Doubling (sort of) as Hope Estheim + Lightning Farron:
"Hello, Serah," Hope replied with a faint smile upon his face. Serah's warm personality was more than enough to make him forget about the idiot hanging around. It never occured to him that he was monopolizing her time, and that through his need for a tutor, Hope exacted the perfect revenge against Snow. It was a perfectly innocent act, one that nobody had the right to deny. Then again, Snow didn't seem like one to complain. In fact, a well-placed punch from Lightning was more than enough to shut him up; Hope snickered at the thought of seeing his 'big sister' wallop Snow to the ground. He really shouldn't have been laughing but he was just a kid. Everything was either black or white in his eyes. Lines of gray morality kicked in a few years later down the road.
Hearing about the cookies, Hope's eyes immediately lit up. He grinned in excitement and eagerly followed Serah's instruction. "I, uh..." he trailed off, debating whether or not to beat around the bushes for a while or spit out the truth. "I got a 77. Not quite a B but my dad seemed happy I even passed." The topic obviously bothered him, but Hope forced himself to talk. He'd get nowhere bottling everything up. That and he knew Serah wouldn't judge. "Okay. My teacher sent home an answer key and I brought it with me."
Said answer key had been snatched out of the daily mail before Hope's parents could catch a glimpse at it. He really did prefer Serah's help over theirs, mostly because it was less of a confrontation and more like actual help. While his mother was generally a very laidback woman, she could become strict at the snap of one's fingers. Hope feared her wrath and with good reason. As for his father, well, Mr. Estheim was pretty darn whipped. Moms were tough.
Setting his bag down on the kitchen floor, Hope kneeled beside his backpack and pulled out his textbook. It landed with a whump! on the table. Digging through other books and folders, Hope retrieved his mercilessly marked test, the paper glaring with red pen on almost every page; he lost many points on silly mistakes, something that made him blush crimson when he remembered why he scored poorly. He tried to cover up for it by sticking the offending exam underneath his book. Hope doubted that such a tactic would help much, but stalling just came naturally.
"Aren't you even going to say 'hello'?"
"Huh?" Hope looked up and saw Lightning tugging a tray of fresh cookies out of the oven. He gasped in delight and stammered, "A-are those for me? I mean--! Good afternoon, Light!" Women in general were pretty scary when one ticked them off. It just so happened to be Hope's luck that he was surrounded by so many with short fuses. Much to Hope's relief, Lightning merely chuckled and placed the tray on the counter.
She removed her glove and tossed it on the counter, thinking to put it away later. What else was she going to do? Right, coffee. Lightning scanned the pantry for her coffee. Maybe a whole pot was too much. Lightning began, "It's good to see you." She smirked to herself. Waste not, want not. Time to execute Plan B: "You don't mind drinking coffee, do you?" Hope made a face. "Extra cream, coming right up."
Didn't people drink milk with cookies? Hope shook his head and figured it was best to be grateful that Lightning wasn't forcing it down his throat black. Maybe if he dipped the cookies in the coffee first, it'd taste better. "Anyway, where were we?" Hope murmured. He flipped to the page the test was located on and pulled out a new piece of graph paper. "I got number four wrong. I think I started it right, but then I messed up somewhere in the middle."
la justice Community Member 
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