NOTE: I DO NOT OWN HEY ARNOLD OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS, THAT'S ALL CRAIG BARTLETT AND HIS TEAM'S WONDERFUL MAKING. I DO OWN ARNOLD'S COACH, DAN, AND CAMILA. FUTURE CHARACTERS I OWN WILL BE UPDATED, NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. ENJOY YOU BEAUTIFUL FANS YOU! Prologue
An envelope addressed to 'Mr. Bailey' slides into the mailbox as the sender pulls up her hoodie and hurriedly pushes to the bus stop, pays her fare, and heads back to her dorm...
Chapter 1
Beads of sweat develop on his forehead during each pass of the rope. "Promesses" by Dimmi picks up in his ear putting his heartbeat in sync with the percussion, his focus strengthening slowly transporting him into another world. The words of the music spoke to him, "I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, if you're willing to work hard..." His beliefs turn into trance shocking his body with venomous adrenaline he pushes past exhaustion. "If you're willing to work hard..."
After some time he's intermittently interrupted by an obnoxious shifting of his iphone in his pocket much to his dismay. After five minutes of the struggling with droopy pockets and a bouncing iphone he puts the jump rope down. Feeling flustered and defeated he goes back inside letting all the animals pass by ritualistically.
Arnold passes the kitchen heading to the stairs half in his trance half in routine, sitting on the counter Gertie cocks an eyebrow almost inquisitively, "He does not seek the fly, the fly comes to him. Young frog, what's on your mind?"
Arnold doubles back to the kitchen and pulls up a chair, removing the top to his gi rubbing sweat off his forehead like a towel. Arnold folds his gi and slumps it into his duffel adjusting his mouthpiece and gloves, "Nothing much Grandma, just getting ready for class and then after that my first real sparring match since busting my leg." He fidgets with his right ankle bouncing a few times uncertainly and shadow boxes a bit spacing out again.
-FLASHBACK-
Arnold throws a three-hit combination, one-two jab-straight into a right shin kick, all three connecting. Moments after he lands a searing pain shoots through both his and his opponents legs. Arnold looks down and sees his right shin bleeding, compound fracture. His opponent's left knee destroyed, screaming in pain they both fall. Each of their coaches calling an ambulance, Arnie ran up screaming for what seemed the first ever as Arnold looks down at his leg in silence.
-END-
"Young frog, you have left the world of the tadpole since you left the safety of the pond. You are no longer a white belt. For now, let your mind return to the simplicity of the tadpole until your feet become wet with experience."
Arnold looks at Gertie in reverence and bows, "Thanks Grandma, you'll always be my original teacher, I gotta go."
She returns her bow, "Hai Kouhai," she raises her head and crosses her arms, "Anata wa watashi o hokori ni omoimasu."
Arnold responds with clenched fists, "Osu sensei! Watashi wa kenmei ni hatarakimasu!" He energetically leaves his bow, nods, and turns back to his bag. Gertie was crazy, but she was very intuitive of most anyone's emotional needs and her antics most times served to inspire or reflect the situation with frightening accuracy.
He finishes packing his duffel and heads up stairs to his room to get a few textbooks for afternoon classes. He pulls out his wallet and looks at his ancient bus pass remembering his original classes with Gertie as a white belt, then smiles and returns downstairs. "Don't worry Grandma you did a decent enough job getting me through my white belt" gives her a kiss on the cheek "honestly I think I should be fine, Arnie's been kind of a champ with getting me back on the saddle."
He was right, since Arnie moved in to the vacant room #2 at the boarding house he's been nothing but a great influence on everyone. Calm but not somber, almost amplifying Arnold's sunny persona with a distinct logical optimism in the background he became quite a welcome presence.
After Arnold's cast came off Arnie immediately understood that Arnold needed to get his mind back in the sport, he went through the same thing not a year prior preparing for an amateur fight. Mid arm-bar Arnie moved his right arm the wrong way trying to regain control and nearly destroyed the rotator cuff in his shoulder. Arnie was out for roughly seven months unable to actually condition for another three, every movement wasn't the same for a while.
He knew in Arnold's case it would be worse because Arnold was a forward-moving striker to the core and he can't afford to hesitate. Day in and day out after he was cleared Arnie had the focus mitts up to remind Arnold's legs they can plant and pivot properly. Punching wasn't Arnold's problem, Arnie knew that, it was throwing the right shin kick, and it was practically his signature. But at this point watching Arnold throw the old one-two into the right shin kick was like watching a child run from an incoming tide knowing that the water was so cold. But Arnold was earnest and had a work ethic that surpassed even his own, so in his gut he held faith.
Arnold rubbed his leg then slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed to the bus stop towards Hillwood University, "Bye Grandma!" He strolls up to the bus stop, shows his bus pass and takes a seat, soon after his cellphone buzzes in his pocket.
He looked at the caller ID to see it was Arnie, "Hey Arnie what's good?" he greeted warmly.
Arnie on the receiver calmly responded "Hey first day back, good luck and remember just focus on boxing for now if your leg isn't ready it isn't ready. Gauge how it feels every time you plant for your right cross-"
Arnold chuckles, "Dude, I'll be alright. I was doing some jump rope earlier and it feels pretty good. I'll stick to throwing knees for now until I'm feeling otherwise, but good lookin' out man. Thanks for everything though, so what time you got class today?"
"6:30 to 9:30, night class today. Forensic Science lecture tonight, we're going over ballistics with Detective Barret. Should be fun, I'll realistically see you later tonight or tomorrow, again good luck today." Arnie snorts and they both laugh.
"Sounds good buddy, I'll catch you later." Arnold slides through his phone with "Iscariot" by Walk the Moon playing in his earbuds to look at old photos and stares into the group photo of his P.S. 118 crew. 'I wonder how everybody's doing? How Helga's doing?' Arnold stares out the window, thinking about the graduation party a few months prior during the close of summer, about what happened before the photo was taken.
He continues staring out the window, completely missing his stop for Hillwood University never noticing until his phone buzzes with a text message from Helga.
'I need to talk to you.' With another buzzing in from the same person.
'Please.'
