The guards passed a gold-colored envelope into his cell. The guard announced that he had mail and fell silent. Matthew inspected the letter and seen that it was from Lucas. He opened the letter and pulled out a card and a hundred dollar bill fell out. A piece of paper also fell out with the words "IOU" written across the slip of paper. The card does not say much except Lucas wishing Matthew a Merry "Shitmas" and that Seth and he would visit Matthew soon.

Lucas was still loyal after all of these years. The extent of Lucas' loyalty also kind of freaked
Matthew out, but he would be the last to admit it. Lucas kept at Matthew's side like a jealous lover or a man crazily obsessed with a celebrity. Despite Lucas' creepy devotion to him, he still regarded Lucas as an important pawn in his life.

He wondered if it had anything to do with when Lucas first became his pawn a few days after the pine tree incident with Sasha. After Sasha rejected him, Matthew was still on the prowl for new lackeys. Since he found Lucas a softer nut to crack than Seth, Lucas was the next of the losers' table that Matthew had his eyes on.

Like with Sasha, Matthew stalked Lucas home, making sure to keep out of sight. Lucky for Matthew, Lucas did not live as far from the school as Sasha did. In fact, Lucas lived three blocks away from Sasha. The neighborhood Lucas lived in was a pretty high end upper middle class neighborhood. The wealth was on display in the neighborhood. Lion statues and fountains were on almost every lawn throughout the whole neighborhood. Lucas' house was no exception. Compared to mansion Lucas lived in at the moment, the house was a rusty old shack. However, the large Victorian house was still nicer than anything than Matthew had ever lived in.

The yard was filled with neatly trimmed shrubs and large statues to hide behind. Lucas went inside of his house and Matthew hid in a scrub to avoid getting detected. In the windows, he had seen a couple maids mopping and dusting. He also had seen an imposing man in a business suit. The man looked very stern and stoical. Compared to this man, his own dad looked like a softie. The man spoke in a harsh accented voice, "Lucas!" The man shoved Lucas' progress report in his face, "what in the bloody hell is this? You know damn well I expect excellence out of you. You got a C average on your report card? Are you going to blame this on your diabetes too? I buy sugar substitutes, insulin shots, and diabetes pills. Why the hell can't you keep your damn diabetes under control? Dr. Alpine called me today and told me that your blood sugar was a bit higher than normal last time you were at his office. That is inexcusable! Have you been getting chocolate from other kids at school? You know you're diabetic! It's not the food that Sylvia and Wendy have been fixing!"

"No Father, I haven't had any candy," Lucas' voice cracked, "school is too much for me sometimes and I get answers wrong."

"What the hell do you have to be so stressed out over?" Lucas' dad bickered, "I work 12 hours a goddamn day and come home and deal with a failure for a son! Not to mention I have to oversee everything in this damn house. At least your grandfather Malcolm and babushka Olga don't have to see what a failure you have become."

"They loved me," Lucas squeaked, meekly.

"I don't give a damn," Lucas' dad snapped, "Get out of my sight and go do your homework or something, you lazy bum!"

Lucas rushed past his dad and bolted outside and ran toward the wooden swing set in the yard and sat on the swing. He buried his hands in his face. "I want to kill daddy! I want to kill him and take over this house! I want to take a knife and cut him open!"

As Lucas sulked, a snake slithered by him. Lucas watched the snake with pure malice. He picked it up and talked to the snake, "I want to see what your insides look like, snake!" Lucas pulled out a knife and pressed it against the snake's scales.

That's when Matthew decided to intervene. Lucas saw Matthew coming out of the shrub and kept his knife on the snake. The snake curled its neck. Matthew knew it was about ready to strike at Lucas, knowing that it was in danger. "Is this some kind of working class thing? Showing up unannounced?" Lucas asked Matthew.

"No, dude, I came to offer you a deal." Matthew answered, "If you want it, you would need to let go of that snake first."

Lucas sneered at him, "Why should I?"

"Like you, that little guy just wants to live a long life and fulfill its role in life." Matthew replied, "It's not the snake's fault that your dad is a jerk. I seen the way your dad talked to you and I know that you take your anger out on animals, because your dad is big and stuff and animals are weak."

"That does not make me want to kill this snake or you any less!" Lucas scowled. He felt something take the snake and his knife away from him. Lucas looked up and seen the snake wrapped around Matthew's arm and his pocket knife in Matthew's hand.

"Hey, that's mine!" Lucas shouted and charged at Matthew. Matthew pocketed the knife and dodged Lucas.

"Not anymore," Matthew replied, "besides, I know how you can get revenge on both your father and the kids at school without killing anything."

"Oh yeah? How?" Lucas looked at him incredulously.

"Pranks and scams," Matthew replied.

"Don't mess with me, you idiot!" Lucas shouted, grabbing for Matthew's throat.

Matthew quickly grabbed for Lucas' midsection and tossed him to the ground. Matthew sat on Lucas' torso and pulled out the knife, "I don't want to hurt you, Lucas. Just hear me out first."

Lucas quaked with fear. He underestimated Matthew, "what does scams and pranks have to do with me and my father?"

"They would help you earn your revenge against your enemies," Matthew replied, "nothing makes enemies madder than having a wad of cash in your pocket. I can see it. You're tired of people picking on you. You want to prove to everyone that you're not a failure. Listen, I can see great talent in you and if you join me, you can use them."

