The Hitting Zone

Chapter 363 Back to School

With that, spring break came to an end. It was the best I’ve ever had compared to what I had to deal with before. For the first time, I wasn’t looking forward to going back to school. Back with my mom, I always couldn’t wait for school since it was my main source for food. The most reliable source.

Monday morning, Noah woke me up and we followed the old routine of getting ready for school. At breakfast, we were the first ones to sit down besides Mrs. Atkins.

"Where is everyone?" Noah asked as we sat down.

Mrs. Atkins shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe they’re running behind?" She got up and put a bowl in front of us. "Here. An egg to start off the day. Over-easy."

"It’s strange that we’re first." Noah picked up his fork and started to dig in. He paused when he lifted his first bite. He squinted. Sniffed. "Mom. No!"

"Happy April Fool’s!" She shouted.

My eyes widened. What. I looked into the bowl. There was what looked to be an over-easy egg, but on closer inspection it was a cut up peach in plain yogurt. Is this...the joke? I looked at Noah, who was pouting at his mother.

He lifted his watch and checked it suspiciously. "What time is it really?"

"I only set it back an hour." She smiled happily as she sat back down.

Noah groaned. "A whole hour?? I lost an hour worth of sleep? You’re a sadist."

Mrs. Atkins laughed. "It’s all in good fun. It doesn’t hurt for you to be early once in a while."

Noah rolled his eyes, then reached for the milk carton. "Let me guess, blue?" I didn’t understand what he was guessing until he poured some milk in his empty glass. Sure enough, the milk was blue.

I scooted closer to get a look at it. "Wow. How do you turn milk blue?" I’ve never seen anything like it before.

"Food coloring." Mrs. Atkins winked at me.

Noah just shook his head and started to eat the yogurt and peaches. "Mom, we’re getting so old. Isn’t it kind of cheesy to do this jokes now?"

Mrs. Atkins smiled at him. "You’re never to old for a little fun." She winked. "You should be lucky I took you two. Your dad chose the other three."

On cue, we started to hear thumping and some yelling from above. Their room was just above us so even though we couldn’t hear exactly what was going on, we could hear a commotion.

Noah looked a little less bitter. He raised an eyebrow at his mom. "Do you know what happened??"

Mrs. Atkins laughed lightly. "Oh, I’m sure we’ll hear about it soon." She looked at my stunned face. "Have you never celebrated April Fool’s, Jake?"

I shook my head. When and why would I ever celebrate it?

"Really? Even at school?" Noah asked between bites of breakfast.

I shrugged, helpless. "I was mostly by myself. I think I remember some teachers acknowledging it, but besides a fake pop quiz.." I shrugged again, not really wanting to expand. I don’t want to sound like a loser with no friends, especially with them knowing how I was raised by my mom.

Noah gave me a pat on the shoulder. "It’s in the past. Trust me, Mom and Dad will make up for all of your missed April Fool’s. They’re extremely dorky though."

"Noah James!" Mrs. Atkins scolded, yet she did it with a smile. "You boys should finish your breakfast."

We both nodded and started to dig in. Besides blue milk, and an egg that turned into yogurt and fruit, Mrs. Atkins had prepared other surprises. Half the food I had grabbed to put on my plate were actually fake. They were similar to what she had made with the exception that they were plastic!

I giggled to myself after grabbing a fake bagel and apple. She had mixed in quite a few.

Soon the older trio came thumping downstairs with their backpacks on. They sat down at the table with a little grumbling and complaining.

Noah held back his laugh. "What happened to you guys? Did you all take showers?" All three of them had wet hair, but dry clothes.

Zeke ignored him and slowly selected food that wasn’t made of plastic. The twins were the ones that couldn’t hold back their complaints.

"Dad woke us up with water balloons!" Kyle told us.

"Right to the face." Dave added. "Multiple times!"

Noah laughed and I joined.

"It’s not funny." Kyle moaned. "Our beds are soaked." He glanced to his mom. "You’ll make dad wash the sheets right?"

"Maybe." She hummed.

"I’ll wash my own after school." Zeke declared suddenly.

"Oh, too late!" Mr. Atkins said as he walked into the room. He sat at his usual spot. "I already took it down to the washer machine. I’ll have them dried and back on your bed in no time."

Zeke sighed. Obviously Mr. Atkins had something planned for later as well.

I grinned. This was pretty fun.

"Blue again, Mom?!" Dave shook his head as he poured himself a glass of milk.

Mrs. Atkins chuckled. Though her boys sounded tired of the same old pranks, she still got a kick out of them. I thought they were pretty creative and funny. I’ve never seen someone so into April Fool’s before. I wonder if they were like this for all holidays?

After breakfast was done, we packed into the car and Zeke drove us to school. I was kind of excited, looking forward to what Mr. Miller would say or do, but he was his usual self. Noah and him talked about the upcoming games before we got dropped off at the school building.

"Don’t look so down." Noah told me as we went to his locker and grabbed the needed books for our first glass. "Not everyone is into April Fool’s day as much as my parents. They’re just a couple of weirdos."

I laughed. I thought they were cool. The coolest I’ve seen at least. We headed to class and Noah moved on to talking about the A’s. I followed along better now that I know a little more. But when he talked about specific players, I was still a little confused.

We arrived at our first class of the day: English. Noah pushed the door open.

’BANG!’ Confetti fell onto our heads. Part of the class that were already seated, started to laugh their heads off while some had their phones pointed at us.

"Very funny.." Noah shook the confetti out of his hair. He looked to me and saw me shaking. "Jake? You okay?"

I put a hand on my chest and mumbled, "Okay. My heart is beating really fast."

Noah turned and looked like he was about to scold our classmates, but I tapped his arm and shook my head. I didn’t want him to get mad over something so small. It’s not like they were beating us up or being mean. It’s just an April Fool’s joke.

"Hurry up and sit down!" One of the taller guys in our class ushered us away from the door. He pushed the confetti away with his foot and started to wire a new one up by the doorframe.

"He’s been doing it to everyone that has walked in." A boy with glasses told us as we sat in our seats. He sat on Noah’s left. "So you can’t really get mad."

"I can get mad at anything." Noah told him like it was a brag. He glanced at me and caught me giving him a disapproving look. "Oh, but I’m glad that he’s being fair and doing it to everyone."

Glasses kid played with the corner of his glasses. "It’s rare to see someone so into pulling pranks on April Fool’s."

"Not in my family." Noah snorted.

We spent the rest of the morning watching the tall guy reset the party popper after it would go off. The fun came to an end when he got the teacher. She visibly jumped as the popper exploded when she came in.

She glared at all of us. "Fantastic. Since you all have so much energy this morning, why don’t you get a piece of paper out and prepare for a pop quiz."

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