Wow. I can't believe I'm about to do this. I NEVER thought I would start writing a full-length story...but I am.
I'm new at this. I've never done it before IN MY LIFE!
This is what I see happening if Arnold and his friends graduated from High School and went to college.
Hope you enjoy it!
This story is dedicated to Janine Christine Galistan :)
Anxiousness. This is how I'm feeling right now about writing this story. This is my first time writing fan fiction, and first time writing a long narrative story just for fun. I'm mostly doing this because I have caught myself during classes taking notes, which leads to day-dreaming and more thinking, mostly about Hey Arnold and what would happen if the kids were all grown up. I know this has passed through many of our minds from time to time, but I thought I would share my version. Before I jump right into the beast, I would think filling you, the reader, in on the back-story would be most suiting, seeing as the last we heard from Arnold and the gang was in fourth grade.
***This story is based on an alternative timeline that goes with the idea that there was no "Jungle Movie" and Arnold never goes to San Lorenzo***
The day is the 27th of May in the year 2011. This is the date Arnold and everyone else has been waiting for, graduation. But wait, you're probably wondering if his entire class stuck together throughout Middle School and High School. About half of the kids stuck around till Senior year, while the others either moved away or dropped out.
Curly was the first to go. Later in elementary and into seventh grade, Curly especially started going crazier than usual. His parents around the end of seventh grade decided to take him out, thinking school wasn't the right environment for a kid like Curly. After that, no one really knows the whereabouts of Curly. Stinky, not being blessed with a wealthy family, decides that he needs to raise more money for his family, which results in him dropping out during sophomore year of high school. He's able to find a steady job in Hillwood and stays in Hillwood working for his family. Rhonda's family ends up moving away from Hillwood. In eighth grade, Rhonda's dad received a call about a promotion, and a big raise. Unfortunately, the job was located in Boston, the complete opposite side of the country. Even though most of the kids in her class saw her as stuck-up, Rhonda up till her departure created a better relationship among her classmates and learns not to show off her wealth. Rhonda still kept up with the class and was good friends with most of the class. The only other person in the class to leave was Lila. In freshman year of high school, Lila's dad was actually able to find a job, but in the adjacent town of Hillwood, so ends up going with her dad to live in the neighboring city.
As for the kids that decided to stick around...
Even though Rhonda and Nadine were close like Helga and Phoebe were, Nadine was able to cope without Rhonda and ended up starting new relationships, which lead to her following Phoebe around, which would still hang with Helga. At a early age, Nadine decided she wanted to spend the rest of her life studying bugs and traveling all around the world in search of new species. Nadine ends up being accepted at a university in Washington state which she plans to study Entomology, the study of insects.
Sid grew up to be an older version of his elementary self. He was a guy that anyone could hang around, but he also had his "hoodlum" side. He never bullied anyone or came close to hurting anyone. Sid was more of the kid that just wanted to cause mayhem for the heck of it, just for laughs. He would always be sent to the principal's office, "learn his lesson", and continue the mayhem. Even thought he went through many different phases of dream jobs in his future, when it came to deciding what he wanted to major in, he couldn't decide. So, Sid decided that the first year out of high school he would find a job in the city and work the first year. Sid was able to find a job at a local pet store and plans to work there for a year, which then he would hopefully have decided on a major to study.
Harold still has his tough guy personality, but has definitely created a friendlier side to him, making him more social-able around others. In high school, he ends up succeeding in sports, particularly football. So much, he actually made the Varsity team as a freshman. His junior and senior year, he ends up being listed as one of the top centers in the state. Because of this, Harold ends up picking up a full ride football
scholarship at Washington University.
Brainy does stay till senior year. As in elementary, he's kept to himself, yet he did get better at interacting with the other classmates and talked more than a sentence here and there. No one knows really what Brainy's intentions for after high school are, but Brainy has hinted to the other kids that he's very interested in statistics, occasionally blurting out random stats during conversations, having most of the classmates think he might go to college to study statistics and/or mathematics.
Eugene throughout Middle School and High School ends up doing pretty well in his curriculum. Eugene, knowing good and well his unfortunate bad luck, doesn't participate in too many extracurricular activities. Eugene throughout high school becomes very active in the Student Council, his senior year becoming the Vice President of the Student Council. Eugene also participated in One Act Play, working as the light technician for all fours of high school. During junior year, Eugene realizes that because of his past and how bad he's been injured, Eugene realizes that he wants to do something with medicine, to help out other people with their problems. Eugene plans on going to college for med school, even though he doesn't have an exact occupation picked out just yet.
Phoebe stays as the smartest in the class till senior year, which she becomes the valedictorian of their class. Phoebe also scored a 2300, just short of a perfect score, which leads her to receiving many scholarships resulting in her going to any college for free. Phoebe decides on a college in southern England which while studying economics and mathematics, she will also be studying their culture and society as she's never been outside the country before. Even though her parents are a little sad she'll be far away from home, they're happy for their daughter and support her going to England. As for her relationship with Gerald, it's at a halt. Since later elementary, Phoebe and Gerald haven't "technically" been together, but they were as close as Arnold and Gerald were, and contrary to much speculation, the two never actually dated. This was because even though Phoebe felt much passion for Gerald, she also did care about her future, which meant college and her future job. A couple of occasions Gerald has tried to officially ask her out, but Phoebe, even though loving him much, declines stating that "You're important to me Gerald, you really are! But I also have to think about my future, and that means college. And I fear if we go further and get too involved, I might see a drop in grades, which would result in stress and constant studying, which would result in me ignoring you, which I don't want you to go through. I think it might be best if we stay very good friends." And Gerald loving her and knowing what she means, he always accepted it and continued with his life.
