Alright so this is the beginning of my story, this story will be a prologue to the TJM fanfic that i plan to write and also this story will be centered around Arnold so there won't be any romance in it except for a few moments then and there but just that!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Hey Arnold! Arnold and the gang belong to none other than Craig Barlett

Chapter 1: It starts like this

It is a warm and peaceful afternoon in a city in the state of Washington known as Hillwood City, children playing happily on the streets, adults doing their jobs, a normal day, we take a look at neighborhood where a red building with a green door and a rather strange sign that says "no kids, pets okay" stands, a building that even though holds a modest and old look also holds a great story inside its walls and also houses a rather weird but eccentric family of borders.

The Sunset Arms boarding house has been standing on Hillwood City for God knows how long and it's also one of the city's most ancient reliques since it had an important role on what came to be known as the "Tomato war" and since that history was discovered on what came to be known as the FTi incident the big red house along with the entire neighborhood had been declared a historical landmark preventing the FTi industry and it's evil owner Alfonse Pierre Du Von Sheck from destroying it.

All of the neighborhood's inhabitants were really happy that day since they knew that their home was safe and would never be in danger of going down again.

But they all knew who they had to thank for that…

Sitting on the edge of the roof of the boarding house casually watching the sunset is a kid with golden blonde hair sticking up and pointing in all directions and bright green eyes that resemble two beautiful emeralds that could easily hypnotize someone but the most notable detail about the boy would be his oblong shaped head or as some people like to call it football-shaped head.

10-year old Arnold Crystal was leaning on the edge of his house watching the sunset with his famous half-lidded smile, something he had gotten used to do for a while now, he couldn't describe it but there was just something so relaxing about watching the sunset something that always managed to make him have a feeling of warmness.

Arnold hadn't changed much in appearance except for his clothes; he stopped using his blue sweater and traded it for a white t-shirt that he wears underneath his unbuttoned plaid shirt and also wears blue jeans and he also traded his black shoes for a pair of white and blue ones but he still wore his usual blue hat on top of his head which he would not change for anything in the world but aside from his clothes no big changes, just same Arnold.

The football-headed boy had gained quite some fame around the city not only for being considered the hero who saved not only his home but the home of much other people but also for all of the good deeds he had accomplished in the course of his young life, he had been the boy who had put a forgotten singer back on the map, the boy who had encouraged an old writer to publish a book after years, the boy who had healed the teenager known as "stoop kid" of his fears, the boy who had cured the kid known as "chocolate kid" from his obsession, the boy who had defeated the champion of eating at the eating contest, the boy who had freed a poor turtle from its prison at the aquarium, the boy who alongside his grandmother saved the circle theater from being destroyed and also much more known by his latest achievement, saving his neighborhood from the evil corporation Future Tech Industries and had its owner behind the bars after having exposed him to the people.

But of course, Arnold did not take all the credit for saving the neighborhood, he had to thank his best friend Gerald Johansen for being by his side all the way and also for providing his support to him because if it wasn't for Gerald and his bus-driving skills he couldn't have probably made it back to the neighborhood in time, for this Gerald had also been considered a local hero and had also gained some fame himself which he often used to brag about to his older brother Jamie-O whenever he started to tease him and of course his parents were proud of him, in the newspaper Arnold and Gerald were labeled as being "a real-life kid version of men in black".

Gerald hadn't changed too, just a little bit of his clothing; he ditched his red 33 t-shirt and started wearing a red 33 jersey but still kept his same jeans and his same white and red shoes and he also kept his same hairstyle and he still had his secret crush on Phoebe though it is pretty obvious they like each other.

But Arnold knew there was other person he had to give the most of the thanks…His source Helga G. Pataki.

Helga had been the one secretly helping Arnold and Gerald all the way under her cover of "Deep voice". Arnold had to admit that if it wasn't for Helga he probably couldn't have saved the neighborhood and he was deeply grateful to Helga for having helped him but every time he thought back on this he couldn't help but think about that moment on the top of the building when he discovered that she was deep voice…Their kiss.

Of course, Arnold had made some thinking about this, the way she confessed to him and the way she had kissed him, forcefully and passionately, but still at the end of that day they had agreed that it all had been in "the heat of the moment" but after thinking about it Arnold started doubting on Helga's agreement.

Arnold had been having his suspicions for a while now as he thought back on all the other times Helga had helped him like the time when she convinced her father to fund the allegoric car for the parade and the time she had fought alongside him and their friends to save Mighty Pete from being destroyed and according to Mr. Bailey she had been the one who helped him find Mr. Hyunn's long-lost daughter Mai at the last minute by giving up her own Christmas gift.

Helga hadn't changed at all, she still wears her pink dress and her white shoes, still has her blonde hair in pigtails and still has her unibrow and of course still wears her pink bow over her head.

Arnold knew that she couldn't hate him after all she had done for him but he understood that Helga needs time to adjust to her feelings and to gather enough courage to come out of her shell but Arnold also needed time to figure out his own feelings since he didn't know if what he felt for her was actually love or if it was just a sense of gratitude towards her for all the things she did for him, but Arnold also knew about Helga's fears and he knew that her fear was not only of rejection but she was also afraid of what their classmates would think because Helga knew that if their friends found out that she was in love with her victim they would just look at her as another target to pick on but Arnold knew that it wasn't going to be that way.

