Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2018 21:29:30 +0000
From: Douglas DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: Aiden II  Chapter 38

Welcome back. For you baseball fans, there is a lot of baseball in today's
chapter.

Please donate to Nifty. They need you to help keep them running.

I love email. thehakaanen@hotmail.com
Douglas

CHAPTER 38
THE YARD GOATS

THURSDAY, JUNE 7

Whether it was the incident with Kentburg on Saturday or simply the fact
that the Yard Goats had worked hard on improving their skills, they put
together their best game of the season against the Centralia Scrappers, one
of two teams in the league from the Centralia area. The Scrappers had a 5-1
record going into the game at Centralia. After a 7-2 defeat to the Yard
Goats they were 5-2 as the Goats improved to 3-3.

Trent pitched the first five innings, giving up one run on three hits. He
had thrown 77 pitches in his five innings of work, so Yonder pitched the
sixth inning. Aiden went 3-for-3 with two doubles. He scored two runs and
knocked in one. Aiden was as locked in as he'd been all year.

In the post-game meeting, Connor and Scott congratulated the team on
playing a focused game, mentioned things they did very well and a couple of
things that needed work the next practice.

"We also wanted to wait until after the game to talk about a different
topic," Connor told them. "The league told us today that they would hold
their hearing on what to do about our forfeit win."

"You mean they might take it away from us?" Trent asked.

"There is a lot of pressure from Kentburg to call the game a no-contest and
replay it. Coach Estes has been removed as coach and many people feel that
the team shouldn't be punished because their coach lost control. I have no
idea what the ruling will be."

"Eddie came back to school today," Kalie announced.

"So I heard. Eddie will be informed that he can return to the team at our
practice on Monday if he takes care of some items of business. Don't forget
we have a game against Longview on Tuesday, we're at Harborview on
Thursday, and our make-up game against East Olympia will be on Friday."

"Dang, we're going to be busy," Mason said.

"That's because the next week will be light since it's the last week of
school for most districts," Scott pointed out. "We only have one game, on
Tuesday."

"Yep, and all of us in fifth grade will be graduating on Wednesday night,"
Miles grinned.

"But we still have to go to the half-day on Thursday," Mason moaned.

"What are they going to do if we don't show up, flunk us?"

"Maybe you guys might want to just do the right thing," Scott told them.

"Did you go to school on the last day of fifth grade, coach?" Miles asked.

"Yes I did."

"What about you?" he asked Connor.

"Um...I kinda slept in that day." That brought a roar of laughter from the
team. "But that doesn't mean it was right." He didn't mention that he spent
the morning getting stoned with two older boys from the middle school, a
fact that was certainly not appropriate for the audience.

"Whatever you say coach," Trent yelled out with a grin. Trent was in sixth
grade and wouldn't be graduating. He would soon be having his twelfth
birthday party at The Bear, however. He had invited everyone on the team,
including Eddie, along with his best friends in school.

<Marty>

The third baseman was in the ready position as the pitcher started his
motion from the stretch position. The go-ahead run was on first with two
outs in the bottom of the eighth. He had run through the possibilities on
the field and what his responsibilities were in almost every situation.

The batter rifled a shot into the right field corner. The third baseman
knew that the runner was fast; he also knew that the right fielder had a
plus arm. He saw the runner rounding second as the right fielder cut off
the ball. The third baseman knew there was going to be a play at third and
he set himself accordingly.  It looked like the play at third was going to
be close. Considering where the ball was the runner had made a mistake by
trying for third. One of the unwritten rules of baseball was that a runner
should never make the third out at third base.

The third baseman saw that the throw was going to be offline to his
right. He was going to have to reach around with his glove hand to snag it
and then reach back to put a tag on the incoming runner.

It was then that the fielder made a mistake. He stretched for the ball like
a first baseman instead of getting himself out of the way, and then
reaching back for the tag. The runner slid into the base cleanly but came
hard into the fielder's leg. Everyone in the ball park could hear the crack
of his femur as the fielder fell to the ground in pain. The pitcher, who
had come over to back up third, blocked the ball and prevented the runner
from scoring. The umpire signaled safe and instantly called time.

A hushed murmur passed through the crowd as the team trainer and EMTs
rushed onto the field. There was no question that the third baseman, one of
the top prospects on the Mariners, had broken his shin.

Jorge was taken off the field on a gurney and the team's utility player
came into the game to replace him. The manager, who was sickened by what he
saw, knew that the general manager was probably on the phone already,
calling the Mariners about finding a replacement.

<Chase>

Chase was horny. He was incredibly horny. He was horny beyond belief. He'd
been so busy studying for his finals that he had somehow shunted jerking
off into the background. His thirteen-year-old brain, which was normally
flooded with pubescent hormones, somehow managed to wrest control of
Chase's existence from the little head that resided between his legs.

