Matthew sat on the brightly decorated rug. In one hand he held a match in the other, the match box. He struck the match across the box in one fluid motion. The match burst to life, shining off the dew on the grass and the pond in front of him. The dancing flame illuminated Matthew's deep violet eyes, which were trained on the bright full moon hanging high in front of him. Resting the matchbox on the ground, he reached overand picked up the dried corn stalk to the right of him and brought it to the flame. The stalk lit spectacularly turning the flame a bright shade of red with a dark plume of smoke rising above him towards the sky. He stuck the sharpened tip of the stalk in the ground and removed his hands.

The silvery white of the moon and the bright red of the fire clashed on the surface of the pond. Matthew watched the incursion with an amused glint in his eyes. He crossed his legs and rested his hands on his knees. Slowly he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the pungent smell of cooking corn. Straining his ears so he could listen to the sounds of the forest he finally cleared his mind and became one with nature.

"There is no power in ignorance."

Mathew lived by these words. They were the only thing that justified being invisible to him. They were the only reason he did not find himself always competing with his brother for the attention of his peers. These words were spoken to him by his father, the only person he ever truly respected. The only one to see through Matthew's mask and tell him that his dream was every bit as possible as the stars in the sky, as long as he knew how to achieve it. While his brother was off distracting everybody Matthew was working diligently to surpass them, to make sure he was at the top even if no one could see him, but with this last essay on the Arab/Israeli conflict he would finally be able to take a break from working. He would earn his last credit of the semester and have an entire two weeks of 'me time'. After that, the new semester would start and he would finish it top of his class and graduate two years ahead of his age group with a full scholarship to Harvard or Princeton, which ever one presented the best opportunities. Alfred also had a scholarship but it was only a sports scholarship, at least it would give him an incentive to actually go to college though.

"I'm home!" And here comes Alfred now...speak of the devil.

Matthew finished the conclusion to his essay and put his flash-drive in the computer. After downloading his 4 page essay onto it he took it out and deposited his flash-drive on the keychain hanging off his backpack. He'd always loved his backpack for it was literally the epitome he who he was. The backpack was red and white with a giant maple leaf on the front for his Canadian origin. Then on the back was a cartoon depiction of a giant bookzilla destroying a city. To the bottom left side of his backpack, hanging off the side was his key chain. It had a Canadian flag charm, a pair of crossed hokey sticks, a miniature polar bear—which he got right after his step-dad took his stuffed polar bear away, saying he was too old for it. He's still pissed as hell at him—and his flash-drive with a maple leaf on it. The inside of his backpack was nice and neat even though it was stuffed to bursting point with all the books Matthew had checked out from the library two weeks ago. He should remember to return them tomorrow. He'd never had a late book before and he wasn't going to start now.

After looking around his room to make sure everything was in order Matthew stepped into the hallway. He saw Alfred at the bottom of the stairs making out with some chick, looks like he successfully hooked up with another poor girl. Hmm, wonder how this one's gonna react to Alfred's famous break up line: 'Look baby, I'm a hero and heroes can't get tied down to one chick for long or else some villain will use 'em as a weakness and I, Alfred F. Jones have no weaknesses.' Yet Alfred still crawls into Matthew's bed when he watches some horror movie and gets scared.

Yeah, right.

Though Matthew kind of felt sorry for the girls he had to admit that the looks on their faces were priceless when Alfred dumped 'em. Just to see their faces go from heartbroken, to confused, to angry, then conniving, and finally disbelief was like having a direct insight into their minds. They had to have seen it coming, they were not the first girl to be used and thrown away. Why should they expect any better? But that is the reality of high school you gotta fight to be at the top of the food chain and dating Alfred Jones, the most popular kid in school and star quarterback was pretty much it. Sometimes, you just can't help but get the feeling of watching a soap opera and you can't wait for the next installment.

"...Umm, Alfred?" Matthew mumbled out in a tiny voice. Obviously this was not gonna get him anywhere. So he walked to his room, retrieved his hockey stick and a shoe and came back. He dropped the shoe on the top step, lining up the shoe and Alfred's head. He brought his hockey stick up high and concentrated hard. This was a hit or miss situation and he really didn't want to see the outcome of a miss.

