"Tell me again why you decided to drag me along on this" Coraline demanded of Dani, who was currently dragging her through the aisles of the clothing store.


Though, it'd be more specific to call it a clothing/costume shop. Not only were there regular clothes, such as shirts, pants, skirts, socks, and the like, but there were also Halloween costumes hanging upon the walls.


Which made no sense in Coraline's mind, seeing how Halloween was still nearly a month away.


Then again, to the blue-haired girl, the two of them being here made no sense.


"Because you're a lot better at buying things for special occasions then I am. We need to make Sim and Gar's anniversary special, Cora" Dani replied to Coraline's previously asked question.


This just made Coraline sigh; she really should have figured that was the cause of all this.


Tomorrow was the "anniversary" of the day Simon and Garfield began dating, and Dani treated it like it was their wedding anniversary. Then again, Dani seemed to get overly excited over every little thing.


When school got out a week early for the summer two years ago, she'd thrown a huge party, inviting everyone in town. Unfortunately, everyone invited had come to attend, but only Coraline, Dani, Garfield, Simon, and Wybie were left to clean up.


Ever since then, Coraline dreaded parties planned by Dani.


"Well, I wouldn't go shopping here for people like Simon and Garfield" Coraline said, grabbing her blonde friend and dragging her out of the store.


She continued dragging the other girl until they reached another store, a video store. It was here where the young women purchased their gifts for Garfield, an avid movie fan and aspiring director.


Afterwards, they exited the plaza and drove more than halfway across the town to find something for Simon.


Thankfully, they found the perfect present for the former quarterback, and found themselves with nearly an hour to spare.


Neither the Jones nor the Wests expected their daughters home until eight.


So, they decided to stop at a seafood restaurant for dinner.


Dani ordered some fish and chips, while Coraline had a bit of fried shrimp.


They ate in silence for a while, before the blonde asked the blunette something.


"You said you weren't going to stay for the party" she said between bites of fries. "How come?"


"I told you, I have to go to the doctor" the blue-haired girl answered, also taking a bite of her meal.


Suddenly, Dani's eyes lit up and she gave Coraline the infamous "puppy-dog face". You know the one: big eyes, begging smile, about to cry.


Obviously she wanted to ask Coraline something, but Coraline just ignored her.


The freckle-faced young adult simply finished her shrimp and walked out to her car, sitting on the hood and waiting for Dani to join her.


By the time the childish girl made her way back to Coraline's light blue Aries, it was ten minutes to eight. That wouldn't be a problem, if it weren't for the fact that it took almost a half-hour to get to their houses.


"You really need to eat faster" was all Coraline said as Dani climbed into the passenger seat and the two girls drove off.

_________________________________________________________________

If there was anything worse than sitting in the hospital waiting room, it was sitting in the doctor's office.


At least in the waiting room, they had magazines for you to read while you waited.


In here, the only thing to look at were pictures of the doctor's family (yeah, his kids looked like sweethearts, but it didn't make it more interesting) and a clock hanging on the wall that Coraline swore was actually moving backwards at some points.


After a literal hour of waiting, she was finally joined by the doctor, who just gave her a little wave in greeting before sitting down beside her.


"Nice to see you again, Coraline. Where's Wyborn?" the pale-skinned man asked, starting up the ultrasound machine.


"He's at a party for some friends of mine" Coraline said as a way to answer.


In all honesty, Wybie hadn't really wanted to come to the appointment; he wasn't interested in learning the genders of the babies. And Coraline wasn't going to force him to come along if he didn't want to.


She was going to force him to pay for all the movies they'd be renting for their weekend movie marathon, though, meaning Mr. Lovat would be low on cash come Monday.


Coraline shivered slightly, being shaken from her thoughts by the icy gel that was squirted onto her now revealed abdomen. The gel did feel a little warmer as it was moved about by the wand, but the blunette was still sure that she was going to get freezer burn on her stomach.


"There we go" the doctor said, looking at the fuzzy grey and black images on the screen.


Coraline turned her head slightly to look at the screen, trying to see if she could tell what the baby on the screen was supposed to be.


However, the image on the screen looked more like a beanbag with a doll's head attached to it then an actual infant.


It was hard enough distinguishing the hands from the feet, let alone trying to tell what kind of….stuff the kid had.


"You want to know what you'll be having?" the doctor asked the eighteen-year-old, apparently forgetting that she'd asked about the sex of the twins.


"I told you last month that I wanted to know" she responded, trying to remind him of their last conversation.


The graying man just chuckled nervously, like a child who was just reminded of an embarrassing event, and turned his attention back to the grainy images on the ultrasound machine's screen.


He moved the wand around, making measurements of each fetus (the usual stuff: length, head circumference, and other things doctors apparently care about).


Taking the measurements really didn't take that long, seeing how neither baby was longer than a foot by this point in development.


Once he finished taking all the measurements he needed, the doctor turned off the machine and handed Coraline a paper towel to wipe her stomach with.


Not that it would help much; Coraline knew from experience with this stuff that it didn't come off with simple rubbing. You needed something like lava to get it all off.


"So, what are they?" the brown-eyed girl questioned, very impatient for the answer.



The doctor simply waved his finger slightly, making small tsk tsk sounds with his tongue. He then took the paper towels from Coraline, throwing them into a wastepaper basket before walking back over to her.


By this time, Coraline had lowered her shirt, which was sticking quite profusely to her stomach.


"Well, I'm guessing one is a boy and the other's a girl. Unless one is a hermaphrodite, which I doubt" the doctor said, finally answering Coraline's recent question.


Satisfied with having her question answered, the blunette nodded and walked out of the office, grabbing a lemon-flavored candy on the way out and popping it into her mouth.


Instantly, she spit the sour candy out into the nearest trash bin.


She was definitely going to have to call Wybie and ask him to save her some cake.


He wouldn't mind doing her that little favor, especially seeing how she'd saved treats for him from parties since they were eleven.


If he complained, she'd just have to take the cake he brought home for him. After all, fair is fair.