After completing his first final the period before, his brain had let its
defenses down and the little head took advantage by regaining control of
the young teen. As a result, he had become instantly horny. He had become
incredibly horny. He had become horny beyond belief. That first final, his
Science final, had been the one Chase had put a large amount of his energy
into. It would be on everything he had studied the past two months, which
had been geology. Chase enjoyed the class, but it was also very hard,
especially the part in which they had to identify rocks.

Chase had two finals on Friday. One was Health and the other was
English. Chase felt confident in both of those classes, at least when
compared to how he felt about his science test.

Mr. Saxton's class was his next one. Mr. Saxton had already told them that
the class period would be used for review. Chase caught up with Dillon just
outside of the classroom. Chase tapped Dillon on the shoulder, causing his
new friend to stop and turn around

"I'm horny," Chase told him.

"Tell me something I don't know," Dillon giggled. He looked down at Chase's
crotch and could see the evidence of Chase's condition creating a bulge in
his new friend's jeans.

"No, I mean like ultra, super horny."

"You're not going to do what we talked about, are you?"

"Why not? I can ace Saxton's test for sure, so I might as well get
something worthwhile out of class today. You gonna join me?"

"I'll think about it. But, if I do, no way my dick comes out of my pants."

"Fair enough."

Now Dillon was horny as well, thanks to his new friend Chase, who was
incredibly horny. Dillon was not nearly as horny as Chase, but he figured
that watching Chase playing pocket pool would probably get him hornier and
he'd start playing pocket pool as well. And if Chase snuck his cock out of
his pants—well, Dillon didn't know what he would do.

Mr. Saxton told the class he was going to give them some review questions
to work on. "We'll go over them before class tomorrow, before we play
Jeopardy. I would like your question sheets, with your answers, turned in
after we correct the review questions. Remember, your test is on Monday."

Mr. Saxton's reminder about the Monday final almost made Chase's boner go
soft. Almost. He took a deep breath, remembering he had the weekend to
study for Mr. Saxton's Social Studies test and Mr. Joyce's Math test. He
was afraid it would be a no-jerk off weekend. He planned to make up for
that before the 45-minute class was over.

As soon as Mr. Saxton finished passing out the question sheets, the class
went to work. Chase tried to look busy as he slid his left hand into his
left pocket and grabbed hold of his cock through the cloth of the pocket
and his boxers. Fuck, I am so horny, he thought as he slowly manipulated
his favorite appendage. Next year, he would have to cut the pocket out of a
couple of pairs of pants just for this purpose.

Dillon looked over at Chase and grinned. Chase was doing just what he said
he would do. As far as Dillon was concerned, Chase was his hero. Dillon
wasn't the only person in the room to figure out what Chase was
doing. Mr. Saxton had been waiting for Chase to perform an encore to his
masturbation performance in May. He hadn't thought it would take him this
long to get around to it. He was happy that there would be a finale before
the school year ended next week. He wondered if Dillon would follow suit.

The other observer was Kelly Findlay, who sat in the desk ahead of
Chase. She caught sight of what Chase was doing out of the corner of her
eye when she tried to steal a quick look at the boy she had a major crush
on.

Chase and Dillon paid little attention to their assignment. Chase was more
interested in taking care of business in a hurry, and Dillon was interested
in keeping up with Chase.

Fuck, this is gonna take forever, Chase thought. He was in the last desk in
his row, Dillon was to his right, and the desk to his left was empty. There
was no way Kelly Findlay, who was sitting in front of him, could tell what
he was doing. He failed to notice that Kelly had shifted her position just
a little so she could catch glimpses of him.

As Chase pulled his left hand out of his pocket, he looked up at
Mr. Saxton, who was answering a student's question at his desk. He slowly
pulled down the zipper of his jeans, and deftly pulled his throbbing
four-and-three-quarter-inch piece of boy meat out of its confinement. He
made sure only the head was exposed so he could shove it quickly back into
his pants. Chase was proud of the precum dribbling down his pride and joy.

When Dillon glimpsed the smidge of flesh showing between Chase's legs, his
hormones went into overdrive and he once again had a near instant
orgasm. Chase rubbed his precum around the head of his cock. He had to
stifle a squeal when he felt his reproductive system churn and his body
shiver once and then the spasms of his cock as it shot his clear pubescent
cum onto the bottom of the desk, on his t-shirt, his jeans, and his
boxers. He fought to regain his breath as Mr. Saxton fought to control
himself as it became apparent to him that Chase Miller was having an
orgasm.

In front of Chase, Kelly Findlay felt her panties get damp. She knew what
had just happened behind her. She'd seen her older brother and cousin have
enough orgasms to understand how the male sexual organ functioned.

