Summer break had at last reached an end, after a tumultuous series of adventures for many schoolchildren in the city of Hillwood. Bright and early that morning, crowds of PS118 students all flocked towards the building as the sound of the bell rang, signaling the beginning of a new school year, and for many of them their last. Young Arnold had spent a large majority of his life coming and going from this very building since he had been five years old, and it was hard to believe he had now reached the beginning of the end of his elementary school days. Now he stood tall among the other sixth graders, at the top of the school food chain, even if he was still among the shortest of his peers. Of course, that change in the status quo paled to the most prominent change in his life; which followed behind him in the form of his once long-lost but now omnipresent mother and father. After an incredible misadventure over the summer in the jungles of San Lorenzo, he had at last located and rescued his fabled parents, and they were now living with him and his grandparents. They had spent the remainder of the summer bonding together, and also trying to become acclimated to life in the city, but now that summer had at last come to an end his parents didn't quite seem to know how to deal with Arnold's absence, and had followed him to school like a pair of lost puppies. They kept a slight distance behind him, walking hand in hand and now that they had reached the school, Arnold turned to them with the intention of saying goodbye. Strangely, the two of them looked ready to follow him inside. He had spent the summer explaining many mundane everyday functions they didn't understand, owing to having missed out on the last decade, but surely he didn't have to explain to them they couldn't just come into school with him, he hoped. The look in their eyes however prompted him to do just that.

"You'll have to stay outside, okay?" Arnold said. His own tone surprised him, as if he was talking to a pair of children, but by the guileless expression on both his parents face it didn't feel unwarranted.

"Okay." Stella said in a somewhat vacantly happy voice.

"When will you be done?" Miles asked innocently.

"Uh…" Arnold stumbled, slightly amazed he had to explain all this to a pair of grown adults, "3:30?" With that, he turned and ran up the stairs, where his teacher Mr. Simmons stood in the doorway waving.

"We'll be waiting right here!" he heard his mother call after him.

As the doors slowly began to swing shut, Arnold turned back and looked at his parents, who both stood on the school stoop gazing up at him with broad smiles across their faces. This at first struck him as strange, but as he looked into their loving faces he admonished himself for any slight embarrassment he felt. He had waited his entire life to at last meet them and perhaps even have them in his life again, and he could deal with their understandable ignorance in such matters. He smiled warmly at them before turning and heading off to his homeroom. As the doors closed, his parents remained still, just staring in the direction their son had disappeared in. And they continued to do so long after he had disappeared from sight, just staring and smiling at the doors.

In the homeroom, Arnold's now twice prior teacher Mr. Simmons hushed the excited classroom.

"Students, listening ears!" Mr. Simmons called out, as everyone quieted down, "All right, class, welcome to the first day of sixth grade! You've all come so far since the first time you walked through the doors of this school, walking through these hallowed halls as mere kindergartners, and now every challenge you've overcome has led you to this! Frankly I'm… I'm overcome… you've all just grown so much and I…" he stopped, tearing up slightly and sniffled.

"Oh boy…" Arnold heard his best pal Gerald murmur.

"Well," Mr. Simmons said, getting a hold of his emotions, "Before we begin our exciting new year of academic discovery and growth, why don't we all go around and introduce ourselves by-"

"Are you kidding me?" Helga interjected, "We all know each other! We've been in the same class together for two stinking years already!"

"Hey, Simmons!" Harold blurted out, "Why are you our teacher again? For the third year in a row?"

"Seriously," Helga huffed, "And why am I always stuck in a class with this same gaggle of goof wads year after year?"

"Hey, we're all stuck together with you too, Helga." Stinky pointed out.

"Class… I don't think we should be so focused on the negative on our first day of class." Mr. Simmons said, twiddling his fingers, "Now, I know we all had a…. rather tumultuous summer vacation to say the least, but the important thing is we're all back here and ready for our final year of learning together."

"Unless you follow us to junior high, too," Helga scoffed under her breath. Her friend Phoebe giggled at the notion.

"Well, why don't we all go around and share something special we did this summer?" Simmons suggested, "Who here has something very special they'd like to share?"

At this suggestion all student hands immediately shot up to the shock of their teacher.

"Oh, wow… you all must have had quite the summer." Mr. Simmons said, "Let's narrow this down… who has something unrelated to San Lorenzo?"

All the students immediately lowered their hands.

"Nothing else?" Simmons asked, "Nobody did anything else special after the class trip?"

Rhonda raised her hand, and Mr. Simmons gestured to her.

"Well after that harrowing jungle experience, my family and I took a glorious two week trip to Capri in Italy, just to unwind and refresh."

"Oh my, the views there are spectacular." Simmons noted, "Did you have a chance to see the Blue Grotto? Or the views of Monte Solaro?"

"What?" Rhonda asked, "Oh, I didn't really see any of that, I was busy updating my travelogue with selfies from the hotel room. I got more than twenty likes and gained two new followers!" she turned and looked at her fellow students, "Be sure to like, comment and subscribe!"

