Wow, I was planning for Girlfriend to be a one-shot, it's that kind of story, but plans change for people who ask nicely. Or praise me. I like both. But rather than continuing on the way I started, I've decided to use Girlfriend as the pilot and this as the rest, sort of like a movie with a TV series spin-off. It will be written slightly differently, but hopefully not too differently. That being said, I don't know exactly where this one is going, but I hope it goes in the same directions as the title, otherwise it will make absolutely no sense. I'm going to try to have one chapter per character, with it tying up in Arnold's POV.
I still own nothing except the laptop I wrote this one. No lyrics today.
It was a Monday morning and, for once, Rhonda was ready for school early. After Helga's gutsy performance in the talent show Friday, Rhonda was sure the entire school would be buzzing with rumors and speculations. She had a few of her own, of course, and they were likely to be much more realistic that most due to her having known Helga since they were quite young.
Rhonda walked quickly into the foyer, startling Edward, the family's butler. "Oh, Miss Rhonda, I am sorry, I did not realize you needed to be at school early today. I'll just have Willis bring the car around."
Rhonda glanced at the grandfather clock at the other end of the room. She was earlier than she had realized. Nadine probably wouldn't be ready to go if she left now. "No matter, I think I'll watch a bit of news before we leave."
Twenty minutes later Rhonda was seated in her car outside of Nadine's house. She knew that her best friend had insight on the situation that she did not. After all, Nadine planned on becoming a world renowned scientist, and you could not be a good scientist if you were not observant.
Nadine walked out of her house and joined Rhonda in the back of the car. "I take it you've been contemplating the Helga ordeal. It's probably all anyone will talk about today."
Rhonda nodded, waiting for her friend to continue. "I'm sure I mentioned this to you years ago, but Helga despises Lila. It was something that I pondered over back when she first moved here. I came to the wrong conclusion back then and I see why now."
"I vaguely remember you mentioning that, though if I remember correctly, most of us knew that she did not care to be friends with Lila."
"Yes, it was something that has plagued me for years. On one hand, Lila is everything that Helga is not. She is kind and sweet, polite and well liked. Back then she was a breath of fresh air. Helga was, and still tends to be, rude and bossy. We've all known her since preschool. Helga does not care much for changes. I thought that those differences accounted for her disdain toward Lila, but there was still something missing."
"And you knew all of this before last Friday?" Rhonda raised her eyebrow at her friend, unsure of where this conversation was going.
"Of course, I could tell you something you had never noticed about every single member of our neighborhood group, including yourself." Rhonda raised the other eyebrow. "Anyway, the point was I never could figure out what the missing link was. Back in P.S. 118 I was too unaware of emotions and their outward affect on immature children, and since then Helga has gotten much better at hiding things. If I'm not mistaken, Brainy was the only one who ever paid much attention to Helga, besides Phoebe, that is, and best friends don't tell."
Nadine and Rhonda both took a moment to remember Brainy. He had actually become quite attractive over the summer between middle school and high school. He asked Helga to the homecoming dance that year, and after she turned him down totally and completely, though not at all rudely, his family moved to England. Rumor had it he'd been in love with her for ages, and did not want a constant reminder of what he could never have.
Rhonda thought of him every now and then. If she had known how he would turn out, she probably would have given him the time of day he deserved when they were little. His family was ridiculously wealthy after all.
Nadine's next sentence snapped Rhonda back to reality. "Helga has been in love with Arnold since Lila moved to the neighborhood at least, probably much longer for the intense anger she showed toward her."
"What!? That's ridiculous. She was downright cruel to him. She always was. It was one of the first things I remember about him. I always wondered what he had done for her to unleash most of her wrath upon him."
"Yes, it was always him that she bestowed the most of her attention on. She didn't give most of us the time of day unless we happened right in front of her."
Rhonda gaped, rather like an extremely unattractive fish, at her best friend. She understood exactly what Nadine was saying, but was having trouble wrapping her mind around it. Helga had always been in love with Arnold. It was why she hated Lila.
It was completely the opposite of Rhonda's original chain of thoughts. She was inclined to believe that Helga's hatred of Lila had prompted her to try to steal her boyfriend away.
"How will all of this affect Arnold?" Rhonda had always thought highly of Arnold. He was there to help anyone and everyone, no matter what. Perhaps now would be a good time for her to repay a favor.
"That all depends on the exact motives and the outcome. But he should be fine. He's smart. He's not going to dump Lila just because Helga puts on a good show. Likewise, he won't stay with Lila if their relationship isn't going anywhere. He won't want to lead either of them on."
"People will take sides." Nadine was smart enough to know that Rhonda was actually unsure of what to do. They had been through far more with Helga, but she was also the one trying to steal someone else's boyfriend.
"As of right now, there is no side to take. If one of them sincerely needs our help, and they come to us in a professional manner, then perhaps we will help them. But right now, Lila has everything going for her. She is already in a relationship with Arnold and he will not cheat on her. Everyone loves Lila. If Helga pulls something nasty—" But before she could finish answering her friend, a conversation from a year or so back resurfaced in her head.
"Rhonda, we could be totally wrong! I can't believe I accepted information as a fact without actually verifying it."
"What do you mean? Does Helga not like Arnold after all?" Nadine shot Rhonda a look.
"Of course Helga likes Arnold. That's not what I was talking about. What if some of our assumptions about Lila are false? When we met Lila we thought she was too good to be true, but when she never faltered, we called her perfect. But what if, by then, we were so in awe of her that we never looked any deeper?"
"Why would you think there was a need to look deeper? We've known her for seven years and she has always been sweet and polite. If she wasn't, don't you think she would have slipped by now?" Rhonda crossed her arms and waited for her friend to reason that out.
"Perhaps she has slipped, but we never noticed. It all comes down to something Phoebe mentioned to me once. Phoebe was concerned because she'd been increasingly annoyed with how Lila was treating Helga. Phoebe felt like Lila was talking down to Helga, trying to make her feel inferior. Phoebe had never noticed this side of Lila before and she was concerned that Helga's disdain for Lila had begun to rub off on her. What if it was really the opposite? What if Helga's disdain merely canceled out the awe that the rest of us have for Lila? What if Phoebe was actually seeing Lila clearly?"
"I'd hate to think that I have been so in awe of Lila for all these years that I can't recognize a fraud."
"But we know nothing of her personality from before we met her. Keep in mind that Helga was already quite the actor by fourth grade. Why wouldn't Lila be able to hide things just as well?"
"Wow Nadine, you have a point there. But what does all of this mean?" Rhonda was more confused that she had been in a long time. Perhaps it would have been better if she hadn't woken up early. Her brain was already tired from the weekend hosting a cocktail party with her parents. That was why she'd had to wait until this morning to speak in depth with Nadine anyhow.
"It means that we do what any good scientist would do; we sit back and observe. Once we have enough evidence to support a theory, we will redirect our course of actions."
