Fearless

I stood up on the wooden platform, staring at the ball return next to me. There were a variety of different bowling balls lined up in the contraption, all of them different colors depending on the weight.

I had seen Louis, Eleanor, and Niall go before me, but I was still freaking out. What if I embarrassed myself?

I reached for the kind of ball that Eleanor had used, since it seemed to be the smallest. I grimaced as I put my hands in the holes, trying to pretend that I couldn’t feel something coarse like sand inside of them.

“Jaz, love,” I heard a relatively high-pitched English voice say from behind me. I turned to find Louis giving me a sassy, slightly impatient look. “We really don’t have all day.”

“I’m just not sure how to do this,” I admitted uncomfortably. “I feel like the ball is going to fly out of my hand and smack Harry in the face.”

Everyone burst out laughing. When they calmed down, I shrugged and added, “Not that it would be a bad thing, but…”

Eleanor grinned as she got to her feet. “I’ll show you,” she told me kindly as she picked up one of the other balls that matched mine. “Alright, you just go forward slowly, and as you’re moving, swing your arm back. When your arm reaches in front of you, just let go. Don’t worry about flicking your wrist or doing anything fancy.” She demonstrated quickly, knocking over about six pins, before straightening back up.

“Hey, Lou!” she called out. “Go into the menu and make it so the bumpers come up for Jaz’s turn.”

“What?” he responded, his face looking like she’d just asked him to build an airplane using only a bowling ball, a candlepin, and Harry. “How do I do that?”

She rolled her eyes and marched toward him, mumbling something that sounded like, “Ugh, oh my God, why do I have to do everything?”

I snickered as she reconfigured the settings. About thirty seconds later, tiny metal gates rose on either side of the bowling lane, making it highly unlikely that I could throw a gutter ball.

“Just don’t over-think it,” Eleanor encouraged from behind me.

I took a deep breath and mimicked what she had demonstrated, determined to hit at least a couple pins, just to make my first attempt not a complete failure.

And, to my excitement, I knocked over three of the remaining four pins. Though, granted, the one I didn’t hit was on the opposite side of the group, making it pretty much impossible to get them all.

I turned around and fist-pumped into the air as the group started applauding loudly. Louis and Harry put their fingers in their mouths and made loud whistling noises, stomping their feet.

Grinning from ear-to-ear, I bowed a couple of times as if I’d just finished my stint as the lead role in the school musical.

Just as Harry climbed onto the platform, I jumped off, the smile still on my face absolutely refusing to waver.

I walked over to the benches to wait for my next turn, and Niall looked up at me, patting the seat immediately to his right. “Great job,” he granted me as I sat down, reaching up for a high-five.

I slapped my hand against his. “Thanks,” I replied. “But it’s probably just beginner’s luck. Nothing to get excited about.”

“Or,” he offered slowly, thinking about his words as he expressed them, “this is the beginning of a massive discovery, and you’ll turn out to be the best bowler ever.”

I burst out laughing and shook my head. “Uh, no. I don’t think so. Don’t hold your breath.”

He sucked in a long breath, shrugging his shoulders. “You never know. I wouldn’t count yourself out so quickly, Mocha.”

“ALRIGHT!” Harry’s slow voice cut through out conversation. “I am SUCH a good bowler!”

I pulled my eyes away from Niall to look at Harry, who was doing some kind of demented victory dance in the bowling lane.

“Nope,” Eleanor interrupted. “Don’t dance like that. The machine didn’t count it because you stepped over the line.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Harry monotoned as he walked over to look at the screen.

Surely enough, there was a zero where there should have been an X for his strike. “UGH!” Harry groaned, smashing the heels of his palms into his eyes. “This game sucks.”

“You’re the one who chose to come here,” I told him matter-of-factly as Louis went up for his turn.

“Don’t remind me,” Harry grumbled as he plopped down next to me, crossing his arms over his chest in a huff like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

I decided not to give him the attention he so desperately craved, instead looking over at the rest of the group, who were bowling one lane away from us.

Liam let go of the ball, letting it snap forward toward the pins, knocking down eight of them. But he just made a split for himself, making it so there was no way he could get all ten down.

“I’ll do this,” he declared confidently as he reached for one of the heavier bowling balls.

“There’s no way,” Zayn discouraged him with a shake of his head.

Liam mumbled something I couldn’t decipher before he turned around and fired the ball down the lane.

“Mocha,” Harry snapped, waving a hand in front of my face. “You there?”

“What?” I asked as I blinked a couple of times to bring myself back into focus.

“It’s your turn, and you’re spacing out into La La Land.”

“Oh, sorry,” I laughed as I got to my feet.

As I walked away, I heard him whisper to Niall, “Hey, that’s the first time she hasn’t shouted at me to stop calling her Mocha.”

I just shook my head and sighed, making a conscious decision right then and there that I was done repeating myself. If Harry wanted to call me Mocha, then he could. It wasn’t worth the waste of energy to tell him to cut it out, even if the nickname could be taken slightly offensively, had my skin color been darker.

I rolled the ball down the lane, again using the technique Eleanor had showed me, hoping and praying that I could get the ball where I wanted it to go.

And, to my complete shock, I knocked over eight of the ten pins. I turned around and jumped up in the air in excitement, a massive grin on my face.

“Told you, Mocha,” Niall bragged. “You’re going to be the next big bowler, and you can thank us for discovering your talent.”

I laughed, high off my success, and looked back at the pins. There was no way I could get all ten, since I’d created a split similar to the one Liam had to face earlier, but the fact that I was doing so well my first time bowling was incredible.

After knocking over one other of the pins, I strutted back to the bench confidently, not letting the thought that my beginner’s luck wouldn’t last long enter my mind again.

Niall got to his feet and outstretched his arms. “Gimme a hug, you little bowling master, you.”

Before I could protest, he wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in the crook of my shoulder. I awkwardly reciprocated the hug, patting him on the back lightly.

But despite my awkwardness, I couldn’t deny that he was a fantastic hugger.