The Whole Being Alive Thing

In the First Place

Betelgeuse lay stretched out across his bed, face down and making groaning noises. It was now Monday and Adam and Barbara had been trying their best for the past half hour to try and convince him to get up and get ready for school that day. But he just didn't seem to want to get up. Or get ready for school.

Barbara and Adam sighed, backing up and moving back a little bit away from Betelgeuse's bed. They took a minute to look at one another in concern, then turned back over towards Betelgeuse.

"Betelgeuse, c'mon. At this rate, the Deetzes would've already left to get Lydia to school and you'd be marked absent," Barbara tried, in yet another attempt to try to get him to get up for school. But even that didn't seem to work.

"They can go without me," Betelgeuse grumbled into his bedsheets. "I don't think I can go to school today. Or ever..."

"Well, we'll be right back then. We'll tell Charles that you don't want to go back, and hopefully he'll call Lydia's school to pull you out," Barbara said, her and Adam once again moving to stand over by Betelgeuse's bed. "Sound good?"

Betelgeuse gave both ghosts a thumbs up, as well as a nod and a mumbled, "uh huh..."

They nodded as well, immediately teleporting downstairs. And it didn't even take five minutes before they teleported back upstairs with equal smiles across both of their faces. Betelgeuse was now sat upright, instead of laying flat out on his bed face down.

His attention focused solely on the Maitlands, and he looked between both ghosts. "What'd he say?"

"He said that it was fine. And Lydia said that she'd let your friends know at lunch," Barbara said as she and Adam walked over and took a seat on either side of Betelgeuse. "You're lucky that he and Delia both have an off day today. So, after they come back home from dropping Lydia off at her school, then we can spend the rest of the day, until Lydia gets home, helping you work more on getting your strength under control and or continue to help you adjust to being human. Considering that you haven't learned much in the way of either one these past two days."

Betelgeuse just slowly nodded in response.

Lydia popped in to say goodbye to the Maitlands. They said goodbye back to her and she left. As they heard the Deetzes exit the house, the Maitlands turned their attention back over towards Betelgeuse - who had since gone back to laying flat out and face down on his bed and making grumbling noises. Again, Adam and Barbara looked over towards one another in confusion. Turning and leaving the bedroom, Barbara gently closed the door behind her and headed downstairs.

Adam quickly helped Betelgeuse up from the latter's bed and helped him get dressed. But, of course, Betelgeuse didn't want to go downstairs - instead wanting to remain in his bedroom for who knew how much longer. Though Adam still managed to convince Betelgeuse to go downstairs with him. Once downstairs, Betelgeuse, now in a grumpy mood, plopped himself down in one of the chairs at the kitchen island and face planted into it.

Levitating some food down in front of him, Barbara left it a few feet away from Betelgeuse's head. He picked his head up, glancing briefly at the food set in front of him and face planting again as he pushed it away.

"I don't want it!"

"Betelgeuse, remember that you're human now. You need to eat."

"I'm not hungry. At least not right now," Betelgeuse mumbled into the kitchen island.

Barbara sighed, levitating the now untouched food away from Betelgeuse and placing it in the fridge in case Betelgeuse wanted it later.

They turned their attention over towards the front doors of the house as Charles and Delia entered and closed them behind them. The older Deetzes turned and joined the Maitlands and Betelgeuse in the kitchen.

Charles looked over towards Barbara. "Do you mind if you make Delia and I coffee?"

"Of course!" Barbara quickly materialized two cups of coffee out of thin air and gently set them both down on the kitchen island where Charles and Delia were now sat down at. "Is something wrong? You guys don't usually have coffee this late in the morning."

"No, everything's fine." Delia took a sip of her coffee. "We just didn't have enough time to have coffee when we usually have it."

Barbara just nodded.

After Charles and Delia were done with their coffees and Betelgeuse had eaten half of the breakfast that Barbara had offered him, Barbara had put both empty cups and the plate in the sink. Moving over into the living room, Betelgeuse immediately sat himself down on the couch and Adam and Barbara sat down next to him. Charles and Delia stood across from the three of them, looking from Adam to Betelgeuse to Barbara and back to Betelgeuse.

Charles opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again when he heard his phone ringing. He stepped out of the room briefly, leaving the others confused and wondering what was going on. Ten minutes passed before Charles reentered the living room, putting his phone back in his pocket and looking towards Delia and the Maitlands.

"What's going on? Who was that?" Barbara was the first to speak up.

"Lydia's school. Apparently she'd gotten into a fight and was suspended for a week. I have to go and pick her up but it shouldn't take me long."

The other adults nodded. And Charles stepped out the house again. The other four just sat there in silence for a while - all unsure of what could've caused Lydia to get into that fight in the first place.

"I wonder what happened??" Barbara uttered out, letting out a sigh.

"Who knows," her husband spoke up with a similar tone in his voice. "I just hope that it's just nothing too serious."