There was yelling some things breaking again. The yelling had gone on for 15 minutes and switching from one room to another with silences in between. It was just another night for Helga who was in her room on her bed trying to do her best to ignore it. Her room was dark and the only light that was coming into her room was the moon light. It was 12:30 a.m. and Big Bob had gotten into another fight with a drunken Miriam. There fights had usually lasted for an hour but with Big Bob coming home late again and Miriam getting drunk, it was now so normal that Helga had found ways to cope with it but lately, all her coping mechanisms hadn't been working. The fights had been getting somewhat violent but not enough for the police to be called but the neighbors were always shown concern for the 15 year old Helga - only for Big Bob and Miriam to shrug it off as if it was nothing to worry about.
At 1 a.m. the fighting finally stopped and Helga was able to sleep peacefully until she had to go to school the next morning. When morning finally came, she got dressed and headed downstairs to find that she had once again, no lunch. Miriam was passed out on the couch and Big Bob was at work. Since it was no use waking up Miriam, Helga decided to find some food to have for lunch at school. All she could do was make a sandwich and get a juice to drink.
She waited for the bus until it had finally came. She got on and sat in the front seat listening to her Ipod while the bus was making few more stops - one of which was Arnold's stop. She was up against the window when she saw Arnold with Gerald getting onto the bus. She tried not to look stupid as Arnold passed her in the aisle but inside she couldn't help but smile when she saw him.
At school she met up with Phoebe who was at her locker getting her things together for class. Phoebe looked at Helga for a moment before she could tell that she had another somewhat sleepless night.
"Are you okay Helga?" Phoebe asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Big Bob and Miriam just had another fight last night about him coming home late again while he pointed out that she was drunk." Helga replied.
"I'm sorry to hear that Helga. Have you tried talking to them about their constant fighting?" She asked.
"There's no point to it Phoebe, all they do is blow me off while Bob tells me to get out of the way of the t.v." Helga said.
Phoebe was about to respond before seeing that Helga was silent. She knew all about Helga's home life and how Miriam and Big Bob were. Phoebe also knew how bad their fights could get. Helga would sneak out of the house some nights to get some peace or to spend the night at Phoebe's house.
They got into class and they sat next to each other. Arnold and Gerald were just walking in just few minutes after them; laughing and smiling. Arnold sat 2 seats in front of Helga while Gerald sat next to him in the second seat to the right. The bell rang and soon everybody was in class. Their teacher Ms. Davis, had assign them to do a project they had studied last week in a pair. Everyone was paired up and the last 2 were Arnold and Helga. The class had worked on the project and Ms. Davis informed them that they could work on it out of class provided that each person would do their share.
"Hey how about we work on the project at your house today then tomorrow we can go to mine? We can switch days." Arnold offer to Helga.
"That's not a good idea Football Head, my house is usually noisy and we wouldn't get work done." Helga said to him.
"Oh, well we can do it at your house tomorrow, we can go to mine and we'll have a huge space to do our project." Arnold said.
"Yeah, sure. I'll meet you there." Helga said to him with a light smile.
Inside Helga felt embarrassed about rejecting Arnold's offer. She would have been more embarrassed that Arnold would see how her home life is and how little her own parents cared about her. No one had ever came over to her house except for Phoebe and only she knew how her home life really was and in return, had always offered a space for Helga at her house if need be.
45 minutes had passed before the bell rang to go to the next class. Helga offered to put the project in her locker till the end of the day and Arnold had agreed. They talked for a bit before Arnold met up with Gerald who was just few feet down the hallway. Helga looked at Arnold until he vanished into the sea of people that was now starting to flood the hallways. Phoebe had called out to Helga few times before she had finally gotten her attention.
Phoebe and Helga walked with each other until they had to go to their separate ways to their classes. Phoebe continued down the hallway until Helga saw her disappear into her classroom. Helga walked straight into her own. She sighed before taking her seat and relaxed. She never knew why she was so anxious but she was and she did her best to control it. The bell rang and everyone took their seats while the teacher came into the classroom himself.
The day was finally over and Helga was waiting for Arnold to go to his house to work on the project. As she waited, she felt anxious but a little bit excited at the same time. It was the first time Helga would knowingly go inside Arnold's house without sleep walking or sneaking in. As she waited, she saw Arnold talking to Gerald, Sid, and Stinky - although she couldn't hear what, it must have been plans to hang out on the weekend or after school tomorrow. She continued to watch as Sid and Stinky saw Harold and met up with him then saw Gerald go his own way. Arnold was then making his way towards Helga who had the project in her hands waiting. Helga had told Phoebe about being at Arnold's house after school so she rode the bus with the other girls.
"Hey, sorry it took so long, I was just talking to the guys for a bit. Ready to go?" Arnold asked her.
"Yeah, I am." Helga replied with a faint smiled.
Both Arnold and Helga started to walk to Arnold's house with their project in tow. As they walked, Arnold noticed that Helga was quiet. He wanted to ask her why she was so quiet but thought she probably was thinking about the project or something else but he didn't know how to even ask her if anything was wrong.
"Hey Helga, are you okay? You've been quiet and I was just wondering if everything was okay." Arnold asked with concern in his tone.
"Yeah, I'm okay just thinking, that's all." Helga said to him knowing she was lying.
"Oh okay, well when we get to my house, you can call your parents and tell them you'll be at my house for few hours." Arnold told her.
"I doubt they'd care." Helga said silently.
"What?" Arnold asked.
"Oh nothing. I'll give them a call." Helga told him.
They continued to walk until they had reached Arnold's house, it was still the same but Helga could see there had been some repainting. They both walked up the steps as Arnold opened the door, the animals ran out all at once and soon, Helga was about to step inside Arnold's house.