Bullying the Bully
A/N: As always, Hey Arnold! and the characters are not mine. They belong to their talented creator. I only write the stories.
I got this idea sitting in a big comfy chair, in a bathrobe, watching cartoons and eating marshmallow fluff from a jar, all the night before I need to go to my office job again. Ah such is the life of an overgrown child, and I wouldn't have it any other way. This is basically one of the many ways I wish Arnold could have found out Helga's secret. Takes place POST "The Neighborhood" but theoretically before TJM I suppose.
Something had changed after FTi, but neither of the children involved could feel exactly what it was immediately. All they knew was that they were both exceptionally more cautious around each other; Helga didn't harass him as much (When she knew she should've if she wanted to keep up appearances) and the few times she did manage an insult or two, Arnold only smirked at her and brushed it off, having now known where her meanness stemmed from, and thus being able to not take it seriously.
The smirks served to enrage her, but she only swallowed the anger nervously, resisting the urge to lash out and punch that look off his smug face. He was taunting her; she knew that. He didn't. It only felt natural to him, now knowing how she really, truly felt. The only thing he was absolutely sure of was that he didn't buy the line he himself tried to feed her. She didn't hate him, and her confession was not in the heat of the moment. It took some lying awake at night and pondering, but Arnold finally convinced himself of this notion.
So in the days to come, he ran with that. He wouldn't have called it flirting necessarily, but there was definitely an open wound in her that he found himself subconsciously taking pleasure in picking at.
This, naturally, threw the girl off her guard. She hadn't been quite as steady on her feet as Arnold had seemed after the mind blowing confession that left them both stunned, and when it came to performing, she was sloppy. Lila had caught her monologuing once and nearly a second time, and she had forgotten her locket in random places at one time too many; they were all exceedingly dangerous mistakes.
On top of these silly avoidable errors, she found herself, well, a lot more frightened than she had been, and undeniably nervous around him. It was difficult to snap that tongue wittily as she was accustomed to doing to her fellow classmates with this new development.
So for the days that came with the start of fifth grade, Helga Pataki made the conscious decision to shut up. She would stop bullying, as much anyway, and she would keep her obsessive love for Arnold in her head only, at least while she was outside the sanctity of her shrines.
But one fateful day Helga wouldn't be as careful as she vowed to be; and that fateful day changed everything.
It was a brisk day, just at the tail end of summer right before autumn, and the now fifth graders were enjoying a peaceful recess beneath the calmly warm sun.
Helga was sitting on the blacktop with her back against the wall of the school, and staring idly out onto the field where some of the kids played football.
Her gaze reflected her disinterest, and as always, her thoughts were on that of her beloved.
Out of habit, she reached into her shirt to retrieve her locket, and realized, horrified, that it wasn't there.
It was like clockwork; before she had time to even react, the cafeteria doors leading out onto the playground swung open revealing a brightly grinning Harold flanked by Sid and Stinky, both also donning a sly smirk.
The trio stomped right over to the girl, who had a very sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she tried to back further against the wall than was physically possible. They had her cornered.
Harold, with his big dumb one-toothed grin, was the first to drop the bomb.
"Hey Heeeeelga Patakiiii. Did you lose your pretty, fancy locket?" He held up the gold charm with Arnold's picture, high enough that it glinted in the friendly sun. His loud jeering started to draw the attention of the others, eager to see what mishap could befall their class bully.
Arnold as well took note of the scene, and his friends surrounding the girl. But he was more concerned than excited.
Helga put on a dark scowl in an attempt to frighten him off since it always worked in the past; it wasn't going to work today.
"N-no. I don't know what you're talking about Pink boy! That locket isn't mine! Now get along before I pound you into next Monday!" She shook her fist threateningly at him.
"Oh I don't think so, Helga. You say it's not yours? Then how do you explain the writing inside?" Sid jumped in, stepping up along Harold while he fiddled to get the thing opened. When he couldn't, Sid rolled his eyes and snatched it out of his hand, causing the larger boy to shoot him a glare.
At that point, Helga had lunged at the shorter of the trio in an attempt to snatch back her locket, but Harold grabbed at her bony arms, locking them in the crook of both of his bigger elbows. She thrashed and threatened wildly, pulling to break away and tackle Sid for her locket. If I could just get it before he got it open...
The resounding click of the latch shot that hope to Hell for her, who looked on with a horrified, wide-eyed stare. They had a crowd around them by then, Arnold included, who had pushed his way to the front of the group.
"Arnold, my soul, you are always in my heart..!" Sid read in a singsong-y voice, which caused an uproar of laughter from the surrounding onlookers. "Love Helga G Pataki!" He smirked in the girl's face. Helga blushed twelve shades of red, and she hung her head ashamed.
"Hey! What are you guys doing? Let her go!" Arnold snapped, advancing on Harold. But Sid jumped in front of him, waving the locket infront of his face.
"Aw that's so cute. Arnold is trying to rescue his girlfriend."