When class ended, Dillon started to head out of the classroom with
Chase. "That was awesome," Dillon gushed. "I can't believe you took your
wiener out of your pants again."

"I was horny," Chase said as if that made his action normal. "Next year,
you gotta try it."

Kelly met them at the door. "I know what you guys were doing," she said
quietly as they walked out of the room. "My mom works during the day. After
vacation starts, you guys gotta come to my house and show me how you did it
so everybody else doesn't find out what you did." She handed Chase a piece
of paper with her phone number on it. "Call me before you come over."

Dillon gave Chase a look that said, What do we do now? Chase told Dillon he
had no intention of calling Kelly Findlay.

"She can say what she wants," Chase told Dillon. "All it does is make us
look like super-studs." The two boys bumped fists as they headed for their
next class.

When Chase got home after school he went to work on his studies. His quiet
time lasted less than a half hour. He knew his studies would have to wait
as soon as Logan came through the kitchen door.

"I can't wait for Saturday," was the first thing Logan said when he saw his
big brother.

"Well, hello to you too, bro."

"Oh, sorry. Hi Chase."

"Are you ready to be ten on Saturday?"

"What do you think?"

"I think that for your friends your birthday will be the social event of
the spring." Chase was surprised as to how many friends his seemingly shy
little brother had. In his own quiet way, Logan seemed to attract people.

"Remember, you said as soon as I'm ten I get to sleep with you more and I
get to jerk you off and you get to suck me."

"What, you don't want to suck me off?"

"You said I couldn't because you made cum even though I've sucked your cum
out."

"What if I change my mind?"

"Then you'd be the best big brother in the world."

After Logan's party on Saturday some of his friends spent the night. But
the next night he went to bed with his big brother. Logan and Chase sucked
each other. Logan got his taste of birthday cum and had his own dry
orgasm. The naked ten-year-old snuggled up to his naked thirteen-year-old
brother. The brothers fell asleep happy in the knowledge they had so much
brotherly love.

FRIDAY, JUNE 8


Marty was lying in bed trying to get back to sleep. He listened to the
sounds of his husband having breakfast and getting ready to leave for
work. Rich had been called to substitute at one of the suburban middle
schools.

"Subbing this late in the school year is the pits," Rich had moaned after
he'd been called to work. "Nobody is going to want to do anything."

"Get out your whip and chair and knock some sense into the little
bastards," Marty said good naturedly. "Now finish your breakfast and let me
go back to sleep."

"I'm not going to get any sympathy from you?"

"Only if you can find a way for that dude to miss the home run he took away
from me last night." Marty turned his back to Rich and grunted.

Rich kissed his husband on the back of his head. "See ya sweetie," he said
as he went out of the door.

"Bye love. Have fun and make it a great day." Marty shut his eyes and was
asleep within minutes.

Now he was having a late breakfast. He ate at the small table in the tiny
kitchen of the tiny apartment where he and Rich lived.

He planned on going to the noon AA meeting he regularly attended after he
finished. As he ate he caught up on the baseball scores from the day
before. He was taking his last bite as the phone rang. It was Bob Baylor,
the general manager of the Nuts.

"I need you at the ballpark now, if not earlier. See Jed when you get
here," he barked, referring to the Nuts' manager.

Oh, shit, I'm being sent down to low A, was the impression Marty got from
the GM's tone of voice.  He grabbed his keys and his equipment bag and left
the apartment. It looks like I won't be making that meeting after all, and
right when I might just need it, he thought as he unlocked his car.

When he arrived at the ballpark, he went to the Nuts' clubhouse. He saw
that the door to the manager's office was open, so he stood at the entrance
and knocked at the open door.

"Hey, Marty, come on in. Thanks for getting here so quick," Jed said. Marty
entered the office and took the seat that players sat in when they had a
chat with the manager.

"What's going on, Jed? You guys really wanted me here fast."

"I have kind of bad news which I suppose is good news for you." Marty gave
him a questioning look, but said nothing. "The good news is you need to
pack and get a full tank of gas."

"So, I'm going to Clinton, I take it."

Jed frowned and shook his head. "For somebody with so much going for him
you can sure get negative. That's something you're going to have to work
on. Hell, Marty, you've had the hottest bat in the league the past
month. So, no, you're not going to Clinton, you're moving up to AA
ball. You have three days to report to the Travelers."

"I'm moving up?" Marty asked incredulously.

"I believe that's what I remember saying."

"Where's Jorge Rodriguez going?" Rodriguez was the third baseman for the
Travelers.

"I'm surprised you haven't heard. He suffered a broken shin bone last
night. His inexperience showed. He didn't get set up right on a close tag
play and the runner slid into him. Nothing dirty or out of line, it just
happened." Rodriguez had been a shortstop since he was in Little
League. The Mariners felt he didn't have the range to be a viable
big-league shortstop, so they moved him to third during the offseason. They
loved his bat and his makeup and felt he would make a good third baseman.

