Lars' pov

'Yet another new school to settle in at.' Lars thought as he looked up at the imposing building situated in front of him.

'Yet another one. I wonder how long it will take Mom to find a new life for herself, and me, after this? Let's see, it's been, what? Twenty-one times that we've moved in the past...five years? I guess it's not easy for her being a con artist. Then again now that I've been doing it for this long I guess I am one too. I'd best stop dilly-dallying around, and just find the next target already. It won't be that hard to find one, after all, this is a school. There are tons of kids. I can have my pick among hundreds of people. I guess that's why I'm not too excited about it anymore, there's no challenge in choosing a forgettable target out of this many people. It's kind of boring really.'

Lars scanned the crowd of faces around himself idly.

'It's kind of a thrill knowing that I have the life of whoever I pick in my hands. I get to choose who will die. I could even make this into a game. Actually, why don't I? Eenie-meenie-minnie-mo. Well, that's the one, I guess.'

The boy he'd chosen had wavy blond hair, and glasses from what he could see about twenty feet away from him. He was wearing a bright red bunny hug.

'Perfect, he's even wearing an identifier so I can find him easily.'

'How many days do you have left to live now? I guess that depends on how easily you trust, Blondie.'

Lars trailed the target through the hallways, then purposefully dropped his open bag onto the floor near him so that its contents spilled everywhere. As expected, the blond boy stopped, faltered, then hurried over to Lars to help him gather his stuff up. Lars waved away the other students who also stopped to help. They weren't needed.

"Are you okay?" Blondie asked.

Lars nodded pretending to be the quiet type. "Um, yeah." He made sure his voice matched the personality he'd chosen. As the blond boy went to stand back up, Lars grabbed his wrist. "…Thank you. For helping me, that is. What's your name?"

"Mathew."

Now to let him feel obligated to help him because he's the "new kid".

"Um, Mathew? Do you go here? Um, like before this year that is. I'm new, can you show me around the school?"

Lars almost felt bad about the smile that crept onto the boy's face then. 'He wouldn't be smiling if he knew the real reason why I'm talking to him.'

"Yeah," Mathew said. "I can do that."

"Thanks."

'Thank God his name is easy to remember. It's always so much trouble to actually put effort into remembering things about the targets. People always have so many expectations. By pretending to be their friend, I have to actually know stuff about them, and you can tell the targets are bothered when I don't remember.'

For a moment there as he follows the blond boy-Mathew- Lars almost agreed with his Mom's habits. It would be so much easier to just get rid of the person instead of having to keep trying to please them all the time. For a moment there, he could truly understand his Mom instead of the distant feeling he'd held onto about all of this since it started with that first Target, his father.

"Hey." Lars whispered in his second period class to Mathew who coincidentally shared that same class with him. He'd made sure they sat together. "Do you know where these classes are?"

"Yes, of course I do." Mathew said.

"Could you show me around to all of them?"

"Yes, I thought we already agreed on that earlier. Now, shh, the teacher is talking."

'So, do I really need to pay attention to this?'

"Okay, Matt." Lars said instead. He had to make sure he kept the peace.

That was all on Monday, now it is Friday and Lars is sure he's gained Mathew's trust.

"Hey Matt," Lars said. "Would you like to come to my house to watch a movie, or something? You said you like history movies, so I found one you might like."

Mathew smiled shyly. "That sounds wonderful Lars. I'll come over right after school, right?"

"Yeah."

"See you then."

Their school bell rang, and both of them hurried to their own house, one to set up the plan his mother and him had figured out to capture their newest Target, and the other to gather his clothes together while innocently thinking about what a wonderful time he would have with his friend.