fandomtownies | Fast Eddie's, Wednesday

Bowling lanes are for bowling, not dancing. No street shoes on the lanes.

Kiki requests a pair of size 5's, picks out a bright marblized green ball, enters her name in the scoring computer and bowls her first frame: a spectacular gutter ball, followed by a whopping 2. What an auspicious start.

Ben comes in just in time to see Kiki's first frame. He sits down nearby to put on his shoes (yes, he has his own, and his own ball too ~~no comments from the peanut gallery~~). "You new to this, Kiki?" he asked, hoping that it wasn't taken as an insult.

She chuckles. "That obvious?" she answers wryly. "I've done it once or twice, but not often, at all."

Waiting for the lane to reset the pins, Kiki leans over, hands hovering over the keyboard. "Since I'm only on my first frame, would you like me to add your name to the scoresheet?"

"Sure, since my other half has gotten sucked in by pinball (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fandomtownies/523916.html?thread=20608396#t20608396). We'll see how rusty I've gotten."

Kiki looks over her shoulder to where Michael is transfixed with flashing lights and paddles and laughs. She types on the keyboard and the words "Mr. Ben" appear on the scoring screen overhead, flashing to indicate it's his turn.

"All you!" Kiki invites.

Ben looks at the screen and laughs. "As long as it's not 'Mr. Ed,' we're good."

He's rustier than he thought. Six pins on the first, only two more on the second. He politely refrains from swearing.

((ooc: sorry so slow. Still 1 1/2 hours of work left.))

"Still, that's six up on me," Kiki grins, hefting her ball out of the return.

She's better this time, getting 2 and 5. "Nine total?" she comments, looking at her score. "And people get better than that in half a frame! No matter, that's actually really good for me."

[No worries, as I'm about to go AFK to the grocery store for a bit. Annoying requirement to stop playing in order to eat!]

Ben smiles encouragingly. "If you keep getting better, you'll have strikes by the end of the game."

Ben, on the other hand, bombs this frame. Two pins, then only one more. He shook his head. "I need a lot more practice."

"Strikes? I doubt it, but thanks," Kiki grins. She gets 6 pins, right down the middle, leaving a horrible split. Naturally, she can't get a one of them. "Six and oh," she reports, watching the screen tick the numbers up and add the score.

Picturing his former boss' head as a target, Ben bowls a strike. "That's more like it."

((ooc: using my own emotions in this. :P))

Kiki claps her hands. "Nice!" she cheers.

Where her last frame had the ball to squarely down the middle, this one is too much to the side, clipping just one pin off the end. Her next throw is better, and Kiki, looking up at the score says, "Hey look! I've broken twenty!"

Ben applauds for her. "Nice!"

His concentration is blown, though. A gutterball with one, then the second ball rolls off to one side, knocking down only four pins. Ben groans. "Definitely need more practice."

"Oof, that always happens right after a strike," Kiki shakes her head. "Bad luck." Kiki manages to get another 9 pins down on this frame. "Maybe my bad luck is contagious."

"More like you're giving it to me." Ben grins. He does manage to knock down seven pins this time.

"Man, you're rusty." Michael slouches into a nearby chair. "Not that I can talk. That pinball machine whipped my ass."

"He's still got a good lead over me," Kiki grins over her shoulder as she steps up to the lane. "Another 3 and... a gutter," Kiki adds against the computer, "puts me at a solid 36 for the 6th frame. 6 pins a frame? Could be worse!"

"You're not doing much worse than I am, and I used to play on a team." Ben adds under his breath, "And bowl more strikes." Taking a deep breath, he hopes for the best. The first ball leaves him with a 7-10 split. He manages to take out the 10-pin with the second roll, but the 7 is left standing.

Kiki's next attempt takes out the right side, and then, lining up carefully, Kiki sends the ball down the lane with an absurd slowness. It bumps the pins, toppling 3 of them, then the fourth ever-so-slowly wobbles, tips, gathers momentum and flops over, rolling and knocking out the bottom of the last pin left standing.

Kiki whoops, "A spare! A spare! I can't believe it!"

Ben applauds. "Nice job!"

Ben's first ball knocks out the left side, leaving four pins. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," he mutters as he lets the ball roll down the lane for the second attempt. Three of the four fall, leaving one standing, mocking him. "Shit." He glances at Kiki and blushes. "Sorry."

Kiki tries not to grin. "Don't worry about it," she says easily. "I've heard it before."

