****** ARG, so many stories I start, but I haven't finished a one
yet... arg, stoopid me *bangs head on desk* bad Tano, bad Tano! Tano is
sorry sirs (and whatever else may apply, though Tano calls EVERYONE sir...
she's crazy, you know...) but Tano will try to finish her other stories, as
well as this one. And perhaps one day Tano will be able to change out of
this pillowcase and take a real nap. That would be nice.******
****** This is a weird thing for me to be writing, seeing as all of my other stories have been H/A... I think the Triptofan (sp? Tryptofan? Tryptophan? Triptophan? whatever...) is affecting my brain. Stoopid Turkeys, and believe me, they are STOOPID. anyhoo, i guess you can call it H/B, though Im not sure how it's gonna turn out heh, you'll jest have to keep reading to find out, woncha?******
****** Hope Ya'll like it! Read on!******
Always Right Behind Her
by That Sock in the Fridge, f.k.a Tanochan, Tano for short
****** disclaimer- I own Hey Arnold! :P hahahahaha, I own the adorable footballhead, the crazy girl with the pink bow, the odd wheezy kid who's always following her around as she follows the footballhead! I own the crazy kid with the thick glasses who lacks all sanity, the stuck-up rich girl he's always sniffing, I OWN EVERYTHING!!!!!!! Yer all jest jealous cuz YOU DONT! hahahahahahahahaha *gets knocked out by a large balogna sandwich and carried back to the asylum* Man in white coat: sorry folks, we don't know how she got out again. She really doesn't own anything, so don't worry! *wakes up* BUT I DOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! *is knocked out with the sandwich again*******
He wasn't sure why but he'd always had a crush on her.
On whom? Helga Geraldine Pataki (only he knew what the G. stood for), of course. You know the 10 year old, fourth grade bully of P.S. 118. Don't tell me you've never seen her around before. Well, for those of you who haven't she may come as a bit of a shock.
At first glance you wouldn't know Helga was a bully. With her blonde hair, blue eyes, and all that pinkness-pink dress and a pink bow- you might mistake her for a goody-two-shoes. Get a closer look and there was no confusion. Helga was Helga. She ruled over all (except maybe the 5th and 6th graders) with an iron fist, nobody got in her way. If they ever did they'd have to talk to Old Betsy about it, and NOBODY messed with Old Betsy (except a few very stupid people, but we wont mention any names right now...).
He had gotten in the way of Helga and Old Betsy many times since the day they had met, many broken glasses, bloody noses and trips to the nurse. It was routine now. Besides, it was probably his fault in the first place.
What's that? Who is Old Betsy? Sheesh, where have you been? Old Betsy was the iron fist that Helga ruled with. No one is sure how she came up with that name (it is said her other fist is named The Five Avengers), but that's what it was called.
Do you know who I'm talking about now? If not, you're dumber than she thought. Everyone knows who Helga is, especially the lower grades here at P.S. 118. Helga, on the other hand, most likely doesn't know who you are, but she thinks you're stupid and most of the time she's right. Is she correct in her assumption this time? Well, if you don't want her to be right, then you better wise up.
Anyway, the story isn't just about Helga. Don't get the wrong idea, she's a very important part but technically she isn't the main character here. He is.
Who is he? Have you ever seen a boy, about 10 years old, pale, kind of wheezy with glasses and pale spiky hair? Yellow sweater, brown shoes? Chances are you haven't. Not many people notice him, few know his name. Those who have heard of him or know him call him Brainy. Ding dong? Any of this ring a bell? No? Well, anyways, this story is about him. Yeah and Helga, this story is about Helga too.
Hey, you didn't know that someone liked Helga? Well, Brainy did. If you watched Helga a little more carefully, you may have seen her talking to herself. Soon afterwards you would see Brainy pop up out of nowhere and BAM! He would be on the ground, glasses crushed. It would seem a bit disturbing to you at first, but you would get used to it.
