They were just setting up the scoring—Junie first, then Nate, then Naomi—when they heard a cascade of giggles near the door. Looking up, Nate saw Pauline Calhoun and a group of kids from his class, including Larry, Travis, and Jennifer, collecting their shoes and score sheets. His stomach turned over.

Pauline and the others settled themselves on the bench by the lane directly beside theirs. Nate tried to keep his eyes focused straight ahead.

“Oh boy, oh boy,” Junie said as she picked up her first ball. “I hope I get a strike.”

She planted herself at the line and bent down, with the ball in both hands, as if she were launching a baby duck in a pond. Very gently, she released it.

The ball wobbled slowly down the lane as Junie stood, watching its progress. Partway down, it rolled into the gutter.

“Oh, too bad,” Naomi said. “I thought that was going to be a great shot.”

Nate looked at the two of them and shook his head very slightly. No way he could pretend he didn’t know them.

“That’s the hard thing about bowling, Naomi,” Junie explained. “You can have the best aim in the world, and still sometimes, for no reason, the ball just wiggles in some bad direction.”

Nate might have disputed this, but what was the point? One lane over he heard the crash of falling pins—a strike for Larry.

On Junie’s second try she knocked down a single pin. She jumped up happily. “One! I got one!” she cried.

Nate got up to take his turn—a spare. Junie and Naomi went to the bathroom. When they got back, she reported that Pauline and her friend had been there too. “You should see her bracelet,” Junie whispered to Nate. “It’s got all these jingly little charms. A heart and a puppy and even a bicycle with a wheel that really moves. She took it off when she was washing her hands, and I got to look at it.”

“Great,” Nate said, though he was familiar with Pauline’s bracelet and how, for every special occasion in her life, her father gave her some new charm.

Then it was Naomi’s turn. Unlike Junie, she started from farther back and took several steps, bringing the ball forward from behind her back, to gain momentum. But she had started on the wrong foot, and her motion was off balance. The ball, by the time she released it, zigzagged wildly before ending up, like Junie’s, in the gutter. Same with her next ball.

“Don’t worry, Naomi,” Junie said kindly as Naomi sat down. “There’s lots of time to catch up. Nate and me’ve been bowling lots longer than you, so don’t feel bad.”