Nya Elementar is a school presented through two contrasting scenes: Hakan moves around its gymnasium looking for an opportunity to act, while its pupils gather in orderly formation for physical education. The school’s everyday routines and its place in the surrounding youth scene give it both an ordinary institutional role and a point of contact with the novel’s danger.

Setting and Surroundings

At half past seven, Hakan wanders around Nya Elementar’s Gymnasium and the Vällingby mall, where young people gather. Sports sessions are underway and the pool is open late, so there are potential victims nearby; groups, however, make it difficult for him to find someone alone. He considers going farther away but worries that the blood would spoil before he could get home. Wanting to bring Eli the freshest possible blood, he keeps searching close to home. The temperature has fallen below freezing, making the ski mask he wears less likely to attract attention.

School Routine

On Friday, October 30, the boys of class 6B wait in a line outside the school for physical education. Each carries a gym bag, and the boys stand an arm’s length apart, following a rule Fernando Avila has enforced since taking responsibility for their physical education in fourth grade. Avila calls for a straight line and the prescribed spacing. The routine establishes his authority over the class and the pupils’ respect for him.

Narrative Significance

The scenes place Nya Elementar within two overlapping worlds. It is a school organized around lessons, rules, and the boys’ respect for their teacher; after hours, its gymnasium is also part of a wider gathering place where Hakan searches among young people. The contrast makes the school’s ordinary activity inseparable from the unease surrounding the murderer, without making the school itself the source of the threat.