Burning Matches

Chapter 1

It was a particularly quiet day in early June in the east side of Senter Town. The dust covering the roads was dryer and more perceivable then usual, nobody leaving their homes to even step outside. It wasn't too hot or anything, maybe a good 75 degrees but this day was Sunday, a day where nobody got out of bed here and nobody did anything productive.

Mathias Køhler, 14 at this time, awoke at precisely 1:33 pm and instantly felt a jolt of adrenaline. He ran to his kitchen, grabbed a browning banana and peeled it open as he headed outside. He wanted to go down to the lake knowing nobody would be there on this dingy summer afternoon.

The lake was in the middle of the four ends of town. It was like a melting pot for everyone, except the easterners never went there during the other days of the week. Sunday was their day as the northerners and southerners were in church and the westerners were hungover from the weekend's partying. The easterners didn't party hard like people do on the weekends, instead they drank a beer at a time every day so they didn't have to get smashed.

Mathias was finishing his breakfast walking down the cracked sidewalk to the nearest home of a friend. Here lived Lukas, a 12 year old shit head, and his little brother Emil who stood at 8 years of age. He went up to the front porch, stepping over the broken stair and crumbling cement and looked through their front window which was partly covered in gray tape. He headed around to the side of the little trailer and knocked on Lukas' window a few times hoping he was either up or would soon wake. He stood there for a moment before the window opened, and a sleepy Lukas greeted him with a glare.

"Why are you awake.. stupid..," he grumbled yawning. Lukas was wearing a faded band tee that was about two sizes two big on him, his pale blond hair a mess. He was never a fun person to greet when grumpy, or at all, but he was caring at heart if you looked deep enough.

Mathias giggled and smiled. "Least i'm not dumber then a bucket o nails, shithead," He replied sticking his tongue out. Lukas began to close the window but Mathias grabbed it. "Wait, hang on there!" He said quickly. "Get Emil up, we're going to the lake. It's Sunday ya know." With that, Mathias quickly skipped away dropping his banana peel in the yard along with several other variations of trash, leaving Lukas with this information.

Mathias skipped home and went back to his room to dig around for his swim trunks. He noticed his older brother, Berwald, was missing from his bed. Berwald was a tall, shy boy who was pretty scary if he looked at you the wrong way and was the oldest of the four. He was 16 and held a job at the Quik Mart down the street, bringing in most of their family's money. Mathias grabbed his trunks too and walked to the living room where he found Berwald sitting on a chair, cleaning his glasses.

Strong-willed Mathias threw the trunks at his brother's face and laughed. "Come on, we're going for a swim." He started to head to the door when he felt something hard hit the back of his head. "Ow, fucker.." He turned around rubbing his head to see Berwald standing over him.

"Ya left it in m' bed." Berwald said before pushing past Mathias to the door. "Thought ya would miss it." He opened the door and stepped onto the porch.

Mathias bent down and scooped up his most prized possession- a Rubik's cube. It was colored in with sharpie on most of the sides since the color had rubbed off but it was his, and it was something he loved. He quickly put it back in his room before running outside to meet up with Berwald. He was greeted by Lukas and Emil, already dressed and standing on their porch.

The five of them left the Køhler home and headed down the street towards the hill that would take them through the woods to the lake. Mathias led the group, being a natural born and unofficial leader of the group. The dirty blonde boy bent down and gripped a long stick, using it to poke in front of him. He smiled and stood up tall, pretending he was on an adventure. Sure he might be a bit too old to play pretend, but he had a beautiful imagination. It was just who he was.