It was pure chance, really.
How the flyer even ended up in her attic when she was thinking of ways to torment Claire Brewster was beyond her. She'd been up here thousands of times, looking through every nook and cranny for spiders or long-forgotten treasures. She'd never seen the flyer before.
It really was pure chance.
She held the flyer in both hands as she crossed the attic floor crawled up on an ancient chest to sit as she read aloud:
Beetlejuice
THE BIO-EXORCIST
Troubled by the living?
Is that the problem and not the solution?
Unhappy with eternity?
Having difficulty adjusting?
Call
BEETLEJUICE
BEETLEJUICE
BEETLEJUICE!
It really was only chance.
He wasn't supposed to have a mirror. No Neitherworlder was. It was like, numero uno on the Powers That Be's no-no list.
Mirrors were windows to and from the Other Side.
Beetlejuice had never been one to follow rules though, and he was RFB: really fucking bored.
He happened to pass over a mirror in some breather's attic when a voice on the other side called his name four times.
Hey, three was enough for sure.
He felt himself pulled through the mirror, and ended up in a sitting position about a foot above the desk of some vanity with bats as toppers on the dowels.
The girl snorted, crumpling up the paper and tossing it to the side. "What a weird flyer. Wonder why it's up here. Hmm… I wonder where I put those fake spiders-"
"I'd wager a guess on that chest o' drawers there Babes."
The little girl (god, why'd a kid have to call his name? Why not a hot, young exotic chick with a thing for dead old guys? This squirt was like, maybe four feet tall and like, six years old. So not cool.) squealed and jumped about a foot in the air as she spun to face him. He shot her a cocky leer, watching as her shocked little doe eyes took in the bug remains lodged in his crooked yellow teeth, his mass of matted, wiry blonde hair, and the mold around his face. He expected her to scream, to run, to beg for her life or at least cry.
What he sooooo did not expect was for her entire face to light up, a sparkle in her eyes as she crossed the floor and leant right up close to his face to examine his bone-white skin. "Woah! Deadly vu! Are you Beetlejuic-"
"Ah! Oo, oo, oo, oo, ah, ah, ah! Nobody says the 'B' word kid! And yeah, I am."
"Are you a ghost?"
Her expression was so excited, her voice so breathless he couldn't help but stare at her with a completely baffled expression. "I'm the Ghost with the Most Babes. Real dangerous like. Ain't ya scared?"
The little girl cocked her head to the side, frowning up at him. "Are you going to hurt me?"
The poltergeist frowned. "Well uh… no. Wasn't plannin' on it. Yer just a kid."
The kid frowned. "Hey, I'm no kid, I'm almost thirteen! That's almost a teenager!"
Beetlejuice let out a great hoot of laughter, fixing her with that strange grin again. "Whatever Babes. So what, why'd'ja call my name?"
The girl shrugged. "I was just reading the flyer. I found it in a hole in the floor. Hey! Do you have any cool powers?" She asked, leaning close to examine his face again.
The poltergeist lifted a hand, and put his grimy red-clawed pointer finger on her forehead, and gave her a little push backwards. "Yer in my bubble Babes." And with that, they were both encased in a giant white bubble.
"Oh deadly vu!" She reached out to touch the side of the bubble, and it popped beneath her hand. "That was amazing Beetle-… Beej!"
Beetlejuice's head tilted to the side as he fixed the girl with an odd grin. "You know what shorty? You're weird. Most kids, fuck, most normal people woulda run screamin' fer their mommies and a new change a pants by now, not givin' me a nickname." He told her. "What's wrong with you?"
She shrugged. "Well… I'm not what most people call normal. So are you like, haunting this house or something?" She asked.
Beetlejuice chuckled. "Nah. My crib's in the Neitherworld Babes. The place o' the dead not departed."
He didn't think she could get any more excited or brighter than she was, but she proved him wrong and did. "There's another whole world for dead people? Deadly vu! Oh Beetle- Beej! Could you take me to see it? Please?"
Beetle's eyes went huge as he stared down at her. "No. Why the hell should I do that?" Her entire face seemed to crumble, and for some reason that sent a sharp pang of guilt through his stomach. "Hey… hey don't do that Babes." He told her.
The girl sighed. "You didn't have to be mean about it Beej."
Beetle frowned. "Er… uh… hey, I wasn't meaning to be an asshole it's just… well uh… Breathers are delicate, right? And the Neitherworld is for dead people. And there ain't ever been a Breather in the Neitherworld, so uh… well it could be bad for ya. Ya don't wanna die, do ya?"
Beetle started counting the seconds, that's how long it took her to drag her eyes away from him shiftily and stare at the wall, unable to answer him straight. "… no…"
Beetle couldn't help the shocked expression that had his mouth popping open. "A suicidal six year old, that's new."
The kid turned to glare at him. "I'm almost thirteen I told you! And I'm not… not suicidal," The girl frowned down at her shoes as she scuffed her heal against the floor. "I just… don't fit in with living people very well. Kids aren't supposed to think about death and other 'morbid' things." Beetle watched her, shocked as her expression turned sad. "But it's all I think about."
"Heavy shit kid."
The girl grimaced up at him. "You say a lot of bad words Beej."
Beetle chuckled. "Silly kid. Alright, how's this, I gotta deal ta make with ya-"
The girl frowned. "A deal?"
"Yeah: I'll try ta stop swearin' so much, and help ya not be such a depressin' little thing, if ya do me a solid, and let me outta the Neitherworld whenever I want."
The girl frowned again. "You can't leave on your own?"
"Nope. Cursed name and all. It's a dead guy thing. So we gotta deal?"
Beetle watched the girl frown thoughtfully, crossing her arms and pursing her lips. "That almost sounds like… we'd be friends… sorta."
Beetle rolled his eyes a bit. "Uh… I ain't really the type o' guy ya want as a friend Babes."
The girl frowned. "I have a name Beej. Lydia. Lydia Deetz."
Beetle chuckled as he dropped to the ground and brushed off his striped suit before he held out his hand for her to shake. "Fine then, Lyds. You and me girl: BFFs and all that sappy shi-, er, stuff."
Lydia's eyes brightened again as she accepted his grimy, clawed hand and shook it eagerly. "You're a dork Beej."
]]]]
Not quite sure how I felt about this one, but I thought, as long as I was doing cartoon-verse stuff, I should explore their first meeting.
