Hello! I hope everyone who read the first chapter enjoyed it! Here's the second. She meets her first Neighbor. To see his picture sketch, go to deviant art and search "Lucas The Camper."

(I am apparently unable to post links to websites on here).

By the way, I dunno how old Coraline is, but I pinned her at about 12 based on her behavior and knowledge. I also made her birthday in January, because, I dunno, her hair is wintery. *_*

Somewhere near breakfast time…

She'd gone exploring, just as she'd written in the note. For a short hour, she climbed rocks, explored the woods, and played around the tennis courts. It was weird not hearing Wybie's bike patrolling the woods, or Wybie himself annoying her. Even the black cat got bored and ran off to the Lovat's house.

Coraline continued through the forest, past the courts this time, to the river. It was a pitiful thing, more like a trickle, if not a stream. She discovered the reason why maybe a week ago: a huge beaver dam at the top of the hill blocked most of the water from flowing. She imagined that at one time, the water must've cascaded down, just passing the tennis courts, and poured freely into the lake.

Pond, Coraline reminded herself. With that in mind, she followed the river down, around, over, under, and through several obstacles that blocked her path. When the ground evened out, as it had before, she wasn't in the same place as yesterday. There was no road in sight. Instead, a relatively large body of water lay before her - the unnamed pond.

"So," she said to herself aloud. "This is it."

A small sailboat zoomed across the water off in the distance, its canvas sporting a big black fish eating a smaller fish. A figure was hunched over inside, tending to the lines. Coraline was about to shout out a hello, but thought better of it. They wouldn't hear her anyways.

She stepped forward to reach the water's edge, and immediately pulled her foot up, gasping as if she had stepped on something slimy with bare feet. She had trod on an old campfire, wet from the rain, but recently burnt. Kicking one of the logs irritably, she then proceeded to the pond.

The sailboat still drove on, and as Coraline looked around, she saw a part of town she knew nothing of, and it was only a few hundred yards from her house. Log homes sat on the western side of the pond, absorbing the sunshine, while a lone weather-beaten Victorian sat amidst a few dead pine trees on the eastern side. Close to one of the log homes, someone sat at the edge of a dock, patiently casting a line in the water, while a black-and-white dog played in the yard behind him.

Since Coraline didn't quite feel like visiting the Victorian, and the sailor was too far out, she plodded along the dirt beach, towards the fisherman. As she approached, the dog took notice, and started to stare at her. Coraline began to have second thoughts. Would the dog start growling, barking? Would it attack me?

Much to her pleasant surprise, it simply trotted over to her, sniffed at her legs, and licked her hand when she bent down to pet it. It had soft spotted fur, and when the dog looked up at her, the eyes seemed playful. When the spaniel had its fill of praise from the stranger, it ran off back to its master, who patted its head before focusing back on fishing.

Coraline approached the dock cautiously, not knowing how the fisherman would react. She still didn't know who he was. He could be some sour old man that would sue her for trespassing, or a crazed lunatic, for all she knew. But, although wary, she still walked up the dock to the man.

"Hello?" she tried. The stranger's head turned and spotted her out of the corner of the eye. Then he lifted his legs up and onto the wood, facing her completely.

"Oh, hello!" he exclaimed, and set his pole down. Coraline was surprised to see that the fisherman was actually a boy, not a couple years older than her. He got to his feet and held out a fingerless-gloved hand.

"You must be the new girl up the street! I'm Lucas."

Shaking his hand slowly, she tried a friendly smile.

"Coraline," she told him.

"Caroline, huh? That's a cool name."

The girl with the cool name looked at Lucas from head to toe. He was dressed quite strangely, as if he was on some sort of extended camping trip. A red baseball cap sat atop his head, with clip-on headlights attached to the rim. He had a green military-style coat over a plaid collared shirt over a grey T-shirt, with a Smith & Wesson patch over one of his breast pockets. Hanging from various spots all over were pocketknives, whistles, fire starters, and a mini-flashlight. He even had rope tied around his belt. Possibly the oddest thing about his outfit were the football kneepads over his jeans, lifting his pants far above his shoes so you could see his socks if you leaned down.

