"Okay, third time's a charm. Here goes nothin'…"
Judy's concentration was centered solely towards the skill crane, watching the claw as it moved around with every movement from the machine's joystick. After directing it to the spot within the glass enclosure that she wanted to be in, she pressed a paw on the small red button that to the left her.
The claw dropped into the kerfuffle of small plush toys once again, and it started to rise up a few seconds later with a blue bunny plush partially in its grasp. The doe started to get excited for a short moment, but the enthusiasm dissipated when the machine's prize fell from out of the claw before she could win it.
As the stuffed bunny fell onto a plush toy that looked like a yellow duckling, Judy's ears started to droop slightly.
"And we almost had it that time," Nick said as he watched the claw machine reset itself in preparation for the next player. "It's almost like they got this thing set up so you can't win."
"Probably the best-case scenario," Judy replied. "Wish I could win that one for my youngest sister, though. My mom was just tellin' me how she wanted a stuffed bunny just like that one for Christmas, and they couldn't find one anywhere."
"Clawhauser's probably got everything all set up for us," the vulpine beside her remarked, "so we better join him and the others."
With a nod of her head, Judy followed her fox as they walked out of where all of the games were and out towards the where the bowling alley was located.
Nick had talked about heading back to the nearby fun center to go bowling for quite some time. After stopping and soon enough, they had made plans to head back for an evening of fun. However, after overhearing said plans, some of their friends started to ask if they could tag along. What followed was all of them agreeing on getting together for a good time at the bowling alley.
"We should totally think of a team name for us," Nick suggested once more as Clawhauser finished putting their names in their lane's system that displayed scores above them.
Judy's response to the vulpine's little proposition was a tiny snicker and a shake of her head.
"C'mon, Fluff. Making a team name up'll make things even funner."
"Funner isn't even a word, Slick."
"Anywho, just hear me out a sec on some ideas. What do ya think of 'Time to Spare?'"
"I'll admit, that's a clever one. Kinda punny, though."
"Puns are my specialty, Carrots. You could say they're right up my alley." After a brief moment of silence, the fox continued, "Or how about 'Spare Change?'"
"If it was between the two, my vote would probably be on the other one."
"'On Strike?'"
At the team name possibility, Judy shook her head.
"'Big Zoobowski?'" the tod suggested.
"If I'm aloud to comment on the whole team name debate," Wolford said as he approached Nick, "I'd like to submit a suggestion of my own. What's your thoughts on 'Mortal Pins?'"
Nick snapped his fingers in agreement. "That's perfect!" he remarked. "It's a nice play on words but it has a little bit of a mysterious feeling to it."
"My thoughts exactly, Wilde," the wolf replied. "My thoughts exactly."
From behind the three mammals that were talking with one another, Clawhauser waved a large paw in the air to get their attention. When they looked over in his direction, he said, "I've got our names on the screen over here. You guys ready to start?"
"Absolutely," Nick and Judy replied in unison.
"Let's get started!" Clawhauser chimed with excitement, getting up from his little seat and walking up to the others.
Occupying the lane that was only one to the right of theirs, the second team of four mammals, consisting of Fangmeyer, Delgato, Snarlov, and Grizzoli, showed their enthusiasm to start bowling.
Nick stepped forward and swung the green bowling ball, watching as it clamored to the ground and continued to roll down the alley. This would be his second roll and four pins remained standing, positioned to the left.
The bowling ball swerved slightly to the right, but it managed to crash into the pin that was closest in range, causing all but one of the them tumble over.
"Ooooh, close but no cigar," Nick muttered out loud. "Oh well."
The fox took a few steps back as Snarlov approached his lane.
The polar bear in the lane to the right of the others gripped onto his bowling ball, sending it flying down the lane. What resulted was him knocking down every pin except for the leftmost and rightmost ones in the back row.
Achieving a spare with a split such as this one was a considerably difficult task, but he was going to try his best regardless. It was just a friendly game between friends, after all, and not a competition that involved some sort of wager or prize.
When it came to this bowling scenario, success was only possible if a pin was struck in the proper spot to cause it to slide towards the other one and knock it down. And that was exactly what he was attempting to do.
Snarlov focused briefly on where he wanted the ball to go. After a few seconds went by, he swung it in such a manner that it went towards the pin on the right. The ball, unfortunately, didn't slide to the other one like he anticipated, but it was worth a shot.
