Matthew had always been a quiet child, someone who was hard to anger and a mild tempered kid, so the confusion was palpable when the across-the-street neighbors had shown up at the door with their kid Gilbert sporting a black eye, claiming that Matthew had hit him.
2 WEEKS EARLIER
Matthew stared through the toy shop window at the giant stuffed bear with its pretty red ribbon on display. He pressed himself eagerly against the glass, his breath fogging it up in his admiration.
"Mattie! We have to go look at shoes come on!" His brother Alfred yelled at him from down the shopping mall's hallway. He raced over and grabbed Matthew by the hand and started pulling him towards the shoe store where their parents were waiting.
"Mom, can I have the polar bear in that store over there?" He asked excitedly while pointing over to the display.
"Honey, we're here to buy shoes, we don't have money for bears today." She said kindly while she looked over plain brown shoes for Matthew. Alfred had dragged their father over to look at the light up shoes. Matthew looked down, disappointed. His mother furrowed her brow, but then leaned down to him with a smile.
"I have an idea! Summer vacation has just started, so why don't you make a lemonade stand so that you can earn the money for it?" His mother said to him as she bent down to size up his feet.
"That's a great idea mom!"
So that day Matthew left the mall with a dream of a white polar bear, and Alfred with light up running shoes.
Matthew and Alfred were making the signs for the stand on the grass of their front yard. Alfred was decorating his sign with flames and dragons, while Matthew took a more realistic approach with lemons and polar bears.
"Mattie, couldja pass me the red marker?" Alfred said, pushing his glasses back up his nose while smudging orange all on his face by accident with the marker he was holding.
Matthew grunted and rolled the marker towards him. They remained in comfortable silence as they worked on their masterpieces. After an hour of hard work, they had finally finished their art.
Their parents had set them up a table on the sidewalk outside of their house, with a red table cloth covering it. They had set up two deck chairs for the boys. Matthew and Alfred excitedly taped their posters to the front of the table, brought out their plastic cups and lemonade pitcher and waited.
Within the first hour, passers by on the busy road had been charmed by the two adorable boys into buying their 50 cent lemonade, and the boys had managed to rack up four whole dollars.
"At this rate Mattie, you'll have the money in no time!" Alfred said happily, passing over a cup to the nice elderly couple who had stopped for a drink.
"Your lemonade is better than the other stand, but they also have brownies so maybe you guys balance out." The old man commented. The other old man nudged him in the side with his elbow.
"Be quiet you!"
"Other stand?" Matthew said confusedly.
"Where's the stand?" Alfred yelled angrily. The old men pointed at the far off street corner, where they could see the outline of another stand.
Alfred huffed and grabbed Matthew by the hand and stormed off towards the other stand, leaving the old couple behind looking sheepish. Alfred ignored Matthew's protests against leaving the stand by itself and didn't let go until they were in front of the stand.
" Hello, what can I get you today?" Asked the boy behind the stand. He had snow white hair, dark maroon colored eyes and a thick accent. Matthew recognized him from his music class, he was the German kid Gilbert. Gilbert recognized him too.
"Oh hey there Mattie!" He said happily as he leaned across the table.
"Come to taste some of my awesome lemonade?" He asked with a mischievous grin and a wink.
Matthew didn't know why that made him go red but it did, so he hid his burning face behind his brother's shoulder. Gilbert was one of the cooler kids, so he didn't really talk to Matthew much. Matthew was surprised that he even knew his name.
"Cut the weird crap kid! This is our lemonade territory so you're just gonna have to go somewhere else!" Yelled Alfred. Gilbert just looked at him with a blank expression.
" How about we make a deal then ja?" Gilbert said seriously.
Alfred narrowed his eyes at the albino.
"What kind of deal?"
Gilbert smiled and leaned back in his chair.
"We all work at one stand, we sell our baking and you your lemonade, and the profit gets split four ways at the end of each week." He proposed, shooting Alfred a smug look while he out his feet up on the table.
"Sounds good, but we're gonna use our stand. Who's the other kid?" Alfred said looking around for the fourth member of their alliance.
"It's my bruder Ludwig, he's inside baking with some little Italian kid." Gilbert pushed the chair back and stood up, holding out his hand to Alfred.
"Do we have a deal?"
Alfred looked back at Matthew for approval. Matthew gave a small nod. Alfred turned back to Gilbert.
"Deal." He grabbed Gilbert's hand and shook it.
Gilbert leaned around Alfred and winked at Matthew. Matthew blushed and hid his face.
"Don't you wanna shake too vogelchen?" He asked, smiling normally for once.
Alfred stepped out of the way.
"Come on Mattie, it's your business too." He said encouragingly.
Matthew timidly held out his hand to Gilbert. Gilbert took it and held it gently, waiting for Matthew to shake. Matthew gave it a small shake, and Gilbert held it for a few moments after until he let it go.
"This is gonna be awesome!" He said happily. He turned back towards his stand. "I'll be over in a few minutes, so don't wait up!"
He was thankful for Alfred and Matthew leaving so that he could hide his happy blush.
"This is all going to my awesome plan!"