"Well what are we going to do then?" Mr. Toriyama paced back and forth in his office, puzzling over his new-found quandary. Miss Sakura stood across from the teacher, watching him intently as be moved.
"I don't know Toriyama but I swear if you lose this next match I'm going to make things a living hell for you! No team has ever beaten my bowling class then gone on to default their next match." The teacher withdrew a whip as she spoke, tyrannically smiling as she thought about the torture she would make Toriyama endure.
"But I'm missing my team captain though!" Toriyama shouted through chewed nails. "And also Chase I suppose. How am I supposed to replace two bodies by tonight's match? Not to mention the complete lack of practices lately."
"Children lead busy lives my dear," Sakura said, her voice laced with a venom-laden sweetness. "But, just like husbands, you have to know when and how to reel them back in." The whip curled around Mr. Toriyama's neck and hauled him in closer to the teacher. "Find some substitutes or else," she whispered before releasing Mr. Toriyama. He gulped, rubbing his throat, fully understanding the implications of the threat.
"Oh, we're doomed," Mr. Toriyama moaned, this time to the remaining members of the bowling team as they stood outside the alley. The match was in ten minutes, and Mr. Toriyama had spent the rest of the day after Sakura's visit scrambling to find viable replacements for his missing athletes, but to no avail. The rest of the team was gathered in their uniforms, ready to perform. Regardless of the recent disappearance of Porter and Chase (which Mr. Shotuku had explained as them going away for some extra training), the rest of the CRU would not shy away from their responsibilities as a team. But things didn't look particularly promising.
"Well what about Riya?" Ardwen posed, throwing out the question a bit halfheartedly. While Riya was certainly a wonderful cheerleader for the team and a respected part of the Crisis Rescue Unit, she certainly wasn't the most athletic person, nor the most competitive.
"Oh I couldn't." Riya held up her hands and backed away a little as Toriyama's eyes lit up.
"Please Riya, I beg of you!" he implored. "If you join, I'll need to get just one more person to join and we can....bowl..." The professor trailed off, an idea flipping into his head. He rustled through his gym bag and withdrew an extra uniform for Riya, then pulled out another one and eyed it. "Yes, another student...I could be that student." Toriyama cackled to himself, his mind clearly snapped from the pressure that Sakura had placed on him. He sprinted off to the closest bathroom, leaving Riya in his dust as she wandered over to her own restroom.
"What's going on cuties?" Emera was standing in the entrance of the bowling alley, eyeing Raul in particular out of the group, but otherwise giving them smiles.
"Hey Emera," Nami answered, bounding up to the older girl with glee. "We're just about to play for our bowling team here. But we're short someone 'cause Porter and Chasey-kins aren't here."
"Chasey-kins?" Emera looked up from the small girl with a confused expression she shot towards the two boys but they both shrugged.
"What are you doing here anyways?" Raul asked, trying his best to conceal his personal joy at seeing Emera. He had a reputation to uphold about his demeanour after all.
"I work here silly," the model replied, taking a few long strides to stand beside her date from the dance, running her fingers through his hair playfully. "Don't you remember when I told you I got a job here at the alley? I wanted to make a little extra money. You know, on top of the modelling stuff and all." Emera did a little twirl for Raul (and Ardwen since he was right next to him) and sent him a wink. "How could you forget?"
"Er...well I uhm...hmm..." Raul stuttered, grasping at his collar and tugging a bit as sweat began to burst out on his body.
Ardwen's glasses had fogged up from his sudden panting as he stared at Emera. Luckily for him, Gretta had been called off to the hangar and wasn't around to punish him for ogling another girl. He hastily wiped his eye-wear on his shirt, cleaning them, and cleared his throat. "Emera we...ahem...would you...would you like to bowl for our team...since you're here and all and you know we need a fifth." Ardwen giggled nervously as he finished his sentence and blushed a bit when Emera glanced his way.
"For Raul? Sure! Sounds like some fun." As she finished the sentence, Mr. Toriyama came rushing up to them in an undersized outfit, as there had only been a small one left over as extra. Far more of their teacher than any of them ever expected to see was suddenly showing in front of their faces, much to everyone's disgust.
"Guys, guys, it's okay, I can definitely pull this off." Riya poked her head out from behind the teacher as she spoke, clearly embarrassed to be in the presence of this particular individual.
"Oh well Emera here just agreed to play actually sir," Ardwen said sheepishly. He wasn't sure how his teacher would take such news after going to the trouble of getting changed into student clothing to fake being a player.
"Ah...I see that..." Mr. Toriyama's glasses were the next to fog as he stood beside the young model, and a picture of hers slipped out of his gym bag, fluttering as it fell to the floor in the silence. "I'm just going to...you all go ahead and....bye!" The professor snatched up his belongings and scrambled into the bathroom once more, thoroughly embarrassed.
"And let's all never speak of that again," Nami burst out.
"Agreed," came the unanimous reply. The group entered into the alley, finding themselves facing off against Mr. Sismondo's team from his class. The triumphant teacher stood proudly behind his students, openly mocking them for Mr. Toriyama's absence. As he did, Rick appeared, dropping down from the ceiling in ninja fashion with his referee ensemble on.
"Then both the teams are here," the Circuit Breaker declared. "Please hand in your line-ups." The CRU looked around at one another, trying to mentally figure out who the captain was and who should go in what order.
