Here's chapter 4! Also, I changed my username, I'm xXBodhum14Xx, the same person as Asiantastic. Same stories, different username.
Lightning Estheim: Chapter 4:
4 years ago...
"How could you Bartholomew!" My mom Nora yelled. My parents were having their usual fights in the living room.
"Nora, I can't go! I'm sorry!" My dad replied back. "I have a major meeting!"
I knew what they were talking about. They were fighting about my birthday that was coming up in a couple weeks. My parents promised me to take me and Snow to Nautilus, the city of dreams.
I was hiding on the stairwell, watching my parents fight.
"Nora, this meeting is about-"
"I don't care what the meeting is about, Bartholomew!"
"But if you would just let me expla-"
"No! You're going to Hope's 10th birthday party!"
I sighed and walked back upstairs, a little upset. I feel like I'm a burden to my father.
"Nora I can't go! I'm sorry!"
"But you promised Hope you will!"
My dad's promises are always broken. He promised so many things to me but never fulfills them.
"Hey Hope, mom and dad are arguing about you!" My 12 year old brother Snow said as he entered my room.
"Go away, Snow!" I screamed as I threw my pillow at him. Snow was almost a teenager and used to brag about it. He was such an annoying doofus.
"Hey, hey, easy now!" Snow yelled as he threw it back at me. "You know, because of you, mom and dad might...break up."
"No! That's not true!" I screamed. Snow grinned at me and sat at the edge of my bed.
"So Dad's not going to Nautilus. He has more important stuff than YOU!" Snow teased as I tried to punch him, but failed miserably.
"I don't care..." I mumbled. "I don't like dad anyway..."
Snow shrugged and went away. He only comes to me to make fun of me.
I don't know how to feel...sad? No. Disappointed? No. Just...numb. Like I don't have any emotions.
"Psst! Hope!" A voice below called me. I looked through my window and saw Tifa who was waving hi to me from outside of my window.
"Tifa!" I exclaimed. I opened my window and jumped outside (My old bedroom was on first floor).
"Hope!" Tifa greeted. "Can you believe it's almost your birthday?"
I grinned. At least someone else is excited for my birthday too.
"Heck yeah!"
"I want to show you something!" Tifa said as she pulled my hand. Tifa dragged me down the street in our neighborhood.
"Tifa! Mom and Dad doesn't know that I left the house!" I yelped as she pulled me even harder.
"Look!" She whispered as she pointed to a spiky blonde hair boy playing with a toy sword.
"Who's that?" I asked.
"He's new on this street! He looks so cute!" She exclaimed.
That was when I got jealous. "Oh yeah? Well I bet I can beat him up!" I bragged.
Tifa rolled her eyes. "No you can't. That's Cloud Strife! He's amazing! He's new here in Palumpolum!"
"Psh...newbie..." I muttered to myself. "Oh yeah? Watch this!"
I ran and tackled Cloud when he wasn't looking, to impress Tifa.
"Ahhh!" Cloud shrieked as I tackled him. "What the heck are you doing?"
"Hah! See! I told you I can beat him up, Tifa!" I beamed as I got off from Cloud.
When I busy showing off Tifa my "muscles", Cloud grabbed his plastic toy sword and started to attack me with it.
"Take this!" The small blonde hair boy screamed as he whacked me with his sword.
"Ouchie!" I yelped as Cloud started to chase me around. "AHHHHH!"
"Boys stop!" Tifa cried, but Cloud continued to chase me. "Hah! You're a wimp! And a chicken!" Cloud teased as he started to make chicken noises, causing Tifa to laugh.
"That's it!" I snarled. I picked up a stick on the ground and smacked Cloud on the head, causing him to shriek.
"AHHHHH!" Cloud cried as he rubbed the top of his head. "I'm bleeding!"
"Hope! How could you!" Tifa yelled as she went to go comfort Cloud.
"What!" I asked. I thought that Tifa would be impress.
Suddenly two teenage strawberry blonde girls came out from Cloud's house and went to go comfort Cloud.
"What the hell is going on!" The older girl asked she pushed Tifa away and inspected Cloud.
"That boy hit me!" Cloud screamed as he pointed to me. Uh-oh.
The two girls gave me a stern look.
"You little bastard!" The older girl screamed. "We were suppose to babysit our cousin and make sure that he doesn't get hurt!"