Arnold largely ignored Rhonda, instead casting his gaze over on Helga, who was sneering as she was wont to do in these circumstances. He had once found her scowling face to be off-putting, and now he found he just couldn't look away, now finding it endearingly cute. Helga had carved out a reputation in her school days as a ruthless bully, with Arnold himself always in the crosshairs as her favorite target, and despite his forgiving nature he didn't care much for her in return. A year or so earlier however, Helga had risked life and limb to help him in several scenarios, and eventually had made the shocking revelation that she in fact harbored deep seated feelings of love for him, and even kissed him. Unable to comprehend this, Arnold pretended it never happened after the fact, which just caused her to ramp up her usual abuse, though despite them both lying to themselves Arnold slowly began to confront his own feelings for her in return. Having at last come to grips with how he felt about her this past summer in spite of her general surly behavior, he now wanted nothing more than to make her happy however he could. Now whenever not thinking about how happy he was to have his parents back in his life, she was the only thing he could think about. As Simmons began prattling on about the curriculum for the semester, all Arnold could do was sit and stare at Helga from behind, admiring the pink bow sitting atop her golden head.

His loving gaze in her direction apparently had garnered her attention, and as if sensing his eyes piercing the back of her head she whirled around and fixed him with a threatening stare.

"What do you think you're looking at, football head?" she hissed.

Arnold returned her harsh words with an impish smile. Unaccustomed to her threats failing to deter him, much less apparently pleasing him, her face turned slightly pink. A few giggles surrounded the pair. Panicking, Helga reached inside her desk, grabbed a ruler and threw it at Arnold's head like a boomerang.
"Ow!"

"Quit staring, dingus!" Helga growled.

"Arnold? Helga?" Mr. Simmons, not having seen the ruler-tossing, turned towards the two fighting kids, "Is there a problem?"

Arnold looked at Helga who only scowled at him, then looked back to Mr. Simmons, "Um, no." he answered, "I just um… bit my… tongue." he fumbled for an excuse.

"Oh." Mr. Simmons scratched his head, "Well, um, be careful then. Right class, now returning to the lesson plan…"

Mr. Simmons continued on with his agenda for the coming weeks as Arnold glanced fleetingly at Helga, then reluctantly turned his attention back to Mr. Simmons and academia. Arnold would have felt confused if not for the bitter sense of abandonment and sorrow hadn't been foremost on his mind. After their experiences this past summer, he thought he had Helga figured out at last, and now he sadly realized just how little he still understood.

As class gradually transitioned to the lunchtime period, Arnold still couldn't take his mind off his little altercation with the girl he in his mind now considered his girlfriend. Unsure of what he had done to offend her, he now sought to get to the bottom of it. Walking alongside Gerald, the two boys headed into the cafeteria and stepped into the food line behind Phoebe and Helga.

"Man, the sixth grade homework load is already more than I can take…" Gerald moaned, "And we're only at lunch on day one."

Phoebe turned her head back towards Gerald and smiled, "Well, if you need a study buddy, I'm always game." she said.

"Sounds good to me." Gerald smiled.

"And if you need any help with college prep I've already begun looking into a list of perspective-"

"Phoebe!" Helga shouted, "It's day one of grade six! Wait until you're at least a freshmen in high school for all that malarkey."

"It never hurts to plan ahead, Helga." Phoebe noted.

"Yeah, well the extent of my plans involves getting my hands on some grub." Helga said, as she filled her tray, "Go save us a table, Feebs. I've got your lunch covered."

"Saving!" Phoebe obeyed and ran off to grab a table.

Gerald and Arnold exchanged a disappointed look. Helga had shown a more mature and sensitive side over the summer, and now that they were back in the familiar halls of PS118 she appeared to have fallen back into her old habits of abusing all unfortunates around her.

The four of them shared the lunch hour together, with Gerald and Phoebe playfully flirting as Arnold and Helga said little apart from the occasional potshot they took at one another. After lunch, Arnold at last came across Helga in the hallway alone and approached her from behind.

"So… Helga?"

"What do you want, football head?" she huffed.

"What's going on?" Arnold asked, "I thought you and me were…"

"What?" Helga asked, "After all that you think I still don't hate your stinking guts?"

Arnold fixed her with a very hurt look.

"Well… yeah," he said, "I thought we were past all this…"

Helga twitched, and crossed her arms as Rhonda, Nadine and several other girls passed by them, watching them out of the corner of her eye intensely.

"Oh Arnold, won't you ever learn?" she scolded, "I'm bad. I'm as bad as they come. And even a sanctimonious little whatever like you can't just turn me over to the side of good by virtue of being you."

"Huh?" Arnold asked, "Helga, what are you…"

"Oh y'know." Helga said with a twinkle in her eye.

