Episode One: The Wild One (Part One Of Three)
"All that I want to say that even though, we've been apart for a year, I still love you", the blonde-haired boy said, smiling. "I want to get back together."
"Really?"
"Yeah, really", he said, now holding the pink-haired girl's hands. "Not everything we went through was your all your fault – in fact most of it was mine. I was such a stuck-up, self-righteous, perfectionist, who did nothing but snub my nose up at you and all your friends … I also shouldn't have done those things you told me not to do. I was always provoking you all those times …. I mean I can't believe I got mad at you just for checking my phone without permission! I didn't need to have all those female-friends I had! And I definitely shouldn't have talked back during arguments! I deserved all those times you so-justly retaliated!"
The pink-haired girl was flawed by what she seemed to believe was her ex-boyfriend's rightful apology.
"I shouldn't have been so downright irritable, infuriating, sexist, and misogynistic! But it's just a natural part of my gender's many, many flaws and inferiority to the female gender!"
"You're serious?"
"Well, my lack of self-control when it came the subject of sexuality, made it so obviously apparent!"
She rested her head on his shoulder.
"I was wrong to think I could do better than you! You're perfect! I'm the one that's imperfect!"
"Well, duh, of course!"
"I mean I want you back … that's if you could ever forgive me!"
"It's not going to be that easy, Buckoo", she said pulling back her hands, and putting them on her hips. "First you have to get down on your knees!"
The blond boy happily got down on his knees to beg her forgiveness. "I'm down on my knees!"
"And?"
"And I want you back! I was stupid! I'm an idiot! I'm an asshole! You're great! Magnificent! So loving! Kind! Reasonable …"
The alarm clock going off is what brought the blue-eyed, pink-haired, peachy-toned adolescent girl out of a drunken sleep. Her head pounded with the bass from the Metal that Joey and Carlos were blazing in the room next to the one she was in – matching the hangover she had from the night before. Looking around for ten seconds, she realized where she was. She hadn't planned on sleeping in, since she never usually did. She was going to go out and drink a bit with some friends but the hours had flown by … from the looks of it apparently so had clothes. It was far from the unusual though.
"All my life I've wanted to be somebody, and here I am.
I know what I've got, and there ain't nobody gonna take it away from me.
So let me tell ya what I am!"
I'd like to think I was an average teenaged girl. But everyone that ever knew me, knows I was anything but. Growing up I went from the very socially awkward, aggressive, but emotionally-fragile conventally unattractive girl with a unibrow who thought that the best way to get her crushes' attention was to throw spitballs at him and emasculate him during games of baseball to a still socially awkward, still angry, emotionally fragile girl that no longer had the unibrow but was virtually stick-figure – who probably couldn't find a boyfriend to fit her liking if her life depended on it. The 'perfect boy' with the 'corn-flower' was long gone even before he had moved upon his grandfather's death. He had emotionally decided he'd deserve better … and to everyone's surprise – including him – so did I. But I knew I could never do better than him.
"Ugh", she said, pushing the tatted, cinnamon-colored, curly orange-haired boy off of her. "What time is it?"
I'm a red-hot fox, I can take the knocks,
I'm a hammer from hell, honey, can't you tell?
I'm the wild one, yes, I'm the wild one.
I'm a touched-up freak on a winning streak,
I'm gonna own this town, you can't hold me down.
"What?"
"The time, Will? You got the time", she reiterated.
I'm the wild one, yes, I'm the wild one.
Well, it ain't no use, turn me loose, more, more,
I can't keep score!
"I don't know … It's like twelve", Will responded, wiping the crust from his right eye.
I've got my head screwed on, and the days are gone,
When you kept me down, and you pushed me 'round.
I'm the wild one, yes, I'm the wild one!
I'm a blue-eyed bitch and I wanna get rich,
Get out of my way 'cause I'm here to stay.
"Fuck", she blurted out, getting out of Will's bed, putting on her clothes.
I'm the wild one, yes, I'm the wild one!
