Power Play (A Beetlejuice: the Musical Fanfiction)

Eighteen

Early the next morning, Adam sat with Lydia at the kitchen counter and opened the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, flipping to the page that talked about ghosts and invisibility. Figuring that the best way to help Lydia learn how to control switching between going visible and invisible was to show her by seeing if he could do it himself. His eyes scanned the page and then he successfully made himself invisible to Lydia.

Lydia was confused, looking around the kitchen for any signs of her surrogate ghost father. "Adam?!" She called out. "Where'd you go?"

At that, Adam made himself visible to Lydia again, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm right here, Lydia. I just made myself invisible to you. That's all."

"Oh." Lydia's eyes widened in complete curiosity and she leaned over Adam's shoulder, turning the pages in the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. Now she just wanted to make herself invisible to Adam and see what he thought of that. "Can I do that?"

"Why else did I do it?" Adam winked at Lydia.

That gave Lydia an idea.

Lydia smirked, making herself invisible to Adam and reappearing standing on top of the kitchen counter, her eyes focusing solely towards Adam. He stared back up towards her, a look of pure confusion flashing across his face.

"Lydia, what on Earth are you doing up there?" Adam asked. He scratched his head.

"Just wanted to be up here. That's all." The tone in Lydia's voice was that of amusement. She sat herself down on the kitchen counter and slid off of it, moving to sit herself down next to Adam.

"Never mind that." Adam bit his lip, nervously glancing off to the side. "Should we continue on with our lesson?"

"Sure."

The rest of the lesson consisted of Lydia making herself invisible and making herself visible again whenever she was someplace random. Examples including on top of the sofa, on the stairs, upside down and on the ceiling for some reason, and once again on top of the kitchen counter.

The location where Lydia reappeared that confused Adam the most was the ceiling. How Lydia got up there, he was sure he didn't want to know.

It had taken Adam forever to get Lydia to come down from the ceiling. At first, Lydia didn't even want to come down. But, by saying that he promised Lydia that he would watch one of her Ghost Hunting shows with her that night, he managed to get her to come down.

Barbara entered the kitchen, spotting her husband and Lydia sitting together at the kitchen counter, looking over the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. Choosing to remain quiet, Barbara carefully made her way over towards the two of them and sat herself down next to Lydia.

They didn't seem to notice that she was there at first, but Lydia felt Barbara's ice cold hand brush against her shoulder. She turned and noticed Barbara sitting next to her. "Hey, Barb," Lydia greeted the female ghost. "How long have you been sitting there."

"Two minutes, Lydia," came Barbara's response. "I didn't want to interrupt the lesson you and Adam were doing."

At that very same moment, Adam looked up from the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, turning and eyeing his wife. "Barbara, honey?" he asked, "did you need something?"

"Nono," came Barbara's response. "I just came to let Lydia know that her father needs her for something."

"What is it, Barb?" Lydia asked her surrogate ghost mother, getting out of her chair and exiting the kitchen to look for her dad. This didn't give Barbara much of a chance to answer and she just smiled softly at Lydia.

Lydia entered her father's office space and found him sitting at his desk. His chair was turned away from her and he had his eyes focused solely on a stack of papers situated on the top of his desk in front of him. As soon as Lydia very nearly stumbled a few feet backwards and made the slightest of a quiet noise, Charles spun around in his chair, facing her.

"Ah, Lydia," he spoke. "There you are."

Lydia managed to recompose herself. "Did you need me for something, dad?"

Charles placed a finger to his chin and thought to himself for a few minutes. Then he remembered. "Oh - oh yes," he gestured towards a stack of books sat on the floor next to him. "Could you pick those up and place them back on their respective shelves, Lydia?"

Lydia looked confused. "Can't Delia do it? What about Adam? Barbara?"

"Delia's busy sorting her crystals," Charles shook his head in response, "and the Maitlands can't help me with this. If they did, they'd rearrange this entire room multiple times while they were at it."

"Oh, right," Lydia laughed, rolling her eyes.

She knew the Maitlands well enough to know that they would refurnish every room in the house if they had the chance. Not that Charles even minded. No wonder the Maitlands liked watching Home Renovation shows from time to time. Lydia used her powers, levitating each of the books her dad was referring to and placing them back onto the shelves.

"Thanks, Lydia," Charles smiled at his daughter.

"You're welcome, dad."