"It was a pleasure watching you play and watching you grow. I'm sorry
things started so shitty for you here. I hope you learned that keeping your
mouth shut is not always the best thing. Not everybody wants to see you
succeed for a lot of reasons, so you'd better be ready to stand up for
yourself if things turn to shit."

Marty nodded. "I guess I went by the unwritten rule of not bitching to
management about a teammate." Marty was trying, unsuccessfully, to justify
his lack of action when he was confronted by the bigotry of some of his
teammates.

"Yeah, that would be the unwritten rule, unless it's not. It's going to be
up to you when it's not. The buzz saw you ran into is the fault of a lot of
people, myself included. You can take some of the blame for how bad it got,
too. Learn from it Marty. You've got a good future ahead of you in this
game—don't let the bastards fuck it up.

"Now, that said, Luke Dowd, the manager of the Travelers assured me he's
got a good clubhouse and that he'll have your back. Luke's been around the
block and he's seen his share of bigotry." Luke Dowd was an African
American man who had a strong sense of justice.

"I'll do my best, coach. Thanks for your help and for getting things
settled down. I'm sorry I'm moving up because somebody got hurt, but I'm
going to do my best not to let anybody down."

Jed stood up from his desk. The two men shook hands and Jed watched the
young ballplayer leave his office. He had thought about telling Marty one
more thing, but decided this wasn't the right time for it. The way Jed saw
it was that as good as Jorge Rodriguez was, Marty was better in every phase
of the game. If the kid kept his head on straight he'd be wearing a Seattle
Mariners' uniform quicker than he expected.

<Aiden>

Aiden could hardly sit still. He was in his waiting chair with Horace on
his lap. He hardly ever sat there waiting for one of his dads to come home,
but this was one of those times. He looked out of the front picture window,
fidgeted in the chair, then stared out again. He could have texted his
dads, but he wanted to tell them in person. His dad's Honda appeared on the
road and Aiden leaped out of his seat.

Clutching Horace, he zipped out of the front door and greeted his dad as he
drove into the driveway. As soon as Larry spotted Aiden, he knew what the
mad dash was about.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy, guess what?" he shouted.

"Somebody discovered that the world really is flat," Larry said as he
ruffled the boy's thick, unruly hair."

"No, this is really, really big news."

Larry had received the same text as Aiden, but he was not about to let the
wind out of his son's sails by telling him. "Well, don't keep me in
suspense, boy, it's hard on my heart."

"Marty got promoted to AA today. He's going to play for the Arkansas
Travelers. I told you he was good."

"You never had to convince me of that," Larry grinned. "This is great news
indeed." Larry had already texted Phil not to let on to Aiden that he knew
anything when he got home.

"I think the news is so great we should go out to dinner to celebrate,"
Aiden gushed.

"Hmm, I like how you think. Where should we go?"

"Porter's Steak House. I already checked and Peter is working there
tonight."

"In that case, I'd better tell your dad to stay in Centralia and we'll meet
him there for dinner,"

"Yessss!" Aiden leaped up the stairs to his room to put away Horace and
change from his school t-shirt to a button-down shirt. He even made a
half-way decent attempt at combing his hair. While Aiden was taking the
credit in his mind for the great dinner idea, it helped that Larry had been
thinking along the same lines.

When they got to the Steak House, they made sure to get a table being
served by Peter. Peter had already heard the news regarding Marty and was
ecstatic. The Centralia radio station had broadcast the news earlier in the
afternoon, which was where Phil had told Larry he'd heard it.

"Too bad that Rodriguez dude got hurt, though," Peter said.  "But you
watch, Marty's gonna show everybody he belongs." Peter had had a crush on
Marty that dated back to Marty's middle school days. Peter had just started
waiting tables at the Steak House then. He was a couple of years out of
high school and was going to school part time. Around ten years later he
was still waiting tables at the Steak House and was still going to school
part time, only now he was just 12 quarter hours away from completing his
course work for a degree in Business Administration.

Peter took their orders and came back to their table. "Aiden, you almost
got your hair combed for dinner," he grinned.

"It would work better if my dads kept their fingers out of it."

Peter proceeded to muss Aiden's hair, sending his somewhat kempt head of
hair into total chaos. Aiden glared at him his look telling the waiter that
he had no idea what kind of effort he had put into combing his hair before
leaving home.

Peter looked over at Phil and Larry and laughed. "Wow, the boy's only ten
and already he's got `the look' down."

"We think he practices in the mirror," Phil chuckled.

"Stop. I worked hard trying to comb my hair."

