"Lapis!" A young boy yelled out to his old friend as she stepped out of her old, but now to be considered new, house.

"Hey Steven! Did you miss me?"      Lapis said giving the boy a hug.

"Yeah, it was weird not having my 'beach summer fun buddy' with me for three whole summers." Steven said hugging Lapis back.

"Thank you again, Greg, for helping us unpack." Lapis' mom told Steven's dad.

"It's nothing really Christy, me and Steven loved to help out. Right bud?" Greg said lifting a box of title CLOTHING.

"Right!" Steven exclaimed.

"Steven was so exited when he heard you were moving back. You two should go catch up with what's been happening." Greg said walking across the garage and setting the box down.

Before Lapis could say anything Steven had already grabbed her hand and was leading her to the boardwalk. They walked through the town until they landed on the boardwalk.

Lapis put her hands in her jeans, trying to protect them from the cold. Lapis muttered, it's still summer and it's freezing outside. Lapis and her mom got to Beach City a week early, that meant a week to unpack and get ready for Lapis' last year of highschool. Senior year. The year that everyone couldn't wait to start, just so it could end. Lapis was just glad that she didn't have to go to high school back in Keystone anymore.

Everyone there sucked absolute dick. Lapis didn't have any friends, besides her various amounts of pets, and everyone hated her for no reason.

Well they actually probably just hated her because of her tendency to be a bit of a bitch sometimes. That wasn't her fault though, the unresolved trauma did that to her.

Lapis pushed the thought aside, she didn't need any bad memories to cloud up what was happening in the present.

"How's everyone doing? Did anyone forget me." Lapis asked Steven smiling as they glided along the boardwalk.

"Oh umm...Amethyst is fine, so is Pearl, Garnet, and everyone else, Jasper is a lot nicer, not that she wasn't nice, but she's just not as mean anymore, and who else...um I made a new friend. Her name is Connie and I think you'll like her. Um, Peridot is still the same, and uh..." Steven babbled, getting lost on his train of thought.

Lapis laughed as her small friend was seemingly trying to remember everyone in Beach City and how they were.
 
"Hey Lapis?"

"Hm?"
 
"Do you want have a sleep over at my house? Connie is coming and it might be funner than doing nothing all day." Steven offered.

"Sure. Now," Lapis picked up Steven and placed him on her shoulders, "Shall we head to the beach?"

"Yes. Yes we shall."

Lapis held onto Steven's knees as she skipped over to the beach. Lapis' adrenaline rush didn't last very long and as soon as she reached sand she fell on her back and trapped Steven underneath her.

"Lapis." Steven giggled.

"Hope you know that I'm not getting up." Lapis kidded, closing her eyes, insinuating that she would be taking a long rest on top of Steven.

Steven giggled some more and squirmed around. Lapis lifted herself back up slightly so Steven could get out.

"Aha! I did it!" Steven said scrambling to his feet.

"Oh no!" Lapis said as Steven put on foot on her stomach.

"Haha! I have slain the beast!"

"I...am dead." Lapis stuck out her tongue and splayed her limbs in the sand.

Steven stifled a laugh as Lapis 'twitched' every now and then.
Lapis lightly pushed Steven's foot away and stood up. She dusted off her jacket and jeans then walked to the edge of the beach. She sat down and sighed.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah...I just... I missed this place a lot."

"I think that Beach City missed you too." Steveb plopped next to her.

Lapis smiled and stared out to the ocean. The waves were so peaceful, they were almost asking her to dive right in.
    
"I'm gonna go to my house and get things for the sleep-over ready. I'll see you in while Lapis, bye!" Steven said, trotting over into the direction if his beach home.
    
Lapis waved and looked back out to sea.
    
"I might as well go get some clothes ready." Lapis sighed, standing up from her position on the ground.
    
Lapis jogged to her house, occasionaly stumbling over stray rocks. When Lapis arrived at the house she walked inside.
    
"Mom?" Lapis called out. No answer. 'Oh no. How terrible it is to be alone.' Her thoughts spoke sarcastically.
    
Lapis walked up to her room. She found that there were some clothes already thrown on the floor.
    
'I haven't even been in here yet. How is my room a mess already?' Lapis thought picking up a stray pair of clothes that would be suitable as pajamas.
    
