Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2018 04:33:47 +0000 From: Douglas DD Subject: Aiden II Chapter 32 Welcome back. This chapter takes a look at more of the people in Aiden's life. Please donate to the Nifty Archive to keep the stories flowing. Email always appreciated. Douglas thehakaanen@hotmail.com CHAPTER 32 "A WEEK IN THE LIVES OF... (Part 2) WEDNESDAY, MAY 2 Aiden noticed that the twins seemed bouncier than usual when they sat down to lunch. As the twins made more friends among their fourth-grade classmates, it was becoming unusual for both of them to sit at Aiden's table. "What's got you guys all excited?" Aiden asked. "We should be getting a big package today or tomorrow," Lenny gushed. "Two big packages," Lance corrected. "Yeah, two big packages." "From our dad." "One for me and..." "...one for me." "What is he sending you?" Aiden interrupted. He knew how long a combined answer from the twins could take and how sometimes after they thought they'd given an answer to a question he didn't have a fucking clue as to what they'd said. "Bicycles!" they answered in unison. That was followed by a moment of silence during which they gave each other serious looks. "I mean we'll have bicycles if he really sends them...," Lenny started. "...but he doesn't always do what he said he'll do," Lance finished. "Mom said he told her he gave them to a UPS guy on Friday who put it on his truck..." "...unless he is lying." "Why would he lie about that?" Gordy asked. "He'll just get caught." "Because he lies about everything," Lance answered. "Yeah, he lies because he's a lawyer and people say lawyers lie all the time, especially lying lawyers like my dad," Lenny said. Aiden gave that some thought and decided George Bednarzyk, and Mary Polk, and his Uncle Troy must not be the lying kind of lawyers because he couldn't begin to imagine them lying all the time. "I bet they will be there when you get home from school," Mason predicted, "and pretty soon you'll be riding them all over town. You guys are lucky." "How?" Lenny asked. "I don't even have a dad who lies all the time." +++++++++++++++++++++++++ After school, Aiden, Mason, Muddy, and Miles went with the twins to their house. The twins set a fast pace as they jogged the last half of the distance. When they arrived at the old Victorian house they rang the bell of Mrs. Nance. While she wasn't the owner, the seventy-year-old widow acted as a de facto landlady. She had agreed to meet the UPS driver and unlock the doors of the detached garage so he could deliver the boxes there. "Well, hello boys," Mrs. Nance grinned. The twins liked the pleasant widow. She had become like a grandmother to them. "Oh my, it looks like you brought an army of friends along. Hello to all of you." "This is Mrs. Nance one of our neighbors and these are," Lenny pointed to the boys, "Aiden, Miles, Mason, and Muddy and they are my best friends and did the boxes come?" "My you are big boys for fourth graders." Mrs. Nance was a retired elementary school teacher and was adept at judging the ages of young children. "That's because they're fifth graders, but please, did any boxes arrive?" Lenny asked impatiently. "They're from our dad," Lance added to make sure Mrs. Nance knew what boxes they were talking about. Mrs. Nance smiled at the boys and handed a key to Lenny. "Well, boys, I think if you unlock the garage with this key, you might find something there. I couldn't say for sure, but it would pay to take a look." "Thank you!" Lenny and Lance yelled out. Once again they were in perfect unison. "That was Mrs. Nance's way of saying the boxes are here," Lenny informed his friends as they raced around the house to the garage. He unlocked the door and the six boys fell over each other as they crowded into the garage. They saw two long cardboard boxes leaning against one of the walls. "What's that?" Lance asked. "They can't fit bicycles in there." "Of course they can," Lenny said, "but they have to be assembled." "Do you know how to assemble one?" Lenny's shoulders slumped as he answered with a defeated, "No." "I bet there's a book of directions," Miles said. "But we don't have any tools." Lance had the same defeated look as his twin. "I know somebody who is really good at putting things together, and I can ask him to help," Aiden offered. "Who?" Lenny and Lance asked together. "My dad." "You think he'll say yes?" Lenny asked. "Nope, I KNOW he'll say yes." The twins quickly bounced back to their animated selves. "Ask him now!" Lenny demanded. "He's at work. I'll ask him when I see him tonight." Aiden knew that his dad had baseball practice going on at the high school, which was within walking distance. He told his friends that he was going to the high school practice and started his walk. He was pleased when Miles walked alongside him. The two talked about the Yard Goats and their upcoming practice the next day, wondering what they would be doing. They also talked about Scott and Connor meeting with them at the high school after the high school practice was over to give out uniforms. That was almost more exciting than the game. "We've got our first counting game on Saturday," Miles pointed out, "so I bet Scott and Connor work us really hard." Aiden agreed that they should be ready for a workout. They arrived at the high school field in time to watch the last half-hour of varsity practice. They volunteered to help put equipment away. Some of their teammates started showing up knowing that they would be allowed into the gym to get their uniforms. By the end of high school practice all of the Goats were at the high school. Larry stayed in his office while Scott and Connor met with the team in the boys' locker room. Kalie was excited to be in that room