Well it ain't no use, turn me loose, more, more,
I can't keep score!
Yeah!
Well it ain't no use, turn me loose, more, more,
I can't keep score!
"Where are you going?"
"To school", she said, zipping up her pants.
"School?" He said that as if he heard the most surprising thing he'd ever heard in his life.
" … I got to turn in my 7th period project."
I'm a red-hot fox, I can take the knocks,
I'm a hammer from hell, honey, can't you tell?
The wild one, yes, she's the wild one.
I'm a blue-eyed bitch and I wanna get rich,
Get out of my way 'cause I'm here to stay.
"Oh", he said smirking. "I forget how you are about that shit."
"Look, I got to go", she said looking herself over in his mirror. "That was …", she tried to search for an appropriate word. "That was … fun … I guess."
"Whatever", Will muttered, rolling over, now facing the opposite direction.
She ignored his apathy. After kissing him on the cheek, she exited his bedroom door.
Drinking was a habit I took up when I was 13-years-old. I didn't need a fake-ID to buy Rum, Crystal, Vodka, or Bloody-Marries. I just needed Miriam.
Stepping over hung-over and passed-out teens, the empty beer bottles and used plastic cups, she made her way to the bus stop which would be en route to her house.
The wild one, yes, I'm the wild one!
The wild one, yes, I'm the wild one!
The wild one, yes, I'm the wild one!
She knew no one would be home, as her mother was almost always at her job, and as for her father … she didn't know where Bob was.
Sneaking through the backdoor, she made her way up to her bedroom, to grab her BookBag.
"Bonjor, baby sister", a cheerful, smiling, young blonde woman said cheerfully, greeting her at her bedroom door.
She frowned. "Oh, hi, Olga", she said with a false façade of happiness. "Well, I'm going to leave now."
"Wait a minute, Helga."
"Damn!" Helga thought.
"Why aren't you at school?"
"I forgot my project so I had to return home", Helga lied, with a sanguine smile, hoping to win her over. "What are you doing here?" She was desperately trying to change the subject.
"Well, I was preparing to tell you, Mommy and Daddy over dinner. It's exciting", she exclaimed, before remembering her prior question. Clearing her throat, she began to speak seriously again. "Helga, I don't think that's what you were doing here. I saw your Bookbag here since last night when you left to visit Phoebe and when I called her mother said you weren't there." Olga pushed back the collar of Helga's jacket, to reveal a hickey. "I think you were out with that Will boy that Daddy told you to stay from, you fell asleep and you didn't go to school."
"She's good." Helga thought.
"I was … I wasn't … Are you gonna tell 'em?"
"No, Helga –"
"Thanks", Helga said, rushing to hug her older sister.
"You … Um … used protection, didn't you?"
"We're so not having this discussion!" Helga rolled her eyes, knowing where this conversation was headed. She tried running down the stairs, but Olga was fast on her heels.
"You're around the age that I first had 'the talk' with mommy. I think we should too."
My sister was always under the illusion that not only I was an eternal infant, but also intellectually and physically inept.
"Well, unlike you at 15, Olga, I don't need 'the talk'. I'm way past that phase", Helga said smirking at her.
"Baby sister –"
"Look, you already gave me Birth Control two years ago. I thought that was 'the talk'!"
"But you and Archie weren't thinking of doing anything", Olga asked with an eyebrow raised. "Were you?"
"Could we get off the whole 'Arnold subject', please", she asked, her voice softening and her heart-breaking. She didn't like talking about Arnold, and she saw no point in answering her sister's question. "Besides, I have to get to 7th Period."
"So you admit you're being physically intimate with Will?"
"Yuck! Why do you have to say it that way", Helga grimaced.
"He is your boyfriend, Helga …", Olga replied.
"Will and I are nothing more than friends!"
