After a long while of silence, Lizzie manages to speak up, being the first to reel from the shock of what Antoinette has told them.
"So, did you guys want to watch some of Hope's videos?" Lizzie just simply changes the topic to Hope's flash drive that contains her home videos, as well as her video diaries, clearly directing the question to Hope's parents as she holds up the laptop and memory stick.
Klaus and Hayley exchange glances, seemingly debating on how to handle the sudden topic change before they simply nod at each other, having reached a conclusion.
"Why not?" Hayley simply agrees to watch the videos and Klaus just nods in agreement to Hayley's words.
With this agreement, Lizzie places the laptop on one of the tables, opens it, and inserts the flash drive into the computer after removing the disc that contained the gas station footage.
Lizzie is sitting in front of Klaus and Hayley so they can see the screen but since the others want to see the videos, she has to position the computer in order for them all to see it without having to cast a spell to make the screen bigger.
Once she's done positioning the laptop and no one complains about not seeing the screen, she just decides to show Hope's parents the second video that they watched earlier, which was her sketch update, then she decides to play the third video that they watched, which consists of the ice bucket challenge.
Both Klaus and Hayley seem very surprised that she had a crush on someone at school along with the fact she was apparently in love with that person but they were even more mind blown when she immediately assumed that either Kol or Freya could talk her out of it, even though they are the two family members that are married.
Then Lizzie simply clicks on a random video that is literally labelled 'random video', not that she read the title.
Hope is on the screen and she's a teenager, as she looks like how she does now.
"Sup, sluts. Guess who just got out of prison?" Hope greets the camera, calling whoever watches 'sluts' then asks a dorky question on who got out of prison.
"That was a joke. I was never in prison, I just always wanted to say that, but anyway… I found this buried in my sock drawer and thought I'd use it. I have no plans, I just decided to use it." Hope admits that the question was a joke, stating that she was never in prison, then reveals where she had found the camera and chose to use it.
"Um, I'm going to be honest, a video with no plans is kind of boring because I have no idea what I'm doing. Ooh, good news camera, dad's back in New Orleans. We spoke, but he's still on the distant side and you know, if there's good news then there's bad news, which there is. My mom is missing and my dad just sent back to the boarding school, which is where I am currently. I don't want to be here, I want to help find my mom but everyone else wants me to be here, doing my schoolwork as though my mother isn't missing." Hope's tone goes bitter after revealing that her dad is in New Orleans, hinting that this video was filmed before her mother died.
"You know what, I'm gonna call my brother real quick to see how far my dad's gotten in the search for my mom and then I will do something other than burden you with my bitterness in being unable to help." Hope decides to call Marcel and takes her phone out in order to do so.
"Hey Marcel. All is good, I'm actually doing schoolwork right now but I wanted to check in on the progress my dad has in finding my mom." Hope greets Marcel then lies about doing her homework before getting to the point of why she called and her face eventually scrunches up in confusion by what Marcel tells her.
"What do you mean? I thought he had search parties scouring the city for her." Hope voices her confusion towards whatever Marcel had said.
"Oh, that's not good. Well, as long as he stays with the bottle of scotch and not dropping bodies, we should be good, right?" Hope makes a comment that was clearly meant to be a positive note then goes silent and starts nodding at whatever Marcel says.
"Alright. Uh, do you think you can keep me updated on if you find something? It's my mom, Marcel." Hope agrees to whatever's said then wonders if Marcel can keep her updated before pulling the 'my mom' card on him.
"Thank you. Yeah, it would also be nice to be updated on that as well. I've got to go, schoolwork awaits. Bye Marcel." Hope hangs up the phone after thanking Marcel and agreeing to whatever he had asked.
"Uh, apparently there is worse news, outside of my mom missing. My dad is binge drinking, on booze for now. Marcel promises me he'll ensure our dad doesn't start binging on blood bags or drop bodies. But yeah, my mom's missing and dad has started playing 'catching up with the alcohol intake', I'm worried." Hope confesses some of what Marcel told her, claiming that Klaus is binge drinking then exclaims that she's worried.
Before Hope can say anything else, there's a knock on her dorm room door which has her look at the door, confused.
"Hold that thought camera." Hope gets to her feet, revealing the fact that she's in her school uniform, and walks off camera to answer the door.
None of them can see her but they can still hear her voice after the door opens.
