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“ Fuck people. Fuck being a teenager.”
Lydia slammed her front door closed, startling the woman on the couch, she turned around to see and her blonde curls bounced back into place. Lydia didn’t pay much attention to her besides mumbling, “Hi, Barbara.” In an upset tone. On her way up the stairs, Adam stopped her.
“Hey, Lydia.” He smiled, not realizing she was upset, “How was the first day of your new school?”
“Absolute horse shit .” Her attitude and swearing startled Adam and he sighed. “And no, I absolutely do not want to talk about it.”
Barbara was now standing behind her, “Talk to us, Lydia.”
“I’m just different and no one likes different .” She huffed, walking right through Adam to go up to her room. Adam turned to follow her, worried, but Barbara grabbed his shoulder and shook her head.
“Let her get her anger out. You know she always talks to us.”
-
The teen slammed her bedroom door shut and dropped her bags on the floor, stomping to her bed and jumping on it face first. She knew this was child-like, she was pretty much having a mini tantrum, but she didn’t give a flying fuck. She grabbed the closest pillow and yelled into it, squeezing and hitting it.
She’s dealt with bullying before. At her old school, no one wanted to be friends with her. She was the weird girl obsessed with death and haunted things and ghosts. They were horrible to her, they called her a witch and a weirdo and they never let her do anything. When her mother died they even went as far as to spread a rumor that she cursed her mother and ate her. It made the tragedy hurt more.
But this school fucking sucked. It was public, unlike her old uniformed private school, so naturally, everyone was worse. She even tried to come off less weird, Barbara and Delia insisted she try to at least make a friend, and she did.
She didn’t wear her black, vintage looking dresses she usually wore, she wore black ripped jeans and a black turtleneck, safety pins for earrings and a moon necklace Barbara had worked with Delia to buy her. It was the moon from the day her Mother died. Her favorite necklace.
Her homeroom teacher requested that she introduce herself to the class. Lydia thought that would make it easier to make friends, but her confidence decreased as the day went on. She didn’t even say anything weird, did she?
“I’m Lydia.” She had said with a small smile, “I live on that house on top of the hill-“
A classmate interrupted her with a raised hand, he immediately spoke, defeating the purpose of his hand being in the air, “Isn’t that house haunted?” It was a simple question, he wasn’t being unkind.
“Um,” She paused, not wanting to reveal that she talked to ghosts because that’s weird, “Rumor has it, yeah. I find it very interesting! I actually like that kind of stuff a lot-“
“What’re you a witch?” A girl snorted from the front of the room, she seemed to be popular. She was blonde and her hair was curly. Lydia wanted to be on her good side.
“No, I’m not.” Lydia smiled right at her, “I’m just interested, that’s all.”
“‘Kay,” She replied, turning around to whisper to her friend behind her.
Her teacher then dismissed her from the front of the room and she began her lesson. Lydia sat in the back.
Lydia thought it went well. A cute, popular-ish looking boy named Tyler wished her luck on the rest of her day but didn’t speak to her in the other class he had with her. She even sat right behind him. He ended up being that girl’s boyfriend.
Lunch came and that’s when Lydia’s day went to complete shit.
The popular girl from her homeroom cornered her on the way, with two of her friends. Her name was Caitlyn and her two friends were Sophie and Taylor. “So, you’re not a witch?”
“No,” She sighed, “Just interested.”
“You look like a witch, dressed like that.” One of the friends giggled, it was Taylor. She was blonde too, with bangs pushed to the side. Her hair was curly, but not naturally curly like Caitlyn’s, she must curl it in the morning.
“It’s just a color, black looks good on me.” Lydia tried not to snap at these girls, she just wanted a friend.
“What about this?” Lydia’s necklace was grabbed by the third girl, Sophie. She had long wavy black hair, different than Lydia’s ratty, short black hair and she was short. Her pale hand wrapped around the girl’s wrist.
“It’s a moon necklace, let go of it.” Lydia hissed, gripping the small wrist in her hand.
“Sounds witchy to me. This has your powers in it or something?” Sophie pulled, walking backward a bit and Lydia tried to go with her but was tripped. She fell and the chain of the necklace broke. She landed on the floor and Sophie still had her mom’s moon.
“No!” She gasped and scrambled to stand up, “It’s the- the moon . The moon the night my mom left. Give it back !”
“Awe, your mom left? Poor thing, probably didn’t want a witch for a daughter so she split.”
“Shut up, bitch.” Lydia pushed the shorter girl and grabbed her jewelry, Sophie fell right on her ass, “My mom’s dead , you ass!”
Right then a teacher came over and Lydia got in trouble for swearing and pushing her. She ended up eating her lunch in the bathroom, going about her day trying not to be noticed. The one thing she could’ve avoided though, was the last period and after school.
It was a free period, Caitlyn, Taylor, and Sophie were all in the class and she ignored them. Until they noticed what she was doing and decided to bully the half of her walk home. She brought the handbook to school, The Handbook for the Recently Deceased , her favorite read. The three mega-bitches must have seen the cover. Ninth graders sucked.
She never wanted to go back to school again. She just wanted a goddamn friend, why was life so so cruel to her?
“Lydia?” Delia’s voice, “How was school?”
Lydia dragged herself off of her bed and to her door, opening it a little, “Literally awful, but please leave me alone?”
“Okay, sweetpea.” Delia reached over and poked her nose with a smile, “I’ll be cooking with Barbara downstairs. If you don’t want to talk that’s fine, but please come to dinner! It will be ready in an hour and a half, we won’t bring up school if you don’t want us to.”
