Rafael parked his car at the Bowling Pin, the local bowling alley in Elmwood. He glanced behind him at Derek and Emma. Derek was glued to his phone, and Emma was folding her arms, annoyance clear on her face.

“Alright. Let’s go!” Rafael said. Emma grunted as Derek was texting someone. If Rafael’s suspicions were right, it was Tyler. “Derek?”

“Right.” Derek opened his car door without another glance toward Emma. Rafael and Hazel exchanged glances before Rafael got out to circle around and open the door for Hazel.

“Derek?” Rafael asked.

“Hmm?” He hardly tore his gaze from his phone.

“Emma’s waiting,” Rafael said as Hazel got out of the car.

“Right.”

Rafael dropped his voice to a whisper. “Dude, are you going to be on that thing all night?”

“She needs to get angry at me, and I can stay in touch with what’s going on. This is a win-win.” Derek’s fingers flew over his phone.

Rafael bit back a comment as Derek opened Emma’s door with one hand while staring at his phone in his other. Emma climbed out, glaring.

“You didn’t tell me we were going bowling,” Emma hissed.

“Didn’t I?” Derek asked.

“You told me we were going hiking.” Emma pulled out her own phone. “See!”

Derek barely glanced up from his phone to see the text exchange. “Huh.” He then went right back to looking at his phone.

Rafael scratched right above his ear as Emma walked toward the Bowling Pin. Derek followed, distracted.

“This is going to be painful, isn’t it,” Hazel said.

“Absolutely. I didn’t think Derek would use us to help us in his scheme. I thought he just needed us for protection. Treating her like this feels… horrible,” Rafael said.

“There’s got to be an easier way to get Emma out of Pippa’s clutches. I agree. This feels cruel.”

Rafael wrapped his hand around hers. “Let’s see if we can contain this dumpster fire and make sure Derek treats her with respect.”

Hazel nodded as they walked inside, seeing Derek had his phone in his pocket as he talked to the guy at the front. Rafael rolled the die for a few things on the way here, but nothing like combat. He’d done some stealth and perception rolls, which meant the others were off doing something. Rafael was happy to sit this one out. They had a ridiculously busy weekend full of CCNC things, and he was fine letting the others take over for this. Everyone wanted to level up fast, but this was getting a little ridiculous and time consuming. Though maybe thoughts of the apocalypse would help him muscle through the monotony of CCNC every day.

They wouldn’t do this during school hours, right?

Derek pulled out a credit card and handed it over to the guy at the main desk. The man grabbed it, giving it a swipe as Derek checked his phone again. He doubted Derek would let anyone go anywhere during the school hours, because he wanted to be there for everything. Heaven forbid they try this again tomorrow while at school.

As it was a buy one get one free night, Rafael was more than happy to pay for his and Hazel’s shoes. He was counting bills when everything around him froze.

Roll for initiative.

Rafael finished counting the bills before grabbing the d20 and giving it a shake. He dropped it, watching it tumble over the invisible table.

Seven total. Not good, but he tried not to be worried.

He handed the bills to the guy working at the front desk. The man had a small soul patch and looked bored.

“Two trolls,” Derek whispered as Hazel walked over to Emma for them to put their shoes on.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. They were taking a hike through the outskirts of town and found two trolls that were pulling up some of the bigger trees.” Derek scrolled through his phone.

“Dude, we’re on a date. Put the phone away,” Rafael said.

“I have to figure out what creature it is. Trolls have a regeneration property that gives them ten points at the start of every turn, unless they take fire or acid damage, then it blocks their—”

Rafael elbowed Derek lightly in the rib as Emma walked over in her bowling shoes. Now that Rafael realized she thought they were hiking, her outfit made a bit more sense, but not much. Everything about her outfit looked brand new, as though she went out shopping specifically for this date. She had a loose shirt and a tank top underneath, with short shorts. She replaced her sandals with bowling shoes. Rafael was almost glad they weren’t hiking, because she wasn’t dressed for hiking, either. She might have twisted an ankle or something.

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“Buy me a snack!” she said, bounding over to Derek.

“Uh… huh?” Derek asked.

Emma wrapped her arms around him, getting uncomfortably close to his face. “There’s a candy counter over there. You know my favorite!”

“Right! Right.” Derek patted her shoulder. “Totally know. Be back in a sec.”

Derek moved away, and Emma watched him go with a slight smirk on her face. Rafael took off his street shoes. “So, Emma, uh…” Emma glanced at him expectantly. “Do you and Derek… enjoy each other’s company?” Rafael held back a wince. He tried to keep this as civil as possible, but wanted to make sure Emma could get out of this relationship.

“Enjoy? That’s what we’re supposed to be doing?” Emma played with a lock of her hair.

Rafael blinked, not sure if she was being sarcastic or not. “Yes?”

Emma laughed as Rafael finished tying his shoes. “And you’re really dating the cheerleading captain because you simply enjoy her company?”

He blinked again. “Yes.”

She didn’t answer, which was when Rafael realized a d20 was hanging in front of him. He didn’t know what to choose, but luckily Ezekiel did. Rafael rolled the dice when prompted, pleased that he was about to send some bad guys ten points worth of damage. Hopefully that would help in battle.

