curiously_cora | (no subject)

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Coraline didn't have many girl friends. She had Claire and she had O-Ren but mostly she didn't have girly type friends or friends she wanted to ask about clothes and boys because well, all her friends were boys and boys who had no idea about clothes like Jake (who wore none) or Sam (who was silly). But Coraline had made new friends, new female friends that she could ask about those things and who she respected people like Bella and Kate.

Coraline liked Bella and it wasn't just because she could cook and it wasn't just because she was Jake's best friend, she was genuinely a nice girl and Coraline? Coraline wanted to protect her from creepy, stalking vampires and from falling over which she kind of did a lot. And Kate, Kate was just plain cool and wasn't the type to let any vampire stop her from doing exactly what she wanted to do. In other words the two were perfect friends for each other and Coraline had an idea exactly how to to get them to meet.

Leaving notes for Bella and Kate to help her with her hair and ask for advice, Coraline smiled and waited for the pair at the compound where Coraline could get her hair dyed blue and matchmake friends at the same time. It was a perfect plan and Sam wasn't involved so nothing could go wrong!

Hopefully.

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Kate takes one look at the note and sighs. Seriously? But she doesn't have anything else planned and she did promise Coraline she'd help with her little teenaged rebellion. At least she'll keep her out of the bigger kind of trouble.

She shows up more or less on time after finishing up her community service hours for the day, dressed in jeans, black combat boots, lace-edged cami and a dark tie-dyed tank, fingerless gloves, studded bracelets, her necklace and black leather jacket slung over her shoulder. The picture of rebellion, not so teenaged. Sometimes looking the part is everything.

"Hey, squirt. This better not be some kind of surprise party or I'm going to kick your cute little butt, you know that right?" she's teasing, but there's enough edge to it that it sounds good.

Bella had her hair up in a pony tail because, the hair on the back of her neck got incredibly oppressive this time of day. She'd been half-tempted when she saw the note to just make a dinner-making excuse. That idea didn't last long because she knew Coraline would make sure she never heard the end of it if she ditched.

So, dressed in her newly hideous plaid shorts, the white shirt she'd worn on her last day in Forks, and her bare feet, she caught sight of the familiar blonde head and walked over to her, smiling at the brunette she didn't know as well. "Got your note, Coraline, though I'll warn you, I'm not the best with this kind of thing."

"No, it's not a surprise party." Coraline said, though that gave her a brilliant idea. She'd have to find out when Kate's birthday was and throw her one. Coraline grinned when Bella turned up and bounced excitedly up and down on her feet. "What sort of thing? Oh, the hair thing that's okay Kate's brilliant at it. I need your advice on something else and I thought you two might like to meet each other. Kate, this is Bella. Bella, this is Kate. Bella lives at the Homestead with me and Jake, Jake's the one who doesn't wear his shirt. And Kate's one of Miss Helen's friends from home."

Coraline grinned at the pair of them. Coraline couldn't be less obvious if she tried. She was the worst non-romantic match maker ever.

"Thank god for that," Kate replies before she starts putting one plus one plus Twilight together and seriously? It's a damned good thing Kate's a con, otherwise she'd be making sparkles-in-the-sun jokes before she remembered the beat down she practically gave Germ boy on the same subject.

"Half the men on this island don't wear shirts, squirt." She tips her chin at Bella, smiling a bit. "Which one's Jake? And is it worth me trucking down to the Homestead for a look?"

Yeah, she's playing tough chick to the hilt today, but what she knows about Bella Swan says the girl can take care of herself but she really could use someone older, stronger and not interested in banging her to keep an eye out. And if Coraline's going to be getting into messes with her, that's just one more reason to make sure they know Kate's got trouble covered.

Good God. She'd somehow stumbled onto another Rosalie. That was her first thought when she heard the way the woman talked, because she really did remind her a little of the most ascerbic of the Cullens. The good new is that it didn't give her so much as a pang in her chest, so she was able to keep her arms loosely at her side and not wrapping around her middle.

"It's nice to meet you, Kate," she smile. "Jake kinda hard to miss, actually. About six foot eight, lots of muscles, Native American. Definitely not hard on the eyes."

