Chapter 3
Party! Party! Party!
Percy sat on the edge of my bed, licking his paw constantly. Not really paying attention to him though, I tossed another whole outfit out of my closet and it landed right on him. The poor old cat screeched with fear and darted off and under the bed.
I stood there in the doorway of my closet, wrapped in a bath robe, and thought hard. Didn't take much for me to realize that I was just standing there hitting my head against the closet door frame. How long I had been doing this, I did not know.
Okay, Lydia, you're a Deetz, you an do this. Comforting myself for a minute before I stopped and began to think was all I could do to calm down and think strait(Even if it meant lying to myself about being able to do this).
Lets look at the problem. I can't find the outfit I'm looking for. About a few months ago, I tried to prepare myself for the college dorm parties by making outfits perfect for the occasions. Well, the one outfit that was worthy of this particular party didn't want to show it's...fabric? Well, it doesn't have a face, so what else can't it show? Unless...oh no. No, Beetlejuice wouldn't torture me like that! Oh hell no. He's matured a little over the years, I have to give him credit for that.
As I thought this to myself, I decided to start with the basics of clothing; Underwear. Opening the drawer, I immediately took it all back; how he matured? Hah! Yeah right. And how he can make me take it all back so easily is just a wonder, knowing how patient and tolerant I usually am. "Hey babes!" a smiling thong greeted me as I lifted it out of the drawer with one finger. "Please, tell me, why are you in my underwear drawer?"
"Um...browsing?" he smiled stupidly, and I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment. "What the hell are you...nevermind. What do you want?"
"I'm here 'cause I heard ya screamin'."
"Oh..." I murmured and then realized he was still a thong. Taking a thumb and shifting it inside one side, and then pulling it back with the other hand, I flung the thong across the room. BJ flew and lightly hit the wall; he was still a pair of underwear, anyways. Thankfully not my underwear. "Well, Beetlejuice, if you want to help me, you have to be serious. I don't have enough time to goof off."
"Why the hell not?" the thong asked and tried to slink and stand up, but the fabric body he now had at the moment only let him slink back to the floor. "Because, Beetlejuice, I've got a few minutes to be at a party and I don't even know what I'm gonna wear!"
"Third time's the charm, babes. Just one more time, please? I need to get out! I'll help ya first, I promise."
I guess I could let him out. And he hasn't really broken a promise of mine since the time he pulled pranks on my parents. Smiling slightly I opened my mouth. I didn't really need to chant, just one word and he was out and about. "Beetlejuice!"
The striped thong on the floor rose and grew longer, like a snake, and then shaped into that of a body. My best friend's body. "Never fear! BJ is here! What's the problem, babes?"
"That outfit I made months ago, the black one with the cat ears on the hood;I can't find it." I muttered in frustration. Looking back over at BJ, he had began to float where he once stood, that thinking expression on his face. "Well, I give'up," he shrugged, leaning back and crossing his legs in the air. "Thought I should 'never fear' because 'Bj's here'." I hissed under my breath and made my way back to my closet. I began to dig back way deep into the closet, throwing more clothes out into my room, which had already started to look like a tornado had hit it. "'Ey, Lyds! I think I found it!"
Surprise exploded within me so suddenly that when I burst out of my closet I was pinning him to the ground. "WHERE?!"
"There!" He pointed across the room to a pile of clothes, and sure enough, it was sitting there right on top. Well, the shirt was on top, anyways. It was black with a red cat head on the chest, with black eyes too. The cat was sown on as well as the eyes; and the shirt had a hood that had Cat ears on it. I was going for the 'Emily the Strange' look on the outfit.
Getting off BJ and leaving him sitting there beat red from being pinned down by a girl in a towel, I ran over and picked it up, and sure enough the red plaid miniskirt was underneath it. "Thank you, BJ! Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!" I yelled and squeezed him in a death hug. He squirmed a little, and then I rushed him through the mirror. "Now get, I need to change!" With that, I forced him through the mirror and turned it to where it faces the floor so I don't have to worry about the worst.
--
Man, Lyds seemed pretty excited about that party she's going to. Maybe she just wants to get it over with? I dunno. Standing in m'room with my hands in my pockets, I bit my lower lip, trying to think. God I wasn't good at this thinking stuff at all as far as finding a present is concerned.
"Well if it izn't Beetlejoose!" Jacques appeared in my doorway, arms crossed and smiling like he usually did. "What do you want, bonehead?"
"You zeem as 'if you're terribly confuzed," his sockets shifted slightly. Something told me that if he had eyebrows, he'd be raising one of 'em. Man he bugged me, mostly right now because he was right. I was terribly confused. More than I should be. "Well?"
"You're wasting your time, numbskull," I grunted, shoving my way past him and out the door. "If there was something I was confused about, I sure as hell wouldn't ask you for help." And with that, I exited the roadhouse in hopes of stumbling across something; anything.
