The Whole Being Alive Thing

One Stop Shop and it's Filled With Chaos

"No, Bj. That's not how you wear a seatbelt. Or how you sit."

"Oh, really? Then how do I wear a seatbelt, Scarecrow?" Betelgeuse, who was sitting upside down in the car seat right next to Lydia's, with his seatbelt unbuckled but still on him - albeit incorrectly, looked up at her with an amused look on his face.

Charles stopped the car and adjusted his rear view mirror, glancing directly at Lydia and Betelgeuse with an equal stern and serious look. "Could you two keep it down please? And Lydia, could you help Betelgeuse sit upright in his seat? And help him buckle his seatbelt up?" Lydia did so, and, at the implication of a slap fight between her and Betelgeuse, her dad looked pointedly at them. "And no causing chaos or messing around back there."

"Okay, dad," Lydia spoke up, closing her eyes and hanging her head.

"Okay, Chuckles," Betelgeuse responded.

Adjusting the rear view mirror so that he was looking solely at Betelgeuse, a small, amused smile appeared on Charles' face. "Did you just call me chuckles?"

"No. No I didn't," Betelgeuse responded almost immediately, his voice a little bit quiet and soft and his attention focused down on the floor of the car. He knew that he was obviously lying but decided to act like he wasn't really.

Charles, however, could tell, but didn't say much of anything as he started up the car again and continued on their drive to the nearest store. Although amused by the nickname that Betelgeuse had given him, Charles pushed that to the back of his mind - wanting to ignore it and focus on other things. He tuned out the playful bickering and play fighting that Lydia and Betelgeuse were doing in the backseat whilst Delia was, to not much luck, trying to get them to stop.

Charles parked the car not too long afterwards, him and Delia getting out. Lydia got out soon afterwards, turning her attention over towards Betelgeuse - who was now trying and failing to unbuckle his seatbelt. With a heavy sigh, Charles walked around the back of the car, opened Betelgeuse's door, and unbuckled Betelgeuse's seatbelt for him. He stepped back and away a few feet from his car, giving Betelgeuse just enough space to clamber out of the car and close his door - making sure to do so gently and not wanting to break it. Unlike what he had done to Lydia's bedroom door.

The Deetzes turned around and began to head towards the store. But when they heard panicked whispers from behind them, they stopped and turned in the nick of time to find Betelgeuse standing over by a tree and gnawing ever so constantly on a stick that he was now holding. Charles, groaning to himself in annoyance, stormed over towards him and came to a stop not too far from him.

"Could you NOT do that, Bj? You're attracting attention!"

Dropping the stick he was holding, Betelgeuse glanced around at all the passersby that had since stopped walking and were all now staring directly at him with confused looks on their faces. Then he turned back towards Charles with what the latter knew wasn't an apologetic look. "Gnawing on sticks constantly was comforting to me when I was a demon, Chuck. I can do it if I want."

Charles folded his arms, eying Betelgeuse with suspicion and annoyance. "Maybe it was to you back then. But not now. You, like us, are alive now, Beetle, not dead and a demon. The living won't and don't usually gnaw on sticks, you know."

"Fine!" Betelgeuse grumbled in response. "But, just so you know, I'm still going to gnaw on other things."

"Not if we help you keep that under control as well," Charles had to remind him. "We'll bring that up with Adam and Barbara when we get back home."

"Whatever!" was all Betelgeuse said as he followed the Deetzes into the store.

Inside, Charles and Delia were much too busy to notice that Lydia and Betelgeuse had run off. The two ran down aisle after aisle, grabbing whatever it was that they could find and throwing it on the floor, making a mess of each and every aisle they'd gone down. And it wasn't until Charles and Delia had turned down the exact aisle that Lydia and Betelgeuse were currently making a mess of that the two adults took immediate notice of what they were doing.

Charles grunted, resting a hand on his hip and eyeing Lydia and Betelgeuse - both of whom had come to a halt not too far from them and gave them both sheepish looks.

"And just what do you two think you're doing?" he had to ask.

Lydia and Betelgeuse glanced at one another nervously, then back at Lydia's still angered dad and stepmother. And, out of the two of them, it was Betelgeuse who provided an answer to Charles' question. "I guess that it was my idea to go ahead and make a mess of this entire store. And it took some time to persuade Lydia to help me out with it. I know that you told me to behave and not cause chaos with Lydia, but I have to admit that causing all of this chaos was actually kind of fun."

Charles considered things for a minute, then looked back over towards his daughter and Betelgeuse. "Then I guess that I'll have to let it slide just this once. But please, you two, don't cause any more chaos."

"We won't, father, stepmother," Lydia spoke, closing her eyes and looking down.

Betelgeuse just responded with a few nods.

Charles and Delia nodded as well, then turned and left the aisle. The both of them secretly hoping that Lydia and Betelgeuse really weren't going to cause chaos. Boy would they be wrong.

As soon as Lydia's dad and stepmother were gone, Betelgeuse's attention turned towards her and she could see the slightest of a smirk cross his face. A matching one crossed Lydia's face, her knowing he had thought of lots of different chaotic things that they could do. The only problem was, however, how they were going to make a mess of the entire store without getting caught or Lydia's dad and Delia getting upset at them all over again. As Betelgeuse's attention flicked to an aisle next to the one they were currently in, Lydia knew what he was thinking.

He turned and ran straight down the other aisle, grabbing things and throwing them with Lydia following suit. Their laughter filtered through the store, causing other people to just stop and look up, wondering what was going on, then resume with their shopping. Lydia and Betelgeuse reached the end of the aisle and turned....

Only to run into Lydia's dad and Delia and coming to a complete stop.

'Crap!' they both happened to think at the same time, hoping they didn't know that they'd gone and caused more chaos after being told not to.