The next day, Cassie was up earlier than usual for school and headed straight for her Chemistry Class. She found Larson standing outside the door with his arms folded tightly against his chest. Upon seeing him, her smile grew and she jogged over.

“Morning!” She announced after reaching him.

He barely looked at her, “did you find anything about Barmen?”

“Yes, I did.” She said proudly, “I couldn’t bring my laptop to school, but I was looking through a bunch of things and found out that he did have children. I also found out that he used to live here in town!”

“Which is something I could have told you since I got that book from the local library; but please, continue.”

Cassie frowned, “If you knew that then why didn’t you think to talk to his grandson who goes here?”

“Because he’s the pretty boy of the school and there was no way I wouldn’t just wind up hurting all these morons around him.”

“We have to try anything we can Lars.”

Larson scowled, “is that a nickname?”

“Yeah, do you like it?”

“Of course not, but no matter what I say otherwise, you’re not going to listen to me.”

She smiled, “you really are smart!” He rolled his eyes to her, “but, I know where his classes are at. Maybe we could follow him around until we find a good time to talk to him.” Cassie suggested.

“I’ll save you the time and energy.” Larson grabbed her wrist and started dragging her through the calm halls of the morning.

It was a short walk to the science hall where Larson stopped and faced Cassie. Behind him was the male in question. Jax was name and there wasn’t anyone in the school who didn’t know him.

“There he is, now go and talk to him.”

Cassie stared at Jax for a while. After a second or two of this staring, Jax looked over and their eyes only barely met before Cassie’s looked away. She made a very strange expression to Larson, her face was mixed with anxiety and embarrassment.

She spoke as softly as she could. “I-I can’t do it!”

“Don’t tell me you have a crush on him.”

“Yes… well him and anything else that’s pretty.”

Larson crossed his arms, “what’s pretty in your book?”

“We don’t have time for me to give you all the details, but I’ll sum it up by saying that I’ve had more crushes than birthdays.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me! Being a sexually curious female is normal at my age.”

“Maybe, but not for your species.”

Cassie sighed and tried to move the conversation onward, “w-why don’t we just stick with my plan?”

“Because your plan is already done. Did you not hear me when I said 'here he is'?” He said while poking her forehead.

“Ow, look, I think we should wait until he’s alone so no one gets any funny ideas!”

“So never?” Larson said as he began to walk past Jax. Cassie kept her eyes averting Jax’s presence at all costs while speaking to Larson. “If you won’t do it, I won’t because I already know I’ll kill every last one of them!”

“You know, you shouldn’t say that kind of stuff when you’re in school.”

“Besides you, who’s really going to do anything to me?”

“You have a point, but still, we should be considerate that we might be scaring people.” Cassie said.

They got outside.

“Yes, because I’m so worried about scaring people. Cassie, you have no idea how worthless this planet is to me. I couldn’t care less if these people were to suddenly stop breathing all at once! I don’t know why I’m here, but this work I’m doing is the only thing keeping me from understanding why I shouldn’t kill these people.”

Cassie listened, but shook her head once he finished talking, “you really need an anger management class or something.” Larson turned to her, suddenly he reached out and hit her arm. “Ow! What was that for?”

“That’s my management.” Cassie held her arm and looked at him with a pout, “anyways, class is starting so let’s just meet up back here and I’ll tell you what our next step is since yours fell through.” Larson began to walk back inside of the building.

“It didn’t fall through!” She yelled into the building.

“Whatever.” He said back as he disappeared down the hallway.

Cassie pouted and looked at her wrist seeing the red mark, she whined and rubbed it.

“Ow, that really hurt.”

While Larson walked back inside of the school, the crowd of students began to fill the main hallway. With the halls shrinking in size, Larson quickly went to his first class of the day and sat inside of the empty room. He tapped his finger against his desk and thought about what he would do now.

A small part of him hoped that Cassie would be able to give him some kind of aid, but apparently…

“That’s a lost cause.”

So, he returned to his original next step and started plotting out exactly how he’d go about it.

…

Their classes were more productive now that they each had a reason to try and get through with the least amount of problems. Near the end of Larson’s last class, he sat with nothing more to do while he waited for their last assignment. Larson had managed to work out most of the kinks to his plan in the downtime.

Finally, Larson’s last class had them working on an exit ticket and once he was finished, he left early to go and meet Cassie again. Though, he was stuck waiting until the school day was officially over and even longer than that since Cassie took another ten minutes to get to him.

“I’m here… sorry about that.”

“What were you doing?” He asked.

“My last class got held up because someone wasn’t listening to the teacher.”

“So is that going to happen often? Because I’ll do this on my own if I have to wait out here as long as I did.”

“You’re so whiny!” She said, “but, I can’t stay today either.”

Larson rolled his eyes, “why the hell not?”

“Because my parents said-”

“No, stop. Your parents? You can’t seriously be afraid of them, can you?”

She nods, “they can be scary when they want to be and I don’t want to have to deal with it!”

“Then how am I supposed to tell you about our next step?”

