After a few minutes, Bella let go of her aunt and uncle, "You guys are extremely cold, which is weird since your house is usually so toasty…" Barbara looked at Adam who chuckled uncertainly, "Well, Bella… There's something we got to tell you…" he looked at Barbara for support. Barbara sighed and held her face with her right hand, "Bella… We are dead, we're ghosts…" Bella's eyes widened in shock, "Wh-WHAT?" she took a step back in fear. Adam smiled embarrassed, "Bella, it's alright. We're alright, I promise…" Bella took a minute to process the information, while Adam gestured for her to sit down, "We didn't try to get your attention because we didn't know that you could see us. It honestly shocked us that you can, Bella…"
Bella sat down on the bench in shock, "Wow… Do living people not usually see… Ghosts?" Barbara nodded, "Not normally, Bella sweetheart… But you seem to be an exception…" Bella sat in silence for a bit, "Well, that's… Interesting…" she thought about all the times she would talk to someone who no one else could see, 'Perhaps they were ghosts too…' Adam sat down next to her, "You gonna be okay, Bella?" She nodded, "Yeah, I'll be okay…" Just then BJ's head popped out of the floor right in front of Bella and Adam, "Hey guys, did you miss me?-" Bella was so startled by him, that she instinctively kicked his head off and towards the wall.
BJ's head flew into a pile of boxes, sending dust into the air. Everyone was stunned into silence, Bella's hands were covering her mouth in shock at what she had done. Then, as if this was normal, BJ's body came into the attic and gave Bella a thumb's up while his head shouted, "Nice kick!" from one of the boxes across the room. Bella immediately snapped out of her stupor and ran over to where she heard BJ's voice, "Sorry! That was an accident, I promise!" she yelled as she frantically searched the boxes for his head. BJ's body leaned on the bench casually causing Adam to stand next to Barbara, "To be honest, I'm not even mad. Yet again you prove you got solid kicking power…"
Bella tried not to blush from the compliment, "I still feel bad…" she muttered quietly. It took her a second, but she finally found his head, "Oh phew, you're okay…" she sighed in relief. BJ just smiled, "Course I'm okay, I can't die," Bella shook her head and contemplated how to get him out, 'I could just grab him but…' the thought made her shiver on having to hold a dismembered head, so that idea was a hard pass. "Can you get yourself out?" Bella asked. BJ tried rolling his head, "Not in this state, no…" Bella tapped her foot and looked toward the now bored-looking body, "Hey Uncle Adam, could you help me get his… body… Over here?" Adam looked up surprised and glanced at Barbara for support.
Neither of them liked the pervy demon, but the sooner he left, the sooner they could tell Bella why she should try to stay away from him. Adam sighed, walked over to BJ's right side, "Fine... I'll help…" Bella smiled as she took BJ's right side and led him to where his head was, while Barbara moved stuff out of the way. When they were halfway there, BJ, who was extremely bored, said to Adam, "Do you work out? Cause I can feel those muscles, big boy~" Adam's ears went red as he let go, "Okay- Boundaries have been crossed!" Bella tried to stifle her giggles as Adam walked away from BJ, she felt bad about laughing but it was just too funny not to laugh.
Bella had to finish taking BJ's body over to the boxes by herself while Barbara consoled Adam, "There we are…" Bella said as she let go of BJ's arm. His body picked up his head and screwed it back on, "Wooooah boy! I haven't felt so unwound since the '80s! Man, those were good times!" Bella quietly giggled, having an idea of what he was referring to. The room was quiet as no one knew what to say. Barbara and Adam were glaring at BJ willing him to leave their attic, and Bella was starting to get a bit uncomfortable from the tension. Just as Bella was going to say something, there was a loud feminine yell from downstairs, "CHILD! YOU BETTER GET DOWN HERE BEFORE I CALL YOUR FATHER!"
Bella quickly realized that the lady yelling was probably her life coach/babysitter. She had been gone for a long time, so Bella wasn't too surprised that she had become desperate enough to start yelling at her to come downstairs. Bella smiled apologetically at Adam and Barbara, "I gotta go, I'll see you all later…" BJ smiled, "Need any help getting down?" Bella paused, "I mean… the faster I get down the better-" BJ grinned as he cut in, "Fantastic! Have fun sweetheart~" Bella went a little pink, "I told you not to call me-" then with a snap of his fingers, BJ transported Bella downstairs.