Once they stopped shaking hands, Lucas gave her a nod, and sat back down to keep up with his hobby. For lack of a better thing to do, Coraline tried to keep up with the conversation.

"So…" she began. "What'cha doin'?" Lucas grunted and responded with a hint of unsatisfaction.

"The single most boring activity on the face of the earth."

"Then why are you doing it?" It seemed obvious to Coraline that if you hated something, you usually wouldn't do it. But then again, she hated chores and homework.

"My house lost power last night," the boy told her. "No lights, no television, no plugs to test my computer with. I even had to take all the food out of the refrigerator and put them in a big picnic cooler."

That wasn't good. Lucas continued.

"Usually, I have something good to do. But the ground has been so soggy, I can't start a fire or even whittle wood correctly. It needs to be dry. Now, I'm stuck fishing."

Coraline looked at her new aquaintance curiously. There was something wrong with the way this boy was acting. Something about the environment told her a piece of the puzzle was missing. Then, as soon as it came, she figured it out.

"Where are your parents?"

Lucas looked at her, grinned, and stared back at his line.

"My mom and dad are out on a business trip in Portland. They're both home decorators."

Something told Coraline that their son didn't mix in with how his house looked. Sighing, the fisherboy reeled his line in, picked up his pole, and got to his feet.

"I'm having no luck," he announced sadly. "The only thing I've gotten since daybreak is this little dude."

He reached into the bucket at his feet and expertly plucked out a little grey fish no bigger than a guppy, waving it in front of Coraline's face for emphasis of his failure. Before she could push his hand away, he held it above his head, opened his mouth, and dropped the tiny thing in, swallowing it whole. Looking back at a squeamish Coraline, he shrugged and held out his hand.

"One dollar." Coraline looked at his hand and back at him.

"What?"

"I just ate a fish live… one dollar." Eventually, the disgusted look on his guest's face made him laugh and put his hand down.

"I'm just kidding, you know." Coraline was still disturbed by the boy's makeshift breakfast, but she nodded in understanding. Lucas just stood there awkwardly for a bit before stepping off the dock and towards his house. Not wanting to be a bad host, he called back to his guest.

"Hey Caroline, follow me for a sec." She was wary of this weird guy she just met, but trotted after him, the dog rubbing against her legs.

Around the time most people wake up on a weekend…

"It's Cor-aline, ya know."

"Okay, okay. Coraline. Sheesh."

The two walked across the yard towards the Gaiman's log home. As they got closer, Coraline noticed that the ground was littered with carved sticks, lawn equipment, and dog toys. Someone was busy, and didn't think of cleaning up.

Lucas brought the girl to his back porch and opened the glass door. He stepped in, wiped his feet, and proceeded to the kitchen. When Coraline set foot in the house, she realized that the Gaiman's home decorating skill was displayed everywhere. A chandelier of false deer antlers hung from the ceiling, just underneath a humongous skylight. The living room was decked out in natural furniture, so that only the television was made of metal, and the couch out of leather. An open window connected the room to the kitchen, so Coraline could walk up to it and peer in to see Lucas grabbing a soda from the cooler.

"Nice house," she remarked. She meant it too.

"Thanks. It's not really my style, but it's better than the apartment we had in Buffalo." He walked back into the room with Coraline and gave her a short tour.

"So, yeah. This is the family room. TV's not working, radio's not working, and the lights aren't working," he said, directing his guest's attention to each fizzled out electronic. Then he pointed to the kitchen.

"Not much in there that isn't practical. My mom decorated it okay, but I never really understood why kitchens and bathrooms had to look so nice."

Coraline smiled at his joke and twisted to a second-floor balcony above. Lucas caught sight of this, and led her to the stairs.

"Up here are the bedrooms and study. The only room I use up here, though, is mine." At the top of the staircase, he walked through a little door with a 'No Trespassing, violators will be shot' sign. When Coraline entered, it was like an immediate culture change. It was so different, in fact, she had to stop to adjust her mind to the environment.

A twin-sized bed sat in the corner, it's sheets messy from Lucas getting up this morning (and plenty of mornings before), and opposite it was a desk covered in computer parts and tools, with an intact laptop open on the side. The walls weren't wooden, but plastered, and painted to look like the grey walls you'd find in dungeons. The only relief from this depressing sight was the entire far wall, painted bright orange. Any space that didn't have a shelf or piece of furniture in front of it was home to a variety of signs and posters, while an old bookcase stood precariously between two windows, stuffed with innumerable books and mementos.

