IC Time: October 26, 2007
Location: Sunset Lanes Bowling Center
Synopsis: Several family outings collide, not all in a good way.
Submitted by: Carly
Sunset Lanes Bowling Center
Unlike most buildings in Forks, the bowling alley has been recently renovated… in 1986. The threadbare carpet has a confetti pattern on it, toned a deep cyan color. The drop-ceiling has turned yellow from the smoke, and the lighting isn't good except over the actual lanes. There are approximately thirty spotlessly-kept lanes; the facility is one large room that echoes with sound. The walls on either side of the alley had been painted with stylized pins and bowling balls.
Upon entering, there is a long desk to the right where lanes are rented and shoes are distributed. In front of the desk, a narrow carpeted walkway spans the entire building, overlooking the lanes and seating areas. The walkway leads to a dimly-lit bar on one end and a somewhat grimly-looking pro shop and food counter on the other. Throughout the alley, shelves hold the house balls of various weights and sizes. Music blares on the loudspeaker and a disco ball sits above all of the lanes for the weekend Glow'n'Bowl.
The newest Cullen pair, Edward and Bella, have already paid and are claiming their lane on the far end of the building. Not that they would be hard to miss, but there are a good three lanes between them and any humans. Edward sets the bag down and sits in one of the chairs, taking his shoes off to switch them with the bowling shoes in the bag.
Once again the mother of the three Robertson children has forced the trio into their look-alike bowling shirts and sent them off. Whether it was for sibling bonding time or parental bonding time is the question… one the children would prefer not to be answered. And so, they slink into the building and order their rental shoes. The boys immediately beg off the game and rush to the arcade with their quarters leaving Carly alone in a lane about 5 down from the gorgeous pair.
Bella settles down into a seat, removing her own boots to place a pair of blue bowling shoes on. No rented pairs for this couple. She finally stands up and reaches into her bowling bag for a ball and grimaces, "Oh I knew Alice would get me somehow." Bright blue and pink swirly ball and glittery as well. Bella just sighs and sets her fingers into the holes, "Perfect fit…" She shakes her head and looks up to Edward, "Oh well she got that much right."
The pink and glittery shoes that Bella puts on, Edward can't help but laugh.. just a little. "You know she only cares for you, Bella." He grins. At least Alice isn't having her attentions on him for the whole wardrobe thing. His own shoes are black and white. Simple. Rising to stand, he glances around the rest of the establishment, noting Carly, but most others seems to just slip through his mind. Though being in a place like this; he is also listening to a lot of minds. In silence, he sets up the 2v2 game with Bella, putting in their names before hitting START GAME. "Your first, love."
Setting up a game for herself, Carly slugs around the seats and the lane, looking none too happy. Her brothers have left her to her own devices, figuring that Ms. Pacman is better company than their older sister. She seems a little more than worried as she presses the start button. Then going right to the ball rack, she picks out one of the heaviest and biggest balls there, lugging it with both hands toward the start line. Once there, she bends down and rolls the giant ball between her legs. It travels down the lane at an agonizingly slow pace, but when it hits, she manages to knock all the pins down but one. This does not put a smile on the face of the usually crappy bowler, who then returns to mark her score.
"Yes, I know…she cares about making me into her own personal barbie doll sometimes." Bella responds as she steps up and picks up the offending ball before looking over her shoulder to her husband, her features softening, "But yes I know she means well and I still adore her despite her additions to my wardrobe." And yet, still here she is in jeans and tshirt, a little more colourful than Edward anyway.
And enter charm. Beauty. Intelligence. The type of voice that's carried on the wingtips of angels. Of utter and complete popularity. Through the door it slips with all of catlike grace amongst a flood of giggling, gossiping girls as they cling to every word muttered…..
And right behind Sara strays Liam. With much less grace and much less attention from the gaggle of girls. And judging by the bland, brain bleeding look of complete boredom upon his face, this particular gaggle of girls is either completely beyond his means….or are dumb as a sack of dirt. The answer is rather clear when the girls cross the floor and Liam fakes to the right, ducking away into a seat at booth 5 and sending a rather cautious glance over his shoulder to the fading fight of the blonds.
Lucky #5. He finds himself looking across to Carly as she shoves the ball with such refined skill that the look Liam had managed to remove from his face….slowly returns. "You /so/ realize that the ball should go faster than that, right?" Hello Carly. For the moment however, the hiding teen will miss the remarkably beautiful couple.
