The Whole Being Alive Thing

Organized Chaos

Dinnertime that night went by rather slowly if not for Betelgeuse playing with his food and throwing it at the other members of the family when they least expected it (he had managed to get Lydia to do it too, much to the annoyance of all four adults). They had to, at certain points in time, try to get both of them to stop - to no avail. They didn't want to end dinner with a messy kitchen or dining room, and Barbara eventually had to use her powers to get Lydia and Betelgeuse to stop with their chaos before things went too far.

That, however, didn't seem to work like she originally thought it would.

"Ack!" Barbara said out of surprise, turning herself transparent as a piece of food was thrown in her direction. Becoming solid again, Barbara's eyes, still filled with annoyance, flicked to a now chuckling Betelgeuse. He stopped doing so, however, when she narrowed her eyes and glowered at him. "That was... not... funny!"

"I thought that it was," Betelgeuse replied with a smirk, hand resting in his brown hair. "You should've seen the look on your face when I threw that piece of food at you.

Barbara let out a low growl, a dark pink glow appearing around her now clenched fist. Adam turned towards her, resting a hand on her shoulder and calming her down. She let out a quiet sigh, closing her eyes and relaxing. She turned to Charles and mouthed out "we should add a new rule to our already existing rules." When he nodded in response, Barbara turned her attention back to Betelgeuse and said, "okay, new rule: no causing chaos."

"Awwwww...." Betelgeuse pouted at Barbara. "Come on, Babs... not even this?"

Before Barbara could even say much of anything - wondering what it was that Betelgeuse was talking about, she had to go transparent again right when Betelgeuse happened to throw a knife over in her direction. It went through Barbara, ending up in and getting lodged in the wall right behind her. She turned to look over at the knife, using her powers to dislodge it from the wall and levitate it back over to where Betelgeuse was sitting - and setting it down on his mat as carefully as she could.

"Absolutely not. Not even that," Barbara deadpanned as she folded her arms and glowered at Betelgeuse.

He nodded glumly and began playing with his food again. And it wasn't that long before he started shoving food in his mouth. Charles, Delia, Adam, and Barbara all had to clear their throats at the exact same time to try and get him to stop - deeming it gross and saying that there was quite a lot he was going to need to know about being a human male. They would need to help him get rid of a majority of his habits, for one. And speaking of Betelgeuse - he had since gone back to shoving food in his mouth.

Barbara raised an eyebrow, looking pointedly over at him. As were Adam, Charles, and Delia actually. Lydia, on the other hand, didn't seem to be paying any attention. "What did the four of us say about you shoving your food in your mouth, mister?"

Betelgeuse stopped and looked over towards her, then glanced off to the side. "Lydia seems to be doing it, so why can't I?"

"LYDIA!!!!" all four adults shouted at once and almost immediately upon looking over in the teenager's direction to find that she was - in fact - shoving her food in her mouth much like Betelgeuse was doing earlier.

She stopped almost immediately as she put the piece of food that she was about to eat back down on her plate and a clear sheepish look appeared on her face as she looked around the dining room at all four of them and took notice of the equally as stern and unhappy looks on each of their faces. With a mouthful of food, she said, "what?"

"Could you please NOT do that?" Barbara was the first to speak up after a while.

"Not do what?"

"Shove food in your mouth!" all four adults shouted in unison.

"Why can't I?" Lydia asked, her mouth still full. "I saw Betelgeuse doing it so I thought that it would be funny to do it too."

Upon seeing that her dad, Delia, Adam, and Barbara had all become much more unhappy with her than they were before, Lydia looked down at the dining room floor and then looked around the room at all of them - a regretful look on her face. A regretful look that calmed the four of them down and made them relax. Now hopefully Lydia wouldn't do it again. And they hoped the same of Betelgeuse.

Deciding that dinner was now done, Delia and Barbara stood up from the table and went into the kitchen - with Barbara levitating everything off of the dining table and carrying it all into the kitchen in the air. She set it down, and was about to clean all of it with her powers when she and Delia both got distracted by Lydia and Betelgeuse causing chaos in the living room and Adam and Charles desperately trying to stop them to no avail. Barbara turned her head and focused her attention over towards Lydia and Betelgeuse, calling out to the both of them in a stern tone of voice,

"I thought we made it both clear and a rule that you couldn't cause chaos from now on, you two!"

The two breathers stopped mid causing chaos and turned their attention over towards the unamused female ghost with sheepish looks on their faces. Barbara had her hands resting on her hips and she was tapping her foot - her eyes focused and locked on both Lydia and Betelgeuse.

"Aw... come on, B-Town. Just this one time?" Betelgeuse was giving the female ghost a pout but that did nothing to convince her otherwise.

"No," Barbara firmly spoke, thinking of that as her final answer. Betelgeuse and Lydia turned and looked at one another, then back at Barbara as equal large grins stretched across on both of their faces.

Before Barbara could say or even do much of anything, the two breathers stood in front of her had gone back to their chaos.

"GUYS, STOP WITH THAT NOW!" Barbara shouted out as Adam, Charles, and Delia moved to stand next to her.

They each had looks of displeasure plastered on their faces as they folded their arms and kept their stern eyes locked on Lydia and on Betelgeuse - both of whom stopped a second time, and looked over towards all four of them with apologetic looks on their faces. Lydia retreated upstairs to her bedroom for now, as did Betelgeuse to his own. And, knowing that the brief chaos that the two of them had tried to cause was now done, all four adults sat down for the evening with Adam turning on the tv.

And the same thought was running through each of their minds... of which Barbara turned her attention over to the others and spoke out,

"If Betelgeuse is going to stay here, then he's going to need to learn how to behave as well as learn how to be a human. We're going to need to help him get accustomed to his new state and soon. We can't have him continuously causing chaos with Lydia and them goofing off together and not behaving. And then there's his sheer amount of strength... which is also a problem."

"Yeah, but how are we going to go about doing all of that?" her husband spoke up out of confusion, him, Charles, and Delia looking in her direction. Barbara looked down and rested a finger against her chin, deep in thought. After a while, she turned her attention back over towards the other three adults with a knowing look on her face.

"I may have an idea. But we're going to have to wait until tomorrow to go through with it. It's getting late as it is and we all really should be heading upstairs for the night."

The others nodded in response, heading upstairs one after the other. They all had hope that how many days it would take to help Betelgeuse get accustomed to his new breather state would go well. But then again, there was also a slightly higher chance that it wouldn't go as well as they thought it would.

And that worried them.