With no ideas, I decided to go watch Lydia at her party. After all, I was being paid to.
--
"Lydia! It's about time!" Bertha exclaimed, giving me an excited hug as I locked the truck and shoved the keys into my pocket. Prudence appeared and we all had a group hug moment. The faint lights illuminating from Claire's front porch dimly lit our walk up the driveway and to her monstrous house. Prudence decided to go in first, then Bertha, and I went in last.
All three of us felt insecure. No, not just insecure, but extremely.Various party-goers stopped with beers in hand to sneer at us just as we come in through the door. Obviously, it won't be long until Claire found out we're here. So we might as well enjoyed it while we could.
"I wonder if they have any soda," Prudence muttered, digging into the third cooler we've tried so far and still found nothing but beer, beer, and more freakin' beer. "I'll just go poor myself a cup of water," I murmured, feeling pretty silly for being here in the first place and went into the kitchen. No Claire yet, this must be a good sign. At least, I wish it was.
"Is the freakshow afraid to drink a little alcohol?" a sneering voice cooed behind me. Wow, that was fast. Indeed it was my worst nightmare standing where I least wanted to look right now. I felt myself freeze in place, then turned around from the sink and took a sip of the water that I'm obviously being judged for getting. "Alcohol kills brain cells. I don't want any of it if it's going to dissolve my brain to be similar to yours." It was the first thing that came to my mind. But as lame as it was, it was still enough to bring an annoyed scowl to Claire's face. Smiling to myself, I thought I could handle it.
Apparently not...
"Don't test me," her voice was low, and I could tell I had pissed her off. Maybe being slightly drunk makes your fuse a little shorter? "Well what do you call all that shit you give me during school?"
"Well, gee, I don't know," she looked up innocently. "All I know is that you deserve it." Oh god, please let me hit her. Bertha and Prudence struggled through the crowd with concern faces. Though, that concern immediately switched to fear and Prudence couldn't finish her sentence. "Lydia, how long does it take to get a glass of..." Everyone's eyes turned from the interesting conversation between Claire and I to Bertha and Prudence. "...water..." she finished with a gulp and slunked back a bit, but Bertha wouldn't move out of her way, wondering if she should stand her ground or if the crowd who was wrapped around Claire's finger would take her out easily. I was scared of the same thing, and growled as Claire began to sqawk again. "You brought the rest of 'em?" she snickered. "All three of you know you weren't welcome here in the first place."
"We thought we'd drop by anyway," Prudence attempted to create her own clever comeback, but as Claire looked at her, she shut up. "What part of 'unwelcome' is there not to understand?" she hissed lowly. Damn, she had gotten meaner since the seventh grade. She even dropped that whole 'Like, totally' routine. If anything, I'm afraid that she had actually learned something in high school. And that something had gotten her to be just as popular as Hannah Montana, and use her money wisely to earn her place in the cheer squad. If I knew any better, I'd say she was the most evil being in the world of the living so far. "I don't understand why you have to be such a bitch," I muttered outloud.
Oh shit.
Claire looked back at me, glaring as if she were a tigress and I had just interupted her beauty sleep(And to agree with her for once, she does need a lot of it). I didn't move though, that's what sucked. Because I couldn't. If she were alone, I probably would have been able to take her down with a hand tied behind my back. But no, we were at a party. Her party. And there was a whole bunch of big fans of hers out there that could break me in half if I touched her. Why was the thought of them stopping me from at least trying to kick Claire's tush? Because my Ghost With The Most wasn't here. I couldn't sense his presence anywhere, and I wasn't going to be able to hold back these muscle spasms trying to punch her any longer. Without him, I had no strength within myself, and I wouldn't have the pleasure of watching him juice them all. "What did you say, freak show?"
"Hold that thought," I said, turned around and snagged a cup of beer from a tall dark haired boy standing behind me. He looked at me confused for a moment. "Thank you," I nodded to him, then turned back around and lifted the cup up as if I were going to drink the fluids it held. But right before the plastic of the cup could touch my lips, I jerked it forward and splashed a cup full of Budwiser all over Claire's outfit. Prudence and Bertha looked relieved, obviously scared that I was actually about to start drinking.
Claire on the other hand, was even worse than what we started out with on her pissed off scale. I literally saw the liquid of the beer evaporate off of her face from how steamed she had gotten. The rest of the crowd, who had been laughing hysterically, suddenly scooted back away from the center of attention. Claire screamed wildly and several jockies leapt out from random bits of the party. I felt like a Charlie's Angel about to fight a bunch of bad guys. It reminded me of one of those weird fighting scenes, judging how fast they had entered her presence to help rid Claire of her problems. "You want to have a beer fight?" The wicked look on her face told me this wasn't good. "Hold her still," Claire commanded the confused boys wrapped around her fingers. "Better yet, pin her to the floor."
