Chapter 4: Twisted Dreams

"I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough."

-MC Escher

Beetlejuice watched from a portion of the mirror that was uncovered as Lydia fell asleep. A wide grin spread across his face. Dream Land was easily accessible by the dead, especially him. He cackled before disappearing from the mirror.

Lydia's eyes slowly blinked open. She was at school. She couldn't remember how she had gotten there, but there she was…sitting in class. She looked around at everyone. Something was wrong. But what? She tried to place it. Chalk board, teacher, desk, her classmates, the pink clothes. Pink clothes?

Lydia looked down at herself and found that she too was in a pink school uniform. Lydia raised her hand as the bell rang. She was going to ask why the uniforms had changed, but suddenly her mind had a different question. What class was she supposed to go to?

Lydia picked up the notebook in front of her.

"I'm going to be in so much trouble" Lydia mumbled to herself. The classroom was empty. Lydia kicked herself for being the last one out of the room.

"Where are ya goin', babes?" A voice asked her. Lydia stopped. She knew that voice. She slowly turned around. Beetlejuice was sitting on the window sill in his striped suit. Lydia turned and tried to quickly leave, but she felt as if she were trying to move through a bowl of pudding. Lydia's eyes widened as Beetlejuice stepped in front of her.

"What do you want?" Lydia asked. She wasn't sure if she should be upset or scared or happy. Beetlejuice floated around her. "What?"

"For starters" Beetlejuice said with a snap of his fingers. Lydia looked down to find herself in her usual black clothing. "I hate pink, babes."

Lydia watched as people passed by in the hallway. It took a second, but finally her mind seemed to understand. "Is this…a dream?"

"Sure thing toots" Beetlejuice replied with a smile. "And, guess what, I love hanging out in dreams."

"Wouldn't it mean that you're just part of my dream?" Lydia asked. The room around them started to swirl into an indescribable mass of color.

"You wish" Beetlejuice hissed in her ear. Beetlejuice floated around to face her and gave her his best grin. "Now, let's get down to business, babes." Before Lydia knew it, Beetlejuice was standing beside her with his arm around her neck. "You owe me."

"You almost killed my father" Lydia objected, referring to the time Beetlejuice had turned into a snake and had dropped her father over the second floor railing. "I think we're pretty square."

"Is that so?" Beetlejuice replied. A grey path had formed before them and Beetlejuice started to walk Lydia along it. "The way I see it, is that I did you a really big favor, and I got nadda in return. Get me?" Beetlejuice glanced at the area around them. "What the hell kind of dream is this anyway?"

"One that hopefully does not involve you" Lydia retorted. Beetlejuice furrowed his brow. He was about to make a smart ass comment when a silvery object caught his attention. He let go of Lydia and took a step back, trying not to look at the ring that Lydia was wearing.

"Fine" Beetlejuice replied with a knowing smile. "You just try to live without me babes."

"Huh?" Lydia questioned. She felt as though she had just missed something important.

"I'll just wait for you to come running" Beetlejuice replied. "And, when you need me, maybe I won't show. You got it?"

Lydia watched as he cackled and faded away. Somehow, a breeze picked up and swirled Lydia's hair and clothes around as if to tell her that she was alone.

Beetlejuice returned to his room with an evil grin plastered to his face. Lydia was still wearing the ring he had given to her before Barbara had let the sandworm crash through the Deetz' house. Beetlejuice moved to his bookshelf, which was crammed full of old thick books and loose papers, and promptly pulled out a book. He flipped to a certain page, knowing these special books well, and cackled when he found the answer that he was looking for.

He could indeed use the ring to his advantage.

Lydia awoke with a start. She didn't sit up, but simply lifted her head from her pillow as if to make sure a certain ghost wasn't standing over her. She stretched her arm out and turned on her bedside lamp. Her clock said that it was close to three in the morning. Lydia grumbled and returned to lying on her back.

After a half hour of lying awake in bed, Lydia decided that a cup of tea would help her get back to sleep. She crawled out of bed and threw her robe on. She quietly moved down to the kitchen, skipping the ninth step on the stairs so it wouldn't squeak. She quickly headed for the kitchen and got a pot of water on the stove.

Lydia mindlessly flipped through one of Delia's art magazines until her water was boiling. She poured some of the water into a cup and added a tea bag. She breathed in the aroma of the tea and went back to her seat. Lydia fingered the ring that was on her finger, the ring that she had decided to keep after the big fiasco with Beetlejuice had happened. She snorted at the ring and quickly tried to finish up her tea.

The next day, Lydia did not see Beetlejuice, nor did she see him the next day or the day after that. The feeling of having someone watching her day in and day out was gone. Lydia was left with a paranoid, uneasy feeling. To make it worse, the Halloween dance at school was coming up, which Lydia couldn't seem to get away from. Everywhere she went, school, in town, even down the street, flyers were everywhere. It also didn't help that Claire Brewster, the popular blonde bimbette from school, couldn't seem to stop talking about it.

Lydia stopped in front of her locker and started on her combination.

"I, like, have no idea what to be this year!" Claire said loudly. "I suppose it all depends on who my date will be."

"Oh, Claire, you always come up with an awesome costume" One of the blonde cronies that surrounded Claire said.

"That's because I'm rich" Claire replied. Lydia inwardly groaned and pulled her locker open. "Lydia! You know Halloween isn't for another two weeks, right?"

Lydia exchanged her math book for her history book and tried ignoring Claire. She was always saying something about Lydia's appearance. Lydia fished around her locker for her pen. From the small locker mirror, a small distorted figure watched the whole incident.

"Hey!" Claire said hitting the lockers next to Lydia. "I'm talking to you, freak!"

Lydia's eyes narrowed angrily. Lydia raised her middle finger. "Sit and spin, Claire."

"Bitch!" Claire shrieked. Lydia rolled her eyes, grabbed her pen, which had fallen between her coat and her English book, and slammed her locker shut. Lydia stormed away, hoping that Claire wouldn't follow.

By some form of luck, Lydia found herself in her history class without being hassled by Claire and her cronies. Lydia found a seat in the back corner and opened her notebook and history book. She doodled in the margins of her notebook until she noticed that her ring was now a deep forest green color. A group of loud football players came in, making Lydia ignore her ring. Lydia waited for class to start so she could start her note-taking.

"Psst. Lydia" A boy named Jack Downey whispered to her during the lecture. "Lydia."

"What?" Lydia hissed at him. Jack smiled at her.

"I was wondering if you could help me study for our history test" Jack whispered.

'Why me?' Lydia thought. She nodded yes.

"I'll stop by your place tonight then" Jack whispered.

"Mr. Downey!" The teacher called out. "Miss Deetz! Is Revolutionary War boring you?"

"He just asked to borrow my eraser" Lydia said holding up her eraser. The teacher nodded and turned back to the board.

Lydia raced home from school. Jack Downey, the football team's full back, had spent the day talking to her and had set up a study date with her. Lydia stopped her bike when she came up to the cemetery. Would Beetlejuice be there tonight? He hadn't been around for a few days.

Lydia groaned and continued riding her bike home. She could only dream of what could go wrong with Jack coming over.