for the first time while the boys were wondering if she was going to see them in their underwear while they tried on their uniforms. She was excited about stripping down to her panties in front of them. But that wasn't to be. Gordy's mother was waiting in the girls' locker room to help Kalie with her uniform fitting, which disappointed quite a few of the Goats. However, they all loved their uniforms, which said Mayfield across the front and had a patch saying Yard Goats on their left breast with cartoon of a goat pulling a box car. After the players received their uniforms, Aiden rode home with Larry. He told Larry about the delivery of the twins' bicycles. "Do you think dad will help assemble them?" Aiden asked. "Help?" Larry laughed. "Oh, hell no, I think he'll volunteer to assemble them completely on his own." That turned out to be the case. Phil said he couldn't do it that day because the Mayfield Baseball Club board was having a meeting and the Goats had practice the next day. "Tell the twins they will have to wait until after your game on Saturday, but by dinner time they will have operating bicycles. Do they have helmets?" "I don't know." "I'll call their mom and see if she'll pick some up at Ben's store or I can pick them up at the bicycle store in Centralia." "I think Lenny and Lance should help pick them out," Aiden told his dad. The adornment of their helmets was a big deal to the boys. "Good point. We'll figure something out to get those boys riding this weekend." The twins were ecstatic after Aiden called and told them that his dad would put their bikes together on Saturday and that their mom would take them to buy helmets. "This has been a totally awesome day," Lenny said as the twins got ready for bed that night. "Dad actually did what he promised, and Aiden's dad is going to put our bikes together, and mom is going to get us helmets." "And I'm going to give you a blow job to celebrate," Lance smirked. "And I'll give you one to say thank you." They could have gone the sixty-nine route, but Lance wanted to totally concentrate on his brother, both in giving and receiving. The two ten-year olds needed only fifteen minutes to get their desired results. After their orgasms they went to the bathroom to pee, not bothering to put anything on their naked bodies. They were certain Brenda was asleep and if their mom saw them, well, it wouldn't be the first time she'd seen them scurrying to the bathroom in the nude. They fell naked into Lenny's bed and cuddled, thankful for their bikes, for Phil's offer to help, and for being half of a pair of twins. THURSDAY, MAY 3 "Come on dude, have just one beer with me," Drake pleaded. "Why isn't your ass in school?" Keegan asked. "Who made you my fucking dad?" Drake had come knocking at Keegan's apartment door just before ten in the morning. While Keegan was certain that the young teen was up to no good, he still let him in. Drake looked around the little studio apartment and shook his head. "Fuck, Keegan, this place is a bigger pig sty than my bedroom." It hadn't taken more than a few seconds for Keegan to ascertain that Drake was high. Drake then sat down on Keegan's unmade bed and started begging for beer which Keegan kept refusing. Finally, Keegan had asked the obvious question. "It's one of those teacher days where they sit around and get paid for bullshitting all day," Drake answered when asked why he wasn't in school. "Oh, wait, that's what teachers get paid to do every day." Then he started giggling, confirming Keegan's theory that he was high. "Son of a biscuit I'm a funny dude." "Look, you can't hang around here today. Don't you have some friends you can hang around with?" "Hey, why aren't you at work? You asked me why I wasn't at school, so I can ask you why the fuck your ass isn't at work." "Today's my day to work construction and I wasn't called in. We got our house done Tuesday." Drake faked guzzling beer and said, "Cool, then you and me can get drunk together. Getting drunk with you without Aunt Naughty around should totally rock. You can teach me everything about being drunk, maybe even give me a blow job or something. I was gonna go to Vic's house and fuck his ass, but he went off with his dad or some bullshit thing. He's a football player at school and has an ass to die for." Drake knew he was rambling but he was too messed up on weed to care. "I don't have any beer here." "Then fucking buy some. Hey, I'm fourteen now so I'm like so close to being a grown up that you and me can be drinking buddies." Keegan thought about how he and his dad were drinking buddies when he was that age and how often now he wished that had never happened. At least there hadn't been any sex between them, although he thought it had been close to happening more than once. Keegan knew he had been a prick tease when he got drunk and had flashed his hard cock at his dad more than once. One of the things he was grateful to his drunken dad for was that he never took the bait, although Keegan knew in his heart his dad wanted it. "I'm not drinking anymore," Keegan said matter-of-factly. "You and my fucking aunt. Shit, you two used to be a lot of fun. Do you two still fuck? I sure would love to fuck her, she's so fine for a woman. I bet she's a better fuck than Vic Ellis." Drake pulled a roach out of his pocket. "Do you mind if I light up?" "Yeah, I mind. You better go, Drake." "Fuck you, Keegan. I want a blow job. If you don't give me one I'll tell everybody you sucked me dry, so give me one and we're cool." Keegan pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I don't trust you farther than I can kick you, punk, so I recorded all this," Keegan lied. "Now, get your ass out of my apartment or I'll kick it out of here." Drake looked chagrined. