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Stranger Beetles

"Mama's boys?" Nate echoed. "What about your mom? With the pottery kit and the yarn?" He laughed, clearly talking about Barbara. Beetlejuice put a hand on Lydia's shoulder and tried to direct her away from them.

"Come on, kid, don't lose your cool in public like this."

Stranger Beetles

Nate grinned broadly at the verbal abuse this girl was spewing at them. He clearly found it funny. "Geeze, who put a wasp up your ass?" He laughed.

Beetlejuice bristled. He loved Lydia like the little sister she was to him, but he was quickly being reminded how much he hated kids. Especially teenagers.

Stranger Beetles

I posted a brief bio for my kid

Stranger Beetles

Name: Nathan "Nate" Matthews
Age: 13
Gender: Male

Personality: Thinks he's hot shit, but is actually a huge dweeb. Likes video games, D&D, and old school comic books. He's a good kid overall, but definitely does things to appear 'edgy'. Would probably try smoking once and throw up.

History: He's lived in the incredibly boring town of Hawkins, Indiana all his life. It's incredibly dull and boring and oh God please something interesting happen around here.

Stranger Beetles

"Hey, careful with the name, Lyds," Beetlejuice scolded her lightly. Honestly, he was just glad to have found her. "They probably went into the other most boring store in this mall, we just have to find where that is."

"What's a beetle juice? Is that like a new energy drink or something?" BJ whipped around, and saw a young boy, no older than Lydia, standing there with a paper fast food cup in his hand. The boy was lanky, medium toned skin, big, curly hair, and had an almost bored looking expression. And he had a friend, too.

Stranger Beetles

Stranger Beetles

The mall made BJ extremely nervous. Every breather in here had the potential to be one of the breathers. The breathers that could happily re-capture them and probably punish Lydia by starving her half to death. His head swiveled constantly, looking for any sort of wayward glances.

The Maitlands led them to a craft supplies store. Barbara was convinced that her and Lydia were going to make macaroni art or some shit. BJ stopped listening. "Look at these jugs!" That got his attention, but he was sorely disappointed to see that Babs was referring to a ceramics kit.

After buying a few things, some colored pencils, an advanced coloring book, and other project supplies, they headed back out into the main mall. This place sure was crowded. BJ tried his best to keep up with the others, but with people walking through him every five seconds, it was getting difficult. An entire herd of high schoolers made him lose sight of Lydia, and he panicked a bit.

"Lyds?" He called, "Lydia!" He found her shortly after, but the Maitlands were nowhere to be found. "Hey, where'd the labradoodles go?"

Stranger Beetles

"I'm a demon, kid, what do you want from me?" Beetlejuice shrugged. He thought of himself more as a 'lovable rascal', anyways. When shoo'd away, he flew through the door and disappeared. When Lydia emerged, Beetlejuice was floating alone the hall, watching a spider that was crawling along the crown molding. She caught him just before he pounced on it. He turned to look at her, and grinned, spider leg still in his teeth.

"Wow, you look, well, normal, Lyds!" He hadn't seen her look like a normal kids in years; every since they'd been taken. "I'm gonna' be honest, I thought Babs was gonna' dress you up like a milkmaid or something with those god awful dresses she wears." He giggled to himself at his joke as they headed back to the kitchen, where both Maitlands were ready to venture into town.

"You ready, kiddo?" Adam asked with a dorky grin. Adorable.

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Barbara hugged her back and did her best not to cry. They were making memories right now; memories that Barbara had been looking forward to making for a very long time. It didn't matter that Lydia wasn't her daughter, and may not even stay in her life long, she would cherish this moment for the rest of her life.

Finally, Barbara broke away. "Okay Delia, but I think you should probably change clothes first. I bought a couple things at the store this morning." She produced a bag from the kitchen chair next to them. "Why don't you go pick something out?"

"I dug through their drawers earlier, so fair warning, kid. It's probably the lamest shit you've ever seen," Beetlejuice snickered beside her. His lack of boundaries knew no bounds.

Stranger Beetles

Barbara finished and went to go get the mirror. "What do you think, hun?" She asked, peering around it at Lydia with a hopeful smile.