"Well I guess I'll do it then," Ardwen said, stepping forward and grabbing a sheet from Rick. "Riya I'm going to put you first, since you have the least experience amongst us. The faster you can go the easier right?" The frail girl nodded for an answer, leaving it at that as she trembled slightly with nerves. "Then I guess I'll go second, then Raul, then Nami, and so that leaves..."
"Moi," Emera cut in, blowing kisses to the boys in the room. Mr. Sismondo had put together an all-male team on the other side, and none of them could tear their eyes away from the attractive model, much to Raul's chagrin. "I can be your closer, no problem."
"You know that means you bowl more than anyone else right?"
"I think I can handle myself." Emera winked and one of the students on the other team nearly fainted, his knees going weak at being so close to an idol.
"Alright, well let's hope for a whole lot of luck then." Ardwen handed the form back to Rick, the electronic sheet automatically sending the names to the scoring computers that displayed the order above the lanes. And so began the team's second foray into bowling.
Riya gripped the ball in two hands, finding it a big large, and heavy, and tough to wield. She waddled up to the line with the ball between her legs, enduring laughter from all over the alley, sending her cheeks into a red hot flush. Across from her was the first bowler from the other team, who was struggling to focus while watching Riya's stance. Like a gentleman though, as Mr. Sismondo had strictly taught, he let the lady go first.
The bowling ball hit the laminated floor with a thud, slowly beginning its creeping roll forwards. As it began moving, the opposing student glanced back at his teacher imploringly, searching for the correct behaviour in this situation. Mr. Sismondo threw up his hands, giving up on the situation and signalling the okay for his player to go ahead and take his shot. And so he did. The ball flew down the lane and knocked down a solid seven pins, leaving three in one corner. In the meantime, Riya's ball was barely approaching the halfway point of her own lane. So Mr. Sismondo's pupil took his next shot, barely missing out on the spare as a single pin spun but refused to fall.
And so both teams watched and began to whisper amongst themselves as Riya's ball continued its impossibly slow motion, inching closer to the pins. Many wondered how long this would take when she had to do her second shot, and others speculated that not a single pin would budge on contact. To nearly everyone's surprise, the ball kept on rolling right through the first pin, knocking it aside as it then proceeded to cause a perfect chain-reaction. It was a strike.
"Unbelievable," Ardwen gasped, mouth agape. His expression was identical to just about everyone else in the room, or was close to a variation of it. "That's...that's just...dumb..." Ardwen was in such disbelief he barely pulled off a six for his two shots, while his opponent nailed a spare.
"Well this will never do," Emera muttered, eyeing the other team. "We can't have them making great shots like that can we?"
"We can't exactly interrupt them Emera," Ardwen answered. "As much as Raul would like to." The group looked over at the ninja, who was sharpening a shuriken and eyeing the next bowler on the opposing team.
"We can't but I can." The model struck up a pose, standing tall and extending one leg in front of the other, brushing her hair back over her shoulder with a flick of her head, all in shockingly beautiful slow-motion. Nearly every male bowler at a line in the alley suddenly tripped and threw a gutter ball, including the one for Mr. Sismondo's team. Only Nami and Riya gave out a cheer for Emera, with the two boys dumbfounded by a combination of her looks and the result of her using her looks.
"That's how you do it boys," Emera said cockily, breezing by the group effortlessly to lounge in her seat.
* * * * *
"Right team, score is tied, Emera to shoot." Ardwen had everyone gathered in a huddle near their bench. "On the one hand, it's a miracle we're tied at all without Porter, thanks largely to both of Riya's strikes." The mentioned girl blushed a little. "On the other hand, we would've won already had Emera not gotten a zero on her turn."
"You have to satisfy the fans Ardwen." Emera gave him a little pout that instantly fogged the captain's glasses.
"You shouldn't be signing autographs in the middle of your shot!" Ardwen replied with a twinge of excitement, wiping down his glasses. "Anyways, you're up again Emera so this time I want a protective wall formed around her to keep out any rowdy fans so she can have absolute focus. Understood?"
"Got it."
"Can do."
"Ok."
"Right Emera," Ardwen coached as the group surrounded the young model. "All you have to do is knock a single pin down in one of your three final shots, and we win. Now you have yet to even come close to hitting one, mostly due to distractions, so I don't know how good you are or anything but I'm really hoping you can just throw one right down the middle."
"Sure thing boss," came the sarcastic answer. Emera inspected one of the balls she grabbed off the rack like a professional, eliciting many groans from the rest of the team. Did she even know what she was scanning for? With a little twirl, Emera managed to whip the ball down the lane, still landing in as sexy a pose as possible. The ball rocketed down the lane, nearly leaving a scorching trail behind it as it smashed through the pins for a strike.
The model turned to see everyone else, mouth agape, staring wide-eyed at her. "Well I work here at the alley, what did you expect?"
* * * * *
"I don't know, that all just seemed really anti-climactic," Nami mused as the team meandered out from the bowling alley, back into the halls of their academy. "I mean it really set up for some sort of epic conclusion, not just a strike."
"It's just bowling Nami," Emera stated matter-of-factly. "What did you expect?"
"True," the little girl continued. "And I guess nothing else is really happening anywhere else in the world. This was probably the most exciting thing that's going on."
"Oh sure."
"Yes of course."
"Nope, nothing else happening."
"Yeah things are kind of boring aren't they?" Ardwen pondered as the group headed back to their rooms...
A/N: Nothing going on indeed Nami! If only they knew...