I gasped. I knew that bastard was a bad word.
"Lightning, go easy on him!" The younger girl said. Lightning? Weird name...
The younger girl seemed more nice and caring than her sister. "It's alright, it was only an accident." She smiled.
I smiled back too, but saw Lightning giving me a glare.
"Why don't you all come inside and have some milk and cookies?" The younger sister asked as Cloud and Tifa excitingly followed Serah inside the house.
I shrugged and followed them, but Lightning pulled me aside.
"Huh?" I gasped as Lightning shoved me away.
"You're not allow inside!" She yelled as she slammed the door in my face.
I sighed and walked back home. I could hear Tifa and Cloud laughing in the background and having a great time together. (Eating milk and cookies, god they're only 10 right now you perverts :P)
I knew that I met Lightning before...maybe she remembers this too...
"Hope...Wake up.." Fang said softly as I woke up. Fang was wearing a black dress and had her hair straightened and everything.
I almost forgot that it was Snow's funeral today.
"Come on Hope...you need to get dressed." Fang said as she tossed me my clothes.
I sighed.
I never expected to go Snow's funeral so soon.
I quickly got dressed and went downstairs and saw pretty much all of my family members.
"Hope!" My cousin Squall called. I turned around and found him sitting on the couch next to my other cousins, Selphie and Irvine.
"Hi Squall." I greeted as Squall gave me a bear hug. "Omf!"
"I'm sorry little man!" Squall said as he hugged me. "I...can't...breath..." I gasped for air.
"Hey Hope!" A familiar voice greeted from behind. Squall immediately dropped me on the ground to greet the girl.
"Ah!" I cried. I turned around and saw Vanille. Oh shit, Vanille.
"Hello... beautiful" Irvine said in a flirty voice. Ugh, Irvine flirts with every girl he sees.
"Eh, Hi!" Squall greeted as the two shook hands.
"Hello OOoohhh how's your Oooohhh day Ooohhhhhhhh!" Vanille asked, including all of the orgasm noises.
Squall, Selphie, and Irvine stared at Vanille for a moment, then at me.
"We're...fine..." Selphie replied with a fake smile.
"Ooooohh I see OOooh Fang Oooohhh upstairs! Bye Ooohh!" Vanille ran upstairs to see my sister, Fang. God Fang, why are you friends with this...this... freakin' weirdo?
"That's an...interesting friend..." Irvine muttered. Interesting...yeah lets go with that.
"Hey, I'm gonna go get some breakfast." I mumbled.
"Okay, we'll be waiting here!" Squall shouted as I left the living room.
Ugh, it's so crowded in this house, there's like a huge mob of people blocking the kitchen.
"Let...me...in!" I yelled as I squeezed through a bunch of people. "Ay!" I fell over the kitchen floor like an idiot. I bet that if Snow was here, he would probably laugh at me and call me a doofus or something.
"Hope, are you okay?"
I dusted off my shirt and pants. Geez, I didn't know how dirty the kitchen floor can be.
"Yeah I'm fine."
I looked up and saw that I was talking to Lightning. Eww...Lightning...
Lightning looked pretty hot though, in her black dress. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied back in a pony tail.
"Ohh...umm...hi..." I greeted rudely.
"Hi" Lightning replied back. She was smearing some cream cheese on her bagel. Mmm...bagels...
"Do you...want some?" Lightning asked.
"Huh?"
I didn't realize that I was staring at her and her bagel.
"Uhh...no thanks.."
Lightning shrugged and took a bite from her bagel. Dammit, I could really use a bagel right now.
"Are there anymore bagels left?" I asked.
"Nope, sorry, last one." She smirked as she devoured the bagel.
Dammit...my stomach started to growl.
"What the hell was that...?" Lightning asked as she stared at my stomach. "Are you okay?"
"I'm just really...hungry..."
Hm...maybe now's the time to ask her if she remembers me 4 years ago...
"Hey Lightning, do you have any milk and cookies?" I asked.
"What...?"
"You know...at Cloud's house...?"
Lightning gave me a weird look. I hope she remembers this.
"You slammed the door in my face..." I continued, trying to remind her what happened 4 years ago.
"Are you the kid that smacked my cousin Cloud with a stick?" She asked slowly.
