The Cursed Children - Chapter 1

The Excalibur High roof was one of the best places in town if you wanted either to have lunch during break or skip classes and take a nap, but most of the students didn’t go there because of the legendary haunted stairs that you had to climb to get there; lame story in some people’s opinion. 1

A few pigeons, apparently familiar with the only person currently on the roof, flied from the nearby old oak and landed close to him, looking for some crumbs or bugs to eat. He paid no attention to them and instead concentrated on dozing a little more, using his half-empty backpack as a pillow. 2

He heard her coming, but didn’t react whatsoever. She stopped just a few inches from his head and bent, casting a shadow over his face as her two ponytails fell to both sides of his head, almost reaching the warm concrete surface of the roof.3

“Do you want something?” he asked, confirming her suspicions that he was nowhere near sleeping. 4

Getting no answer from the ten-year old, he frowned and opened his right, brilliant blue eye to show that he could pay her some attention, then caught her ponytails and pulled. She jerked up as soon as he released them, glaring at him. 5

“Ouch!” she yelped. “Sniper, you’re so mean!! You know I don’t like my hair to be messed up with!”6

“Knowing and caring are two different things.” he replied calmly. 7

“You’ve skipped classes again! I’m gonna tattle you on to your sister!” she threatened, crossing her arms. 8

This time, the boy opened both his eyes, looking at her with slight disinterest. His left eye was bright green.9

“If I skipped classes and we’re both here, doesn’t that mean you’ve skipped classes as well? Tell this to my sister and I’m going to tell Church about your ‘skipping’ habit.”10

She sighed and gave up, sitting next to him. 11

“Not fair.” she muttered. 12

“Life’s not always fair, kid.” 13

“Fine.” the pink haired girl said. “Look, I won’t say anything, you won’t say anything. Is that fair enough for both of us?” 14

“Yeah.” he shrugged, sounding more like he didn’t care and the only fair thing he wanted was to be left alone. 15

She glared at him disbelievingly. 16

“You’re too lazy even to care? If your sister finds out, you’re in trouble, but if Church finds out, we’re both in big shit!”17

“Neko.” he called her tiredly, covering his eyes with his right forearm to protect them from the sun emerging from behind another cloud. 18

“What?” 19

“You have a very colorful vocabulary for a ten-year old kid.” 20

“Thanks!” she smiled evilly. 21

They stayed like that for a while, watching the lazy dance of the clouds pushed around by gentle breezes. Sniper could watch them for hours on end, whereas Neko always felt sleepy after the first five minutes. She peeked to see if she could snatch his backpack or at least push him to one side so that she could have a corner to rest her head on too, but with no luck. 22

“That one looks like a pillow.” she yawned, pointing towards a white cloud above the big oak in the schoolyard. 23

“What have you been doing last night?” he asked, smiling at the dark circles under her chocolate eyes. 24

“Something you never do – I studied. I had a terrible Math test today.” 25

“How was it?” 26

“I don’t know.” she yawned again, giving up the idea of a pillow and simply lying on the warm concrete. “I’ll tell you as soon as I find out.” 27

“So, you were supposed to be giving the test right now, weren’t you?” he deduced with a smile. “You said you studied.” 28

“What I say is not always true in the presence of Your Royal Highness and even if this time it is… what I studied last night is not inside my head at the moment and it will never be.”29

“Forget it. How about an ice-cream?”30

“Your treat!” she said, getting up instantly and holding out a hand for him. 31

“Going somewhere?” echoed a third voice, which made Sniper get up without Neko’s help. 32

“Mornin’, Lexi.” he said, taking his backpack and dusting it carefully.33

“You two know you’re going to get into trouble if you leave, don’t you?” the third girl continued, adjusting her school uniform as she approached them. “And don’t even think about asking me why I’m not in class, Sniper. Mrs. Salmo sent me to the library to bring her the encyclopedia. I thought I’d find you here, but I didn’t expect to find you here as well.” she frowned slightly, looking at Neko, who shrugged casually. 34

“I tried to study, but I’m simply not as brilliant as you, Alexis!” she scoffed. Sniper and I are going to get ice-cream and we don’t want to be late for the next class, so we’re leaving right now!”35

“The school gates are closed. I hope you’re not planning to do anything reckless.” she sighed. 36

“Why waste so much energy?” Neko smirked, looking in the girl’s grass-green eyes. “Why bother blow up the gates when we could simply jump over the fence?” 37

