The Loud House: Valentine Baby

Bowling, and Cake

When we stepped inside Round 1, the place looked great. They had lots of arcade games and even some Japanese arcade games. They had pool tables, and even ping pong and darts. Of course, they have bowling lanes as well. I was very excited about this. We met up with Maddie and Paula there, and they had a box with them.

"Hey guys, what's in the box?" I asked.

"It's a surprise," said Paula.

I was intrigued to see what it was. Maddie took the box to one of the tables in the dining area and she waited there for us to start our bowling session. Margo and Paula got their bowling shoes and they also got some for Maddie. After that, we proceeded to the lanes.

Everything looked great. Colorful lights were illuminating the lanes, and it was nice. There were projector screens on the backdrop showing mostly sports stuff. They were showing the Pistons game. against the Atlanta Hawks. Also, the winter games were being shown on the screens too. Specifically, they were showing some snowboarding events.

We sat down on the couch at the lane we were using and placed our stuff on the table in front of the couch. We waited for Maddie to come. She then came to us with the box. She pulled out some paper plates and plastic forks from her backpack that she had with her. I assumed it was a cake.

"You ready to see what's inside?" Maddie asked me.

"As I'll ever be," I said.

She opened the box and when I saw what was in it, I couldn't believe what I saw. It was a football field-themed cake. I finally had gotten my wish of having a sport-themed cake for my birthday. For the first time, I no longer had to deal with those heart-shaped cakes.

"Thank you so much, Maddie!" I said to her.

"I knew you were tired of getting heart-shaped cakes every year, so me and my parents went and got this for you yesterday," she said. "I also added Freddy's name before we got here."

I couldn't wait to dig in. It already looked delicious. We decided to wait until after our round of bowling to eat it. We put on our bowling shoes and we were ready to bowl. We took turns throwing the ball down the lane and we all were aiming for good scores. As we all waited for our turn, me and Freddy were having a conversation about our sports stuff.

"You said you were a Dodgers fan, right?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"I'm sure you watched the World Series," I said.

"Oh, I was so mad," he said. "I just can't believe they lost in the very last game."

"I feel you," I said. "I remember watching the Tigers in the 2012 World Series and they didn't even win a single game. I was just sad. They haven't won it since 1984. I really wanted them to win, but now they're one of the worst teams in the MLB."

"I know the last time you guys had a championship to celebrate back in 2008, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. I saw it happen on TV. Me, my dad and Lincoln went to their parade in downtown. It was an amazing feeling. They reached the finals again the following year, but they lost. What's amazing is that they had their 25-year playoff streak, but that came to an end last year."

"You know, when the Kings won in 2012 and 2014, my aunt took me to both of their parades," Freddy said. "I also remember the Lakers winning back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010. It was a great few years for L.A. sports fans."

"You definitely had a lot to celebrate throughout those few years," I said.

We continued to take our turns bowling and I noticed that Freddy was doing pretty good. He was picking up quite a few spares and strikes. The rest of us cheered him on. After his 7th frame, we went back to our conversation.

"I always enjoyed watching the 3 teams," he said. "But there was one league missing from the city and that was the NFL. There was no team there at the time. I always loved football and the fact that I didn't have a team to be a fan of at the time was pretty disappointing considering L.A. is a massive city."

"I knew about that," I said. "It was very strange to me at the time."

"I know the Chargers were not too far away in San Diego, but I found it hard to support a team that doesn't play where I live," he said. "My cousins who lived there were fans of course."

"What you said about supporting a team that doesn't play where you live makes sense to me," I said.

"I did some research in 2010 and I found out that the Rams and Raiders played in L.A. before,"  he said. "Given that the Rams had more history in L.A., I was hoping that they'd come back."

"I guess it paid off," I said.

"Yeah," he said. "Even before they came back, there were rumors that either they, the Raiders, or the Chargers would move to L.A. Out of the 3, I wanted the Rams to come back and NFL team owners approved their relocation in 2016. I finally had a team to support."

"I was happy for that too," I said. "It makes sense for L.A. to have an NFL team."

"You can't say this about the Chargers moving there," he said.

"Yeah, I know," I said. "I didn't want them to move, fans from everywhere didn't want them to move, and even people in L.A. didn't want them to move there. I know they were in danger of moving there, but San Diego didn't deserve to lose them."

"Well, we know what happened this past season," Freddy said. "It was a total disaster for them. No one showed up to their home games and some were filled with at least 70% away team fans. I wasn't happy about them coming to L.A. We just got the Rams back and I feel like we only needed them. I just feel for the people in San Diego and even my cousins."

"All Spanos had to do was just get a new stadium built in San Diego, but he chose to go to L.A.," I said.

"I know they are going to have attendance problems for a long time," said Freddy.

"I know people think the Rams have attendance issues as well, but I don't think that's the case because the coliseum's huge and that's what causes empty seats," I said. "So I think they'll be fine."

We eventually played our final frames in our bowling match and when we finished, Freddy had an impressive 186. He beat me by 13 points with me having 173. The rest of the girls' scores were between 100 and 150.

"You are pretty good!" I said to him.

"I have yet to crack 200, but I think I'm getting there," he said.

"I hope you reach it," Margo said to him.

"Well, it's time for cake!" said Maddie.

"I can't wait to dig in," said Paula.

We proceeded back to the same table in the dining area and we pulled out the cake. Before we opened the cake, Freddy asked us something.

"I forgot to ask, are any of you watching the World Cup this year?" he asked.

"We honestly don't have a reason to since the U.S. failed to qualify," I said.

"I knew you were gonna say that," he said. "I'm not watching it either because of that."

"The truth is that FIFA has been a corrupt organization for decades now," said Margo.

"I know about the corruption scandal," said Freddy. "You really have to question the hosts for this year and 2022."

"It's true," I said. "Ok, let's dig in!"

We opened up the box and pulled the cake out. Maddie then placed number candles on each end of the cake. My side had the number 15 and Freddy's had 16. Maddie lit the candles and it was time for the girls to sing to us.

"Ready?" Maddie asked.

"1, 2, 3, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Freddy and Lynn, Happy Birthday to you!" The girls sang.

We both blew out our candles and the girls clapped. After that, it was time to cut the cake. It was a standard white cake. I took a bite out of my slice and it was delicious. Things were going great for us, but while we were sitting at the table eating our slices, I was starting to feel something.