"Don't bring your stupid henchman into this! Come on, lets fight girl to girl," I snarled threateningly at her. Claire smiled, obviously ignoring my insults I wildly threw at her. But before I could say anymore, they did as they were told. Suddenly, I was being pinned down by the arms and legs by two guys who were just behind her five fucking seconds ago! Damn that was fast. Not to mention that the one time I actually stand up for myself, I can't even get the enjoyment of punching someone! Claire cackled slightly to herself as she held up a large bottle of Moonshine. My eyes grew wide. "That stuff is illegal!"
"My daddy always keeps a few tucked away in the back of the liquor cabinet. Illegal, yes, but I won't be the one drinking it. Now open wide, girlie!" she smiled again, unscrewing the lid and lowering the bottle to my mouth as if she were expecting me to drink from it. I pulled away, trying to think. "Beetlejuice-"
"Don't say that!" Claire screeched, obviously still remembering when she had called out Beetlejuice herself, and hated it. With loyalty in their hearts, one of the Jocks pinned my arm down by the joint with the weight of his body, using his knee, and used his free hand to hold my mouth open, but keep me from speaking. "Lydia!" Bertha and Prudence yelled in unison, trying to make their way to help me, but a few other Claire fans wouldn't let them pass. "Wait your turn, you two!" she snapped. Wrinkling my nose, I licked the Jock's hand when he tried to keep me from speaking. He pulled it away and I took it as an opening. "Beetlejuice!" Claire yelled in frustration when I said it again. Just one more time, that's all I needed was one more time to say it and he'd be here to help. But would I really expose him like this?
I needed time to think. I needed time, period! But time was something scarce, and when that bottle of Moonshine was forced down my throat and tilted up, I choked and gargled as much as I could, but I about swallowed a good deal of it before I figured what to do. I shoved my tongue through the opening of the nose and plugged it before I was forced to drink any more of the strong liquid.
"Swallow it!" Claire growled, shoving it further into my mouth. I sputtered again and choked, this time inhaling a little bit of it. This wasn't good...at all. Jerking my head to the side as hard as I could, I yanked the bottle from Claire's perfect manicure. Struggling one last time under the weight of two football players, I thrusted my torso in the air, smacking Claire in the head with the bottle as I held onto the tip with my teeth. Then, I fell back, pushing the bottle out of my mouth by the tongue and let the glass break on the floor. Very little of the clear liquid was left, and I felt so gross and dizzy all at the same time. I wanted to laugh, I wanted to get up and move on to the next bit of action in this joint, but I couldn't. Taking deep breaths, I didn't know what to do. One more time I call his name and he would appear in front of everyone. But if I waited, I could have had several more beers forced down my throat and my parents wouldn't be too happy about that. What to do?!
The weight on my body lifted immediately, as if this whole time I were being dragged down to hell, and now I'm finally floating back up to the surface. Standing up lazily, I squinted real hard just to get a less blurry vision of what I was seeing. Whatever was going on, it made the boys retreat off of me and everyone stand still in both respect and fear. Finally, I eventually realized that an adult-adult(as in, someone who was obviously old enough to be our parents, possibly) had discovered, and joined in on the party.
Well fuck.
"Who is that?"
"I hope he doesn't call our parents..."
"What's up with the stripes?"
"I don't know, maybe he's European."
"Does he even brush his teeth?!"
"He looks like a carpenter or an electrician or something."
Many whispers such as those began to fill the awkward silence with a low murmur and soft hissing. By the sound of the unbrushed teeth, weird outfit and stripes for style, I'd say it was the Mr. 'Handy Dandy' Man. But I couldn't be too sure, I mean right now I could only hear, and my hearing was faint. "Babes?" a confused asked, growing louder by the sound of it. Guessing he was coming closer, I couldn't think of anything right to say. For a minute, I didn't even think it was me who was speaking. But surely enough, I felt like I meant every word of it. "Hey hot stuff!" I said, still not able to see, I went to throw my arms around someone, anyone, but ended up getting Claire. She screamed and I pushed her away. "Jebus babes, don't run away from your feelings," I joked and leaned on the countertop for support. If I could think right now, I'd probably be looking for some way to start getting sober, and fast.
An annoyed grunt sounded and I felt my wrist being grabbed. Didn't take my drunken mind long to find out that whoever had entered the party to cause such a silence was pulling me out. I took about five seconds stuttering, and not on purpose either, and shouted loud for everyone to hear, "Thats all folks!"
And then the door slammed behind me.
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A/N: Okay, I know that the characters aren't sounding like themselves a lot in the story. I'm working on getting them as in character as I can. I am open for suggestions and criticising if it is needed. So if there's anything that I need to start up on or stop doing, please let me know. And thank you so much for those of you who are reading and reviewing! :) Next chappy should be out soon!