Peter flashed Aiden a kindly grin and said, "Calm down my friend. Follow me
and I'll show you a secret before your salad gets here." Aiden didn't care
if he missed the salad since he only ordered it at his dad's insistence.

He followed Peter into a room off the kitchen. "This is the employee break
room which also has lockers for us," Peter explained. He opened a door and
led Aiden into a bathroom. "Wait here a sec." He left Aiden wondering why
Peter had taken him into the employee bathroom. He trusted the waiter, but
he felt a little uncomfortable.

Peter returned with a small kit that contained combs and brushes. "Give me
two minutes and I'll make you the handsomest male in the restaurant, not
that you aren't that already. Now, look in the direction of the mirror, but
close your eyes."

He quickly went to work with a comb, brush, a pair of scissors, and a
little bit of gel. Peter felt himself getting hard since he had developed a
crush on the cute and personable boy. He recalled helping Marty out in this
room once, getting his hair straightened out. Marty was fourteen then. He
had felt Peter's erection bump against his back and giggled. "Do I turn you
on?" Marty had asked.

"Just hold still and let me get you looking pretty," Peter told Aiden.

Peter was careful not to bump Aiden's back. It was one thing to have a
careless moment with a fourteen-year-old he liked, but an entirely
different thing when it came to a ten-year-old. In both cases, he loved the
internal and external beauty of the boys, but he relieved his sexual
tension at home with whomever his boyfriend was at the time.

"Open your eyes," Peter commanded.

Aiden looked in the mirror and broke into an ear-splitting grin. "Wow, I
look kind of good," he said.

"Everybody in the dining room is going to fall madly in love with you."

"Are you madly in love with me?"

"I fall madly in love with anybody as beautiful as you are. Now, tell your
dads to keep their fingers out of your hair and you'll be fine—at least
until dessert."

"How did you learn that?" Aiden asked, his comfort level with Peter back up
to normal.

"My big sister is a hair dresser. She shows me how to do stuff. She thinks
I should be styling hair instead of waiting tables, but I love being a
waiter. I should get the two of you together. She could do a lot more with
your hair than that butcher of a barber in Mayfield."

Peter led Aiden back out to the dining room. When Larry and Phil saw their
son they both caught their breaths. "Good lord, Peter, what did you do to
him? He's gorgeous," Phil gasped. He grabbed his phone and began taking
pictures of his son.

"He's not at all gorgeous," Peter said, "he is very handsome."

"And beautiful," Aiden grinned as he dug into his salad.

Later, as the Millers were leaving for home, Aiden couldn't resist asking
his dads a question.

"Is Peter gay?"

"Is straight down steep?" Larry almost said.

"Does a bear shit in the woods?" Phil almost said.

"I think we'd be safe to assume that," Larry said.

"Does he have a boyfriend?" Aiden asked.

"I really don't know," Larry answered. He and Phil looked at each other
with an expression that said they were wondering where this conversation
was coming from and where it was going.

"I hope he does," Aiden said. "He's a great guy."

"Maybe we'll ask him someday," Larry said.

Aiden thought about telling his dads that he had felt a little
uncomfortable alone with Peter, at least at first. But he decided not to
mention it since Peter really didn't do anything wrong. The rest of the
trip home was spent discussing Marty's promotion.

That night, Aiden almost didn't want to go to bed for fear of messing up
his hair. "I'll never get it perfect like that again," he moaned to his
dad.

"Oh my, are we getting a bit narcissistic all of a sudden?" Larry asked.

"Whatever that is," Aiden mumbled. "Well, taking a shower tomorrow is just
going to mess it up anyway."

"We could always get you a shower cap," Phil suggested.

"You guys are mean."

"And proud of it."

"You got a good picture of me right?"

"More than one. You will probably be named the most photographed boy at the
Steak House for the night."

"Whatever. Daddy can tuck me in since dad was meaner." Aiden looked at Phil
and gave him a smirk. "I know, and he's proud of it."

SUNDAY, JUNE 10

Aiden sat behind home plate in the top row of the bleachers at the Mayfield
high school ballpark. He was keeping score of the game between the Red
Hawks and the Longview Knights. He was keeping the official
scorebook. Mrs. Roth, who usually kept the scorebook, sat next to him and
worked as the scoreboard operator while also keeping a watchful eye on
Aiden. She was the mother of one of the players and had been a volunteer
scorekeeper since her son had started playing rec ball.

The only hard decision Aiden had to make involved a play by the
shortstop. A hard-hit ground ball had gone off of the fielder's glove and
Aiden had to decide whether to call it an error or a hit. He decided that
it was a hit because the fielder would never have gotten the out if he'd
fielded it cleanly. He asked Mrs. Roth what she thought and felt a surge of
accomplishment when she told him it was a perfect call.

