A Week, A Lifetime

Dakota and Rian did not actually do much sleeping, while the rest of the gang were passed out on the couch. No, they did not do anything bad, they had talked. About a lot of things, actually. Rian had told Dakota about his family, and about how they started out as a band. He had even shown her a photograph of how he looked like when they first started out.
“Wow, hair,” was all that Dakota could say, while studying the photo on his cell phone.
“I know, right?” he giggled, making Dakota’s head move from the chuckle. She was lying in the nook of his arm, her face scrunching as she studied the picture.
“Wow… Hair! You look cute, though,” Dakota said quickly, afraid she might have offended him in some way.
“It looks bad, I know!” he exclaimed, before wrapping his arms tighter around her waist.
“I think I like it better this way,” she replied, before running her hand through what little hair was on his head.
“Thank you.” He placed a sweet kiss on her forehead, before taking his phone back. He sighed.
“What?”
“We should do something when we get to our next stop. We have no gig tonight. We should go bowling!” Rian was clearly excited, because Dakota could feel his heartbeat increase.
“Bowling?” Dakota sounded less that excited about the idea.
“Yeah, bowling. You know, you throw a ball, and take down the 10 things that is in the end of the lane? Bowling?”
“I know what bowling is. I am just seriously, horribly, terrible at it. I need the child-fences up for it not to go out of the lane.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll show you.” He squeezed her around the waist one more time, before Dakota sat up in the bed.
“You will all laugh, I promise you!” she exclaimed breathlessly, before pecking Rian on the cheek, and jumped put of the bunk.

No more than three hours had passed, and the band, Kaylee and Dakota had gotten to the bowling alley. Dakota was not excited for this – at all! She was terrible at bowling, and she could not get one memory out of her head: The one time she managed to loose grip of a bowling ball, and it flew towards the guy behind the counter instead. She had practically killed the guy, and she had sworn to never, ever play bowling again! Kaylee, on the other hand, was a great bowler – and a sore loser. She loved torturing Dakota for hours at a time, trying to teach her a few tricks, but Dakota just could not wrap her head around how to toss that bloody ball!
“Great, let’s get started then,” Alex said, and sat down in front of the computer, and started typing in all of their names, and Dakota squealed as she saw he had written her name down first.
“No, Alex, I cannot be first! I am not even sure I want to play…” Alex did not let Dakota finish her sentence, because he was shushing her.
“D, you are playing, and that’s that!” He grinned like an idiot, before giving her a wink.
“Your funeral,” Dakota said in a whisper, although her face was smiling.

“Come on, Dakota, you can do it!” Jack urged her forward. She had picked a cute, green ball, and she had placed both hands on it. She was on her way to toss the ball, but a pair of hands stopped her.
“What are you, a canon?” Jack grinned, before moving her fingers around, propping three fingers in to each of the holes. Dakota was blushing from her ignorance.
“Now, just try and hit those white things in the end, ok?” Jack’s voice was mockingly sweet, and Dakota turned to focus on the pins.
“Can’t I have the fences up?” she asked, and got a unanimous NO! as a reply. She shrugged, before tossing the ball, and as she had expected, it ended up going right out of the lane. Dakota shook her head carefully, not wanting to reveal how silly she actually felt.
“You just need to warm-up,” Jack said enthusiastically, and Dakota felt even more stupid.
“Sure thing,” she replied, a fake smile plastered on her face, before she tossed her second ball.
“0 points for me, then,” she exclaimed, and sat down in her seat, feeling defeated. It was not that she was a sore loser; it was more the fact that she did not like making a fool out of herself. Rian came over, and sat down next to her.
“You really are bad at bowling?” he grinned.
“I told you I am. What made you think I was joking?” she was smiling slightly, but felt embarrassed at how fragile she felt.
“I was thinking you were being modest. We’ll teach you, don’t you worry!” Rian grinned, before stroking her carefully on the arm, before he went to have his turn. Dakota was not at all surprised when he got a strike.

Kaylee was currently in the lead, the hours practicing coming to her advantage. Alex and Jack spent most of their time messing around, finding loads of different ways to throw the bowling ball – one including the use of Jack’s rare end. Rian was so kind to explain the basics of bowling to Dakota, whenever they were waiting for their turn, but Dakota did not dare try to be hopeful. She had gotten 7 points, but that was Alex’s doing: He has tossed a ball, trying to make it go into the lane next to the one they were using, but he failed brilliantly, giving Dakota a few points.
“Your turn, Dakota. You can do this!” Zack encouraged her, and Rian followed her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her face filled with confusion.
“Just hear me out, ok?” He placed his hands on top of hers, finding the correct way to hold the ball.
“Look at the dots on the lane. You need to follow the centre one, all right?” Dakota was paying close attention; unfortunately more to her mouth moving, than what he was saying.
“Straighten out your arm like this,” he said, before urging her forward, and before Dakota knew it, she had thrown the ball. It was headed straight forward, and she could not believe what was happening.
“STRIKE!” Everyone yelled, and Dakota felt two pair of hands clasping her arms, and around her waist. Her mouth was open in shock, but she quickly snapped out of it when Alex grabbed hold of her around her hips, and threw her up into the air, holding her tight, celebrating her first ever hit.
“I did it?” she asked carefully, and every head in the room nodded.
“I did it!” she exclaimed happily, as Alex put her back down, and she threw her arms around Alex’s neck, before turning to Rian to do the same.
“First time, ever!” Kaylee said, her face looking proud. “This is the first time ever you have actually managed to hit the pins.” Dakota nodded happily, and sat down next to her, letting Jack have his turn.
“I will still lose, but at least I got a few points this time around.”