I had to write this. I drew this character and before I knew it I had thought up a whole plot for my current obsession Beetlejuice! I swear I was born in the wrong time! I take the 80's instead of now anyday. Anywho the cartoon is pure awesome. Hope you like! :) 2 reviews and I'll continue. The chapters are all written BTW.
Beetlejuice: Hey babes? Aren't you forgettin' something?
ME: What?
BJ: The disclaimer?
Me: What? Oh right! I do not own any of these characters except Katrina. No matter how much I want to own Beetlejuice.
BJ:What was that?
Me: (blushing) Nothing!
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A loud crash of cymbals and drums woke seventeen year old Lydia Deetz. She sat up with a start and narrowed her eyes, trying to find the source of the racket. Above her head she saw black and white and instantly realized were the noise had come from. She rolled her eyes. Of course.
Her best friend Beetlejuice, the ghost, was marching in midair with a band marching behind him. He conducted them swiftly. Suddenly he turned to look at the girl. He stopped and the whole band of ghouls crashed into each other. Beetlejuice just looked back at them indifferently and pointed. An electric bolt shot out his fingers and the band disappeared in a flash. He laid down in the air with his hands behind his head. Floating down next to Lydia, he flashed her a green, toothy grin.
"Mornin' babes." He greeted, with a wink.
"Want to explain the marching band in my room?" She asked with her arms crossed on her chest. Her eyebrow raised in annoyance.
"Oh that. Well, your alarm didn't go off. And I know how much ya hate being late." He said, as if it was a ridiculous concept. "So I juiced up a band to wake you up." He turned onto his stomach, with his hands on top of each other. "Brilliant aren't I, babes? Aw, you don't have to tell me. I already know!"
"I don't know about that. Annoying, yes. Loud, yes. Brilliant? Not so much." Lydia replied, getting out of bed. Her T-Shirt and baggy pants were black as always. She headed toward the closet and grabbed her uniform of a hook.
"Aw, come on babes. Don't I get an 'A' for effort and all that?" The poltergeist asked, with a puppy dog look. Lydia rolled her eyes.
"'B' at best, Beej." She told him. "And a 'B' minus at that." She got the shirt off the hanger. She put her hands on her hips and looked at BJ expectantly. He was confused until Lydia narrowed her eyes. "Do you mind? I would like to get an audience." Beetlejuice looked back at her, shocked. What was she insinuating?
"Lyds! I'd never-" He began, but Lydia cut him off with a narrowed look.
"Perv." Beetlejuice looked at her and was so surprised he left.
Outside the house Beetlejuice materialized. He was flabbergasted. His mind wouldn't stop asking questions. What had happened? When did Lydia suddenly tire of his jokes? He couldn't even remember the last time they hung out in the Neitherworld. Or hung out at all for that matter. She seemed to be bored and annoyed with his jokes and his ideas. He thought they were best friends. And that last comment? When had he ever even made anything close to a pass at her? He may not have been anything even close to a gentleman but he respected Lydia more than anyone he knew. She was still just a kid. He was a creep but hey there was a limit! Why did she seem to hate him so much? Was he that angry and annoyed with the world when he was a teenager? There was no way! At least he didn't think so.
Confused, Beetlejuice poofed off to a bar to drink away his troubles for a while.
Lydia gave a heavy breath. She didn't know what was up. Beetlejuice had gone from fun to annoying fairly quickly. It wasn't his fault; she was just too grown up for that stuff. She brushed a lock of black hair from her face. She tried to take her mind off it by getting dressed for school. Still a voice prodded, He'll have to leave someday. You are going to college next year. But Lydia shoved the thought away.
Apparently a girl was transferring over to her school today. God, just what they needed in this town. Another preppy rich girl. As if Claire Brewster wasn't annoying enough. Another crony would only increase her ginormous, ego. It's a wonder that girl's head stayed on her shoulders. Probably because there was no brain in there. Just a lot of hot air. Maybe one day she'd fly away.
Lydia giggled at this as she slipped on the school mandatory black jacket. She could just imagine someone popping her head like a balloon and Claire screaming as she flew around the room like an Airhead commercial.
Coming back to Earth, Lydia straightened her spider brooch on the lapel of her uniform. She walked down the stairs and a cheery voice rang out.
"Lydia? Lydia? I made some scrambled eggs for breakfast!" Delia Deetz called. Her step-mother's voice did nothing to brighten her mood. She was so cheery. All. The freaking. Time. Not to mention the woman could barely boil water, let alone cook something appetizing. Her food looked as crazy as her artwork!