Now I know what you're thinking. How can this boy love a girl like Helga so much when all she ever does is punch his lights out every day? Good question. Maybe if you knew a little about their lives you would find your answer to that and any other questions you might have.
The first day of preschool wasn't the first time Brainy and Helga had crossed paths.
When he was younger, Brainy's parents would work most of the time. They left him with a baby-sitter for the entire day during the summer and on weekends, and with his grandparents during the week. The baby-sitter was a thirteen year old girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, very nice. Though she was young, she was well known for her intelligence and responsibility and his parents were more than happy to pay her the $3 an hour fee she asked to watch him, in comparison to the $50 daily his grandparents insisted on. He had liked his baby-sitter. She played with him and noticed him, which were two things his family rarely did. But much more than he liked being noticed, he liked the other child that the girl watched.
His baby-sitter watched another toddler. A girl, she was about 9 months younger but she was taller than he. She was blonde like her sister and they shared the same blue eyes, although he thought the younger girl's eyes were much prettier. The first day he met Olga Pataki's baby sister, he knew there was something special about her.
His parents dropped him off the first day, early. June 21st, his 3rd birthday.
"Here are his toys, his inhaler, a change of clothes in case, oh and it's his birthday today, here's $20. Go and do something special with him if you can." His mother handed Olga a big bag and pulled a $20 bill out of her purse, and then looked down at him, "Good-bye dear, have fun with the nice baby-sitter, Daddy and I will be home later."
Olga smiled the flustered woman, "Don't worry, Mrs. Reid, we'll have fun." she knelt down beside him, "Won't we?"
Beep! Beep! Beep!
"Yes, well, we really must be going." his mother patted him on the head and ran out to the car where his father was waiting very impatiently.
Olga picked him up and waved at his parents as the drove off, "Say good-bye, Brainy." she said.
He was confused. Where were Mommy and Daddy going? Nevertheless, too shy to ask the young teen what was going on, he waved good-bye to Mommy and Daddy.
After his parents were out of sight, Olga put him down and led him inside of the house, carrying the large bag his mother had given her. She set it down beside the door and turned to him again.
"Now, what shall we do?" she said, mostly to herself, "Oh! I know, you must meet my baby sister!" she picked Brainy up and carried him up the stairs. They went into a dark room. Olga turned on the light, and he saw HER.
She turned in her sleep, curled up in the faded pink blanket that was the only other thing in the crib with her. He had never seen another child about his age, especially not a girl, and he thought she was the most beautiful thing in existence. If he had known what angels were, he would have thought her to be one, but having only just turned 3 he didn't know very much. He wanted to touch her, to feel the beautiful being that lay in a crib like a normal child, so that he would know if she was real.
"Helga," Olga whispered, "Baby Sister, wake up... we have a friend for you."
No! She was going to awaken! She was so sweet and perfect as she lay asleep, why ruin a good thing by waking her up? If she stayed asleep, she wouldn't be able to leave him like his Mommy and Daddy had.
The small girl stretched and yawned, and opened her eyes. She looked up at Olga and Brainy in confusion and innocence.
"Yay, you're awake!" Olga cheered and set Brainy down on the floor beside the crib.
No! He did not want to be on the floor, he wanted to be up there, in the crib with the little girl, Helga. As he tried to climb up into the crib, Olga dressed her baby sister in little pink overalls and brushed her hair, putting it into two little blonde pigtails on either side of her head and finished the look off with a pink ribbon tied in a bow.
"There, all ready to play." Olga said, satisfied with how she had gotten the two-year-old ready. She picked Helga up out of the crib and set her down on the floor.
Helga looked at Brainy, who was hanging on the side of the crib, trying desperately to climb into it. She tapped the little boy on the shoulder, and he fell off, landing on his well-padded bottom (although he was three on that day, he still was not completely potty-trained). Helga giggled and put her hand out to the boy, offering to help him up.
He looked at her hand, then up at her face, then at the crib from which he had fallen. Then started over again: hand, Helga, crib... until she finally pulled him up with all the strength a two-year-old could have and he found himself staring into those big blue eyes.
