Chapter 6: Heartbreaking Discoveries

Norman was going down the hallways in the school during lunch, he thought he needed it. He'd just got done getting embarrassed at the end of PE. And suffered from a heartbreak. In PE today, the couch made everyone play a round of dodged ball; Norman, Coraline, and Neil were on the same team, which was a good thing for the three of them, until they were in the finale three on their side. On the other side were four others- Alvin, Salma, and two of Alvin's meaty henchmen. Salma volunteered to get hot by a ball, which was gently thrown underhand like a three-year-old from Neil, sense both he and Norman knew that she was their friend. Alvin and his team didn't like that, so once Salma went back to the high top of the bleachers, where she would finally finish a book in peace, Alvin picked up a ball and threw it hard at Neil, making him go out.

This made Norman and Coraline mad, so Coraline acted quick and threw a ball, hitting one of Alvin's meaty henchmen, sending him out. Norman and Coraline's team were cheering with glee; it was done the same way when a famous baseball star hits the home run. It was two-on-two, and just as Coraline was picking up another ball to throw, Alvin's second meaty henchman threw the ball, directly towards the blue-haired girl. Norman quickly jumped and got in front of Coraline, accepting the ball to hit him dabbed in the face, sending him down onto the gym floor with a huge thud, which was presented by a loud smack-like sound fro the ball's hit upon Norman's face.

Norman was knocked out for only a moment or two; but once he'd opened his eyes, he sees Coraline looking straight into his eyes, asking if he was okay. But that wasn't the embarrassment, this was: "Hey Normy, ya need your girlfriend to give you 'CPR'?!" Sung out Alvin, making the same, stupid-sounding hyena laugh that made his monkey-like face even more ridiculous than usual.

Well, that was enough to make Norman and Coraline blush. Norman's blush was embarrassment, while Coraline's was both embarrassment and anger. Coraline confronted Alvin and his gang about how she was Norman's girlfriend, nor would she ever be.

Norman had heard that and made his heart crush. She sounded serious, so she could've been joking. After PE, Norman didn't feel like joining the others, he just decided to go down the halls. He needed to be left alone for a while.

After going pass many of the classrooms, the principal's office, and the nurses' office, Norman went straight into the boys' restroom, and went into a stall. He felt heartbroken. Coraline's lecture to Alvin, claiming how she'll never like Norman in that way and how she'd rather go ten rounds in a hardcore boxing match than kiss a great friend made him feel turn apart.

XXXXX

School had finally ended after about two-and-a-half hours, and Norman stayed in the boys' room long enough to be the last one in the area of school grounds. Once making sure the coast was clear, Norman quickly sprinted out of the school building and towards the forest near Knob Hill- Aggie's resting place. Norman felt like he needed to talk to someone- a friend who understands him more than anyone else. Once going through the entire woods, Norman had finally caught sight of Agatha's tree.

Aggie's ghost was just floating around, making some sounds from her mouth. She suddenly spots the living boy and a large smile grows upon her ghostly face. Agatha floats a little more downward towards the exact height as Norman.

"Norman Babcock! Oh, how it's sooo good to see you again! How have you been?" The ghost girl asked with glee.

Norman only looks up at the ghost; he looked a mixture of dead-tired and dead-sad. Agatha's cheerful smile brakes into a very concerning look. Slowly, she places a comforting hand on his shoulder and asked, "Norman...is everything okay...?"

"Aggie..." Sighs Norman dreadfully. "I need to tell you something...something that makes me wanna die,"

Agatha could catch the broken-down sounding during Norman's response; "Tell me everything..." She says.

Norman sighed and began to tell Agatha everything. He told her about the dodge ball game, how he and Coraline were the finale two on their team, fighting against Alvin and his meaty henchmen. Agatha was listening very carefully and was thinking a lot about what she was hearing; she was shocked, however, when Norman had told her about getting embarrassed by Alvin, and Coraline telling him the type of stuff that made Norman feel awful.

"Oh Norman..." Agatha says as she pulls him into a hug. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Claimed Norman.

Coraline seemed to serious to Norman when she was saying all that stuff to Alvin- about how she'll never love Norman in that way- it made him feel sick to his stomach, and tears of rejection were slowly forming in his eyes. But Norman didn't want to cry in front of his second best friend, so he'd got up and collected his backpack that was one the ground.

Norman sighs, "I need to go, Agatha. I'm going home. See you later," With that, Norman left.

While walking down the path, he could hear Agatha's saddened goodbye, "Bye, Norman...get well soon."

The funny thing was...Norman wasn't sure if he was going to get better.

