ParaNormaline - Chapter 1

- CHAPTER 1 - Welcome To Blithe Hollow -

--Coraline's POV--

Coraline looked out the car window, bored. Her parents had to go on a business trip to some place called Blithe Hollow, but she didn't really know why or what it was for exactly. Since they didn't trust her at the house alone (especially after what they called 'The Snow globe Incident') and they both had to go, she was dragged along for the trip as well. Her mother, Mel, glanced back at her as she heard yet another sigh from Coraline. "You're overreacting, Coraline. This'll be fun!" Mel said in a cheery voice, trying to cheer up her daughter. "Yeah, right…" Coraline replied gloomily. Mel smiled faintly at her daughter, then turned forward again. "The people here look nice…" she tried again. Coraline examined the crowd that was walking around the street. "They look like normal people to me…" she sighed, unimpressed.
That's when Coraline's gaze went to a boy walking down the sidewalk. She lifted her head off of her hand as she looked at him. He wore a red sweater with jeans, and his brown hair was sticking straight up. That's not what got her attention, though. What got her attention was the fact that he seemed to back up a little every so often, as if he was trying not to bump into someone who wasn't even there. He also seemed to be walking around invisible objects, too, as well as apologizing to thin air. "What's he doing?" Coraline mumbled in curiosity. Mel's gaze went back to Coraline after she saw the welcome sign for the hotel they were staying at. "We're here!" she exclaimed, still trying to get Coraline excited about the trip. Coraline double took at the boy again, then looked past her mom and at the building. She had expected it to look gloomier then it was, but she didn't know why. She shrugged it off and got her bags out of the trunk. She glanced over at the boy again, then jumped in shock when she heard Me call out. "Coraline!" "Coming!" Coraline quickly ran up to her parents with her bags.

Once they got to their room they put their bags on the floor and chose who would sleep where. Luckily, there were two different 'bedrooms', a bathroom, and of course the main room, which served as both the living room and the kitchen/dining room. Coraline glanced into the bedroom to her right. It had a window with a small 'couch' in front of it. The window had a really nice view. "Can I have this room?" she asked. "Sure, Coraline. Your father and I are going to start unpacking, and I suggest you do the same!" Mel answered. "Ok, Mom!" Coraline went into her room and unpacked, not wanting to get in trouble for putting it off.
When she was finally done, she went to check on her parents, who were working on their laptops. "I'm done unpacking!" she exclaimed. "Already?" Charlie asked in slight awe. Coraline nodded, then had an idea. "I'm gonna go explore the town!" she told her parents. "Alright…" Mel agreed hesitantly. "But be careful!" she warned quickly before Coraline ran out the door. "I will!" Coraline called back to her mother as she ran out of the building. Once she was outside, she slowed to a walking pace so she could enjoy the scenery. She had always loved exploring, even if it meant just taking a stroll down the street. You could almost always find something new, right?

After a few minutes of walking through town, Coraline finally decided that the trip might not be that bad. "This place is actually pretty nice…" she murmured to herself, smiling. Suddenly her moment was ruined when she ran into someone. Both people yelped as they fell backwards to the ground. Coraline got up slowly, looking over to see who had run into her. She gasped slightly when she realized that it was the same boy from earlier. He was rubbing his head as he also got up slowly. He shook his head a little, then bent down to pick up his belongings, since almost everything had fallen out of his schoolbag.
"S-sorry!" he stammered, slightly embarrassed. "I didn't see you there…" "Guess you were trying so hard not to run into imaginary objects that you didn't think to watch where you were going, huh?" Coraline joked.
Even though she had used a joking tone, he seemed slightly offended as he put the last few papers into his schoolbag. He looked at her, then raised an eyebrow. "Are you new around here? I don't recognize you…" he asked, slightly confused. "What? Oh, yeah… I'm visiting with my parents. They have some kind of business trip so they dragged me along." Coraline answered. "Ah." The boy nodded in understanding.
After a moment of silence, Coraline spoke up again. "Why were you doing that, anyway?" she asked. "Doing what?" "Like I said earlier, you were trying to avoid stuff that wasn't even there. Why?" Coraline explained simply. "Oh, that… Well…" the boy started to answer, then trailed off, glancing back as if he saw someone. He looked back at Coraline, rubbing the back of his neck. "Guess I was just distracted…" he finished uneasily. Coraline raised an eyebrow at him, not believing that he was 'just distracted'. Then she decided that it didn't really matter, anyways. If he wanted to keep secrets, that was up to him.