Page 31 of A Little Christmas! 4: Song

Zachy giggled at that and leaned closer to Song. “Papa Cooper hates getting gutter balls.”

“No, Papa Cooper hates when Daddy Gage starts calling him Gutter Ball after every other ball winds up in the gutter,” Cooper explained.

“And the gutter is…?” Song asked, eyeing the lanes.

“The wells along the sides,” Zachy explained, taking him over and pointing it out to him. “The rails keep the balls from going in them, so you have a better chance of hitting the pins. Once you get the hang of aiming for the arrows in the lanes, you won’t need the rails anymore.”

“You keep saying that, but I’ve yet to see it play out that way,” Cooper declared.

“Maybe today will be that day,” Gage replied, slinging an arm over his shoulders. “If you’ll just let me help you with your form a little.”

“Every time you call yourselfhelping me with my form,it turns into flirting and you getting me too turned on and too flustered to aim where you tell me to.”

“Not my fault you’re easily distracted.”

“Because you have made an art form out of being a sinfully sexy distraction, and you know it,” Cooper grumbled.

“Everyone needs a hobby.”

“I thought bowling was your hobby?”

“It is,” Gage shot back, winking at the exasperated look on Cooper’s face. “And getting you all wound up happens to be a part of the game.”

“Funny how I didn’t find anything along those lines in the rules when I researched them,” Cooper grumbled, but it was all good-natured bantering.

“We’re ready,” Zachy declared once they’d found a comfortable ball for Song. “Can Song go first?”

“Of course he can,” Gage declared, putting their names in the console so they appeared on the screen above their lanes.

With Zachy behind him, carefully positioning him and explaining to Song how to hold his hand through the swing and when to release the ball, Song was soon ready to try bowling for the first time.

Having watched and listened to him play the drums, Gage knew he had power, all of which was on display in his release. The ball hit the wood and spun even as it rolled down the lane, the spin kept it spiraling towards the pins in a slightly angled throw that managed to knock down six of the pins.

“Yay!” Zachy cheered, hugging him as Song looked a little perplexed and in awe.

“Was that good?” Song asked, squeezing Zachy back.

“That was so good!” Zachy explained. “And you get another try to knock down the pins. If you get the last four, you get a spare ball, and that means extra points.”

“Cool. Okay, so should I throw it down the side this time, since the last four are all clumped together?”

“Sort of,” Zachy explained. “If you hit the rail, it makes the ball ricochet off and spin in a different direction, which might make you miss them. You see those three arrows to the right of the center one?”

“Uh-huh?”

“This time you want to aim for the center one of those three,” Zachy told him, stepping back so Song could try again.

He got three of the four and another big hug from Zachy, who did a snoopy dance around him first in celebration.

“That was awesome!” Song declared as the last pin was swept off the wood so the pinsetter could set up the next batch.

Zachy took his turn next, sending a rocket down the middle to smash all the pins in one go. The lights flashed on the LED screen over their lane and played a video of terrified pins quaking right before a fiercely scowling ball smashed into them. The word "strike" flashed across the screen while Zachy did a tushy-shaking dance.

“Way to go!” Gage cheered, sweeping Zachy into a hug when he spun and did a shimmy.

Cooper was up next, and as he had the last time they played, he pinged the ball off the rail like they were playing pinball, which sent it spinning towards the other rail. It bounced off that one and clipped two pins before thudding into the corner and dropping out of sight.

“Okay, Wreck-ItRalph, let’s tone it down a bit,” Gage encouraged and slid a hand down his arm. “Remember what we talked about last time. You want to keep your wrist straight when you release the ball, not twist it. The twist is what’s causingthe ball to go left or right instead of straight. Let’s try having you take a step left too because it seems like you’re twisting to see the center arrow.”