Lydia 2.0||A Beetlejuice: the Musical Fanfiction

Silent Treatment

Lydia returned to her room with a smile on her face, finding Betelgeuse lounging on top of her bed and staring up at her ceiling. It didn't appear that he had noticed that she was there quite yet so she did the first thing she could think of to grab his attention.

"Yo, buddy, whatcha looking at my ceiling for?"

He sat up, his eyes focusing onto her. "What did they say?"

"They said that it was a good idea for you to provide us with some entertainment during dinner," replied Lydia with a smile. "They also said that they wanted to help you so that they could get a hang of their beginner ghost powers."

"I'll be happy to help them," replied Betelgeuse as he followed Lydia out of her bedroom and downstairs into the kitchen.

Lydia did not see the smirk on her best friend's face as he snapped his fingers and made the pot Barbara was currently stirring engulf into flames. The female ghost did not look happy, as she turned, glared, and softly growled at him. Betelgeuse turned towards the living room and spotted Charles standing there, eyeing him with his arms folded and he looked like he was shaking his head in disapproval. That's when Betelgeuse knew he had to stop. He snapped his fingers and the fire he'd started put itself out, confusing Barbara and relieving Charles of having to force the demon to leave.

"Never! Do! That! Again!" warned a cautious Barbara, standing with her back to the formerly flaming pot and not even noticing that a few of the flames had transferred from the pot to the back of her dress. She didn't even notice that everyone else was standing there and staring at her like something was wrong until she saw that her husband was pointing at her and trying not to snicker as he kept a straight face. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know if you have noticed this, honey, but your entire back is on fire," he pointed out to her.

"WHAT?!!" she focused hard and put out the fire that was her back before sighing in complete relief. Just imagine if she was still alive, that would have ended much differently than it did. It was times like this where she was thankful for dying early. "Ah. That's much bette-."

BOOM!!!

"Betelgeuse just made the lights explode," pointed out Adam, looking upwards.

Before Barbara could say anything in response, an angry Charles had stormed over towards the demon and was now backing him up against a wall with his fists clenched and shaking constantly. His face was red and his teeth were grit, his eyes narrowed and he looked a little fiery. Betelgeuse looked nervously at him, his hands up in front of him like he was sorry about what happened.

Charles softly growled out, "what did you do that for?"

"I... I, I?"

"Don't make me repeat myself!" the grown living male spat.

"I was trying to impress everyone by doing something cool," the demon stammered quietly as he tried to slip out of Charles' view but the latter rested his hands on either side of the demon to prevent him from leaving the room.

"Do you really think making the lights in the kitchen is cool?" demanded Charles. "Now I'm going to have to spend a lot of money on a new set of lights. As a result of this, you are no longer welcome in this house."

"Bu- but, I?"

"GO BACK TO THE NETHERWORLD NOW!!!"

"What if I didn't want to? I'm already comfortable staying here," said Betelgeuse.

Charles stopped to consider this for a moment then became angry at Betelgeuse once again, letting out a low growling noise as he raised his fist. Lydia gasped at this.

"Dad! Calm down!" shouted Lydia, running over towards her dad from where she had been standing in the living room and watching the whole thing with him and Betelgeuse with an equally worried Delia. "I'm sure he didn't mean to do it."

"STAY OUT OF THIS, LYDIA!" he shouted at his daughter. Then his eyes widened in shock when he realized what he'd done and he looked over towards Lydia, who was tearing up and being comforted by an equally worried Adam, Barbara, and Delia, all of whom were glaring in his direction, and adopted an apologetic look on his face. "Lydia, sweetie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you."

Silently, the teen nodded.

"Let's just try to have a peaceful dinner," said a calm Delia, trying to lighten the mood of the household right now. "Put all this anger behind us, hmmm?"

The dinner they had that night was far from peaceful. Charles had been giving Betelgeuse the silent treatment and Betelgeuse had been doing the same thing. Being sat next to each other at the dining table, they were looking in opposite directions and sporting angry looks on their faces. Everyone else was nervous and not even Delia knew what to do except lead Charles away from the dinner table and upstairs after he'd finished his dinner to calm down from what happened earlier. Barbara and Adam went to clear the dishes once Lydia was done with her dinner and she and Betelgeuse went upstairs to hang out, with Lydia making sure to close her door so her dad wouldn't know that Betelgeuse was up here and yell at him again and try to force him to go back to the Netherworld.

He sat on Lydia's bed and she could see a look of sadness on his face. Sitting down next to him, she put a comforting hand on his shoulder and smiled up at him. He turned his head and smiled back before turning his attention back onto Lydia's carpet.

"Why did your dad have to yell at me?" asked Betelgeuse glumly.

"Well, you did make the lights explode before dinner," explained Lydia. "Remember, my dad said no funny business or he'd change his mind about letting you stay here."

"And he's totally right to do that," replied Betelgeuse. "I should go back to the Netherworld. It is where I belong. No one wants me here."

"No. Don't say that," said Lydia, a sad tone to her voice. She took Betelgeuse's hand in hers and he turned to look at her again. "You can still stay here, bff. I'll get my dad to not be angry at you again and fix things. It may take some time but I hope it works."

Betelgeuse took some time to think about this before nodding and immediately falling asleep on Lydia's bed. She laughed and poked him awake.

"Looks like we better get you up to the attic to hang out with the Maitlands, huh? That is what you want, right?"

With a smile, Betelgeuse nodded and allowed Lydia to take him up to the attic. Oh, he hoped and hoped.

Hoped Lydia would get her dad to not be angry at him.