Time resumed, and Rafael reached to finish tying his shoes. Emma positively cackled. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

He glanced up. “What?”

Emma simply shook her head and walked away. He thought about the conversation, then realized he didn’t answer her. Or, rather, he did answer her, but she couldn’t hear because time had frozen.

Rafael sighed, standing up and walking over to Hazel. “Hey.”

She was looking at the bowling balls on display. She smiled as he approached. “Hey, you.”

Rafael placed his arm around her waist. “I enjoy your company.”

Hazel cocked her head to one side. “Oh, um, okay. I enjoy your company, too.”

He smiled as he looked at the display of bowling balls. “Glad to hear that.”

Hazel reached out and grabbed one bowling ball. “You’ll have to take me on a date without Derek and Emma sometime.”

“Yes, please. I already feel like this date is a disaster,” Rafael said.

Hazel smiled as she grabbed the bowling ball and the two of them headed toward where Emma was loading in their names on the program.

“Done!” she said. “Look! It even has one of those cool little Spanish accented e’s for your name, Rafael!”

Rafael glanced up to see Rafél on the screen. He opened his mouth to say something, then noticed she also spelt Hazel’s name wrong, with an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’. Emma didn’t even try with Derek’s name.

“Um… ‘hotbutt’?” Hazel asked.

“Ugh, tell me about it. I guess they have a kid friendly program where you can’t put any swear words, or I totally would’ve put ‘hotass’ for Derek,” Emma said.

Hazel and Rafael exchanged glances before they both shrugged in defeat. Ezekiel’s character sheet popped into view, and he watched as the hit points raced down. Rafael held his breath until he saw it settle at twenty-four. Whatever it was, Ezekiel took a hit.

Derek walked over with a small bag of peanut M&M’s, tossing them in Emma’s direction. Emma barely had time to catch it before she looked at them, frowning. “No, not peanut M&M’s. Those were my least favorite! Remember? I told you that!”

“Oh, right. I forgot.” Derek settled down on one of the plastic chairs.

“How could you forget? Seriously, I hate peanuts.” Emma threw them back at him.

“Are you allergic?” Hazel asked.

“No, I just hate them. Ugh, the people who are allergic to them aren’t missing out on much.” Emma flipped her hair.

“Seems rather insensitive, considering you adore Reese’s,” Derek said.

“I knew you knew what I liked!” Her eyes flared in warning.

“You’re missing the point,” Derek said.

“No, I’m not. You’re missing mine. You knew what I liked and purposefully sabotaged it.”

Time froze, and Rafael stared at the d20, giving a sigh. He wasn’t sure what was going on at the battle with the troll, or the battle here. He didn’t like either of them. Pippa was nowhere in sight, which meant she might show up at the battle. But she might also be here, hanging around to spy on them.

Or she might be nowhere near these two groups, and Rafael would have to suffer all night with two drama nerds who disliked each other but were pretending to. He had to stop this conversation, and fast. Thankfully, he had a time freeze to get an idea.

He quickly rolled for his turn as he thought about changing the subject. Once time resumed, Rafael glanced at the scoreboard. “Hey, look at that! I’m first!” He grabbed the bowling ball, and Emma and Derek stopped their conversation. It wasn’t that great of an idea, though he figured if it didn’t work, at least he could sort of run away.

Derek and Emma glared daggers at each other as Rafael rolled the bowling ball. With his two turns, he got every pin but two.

“You’re next, Hasel.” Rafael emphasized the ‘s’ in her new name.

“Thanks, Rafél,” Hazel said.

He snorted as she picked up the ball.

He sat down between Derek and Emma, who both had their arms folded and glaring at the world. Hazel took her turn, then Emma was up. The three of them were quiet as Derek massaged his forehead with his fingers.

“It’s been a while since I’ve gone bowling. This is fun,” Hazel said.

“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever gone bowling,” Rafael said.

“There was that one time at my house,” Derek said.

Rafael raised an eyebrow. “You mean on your TV? TV bowling?”

Derek shrugged. “Yeah.”

“I guess, but it’s also… completely different.”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that,” Derek said.

Emma returned, gesturing over her shoulder. “You’re up, Hotbutt.”

Judging by the look on Derek’s face, that was the moment he realized what Emma programed into the computer, but shrugged. “Glad you like it.”

“It is your best feature. Because you can be such a butt,” Emma said as she took Derek’s spot.

Derek went for a roll, but halfway through rolling the ball, he stumbled and got an immediate gutter ball. Emma snorted as Derek stared at the ball rolling in the gutter before turning and glancing at Rafael. It must have been something to do with CCNC, because he could detect a hint of fear in his eyes. As Derek walked over to the balls, he pulled out his phone to check it.

“Seriously?” Emma asked. “Do you need to take a picture of your failure?”

Derek’s reply was to grunt before slipping it back into his pocket. He grabbed another ball, and this one rolled marginally better, but not by much.

Rafael saw his options pop up right when everyone froze in place. He hardly did anything at all. Ezekiel already chose cure wounds, which made him guess why Derek acted the way he did. Cure wounds at a second level spell gave the person fourteen hit points back.

Time resumed, and Rafael studied Derek’s face to see the relief there. It was definitely Milo. Derek gave Rafael a thumbs up, and he returned it.