Grimmy: I gotta let you all know that I'm uploading this two after four in the morning and that I'm running on three hours of sleep along with a half of a gallon of flat soda and stale hot fries. I think it's obvious that this wasn't betaed.

If that little bit of information didn't stop you from reading then I think it's fair to warn you that some of the words used in this will be offensive. Sooo, if you're easily offended then I don't think this is the fic for you. However, I'll try to keep the language mild as these are just children here.

One last thing. This, in my opinion, is completely different from my original writing style and because of that I don't think I'll be updating daily. Not that it's anything to worry about since this will be a fairly short fic and was written for personal reasons in the first place. So no promises on a fast update folks. Especially since this deals with the not so great side to childhood adventures.

I don't own Hey Arnold!

Introduction I

Her heart raced as she looked at the person not too far in front of her. To an average viewer he wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Messy dark hair, a bit long for a boy; the tips actually reached his shoulders. His eyes were a piercing onyx color and they always seemed to be bright and full of life. After he got a pair of bright blue glasses his nose seemed to be scrunched up in an attempt to keep them on, but now it was straight, and slightly pointed since his glasses had been long ago discarded. There was a light pink tinge to his cheeks that could be found, slightly darker, in his slightly puffy lips.

But to her, he was something of an Adonis in the form of a ten year old boy.

Even after quite a few years passed people still called him Chocolate Boy. A few others got into the habit of calling him by his given name, Andrew. Although she'd never actually spoken to him, she liked to call him Drew or Andy. And on some days the larger boys of grades five and six would sometimes call him 'Faggot' before shoving him around a bit. He'd normally laugh it off and make some joke, one lacking in humor, before they left him alone.

But there were two things she didn't quite understand. The first thing being that third name. She'd assumed it was a nickname of some sort but he seemed so down afterwards that she was sure that it had to be an insult. If that was the case then why didn't he fight back? From what she'd observed in Mr. Simmons' fourth period literature class, he'd been placed in her fourth grade class for that period, and sixth period math as well, because he didn't meet last year's requirements, he was pretty funny and good with insults. So it just had to be a nickname of some sort, otherwise he would have verbally served those boys long ago.

And the other thing she didn't understand was why he let them push him around. In the few situations of her life that she'd ever raised her fists to settle a problem she'd been severely scolded by her mother and her older brother, the one that still lived at home, while her father gave her a disappointed look. Violence of any kind was a no-no but these boys roughhoused whenever they saw her dark haired God. She was sure that they'd made him bleed once or twice but he always got back up and brushed himself off before walking home.

Today, however, was different. She'd been peeking at, or rather observing, him from behind the pointed brick corner of the large building titled P.S. 118. Nothing out of the usual at first aside from the boy's bad mood. She'd noticed it in class when he read his poetry homework assignment. It had been dark and actually gave her the chills. And while she wasn't exactly good with poetry herself she was able to read between the lines. He'd lost someone, or something, very dear to him.

So, first chance he got he went outside to sulk. When she noticed him gather his things and leave the school cafeteria, eyebrows scrunched up and face red, she followed him outside the school and around back, careful not to let him spot her. She wasn't sure quite how it happened but somehow, she'd wound up with a scrape on her knee and a tear in her pretty pink stockings. And with a high pitched squeak and a few sniffles she was discovered by him. Of course, her eyes were drawn to him, not too much unlike a moth to a flame, and she failed to notice the two upperclassmen that had stood behind her.

But he did.

She watched as his eyes widened dramatically and now that he was so close she could see that he actually wore an expression of fear. Falling back on her butt, she came to one conclusion. He was afraid of her. But for what reason? She'd never gone out of her way to be mean to him so perhaps it was something more physical on her part. She instantly thought of her appearance.

She didn't think she was ugly. She actually thought that she was rather pretty looking with her smooth cocoa skin and her long curly hair, often worn in two pigtails. She took her time when picking out her outfits. Today's had been composed of a powder blue ballerina tutu, pink stockings, and a green long sleeved shirt with a unicorn on the front. So why did he look so afraid?

"Heh, heh. Looks like Faggot has a little girlfriend. Guess he isn't so queer."

Hearing the rude statement, heat flooded to the cheeks of both the students on the ground. And with a turn of the head, the girl was face to knee with the two people who were currently pointing and giggling. She picked her brain for a witty response, something that would make her look not only more mature, but cool in front of the boy she admired so dearly. She huffed when she came up with nothing.

Surprise flashed across her face when she heard the bone chilling words, "You'd better shut up," pass her beloved lips.

He was actually taking up for her. Her heart fluttered and before she knew it she was smiling and batting her eyelashes, completely forgetting the situation at hand. Her love induced haze lasted for quite some time and she missed out on what had to be an important part of the conversation because when she zoned back into reality a pale fist was flying past her face and into the crotch of one of the boys who'd been terrorizing her. Her eyes widened as she watched the boy fall to the ground in pain.

And before she could stop it, the other boy leaped upon the much smaller Andrew, fists flailing. Trying her hardest not to panic, but failing terribly, she tried to pry the two boys apart. But that seemed to do more harm than good because the next thing she saw was a splatter of bright red blood leaking from the smaller boy's nose. She hadn't realized that she was screaming or attacking the possible sixth grader until a school teacher pried her off of him.

