Hello and Happy New Year everyone! Finally, the sequal is here! Yay! WOoOoOoOoOo! Wah!(swings arms around wildly.)
That's right! This is the first chapter of the sequal to 'Helga's Big Secret'. I finally came up with a name! And this time, I'm talking about the name of the story. So tell me what you think of the name!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: ME NO OWNY HEY ARNOLD! SO STOP HARRASSING ME! WAAAAAAAH!
Helga's eyes fluttered open, and as soon as she realized that she was awake, the line if her mouth formed into a smile. She was happy. She smiled as she got dressed. She smiled as she ate her granola bar for breakfast. She even smiled when her dad called her 'Olga'. She couldn't help it. This was a very exciting day for her. For that, she was positively glowing.
Arnold was about to take a step on the bus when Helga showed up, running down the sidewalk as fast as her little legs would allow. As he continued his way up the steps, he half expected her to push him out of her way and call him 'geekbait' when...
...nothing. She didn't do anything. He didn't feel anyone shove him out of their way. He looked behind him to find her politely waiting for him to board the bus and take his seat. He was surprised. He thought Helga was mean. Plus, she hated mornings. He thought he'd never see the day when Helga would stop and wait for him to get on.
Then again, he did kind of see it coming. Ever since she confessed her love to him, she has been keeping to her word and being kinder, more curtious to people. Not only to him, but to everyone she's ever met. She's really improving. He was proud of her. He mentally smiled.
He turned his head back around and continued up the steps and to his seat.
Helga, still beaming with delight, followed up the steps and proceded to the open seat next to Phoebe.
"Morning, Helga." Phoebe greeted.
"Good morning, Phoebe!" She replied, delightedly swinging her legs back and forth.
Phoebe noticed the cheerful tone in Helga's voice. She glanced back at her. Helga was smiling, face front, legs still swinging back and forth under the seat. Phoebe smiled and turned her head back toward the window. Helga has made loads of progress in the past two weeks. She has been increasingly kind to everyone, she never grumbles under her breath anymore, and she has apologized to just about everyone who she has hurt as many times she has hurt had to hand it to her, Phoebe was quite impressed.
Just one more person to apologize to and her slate will be comepletely clean by the end of the day. Bad news; it's Arnold. Arnold, the one who holds the key to her heart. The one who she holds nearest and dearest to her. The one who she couldn't bear to harm in any way. The one who has helped her through so many things.
The one who is actually her friend, other than Phoebe, of course.
She looked back to Helga again and saw her chatting with the others about, well, anything that came up, really. She looked at the other kids faces and saw not fear, but enjoyment. They were happy to be in Helga's company. She looked to the window once again in thought.
I did a good job. By the end of today, her social schooling will be comeplete. Then she won't need me to guide her as her training wheels.
Helga felt great. She was very excited. Her slate was finally going to be clear today. At first, it was really difficult to be nice to everyone, but then she got used to it and the kindness became a new habit. This time, it's a good one, because it helped her to get along with the others, as well as squeeze her old habits out of her actions, and just about out of her mind.
She just had to apologize to one more person; Arnold. She has no idea as to why she put his overdue apologies off for so long. She loved him, didn't she? Then why didn't she give apologies to him first?
Then she realized. Everyone else thought she hated him. That's why. She wasn't ready for them to know about her love for him. Not yet. She didn't want it to be too obvious too early. She would have been humiliated. She's still not ready for them to know yet. She figured the best time for them to know is when she and Arnold actually get into dating. If they get into dating. She can't assume it'll happen quite yet. Though they were friends, neither have publicized their newfound friendship yet. She figured she oughta wait until she has delivered all her apologies to him. That day will be today.
She smiled once more.
The bus came to a stop. The doors opened. The kids filed out. Everyone arrived on time.
All except for Curly, who swung in later through an open window from a tree limb. Probably another of his crazy schemes no one else cares about. Nobody, not even Helga, bothered to insult him. Partly because he insulted himself. Partly because they were informed, when Curly first showed up at school, to be extremely careful as to how they speak or act to and around him, otherwise he might attack. This warning was a required request from his mental doctor. Otherwise, he might snap and they'll have to send him to the psych ward in a straight jacket. They all remember what happened when Mr. Simmons skipped his name on the list for ball keeper of the week. He went absolutely berzerk! Locked himself in the pricipal's office and threw kickballs at everyone through the window above the door, hard. Some people were sore for weeks after that. So everyone just aggrees to leave him alone. He's too messed up to safely tease him and walk away.