He never said much anyway, but even if he had been much of a talker, he wouldn't have been able to speak.
Helga, on the other hand, was a big talker. She had no problems speaking her mind except for times where she lacked the vocabulary to express herself, and she had a slight speech impediment where she would turn "R's" to "W's" and visa versa.
"Who are you?" she asked him, and he responded with silence, his mouth hanging open. He began to wheeze softly, a sign that he was nervous.
How he wished he could say something to her! But the words could not, would not come out. He was tongue-tied, lost in thought.
"Hewwo?" Helga waved a pudgy little hand in his face, "What is your name?"
He couldn't say it! He had never wanted to talk before and now it was so necessary but he couldn't! He could only stare.
Helga decided that Brainy wasn't going to say anything, so she continued to speak, "My name is Helga," she said, "I am..." she looked down at her hand, "Dis many yeaws owd." she held up three fingers, "Two!"
Brainy, unable to count himself, was quite impressed with the younger child's abilities.
q
"How many are you?"
He didn't know.
Olga had by now returned from the bathroom, and Helga, frustrated with Brainy's silence, ran to her older sister, "Owga!" she whined and tugged on the hem of the bigger girl's skirt, "Why wont he say anything? Doesn't he wike me?" she pointed accusingly at Brainy, who wanted to cry.
Olga knelt down in front of Helga and hugged her, "I'm sure Brainy likes you, Baby Sister," she assured her, "It's just... he can't speak very well... Actually, his Mommy says he doesn't talk at all. Brainy is a bit of a slow learner, Helga, we need to be patient with him. Maybe then he'll talk to us."
Slow. That was what his Mommy and Daddy and everyone else called him. Just because he didn't talk, or run around like all the other children his age. That was where the nickname came into play. They called him Brainy, something like an ironic joke because that was what they thought he wasn't. And the name had stuck, his parents even called him that, laughed at it as if it really were a joke.
But Brainy wasn't stupid. He understood, and he knew that they were wrong. He didn't talk, not because he was stupid or "slow" but because he didn't have any reason to, and didn't want to. Until he met Helga, that is. It was too bad that he couldn't explain himself, he had so much to say.
"Oh." Helga said with a pensive glance in Brainy's direction.
At this, Brainy looked down. He didn't want to see the look of pity she most likely was wearing. He looked at the tiny shoes on his feet instead. They were white and blue, blue like her eyes. They didn't help at all.
******Aww.. I thought that was kinda cute... doncha just wanna hug Brainy? Such a cutey he is... *huggles Brainy* there there, i love you sweety...******
****** K, well, I would do more but it's getting late and I wanted to get some of this up before it turned tomorrow, know what I mean? No? Eh, well, Review please!******
******Do you like it? I mean, really, do you? I kinda like my idea, I don't think anyone's really done it before... but maybe they have... this is like, the second idea that I've come up with that I haven't read somewhere else ^.^ heh... so please lemme know if I did it right, if you like it, if I should continue (most likely I will even if you don't like it, lool)******
******Wow, this is the longest first chapper I've done that wasn't mostly babble... I am... in awe... O.O******
****** REVIEW BEFORE I CATCH THE PLAGUE OR SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!! COME ON!!!!!!! IM DYING HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!******
****** This is a weird thing for me to be writing, seeing as all of my other stories have been H/A... I think the Triptofan (sp? Tryptofan? Tryptophan? Triptophan? whatever...) is affecting my brain. Stoopid Turkeys, and believe me, they are STOOPID. anyhoo, i guess you can call it H/B, though Im not sure how it's gonna turn out heh, you'll jest have to keep reading to find out, woncha?******
****** Hope Ya'll like it! Read on!******
Always Right Behind Her
by That Sock in the Fridge, f.k.a Tanochan, Tano for short
****** disclaimer- I own Hey Arnold! :P hahahahaha, I own the adorable footballhead, the crazy girl with the pink bow, the odd wheezy kid who's always following her around as she follows the footballhead! I own the crazy kid with the thick glasses who lacks all sanity, the stuck-up rich girl he's always sniffing, I OWN EVERYTHING!!!!!!! Yer all jest jealous cuz YOU DONT! hahahahahahahahaha *gets knocked out by a large balogna sandwich and carried back to the asylum* Man in white coat: sorry folks, we don't know how she got out again. She really doesn't own anything, so don't worry! *wakes up* BUT I DOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! *is knocked out with the sandwich again*******
He wasn't sure why but he'd always had a crush on her.
