Too Equal For My Taste
Chapter 18: A Pregame Life
The Officer did not only question Ken. As he understood, Ken's best friend was Mark. So, the officer went over for two minutes to ask Mark a few questions. Mark had nothing to fear, unlike Ken who thought he'd be caught for something he didn't do, according to all the evidence.
"I am Officer Ken," the officer said calmly to Mark. "I already asked your friend a few questions. Now I ask you. If you could walk with me a bit, I think we can cover more that way."
Mark obliged, and walked with the officer. "What do you want from me?" Mark asked, sounding a bit demanding. Perhaps it was the influence from Ken taking effect now.
"What grade are you in?" the officer asked firstly.
Mark answered promptly, "Grade Seven."
"Age is twelve, as well?" Officer Ken guessed correctly.
Mark nodded slowly.
"Now, your best friend," the officer asked.
"Kenneth Murtaugh."
"Oh, I am under the impression that you turned him in a couple days ago," the officer pointed out.
"Err… was," Mark corrected. "Was my best friend. I dunno about now. After what I did, I dunno if he'd still accept me."
"You really did turn him in then?" the officer asked. "You did the right thing. Well, I suppose the boy learned from the mistake. He named you as his best friend, and didn't bother to emphasize 'was'"
The officer finished with Mark, and told both families what the kids told him. Of course, this piece of information surprised the parents, who claimed that Mark turned Ken in, so they couldn't possibly still be friends.
During Friday afternoons, both sides would practice. Mike was beginning to like the sport as one to rival hockey. He was getting good at batting and fielding, but batting was his best part. Frequently, he would hit the ball successfully when it was thrown by Jake.
"Come on," Jake called to everyone. "We're getting good at this."
Henry would attempt running from base to base, and once tripped on his way. Elliot laughed on the sidelines with Sarah beside him, before she had to practice with Jake on catching the ball from a distance.
These two love birds were spending a lot of time together. Sarah and Elliot felt a lot for each other, and it really looked as if the relationship was serious this time. It was more serious than last time. She always slipped her arm around him during every dinner that the Bakers and the Murtaugh's had every Friday preceding the games.
"The next game will be baseball," Tom talked over. "And after that?"
"We're trying to decide," Kate said happily, taking a sip of wine.
"We want it to be good," Jimmy said happily.
"Will it be a sport?" Tom asked.
"We don't know," Serina said mysteriously.
"Well we have to know," Jimmy said in a mockery echo of Serina's tone.
Elliot and Sarah were often kissing at the table, much to the disturbance of Nigel and Kyle, who were sitting next to them. Elliot kissed her cheek, and Sarah fed him a pretzel from the snacks.
"Boy, they really are going for each other," Jake laughed with Mike.
"What's next, they gonna eat each other?" Mike asked rhetorically.
"Err… maybe you prefer not knowing," Jake suggested, full of humor.
"Oh, for crying out loud," Mike said loudly as Elliot and Sarah almost made out at the dinner table before realizing that there were people watching them. As a matter of fact, it was Mike's yell which hit them back to Earth.
Anne took a drink of root beer, and then asked Kate how Charlie was.
"Oh Charlie's fine," Kate said happily. "He's still in Tennessee, but last I wrote, he was doing very well. Nothing to suggest he's bad or anything."
"Shame he left the lake."
"Ya well"-
As Kate was talking animatedly and happily to Anne, at the far end, Mark and Ken were sitting without exchanging words. This confused Jimmy and Serina a lot. First, Mark turned Ken in. The two were to end their friendship. The next thing they knew, the officer reported that the two were best friends. Finally, Mark and Ken decided to ignore each other. This left two possibilities.
Mark and Ken could have lied. But that could not be it because they were facing lie detectors. So it had to be truthful. Another possibility was that Ken and Mark were behind the thieveries. But that was also impossible, because the two kids were facing lie detectors; even Mark. How could the two kids get through lie detectors?
After dinners on Fridays, more training would take place, and a part game between the teams.
The next game that was to take place the next day was baseball. They did one inning to see how they stood so far. Of course, now, the inning ended without any team winning. So the two families went back inside, and took their showers before turning in to bed.