A/U: My first chapter of my second story, hot off the press. Hope (why, Square, did you have to name him HOPE?) you enjoy it at least a little
Disclaimer: If I owned FF XIII, this wouldn't be here
It was dawn in Palumpolum. Morning dew glistened on rooftops and on the grass as the sun gently glided higher, and already people were up and moving. Cars were whooshing past and trains had started their early morning hours some time ago.
At 7:15 am, Eden Standard Time, an overtired 15-year-old boy was sitting in compartment 14C, heading away from his first and only home. He had grown up at Palumpolum for all of his life. He and his necessities were supposed to be coming in to Bodhum in half an hour, but the way things were going, he was likely to be coming in at 8:00 instead of 7:30.
"Damn it," he muttered. All he wanted to do was sleep, but he knew that would be impossible. He could never trust the people on these trains. Last time he fell asleep on the train he woke up with lipstick all over his face. Thankfully his blush was enough that it covered the dark red of the stuff, and damn, was it hard to wash off afterwards.
The boy's name was Hope Estheim.
Hope stood at five foot six inches and had pure silver coloured hair, which he inherited from his mother, Nora. He wore a green sweater, which brought out the emerald green of his eyes, and dark blue jeans.
He wasn't very pleased to be leaving his home-town with any degree of permanence, to say the least, but his parents thought that a change of school and scenery would be good for him. He disagreed wholeheartedly. He didn't want to leave his best friend Maqui. But, unfortunately, this was his parents' decision, not his. Sure, he liked Bodhum, his new home, but he had no-one there, no friends, no other family. Nothing but memories of when he went on holiday with his parents.
Hope sighed as he continued staring out of the window at the slow but sure change of scenery. As the train rattled by, the city slowly disappeared and turned into brief countryside before more city appeared. He was in Bodhum.
"Attention all passengers," a cool female voice announced. Hope's head snapped up, keen to hear anything that would stop him from falling asleep. "We will be arriving at Bodhum Central Station in 15 minutes."
Hope directed his gaze back out of the window. No, Toto, we're damn sure not in Kansas anymore, he thought scathingly. He decided to pass a minute or two on his phone to see if he had any messages from Maqui or even his parents. Nope, nada, nothing.
Damn.
When the train finally stopped at his destination, Hope looked for any sign of his parents. At first, he could see nothing, but then he spotted his mother Nora's silver hair and his father's short brunette hair. He wound his way through the crowd separating him from them, and found himself in his mother's comforting embrace. "There you are! What on Pulse took you so long?"
"The train picked me up around 15 minutes late, and took forever to get here," Hope managed to say through a yawn. "What's the time?"
"About 8 am," Bartholomew replied, checking his watch. "We've been waiting for you since 7:30."
"No wonder I'm tired."
"I know you are, but we need to get home and start unpacking," Nora stated, hugging her son again. "You could probably have a nap at lunchtime if you really wanted to. Now, I know you were never a real fan of moving," she let him go and gave him an understanding look, "but do you think you could at least try to like it?"
"I'll try, but I'm not promising anything." I'll probably fall asleep on the mattress, Hope thought drily.
"That's all we're asking of you," Bartholomew ruffled his son's already untidy hair. "Come on, son. Let's get you to your new home."
Hope groaned inwardly. This was going to be a long day.
Hope sat in his dad's hired truck as they drove through the streets of Bodhum following Nora's car. Bartholomew and Hope didn't talk much, not to each other, at least; Nora still jokes about their 'legendary' silences. This time however, instead of being awkward, it gave Hope time to think about things.
Uncharacteristically Bartholomew broke the silence hanging over them. "It's your first big move. You excited?"
Sometimes Hope thought his father tried too hard to bond with him. His questions were almost always awkward, though this one wasn't too bad.
"I guess so," Hope replied quietly, and they lapsed into silence once more. He sighed softly and reached into his pocket for his phone and ear-pods, hoping to drown out the world for a little bit. After a while, his father nudged him. He took out his left ear-pod so he could hear Bartholomew.
"We're here," he said, smiling, and opened his door to get out.
All of a sudden Hope felt very nervous. It was strange. Why should he feel nervous about a house? He shook himself. Snap out of it, he chastised himself. What's so scary about a house? He pushed that thought aside and, head shaking, Hope jumped out of the truck and took in his new home.
It was quite a modest house, nowhere near what he expected. It was second-hand wood on the outside; as a result the colour was darker than usual. There was a little path that curved from the driveway, where he could see his mom was, to the front door. There were bushes lining one side of the path where the windows were, and the roof was flattish, with only a slight incline, and it was the same colour as the rest of the house, though it was shingles, not wood, and there were hedges surrounding the front of the house, leaving a wide gap for the driveway, which was concrete, and shielding the pathway from view.
"Wow," he muttered to himself. The house was actually nice. He was surprised to find that he liked it, and couldn't wait to see inside. As if reading his thoughts, Nora smiled and suggested that he go inside and unpack his clothes while she and Bartholomew unloaded the beds from the truck. Hope practically ran down the path and jumped up the two steps separating him from the front door. Opening it and stepping in, he just looked, taking in his surroundings.
The walls were painted white; hardly anything was inside apart from a couple of boxes. The floor was hardwood, a creamy brown colour. There were blackout shades on the windows and back door, which was three to four metres in front of him, and the trimming was the same colour as the floor – creamy brown. Hope couldn't help but open the back door and appreciate the back veranda, noticing that the house was set on a decline, and was raised at the back. Down six stairs and he was under a roof-like shelter, most likely built by the past owner. He then noticed the garage, which was actually a granny-flat. It even had its own kitchenette and bathroom. Hope went back up the steps to the back door, eager to explore the rest of the house.