William Berkowitz was a boy that I had met when I was in 9th Grade. I always thought he was one of the most intellectually unstimulating guys I had ever met which was an automatic turn-off. Added to the fact that he had absolutely no respect for women-kind. But his impulsive-anger, misanthropic worldview, and musical talent always reminded me of myself. And as much as I would never admit it I thought him really physically attractive. He was the total opposite of Arnold, and as my discomfort with Arnold grew … so did my attraction to Will. Will was older, rougher, edgier … and more experienced. Which 15-year-old wouldn't that excite?
"I see", Olga frowned at Helga. "Helga, that doesn't seem like a very good way to find love. You know what –"
Helga couldn't believe her ears. "Look, I'm not looking for love, and if I was it definitely wouldn't be with a guy like Will!" Helga tried to make her decision easier for her sister to swallow.
"Oh, Helga, what's sex without love?" Olga was genuinely perplexed.
"A good time", Helga muttered, under her breathe, giggling at her reply.
"What?"
"Nothing." Helga tried searching for an easier way to explain her seemingly irrational decision to her church-going, God-fearing sister. "Olga, it's not like I have some emotional investment in this anyways. There's no strings attached. That's the agreement Will and I have on this", Helga stated bluntly out.
"But why would you agree to something like that?"
"Oh, why am I even going to try to explain this to you?" She was beyond annoyed at this point.
"There are always strings attached –", Olga started to bellow out. But Helga was long gone.
Arriving at school, Helga felt like she was in hell. The loud students. The bright lights. Her hang-over was getting the best of her.
"Hello Helga! I'm talking to you", a petite, yet voluptuous raven-haired young woman remarked. She was standing with a pink, tall, bulky man in a Football jersey sporting a brown Afro, a freckled-face red-headed girl in tight green clothing, and a grey-eyed, tan-skinned, golden-blond.
"Yeah, so? Move it, Princess! I'm walking here", Helga grimaced. "You got some nerve!"
"Honestly Harold, some things will never change", Rhonda shook her head. Rhonda looked down to see a desperate Curly sniffing her armpit, "Ugh! Curly! Cut it out!"
"Cut it out, Curly! Cut it out … or I'll pound you", Harold exclaimed in agreement, holding up is fist to emphasize the point.
"Rhonda, I'm ever so certain that Helga just needs sometime before she's oh so ready to talk with you", Lila said, grimacing at Harold punching Curly.
"How much time can she need", Rhonda quizzed, selfishly, now stepping over Curly's body.
"Yeah. I thought she'd be over that whole 'Arnold thing' by now", Nadine replied, puzzled.
"When I talked … with her … she ever so was …", Lila replied, wincing every time Harold punched Curly. "It may just be that … Helga just oh so doesn't like you, Rhonda."
"Whatever", Rhonda rolled her eyes. "We've wasted far too much time talking about Helga G. Pataki."
Helga walked over to the table where Phoebe, who was eating lunch with Gerald, was sitting. "Hey Pheebs."
Gerald glared at her disgustingly.
Helga didn't need to ask. She knew why Gerald hated her. She just couldn't understand his reasoning.
"Phoebe, tell your boyfriend to stop rolling his eyes, before I make them stop rolling!"
"Will's never gonna love you, you know?" Gerald chuckled.
She was beyond pissed off at this point. "I haven't even eaten breakfast … or lunch … yet, and I'm being forced to explain my love life – or lack thereof - to everyone I come across today."
"You're acting as if I'm someone who cares … He can do whatever he wants."
"Of course you care. You've been drooling all over him since before you broke up with Arnold!"
"First of all, Football-head cheated on me!"
"You drove him to it", Gerald bellowed out.
"Gerald", Phoebe stated his name in shock and horror.
"And … the break-up was mutual", she added, angrily, her ketchup splattering on the table from her tight grip. Helga rolled her eyes, "Arnold had a choice and he made it! Now tell him to stop calling my phone, or e-mailing me, or writing me fucking letters! It's getting pathetic! Criminey! He was a crappy boyfriend before and he's an even worse ex. I don't love him anymore, and I don't want to be 'friends'. He can go be friendly with Rhonda." Helga looked away from Phoebe and Gerald, trying her best to hide her pain at saying these words. "He made his bed. Now he gets to lie in that bed."
