Coraline Jones scowled at herself in the mirror. Her dull grey school uniform was hideous, and uncomfortable and everything that clothing should not be. She turned to examine the back, and made another attempt at pulling her skirt down. It was a tad small, but that was how all the girls at her school wore their skirts.
"Co-ra-line!!" her mother called up the stairs. She tucked her blue hair behind her ear, pulled on her gloves, and, with one last look in the mirror, went downstairs, two at a time. Her father rushed by, kissed her lightly on the head as he passed, and ducked into his study without another word. Her mother was a little warmer, giving her a tight, one-armed hug.
"Morning. Ready for school?" she asked, and Coraline raised an eyebrow.
"…Mum, I'll never be ready to go to school" she said, taking a piece of toast from the plate in her mothers hand and stuffing it in her mouth. Someone knocked lightly on the front door, and Coraline moved towards it. She could recognise that funny head tilt anywhere.
Wybie grinned his lopsided grin at her when she opened the door, and she scooped up her schoolbag from where it sat beside the door.
"Okay, I'm going now, see you later~!" she called, shutting the door behind her. Without a word, the two of them broke into a run, leaping down the stairs and beginning their usual race to the bus stop.
"Haha! I win again Why-Were-You-Born!" she laughed breathlessly as she waited for him to catch up. Four years on from the Beldam Incident, and the two were still thick as thieves. In those few years, Wybie had grown taller, a little taller than she, and had lost his baby fat. She was also taller, and her hair had grown out, at the moment pulled into a high ponytail.
"You…win…every…bloody…day" Wybie panted, and he grinned at her. She was too fast for him. The only way he could win was by cheating. She didn't like it when he cheated.
"I know, I just thought I'd make sure you knew" she sang, not showing any sign that she had just run from the front of her house, all the way to the road. He gave her a light push, and moved closer to the road as the bus approached.
It stopped, and the door opened with a hiss. He climbed on first, and scanned the seating. There were no two seats together, so he sat by his other friend, Lester. He smiled apologetically at her as she passed, while Lester raised a hand in greeting. She waved back, and moved further down the bus, sitting beside a short girl with pretty red hair and freckles.
"Morning Coraline!" she said in her bubbly voice, and Coraline grinned at her.
"Morning Abbey" she replied, sitting down. The bus began to move, and Coraline waved goodbye to Cat, sitting on the top of the 'Pink Palace' sign. His tail flicked in response, then he vanished from sight.
"Please tell me that you didn't forget your part of the assignment" Abbey said, and the blue haired girl opened her bag and pulled out the folder with a grin.
"Don't worry. Me and Wybie worked on them last night, and I made sure I put it in my bag so I wouldn't forget it"
"So what else did you and Wybie get up to last night?" Abbey asked, with a light giggle. Coraline punched her arm.
"Don't be ridiculous. Homework. That's it" she insisted.
Abbey dropped the subject with a little smirk, and they spent the remainder of the trip discussing the upcoming holidays.
xXx
The school day had passed quickly, and Coraline and Wybie waved goodbye to their friends as the bus drove by and walked slowly back towards the hideous faded pink house. Cat was waiting for them, sitting on the fence, and he leapt up onto Wybie's shoulder after brushing past Coraline's legs. They both scratched behind his ears, smiling as he purred contentedly. They continued to walk.
"Well…I'm probably in trouble, because my room is atrocious at the moment, and my grandmother's gonna kill me, so…see you tomorrow, Jonesy"
"Yeah, see ya Wybie" Coraline called, not even bothering to tell him off for using his stupid nickname for her. She jumped up the steps to her home, and scooped up the mail. She flicked through it briefly, pausing to examine an envelope with a rather untidy scrawl.
"I'm home!" she sang out, to no answer, so she lightly tossed the mail on the table and ascended to her bedroom.
She picked up the texta on her desk, and moved over to her calendar. She put a big black X on the date, and counted. It was 4 days until her birthday. She was praying that her parents would by her something good. Like a phone…a phone would be brilliant. Everyone else at school had one.
She settled at her desk, and booted up the old computer she had gotten last year. It was her fathers old one, and all she was able to do to make it look a little more modern was to change the 'I Heart Mulch' wallpaper to a picture of her and Wybie with banana slugs coming out of their noses and ears. It made her laugh every time she saw it, and today was no exception.
After getting bored of waiting for the stupid machine to work properly, she emptied her schoolbag onto her beg, and began to sift through her homework, decided what she would and wouldn't do. Coraline worked until dinner, ate, and worked some more. She had adopted her parents ability to work for ages without having a headache, and also the need to have it finished that night.
Mel Jones climbed the stairs, intending to tell her daughter to go to bed, but opened the door to find that Coraline had already fallen asleep. She gave a soft smile, and pulled the girl back onto the pillows, and stacked the books on her desk. Then she kissed her head, and turned off the light.
A/N; And Knut makes a miraculous comeback to the Fanfiction scene ^^'
I haven't written anything in so long, and because I'm sick, I've been looking for ways to stop the boredom from creeping into my head and devouring my brain. So I watched all my movies, and coz I like Coraline so much, I watched it twice.
And coz I got some good reviews for my last Coraline fic, I decided I'd try it again. =3
Let's hope it works out well, ne?
R&R
-Knut