The Curse

Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived in the countryside. He loved to play outside in the hills when he wasn't in school and he hated to read. What good was reading when he could play in the mud and go looking for bugs and frogs? But one day, everything changed and his family moved into the city.

The city was very different, and the people there were different too. On his first day of school, he got in trouble because he couldn't stay as still as the other children. Since he hadn't made any friends yet, he was easier for the meanspirited children to single out. When his first day of school was over, the boy hung his head and began his lonely walk.

As he crossed the street, he noticed some of his classmates were running after him. The boy looked around for a place to hide, and noticed a nearby tree, so he used all the energy that he could muster to climb up before the children could catch up. They began throwing rocks and sticks, since they couldn't get him in the tree. Luckily the leaves and branches protected the boy.

After a few minutes of jeering, there was a sudden yell. A girl scolded the others and sent them off. He recognized the voice, she was the class's top student. The smartest girl in the school. The girl called up that it was safe for him to come down, and so the boy suspiciously went with her. Sure enough, it really was safe!

They walked together without saying a word, and parted at the next block. He walked the rest of the way alone, but the boy couldn't help but beam at the first act of kindness another child had shown him.

After that first day, the boy's classmates began to lose interest in poking fun at him, and he made friends with a few children who shared his interest in bugs. They had fun together, but he couldn't help but watch the girl who had saved him, who always seemed so remote. One day, one of his friends noticed, and asked if he liked her. The boy confessed, and his friend frowned. The friend warned him that there was some kind of curse surrounding her, that kept her from making friends.

That very day, the boy waited for the girl to leave school, and walked with her. They walked quietly, but together. At the corner, as the girl began to turn, the boy asked her to stop. She stopped and turned around. He confessed his love to her, and told her that she was the smartest, most beautiful, most perfect girl in the world. The girl frowned, and she suddenly covered her eyes and ran away. The boy stood, stunned. He could have sworn that the whites of her eyes had turned black.

The next day of school went normally, but the girl seemed even more aloof than she had before. The boy's friends asked him what had happened, and he told them. One friend repeated that it must have been the curse. When school was over, the boy began his walk home. As he crossed the street alone, he heard someone sprinting after him. It was the girl. She called for him to wait and so he did.

The girl stopped at the corner and caught her breath, and then she said to the boy, "I'm sorry for running away yesterday." The boy looked at her, confused. Her eyes began to change again, the whites of her eyes becoming black and her pupils becoming white. "You see, people tell me this, that I'm perfect. And it makes me a monster. Only a monster would mislead others and live such a lie." She grew in height, and delicate wings began to spread from behind her arms. The boy stood silently in front of the monster, and his eyes welled with tears. The tears began to fall from his cheeks

"Now that you've seen the lie, surely you must be afraid of me. You must hate me." The monster said, reaching out her arm to the boy.

The boy stepped forward and hugged her, saying "You must feel so alone." The monster stood still, startled, and became small and human once more.

The girl was too surprised to return his embrace, looking forward as tears began to fall down her own cheeks. She said, "You're not afraid of me? You don't think I'm a monster?"

The boy shook his head, and said only, "You never were."