Hurry Up, Get Happy (a Beetlejuice: the Musical Fanfiction)

One Heck Of A Story

Early the next morning, the six of them sat together in the living room of the Maitland-Deetz house. Delia and the Maitlands, excited to hear of the trip that Lydia, Betelgeuse, and Charles took to the Netherworld, sat together on the floor. The remaining three members of the group — Lydia, Betelgeuse, and Charles — sat together on the couch. Well, only Lydia and Charles were sitting on the couch. Betelgeuse floated a few feet in the air above them, gazing down at Delia and the Maitlands.

"So," Adam spoke up, putting an end to a few minutes of silence shared between the six of them. "Can you start with distracting us by setting all of the smoke detectors in the house off at once?" He had his gaze fixated, solely, on a now nervous Lydia.

She did not know what to say. Distracting all four of her parents by setting all the smoke detectors in the house off at once with Betelgeuse's help and then proceeding to sneak off into the Netherworld with him now seemed like nothing but a mistake to Lydia. The teenager looked up. Betelgeuse had the exact same look on his face as she did and Lydia could tell that he was equally as nervous as she was.

When he received no response from Lydia, Adam chose to speak up again. "I think I asked you a question, Lydia."

"Hold on," was Lydia's response. "Give me a moment to think up a response to it."

It took a few minutes for Lydia to come up with a response to her ghost father's question. The hardest part, however, was thinking about how to put it into words.

Eventually, Lydia said, "I'm sorry if we set all the smoke detectors in the house off at once. It was the only thing that Betelgeuse and I could think of that would work as a distraction. Just be lucky I didn't set the house on fire this time."

Adam sounded surprised. "I wasn't expecting an apology just yet." He turned to Charles. "Could you tell us what happened in the Netherworld?"

"Right, right," the still living male said, choosing now to tell the story of the adventure he, Lydia, and Betelgeuse had in the Netherworld. "Well," he continued, trying to remember the events of last night. "When I got there, I found Lydia and Betelgeuse sneaking through the Netherworld."

"We didn't notice him there at first but him coughing directed our attention to him," Lydia added with a slight smirk directed at her dad.

He did not seem at all pleased with that and instead chose to continue telling the story from his perspective. "I told them we were going back and the only reaction I got from Lydia was her letting go of my hand and telling me that she wasn't going back until she found and talked to Emily. That left me with no choice. I had to go with Lydia and Betelgeuse because I, too, wanted to have a chance to be able to find and see Emily again."

"And did you?" Delia, Adam, and Barbara asked in unison.

"Oh yes." Charles laughed. "It took us a while and we had to walk down a bunch of random hallways in the Netherworld and the three of us, luckily, avoided getting caught."

"What's she like?" Barbara asked.

"She's a lot like you, Barbara," Charles replied with a small smile. "It must be why Lydia bonded with you the most out of all of us."

"Yeah," Barbara said, looking directly at Lydia and the teenager smiled at her in return. "It must be."

"I told her everything," Charles chose to speak up, directing the attention of Delia and the Maitlands back over towards him, "from meeting Delia to moving here. I told her about this house, about the Maitlands, and how Lydia was the only one who could see them for a while after moving here." He turned to Delia and smiled. "She told me that it was okay if I loved you. She didn't mind. She said that Lydia needed a mother and I needed a wife."

Delia couldn't help but smile. "Aw...that's so sweet of her to say that."

Despite it being a whole day since the first anniversary of Emily's death, Lydia still felt a little down. Perhaps even more than she did the day before. She was currently hanging out with Betelgeuse in her bedroom, looking at pictures of her dead mom in the photo album laying open on her bedroom floor.

Betelgeuse was concerned for her. He lay on his stomach on Lydia's bedroom floor, gazing down at the same page of photos that Lydia was looking at.

Eventually, he gazed up at her and let out a cough and her attention focused away from the photo album on the floor in front of her and towards him. She gazed at him with a look of  confusion and a small frown on her face. "Did you need something, Beej?" she asked her best demon friend.

He seemed to be zoning off a little, gazing away from Lydia and looking at absolutely nothing in particular. Lydia waved a hand in front of Betelgeuse's eyes.
"Earth to Bj," Lydia said in a confused tone of voice. "You there?"

At that, he seemed to snap out of it and refocused his attention back over towards Lydia. He shook his head from side to side in a very fast paced way. "H-huh?" he spoke, still confused.

"Did you need something, Betelgeuse?" Lydia asked a second time, seemingly relieved and happy that her best demon friend was okay.

"O-oh yeah." Betelgeuse slapped a hand against his forehead in remembrance. "I've noticed that you are looking at pictures of your mom even though you found and had a long conversation with her last night."

"Oh that." Lydia closed her photo album and directed her attention towards Betelgeuse. "I know that, Betelgeuse. But I couldn't help but look at photos of her. I know I got to see and talk to her last night but that just made me want to look at pictures of her. I'm guessing that this means I want to talk to her forever. I'm guessing that it means I want to see her again."

"We're not going back to the Netherworld, Scarecrow," the demon in front of her stated as a matter-of-factly.

"And I know that, Betelgeuse!" Lydia shouted back to him as loudly as she possibly could.

Betelgeuse seemed to scoot back at how loud Lydia had just shouted at him, clear tears forming in his eyes that made the teenager regret shouting at him in the first place. As Lydia reached a hand out towards Betelgeuse, the latter disappeared in a flash of light.

But not before he told her, "I guess I'm going to hang out with Adam and Babs. See ya later, Scarecrow."

Lydia was left sitting there, no words forming from her lips as she stared longingly at the spot where Betelgeuse was once laying. With little to no hesitation, she stood up, deciding now was the time to go spend time with her dad and look at more photos of Emily with him. If and only if he was up to doing something like that.

Lydia sighed, made her way over towards her bedroom door, exited her room, and closed the door behind her.