On the ride home from the game, Larry and Phil didn't have a chance to say
anything as Aiden talked nonstop about his being the official scorekeeper
for the game and about his one tough decision. Larry turned the car into
the driveway and finally got a word in. "You made a good call—no
question that was hit."

"And here's a nice little ditty you can add in your book—THTH," Phil
added.

"What's THTH?"

"Too hot to handle. Sometimes it's the only way to explain it. Put that
next to the play and it will make you a scorebook expert."

Aiden beamed as he went into the house and up to his room. He stripped
naked while his computer booted up. He saw he had three emails: one from
Chase, one from Logan, and one from Marty. The plan was that Chase and
Logan would be visiting Mayfield over the Fourth of July holiday. Aiden's
cousins were confirming that the visit was still being planned.

"Unless, it isn't," Chase wrote. "We've been planning these visits since
February and nothing's happened yet."

Marty wrote that he had arrived in Little Rock and would probably be
starting at third in a couple of days. "Rich is heading up to Mayfield so
he can be there for the big wedding. You be sure he gets an invite to
dinner from the coaches while he's up there." Marty was referring to the
wedding of Eric and Noah which was just two weeks away.

When Aiden was called down to dinner, he put on his Modesto Nuts t-shirt
and a pair of shorts. I'm going to have to talk Marty into sending me an
Arkansas Travelers shirt, he thought as he bounced down the stairs.

"Marty says Rich is home for a while and that you guys better invite him to
dinner at least once," Aiden announced as he spooned some mashed potatoes
onto his plate.

"Oh, he did, did he?" Larry said with mock seriousness. "And since when did
he start to rule the roost?"

"Since I said so," Aiden replied. He took a bite of meatloaf and waited for
one of his dads to say something, but they had their mouths full as well.

Finally, Phil said, "Find out what his favorite dinner is, boss."

Aiden giggled, stuck his tongue out at Phil, and went back to work on his
meatloaf. "I wish I could go to the wedding," Aiden said sadly after eating
a few bites.

"I think you might be able to," Phil said.

"How? I know I can't get the game changed like you got yours changed, so
how can I make it when I have a game?"

"Think it through. The game starts 10:30. Take it from there."

"I have taken it from there," Aiden pouted. "The wedding is at 2 o'clock,
and the game will be over around noon unless it goes extra innings."
Aiden's games had an hour-and-a-half time limit unless the score was tied,
then it was two hours and fifteen minutes or until one team or the other
wins the game. "Whoever drives me is gonna have to drive pretty fast for me
to get changed and everything."

"Changed?" Larry asked.

"I can't go to the wedding in my baseball uniform. And I can't go naked."

"Although you'd look really cute for the wedding guests if you did," Phil
laughed.

"Dad, be serious!"

"So what's the solution? You've done it before."

"Change in the car, or better yet the Odyssey."

"Or go to the wedding in your uniform. People will understand."

Aiden gave his dads a mischievous grin. "Or, I could take it all off while
you're driving and look really cute for the people on the highway."

"Well, the good news is, there is a solution. That's an advantage to being
on a younger team, your games start earlier," Larry said.

"Yeah, but the first schedule said it started at one. Now it starts at
10:30. I know you said you didn't say anything to get it changed, but..."

"...but nothing. We would never lie to you about something like that. The
reschedule is all about makeup games and not so somebody can make a
wedding."

"Well, I'm glad it was changed, but I was still worried I wouldn't have
time to change or anything."

"Son, the best way to not worry is to develop a strategy and see if it can
be made to work."

"Whatever. I'm ready for my apple pie...a la mode."

TUESDAY, JUNE 12

Aiden was happy to be playing in a baseball game, again. The Yard Goats
were playing the Longview Moose at home. Aiden started at third base, his
favorite place to play when he wasn't pitching. Jared Finn was the starting
pitcher. He had pitched for the Mayfield Middle School JV team, but this
was his first pitching start for the Goats.

The surprise starter in the lineup was at second base. Mason was making his
first start ever in the infield. He had been working hard with Coach Connor
and the work was showing. Like their old high school coach, except for the
starting pitcher Scott and Connor didn't announce the starters for a game
until just before starting pregame warmups.

Mason's teammates were happy that Mason didn't know he was going to
start. He was enough of a chatterbox at school during gamedays. From the
way he babbled as soon as the pregame announcement was made, everybody was
thankful that they didn't have to listen to him all day.

Jared looked sharp in the first inning, retiring the side in order with
seven pitches. Lenny, who was starting in left field, led off the bottom of
the first with a single. Aiden then drove a line drive in the gap between
left and center, knocking in Lenny for a 1-0 lead. Gordy singled in Aiden,
Trent tripled in Gordy, and by the time the inning ended the Yard Goats had
a 4-0 lead.

