Year 6, 4

They slept late next morning. They often did. Jared woke first, he got out of bed without waking his mate and made breakfast - coffee and crumpets. Ethan came staggering out before he was ready, so he sent him back to bed.

He took Ethan's breakfast in to him, went back for his own and returned with it and got back into bed. "All right there?"

"Yeah, this is choice. Thanks Jared."

"Enjoy. I just wanted to say thank you."

"Thank me, for what?"

"For not freaking out when I climbed up the cliffs yesterday."

"I nearly did."

"I know you did, but you didn't. Thanks. I had to do that."

"You won't do it again?"

"No. I don't have to now."

"You know you're weird, don't you? But I love you anyway."

"I'M weird? Look in the mirror."

"What would I see?"

"The weird boy who I love."

"Oh, yah! Shut up, Jared."

They sat in bed and ate their breakfast, smiling at each other. It was just a snack really, they'd have more for lunch.

"What's that noise?"

"What noise?"

"That noise. Listen."

"Oh. Don't know." Ethan slid out and opened the drapes on the front windows, standing directly in front of the big window, stark naked, with his arms outstretched. Not even 2 meters away, looking straight at him, there was a blond kid out there, washing the window. The boy grinned as he looked at him.

Ethan clapped his hands over his naughty bits and dived back into bed, pulling the covers over his head. "Damm!"

Jared was laughing his stupid head off.

"Shut up, Jared. Damm, that was embarrassing!"

"Funny but," Jared laughed.

Ethan came out of the covers. The boy outside was laughing too, he smiled and waved at him. Ethan grinned and waved back and was relieved when the boy moved on to the next window.

"I hope he doesn't think he's coming in here to do the inside."

"Damm! That was so funny. You should've seen your face."

"I don't think it was my face he was looking at."

"Probably not. But, did you get a look at him? What a looker! He's freaking gorgeous."

"Jared, shut up. You're not helping."

"Well it's true. He is."

"I dunno, I wasn't looking. All I saw was someone grinning at me"

"Ah, don't worry about it. He's just a stranger, we'll never see him again. Anyway, it was a bit of a treat for him. You look very nice with no clothes on."

"Shut up, Jared!"

"He probably didn't see your face anyway."

"Shut up! That was so not funny."

"Was from where I'm sitting."

When they got out of bed, the first thing Ethan did was to slam the drapes shut again. They showered together, which took a long time, as usual, then dressed and went out for a walk. There was no sign of the window-washing boy, he'd gone, which Ethan thought was a good thing too.

The lady who ran the motels, Mrs. Tanner, was out there, doing some weeding in the big garden-boxes on the side of the street. She looked up and smiled as they passed. "Good morning, Boys. Lovely day! Is everything all right then?"

"Oh yes," Ethan smiled. "Everything's great, thanks Mrs. Tanner."

"Yeah," Jared agreed. "It's all good. The windows are looking good," He grinned at Ethan's glare.

"The windows?" She looked around. "Oh yes, William's been cleaning them. It takes a lot because we're in the salt-spray zone here."

"William?"

"William Scott, a local boy. He's got a part-time job helping me out sometimes."

"Oh, okay. We're going for a walk. See you, Mrs. Tanner."

"Yes, goodbye, Boys, enjoy your day."

"Oh we will!"

They wandered downtown again. Jared was in no hurry. Ethan was, he wanted to check-out the art place. There was no-one using the skateboard park, but they still had to walk through there. The path through the small Memorial Gardens was lined with a row of arches - pairs of whale bones.

"They must be ribs."

"Yea, I reckon. Huge aren't they?"

"They're big. Now we know what Jonah felt like in the belly of the whale."

"Yeah, sort of. There was plenty of room for him."

"There was. He could've taken his whole family with him!"

"Did he have a family?"

"Dunno. Read the book."

"Yeah, one day."

They passed the visitor's centre. They'd have to have a look in there someday.

The carpark along the beach side of the main street was huge. It was nearly half the length of the shopping area. It was needed though, there were heaps of cars in there.

"Town gets a lot of visitors."

"Obviously. They're pretty crafty making them pay to park. The local council must be making a fortune from the traffic."

"Fair enough. If the cars didn't stop they wouldn't need the parking spaces."

"You think?"

"Shut up, Ethan."

"At last! Here's the Kaimoana Emporium."

"Yeah, okay enjoy, but don't stay here all bloody day."

