Shattered Mirrors

Chapter Seven: The Beginnings Of A Makeshift Date

Aya was walking back to her house, although she hated the hot sun. Out of all the things her house had...it didn't have a swimming pool. She thought about that, as she suddenly ran into someone. "Oh, sorry." She said, as she fell back and landed on her ass on the ground.

"Don't worry about it, babe." A guy's voice said. One of those cheesy, over-exaggerated, skateboard types from the sound of it.

Aya looked up, and she couldn't help but stare. He was so...so...yum? His hair was chocolate brown and mussed, just long enough that it curled at the end in a little out flip, making his hair looked perfectly mussed. His eyes were a bright green and she looked up at him. He was taller then her, but that wasn't a surprise. A lot of people were. Well...he was taller then Beej was. He wore a pair of ripped jeans and a blue t-shirt with a white skull and some design on it.

He offered his hand out to help her up and she accepted the help, standing up and feeling like she'd just fall over again.

"I'm...Aya, are you from around here?" She found herself asking, with a slight blush. All thoughts about the ghost occupying her house at the moment were gone.

"Just moved in on 1480. I'm Ryan Skylar. You live around here?" He asked her with a grin. Was it cheesy to think that he had cute dimples?

"Uh, yeah, 1500." Aya answered, running a hand through her hair. She must look a mess from being out in that cabin all night.

"Oh, cool. I guess we'll be seeing each other then." He said, offering his hand for a high five.

Aya wasn't used to that kind of greeting, but maybe that's how kids her age acted? She didn't know. She reached up and gave him a high five. "See you." She said, and headed to her house.

**

"Are you from around here?" She heard the mocking voice and she looked around and saw Beej floating on a tree. "Gosh, toots. You're real smooth when it comes to the guys huh? A real black widow you are." Beetlejuice teased her as he floated behind her. But...there was something else in his voice other then his normal teasing.

"Hey, at least I know I'm not completely crazy, I can still talk to people who are around here." Aya said with a roll of her eyes. She actually thought she was partially crazy. How else was she talking to a ghost in such a cheap suit?

"Still, you should have seen the way you looked. You might as well have told him to kiss you then." Beetlejuice griped.

Aya's eyes widened. This wasn't the same as how he had teased her about Leslie. "But where would the fun be in that?" She asked, taunting as she acted dead serious about liking the guy, although she really didn't. He seemed like a jerk, the type of guy who would just use her and dump her, and she wasn't into that.

Beetlejuice stopped floating. "So you seriously like that brainless lug?" He asked, jaw dropping a bit.

Aya resisted the urge to giggle, keeping the act up. "Well, he was pretty cute...and he was just my type." She said, in the oozing teenage girl voice that most girls had when talking about guys.

Beetlejuice growled, but it was soft and under his breath. And to think he had saved this brat, without any appreciation for risking his afterlife for her. Ungrateful little...

"I'm just joking, Beej...he's icky. He's the type guy that I'd hate." Aya said, seriously now, laughing at the fact Beetlejuice had thought she was serious. "Guess I'm a better actress then I thought." She teased.

"Well you didn't act like you were just joking." He said, almost pouting.

"Oh, come on, don't be that way. Why would I do that? Besides, it would just make you more jealous then you already are." Aya said, surprising herself. She hadn't even been thinking he was jealous, but now that she said it, she knew she was right.

"What do I have to be jealous of? I'm way better looking then that runt." Beetlejuice said, in a tone that said he was hurt that she would even think him jealous.

"Oh, okay then...well...I never got to thank you properly." Aya said as they reached her house and she went in. It was vacant again. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. The cold, dead skin that she had found so gross before didn't really freak her out as much now. If anything, it was a lot better then the things she had seen in the Neitherworld. Things that she was thankful had now never happened.

Beetlejuice's head suddenly turned into a tomato. He was bright red at the fact she had kissed his cheek. "Warn me next time, will you?" He grumbled, before turning back to his normal self.

Aya laughed as she saw the way he blushed. For all the perverted stuff he had said, and he blushed when she kissed him on the cheek? "Aw, but I thought you were into surprises, isn't that part of one of those roleplaying games you were trying to sell on me?" Aya asked, laughing lightly.

Beej didn't find it funny that she was laughing at his expense. How was he supposed to know she was going to kiss him on the cheek like that? "Surprises are only fun if their the only way around." He said with a roll of his eyes.

Aya sighed as she tried to think of something to do with the day. "Let's go to the beach." She said, seriously.

"Why on earth would you want to go to the beach with a ghost?" Beetlejuice said, looking at her like she was crazy.

Who came up with ideas like that?

"Come on, it'll be fun, and besides...it's not like anyone will think its odd for a girl my age to be on the beach on a school day." Aya added.

"But, to everyone else it'll look like you're alone." Beej pointed out.