Across the living room and to his left was another door, which led to the bedrooms and bathroom. The first bedroom he came across was to his immediate left through the doorway. It was easily the brightest room, though he couldn't say why; this room wasn't facing the sun in the morning or afternoon. It had cream-coloured carpet and slightly paler cream walls. The trimming was the same as everywhere else in the house, and it had a built-in wardrobe. Directly across from him from the doorway was the toilet, and to its right was the bathroom. To his immediate right was a hallway, which he continued down and came to the Master Bedroom. This room was almost the same as the other room, though it was larger and had a bigger built-in wardrobe. Everything else was the same, except the fan hanging under the roof of the room. Hope then backed out and saw a third door to his left as he exited the Master Bedroom. It was a 'blink and you miss it' sort of thing. He entered and saw his clothes in boxes in the far corner of the room. This room was exactly the same as the first room he came across, except that its window faced the sun in the morning, not that it made a difference – the window was blocked by an overgrown bush. The curtains were drawn – blackout curtains, of course – which made this room darker than the other rooms. Hope sent a brief plea to Etro that unpacking wouldn't take too long, put his ear-pods back in and started work on his clothes, cursing as his elbow hit the doorway hard.
Oh yeah, it was going to be a very long day.
At the same time, two streets down from where Hope was moving in, Serah Farron was just waking up. Her dishevelled hair was the same shade of pink as her mother's, Rosalie, and slightly darker than her sister Claire's, both of whom were still asleep. She had blue eyes so pale they were the colour of water almost, also inherited from her mother.
Serah groggily opened her eyes, but quickly closed them again as early morning sunlight blasted through her window and assaulted her half-asleep form. She groaned and buried her face into her pillow, throwing her blanket over her head. She sighed in relief, and then tried to go back to sleep, only to find that she was just awake enough not to be able to. She then braced herself for the almost blinding light still coming from her window and kicked off the covers. Only then did she remember that it was a Saturday, and for once she wasn't grounded. If she wasn't still half-asleep, she would've skipped around her room in joy. She and her friends had fun stuff planned for the weekend.
But first she had to brush her teeth; her mouth tasted like the bottom of a birdcage, so to speak. She also brushed the knots out of her long pink hair. She mentally planned the first couple of hours of the day as she brushed. She would have breakfast, pack for her sleepover at Vanille's place, then go back to bed and sleep for another hour or two, or until Claire or Rosalie woke up. Chances were, one of them would come in if she wasn't up.
Vanille Dia was Serah's best friend, and she lived three houses down from her. Her cousin, Fang Yun, was also living with them. She was orphaned shortly after her 10th birthday after both her parents died under mysterious circumstances no-one liked to talk about. She was good friends with Claire, who was the same age as her – 18. Why she was called 'Fang' nobody knew, but the girl – now woman – rolled with it because that's what she preferred. Nobody questioned her about her real name.
Claire hated her name, and after their father died at the same time as Fang's parents, she changed it to 'Lightning' in memory of him. Now she stuck to her alias, and insisted that Serah and Rosalie followed suit. No-on at high school knew her real name, and that was how she wanted things to stay.
As Serah rifled through her wardrobe, picking out what she could wear later that day and what she would bring with her to Vanille's, she mentally pictured what she would do once she got there.
"Oh, this is gonna be great," she whispered to herself. She had to whisper because Lightning could wake up at the sound of a pin drop, and if she was woken up against her will, things usually turned nasty for whom or whatever woke her, hence the fact that she'd gone through twelve alarm clocks during the last month alone. Serah shivered at the thought and kept packing. Once she was done (and after changing her mind over a dozen times over what she would bring – she decided to take her book and her laptop, just in case), she plodded to the kitchen to have breakfast. On a school day, she'd just grab an Up'n'Go from the fridge and drank it on her way, but since it was the weekend, she decided to have pancakes. She withdrew the frying pan from the depths of the cupboard, grabbed a bottle of pancake mix and started cooking. She was quite a good cook, she had learned from Lightning, who in turn had learnt from Rosalie, who was forced to find work after Serah's father had died. Serah was just 7 at the time, so she didn't have any concrete memories of her father; except for the smile he seemed to have reserved just for his daughters.
Rosalie now worked eight-hour shifts as a waitress down at Lebreau's, a bar/ café down the road. Child-friendly, of course, it was opposite the park, which in turn was in front of the lake; Lebreau's made the best hot chips. Vanille and Serah planned to meet Rainah down there around midday.
Rainah Tsarro only just moved to Bodhum a couple of months ago and immediately bonded with Vanille, who then introduced her to Serah. She liked her immediately, and conveniently enough, she lived just two streets down from them. She was, of course, invited to Vanille's along with Serah for the sleepover.
Serah was thinking through all of this as she finished cooking and fished for the maple syrup in the fridge. She quickly found it and poured a liberal amount onto her pancakes. She then grabbed a knife and fork from the top drawer and started eating, savouring the sweet taste of maple syrup and the buttery taste of pancakes. When she finished, she washed up her dishes, tip-toed past her sister's room and entered her room, where she collapsed onto her bed. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow.
A/U: There you go; I even introduced my first OC character. I hope (God help me Square) that you liked it. Read and review, pretty please? I'll give you cookies! (I'm not joking, I made cookies today at school XD)
