Chapter 1: I Can't Sleep

The Boarding House

"Good night sweetie! We love you!" Stella said, hugging her long missed boy tightly.

Miles waved goodbye to their child as he exited the room with his wife and said "Sleep well son."

While Arnold laid in bed with a smile stretched across his face that his parents were at last safe and home, another moral dilemma had yet to be solved.

A Few Hours Later

Kitchen

Arnold walked downstairs to see Phil eating a roast beef sandwich. He wondered how long it would be before Miles' began to notice all his parents' interesting quirks. Be it Pookie's endless costume wardrobe or Phil's inability to handle fruit without a restroom being in near sight.

The blonde boy took a seat at the table just as the old man was taking his last bites of his sandwich. "Hey! Whatcha doing up there shortman?"

Arnold rested his head in his hand against the table and sighed "I don't know. I was just thinking about Helga."

"Oh boy...what'd she do this time?" Phil chuckled, not having been told about his grandson's special moment in San Lorenzo.

Arnold began to blush as he rubbed his arm. Although he didn't know his parents well, it surprised him a bit that they hadn't bothered to say anything to Phil about what they had seen. Perhaps they didn't know how well he would feel about it.

"Well, you were right…"

"Of course I was...right about what?" Phil scratched his head in confusion.

"Helga loves me. Winning the trip to San Lorenzo, escaping La Sombra, and waking up my parents was all thanks to her. Her and a locket she carries with my picture."

Phil laughed at his grandson's story and how well his romantic life related to his grandson's. "Arnold, did I ever tell you about the time I carried your grandma's picture in my wallet?"

"I don't think so?"

"That's probably because I didn't have a picture of her or a wallet to put it in. One day at school though, she saw me walking into the classroom."

Arnold sat up listening attentively, wondering how this would relate to him and Helga.

"That evil look appeared on her face. The one I always saw when I knew she was about to pull some wacky stunt like pour thumb tacks in my chair, spit gum in my hair, or just make an appearance in general. Anywho...I kept walking towards my desk, not expecting that day to be different from any other day with her."

"Was it?" Arnold asked anxiously.

Phil laughed at his grandson's inability to hold back his anxiousness and replied "It certainly was shortman. You see, normally people tell you to keep your eyes on the road (or what's right in front of you). That day I should have kept my eyes on the floor. Your grandma stood in the aisle, waiting for the perfect moment to trip me! The joke turned out to be on her though."

"Why is that?"

"Because shortman, I fell into the nearest desk (assuming it was mine) and opened it to see a checklist."

"A checklist grandpa?"

"That's right! Step one, trip Phil. Step two, break his pencil. Step three, steal his lunch. Step four, push his down the school steps."

Arnold lifted an eyebrow at Phil's enthusiasm and asked "So, you just let her torment you all day?"

"Until we made it to the end of the list. Pookie was waiting on that school porch, anxious as could be to see me fall down the steps…"

"So you let her do it to you?"

"What are you crazy?! When she turned around to leave, there she saw me behind her with the list. Ho boy was her face red!"

"I don't get it? What's the point?" Arnold shrugged his shoulders, finding his grandpa's story useless.

"The point is, I felt like I had finally outsmarted that girl when I saw her run away. I couldn't wait to race home and tell my Pa about it."

"What did he say?"

"That I'm an idiot and the whole reason she treated me like that was just to spend time with me without having to admit she likes me."

Arnold then thought back to everything Helga said to him on the boat in San Lorenzo…

Oh Arnold, I may act like I don't care, I may even say I hate you, but that's a COVER! I actually DO care about you!

Based on Pookie's behavior, Phil had known the truth about Helga all along. He sat there watching his grandson pondering his thoughts until Arnold at last asked "What should I tell her?"

"Well shortman, the only way to know how you really feel about someone is to spend time with them. After going to school with your grandma, I knew about all her dark and crazy parts ahead of time hehe."

"Uhh right grandpa." Arnold sighed, as he began to excuse himself from the table.

"If you're looking for some clarification, I will say this though. I've never seen a more loyal girl. Maybe it's because she wasn't like a normal girl, caring about all that feminine crap to begin with. If that had been me and Pookie trying to save your parents though...It doesn't matter how extreme Pookie's feelings are for me. No amount of tripping and name calling would ever make her carry a piece of jewelry with my picture in it that's for sure! Hehe!"

Arnold shook his head at the final comparison Phil made between Pookie and Helga, then headed for bed with much left on his mind.