"Yes but they were shirts some of the time. I think Jake's allergic because I've left shirts around for him before and he never ever puts them on." Coraline replied, huffing as if very distressed by this fact. It was hard to be Jake's best friend when he was half naked all the time. It made having adventures and jumping off waterfalls hard to concentrated on. "But I don't want to keep talking about Jake, he's boring. I want to talk about... boys. Or about one boy. He's kind of... ummm. That's what he says umm, a whole bunch."

Especially when she was older, wearing a bikini and apparently touching his back which was apparently inappropriate. Coraline didn't understand why, she'd kept things above his waist after all. "And my hair. I'm going to have blue hair, it's going to be so cool."

Kate smirks small and lifts the ends of Coraline's hair. "Yeah. It's going to look cool." Her mouth twitches, but she avoids giving out the 'try it before you buy it' advice a mom would about streaking it first instead of going whole hog.

"Why don't we do that and you can tell us about Mr. Ummm while I'm doing it. Bella's probably better at that anyway." Kate's not exactly an expert on boys. Sex, yeah. Dating and boyfriends? Not so much.

Bella looked from Kate to Coraline feeling again like she was utterly out of her element. She knew Coraline was young, but Bella didn't know if she herself had ever been that young. When she was fourteen, she was already responsible for the house, the bills, the groceries, pretty much everything except earning their income.

She managed a smile for the other two, though, and nodded once. "I don't know how much better I am at that part, but I know for a fact I'd be better at that than anything hair related," she laughed a little, indicating her own hair that she pretty much trimmed herself. "I do have a few years in high school under my belt, so I've learned a lot about the Mr. Umms of the world by osmosis at least."

"Well, you've had a boyfriend so that's one up on me. And I bet loads of boys asked you out you're so pretty. Besides I can't ask Belle she's dating Jacob, gross." Coraline said. There had been a time when Coraline had been all about Jake's abs and stomach and general hotness but that time had passed. Especially since he kept calling her Cor and ruffling her hair. "Johnny's not gross. Johnny's brilliant. He's a time traveller. And he's quite cute when he grows up too even if he doesn't like me touching him when he's grown up. Or he likes it too much, I haven't asked him which."

Kate nudged Coraline in the arm with her elbow. "Dye, squirt. It's going to take some time and I've got stuff to do later."

And when they got moving, finally, she said, "So, all right. You've got this cute boy who likes you and you like him. So what do you want to know about it? Sounds like the hard part's done."

Bella laughed a little, very thankful Kate spoke up so she didn't have to admit, again, that she didn't have much of a dating history at all. As for the boyfriend she had, yeah, that wasn't exactly the example to follow.

"Wait a minute, Coraline, you've seen him when he's young like you as well as grown up? I think I'm missing something, or confused. I thought stuff like that didn't work here?"

"Okay, okay. Well, it sort of is. What if you like two people? How do you know who to chose? Do you have to chose?" Coraline said taking Kate and Bella's hand and luring them towards the bathrooms so she can dye her hair and talk eugh romance. Coraline might have liked High School Musical and that but she really was an adventure girl at heart. "Yeah, the island turned us both into grown ups. I wore a bikini, he got all weird. So, did um Aidan too. That bit wasn't planned. He was really angry about that."

Coraline hadn't told anyone about that bit before. She and Aidan were fine now but well it had been awkard for a bit when the handsome older man thought she was... well, older. "Sometimes it does. Sometimes we get old or young or magic powers or swap bodies. Weird stuff but liking boys is weirder. Harder definitely."

"Aidan?" Kate's eyes widen and she bites her tongue to keep from laughing. Now she's going to have to bust his balls about macking on Coraline. "Yeah, he would be ticked. For the record, so would I." Not that she thinks Coraline's ever going to age up and mack on her, but some things just need to be said.

She cocks her head while they walk, studying Coraline and rolling up her sleeves. "About the other thing. You don't have choose unless someone else makes you choose. Or unless you know you just want to be with that one person. You'll know. You'll know when the thought of not being with them is harder than the thought of being with just them."

Projecting much, Kate?