"Oh, hi. Did I forget we had plans today?" Hope asks the person at the door if she forgot they had plans after greeting them.
"No, I just wanted to stop by and say hi." a familiar male voice can be heard.
"In that case, why don't you come on in? I'm just using a video camera I found in my drawer." Hope invites the person in her dorm then explains what she's doing and the person silently agrees as they walk in before she closes the door.
"Okay, I'm back camera. This is my friend, Roman. Did you want to say hi?" Hope comes back then introduces the camera to Roman, who appears on the screen, before she wonders if he wants to say hi.
"Hi." Roman waves to the camera as he greets it kind of awkwardly.
"Is this like, a live-stream or…?" Roman immediately questions if the camera is streaming somewhere yet trails off when Hope starts shaking her head.
"No, I'm just filming a home video. So, what's with the unexpected visit?" Hope assures him that it's simply a home video and therefore not going on any social media, before she wonders what he's doing at her dorm room.
"Honestly, I didn't really know what to do with myself and I was praying that you wouldn't be busy." Roman sheepishly admits why he's there causing her to simply smile at him.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" Hope shakes off the slight blushing that Roman didn't seem to notice as she wonders what he wants to talk about.
"Uh, well, have you been to an airport recently?" Roman questions if Hope has been to an airport and Hope shakes her head.
"No, I haven't. Why?" Hope wonders why Roman asked the question after verbally denying that she hasn't, despite already shaking her head.
"I'm so confused with them. Like, what's with the stripping before security and the whole liquid situation?" Roman admits that airports confuse him then asks two different questions, while Hope listens.
Since Hope is wearing her school uniform, she just takes off her sweater while Roman talks, chuckling at what he says, before she takes off the dress shirt as well, revealing a pink tank top.
Roman starts staring at her in confusion after she tosses her shirt on the ground, seemingly just realizing that she took off her shirt and she looks back at him, more nervously.
"Sorry, it got hot." Hope apologizes for removing her shirt in front of him but he seems unphased by it as he briefly scans her shirt.
"You know, I don't think I've ever seen you wear pink before." Roman simply points out that he's never seen Hope wear pink before as he continues to stare at her curiously.
Matt just leans forward and pauses the video, much to everyone's confusion.
"Uncle Matt?" Josie questions his actions but he's just shaking his head.
"She just took off her shirt in front of him and he is simply pointing out the color of her tank top. Despite the fact that she revealed more of her chest to him. Most guys would be drooling, or at the very least would be making a comment about her chest. But nope, he just says, 'I've never seen you wear pink', it's like he's not even remotely human." Matt rants about Roman's behavior towards Hope in a tank top with a more revealed chest, claiming that he isn't even remotely human due to the fact that he isn't sexualizing her, like most men at the school probably would and they all think about this.
"He has a point. Especially if it were someone else on campus." Penelope agrees with Matt's rant before confirming that if she had taken her shirt off in front of any other guy on campus, they'd at least make a comment about her more revealed chest.
"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't actually human. He definitely doesn't act like your average teenage boy that's for sure, but at the same time, he certainly doesn't act like an adult either." Antoinette seems to agree with Matt on the fact that Roman isn't human as she states that she wouldn't be surprised if he weren't, due to how he acts.
The group chuckles at Antoinette's words before Lizzie leans forward and hits play.
"Oh, my aunt Rebekah bought me this tank top and I didn't have the heart to tell her I don't wear pink." Hope laughs nervously before explaining that Rebekah had bought her the tank top she's wearing yet claims she couldn't bring herself to tell her aunt she doesn't wear pink, causing Roman to nod understandingly before scanning her again.
"Did that skirt get shorter or is this just the first time that you're not wearing leggings under it?" Roman questions if Hope's skirt got shorter, seemingly noticing a difference.
Hope laughs nervously again as she stands to her feet to straighten the skirt out, then sit back down.
"Um, both actually. Someone has started putting my skirt in the washing machine, even though it's dry-clean only." Hope admits that the skirt has gotten shorter, since it's been going in the washing machine, then also agrees that it's the first time she's not wearing leggings under the skirt since she's had it.
"Hmm." Roman hums in understanding of her explanation on her skirt being dry-clean only.
"Who do you think is responsible?" Roman wonders if Hope has an idea of who she thinks is behind it and she just shrugs.