"That doesn't matter to me, I'll know I'm not alone. Please?" She said. She hadn't really had time to know the poltergeist outside of the "I hate you"s and his pranks, and all the drama that had been going on. A day at the beach sounded easy compared to that.

"Oh alright." Beetlejuice said. But he had a plan. While she was upstairs, finding her swimsuit, a towel and some sunscreen, he was going through one of his spell books he popped up. The teen-for-a-day spell didn't seem like it had any bad side-effects. And he would be seen by everyone else. He quickly did the spell.

When Aya stepped downstairs in a pair of shorts and a tank top, she saw some stranger in her living room. "What the – ?" She asked.

"I couldn't let you look like you were alone. Some runt like him might come up." Beej said, shyly.

"Beej?" She blinked. He actually...looked good as a teenager. He was around the same height, but he had lost weight with the spell. He actually seemed to have some small muscles, and his blonde hair wasn't as unruly as before, and was mussed in a way similar to how Ryan's had been. Actually...he looked a lot like Ryan except with the blonde hair and he was wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of swim trunks, although she wasn't sure where he had got them.

"The one and only." He said, with a mischievous grin, that was all Beetlejuice.

She smiled. So it was him. "Well, guess its a date then." She teased, and as she said it, she had the pleasure of seeing a teenage Beetlejuice blush.

Honestly, the spell had required an image of a teenage you wanted to look like, and Beej had used Ryan because of the way Aya had stared at him. At least Aya wouldn't be ashamed to be out with him. He actually looked normal.

Wait a minute. Hold up. When did he care if someone was ashamed of him? Or embarrassed by him? Wasn't that the type of thing he enjoyed? What was wrong with him?

**

The drive to the beach was pretty quiet, she had let Beej choose the music, and it was some kind of old 50s music that she didn't recognize, but she didn't mind it either. How old was the ghost anyways? It was almost a two-hour drive to the beach, but she was fine with driving that far. When they got there it was about mid-day and the sun was straight up. She applied sunscreen and forced Beej to put some on, because he was just as pale as her as a teenager...and she knew he'd be uncomfortable if he burned, even if he'd go back to being dead soon enough.

The two almost looked like any normal couple on the beach. Except when suddenly a frisbee flew past her head and she turned to glare at him.

"My bad," He laughed.

Aya rolled her eyes. "You're lucky I don't – " she went off on a string of threats that made him laugh. She set up a towel and the bag, before slipping out of the shorts and tank top, since she was wearing a swimsuit underneath.

He couldn't help but smile. She had chosen a bikini, but it wasn't as skimpy as what a lot of girls were wearing. Hers was blue, a color that suited her, but it had ruffles on the top over the front, so that it didn't reveal cleavage and the bottoms had a ruffled skirt layer over just the bikini, so it made her look more childish and innocent, but also...cute.

Where had that thought come from?

"Nice." He said with a grin, as his eyes lingered on the bikini, it was actually...kind of sexy to him, not that he'd admit that out loud.

There was only one thing he had missed about the spell he had done. He had the hormones of a normal teenage boy for the rest of the day. In addition to all the wonderful human consequences, and he wouldn't turn back till midnight.

He looked away when she caught him looking. "Come on, let's go swimming." He hadn't been alive in so long that he had forgotten what it felt like. He was one of the few ghosts that could pull off a spell like this. He grabbed her hand and ran with her off to the water, a childlike grin on his face.

Aya couldn't help but laugh. This was actually fun. She swam around and would splash at him before retreating. And when she'd make him mad by splashing him straight in the face she would dive down underwater and find a clam shell and hand it to him, and he'd find himself staring at it, before he took it to their bag. There was almost 10 clam shells before they laid out on the sand, relaxing from swimming.

"That was fun." Aya said with a small laugh.

"Yeah yeah. I know its all because you're with me." He said with a cocky grin.

Aya rolled her eyes. "You wish it was because of you." She said and rolled over onto her side on the sand so she wasn't facing him.

He grinned as he grabbed her by the sides, tickling her as he forced her back onto her back. "What was that?" He teased.

"You...wish...it was...because..." She couldn't get the rest of her sentence out as she burst into laughter. She looked up at him as he quit teasing her though.

The two looked at each other, in a moment of silence, both lost in their own thoughts. Suddenly Beetlejuice let go of her and sat up, looking away awkwardly, and Aya ran a hand through her hair, trying to quit blushing.

What was going on?

A/N: This chapter is only part one of the date. At first I planned to write it as one whole chapter, but I changed my mind. Aw, teenage Beej meets teenage Aya. ^^ Is this the beginnings of lust? We'll see. Warning about the next chapter. But I'm not giving anything away. Hopefully you guys will like the way it turns out. ^^

REVIEW PLEASE! While I work on the wonderful next chapter that I have a feeling I'm going to be very proud of.