Waiting

It was 3:30, and I had just gotten home from school. I dug the house key out of the depths of my backpack and unlocked the door.

I was relieved to finally be home and away from school. Honestly, I know what you must be thinking. You're probably guessing that I'm bullied, that nobody understands me, ect, ect. Nope. My problem with school is the same problem every other kid has. I just don't like it.

I hate cliches and melodramatics, I refuse to be one of those kids who thinks the world is out to get them just because things don't always go the way I think it should. I completely understand school, and why it is so important that I go. And honestly I don't mind learning, but what I don't understand is why I have to learn things which don't interest me. Why can't I just go to the classes I like?

I sat my bag down next to the kitchen table where I would be starting my home work soon, but I needed to change out of my God-awful uniform first.

As I looked through my dresser for everyday clothes, I found myself thinking of the Neither World, wishing so much to just burn my homework and be done with it. I seriously considered half-assing it. At least on the subjects that bore me, but then I think better of it. I've always been a decent student. Not the best, not the worst, but at seventh grade I'm half way through school, so I figure there's no reason to start not caring now.

I pulled my clothes off and quickly redressed in denim shorts that were almost too big on me, and black shirt. I wasn't up to styling my hair, so I just shook my head back and forth it make it look less uppity.

I started out of my room, heading back to the kitchen to start on my assignments, when I heard what I thought sounded like someone tapping on glass.

Gee, I wonder who that could be?

I looked over my shoulder to see who else but Beetlejuice giving me his crooked idiotic grin while waving.

"Busy?" he asked, about to step from the mirror.

"About to be."

Sometimes he would come to my world. The world of the living, or the world of the 'air suckers' is what Beej would call it. I always made sure my parents were gone when he came over. And if he came over while my parents were home, well, I made sure we were quiet. Honestly, it wasn't hard to get away with. My parents were incredibly oblivious. They never questioned why I would bring two sodas to my room, or why my hair and cloths always smelled like smoke, or where I would go when I was gone all Saturday and Sunday. It was almost like they didn't care. I didn't think too much about it. I was just happy that I wasn't getting caught.

Then again, they did check on me every once in a great while...

He shot me a nasty look, "What are you about to be so busy doin' that you can't come to the Neither World with me?"

I stepped back into my room, closing the door behind me. "Start on my home work."

"Can't that wait til later?"

We have this argument at least twice a week. He wants me to drop whatever it is that I'm doing and goof off with him in the Neither, and I say, 'I can't, I have homework,' and then he says, 'what's homework?' and I have to go on a thirty minute explanation of what home work is, then he says, 'school is a waste of time' so then I have to explain the importance of school, and by the time we're done arguing about it, I have some how mysteriously ended up in the Neither. Not this time, though. I'll win this time.

"Sorry, but it can't this time, Beetlejuice."

"Aw, c'mon, " he urged, sounding very convincing, "Thee times the charm!"

"Nope." I was committed to winning this, "I'm finishing my home work tonight."

"Well, can I come over then?"

"Can you be quiet while I do my home work?" I asked.

"No."

I exhaled a groan of irritation.

He'd told me once that the only way he could be free was if he got married to a living woman. I asked him, "Then what are you waiting for?" I wanted to know why he wasn't looking for a wife. If all he needed to be free was a wife, why was he wasting time playing NES (which is what we were doing at the time) with me?

He didn't pause the game, he never even turned his eyes from the screen, "I'm waiting."

"For what?" if I had been stuck in the Neither World as long as he had, I think I would put a little more effort into getting out.

"You to grow up, duh." he said as if I should've already known, pausing the game and giving me the finger for no reason.

So that's why he wasn't looking. He'd already found his wife. Oddly enough, I wasn't bothered by this. I was only twelve years old, I thought he was joking.

He un-paused the game, then sent Luigi careening off the edge of the platform, "Fuck."

I reached between us and took a handful of popcorn, "You didn't even give me an engagement ring," I said through the popcorn in my mouth, "Or even ask for that matter."

He send Luigi off the edge again, losing his last life, "Well, the reason I didn't ask is 'cause you don't have a choice." he said taking a handful of popcorn for himself, "When you become a woman, then we'll get married."

I have no idea why I didn't think to ask why I apparently didn't have a choice. Maybe it was because it was my turn to play.

I jumped over a Goomba, bounced off another, and then hit the bottom of a block and got a fire flower. I shot fire balls at the on coming enemies, smiling when I heard Beej muttering, 'show off'.

"I already am a woman."

He just snorted, taking more popcorn from the bowl, "You ain't a woman yet."

"Well, the last time I was in the bathroom, I'm pretty sure what I saw was a vagina." I cringed, I hate that word.

"A vagina doesn't make you a woman, kiddo. Well, I mean it dose, but I'm talking about something different."

"Shoot!" I walked right off the floating bricks and fell, "What are you talking about, then?" I asked as the game took Mario back to the starting point of the level.

He bit a piece of his red, chipped finger nail off and spit it on the carpet, "Uh, it's like... It's not so much the vagina that makes you a woman, it's more like what comes out of your vagina that makes you a woman."

I reached the flag at the end of the level, "Ew, you mean pee?" I felt embarrassed now.

I could feel Beej staring at me. It was one of his famous looks he gave me when he thought I had said something stupid, like the one he gave me a minute ago when he flipped me off.

"Babes," he asked.

"Yeah?"

"What the hell are they teaching you in school?"

"I dunno, I don't really pay attention," but we both knew that was a lie, because I always made As and Bs.

It was 4:30, Mom and Dad would be home soon. I paused the game and got up from the floor and stretched. "You'd better get going. It's almost time for my parents to be home."

He didn't get up. He took my controller and resumed the game, "And? When has that ever been a problem?"

I picked up the popcorn bowl which now had nothing in it but un-popped kernels, and the empty yoohoo cartons from the floor. "They've been checking in on me lately."

He used up all of Mario's lives, so he switched controllers again, "Then tell them not to check in on you. Yer not a baby, sheesh."

"I think they noticed how often I disappear." I looked at him, still laying on the floor, "Maybe I should visit less."

The next second he was floating in front of me, holding my wrist in his fist tight enough it almost hurt, "Lyd," he started, "That, is a really, really, bad idea." he dragged me closer, "I don't care what you have to tell your parents, but do not stop visiting."

He sounded angry. At me. I don't know what I could've done to him, but I didn't care. I was sorry regardless, and I was ready to say as much if he would just stop looking at me like that.

I placed my free hand over his, urging him to let go, "Okay, I won't. I promise."

He cracked a smile then, "Good! Say ya later, babes!"

And just like that, he was gone.

I was sitting down at the dinner table, quietly eating as my parents chatted on about work, politics and anything else that was boring because that's what grown ups like to talk about. I usually don't pay much attention when they talk about their day. My mind is always somewhere else.

I look down at my plate, noticing I've barley touched my food. I look back up at my parents, who are still talking about boring stuff I don't care about.

"May I be excused?"

"No. Anyway, that house will need renovati-" Dad wasn't harsh, or snappy, but the way he just went back to his conversation a second later kinda bugged me. It made me feel ignored. And lonely. It was times like this when I would cram my face as fast as I could, so I could go to 'bed'.

I never considered myself to be a needy child. I was used to keeping myself entertained, being an only child and all. But, why did I feel like they should be paying attention to me? I clearly didn't want them to, considering they could find out about my ghostly adventures in the Neither. Some part of me wanted them to find out. So they would know, that even if I wasn't significant, that I was friends someone who was.

It's funny. You could pass right through Beej, yet he seemed more real, more solid, to me than my parents did at the time.