Choosing In the Darkness
Chapter One: Analogy
"In your house I long to be, room by room, patiently"-Audioslave, Like a Stone
The question of what love is has always stared into the eyes of five people and dared to be answered. Of course, their answers vary. Some think that it is the guy's compassion. Others, the euphoria and mystique makes the question impossible to answer. But the answer must be spoken: who is the guy they all love?
Oh, Arnold Shortman is that guy. A Compassionate soul with a deep feeling in his heart that everyone is good deep inside. I mean, look at his experiences with one particular girl. She in public vehemently disliked him, even though clearly obvious it was that to some, she harbored secret feelings. Deep down, she still has those feelings, but one questions if love is still there. All five do not know of the others love for each other, but we know that someday they will. Oh wow, what a day will that beckon.
Combing her hair, Rhonda sighs as she think back to the adventure in the jungle a few years back. Indeed, many people were surprised at Arnold's revelation that love was not an intention of his at that particular moment of time. Was Rhonda upset at this? To say that she wasn't is a lie not worth telling. All the times Arnold was friendly, all the times he lended a helping hand to Rhonda, formed something in her soul that she did not figure out until she was a witness to Helga and Arnold's kiss in the jungle…..
That tingling feeling fastened into love. Except it was not a friendship love. It was that love that's start refuses to be explained. A love that won't be broken. "Oh Man", Rhonda sighs as she climbs into bed. "Don't worry Arnold, no matter what mountains I have to climb, I am yours"….
Staring out into her telescope, a young lady that not only is a prodigy of smarts, but a dear friends to one of the other four, sighs as she looks out into the starts. Now, it may seem unbecoming that Phobie, the girl that always discreetly liked Gerald, would like Arnold Shortman. But alas, the case to that cause was but a fall.
A few days ago, Phobie was watching the stars. Sighing as she yawned a sound of tiredness, she suddenly saw herself falling out her 2nd story window, and quietly prayed to "a creator" that everything would be alright. Thankfully she was rescued by the arms of Arnold, who was walking home from a short baseball game. She then realized that tingling feeling that was deep in her stomach was not for Gerald as she thought it was. But it was for the boy that had saved her life.
Oh, Lila. What we would not be without your sweetness and "ever so" personality. Lying in her armchair, she think about how deep her love for Arnold truly lies. Going back to the time where Lila accompanied Arnold to the Cheese Festival, she never told Arnold that because of one simple but complicated reason: she knew that Helga was deeply smitten with that gentle, courageous kid that Lila loved.
However, there comes a time when wishes turn to want. When things must be told, delicate secrets become reality. Arnold finally broke the straw for Lila when he and Helga shared that deep kiss in the jungle. Jealousy twinged in Lila, and ached at her to finally tell Arnold. Lila, knowing the ways of Arnold, decided for this moment to tell him. Yes indeed, tomorrow would be the day that she finally told him, told him how much her loved burned.
How love burns in the stable heart. Love never has burned deeper than when Helga felt it for the first time in a boy, the boy they all knew in a psychic way she loved. From that time when Arnold give her his umbrella to be saved from the elements, That deep chamber in her heart exploded with pride, as she was proud of being so deeply smitten with him. Finally telling him on the top of the ATI building in the center of pouring rain may seem cliché, but for Helga, there may be a never brighter moment in her life. "Tonight", she thought to herself, "is the night I know what I must do. Tomorrow is the day I go in for the kill. I not only reiterate to Arnold those many moons ago, but I finally ask him out. Tomorrow is the day, I get my time.
The last of the five comes as a shock especially considering whose sisters she is. A 19 year old student with a sense of academia perfection, Olga now knows she was always searching for the wrong guys. For she knows her new crush…
As time began for the peak of discomfort in Helga and Olga's relationship, Olga always noticed his warm genuine smile, his belief of looking on the bright side of things, the two things that most use to describe Mr. Shortman. Blossoming of love truly began when Arnold and Helga began their friendship after the events of the jungle. But the question Olga wondered is why she loved Arnold. It was because she needed him. You see, ever sense Miriam and Big Bob's blowout from a not so distant time ago, she needed someone that would be there. And truly, Olgas forever love was Arnold Shortman, she knew.
With all five of them having their eyes locked on the same teen, it makes for a volatile situation. What the girls don't know is how bad things will become tomorrow, at least until the boy appears, and makes a decision that will changes all 6 of them forever….