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It ran in the family. Frank’s uncle from his mum’s side, Billy, was cubic as well and in the pictures he had of his grandfather, he was pretty angular, though not fully cubic – probably because he immigrated to the UK at a later age, so the curse couldn’t affect him yet at age 10. So it didn’t fully surprise Frank when from his tenth birthday on, his movements got more stiff, his childlike round shapes straightened out and his joints started to make sounds. He wasn’t particularly happy about it either, though.
Him being cursed wasn’t the problem. He was used to being stared at because he often lost himself in playing pretend on his own, running around with a stick in his hand, slaying monsters that apparently only he could see – well he didn’t see them, of course, but he was quite good at making himself believe they were there. His classmates were slowly starting to get interested in girls and showing off, talking about cars and boasting about drinking alcohol for the first time. And the girls were talking about horses and make-up and music. During recess, they were staring at pictures of sleepy looking men in magazines and Frank couldn’t quite decide what seemed more boring to him, the ‘hunks’ the girls were looking at, or the girls themselves that the boys were looking at. So he preferred to fight a vampire with a stick, or a werewolf with a stick, or some other monster. And his classmates seemed to think that was weird, which Frank was completely fine with. Now that he was slowly developing this curse, they avoided him even more, which meant Frank had space around him for a bigger stick and larger monsters.
The bad news was, however, that being cursed meant going to boarding school for six years and maybe forever, if he couldn’t master his curse. A smarter kid might’ve tried to hide the curse to avoid that, but Frank had always been one of those people who acted before he thought and in this case ‘acting’ meant ‘crying to his mum’. Because yeah, school wasn’t perfect right now, but it was fine. He liked his teacher, he liked recess, he liked arts and crafts and reading books about adventures. And he really, really liked being home with his family. With his little sister, Emily, who was young enough not to be interested in ‘hunks’ yet and would run around behind him with a slightly shorter stick, with his dad who was strong enough to pick him up and hold him upside down so he could walk on the ceiling, and his mum who made the best cookies and gave the best hugs… He didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to leave for six years! And even if he could spend the summer and Christmas at home, that would still leave so much time of him not being at home! And he was fine not really having friends at school because he was daydreaming anyway, but he really liked having Emily around! But he was cursed and he would have to go to St. Churnley’s. That was just what things were like.
In the summer before he had to leave, his mum made sure to invite Uncle Billy, over a lot. That was great, because Uncle Billy had amazing stories about his time at St. Churnley’s, which almost made Frank excited to go. He talked about fighting real monsters with real weapons, and learning magic!
“You’ll even get to make your own weapons when you’re a bit older!” Uncle Billy told him and Frank’s eyes widened.
“Like- like- wait!” he ran off as fast as his little stop-motion legs could carry him and came back with a drawing of a sword. “Like this one?” It was a really cool sword, with an emerald at the end and ancient runes in the blade. Uncle Billy nodded.
“That will take some practice, but yes, I think so! You’ve always been a creative one, haven’t you? You’ll love crafting.”
Frank nodded enthusiastically, which kind of hurt his neck having to do it in twelve frames per second instead of a smooth motion.
“I do love crafting!”
“Actually, what if I describe some of the monsters you’ll find in the Plagueround and you draw them?” Uncle Billy suggested and Frank scurried away to grab his paper and pencils.
Uncle Billy told him about a huge scorpion creature with a screaming face in its tail, and about a tree with thorny vines that grabbed anyone who walked by. He remembered that one of the teachers had a pet dragon that used to spit fire at him when he was new to his curse, but who was now under control and sat in the corner of the classroom, making sure all the students were being nice and working hard. He told about a classmate of his who had a lightning pattern all over his skin and how the light would keep him and his roommate awake at night during the first year – Frank was quite jealous of that one because that sounded awesome!
By the time Frank was squished in the back seat of the car, between his mum and Emily, with his dad and Uncle Billy in the front, on their way to the outskirts of Oxford, he was super excited to see what St. Churnley’s was all about. Yeah, he would miss his family, but he could send letters and Uncle Billy had reassured him that with all the new things he’d learn, the new people he’d meet and the cool thinks he’d make, Christmas would arrive in the blink of an eye.
