Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
The trip to the bowling center was annoyingly long. The drive took half an hour, literally, I should know because I watched the clock the whole time. This town isn't big enough for a half hour drive from one side to the other, much less a trip to the bowling center. During the whole stretched out trip Matt kept telling me how amazing he is at football, how amazingly fast he is on the field and how amazing his truck is. I swear by the end of this ride I never want to hear the word amazing again, I'm actually pretty sure he doesn't know any other adjectives.
When he started to compare his 'amazing' truck to my, as he stated, 'my heap of scrap metal that attempts to be a truck', we were parked at the bowling place. It was good timing for Matt because I was seriously close to yelling at him, the truck may be old, but I happen to love it and I don't like people making fun of. I may not want to become best of friends with these kids, but I don't want to be a loner for the rest of the rest of my high school career either; Charlie wouldn't like that.
So instead of doing something I shouldn't do to Matt, I hurriedly left the truck (believe it or not I didn't trip), slammed his door and walked off towards the building. Matt caught up with me about half way through the parking lot, acting like I didn't just walk off upset. Although he didn't try to wrap his arm around my shoulders or grab my hand or anything so I guess he did know that he pissed me off. The whole time we walked he just talked about us bowling in pairs, or in teams or something. I wasn't really paying attention; I had all my focus on getting to the rest of the group that's hopefully already here.
"Hey guys, what took you so long?" Zach asked as Matt and I go to the counter to get our shoe rentals.
"I think Matt got lost." I mumbled, causing both Matt and Grace to laugh.
"I wasn't lost." Matt said defensively. "Here Bella, I'll pay for you; since I got us here late." He said while shoving my already out stretched hand away from the cashier.
"You don't have to; I've got more than enough." I argued, but he completely ignored me.
"So are Sarah, Lindsay and their dates here yet?" Matt asked while we waited for the cashier to get our shoes.
"Sarah and Lindsay are here, I guess their dates backed out. We've actually been here for about twenty minutes. We only came up here because we saw you guys walk in." Grace answered.
"Guys, guess who's in the lane next to us?" Zach asked, sounding very excited, as we grabbed our shoes and walked down the surprisingly crowded building to our assigned lane.
From Zach's tone I would have thought we would be bowling next to someone high up on the popularity totem pole from school. If it was, then I honestly don't care, although they might be able to get Matt's attention off of me.
"Who's next to us?" I asked, kind of hopeful about the possibility of Matt leaving me alone.
"Ms. Denali and her family are." Grace said; there goes my chance of having a good night, now I know I won't be able to get rid of Matt.
"They're all really good to." Zach added.
Of course they are; they're vampires. I'm pretty sure there's nothing vampires aren't good at. I wonder how many there are. I wouldn't think that many since Edward had told me once that vampires don't usually have large covens like his family. He said the size of his family was basically unheard of.
Sure enough, in the lane next to ours are five golden eyed vampires. As soon as she was in my view, I could tell Ms. Denali has her eyes glued to me, it's a little unnerving. I will have to make sure to keep up my act, or try to anyways, of me not knowing what they are. I don't want any more attention on me. Maybe they'll leave me alone if I do.
Instead of focusing on the vampires next to us, I need to focus on bowling and not hurting myself or my classmates. Being a clumsy person with a heavy ball doesn't really mix well. I'll have to try and find a really, really light ball, maybe one that weighs only a pound? Do those even exist?
"Okay, so I'll go first, then Lindsay, Matt, Grace, Zach and finally Bella can go last." Sarah announced.
"That's fine with me." Zach said as he sat down on one of the chairs surrounding our lane.
"Come on Bella, let's go pick out a ball to use." Matt said, once I had my bowling shoes on.
He didn't give me an opportunity to answer before he grabbed my hand and started leading me over to a rack of bowling balls…ones that are really heavy.
"Matt, these are too heavy for me; I'm going to try and find a lighter one." I told him.
He responded with a mumbled 'okay' and continued to test out the different balls. I turned around to start my own search of a bowling ball. But instead of turning into what I had hoped was a clear pathway, I turned right into Ms. Denali. Literally, I turned right into her and was immediately reminded how hard their skin is.