"Not hungry." She called back. She sped off down the hall and grabbed her backpack off the hook before her mother could lecture her. As she got on her rickety, rusty bike she barely heard Delia's voice calling her.
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Lydia pulled into Pine River High School, still feeling grouchy. She locked up her bike onto a pole as per usual. As she walked out of the crunchy mid-October leaves and into the building she dreaded the day ahead. Of course this made it pretty much the same as every other day. Most people hated the learning aspect but loved the social part of school. For Lydia it was the exact opposite. Ever since Bertha moved away and Prudence got that scholarship at some other school there was no one she could talk to. Half the class was being used as marionette puppets by Claire and the other half were either too boring, too annoying or were simply afraid of her. This left her only companion as Beetlejuice who occasionally transformed into her pencil to check up on her. Not that he really did that much anymore. Not that they really did anything together anymore.
Reaching her classroom she opened the door to reveal the boring white walls which were adorned with nothing more than a few science posters here and there. Yikes. Science with Mrs. Graphwick. She was a nightmare. Of course, it was nothing like a Neitherworld traveler like herself couldn't handle. She trudged to the back row of the class and sat down. No sooner than her butt hit the chair than did Mrs. Graphwick enter. She was short and her thick glasses magnified her eyes so that they looked enormous. A tight frown was plastered to her face and her wild grey hair stuck out in every direction. She began blabbing about vacuoles in such a monotone voice, Lydia almost fell asleep at the sound.
Suddenly, distracting Lydia from the agonizing lesson, the door opened. Fifteen minutes late, the new student entered seeming a bit frazzeled. She wasn't anything that Lydia expected. Instead of the stereotypical blonde hair, she was greeted by incredibly long brown hair with red streaks in a high ponytail. She wore the typical school uniform of a white button-down, black jacket with white trim and red-and-black plaid skirt. With the exception of a black choker around her neck with a spider web on it and heavy, clinking boots. Plus the red fingerless gloves on her hands and chain link earrings. She was about to turn and find a seat when Mrs. Graphwick shrieked out.
"Stop!" She yelled and the girl turned to the short teacher. Shuffling through papers, Mrs. Graphwick yanked out a couple of papers. "Ah, Katrina Chapman, is it?" She said, looking at the girl over her thick glasses. The girl nodded and turned around to go sit down. "Wait! Say something about yourself." Katrina rolled her eyes. What is this? Fifth grade?
Lydia couldn't help but crack a smile as the girl was being annoyed by the short witch. The girl stood in the front of the room, her hands in her pockets and a mischievous grin was on her face.
"I used to live in Madagascar but then animals tried to attack me and my mom. I used the flying machine I had built out of banana peels and monkey hair to fly us to New York. We lived in the Statue of Liberty's right nostril for a while. Let me tell you, that was crazy." She paused as if recalling some crazy party. "Unfortunately, we got lost in our coconut powered car and ended up here instead of Hawaii." She finished, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She gave a small sarcastic bow and dragged her maroon tote bag to the corner of the room. And plopped herself right next to Lydia. The only person in the room who didn't look like a preppy clone. If anything the girl radiated individuality and Katrina liked that.
"Young lady! I will not stand for that kind of blatant disrespect." She screeched.
"It was generally true. I just embellished it a bit. You know, creativity and all that." She smirked. "I have in fact lived in Madagascar for a year and I did live in the Statue of Liberty. My mom is a photographer. She gets paid to go to all these places. Though I must admit the car was actually Mango-powered not coconut powered. My bad." The teacher just glared silently. "Don't you have a class to teach?" She asked.
Lydia mumbled under her breath,"More like a class to bore." Katrina let out a laugh that she attempted to muffle. The teacher just shot her a look and began to go on and on, once more. Lydia began drawing in her notebook. Before she knew it the bell had rung snapping her out of her trance. She had been sketching a creepy Neitherworld building she remembered. She took a minute to look at her handiwork.
"Wicked." Katrina said, flashing her a grin as she walked up the aisle beside the goth. "Lydia." She said, pointing to her curvy signature at the bottom of the page. She kept walking and Lydia walked up beside her.
"So is all that stuff true? About your mom being a photographer?" Lydia asked. Katrina looked surprised and looked up at the taller girl. She looked around to make sure that the girl was in fact talking to her.