In one fluid motion he brought the hockey stick down and it connected with the shoe. It was almost beautiful how it flew in a perfect arch, almost in slow motion. Inevitably it had to come down sometime and it hit the back of Alfred's head. It's good to see his aim was still as great as it always was.

Alfred sort of lurched forward before he pulled back and glared at the source of the shoe. It took all of Matthew's will-power not to collapse on the floor and laugh himself to death but he had more important things to do.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" Alfred yelled at him

"That was for not showing up." Said Matthew seemingly unfazed, all his anger from earlier today rising back up. He had actually forgotten that he was angry, right until Alfred had screamed at him.

"Showing up for what?" Alfred asked incredulously.

"You were supposed to pick me up from hockey practice and you never showed up! I had to walk half a mile home, in the rain!" Matthew's voice gradually grew softer in tenor, his anger was starting to subside and now he was just talking a little louder than his regular voice.

"Oh well... sorry bro." Alfred looked down at his feet sheepishly, a light blush on his cheeks.

"Can someone please tell me what just happened?" The girl asked. Matthew had forgotten she was even there.

Alfred looked up at her. Looks like he forgot too...huh.

"Umm, well Elizabetta this is Matthew. Matthew this is Elizabetta, my new girlfriend." Alfred introduced tentatively, almost like he was afraid.

"Oh, so you're the Canadian foreign exchange student staying with Alfred's family?"

WHAT?

Gilbert slowly got up at the sound of his alarm clock singing 'World painted blood' by Slayer. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he tried to navigate the wilderness of blankets and pillows on his bed, eventually landing himself on the floor.

"Shit! Who knew waking up could be so dangerous?" Gilbert scratched the back of his head and yawned. He quickly got up and grabbed some clothes out of the closet. Bypassing the shoes, pizza boxes, and beer bottles on the floor.

"What the hell happened last night?" Gilbert inquired to himself. He got his answer in the form of a throbbing headache.

"Ahh, I get it." Gilbert replied to himself, proud that his first question of the day was answered even at the cost of a hang over. Last night, Gilbert raided his beer stash and ordered a bunch of pizzas. He then proceeded to throw everyone's shoes at different offending walls.

"Why do you always talk to yourself, bruder?" Ludwig's voice resounded all through Gilbert's head.

"Why do you always have to be a clean freak? No one knows. Now keep the fuck down!" Gilbert said reproachfully. After several yelling matches and an angry breakfast. Gilbert made his way out of the house and right to school. If he had had it his way he would have ditched but theirs a limit to how many days you could miss and his was fast approaching. So through the power of sheer will he made it through the day without seriously injuring someone.

'Homework…created by the devil...no, not the devil, it's too evil for him...all the evil forces in the universe, yes! The evil forces in the universe created homework to torture me for not coming to the dark side...WELL THAT'S TOO DAMN BAD! I'M SO AWESOME I'LL GET ALL THIS HOMEWORK DONE! IN YOUR FACE EVIL FORCES!' Gilbert hurriedly set to work on his homework, only stopping to laugh maniacally at the evil forces. After nearly three hours he was done and staggered over to his bed to collapse on it.

"Bruder!" Ludwig called from downstairs.

"Ya West?" Gilbert croaked.

"Dinner's ready!"

"What is it?"

"Wurst!"

'Should have known.' Gilbert slowly got back up and walked over to his computer. "I'll be down in a minute!"

He typed in his password and opened the window he typed his paper on. His hand dug into his pockets till he found what he was looking for. Pulling out his trusty flash drive he stuck it in the usb port and downloaded his file onto it. Taking his flash drive back out he took a moment to admire the Prussian coat of arms on it. It had taken forever to find this one and it had cost a pretty penny too considering it was custom made, with the words property of the awesome Gilbert Beilschmidt on the back in awesome red letters and on the front, the Prussian coat of arms.

God he loved Prussia.

Gilbert got up and dropped the hard drive on his bed before making his way to the door,stealing a look back at his room. 'Man I've really gotta clean this up... meh, maybe tomorrow'. With that he made his way to the kitchen where his brother would surly be wondering what the hell took so long.