Title - Not So Easy
Chapter Title - New Neighbors
Author - OblivionsGarden
Genre - Romance/Hurt/Comfort
Disclaimer - I do not own Coraline in anyway shape or form. I only own my original characters and the plot for this fic.

Summary - Wybie/Oc - It's been two years since Coraline went to the other world and she thinks the Beldam is trapped there forever. But a new girl has just arrived and she doesn't look like she's about to smile any time soon. It's up to Coraline and the overly hormonal Wybie to warn her before it's too late.

A/n - Please don't shoot me! This isn't Coraline/Wybie but Wybie/OC. Don't get me wrong I ship Coraline and Wybie just as much as the next person but I just could not get this new character out of my head. She kept pestering me so I gave in and started writing. For all purposes of this thing, miniscule little things will change just so things will work, but that's the fun of fan fiction right? Also, this is set around 2-3 years after Coraline's adventure. Coraline and Wybie are both thirteen almost to turn fourteen. I figured that was a decent age for a first girlfriend for Wybie. So anyway, please review if you read I love hearing what people think. Thanks! xx

Coraline Jones frowned as she arrived outside the Pink Palace after the last day of school before the holidays. She adjusted her black hat, squinting her eyes as though it would aid her vision. But she hadn't been imagining things. Right there outside the Pink Palace was a moving truck. Who was moving? And in or out? Surely not in, there were only three apartments and they were taken. Was someone moving out? Mr Babinsky wouldn't, his jumping mice weren't ready. And Miss Spink and Miss Forcible were too old to be moving house now. What on earth was going on?
Coraline marched her way up the path, staring the whole time at the moving men taking furniture from the truck. Nothing too interesting to give an idea of who was arriving. She dodged one man only to walk backward into another. Before she could topple over the tall man caught her shoulders and steadied her on her feet.

"Careful there, kid." He smiled. He was tall and thin with attractively disheveled brunette hair and twinkling green eyes. "You live around here?"
"Yeah. Apartment three. The Jones'... I'm Coraline." She spoke with caution, not sure if this was an interesting man or just another boring adult yet.
"Well, I'm Hugh. Your new neighbo- Please be careful with that! My wife will kill you if it breaks!" Hugh ran over to the van to take an ornate lampshade from an overalled man.
"Boring adult." Coraline sighed and headed inside.

She shed her drenched raincoat and waders, leaving her hat on for now. She found her mother, as usual, hunched over her laptop at the kitchen table.

"We have new neighbors." She commented.
"Mm." Was the predictable response her mother offered.
"Where are they going? Sergei is upstairs, we're here and Spinks and Forcible are downstairs."
"Mrs Lovat finished refurbishing the basement apartment. Below the actresses." Mel Jones sipped at her luke warm coffee. "God knows why anyone would live in a basement. No windows for any sunlight."
"What sunlight?"
"Hm." Mel smiled a little at her daughter who had just left the kitchen again. "Where are you going? You just got home?"
"To find Wybie." Coraline called back as she pulled on her coat and waders.
"Don't you spend enough time together at school?"
"New things are occurring all the time mom! We have to stay up to date for the good of the universe!"

Coraline slammed the door behind her. She didn't know what she meant by 'the good of the universe' but then she didn't always know what she was talking about. She ran as fast as she could towards Wybie's house only to find he was already on his bike and speeding towards her. She managed to dodge out of his way so he could skid to a stop. He pulled off his skeleton trifocal mask and stared down at where she was now sitting up against a wall.

"In a hurry?" He smirked.
"Shut up. I have new neighbors."
"I know. Grandma had the basement fitted with an oven and stuff so someone could live there."
"And you didn't think that I should know something like this?" Coraline aimed a punch at Wybie's arm having climbed to her feet.
"I didn't think it was important." He shrugged rubbing his sore arm.
"C'mon Wybourne."
"What?"
"We're gonna survey the neighbors so we can make a proper sum up of what they are."
"What they are?"
"Interesting or boring." She climbed onto the wheel spokes of Wybie's bike, gripping his shoulders tightly. "I've met Hugh, he's boring. He has a wife though."

They stopped a safe enough distance from the palace so that they wouldn't be seen. Wybie used the zoomed focus of his mask to have a look at the new comers. He saw Hugh and guessed that Coraline was right about him being boring. They watched him carry things down the steps to Spinks and Forcible's before he dissapeared. Wybie informed Coraline that the second staircase was beside their front door. It was a while before a black car pulled up outside. Coraline snatched Wybie's mask to have a closer look.

"Woman. Probably Hugh's wife. Dark auburn hair, jeans and a jumper. Bland and Boring." Coraline sighed handing back the mask. Wybie pulled it back on, also looking at the woman. He was about to sigh in boredom too when the passenger side door of the car opened.
"Wait. There's someone else." Wybie stood now, excitement overwhelming him.
"What do you see? I can't see we're too far away."
"Irish red hair... Come on move away from the car... A girl... Turn around." Wybie groaned in annoyance. "At a guess from the back of her head I'd say she's about 13 or 14."
"So our age?"
"That's what I said, Jonesy." Wybie stared intently at the girl until she turned, taking a box from the woman. "Oh..."
"What?" Coraline turned to her best friend with a frown. "What is it?" At the lack of an answer she took his mask from him again and looked for herself. "Ooooh!" She smirked wickedly. "She's pretty right, Wybie?"

This was a new game she enjoyed playing. The two of them had hit puberty and with that came attraction to the opposite gender. They were at the age where you want to hold hands and kiss but deny all of it when asked. So when Wybie got a crush, he was teased mercilessly by his best friend. And vise versa. (Although Wybie never teased Coraline as much. Her punches were getting harder.)

"Shut up, Jonesy." Wybie blushed, taking back his mask and lightly shoving the girl.
"Well come one, Why-were-you-born... Let's go say hi!"
"Wait, Coraline." He grabbed her arm, stopping her from running off. "I don't think we should."
"Why not?"
"She looks... Sad. Like she wouldn't want to play with anyone let alone complete strangers." He held out his mask, gesturing for her to take another look.

And when she did, Coraline saw what he meant. Her shoulders were slumped as she emerged from the stairs, her steps slow and eyes cast to the floor. She looked like a zombie, moving purely on hunger and nothing else. It was making Coraline sad just looking at her.

"Maybe you should talk to her first, since you both live in the Palace." Wybie suggested rubbing the back of his neck uneasily. "I doubt she'd like it if we ambushed her."
"Good point Lovat." Coraline went to leave but stopped, looking back over her shoulder. "I'll meet you at the old well later and I'll tell you about her."
"Yeah...S-Sure."
"Later Wybourne."

Coraline ran back to the Pink Palace, waiting outside for the girl to come back out. When she did, Coraline noticed her entire outfit was made up of dark colours. Black jeans, a black coat, a moss green jumper peaking out from beneath, plum purple boots and matching deep blue scarf and gloves.

"Hi." She smiled warmly at the girl who looked startled back at her. "I'm Coraline. I live here too. Two up from you." The girl nodded once and passed her by, grabbing a suitcase from the black car. The suit case was large and leather, beaten on the edges and covered in stickers, badges and patches. "What's your name?" Coraline tried again, hoping to gain an answer from the girl. She stopped, her red hair blowing into her face. Her pale blue eyes passed over Coraline before she spoke.
"Parker." And with just that one word, she dissapeared down the stairs.