Mike, Sam, Adam and Xavier looked at each other.
"I don't think we have a sister named Hope," Mike said thoughtfully. "Let's see, there's Morgan, Rose and Charlotte… nope, no Hope. What about you Xavier?"
"Yeah, you've got ten of them," Adam grinned.
"Hmm, well," Xavier counted off on his fingers. "Esme, Carmen, Rogue, Storm, Psylocke, Libby, Joy, Mystique, Lee and Audrey…"
"No Hope there either," Sam noted.
"I had a sister who died as a baby, but her name was Angel," Xavier went on.
"We have a cousin named Hope," Adam said.
"Yeah, but she's very much alive," Mike pointed out. "I'm sorry dude, but we can't seem to be able to answer that question. None of us have a sister named Hope, and the only person we do know by that name is alive."
The host laughed.
"Lazy researchers," he said. "Can't get their facts straight. Your - cousin - Hope, the one who's on Rocky Road?"
"She's not dead," Mike replied. "And I'm only saying this much because it appears to have gotten out of hand, but I know that she's to get the tumour removed in… a few days? I don't know the date, only that it's soon. It's only little at the moment, and they reckon there won't be any problems. So she's going to be just fine!"
"As the way it should be," Sam agreed.
A little later in the interview, they were getting questions from the audience.
"Umm, okay, which country do you think has the coolest accent?" asked the nervous fan.
"Which country has the coolest accent…" Adam repeated. "Umm… any country in which you can understand what they're saying!"
"That's a lot of countries," Sam pointed out. "Actually, I like Irish accents."
"Aye laddy," Mike said.
"That's Scottish."
"I like Scottish too."
"I like Bitsa," Xavier declared.
"Bitsa?" repeated the host.
"Yeah, bitsa this, bitsa that," he laughed at his own joke. "All four of us are like that. We've mainly got American accents, but because our Mums are Australian, and considering the travelling we do, we've got bits of other accents too."
"Australian mothers huh?"
"Yeah, which means the lot of us, so, me and all my siblings and these guys and their siblings, well, we all have duel citizenship," Xavier grinned.
"Xavier loves to tell people all about it," Mike commented dryly. "Quick, change the subject!"
"Yeah, we haven't been asked the girlfriend question yet," Adam said gleefully.
"Adam!" Sam objected.
Adam laughed.
"So, do you have girlfriends?" asked the host, deciding it was worth taking the bait.
"Sam does!" Mike and Adam said, pointing.
"Aww, shut up," Sam said, looking a mite embarrassed.
"Want to tell us about her?"
"No. She wants to remain as anonymous as possible."
"Yeah, he won't even tell us!" Mike complained.
"I have a girlfriend," Xavier spoke up.
"We know already! Sam won't say a word about her, Xavier won't shut up."
Sam and Xavier looked at each other.
"But, that's the way it's always been!" Xavier pointed out. "I mean, hello! You just worked that one out?"
"I think he did, Xavier," Adam answered.
And so began a barrage of teasing, that was soon cut short by the host asking another fan a question.