"This," Lucas announced proudly, "is my room."

Coraline stepped in, looking around at everything, while her new friend just plopped himself on his bed.

"It's… different."

"Thank you," Lucas smiled. Coraline turned to the dissected computer and picked up a small digital card.

"What're you doing over here?" she asked.

"Oh, that's my dad's old laptop. I… borrowed it to see the inner workings and put it back together again."

"That's cool." Turning around back towards the door, she saw something on the wall that made her cringe.

"What is that?"

Lucas looked where she was pointing.

"Oh, that's the dead rabbit I found on the road a few weeks ago."

Technically it wasn't the whole rabbit, just its hide spread out on the wall. The additional parts – bones, guts, and other such things – were missing. This made Coraline question.

"Where's the rest of it?"

Lucas responded unfazed by her reaction to it. "I gave the meat to Lulu… oh, that's my dog, by the way." The spaniel sat on his bed next to him. "The, um, organs were used for this morning's fishing, and the bones are in the shed. I've yet to figure out what to do with them."

Coraline was just a little disturbed. "Why would you do this? You could've buried it or something."

"I did it like the Indians. Didn't waste a single bit of it. It was already dead, anyways, and I highly doubt that rabbits conduct burial ceremonies."

He chuckled and Coraline couldn't help but chuckle with him. Bunny burials. Ha. Lucas got up, took off his kneepads, and sat at the computer desk. Sighing, he picked up a piece and a screwdriver, contemplating what he should do with the stuff in his hand.

"I have no idea where I'm supposed to put the heat sink, especially in a laptop."

Coraline hadn't the foggiest of what he was talking about. After a few seconds, he gave up thinking anyways, and turned to her.

"So, how do you like your new accommodations up the hill?" he asked.

Coraline wasn't sure how to answer the question. "It's a nice house," she told him reluctantly. "A little creepy at night, but it's my home now."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Pretty alien surroundings for the first few weeks, eh?"

You have no idea.

"Yeah, it took a while to get used to it."

Lucas nodded in agreement, and started to play with Lulu. Suddenly, Coraline had an idea.

"Did you know the last people who lived in there?"

"Your apartment?"

"Yeah."

"Well, they left a few weeks after my family moved here," he started. "Some old couple. Just wanted to go someplace that wasn't rainy 24/7, I guess."

"No one else?"

Lucas paused and stared off into space, then stared into Coraline's eyes.

"There was the Fords. They live in that eyesore across the pond." He stopped talking again as if he were deep in thought.

"About a year ago, they decided to, I dunno, upgrade from their leaky rotten home to the Pink Palace. They were gonna buy both ground floor apartments. So, Mrs. Lovat's realtor showed them around."

He took off his shoes quickly and spread out over his bed so he could be more comfortable telling the story.

"They were there only one day. Still hadn't sold their old house, still hadn't combined the two sections of the building. They have two kids, Peter and Kimberly. Petes's a jerk like his mom, but Kimberly was nice. Anyways, they were unpacking and all, making plans to sell their Victorian, settling in. But the following morning, Kimberly's room was completely destroyed, and she'd gone crazy."

Coraline interrupted for a second. "What do you mean, crazy?"

Lucas drew a deep breath and blew it all out again. "She destroyed all of her toys, for one. Burned them. Then she took a knife to their old cat who'd recently given birth to kittens. They were all adopted in the end, though. I remember them taking her to the hospital. She was screaming at the top of her lungs about 'button spiders.' Completely wacko, ya know?"

Coraline was completely rigid, but tried to stay focused on not making Lucas feel weird.

"Yeah… wacko."

"She still lives with them," he concluded. "I'm surprised they didn't put her in a mental hospital.

"Yeah… wacko."

Lucas gave her an odd look. "Riight. Um, it's nearly ten, ya know. Maybe you should go home. I'll introduce you to Lenards later, if you want."

"Um… yeah. Yeah sure!" Coraline exclaimed, snapping out her daze. "I'll, uh, see you later then."