She wanted to feel really good about it. In a way, she'd done a good deed by taking on the much larger boy. Thin red claw marks had actually been left on his face, already scabbing seeing as how they were far from deep. Those were all her fault and all because she wanted to protect him. But she felt sick and guilty, as if she'd done something wrong and from the looks that she was currently receiving, it looked as if everyone else agreed.

"Er... Hi, I'm Timberly."

After sitting outside the principal's office for two hours straight in silence, she decided that she couldn't take it anymore. Even if it meant making a dork of herself she just had to say something. Fidgeting in her chair no longer entertained her. Her heart practically melted at the sight of his lips curling up in a friendly smile. His eyes crinkled around the edges and curved into sideways crescent moons.

"I know. We have math and lit-er-achur together," he said, positively beaming at the chance to converse.

That had to be the cutest thing she'd seen in her nine years of living. The way he tilted his head and scrunched up his face as he mispronounced the word literature. And while she wanted to correct him, she found that she couldn't because that meant that he'd no longer make that cute little face anymore.

He swung his legs back and forth, his feet didn't reach the ground, as he waited for her response. If she didn't know any better she'd have thought that he was happy to be here. But he always looked happy.

"One time when I was seven I stuck marbles in my nose for a whooole hour!" she blabbed. As soon as the words escaped her mouth she pressed her palm flat against her lips, mentally berating herself for revealing one of her less appealing moments of life.

He tilted his head again and scrunched up his nose, taking in just what she'd said. And soon a large grin appeared on his face, showing off his several missing teeth. Again, she felt her heart melt. "That's so cool!" was his enthusiastic response and he started to bounce up and down in his chair, obviously hyper.

Timberly raked her teeth across her bottom lip before asking, "You think so?" The last time she'd told that story to someone they laughed at her. Even if it was just her grandmother, she still found it slightly offensive. To actually hear someone call that incident... cool was surprising. She smiled back at him.

"Yah! I tried to stick grapes in my nose but they kept poppin' before I could get 'em up there pra-per-ly." He'd tilted his head and scrunched up his face again. She wondered if he had a speech impediment or if he was simply bad at pronouncing larger words. While she wasn't exactly a word genius, her talents were of the more visual artistic kind, she figured that he was slightly behind in the pronunciation area.

She giggled, stopping only when she let out a loud snort. Heat flooded her cheeks for the second time that day and she covered her face in her hands, more embarrassed than she would ever willingly admit. That is until she heard a few giggles coming from the person sitting across from her. And soon he was snorting and falling forward in his chair, which made her giggle unwillingly and let out a few snorts of her own.

And soon they were both on the floor, laughing until tears were in their eyes. Sighing through her nose, Timberly rolled over onto her stomach and looked at the boy who was laying on his back, feet propped up against the chair and arms reaching for the sky. In a bold move she crawled over to him until her face was directly above his. With a small smile she admired the adhesive strip that had been place across the bridge of his nose. She was sure that it was decorated with little monkeys.

"Nice braces!"

Timberly fell back on her butt in surprise, not expecting the boy to lift himself up on his elbows and get so close to her face. She blinked several times and stuck her pinky in her ear, not exactly sure that he'd said what she thought he said. That heated feeling in her cheeks was becoming entirely too frequent for her liking. "E-excuse me?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Your braces," he said, pointing. "They're neon green. Well seafoam if I tilt my head but ya' know, same thing."

"W-well, um, I-" Whatever she'd been about to say was cut off as she was pulled into a rather tight hug.

"Timberly!"

She winced as she glanced up to see the familiar face of her older brother, Gerald, and his best friend looking at the two of them, a slight frown at her face. With an angry growl, Timberly pushed her brother as hard as she could, desperate to get out of his grip but that seemed to make him hold her even tighter before picking her up. She scowled at him hoping he would catch on to her irritation but he seemed too wrapped up in fussing over her knee.

After several failed attempts to get free she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for Arnold to sign her out because Gerald refused to put her down. She looked back at the still hyper boy, a sad frown on her face as he waved goodbye eagerly to her.

She sighed and just before they exited the school she whispered, "Bye Andrew."

Grimmy: Like I said before, I'm barely awake at the moment so feel free to point out all the little errors in this. I actually wanted to make this a bit longer but I felt that I shouldn't cover too much just yet. Like the chapter title implies, this is simply the introduction. One thing I will say, I think the conversation between Timberly and Chocolate Boy was entirely too short and while I could go and lengthen it, I think it would be a little unwise for me to tamper with it at the moment.

Uh, feel free to point out any way I can improve this.

Oh! Before I forget. This obviously focuses on the budding relationship between Chocolate Boy(Andrew) and Timberly so those insults will stay just that. :) And another thing. This isn't going to be one of those "AWMUHGAWD ANGST LEMME GO CUT COZ EETZ SO BAYUD!" fics. It'll probably be more like a 'coming of age' type of thing. Just letting you all know.

Off to bed I go! And Biotin and gravy for all!