Christmas Cheer
by
Owlcroft
"When you go to the biggest party of your life, you dance with who brought you" – 'Skid' Mark McCormick
The school Christmas dance was that night and Lydia had arranged for her fiancé to model his new suit for her before she got dressed just in case it needed any more adjustments. The light cream suit fitted him to perfection now and the new cherry-red shirt was festive as well as striking. When she was satisfied with the fit, she handed him a cream-colored bow tie and said, "Give me twenty minutes, okay?"
Beetlejuice nodded, looking at the clip-on tie pensively. He had understood that this evening was important to Lydia and agreed that he would wear what she had designed and behave politely tonight. At least, he would try to behave politely. He sighed and fastened the tie to his collar.
In less than fifteen minutes, she appeared before him in her calf-length matching cream dress with red sash. The sleeves were slightly flared and ended at the elbow, the left seam was split up to mid-thigh, and her hair was arranged in a loose pile on her head with small red poinsettias as stars in her ebony crown.
He stared, mouth open, for a few moments, then snapped his fingers and held out a small clear plastic box. Inside was a wristlet of tiny red poinsettia blossoms mixed with mistletoe. "Deels helped me with this. She said you wouldn't want to put holes in your dress. Hope that's right." He smiled shyly, then added, "You are so beautiful," then looked at his feet in embarrassment.
"And so are you, if I say so myself," she responded, donning the wristlet with an admiring smile. "Thank you for the flowers; they're perfect."
"The mistletoe is from your tree." Beetlejuice tilted his head and squinted at the tiny green leaves. "He sort of . . . bowed a little and waved his branches when I asked if I could take them, so I figured it was okay."
"Dear old Spooky. He's so happy in the playground, even in the winter." Lydia gently touched one of the mistletoe blossoms. "Let's visit him tomorrow, show him my corsage and our outfits. I have been looking forward to showing you off so much, starting tonight."
"Yeah," he muttered. "I guess it's show time."
ooooo
Miss Shannon had hired the public hall in town for the dance and it was decorated in a chintzy Christmas fashion with fake trees and strings of Christmas lights. The band comprised only a guitar, a keyboard, a saxophone, and a drum-set. But they were surprisingly good and the large dance floor was crowded from the start.
Almost every junior and senior student was there, most with dates or escorts; in some cases a father accompanied a student. But everyone who wanted to dance managed to find a partner and a cheerful hubbub accompanied the music.
After half an hour, several dances, and some lively chatter, Lydia mentioned to Prudence that Clare Brewster hadn't shown up.
"I noticed that," Prudence replied. "After all the bragging about her dress, her hair-do, and her date, too."
Prudence's older brother (and her 'date' for the evening), Lawrence, a junior in college, snorted. "Maybe she made all of it up. From what Prudie's told me about her, that would be typical."
At that very moment, there was a loud bustle in the foyer, with Clare's voice being the loudest bustle of all.
Beetlejuice immediately signaled to the keyboardist with whom he'd made an arrangement and the band began a peppy East Coast Swing. He pulled Lydia with him and they swept onto the floor, completely upstaging Clare's entrance with her date from the military academy forty miles away. Lydia gave him a chiding look but matched his steps easily and even added a little extra flair. After all, she hadn't included that leg slit for appearance only.
After the dance, laughing, Lydia insisted on a short break and led the way to the table where they'd found seats earlier. Prudence and her brother were off collecting some snacks, but Bertha was there, fanning herself after dancing energetically with her sometime boyfriend, Al. Al appeared at the table just after Lydia and Beetlejuice had settled in.
"Here, Bert," said the gangling redheaded teen, and handed Bertha a plastic cup of a bright red liquid.
She took it gratefully, sampled it, made a face, and put it down on the table. "I don't know what's in there, and I don't think I want to know."
'Prudie' and her brother joined them shortly thereafter and the conversation turned to the future. Prudence had been accepted at her brother's college and was happily anticipating college life. Bertha was still trying to decide on college or going straight into the workforce.
"I'm good with people," she said, "and a job dealing with the public would be fun."
Everyone else around the table groaned, which she took well, laughing at them all.
Beetlejuice looked at his betrothed for a few seconds, then offered, "Would you like something, Lyds – Lydia? I can get you anything you want."
"I could use something to drink. Oh, but let's go look at what they have to eat, too." Lydia accepted a gracious hand to rise and beamed at her 'date'.
But when they got to the refreshments table there was really nothing he would want except for some small cubes of cheese. The dinky little triangular sandwiches all had lettuce in them, and the vegetable platter and spinach dip was out of the question. As for the punch, which was that bright, unnatural red – "It's juice, isn't it?" he scowled. "From fruit."
Lydia had poured herself a cup and tasted it. "I think they put some ginger ale in there, too. It's awfully sweet and I guess it's red because they wanted it to look Christmas-sy." She tasted it again and frowned, then set her glass aside. "It's not very good. I'd much rather have that rum drink you got me after the Rocking Trolls concert. What did you call that?"