"Curse of the Spare or Strike," she comments, regarding the 2 pins she managed to knock over. "But I guess that means it's more likely that I'll knock something over on the second ball."

Which is true; she gets another 3 pins over.

Ben narrows his eyes and lines up his shot. It succeeds, sort of, with two pins left standing. Concentrating again on the second shot, he manages to knock those two over. "Finally!" He sits down next to Michael. "I'm going to have to start coming here regularly. I didn't think I had gotten this bad. I wasn't even this bad when we went in Pittsburgh over Christmas, and I'd been drinking then."

Kiki hears that and unfortunately starts laughing just as she releases the ball, causing it to veer down the lane and nick over just the far left pin. Shaking her head at herself, she tries again, and gets a couple more pins.

"Only one more frame left for me," she says as Ben's name flashes again.

"Sorry about that. Usually I only try to make people laugh when they're winning," Ben chuckles.

Frustrated with his performance thus far, Ben shrugs off his focus and lets the ball go where it may. Of course, it rolls down the center of the lane and takes out all of the pins. "Oh sure," he calls down the lane, "now you do what I want you to do."

"Does that work?" asks Kiki, hefting the bowling ball. "Talking to them, I mean?"

Kiki decides to give it a try. "Go, go - no, go right - oOOh, it did - 8 pins!" she announces happily. "Okay, you last two are history!" She rolls the ball again, picking up the last two. "Another spare! Talking to them really does work, I guess."

The lane resets for the final extra frame, and Kiki gets another six. She looks up at the scoring board. "87," she reads. "Hey, that's not bad at all for me!"

"Talking to them only works if they're listening to you. And in Fandom, they might actually do that." Ben shakes his head and takes his first shot. Seven pins fall, but the remaining pins are split. He went for the side with two, for a total of nine in this frame. "I really, really need to practice." ~~And since the mun has no idea how to score bowling, we're not mentioning that.~~

Kiki looks up at the screen. "134," she reads his score. "Good job!"

[I just made up a final number, heh, becuase I was too lazy to try to add up what her score really was.]

Ben shakes his head, but smiles. "Thanks for the encouragement. For a beginner, though, you're doing well. You had what, only one gutterball? Believe me, I've seen scoresheets full of zeroes before. That was my pretty inauspicious start to the game, actually -- many, many years ago."

"Thanks!" grins Kiki. "I guess I'm better at this than I thought I'd be."

Ben nods. "Like any other skill, you just have to keep working at it. But you're off to a good start."

Kiki sits and changes her shoes. "I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll see you and Mr. Michael here again sometime? And I promise I'll keep all my bad luck to myself, then."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll see us here again," Ben says, sounding very determined. "I'm going to get back to my normal game if it kills me." He smiles at Kiki. "I'm not too worried about your so-called 'bad luck' -- as long as you don't turn my bowling ball into an avocado."

Kiki bursts out laughing, and it's a few minutes before she can catch her breath. "I won't," she promises, "but I might do that to the pins."

Ben laughs and nods his approval. "Instant guacamole night at the lanes! Might get a bit messy, though."

"Useful for parties - or it'd be a bit like a grape-crushing party at a winery," Kiki says. "I've already used avocados in a minigolf course, too."

"Might be tough to clean up," Ben replies, "especially from the mechanism that sets the pins." He almost says something about magical clean-up, but decides not to give her any ideas. "A minigolf course, huh? I guess they'd make good obstacles."

Kiki smirks at the memory of hole #5, the avocado graveyard.

"It was," she ponders a moment. "Theraputic."

"I'm sure it was." Making guacamole had been therapeutic for him too, Ben realizes.

"We're going to head home now. Be careful getting back to the dorms, all right?"

"Thank you, I will," says Kiki, tying her scarf around her neck securely. "That's the advantage of flying - direct route and I have a much less chance of meeting anything that might go bump in the night."

She fastens her coat and picks up her broom. "You and Mr. Michael have a good evening, and thanks for the game!"

No dancing on this lane either.

What is it with you kids and your street shoes?

Lots of games. No kicking the machines.

Michael might have grown up in the age of video games, but his first love was still pinball. However, not this particular machine. He could squander a lot of money on this tonight.

He's not so much for the talking, but he'll get you snacks and listen.

Talk to the owner if you must.

Fast Eddie's, Wednesday

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JUICE BAR

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