Suddenly she jumped behind a corner, and gestured for Arnold to follow. He shrugged then stepped into the shadows with her, out of sight of the other students. As soon as he did he abruptly found himself locked in her grip, but not the usual kind people found themselves in with her, this was more akin to a hug, though still just a little aggressively tight.

"Oh Arnold, my poor darling…" she swooned, "You undeserving target of my most twisted passion. Under the harsh gaze of the unforgiving masses, our love remains but a candle under a bushel, and so it must remain, for were it to be released it would spread a destructive fire too violent and unstoppable for the world to-"

"Helga?" Arnold cut her off. "What are you talking about?"

"My dear, my dear sweet football headed fool in love," Helga sighed, then abruptly snapped out of her daydreamy state and looked at him seriously, "Look… can we just kind of keep 'us' on the DL for now at least?"

"Huh?" Arnold asked.

"What do you mean 'huh'?" Helga laughed, "I thought that was pretty straightforward. Look, you know the truth, and I know the truth…"

"And Gerald and Phoebe," Arnold added.

"Yeah, and those two would stand by us through thick or thin," Helga said, "Everybody else? Can you imagine what they'd say or do if we made this all public knowledge?"

Arnold considered this. Their classmates at large weren't known for being sensitive on the surface, so he could respect the fact that Helga, who he knew was secretly a very sensitive person didn't want to gain their attention.

"I guess they… don't need to know…" Arnold sighed in resignation.

"Good boy." Helga patted his cheek, "Now c'mon, let's get our butts to class. And no hand holding."

"Whatever you say Helga," Arnold sighed.

When the bell at last rang and brought the first day of sixth grade to an end, Arnold stepped outside to find two familiar faces still looking in his direction as when he'd left them.

"Mom? Dad?" he asked.

"Hey, Arnold!" They both said.
Arnold couldn't believe his eyes. Surely they couldn't have spent all day waiting on the stoop for him.

"What did you guys do while I was in school?" he asked.

"Oh, we were just hanging around waiting," Miles said.

"Okay, great..." Arnold said, "You know, there's plenty to do around the city."

"Yeah, we just want to do that stuff with you," Stella smiled.

"How long were you in there?" Miles asked, "That felt like forever..."

Arnold imagined staring at a door for seven hours would feel like forever. He spotted Gerald and Phoebe and called out them.

"Hey Gerald!" he called, "Wanna meet at the vacant lot?"

"Sorry, pal," Gerald said, "Phoebe and I are going to the library."

"We have to study our anatomy." Phoebe added.

"Don't you mean chemistry?" Gerald asked in confusion.

"Right..." Phoebe said with a giggle, "That's what I meant..."

Arnold knew Phoebe was one to go study on day one of class, but seeing Gerald doing the same was a stark reminder of their heavier course load for the year. He sighed feeling somewhat saddened, but then spotted Helga heading past his parents. His parents likewise saw her and waved. Helga however walked straight past the Shortmans as if she hand't seen them.

"Wasn't that your... friend?" His mom asked.

"Yeah..." Arnold sighed, "She probably has beepers to sort. Let's just go home."

"Okay!" his parents said in unison, still smiling at him rather strangely.

Arnold's concerns had been confirmed. His parents were dearly caring people, and showed him the kind of affection he had always longed for from his biological parents, and yet, their complete lack of decorum and understanding of the basic functions of everyday life outside of the jungle was proving slightly concerning. The mere notion that they had spent the entire day waiting outside the school touched on a level of weirdness even his kooky grandparents never reached, and that combined with the demanding sixth grade curriculum and his rather baffling relationship with Helga had put a slight damper on his usual optimism. From some kind of literary or cosmic storytelling perspective, he had seen this as a well-deserved happy ending, but now feared his troubles in life were just beginning anew.

There were really two roads to go with Arnold and Helga's relationship. One being the deep, dark, psychological one I ended up going with, but I think the simpler explanation hinted at in the movie is simply that Arnold, despite liking Helga now, is still completely clueless when it comes to girls. If you look closely, what happens in the scene where Helga rebukes him is that Gerald first offers his hand to Phoebe like a gentleman, which she then accepts. Arnold sees them do this and tries to copy, but just grabs Helga's hand without her permission. She then of course rebukes him but walks away with a smile on her face that suggests she's enjoying him chasing her for a change. In my stories that'll be the simple surface explanation for why she treats him like that, but of course it gets much deeper later.

And of course his parents... my concept with them comes straight from the source. In an interview Craig Bartlett said to keep the drama going in a continuation of the show would mean that Miles and Stella couldn't stay the seemingly perfect people they appeared to be in The Journal. Yes, they're good hearted loving parents, but after what happened to them in San Lorenzo they're now kind of damaged goods and a little nuts. Not in a bad way, but they're completely out of their depth as parents and are just kind of a pair of little lost puppies at this stage, eager to please but kind of annoying in that way. This leaves Arnold in the same position of being the only sane man with two kooky grandparents and now two kooky parents as well.

Next chapter, we'll see how the new dynamic at the boarding house is...