Gerald stays Arnold's best friend throughout middle school and high school. Gerald also finds his passion for music and decides he wants to study music composition in college. Not too surprise of an event, Gerald ends up deciding to go to the same college as Arnold is going, which they will be roommates. Gerald does indeed love Phoebe, but also understands her situation. He knows that she's set to achieve great things in life, but might be held back because of him and devoting too much time to him, resulting in drop of her grades in school. Even though he has periodically been frustrated with the situation, he always thinks that because he loves her, he shouldn't be frustrated at the situation and support Phoebe. As Arnold and Gerald are very close, Gerald and Phoebe become very close, hanging out with each other almost as much as hanging out with Arnold. As for Gerald and Helga's status, it didn't take too long for Gerald to cope with Helga and start to really know her, seeing as his best friend's interest was Helga (which I'll get to shortly) and his love interest was close to Helga.
Helga's middle school and high school life was, well, interesting and eventful. Helga still felt the same about Arnold, and even though they know each other's feelings, which I'll get to later, she still had a shadow of a doubt, which led her to not ever asking him out. To keep her mind off of Arnold, Helga dated other guys. Throughout middle school and high school, Helga dated a total of seven guys, most of the relationships lasting for MAYBE a couple of months. And even thought this would work sometimes, even while she would hang out with her boyfriend, even making out, she couldn't stop thinking about Arnold and would imagine making out with Arnold rather than her boyfriend. Throughout middle school and high school, she lost a little bit of the bully inside her, and built up a rebel personality, not caring about other people's opinions. She would be snogging her boyfriends in the middle of public, sometimes during school in front of everyone. Sometimes, she tried to be different and stand out from the crowd, just so she could feel special. As for Arnold and her relationship, even though they were never together, they both created a unique, and strong relationship. After Helga would be going through a break up, or if she just was having a bad day, Arnold would always be there to answer her phone call. Both would call each other when feeling down, and the other would be able to comfort the other. As I said, they aren't together, but both know how the other feels about them. Helga knows that Arnold has some feelings for her and Arnold knows Helga loves him, but both feel that in this situation, Helga should be the one to break the ice. After all, she's the one that's been in love since preschool. During middle school and high school, Helga, Arnold, Gerald and Phoebe ended up becoming very close and started hanging out all the time. Even when Helga would be in a relationship, she would always find time to hang with the other three. As for Helga's interest after high school, after writing so much poetry in elementary and middle school, and later writing full blown stories, Helga decided it was only fit if she majored in English and become a writer. She will after college attend the local college in Hillwood, seeing as her family won't provide her with much money, and study English.
Arnold has gone through much change throughout middle school and high school. By change I mean change of opinion of Helga. Around sixth grade and seventh grade, when Helga was becoming more approachable and friendlier toward Arnold, he would occasionally talk with her, and later hanging out. This was before Helga started going out with anyone and she was internally trying to make up for the years she tortured him. Yes, after all the time she tortured Arnold and asked herself why she wouldn't stop, well, she finally stopped. Even though Gerald and Phoebe had a thing in later elementary, the two started hanging out quite a bit in later seventh grade and onward. Because of this, Helga and Arnold would hang out with them, which brought the two even closer. Unlike Helga and her seven relationships, Arnold only was in one throughout middle school and high school. Her name was Amanda, which was from a different elementary school and middle school, so the two didn't meet till high school. It lasted from later ninth grade that lasted through half of sophomore year, which ended up failing, Arnold losing the interest that he "thought" he had. The day he broke up with Amanda and went over to Helga's house to talk with her while her third boyfriend wasn't over, that was when it hit Arnold and he had his big epiphany...he actually truly loved Helga back. Even though this was true, Helga was in a relationship, and would have felt selfish and would have felt foolish, not being interested this entire time and waiting till she's with someone. Arnold felt in this situation, it would be best for Helga to be the one to set off the sparks. Even though Arnold never told Helga, from times they hung out and talked after that day, Helga realized Arnold had feelings for her. Even though she felt joy over it, Helga was still hesitant about asking him, still having some doubt in her head. Anyways, she was "trying" to prove a point and would have felt weak if she gave in to her deepest desires of being with Arnold. So she kept dating other guys, but stayed close friends with Arnold. Arnold during later high school decided that he wanted to do something with computers and technology, and specifically messing with the hardware and fixing and building new gadgets. Junior year, he decided he would want to major in Computer Engineering. No to much surprise, Arnold got accepted and enrolled into the same college Gerald did, which they will room together.
Now you know everything up to this point. It's May the twenty seventh in 2011. It's about 5 o'clock and everyone is getting ready for graduation. As we approach the beginning, let's see what Arnold's thoughts are as he's getting ready for his big day...
