The next week flew by. Lydia had to adjust to a new home life and a new school, but she found it got easier with each passing day. She shared four classes with Buffy, but was taking advanced French instead of beginning, and she had decided to take choir instead of Buffy's art class. The situation worked out fine, and although both girls were a bit sad that they couldn't share all their classes, they realized it was for the best. Besides, Lydia had a beautiful soprano voice whereas Buffy could barely carry a tune, and Buffy was quite a talented artist whereas Lydia had trouble even drawing stick figures.
At home, Lydia finally moved into the guest bedroom, which all of them, including Buffy's dad, had helped to arrange for her. They had also taken Lydia shopping for some new clothes, even though she still had some at her foster home. But since she wasn't going to go back there until the following weekend, they decided that she could use a few things to get her through until then. Buffy, of course, had begged for new clothes as well, and her dad had indulged her, as he often did. The whole weekend had been great in Buffy's estimation, and she was glad to see that her dad and Lydia had bonded.
Over the course of the week, the twins' individual personalities began to become visible to all those around them. Lydia was the quiet studious one, who was always on time and who preferred to wear clothes that as she said " don't expose more skin than an episode of Baywatch," and Buffy was the loud outgoing one who countered Lydia's comment with "there's nothing wrong with being a little risqu‚ every once in a while." They were constantly teasing each other. Lydia usually ragged on Buffy for her wardrobe while Buffy, upon discovering what a top-notch student her sister was, often complained about how much time Lydia spent studying. This teasing had even brought forth new catch phrases to describe each twins' critique of the other: Buffy always started it with "Lydia, you need to get a life," to which Lydia always responded, "Well, you need to get some taste." It was entirely good-natured, and just seemed to bring them even closer together.
The news of Buffy's long-lost twin sister spread like wildfire through the gossip mills of Sunnydale High, and by the end of the first day, Buffy and Lydia had become instant celebrities in the world of high school. Principal Snyder had even taken it upon himself to stop the two girls as they walked down the hall after school, and crudely suggest that if Lydia were anything like her sister, she had better watch her step. Lydia, who had already heard all about the principal's vendetta against Buffy, just smiled sweetly and said "I doubt it's me who'll need to watch my step," and then sauntered off, with Buffy quickly following.
But if the girls had become instantly famous just in their high school, it was nothing compared to what happened after the media got ahold of the story. The phone began ringing off the hook Friday morning and the actual news reports began Friday night, later than Joyce had expected but a complete shock to the girls. The front page headline of Saturday's newspaper read "Twins Separated at Birth Find Each Other in Amazing Twist of Fate." Buffy and Lydia had both decided not to do interviews, but after that article, in which several facts were wrongly reported, including allegations of abuse in Lydia's foster home, they realized that they actually had no choice. And so they submitted to an interview to clear up the facts, and had to hope that everyone would leave them alone after that.
They weren't left alone of course, but Buffy and Lydia just tried to get on with their lives and ignore the publicity. Buffy showed Lydia around Sunnydale, which actually took all of a few hours. The highlight of the tour had been the Bronze, where Buffy and Lydia had gone on the first Friday night after Lydia's appearance.
Sitting at a table with Willow and Xander, the twins had received several strange looks, but they were both quickly getting used to that. Both had danced a few times, but now a slow song was playing, and without partners, neither was much inclined to go out on the dance floor.
It was during this song that Buffy suddenly announced, "I'm going to the little Slayer's room. I'll be back in a minute."
As she walked off, with three pairs of eyes following her, Xander turned to the remaining two girls and said, "I don't know about you two, but I'm about to die of thirst."
"Me too," Willow seconded.
"Me three," Lydia added. Then, thinking she'd be helpful, she said, "Why don't I go get us some drinks?"
"Hmmm, that means I could continue to sit here and be lazy. Okay, works for me," Xander replied.
