The Hitting Zone

"The injustice!" He cried as he compared our lunches. "Look how different our lunches are!"

I looked. We both had a sandwich, chips, a banana, apple slices and a granola bar. The only difference was that I had a bag of cookies and he had a bag of carrot sticks.

I offered him my cookie bag. He opened it and took half. "Thanks, Jake."

"Put it back." A stern voice made us jump. Zeke walked up to our bench and snatched the cookies out of Noah's hand and put it back with mine. "Mom and Dad said no. Don't be bending the rules." He looked down at me. "Jake, don't just go with whatever Noah says. You're supposed to follow the rules."

I quickly nodded and stuffed my cookies back in my bag to make sure Zeke wouldn't take them.

Noah made a sad face at my lunch bag holding the cookies. He quickly turned to Zeke and glared. "What are you doing here anyways? Shouldn't you be sticking to routine and eating in the cafeteria with the team?"

"Dad said to watch out for Jake. I'm doing what I was told." He took a seat next to Noah. "The twins should be here in a few. I sent them a text of where we were." He pulled out his lunch and started to eat.

Noah rolled his eyes. He moved away from Zeke and took a seat next to me, moving his food over too.

"What are you doing?" Zeke asked.

"Jake won't want to sit next to the twins." Noah looked at me, and I nodded my confirmation. "They scare him. Besides, they behave better when you sit between them."

Zeke looked at me. "You know you'll have to be with them for pre-calculus, right? Better get use to it."

"Stop being so no-nonsense, Zeke." Noah opened his bag of chips and started to eat. "Jake is still adjusting. If you don't be more encouraging, I'm going to tell Mom." Wow. How childish. Would that even work on Zeke?

To my surprise, it did. Zeke looked me dead in the eye and said, "The twins aren't scary at all." I gulped. Even though that was supposed to be comfort, it sounded more like a threat. And it certainly felt true.

"Hey fam-bam." Dave plopped on one side of Zeke, and Kyle sat down on the other side. "What's up, kiddos?"

"Nothing. Just Zeke being Zeke." Noah sighed.

The twins shared a look, then grinned at Zeke. "You gonna take that captain?" Kyle raised an eyebrow.

"Make him run laps!" Dave suggested as he pulled out his lunch. "100! No less."

"Why don't you run laps, fatty." Noah grumbled as he watch Dave pull out his cookies.

Dave waved his cookies in front of him. "Ehh? Is that the sound of jealousy? That's unbecoming on a freshman like you."

"Don't antagonize him." Zeke slapped Dave in the back of the head.

They're resorting to violence. I quickly focused on my food and ate as fast as I could. I really didn't want to be next.

"Jake, slow down." Kyle commented on my eating. "Your food isn't going anywhere. You're going to give yourself the hiccups."

I refused to make eye contact. Don't look, and it won't hurt. Maybe they'll go back on focusing on one another.

"You guys scared him." I heard Noah declared. "I'm telling Mom when we get home. Hopefully you guys lose cookie privileges too."

I cracked a smile. All Noah ever thinks about is blackmailing and threatening. It's like he was raised my the mob and not some perfect family living in a pink house.