He knew that if their classmates were really their friends then they wouldn't make fun of them and just go with it, of course he wouldn't expect this from someone as immature as Harold but that was Harold for you, he was always making fun of the first thing he could thought but Arnold would not care about everyone's opinion because Arnold knew that love isn't something someone should be embarrassed about and Arnold was not about to let his friends take control of his life and he would make Helga see this one day.

But his own question still remained unanswered…Did he love her?

Shaking his head Arnold looked at the sunset once more and decided to go for a little walk to clear his mind a little, he stood up climbed down through his skylight and into his room, he exited his room and descended the stairs walking down the hallway where he ran into his grandpa, owner of Sunset Arms and historical "War hero", "Steely" Phil Crystal who was coming out the bathroom or as he liked to call it his "office".

-"Hey short man ¿where are you going?" Phil said holding a newspaper under his arm.

-"just going to take a walk grandpa" Arnold said.

-"Really, well I'm surprised you don't usually take walks out at this time of the day ¿is something wrong?" Phil asked.

-"No, not at all grandpa, I just need to clear my mind for a while" Arnold answered.

-"Okay short man but be back before dark, it's almost dinner time" Phil said.

-"I know, grandpa, I know" Arnold said going down the stairs.

As Phil watched his grandson descend the stairs he smiled to himself knowing exactly what Arnold was thinking about given the case that he was in Arnold's position when he was a kid and also because Arnold had already told him all that happened on the FTi building during his escape and his kiss with Helga. Phil had a feeling that Arnold & Helga were meant for each other and he knew that Arnold would see this one day; he knew that Arnold would follow his instincts just like he did with Arnold's grandmother and just look at them now having been married for years with an amazing son and a wonderful grandson.

But at the moment Phil thought about his son, Arnold's father, Miles Crystal he wondered if Arnold was actually thinking about his problems with Helga or if he was thinking about what had happened 2 weeks ago just 2 days before his 10th birthday, Phil sighed and just decided to leave Arnold to take care of his thoughts.

When Arnold reached the first floor of the house he saw his grandmother Gertrude Crystal or as his grandpa liked to call her "Pookie" doing one of her scenes of being Gwana hunting a fly in the kitchen, Arnold smiled to himself and opened the door to exit the boarding house and letting in the usual stampede of animals leadered by his pet pig Abner.

Arnold exited the boarding house and started walking down the sidewalk thinking about the discovery he made 2 weeks ago, of course everyone thought that stopping FTi form destroying the neighborhood had been the boy's greatest achievement but for Arnold his greatest achievement and miracle had happened on the saddest day of the year for him, October 5th, that discovery was what he was mainly focused on right now.

Just two days before his birthday on the anniversary of the day his parents left Hillwood City he unintentionally found his father's journal in which he had written all of his adventures in San Lorenzo, the way he met Arnold's mother and the way Arnold was born but that wasn't what caught most of the attention on Arnold's mind, it was something he had discovered later that night

The map…

Arnold had discovered a map on the last page of the journal which in his opinion was his greatest discovery and this made him wonder if by finding the map destiny was trying to send him some sort of signal that it was his time to go to San Lorenzo.

After telling his grandparents about the map they wondered what they could do with it, they thought they could handed it over to the police, but Arnold knew this wasn't a good idea since they probably just go but would find nothing since they didn't know anything about what they would be looking for.

The police didn't know anything about the green-eyed people which were the reason why Arnold's parents returned to San Lorenzo, he knew that if they went to look for his parents they would find nothing and would just conclude the mission as failed.

Arnold decided that he would not give up the map; he knew that if he wanted to find his parents he had to stand up to the challenge and go to San Lorenzo himself. But the question was ¿how could he?

Even though his grandparents owned the boarding house they didn't had enough money to send him to another country and of course they wouldn't let him venture of by himself in a jungle.

Snapping out of his thoughts Arnold looked around and realized that it was already dark so he decided to run back to the boarding house before the street lights went on.

As he reached the boarding house he took one last sight at the moon wondering if his parents were looking at it right now wherever they were…

After dinner Arnold went back to his room and slipped out of his clothes and into his PJ's before he reached into a shelf on his computer desk where he had the journal, Arnold looked at it and opened it to go to the last page and see the map, Arnold looked at it and then raised his head to look at the stars in the night sky through his skylight, he remembered that he had bowed to find a way to reach San Lorenzo and go looking for his parents and he would fulfill that bow.

He would go to San Lorenzo.

He would find the green eyes.

He would find his parents.

He just needed to wait until the chance came and he knew it would come eventually.

-"I promise you guys, I'll go there and I will find you even if I have to do it alone" Arnold thought.

With this clear Arnold put the journal back on its shelf, went to bed and drifted off to sleep peacefully looking at the stars through his skylight.

-"I promise to find you Mom and Dad".

Author notes: Okay so this was the beginning of my story which will be a sort of prologue to my TJM fanfic so I'll make ssome things clear, this story will have no romance in it just a few moments so if you're an arnoldxhelga fan i don't know if you'll like this story, and also i do know that Arnold's last name is supposed to be Shortman but in my universe Crystal is his last name since the Shortman last name was not actually confirmed *sigh* if only we could've had the jungle movie *sad face*.

Well anyway this is the beginning of the story and stay tunned for more updates! See ya.