Francis

Lazar glanced at Amandla at his right, 'Is she worth it?' For him, it was a legitimate question now that this man was involved.

The only reason why he had thought of seeking the cooperation of the army was that relying only on his strength and Amandla's, it was completely impossible to clean up Boston in the next 5 days as she had imposed.

However, having gotten a glimpse of Buren's treatment of his potential allies, and knowing only too well that Andrew's clown-like behavior was just a front, Lazar was wondering if it wasn't better to just walk away...

'Looks like we have come across one of his bad acquaintances.' Amandla couldn't imagine that Lazar could have a good relationship with such a person.

She didn't know him well enough to put herself in his shoes, but since she already found Andrew annoying after 15 seconds of listening to him talk rubbish, Lazar must found him unbearable.

The fact that he still had his hand on the wrist of the door and that he seemed hesitant to sit down confirmed this, 'He doesn't like him.'

But this appeared to be only the tip of the iceberg because, beyond that, the presence of this man even seemed to put him on his guard.

Lazar hadn't even paid attention to Buren since he entered the room and although the sight of Andrew's smile seemed to disgust him, he didn't took his eyes off him as if he was the most dangerous person here.

'Why are you reacting like this?' Amandla thought as she noticed the concern on Lazar's face.

***

3 months after Lazar had beat up Ben.

***

History class was about to begin, it was marking the beginning of another boring Monday morning at the High School of Lazar.

The students were settling into their seats and the teacher was taking her course materials out of her briefcase. For his part, Lazar was slumped in his usual place, at the back row, right next to a window overlooking the football field of the High School which was covered of snow.

He was drawing in a thick sketchbook a wooden house surrounded by a forest of emaciated trees while listening to music.

Although the drawing looked very realistic, he didn't seem satisfied with the result as if a touch of authenticity was missing.

'No, it wasn't exactly like that.' He thought as he erased the entire drawing with the rubber at the other end of his pencil.

An athletic girl barely 1,50 meter tall with light brown eyes, medium-short black hair and a naturally haughty expression grabbed the empty chair next to Lazar while he was still busy erasing his drawing in frustration, "Francis isn't here, can I sit next to you?" She asked rudely while holding the back of the chair.

♪ Anger shares my life, the more I feel bad, the worse I am ♪

♪ I'm lost, I'm alone in the dark ♪

♪ The heartbeats are violent ♪

At first very annoyed that Lazar didn't answer her, she then noticed that his earphones were put on and calmed down.

She tapped his right shoulder and when she saw that he had taken off one of his earphones, she asked the same question more politely, "Logan, can I sit next to you since Francis isn't here?"

'Her again...' This irritating girl was Maria Camaggio. In Lazar's eyes she was a vicious, spoiled and self-centered girl who thought she could justify her odious behavior by a supposed kinship with the Spanish royal family.

Despite the fact that their principles were completely different, Lazar was still willing to acknowledge some of her qualities. She was hard-working and much less naive than her words suggested... But that was far from enough to hide the stench of the big pile of shit she was.

Lazar paused the song, turned to Maria and replied with a cold tone, "No."

Thinking that she had understood the message, he put his earphone back on and played the song back where he had left it off.

♪ Without you I feel free, without you I feel alive ♪

Contrary to appearances, Maria wasn't awkwardly trying to get close to Lazar by wanting to sit next to him during the class. In fact, she wanted him anything but good.

She was the person with the best academic performance among the freshmen... behind him. And that's where the problem was.

She couldn't believe, let alone endure, that someone who spent his time drawing and scribbling in notebooks during class instead of listening to the teachers could get better grades than her.

So she came to the simplest conclusion; he was cheating in some way.

She saw the absence of Francis as an opportunity because she thought that by sitting next to Lazar for a class, she might begin to understand how he was cheating. As a last resort, she was even willing to create a diversion to get a chance to rummage through his backpack.

However, she had quickly forgotten that the only person Lazar could stand to sit with was Francis, and since there were empty seats left, she couldn't force him to accept her presence.

Although she understood this, she refused to accept it, whether it was Lazar or anyone else, she was never satisfied with a 'no'.

She patted his shoulder harder this time and tried not to take offense when she saw that he seemed annoyed to have to take his earphone off again to listen to her, "Why?" She asked with a smile hiding her anger.

"*Sigh*... I could tell you he's just late, not absent, but the truth is I have no idea. I just don't want to deal with you for a whole hour." Lazar responded abruptly while leaning over his backpack, next to his feet, to pull out another notebook out of it.

Within a split second Maria's face turned red with anger, 'Son of a Bitch!' Just as she was about to slap Lazar by reflex, she managed to hold back her movement at the last moment.

The repercussions of such an act of violence right in front of a teacher would dramatically affect her academic record, "Is this what you were trying to make me do, asshole?" She asked, as she lowered with difficulty the hand with which she intended to slap him.

♪ Your words are ephemeral, their value eternal ♪

♪ I observe my past, I'm only good at hurting ♪

*CLAC*

As Maria was about to raise back her hand to slap Lazar for good because he had dared to put his earphone back on and wasn't even paying attention to her anymore, the loud slamming of the classroom door against a wall cut her off in her impulse.

'Looks like he's here.' Goofing around was almost a character trait of Francis, Lazar hadn't even turned to the door he already knew it was him.

"Um... I'm sorry for the inconvenience." A very skinny boy about 1,70 meter tall was apologizing with a frightened expression.

You only had to look at him to know that he wasn't a popular person with his big rectangular glasses that didn't fit the shape of his face at all, his posture, which showed that he didn't had a lot of confidence in himself, his old-fashioned clothes and his curly blond hair styled in a weird way.

And yet...

Although he had everything of an outcast, Francis was, from an outside point of view, Lazar's only friend.

They didn't hang out together outside of class, but they were always next to each other inside and when Lazar wasn't doing something on his notebooks, they were chatting normally. It wasn't much but it was enough to make all the girls who were interested in Lazar envy Francis.

"Go sit down, you've been noticed enough already." The professor said in exasperation. Apparently, she was used to Francis doing things like this.

He then rushed to the table where Lazar was.

When Lazar saw him approaching, he quickly noticed dark circles under his eyes and sweat drops on his face. Also, his clothes were wrinkled, while they were generally impeccable, 'He didn't sleep yesterday and didn't had time to change before coming to High School.'

Since Maria was still standing next to his chair, "Could... Could you..." Francis soon ran out of words to tell her that he wanted to sit at his place.

"*Sigh*" Lazar put his earphones in his pocket, "Get lost." He said to Maria as he moved the chair of Francis with his right foot to remove her hand from the back of it.

Maria finally left, casting a hostile glance at Francis as she passed by.

'What have I done again?!' Francis thought trying not to cross her gaze by looking away.

"Hey, are you going to explain to me why you're sweating like a pig while we are in winter?" Lazar asked, pointing to a halo of sweat on the shirt of Francis at the level of one of his armpits.

Francis didn't answer right away, as if he was afraid of Lazar's reaction, "Logan, we have a big fucking problem." He finally said with trembling hands.