"I don't know. I mean, it's not my aunt Keelin. That's for sure, she knows that my skirt is dry-clean only along with the fact that she pulls my skirt out with her final load of clothes. So, it isn't her. It's not Josh, he also knows my skirt's dry-clean only. He actually took it to the dry cleaners whenever I came home for break, and the skirt ending up in the wash is a more recent thing. And I know for a fact that it isn't my aunt Freya." Hope confesses that she has no idea who's responsible for putting her clothes in the washer then lists off the people that she knows aren't behind it.
"Why are you sure that it's not your aunt Freya?" Roman quizzes Hope on why she didn't give an explanation about her one aunt despite being certain that it isn't her.
"Well, I don't want to be rude but literally everytime I come home for summer break, or winter break, my aunt Freya doesn't do shit. She just sits on the couch, either in the courtyard or the library and reads. She doesn't move and when she does, it's for food and food alone because whenever I enter the library or head downstairs, there's always an empty plate so I know she's eating. Along with the fact that she also knows my skirt is dry-clean only." Hope reveals that Freya does nothing but read and eat whenever Hope comes back home for break, with Roman chuckling when she said her aunt did nothing.
"You know what, it's probably Vincent. He is always at the house, like always. I'm under the impression that he lives with us but that's never been announced or confirmed. And everytime he's over, which is all the damn time, he just always does laundry. Like, he'll pick clothes up from the floor or take a basket and simply do the laundry. But that makes no sense because when I come home, I head to my room, take my skirt off, climb into bed, and am out for a few hours, so if he is responsible that means he enters my room while I'm sleeping." Hope comes to a conclusion and believes that Vincent is behind her skirt ending up in the washing machine but voices her confusion and the fact it doesn't really make sense if Vincent were the culprit.
"Hmm, it's a mystery. And I'm under the impression that I'll never solve it." Hope sighs as she realizes that it's a mystery that she might never solve, seeming sad by the fact.
"I would say I know the feeling about never solving a mystery, but I think my sister can probably relate more to it." Roman remarks that although he would say he knows the feeling, but he doesn't and states that his sister could most likely relate more.
Hope casts Roman a strange look, which doesn't go unnoticed by Roman.
"What?" Roman asks what the look she's giving him is and she just tilts her head to the side.
"I didn't know you had a sister." Hope claims that she didn't know that Roman had a sister and he chuckles nervously.
"Really? I like to think I talk about her a lot." Roman awkwardly wonders if she actually didn't know he had a sister, making it clear that he talks about her a lot.
"You talk about a girl named Antoinette a lot, not a sister. I honestly just assumed that you were married." Hope corrects him by saying that he talks a lot about a girl yet has never stated he had a sister then makes the honest confession about the fact that she thought he was married.
"Antoinette and my sister are the same person. Antoinette is my sister." Roman clarifies that the girl he talks about and his sister are the same person, this seeming to stun Hope greatly as she stares at him in shock.
"I'm sorry, it's just… the way you talk about her and the fact that you manage to bring her up in quite a few of our conversations, I kind of just made the assumption that she was your wife or something." Hope apologizes for her misreading, even though he was the one who didn't specify, then admits that due to the way he talks about Antoinette, she assumed they were married.
"Did you just apologize despite the fact that I wasn't entirely specific with the whole situation?" Roman calls Hope out on her apology, wondering if she had actually apologized and she looks away evasively, mildly embarrassed by this call out.
"No." Hope sheepishly lies, still embarrassed causing Roman to cast her a significant look but she refuses to respond, so he decides to change the subject.
"You know, I don't think the tank top goes with the skirt." Roman voices his opinion on her clothes, changing the topic to fashion.
"Well, it's a dark checkered skirt, you can't really tell that it's blue. It just looks like a black checkered skirt." Hope stares down at her skirt, revealing her belief in the fact that it's unnoticeable.
"In this lighting it does, but I can guarantee you that it wouldn't look like it outside or in a different light." Roman agrees that it looks like a black checkered skirt in her dorm room but assures her that it won't in other lighting.
"It doesn't really matter, I mean, we're in my dorm room, so it's not like anyone's going to see or care." Hope brushes off the fact it's contradicting, using the point of them being in her dorm yet seems to realize Roman's point as well.
"Fair enough." Roman simply goes with Hope's point, it making sense to him, but she just stands up and takes her skirt off in front of him.