Mason's first play of the game came in the top of the third with the Goats
sitting on a 5-1 lead. There were runners on first and third with two outs
as the Moose were threatening. He had his anchor dropped (his butt down)
and his glove to the ground.

The batter hit a grounder right to him. Even as he remembered his
fundamentals, Mason was so excited he was like a coiled spring ready to
burst into the air. He brought is glove up instead of keeping it down. He
got enough of the ball with the bottom of his glove to force the ball up
and off of his chest. Everybody, including the coaches, expected Mason to
panic. Instead he recovered, picked the ball up off the ground, and threw
it to Eddie at first. Eddie had entered the game in the third. Mason's
throw was off line, but Eddie stretched for it, his long arms and long legs
coming in handy. The ball beat the batter-runner by a step. The inning, and
the threat, was over.

The Goats ended up beating the Moose 11-4, winning their fourth straight
game. Eddie was pleased to get praise from his teammates regarding his
great stretch at first to get Mason's throw. The two compliments that meant
the most to him came from Mason, simply because he made Mason's sloppy play
at second look good, and from Aiden, because he hated Aiden and was
surprised Aiden said something nice to him.

The team had been warned by coaches and parents to not pester Eddie about
what he did the past few days. All they knew about him was that he was
living with foster parents in Kentburg and was finishing the school year
out at Lakeview School.

Thursday saw the Yard Goats traveling towards the ocean to play the
Harborview Tides. Aiden started the game at pitcher. He gave up five hits
and two runs over five innings as the Goats beat the Tides 6-3. Aiden also
contributed with his bat, hitting two doubles while scoring two runs and
knocking in one. He also had a stolen base recorded into the scorebook. It
was Aiden's best game of the season.

The next day the Goats played their makeup game against the East Olympia
Owls. Trent was the starting pitcher and he dominated the
Owls. Unfortunately, the Owls' pitcher, Roland Greene, was right on top of
his game as well. Both pitchers went all six innings.

The game turned on a strange play with the score tied at 1-1 in the top of
the sixth. With no outs and a runner on first, the Owls' hitter lined the
ball right to Gordy at shortstop for the first out. The runner had taken
off on contact, but quickly backtracked when he saw what had happened. He
knew the throw was going to beat him. He was dead meat. He dove into
first. Lenny, who was playing first, knew they had the runner nailed for an
inning-ending double play. But the throw glanced off the top of the
runner's helmet flew over Lenny's head and sailed out of play. The dead
ball automatically advanced the runner to third.

The next batter hit a slow grounder to second. Miles, the second baseman,
saw the runner break for home, but knew he didn't have a play on him and
threw out the batter at first. The run scored, making the score 2-1 with
two out. Trent struck out the next batter to end the inning. The Goats went
down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth bringing their five-game winning
streak to an end.

While Scott and Connor praised the team for playing a great game, Aiden
felt bad about the loss. He had gone 0-for-3 and left the go-ahead run at
third by striking out in the bottom of the fifth.

"I should have knocked that run in," Aiden moaned for what seemed to Larry
like the hundredth time after getting home.

Gordy, who had joined the Millers to spend the night with Aiden, tried to
console his best friend. "You had a good game," he assured him. "You made
two great plays at third."

"Yeah, but..."

"What did we say about yeah buts?" Larry intervened.

"That they never solved nothing," Aiden whined, "but..." Larry's best
teacher glare was all that was needed to finally stop Aiden's whining and
to chastise him for purposefully using bad English.

Phil, who had his own game to coach, had missed Aiden's game. "Damn, that
sounds like a great game," he said after hearing about the outcome. "Too
bad you had to lose it on a fluke play."

"Too bad we had to lose it period," Aiden groused. It didn't help his mood
to learn that Phil's Red Hawks won their game 5-4. This time, Aiden got a
double whammy of glares. "Come on Gordy, let's go upstairs. Good night
dads."

"No tucking in tonight?" Larry asked.

"No," Aiden answered curtly as he started up the stairs. Gordy looked at
Larry and Phil and gave them a shrug that said, I don't know what the fuck
is going on.

"Let me check Marty's score and then maybe we can mess around," Aiden told
Gordy.

"I thought you weren't going to mess around tonight," Gordy said.

"Why?"

"Because of the mood you're in."

"I'm not in any bad mood, if that's what you think. I just don't like that
we lost in such a dumb way."

"Well, it was my error that did it," Gordy said. He was getting frustrated
with his friend's bellyaching.

"They shouldn't have to give you an error because that runner was too
stupid to keep his head out of the way."

"I could have made my throw a little higher."

"Shit," Aiden muttered. "Marty's team lost 7-6. Everybody lost by one run
tonight."

"Your dad won his game," Gordy reminded Aiden. "How did Marty do?"

"Oh-for-four with a walk," Aiden said sadly. "Okay, let's stop complaining
about our game and do a sixty-nine."

