173 An Invitation 2 (2/2)
”Well, you boys heard him.” Coach took over. ”We'll be taking part in the Foothill Classic. Again. I know most of you participated in last year and were disappointed with the results, but new year means new teams.” A few moans came from within the group but I couldn't pinpoint them. ”We have three days of practice before Saturday. I've decided that we'll be doing circuit training. There'll be three groups: conditioning & training with Drew, batting practice with Miller, fielding practice with me. Coach Luis will oversee pitching. Pitchers and catchers won't work on their hitting. They'll use that time to work on pitching. Last year, our pitching was weak and couldn't really compare. This year will be different.”
All eyes went to Kyle. Yet, he didn't take the bait this time to jump up and show off. Instead he was pulling the grass out...
”Don't be such a coward!” Dave jumped up.
Kyle frowned up at him. ”I'm not a coward. I'm just realistic. Last year we got our butts kicked. You were the one to say that I only got the perfect game because it was a bad team. You should know best how I'll measure up against the teams in the Foothill Classic.”
I poked Noah. ”Do you understand what's happening? What's the Foothill Classic and what happened last year?”
Noah gave me a tight smile. ”You heard the athletic director right? We're a division three school. The Foothill Classic is for specifically chosen schools that rank in division one and two. These are schools with more money, better facilities, and more players. Think Paradise Preparatory. But bigger and more ruthless.”
Before he could say more, Dave was walking up to Coach. ”I want to start game one.”
Coach blinked in surprise, then squinted at him. ”Are you asking or demanding? You know you're not the only starter here, right?”
Dave stood firm. ”I'm the only choice. Why waste Garret on game one? As for Kyle, he's scared. Traumatized by last year apparently. He'll only get cold feet and drag us down.”
”I will not!” Kyle stood up and declared. ”Remind me again, who has the perfect game? I'm leading you in all pitching stats.”
Dave sneered. ”Yea. Remind me. The only pitcher with a perfect game so far this season is acting all solemn like losing is inevitable. What kind of example are you setting, huh?”
Kyle glared at him. ”Coach should let me pitch first. No doubt we'll have to play the number one seed or something. Might as well let the superior pitcher go first.”
”Hey, Hey. Are you both forgetting who's the ace on the team?!” Garret got up too.
The three started to bicker and the rest of the team started to chat to one another about the upcoming tournament. I was no different. I turned back to Noah, hoping for some more background on what was going on. I didn't like the feeling of being left out. Even the players who weren't on varsity last year seemed to know what happened. Noah included. No doubt he knew because his brothers were in the game.