So Lydia had gone up to the bar and, keeping Buffy's possible thirst in mind, ordered four Cokes. It was while she was waiting for them to arrive that she felt a hand tap her shoulder. Turning around, she found herself face to face with one of the most gorgeous guys she had ever laid eyes on.
"Hi," was all he said.
"Hi," Lydia returned. She cringed inwardly when she heard how soft and fluttery her voice had come out.
"So," Mr. Handsome said, "What've you been up to lately?"
Lydia had to admit it was one of the strangest pick-up lines she had ever heard. What did he expect her to say, `Waiting for you, hot stuff.'? Puh-lease.
"Uh, not much," was the answer Lydia finally decided upon.
"Well, what do you say you and I go outside for a little while so we can...talk."
Boy this guy sure moved fast, Lydia thought. "Uh, well, I don't know if that would be such a good idea-"
But he cut her off before she could finish. Leaning in toward her, he whispered in her ear "I promise I won't bite."
Lydia pulled back a bit to just stare at him. It wasn't his words that disturbed her, although they were certainly a bit strange. No, it was something else, something she couldn't quite put her finger on....
Then it came to her. When he had whispered in her ear, she had felt no breath coming from his body.
Lydia's eyes widened in shock as the implications of this hit her. She was talking to a vampire!
Buffy had come back to the table by then, and not seeing her sister, asked "Where's Lydia?"
"Over at the bar, talking to Angel," Willow replied.
"Angel's here?" Buffy perked up noticeably at the mention of her paramour. Then she slumped back in her chair. "I wonder why he didn't come over to say hello?"
"Uh, Buffy, I think that's what he's doing right now," Willow said, inclining her head towards the back of the club.
"Oh. *Oh*," Buffy said when she finally understood what Willow was saying.
Xander, who had been watching the couple at the bar the whole time, suddenly chuckled softly and said, "And it looks like Lydia just figured out that our Angel isn't exactly the most lively guy in town, if you catch my drift."
Buffy, managing to catch a glimpse of Lydia's face, frozen in an expression that would have been funny had Lydia not obviously been so terrified, decided it was time to take some action.
Getting up and walking up right behind Angel but being sure that Lydia couldn't see her, she said in her sweetest voice, "Why, sister dear, I do believe you're flirting with my man."
Angel spun around so fast he nearly fell down, but this time it was his eyes that widened in shock as he said "Buffy?!"
Lydia, relief evident in her voice, simply said "Buffy," as well. Then as she realized the full meaning behind Buffy's words, she turned her head toward Angel and with mouth agape, said "You mean this is-"
"Angel, meet Lydia, my twin sister. Lydia, meet Angel, my undead but still dreamy love interest," Buffy interrupted.
Buffy wanted to laugh out loud at the look that passed between the two upon hearing of the identity of the other.
Then Lydia seemed to unfreeze before Buffy's eyes, and suddenly grabbed Angel's hand and started shaking it profusely. "Oh my gosh, I feel so stupid. Angel, it's nice to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you from Buffy."
Angel, however, was still at a loss for words. Lydia finally let go of his hand, and then he turned to Buffy and said "You *will* explain all this-"
"Later," she interrupted, grabbing his hand and dragging him out to the dance floor. "But right now I sense a slow song coming up, and a girl would be a fool not to take any excuse she could to have her arms around you. So c'mon."
Lydia had watched them go, her lips twitching at the thought of what Buffy would do when she found out that Angel had tried to pick her up instead of Buffy. That boy was in for some serious trouble, Lydia thought, grabbing the tray with their drinks and heading back to the table.
But Lydia had never heard anything about Angel's terrible punishment, although she suspected it really hadn't been so terrible, and she quickly forgot about the entire incident as she threw herself into her new life.
She also began training with Giles to work on her reflexes. Although not nearly as agile as Buffy, Lydia was just as smart, and used her brains to outwit Giles several times. He was quite impressed with the girl's ability, and once again expressed his hope that Lydia would begin to draw off of Buffy and vice-versa.
