276 Game: @ Lassen Union HS 1 (2/2)
My heart warmed up and tears threatened to fall.
Noah laughed at my plight and didn't even off a tissue or napkin. ”What a sap you are. Come on now that's nothing new. Use your sleeves to wipe your eyes, silly. Really now. Stop being such a baby for little things like this.”
I pulled my sweatshirt sleeve over my fingers and dabbed the corner of my eyes. Noah always made me feel welcomed since day one, hour one. I was happy that he became my best friend, but I also feel bad that his friends had left him because he's more outstanding.
After clearing up my face, the bus had finally loaded up and we started to take off. This time with three teams aboard, a lot more players had to stack up to three a seat. This duty fell on the freshmen team and the JV team. At first I felt guilty, but then I remembered that Noah's friends ditched him for rumors.
The trip was a little less than an hour as we headed towards the coast and not the mountains, thankfully. As the bus driver took us to our destination, Coach stood up and announced that each team would play at the same time on their own respective fields. This drew a lot of attention to Lassen Union...they could afford just as much as a public school like ours. And we were on the nicer end from what I've seen so far.
Coach then asked for the varsity players attention as he officially announced the lineup.
1 SS Noah Atkins
2 2B Jake Hollander
3 CF Mahki Holstrom
4 LF Garret Knudsen
5 RF Brian Swoope
6 3B Jason Morris
7 1B Sean Isner
8 C Kelvin Bender
9 P James Lohr
With this, only one-third of the starters were seniors: Mahki, Kelvin, and James. And James would be rotating with the other pitchers, who I knew weren't all seniors. Without Julian and Zeke, the team had lost its mature vibe. Even Tony was benched after starting the last two games. It would be a new look.
We arrived at the school and started to file off the bus, grabbing our bags from the lower department. Like at our school, Lassen Union had a clubhouse behind each dugout for changing and preparation. Only for the varsity field though. The lower levels still had to change in the locker rooms and then head to their own field.