King Bowling Party-‐ by Elijah Step…step…step…step…step. I was now in Kings, a bowling alley. I put the box of water bottles down, and saw the faces of my friends staring directly at me. “What the…what are you guys DOING here?” I screamed. “This is MY party! And you beat me to it!” “We’re just really excited,” Owen told me. “This is going to be fun,” Bertina piped in. “Yeah, well, I arrived an hour early,” Nick grumbled. “Thought the party was at one.” “Guess we should get going. Only two hours,” I pointed out. I gave my coat to the man at the front desk and he gave me bowling shoes. “Wait a minute!” Ian gasped. “Are those…bowling pin water bottles?” I looked at the box I had brought in, which was showing the water bottles inside. “No.” I quickly shut the box. “Let’s get going.” We had rented a party room for this occasion. It had two candlepin bowling lanes, a bar, an air hockey table, a shuffleboard table, two skeeball machines, and some couches. We had also rented two regular bowling lanes right outside of the room. There were about fifty of us in the room, and it seemed the right size for this group. “Party time!” I cheered. “Feel free to use what you want! Food will be out soon.” I went to go bowling (regular bowling) and all of my friends followed me. “How are we going to arrange this?” I asked, seeing as there were twelve of us. “Six in each lane?” Bertina suggested. I nodded. “Sure. Whatever.” So the boys arranged themselves into one lane and the girls arranged themselves into another. It wasn’t exactly six per lane, considering there were more guys then girls, but it worked. We started bowling. After two turns I was in third place. Not bad, but I could definitely do better. And just then…the food showed up. There were pigs in a blanket and chicken fingers-‐ two of my favorite foods. I grabbed a piece of chicken and took a bite, but was rudely interrupted. “Hey, it’s your turn!” Nick pointed out. I bit into the chicken with my left hand and rolled the ball with my right.
The ball rolled down the lane quickly and collided into the pins. One…two…three were down. Then a fourth…a fifth…a sixth…a seventh…an eighth…and a ninth! And then…a tenth! I went wild, cheering and high-‐fiving Owen and Nick. Chicken in one hand and a strike with the other! It was exciting since I hardly get strikes in bowling. The next bowling ball I picked up had a mustache on it. Nick and Owen snickered in the background. I stopped bowling. An hour later, all of us were at the air hockey table. I was facing Charlotte, and we were tied 3-‐3. The first to get to ten points won. “Wow, I’m actually kinda good at this!” Charlotte exclaimed. “You’re going to lose, though.” I told her. Just as I said that, the puck went into my goal. Charlotte grinned. “4-‐3. I’m winning.” “Yeah, you’re lucky,” I grumbled, and hit the puck. She blocked it and sent another one into my goal. My eyes widened in and she grinned more. “5-‐3.” I was frustrated by this point. “Come on, Elijah! You can do this!” Nick cheered. Owen nodded, but he wasn’t very convinced. Suddenly, something from the shuffleboard flew across the room and hit the wall. “Sorry.” Bertina picked it up and walked away. Another puck flew into my goal. “6-‐3,” Charlotte pointed out. I rolled my eyes. I lost. I’m cursed with an unfortunate allergy known as “lactose intolerance.” Won’t go into detail, but it basically means I can’t eat dairy. As you know, cake has dairy. So, we went to a colleague of my dad’s. She said she would make the cake, and it looked like she wasn’t lying because there was a huge lactose-‐free chocolate cake (my favorite) being brought over to the table I was at. And it was awesome. Very tasty. The cake was chocolate, my favorite, and said “Happy 13th Birthday to Elijah.” I really enjoyed the cake. It was delicious. Most of my friends came up to me afterwards and asked how I could eat the cake. I told them it was lactose-‐free. They couldn’t believe it. I grinned and just ate another slice.
Nick began to walk out the door, and I opened up the box from earlier. He noticed this. “And what exactly are those?” I threw a bottle at him. His reflexes kicked in and he caught it. He examined it closely. “Is this a bowling pin?” “Drink it.” As Nick examined it more, I threw one to Owen, then to Bertina. I threw one to Ian, but he didn’t see it and it hit him in the head. Nick had a white one, Bertina had a blue one, and Owen had a green one. I walked away with seven, one of each color, but that’s beside the point. The next day at school, I was at my locker. Nick appeared next to me, drinking from my water bottle. I grinned and drank from one of mine. It was a good day.