Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (32 page)

I woke up to my cell phone ringing. It stopped ringing once I picked it up. I looked at the screen –
4 missed calls.
Four?! I clicked to the missed call list. None of them were from my parents. They were all from Patrick. We were supposed to meet to work on our science fair project today. Oops. Make that right now.

The door bell was ringing. I groggily got off the couch and went to the door. Patrick was standing there.

I opened the door and let him in. “Hi. Sorry. I fell asleep.”

“Hey. It’s okay. No big deal.” His smile reassured me. We went to the family room and he saw the cocoon I just sprang from. “Sorry I woke you. Looks like you were comfy.”

“Yeah. I think that’s why I was actually able to fall asleep. Give me a couple minutes and I’ll be ready to go.” I rushed to my room. I ran a brush through my hair and pulled it back into a pony tail. I grabbed my backpack and sweatshirt. I think that’s all I needed for the library to finish our background research.

There was specific information that we were looking for that wasn’t available at our local library, and definitely not our school’s library. We wanted to find out more about the current research being done, so we took Mr. D’s suggestion and went to the main library at UCSD. There was a wing of the library dedicated to science and engineering that would be useful.

The last time I had been to UCSD was in junior high for a field trip, ironically to tour the campus and see how to use the library for research. I never used the university library for research, but knew you could. I was nervous if I would remember even a fraction of how to find things in their library.

UCSD was a beautiful campus. I was in awe the second we drove onto campus and saw the ‘
University
of
California
,
San Diego
’ entrance sign. There were groves of trees that fascinated me. They were tall and full with clear pathways through it. We parked and walked to the main library. It may have been several years since I’d been to the library but it was a distinct building that stood out. From where we were walking, you couldn’t see anything else behind it, just clear blue skies. It was almost surreal. It was definitely amazing.

The librarians were a big help to us. We spent several hours finding journals, papers and other sources. Since we weren’t UCSD students, we couldn’t check out anything, but we could use it there and copy what we needed. We decided to walk around campus after we were done. We walked up a hill past one tree grove to explore the west side of campus and down another to the
Price
Center
.

The
Price
Center
was the hub of the campus. It contained the bookstore and a huge food court. It was almost like a mall’s food court, except there were computers set up in the middle of the seating area for anyone to use. There was also a theater, pool tables, a copy center and several ballrooms. We got some smoothies and wandered around the bookstore before going to check out the engineering school part of campus.

We came across a huge bear made out of rocks. It was like huge boulders balancing on each other to form a bear that stood at least three stories tall. How did that work without falling down? Even if there were some sort of beams connecting the head, arms and legs boulders to the body, it still didn’t seem like it would stay together. It was art. It was engineering. For a bunch of rocks, it seemed really cute. I never thought I’d ever say that about rocks. I took a bunch of pictures of it. We had a great time taking all kinds of poses with it. The people passing by had to know that Patrick and I didn’t go to the school.

We were sitting on the lawn surrounding the bear, hanging out when Patrick’s phone rang. He looked at the phone’s display. “It’s Jason.”

He flipped open his phone and answered it. “Hey, Jase.” There was a brief pause. “UCSD.” Another pause. “Right now? We’re just hanging out. Liz. We were working on our project for Mr. D’s.” He listened to Jason some more. “Yeah, we’re done for today.” Patrick laughed. “Oh really? Where? Hang on.”

He put his phone down. “Want to go bowling?”

I’d never gone bowling before, but I knew it involved a heavy ball. Terror crossed my face. “Bowling? I don’t know how to bowl…”

“That wasn’t a ‘no’.” He smiled and nodded. He put the phone back to his ear. “Yeah, we’ll be there. Alright, see ya.”

Patrick closed his phone and stood up. He held his hand out to me to help me up. I took it and got up. We headed to the car. “I could try but I don’t think I should bowl. I might cause permanent damage to someone.”

“I really doubt that.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“Did you forget about the basketball game at the carnival?” He couldn’t have.

“No.” He chuckled. “But there’s no way that you’ll be able to toss a bowling ball that way.”

“You’ll see…don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I teased him. But there was truth to what I was saying. The idea of swinging a heavy ball did not bring up safety in my mind.

“I’ll take my chances. But consider me warned.” He laughed.

“Sure you’re laughing now, but wait until I drop some 20 pound ball on your foot or something.”

“Eh. Don’t worry about that.” He dismissed the image. I, however, couldn’t. “There isn’t a 20 pound ball.”

* * *

When we got to the bowling alley, the rest of crew was already there bowling. They had rented two lanes and were in the middle of a game. Patrick and I went to the desk to rent our shoes. We had to leave one of our shoes as collateral. Who would want to steal rental bowling shoes? I definitely wouldn’t.

After we put our oh-so-fashionable rental shoes on, we went in search for balls to use. I had no idea what I was looking for. Some balls were colored, others were just black. Did it matter? Should I get a ball that’s a different color, so I could tell it was mine? What do I do? I stared at the shelves of bowling balls completely lost.

Patrick nudged me. “Don’t worry, I’ll help you. There are two main things you need to look for. First, we need to find you a ball that isn’t too heavy for you. Try an eight or nine pound ball.”

