133 Spring Training 1 (1/2)
The day went by smoothly as we just relaxed around the house, with the exception of Zeke. Dave was right that he would turn up for lunch, but afterwards he spent the rest of his afternoon locked away in their room. He didn't come out until it was time for him to drive us to practice.
We showed up ten minutes early, and started to drop our bags off in the dugout. We put on cleats and set out the waters.
”You guys might as well start your laps.” Zeke said out of the blue.
”What do you mean, you guys??” Dave stood up a little straighter. ”I didn't do anything to deserve laps!”
Zeke pulled out a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket and read off it. ”Kyle said he would take the kids twenty laps from game one. Jake and Noah, do you guys really want me to list every reason or just accept your discount of twelve laps?” He looked our way.
Noah frowned and looked at me. ”It's a gamble. We could appeal the decision and get less? Or we could end up with even more. I'll leave it up to you.”
I thought about the automatic five I got right before we spoke to the reporter. Then there was game three and game four. I had so many running errors and I even fell asleep before it ended. The odds aren't really in our favor. Every five laps equaled a mile. Twelve laps was only a little over two miles so it's doable for me. ”We agree to twelve.”
Noah nodded and looked at Zeke. ”We accept.”
”Okay, but what about me??” Dave jumped back in. ”They all have reasons? What reason could you possibly give me?”
Zeke consulted his slip of paper. ”As a pitcher, you gave up a hit. As a batter, you had a weak groundout to first base. Then you were stupid enough to take a hit by pitch just to get on base in a game where we had a sizable lead. Fifteen laps. Five for each action that ticked me off.”
Noah and Kyle laughed at Dave's fallen face. Even I cracked a grin. Zeke had no mercy. Not even for his own flesh and blood.
”You can't do that!” Dave finally spat out. ”Otherwise the whole team would be running laps during practice all the time!”
Zeke stuffed the slip of paper back in his pocket. ”The rest of the team isn't related to me. I hold you guys to a higher standard. That's an extra five for questioning my decision.”
Noah nudged me. ”Let's go ahead and start now so we don't miss too much of warmups. Dave can argue this forever.”
I nodded in agreement and followed him as he headed to outside the field fencing. Kyle seemed to have the same idea and followed us out, but it didn't take him long to start leaving us in the dust.
”You don't have to run at my pace.” I huffed out as we started the third lap. ”You're faster.”