Out of Sight, Out of Mind//A Beetlejuice Fanfiction

||Chapter Sixteen|| Should I Stay or Should I Go?

"Lydia, I know you'd rather stay here with us but wouldn't you also rather attend the funeral of your grandmother with your dad and Delia up in New York?" asked Barbara, helping the teenager up and sitting her on her bed. She sat herself down next to the teenager and held her close as Adam and Betelgeuse joined the two females. Adam wrapped his arms around both Barbara and Lydia whilst Betelgeuse sat next to him, not knowing exactly what to do at a time like this.

"I DON'T KNOW!" the teen spurted out rather loudly, tears springing from her eyes as she threw her arms up. She looked down and sighed. "You guys are all my family. It's harder to choose: between my dad and Delia and you guys. Does it help that I both want to attend my grandmother's funeral and stay here with you guys at the exact same time."

"Lyd, I know you want to do both but now is a time when you have to figure out which is easier to do: either go up to New York, your home state, and spend a week there with your family or spend the next week with us and miss out on your grandmother's funeral," said Barbara, calmness in her voice.

"Well, attending my grandmother's funeral is going to be hard, even attending my own mother's funeral was hard, but I also don't want to have to spend a week away from you guys," said Lydia, looking from Barbara to Adam to Betelgeuse. "There has got to be a way that I can do both..."

The Maitlands opened their mouths in unison, them both wanting to say something, but Betelgeuse was quick to cut them off. "You mean like the two of them coming up to that hospital in New York as well?"

The Maitlands looked at him with confusion. "That's not what we were going to sa-."

Betelgeuse held up a hand and both ghosts fell silent. Summoning a Handbook, the demon opened it to a random page in the middle of the book and levitated it over towards Adam and Barbara. Barbara looked nervous and Adam grabbed the Handbook and began to read the page it was open to. "Ghosts may leave the Netherworld to attend funerals, be it a member of their own family's funeral or the funeral of a friend and/or a friend's family. Keep in mind that this is one of the only instances in which ghosts are allowed to leave."

"So you're saying that both can happen at once?" asked Barbara, looking curious.

A grin appeared on Betelgeuse's face and he turned his attention onto Barbara as his hair turned a lighter shade of green. "Close. Lydia and I will meet up with her dad and Delia in New York and, on the day of the funeral, Lydia will text you and you can teleport up to meet up with the rest of us."

"Will we be able to text her back though?" asked Adam.

Annoyed, Betelgeuse snapped his fingers and made Lydia's light flicker a little. "Seriously? Did you not know about ghosts and electricity and/or technology?"

The Maitlands shook their heads no in unison. Noticing that Lydia was now sitting over by her bedroom door and looking down at her phone, Adam and Barbara each summoned their phones and focused all their attention and their minds on turning them on mentally. It worked and both ghosts opened the message app on their phones without even touching them. Two seconds later, two pings sounded from Lydia's phone and she started to snicker as she looked up at the Maitlands.

"Did you guys seriously just text me two hundred silly face emojis in total with your minds?"

"No...." the Maitlands lied in unison.

Lydia raised an eyebrow and stood up, looking like she wanted to start a game of chase with her ghost family. The Maitlands stood up as well, it was like they knew what Lydia had in mind, and phased through Lydia's bedroom door at such a fast pace. Lydia chuckled as she opened her bedroom door and ran out after the Maitlands. Hearing their familiar giggles sound from the living room downstairs, Lydia knew exactly where to go. She jumped down the stairs leading down to the main floor of the house three at a time and landed on the wooden floor with a "SLAM". Thankfully, she wasn't injured.

She stood up again and ran the rest of the way into the living room. Looking around, she couldn't find any sign of the Maitlands. She could've sworn she heard them giggling down here earlier. What was going on?

Shrugging, she spun on her heel. "Oh well, guess they won't be coming up to New York with Beej and I."

Two shouts of, "YAAAAAHHH!", sounded from behind Lydia and she spun around again with a smirk-like grin stretched across her face. The Maitlands leaping towards her with their hands outstretched and equal grins on their faces filled her vision and she began to run out of the living room and back up towards her room. But before she could, she was tackled to the ground by the two snickering ghosts.

Barbara snapped her fingers and the three of them teleported, still piled on top of one another, back into the middle of the living room. Lydia was smiling and giggling hilariously and pretending to attempt to escape out from under her ghostly guardians. Barbara was ruffling Lydia's hair like crazy and Adam was tickling the teenager all over, just as they did all the time when they wanted to goof around with Lydia.

In fact, they were so into it that they lost track of time. At least until Betelgeuse popped into the living room.

"Is she staying here or is she going up to New York?" he asked.