Four weeks passed. Dragon riding sessions, maths classes and history lectures merged into one in Mathias's memory. But Mathias was starting to notice a troubling problem. It invaded his time into his thoughts, it nagged away in the back of his mind. Like It was such a pressing issue that he would often find himself gazing off into nothing thinking about it. For reasons Mathias was unable to explain, he had developed a crush on Lukas.

It wasn't something that could be described, really. But whenever Mathias was around Lukas he felt happy, very happy, and he felt at home. He'd only told Eira about it, and although her sympathetic growls relieved his troubled heart somewhat, she wasn't the world's best conversation partner. So he stuck to Lukas like glue, attempting to make his pining as inconspicuous as possible.

"Mathias. Oi. Mathias!"

"What?" Mathias blinked. He'd been staring off into space again.

"Turn your brain on already, we're about to start!" Tino gently punched his arm. Oh, right. It was sunday, their day off, and the school was playing soccer. It was Lion, Wolf and Hawk dormitories against Eagle, Snake and Bear.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Said Mathias with a grin, glancing at the opposition. Lucille prowled the goal, her golden hair tied up in a bun. In their own goal Eva stood, looking impossibly delicate. Her big brother Vash stood close by protectively.

"ALRIGHT!" Miss. Arlovskaya roared, holding the soccer ball high in the air.

"THREE!"

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

"GO!"

Mathias sprung into action, racing after the ball she had thrown in. Julchen bore down on him like a malicious stampeding bull, but he was faster than her. With a sidestep he raced past her, kicking the ball to Lukas. Wow, Lukas looked really good when he ran. Like, wow. That hair… Mathias zoned out so much that he nearly got knocked right over by a passing player. Lukas passed it to another girl, who just managed to get a goal. For a few minutes neither side got another goal. Mathias received the ball and kicked it to Lukas.s It was intercepted, however, by Julchen, who clearly didn't like Mathias managing to evade her. Ignoring the rest of her teammates, she raced down the field. Vash stood in front of the goal looking petrified. She kicked. The ball flew past Vash. Then there was a thumping noise. There was a collective sharp intake of breath. Eva stood in the middle of the goal, clutching the ball she had somehow caught to her chest.

"Holy shit…." Someone breathed. Then they started to cheer. Everyone, even from the other team, celebrated Eva's miracle catch. She dropped the ball like a hot coal and quickly kicked it back into play, looking rather sheepish. After wearing himself racing back and forth to the ball, Mathias dropped back to stand with Vash for a bit.

"Your sister's amazing!" He commented. Vash crossed his arms.

"She's going to get herself hurt." Vash always sounded protective when he talked about Eva, so Mathias let the topic lie. Turning his attention to the game, he gasped in amazement.

"Is that Berwald..?" He breathed. Like a furious rhino, Berwald was racing down the field, ball bobbing ahead of him.

"He's gonna make it!" Mathias cried in delight. And it did look like Berwald was going to make it, the gap between him and the goal shortening with every step.

Thump! It looked like it came out of nowhere, but suddenly Berwald's leg buckled as someone's foot - there were too many people around him to see who it was - tripped him. He fell roughly to the ground, the ball skittering away.

"Berwald! Are you alright?" Tino ran to his side, ignoring the ball roll past him. Mathias ran forwards, a frown on his face. What a blatant act of meanness. With Tino and Mathias's help, Berwald stood. His ankle had twisted and he winced every time he took a step, but he refused assistance walking to the great hall.

"Berwald.." Tino called plaintively after him, but either he was out of earshot or chose to ignore him.

Later that day, Mathias walked into his dorm. Glancing at Tino and Berwald's bunk, he frowned slightly. A piece of paper lay on Berwald's pillow. A look wouldn't hurt, right? He leant down and picked it up. Scrawled across it in deep red ink, it read,

'Swedish scum!'