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I was just fucking kidding. I like you and would never narc on you. You can just suck me off and it will be cool and I'll suck you back. Or, I can just lie here on your bed and jerk off, add my spooge to yours on the sheets." He started giggling as his mood changed again. Drake started unzipping his pants, staring at Keegan with a sneer. "I'm going," Keegan snarled. "Just shut the door when you leave, it will lock. Oh, and give me the roach, I can't afford to have this place smelling like pot." Drake stuck the roach back into his pants pocket and then pulled his pants and boxers down to his ankles, his almost five-inch teen rod standing at attention. Keegan noted that the boy's boner had grown and had the patch of pubic hair above it. Drake started seductively stroking his cock. "Look at the size of this fucker, dude," he bragged. "Does this turn you on or what?" "No." Keegan lied. He turned and went out of the door, leaving Drake behind to take care of himself. Keegan was furious at the almost out-of-control teen. Drake finished himself off, squirting his teen cum on Keegan's sheets. He pulled his pants back on and decided to grab a bus back home and find somebody to get stoned with. Keegan had turned into a total dork and Drake was not happy about it. Keegan was the only man he knew who he found sexy enough to want to have sex with. He thought about lighting up his roach, but decided he'd rather do it with somebody fun. Keegan sat in the Starbucks across from his apartment sipping on a cup of coffee—black. He was pleased to see Drake leave a few minutes after he did. He assumed Drake planned on taking a bus home, although he didn't care. He was still pissed as hell at the kid – he knew he was going to have to talk to Natalie in no uncertain terms about Drake coming to his apartment. The last thing he needed was the teen hanging around. For one thing, the idea of getting drunk and stoned with Drake and having sex with the boy appealed to him and had since he first met Natalie's nephew. It was all he could do to walk out on the boy; he hoped Drake hadn't noticed the bulge in his pants from his erection. He hadn't lied to Drake about being clean. He hadn't had a drink or drug going on thirty days. He was going to his drug counselor and to his group sessions regularly. He was peeing in a cup on demand, and passing. He decided he was going to prove everyone wrong—he was going to see his son and was going to do whatever it took to do it. If jumping through hoops of being clean and sober was the way, then he'd be clean and sober. If that didn't work, well, he wouldn't be the first father to kidnap his son. Practice started on time and the players were kept busy by Connor and Scott as well as Trent's father, James, who helped out when he could. They performed various drills and then the coaches started batting practice, but the dark clouds moving over the field brought a drizzle with them. Practice ended a half hour early when the drizzle turned into a spring rain shower that made the field too wet for practice. It was also becoming dark and the field lights, which were on a timer, had turned themselves on about fifteen minutes earlier. Scott called the boys in. He and Connor thanked them for working hard, told them to be at Field 2 on the Park fields by 9:15 on Saturday and sent them home. The boys found shelter in the first base dugout and were quickly on their phones calling their parents for an early ride home. During practice, Aiden noticed that whenever Eddie got close to Mason, except on the field, Muddy or Trent seemed to pop up close to the two. They obviously didn't trust Eddie and were looking after Mason. Aiden soon started sidling in close as well. Eddie made it plain by the looks on his face and by his body language, that he didn't like the hovering of his three teammates. When the boys gathered their gear and sought shelter in the first-base dugout, Eddie made his feelings very apparent by going to the third-base dugout, where Russell joined him. Aiden checked to see if the coaches had noticed Eddie and Russell's behavior. Since Scott and Connor were standing in the first-base dugout and were looking out at the field, it was obvious that they had a clue about what was going on. Larry picked Aiden up a few minutes after he called. They picked up some hamburgers at Bob's Burger Barn for a late dinner. When they got home, Aiden went up to his room and stripped down to a fresh t-shirt and his socks. He made sure the t-shirt was long enough to cover his naked crotch and went back downstairs to eat. While he and Larry sat in the kitchen eating, Aiden asked Larry questions about what to do if you have bad teammates. "You just try to be a team leader," Larry told him. "Go out and set the example and work hard not to be the example. In other words, you do things right so the coach doesn't have to use the things you do as an example of doing things wrong. Then you hope your teammate takes the hint and does things right, too." "What if you have teammates who are bullies?" "Are they bullying some of their teammates?" Aiden nodded. "Like you, for instance?" Aiden shook his head. "Nobody bullies me more than one time." "I suggest you talk to your coaches about it." "But..." "Aiden, we've had a lot of talks about swallowing your pride and not doing everything on your own. Some things are best left to the adults in charge. You can trust Scott and Connor to handle things. Do you mind telling me who those teammates are?" Aiden finished his last French fry, then sat in silence looking away from his daddy. He wished he hadn't brought up the subject. Discussing topics like this went better when he talked to