"Hey girl, what are you waiting for? Grab a seat, we're late!" the driver shouted.
The girl glared at him. She then walked over to that empty seat, her heart screamed 'act natural, act natural, act natural'.
"Morning Helga."
"Morning Football head and why are you smiling like that, huh?"
"Nothing, I am just so happy that we still live in this neighborhood, our neighborhood," he said with enthusiastic intonation.
"Yeah, glad we saved it," she said with non-enthusiastic intonation.
"Yeah, so everything's back to normal,"
"Yeah, everything's back to normal like nothing uhm…"
"Happens?"
"Right, like nothing ever happens."
They glanced at each other eyes. There a silent moment for short period of time.
"Everything just goes as usual," the boy said.
" Yeah, we go to Ps.118 as usual and then we have a class with Mr. Simmons as usual and then—"
"And then you will throw a spitball at me AS USUAL?"
"What?... Oh yeah of course and YOU will turn your head and glare at me, AS USUAL"
" And then you will say , 'What? What?' AS USUAL?"
They looked at each other and laughed.
The bus stopped. Everyone started moving and getting off the bus but the girl still sat there.
"Oh Brother! Tell me it's not real! The whole thing is completely ridiculous." she sighed and covered her face with both of her hands.
"Hey girl, what are you waiting for? Move it!" the driver shouted.
"Yeah yeah yeah!" the girl glared at him.
xxxxx
"Boys and girls, let's start our painting class. Remember you can paint anything you want. They're all must be very special."
" Can I paint lemon puddings, Mr Simmons ?" The whole class was laughing. "Of course Stinky."
"Excuse me," said the women with a short hair cut standing at the door.
"Oh Dr. Bliss please come in..."
The women walked in, her hand holding a clipboard.
"Class we have Dr. Bliss here today, observing classes as usual, just remember to be your own special selves as if nothing out of ordinary is happening."
Dr. Bliss started observing, started writing something down on her clipboard meanwhile the whole class was busy with their painting.
"Helga, what are you painting?"
"Beats me Pheebs," She said with the lost stare, her hand moving the paintbrush carelessly on the canvas. Her palette was full of black.
Mr. Simmons walked around the class checking each of students' painting. "Okay let's see what everyone got here."
"Oh Curly who is the beautiful girl you paint?"
Curly said nothing but smiling in a quirky way at the girl wearing a red shirt.
" Wow that's such a lovely spider Nadine, good job!"
"It's a cockroach "
"Right I mean a lovely cockroach haha."
Mr. Simmons kept looking around, " And what do you have Helga?" Mr. Simmons stared at a canvas with full of black splotches. "What you have here is..." He thought for a while, trying to figure it out. "..an abstract painting yeah an abstract painting, so you let others to use their imagination to interpret it, right?"
Helga sighed and rested her chin in her palm. "Whatever you say."
"For instance, I see a dragon running across the cloud with a fire on his mouth and others maybe see the different things in this painting."
"That's just black splotches," an overweight boy shouted from the back.
"Come on Harold use your I-magina-tion!" Mr Simmons spread both of his hands as if they were forming a rainbow. "So how about you Helga, what do see in your own painting?"
"I see an elephant inside a boa constrictor."
The bell rang.
"Okay class you can continue your painting after lunchtime."
Dr Bliss stared at Helga's painting. She took a deep breath and walked out of the classroom.
xxxxx
Helga walked down the hall. In her eyes, everything was blurred. In her ears, everything was noiseless. In her mind, everything was chaotic. She kept walking absently and crashed into a wall. "What a stupid wall!" she kicked the wall.
Dr. Bliss watched her in a distance. She began writing something down again on her clipboard.
"Helga, what are you doing here, let's have lunch!"
"I am not really hungry Pheebs."
Helga left phoebe and walked upstairs. She walked and walked till she appeared on the rooftop of the building. There she began talking to herself like she was on the stage performing a drama.