So everyone's seated when Mr. Simmons walked in.
"Okay. So, uh, good morning, class. It's so nice to see everyone here today. Wait, where's-"
"Ah, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Swung in Curly with a maniacaly crazy scream, landing on his feet.
He turned around, shook his fist out the window as he shouted, "You can't get me now, you cowards! Ha ha ha ha ha!" shut the window, and instantaniously appeared perfectly sane as he turned and proceded to his seat.
Mr. Simmons hesitated before clearing his throat.
"Uh, C-Curly, it's nice to see you're here today, but I'm afraid that you arrived late again. I'll need to ask you to go to the main office for a tardy slip."
Curly stood up, pulled something out of his belt, and handed it to him.
"Normally, I would strongly object to such a request, Mr. Simmons. Not today. Today, my mom actually is the one at fault for my tardiness." He said as Mr. Simmons recieved the note from his fingers.
He unfolded the note and read it over carefully.
"Okay. Take a seat, Curly. Looks like this note checks out."
Curly took a seat as he said, "My pleasure, Mr. Simmons."
Class went just smoothly after that. Helga didn't throw any spitballs. Instead she took notes and actually followed along. Somehow it's become a habit now. Two weeks ago she was baffled that she'd gotten this far in school, but now, she knows she's gonna make it through to high school. It's amazing how fast this has gone.
She gave in a hint of a smile as she took notes. Arnold noticed it, he just was so used to it he didn't feel the need to look back to know it was Helga taking notes. He looked back to her anyway and smiled. He then turned back to refocus on his notes.
As Arnold chatted with Gerald in the lunch line, he bumped into Helga, causing her to lean into her tray, leaving a green stain on her dress as the jell-o cup hit the floor.
"I'm so sorry, Helga." He said with an apologetic expression on his face.
He hadn't run into her in the lunch line like that since the day she confessed her love to him. He had no idea as to how she would react now. Will she continue her renewal cycle and accept his apology? Or will she revert back to square one and call him a football head in her old bully-like ways?
Willing to take the risk, he set his tray on the tray ledge and kneeled down with his napkin, scooping the green gelatan into the cup to throw it away.
"Here, let me help." He said as he did so.
She hesitated in thought of how to react, then quickly snapped out of her daze as she went to grab a napkin from the holster on top of the sneezeguard.
She briefly wiped any access jell-o from the stain, then threw it away and helped Arnold clean up what was meant to be her lunch.
They picked up every piece of food they could find on that floor. The sandwich, the apple, the many scattered french fries, every last bit.
When Arnold reached for the carton of chocolate milk, his hand momentarily touched Helga's as he realized she was reaching for it as well. They both pulled their hands back, startled by the sudden skin contact, and blushed faintly enough for no one to notice.
"Oh, sorry." Arnold said, glancing breifly at Helga before looking at the floor.
"No, it's okay." she replied, doing the same.
In that brief moment of glance, somehow Arnold got lost in Helga's eyes.
When he lowered his eyes from her gaze, he thought, How did that happen?
It gave him a sudden spark of feeling inside him, and the strangest thing is, it was familiar. He didn't quite know why, or where from. This was Helga G Pataki for crying out loud! Okay, so she wasn't the ugliest girl in school, but she wasn't exactly miss flawless, either. And yet, he got lost in her eyes!
He gestured to the carton. "You take it." He said to Helga. "It's your milk."
"No thanks." She replied with a hand gesture. "You can take it."
Still more surprised, comepletely baffled by the whole situation, he hesitated, then slowly stretched his hand out to the carton of milk.
Then he set it on her tray, along with the other food previously scattered on the floor, and headed to the trash with it.
As he was about to dump the tray, Helga stopped him, grabbed the milk, and motioned for him to continue.
"No point in wasting good milk." She reasoned. "It's not busted, so I'm taking it."
She quickly grabbed a second tray to replace the first. Then she grabbed her jell-o cup and her french fries and started out to the tables. Before she passed the wall, she paused, turned around and said, "Thanks for helping me clean up, Arnold." with a soft voice and a sweet smile, before she continued to her table.
"No problem." He replied, though he knew that she didn't hear him.
That was the weirdest moment of his life.
Yay! I hope you enjoyed the first chappie of this sequal!
Thank you to all who have voted for this part of the story! It was a tough decision, so thank you all!
You should know me by now, but I just have to say it!
REVIEW!
