First thing after my classes, I texted Alani, ready for some excitement.

She responded almost immediately.

About 20 minutes later, I hopped into my car and drove to the bowling alley. When I walked in, I saw Alani grabbing her bowling shoes.

"You're a size five?" I said, walking up behind her.

"I have small feet," She shrugged. She was a tiny person, so it made sense that she had small feet.

After I paid for our alleys and I got my shoes, we sat down at our lane near the end of the rows.

"This is really overwhelming," Alani said as she looked around like a lost child.

"How so?"

She pointed everywhere and said, "So many lights and things going on."

"You'll get used to it."

"What do we do now?" She asked. I had forgotten that she hadn't done this before.

"We pick a theme for the scoreboard and type in our names."

She hopped up and scrambled over to the computer with me close behind. I stood behind her as she browsed through all the options.

"Can we do Candyland?" She asked, resembling an excited child.

"Whatever you want," I smiled at her enthusiasm. Being the cause of other people's happiness always made me grin, which I couldn't explain.

"How do you spell your name?"

"You don't know how to spell River?"

"I was just checking," She said, holding her hands up.

"Do you want to put the bumpers on?" I asked because I remember it being hard for me to knock down any of the pins without bumpers when I first went bowling.

"No. Those are for kids."

"Okay, whatever you say," I replied, knowing she was going to regret that decision. After putting in our names, Alani stood up.

"Woah, this floor is slippery in these shoes."

"That's just a part of bowling," I said.

"Why is there air coming out of here?" She said, pointing toward the structure holding the bowling balls."

"So if your hands get sweaty, you can dry them."

"Oh, that's a good idea," She said as I smiled once again at her learning basic things for the first time.

"What kind of ball do you use?" I asked, walking over to where the balls were stored. After the question had left my mouth, I realized how stupid it was since she had never been bowling.

"I have no clue."

"You should probably use a seven-pound ball to start," I said, clutching her ball in one hand and my twelve-pound ball in the other.

"Do you need me to teach you how to throw it?" I taunted.

"No," She said dryly, seizing the ball from my hand. "I think I can throw a ball at some pins. Plus, I've seen bowling on TV before."

"Okay," I said. "Show me what skills you have!"

Alani gripped her seven-pound orange ball and walked to the edge of the lanes. After taking a deep breath, she chucked the ball with the worst form I had ever seen. The ball went straight into the gutter, and I burst out laughing.

"Stop that!" She called, marching back to grab another seven-pound ball.

"What the fuck was that?" I laughed.

"I'm trying!"

"That's trying?" I giggled.

"Stop it."

"Are you sure you don't want help?"

"I'm sure," She said, walking back up with another ball in her hand. She took another deep breath before chucking the ball once more. It was better than last time but still looked horrendous. She knocked zero pins down.

She shuffled back and sat down next to me with a frown on her face. "Your turn," She managed to get out.

After standing up and pretending to stretch, I clutched my ball and walked to the lane's edge. I immediately pulled my arm back and swung forward, releasing the ball at the perfect time. The ball rolled along the slick wood and knocked down all the pins once it reached the end. "That's how you do it," I smirked as I sat down next to Alani.

"Whatever," She said, rolling her eyes.

We continued to go back and forth, with me scoring all spares and strikes while she struggled to knock down a single pin. I continued to tease her and offer advice, but she continuously denied my help.

She was one stubborn girl, but, to my surprise, I had fun.

"You're pouting," I said to Alani as we walked toward the arcade.

"No, I'm not," She said, crossing her arms across her chest.

"You did okay for your first time," I lied.

"Whatever."

"I didn't take you for a sore loser," I said as we got closer to the arcade.

"I'm not a sore loser!"

"You're sure acting like it."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are," I said as she looked at me with a death glare.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are," I repeated.

"Okay, fine! I've always been a bit of a sore loser."

"See? Was that so hard to admit?" I said.

"Are we going to play at the arcade or not?" She asked.

"Of course. It's another part of the whole bowling experience."

"Okay. I have to warn you, though. I'm pretty good at arcade games."

"You've played arcade games before?"

"Yeah, that's one of the few things that I have actually done. It was at my cousin's birthday party that my parents made me go to."

"Okay, well, we'll see how good you are."

We paid for a card with credits on it and walked over to all the flashing lights and screaming children. I hadn't played arcade games in a while, so I was taken back to my childhood as my eyes wandered around. "What game do you want to play first?" I asked.

"This one," She said, swiping the card on a doodle jump game.

"That game is hard," I warned, but it was too late.

"Not for me," She replied, grabbing the joystick and starting the game.

