01. Start of something new

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It's New Year's Eve, the ski lodge is alive with excitement as everyone enjoys the festivities. Ricky is sitting peacefully on a sofa with his guitar working on a song as his dad approaches.

"Ricky, it's New Year's Eve. Put the guitar down."

Ricky looks up as he hears him, "But Dad, I'm almost done."

His father replies, "Ricky did you forget about the teen party? I've laid out your best clothes. Come get ready." The older male holds out his hand to take Ricky's guitar and help him up.

The curly-haired boy sighs and picks up his songwriting book as he gets up to get changed and go to the party.

Mrs Caswell enters the gym to find her son and husband playing basketball.

Coach Caswell bounces the ball to the teen. "Keep working left, EJ. Got a guard in the championship game we're expecting. You'll kill 'em!"

"By going left?" EJ asks.

"Yeah. He looks middle, you take it downtown."

"Okay, like this?" the younger male asks as he goes left and nails the shot.

His dad cheers, "Whoo! That's what I'm talking about. I wanna see that in the game."

"Boys? Did we really fly all this way to play more basketball?" asks Mrs Caswell.

The two men look at each other for a moment before replying, "yeah".

"But it's the last night of vacation. The party, remember?" Mrs Caswell asks twirling as she shows off her gorgeous blue dress.

Coach Caswell has a revelation, "Right, the party! New Year's Eve."

"EJ, they have a kid's party downstairs in the freestyle club."

EJ groans looking at his mom, "kid's party?"

Mrs Caswell replies rolling her eyes, "young adults, now go, freshen up!"

The younger male steals the ball from his dad and looks over to his mom holding one finger up and asking, "one more?"

Mrs Caswell sighs, "fine, last one."

Coach Caswell and his son pump their fist in the air and EJ makes the last shot perfectly.

The party is in full swing as EJ enters and casually makes his way through the crowd. Ricky also shy makes his way through the crowd as a partygoer smirks and flips her hair at him, "Hey cutie."

Ricky smiles timidly as he finds an unoccupied seat and goes back to his book, thinking of more lyrics for his song.

"All right! How's that for a couple of snowboarders?" the karaoke hosts asks the crowd. "Now, who's gonna rock the house next?" The host steps off the stage as two spotlights move around the crowd and eventually stop on EJ and Ricky.

EJ tries to decline but gives up as the crowd eventually pushes him onstage as the same thing happens to Ricky. The host gives them each a mic as the music starts to play, they put them on the mic stands and look around all shy and confused.

When EJ starts to sing the first verse, Ricky looks over at him briefly before looking back down at the floor. EJ keeps looking over at the other boy shyly before he finishes his part and turns away from him. But as soon as Ricky starts to sing, the brunette turns around stunned at the beautiful voice he was hearing and is immediately intrigued by the curly-haired boy standing beside him. Both boys try to hide their smiles as they continue to make eye contact and then turn away from each other.

This could be the start of something new
It feels so right to be here with you
And now looking in your eyes
I feel in my heart the start of something new

As the two boys continue to sing together, EJ grows more confident and tries to make Ricky laugh and smile. And he succeeds as Ricky lets out a small laugh, pulls the mic off the stand and starts to dance to the music.

It's the start of something new
It feels so right to be here with you
And now looking in your eyes I feel in my heart

EJ moves closer to Ricky causing him to almost fall off the small stage, letting out a little squeak as he is pushed by a member of the crowd into EJ and laughs it off. The two boys finish off the song staring deep into each other's eyes and harmonising perfectly.

After a moment, EJ raises his hand for Ricky to shake, "EJ," he calls out over the screaming teens.

"Ricky," shouts back the other boy.

EJ and Ricky walk outside of the lodge where it's nice and quiet for a chat over some hot chocolate. EJ start off the conversation, "But, seriously, you have an amazing voice, you're a singer right?"

Ricky shrugs, "Just church choir is all. I tried to do a solo and nearly fainted."

The taller boy raises his eyebrows, "Really? Why is that?"

The curly-haired boy sighs, "I took one look at all the people staring at me and next thing I knew I was staring at the ceiling. End of solo career."

"Well, with the way you sang tonight, that's pretty hard to believe," praises EJ.

"Well, that was the first time I did something like that. I mean, it was so cool!" Ricky exclaims excitedly. "Well, you sounded like you've sung a lot, too."

EJ chuckles, "Yeah sure, my shower head is very impressed with me."

10!

EJ and Ricky look away from each other.

9!

They look back at each other.

8!

They take a step closer to each other.

7!

They take another step.

6!

They take one more step so that they're shoulder to shoulder.

5!

They turn to look at each other.

4!

EJ starts to lean in.

3!

Ricky starts to lean in.

2!

Ricky and EJ are both debating in their heads whether or not they should kiss as they just one another.

1!

Ricky turns cheek at the last second so that EJ kisses his cheek instead of his lips but he still smiles at the contact. Then the fireworks start going off.

As the two boys pull away from each other, the crowd goes wild as the impressive fireworks display begins. They both stare at each other, just for a moment, before Ricky breaks the silence

"I-I guess I better go find my dad and wish him a um Happy New Year," he stutters.

"Yeah, me too. I mean, not your dad. My mom...and dad." Ricky chuckles at that. EJ's face brightens up, "I'll call you! I'll call you tomorrow!" He shouts as he grabs his phone out of his pocket, unlocks it and hands it to the shorter boy, "Here, put your number in and I'll put my number in yours." Ricky hands the taller boy his phone, unlocked so he can add his number in too.

Once they have added each other's numbers, they took a couple of selfies and each chose one to use as the other's contact picture. Both boys then give each other back their phones and Ricky leaves without the other boy noticing to find his dad.

When EJ turns back around to continue their conversation, he realises that the cute, curly-haired boy left. He looks around for a second before giving up, so he stares at Ricky's contact picture longingly. It was a picture of EJ kissing Ricky on the cheek with a broad smile on his face.

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