Chapter 3
Later, Lydia and Dr. Notrub were riding in Dr. Notrub's black hearse through the streets of Sleepy Hollow. Dr. Notrub glanced over at the seat next to him. Lydia was staring out the window with a disgusted look on her face.
"Listen, Lydia. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you back at the college. Now the whole school's going to think that you're just sucking up to me," said Dr. Notrub. Lydia sighed and said, "It's not your fault, Dr. Notrub. Claire was always trying to make my life miserable back in Peaceful Pines. I knew it was hard to fit in due to my personality and looks. But Claire made it even harder."
"As a teacher, I don't believe it is right in biasing against my students. But we're not in school right now and so I say that her behavior is inexcusable. I can expect this kind of behavior from junior high school and high school students. But I never expected this kind of behavior from a college student," said Dr. Notrub.
"She did some horrible stuff to me back at Miss Shannon's School for Girls. She even cheated me out of a part in our production of Romeo and Juliet. But she got what she deserved in the end," said Lydia who was starting to smile at the thought. "Let me guess. Beetlejuice?" asked Dr. Notrub. "He did quite a possession number on her and made it a Shakespeare festival to remember," said Lydia.
"Don't let Claire or anyone else make you feel bad just because you're different from them. You're much better than Claire is," said Dr. Notrub. "You're right, Dr. Noturb. If I didn't have my special personality, I wouldn't be able to be good friends with Beetlejuice, Jack or even you. Come to think of it, I wonder how Beetlejuice is going to react when he hears the news," said Lydia. "We'll soon find out," said Dr. Notrub as he pulled up a driveway lined with leafless trees and drove around the back of a gargoyle-covered mansion.
Later, Lydia and Dr. Notrub walked into the immense foyer of the mansion. The walls were covered with pictures of Dr. Notrub's favorite horror actors. Their eyes appeared to be watching the two people. "I'm going downstairs to change, Lydia. Then I've got to tweak the weapons a bit. Got to keep them in tip-top shape if we have to fight Dr. Grim anytime soon," said Dr. Notrub as he headed downstairs to his laboratory leaving Lydia alone in the foyer.
"Beetlejuice! Jack! We're home!" called Lydia. Then, up from the floor, an unusual fellow floated through it. He was pale white and had dirty blonde hair and putrid green eyes. He had a black and white striped sombrero on his head and an identically colored poncho covering his body. In his right hand, he held a pair of bones that he was clacking like castanets. He did a little Mexican style dance in front of Lydia. Lydia smiled. She was used to having her ghost friend greet her in some strange way when she got home from school.
"Bravo, Beetlejuice. You may have lost some of your powers. But you still are a good dancer," said Lydia. Beetlejuice grinned. 'Thanks Lydia. I like seeing you happy. Because when I saw you come up the driveway, you looked pretty glum. I thought you needed some cheering up. What's the matter? Did something happen at school?" asked Beetlejuice. "As a matter of fact, Beej, something did happen. Wait a minute. Where did you get those bones?" asked Lydia. "I uh found them," said Beetlejuice in a nervous tone.
"BEETLEJUICE!" yelled an angry voice from somewhere else in mansion. "Got to go!" said Beetlejuice as he sped off into one of the rooms across the hall. Then Lydia heard one of the other doors behind her open. She turned around and saw a skeleton wearing a tuxedo with a bat bow tie. He wore an angry look on his face. He was crawling on his hands because he was holding the lower halves of his legs in them. He was Jack Skellington, a citizen from Halloweenland which was another world populated mainly by ghosts and monsters.
"Lydia, where's Beetlejuice? I was taking a nap in the library and then I felt something remove my femurs. Honestly Lydia, I don't know how you put up with him," said Jack in an angry tone. "I'm sorry, Jack. Beetlejuice can't resist playing pranks on people living or dead. I'll get your bones back for you," said Lydia. "Where did he go?" asked Jack.
Suddenly the door of one of the rooms opened and out came Dr. Notrub's black cat Night Shade. She was frantic as if she was running for her life. "I think he's in the kitchen judging from where Night Shade came from. She always gets so startled whenever Beetlejuice is around," said Lydia as she walked toward the doorway Night Shade had run out of. Jack trudged along on his hands behind her.
