The next day, Cassie was up earlier than usual for school and headed straight for Chemistry. 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!”
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 it doesn’t matter, does it? You’re not going to listen to me either way.”
She smiled. “You really are smart!”
He rolled his eyes.
“But,” Cassie continued, her smile widening. “I know where his classes are at. Maybe we could follow him around until we find a good time to talk to him.”
“I’ll save you the time and energy.” Larson grabbed her wrist and started dragging her through the calm halls of the early morning.
It was a short walk to the science hall where Larson stopped and faced Cassie. Behind him was the guy they were looking for. Jax. There wasn’t anyone in the school who didn’t know him, and by the fairly large group surrounding him, it was almost impossible to catch him without others around.
“There he is, now go and talk to him.” Larson muttered.
Cassie stared at Jax and after a second or two of this, Jax looked over and their eyes only barely met before Cassie’s eyes looked away. She made a very strange expression to Larson, her face was mixed with anxiety and embarrassment as she fumbled around to speak.
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 poked 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 averted walked with most of her back facing in Jax’s direction, she walked as quickly as she could past him before relaxing.
“If you won’t do it, I won’t because I already know I’ll kill every last one of them!” Larson said, triggering a student to side eye 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?”
“Good point, but still, we should consider that we might be scaring people.” Cassie said.
Larson grabbed the door and nearly ripped off the hinges. Cassie was quick to get out of the way before it slammed back.
“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 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, a 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 the empty room. He tapped his finger against his desk, letting out a huff as he sat in a relative silence.
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. Finally, Larson’s last class had them working on an exit ticket, 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?”
“My last class got held up because someone wasn’t listening to the teacher,” Cassie said.
Larson frowned. “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 sighed. “But, I can’t stay today either.”
Larson rolled his eyes. “Why the hell not?”
“Because my parents said-”
“No, stop. Your parents. That’s a real concern of yours?”
She nodded. “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?”
Cassie perked up. “Well, you could come over to my place!”
“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, seeing the smile on Cassie’s face unchanged. Eventually, Larson sighed and walked 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.
“Oh, who’s this?” Mrs. Ann said as Cassie got in the front seat.
“His name is Larson. He’s a friend of mine.”
As Larson got in the car, Mrs. Ann glanced back with a smile.
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“Yeah.” Was all he said.
Before her mom could say anything, Cassie spoke up.
“I was wondering if he could stay over.”
Her mother glanced to Cassie. “I wish you would have told me sooner, but since he’s your friend, of course he can.”
Cassie smiled. “Thanks… sorry about not telling you, it was kind of unexpected.”
“Let’s not make that a habit.”
“I know…but if he seems kind of mean it’s not that. He’s just kind of shy.” Cassie teased.
“Aw, really?” Her mom seemed to be happy hearing that.
“No, I’m actually not!” Larson snapped, gritting his teeth. “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 muttered. “She’s not exactly the type of person who can make friends easily.”
“I think that sometimes too.”
“Mommy!” Cassie exclaimed.
Larson laughed at her expense.
“So you two must be alike in that aspect then.” Mrs. Ann said.
Larson shrugged. “I guess. I never bothered to make friends.”
“It’s sometimes difficult to make friends, I’ll admit that. So it’s good you two found each other.” Mrs. Ann started to drive off. “You two be sure not to do anything bad when we’re not home, okay?”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t.”
“Alright, but how about you tell me about yourself, Larson.”
Cassie looked back. “Yeah, why don’t you Lars.”
Larson glared at the pair, luckily her mother’s eyes were on the road, but he soon found himself speaking idly to Cassie’s mother…
The drive to Cassie’s house was shorter than Larson expected. Mrs. Ann let them out and Cassie jumped out of the car as Larson exited and joined her at the front of her house.
“Bye mommy!” Cassie waved to her mother.
Once she returned it, she drove off leaving the pair alone. Cassie eagerly approached her house. Larson examined the residence and pushed out a scoff.
“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 maybe in college then?”
Cassie nodded, silently confirming his question. Cassie walked in the house, dumping her bag and shoes beside the door and shutting it after Larson got inside.
“Wait, does he have this shit too?” Larson suddenly asked.
“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.” Cassie guided him to the family room.
“It doesn’t hurt to try. But your brother aside, the next thing I was planning on was visiting paranormal places.”
“Uh, paranormal places? What are you talking about?”
“Like other planets. If we don’t belong here, I assumed there must be somewhere else to find answers.”
Cassie held up a finger. “Can I stop you for a second? If you already reasoned this, why didn’t you go by yourself? Or why’d you wait this long? Is it that we can’t breathe out in space or something?”
“No, we can. I’ve been on a rocket and actually went into space.”
“So you just went up there and did nothing?”
Larson huffed. “I have no idea where to look. Barmen’s book doesn’t have any information regarding anything like that. No pictures, dates, locations. Nothing. So I have to go on hunches; without any reason to continue, I more or less gave up.”
“Aw, so I’m your reason to continue?” Cassie’s mouth turned downward in a sentimental smile.
Larson stared without saying anything. At the silence, he moved on.
“Our major focus is finding information and getting out into space, if that information leads us anywhere.”
Cassie pressed her lips together. “How would we get out into space anyways?”
“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.”
“So that’s our first objective. To find a planet that has… something weird going on with it?”
Larson nodded. “It’ll take some collective effort from us, but I’m sure we can do it.”
“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. “Anyway, there has to be someone–or someplace–that has something we can use. The higher up the better is how I see it.”
“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. 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 a little bit though.”
Larson narrowed his eyes. “You’re such a bitch. Your parents can’t do anything to you!”
“Say what you want, I’m still gonna be this way. So, you’re wasting your breath.” She emphasized with a slow tone.
“Let’s just go already.”
Larson was out first and Cassie was shortly behind and they took off for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration building.
