"Arthur, April, you're gonna be late for school!" Lydia called to her kids down the hall. She could hear a loud groan coming from the 7-year-olds' bedroom and she couldn't help but smirk. Her son and daughter both had quite the attitude sometimes. When they finally made their way to the kitchen, Arthur didn't look up at his mother, but April looked excited.

"Mom, I don't wanna go to school," Arthur said, sitting in a chair and resting his chin on the kitchen table. "Can I stay home with you?"

"Baby, you have to go to school," Lydia replied with a sympathetic smile. "It's your first day here. You can't miss your first day. And I have to go to work. What about you, April? You feeling the same way?"

"No," April replied with a grin. "I'm excited!"

Arthur pouted while Lydia continued preparing breakfast. Soon she put a plate in front of each twin with a stack of pancakes on it.

"Made your favorite," she said with a grin. Arthur couldn't help but smile and dig in, eating four pancakes in the end. April gave him a disgusted look as he wolfed down the food. It always surprised Lydia when he ate so much, but she figured it was simply because he was growing. "Now come on, you're not gonna catch the bus if you two don't hurry up," she said after making sure Arthur and April brushed their teeth. They walked down the street to the bus stop just as the sun was rising, and just as the bus pulled up. Lydia hugged her kids, but Arthur wouldn't let her kiss him on the cheek as he backed away from her grip to run to the bus, April right behind him.

"Bye, mom!" Arthur and April called simultaneously, waving, before the bus door closed behind them. Lydia smiled to them and waved back as the bus pulled away. As she was walking back to their apartment, she thought about what her day would bring. She never thought she would end up back in Amnesty Bay, and she was still trying to figure out what possessed her to move back in the first place. Her mom moved them to Boston when she was sixteen, and she eventually learned it wasn't simply because her mom got a better job, but to get her away from her best friend. Though she was two years younger, she and Arthur Curry were best friends growing up. It's what made her want to name her son Arthur in the first place. And now she was back after almost eight years, working at the local dive bar.

Once at work, Lydia began remembering things about her hometown that her mom wanted her to forget. In just the first couple hours of her shift she saw at least half the people she went to school with, and most of them were happy she was back. But what she wasn't expecting was for her past to be dragged back to the surface quite as soon as it was.

While she was waiting on a table near the back of the restaurant, the door opened, and she immediately recognized both voices of the men who came in and sat at the bar. After taking care of the customers she was with, she turned to see if she was imagining things or not. Right there, sitting with his dad at the bar, was Arthur Curry. She licked her lips after realizing they felt very dry and rushed to the back, hoping he wouldn't see her. A last-minute glance towards the bar as she went to the kitchen told her she hadn't been fast enough, and he saw her.

Once at the back of the kitchen, Lydia took a deep breath and tried to ignore her heart trying to beat out of her chest. She didn't want to see him quite that quickly – they'd only moved into the apartment over the weekend. She was hoping to have a little bit of time to settle in before trying to seek out her best friend, but it seemed fate wouldn't have it that way. Going back out there was the last thing she wanted to do, but she knew she had to at least to wait tables like she was supposed to. Finally, she gathered enough courage to go back out to the dining room, telling herself over and over that she shouldn't be worried or nervous about anything.

"Lydia?" a familiar voice said after she'd been back out there a few minutes. After putting an empty tray down, she turned to the source of the voice and smiled at Arthur and his dad.

"Hi Mr. Curry," she said with a smile, genuinely happy to see both men again. "Arthur."

"The hell are you doing back here?" Arthur said with a grin before taking a swig of his beer.

"I decided it was time to move back," Lydia answered, casually crossing her arms. "I don't have anything back in Boston keeping me there, anyways."

"How's your mom doing?" Tom asked with a warm smile.

"Oh, well…" Lydia started, looking towards the floor. "She passed away last June. Cancer."

"Oh, no, I'm so sorry," Tom said, taking Lydia's hand and squeezing it gently. Lydia just shrugged, not sure what to say. She didn't like talking about her mom's passing much because her Arthur and April didn't really understand it.

"Well, how have you guys been?" she asked, leaning against the bar.

"Just the usual," Tom answered, looking towards his son.

"Yeah, pretty much," Arthur answered before taking another swig of beer.

"Still swimming much?" Lydia asked with a smirk. She couldn't help herself – that was one of their favorite things to do together growing up. It was also when they realized that Lydia was different in the same way Arthur was different. She was half Atlantean, too, but she never knew who her father was, and her mother never wanted to tell her. Even Vulko, who trained both of them, didn't know who her father was. He'd told her about a few options, seeing as she had bright red hair, but couldn't be sure since the four remaining Atlantean nations were no longer peaceful with each other.

"You know it," Arthur said, still grinning. "What about you?"

"Not as much as I used to." Lydia shrugged before walking towards the end of the bar to go out to the dining area. "But I've got some work to do. We can catch up if you guys plan on sticking around for a while."