It’s reserved for the best player overall. Do it all. Pitch. Hit. Run the bases. You’re super athletic. As soon as you get healthy and start getting in shape again, you’ll be in the race for it I bet."
"You’re athletic too, but you didn’t get MVP." Kaylee pointed out.
"Defensive MVP counts." Noah rolled his eyes.
They bickered a little longer, giving Alisha time to clean up her face and dry her eyes. Alisha suggested a pool day, offering to buy and have pizza delivered.
Noah waved her off. "I’ll just have Dave pick some up and bring it over. Then after, he can take us to the arcade."
"Without your bags?" She asked.
"We can play some games. Play mini golf." Noah shrugged and looked to Kaylee. "You’re the one with limited time left here. What do you want to do?"
"I want to do anything and everything." She said. "I just don’t want to be home."
"What about packing?" Alisha asked.
"Leave that for Marie and the adults." Noah brushed off. "Kaylee is weak right now. She shouldn’t be lifting anything. Even a closet full of clothes is too much."
"I like the way you’re thinking." Kaylee told Noah, showing him a rare grin. "In fact, I’ll be mentioning to Marie tonight. Ask her to pack up my room when she’s done with hers." She looked to me. "Jake, I know you guys can see the A’s whenever you want. Do you mind letting me come for the rest of the month?"
"Yea, it’s no problem. Jeremy doesn’t care who I bring. I just have to tell him beforehand." I pulled out my phone. "They’re away today and tomorrow. But by the weekend, they’ll have a home game stretch."
"Nine games in ten days." Noah’s eyes brightened. "Should we go to all ten? It’ll be a little hot early on, but when the sun goes down it’ll cool off."
"Isn’t that a little excessive?" Alisha asked. "With all the driving...wouldn’t Dave be sick of it?"
"It’s not that bad." Noah shrugged. "Plus, he’s going to the game too so I know he’ll be okay with it."
"We should at least pitch in for gas." Alisha suggested.
"Nah, save your money for snacks." Noah told her. "Jeremy pays for the tickets out of his own paycheck and I feel like if we go to so many in a row, we should tell him to get us the cheap seats. Like nosebleed section."
"Are you sure he’s really okay buying all these tickets?" Alisha was still hesitant. "I don’t want him thinking we’re using him."
"We’re totally using him." Noah wasn’t ashamed about it. "But I would use any brother of mine that was in the pros. He’s got the means for it. I wouldn’t take advantage of him if he was dirt poor." He looked at me. "You’ll make it to the pros before me. So make sure to get us something nice for your debut."
I grinned. "I wouldn’t debut without you guys." I couldn’t imagine being alone on some giant field with a bunch of people in the stands to watch me. It kind of made my stomach do flips.
"Don’t forget about me when you get up there too." Kaylee knocked into my shoulder. "I’ll take a day off from whatever college I end up at just to see you kick butt."
"I’ll be at the same college as her." Alisha declared.
"What if I end up at a small place in the middle of nowhere?" Kaylee shook her head. "Don’t follow me. I want a full ride athletic scholarship to cover my college if I can. Preferably not in Southern California."
"We can both aim for Stanford and then you can follow me home on weekends and breaks and stuff." Alisha squeezed her arm excitedly.
"Or you guys can try somewhere new like Vanderbilt in Nashville with Dave." Noah shrugged. "There’s a lot of options. Neither of you should narrow your choices down just yet. Study and get good SAT scores and then start visiting some schools."
"Have you thought about some to visit yet?" Kaylee asked us.
"Just where Zeke and Dave’s schools. Maybe some other local places. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter much." Noah shrugged. "We’ll look into it in the fall when things start to die down."
We talked about future plans. Near and far. I sent Jeremy a text, asking in advance about going to the multiple games in the second half of July. He was quick to reply since he was on the All-Star break already. He didn’t say ’yes’ immediately, instead asking if I talked this over with just Noah or with my parents too.
I felt guilty as I told him we just came up with the idea. He simply replied that I just had to discuss with Mom and Dad. He didn’t want to get in trouble with them by immediately saying that it was fine and overstepping their authority. He even said we could stay with him since we wanted to go to so many games in a row. But that wouldn’t work with the girls so I declined and mentioned how this was kind of like a goodbye for Kaylee. She was going to move away. And then get busy with her rehab for her arm. She didn’t have plans to come back here, but we were already thinking about going down to visit. We just had a lot on our plate until then.