I took a couple steps back and rubbed my shoulder that hit her.
"Sorry, I didn't see you there." I apologized and then tried to leave, but she blocked me.
"It's no problem Bella. Let me show you where a lighter bowling ball is, they tend to be scattered around this place." Ms. Denali said.
She placed her hand on my lower back and guided me to another rack. Even after we started walking, she kept her hand on my back. I felt my face slowly start to turn red from her touching me. I swear there has to be a law somewhere that says teachers can't be this personal space invading with their students.
"T-thank you." I stuttered when she showed me what we were looking for.
"You look very cute when you blush; it enhances your mouth watering scent. I might have to keep that blush on you permanently." Ms. Denali said, making my face look even more like a tomato, at which she smirked, looking proud of herself.
I was working on building up courage to say something to her, to try and get away, but Matt yelled for me before I could. I was actually finally thankful for him.
"Bella, you ready yet? It's your turn next." He yelled from where the others were waiting their turn to bowl.
I turned back to Ms. Denali, still intent on saying something, but she was faster than me.
"Don't keep them waiting on you for too long; I don't think they have as much patience as I do when it comes to waiting for you." Ms. Denali said then quickly turned around and went to the snack bar.
"Bella, come on!" Zack yelled.
I shook my head in attempt to get Ms. Denali's very confusing actions out of my head. With my bowling ball in hand, I headed back to my group. The entire time I purposefully avoided looking at the vampires in the next lane, even though I know they've glanced at me, several times.
"What did Ms. Denali want?" Grace asked when I rejoined the group.
"She only showed me where a lighter bowling ball was." I said.
"You're up Bella; get a strike!" Zach cheered.
It seemed like they had more questions about what Ms. Denali and I talked about; I mean who wouldn't want to know what took place between a teacher and student during non-school hours? But Zach provided me with an escape I was all too willing to take.
I walked up to the starting line and held the ball in what I think was the starting position for bowling. Everyone I've seen bowl starts this way, so it's only natural that I do also.
Okay, my goal is to just get the ball to the end of the lane, nowhere else, just the end of the lane. My goal is to not hurt anyone in the process of getting the ball to the end of the lane and hopefully knock over some pins in the process. No one here really knows how clumsy I can tend to be, so hopefully I won't embarrass myself to much. I've got this; this is easy, simple even.
I started the short walk down the lane, eager to be done with this before I do something stupid. As I approached the final line that we're not allowed to pass, I swung my arm back and with as much strength as I could muster, I swing my arm forward and released the ball in the direction of what I thought were the pins.
Instead of the ball going forward to knock over some pins, the ball went straight up in the air. I quickly ducked my head and covered my head with my arms as I fast walked back towards the others to try and not get hit by the ball. As I reached my group, who are all laughing at me, the ball landed on the ground with a loud thud. Not only is my group laughing at me but so are the vampires, awesome.
"Wow, Bella, you've got some amazing bowling skills." Zach said in between laughs.
"You're supposed to throw the ball forward." Sarah said, he voice thick with sarcasm.
I had to resist rolling my eyes at her or going down to her level with another stupid remark of my own, though it's very tempting to do so.
"No offense Bella, but you're horrible." Matt said once he stopped laughing.
"I know; I'm a little surprised I didn't hurt myself or anyone else for that matter." I said.
Even though my face is red from embarrassment, I was able to still look at everyone instead of averting my eyes. The only person I couldn't look in the eyes is Ms. Denali. I know she laughed at me because who in their right mind wouldn't…that and I saw them all laugh at me. But I know she's kept her eyes on me since she got back from the snack bar, and I just can't make myself return her stare.
"Hey Bella, why don't you let someone bowl for you for a couple rounds; then I can teach you how to bowl without risk of hurting anyone?" Matt asked.
The offer seems legit enough since it would be for everyone's best interest that I learned how to throw the ball at the pins not the ceiling. The look in his eyes, however, said he most likely has something planned.
"Please do Bella; I don't want you to hit me. Though I'm not sure any amount of help from Matt will improve your skill at all." Lindsay sneered.