"She enjoys it, sure. Though she does it to everyone. Or did. Now she just focuses on you." Edward grins at Bella and nudges her shoulder a little in good fun. "I heard something about a pink dress.." He says sitting down to watch Bella bowl and be out of her way. Though it is said to try and throw her off. They're as much here to train Bella in control as much to have fun. Though he gets distracted as his golden eyes dart to Carly, lips pressing thin as he winces ever so slightly. Great. Self control training for Edward too, as it turns out…
Looking up quickly when she hears the sound of Liam's voice, Carly turns red in the face and even redder in the ears (which are quite visible). "Oh, hi.. Liam, right?" she breathes, seeming the very definition of shy. Before he spoke, she was just about to pick up another ball to roll it down the aisle exactly the same way as the other one. "Well I know, but I suck at bowling. This is the only way I can knock any of those thingies down." One of her hands is waved toward the end of her lane, she is clearly indicating the pins. Lucky day for Edward, the blonde teen's mind calms for a moment to allow him some peace.
"Lucky me…" Bella responds as she steps up onto the planks. She takes a breath and starts to take her step, makes the movements to bowl and releases right after Edward's comment, which sends the ball careening down the lane perhaps a touch faster than it should go, plowing through the pins at the other in, rather too fast and just clearing a path down the middle instead of striking. She looks over her shoulder at Edward with a narrowed gaze, "You did that on purpose…" She hisses before moving over to drop 'casually' into the seat next to him, nudging his ribs hard with her elbow. "Your turn…" She says glancing over to Carly before looking back to her husband curiously.
The crash of Bella's pins (and the apparent super speed of the roll for that matter) isn't missed by Liam's rather overactive perception. It draws his attention away from the blushing blond long enough, perhaps, for her to regain her composure and calm herself before finally his eyes sweep back over her again. "Yes, Liam." he stats flatly, perhaps a bit put off, for a mere moment, that his name was just so easily forgotten. Then again a few seconds later the 'pins' are referred to as 'thingies', and suddenly he's much less insulted. "I can't judge you really. I'm an epic failure at this game. I'm just a unfortunate victim of the princess power trip back there." and just for clarification, he motions toward the giggling crowd of cheerleaders in the far back corner. "Lucky me. They're all too stupid to drive yet. Apparently the concept of a vanity mirror outweighs the concept of 'brake' at a red light." It would see for the moment he's speaking specifically about one of the girls, though it's shoved aside a few seconds later as he sits forward. "But if you hate it so much, why are you here?" And again, his eyes move upward and over toward Bella, and in turn, Edward.
Dragging his golden gaze away from Carly as her mind thankfully quiets some, Edward flashes a reassuring smile to Bella. "Yes, it was on purpose." He replies in the 'you have to learn' type of tone. Though rising to his feet, he brushes a hand against his shoulder as he briefly leans in to kiss her hear, whispering to her lowly. In passing, he picks his dark forest green bowling ball out of the back and steps up to bowl.
Bella sighs and nods, "Yes yes, working despite distraction." She murmurs back and glances around, hoping she didn't set anyone to suspicion yet. She gives a placating smile to Liam as she notes his brief attention before looking back to her husband, "Rose is going to fix up my old truck for me again…I can't wait. Nothing like a old behometh to make you feel like you are in a real car." She says as her own taunt, said ever so casually.
"You mean Sara?" Carly's eyes widen as she sees the group and she hangs her head a little, blushing once again. Apparently it's an off day and the Robertson girl has fallen out of favor with the cheerleader set once again, unlike her brothers (who at this moment are chatting a couple of the younger ones up). Turning her attention back to Liam, she gives him a pitiable smile and nods, "I get it. Yeah, I've sat with them at lunch a couple of time when I first started. I was going to join the squad, but I can't do that and be in the marching band at the same time." She says this with a small amount of chagrin, then moves to sit near Liam. "And the reasons I'm here are in the middle of trying to score with the reasons you're here."
The very concept of 'scoring' with one of the half dozen 'sheep' in the corner causes Liam to cringe visibly before he clears his throat, but his gaze does follow Carly to the seat before he tilts his attention back over Bella and Edward. Clearly, they stick out just a little, especially for someone who spends so many hours looking through a camera lens. It causes him to feel marginally distracted from Carly for a heartbeat before he grounds himself again. "So how'd the audition go?" It's a topic that doesn't involve his aunt. A much safer topic. He also lifts a hand to brush a point toward the game again, "And…it's your turn again, killer."
Edward's shoulders square at Bella's words, but he's more used to distractions than she is. Considering; he's flooded with the minds of teenagers half the time. The bowling ball goes true, but twists to the side only knocking half of the pens. He smirks and turns around to face her. "Touche." His second throw however takes most of the others; leaving only one pin left. He steps then to go retake his seat, grinning at Bella with some sense of triumph. "Your turn, love." His gaze drags over to Liam and Carly again, easily over hearing their conversation with a small smirk. Not to mention; still being invaded by their thoughts.