Thinking about changing ages or any of the weird stuff this place could throw at her was almost more than she could process, so she let it go for now. Just another on the "deal with it if and when it happens" list.

Bella smiled a little over the question of choice, because she once thought that Jacob might think of her as something more than just her best friend. Thankfully, he didn't and she didn't have to face that decision; then Edward had left her and the whole situation was moot.

"I think I have to agree with Kate on this one, sweetie. For right now, there's no real reason to choose anything. I mean, it's not like they're both asking you to get married or anything," Bella said with a shudder. The idea of marriage still weirded her out. "That's the fun part of being young, having lots of options open to you."

"I wasn't- I didn't mean to make him think that I was older. He just sort of assumed." Coraline said making a face. It wasn't like she'd acted like some sort of... floozy. Well, at least she thought she hadn't. "Ew. I don't want to marry anyone. I mean, I thought I was going to marry Bill but that was just a really silly childish thing."

And sometimes she did still call him her betrothed just to see his face. "But I mean is that okay? Liking two people. Do you have to tell them? I mean, everyone says lying is wrong but sometimes it's okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine." That's decisive, before Bella can even get a word in. She hadn't read the books but from what she remembered, Bella angsted the crap out of liking Edward and Jacob. That was where the Team Jacob and Team Edward came from. Where the whole Team Tesla and Team Henry came from, too, except Kate wasn't into either of them.

"You don't owe anyone anything when it comes to your feelings." That's even more fierce than decisive and she rests a hand on Coraline's shoulder, steering her toward the bathroom. "You can like or date anyone you want. As many people as you want. None of them have a right to know who the others are. It's none of their business. Just be honest about there being other people."

She casts a glance at Bella, wondering how she's taking that. Also wondering if she's picked up the fact this is more than "academic" for Kate.

Bella's mouth twisted a little, because while she knew Kate got all the poker-face genes she herself was lacking, it was also kind of obvious there was more than just friendly advice behind her words. She also knew it was not really the time to be asking her.

"Right. If you're honest that you're not exclusive, there's no reason not to see anyone who interests you. This is the time for that kind of thing, you know? To find what you like and what you don't in a Mr. Umm," she added the last with a wink.

Coraline hadn't gotten this sort of advice before. Most people just told her to keep everything above the waist. Coraline had almost pointed out that she did have things above the waist but had thought better of it. Danny tended to make one too many aneurysm faces at the idea of Coraline growing up.

"Oh, why doesn't anyone ever say that? Why don't the stories ever say and then Prince Charming and the Princess met a lot of interesting people and kissed them before making an informed choice to live happily ever after?" Coralined asked curiously.

"Because if you don't have sex before you get married they don't have to worry about explaining birth control, for one thing," Kate says and it's not as snarky as it normally would be. She's pretty serious about that. "If you believe in true love and there only being one right person for you, you're a lot less likely to get an STD, get raped--" Now her smile turned snarky. "And spend a shitton of money on holidays for chocolates, flowers and jewelry."

It's a capitalist plot, is probably overkill, especially since Kate's newly monogamous. And since she's a hardcore capitalist of the more for me less for you variety.

"Well, I'm not sure about yours but my mom was always going on about having to kiss a lot of frogs to find the handsome prince. Probably because she married my dad so young and didn't want me to make the same mistake."

Bella was quiet about the whole one true person for you, because she did believe that. She also believed hers was gone and nothing else would ever be the same for her now that he was.

"Well, Johnny's not a frog. I don't think anyone I've liked has been a frog, wolves maybe but never frogs." Coraline said wrinkling her nose as she tried to put the whole sex and STD gross things out of her head. She wanted to hold Johnny's hand and kiss him not you know that with him. "Have either of you found someone you really, really like?"

Last thing Kate wants is to talk about Declan with two teenagers, but Coraline's got that look. The one Thad used to get when he was never going to let something go. "Sure. Happens all the time," she says instead with an easy shrug.

"Mom was speaking metaphorically, Coraline," Bella said with a laugh, "not about actual frogs."

She should have known that question was coming though, and looked briefly at Kate before admitting it. "I have, yeah. Once."

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