They walked into the shop, Ethan made a bee-line for the art works on the walls, Jared went right, into the music department. He soon found the CD he was looking for. There were quite a few he'd like, but he couldn't afford them all. This one though, he had to have - 'The Kaimoana Operatic Society presents the "True" Story of Kaimoana.' He'd never seen it on sale in Christchurch, it should be! They'd only heard that one song, but that alone was worth the price.

He stood at the counter, waiting to be served. The young guy working there was busy with another couple of customers. Jared opened the case, slipped out the enclosed booklet and opened it. The contents were mostly photos and cartoons of the show's cast. That must be that Gary guy at the piano. Whoah, he had another look at the guy in the shop. It was him, that was the piano-man right there, Gary Stafford.

So he was the rich guy. He didn't look rich, he was just a kid, an older teenager. Nice-looking though, he had a nice smile.

"Hi! How can we help you?"

He looked around at the speaker behind the counter and it was the window-washing guy! Damm, this was a small town, if it was him.

"Oh, hey. I just wanted this one."

"Of course you did. That's our biggest seller and we don't even get the profits from it."

"You don't?"

"No, it's a community effort. Profits go to the Society."

"Yeah, of course. Are you a twin?"

"Me? No, there's just one of me."

"Have you got a brother?"

"No, just a sister."

"That was you washing the windows at the Ocean View Motel then."

"Right, I was. Oh, yeah, that was you in the bed. I didn't know you with your clothes on," he grinned and Jared blushed.

"Hey! We were still in bed, well, I was still in bed."

"Yeah," William smiled. "Your mate was out though, for a short time."

"A very short time," Jared laughed.

"So, are you two here together?"

"Yeah, Ethan's over there. We're here for 2 weeks."

"Very cool. Have a great holiday."

"We will, we always do. We've been coming here for years but this is our first time alone together."

"You're a couple, aren't you?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely."

"Cool. I've got a guy, he's on the CD too - Dylan James, singing Summer Nights."

"He's your guy?"

"He is. Tell you what, there's a DVD of the show too. That's got all the songs on the CD and more, and you get a video with it."

"No thanks, I'll just take the CD. It's cheaper."

"Sure it is, but if you want to change, I can let you have the DVD for the CD price."

"Really? That'd be excellent!"

"Right then. Just don't tell Gary."

"Don't tell Gary what?"

"What? Oh. Hello, Boss, how's it going?"

"Don't soft-soap me, William Scott. You giving our profits away?"

"Well, yeah. Just this once. This guy and that one over there are a couple. They're good guys, you should see them naked!"

"You what? I don't want to know. And you think that makes it right to give the Society's profits away, do you?"

"It's okay, thanks," Jared said. "We only wanted the CD anyway. We couldn't play the DVD in the car."

"You're a fan, are you?" Gary turned to him.

"We've only heard The Impossible Dream, but it's great."

"Yeah, it is," Gary smiled. "That's my cousin, Joel, singing. He's amazing."

"He is!"

"Okay, William, you're right, he's a nice kid. They can have the CD and the DVD for the price of the CD."

Jared beamed, "Both of them? Really? Thanks."

"No worries. I'd give you both of them, but Mrs. Braidwood might shoot me. She's the Boss, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her."

"You sure it's all right?"

"It's okay, Kid. You enjoy them. You'll see William in there too, he's in the chorus. That alone is worth the price."

"Shut up, Boss."

Gary went over to talk to Ethan and William rang up the sale.

"So," Jared queried. "You work here as well as at the motels?"

"Sometimes, yeah. Gary gives me part-time work. I need the money so that I can go down to Christchurch for weekends to see my Dills. He's at varsity there."

"Oh, so you're a couple too?"

"Very much so. Great, isn't it?"

Jared looked over at Ethan and sighed, "Oh yes!"

William moved on to another customer, Jared took his CD and DVD and went over to join Ethan.

"That's him, isn't it?" Ethan nodded at William. "The kid who was washing the windows."

"Yeah, that's him," Jared grinned. "He said it was nice to see you too."

"Jared! Shut up. He didn't, did he?"

"No, just kidding. He's a nice guy, so's that one there. That's Gary, this is his shop. I bought the CD and he gave us the DVD for free."

"For free? Very cool. Nice people around here."

"Yeah, some of them. What do you want to do now? Don't say go to bed."

"Why not? No, let's go out to Taylor's Beach for a swim and we'll eat in that cafe out there."

"That's a plan. C'mon."