Dreaming In Stereo

Part 4 -- Ethis

It wasn't long before the thousands and thousands of kids coming in from all over Australia was quickly whittled down into about sixty, all split up into Teams Madden, Delta and Mel.

A couple of weeks before Ethan entered the battle rounds, the Karpathy family received a call and an email from Sudo, an Australian kids clothing brand who had been chosen to style all the outfits of the Voice Kids participants. Now, they wanted Ethan to rep their brand on the show, when he entered the battle ring with the other two.

"What do you think, Ethan?" Mrs Karpathy asked as she held her phone an arms' length away from her ear.

"Sure," Ethan replied enthusiastically. "Why not?"

Mrs Karpathy talked to the Sudo representative on the phone on the other side of the line for a while, nodding every so often.

"Yes," She smiled. "Ethan would love to. Yes."

His sister, Tahlia, bobbed up and down next to him excitedly. "Does that mean you're gonna be a model, Etho?"

Ethan sighed, and put his arms up to block the teases and the jokes which were streaming out of Tahlia like water flowing through rapids. This carried on and on until Mr Karpathy finally put a stop to it, with a kind yet firm, "Stop it. Both of you."

"Why don't you go to the pool or something, Ethan?" suggested his mum.

"Sure, whatever," Ethan replied vaguely.

"Ooh, mum, can I go too?" Tahlia asked. His mum nodded and busied herself with her phone again. So Tahlia quickly changed and ran off to the hotel pool. Ethan changed into trunks and a black tee shirt, slipped into his sandals and walked down to the pool. He held in one hand his phone. The screen was dimming.

Ethan arrived at the pool, which was filled with happy families, screams, and yells. He spotted a couple of kids from the Voice, hanging out by several long beach chairs. Ethan grabbed a towel from a large stack and walked up to them. He recognised one vaguely as Chris, who he'd met at the shuttle service, and another a bit better as Robbie, the Scottish boy who'd sung Train's Hey Soul Sister in his blind audition.

"Oh, hey," Robbie said in his thick Scottish accent as Ethan arrived on scene. "Ethan, right? Come join the party."

Ethan put his stuff down, and then joined the conversation.

"This is Grace, she's also team Delta. And that's Anthony, Lenisa, Jack, Fletcher..." Robbie introduced, going through the entire group. "And Chris." He pointed at the tall thirteen year old boy.

They exchanged some small talk, and then Grace interrupted. "Guys, are we going to swim or just stand here and talk?"

Ethan glanced around, and then in one swift motion he shoved Chris, who was standing at the edge of the pool still in a white tee shirt and trunks. Chris stumbled and toppled backwards into the water, landing on his back with a large splash of water that sprayed droplets over Ethan's tee shirt. He pulled the tee shirt over his head, threw it onto a nearby chair, and then took a few steps backwards before charging into a deep sprint and leaping into the water next to Chris.

Chris was bobbed up and down until he managed to tread water, and he shook his hair to get rid of the water and rubbed a hand over his eyes.

"Ethan!" Chris shouted. He ripped off the white tee shirt, which was now soaked into a crumpled up white rag. Chris lifted it above his head like a lasso, and swung it round and round, whipping it against the water every so often. He changed into a powerful half-crawl stroke, cheekily chasing after Ethan.

"No! Nah!" Ethan's shouts were drowned by some pool water which filled his mouth. He went underwater and at a terrific speed swam away, but then another boy who had been introduced as Fletcher jumped into the pool and chased after Ethan as well.

Ethan swam forward but stopped dead in his tracks. Fletcher was treading water there, so Ethan turned around and swam in the opposite direction. But then he nearly bashed into someone, and, looking up, realised that someone was a thirteen year old black-haired boy swing a tee shirt like a lasso.

"Ah! No! Chris!!" Ethan shouts were dying out as he plunged into the water with Chris on top of him, his grin allowing water to enter his open mouth. Large bubbles escaped and Ethan clawed at everything he could.

All of a sudden Ethan felt two strong hands clutching at his sides and lifting him easily up into the air. He opened his eyes and gasped for breath. Chris was holding him up with two hands, his tee shirt lying somewhere in the pool. Everyone laughed.

"Kiss him, Chris!" Someone shouted.

Chris promptly pulled Ethan closer to his body, and Ethan felt a pair of lips, wet and lemony, brushing softly against his.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife."

Sorry this chapter is kinda quick. I'll try to put in a quick Jakob chapter by Sunday, because afterwards I'll be inactive for a week (school trip). Anyway, once again, hope you liked it. Vote and comment if you did! If this book gets 7 votes or 100 views in total by Saturday, I'll upload two chapters (a Jakob one and an Ethan/In Stereo one) and a short Ethan romance fanfiction/story.