79 Pre-tournament 2 (1/2)
If I thought learning Noah's video game was hard, I was an idiot. Learning baseball signs for both offense and defense was impossible. I had a hard enough time getting past the 'indicator sign'. Basically fake signs would be thrown in and wouldn't matter at all, until the indicator sign appeared which was a touch of the belt.
Noah put all the focus on the offensive signs. He said we could fake it for the defensive signs since I wasn't that great of a fielder anyways. I would just stand where he told me to and follow coach's three B's.
For the offense, I was to look at Mr. Miller, the third base coach for signs all the time. Noah taught the basics: take, hit, bunt, bunt and run, suicide squeeze, hit and run, run and hit, steal, double steal, or delayed steal. I wanted to ask what half of that stuff even meant, but I thought it was more important to know the signs. 'Fake it til I make it' was going to be my new motto.
”If you ever don't know what to do, call for a timeout.” Noah wrapped it up as Mr. Atkins looked for parking. ”Then I'll run out of the dugout to talk to you.” We can do that?? Thank god.
”That's frowned upon.” Zeke noted.
”What's frowned upon..?” Dave asked, yawning as he woke up.
”Don't worry about it.” Zeke replied. He nudged Kyle awake. ”Time to wake up. We're here.”
Kyle was even more groggy than Dave and looked at all of us, bleary-eyed. ”I didn't even remember getting in the car. Were you guys awake the whole time?”
I nodded, sadly.
”Okay boys. We're here.” Mr. Atkins had found a parking spot finally and had turned off the car. ”I'll help you guys unload.” He got out and headed to the trunk to pull out our bags.
Mrs. Atkins turned to look at all of us as we unbuckled. ”Good luck boys. Make sure not to fight with one another. It's just a game. One out of many.” She made eye contact with me. ”But also don't forget your goals.”
I thought of my notebook and how I wrote that we needed to win games. Keep it simple. We win, we play more. I nodded and gave her a light smile.
Then me and the Atkins boys started to get out of the car. We walked to the trunk area, where Mr. Atkins handed us our bags. ”Good luck out there, boys. We'll be cheering for you.”
”I would hope so.” Dave snorted. ”It'd be real awkward if even our own parents cheered against us.”
Mr. Atkins pushed Dave's cap down. ”You're not even pitching in game one. You won't be getting our cheers anyways.”
Kyle laughed. ”Yes, all the cheers will be for me. It'll be a no hitter, shutout.”
”I wouldn't be surprised if coach called me in to relieve you.” Dave gave a light shove.
Mr. Atkins sighed and focused on Zeke. ”Try and keep all of them in line. Your mother and I will hangout in the car until it's closer to game time.” He patted Zeke's shoulder then went back in to the drivers seat.
Zeke looked at the four of us. ”Follow me.” He spun 180 degrees and started marching through the parking lot. We followed in a single file line so we could maneuver between other parked cars.