Coraline, Neil, and Salma were hanging out at the Blithe Hollow Mall; and just like the rest of the town, the mall was all witch-themed from top-to-bottom. There were a few store names, like, Witch Topic, and, Build-A-Witch, and most of all, JC Witches. EVERYTHING was witch-themed in this town. Even the cafeteria was witch-themed.

The trio was eating some pizza at the mall's cafeteria, talking about their plans for the weekend. Once Salma was done blabbering about going to win another spelling bee in a nearby town, and Neil talking about having Norman over for the slumber party that they were talking about, Coraline didn't really have any plans to do or share about. But one thing was on her mind. Norman Babcock. Coraline hasn't seen the ghost-whisperer all day after PE, and she was starting to worry about Norman. Why hasn't she seen Norman all day for the rest of school? It was all weird why; Norman didn't even go to lunch today! That's how weird it had gotten; along ditching the last two classes of the day.

"Hey guys...any idea why Norman wasn't around after PE today?" Coraline asked very worriedly.

Neil shrugged.

"Nope, I don't really think I do know."

Salma rolled her eyes and looking at the blue-haired girl seriously. "Coraline...why do you think he wasn't around?"

"Huh?" Coraline asked; she looked all confused.

Salma sighed and started lecturing the girl; she was going to give her the reasons. "I'm not stupid, Coraline...I'm not modest...I'm the top student in Blithe Hollow Middle School and pretty much the smartest person in this town. I was in the gym too, you know. As you awoke Norman from getting the ball in the face, Alvin was embarrassing him, talking about you giving him 'CPR'- meaning he meant kissing,"

Coraline blushed a blood-red-like color, Salma continued on.

"...And once Alvin had embarrassed Norman about you kissing him and calling you his girlfriend, you went up to Alvin angrily and started ragging about how you would never like Norman like that. Furthermore, you broke Norman's heart pretty badly when you said all of those things: You would rather go ten rounds in a hardcore boxing match than kiss him, saying how you'll never like hi like that, and for saying that Norman wasn't your type..."

"What are you saying?" Coraline interrupted.

Salma sighed and shook her head.

"Coraline...what I'm trying to tell you, is that...you broke his heart." Remarked Salma.

Coraline was looking rather shocked and dumbstruck. What did she mean by, you broke his heart? Was it possible that Norman liked her? It seemed to be the only option and reasonable answer to what the brain was talking about.

"Y-You mean...Norman...likes me? He really likes me?" Stuttered Coraline.

Salma nodded her head, Neil didn't really have an expression, but he was thinking about all of this and why it was so hard for her to figure this out, and Coraline was looking a mixture of worried and joy. But her blush and tiny grin goes away as she suddenly remembers that Norman was in pain of a heartbreak. So without hesitating, Coraline gathered up her backpack and yelled, "I've gotta see Norman!", and rushed out of the mall.

Norman Babcock was in his room, looking through many Zombie comics and was listening to some music. He was a mess right now, and was trying desperately to not get effected by this heartbreak even more. His parents were out of town for the weekend, so it was just him and Courtney. Courtney was now like Norman's personal guide's consular- a little mixture of Dr. Phil and Oprah, if you will. But Norman didn't need any of that at the moment; all he wanted was to be left alone and stay alone. Forever.

Grandma Babcock's ghost glides through the roof and sees her grandson looking like a character from an action film that just got beat up hard. Except there was no bruises or gushes of blood all over him...there was just the lifeless expression on his face that meant sadness and misery.

"Aww...Norman...why are you upset?" Asked the ghost granny.

"I don't wish to talk about it..." Said Norman weakly as more tears of rejection formed and broke out. Norman yelled as he cried loudly and clutched himself. "It hurts, Grandma...WHY DO THEY HURT?!"

Grandma Babcock had an idea of what he was talking about. "Suffering from a broken heart, aren't ya, Norman?"

Norman nodded, still not looking at his grandmother. While looking outside, Norman saw that the sun was going to be setting soon, and saw other kids playing around, teenagers being stupid, yet having a blast, ghost floating around, and, what made Norman's broken heart even worse...he saw couples kissing and snugging. Norman had also gotten the ability to read lips, which made things for him much worse when he read "I love you." coming out of people's lips.

"Norman..." Grandma Babcock says gently as she floats closer to him. "Please tell Grandma everything, honey."

With a brief sigh and feeling more pain from his broken heart, Norman began telling his grandmother everything that he'd told Agatha. Grandma Babcock was looking rather sad and felt terrible. She gave her grandson a gentle 'ghost hug' and reassured him that everything was going to be fine.