Barbara turned to BJ upset, "Sweetheart?" she said accusingly. BJ gave a sly smile, "What can I say, I'm a master at coming up with nicknames?~" Adam, who had forgotten his embarrassment, was walking toward Beetlejuice with a fatherlike rage in his eyes, "If you lay a finger on her so help me-" BJ chuckled as Adam was threateningly coming at him, "You'll what Adam? Yell at me? Slap me? Come on man, we're both dead! The only thing you gain from being like this is looking sexy as h***~"
Adam, once again looked extremely flustered, Barabara stepped up to his rescue, "Regardless of what we can and can't do, stay away from her. She doesn't need a creepy pervert around her right now." BJ laughed, "Oh really? Well, I'll stay away if she wants me to! She's almost 16, and I think she can think for herself. She doesn't need her auntie Barbara or her oh so great uncle Adam to fight her battles for her." Adam and Barbara were quiet for a bit, knowing that he had a point. He sighed and relented, "But I know my limits, I'll try not to cross them with her." This seemed like a good enough compromise for them and they relaxed a bit, "Now I'll leave you two alone so you can go finish reading that oh so precious book. Honestly, it'd be better used as a sad puppet show but," he shrugged, "Do what you want!" and he flew towards the roof, leaving Adam and Barbara alone once more.
When Bella let BJ transport her downstairs, she figured he would leave her in the living room or something. No, that's not what happened. One moment she was in the attic, the next she was falling onto an absurdly large bag of flour with a yelp. Flour flew everywhere, pretty soon she was coated with the stuff. She got up and out of the pantry trying to get the flour off her skirt and tights unsuccessfully. She didn't even try with her hair, knowing the flour would come out in the shower. She found that the 'life coach' was waiting very impatiently in the living room, but she was looking towards the stairs as if Bella would come down any second.
"You better come down right now missy!" The woman had long, light orange hair, a long sleeve shirt with sleeves that went down to her knees and faded jeans. Basically your average hippie woman, and it wouldn't surprise Bella if the woman was a vegan as well. She went over and tapped her shoulder, "Excuse me…" The woman sighed then turned around with a smile, "Thank you for coming down, I'm-" She then saw that Bella was covered in flour, which made her scream and retreated back a few steps. Bella laughed, both from embarrassment and amusement, "Sorry, I kinda had an incident… A little demon dropped me in the pantry…"
The woman looked at Bella with the utmost confusion, Bella waved her hand, "It's a long story, but I'm sorry it took me a while to come down…" The woman put on a smile, "That's alright my pupil! I'm just glad you came down. I suppose some introductions are in order, I'm Dollia, your new life coach!" she exclaimed joyously. "Dahlia?" Bella asked, confused. Dollia shook her head, "It's pronounced Doll-ia darling. Give it a go," she encouraged. Bella, who thought it best to humor her, gave a half-hearted, "Dollia…" which seemed to cheer Dollia up a lot. "Now you've got it, girl!"
The rest of the night was Bella learning pretty much how the rest of the summer was going to be. Every day that her dad was gone, Dollia was going to come and teach her how to 'open her third eye', become one with the earth, basically a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Although Bella insisted that all she'd need help with was cooking and maybe cleaning, Dollia brushed away these arguments and continued trying to be helpful. By the time her dad got back, Bella was just relieved that she would be sent home. Dollia looked sad to go but said she would see her pupil in a couple of days, then left with an over-exaggerated twirl.
Bella breathed a long sigh of relief and went to the kitchen to make herself a quick dinner to eat in her room. She was still mad at her dad and didn't want to be the first one to start a conversation. Charles took this as her not wanting to talk to him and decided not to talk to her for now. She made herself a small pot of egg drop soup, using a recipe her mom taught her. She smiled to herself, after the wacky day she had, it felt nice to have something comforting at the end. When the soup had finished cooking, she grabbed a thermos and a spoon to take the soup upstairs. She didn't want to spill so she figured a thermos was safer than a bowl.
After putting the leftover soup in a container, Bella quietly went upstairs to her bedroom to finish her dinner. She shut the door quietly and slowly sat on her bed, "What a day…" she muttered to herself as she screwed open the lid and ate some soup. She quietly pondered the events of the day, 'Demons from heck, ghost aunt and uncle, hippie life coach… I thought life was gonna get simpler, not more complicated!' She put the lid back on the thermos and flopped on her bed tiredly. "Maybe this is just some fever dream my mind came up with, maybe tomorrow I'll wake up to everything normal…" She crawled under the covers and closed her eyes, "Or maybe… tomorrow will be something to look forward to…" She yawned one last time and drifted off to a dreamless sleep.