Sam, Kelsi, and I were in one lane, and Mindy, Cody, Sydney, and Logan took the lane beside us.
Neither Kelsi nor I had bowled much before, so Sam took a few minutes to patiently explain technique. He showed us how to grip the ball, how to take steps forward to support our weight, and how to aim for the center pin by angling the ball in slightly from the side. He demonstrated three different styles for us and got strikes each time.
On Kelsi’s first turn, she knocked over three pins with the first ball and another three pins with the second. Sam grinned and told her she was an excellent student. She blushed and sat down. I glanced at the lane next to us, where Logan and Sydney had each knocked over eight pins, and I wondered how my brother was so good at this. Maybe I would be too.
I stood up, took a deep breath, and put my fingers into the purple, glittery ball I had picked out. I tested its weight and hesitantly carried it toward the lane. I took a deep breath, moved my arm back like Sam had shown me, and then took a step forward as I moved my arm forward and released the ball.
It dropped into the gutter almost immediately.
I groaned as I watched it make its way down the edge of the lane.
“Nice gutter ball, Lacey,” Sydney piped up, laughing. Sam rolled his eyes. “It took me forever to learn to bowl,” he told me. “Here.” He got up and touched my arm lightly. “I’ll show you.”
I picked up my ball and we walked to the lane. “Put your arm back,” Sam said.
I grasped the ball tightly and did what he said, stepping back with my left foot, like Sam had showed me. I was just about to ask him what to do next when I felt his warmth right behind me.
“Like this,” he said softly, his breath grazing my ear as my cheeks flamed. He was so close that I could feel him, yet not close enough to be touching my back. Every single hair on my body was standing on end. He placed his right hand over mine, and I was so electrified by his touch that I nearly dropped the ball. Thankfully, I didn’t.
“Okay, now,” he said. “Let’s do this slowly once to practice. Don’t let go.”
I knew he was talking about the bowling ball, but for a second, I wanted to tell him not to worry, that I would never let go. I glanced around and realized that everyone was watching us.
Slowly, with his right hand resting on mine and his left hand gently clasping my left hand, Sam guided my right arm forward, urging me, “Step forward with your left foot, like I showed you.” He took the step with me, his much longer left leg shadowing my leg and his arm guiding mine forward.
“Just like that,” he said in my ear. Then he cleared his throat loudly, glanced around, and stepped away, as if he’d just noticed that everyone was staring. “Um, nice job, Lacey,” he said. “You’re a natural. Now let’s try it for real.”
I knew my face was on fire. I glanced around and quickly returned my attention to the ball and the lane in front of me. I closed my eyes for a minute and tried to center myself. Repeating Sam’s words in my head, I stepped back, then stepped forward, slowly swinging my right arm in one fluid motion.
I watched as the ball rolled slowly down the lane. It seemed to take forever, but this time, it didn’t roll toward the gutter. In fact, it went straight down the middle. At the last second, it veered to the right and hit near the center. It knocked over seven pins!
I leapt up, ecstatic. I knew it wasn’t exactly a strike, but it felt pretty good to me.
I wanted to see if everyone had noticed, but before I even had a chance to look around, Sam put his arms around me. And then, in front of everyone, he kissed me like it was the most normal thing in the world.
? ? ?
Two hours later, we had bowled two games, and I had gotten a little bit better. I even knocked over all ten pins on two tries. Still, I was by far the worst bowler in the group. I didn’t care. What I cared about was that we were a group. All of us, who had nothing in common except for the biggest thing, had talked and laughed and had fun.
After we had changed back into our street shoes, we all thanked Donna and walked outside. The sun had gone down, and there were just a few remaining streaks of light in the sky to the west, the last remnants of the day. With the sunshine gone, a chill had set in, and none of us were dressed warmly enough. I shivered as we stood in the parking lot, looking at one another.
“That was fun,” Cody said.
“Yeah,” Mindy agreed.
“It was fun,” Kelsi said after a minute. “But we didn’t really talk about anything.”
She was right. It just hadn’t seemed like the time or the place to bring up sad stuff when, for once, we were having fun without thinking about it.
“Maybe we didn’t need to,” Cody said. “Maybe it’s cool to hang out with each other sometimes and not have to talk about it.”
“Yeah,” Kelsi said. “All you guys want me to do is be myself. It’s kind of nice.”
After exchanging goodbyes and saying we’d see one another in school tomorrow, we started drifting toward our cars.