Norman's reply to that was, "No they won't! I liked Coraline, a lot, maybe even loved her! And she said all of those things...in front of me!" Cried Norman. More tears and pain in his chest was forming, and Norman threw himself onto his bed, and cried into his pillow.

It pained Grandma Babcock to see her grandson like this. She figured that he'll want to be alone for a while, so floats upward and said while doing so, "I love you, Norman, and don't worry, things will get better. Who knows, maybe Coraline will turn up." And with that, Norman was all alone in his room again.

Norman began to think about everything- Coraline, Neil, Agatha, the curse from last year, and pretty much his entire twelve years of life. The world was never really good to poor 'ole Norman, never was, and probably never will. He needed to be a place where he could feel welcomed...where he could feel...loved and cared for. It was impossible though- there wasn't a place like that. Suddenly, Norman remembered the Other World...just behind that door in the basement. But what about what Coraline said about the Other Mother and the entire world?

"Oh, what does she know?" Norman asked himself angrily in a hushed voice. "The only thing she knows is how to break a guy's heart."

Norman quickly rushed downstairs, down the basement, and opened the little door. The colorful tunnel and opening on the other end was still there, which meant Norman wasn't dreaming after all. Norman looked around his real surroundings one last time before starting to go through the tunnel.

"Oh Norman!" Sung the Other Mother with glee as she sees Norman entering the den. It was just him and her. Norman looked around and noticed that not everything was how it use to be; now everything was all bug-themed and too colorful. This made Norman feel...well, weirder. It wasn't the same as last time- everything looked so different, and Norman had a pretty bad feeling about all of this.

"Um...n-nice place you got here...Mom?" He didn't mean for it to come out as a question, but Norman was a little freaked by all the bug-theme, along with the bug furniture that moved.

The Other Mother grins at him.

"You like it?" She asked gleefully while smiling wide.

A box of chocolate came up to her from a walking beetle chair. Once the Other Mother opened the box of chocolates, it reveled not chocolate...well, it was chocolate, but not normal chocolate. The chocolate was squirming bugs!

Norman looked pretty disgusted by the sight.

"Y-Yeah...I guess so...love bugs, huh?" He shivered.

"Well, I guess you may say that, Normy. Have a seat, will you, darling?" The Other Mother grinned.

Another walking beetle chair comes up from behind Norman and hoist him upon the seat. Norman was caught by surprise by that and was carried over towards the other side of the room and was seated in front of the Other Mother while she's eating the bugs.

The Other Mother saw the grossed-out look on Norman's face and said, "They're coco beetles; wanna try one, Norman?" She asked while handing the box to him. Norman quickly shook his head.

"N-No thank you...but I do need to talk to you about something. You see, there's this girl at my world, who I've liked, maybe even loved, and she just broke my heart today. I feel like I'm dead- my heart isn't beating, I feel empty inside, and I feel so...heartless and-" Norman didn't finish; the Other Mother gave him a hurtful expression through her black, buttoned eyes.

"Oh Norman, that's awful! Who's this girl, anyways?"

Norman sighed, almost feeling like he wanted to commit suicide for even saying the name. "Coraline...Coraline Jones..." Muttered Norman.

The Other Mother was taken by surprise by this, and grins evilly. If Norman was taking a liking into Coraline, and if Coraline had taken a liking into this boy, maybe...she could use this to her advantage of getting revenge on the girl who imprisoned her in the Other World for one whole year.

"...Coraline broke my heart, Other Mother!" Norman exclaimed. "I can't take this pain any longer! I loved her, and she broke me! I need your help..."

"Want me to make it go away, Norman?" The Other Mother asked.

Norman gave her a long look before slowly nodded. His entire face was red and soaked with tears of rejection and hate. He didn't want to go back home, he wanted to stay here.

The Other Mother grins evilly and her true form rips out of the motherly form. Norman watched with horror and quickly got out of the chair and watched as everything became dark and green-light. By now, the Other Mother was in her Beldam form- needle-like long fingers, cracked skull-like face, spider-like legs, ripped-up black dress, and horrible black hair that looked like it belonged to a witch.

Norman changed his mind- he didn't want to stay any longer, he didn't want anything to do with this Beldam! He quickly started to sprint towards the basement to get to the door, but the Beldam caught him and laughed wickedly.

The Beldam quickly dragged Norman towards upstairs and threw him into his room.

"I'll come and get you when the time is perfect," Sneered the Beldam before disappearing.

Norman curled himself on his bed and felt scared for the very first time he could remember. What was going to happen to him?

Oh-uh...

POOR NORMAN! Ikr? :(

Well, stay tuned for the next chapter! :)

~Fanwriter9~