Soon, Lydia and Jack had entered Dr. Notrub's kitchen. Like most of the house, it was rigged with various effects to make it seem haunted. Utensils, pots and pans were floating around in mid-air, which were really hanging from invisible wires and hooks. Lydia gazed at the floating objects and saw a black and white striped pan. Lydia reached up and grabbed it. She looked at the bottom and saw Beetlejuice's grinning face.
"Nice try, Beetlejuice. Your disguises don't fool me," said Lydia. The pan floated from her hand and in a flash, turned into Beetlejuice. "Beetlejuice! I demand you return my bones at once!" yelled Jack. "All right. All right. Here's your bones," said Beetlejuice as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the bones. He gave them to Jack who immediately started to place them back in their proper places.
"Beetlejuice, can't you go one day without playing pranks?" asked Lydia. "I'm sorry, Lydia. I've been trying to cut back. But I'm just bored now that I can't go to the Neitherworld," said Beetlejuice.
"You claim to be the ghost with the most, Beetlejuice. So why can't you go to that world of yours?" asked Jack who was now standing up right on his newly reassembled legs. "Two reasons, Jack. First of all, I don't have a sufficient amount of my powers back to zap myself to the Neitherworld. And second of all, I'm afraid to go back there. I imagine the citizens have started looking for me with intent to throw me right to the sandworms. I wasn't exactly the Neitherworld's most popular ghoul even before Dr. Grim invaded it. Now they're all going to blame me for what he did," said Beetlejuice.
"Don't worry about it, Beetlejuice. I'm sure once they see how you're trying to return all of Dr. Grim's captives to the Neitherworld, they'll forgive you," said Jack. "I hope so Jack. But I don't have many friends in the Neitherworld; just a whole lot of enemies. But I swear on my own grave, I will make Dr. Grim pay for what he did to the Neitherworld. And I'm sorry, Jack for my little prank," said Beetlejuice. "All is forgiven, Beetlejuice. It's not like I haven't made a little mistake in my afterlife as well," said Jack.
'Wow, Beetlejuice has really changed since he lost most of his powers. Sure he's still the same wisecracking ghoul. But he's lately shown quite a sensitive side. If he could only get over his tendency to play pranks, then just maybe we could.nah,' thought Lydia with a smile on her face.
"Is something wrong?" asked a voice from behind them. They all turned around and saw Dr. Notrub in his off-hours look. He was now wearing his lab coat, black gloves and boots. His hair was now wild and his fake moustache was in place. "Nope, nothing's wrong. Just dealing with one of Beetlejuice's prank attacks,' said Lydia.
"Okay. I'm going to get dinner started," said Dr. Notrub as he walked over and opened the pantry doors. "Dr. Notrub, how's the condition of my battle suit and weapon?" asked Jack. "Think you can wield a pair of F.I.R energy coated swords?" asked Dr. Notrub as he took some cans of spaghetti sauce out of the pantry. "You bet I can. I'm great with a sword. Helps when my house needs to be cleared out of pesky poltergeists when they wield weaponry. Poltergeists can be troublesome," said Jack.
"What are you making tonight, doc?" asked Beetlejuice. "Spaghetti. But you can mix worms in yours, Beetlejuice. Can you set the table, please?" asked Dr. Notrub. "Sure thing, doc," said Beetlejuice as he floated to the cupboards. Using his powers, he opened the cupboards without even touching them. Plates floated out by themselves and landed on the table. Utensils floated out of the drawers creating four neat little place settings.
"So Lydia, did you tell Beetlejuice what happened at school?" asked Dr. Notrub. "Oh I nearly forgot. We got a new student in our class," said Lydia as she helped Dr. Notrub prepare the food. "Isn't it rather unusual for colleges to accept new students one quarter way through the course?" asked Jack. "Not if she can buy her way in. This new student is my old enemy, Claire Brewster," said Lydia.
Beetlejuice's eyes shot wide open. "Claire's here in Sleepy Hollow? I thought we'd seen the last of her when you graduated from Miss Shannon's," said Beetlejuice with a frown on his face. "If only that were true. But she's here. Turned out she needed knowledge of photography to pursue a modeling career. And since she always has to have the best, she had to come here because Dr. Notrub is the best photography teacher in the world," said Lydia.