Arnold blanched at that, and felt the blush cross his face.
"W-what? Helga's not my-"
"Yes she is too your girlfriend, look at her locket." Harold drawled, ignoring the wildly thrashing girl in his arms.
"Don't listen to anything they say, Arnold! It's just a joke! T-they made it! It's not mine!"
The three of them snickered.
"I reckon that Miss Helga is panicking on account of the jig being up and all." Stinky drawled.
Arnold looked from the three of them, to Helga and the first thing he noticed was the absolutely panic-stricken look on her face. If he could remember correctly, it was very similar to the face she had on as she confessed atop the FTi building.
Sid held the locket out for him in offering, and Arnold reached out to take it, but then hesitated when he heard her yell.
"Don't Arnold! Please...It's going to ruin everything!" Her voice quavered, and she finally fell limp in the bigger boy's strong arms. Her plea referred to their agreement at the end of the FTi scandal, and she could tell by the slightly apprehensive look on his face that he knew what she was talking about..
Nevertheless, he reached out with determination then and snatched the locket from Sid's grasp, drawing a small surprised cry from the girl, and a chorus of snickers from the other three.
Arnold held the locket in his hand a moment, while surveying the situation around him. His entire class had gathered to watch the scene unfold. The disgustingness of it, how they would all be so eager to watch their classmate suffer like this, was sickening to him. As he fumed over that, he couldn't help but take a quick look at the locket; it was his picture, and he instantly recognized the charm as having been the one that mysteriously found its way to his grampa's hands from his grandma-supposedly. He felt a small grin involuntarily curl his lip before he returned himself to the matter at hand.
Frowning again in a dissaproving manner, he stuffed the locket into one of his pants pocket.
"Okay everyone, you can all move on. There's nothing to see here!" He yelled in aggravation. A few murmurs arose from their classmates at Arnold's rare show of irritation. "And Harold? Put Helga down." He turned to the larger boy, pointing an accusatory finger at him.
Just as surprised as the rest of them, Harold obeyed, dropping the stunned girl to her feet. She shivered, and rubbed her arms before turning around to give her captor a well deserved push back. He stumbled but regained his footing quickly.
"Hey!" He snapped, glaring at the girl. She returned the look and was about to retort when Arnold stepped in front of her, that look of aggravation still plastered across his once normally docile face.
"You deserved it! You're all being a bunch of jerks. Cornering a girl when she's obviously uncomfortable, and then making fun of her feelings? So what if she likes me? What's even the big deal? What's so wrong with liking someone anyway? I don't get it." He would have went on, but he shut himself up when he realized he might've been saying too much on Helga's behalf that she might not want to have been said. "Anyway. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. I know i'm ashamed to say i'm your friend." He had his hand to his chest as he spoke then.
The three looked sufficiently chastised, and murmured faint apologies to their friend, which only served to agitate him further.
"Why even apologize to me? You should be apologizing to her" He pointed to Helga, who had put her hands up defensively, not being left out of the group who had been surprised by Arnold's outburst, and on her behalf even..
But as instructed Harold, Sid and Stinky all muttered a collective "Sorry Helga" though niether of them waited for a response, opting to slink sulkily back onto the playground for the last few minutes of freedom before the bell rung.
With the show over, the rest of the class dispersed, leaving Helga and Arnold alone on the blacktop.
Neither spoke for a moment; Helga rubbed her upper arm in an attempt to soothe her horrible feelings of awkwardness before she put up her guard once again.
"Okay Arnoldo, Give it here.." She growled, completely ignoring the fact that he had gone out on a limb for her. She held her hand out expectantly, and was met instead with that same, agitated stare he had given the others. Surprised, she actually cowered a little.
"And you." He started, trying to keep his growing emotions in check. "You're really going to boss me around now? Really, Helga?" He growled back. She squeaked a little, feeling her heart start to race at that tone..
"N-no but you kind of have my-"
"Your what?" He snapped before she could even finish the statement, a ghost of a smirk slipping across his face.
She stared at him, her brows furrowed, but in a nervous sort of aggravation. Her hands were balled into fists which sat at her sides.
"N-nothing.." She finally admitted in a forlorn sigh, which was a lie of course. Then the bell rang.
"Let's go.." Arnold commented, moving to stand along side her. "We're going to finish this conversation later." It was almost like he had just realized the tone he had taken on for the last few minutes, and when he addressed her next, he made sure to soften it up. "Alright..?" He cast a curious, sideways glance to her.
"..Y-yes.." was the meek reply he got. But it was just so meek, and so timid sounding. It surprised him, and yet-at the same time, he felt triumphant. Triumphant for finally subduing the bully that had tormented him for years.
Yes-this would be the day that would change everything, and for good even. He'd make sure of that.
This was originally supposed to be a oneshot, but I think after this...it'll probably end up being a two or three shot. Mhmmm..Hope you enjoyed first chapter..and stayed tuned for the next one, or two. Much love