HAUNTED
One
one month later
"Come on, you two!" Mel Jones scolded the two children in the back of the car. She looked in the rear-view mirror and eyed them. "It's a new school, a fresh start! What can possibly go wrong?"
Coraline looked out the VW Beetle's window and stuck her tongue out. Wybie began to giggle, and soon the two of them were having the world's loudest laughing festival.
"What's so funny?" their 'mother' asked them. That only made the two children laugh harder.
Eventually, the laughter died down and they just sat together in the back, backpacks on their knees, and smiled at each other.
"I'm still getting used to the fact that you're my 'brother' now," Coraline whispered to Wybie. "It's just too weird," she grinned.
"Well, the only things I'm missing right now are Slugzilla, my motorbike, and Cat," Wybie whispered back to her. "My grandma was really strict."
When she heard him mention his grandma, she instantly became happier. It was the first time he had mentioned his grandmother to Coraline after her death and his sudden adoption by the Jones family.
"We never did say goodbye to Cat, did we?" she asked him in another whisper.
He shrugged. "I didn't see him around. He was probably hunting rats or something."
Coraline shivered slightly, but Wybie didn't notice.
"What are you two whispering about?" Mrs. Jones asked them. "Don't think I can't see you back there."
"School, Mom," Coraline lied. She and Wybie grinned. "Are we close?"
"I don't know," her mother sighed. "I've got the address, but... ah! There it is!"
Her mother parked the car a block away in a spot on the side of the road. She looked back at the two kids and started rooting around in a bag on the seat next to her. "Just give these papers to the school's secretary - I filled them out ahead of time. Off you go."
Mel Jones handed the small stack of papers to Coraline. Coraline and Wybie got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk, and watched Mrs. Jones start the car and drive to the newspaper building where she and Mr. Jones would work writing the local events and sports columns.
"No turning back now, right, Why-were-you-born?" she teased.
"Don't get that started again, Caroline," Wybie teased back.
The two children laughed as they walked up to the school.
Coraline stood silently off to the side with Wybie. The area around the school was filled to the brim with cliques - in one section of the large mass of people were the nerds; another part confined the jocks; a third held the cheerleaders; in yet another the bullies dwelled. The misfits filtered in and out of the groups, chatting with one another.
And then, of course, there were Coraline and Wybie, standing on the edge of the crowd, not sure where to fit.
The chatter floated over the groups like the sky itself was made of random blubbering talk. A few people laughed; a bully gave a kid a wedgie; three people were texting each other on their cell phones. It was an ordinary school day.
That was when another student showed up, and the crowds split to make a path for him. Coraline couldn't tell if that was because he was a misfit or because he was 'royalty', but she had to look around heads to catch a glimpse of the boy.
He was about her height, with long brown hair that stuck straight up, the same color as his large eyebrows. He also had a pair of gigantic ears (much like her own, she realized suddenly, to a greater extent). The crowd parted for him like he had a gigantic forcefield around him preventing them from closing in on him.
And then the school bell rang, and in the madness that followed with all the kids pushing to get inside, the pariah she had seen was left picking up his books after someone undoubtedly tripped him.
Coraline walked over to the stranger, crouched down, and reached out to pick up one of his things.
"No, no, it's okay - I can get it myself," he said nervously. He avoided looking in her eyes for some strange reason.
"It's fine."
Coraline heard Wybie walk up behind her as she finished helping him pack his bag.
"We're new here," she told the boy. "I'm Coraline, and he's Wybie."
"I'm Norman," the boy said.
"Nice to meet you," Coraline smiled. "See yah round."
With that exchange, Coraline and her 'brother' walked inside to turn in their registration papers.
(A/N): Hey! Told you I was going to be done with this chapter soon! :D
Anyway, there's a poll up on my profile right now concerning what ship to have in this: Wybie/Coraline or Norman/Coraline. Go out and VOTE! WOO!
