Training Wheels Of A Sort

[curiously_cora]

With Isabel gone and Angie, Coraline was fast running out of female grown ups to ask about breasts. She'd thought about asking Doctor Brennan but she'd probably end up using big long words that Coraline wouldn't remotely understand and whilst Doctor Brennan's scientic and detached demeanor was helpful she didn't think in this case it would help her

Comments

[polly_okeefe]

This wasn't my first time to the clothes box. Coming to the Island with just the clothes on my back required new clothes pretty much immediately. I hadn't really understood the sense of dread that some people had when they approached the box. Yes, it was magical, like the jukebox. But unlike the jukebox, it hadn't taunted me. It had perfunctorily supplied me with simple clothes from roughly my era

[curiously_cora]

Coraline stared at the girl yelling at the box, blinking at her in somewhat shock and confusion. Coraline didn't think the box was being that mean but perhaps from an older perspective it was. Grown Ups never did like telling her the truth about things she usualy had to ask Jim about it or sneak up on Johnny (her second favourite pasttime) and catch him looking at Girly magazines.

"I wouldn't give you shoes if you'd yelled at me like that, I'd probably give you buttons." Coraline said, giving the girl a small smile. "Though it would probably love the Salvation Army bin especially if Mister Harold was playing his tuba there. Harold's a character on a television show called Neighbours, my mum loves it-loved it."

Coraline picked up a bra holding it curiously as she tried to figure out which way it went and how to do up the fiddly clasps over her clothes.

[polly_okeefe]

I caught her self-correction about her mother, and winced. Though I'd spent Halloween playing the part of a twelve-year-old, I could hardly imagine how my twelve-year-old self would have reacted, being separated from my parents on this Island.

"Yes, I know," I replied, smiling at her mild rebuke. "Yelling at things gets you nowhere. But it feels good sometimes." Then, gently, I asked, "Is this your first time looking for a bra?"

[curiously_cora]

"I know, Lucy told me off for yelling at Coin. Lucy doesn't like it when we fight, when I fight I mean." Coraline said simply, getting the bra tangled up before she'd even put it on over her clothes. "Yes, normally mum would come with me shopping and buy something five sizes too big for me but I don't think that works here."

Coraline might have tried one of the bigger bras on and it just looked silly, though it was a good place to have pockets she could hide all sorts in their- weapons, food, water, maps.

[polly_okeefe]

I smiled sympathetically. "Mother did the same for me..." I did a quick calculation. "Four years ago. I still remember it was embarrassing, for both of us... Uh, here--" I stepped forward and helped her untangle the cotton wad in her hands.

"Would you like some help?" I asked. "I'm Polly, by the way."

[curiously_cora]

"Coraline. Coraline Jones. That's Cora-line not Caro-line." Coraline said stressing her name out very carefully, she was very much fed up with the mispronunciation of her name or people trying to correct her and tell her it was one thing instead of another. "Would you? Please? I'm not sure how or what I should go for."

[polly_okeefe]

I smiled at her careful enunciation of her name. "Coraline's a good name," I said. "Though I can see people getting it wrong. I've been there. My proper name is Polyhymnia, which I shortened to Poly, one 'l'. Too many people rhymed it with 'roly'. So I finally gave up correcting people, and now spelt Polly with two 'l's instead of one."

I sift through the mass of fabric, all shapes, sizes and colours. "Well," I said, holding up the crotch-less panties in disdain. "Stuff like this is right out. You probably want something small, white and, most importantly, comfortable. _Anything_ look promising?" I peer at the piles.