"I'll bowl for you if want Bella; while Matt helps you." Grace kindly offered.
What's the worst that can happen if I accept? I really do need to the help if I plan of getting even one point. I really don't want to have to sit out, that would be too boring. Plus, I'll get away from Lindsay and Sarah.
"Sure, I guess, thanks Matt." I accepted.
His eyes lit up and he instructed me to grab my ball, which is still on the ground and to follow him to an emptier area. I obeyed quickly, happy to leave Sarah, Lindsay and the vampires, but not before I told Grace thank you for bowling for me. Zach had shouted some remark about Grace bowling for me only to make sure I lost or something like that but I ignored him in my haste to leave.
"So where are we going?" I asked Matt as he led me farther away from our lane.
"The arcade; no one ever uses it, so it'll be easier to teach you without anyone laughing at how clumsy you are." He answered.
I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach when he said that and we entered a dimly lit room that was the arcade room. There was an air hockey table that that has seen better days and several ancient looking games. There's even one of those claw machines that was completely empty. It seems not even the employees go into this room.
"Now you can fling the ball in the air and not worry about hitting any innocent bystanders." Matt joked.
I laughed nervously at his attempt at a joke; I'm still starting to regret coming here.
"Okay, so why don't you show me how you throw the ball and we'll go from there." Matt said.
"Sure"
"Just don't let go of the ball." Matt said then laughed at his own joke.
I rolled my eyes at him, but did as he asked. This time was not as smooth as last time. Instead of the ball going forward, or even upwards, it went backwards. As I let the ball go, not on purpose I swear; Matt's eyes got huge. From behind me I heard a soft; very inconvincibly sounding 'oomph' from a voice that could only belong to a certain strawberry blonde vampire that I'm fairly positive is stalking me.
I slowly turned around, afraid to face a possibly pissed off vampire, as Matt ran past me.
"Ms. Denali, are you alright?" Matt asked.
I turned around as Matt 'helped' Ms. Denali up. I guess the bowling ball had knocked her down. She doesn't look mad though, that's a good sign.
"I'm alright. What are you guys doing in here alone? I thought you two were bowling with the others?" Ms. Denali asked as she got to her feet.
"Well, as you can tell." Matt said pointing to the bowling ball in Ms. Denali's hands. "Bella isn't that good at bowling, so I figured I would teach her a little."
Ms. Denali then gave me a smirk and a look that clearly said she's up to something.
"Is that so Bella?" She asked me.
"Y-yes." Dammit Bella, grow a pair and not stutter; if I can assault James with pepper spray, I can surely talk to this golden eyed vampire without stuttering.
"Well then, if I that's the case, why don't you go back with your friends Matt and I'll teach Bella here how to bowl." Ms. Denali offered.
No! This is the exact opposite of what I want. I don't want to be left alone with a vampire.
"It's okay Ms. Denali; Matt can teach me. We don't need to take any of your time. Thanks though." I said with mentally crossing my fingers and congratulating myself that I was able to say several sentences to her without stuttering.
Ms. Denali arched an eyebrow then smirked at me. It was almost like she was enjoying trying to get me alone. She turned her full attention on Matt, making him take a couple steps backwards away from her.
"I've been teaching for many years Matt; I have a lot of experience. Why don't you go Matt and don't worry; I'll teach Bella everything she needs to know." Ms. Denali said.
Naturally, with her being a vampire, Matt was all too eager to do what she said and leave. I'm guessing his self-preservation instincts are kicking in.
"Um, ya…sure; I mean…is that okay with you both?" Matt asked while backing away towards the only way out of this room. I guess he only asked because he was still trying to be a gentleman or at least polite; even though it's very obvious he wants to get the hell out of here.
"Of course it's fine." Ms. Denali said, answering for both of us. "Now go ahead and go back to your friends. I'll try not to keep Bella here for too long."
That was all Matt needed to hear. He nodded once then made a hasty retreat away from the predator known as Ms. Denali. Once he was out of sight, Ms. Denali turned around to face me.
"Now that we're alone, let's have some fun." Ms. Denali said with a smirk that I'm beginning to really hate.