“Come over to my place!” She offered.

“That sounds like a nightmare.”

“Come on, they said they were going out and normally they stay out until about five, so we’ll have three hours without them!”

Larson stared at her, the smile on Cassie’s face never wavered and eventually Larson sighed and began to walk in the direction of the school buses. Cassie giggled and caught up to him as they walked to the sidewalk where kids were also picked up.

A car stopped in front of the pair. Cassie immediately went to open the door and Larson assumed this was her parents car.

“Oh, who’s this?” Cassie’s mother said as Cassie got in the front seat.

“His name is Larson, but I call him Lars. We’re friends now!”

Her mom giggled, “Well it’s nice to meet you.”

“Yeah,” was all he said.

Before her mom could say anything about him, Cassie spoke up.

“Mommy, I was wondering if he could stay over.”

“Well he’s your friend, of course he can!”

Cassie smiled, “thanks… but if he seems kind of mean it’s not that. He’s just kind of shy.”

“Aw, really?” Her mom seemed to be happy hearing that.

“No, I’m actually not!” He spoke up, “She’s always like this, saying whatever she wants about me.”

Cassie turned to look at him in the back seat, “you weren’t talking so what else was I supposed to say?”

“Nothing. Be like how you are in class.”

“Come on you two, don’t be like that.” They both quieted down at her mother's words, “but I’m just glad Cassie has a friend and one she’s so comfortable with.”

“I know what you mean,” Larson began, “she’s not exactly the type of person who can make friends easily.”

“I think that sometimes too.”

“Mommy!” Cassie exclaimed while Larson laughed at her expense.

“Well it’s the truth. You seem to push people away.” Her mother said.

“No, people just don’t understand me.” Cassie slouched in her seat.

“So you two must be alike in that aspect then.” Her mother asked.

Larson shrugged, “I guess. I never bothered to make friends because most of them weren’t up to speed like I am.”

“Then I’m glad Cassie is your friend either way. You can come over whenever, but don’t do anything stupid if we’re not home okay?”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t, mommy.”

“Alright, but how about you tell me about yourself, Larson.”

Cassie looked back again, “Yeah, why don’t you Lars.”

Larson glared at Cassie and soon found himself speaking idly to Cassie’s mother…

They were dropped off at Cassie’s place and she let Larson inside the house.

“And you talked about me having a big house. It’s just you guys here right?”

“No, I have an older brother.”

“So what, he’s in college then…?" Cassie nodded, confirming his question, "Well, at least I won’t have to worry about him.” Cassie walked in the house dumping her bag and shoes beside the door and shutting it after. “Wait, a brother?” She nods to Larson’s outburst. “Does he have this shit too?”

“No actually. I didn’t tell him about this, I just asked him things that only we would say yes to. Like, one time I found a rift when we were on vacation and I asked him if he felt any pressure. He said no, so I’m assuming he’s not like me.”

“Damn," he said under his breath, "I would have killed for someone older than you.”

“Why? He’s not gonna know anymore than I would.”

“It doesn’t hurt to try.” She rolled her eyes and let him inside the family room. “but your brother aside, the next thing I was planning on doing was visiting paranormal places.”

“Like where? Because to be honest, I don’t know what you’re even talking about.”

“Planets were mainly what I was thinking.”

“And we’re supposed to get there, how?”

“We can’t fly or anything, but if we were to get enough speed I’m sure we could get out of Earth’s atmosphere.”

“We don't even know if we can live in space.”

“We can.” Larson said.

“Don’t tell me you got on a rocket?”

“Yes and if you’re wondering; the fire that emits out of a rocket when it’s being launched just feels like a hot day in the summer.”

“Now it’s my turn; what the fuck is wrong with you?” Cassie said.

“Now you say that.”

“Though, if we’re really gonna go through with this we’ll have to find out what planet we decide to visit.”

“That’s why I haven’t done it.”

“So that’s our first objective? To find a planet that has ‘something’ going on with it?”

Once more, Larson nodded, “It’ll take some collective effort from us, but I’m sure we can do it.”

Cassie smiled, “See? Now you’re viewing us like a team!”

“Yeah right, I’m just forced to work with you and I don’t have much of an option.”

“No need to be so shy, Lars.”

“I’m not fucking shy!"

Cassie laughed at him, “anyways, I think what we should do first is pick a place or a person to get information from. The higher up the better.”

“Yeah, and don’t think Area 51, that shit won’t be of any use to us. I’ve already gone there and it’s just crap that’s useful to humans.” Cassie pressed her lips together, “our better bet would be to go to NASA. From there, we can wait until we find someone who’s important or has some useful info.”

“How about we try going there right now? We can only stay for an hour though.”

Larson narrowed his eyes, “you’re such a bitch. Your parents can’t do anything to you!” He yelled at her.

Cassie closed her eyes and got up as he did, “whatever! I’m still gonna be this way so talk all you want, it won’t mean anything!”

Larson shoved her out of the way and left her house first, Cassie was shortly behind and they took off for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration building.