The Name Game

Chapter 2

Luke and I decided to go to the batting cages after school. baseball season may not start until March but I'm still going to practice.

Luke hits a ball and it makes a hard hitting sound. "I gotta work on my form, man." He says.

"Come on bro, you know it's twice as good as mine." I say.

"But your not that much of a hitter anyways." he says.

I'm the teams catcher, Luke plays first base, Xavier is short stop, and Jay is a center fielder.

The pitcher for the team is Paul Burroughs. We call him Burry. Burry is a little cocky so I try not to get in his way. I just catch the pitches he throws.

"Do you think the skunk will spray us on Saturday?" Luke asks. "because I don't wanna smell like skunk."

"Maybe, but we're gonna set a trap anyways. The skunk will spray when it gets caught." I say.

"Ugggghhhhh!!" He says then starts batting again.

After he's done I start batting. I hit two foul balls a strike, and hit seven.

"I Really gotta work on this!" I say frustrated at my results.

"Whatever man, you got until March." he says.

"Okay whatever." I say.

We walk back to Luke's house and I eat dinner there. his mom made steak because she knew I was going to come.

My friend's moms love to make meat when I go over their house. They probably just feel bad.

It's a nice piece of steak and I savor it because I'm not going to eat that at home.

After we eat we go up to Luke's room. We watch some football and chill out. We do our math homework together. I'm having a hard time following along. Luke helps me out a little, bit I'm mostly just copying his work.

When my dad comes to pick me up its almost 7:30. I get in his car.

"So how many innocent animals did you eat for dinner tonight?" He asks me. And now the vegetarian fight starts once again.

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter dad." I say.

"No Oakly it does matter. I don't know why you don't get it." he says.

"I'm tired of fighting about this with you. Can't you just accept that I'm not the nature-y save the planet type!" I'm starting to yell.

"Calm down now son I told you about yelling. It's not good Oak." he says.

"Whatever." I mumble. I can just never win.

When I get home I go right up to my room and study for my European history quiz. Then I finish my essay up.

I go to sleep.

When I wake up I realize I'm so late. I have five minutes to get to the bus. I change into my cargo shorts and my Cardinal's sweatshirt. of course I'm supporting my home team. We may not be the best team in the league I still love them.

I'm running out the door skipping breakfast.

I get to the bus right on time and I'm proud of myself for that. I sit by myself on the bus listening to music on my phone.

When I get to school I go to my Spanish class, then math, then cooking class, and next lunch.

I walk to lunch with Xavier and Macy. Macy is Luke's girlfriend. He's been dating her since July. She was thirteen then because her birthday is in the summer. Luke's birthday is in September so he's almost a year older than her.

Me and Xavier are squishing her in between us.

"Stop it guys!" She's laughing.

"No way kid!" He says.

"Hey look it's tree boy!" Someone in the hall yells.
It's Trey Morgan. He's a jerk. Once when we were in the fourth grade in gym he tripped me with a hockey stick and yelled,"Look! Tree boy just fell like a log!" And everyone laughed at me. I have a lot of stories like that.

"Shut up Trey." Macy says.

We keep walking to lunch and I shake off the comments like I always do.

We sit at our table with Luke, Jay and two of Macy's friends, Cara and Felicia.

We tell them about our prank we are pulling on the Grovertons and they start saying things like.

"Aww your gonna smell like skunk!"

"Ew skunky boyfriend!"

"Wow. Hope the BEARS don't get you!"

"Ya keep talking," I say,"We Can handle a night in the woods."

Once we finish lunch me and Jay walk to English together. We turn in our reports and discus the plot.

Then I have bio. We take a pre test.

Next I have have art.

Then I had stats and economics.

Me and Jay go home from school together. We go buy a tent with his dad's credit card. we also buy a game trap and some steak for us and the skunk to get it in the trap.

We keep all the stuff at his house and then I go home.

"Hey little boy." my mom says when I get home.

"Hi mom," I say,"whats cooking?"

"Cheese ravioli. your father is eating with some co-workers tonight so we can have something you might actually like. Isn't that great!" She says.

"Yup." I say. It may not be by much but it's definitely an improvement.

We talk about school. I'm in mostly honors classes, with the exemption of math and Spanish. She's always striving for me to do my best. She may not have a great career but I think she's quite smart. She doesn't try to force me to be vegetarian as much as dad does, but she still has her moments.

"Eat the broccoli, Oakly." she reminds me.

"Fine. But I'm not going to enjoy it." I say.

I eat the broccoli with a sour look on my face.

"How's the prank coming along?" She asks with a devilish smile.

"Great I just bought the tent and trap today with Jay." I said.

"Well tomorrow is Saturday so I'll pack you guys a cooler. I'm not happy about it but I bought hogs dogs. ewww!" She says with a disgusted face,"I know the boys would want to roast hot dogs but I didn't want to give them tofu dogs." she said

"Dad would have bought tofu dogs." I mumble.

"Ya. I just thought I wouldn't try to pressure you and your buddies." she says.

"Thanks mom." she's always thinking about me.

I help her with the dishes and have some ice cream while watching T.V.