On whom? Helga Geraldine Pataki (only he knew what the G. stood for), of course. You know the 10 year old, fourth grade bully of P.S. 118. Don't tell me you've never seen her around before. Well, for those of you who haven't she may come as a bit of a shock.
At first glance you wouldn't know Helga was a bully. With her blonde hair, blue eyes, and all that pinkness-pink dress and a pink bow- you might mistake her for a goody-two-shoes. Get a closer look and there was no confusion. Helga was Helga. She ruled over all (except maybe the 5th and 6th graders) with an iron fist, nobody got in her way. If they ever did they'd have to talk to Old Betsy about it, and NOBODY messed with Old Betsy (except a few very stupid people, but we wont mention any names right now...).
He had gotten in the way of Helga and Old Betsy many times since the day they had met, many broken glasses, bloody noses and trips to the nurse. It was routine now. Besides, it was probably his fault in the first place.
What's that? Who is Old Betsy? Sheesh, where have you been? Old Betsy was the iron fist that Helga ruled with. No one is sure how she came up with that name (it is said her other fist is named The Five Avengers), but that's what it was called.
Do you know who I'm talking about now? If not, you're dumber than she thought. Everyone knows who Helga is, especially the lower grades here at P.S. 118. Helga, on the other hand, most likely doesn't know who you are, but she thinks you're stupid and most of the time she's right. Is she correct in her assumption this time? Well, if you don't want her to be right, then you better wise up.
Anyway, the story isn't just about Helga. Don't get the wrong idea, she's a very important part but technically she isn't the main character here. He is.
Who is he? Have you ever seen a boy, about 10 years old, pale, kind of wheezy with glasses and pale spiky hair? Yellow sweater, brown shoes? Chances are you haven't. Not many people notice him, few know his name. Those who have heard of him or know him call him Brainy. Ding dong? Any of this ring a bell? No? Well, anyways, this story is about him. Yeah and Helga, this story is about Helga too.
Hey, you didn't know that someone liked Helga? Well, Brainy did. If you watched Helga a little more carefully, you may have seen her talking to herself. Soon afterwards you would see Brainy pop up out of nowhere and BAM! He would be on the ground, glasses crushed. It would seem a bit disturbing to you at first, but you would get used to it.
Now I know what you're thinking. How can this boy love a girl like Helga so much when all she ever does is punch his lights out every day? Good question. Maybe if you knew a little about their lives you would find your answer to that and any other questions you might have.
The first day of preschool wasn't the first time Brainy and Helga had crossed paths.
When he was younger, Brainy's parents would work most of the time. They left him with a baby-sitter for the entire day during the summer and on weekends, and with his grandparents during the week. The baby-sitter was a thirteen year old girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, very nice. Though she was young, she was well known for her intelligence and responsibility and his parents were more than happy to pay her the $3 an hour fee she asked to watch him, in comparison to the $50 daily his grandparents insisted on. He had liked his baby-sitter. She played with him and noticed him, which were two things his family rarely did. But much more than he liked being noticed, he liked the other child that the girl watched.
His baby-sitter watched another toddler. A girl, she was about 9 months younger but she was taller than he. She was blonde like her sister and they shared the same blue eyes, although he thought the younger girl's eyes were much prettier. The first day he met Olga Pataki's baby sister, he knew there was something special about her.
His parents dropped him off the first day, early. June 21st, his 3rd birthday.