“Very well. I don’t agree with what you’re going to do, but I can’t take you to classes now, therefore, you can go, on condition that you’re here for the next class, otherwise, I’ll tell Church about this. Agreed?” 38

“Agreed!” the two answered, departing quickly. “Thanks, Alexis!” 39

She stood still for almost a minute, then gathered her scattered thoughts, pulled the encyclopedia closer to her chest and hurried back to class, struggling to find an excuse for being late for almost five minutes. As she ran down the hall, Alexis saw Sniper helping Neko to jump over the six-foot fence and smiled to herself. They looked good working together when they didn’t argue for every small thing. Actually, they were never arguing when skipping classes together or doing something against the rules. It was like some kind of an unspoken agreement between them and they weren’t even aware of it. 40

Neko landed on the other side of the fence like a cat, followed by Sniper. They disappeared quickly from the vicinity of the high school, opting for a cafe, although they would have rather eaten their ice-cream in the park. If the police caught them wandering in the park during classes they could have gotten themselves with a fine and, more important than that, they risked drawing attention upon them and that was the last thing they wanted. They both remained silent until they got their ice-creams and although they were almost isolated in their corner at the window, they preferred to speak low. 41

“Got any plans for tonight?” Sniper asked, playing with the plastic tea-spoon in his cup of vanilla and caramel ice-cream. 42

“Yeah, why?”43

“It’s my turn to cook.” 44

“Don’t even think about cooking Chinese food! I’ll be starved when I come back and I want Italian food!” 45

“You always want Italian food.” 46

“Because you’re a great cook!” she grinned. 47

Silence fell like a heavy curtain over them once again, the only things still breaking the peace being the tea-spoons occasionally making contact with the glass cups and the boring music coming from the flat screen placed on a wall on the other side of the café. 48

“He’s got a recital tomorrow night.” she murmured, drawing the blond’s attention, who was looking at the people passing on the street with an expression of sheer boredom stuck on his face. 49

“Church? It’s nothing unusual. He never tells us anything.” 50

“Maybe he doesn’t want us to come. Or maybe he’s expecting us to see all those posters in town and buy tickets for ourselves. If he doesn’t want to see our faces around there and he thinks I won’t come if I don’t have a ticket, he’s wrong!” 51

“Or maybe he thinks we’re sick of him and that piano of his since he plays it all the time at home.” 52

“If that was the case, we wouldn’t be spending so much time at home.” she scoffed. “In seven years I haven’t gotten to know him as much as I would have liked. None of us has, except for Catalina.”53

“Believe me, if she was truly interested, my sister could even find out what the President had for lunch ten days ago. As always, she will eventually discover that we’ve skipped classes today. Sometimes she leaves me under the impression that she can read my mind like an open book.” 54

“That wouldn’t be impossible.” 55

“Thanks for the encouragement.” he frowned. 56

“You’re welcome.”57

For the third time they fell silent, finishing their ice-creams and looking over the window, each with their own thoughts. 58

“We can see them, but they can’t see us.” she muttered, not diverting her eyes from the people passing by the window. “That’s what separates us from normality as well: a piece of glass that reflects the exterior so that the other side stays hidden. Sooner or later, that glass is going to break into pieces. How long do you think we’ll be able to hide behind our masks?”59

“Like you said, sooner or later the glass is going to break. It won’t make any difference for us if it breaks now or over the years. All we can do is keep going on through the darkness.” 60

“Do you still believe we have a purpose too?” 61

“We’re lucky we have each other. That’s the only thing that matters. Imagine what it would have been like to be alone.” 62

Neko gave him a glance he would never forget. It was not like her to express feelings like that, especially not fear. Undecided, she closed her eyes and turned her head, waiting for him to rise first from the table before she followed him, leaving the money on the table. On their way to the exit they passed by a table where a guy with a pink cocktail in his hand and a few more empty glasses spread on the table shouted after Sniper.63

“Hey, pal, nice honey you got there!” 64

The blond ignored him, but Neko frowned and glared back at him, disgusted, taking advantage of the man’s inattention to throw a little lava-like ball in his pink drink. A boom shook the café as the two left and the sound of broken glass reached their ears almost at the same time, as well as some screams. He looked at Neko, but the girl kept walking as if nothing had happened, bearing a smile on her lips and a stray sunbeam in her pink hair. 65