A. Emeritus

Chapter 25

"I figured I'd take you bowling or something else you guys have never done before."

"What makes you think we've never been bowling." Ember sasses, and quickly dodges my hand before I can smack him.

"The abbey doesn't have a bowling alley, dumbass." I sass back at him, and flinch as I see his hand coming toward me. Luckily Special catches Ember's hand before it can make contact.

"Lucifer! I'll leave you guys in the bus if you're just gonna fight each other."

Special pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs as we approach an official looking man with a clipboard. As he begins to chat with the man, I look at Ember from the corner of my eye and think about elbowing him, before my thoughts can become actions; Special turns and looks and us with burning fuchsia eyes. I gasp and look away toward Ember,

"I've never seen Special's eyes before." I whisper in shock. Ember returns my look before asking the question that was now plaguing my own mind.

"What kind of ghoul is he?"

As Ember and I sit in silence, Special finishes talking to the man and leads us to the car in continued silence. Once at the car he helps us put our event wristbands on and instructs us to get in the back seat. Ember and I practically trip over each other trying to climb into the same side of the car while Special walks around to the driver's door.

"One of you could have walked around." He laughs as we buckle up and he pulls the GPS up on his phone. As we wait for him to begin driving I decided to finally just ask the question.

"Special, what kind of ghoul are you?"

He looks at me through the rearview mirror, and even though I can only see his eyes I know he's smirking.

"A special one."

I raise my eyebrows as Special puts the car into drive and pulls away.

After watching the hypnotizing landscape pass for around thirty minutes, Special pulls into the parking lot of a bowling alley. As Ember and I unbuckle Special turns to look at us, using the passenger headrest to hold himself in position,

"If anyone asks, you guys are my kids. If anyone questions past that, you two are adopted."

Ember and I quickly follow Special out of the car and into the building.

"You guys will need to tell the lady at the counter your shoe size after I pay." Special explains while we approach the counter.

I watch the lady process the payment and set the lanes before her gaze falls to me. Special elbows me gently and I look at him panicked. He raises his eyebrows and nods toward the lady.

"Size forty, please" I say, only to be met with a confused look. My head snaps to Special for help and he realizes my issue.

"Women's size nine, men's eight and a half, and a men's size ten please." Special responds for us.

Shoes in hand we head to our lane, and Special explains how bowling works. Ember and I pick our bowling balls and begin our first bowling experience.

As I approach the lane I hold the ball up to my chest before pulling my left arm back and rolling the ball with all my might. With a smile I step back and watch as the ball rolls directly into the gutter. I make my way back to the ball return, looking as dejected as I feel. The sparkly blue ball I picked rolls back up and out of the machine, and I grab it ready to try again. Special runs up behind me and stops me before I can walk up to the lane again.

"Aster, wait. Let me help you." He shouts over the clattering of the pins. He helps me get into a better position and holds my arm and mimics the swing. "The way you're throwing the ball is sending it directly into the gutter."

"Yeah, it's been that way for the whole game." I deadpan. Special rolls his eyes and turns my wrist.

"Turn your arm like this and try to keep it straight. Don't make every part of your arm move. The ball should go right where you want it." He explains before backing up. I look back at him and he motions for me to go.

I pull my arm back and try to do what Special said to do. The ball hits the lane and slowly rolls along, every so slightly veering to the right as it rolls. Finally it hits a couple of the back pins before it disappears from my sight. I smile wide and throw myself into a hug with Special, I look up beaming with pride.

"I hit the pins" I shout happily before running over to Ember and double high fiving him, before following those up with a fist bump.

"How are you so good at this?" I ask Ember, sitting next to him and watching Special bowl. Ember shrugs and starts getting up to take his turn.

"I'm just copying what he does." He replies while nodding to Special and grabbing a ball.

Three games and a pizza later Special leads us to the car, takes us back to the event field and the bus. Ember and I sit on the couch as the band members are filing back into the bus and jostle around as they change into their comfy clothes and hang up their robes. Quintessence sits next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder.

"So, how was bowling?"

"It's fun, I'm horrible at it." I reply, stretching out. Quintessence starts laughing, and I look at him worried. "What's so funny, I think it's expected I'll be bad at bowling."

Fire sits across from me and lifts one of my feet into my view.

"You must have liked it enough to steal the shoes." He says joining Quintessence's laughter. I look around horrified.

"SPECIAL!" I shout and scramble to get up and run to the back lounge. Sitting on the table in the back lounge is the shoes I left the bus with.