I watched in amazement as she flew through the game. Before I knew it, she was hitting the jackpot.

"Woah," I said as she turned around.

"That's how it's done," She mocked me as 5,000 points transferred to our card.

"What game do you want to do next?" I asked, eager to see if that was luck or if she was as good as she said she was.

I stood back and watched as she won jackpot after jackpot on games like fruit ninja, ski ball, spin the wheel games, Pacman, and even the basketball shooting game. We had probably racked up tens of thousands of points in just an hour. How was this girl so bad at bowling but so good at arcade games?

After finishing with the electronic games, we moved on to a claw machine with large pink teddy bears.

"Do you want me to win you a teddy bear?" She quipped.

"Nobody wins claw machine games," I doubted, rolling my eyes.

"We'll see," She said, swiping the card.

After grabbing the joystick, she lined the claw up with one of the pink teddy bears and pressed the large red button to drop it. I watched in wonder as the claw scooped up the teddy bear and dropped it down the shute.

"You were saying?" She teased, grabbing the teddy bear and holding it out for me.

I snatched the bear from her with a smile on my face. Even though she was proving me wrong, I did get a stuffed animal out of it.

"Want me to beat you in air hockey?" She asked.

"I don't know. I'm even better at air hockey than I am bowling," I warned before we played a game of air hockey. The puck continuously slid over the table and into my goal. By the end of the game, she had beat me 10-2.

"Wow. You must only be bad at bowling. I can see why you were such a sore loser. You probably expected to win," I laughed.

"We are out of credits. Are you ready to get our prizes?" She asked.

"Let's do it."

We walked over to the counter, and an older employee swiped our card. His eyes widened at the number that appeared on the screen, but he didn't say anything about it. Alani and I began to browse our options. We had a total of 50,000 tickets, so we could get some pretty cool stuff.

We traded some points for large candy boxes, slinkies, and yoyos. Once we were stocked up on the tiny goodies, we looked at the bigger stuff.

"What should we get?" She asked.

"I don't care. You're the one who won all the points."

"Hmm. Let's get that speaker that shoots water to the beat of the music and that giant giraffe," She said, pointing toward what she was talking about.

After collecting our items, we walked toward the exit.

"Do you need me to drive you back to your dorm?"

"Yeah, if that's okay. It would be helpful, so I don't have to pay for a cab."

"It's fine," I reassured. We walked out to my car as Alani struggled with carrying the giraffe. She was so tiny, and the giraffe was so big. I could have helped her, but I was having too much fun watching her battle with a stuffed animal. After placing the giraffe in the back seat and getting in next to me, I drove her back to her dorm building.

"Do you like living in the dorms?" I asked on the way back.

"It's small, but I love my roommate."

"Who's your roommate?"

"Nadia Quinton-James."

"I've heard that she's very interesting."

"Yeah, she is. I'm always nervous about making a good first impression, but I was more relaxed around her. "

"You? If I recall correctly, you pounced on me when we first met. Were you worried about making an impression then?"

"That's because you had my notebook."

"Why were you so embarrassed about that anyway?"

"Because I don't want people to know what a loser I am."

"You're not a loser. There are a lot of losers in this world, but you are not one of them," I said, meaning it.

"You barely know me," She said, confused.

"I know enough."

"Thank you, I guess."

"No problem. Now get inside and go to bed. We have classes in the morning," I said when we arrived at her building.

"Bye. I had fun tonight."

"I did too. I'll text you, or you can text me when you want to do something else on that list."

Alani smiled as she grabbed her giraffe and speaker from the backseat, closed the car door, and headed inside.

I let out a breath and drove home. After parking in the driveway of my house, I gathered my pink teddy bear and walked inside. I was immediately greeted by yelling from Nelson and Victor as their game ended.

"Come play with us," Nelson said as he saw me walk in.

"I'm going to bed," I said with a yawn.

"What the fuck is that?" Victor asked, pointing toward my new stuffed friend.

"Alani won this for me," I answered.

"Who's Alani?"

"The girl who I agreed to help with her bucket list."

"Oh. Well, it's adorable. Throw it over here," Victor said.

I threw the stuffed animal over to Victor as he examined it.

"Does it have a name?" Nelson asked.

"Not yet," I replied.

"What about naming him Victor?" Victor suggested.

"No way," I said.

"Come on!" He whined.

"I was thinking Chubs."

"Chubs?"

"Yeah. Since he's so chubby," I justified, looking at the chubby bear.

"I like it," Nelson said.

"I guess it'll work," Victor added.

"Great," I said, taking Chubs from Victor and carrying him upstairs, ready to fall asleep.