Adopted by Hamilton

Chapter 36 - Talk less, Bowl more

I was in my room Thursday at about 4:00, when I heard people arriving at the theater, I looked at my phone which displayed 4:07, they shouldn't be here for another 2 hours. Did something happen? I heard running upstairs and I groaned a little, they're going to make me do things. Just as I thought that, my door was flung open and Anthony flung a shirt on my lap.

"Put that on! We're going up against The Lion King in 20 minutes!" With that he ran out. I was a little confused, what are we doing exactly? I picked up the shirt and looked at it.

'Hamilpins: Talk less, Bowl more.' 

Well that makes more sense. I pulled the shirt on then ran downstairs. There were like 20 people wearing the bowling shirts. Oh my gosh. This is legitimate. This is either going to be very fun, or very strange, or a little bit of both. 

"Hey! Get over here!" Oak yelled from the stage, they were all gathered by the stage right stairs. I ran over and the Hamilton bowling team, or the Hamilpins, got a team picture.

"So, we're bowling?" I asked Lin as we walked outside, and he nodded, "against the cast of The Lion King?" He nodded again, "and our team name is 'The Hamilpins'?" He nodded again.

"I don't know why the tradition started but several shows have bowling teams, Les Mis beat us last time, and I don't intend to loose to a bunch of literal animals." Oh, that's one way to describe that cast.

"Lin." He turned to face me, "did you just refer to The Lion King cast as 'literal animals'? Do you have an axe to grind against the show, or do you take bowling very, very seriously?"

"Neither. They play animals. Like, you know, lions." I shook my head a little, we all drove down to the bowling alley separately, I drove in with Renée, who was not playing but was coming to the game.

"Do I have to play?" I asked when we were about halfway there.

"Why? It's not serious, it's bowling."

"I know, I'm an awful bowler, ask my boyfriend, he took my there once."

"No one is a good bowler here. I'm serious, none of these guys can bowl."

"Ok, I'll do it." I finished the conversation as we pulled into the bowling alleys parking lot. We both got out of the car and could see everyone else getting out of cars as well. We met inside, about a third of the people who showed up went over the the bar, and shady bowling alley 'restaurant'. We saw the Lion King team, and let me tell you, they embraced the Africa side of their show. They wore African style shirts, open, flowing and colorful. 

As a group we actually played another Broadway musical in bowling. It was, to be honest, pretty fun. I played a little, mostly we just hung out and ate a ton, but that's besides the point. I had fun. I'm pretty sure we won, but I'm not positive. We all had to go in 2 hours, we arrived back at the theater at 6:30, and everybody but me rushed around getting hair and makeup done. I had to work tonight so I sat in the chair in my stand reading.

People flooded the theater at 6:45 and I exhaled. I love this job, I feel more at home every day. Everybody is just getting more and more excited every night, kind of turning into a rock show rather than a Broadway musical. The audience was different than any other musical I had ever seen, Lin truly had succeeded in shortening the distance between the show and the audience, he had revolutionized theater, and I was eternally grateful.

Hiya! I AM SO SORRY. I fell asleep twice writing this chapter over the past 2 days, I will upload again tonight. Love you all! Thank you for the wonderful, comments, I feel so loved.

Thanks for reading

- Abi