Beach Birthday Party

[curiously_cora]

Coraline had hung paper chains all the way from the Compound to the Beach; they decorated every available tree along the main path and brightened up area. She’d have to take them down later of course but for now they looked beautiful hanging in the sky. She’d spent weeks planning this party, worrying that no one would turn up and trying to get as

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[youngestqueen]

Lucy had promised her help to Coraline, and help she had, in whatever way Cora had directed her. Her gift was simple, a series of drawings she'd made into a book complete with story. It wasn't very good, she thought, but Lucy hoped her friend would like it.

Mostly she hoped that people would come to the party. Coraline had been so worried about this, she deserved to have a nice party with people at it. Straightening her tunic she looked about for her friend, and for anyone else she knew.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline finished laying out the party food and sighed deeply. Standing up she peered around and grinned when she saw Lucy. Her stomach still felt uneasy, butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. Smoothing her party dress out, Coraline bounded over towards her friend.

"I'm so glad you came Lucy," Coraline said smiling cheerily.

[youngestqueen]

"Coraline," Lucy smiled, curtsying and then hugging her friend, almost bouncing with excitement. "I wouldn't have missed it for anything."

[curiously_cora]

Coraline curtsied back, a lot lower than Lucy's and hugged her friend tightly.

"I know you wouldn't! Even if someone bad came, you'd make doubly sure to defeat them twice as quick so you wouldn't miss it." Coraline said, smiling brightly. "I made Wednesday a black blanket and a dark giftbag, I knew she might not like all the bright colours. And I even made sure to invite Coin, I know I was being very silly and not very nice."

[heartliketin]

Cain was there with gifts and Glitch in tow, but he wasn't in the middle of any it, just sticking to the outside edges of the party. He didn't have his hat that day, but still wore his long duster over his vest and pants, arms crossed over his torso as he hovered at the edge of the party, just keeping a watchful eye on both Coraline and Jonas, but along with that, all the other people he'd come to feel protective over as time went on.

[notinutopia]

Jonas waved to Cain. He was busy occupied with various party duties, but wanted to let Cain know he saw him. After finishing adding a few last minute directions and saying hello to the people around, he made his way over to Cain.

"Didn't Coraline do a great job?" He asked with a proud smile, glad the party was going so well

[heartliketin]

Cain assessed the party with a slow onceover, giving a nod. "It looks great, kid. Happy birthday," he offered warmly, glad that they were able to pursue some kind of normalcy around this place. "You and Coraline getting along alright?"

[notinutopia]

Jonas looked out at his party. "Thanks, Cain."

He was glad that people were having a good time. He was also thankful that the ones he knew and liked were there to celebrate with him. "She's great. I really like her a lot," Jonas admitted honestly. Then he stopped and looked up at Cain. In a lowered voice, he offered a playful smile. "What did you get her?"

[beentodamascus]

Adam sat down in the shade and watched the party get going around him. Eleven. Coraline was eleven, which reminded him that, somewhere, Wes soon would be too. Mixed feelings, and, for a second, he wished that the cup in his hand held something more alcoholic than water.

He shook his head. It was Coraline's birthday, and he loved her like his own kid. The clothes box had provided him with a new pair of wellies for her.

He was going to enjoy the party if it killed him.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline grinned over at Adam, who was sitting in the shade. He was probably was still grumpy from being awoken at an ungodly hour by a rather hyper and giddy Coraline bouncing on his bed. Grown-Ups seemed to need a lot more sleep than she did. Coraline bounded over a sliced piece of cake on a plate for him.

She looked odd in wellies and a pretty party dress but she didn't care, she was a very happy Eleven year old. "I brought you some cake, Jonas made it for me and I made his." Coraline said cheerily.

[beentodamascus]

"Thankyou, sweetheart," he said, reaching up for the cake. "And Happy Birthday."

It was probably the third or fourth time he'd said it already that day, but it was something that could bear saying more than once.