At the meeting point, Frank all but jumped out of the car because there were so many cool people here! A few other boys his age had already arrived and his parents urged him to say hi. Two boys were talking to each other, one more or less transparent and the other wearing very dark sunglasses. Another boy stood to the side, not quite with his parents, not quite with the other kids. He was well dressed, wore big glasses and looked super tense. Maybe he was very nervous. Either way, he was alone and uncomfortable, so Frank immediately decided that this would be his new best friend. He walked over to the boy and waved at him enthusiastically.
“Hi, I’m Frank, who are you? Are you also cursed?”
The boy had been looking at the ground and now looked up, first with his head and then his eyes followed, which looked off to Frank, but he had never really paid attention to how people looked up. Maybe this was normal.
“Eh, yes, I am- I am Matthew,” the kid said. He was squinting. Weird.
“I’m made of cubes,” Frank said, holding out both of his hands towards Matthew to show his skin better. Matthew nodded carefully.
“I, eh, my…” he lowered his voice, “my eyes fell out…”
“Really??” Frank asked, loud enough to make Matthew flinch and to make his parents look up. Oops…
“Yes, I…”
“Show me?” Frank whispered, trying to make up for his outburst.
“Well that- my parents say it’s not polite to eh-”
“I don’t care about polite, that sounds so cool.”
Matthew smiled shyly. He looked back at his parents and then at Frank. He took off his glasses and carefully stopped squinting with one of his eyes, which rolled into the hand he had cupped under it.
“Whoah…” Frank whispered. “Can you still see?”
“Ye- yes, I can…” Matthew answered, putting his eye back in. “I’ll just- eh- I’ll show you more at school, I think. Probably. Well, I’ll have to, right? That- that’s what this place is all about, presumably.”
“We’ll fight monsters and make swords!” Frank said, not checking his volume anymore.
“Yes, and learn about what these curses are,” Matthew said. “I’d love to know why, eh, why… me.”
Frank was about to tell him that for him, it was a family thing and about his uncle and his grandfather, but he didn’t get the chance to, because where only a second ago was just a forest, now a big gate had appeared and the gate was opening to give way to a large floating octopus creature that was wearing a square graduation cap.
“I see that all of the first years and their families are here, very good, very good,” it spoke.
Matthew seemed to shrink a little and Frank instinctively stepped forward, to protect him. He had never seen a huge floating octopus before! This was amazing! Also, looking around, there were indeed a lot more kids and their parents now. Frank hadn’t even noticed.
“Welcome to Saint Churnley’s School for Cursed Boys!” The octopus went on. “My name is hexmaster Torres and I’ll be guiding you as you enter our school through the Plagueround. Please stay close to me and my lanterns, the Plagueround can be dangerous otherwise. I’ll give you a few more minutes to say your goodbyes. After that, please gather at the gate.”
“I’m gonna hug my parents,” Frank told Matthew, before running towards his family who pulled him into a group hug, wishing him well and telling him how much they were going to miss him.
“Make sure to write to us!” his mum said and he promised it.
“And draw!” Emily added. “I wanna see the monsters!” He also promised that.
“The squid is new,” Uncle Billy remarked, “but he seems nice enough.”
“Now, go!” his father encouraged him. “Good luck, I can’t wait to hear your stories!”
Frank hugged them all one more time and then made his way to the gate. He was joined by Matthew, who apparently hadn’t needed as much time to say goodbye to his parents – had they already left? Wow! – but had also been too nervous to stand next to the octopus hexmaster on his own, which Frank understood. He was pretty big and scary.
As the gates opened, Frank saw that Matthew was getting even more nervous. Frank grabbed his hand.
“Come, this is going to be so cool!”
Matthew nodded and wriggled his hand out of Frank’s grip.
“Sorry, I just need both my hands,” he said, holding his hands under his eyes and letting both of them roll out. He sighed, relieved. “Okay, let’s go!”