"Hey, don't go talking about that here. It was just rum and cola, a Cuba Libre," he nearly whispered. "And I probably shouldn't have gotten you that. Please don't go around saying I got you liquored up, okay?" He hastily surveyed the people around them.
"Yeah," she murmured, "especially when it's you that's stopping us from going any further in our physical relationship. You know I'd be ready any time you are."
He started to place a hand over her mouth, then thought again and merely motioned her to silence. "Babes, you could get me in a lot of trouble talking about some of that stuff."
She grinned at him slyly. "Even though we're engaged? Oh, Beej, I don't care who knows about us or what they think they know. You look so adorable in that suit." She pressed against him, hands on his chest, looking up winsomely. "Kiss me, you gorgeous thing you."
He pushed away from her just a fraction and stared at her in wonder and devotion. "A year ago, you kissed me for the first time."
"That was a harmless kiss, a 'just friends' kiss, though."
"But it meant everything to me, that you would do that. It meant you really did want to be with me, that you felt something for me – something special. I hadn't had a lot of kisses, you know."
"Well, there was that cactus bartender in the Gloomdike. And there was a ghoul I remember who was pretty intent on getting close to you."
Beetlejuice shook his head and gathered her into his arms. "They didn't count, none of them counted. Only yours." And he kissed her until a sharp 'ahem' got his attention.
Miss Shannon looked at the twosome over her glasses and harrumphed loudly before stalking off.
"She ought to do something about that cough. Sounds like it might be pneumonia," said Beetlejuice with a grin.
Lydia grinned back at him and rubbed lipstick off his mouth with her thumb.
ooooo
Always adept at making herself noticeable, Clare Brewster could be seen speaking vehemently to the uniformed young man who'd brought her. She was obviously unhappy and insisting on something that her date disagreed with. Finally, after she stamped her foot and hissed at him, he scowled at her, then sighed and nodded reluctantly. Shortly thereafter, they approached Lydia and Beetlejuice, the young man carrying a cup of the infamous punch in his hand.
"Hey, there," he said with a cheesy grin, "Clare says you two are special people that I simply have to meet." At that point, he ostentatiously tripped and the punch went flying toward them. Beetlejuice, however, had anticipated something of the sort and the fruity concoction splashed against an invisible shield and then dripped harmlessly to the floor.
The young man stared in astonishment then turned red and dropped the plastic cup on the floor. "I'm . . . sorry. So sorry," he managed to mutter, head down, shoulders dropped. He then turned to throw a look of shame and anger at Clare before storming out of the building.
Clare stood, frozen, for a long moment, than ran after him calling, "Steve! Steve, wait!"
A susurration of whispered outrage spread around the room and Beetlejuice turned to Lydia and held out a hand. "Dance with me," he said quietly. They took the floor and the band began to play a slow foxtrot and, eventually, they were joined by other couples and the murmurs stopped.
Clare never returned to the dance but very few people noticed. One was Beetlejuice and another was Miss Shannon.
Lydia was troubled for a while, but her friends and fiancé wouldn't let her remain concerned for long. And when Miss Shannon approached their table, Lydia took a deep breath, not knowing what to expect.
But Miss Shannon surprised them all by saying, "I want to congratulate you, Miss Deetz, and your escort, for your self-possession and graciousness. You both handled an awkward situation superbly. I don't understand how that poor young man could do such a thing, but I'm certain that there will not be a recurrence of such uncouth behavior. And I will be speaking to Miss Brewster when school resumes. There will be consequences, I assure you."
The rest of the evening passed quickly, with much laughter, lots of dancing, and even a few surreptitious kisses in corners.
"Thank you, my darling Beej, for everything. This has been such a wonderful evening. I hope you had some fun, too?" Lydia patted his tie back into position after it had gotten disarranged by their embrace.
He shrugged casually. "Ah, it was . . . okay, I guess. The dancing was, anyway." He put his hands on her waist and swayed from side to side for a moment.
Lydia sighed happily. "It was even better than I'd hoped. Except for that business with Clare, of course." Her face clouded over briefly, then she smiled again. "It was all magical. Especially being able to parade you around and let everybody envy me." She laughed at his expression, then said, "We've said good-bye to everyone, so . . .?"
"Show's over!" he said with a grin and another kiss.
ooooo
"Babes, I'm starved!" Beetlejuice had popped them both back to her room and assumed an expression of utter pathos.
"You know, come to think of it I could use a snack, too." Lydia put her hand on her stomach and frowned. "All I had was a little of that cheese and two Christmas cookies. What did you have in mind?" She managed a slight leer with the last sentence.
He gave her a patient, long-suffering look. "Actually, I was thinking of pizza."
"Ooh, pizza would be perfect! But there won't be any pizza place open at this hour," she said sadly.
Beetlejuice spread his hand across his chest. "Lydia Deetz, I am surprised at you! After all these years?" and he snapped his fingers and a boxed pizza rested on his palm, smelling of cheese and pepperoni.
"After all these years," she grinned at him, "I should know better."
He grinned back at her and said, "It's chow time!"