Giles predictions were proven sooner than anyone expected. The following Tuesday, after what she had thought would be a quick stop in the girls' restroom between periods, Lydia found herself running late. Glancing at her watch, she realized she had less than 30 seconds to get to her class, which was upstairs and nearly across campus. Lydia took off running, not bothering to pay attention to her surroundings. It was because of this fact that she ran right into Brian Drake, Sunnydale's biggest, buffest, football player. But instead of Lydia falling backwards as she ran into his `pecs of steel,' as some girls around campus referred to them, Brian was the one who fell backwards, or rather flew backwards. He landed with a thud on the hard tile as Lydia just stared, open-mouthed at the scene before her.
However, she quickly recovered from her temporary paralysis and ran over to extend a hand to help Brain up. "Omigod, I'm *so* sorry. Are you okay?"
Brian ignored her hand and stood up on his own, dusting off his pants as he did so. "Yeah, I'm fine, you just knocked the wind out of me."
Lydia just stood there in silence, both ashamed and secretly amazed at what she had just done.
"Which one are you?" Brian suddenly asked.
"Pardon me?" Lydia responded, thoroughly confused.
"I mean, which sister? Buffy or Lydia?"
"Oh," Lydia gave a quick laugh, "I'm Lydia. And you're...?"
"Brian, Brian Drake," Brian said, extending his hand.
"Nice to meet you Brian Drake," Lydia said, shaking it.
"Uh, listen Lydia, would you mind not telling anyone about this, uh, little incident? I mean, I've got a reputation to uphold, and I'd never hear the end of it if the guys found out that I'd been knocked over by a girl, you know what I'm saying?"
Lydia grinned at Brian's flustered appearance. "Sure thing, Brian. This stays between you and me." And Buffy and Giles and Willow and Xander, Lydia silently amended to herself.
"Thanks. I really appreciate it," Brian said, picking up his backpack and starting to walk away. "Oh, hey Lydia," he called, turning around.
"Yeah?" she replied, glancing over her shoulder.
"If you ever decide to go out for football, I'll put in a good word."
Laughing, Lydia had walked off, very late for class but not even caring.
As she had walked into trigonometry that day, Buffy had glanced at her strangely, silently questioning her as to why she was late, but Lydia decided to just ignore her until the end of class. Little had she known that Buffy was going through her own little odd manifestation of new abilities.
All through trigonometry, Buffy would spontaneously cringe. Willow, and even Xander, who was normally as oblivious as any male, saw whenever she did it, but could find no outward cause as to why. Finally, Willow desperately wanted to know, so, braving the teacher's wrath if she were caught, she leaned over and whispered "What's going on Buffy?"
"Can't you hear it? It sounds like chalk squeaking on a blackboard. It's driving me crazy!"
"I don't hear anything," Willow responded, then leaned back into her own seat just in time before the teacher turned around.
When the bell rang signaling the end of the period, all four teens bolted out of the room. Lydia began to excitedly tell them about her experience with Brian earlier, but Buffy was listening with only half an ear. As they walked down the hall, they passed Cordelia, who was chattering to one of her ever-present flunkies. Buffy heard Cordelia say "God, I thought I was going to die in there! Mr. Erikson must be *deaf* not to hear chalk that squeaky! I was just going nuts...."
But by then, Buffy had stopped listening. She was in shock. Mr. Erikson's room was four doors down from her trigonometry class- there was no possible way she could have heard the squeaky chalk. But the fact remained that she had. As a grin began to spread itself across her face, Buffy knew that Lydia wasn't going to be the only one telling Giles an amazing story at lunch that day.
Giles had been thrilled, of course, and said he couldn't wait to enter it into his Watcher diaries. Giles expressed his hope that one day soon, Lydia would be able to actually go out and physically slay vampires with Buffy, to give the often over-worked girl some much-needed help.