Marty, but Marty wasn't around to talk to and Aiden felt he needed to talk to somebody. Now he wished he'd just kept his mouth shut, but Aiden knew he had to answer his dad's question since he had been the one to open the discussion. Before answering, however, he decided to stall. "Who do you think it is?" Larry knew exactly what his son was doing and elected to play along up to a point. "I would say Ed Shaffer with Russell Kingman as his sidekick even though Russell is the older of the two." Aiden gave his daddy a look of respect. "Wow, you're good." "Years of teaching and coaching experience—it makes it relatively easy to pick out the bad apples." "But how do you make them good teammates?" "Just remember what I said earlier—set the example and don't try taking things into your own hands. Trust your coaches." "Me, Muddy, and Trent kind of help protect Mason and even the twins do by hanging close to them, not that the twins don't know how to take care of themselves. Still..." "Aiden, I want you to promise me something." "What?" Larry's gaze focused directly on his son. Aiden could almost feel it burning a hole through him. "Promise me you won't take things into your own hands. Promise that you'll be a good teammate to everybody by setting the example. Control what you can control—yourself." "I'll try," Aiden said half-heartedly. "That's not much of a promise." "I said I'll try. Eddie is an ass waffle and I don't like him, but I'll try hard to do my best." Aiden excused himself and went upstairs to check on Marty's stats. He hadn't had a chance to look at Wednesday's games. After logging into the website, he noted that Marty had gone 1-for-4 with a double and that he scored a run. He had a putout and four assists at third base. He took Horace off of his shelf and set him on the bed. He then got naked and set to work jerking off. His fantasy was Mason and him having a sixty-nine after he rescued his friend from Eddie and Russell. His dry orgasm was very satisfactory. The changes surrounding the Nuts had been happening so quickly it set Marty's head to spinning. He fully expected Vance Beck, the Mariner farm director, to leak the gist of their lunch conversation on Monday. He figured the entire clubhouse would know about it by game time on Monday. Three days later there was no doubt in Marty's mind that not only had the farm director not leaked any of the conversation but that none of his teammates even knew he and the farm director had met for lunch. He was impressed with the professionalism of the front office executive. From things he'd heard through the ever busy player grapevine, that kind of professionalism was not displayed with every franchise. Vance Beck's professionalism made his apology for the Venezuela screw up exactly what it appeared to be—making amends for an underling who overstepped his authority. Since Vance was in his first year as farm director, Marty could see how a mistake like that could happen. Along with Vance not leaking information to players, Marty could see that he had been busy making things happen in the Mariner organization. On Tuesday afternoon, Cassidy Howard was traded to the Marlins for pitcher Pedro Gomez, who was supposed to join the team on Friday. Vance had shown that he put his action where his mouth was. On Wednesday morning, outfielder Jerry Hackman was given his release after going on a rant in the locker room following Tuesday's game. He hollered that the team should have traded the faggot instead of a player who stood up for what was right. Vance had returned to Seattle Tuesday afternoon, but as soon as Nuts' manager Jed Taylor called Vance and reported the incident, Vance called the Mariner general manager, who called the team president, who agreed that the Mariners had no use for bigots. Since the reports on Hackman were that he had about as much chance of succeeding at the major league level as he did of landing on the moon he had next to no trade value. As a result, the general manager informed him the next morning that he was being cut from the organization. One thing Vance recognized was that Marty had the potential to be a top prospect, and the front office supported him on that. Plus, getting rid of the riffraff never hurt. Manager Jed Taylor had a meeting with Marty before Wednesday's game apologizing for not being as aware as he should have been of the goings on in the club house. He assured Marty he would work to make sure the Modesto Nuts would not tolerate any kind of discrimination in the club house or on the team. Taylor was upset with himself. He thought he had his thumb on the pulse of his team and that Marty Carlson was being met with openness by his teammates. He quickly found out during his meeting with Vance Beck that he had little idea of what had been going on behind the scenes. Marty obviously had the backing of the Mariners' organization and Jed realized that if he was going to get anywhere with the organization he was going to have to be much better at his job. After the meeting the manager, hitting coach Hugh Reese, caught up with Marty during batting practice. "Hey, Marty. You looked good in that last round." "I haven't been looking very good in games," Marty replied. "Yeah, I know you've been in a slump. I've been looking at what video we have and was meaning to talk with you, but there's lots of young players on this team and I got busy. Sorry about that, but sometimes things happen." "Bullshit," Marty said forcefully. "Excuse me?" "I said, I call bullshit, Hugh." Marty was shaking. He hadn't talked like this to a coach since he was a high school sophomore. "You didn't help me because you didn't want to help me." "Not true. You can ask Jed about it. Him and I had a talk today about organizing