Bowling with the Sanders

Niki walked into the bowling alley with Micah kicking herself for agreeing to Gina's idea about them all 
going bowling. By all she meant ALL of them. Bringing up the topic to Micah caused quite odd looks from 
her son, but by now living with them all, he was used to his mother not being completely normal.

Niki walked up to the counter and got bowling shoes for herself and Micah. She was dreading the next part 
and hoped no questions were asked. 

The attendant walked over with the shoes and asked how many games they wished to play. Looking over to her 
right she could see Gina and Jessica arguing already about who would play first and what balls they would get. 

"Well, I need to be able to score for 4 people."

The attendant used to odd requests didn't bat an eye and set it up for them.

They all walked over to choose the balls to bowl with. Jessica got impatient with the bickering of Gina and 
took over to grab the 3 balls they had chosen Niki reminded her it would look a bit odd for a woman to just 
rush by carrying 3 bowling balls. And got her to agree to only carry two and that Niki would choose one 
closer so it didn’t seem she was grabbing tons of balls just for herself.

"Okay, who wants to go first?" Niki asked the group surrounding her.

"I do! I do!" Gina practically screamed.

Micah had gotten used to his mom switching between people quickly but it was still odd to see especially in 
a place so public. 

"Fine you first, then Micah, then me, then..." She noticed she didn’t see Jessica near her and looked over 
to see her looking up and down some guy. "Jessica! I am not going to let you do anything with him."

"Yea like you could really stop me if I wanted it."

"Fine. Just not here and now. Don't get us kicked out. Let's just play."

*********

Frame 1

Gina walked up with her ball happy that she was getting some time of her own. She didn’t really 
understand why Niki and Jessica didn’t trust her. She just liked to have fun and get out. She could 
see Niki and Jessica telling her to hurry and take her turn. Jessica was threatening to force her 
to and Niki was trying to calm her down telling her that Gina was just excited. 

She threw the ball and it started its path down only hitting a few pins. She pouted and tried again 
only hitting a few more.

"I'm no good at this." She headed back to sit down and give into to Niki.

"It's fine, not everyone is good at all games." Niki said to calm her down.

"Its just not fair. Why cant we do something I like, like go to L.A. again."

Jessica took over when Niki became upset and quite angrily said, "Because we can't trust you from 
what happened last time."

Micah was getting worried one frame in and already the battle and odd looks from others were beginning. 
He walked over to them.

"Mom!" 

Jessica looked up and let Niki take over again.

"Yea, sweetie."

"Maybe this isn't going to work."

"No, it will work out. Gina knows that if she keeps it up now that she will not be given another 
chance."

Micah knew his mom wasn't completely right. If Jessica or Gina got into their heads to take over, they 
were smart enough to do it without Niki able to stop them.
******

Frame 2

Micah got up to bowl again. This time there had been no fit from Gina. He had given her a hand. It was 
always odd to do things for Jessica or Gina. Well not as odd for things for Jessica, he had gotten used 
to her over time and could judge her moods. Gina acted a lot younger then either of them and didn't 
really view him as a son the way Jessica did. Because of this, he had to constantly remind himself that 
his mom is still there somewhere inside. 

He was having a pretty good time bowling. And after dealing with Gina trying to tell him to just make 
the machine give her better scores. And him explaining that, they could be asked to leave for that or 
worse. He was on his way to a second spare, maybe a strike. In the end, bowling for him was just another 
exercise in math and probabilities. 
*****

Frame 3

Niki went up to bowl surprised that things were actually going pretty smoothly. Micah of course was 
having no problems. Gina was actually being pretty good with Micah's help, though she wondered if Gina 
would make it thru the entire thing without incident. Jessica was enjoying brute forcing the game. And 
there weren’t as many stares from other patrons as she expected. She looked around at her family. Micah 
was sitting down patiently awaiting his turn. Jessica was keeping Gina in control by actually talking 
with her nicely. She had seen that Gina at times brought out Jessica maternal side much like Micah did. 
Considering Gina acted a lot younger and more carefree. She once again was happy about how good a kid 
Micah was growing up.

********

Frame 4

Jessica was enjoying the game. It was fun to use the strength; she so enjoyed, to show off by brute 
force knocking over the pins. She was about to throw the ball again when she heard Gina behind her.

"Your gonna lose!"

Jessica turned around. "Stop it!" she turned back, threw the ball a little too hard, and ended up denting 
the metal wall behind it. 

Gina started laughing at her and she saw Niki reprimanding Gina for her behavior. Niki looked at her with 
a look of understanding. 