"I have told him. He never listens to me", Gerald replied, this time with a slightly softer tone. He never thought of things from Helga's perspective. It would be horrible to have the one person you think you love, suddenly betray in the worst possible way ever. Gerald asked a question that legitimately perplexed both he and Arnold, "How do you go from Arnold to Will?"
Helga shrugged. "I don't know. What's the difference between two pieces of shit?"
"So you and Will are similar, huh?"
"I've got to go, Pheebs. I don't want to have to kick your boyfriend's ass in front of you", Helga said, walking away.
"Okay. Well, bye, Helga", Phoebe whispered, watching her friend leave. She then turned at glared at Gerald, who was drinking a bottle of Gatorade by that point.
Going outside and standing next to an almost equally skinny, blue-eyed pale-skinned/green-haired boy – who was surrounded by with a green-eyed/red-head girl with piercings, a brown-eyed/light-brown skinned Hispanic girl with blue-hair, and a dark-brown eyed/medium-cocoa brown girl with curly purple-hair – she cheerfully greeted the green-haired boy, "Hi, Brainy".
Taking a pump of his Asthma medication, he replied, "Hi, Helga. Where … were … you?"
"I was with Will", she replied.
"Didn't your Dad tell you to stay away from him", the red-haired girl interjected, after exhaling the smoke she had inhaled from the blunt in her hand.
"Sam, my Dad only hates Will because he's part-Black. Not anything else", she said taking the blunt she was offered. Smoking marijuana was something almost all the kids did in her inner circle – even Arnold. It wasnot something they thought of as serious. Just something they did to bypass time. Smirking she added, "Actually, that just makes me like Will all the more …"
Brainy nodded, frowning. Listening, but not talking.
As the years had went on he had watched as I involved myself in self-destructive behaviors. Everything from my toxic relationship with Arnold to the smoking and drinking habits and partying to Will. In his eyes I had always deserved so much more, but he thought I was never willing to see it.
I knew that Brainy was still in love with me. He didn't need to say it. I didn't need to say it. But what could I do? I just didn't feel the same way. I never had a desire to date Brainy like I did Arnold. And I was pretty sure that short of getting extremely intoxicated I would never had have the attraction to Brainy, like the one I reluctantly had to Will.
"Your Dad is such a dick-hole", the blue-haired girl, stated.
"Yeah, no kidding", Helga replied. "I'm tired of talking about Will", she said, rolling her eyes. "So what's up with you?"
Brainy took another pump of his Asthma mediation, "Uh … Nothing."
"My father keeps trying to get me to dye my hair back to black", the blue-haired girl replied. "He thinks I'm worshipping the devil."
"Hey, Angela. Check this. My mom thinks the music we play is from the devil", the purple-curly haired girl, exclaimed, laughing.
"Yeah. That time she caught us with the Ouija board in your room probably didn't help, Kim", Helga replied, holding her stomach from laughing so hard as she remembered the experience.
Taking a pump from his Asthma medication Brainy looked towards Kim and said, "Yeah, your mom … still … doesn't allow us there."
"She thinks you're a bunch of crazy, White kids that's brain-washed me", Kim giggled.
"I'm not White! I'm Mestiza", Angela commented.
"She didn't get a good look at you. Remember it was dark?"
"Oh yeah."
"Was Joey … with … Carlos", Brainy asked, confused as to his friends' whereabouts.
"Yeah, he was passed out drunk", Helga remembered.
"Were they with you and Will?"
With the exception of Brainy and I, we were all in different grades. Samantha was a Freshman, while Angela and Kim were Juniors. Joey was Senior. So was Will but he would have graduated a year earlier if they ever went to school.
We weren't a group of anti-social, Devil-worshippers everyone thought we were. We were the intellectual outcasts that society had casted out for not measuring up – for not being "good enough". Brought together by our shared love of mysticism, music and the fine arts.
Song: "The Wild One" By Suzi Quatro