Bella grins at Edward and rises from her seat, giving him a passing kiss as she heads to grab his ball. "Behave.." She murmurs with a brightness in her contact toned eyes. She grabs her ball and steps up again. "I wasn't kidding there by the way." Bella calls out over her shoulder before she goes quiet and a look of concentration strikes her face. She takes the few steps, slow and stead and releases the ball at a rather normal speed, the ball just clipping one pin before going into the gutter. Surely the other throw was just a trick of light?
Smiling, Carly nods toward the lane and shrugs. "Yeah it's always my turn when I'm the only one playing, I think it can wait a little bit. Unless you want to play too? I mean it's kind of sad to be doing something so lame all by yourself." She gets up though and trots over to the rack of balls, repeating her same action from before and this time getting a strike (after the ball rolls for about 30 deathly slow seconds). With a celebratory 'whoop!' she jumps toward the boy and settles herself into a chair. "I got a WAY better part than the one I auditioned for. I actually get to sing a whole number!" The girl is clearly pleased by this fact, something that's going incredibly right in her life.
Liam laughs lowly at the girls antics, though as the ball rolls ever so slowly toward a rather tame strike, he cringes inwardly before sighing. "You're better off alone. I mean that. When I say it's epic, I'm not joking. Bad things happen when I bowl." It's spoken as a warning before he turns to eye the front window and the girl behind the counter. Since..he doesn't have on the 'proper' footgear. Nor does he seems overly excited about wearing such fashionable kicks. But he does stand and lift a one of the balls, which is considerably lighter than Carlys (a realistic weight!) before rolling it back and forth in his hands to watch the pins reset. It gives him an opportunity to laugh at both her cheer and her news, "Very good. I wasn't worried." he then admits before again glancing toward the counter before stealthily creeping toward the lane and taking his throw.
His throw isn't /bad/ persay. Regardless of what he says it is actually a rather lucky roll that leaves him with only two pins standing. It also summons a grin and a rather proud little gaze shifted over the girl. "I'm better than you." He's also rather smug about that fact.
"I am being good." Edward retorts in his own defense, his gaze slipping back to Bella as she makes her throw. Though he's also keeping an eye on Liam and Carly idly, the corner of his lips twitching to try and suppress a smirk. "Good job." He offers to his wife, glancing up at the score. "Your beating me." He teases in the 'for now' tone.
With the Second Ball, Bella makes the strike before turning back to her husband with a grin and settles back into her seat. How this pair will determine who really wins? That will be interesting. No doubt both of them could bowl 300 without breaking a sweat. The harder thing for them will be…to not do that, especially Bella.
Carly wrinkles her nose and grimaces at the boy before she stalks over to the ball rack and picks up one more suited to her size. "Yeah yeah yeah… Blind monkeys are better at this game than me. But I could probably kick your butt in Dance Dance Revolution, and you can consider THAT a challenge." And with that laid, she takes her place at the line and manages to throw the ball like a normal bowler. Unfortunately for the girl, it lands in the gutter, as does the one right after it. When she takes her place in the seat beside Liam again, Carly grins and quirks both of her eyebrows upward in curiosity. "Seriously though? You weren't worried? I sure was, I thought I was going to get laughed off the stage when I showed up all dressed up and everyone else was in jeans and t-shirts." She fails to mention what she was dressed up in, but the way her cheeks tint, it's a little bit obvious that it wasn't jeans and a t-shirt.
Liam hides his snicker as the girls takes her throws, and in turn manages two of the most graceful gutter balls in the history of the business. He even offers her a faint golf clap before he eyes the counter and quickly moves to take his turn, though her words halt his steps as he turns to watch her blush. "I'm painfully curious as to what you were wearing..since, you're ears are almost glowing." he points out. yes, Liam /did/ notice the small habit of hers. he also takes his turn, only to hit only one pin. And he suddenly looks annoyed. "I hate this game. It's stupid." He's also a very bad loser. "Anyway….You're very pretty. I bet it looked good no matter what you wore." His second try is much better. Four whole pins! yay!
Restraint is the lesson of the day. Edward grins at his wife and gives her a brief kiss on the cheek before he takes up his bowling ball again and readies his throw. However just as he goes to throw it, that mental image from Carly comes in and the ball slips, rolling off into the gutter with a slightly dark look in the teen's direction for such thoughts! Gah! On his second bowl, he makes up for it by making a strike on the spare; but it still doesn't afford the full 25 points of a strike. A little grumpy, he moves to sit back down, crossing his arms.