"Huh? Oh yeah. She takes me everywhere. We're kind of taking a break for a year or so. That's why we're here." She replied. A pause. "Hey you mind helping me get to my next class?" She asked somewhat hesitantly.
"Oh sure. Let me see your schedule." She replied. Katrina stuck her hand in the front pocket of her tote bag. She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.
"Eh heh heh. Sorry.I kinda have this problem with tidiness." She laughed nervously.
"No problem. I'm used to it." Lydia laughed, thinking of the most untidy person she knew. She examined the schedule. "Oh you have art next. Me too. We have about four classes together. And lunch." Katrina smiled. What a lucky break. She had assumed everyone here would be a bunch of drips. Boy was she wrong! She had even made a friend!
"Wicked!" She looked at Lydia. She looked a couple of years older than her but that was to be expected. "Hey Lydia?"
"Yeah?" Lydia asked.
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen." She looked at Katrina. "What about you? No offense but you look kind of young to be in a senior science class."
"Fourteen." Katrina replied. At Lydia's look of surprise she elaborated. "Homeschool makes it easy to skip ahead, you know? I just have senior Science and Math. Everything else is regular freshman crap." She explained. There was a pause. "So how about your life? I gave you the basic details on mine. It's only fair."
"Well," She began. The only interesting thing in her life was something she couldn't talk about! "I live with my artsy fartsy stepmom and my dad who gets scared by his shadow daily."
"Are they annoying?" Katrina asked as they tried to make their way to art.
"Eh, it varies from day to day." She admitted. Suddenly she was bumped in the arm. Guilty as ever, stood Claire Brewster.
"What do you want Claire?" Lydia asked with her arms crossed. Claire looked at her as if she was just a bug that had crawled by.
"So like Katrina, why are you even wasting your time on this like Goth Girl? This so not the way to spend your first day here. You both look like a carnival act. Goth girl and emo wannabe midget." She commented, with a snarky laugh. Katrina was taken aback at first but then painted on a syrupy sweet smile.
"Wow, like Claire, what a great tan you have! It totes reminds me of my favorite character in my favorite movie!" She fake-gushed, adopting Claire's voice. Claire beamed.
"Duh. I already know that." She flipped her hair and tried to hide her curiosity. "Which one?"
"Like you know, the Oompa Loompas from Charlie in the Chocolate Factory!" She finished with another fake, sickly sweet smile.
"Ugh! How dare you! My tan cost more than you and this freak combined!" She squawked. Lydia laughed.
"Then you should get your money back." She said with a giggle. Katrina couldn't help but laugh as well. Claire was fuming.
"A tan that expensive shouldn't make you look like the Annoying Orange!" Katrina added. "Emphasis on annoying!"
"Why you, you little freaks!" She yelled exasperated and turned to walk in the other direction. Lydia smirked.
"Thank you Captain Obvious!" Lydia called after her. She turned back to Katrina. Katrina was still laughing.
"Oh man! Was she pissed or what?" Katrina giggled.
"You said it!" Lydia laughed. "You sounded exactly like her!" Lydia exclaimed. Katrina smirked.
"I feel I have perfected my snobby rich girl accent." Katrina said in a formal voice. "Or at least that's what people tell me." Lydia smiled and stopped in front of a green door.
"You'll have to help me practice mine." She replied, and then gestured to the door. "Well, here's the art room." She said.
"Any warnings you wanna give me before I go in there?" Katrina asked, thinking of the evil troll, Mrs. Graphwick. Lydia laughed.
"No Ms. Dell is pretty nice." She assured. Katrina looked relieved. Walking into the room was a completely different experience than the previous class. The walls of this room were light blue with paintings of abstract art hanging all over the room. There were desks with sketchbooks all in rows.
"Oh, today is a free sketch day. I can ask if we can sit together if you want." Lydia told her. Katrina smiled.
"Sounds great." Katrina smiled. They walked up to the desk where a young blond woman sat. Her hair was done up in a beehive sort of hair style and her dress was a splatter of colors. Boy, there was no mistaking this woman for anything but an art teacher.
"Um, Ms. Dell? Do you think Katrina could sit with me? She's new and I'm kinda showing her around." Lydia asked.
"Well, I don't see why not. Y'all can just sit wherever." She said in a southern accent. Katrina couldn't help but smile. This woman seemed like a lot of fun. They sat down and before they knew it the class had started.