my time better. He knows what the issue is." "Bullshit again. You and I both know why you avoided helping me, and why you've given me almost none of your time since spring training." "Look, Marty, I swear, this has nothing to do with...with...that." "And `that' meaning what, Hugh?" "You know, about you being gay. I'm not like that. It's my job to treat everybody equal." "Bullshit." Marty was enjoying throwing out the word. "You're not going to win this Hugh, and I doubt I am going to win either, so let's make a deal." "I'm a coach. I don't make deals with players." "You will today. You give me your time as a coach, without all of the bullshit about your motives, and I'll give you my time as a player without calling you on your bullshit, since you're won't be giving me any." "That's it?" "Hey, Dave, go hit in my slot," Marty called to one of his teammates as his turn came up on the batting cage. Dave nodded and told Marty to take his slot. Marty looked directly at Hugh Reese. Reese was having difficulty returning Marty's look—his eyes shifted everywhere except on the player. "I don't give a shit what you think of gays or what you think of me. I do give a shit if it keeps you from doing your job and I do give a shit about you bullshitting me, because if you're going to coach my hitting, which is my livelihood, then I want to be able to trust you one-hundred percent. Got it?" Hugh finally made eye contact with Marty. "I'll give you the best coaching I am capable of giving. I wasn't bullshitting when I said I was looking at your tapes. I do have some ideas to help you and I apologize for not being man enough to do my job. I will see you tomorrow at one for some early batting practice." He turned and walked away as Marty started prepping for his turn in the cage. Hugh Reese knew that he needed to get his act together if he wanted to stay employed. He couldn't complain to the team manager because Marty Carlson had seen right through him. When he said he would do his best coaching job with Marty, he meant it—he was left with no choice. He may have been a man with some deep seated prejudices, but he wasn't dumb. He had no doubt about what was behind the trade of Cassidy Howard and the release of Jerry Hackman. Reese knew he would be next to go if he didn't react properly. The next afternoon the batting coach showed Marty some flaws he detected in his swing. Lonnie Stephens, a former minor league pitcher who lived in Modesto, pitched batting practice for the Nuts when he could. He was available that afternoon and Marty was able to get a lot of swings in. While he'd hit a double the day before, even that swing hadn't felt right. But, Hugh Reese was better at his job than Marty thought. Even though he had no use for gays in general and Marty in particular, he had compared Marty's swing with tapes of him batting at Everett and in spring training in case Jed should ask him about Marty. That work was actually being put to good use. Marty went 2-for-5 including a two-RBI single in the eighth inning as the Nuts defeated Lancaster 7-5 at home. While he didn't feel great at the plate, he felt better. His fielding had been smooth and error-free as well. He had a feeling he was on his way back. FRIDAY, MAY 4 "I wish I'd turned out for the fifth-grade rec team or maybe played softball with my friends," Kalie said as Aiden sat next to her on the bus. "Well, good morning to you, too," Aiden muttered, upset at Kalie's lack of a morning greeting at the same time he was concerned about the tense look on her face. "I'm scared about the game tomorrow." "You've never been scared of anything. I mean you ride horses all the time, and I think that's plenty scary." That got Kalie to loosen up some and giggle. "Horses are fun." "So is baseball and you're better than lots of the boys on our team." "But what about the other team?" she asked. "I mean a lot of teams are from places way bigger than Mayfield." "Well, then I guess they would be better than all of us, not just you. But, I think we're a pretty good team because Mayfield always has pretty good teams." "I wish you could spend a night with me." Aiden's eyes opened wide as his face turned bright red. "Say what?" "I don't mean like that," Kalie explained, meaning that sex wasn't the reason. "I just wanted you to be there with me tonight in my bed. Being around you always makes me feel better. We wouldn't be naked or anything, but we could, like, hold each other. You kissed me that one time so we should be able to sleep in the same bed." "You must have a teddy bear or something." "I got, like, six stuffed animals." "So, hold one of them tonight. Horace always makes me feel good when I need to hold someone, so I bet your favorite animal would help you. I mean we both know I could never spend the night with you." "I know, but I can still wish it." She looked at the other kids sitting on the bus. They all seemed to be occupied with their own business. "But, you could kiss me now." "Mrs. Emerson would probably see us in her mirror and end up driving the bus off the road. Besides, we're almost at the school." Aiden was getting increasingly nervous about sitting with Kalie on the bus in the morning. Her thoughts seemed to keep getting more and more sexy. "Yeah, I know, but I want a kiss so bad." Aiden's answer was a silent shrug since he didn't have a clue about what to say. Most of the Goats knew that it was Cinco de Mayo although they had no idea what the significance was other than it was the fifth of May. Everyone except for Russell and Eddie were at the baseball complex on time. Russell was five minutes late and Eddie was ten minutes late. Scott told them they would be playing the minimum allowable time on the field for being late. "That's all I