"Well, she's got a point there. The doc is the best. But the thought of her being here just blows my mind," said Beetlejuice. Then his face went red and his head exploded. A new one grew back in an instant.
"Seems she's got quite a reputation with you two," said Dr. Notrub. "I say she's asking for a good juicin'," said Beetlejuice. "No Beetlejuice! I'll admit it is tempting. But Claire might still remember all those things you did to her back in Peaceful Pines. If the same thing start happening to her here, she'll start to get suspicious. Please don't do it," said Lydia.
"I'm sorry, Lydia. I just couldn't help thinking about it," said Beetlejuice. "It's okay Beetlejuice. Tell you what. You can play pranks on her if I tell her she deserves one," said Lydia. "If you ask me, she deserves a lot of pranks for her snooty attitude. That's a kind of behavior I just can't tolerate," said Dr. Notrub.
"I hope you can deal with this girl, Lydia. We have enough problems as it is. What do you think Dr. Grim's up to?" asked Jack. "I don't know. But I bet it's going to be bad. But I'm sure we can handle it. After all, we are the Spooky Heroes and the world's fate rests in the balance if we can't stop Grim," said Dr. Notrub. All of them continued to help make dinner. But they couldn't help but wonder what kind of evil Dr. Grim was up to.
Down in his lair, Dr. Grim sat in front of computer. He was scanning through files of various people until he found what he was looking for. "Mecha-Reaper!" he called. The horrible robot stepped up at his master's call. "You called, Master?" asked Mecha-Reaper. "I've got good news. I've found out where that Lydia Deetz girl goes during the day. She's a student at the local college. Also, Dr. Notrub teaches at this college. This is just too sweet," said Dr. Grim.
"So once I capture Lydia Deetz, you can make Beetlejuice do whatever you want," said Mecha-Reaper. "Exactly. Classes are out for the day currently. But she'll be back tomorrow," said Dr. Grim.
"I'll get the Zombots ready for our attack," said Mecha-Reaper. "You're not taking the Zombots this time, Mecha-Reaper. I'm perfecting them. Besides, your partner in this scheme recently tested his powers on the Zombots so they're in no condition to fight," said Dr. Grim. "Partner?" asked Mecha-Reaper. "Oh did I neglect to mention that I released another Neither-monster from the containment unit? Hey Harry! Come out and introduce yourself to Mecha-Reaper!" called Dr. Grim into the darkness of his lair.
Lurching out of the darkness, a humanoid figure stepped into Mecha-Reaper's view. He was dressed in a tan hunter's outfit with broad-brimmed hat covering his entire head. In one of his hands, he carried a large blunderbuss. In the other hand, he carried the limp body of a Zombot. "Mecha-Reaper, meet your partner in this dastardly plan to get Lydia Deetz. This is Harry the Haunted Hunter, scourge of the Neitherworld Jungle as the Mind Infestor has told me," said Dr. Grim.
"What did this guy do to the Zombots that put them out of commission?" asked Mecha-Reaper. Harry responded to Mecha-Reaper's question and threw the Zombot down in front of himself. Mecha-Reaper gasped as he saw the Zombot's head. It was shrunken to the size of a tennis ball.
"The Mind Infestor inside Harry had given him the power to shrink heads with an energy beam projected from his blunderbuss. He also claims to be able to control any person once their head has been shrunk. But we won't know for sure until tomorrow. I can't wait until you two get inside that college and start wreaking havoc," said Dr. Grim with an evil grin.
"I don't get it. When you had Doomie under control of the Mind Infestor, he had a pretty fitting power. I don't see how a hunter ties in with head- shrinking. Maybe if he was a psychiatrist then it would be fitting. By the way, I think that hat of his is too big," said Mecha-Reaper.
"No, it's just the right size. It's just that my head changed size when I died," said Harry as he lifted his hat off. Mecha-Reaper gasped again when he saw the state of Harry's head. It was a shrunken head with the hair tied up in topknot and the mouth stitched shut. Dr. Grim cackled evilly.
"That college is in for one shrinking experience. Good thing it's not too near midterms because their heads won't have enough room for any knowledge!" he exclaimed as he laughed crazily. Mecha-Reaper and Harry laughed along with the evil doctor. Tomorrow, the college would be in big trouble when they attacked.
