Bowling alley

From Candypedia
Bowling alley
First appearanceFair Game, page 1
September 17, 2018
Related charactersMadison, Jessica, Daisy, Paulo, David, Rachel, Matt, Jordan, Tiff

The Bowling alley is an unnamed bowling establishment with a full bank of lanes, a raised concourse, and a swirling cosmic mural over the pins. Its one appearance to date is in Fair Game, where Jessica rents out a corner of the place for Madison’s surprise eighteenth birthday party.

Description

From the street, the alley is a dark blue-grey brick building with a run of tall glass windows and doors in metal frames, opening onto a wide, pale-paved entryway.[1] A road runs directly out front, close enough that a departing motorcycle can leave the doorway in a cloud of dust.[2]

Inside, the wooden lanes, ball returns and scorer’s tables all sit on the lower floor. A raised concourse runs along behind them, separated by a cream half-wall with a metal rail that people lean over to talk to the players below.[3] A huge blue, yellow and orange mural swirls across the wall above the pins on every lane.[4]

The furnishings are the classic sort. There are round white pedestal scorer’s tables with blue rims, cream moulded chairs, multi-tier shelves of brightly coloured balls with a domed ball-polishing machine between them, and a row of monitors hanging over the lanes.[5][6]

A men’s restroom opens straight off the concourse, with cream brick-pattern tile, a tan counter of inset sinks, and a first stall that was out of toilet paper on the night of the party.[7] No employee has ever been drawn, for what it’s worth. The group rents shoes and cuts a birthday cake without a single member of staff appearing on panel.[8][1]

History

Wooden lanes stretch out under the glowing backdrop, pins scattering as Madison and Rachel celebrate a strike.[9]

The group visits the alley only once, for one long evening in Fair Game. Jessica books it for Madison’s surprise eighteenth birthday, promising “pizza, pineapple soda, and a WHOLE corner of the alley ALL to ourselves”.[10] Nine partygoers turn up in all, though Tiff barely makes it past the door before walking back out and riding off on a stranger’s motorcycle.[2] David, for his part, decides his rental shoes make him look like Sonic and commits to the bit.[8]

Over by the ball shelves, Matt comes out to Paulo, saying aloud for the first time on panel that he is gay. He admits to a long-held crush on Jordan that he has never acted on for fear of losing his best friend. “You assume some people are totally cool with it and then they surprise you,” he explains.[11] Paulo, who is quietly in the middle of a crisis about his own sexuality, takes the news well and volunteers to find out whether Jordan is gay.[12]

The bowling itself goes about how you’d expect. Madison and Rachel throw strikes while David and Daisy find the gutters.[3] Paulo spends his time on the bench running a private experiment instead: he daydreams about Lucy, only for the fantasy to shift into Mike, at which point he falls off his chair.[4] Daisy sits with him afterwards for a sweet little chat about lucid dreaming.[13]

Paulo makes good on his promise in the men’s restroom. He tails Jordan along the concourse and corners him against the wall in there. Jordan asks for a little personal space, which Paulo ignores in favour of a flirty line about two-coloured eyes being lucky.[14] Jordan gently but firmly tells him he isn’t gay. Paulo takes the whole thing back with a shouted “SIKE!!”, and Jordan warns him to stay away from his sister, Lucy.[15]

After cake at the scorer’s tables, the whole party crams into Matt’s car outside for the ride home.[1]

Trivia

Rows of colourful bowling balls line the racks flanking the return chute, right where Paulo has tumbled off his seat.[16]
  • Veronica’s commentary dates the party to 2008, noting that Madison’s worry about “weirdoes” would otherwise have been about “randos”.[10]
  • Paulo’s restroom flirt line draws on real folklore. Veronica’s commentary explains that Khao Manee cats “are believed to be lucky cats because of their odd-colour eyes”, though she admits the line was a bizarre thing for Paulo of all people to say.[14]
  • The alley has never been revisited on panel, though Rachel later proposes taking Augustus bowling as a group outing.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 24
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 5
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 12
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 13
  5. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 15
  6. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 17
  7. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 19
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 3
  9. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 12
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 2
  11. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 10
  12. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 11
  13. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 16
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 20
  15. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 22
  16. ↑ Chapter 104: Fair Game, page 15
  17. ↑ Chapter 114: Double Down, page 4
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