would have played anyway, since you hate me," Eddie said. "Think what you want, but that's all you're playing today because you couldn't make it to the ballfield on time," Scott said. "It was my dad's fault," Eddie whined. "Fine, then train him better." Eddie wanted to tell Scott he was full of shit, but he kept his mouth shut for once. Russell took his medicine quietly—he decided to keep a low profile and let Eddie make waves. Aiden knew his daddy wouldn't be at the game because the Mustangs had a game in the Seamount League tournament at the same time he was playing. But, he was surprised and pleased to see his Grandpa Art and Grandma Jennifer sitting on lawn chairs up the first base line next to his dad, who was skipping the high school game to watch his son play. Seeing his grandparents had him loving them even more. The Yard Goats were playing the Yelm Tornados. Yelm was a town in Pierce County that was over an hour away. It was a bigger town than Mayfield. The Tornadoes had more eleven year olds than the Goats. They were bigger and a bit more talented, but the Goats were better coached and sounder fundamentally. As a result, the teams were evenly matched. Scott and Connor planned to have Trent pitch the first three innings. Scott had received the okay from the Mayfield Middle School coach to pitch Trent for 50 pitches, since he was on the middle school's JV team. The score was tied at 2-2 when he finished his last inning. Aiden, who hadn't started in the field, entered the game to pitch in the top of the fourth. Muddy had caught Trent's three innings and Lenny came in as Aiden's catcher. Aiden had trouble getting focused in his first inning. He could see that he would have to do a better job of getting into "the zone". He was constantly behind the hitters. He gave up two hits and walked two, resulting in two runs and a 5-2 lead for Yelm. Since he was leading off the bottom of the fourth, he had no time to sit in the dugout and stew. He grabbed his bat and a donut, donned his helmet, and went out to the on-deck circle. His at-bat wasn't much more successful than his inning on the mound had been. He struck out on four pitches. He sulked his way back to the dugout, upset because his grandparents had come all the way down from Tacoma to watch him stink up the field. Aiden wasn't much better pitching the fifth inning. He walked the second and third batters he faced and then gave up an inside-the-park home run to the next hitter when Mason, who was playing right field, couldn't get to the ball in time to keep it from rolling to the fence. The score was now 8-3. Scott came out of the dugout and replaced Aiden with Lance, who would now be pitching to his twin. Scott had Aiden replace Kenny Gray at third, where he played for the rest of the game. While Lance pitched better than Aiden had, he gave up two more runs and the Tornados ended up thumping the Goats 10-3. After the game, Aiden thanked his grandparents for coming and apologized for playing a lousy game. "Aiden, good or bad, we loved watching you play," Grandma Jennifer said. "You'll have a lot more good games than bad games because you're a good baseball player." Aiden was happy to learn that his grandparents would be joining his dad and him for lunch at The Bear Pizza. There would be no team gathering after this game, but Scott and Connor assured the team they would have food after many of their games. Lenny and Lance were invited to join the family gathering since Phil would be putting their bicycles together after they finished their lunch. "I played lousy, didn't I?" Aiden asked no one in particular. "You've had better games," Phil replied. "The whole team didn't play very well today. You could see the age and experience difference between the two teams. I don't think you guys were ready for it, but you'll all get better." "Do you think I did okay at catcher?" Lenny asked Aiden. "You caught almost all of my pitches," Aiden said. "You did okay for your first game." The big difference Aiden saw between Lenny and Muddy was that Muddy was more experienced and was bigger and not as many pitches got by him. "Did any pitches hit the umpire?" Phil asked Lenny. "A couple." "There's the key. Keep the umpire safe and soon pitches won't go skipping by you." "When we have an extra coach at practice he throws pitches in the dirt at me and I have to block them. Muddy blocks more than I do," Lenny said. "Muddy is more experienced. Keep working at that drill and you'll just keep getting better." Lenny grinned and promised he would work hard at it. "Hang on," Phil said. "I have a score update for the Mustangs." He grinned when he read the text on this phone. "Final score—Mustangs 7, Meadow Park 4. The Mustangs advance to regionals next week." That led to a loud cheer from the boys, which soon spread to other patrons when they heard the final score. The talk then went to other parts of the Goats' game, both the good and the bad, until it came time to leave. Aiden's grandparents said they were paying and nobody argued. After they paid they headed off for Tacoma and home. Phil drove the boys to the twins' house. It was time to assemble the bikes. It didn't take Phil long to get everything put together. Lance won a coin flip with Lenny to get the first assembled bike. First, he assembled Lance's bike and fit it to size. "Take a ride around the block and make sure it's all working right," Phil instructed. Lance donned his new helmet, pushed his bike out of the garage, and headed down the street. "Your dad's good at this," Lenny said as he watched Phil start on his bike. It was together soon, as well. Aiden took his bike out of the back of Phil's pickup. "You guys have fun," Phil told them. "You be home by four-thirty," he