“Thank you.” Her stepmother closed her door and she sighed, reaching for her backpack and pulling out her favorite book. She flipped to her favorite page to look at the worst damn handwriting and spelling she’s ever seen.
i kno im a shit person but if ya ever need a frend dont ferget the b word!!! i promis i won’t kill or scare nobody :) ya can kick me out the same way ya invite me
Millennials old and he never learned how to spell, what a dumbass.
She has never actually considered calling him until now. She knew she absolutely should not do it. Her father would kill her and she didn’t want the bastard bothering the Maitlands, but she really wanted a friend right now. Really bad.
“Beetlejuice.” She said, clear as day, and closed the book. She threw it onto her bed and walked over to it again, sitting down.
“Beetlejuice.” She repeated, quieter this time.
Was she really gonna do this? He did save her from Juno, he saved her life. Even though she stabbed him. He wasn’t all bad, he couldn’t be.
Right?
She hesitated, keeping her mouth closed in case she didn’t change her mind, and fidgeted with her fingers.
“ Beetlejuice .”
She whispered it the last time she said it and behold: the demon showed up right in front of her, coughing up his damn lungs, but there.
“Jesus, fuck .” He hunched over, one hand on a knee and the other in a fist covering his mouth as he coughed.
She hopped up from the bed, “Are you okay?!”
He looked dirtier since the last time she saw him, more rotten and ruined. His suit was more ripped and he looked even more tired, if that was possible.
“ Ugh .” He took a deep breath and stood up, finishing his coughing fit, “I’m so flattered you missed me, but damn do you know how to catch a guy at a bad time, Scarecrow!”
“What happened ?”
“Had a throatful of dick.” He cleared his throat and spat onto the floor, “Choked a little in the process of getting transferred to a different dimension.”
“Oh, my god ,” Lydia whined, turning around, “Gross! Clean that up!”
“Sorry,” He pulled his sleeve over his hand and wiped the floor where his saliva was, “So... Hey, Lyds!”
“I missed you,” She hopped back on her bed, “I started school.”
“Fucking groooss .” He stuck out his tongue and made a disgusted face, “Learn anything cool?”
“Learned that teenage girls are the worst everywhere, not just in new york.” She huffed, laying on her back.
“Totally. They’re even worse in the Netherworld. So annoying. Is that why you called? Need me to kill ‘em?”
“No!” She sat up and put her hands up, “No, you promised.”
“Ugh, I never keep those!” He sat next to her, “But actually for reals, why’d you call me? I thought you’d never want to see me again. Or at least give sexy number one and sexy number two a break.”
“Please do not call them that.”
“I only speak the truth , babes.” He grinned, big and gross. He had pointy teeth but was missing some and most of the ones he had were yellow as hell and looked nasty. It was disgusting, she had no idea who would let that mouth on their dick ever in a million years, but she smiled back at him.
“I wanted a friend, Beetlejuice.” She sighed, “I’m not good at making normal friends, so I wanted you back.”
“How disgustingly cute. Whatcha wanna do?” He pulled the rest of his body onto her bed and laid on his stomach, leaning his head on his hands like a little girl at a sleepover.
“I don’t know. I’ve never done anything but haunt with you.”
“Uh, yeah .” He shrugged, “What about ya photography? Show me that?”
“You’re being abnormally normal .” She told the demon, but got up and went over to her desk, pulling out her photo album.
“I’m trying not to scare you off. I’m just as lonely as you are. And I also don’t wanna get fucking stabbed again.”
“You were just giving someone a blowjob.” Lydia giggled and stuck the album in front of him.
“So? It’s called a hookup. You’ll learn more when you’re older, what are you, ten?”
“I am fifteen, stupid.”
He only shrugged and opened the book of photos. The first one was of him with his head in his hands. He laughed, “Hey, I remember this! Surprised I came up in the photo.”
“I bought my camera in a haunted vintage shop.”
The next photo was a smiling Delia, then Barbara and Adam, one of her dad. There was one of a bat that must’ve been in the house, the one following the bat was of Delia, with a broom, looking absolutely fucking terrified . Beetlejuice laughed again and Lydia laughed with him.
Their moment was so rudely interrupted when they heard an ear piercing scream come from Lydia’s doorway. Delia stood there, looking like she just witnessed a murder.
“Donna! No! Shut the fuck up!” Beetlejuice jumped to his feet to run to cover her mouth, but she ran down the stairs. “Damn, I should go-“
“ Lydia !” The two saw Charles in the doorway next and he looked mad , “What did you do ?”
“Nothing! He’s leaving!” She stood in front of her friend with a guilty smile, “Beetlejuice!”
Charles crosses his arms and marched over to Beetlejuice, moving his daughter out of the way.
“Hey Mr. Deetz!”
“Beetlejuice!”
“What are you doing in my daughter’s room?!”
“Oh, Charles!” He pretended offense, “What are you implying? I was just catching up with an old friend! Little girl definitely isn’t my type!”
“Get out!”
“ Beetlejuice!”
“Bye!” The demon made a peace sign with his hand as he disappeared, returning to what he was doing before Lydia even made the bee sound.
“Lydia Deetz.”
“I’m sorry! I wanted a friend-”
“He isn’t your friend, Lydia. He lied to you and-”
“That’s because I was more worried about Mom than him. He’s my friend .”
Her father groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Fine. Dinner is ready.”