"Why? Why? Why should I be in this crazy situation?" the wind blew her body.
"I feel like I wanna go far far away from you but I am afraid I'll die missing you, so what should I do?" She looked up, trying to find the answer behind the clouds up there.
"Helga."
"WHAT!" she shocked. She turned round, " Dr Bliss? What are you doing here, observing students? From here? oh criminy!"
"I am not observing here, I am looking for you Helga." Dr Bliss walked closer to her
"Looking for me, what do you mean? I don't do anything wrong, I don't shock Brainy, I don't even yell and scowl at anyone today."
"Relax Helga, just because I am looking for you, it doesn't mean you do anything wrong, you don't."
"So?"
"I just noticed that you maybe in some kind of problematic situation so I am here if you need someone to talk to."
"What makes you think so? I am fine! "
" I saw your painting, I think it says something about your situation, have you ever heard the expression 'a picture is worth of a thousand words'?"
"Have you ever heard the expression 'leave me alone'?" she crossed her arms and turned her face away.
"Helga, sometimes it's not good to bottle up everything inside, you need to throw some out so you can breathe. And you know you can trust me, right?"
"Why do you always want to know anyone's problem?"
"Helping children is more than a job to me, it's my heart, it makes me happy." She smiled.
"Huh?"
"It's okay if you're not ready to say anything and need some times to be alone, I'll leave you here but if you need me you know where my office is." Dr. Bliss turned around and walked.
"Alright, alright, alright I confessed my feeling to him." Dr Bliss smiled and turned back.
"You mean?"
"Yeah, I told Arnold how I feel about him," she said as she walked toward an old grungy bench and sat there. She put both of her palms on her chin, "I was too bold!"
Dr. Bliss followed her and sat next to her, "How did you tell him?"
"Well, we were in the middle of saving this crazy neighborhood—"
"Our neighborhood?"
"Believe or not yes. Okay! maybe I was bit carried away at the time, so there on the roof of TFI I told him my deepest darkest secret and I completely regret it now!"
"Helga, sometimes it's better to regret things you've done than things you haven't."
"You think so?"
"Yeah, some people out there should live in regret for the rest of their life because they don't have the courage to do things they should. And why do you regret it anyway?"
" Because it doesn't work out, " she sighed.
"How it doesn't work out?"
" Because it never happens. I mean we both agreed that moment never happens and continue acting AS USUAL!" she rolled her eyes.
"So you told him everything and he knew everything but you both pretend it never happens."
Helga nodded.
Dr Bliss put his forefinger on her chin, her eyes blinked in wonder, "Why should it be like that?"
Helga stared absently at the sky. "You know, it doesn't really hurt if you find out the one you like doesn't like you back after you act so mean and nasty to him. But it hurts so bad if you find out the one you like doesn't like you back after you say you like him. That's why I agreed that moment never happens."
" So what you're saying that you're not ready to hear what he's gonna say about how he feel about you. You're scared that he might say something that would break your heart?"
"Yeah my world would crumble and fall if he rejected me straightaway, I guess I am not ready I mean I am a just fifth grader, it's too early to have my heart broken."
Dr Bliss giggled, "Relax Helga, your world wouldn't crumble and fall. Have you ever heard the expression 'what doesn't kill you make you stronger'?
"Have you ever heard the expression, 'what doesn't kill you make you wanna die'? Dr Bliss paused for a moment, "Those are very astounding words coming from a fifth grader."
"I know, sometime I feel like I am a total freak." She put her palm on her face.
"You're not a freak Helga; You're just a normal girl with strong emotion and deep soul. I guess love makes some people grow faster emotionally. That's the power of love. "
Helga smiled, "Really? You mean it's normal to be this dramatic?"
Dr Bliss nodded, "Sometimes you need drama to make your life more interesting."
"Yeah you're right, I once lost my love for Arnold and I felt my life completely empty, dull and uninspired."
"See?"