[curiously_cora]

"You've told me that four times today I've counted and all in English too. You should say Penblwydd Hapus next," Coraline said, climbing onto his lap to sit down. Coraline leaned back against Adam and grinned happily. "You know who looks pretty today? Apart from my future husband-to-be obviously. Angie does."

Stage one of subtle hinting to begin.

[ooh_lily]

Emmy was very excited about the prospect of the party. She'd spent the morning babbling (it seemed, since she'd started talking in sentences, she was never going to stop), about Cora and Sam and she'd eagerly taken hold of the awkwardly knitted rabbit that Lily had knitted out of multi-coloured wool. Emmy had, of course, helped.

"Are you going to find Coraline to give her her present, Em?" said Lily.

Emmy frowned for a minute.

"I want cake!" she said, triumphantly.
She'd figured out what parties were all about.

[curiously_cora]

Coraline got up from the blanket excusing herself to go and greet Emmy and Lily. Part of being a proper host, the guide had told her, was to greet guests properly. "Hello Emmy, hello Lily." Coraline said, offering Lily the partybag now before she forgot. "That's for after the party Emmy but if you want some cake now, we can go find you some. What type of cake do you want- we have chocolate or vanilla with strawberries on top?"

Emmy's bag of course had a very blue turtle stuffed toy in it, just like she'd asked for at Sam's party.

[ooh_lily]

"Cake!"

Lily shook her head.

"The one with the strawberries sounds nice, doesn't it, Emmy? Why don't you give Coraline her present?"

Emmy thought about it for a moment. Sharing still wasn't exactly her strong point. In the end, though, she held out the roughly wrapped package to Coraline.

"Present," she supplied, helpfully.

[curiously_cora]

"Thank you Emmy," Coraline said, unwrapping it very carefully. Coraline smiled happily. She hadn't thought of Jack Bourdain in a very long time, she hoped he was having a very nice hippity hoppity life somewhere with lots of lettuces and carrots and no mad chefs. "Oh! Thank you Emmy, this is very nice."

[miss_crewe]

Sara had been looking forward to this party for days, and now that it was finally here it was quite difficult not to simply run to the beach. She would have done, if she hadn't been carrying her presents very carefully - and if she wasn't admiring the paper chains. They made the path look so colourful and bright - much more festive than the birthdays at Miss Minchin's had been.

It must have taken ages, to make them all and string them through the trees - and then the party itself, when she arrived, looked just as wonderful as the paperchains had promised, if not more so.

There were a few people there already, and the food looked delicious - particularly the cakes - but the first thing she had to do was find Coraline and Jonas and give them their presents. She could see quite a number of other people she wanted to talk to as well.

[curiously_cora]

It had taken ages, however she had awoken at the crack of dawn to complete her project. She wanted the trees to feel special for people to know where they were going and decorating the trees seemed the best way to do that.

"Hi Sara!" Coraline said calling the girl over from where she was sat on the blanket. Her dress spread out as she nibbled on sandwiches and cakes and her favourite apple tarts.

[miss_crewe]

'Coraline!' Sara said happily, sitting down carefully on the blanket beside her and saying, 'Happy birthday. Did you do all of this? And the paperchains? It must have taken you days - and it looks wonderful,' she added, 'I think you've definitely earnt your badge. Oh - and I've got you a present,' she added, picking out the things for Coraline from the little pile in her arms. One large, solid item which was obviously a book, wrapped in paper which she'd decorated herself, and a smaller one, which she'd been too afraid of damaging to wrap properly, so she'd covered it carefully in a pretty, floral fabric she'd found in the clothes box.

The book was a large one all about Arabic cities like Mogwai, and the smaller gift was meant to go with it; a tiny replica of one of the buildings in there, ready to fit into one of the empty spaces in Mogwai.

[curiously_cora]

"Weeks," Coraline said correcting Sara. It had taken her weeks to organise everything and she had community service and homework on top of it. "Thank you. I think I've earned it too, I'm joining the Island Scouts next so I'll have lots to look forward too even if I'm not going to be a Brownie anymore."

Coraline took the presents and opened it shyly. "Thank you very much Sara, I'm going to add this to Mogwai. It's very pretty."