The Ultimate Striker

Chapter 2: To The Edge

Chapter 2: To The Edge

Johan had a look of excitement on his face, and was told to grab a house ball.

"For right now, whilst we have a bit of an idea of how well you can perform, that is only in your relaxed state, when competing with friends. Show us how well you can compete against others at your skill level. If you can't compete properly, you're bound to lose in a competitive setting, so get ready."

Johan grabbed the ball, and got a pair of bowling shoes. He put them on, and was assigned a group.

"In that group, your mission is to not be the person in last. Being in last place means that you have the lowest score. If you come in last place, you're out. Easy to understand, right?"

The bowlers nodded their heads.

"Oh, right. I forgot to mention. We're working with the government on this one, so we have their backs. Listen, if you fuck up and lose, then you're banned from ever competing in bowling ever again, either in amateur tournaments or not. You can still play by yourself, and with your friends, but you absolutely cannot hope to make a career out of this. Do you understand?"

The bowlers reluctantly accepted, and got ready to bowl. They were given a sheet where they were asked to put down basic information about their bowling styles in order to customize the perfect ball for them.

Johan wasn't used to that, since he had been playing with a house ball his entire life due to his lack of money. Johan saw the part that asked him to fill out his style of bowling, and he put in "two handed" because it was all he really knew. He was never good at throwing the ball straight down the middle, despite how simple it was.

Johan heard a commotion, and looked over. A group on the other side of the alley was freaking out because one of their members was getting almost all strikes. Johan looked over at the man who stood, throwing the ball.

He had thrown a ball and got a nine. The man looked Johan in the eye. His eyes were weird. Completely dead, was all that it could really give off.

He was tall, with tan skin and brown hair. His hair was split down the middle, brushed to the side messily and with quite a nice body. To be honest, if it weren't for the different hairstyle, dead eyes, and different body, he would be pretty similar to Johan's old league teammate.

But Johan couldn't think about the past, and so he focused his attention on his turn bowling. He grabbed the house ball, and got into the position he always entered, and threw the ball. It was the first ball of the game, so it was to test to see how oily it was.

Johan threw the ball out far, and it hooked like crazy, just barely missing the pocket, giving him a score of 9. The furthest pin on the right, also known as the 10 pin, was standing. This was bad news, since Adonis' style of bowling, two handed, was quite hard to use against this, even on a dry lane like this one.

Taking a deep breath, Johan walked extra far to the left, and threw the ball. It went down the lane but ended up missing the pin, causing him to get a gutter ball.

Johan:- "Damn it. These guys are all pretty good. Good enough to be invited to this place. If this keeps up, I won't be able to make it."

Johan had to win. His dream lay beyond this. If he messed up now...

No. Johan was overthinking. If Johan had learned anything over his years as a bowler, it was that once the seed of despair imbeds itself in your mind, your chances drop dramatically. It was the first few throws, so there was nothing wrong with not doing well in the beginning.

Johan took a deep breath, and sat down. He thought it might be useful to talk with others. Johan didn't have many friends in school, but the... one friend he had was also into bowling. Nobody in his school enjoyed bowling quite as much as he did, and they even looked down on it. This led to a lot of fights, some of which Johan won, and some he lost.