Lucas' eyes softened, "It sounds really great."

"You would be answering to me too. I would be your friend and your leader," Matthew replied, getting up. He helped Lucas up and continued, "I'm going to make you somebody in return, somebody that would be respected in time."

"I'll do it," Lucas nodded, "it would be like that song `Opportunities.'"

"That's great," Matthew replied and then looked at Lucas strangely, "song?"

"You know, the one that goes; `You got the brawn. I got the brains. Let's make lots of money," Lucas replied, "I know working class have access to the music of The Pet Shop Boys. Don't they?"

"That's the first thing that needs to change," Matthew commanded, "No more of that "working class" stuff. For now on, I rule over you as your leader!"

Lucas scowled, "That's not fair! I have more money than you! My dad is an important man. My mom is an heiress!"

"Yeah, I don't give two craps about that," Matthew replied, "I beat you back there by taking your knife and you are now my underling, like it or not."

"Alright, alright!" Lucas huffed, "The Bolshies always beat the Tsars, always! –Or at least that's what my grandma says."

"Right," Matthew replied, not understanding what Lucas said, "Also, no more killing animals. Those animals just want food in their bellies, houses, and to make babies. They're not hurting you by existing. If you want to hurt someone, hurt the ones that deserve it. Darcy, Stacy, their gang, and eventually your dad. It has to be sneaky and underhanded so they don't realize that any damage has occurred until it's too late. As for your dad, that's going to be much later."

"I get it. I get it." Lucas grinned, "We do a sneak attack on them that they won't even feel."

"That's the idea," Matthew replied. He sat the garner snake down. The snake slithered away, disappearing into the grass. It got to live to see another day. "With a good scam, more people would part with their allowances. In order to have a good scam, you need a good plan to start the project up. Get my drift?"

"Your ideas are good, but you suck at making things for your scams and that's why barely anyone is fooled by them," Lucas explained, "if you want to create a good scam. You must make things that people would find believable."

"And I suppose that you know how to make things," Matthew glared.

Lucas grinned smugly, "as a matter of fact, I do. If you would follow me into my garage, I would show you!"

"Fine," Matthew curiously followed Lucas, still miffed over Lucas telling that his creations were subpar. Lucas pushed a button to open his garage. Gadgets and wooden creations littered the garage. Cuckoo clocks hung from the walls, ticking away as Matthew stepped in, looking at everything in awe. "You did not make these! There's no way! Your dad probably made those or something."

"I did make those," The smug expression never left Lucas' face. "It's amazing how many things you can create with wood. Also, be careful and try not to bump anything. I would hate to kill you if anything happened to the race car I crafted last year. It took me months to build."

Then Matthew turned around and spotted the race car. It was a small race car that looked more like a child's wooden go-kart that an adult built than a child. Lucas explained the process he used to create the body of race car and how long it took to carefully carve the designs in the wood. The technical stuff was Greek to the young Matthew's mind; He did not understand a word of it.

Matthew quickly lost his concentration and looked around the garage some more. He quickly spotted a TV-looking thing sitting on a desk. He examined it like an alien spaceship, "What the hell is that?" Matthew asked, pointing towards the thing, "is that some kind of TV set or something?"

"It's an Apple Macintosh computer. I got it last year when they first came out." Lucas replied, "You never seen a computer before?"

"A computer? You mean those large things in the TV shows?" Matthew wondered if Lucas was trying to mess with him. There is no way that small thing could even be the same thing as the large machines in the science fiction movies. There was no way.

"Yeah," Lucas replied, "except the company who made my computer downsized the larger computers to fit in somebody's home."

"So can you communicate with Soviet soldiers and shot laser beams at people," Matthew asked eagerly, hovering around the computer, his curiosity of the computer growing.

"No! I can draw images on the computer and type words on it. That's pretty much it." Lucas replied, "What makes you think that I have any contact with the Soviet Union? Just because my babushka is Russian, that does not mean that I'm a Soviet spy or whatever."

"What a lame machine! I can't believe your dad spent money on that - Wait, you're Russian?" Matthew asked, "I honestly don't care if you are or not. What does ba-whatever mean anyway?"

Matthew noticed Lucas' face softened. Matthew even to this day had no idea why. Lucas gave a genuine smile and replied, "Well, thanks, I guess. Babushka? It's Russian for grandmother. I'm only part Russian. My father and grandfather are British and my mother was American."

"Where is your mom anyway? Is she out getting a new fur coat or something?" Matthew asked.

Lucas' smile faltered at the question, "She died when I was five from diabetic shock."

"Geez," Matthew rubbed the back of his own neck, uneasily, "Well, I think we should think of ideas for our next scam before your dad comes back being a jerk."

A/N: A bit of information on Lucas' family. Lucas' grandpa Malcolm Holmes lived in England and married a Russian immigrant named Olga. They had Lucas' father and moved to the US when Lucas' dad was a teenager. When Lucas' dad got older, he met Lucas' mother, an American woman who came from money and had Type 1 diabetes, when Lucas' dad was just starting climb the corporate ladder. They had Lucas and Lucas' mother died when Lucas was only five years old. Due to Lucas' dad being estranged from his deceased wife's family, Lucas never knew his mom's side of the family. Hope this helps clear things up some.