Belle the Cat

The Cologne Boys

Greg is fifteen. He plays soccer and walks to school alone every morning, after eating a breakfast of shredded wheat. He has a lot of cowboy books, strangely enough. He’s a little embarrassed about that. When he was younger, he was very into the Old West. Then, in middle school, this fact got him picked on, and so he rarely spoke of his interest. Now in high school, he’s not really that popular, but he at least has a handful of friends he can hang out with. They kind of make him stick sometimes, since he feels like he can’t really be himself around them. He wishes he was in basketball and not in soccer. He struggles with acne. He is 5’8” but seems a lot taller. He is blond and skinny. He wears Obsession for men.

Justin hates his name. He is sixteen and wishes his name were Lars. He smokes Marlboros but wishes he had enough money to buy imported cigarettes. He drinks a lot of coffee and draws strange pictures that look like cave drawings of stick figures shooting buffalo. He can drive now and has inherited his parent’s cast off car, a piece of crap Pontiac that he also hates, but at least it’s his for the taking. He spends too much time thinking and not enough time talking to people. He has contemplated suicide already, but wasn’t really serious. At least, he doesn’t think he was. He is too smart for his own good. He has black hair, brown eyes and is 5’6” tall. He wishes he liked punk music, but he thinks it sounds like crap. He does not escape through food, exercise, television or other such distractions, and the grind of modern life is slowly driving him insane. He doesn’t eat breakfast and wears too much Polo.

Nick is fifteen. He walks to school with the two girls next door that he has known for freaking ever. They walk past the convenience store and he usually buys a stick of beef jerky and a Mountain Dew for breakfast. No one knows too much about Nick. He’s a nice guy. He is nice to everyone. He usually has headphones on, listening to techno music. He is not a very good student. He lives in the basement of his house and watches television and listens to music. On the weekends he goes mountain biking. He smokes pot with some of his buddies on the weekends or after school. He wants to run away to Africa or join the military. He smells like sandalwood.