Later, Lydia and Dr. Notrub were riding in Dr. Notrub's black hearse through the streets of Sleepy Hollow. Dr. Notrub glanced over at the seat next to him. Lydia was staring out the window with a disgusted look on her face.
"Listen, Lydia. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you back at the college. Now the whole school's going to think that you're just sucking up to me," said Dr. Notrub. Lydia sighed and said, "It's not your fault, Dr. Notrub. Claire was always trying to make my life miserable back in Peaceful Pines. I knew it was hard to fit in due to my personality and looks. But Claire made it even harder."
"As a teacher, I don't believe it is right in biasing against my students. But we're not in school right now and so I say that her behavior is inexcusable. I can expect this kind of behavior from junior high school and high school students. But I never expected this kind of behavior from a college student," said Dr. Notrub.
"She did some horrible stuff to me back at Miss Shannon's School for Girls. She even cheated me out of a part in our production of Romeo and Juliet. But she got what she deserved in the end," said Lydia who was starting to smile at the thought. "Let me guess. Beetlejuice?" asked Dr. Notrub. "He did quite a possession number on her and made it a Shakespeare festival to remember," said Lydia.
"Don't let Claire or anyone else make you feel bad just because you're different from them. You're much better than Claire is," said Dr. Notrub. "You're right, Dr. Noturb. If I didn't have my special personality, I wouldn't be able to be good friends with Beetlejuice, Jack or even you. Come to think of it, I wonder how Beetlejuice is going to react when he hears the news," said Lydia. "We'll soon find out," said Dr. Notrub as he pulled up a driveway lined with leafless trees and drove around the back of a gargoyle-covered mansion.
Later, Lydia and Dr. Notrub walked into the immense foyer of the mansion. The walls were covered with pictures of Dr. Notrub's favorite horror actors. Their eyes appeared to be watching the two people. "I'm going downstairs to change, Lydia. Then I've got to tweak the weapons a bit. Got to keep them in tip-top shape if we have to fight Dr. Grim anytime soon," said Dr. Notrub as he headed downstairs to his laboratory leaving Lydia alone in the foyer.
"Beetlejuice! Jack! We're home!" called Lydia. Then, up from the floor, an unusual fellow floated through it. He was pale white and had dirty blonde hair and putrid green eyes. He had a black and white striped sombrero on his head and an identically colored poncho covering his body. In his right hand, he held a pair of bones that he was clacking like castanets. He did a little Mexican style dance in front of Lydia. Lydia smiled. She was used to having her ghost friend greet her in some strange way when she got home from school.
"Bravo, Beetlejuice. You may have lost some of your powers. But you still are a good dancer," said Lydia. Beetlejuice grinned. 'Thanks Lydia. I like seeing you happy. Because when I saw you come up the driveway, you looked pretty glum. I thought you needed some cheering up. What's the matter? Did something happen at school?" asked Beetlejuice. "As a matter of fact, Beej, something did happen. Wait a minute. Where did you get those bones?" asked Lydia. "I uh found them," said Beetlejuice in a nervous tone.
"BEETLEJUICE!" yelled an angry voice from somewhere else in mansion. "Got to go!" said Beetlejuice as he sped off into one of the rooms across the hall. Then Lydia heard one of the other doors behind her open. She turned around and saw a skeleton wearing a tuxedo with a bat bow tie. He wore an angry look on his face. He was crawling on his hands because he was holding the lower halves of his legs in them. He was Jack Skellington, a citizen from Halloweenland which was another world populated mainly by ghosts and monsters.
"Lydia, where's Beetlejuice? I was taking a nap in the library and then I felt something remove my femurs. Honestly Lydia, I don't know how you put up with him," said Jack in an angry tone. "I'm sorry, Jack. Beetlejuice can't resist playing pranks on people living or dead. I'll get your bones back for you," said Lydia. "Where did he go?" asked Jack.
Suddenly the door of one of the rooms opened and out came Dr. Notrub's black cat Night Shade. She was frantic as if she was running for her life. "I think he's in the kitchen judging from where Night Shade came from. She always gets so startled whenever Beetlejuice is around," said Lydia as she walked toward the doorway Night Shade had run out of. Jack trudged along on his hands behind her.
