It was a usual morning.
Helga woke up way too early for school and laid in bed for two hours before finally deciding to get up. Once she was ready, she rode her bike to school.
It was a usual school day.
Class took too long but Helga understood everything way too easily. When it was time for lunch, Helga sat near her usual friends, Phoebe, Gerald and Arnold. During high school, they all became a lot closer.
Helga went through quite the change after middle school. She became a lot more warm and pleasant to be around. After seeing enough of Dr. Bliss, she was able to trust and befriend those around her and no longer masked feelings of love with those of anger.
It was a beautiful feeling, she always thought.
Helga fixed her unibrow, let her hair down more often and ditched the pink jumper, replacing it with junky jeans and sweatshirts. That's one thing Helga kept true. She didn't dress up for anybody. That, and she didn't really have nice clothes to wear. Her parents saved that kind of stuff for Olga. (Even now that she's living in Alaska.)
But Helga didn't mind. Her relationship with her parents had gotten better, and she didn't mind wearing junky clothes. Who did she have to impress, anyway?
Getting back to lunch, Helga whipped out her homemade lunch while Phoebe and Gerald sat down next to each other.
"Arnold here today?" Helga mumbled through bites of her sandwich. She couldn't remember if he was in class but he was usually first to the table.
"No, he was home sick today. Some kind of 24 hour flu is what he told me," Gerald answered, opening his lunch.
"Huh." Helga replied.
"Maybe you should go visit him," Phoebe interjected. "I think that would cheer him up, don't you Gerald?"
"Yeah. He hates being sick. Do you still like him, Helga?"
When Helga was riding her bike to Arnold's, she pondered Gerald's question. Did she still like him? She had loved him way back when... but now? He hadn't reciprocated her feelings back then and she was forced to move on, but she couldn't deny that there were feelings deep down that never went away.
She walked up to the Sunset Arms boarding house with a backpack full of Arnold's favorite food, along with his homework. Arnold's grandfather answered the door, and she knew where to go from there.
Approaching Arnold's door, she grew nervous. The kind of nervous she became way back when. She knocked calmly, and he answered calmly.
"Come in." She could tell he was sick from the sound of his voice. Poor thing, she thought.
Helga pushed the door open and there she saw Arnold with his face buried in his pillow. Tissues surrounded him and there was a bucket (thankfully empty) on the floor next to his bed.
"You can just leave dinner there, Grandpa. I couldn't eat earlier, and I can't eat now." Arnold muffled from his pillow.
"But it's your favorite," Helga replied, causing Arnold to jolt and sit up.
"Helga! Why, when? I must look terrible, how did you-"
"I heard you were sick," she calmly continued, "so I thought I would bring you your favorite food. Not too heavy, I'm sure you can manage it."
Arnold looked absolutely vulnerable and Helga couldn't help but stare. His hair was a mess, he had only his boxers on, and as soon as he noticed that Helga noticed, he yanked the blanket up to his stomach. "You didn't have to do this, Helga."
"I don't have to do a lot of things, football head." She replied with a warm smile. Her presence was already making him feel livelier. He took the backpack and opened it. She really did remember his favorite food; peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich. Accompanying it was a couple bottles of water and a hot thermos.
"What's in the thermos?" He asked.
"Green tea," she replied, "It's very soothing. How are you feeling?"
"Oh, I'm fine. Just a little flu is all." Arnold began to slowly eat the sandwich and open a water bottle.
"I doubt it's just a little flu; you sound terrible." She giggled a little.
"I should probably get dressed, huh?" He laughed, finishing the sandwich. Standing up, he immediately felt woozy, and wobbled a little.
"Whoa there," Helga jumped up to help him. There was a moment. Arnold looked into her eyes and they both just stared at each other for a second before Arnold's stomach lurched. He slammed a hand to his mouth and grabbed onto Helga with the other. She used her free hand to get him the bucket and rubbed circles on his back as he threw up into it.
Helga chuckled. "I guess you ate that sandwich kind of fast." She handed him a tissue so he could wipe his mouth and then helped him lie back down, smoothing and petting his hair to soothe him.
"I'm so sorry, I bet that was disgusting..." Arnold murmured. Helga didn't mind, but she could tell he was embarrassed.
"Oh, it's no problem. I used to do this for Miriam almost every day before she finally got help."
"Wow, well," he burped, "Thanks for this, Helga. Really."
She smiled, and reached into the backpack for the thermos. Opening it, she poured a little into the cap. "Here, drink this."
There was another moment. Arnold looked into her eyes as he took the cap from her hands. Their fingers touched for a moment and Arnold finally looked away to take a sip of the hot beverage. "It's delicious, thank you."
"Oh... And Helga?" he awkwardly said after another sip of tea. She looked at him and cocked her head to the side. "Could you.. um, keep doing what you were doing with my hair? That felt really nice.." He blushed and looked away, embarrassed again. Helga smiled, stood up, walked over to the bed and sat down, carefully placing his head in her lap. She smoothed his hair down and he sighed in content.
They sat there for a couple hours while Arnold drank the rest of his tea. They talked about everything. School, friends, family, life. Things they never really got a chance to talk about around everyone else. Arnold never realized how much Helga's eyes lit up when she mentioned things she was passionate about. They were a beautiful shade of blue, and her blonde hair fell around them so nicely.
He stopped. Why did this keep happening? He didn't have feelings for Helga, did he? He recalled her having feelings when they were kids, but he didn't feel the same way. She acts differently around him. Everyone knows it. They have a special bond, extreme chemistry. They are always there for each other and he knows that she makes him happy.
"Helga."
Helga stopped petting his head and looked down at him. "Yes?"
Arnold sat up in bed and faced her, looking her in the eye. This moment wasn't accidental. Not remembering that he was sick, he placed one hand calmly on her cheek and pulled her lips to his. When they broke apart, they looked at each other for a few moments, faces only inches away.
Helga leaned back and touched her lips. "What was that for?"
Arnold coughed and awkwardly ran his hand through his hair. "I.. uh, well,"
Helga chuckled a little bit, but smiled and calmly took his hand. "Yeah, me too."
The next day, Arnold was back at school. Helga, Phoebe, Gerald and Arnold all met up once again at lunch, and resumed their usual lunch schedule.
"How ya feelin', man? Gerald asked Arnold.
"A lot better." Arnold replied, smiling at Helga.
"So you two had fun yesterday, I presume." Phoebe said between bites of her lunch.
Arnold and Helga's faces immediately became flushed, but they nodded, until Helga felt a cold sweat come over her. She dropped her food and grabbed her stomach, which was doing backflips.
"Are you okay, Helga?" As soon as Arnold put a hand on her shoulder, Helga bolted to the restroom and could be heard vomiting throughout the lunchroom.
"Poor thing must have gotten your flu!" Phoebe exclaimed, running after Helga.
Not saying a word, Gerald turned to Arnold and smirked.
"Oh shut up," Arnold replied, getting up and following Phoebe.