instructed Aiden. "And don't let your excitement rule your judgement. Ride carefully." Aiden was soon riding around town with the twins. They stopped by Gordy's house, then Miles' house, and finally Muddy's. They all put together a bicycle convoy and had a great time. At about three-thirty the convoy broke up. Aiden rode with the twins to their house. He said hello to their mother and told them he had better ride home. "Can we ride with him, mom?" Lenny pleaded. "No. You're not experienced enough, yet," Leslie Hazen replied. "Oh, please. We'll be careful, we promise. We're ten just like Aiden and we can ride there." "Let's make this very plain. You are not to cross the highway at any time." "But...," "No buts, young man." "But...," Lance chimed in this time. "One more `but' and I will lock your bikes together and you won't be able to ride anywhere. And if you ever cross or ride on the highway, it will be like not wearing your helmets—you will lose your bikes for a month." "You're mean," the twins said in unison. "I know, and I love you both." She looked over at Aiden. "Ride safely." "I will." He rode off shaking his head. He didn't think the twins were going to win that argument. "I never got into my zone," Aiden told his dads during dinner. He was careful to avoid making it sound like he was whining. "I wonder if this is how Marty feels since he hasn't been hitting." "Marty has gotten some big hits the last couple of games. I am thinking he might be coming out of his slump." "I knew he would start to hit but I wonder if he had troubles with his zone when he was hitting lousy. How do you get into your zone when you can't get into your zone?" While Aiden's question may have sounded a bit off kilter, his dads both knew what he was driving at. "That might be a good question to ask your bro." "We're supposed to chat tomorrow so I can ask him then." After taking his uniform off and replacing it with nothing but a t-shirt and fresh socks, Aiden called Kalie. Kalie had gone one-for-two in the game, singling between the first and second basemen in the second inning, and scored a run. She played second base where she had two assists. "Nice game, Kalie," Aiden said when she answered her phone. "I told you that you could play as good as the boys. You played better than I did, that's for sure." "Thanks, Aiden. You and Gordy both called. That makes me really happy." "And you didn't need me to sleep overnight with you to play a good game, either." "Maybe not, but Gordy said he'd do it if our parents would let him." "For real? Gordy really said that?" "Yep." "Wow," was the only thing Aiden could think of saying. After he ended the call he called his cousin Chase and wished him a happy thirteenth birthday. "Did you have a good party?" "Yeah, it was pretty good. Great cake and ice cream. I made a new friend at school this week and invited him and I think he's going to be a great friend." "What's his name? "Dillon." "Is he staying overnight?" "Not this time, but I know he's gonna. It's just going to be Hatcher tonight." "Ooh, Hatcher your boyfriend." "I can't wait until you get a boyfriend," Chase teased. "Or a girlfriend," Aiden teased back. "Yeah, that could happen, too." That night before going to bed, Aiden checked out the Modesto Nuts website. He ran down the stairs yelling and charged into the TV room, surprising his dads. Phil and Larry weren't surprised that their son was naked—that had become standard operating procedure for their little naturist. What surprised them was the speed and noise of his entry. "What's the noise about?" Larry asked. "Marty had two home runs today and four RBI and the Nuts won 7-2. He is out of his slump and tomorrow is going to be perfect to ask him about zones." Chase had a plus experience and a minus experience at his party. The plus was Dillon Easton. Chase invited him the day after Dillon had caught him jerking off in class. Chase had always seen Dillon as a little dork, but after what happened in history class, he decided that while Dillon might be a nerd and a geek, he was not a dork. Chase had no problems with nerds and geeks, but dorks were, well, dorky. Dillon had been really cool about the entire jerking off thing, so Chase decided on a whim to invite him to his birthday party. It didn't hurt that Dillon was terribly cute. Dillon almost walked on air when Chase asked if he would be able to come. "You're asking me to your birthday party? You're, like, a class officer and a jock and a straight-A student, and really good looking and the girls all like you so why do you want me to come. I'm, like, nothing but a nerd." "I want you to come because you kept your mouth shut about what I did in class and because I really like you. I want us to be friends." "For real?" "Totally for real." "I liked what you did in class. Are you ever going to do it there again?" "Only if you do it with me and not just touching it through your pants, but taking it out like I did." Dillon blushed. "I might need to practice doing that first," he said shyly. At that point, Chase had fallen totally in lust with the little twelve-year-old. He made sure to tell Dillon that this would be a bring-no-presents party so Dillion wouldn't think he had an ulterior motive. When Dillon arrived at Chase's house, his excitement was apparent, but so was his shyness. While he had a couple of nerdy friends at school, he had never hung out with the popular kids before, and that was who was at Chase's party—the popular kids. But, he soon bonded with the other shy boy who was staying in the background—Logan. The older boy and the younger boy hit it off and when Dillon showed Logan some card tricks, he not only made a new friend, he also impressed some of Chase's buddies who watched him at