Lapis searched in some of the boxes for a dufflebag or something to carry the essentials. Pajamas, an extra change of clothes, a pillow, a blanket, and her phone, and laptop, and tablet, and anything else she'd happen to find while searching through the boxes.
    
Lapis got out her phone and started listening to music.

'Made a wrong turn, once or twice
Dug my way out, blood and fire
Bad decisions, that's alright
Welcome to my silly life
Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood
Miss 'No way, it's all good', it didn't slow me down
Mistaken, always second guessing, underestimated.'
    
Lapis hummed to the song as she strung the dufflebag around her shoulder. The brunette locked the door and headed over to Steven's place.
 
Lapis kept her head low as she walked  past the other houses, her gaze never strayed far from her feet. When Lapis finally landed on the beach she started heading towards the side hidden by the moment. Somehow not many people knew about it, even though it isn't exactly hard to find.

The sun started to slowly set behind her as she approached Steven's house. When she looked up from the ground she stopped in her tracks.
There was a big banner in front of Steven's house that read

'Walcoma Back Laplsl'

    
'Jesus, that is horrible handwriting.'      Lapis smiled to herself. She walked up the steps eagerly and opened the screen door.
     
"Steven, your house would be amazingly easy to break into." Lapis observed walking inside referencing to the several large windows and unlocked screen door.
    
"You came!" Steven yelled throwing his hands in the air.
    
"Well, I wouldn't lie to you. Unless I did and I'm a clone or something." Lapis said taking off her shoes. She set down the dufflebag next to other bags lined up on the couch next to the window.
    
"Connie! This is Lapis!" Steven started leading a girl his own age over to Lapis.
    
"Oh, um, hello. I'm Connie." Connie extended her hand and Lapis shook it with her own, offering a friendly smile.
    
"It's nice to meet you Connie." Lapis looked up and realized that everyone else in the house was staring at her. A blush crept on to Lapis' face as she felt the gazes of her friends fall on her.
    
Steven noticed and tried to start a conversation, "We all remember Lapis, don't we?"
    
After a few moments of silence someone spoke up.
    
"Who the fuck is Lapis?"
    
"Amethyst! Language!"
    
"Language my ass!"
    
"Yeah, we all remember the little brat." A husky voice said from behind Lapis. A large hand gripped her shoulder.
    
Lapis tensed up and turned around to face none other than Jasper. Worst. Relationship. Ever.

To be fair, they were both younger, dumber, and absolutely not right for each other.
    
"Hey, uh, hey, Jasper." Lapis sqeauked, startled by Jasper's sudden appearance.
    
"Long time no see." Jasper said with a lopsided grin. To Lapis' thanks, she invited herself to the kitchen and ended the interaction.

The swimmer's eyes quickly scanned over the room (which was basically the whole house) and they stopped on Peridot.
    
Peridot must have felt the gaze because she looked up from her phone and saw Lapis. Lapis waved and smiled and a had a glare returned to her.
    
'Not the reaction I was expecting...'     Lapis thought.
    
Lapis walked over to Peridot, hands stuffed in pockets.
   
"Whatcha doing?" Lapis asked leaning on the arm of the couch. Peridot mumbled angrily in response.
    
"So, um, how are you?"
    
Peridot mumbled again.
    
"Come on, grumpy gills."
    
"Take a long walk off a short pier, Lazuli." Peridot growled.

"You first." Lapis replied smugly.
    
The blonde sighed angrily and walked over to Steven, who was showing Connie his new game, and whispered something to him. The boy looked at Lapis the back to Peridot and nodded. Soon after Peridot walked out of the house. Steven jumped down from his bedroom loft and onto to the couch below, next to Lapis.
    
"Okay, so, I'm not supposed to say this but Peridot went outside because she feels like your very existence is choking her. If I were you I definitely would give her as much space as possible and try to not to help heal her emotional wounds." The soft boy winked and Connie giggled from above, picking up on his sarcasm.

"Right, gotcha." Lapis winked back, "I'm definitely not going to go outside and talk to Peridot." Steven giggled more and caused Lapis smiled, she stood and walked to the door.

Her hand hovered over the handle, ready for the shitstorm of screaming Peridot was going to unleash on her.

"Oh boy."

***

Whoever can guess the song that Lapis is listening to is a cool cat.