The two ten-year-olds managed to get in two orgasms each and felt much
better about things as they cuddled their naked young bodies together and
fell asleep.

Except for a Monday baseball practice, the players could now put their full
attention into graduation night.

MONDAY, JUNE 18

"I can't believe we only have a couple more days left and then we're going
to be sixth graders and going to middle school," Kalie said as Aiden sat
next to her on the bus.

"You're not scared are you?" Aiden asked.

"I won't be until it gets close."

"You're never scared of anything."

Kalie flashed Aiden a smile. "You're so sweet."

Aiden cringed when he heard Kalie's compliment. "No, I'm just saying. I
mean you're a girl on a boy's baseball team and you ride horses, so how can
you be scared of anything?"

Kalie quickly changed the subject. "Speaking of horses, you and Gordy have
to come to ride them and to see Hi Strike."

"Yeah, and see your cousins, too."

"I suppose." Kalie would rather have the two boys come over with nobody
else, but she was willing to get what she could get, and then maybe she
would be able to convince them to come alone.

The talk at lunch was about the upcoming graduation celebration on
Wednesday. Aiden's table did talk about how they were upset because Ed
Shafer was allowed to play and practice without saying anything to the team
about what he had said to them.

"He should at least say he's sorry," Gordy said.

"Yeah, even if none of us believe him," Aiden said. Nobody disputed his
statement.

Their baseball chatter waited until they had practice with Connor right
after school. Scott had to work and was unable to make the early practice.

Before practice started, Connor had the team sit in the bleachers behind
first base. "You guys know that Eddie was suspended by us," he said. "In
order for him to come back to play he had a few things he needed to get
done. For a lot of reasons, we let him back before he did everything. He
did one of those Friday."

Connor was referring to Eddie apologizing to him and Scott, which he did
after the game that day. Neither Scott nor Connor had demanded an apology,
but were impressed when a contrite Ed Shafer had come to them on his own
and apologized.

"The last thing is going to be taken care of now."

Connor stepped away as Eddie stood up in front of the team. "I'm sorry I
was mean to everybody. I'm going to try to do better for the rest of our
games."

Eddie was not an articulate boy. He knew he probably should say more, but
he couldn't figure out what else to say. His teammates accepted his
apology. For many of them, accepting his apology wasn't the same as
believing it.

Larry picked up Aiden at the end of practice and they drove to
Centralia. Aiden talked to his daddy about not trusting Eddie's
apology. Larry advised his son to give Eddie a chance before jumping to
conclusions.

"He has to prove it to me," Aiden said.

"I can't argue with that. All I am saying is for you to give him a chance
to prove he means what he says before writing him off."

They drove to the Centralia Outlet Mall to shop for new dress-up clothes
for Aiden to wear to his graduation and to Eric and Noah's wedding. "If you
weren't growing like a weed you wouldn't have to keep trying on new
clothes," Larry said as he and his son walked into a clothing store.

"Maybe I should take extra-hot showers, then I might start shrinking,"
Aiden giggled.  Larry did just what Aiden had feared he would do; he
ruffled his son's hair.

Aiden picked out a pair of slacks, a dress shirt, and a sports jacket in
the children's section of the store. Before he knew it his practice duds
were strewn on the floor of the changing room and he was standing in
nothing but his green and blue briefs and a pair of dirty white socks. He
quickly dressed in the tan slacks, light blue shirt, and dark blue
blazer. He stepped out of the changing room and had Larry tie a red and
gray striped necktie for him. Larry thought his son was a total knockout in
the clothes he'd picked, but waited to say anything.

When Aiden looked into the full-length mirror, he broke into a big
grin. Other than his dirty white trainers and his messy hair he thought he
looked perfect. His thoughts were seconded by the store clerk. "Wow, you're
going to knock the girls dead, son. You look great in those duds. Nice
taste in colors." The clerk had watched Aiden pick out his own clothes.

"I have to agree," Larry said. "Some people are going to be drooling over
you when they see you."

"Especially when I get my hair combed and get some new shoes," Aiden
grinned. He didn't think that clothes had ever made him feel so good. And
as far as girls drooling, Aiden thought, there's a couple of boys I'd
rather have drool on me. He wished, for the millionth time, that he and
Nolan lived in the same town and went to the same school.

"How did I ever get so lucky as to have such a handsome son?" Aiden was
pleased that his daddy had said handsome and not cute.

"The same way I got the world's greatest dads," Aiden grinned. "Awesome
luck."

The clerk had caught Aiden mentioning plural dads and grinned. It was
indeed a wonderful world, he thought. While he didn't look at young boys in
a sexual way, he couldn't help but admire the pert ass of the cute—no,
make it handsome—specimen of boyhood going back into the dressing room
to change.

Next: Graduation.