I’m sure many of you have gone bowling before. Maybe you had an awesome time and bowled the game of your life or you didn’t really enjoy your time because you had a gutter ball in each frame. The latter sufficiently describes my recent bowling experience with my friends.
I should first explain that my friends and I like to call ourselves “The Fantastic Four.” You would be correct in assuming the movie was written about us, but don’t tell too many people; we don’t want to be bombarded by paparazzi.
On Thursday night, we received our next mission at Plaza Lanes. I was quite excited because I hadn’t been bowling in over a year. “The Human Torch” had told the other three of us that it was $1 bowling, which made it all the better. (Being a superhero isn’t really a high-paying job.)
Once we got our shoes and ball, our battle began. Our mission wasn’t to save the world; our mission was to see which one of us was the true leader of the group.
As soon as “Mr. Fantastic” let go of the ball, I knew it was going to be a long night. He had a strike on the first frame. How was I supposed to follow that? Well, I did my best: a gutter ball. That happened to me at least once in the next five frames. Yes, I am that good. By the end of the first battle, my total was less than 50 and “The Human Torch” had come out with the victory.
The next game was a bit more exciting, at least for me. I had yet to get a gutter ball in the first few frames, which was quite unusual for me. Then I walked up for my sixth frame.
I was feeling pretty confident because I was on a roll. That all changed when I went to let the ball go. Instead of rolling down the lane, I had dropped it directly into the gutter. It slowly started rolling down until it eventually stopped halfway down the lane. I didn’t even want to face the team. At least they didn’t have to worry about me being the leader.
When I turned around, I couldn’t even look at them because everyone was laughing at me. I was a failure. I had to slip into my “Invisible Woman” persona because I couldn’t handle the humiliation. Good thing we don’t have to bowl to save lives or I wouldn’t be in “The Fantastic Four” today.
Eventually I got up the courage to finish bowling the last game from the support of “The Thing. “ My goal for the final match: get over 100.
The third game was one of the best games I had ever bowled. I had some strikes, spares and only two gutter balls. I was so proud of my improvement! Plus, I didn’t get last place because “The Thing” missed 100 by one point. That moved me up on the leaderboard.
As it turns out, “Mr. Fantastic” is still the true leader of “The Fantastic Four” because he won two out of the three matches. I’m sure there will be more missions where I can come out on top, but it doesn’t really matter. We work the best as a team anyway because we’re the three best friends that anybody could have.
Once we arrived at our destination and walked to the cash register, our total was $12 for three games. Needless to say, we were not happy with “The Human Torch.”
So in case the rest of you ever want to go bowling with your friends, I have a few “Dos and Don’ts of Bowling”:
Do practice before your next bowling adventure to prevent humiliation.
Don’t go the same night an event is taking place. Your bowling game will suffer due to the emcee’s intense shouting into the microphone.
Do take a souvenir.
Don’t trust your friends with money issues. Double-check it yourself.
And there you have it everyone – The epic adventure of “The Fantastic Four.”
