Already Falling» Coraline

The doll and the door

Coraline was propping up seeds on the windowsill and was wildly itching her rash from the poison oak.
"You know mom, I almost fell down a well yesterday."
"Uh huh."
"I would've died."
"That's nice," she said, not listening.
Coraline made a face but then said "So can I get the tools- I think it's perfect weather for gardening."
"No Coraline, rain makes mud, mud makes a mess."
"Argh! I want stuff growing when my friends come round! Isn't that why we moved here?"
"Something like that, but then we had the accident." She pointed to the brace around her neck.
"It wasn't my fault you hit that truck!"
"I didn't say it was, and anyway you still have unpacking to do- LOTS of unpacking!"
"That's sounds exciting!"said Coraline- sarcastically.
"Oh, by the way, some kid left this on the doorstep for you."
Coraline unwrapped the first layer of newspaper to find a note:
Hey Coral,
Look what I found in my uncle's trunk. It was his twin brother's. Looks just like you, huh!
See you round,
Alex❤️
Coraline smiled and unwrapped the second layer- curious to see his gift. What lay inside made her smiling face turn to confusion. A small doll that looked exactly like her. Her short brown hair with a blue-ish tint, her yellow rain jacket and her jeans and t-shirt. Creepy though that Alex's uncle's twin had a doll that looked like her before she was born. Coraline shrugged it off- thinking Alex made it look like her and dragged herself up the stairs to her father's study. She burst through the door and repeated "Can I get the tools? I think it's perfect weather for gardening."
"What'd the boss say?"said Charlie Jones-still typing away at his computer.
"Don't even think about going out Coraline Jones!"Coraline mimicked her mom's voice and waggling finger.
"Then you won't need the tools..."
"Uh!"Coraline didn't have anything else or better to do so she leaned against the door and leaned back and did it again and again until it was a full blown door creaking fest. (A/N k, sorry I don't know how that sounds- I imagine horrible- but I couldn't think of another way to phrase it I'm weird)
Mr Jones spun his chair around and made a frustrated grunting noise.
"You know, this house is over one hundred years old."
"So?"
"So, explore it, count all the doors and windows, list everything that's blue- just, let me work!"he shouted- frustrated. Coraline grabbed a notepad and the set off around the house. She reached a set of windows and rubbed away sections of condensation for her and the doll.
"12 leaky windows," Coraline scribbled it on the notepad as a drop of water leaked through the window onto the paper. She traipsed to the bathroom and pulled back the shower curtain to discover disgusting orange bugs, manically scrambling across the tiles. Coraline yelled in disgust and squashed as many bugs as she could with her hands. When they were gone, she gazed down at the insect pulp covering her hands and turned the bath tap on, but water poured out of the shower head instead.
"Argh!"she shook her hair until it was dry enough to not trickle down her back. She wrote '15 gross bugs' in her notebook.

Coraline then hopped out the bath and walked down the stairs. At the bottom, she jumped off the step onto the hallway carpet and flattened the popped up part of it. A door creaked open on the right side of her and she crept in. All that was in there was a water heater. "1 rusty old water heater." And turned off what she thought was the lights. Meanwhile, Charlie Jones was still typing away at his computer when the power turned off.
"No, no! Gaah!" Coraline heard this and quickly switched it back on again. Putting the sign back up that fell down that said 'DO NOT TOUCH'.

Coraline reached another room- the living room. She unwrapped the snow globes from their moving box and placed them carefully on the mantelpiece. She put her family's favourite-Detroit Zoo- in the middle. Her eyes then drifted up to a painting hanging on the wall. It was a picture of a boy who had dropped his ice-cream down his shirt.
"One boring blue boy in a painfully boring painting. 4 windows and no more doors." As she said the last part, she reached out for her doll- only to find that it wasn't there.
"Ok, where are you hiding little me?"
She scanned the room for the doll. It was poking out from behind a box. Coraline tiptoed up to it and shoved the box out of the way. A small, square door lay behind it. Wanting to go through, she shouted to her mom.
"Mom! Where does this door go?"
"I'm really really busy Coraline!"
"Pleeeeaaaasssseeee!" Her mom stomped into the room.
"If I do this for you, will you be quiet?!"
Coraline pouted. "Fine!"
Mrs Jones angrily walked back to the kitchen and rummaged around the key draw for a sharp key- she found one with a peculiar button at the end of it. When she returned to the room, she cut around the the wallpaper on the door with the key. She tried the same key in the lock to see if it fitted and it did. She twisted it and opened the door. Coraline anxiously sat there in anticipation for what lay behind the strange door. But she had not been expecting bricks.
"Wha-"
"They must have bricked it in when they divided up the house."
"But why's the door so small?"
"We had a deal! Zip it!"
After her mom left the room Coraline shouted "You didn't lock it!"
"Argh!"