After skool I was packing up my things when Dib tapped my leg with his foot, I looked up curiously and he subtly flicked his head behind me towards Lydia. I peered around as secretively as I could and look at her out of the corner of my eye. She was scribbling something down on a scrap of paper and then pushing it to the side of her desk. Then she would pack a few things away, ear tilted to the side as if being told a silent secret, then returning to scribble on the paper again, repeating the process. I looked back at Dib, arching a brow.

"So, is it okay if I come and sit with you guys again tomorrow?" Lydia asked shyly.

Dib nodded and I answered with a "Sure, sounds good." She grinned and left the room. As she walked past, a small scrap of paper slipped from the side pocket of her bag and drifted to the floor. We waited until she was out of sight before Dib rushed to pick it up. He held it up for both of us to read. Her writing was delicate and loopy, even for quick scribbles.

So will it work being in a different house?

I'll use the cloak, that normal makes the chant stronger, right?

Where am I going to get dung beetles from?

Well, it'll be dark so I'll have to light a few candles.

We exchanged glances, "Chants, beetles and candles?" I asked aloud.

Dib narrowed his eyes, "Well, from what I can remember, that's normally associated with certain spells. I'll have to check my old spell drives though…"

"You mean like witchcraft?" he nodded, my eyes widened, "But, she can't be a witch, right? I mean, this could mean anything and sure she was talking to herself but you do that all the time."

"Hey! Well, not as often as I used to!" he said, blushing slightly, "And come on, when have I been wrong about this kind of stuff?"

I counted on my fingers, "Well the time you thought that Big-Foot was locked in the supply closet, the time you were convinced that my sister had been infected by an alien disease, you claimed that your telescope was viewing an alien creature when it was a bug on the lens, then the most recent one where you thought that Zim had infected me with a mood-altering infection when I was just on… I'll forget that one," I don't know who was blushing more, me or him at the memory of that little episode, "and then there was the time you thought Ms. Bitters was a vampire."

"Hey that one was your idea!" he said defensively.

"Oh yeah…" I replied sheepishly, "Well, you believed me and that is yet to be proved wrong!"

He smirked at me and I blushed a little. I looked back at the paper, maybe we were reading too much into this. Witchcraft was just too much of an extreme assumption, witches didn't even exist! Well, maybe they didn't exist just like aliens didn't exist… Smooth one Amy, smooth…

We chose to discuss this some more back at Dibs house. We met up with Gaz and were about to leave skool grounds when I remembered that I had left my pencil case in the classroom. I told them to go on ahead and I'd catch up. I grumbled to myself, it looked like it was going to rain and I wanted to be inside a warm house when it happened. While in the classroom, I noticed that I wasn't alone. I span around and found Zim leaning over the class hamsters cage.

"What're you doing?" I asked, making him yelp in surprise.

"None of your business Amy-human!"

I shrugged, "How's your chest after the water incident?"

He prodded himself, "Repaired, no thanks to the Dib-filth!"

I looked out of the window and noticed the first few droplets of rain dotting the window. Zim's face flushed and he instinctively took a step backwards. That wasn't good. I reached into my bad and pulled out an umbrella, handing it to him. He eyed it suspiciously and then narrowed his eyes at me.

"You need it more than I do, my jackets got a hood anyway." I grinned, "By the way, did you notice anything… odd about the new girl, Lydia?"

He tapped his chin in thought, "Other than the dark circles around her eyes and unnaturally eagerness to believe the Dib? No. Why?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, she's nice enough but it's like she's hiding something. Dib thinks it's witchcraft, but I don't know…"

"Witch…craft? What is this witchcraft?"

"A person who uses magic and spells and stuff like that." I explained.

"Hmmm…"

"AMY!"

We both cried out in shock and jumped as Dib came sprinting into the classroom. He tripped over a desk and went tumbling to the ground, but he recovered into a forward roll and jumped back up to his feet, stopping inches from my face. I leaned backwards reflexively. Dib had that strange look in his wide eyes that he usually got when he made a breakthrough with his research or made a new 'discovery'. He waved a camera in my face.

"Amy, you'll never guess what! After you left, I saw Lydia, so I decided to follow her and see what she was up to, when all of a sudden, this… stuff happened! Look look I got it on camera!"

He started pressing buttons at random, Zim leaned over my shoulder in curiosity. However, the digital screen remained blank and motionless. Dib grunted in irritation and tried flipping the camera in different angles, pressing buttons more forcefully.

"Uh, Dib, the lens cap is on…" I muttered.

"What? Oh man!" he tried to unscrew the cap but it was on tight, he looked closer and noticed the dried, clear junk that was laced around it, someone had glued it together, "ZIM!"

"What? You dare to blame Zim?" Zim cried, "You insult me! I would have destroyed the device, not weakly tampered with it!"

They both glanced at me, "Hey I would never do that!"

"What was so important on there anyway?" Zim asked, poking the camera with his middle finger.

"None of your…" Dib started but then folded his arms at me, "You told him, didn't you?"

"It was a secret?" I asked, innocently while holding my hands behind my back and tilting me head.