As she walked by giving Niki control again she passed by Gina and went "Least I can get a strike."
********

Frame 5

Gina walked up to bowl she was already getting bored of the game. 

"This isn’t fun any more, Micah. I wanna do something fun."

She heard Jessica behind her going. "Your just a sore loser."

She started yelling at Jessica about not being a sore loser and having a full-fledged tantrum. All 
while Jessica was also yelling at her by attempting to take over. People were really looking now 
and Micah made himself smaller. 

At this point Niki took over, "Stop it guys I'm bowling for Gina this turn now." She looked at Gina. 
"You stop it and calm down or you are done playing this. And you, Jessica, stop egging her on."

"I didn't do any...."

"Yes you did. You were angry at her from the last turn."

Micah suddenly started applauding. "Funny show, Mom. Yea I'll remember to not act that way again 
like last time."

As people around then sheepishly looked away. Niki thanked Micah. She would have to keep a tighter 
rope on Gina now. 

She got Gina a spare and she could feel that Gina was a little happier now. She was already 
commenting that technically it was her score.
********

Frame 6

Micah wasn't enjoying the bowling as much as when they started. Yea hanging out with his mom was fun 
and even Jessica was okay. But he didn't like Gina. She acted so childish that it embarrassed him to 
know people would think it was Niki herself. He was glad that they both made sure Gina never took over 
again on her own. 

He didn't like feeling embarrassed around his own mom, but it was hard never knowing who would be there. 
*****

Frame 7

Niki kicked herself for not having realized something would happen. She would have ended the game 
immediately if it weren't for Micah and even Jessica enjoying themselves. It had been a close call when 
Gina threw her tantrum; luckily, Micah's quick thinking solved that. But Niki knew if it happened again, 
they had to leave. She had to be careful if people started realizing Micah would be affected again by 
being teased in school about her.
*****

Frame 8

Jessica walked up to play angry at the scene Gina had caused. She'd speak to her later when Niki was 
sleeping or otherwise unaware. Niki did not need to see her ream out the carefree one of their bunch. 
She was glad that her and Niki had come to an agreement. They shared time; Niki had her things to do 
and Jessica hers. Even Micah did not care about it. But with Gina there it was harder. Gina couldn’t 
be trusted and she liked to goad and try to trick Niki into putting her guard down. She felt partly 
responsible for DL, if she hadn’t been so angry with Niki that she was ignoring life around her she 
would have made sure that Gina did not take control and run off.

*********

Frame 9

Micah walked up with Gina to the lane. 

"All right this time I'm sure you'll at least get a spare."

"Really?" 

"Yea. Here come up to this line and just stand real still"

Micah realized that compared to his mom and Jessica, Gina was full of pent up energy. Always on the 
move, which makes bowling a bit hard.

"Okay now don't move anything but your arm behind you then forward." 

Gina did as Micah said and most of the pins went down. She got so excited she ran back and took 
Micah’s ball and real quick went back before the pins had even reset.

"Gina wait!" 

She stopped and looked at Micah. 

"Remember, slow" 

Gina did what Micah had told her and ended up with her first spare ever.
*******

Frame 10

Jessica walked up to do her last frame. She had to admit it wasn't half bad getting along with Niki 
now. She got what she wanted time to herself to do her own things and it wasn't a constant war of 
forcing Niki to let her. She scored the last frame practically getting a perfect 300.

"See, Niki. Told you strength gets you want you want."

Niki glared at her and checked over the other scores. Jessica had come in first, Micah and her tied 
for second, and Gina hadn’t scored well at all. She knew it bothered Gina but there was nothing she 
could do about it.
******

End Game

Micah was heading out with him Mom following when suddenly he felt a tug on his arm.

"Come on! I found something cool!" Gina practically screamed at him.

Micah let Gina drag him to the arcade section where there was a dance machine.

Gina looked at it and chose an upbeat pop song.

"I love to dance. Give me a dollar for it."

Micah reminded her she was the one with the money.

"Oh great."

She got on the machine and started to dance away, laughing while she did it.

"Micah, join me this is fun!"

It reminded Micah of his mom on the days before all the Linderman things happened so he leapt onto 
the adjacent machine and joined her.

Niki and Jessica looked on. 

"Amazing to see how something like that is enough to make her completely happy. She really is more 
like Micah or a young teen then she is an adult like us." Niki commented.

"Yeah. Makes you hope Micah doesn’t end up that way as a teen doesn’t it."

Overall, the day hadn't been bad and they now had a place to take Gina to give her a chance to 
wind down in a controlled way. It would never be the situation between Jessica and herself, but 
least they weren't ignoring her and she was better to deal with it for it.