OMG! thank you blueflower for pointing out that i uploaded the same chapter twice! gah, life's hell, ya know? =P
...sorry, but i just really like the idea of Wybie having an astronomy background.

Star.

Coraline looked down at the stars on her sweater; the one that her mother had cut up to patch the holes on her favorite orange polka-dot pyjamas. As much as she hated to admit it, Coraline really did like the sweater the Other Mother had given her. She wished she could fix it. She wanted it back.

Shaking her head, Coraline re-folded the sweater and placed it neatly in her bottom drawer, where she kept all sorts of things she had found when exploring. The sweater remained there with the base of the broken snowglobe, along with the three empty shells where the ghost children's eyes used to be held. She closed the drawer.

Coraline walked over to her window and placed her elbows on the windowside, propping her head with both hands, staring up at the sky filled with real stars. She had a telescope in her room (it had been stuffed away in her closet), but she wasn't really interested in using it. She rather liked to look at the sky with the stars in it, not just examine the star itself, as a ball of gas millions of light years away, like she had been told by her parents. It took away the awe and wonder of stars from her, like analyzing a good bedtime story.

Her gaze drifted gently down to the tiny valley she lived in, over the tops of pine trees and grazing road. She spotted two pinpricks of light on the roadside, and she squinted to see Wybie's bike, it's lights still glowing brightly, not far from her house.

Suspicious and a bit curious, Coraline grabbed her yellow swampers and coat, and creeped down the stairs, across the hall, and outside.

She could still see the soft glow of Wybie's bike-light, so she set out to see what the heck he was doing in her yard.

Upon reaching the bike however, Coraline couldn't see anyone. She looked around, acutely aware that the bike's light gave away her position to anyone. After her journey to the Other World, the nighttime made her a bit more edgy. Slowly, she stepped backwards towards the old oak tree, away from the bike, when her boot stepped on something squishy.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Cried a voice.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yelled Coraline, wobbling on her unsteady footing before she tripped over the figure and landed on her back. The thing clutched it's face, moaning. Coraline scooted back, until the oak tree blocked her. She stared wide-eyed at the figure as it rolled over and spoke:

"Geez, Coraline did you have to step on my face?"

Realizing who it was, the fear in Coraline's eyes flashed to hardness: "What do you mean? Didn't you see me?" Her voice quivered with fury: "Why didn't you say something!"

"Because," grunted Wybie, still clutching his face, his voice muffled by his gloved hands, "I was trying to ambush you."

"Well gee, thanks!"

Wybie sat up, rocking back and forth like a child. "Ugh, and because of your big fat foot, you probably broke my nose!" He moaned.

"Oh, boo-hoo, Karma!"

They were done shouting, their shock was gone, and so their voices settled down a little, Coraline still panting, Wybie gingerly touching his nose.

"What were you doing out here anyway?" Coraline snapped.

Wybie moved his jaw around, wincing a little, before sitting up straight. "Stargazing."

"What?" said Coraline, unimpressed.

"You can see a lot more stars out her than if you were in a big city." Coraline looked up, and realized that he had a point. Back in Pontiac, the sky wasn't nearly as bright, with so many stars...

"I like to try and find all the constellations." Wybie continued.

"Constellations?" Repeated Coraline, the word unfamiliar on her tongue.

"Ever heard of the Big Dipper?"

"Oh, yeah." Coraline's father had pointed it out to her, a long time ago, when they were walking. She had been five, maybe. "Doesn't it point north?"

"No, it points to the North Star, but close enough..." Wybie settled back down on his back, folding his hands behind his head. "Well, the Big Dipper isn't actually a constellation, just stars that form a shape. Can't remember the name for it. It starts with an A, I think..." He caught Coraline rolling her eyes, and added hastily: "Anyways, out here, you can really see other constellations, like the Big Bear, and Taurus the bull fighting Orion."

"Oh, yeah, I've heard of that one," Coraline said, scooting over to where Wybie was. "But where's the Big Bear?"

"Well actually, the Big Dipper is part of the Big Bear," He pointed up at the Big Dipper, and connected the pattern of stars for her. "See it?"

"Yes." Said Coraline, lying on her back like Wybie, her hands on her stomach as she peered up into the sky. "And that is not a bear."

"Well, it's kinda like a bear, so I guess they just decided to call it that." Wybie said huffily. "And over there is where Orion fights Taurus!"

"Huh... How'd that work out for him?"

"Well, see, Orion was a hunter..."

Settling down into her comfortable bed of grass as she listened to Wybie repeating the old myths of the constellations, she gazed up at the vast world of stars above her, scattered into the midnight velvet sky. And at that moment, Coraline couldn't be more content.