"I don't think I'll be wearing what I wore out in public any decade soon, unless I get a job as a Pussycat Doll or maybe Dita Von Teese's protoge." Carly comments casually, her ears pretty much glowing just as the boy said. For the first time since Liam began talking to her, Carly notices the couple at the end of the building, particularly the dark glare she received from the male half. Shrinking a little she hides behind Liam and murmurs, "Geez, what's that guy's damage? What did I do to him?"
Liam shrugs lazily, turning on his heels to watch Edward and his look before his own brows arch upward in a curious gaze. It's only a heartbeat later that he sends Carly another grin. "Maybe he liked your outfit? Maybe you have a fanboy?" beat, and glance, "Our Fanboi." Who knows. Either way he shrugs before rocking back into the seat with a heavy thump. "But you didn't tell me what it was. I'm curious. Comeon…you completely blew me off once. You owe me some sympathy." See. Cue the puppy eyes!
"Well it's pretty embarrassing," Carly admits, slinking into her seat. The game is ignored in favor of conversation, after all, it's much better and there's no one waiting for a lane anyway. Looking over at Liam, she shrugs and gives him an awkward half smile, "I was dressed in something that my Dad will probably ground me for a decade for wearing. You'd pretty much have to see it to believe it. But there's NO way that I'll be modeling it for you. If you come to the show, you'll get to see it. But that's it." Then she leans over and cups her hand to his ear, whispering so that no one else can hear (not that they'd be able to anyway with the ambient noise). "I was wearing lingerie."
Well that does it. Liam's expression deepens at the words, and his grip loosens suddenly at the whisper. The outcome? The ball drops from his grip, landing squarely on his foot and cause a variety of reactions from the boy. First he's shocked. Then pissed, and finally he cringes with a loud yelp before leaping backward into the seat and coming to a sudden and sharp jolt. He can't go far thanks to the back of the booth. "Holyfuckingholiday!" is the only thing he says, and even that is spoken through clinched teeth and a growl. But at least his mind is off of the outfit. Right?
Carly's hands fly to her mouth where they muffle a small scream. Then she rushes over to the boy and places her hands on his shoulder's trying to guide him to the chair. "Oh my god! I'm SO sorry!! Are you okay? I'm sorry!! I didn't mean to … whatever I did! I'm sorry!" She is a bundle of apology and goes so far as to kneel down by his side to try to examine where he's hurt. She didn't see exactly where the ball landed, and his shoe prohibits any sort of cursory examination, so she just sits there, looking a tad helpless. "Do you want me to drive you to the hospital? Or get you some ice? Or … I don't know?"
Liam is very easy to be deposited in the chair, since he was already on his way there. Still, his face pales for a moment before he closes his eyes and takes a breath. The hospital would be an /excellent/ idea." He admits after a moment, his attention shifting toward the Gaggle of cheerleaders and the blond who looks absolutely modified. It almost looks sweet, all enduring and caring of her, before Sara's steps carry her like a bull elephant toward the couple.
"OMG!" She almost roars the text speak at Liam, causing him to cringe away, "I leave you alone for 45 seconds and you go and get yourself maimed?! Are you retarded?! You are, aren't you! You're retarded!" She flails dramatically for a moment longer before she rolls her eyes back to look at her friends. "Why are you standing around there! Call someone for a ride. Like, NOW."
Liam himself looks mortified as well, at the very idea that Sara is addressing him in public. This is a very defined moment of social awkwardness. Not for the cheerleader being seen talking to him, but for him to be seen talking to the cheerleader. A reversal role that is meant for the pages of teen drama. It causes him to sigh as well. "Actually, I think I'll be okay. I'd rather walk on a broken foot than listen to emoticon speak for 15 more minutes."
At Sara's roar, Peter and Mark come charging down into the area, mostly to see what has the object of their dual affection so upset. When they spy their sister in the middle of it, they break out into raucous laughter and Peter steps forward. "Oh man! Did my sister do that to you? Dude!" He reaches out and grips his sister by the arm, pulling her back (which ends up with the girl being shoved flat on her bottom a few feet away from Liam). He leans in a little closer and grimaces, "You better get to a hospital man, Carlton can be pretty dangerous. There's this one time? Man.. she pegged Mark pretty hard in the nads with her guitar. I don't think they even work anymore."
At this the younger brother steps up and throws his hands in the air, "Shut it bra! Shit! There's emalesfay esentpray!" Pig Latin, the ultimate in stealth communication. Then he reaches down and pulls his sister up to a stand before stepping on her, though he does that after she is upright. "That's what you get for wreckin' my game."