"But still this feeling give me headache and heart attack." she sighed again, "I guess he pretend that moment never happens because he doesn't like me back but he doesn't want to say it. I mean he's a very nice boy."
" Well, that doesn't mean he doesn't like you, maybe he's confused."
Helga's eyes grew wide. "Confused?"
" You always act mean and pretend to hate him all this time, so when you say you like him he might find it hard to believe and he needs time to figure everything out. He needs time to figure out your feeling, he needs time to figure out his own feeling. I think when everything is blurred it sounds a good idea to pretend nothing happens and act as usual."
Helga face looked brighter, "You mean there's still a hope that he likes me back."
"Of course there's always a hope out there, but remember hope takes time to turn into a reality"
" So I don't need to regret confessing my feeling to him, right?" she said, as shaking her fist.
"Right!"
"But I feel awkward around him, it's really pain in the neck."
Dr Bliss put her arm around her shoulder, "That's okay, sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone to move onto the next level. I mean you're never going anywhere if you never told him."
"You're right again, but I wondered how long I should bear this chronic awkwardness."
"Just embrace your awkwardness, once you get used to it, everything feels natural."
They took a glance at each other and smiled.
"Everything will be okay, Helga, trust me."
Helga took a breath deeply, "Hey I feel better now. I feel like I lost a weight on my shoulder"
Dr Bliss smiled, "That's the power of sharing".
The strong wind blew over them. A moment later the bell rang, "I think you have to go back to the class."
"But..
"We can talk again. you know my office, right?" Dr Bliss winked.
"Thank you Doctor, you saved my life," she said, hugging Dr. Bliss.
Dr Bliss smiled in relief.
xxxxxx
Helga walked down the stair, in her eyes everything was sparkling, in her ears, beautiful music was playing, in her mind, there was nothing but peaceful. "Oh gosh sharing is good for you soul." "I feel fresh." She stopped in an empty hall, took her locket out and looked to the left and right. "Oh my love, I am happy to know there's still hope between us. We're meant for each other. How could you be so slow to figure it out?"
Someone was breathing deeply. "Hi"
Helga turned around. "Brainy! How come you're standing behind me again? Are you following me? What's your deal?"
The boy said nothing but breathing. His hand held a cup of tapioca pudding. He walked over her and hand over it to her.
"This is weird! How do you know that I'm starving?" She ate the pudding right away and burped. "Alright, I'll take this as an apology. I am not gonna hit you this time."
She ran away and left brainy, a second later she ran back and hug him and then run away again. She ran away and ran away till she crashed into two boys.
"Arnold, Gerald I am sorry I didn't see you guys."
"It's okay Helga," said Arnold.
"Ehm ehm ehm I can't believe what I just heard, Helga G Pataki says 'sorry'. Something is not going AS USUAL." Said Gerald.
Helga felt like somebody just drop a big stone on her head.
"AS USUAL! AS USUAL! Why I should do everything AS USUAL when I don't feel like it, WHY? WHY? WHY? What a bunch of suckers. Now move it, I am walking here." She walked in the classroom.
"Now she's acting AS USUAL."
"Tell me about it Gerald!"
They both walked in the classroom.
xxxxx
"Class, please calm down, I have a very important announcement."
" Don't say you're gonna give us some exam Mr. Simmons."
The whole class was booing.
"No No listen class, please give applause to Arnold! He's winning the writing contest."
The whole class clapped their hands reluctantly.
"Me?"
"Yeah congratulation Arnold." Mr Simmons shook Arnold's hand."
"And because Arnold's winning the contests, then the whole class will take trip to San Lorenzo."
The class was silent for a moment.
"Class! We're going to San Larenzo!"
Everyone suddenly cheered and roared.
"It's terribly terribly awesome!"
"Oh Fellas I am so happy!"
"You're a bold kid Arnold!"
Review Responses
Isabelle : Thank you so much again xD it's one-shot story but yeah probably I'll continue after we got The jungle movie xD
EJ : Thank you so much :)