He found a nine pound ball and put it in my hands. “How does that feel?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know how it was supposed to feel.

“Hold it with just one hand. Does it feel too heavy?”

“No. It doesn’t. Maybe a little light. I’m not sure.”

“Okay.” He kept looking through the shelves. He handed me another ball to try. “Here, try this.”

He took the nine pound ball and handed me another. Even holding it with two hands, I felt like I could drop it. “Too heavy.”

“Okay. That was an eleven pounder. Ten would probably work.” He found a ten pound ball and I tested it out. It felt much better than the nine or eleven. “How does it feel?”

“Good. I think this works.” I was about to go back to our lane, but remembered that he said there were two things to look for. The weight was one. What was the other?

“Put your fingers in the ball. Like this.” He showed me which fingers to put in what holes. I mimicked and showed him. “Looks like it’s too tight. If it’s too tight, your fingers will get stuck in the ball when you try to release it. You may wind up going down the lane with the ball. And you don’t want it to be too loose, otherwise it will be hard for you to hang onto the ball and it could go flying behind you.”

“Yeah, no. I don’t want to do that. I need different one.” Now that I knew what I was looking for, I searched through the shelves of balls. Patrick did as well, looking for a ball to use for himself.

I tried several different balls until I found one that fit Patrick’s description – not tight and not loose. I felt like Goldilocks, trying to find the perfect bed or something. Only I wasn’t in some bear-owned cabin and I wasn’t a blond.

I met Patrick back at the crew’s lanes. The whole crew was there. I did notice one person that wasn’t there. Not that I really minded. “Where’s Becca?”

The crew exchanged knowing glances. Tony tried to politely answer my question, “Becca doesn’t like bowling. Let’s just list it under the things that she doesn’t like about us.”

“She tried it once. The rest of us didn’t have
any
fun when she came. So…” Emily tried to be tactful herself. “It’s just better that she doesn’t come.”

“Oh. Okay.” It made sense. But, how was I supposed to respond to that? If I’m a drag then I won’t be invited back? I tried to make a joke out of it, but I wasn’t really joking. “So, no pressure here. If I suck…”

“No, no! That’s not what I meant.” Emily rushed to respond and hugged me. “You are
always
welcome to come. You’re one of us!”

“Thanks.” I hugged her back. “But you might change your mind after I smack one of you with the bowling ball.”

The crew had finished their game. Cassie, Emily and Tony went to the snack bar while the rest of the guys stayed behind. Patrick stood up and grabbed his bowling ball. “Okay, Liz, watch me.”

I nodded and watched him stand in front of the lane. He took aim, swung his arm back while he walked to the lane and released the ball right at the lane. I watched the ball roll down the lane. It hit just to the right of the front pin. Wow. Eight pins fell and only the two in the far left corner were left standing. “I’m supposed to do
all
that?! Didn’t we talk about how uncoordinated I am?”

The guys chuckled. Patrick reassured me. “It’ll be fine. Just do what you can.”

His ball returned and he picked it up again. “After this, it’ll be your turn to try.”

He did the same sort of thing again – the aiming, the swinging of his arm while walking and releasing at the front of the lane. It was all so perfectly timed together. I watched the ball roll down the lane from one corner to the other and knock the other two remaining pins down. The guys gave him high fives when he returned to the seating area. Great, it was now time for me to try.

All the guys were very supportive, telling me that I could do it, that everything would be fine. That eased some of my fears, but I was still scared I was going to mess up somehow. I got up, found my ball amongst the others and tried to hold it like Patrick showed me. Patrick, Kraig, Bobby and Jason gave me pointers and instructions on where to stand and how to hold the ball. All of a sudden I had four teachers. I was amazed that they were all in agreement in their suggestions.

They wanted me to practice just swinging the ball. Patrick picked up his ball and stood next to me to show me again. I tried to copy what he did. I pushed the ball out in front of me and let my arm swing behind me. Thunk! The ball was no longer in my hand and was behind me rolling around. I closed my eyes and was mortified. I didn’t hear anyone shout in pain, so I guess there was no one behind me to get hurt. Or maybe they were unconscious and couldn’t yell.

“Oops. I’m sorry.” I turned around and looked at them sheepishly. “I told you…”

Bobby picked up the ball and handed it back to me. “Maybe it’s too heavy?”

Patrick shook his head. “I helped her pick out the weight. It seemed alright. Did it feel heavy?”

I bit my lip. “No.”

Jason wondered, “Maybe the finger holes are too big?”

Patrick watched as I put my fingers in the ball. He inspected the fit. “It looks okay. What do you think Liz?”

I shook my head. “No. The holes weren’t the problem.”

The guys tried to come up with possible reasons I had dropped the ball. Patrick looked at me. I think he could read the chagrin on my face. “Liz, what? What happened?”

“I… I think I…” I knew what happened, it was my fault. “I forgot to hold onto the ball when I swung back.”

The guys all laughed. I could help but laugh with them. “Liz!”

“What?! I told you I’m barely coordinated enough to drive.”