I nodded my head.
Lightning then started to laugh. "Haha, I can't believe that was you! Damn, Cloud had to get some stitches because of you."
I beamed. Cloud is a jerk in high school and I'm glad that I could say that I smacked him on the head with a stick.
"You know...you never gave me any cookies...or milk...you kicked me out."
Lightning laughed again. Wow it's weird seeing her smiling and laughing.
"Yeah, that was probably because I was pissed at you. You were one psycho child, Hope."
"Hah psycho child. I didn't really mean to hurt Cloud, I was just mad that my Dad-"
I paused for a second. Was I really gonna tell Lightning, dad's psycho girlfriend, what happened back that ruined my childhood?
"Hope, are you okay?" She asked kindly.
Why is Lightning acting so nice to me all of the sudden? Maybe it's because it's my brother's funeral today.
"It's just that dad..." I trailed off again.
Should I really tell Lightning about this? I mean after all, I kept all of this bottled up inside for 4 years. And she's acting nice to me, so I might as well take that as an advantage.
"What did your dad do?" She asked.
"That's the problem. He didn't do anything." I blurted out. "He promised that he'll go to Nautilus with me, Snow, and Mom, but he lied. He had 'other' stuff to do beside celebrating my 10th birthday."
I just stood there in the kitchen, staring at my hands. Is it Lightning that I really hate, or is it Dad?
"But that's not the only thing! It's his fault that mom died! She told dad that she has a bump on her neck, but he didn't think that it was important. God dammit, we could've saved her...we could've saved my mom..."
I felt tears streaming down my cheeks. I never told anyone about this. Never. Not even Fang. But why am I telling Lightning all of this?
"And-and, after mom died, Dad just went crazy. He stopped raising me and Snow. He never reprimanded us or anything. It's like he forgotten he had children. That's why Snow is all messed up..."
I then started to sob uncontrollably, just like when I found out that mom died.
"Oh..Hope...I'm sorry.." Lightning said softly as she hugged me tightly.
"No...no...it shouldn't be you that I'm mad at...it should be dad...it's all his fault...I'm sorry.." I apologized.
This whole time...I've been blaming the wrong person...I shouldn't be hating Lightning...I should be hating dad for doing this to me.
Snow's funeral was like any other funeral, you got people crying, a priest talking to us about Snow's life, lots of pictures of Snow, lots of speeches, etc. I was crying the entire time, so I don't remember much.
When the funeral was over, we all went back home and decided where to put Snow ashes. Dad had an idea of placing Snow's ashes in Palumpolum Central Park.
"Okay, so tomorrow we are going to put Snow's ashes in Palumpolum Central Park." My dad told me, Fang, Cid, and Lightning.
"Dad...I don't think Snow wants his ashes to be in Palumpolum Central Park." I disagreed.
"What? Why not?"My dad asked.
"Dad, you really don't know anything about your son. Snow HATES Palumpolum. Why would he want his ashes to be spread in Central Park, that is IN Palumpolum?" I asked Dad, emphasizing hate and in.
Dad however, shook his head. "Well where do you want us to put his ashes? Central Park is the most beautiful park there is! Your mother ashes are in Central Park also!"
"Listen Dad..." I said, a little infuriated. "When we used to go to Bodhum in the summers with mom, Snow used to love the beach there. I think we should put his ashes in Bodhum."
But dad shook his head again, making me more mad. God, dad doesn't know ANYTHING about his children, does he?
"I think he would be happy in Central Park-"
"No he won't dad! He hates this town! He told me that when he's older, he wants to move in Bodhum!"
"Well I don't care anymore Hope, I'm putting his ashes in Central Park!"
"But-"
"End of discussion!"
I slammed my hands on the coffee table, causing a cup of coffee to spill all over the table.
"HOPE!" My father screamed.
"No!" I cried. "You don't know ANYTHING about your children! You are the worst father ever!"
"Take that back!" My dad shouted. Lightning, Fang, and Cid just sat there staring at us.
"No!" I shrieked as I grabbed Snow's ashes. I slammed the front door, enough to vibrate the entire house.
"HOPE!" I heard Fang called my name.
But I knew what I was doing. I was going to Bodhum.
So what do you guys think? Once Hope reaches Bodhum he's gonna meet Serah :D