Not that Buffy had been over-worked lately. In fact, it was rather the opposite. With the hordes of media descending like flies on Sunnydale, Giles had forbidden Buffy from slaying, lest any enthusiastic reporters catch her in the act. Buffy thought it was bad enough having her face broadcast all over town, but the thought of someone following her everywhere was definitely enough to creep her out. When Buffy's dad had called on Monday to let Buffy know that she and Lydia were big news in LA, both girls had groaned. Buffy tried to hope that their story wouldn't go national, but knew the chances of that happening were about as likely as Angel suddenly deciding he needed to get a tan.
Within a few days time the national news media did indeed pick up the story, and the two girls were suddenly America's flavor of the week. Their faces graced newspapers and magazines everywhere. After being bombarded with requests for interviews, the two girls discussed it with Joyce and reluctantly decided to grant a few more. But a few more turned into over a dozen, because even though they knew that they were just feeding the media frenzy, they actually found that they both enjoyed the attention. They knew that soon enough the country would tire of their story, but for the moment they decided to simply bask in the rays of fame.
The more interviews they did, the more adept they became at answering the questions. Most of the time, the questions were the same from interview to interview, even though Buffy was fairly certain that every single person in America had now heard about Lydia's search for Buffy and Buffy's recurring dream, but every once in a while they would get asked an original question. It was one of these questions, which neither girl had been prepared for, that threw Buffy completely for a loop.
Buffy and Lydia were being interviewed by a pretty brunette, who both girls could tell thought she was God's gift to reporters, when the woman asked the question out of the blue: "What about your birth mother? What do you know about her?" Buffy and Lydia had looked at each other quickly, seeking support in the other's gaze. Buffy was struck speechless, and as her mind had scrambled to come up with an appropriate response, Lydia had stepped in and said, "Nothing. We're just grateful for the parents we have now."
Lydia had obviously assumed that that was the end of that, but for days Buffy could not get the question out of her mind. What *did* they know about the woman who had given birth to them, other than a name? Buffy tried several times to broach the topic with Lydia, but each time she did, Lydia had cleverly managed to change the subject.
But by Friday afternoon, Buffy had had enough and had made up her mind that she would get Lydia to discuss it, or die trying.
"Listen Lydia, there's something we need to talk about," Buffy declared, walking into Lydia's room unannounced on Friday evening.
"Yeah, what?" Lydia asked, not even bothering to raise her head from the math homework she was doing.
"Our mom." Buffy threw the gauntlet down, hoping Lydia would pick it up. And although Buffy had expected Lydia to once more sidestep the issue, Lydia did indeed meet Buffy's challenge.
"Leave it alone, Buffy," Lydia warned.
"But *why*? Aren't you at all curious about this woman who gave birth to us and then just, just gave us up? Don't you want to know why?"
"No, I don't, Buffy, and I'll tell you why," Lydia said, rising from her desk chair to walk over to Buffy. "I don't want to know because I don't care. Yes, there was a woman over 17 years ago who was kind enough to bring us into this world, and who then loved us enough to give us to people who desperately wanted us and who could give us a better life than she could, but I really don't see it as being relevant to my existence. I'm happy knowing that I had parents who loved me, even though they are now dead. You should be happy with what you have now and not go digging into the past."
"Lydia, I am happy with everything now," Buffy said, going over and sitting on Lydia's bed. "But that's not it. It's just this feeling I have, that something is missing. I had it too, before I found you, and when you moved in I thought that that little empty space in my heart had finally been filled up. But I was wrong. It's still not full. Something's still missing. And there's a little voice in my head that's telling me that this is where I need to look in order to find that missing piece."
Lydia came and sat down beside her sister. Slinging an arm around Buffy's hunched shoulders, she softly sighed. "Buffy, I can't tell you what to do. You're not me and you have different wants and needs than I do. But you know how I feel about this. I'm not going to stop you, but I'm not going to help you either."
"Thanks Lyds, I appreciate that," Buffy said, turning her head to look at her sister. Silently, the two girls hugged.
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