Soon, Lydia and Jack had entered Dr. Notrub's kitchen. Like most of the house, it was rigged with various effects to make it seem haunted. Utensils, pots and pans were floating around in mid-air, which were really hanging from invisible wires and hooks. Lydia gazed at the floating objects and saw a black and white striped pan. Lydia reached up and grabbed it. She looked at the bottom and saw Beetlejuice's grinning face.
"Nice try, Beetlejuice. Your disguises don't fool me," said Lydia. The pan floated from her hand and in a flash, turned into Beetlejuice. "Beetlejuice! I demand you return my bones at once!" yelled Jack. "All right. All right. Here's your bones," said Beetlejuice as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the bones. He gave them to Jack who immediately started to place them back in their proper places.
"Beetlejuice, can't you go one day without playing pranks?" asked Lydia. "I'm sorry, Lydia. I've been trying to cut back. But I'm just bored now that I can't go to the Neitherworld," said Beetlejuice.
"You claim to be the ghost with the most, Beetlejuice. So why can't you go to that world of yours?" asked Jack who was now standing up right on his newly reassembled legs. "Two reasons, Jack. First of all, I don't have a sufficient amount of my powers back to zap myself to the Neitherworld. And second of all, I'm afraid to go back there. I imagine the citizens have started looking for me with intent to throw me right to the sandworms. I wasn't exactly the Neitherworld's most popular ghoul even before Dr. Grim invaded it. Now they're all going to blame me for what he did," said Beetlejuice.
"Don't worry about it, Beetlejuice. I'm sure once they see how you're trying to return all of Dr. Grim's captives to the Neitherworld, they'll forgive you," said Jack. "I hope so Jack. But I don't have many friends in the Neitherworld; just a whole lot of enemies. But I swear on my own grave, I will make Dr. Grim pay for what he did to the Neitherworld. And I'm sorry, Jack for my little prank," said Beetlejuice. "All is forgiven, Beetlejuice. It's not like I haven't made a little mistake in my afterlife as well," said Jack.
'Wow, Beetlejuice has really changed since he lost most of his powers. Sure he's still the same wisecracking ghoul. But he's lately shown quite a sensitive side. If he could only get over his tendency to play pranks, then just maybe we could.nah,' thought Lydia with a smile on her face.
"Is something wrong?" asked a voice from behind them. They all turned around and saw Dr. Notrub in his off-hours look. He was now wearing his lab coat, black gloves and boots. His hair was now wild and his fake moustache was in place. "Nope, nothing's wrong. Just dealing with one of Beetlejuice's prank attacks,' said Lydia.
"Okay. I'm going to get dinner started," said Dr. Notrub as he walked over and opened the pantry doors. "Dr. Notrub, how's the condition of my battle suit and weapon?" asked Jack. "Think you can wield a pair of F.I.R energy coated swords?" asked Dr. Notrub as he took some cans of spaghetti sauce out of the pantry. "You bet I can. I'm great with a sword. Helps when my house needs to be cleared out of pesky poltergeists when they wield weaponry. Poltergeists can be troublesome," said Jack.
"What are you making tonight, doc?" asked Beetlejuice. "Spaghetti. But you can mix worms in yours, Beetlejuice. Can you set the table, please?" asked Dr. Notrub. "Sure thing, doc," said Beetlejuice as he floated to the cupboards. Using his powers, he opened the cupboards without even touching them. Plates floated out by themselves and landed on the table. Utensils floated out of the drawers creating four neat little place settings.
"So Lydia, did you tell Beetlejuice what happened at school?" asked Dr. Notrub. "Oh I nearly forgot. We got a new student in our class," said Lydia as she helped Dr. Notrub prepare the food. "Isn't it rather unusual for colleges to accept new students one quarter way through the course?" asked Jack. "Not if she can buy her way in. This new student is my old enemy, Claire Brewster," said Lydia.
Beetlejuice's eyes shot wide open. "Claire's here in Sleepy Hollow? I thought we'd seen the last of her when you graduated from Miss Shannon's," said Beetlejuice with a frown on his face. "If only that were true. But she's here. Turned out she needed knowledge of photography to pursue a modeling career. And since she always has to have the best, she had to come here because Dr. Notrub is the best photography teacher in the world," said Lydia.
