Author's Notes: Just wanted to add a little note here and share with you that this story has some nods to the movie-verse but it will be mostly focused on the cartoon's story line and premises. I love both the movie and the cartoon and they are incredibly dear to my heart. Also, I will never acknowledge Delia being called "mom" or "mother" like Lydia does in the cartoon. Haha.

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Chapter 2

Square Peg

Lydia walked in through the back door of her home while slowly dragging her backpack along the kitchen floor. One of the shoulder slings, attached only at the bottom of the backpack, now pathetically trailed behind her.

Her dusty black cat, Percy, perked up from his nap when he heard the nearly detached piece snake by in front of him. He playfully began to bat at it, completely unknowing of the full extent of damage that had really been done that day.

Charles was reading his newspaper in the corner of the room at the kitchen table. When his daughter didn't greet him, like she regularly did, he lowered the paper to look over to her.

"Hey pumpkin. How was school?" His voice hinted at his concern but he was hoping that she just didn't see him there.

"Just lovely." Lydia grumbled. She really didn't want to talk about it.

His eyes settled on the backpack's broken sling and he got up to walk over to her to examine it.

"What happened?" He asked as his hand was affixed to his jaw in quiet contemplation. He could clearly see that it had been cut.

"I snagged something. It's an easy fix. So, I'll just sew it." She didn't stop while she continued to head to the stairs. She was hoping with all hope that he'd buy it, so that she could be in the cocooning comfort of her room.

"That doesn't look like a snag. Lydia, are you being teased again?" He followed behind her, very concerned, knowing something must've happened.

Delia, his red headed and capricious wife, poked her head out of one of the rooms when she overheard the conversation.

"Lydia being teased again?" She drew her words out to emphasize her dismay.

Lydia stopped walking. She knew they wouldn't relent unless she said something to them. She stared at the floor in the hallway, hoping beyond hope for some comfort, and some acceptance from them.

"I am." Without turning around, she quietly replied.

Delia waltzed over to her dark-haired stepdaughter.

"Well it's no wonder Charles! She's so gloomy all the time AND she's always wearing such gloomy clothes too!" She pulled on Lydia's near-black cardigan to show as an example.

"I don't see anything wrong with her clothes." Charles said, confused while as he tried to figure out what exactly was wrong with the picture being presented.

Lydia stood, unmoving, hoping Delia would just get it out of her system and move on to the next sparkly thing that would steal her attention.

"Of course you wouldn't! You simply don't know the first thing about fashion! Have you even bothered to look at the other kids her age? If you did, you would seen that Lydia sticks out like a sore thumb!" Delia rolled her eyes, with one hand on her jutted hip, to accentuate how annoyed she was.

Lydia finally turned around to face them both. She had had enough and her disgruntled expression had caught Charles's attention.

He squatted down to meet Lydia face to face.

"Well, what if you tried some more cheerful attire pumpkin? Maybe then you could blend in with everyone else." Charles grasped to find anything that would help his daughter. He never knew if he was doing the right thing for her and his anxiety compelled him to question every decision he ever made. He felt desperate to find any way to make her happy.

"A smile would help too!" Delia pondered distastefully, as she looked to Lydia's face.

Lydia sighed loudly in reply. Yup, she reaaaally had had enough.

"Would you be willing to try? For me sweetie?" Charles begged her, giving her chin a gentle byt loving knock with his knuckle.

"Ok daddy. Only for you." She conceded glumly. She tried to attempt to smile for him and succeeded enough to fool him; even though, she still felt absolutely empty inside.

"New wardrobe tiiiiiime!" Delia kicked up and heel, singing out, as she threw up her arms up over her head excitedly.

"Delia bought me a bunch of new clothes and I was true to my word. I tried as best that I could to do what they suggested in the hopes to get rid of this emptiness inside. I was desperate.

Sadly, new clothes can only cover what's on the outside and not what is truly on the inside. People will always seek to see past an exterior, especially if it was glaring different from them.

Nothing changed, and the other girls had begun to make fun of me for my new clothes too. They said I looked gross and ridiculous.

I had one bully who was worse than the rest. She claimed she was the most popular girl in school. She was blonde, tan, filthy rich, with a sense of entitlement and ego that held no bounds. Her name was Claire Brewster and she was my polar opposite."

"Like, you can put lipstick on a pig, Lydia Deetz, but a stinky, grody pig is still, like, totally a barf-o-rama pig." Claire stuck a finger into her open mouth and pretended to gag.

The whole classroom began to laugh with her as Lydia sank into her chair. She wanted to disappear and this neon pink sweater made her feel like she was flashing sign, advertising the freak show that she was.

Claire took advantage of Lydia's reaction and went in for the kill.

"I think I like the stupid creepy clothes on you." She feigned kindness and twirled over in front of Lydia's desk.

Lydia looked up at the blonde in front of her. She was confused but she knew this wasn't good. The rest of the classroom hushed and listened.

"You, you do?" Lydia said quietly as Claire sat on Lydia's desk and began to buff her nails.

"Like, duh! Of course, I do. It's just proper etiquette to dress in black for when you're in mourning, like everyone knows that!" Claire glanced over her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic frown.

"But, I'm not in mourning." Lydia's voice was still tiny but the whole room could hear everything crystal clear.

"Surely, you must be, since your taste in fashion died long ago! Fer sure!" Claire hopped off of her desk laughing loudly and once again, the classroom joined in.

Lydia wanted to scream or cry... maybe scream and cry but she knew it would only fuel the onslaught of insults. She knew Claire was just waiting to break her in every way until there was nothing left of her.

.

"The lesson from that day was burned into my soul:

That it didn't matter how I act, how I looked, or what I liked; I was going to be bullied because I was different and was always going to be different.

The bullying was becoming more than I could bear and I was reaching my breaking point.

After one particularly rough day of their abuse, I was walking home when an epiphany struck down upon me like a bolt of lightning. I had suddenly realized the futility of fighting it all. But instead of letting it pull me down again, I found a new strength and identity in it.

It was at that time, I resolved that if I was going to be teased for being me, then I was going to dress how I loved to dress! I was going to embrace being weird and be true to what was natural to me.

I was always going to be an oddity, an aberrant, and bizarre to the rest of the "normal" world and I was now fine with that.

On that day, I discovered self love for being strange and unusual.

Because being different was a reminder of why I didn't want to be anything that was called normal. I had learned, "normal" people hide away too much and aren't honest. I wanted to true to myself, just like the creatures in my movies were. "