In Roman's face alone, you can tell that he isn't focused on her legs or her underwear, instead he just looks confused.
"The skirt was getting too uncomfortable to sit in." Hope explains why she removed the skirt as she sits back down and he simply nods.
"Understandable." Roman makes the statement that her explanation is reasonable and Hope just looks at the camera before pointing at him.
"See this, camera. I just took off both my shirt and my skirt in front of him only for him to be like, 'lol, whatever'. Like, men like you don't exist anymore." Hope looks at Roman again, claiming that men like him don't exist after pointing out that Roman doesn't care that she's half-naked in front of him.
"Men like me?" Roman decides to question her words, clearly confused.
"Yes, respectable men. The kind of men who don't care about a woman's body outside of the fact that it's their own." Hope clarifies what she means by men like him and he thinks about this for a moment.
"That's called being a feminist and there is a very low shortage of men who support and respect girls." Roman corrects her by saying that she's calling him a feminist and admits that there are very few men who share his views.
"Yeah, if anything, you, my brother, my dad, and my two uncles are the only men I know who are feminists, along with Josh and Vincent. That's… only seven people that I know of. Not including my aunts and my mother because we're talking about men." Hope realizes that she only knows seven male feminists then implies that her aunts and her mom are also feminists.
"Speaking of, any word on your mother yet?" Roman decides to wonder if there's been any word on her mother, since she brought her up.
"No, nothing yet. And my father is multitasking in finding my mother while also trying to see how much alcohol he can consume in one sitting, according to my brother." Hope informs Roman that there's nothing in the search for her mother yet after sighing sadly then brings up the fact that her father's multitasking.
"So, he's binge drinking?" Roman looks for clarification on if Hope's father is drinking and she nods awkwardly.
"Yep, he's not taking this whole thing very well but he's determined. Which is never a good combination for him, especially now that he's binging. On alcohol, for now. My brother's keeping an eye on him to make sure the booze doesn't become blood bags or dead bodies." Hope confirms that her father's binge drinking then mentions her brother is keeping an eye on him.
Roman gets a momentary look of regret, that Hope doesn't notice but it's caught on the camera yet he quickly covers it up before Hope notices it then scans her outfit again.
"Are those new?" Roman changes the subject and motions to her underwear, asking if they're new.
"Um, sort of. I've had them for over a year now but this is the first time that I'm wearing them. And they're riding up my ass." Hope answers that her underwear are new then partially sits up in order to fix her underwear after realizing that they're giving her a wedgie.
"Not cool." Roman simply makes a comment on the fact that Hope has a wedgie is not cool and Hope looks contemplative for a moment after she fixes the problem.
"Oh my god, we're not normal." Hope sighs out in realization that her and Roman aren't normal.
"I'm in a tank top and underwear, you're just like, 'lol, whatever, just another day at school', I announce that I have a wedgie and you simply say 'not cool'. Like, to us, this friendship is normal but to outside sources, we're not. This isn't a normal friendship. We might be aliens. That would explain why we don't care about gender specifics or really anything of what society has to offer. We're aliens, Roman." Hope concludes that her and Roman are aliens due to their lack of interest in what society deems after making it clear that their friendship isn't normal.
"Hmm, it's possible for me to be an alien but wouldn't your parents know if you were an alien?" Roman seems to believe that he might be an alien yet wonders if Hope's parents would know and Hope shakes her head.
"Not if I was somehow swapped out in utero. I mean, what if I was supposed to be a boy but aliens swapped me out and now I'm a female who has a real bizarre friendship with another alien?" Hope reveals her belief that she was swapped out while her mother was still pregnant, which is why her parents wouldn't know if she were or not, then wonders if she was supposed to be a boy before the swap.
Roman thinks about this for a seemingly long moment before responding.
"Possible reason." Roman just agrees with the fact that it might be possible for both of them to be aliens as Hope looks at her watch.
"Oh crap, this video is a lot longer than I thought it would be. We should probably end this video because I have to take a shower and do some homework. So, I will talk to you tomorrow." Hope decides to end the video, realizing that it has been recording for a long while then claims that she will talk to Roman the next day, which he nods in agreement to.
"Alright, bye camera." Hope turns off the camera, ending the video, and Klaus looks awkward and embarrassed that Hope knew that he was binge drinking while also looking for Hayley.