"Ok. So how about we both sketch something up and at the end of class we show each other. Like a surprise?" Katrina suggested energetically. Lydia smiled. Boy, this girl sure was enthusiastic! Which for once didn't annoy Lydia. She supposed optimism just suited Katrina. She could never be mistaken as a pessimist because she just radiated bubbliness.
"Alright. Try and make it nice and creepy!" She laughed.
"I wouldn't dream of doing anything else!" Katrina replied with laugh. They both immediately started drawing. After an hour, Ms. Dell called for the students to pack up their things. Each girl was just finishing the last detail. Katrina finished and looked over at Lydia. She held up her drawing and Katrina held up hers. Lydia's was a sloping hill littered with tombstones that were shaded to look old and decrepit. At the foreground was a tree with a raven that seemed to stare back at Katrina. At the bottom of the picture, there was curvy letters that said, 'Nevermore.'. Katrina's was a ghost girl lurking out a window. An eerie smile played across her face. She looked like an 100-year old doll.
"Whoa. Too cool." Lydia told her. Katrina smiled.
"Yours is pretty creepy. Like Tim Burton-y."
"I love Tim Burton!"
"Me too!"
They left the room chatting about their favorite Tim Burton movies.
That's pretty much how the next two weeks went. The pair growing closer and closer. Beetlejuice was getting fed up. Every time he wanted to hang with Lydia she was off to Katrina's house, studying with Katrina at the library, meeting Katrina at the park. And the only time she wasn't with Katrina, she was telling him all the stuff they did together like he was some faithful dog. Katrina and me this. Katrina that. Ugh! It made him sick! (And not in the good way.)
On top of that he didn't even know what the girl looked like! Lydia had told him never to bother them or else . She practically made him promise. It had gotten to the point where Lydia could tell when he was in the human world with her. Hey don't ask him why she just sensed his energy or something. So he knew he couldn't sneak up on her. If he even tried to pop up to check, Lydia promised to send him back to the Neitherworld for two months! Seeing some girl's face was not worth the loneliness of the Neitherworld. Never the less, he'd still like to see the face of his new arch-enemy. Have a face to hate.
Beetlejuice snapped out of his thoughts. Lydia had a large duffel bag with her and seemed like she was about to leave. He floated down from his perch above her canopy bed.
"Why doesn't this 'Katrina'," He air-quoted and said her name in a girly voice. "Ever come here once in a while, babes? It's only fair." He asked trying to sound innocent as possible. Years of experience on Lydia's part broke through his facade.
"Because you'd juice her. And I don't want my only living friend leaving as a pigeon!" Lydia told him. Beetlejuice grinned evilly.
"How about a peacock? I'd make her pretty just for you, babes! And you know I don't do pretty!" He offered. He poofed into a creepy peacock with stripes in its tail fan.
"As generous as your offer is I'm going to have to say no." Beetlejuice just frowned at this.
"Fine." He crossed his arm. He blew a piece of hair from his face. "So what time you gonna be home anyhow?" She hurled the duffel bag onto her shoulder.
"Probably noon tomorrow." At BJ's look of surprise she explained, "Beej I'm sleeping over. We're going to have a movie marathon before Halloween on Sunday. I thought I told you." Lydia replied casually as she stuffed a few more things in the bag. BJ's jaw literally dropped to the floor.
"You'll be gone the whole night?" He pouted. "I wanna come!" He bawled. He fell on the floor and beat his fists on the ground. Lydia crossed her arms with a parental look.
"You can't come. Neither can Betty before you can ask." Lydia replied. Beetlejuice's raised finger and hopeful look both deflated. Beetlejuice snapped his fingers in defeat.
"Darn! Ugh. Fine, Lyds. I'll just scare up a little fun in town." He said and finished with a small snort. He poofed away in a flash. The rare silence was interrupted by the theme from Halloween. One of Lydia's favorite horror movies. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. The phone read 'Katrina' in black print. She answered
Apparently some crazy stuff had happened with the plumbing at her house. So Lydia couldn't come over. Suddenly, a great idea struck Lydia.
"No, it's okay you can come here!" She suggested. Now that BJ was gone for the night, it'd be safe. Katrina was surprised.
"Really? I've never been to your house before." Katrina couldn't wait! They made the arrangements and Katrina packed up her bags. She packed some of her favorite horror flicks. She called out a goodbye and was met by her mother's usual nagging about manners and decency and what happens at parties. Ugh, that woman was so infuriating. She finally escaped and hopped on her red electric rode her over to the large white house on the hill. That thing was massive! She rode through the rickety covered bridge and even in the dim light, she could still see the patch job that was done after that couple drowned. Katrina felt bad when she heard the story. They were so young. She would definitely ask Lydia if she knew anything about them.