He wasn't a bowling champion that could pick up a spare like that easy-peasy, after all. This was, honestly, the first time he stepped paw in a bowling alley in years.
The bear walked back over to where the others were watching him, slapping paws with Delgato.
Meanwhile, in the adjacent lane, Wolford prepared to roll the ball he had clutched firmly in his left paw. Upon rolling it, he managed to swiftly knock down six of the ten pins in the lane. Nick, Judy, and Clawhauser clapped behind him as he waited for the machine to his side to retrieve the ball to where he was standing.
Once it came back to him, the canid, rolled a second time, trying to make the ball go to the left in an attempt to knock down the pins he didn't strike down the first time. However, the ball ended up traveling a little too far to the left, resulting in it falling into the gutter with a small clanging sound.
Not bad, the wolf thought as he shrugged his shoulders.
As he turned his back from the lane, it became Grizzoli's turn. Turning his head in Wolfords direction, he put on a small but visible grin. "Wolf versus wolf," he jokingly remarked, looking back at the lane in front of him.
A few seconds passed, with him looking as if he were in a deep state of concentration. The white wolf slowly stepped forward, careful not to place the paw in front of him over the lane's foul line. He rolled the ball with a good bit of force. All ten pins ended up being raucously mowed down, and Grizzoli pumped a fist in the air at his accomplishment.
"Woo-hoo!" he exclaimed as the others behind him clapped.
Wolford looked over at him, unsure of how this mammal was this good at bowling. "I don't know how you do it," he ended up muttering. "How do you manage to get strikes so easily? You managed to get on both of your turns."
"Practice, my fellow wolf," Grizzoli responded. "Lots and lots of practice."
"You sure ya don't got some kind of trick up your sleeve, Grizzoli?"
The white-furred canid tugged at the side of the plain black tank top he was wearing. "You can't have any tricks up your sleeve when the shirt your wearin' is sleeveless."
Wolford let out a snicker at the little joke that he just received. "Har, har," he muttered.
"My turn!" Clawhauser said enthusiastically.
The large cheetah's first roll, unfortunately, didn't get too far, as it ended up rolling to the right gutter before it could even reach any of the pins. On his second attempt, however, he made up for that happy accident by knocking down eight pins, missing the remaining two by mere inches. This little game marked the first time he ever played at an alley with multiple players, and, although his performance wasn't exactly the best, he was having a blast.
Meanwhile, to the side of the spotted feline, Judy watched as Delgato took his turn. Shortly afterwards, the gray doe felt a poke against her shoulder.
As she turned around, she looked at Nick and heard him remark, "Your turn, Carrots. Time to finish the game strong."
The moment came for the game to come to its conclusion. Time truly does fly when you're havin' fun, she thought.
A smaller-sized bowling ball, colored in a deep shade of purple, came rolling down the retrieval machine, and the leporine picked it up.
Judy stared at the those ten white pins at the very end of the wooden lane, hoping internally for a strike. A look of determination on her muzzle, the lagomorph took three steps forward, pulled the ball back, and released after giving it her best possible swing.
It hit the floors with a loud clank, travelling with a good amount of momentum. The ball started to swerve a tiny bit to the left, but it managed to remain on course with the first pin that was closest to it. The frontmost pin came tumbling down, knocking down those to the right of it and causing a reaction that, lucky for the bunny, sent all ten of them falling like dominoes.
"Yes!" Judy exclaimed, joyously leaping up into the air. "Strike!"
"Okay, everybody," Clawhauser said from behind, looking up at two monitors on the ceiling above where he was seated. "That was a pretty close game, but it looks like 'Mortal Pins' is the winner."
The four started to clap and applaud one another, and they could hear some of their friends on the other "team" start to applaud their bowling performance as well.
Judging on the smiles of the mammals surrounding her, Judy knew that everyone heading back to this alley another time was a definite.
Author's Note: Hey there, readers! Hope you enjoyed this ridiculous story that I came up with. This was originally going to be about just Nick and Judy at the bowling alley, but once I started writing it out it turned into, "No, what if some of their friends joined in as well?"
And, as always, let me know what your thoughts were on this. Your thoughts, good and bad, are always gladly appreciated. Also, want to give a big "Thank You" to every single one of you who have been reading my other stories I've written. It means a lot to know y'all are enjoying them!
'Til next time, everyone! :D