Thirteen-year-old Wilfred Longtreader kicked his feet in the water, trying to cool off on a miserably hot day. A few yards off his younger brother by one year-Whittel-was building a sandcastle. Their older brother, Garten, was wandering around up and down the lake shore, picking up anything he found interesting and putting it in his lunch pail. Wilfred was laying on the wooden dock, fingers laced together behind his head, staring at the sky. Across the lake the city market was a bustling hive of activity, even on such a scorching day. Freezing winters and boiling summers-that's First Warren for you. He thought absently. And in the summer, there wasn't even anything to do.
School was out and had been for about two months. Wilfred didn't want to spend time at home, where his father, weak and shallow-minded, bent against the will of Wilfred's grandfather. Where his mother had no voice. Where his grandfather did what he pleased-which meant drinking his way to oblivion. So, staying inside wasn't an option. Going to the market was boring, with its endless maze of stalls, never ending products, and way, way too many things to waste your money on. And it was also a good way to run into Rowan and her gang of girls. He didn't feel like getting into an argument that might turn violent. The Palace? Ian would find some way to drag them all into a research project that no one was particularly interested in-even Whittel.
Wilfred and his siblings-Garten, Whittel, and Lucy-had spent the majority of the last two months at the lake, the library, or wandering around the backroads of the city hoping to find something interesting. Unfortunately, rarely was there anything interesting to find.
Wilfred gazed lazily up at the pale blue sky, not a cloud in sight, and decided that doing nothing sounded much better than actually doing something on such a hot day. Suddenly a head rudely interrupted his view.
"You look hot." Came Jupiter's astute remark.
"Great observation, genius." Wilfred muttered, closing his eyes. Oh yes, and there was that. Prince Jupiter Goodson was the youngest son of the current king, King Walter. He was twelve, same as Whittel, and had spent much of his summer combating the boredom by coming up with insane schemes that would never work, no matter how hard he wanted them too. Wilfred had a suspicion that he was about to become the subject-yet again-of tormentation by this princeling.
"What are you doing?" The younger buck asked. This was the question he always posed whenever he was trying to find someone to do something with him. Nine times out of ten, it was Wilfred.
"Takin' a nap." Wilfred replied.
"You wanna do something else?"
"Not particularly. Why don't you go find Perk?" Perkin was Jupiter's best friend. (And about as much of a troublemaker as Jupiter)
"Perk's in bed with a bad rose cold, you know that." Sighing inwardly, Wilfred finally opened his eyes and levered up on one elbow.
"Well, what do you want to do?" Jupiter was sitting crisscross on the dock, a sketchbook open beside him, tapping his pencil against the wooden boards.
"I was thinking we could go try to climb that big pine near the schoolhouse." He suggested.
"That one on Arner's property? Are you crazy? He'd skin us alive if we were caught."
"What if we didn't get caught?" Wilfred shook his head.
"Listen, I'm the one who broke my leg last summer trying to climb that thing. It's not as impressive as it looks."
"Well, I was thinking that if we had Garten or Bleston there…." Jupiter began. Bleston was Jupiter's eldest brother after Ian. Wilfred held up his hands in mock fear.
"Two words I never want to hear in the same sentence are 'Arner' and 'Garten'. Arner hates Garten and you know that. You're bored. Maybe you should go find some way to entertain Perk, I'm sure he's tired of sitting in bed." Jupiter flushed.
"I was going to," He mumbled. "But…."
"Glen was there." Wilfred sighed. Glen was Perkin's twin sister, and Jupiter had begun to develop a liking of her that was rapidly turning into a crush. So, he became a stuttering, nervous mess around her. Glen seemed to find this somewhat amusing and was not ashamed to use it to her advantage. Which she did quite often, to Bleston and Ian's amusement and Jupiter's horror.
"I don't want to talk about it…." Jupiter said, his voice taking on a vaguely whiny tone.
"That line'll get you far in life." Wilfred snorted.
"It's so boring everywhere else…."
"Take a nap with me." Wilfred suggested. Jupiter rolled his eyes.
"We could go to the ball field!" Garten shouted from where he was standing in the water knee-deep.
"Too hot." Wilfred muttered. Jupiter turned a pleading gaze on him.
"C'mon Wilfred, please?" Groaning inwardly, Wilfred picked himself up off the dock.
"I don't know why I do all of this for you." He sighed. Jupiter smiled innocently and cocked his head so that his ears flopped comically.
"Because I'm wonderful."
"A nuisance, more like." Wilfred snorted. "C'mon Whittel! We're going to the ball field!"
"Hey!" Wilfred's head whipped around. Garten had crushed Whittel's sandcastle. In all of five minutes what normally would have been a 'let it go' situation had escalated into a 'I want to give you a black eye' situation. And Garten looked mad. He had their grandfather's temper.
"It was an accident you little-"
"No, it wasn't!" Wilfred decided to intervene. He dashed from the dock with Jupiter behind him and shoved them apart.
"Cool it-both of you!" They were always arguing. They never got along and never would. Whittel kicked the sand unhappily and mumbled under his breath, to quiet for Wilfred to hear. Garten glared at both his younger brothers. But the tension had de-escalated, and they both sullenly picked up their lunch pails and all three of them joined Jupiter (Who was used to the arguing) at where he was standing, waiting for them, on the dirt road, pacing impatiently. Wilfred sighed. It's going to be a long day.