work. The negative for Chase was his friend Braeden, or maybe his soon-to-be ex-friend. When Braeden arrived, Chase wondered if he was high. His looks and behavior seemed off, but Chase didn't know enough about being high to say anything. When he saw Braeden go out of the sliding door to the back of the house, he decided to wait a couple of minutes and then follow him. Something just didn't seem right. He found Braeden around the side of the house toking on a joint. "Want to take a hit?" Braeden asked, not at all embarrassed about being caught. Chase was his best friend after all. Chase was furious. "No, I don't want to take a fucking hit. When did you start smoking that shit?" "Back on winter break. Cody Morris showed me how." Cody Morris was an eighth grader and a known stoner. "What are you doing hanging out with scum like him?" "Getting stoned," Braeden giggled. "Come on, dude, take a hit. You'll love it." "What I'm going to do is tell you to leave my party and go home or go to Cody's house or just get fucking lost." "Hey, we're friends, dude. All I'm doing is getting high. Everybody gets high." "Well, I guess I'm not everybody, because I don't. Now move your ass out of here or I'm getting my dad and he won't kick you out, he'll call the police, because that's how he is." "Fuck you, Chase Miller. You always think you're better than everybody else and that your shit don't stink, but yours reeks for miles. You think you're so good you can't even get high with your friends. Yeah, I'm gonna go and I'm never coming back. I ain't no stoner, but I like to get high sometimes, but you're such a fucking asshole you think you're better than everybody including your best friends. So, I ain't gonna be your friend no more. Here's what I think. I might get high sometimes, but I ain't no fucking faggot like you are so Happy Birthday, asshole." Braeden opened the gate between the house and the side fence and left the yard. He left Chase wondering if a friendship that went back to at least fourth grade was over. Chase went back into the house and put on a happy face. With everybody having a good time listening to music and playing games and chatting he soon got back into things. "What happened to Braeden?" Steven Howard asked. "He wasn't feeling good," Chase lied. After the party ended and everybody except Hatcher had left, Chase told Hatcher the real reason Braeden left the party. "What a pecker head," Hatcher said. "I mean not for getting high but for doing it at your house. That is so rude." "It's ruder than rude. I don't think we're friends anymore." "You don't know that. Maybe when he isn't stoned he'll think about how stupid he was." "He said we weren't friends. And anybody who acts like that at my birthday party isn't my friend anyway." Hatcher had nothing to say to that. The rest of the party was a success. Chase and his friends had fun and Logan was happy to be included in the fun. Only Hatcher was going to be spending the night. The boys had already planned their night. Since it was Chase's birthday party, Hatcher was going to let Chase fuck him as many times as he could do it. "Can I watch; oh please can I watch?" Logan pleaded. "Not this time bro, but I promise that before summer vacation we'll let you watch us, right Hatcher?" "Right, and you can even give us blow jobs if you want." "You mean you'll treat me like a big boy?" "Fuck, dude, you're going to be ten in a couple of months. That's pretty big. Just ask Aiden," Chase told him. "Aiden has lots of sex. That's what I want to do." Logan put his index finger to his mouth and stuck it in a little way. "You know what? Dillon is really cool. He showed me card tricks and other stuff." "What other stuff?" Chase asked warily. Logan caught his drift and shook his head. "Not sex stuff, just magic stuff." "You could make his dick disappear into your mouth," Hatcher giggled. "That would be magic." "I think he wants to be friends with me." "Do you want to be friends with him?" Chase asked. "He's twelve and almost thirteen and in seventh grade and you're nine and almost ten and in fourth grade." While he was feeling protective of his little brother, he was pretty certain that Dillon wasn't going to be aggressive about sexual things. Shyness seemed to be one of the things Dillon and Logan had in common. "I don't care. I like him a lot and he liked me a lot. He looked at me like he liked me. But, I dunno, maybe he just looked at me." "Whatever. Dillon seems like a good guy. But don't let him, or anybody, do things to you that you don't want them to do. If they do, you tell me and I'll kick their sorry asses." Logan ignored his brother's rant. "You guys know all about this kind of stuff. How do I get him to like me?" "What, do you have a crush on him?" "I dunno. I just liked him." "Don't get him to do anything bro. It will happen or it won't. How about I set up a time for him to come over and then we'll find a way to leave you guys alone so you can get to know each other better." Logan flashed a big grin and gave his older brother a big hug and a hard kiss on the lips. He squeaked when he felt Chase's tongue push on his lips and he let it into his mouth for a few seconds. "You're the best big brother ever," Logan gushed. "You guys have fun fucking." He left the two boyfriends alone and headed to his room. "I think I might have turned him into a sex fiend," Chase lamented as they both stripped naked. "Good," Hatcher giggled. For the record, Chase fucked Hatcher three times. Hatcher creamed over his chest and belly once, on Chase's sheets once, and in Chase's mouth after his boyfriend's third cum of the night. Chase fell asleep to a fantasy of him sucking Logan while Dillon fucked his little brother's ass. Next: Leaping into Spring.