He groaned and rolled his eyes while Zim chuckled, "Well, Lydia disappeared behind the skool, so I followed her and caught her talking to someone again, but I couldn't see them. So I crept in closer and then she started chanting something, and this big red cloak randomly showed up and then…" he trailed off.

I suddenly noted his damp coat and a few stray leaves in his head, I reached up and pulled a few loose, "You were spying from a tree weren't you and fell out?"

His face reddened, "Maybe… But my point is that she is a witch! She vanished after that!"

Zim arched his brow and folded his arms, I myself sound it a pretty hard story to believe. For one thing, why would she risk doing it so close to a public area, and what had she to gain from it? What had she been doing?

"You expect us to believe that?" Zim snapped.

"It's true! And I did have proof for it!" he argued.

"Look, why don't I go visit her at home and ask her about it?" I offered.

They both looked me like I was insane. To be honest, I didn't know why I offered, but I was curious and that was as good a reason as any. I wasn't ready to believe that Lydia was a witch, but neither was I ready to believe that she was normal either.

"It could be dangerous! And how do you plan on finding out where she lives?" Dib asked.

I glanced slyly at Zim, who shifted uneasily, "Come on Zim, I know you do background checks on everyone in class, she's no exception."

His evergreen face blushed, "And how did you know that?"

I shrugged, "Your computer needs fixing, it keeps sending stuff to me."

There was a glint in Dibs eye, but I subtly shook my head, hinting that we would talk about that later. Zim huffed and pulled out a screen from his PAK. He tapped in a few digits and scanned the screen. He held it out for me to take and I saw that he had loaded up a map leading to her house. Thankfully, it was only a ten minute walk from the skool.

"Okay, I'll head over now then." I nodded.

"Wait, what if it's dangerous?" Dib exclaimed, "Will you wear a camera and microphone just in case?"

"Uh… sure if it makes you feel better?" I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

Dib dived into his bag and pulled out a tiny camera that he clipped into my hair and a miniscule microphone/earpiece into my ear.

"Does this camera have a lens cap?" asked Zim, mockingly, Dib looked up to glare at him but Zim carried on, "Why do you have those on you anyway?"

"I was planning on using them next time I snuck into your base, but that'll have to wait, Space-boy."

I rolled my eyes as the two started bickering again. I was used to this by now. While they were arguing, I took that as my cue to leave, backing away slowly until I was out of the room and followed Zims screen that was leading me to Lydia. I felt a pang of guilt at the sneaky spying that I was about to carry out, but questions needed to be answered and if I didn't find anything, then I would just have to talk to Lydia properly privately.

It took a while for me to get used to the bleeping monitor in my hands, I had never been good with technology, that was more of Gaz' expertise. Finally, I arrived at a very classy looking bungalow with pure while walls and decorative brick work around the doors and windows, flowers were littered along the pathway. I found myself smiling at the picturesque quality to it. Then something caught my eye. There was a swift flicker of light from one of the windows at the side of the house. I tiptoes across the lawn and knelt down under the window ledge. I peered in and felt my eyes widen at the view before me.

Lydia stood in the centre of what I presumed was her bedroom, surrounded by candles. She wore a long black/grey dress and her black hair was pulled up into an extravagant style at the top of her head. She opened her mouth as if to say something. In order not to miss it, I tried my luck with the windows, I pushed it gently until it was open a crack, just enough for me to make out her words.

"We had a few close calls today, BJ. Maybe it would be best for you to stay in the Neitherworld while I'm at skool, it's too risky."

I couldn't see who she was talking to, but they answered, "Awe come on, babes, what's a few close shaves? And how long to I have to stay like this, you missed a perfectly bad visual joke there!"

"Just until I get some curtains put up and then you cans top being invisible, we don't want anyone seeing you, and if I know your jokes, it'll be coming around again soon." She chuckled.

Invisible? Was this some kind of demon or witch familiar?

"Hey babes, fancy a trip to the Neitherworld? I gotsa neat surprise planned!" the gruff voice sang.

Lydia rolled her eyes, "Sure why not…"

"Once, twice, three time's the charm, babes!"

Lydia took a deep breath and threw her arms in the air, "Though I know I should be wary, still I venture someplace scary, ghostly haunting I turn loose! Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. BEETLEJUICE!"

I camped my hands over my mouth to stop myself from screaming. All of the candles in the room burned up to about three feet, a whirlwind of light and cobwebs wrapped themselves around Lydia and a flash of light left her draped in a vibrant red cloak.

"It's show time!" the unseen person cried.

With one last flick of her arms, and a powerful cackle from the unseen voice, the room was empty. I wasn't sure how long it took me to breathe again, but I couldn't move. I prised my lips apart and whispered into the microphone.

"Dib, did you see that?" my voice was no more than a cracked mutter.

There was no answer, I whimpered because I wasn't really sure what else to do. Finally I managed to pick myself up and walk away, making my way to Dibs house. I was stuck in a daze all the way there. What exactly did I see? Nothing she had said had made sense. Who was this BJ? Where was a Neitherworld? Most of all… what on earth was a Beetlejuice?