Dreaming In Stereo

Part 11 ~ Back to School

It all felt the same now--the same tie and trousers, the same morning ritual of waking up to a blaring alarm and going back to sleep twenty minutes, and freaking out when Chris realised he was very nearly late.

And going back to school? Pretty much the same. Chris went to an all-boys school and when he'd went missing for a couple weeks or so and suddenly came back, people just shrugged and went along with it.

But for Ethan it was a little different.

He awoke groggily to his mum shaking him hard as he lay in bed shirtless in only a pair of embarrassing teddy bear boxers.

"M-mum..." Ethan said sleepily and waved his hand vaguely.

"Wake up, Ethan!" Tahlia screamed. "School, remember?"

"Meh-mm-meh!" Ethan mumble-screamed in response. "me no go evil school..."

"Ethan?" His mum said. "Downstairs in ten minutes, ready to go with your bag and changed. Or you're going to be late for your first day back."

Ethan groaned in response. His mum left the room, leaving Ethan in bed for a few seconds. He rolled around and tried to freeze time, but unfortunately it didn't work. So Ethan was forced to get out of bed, get changed, pack his bed and walk downstairs. In fact, he was very proud of himself for not getting back into bed in that seven-minute period.

"Ethan! Your hair's a mess and your shirt's wrinkled!" His mum shouted. Not the best start to his day.

"Mum..." Ethan mumbled. "First day?"

"First day back a slob?" His mum asked. "I don't think so. Straighten that shirt out and comb your hair. You'll have to eat on the bus."

Ethan sighed but obediently walked up the stairs into the bathroom. He tried to flatten out his hair and ran his hand down the shirt to try and smoothen it out. When he was sure his mum would be okay with it, Ethan went back downstairs. He had roughly a minute to get to the bus stop. Tahlia was already ready, with her backpack slung over her shoulder.

"Ethan! Hurry up!" Tahlia shouted. She was at the door.

His mum tossed him a sandwich and Ethan took a large bite of it, then nearly puked as the overly-sweet, revolting taste of Nutella filled his mouth. He gagged.

"Mum! Nutella!" Ethan complained.

"Sorry! That's for Tahlia," Mrs Karpathy said. "Here, this is yours."

Another sandwich came flying through the air and Ethan caught it in his left hand. He nibbled the corner of it and to his relief tasted the tanginess of peanut butter and jam (of jelly, for all you Americans).

Ethan grabbed his backpack and raced out of the house with Tahlia, taking large chunks of the sandwich along the way. His lips were stuffed with crumbs an a smear of chunky red jam as they arrived at the bus stop. Luckily, they were the last stop, barely a five minute drive to school. In fact, they lived so close to school it would've taken them fifteen minutes to walk to school.

They sat through the short bus ride and then got off at school. Tahlia went to her friends and Ethan to his: Brock and Jack.

Brock was a wiry gymnast with blond hair and startling blue eyes. Jack was the kind of person who was always involved in some brilliant story--whether it was rock climbing and swimming in a restricted area and narrowly escaping the guards, or going to Spain and England to play football for the junior Australian squad.

Ethan, Brock and Jack were chatting happily, walking to class. They came in and were ten minutes early for class. The room was empty, except for a cheerful, hardworking middle-aged man named Charlie Bell. Mr Bell greeted the boys as they entered, and glanced up when he realised that instead of two there were three of them.

"Ethan!" He exclaimed. "Back from Sydney?"

"Yeah," Ethan replied. "It was fun."

"Good. That's good. How would you feel about more fun?" Mr Bell asked. Ethan shrugged. "I've got a whole stack of homework and material for you to catch up on. Hang on a second, I'll just go to my office and grab it."

Ethan groaned good-naturedly and then he and his friends took their seats in a sort of 'L' shape. There were two side-by-side seats and and one seat behind. Ethan sat in the middle, with Brock to his right and Jack behind him. 

A few minutes passed. They chatted a little. The door opened and Mr Bell came in holding a terrifyingly huge stack of sheets. He dumped them on Ethan's desk and told him he had weeks, and that if he had any questions Jack or Brock would answer them. Ethan stuffed the worksheets in his bag. He would deal with them later. 

At that moment, the bell rang. The classroom was still empty except for Mr Bell, Ethan and his friends. Ethan looked around, puzzled. He glanced at Brock, whose face was blank as a poker player's--except for this one tiny smirk.

"Brock?" Ethan asked.

"What?" Brock asked. 

"What's going on?" Ethan turned to Jack for answers, but he was flipping through his notebook. The classroom became eerily quiet. Suddenly the door burst open and in came a flood of students with colourful streamers and balloons.

"WELCOME BACK ETHAN!" They shouted.

Ethan fell off his chair and thudded onto the ground. The class roared with laughter, and so did Ethan, with his toothy, cheeky, youthful grin, like nothing in the world could have dragged him down.

Changed the ending. Enjoy :)