Nafalen walked throught the mall, glad to have some time to relax. He had been pushing himself pretty hard the past few weeks during his training sessions. As he passed by a few stores he noticed that there were a few people following him. When he stopped to turn around they flocked to him like seagulls to bread.

'Can I have your autograph?' the shouted over and over.

At first confused, Nafalen looked in the window of a nearby movie store and saw a poster. In the middle was the star of a new movie coming out, and he looked just like Nafalen. He quickly read the name and grabbed on of the fan's books and pen.

"Why not," he said to them. It took a while, but they all finally left after a half-hour and over thirty signatures of the same name; James Telino.

He smiled at the obsessions of some people and then continued his walk through the mall.

Josh wasn't a stalker. No no no. It was nothing like that.

The guy was the guy from the movie poster. How many times do you see famous people in Demaitre? Granted, Josh would never have noticed if there hadn't been a swarm of people around the man. Around James Telino. It was a cause for curiousity. His stalking was completely justified, right?

Joshua was not looking for an autograph. He had never even heard of the guy--why would he have? He hadn't seen a movie in a few months. He couldn't get a girlfriend to go on dates with, and besides. He worked nights at the casino. He didn't have time to learn about famous people.

But, he was desperate to learn from them...

Kylie Anderson was this cute girl in his commerce class. She could sell anything... All she had to do was smile. Well, currently, Josh was sold on her. She'd be perfect, if only he could get her attention. They had worked together on this one group project, but seemed to forget that he existed...

What was worse was that she had immediately recognized Mr. James Telino and swooned over him. So now that she was happily clutching an autographed post-it note, Josh was silently fuming, yet equally impressed. How did this guy do it?

So, okay, maybe Josh had been stalking. He had come to Middleton Mall with the full intention of "accidentally running into" Kylie. But now, as he followed James through the mall, he wasn't stalking.

He was desperate.

Nafalen noticed that the boys eyes were on him immediately, but he decided to go with it. He continued to walk through the mall, browsing through windows, checking out the women, the usual.

Nafalen could tell that the boy was still following him as he went up the escalator so when he stepped off he entered the first store he saw. Barnes and Noble.

Nafalen stopped at a shelf of science fiction books and picked up one. He red the back and seemingly skimmed the pages. The whole time he was watching the boy that had followed him. Putting the book down, Nafalen disappeared in the isles of books and shelving. He worked his way back around and turned up behind the boy.

"You follow me through the mall, up an escalator, and into a book store. Why?" Nafalen asked as he leaned against a nearby shelf. "Wait, let me guess. You want to know why a certain girl noticed me yet doesn't know you even exist."

Joshua is the human equivalent of a little lost puppy. This guy was idol and enemy, wrapped into one, and he would follow him to the end of the world. Or the end of the mall. Whichever was closer.

Let's just clarify a few things. Josh is school smart. Good grades, good attitude, good work ethic. School smart and street smart are entirely different things. No one ever taught him how to successfully stalk someone without looking like a stalker. Josh's eyes never wandered away from his target. Anyone looking could tell he was following this James Telino figure. Hell, blind people could probably tell!

The kid was downright stupid when it came to street smarts.

On they marched, through the mall, all the way to the bookstore. Joshua hesitated a moment at the front of the shop. He could stop that man here. Ask him how. Ask him why. Ask him what the heck he was thinking. Josh was going to get inside James Telino's head. That was the master plan.

Joshua moved through the bookstore, more obviously searching for the man (if "more obviously" is considered possible). He peered down every isle, glanced at every customer. Finally, he came to the fiction isle and stepped inside, not for James Telino, but for the last book in the Ender's Game series.

And that was how Joshua ended up getting to the end of the world faster than to the end of the mall. He nearly jumped his skin when Mr. Telino snuck up behind him, and any hint of confidence he had before evaporated faster than it took the book he'd been holding to hit the floor. Slowly, Josh turned to face James.

He was a fairly cute kid. Nineteen years old, so "cute" wasn't exactly the word he was fishing for these days. He had curly brown hair and dark brown eyes. His lips made a perfect pout--one his female classmates would be jealous of. But, the “cute” was masked by a huge wall of nerves. His eyes were wide, and he bit down on his lower lip with a look of self-doubt.

Self doubt. Then surprise, then amazement. This man knew him so well!

"Um... There... No, it wasn't because of a girl, haha..." His nervous laugh seemed to negate the entire sentence, making truth absolutely obsolete. "I was... I... Wanted to know... Um. The... The how?"

The how. Good one, Joshie. Good one.