Oh my twitchy witchy girl, I think you are so nice...

[curiously_cora]

Throughout Coraline's short life she had always been underestimated or overlooked. The Other Mother had thought it would be easy to sew buttons on her eyes, to kill her and to keep her forever. The Other Father had thought she wouldn't hurt him to escape. The Other Mister Bobo thought she could be seduced by the idea of being able to do anything

Comments

[beentodamascus]

A distraction was pretty welcome. Adam had been amassing quite the collection of Spooks episodes, but he hadn't worked up the nerve to watch any more yet. Still, he could relax at Cora's party. He stood watching her on the bouncy castle, the cat pushing his way around his ankles.

"Come on, birthday girl," he said, beckoning to her. "Sunscreen. Now."

[curiously_cora]

Coraline recognised that tone. It was the tone her mother always used whenever she really meant something. Don't go out into that rain Coraline Jones or there will be Trouble. Unpack those boxes. Don't trek mud into the new carpets. Adam sounded just like that. Like the end of the world might happen if she didn't put sunscreen on it.

Coraline looked at Adam and sighed in resignation before dropping mid bounce onto her bum. Throwing herself across the bouncy castle and rolling down the gentle slope, Coraline rolled onto her feet and presented herself for sunscreen duties. She hated it. It smelled gross. And it made her look really weird and pale.

"Do I have to? Can't I just stay in the shade or borrow a parasol or cast an invisible barrier between me and the sun?" Coraline asked, wobbling her lip in the puppy look that drove her mother insane. "Please? It smells gross."

[beentodamascus]

"Yeah, you have to. Because you won't stay in the shade and you won't borrow a parasol." Adam squeezed some sunblock into the palm of his hand. "And nobody wants you getting burnt on your birthday.

"Just hold your nose or something."

[curiously_cora]

"But I could have superpowers," Coraline argued though sullenly approached Adam. Now that she was twelve (nearly thirteen) she was sure that vegetables and curfew and sunblock would be a thing of the past. Apparently she was wrong about that. "I'll still be able to smell it afterwards and I'll look like Casper the ghost."

[beentodamascus]

"Yeah, but you don't. Hold your hair up out of the way, sweetheart."

He at least made it quick, smoothing it across her shoulders, making sure she's got good coverage.

"Are you having fun?"

[curiously_cora]

"You don't know that! I could've been bitten by a radioactive spider or developed mutant powers or got zapped by cosmic rays or something," Coraline said though she held up her hair like he asked so he could slap the icky stuff on. Coraline nodded though she wasn't entirely convinced yet. She couldn't see Cain anywhere but she was trying not to worry. "I guess. I like the bouncy castle. Mister Dean is okay, I mean even if he does kill ghosts."

[beentodamascus]

"You guess?"

Adam frowned and reached out to tuck a strand of fair hair behind her ear. "Do you want anything else? You ought to be having lots of fun."