They had tried their hardest to get Charles and Delia to listen to them, so the girls made a plan to try and get them to listen, they were sure that if they could get Delia's friends to listen to them, they would be able to get Delia to listen...and if she threw a big enough fit then their father was sure to listen to her! They were all sitting at the dinner table, Lydia sitting next to Beryl while Alma was sat next to Grace, the girls sitting on either side of their father. They sat there listening to the adults talking until Otho brought up the paranormal and ghosts.
"We saw some ghosts." Lydia said quickly before the subject could be changed, the smile on Delia's face dropped before it was quickly replaced with a larger forced one.
"That's just a little private joke that the girls and I share." Delia said with a nervous laugh.
"It's not a joke!" Alma said sternly, a small scowl crossing her face.
"Yes, it is. Just today Lydia tried to convince me this house is haunted. Kids! You know, I love them!" Delia said, looking more and more nervous, trying to figure out how to change the subject.
"Ghosts?" Grace asked with a slight raise of her eyebrows.
Delia's face twitched slightly before she laughed. "In designer sheets, no less."
Seeing his wife's distress, Charles quickly cleared his throat and got to his feet, raising his glass as he did. "I’d like to propose a toast to our intrepid friends who braved the expressway and two dozen toll booths to be with us. May your buildings go condo." He said with a smile on his face.
Otho did what he normally does and ignored what Charles said as he focused on the two girls. "Girls, favor us about your ghosts." He said with great interest.
Alma and Lydia watched as Delia and Otho argued until all of a sudden Delia started to sing. The teens quickly got up from the table and moved away, watching with wide eyes as everyone started to dance and sing in voices that weren't their own. The two watched with wide eyes, this was amazing, they hadn't realized what the Maitlands could really do.
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Moments later
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Lydia and Alma found themselves at the top of the stairs for the attic, the older teen knocked on the door and let Lydia speak. "It's us, Lydia and Alma. They want you to come downstairs. Delia said that you can use the sheets if you want to."
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Back downstairs
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They could hear how it seemed like Bernard and Grace still seemed to be unconvinced about ghosts and the fact that they were real. "Here's Alma and Lydia. Well?" Their father asked as the girls walked back down the steps.
"They don't want to come down." Alma said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, refusing to look at any of the adults.
"Charles...." Delia said as she looked over to her husband.
"Why not?" Otho asked with a small huff, as if he was offended that the ghosts didn't want to meet him.
"I think they were trying to scare you away, and you didn't get scared." Lydia said, a sad look in her eyes, they both hated that the adults just wanted to use the Maitlands for their own financial gains.
"Please, they're dead. It's a little late to be neurotic." Delia said with a frown on her face, panicking slightly when she saw that her agent seem unimpressed. "This was not a hallucination. This was real. We all experienced a super-powerful paranormal experience and it was real."
Bernard rolled his eyes at that as he, Grace, and Beryl started to get ready to leave. "Delia, you are a flake. You have always been a flake. If you insist on frightening people, do it with your sculpture." He said before the three left.