"Well, she's got a point there. The doc is the best. But the thought of her being here just blows my mind," said Beetlejuice. Then his face went red and his head exploded. A new one grew back in an instant.
"Seems she's got quite a reputation with you two," said Dr. Notrub. "I say she's asking for a good juicin'," said Beetlejuice. "No Beetlejuice! I'll admit it is tempting. But Claire might still remember all those things you did to her back in Peaceful Pines. If the same thing start happening to her here, she'll start to get suspicious. Please don't do it," said Lydia.
"I'm sorry, Lydia. I just couldn't help thinking about it," said Beetlejuice. "It's okay Beetlejuice. Tell you what. You can play pranks on her if I tell her she deserves one," said Lydia. "If you ask me, she deserves a lot of pranks for her snooty attitude. That's a kind of behavior I just can't tolerate," said Dr. Notrub.
"I hope you can deal with this girl, Lydia. We have enough problems as it is. What do you think Dr. Grim's up to?" asked Jack. "I don't know. But I bet it's going to be bad. But I'm sure we can handle it. After all, we are the Spooky Heroes and the world's fate rests in the balance if we can't stop Grim," said Dr. Notrub. All of them continued to help make dinner. But they couldn't help but wonder what kind of evil Dr. Grim was up to.
Down in his lair, Dr. Grim sat in front of computer. He was scanning through files of various people until he found what he was looking for. "Mecha-Reaper!" he called. The horrible robot stepped up at his master's call. "You called, Master?" asked Mecha-Reaper. "I've got good news. I've found out where that Lydia Deetz girl goes during the day. She's a student at the local college. Also, Dr. Notrub teaches at this college. This is just too sweet," said Dr. Grim.
"So once I capture Lydia Deetz, you can make Beetlejuice do whatever you want," said Mecha-Reaper. "Exactly. Classes are out for the day currently. But she'll be back tomorrow," said Dr. Grim.
"I'll get the Zombots ready for our attack," said Mecha-Reaper. "You're not taking the Zombots this time, Mecha-Reaper. I'm perfecting them. Besides, your partner in this scheme recently tested his powers on the Zombots so they're in no condition to fight," said Dr. Grim. "Partner?" asked Mecha-Reaper. "Oh did I neglect to mention that I released another Neither-monster from the containment unit? Hey Harry! Come out and introduce yourself to Mecha-Reaper!" called Dr. Grim into the darkness of his lair.
Lurching out of the darkness, a humanoid figure stepped into Mecha-Reaper's view. He was dressed in a tan hunter's outfit with broad-brimmed hat covering his entire head. In one of his hands, he carried a large blunderbuss. In the other hand, he carried the limp body of a Zombot. "Mecha-Reaper, meet your partner in this dastardly plan to get Lydia Deetz. This is Harry the Haunted Hunter, scourge of the Neitherworld Jungle as the Mind Infestor has told me," said Dr. Grim.
"What did this guy do to the Zombots that put them out of commission?" asked Mecha-Reaper. Harry responded to Mecha-Reaper's question and threw the Zombot down in front of himself. Mecha-Reaper gasped as he saw the Zombot's head. It was shrunken to the size of a tennis ball.
"The Mind Infestor inside Harry had given him the power to shrink heads with an energy beam projected from his blunderbuss. He also claims to be able to control any person once their head has been shrunk. But we won't know for sure until tomorrow. I can't wait until you two get inside that college and start wreaking havoc," said Dr. Grim with an evil grin.
"I don't get it. When you had Doomie under control of the Mind Infestor, he had a pretty fitting power. I don't see how a hunter ties in with head- shrinking. Maybe if he was a psychiatrist then it would be fitting. By the way, I think that hat of his is too big," said Mecha-Reaper.
"No, it's just the right size. It's just that my head changed size when I died," said Harry as he lifted his hat off. Mecha-Reaper gasped again when he saw the state of Harry's head. It was a shrunken head with the hair tied up in topknot and the mouth stitched shut. Dr. Grim cackled evilly.
"That college is in for one shrinking experience. Good thing it's not too near midterms because their heads won't have enough room for any knowledge!" he exclaimed as he laughed crazily. Mecha-Reaper and Harry laughed along with the evil doctor. Tomorrow, the college would be in big trouble when they attacked.