She parked her bike on the front porch and before she even knock Delia was rushing her inside, prattling on about god knows what.
Lydia heard her mother going on about something downstairs. She groaned and figured Katrina was here. Nothing could get Delia talking like a new guest. Taking the stairs two at a time, she told her mom they were going upstairs and rescued Katrina. Lydia's dark red T-shirt and skinny jeans only made Delia chatter on more about how dark she dressed. Katrina hoped she wouldn't get nagged about her black shirt and capris. Lydia seemed to completely ignore her step-mother and yanked Katrina up the stairs. When they got in her room, Katrina marveled at the high ceilings and large room. She took in the room and wished her house was this cool. Interrupting her thoughts, Lydia smirked.
"Nice pigtails." Katrina's hand instinctively flew up to the two high pigtails she had made before she got here. "You're like Rapunzel."
Katrina smiled. "I like your updo." She said pointing to Lydia's hair that seemed intent on defying gravity. " You're like…Lydia. Nice and unique." She grinned. Lydia smiled wide at the compliment. Turning around to her desk she picked up a stack of movies.
"So what's first? Poltereist or Nightmare on Elm Street?" She asked with an evil grin.
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BJ floated through the streets angrily. Where was everybody? The only good scaring he had gotten was some pansy walking his dog! He decided to go to Lydia's house. He could always get a good scare from Lydia's folks. He snickered to himself. He floated by Lydia's window when he heard voices. Lydia was home? An excellent time to spy! He shrunk himself down. No way would she be able to feel he was there now.
The night so far had been a blast. After hiding under the covers for Nightmare On Elm Street and laughing at the tameness of The Ring, the girls were tired. Not to mention the little makeup lesson Lydia had given Katrina. They had even compared pajamas. Katrina's long nightdress that was a replica of Sally dress from Nightmare before Christmas had made Lydia feel envious. The feeling had been returned when Lydia showed of her nightie which had realistic looking bullet-holes and blood all over it.
Now, the two girls were in their pajamas as they laid on the bed reading their guilty pleasures: trashy teen magazines. Katrina laughed as she adopted a valley girlaccent.
"Lydia, Like what style is so you? Are you preppy, girly or funky?" Lydia held her sides.
"Blech! Try none of the above!" Lydia reached over and grabbed the magazine.
"Omg, Katrina. Like what guy is right for you?" She giggled. "Cute, smart or shy?" Lydia laughed.
"So far it seems there's only pervy, creepy or jerk in this town." Katrina said. Lydia nodded.
They didn't notice the striped fly zoom into the window. They certainly didn't notice a mini-BJ floating around and listening to their conversation. So this was Katrina huh? He mused. Well, he had to admit she was a whole lot better looking than Lydia's other friends. And she seemed more like Lydia than Bertha and Prudence ever were. This girl was wearing goth pajamas and had streaks in her hair. She was definitely more Lyds' type than anyone he had ever seen. Well in Peaceful Pines anyway.
"You pretty much summed it up."
"I mean there's nothing new here. No variety. The rest of the guys are like stale oatmeal! Especially funny guys! Those are my favorite kind of guy!"
"That's why I've never had a boyfriend." Lydia admitted. BJ grew to full size and snapped. Suddenly a can of 'Energy Cloak' appeared. He grabbed it and sprayed it on himself quickly. Then he turned invisible to the human eye and flew around the room
He had been fine until he heard the next line of dialogue.
"Which is messed up 'cause no homo but you have a great butt Lyds." Lydia laughed at Katrina. Beetlejuice suddenly flinched and without realizing dropped his invisibility. The girls were too busy talking to notice him.
"Yeah well I'm pretty small on top. Especially compared to you. Ms. I'm-fully-developed-when-I'm-fourteen!" She joked. "You are so lucky! I barely finished now."
"It's not as great as you think. In middle school it was pure hell!"
"Oh yeah right! I know I'm not the best in math but getting boobs early does not equal hell in my book."
You coming on to me?" Katrina joked with a raised eyebrow. Lydia laughed and threw a pillow at her.
"In your dreams!" Lydia laughed. They burst into giggles. Suddenly, Katrina stopped laughing. Her eyes were wide.
"Lydia?" She asked, staring up in awe. "Were you aware you had a ghost in your house?"