"Here are his toys, his inhaler, a change of clothes in case, oh and it's his birthday today, here's $20. Go and do something special with him if you can." His mother handed Olga a big bag and pulled a $20 bill out of her purse, and then looked down at him, "Good-bye dear, have fun with the nice baby-sitter, Daddy and I will be home later."
Olga smiled the flustered woman, "Don't worry, Mrs. Reid, we'll have fun." she knelt down beside him, "Won't we?"
Beep! Beep! Beep!
"Yes, well, we really must be going." his mother patted him on the head and ran out to the car where his father was waiting very impatiently.
Olga picked him up and waved at his parents as the drove off, "Say good-bye, Brainy." she said.
He was confused. Where were Mommy and Daddy going? Nevertheless, too shy to ask the young teen what was going on, he waved good-bye to Mommy and Daddy.
After his parents were out of sight, Olga put him down and led him inside of the house, carrying the large bag his mother had given her. She set it down beside the door and turned to him again.
"Now, what shall we do?" she said, mostly to herself, "Oh! I know, you must meet my baby sister!" she picked Brainy up and carried him up the stairs. They went into a dark room. Olga turned on the light, and he saw HER.
She turned in her sleep, curled up in the faded pink blanket that was the only other thing in the crib with her. He had never seen another child about his age, especially not a girl, and he thought she was the most beautiful thing in existence. If he had known what angels were, he would have thought her to be one, but having only just turned 3 he didn't know very much. He wanted to touch her, to feel the beautiful being that lay in a crib like a normal child, so that he would know if she was real.
"Helga," Olga whispered, "Baby Sister, wake up... we have a friend for you."
No! She was going to awaken! She was so sweet and perfect as she lay asleep, why ruin a good thing by waking her up? If she stayed asleep, she wouldn't be able to leave him like his Mommy and Daddy had.
The small girl stretched and yawned, and opened her eyes. She looked up at Olga and Brainy in confusion and innocence.
"Yay, you're awake!" Olga cheered and set Brainy down on the floor beside the crib.
No! He did not want to be on the floor, he wanted to be up there, in the crib with the little girl, Helga. As he tried to climb up into the crib, Olga dressed her baby sister in little pink overalls and brushed her hair, putting it into two little blonde pigtails on either side of her head and finished the look off with a pink ribbon tied in a bow.
"There, all ready to play." Olga said, satisfied with how she had gotten the two-year-old ready. She picked Helga up out of the crib and set her down on the floor.
Helga looked at Brainy, who was hanging on the side of the crib, trying desperately to climb into it. She tapped the little boy on the shoulder, and he fell off, landing on his well-padded bottom (although he was three on that day, he still was not completely potty-trained). Helga giggled and put her hand out to the boy, offering to help him up.
He looked at her hand, then up at her face, then at the crib from which he had fallen. Then started over again: hand, Helga, crib... until she finally pulled him up with all the strength a two-year-old could have and he found himself staring into those big blue eyes.
He never said much anyway, but even if he had been much of a talker, he wouldn't have been able to speak.
Helga, on the other hand, was a big talker. She had no problems speaking her mind except for times where she lacked the vocabulary to express herself, and she had a slight speech impediment where she would turn "R's" to "W's" and visa versa.
"Who are you?" she asked him, and he responded with silence, his mouth hanging open. He began to wheeze softly, a sign that he was nervous.
How he wished he could say something to her! But the words could not, would not come out. He was tongue-tied, lost in thought.
"Hewwo?" Helga waved a pudgy little hand in his face, "What is your name?"
He couldn't say it! He had never wanted to talk before and now it was so necessary but he couldn't! He could only stare.
Helga decided that Brainy wasn't going to say anything, so she continued to speak, "My name is Helga," she said, "I am..." she looked down at her hand, "Dis many yeaws owd." she held up three fingers, "Two!"
Brainy, unable to count himself, was quite impressed with the younger child's abilities.
q
"How many are you?"
He didn't know.
Olga had by now returned from the bathroom, and Helga, frustrated with Brainy's silence, ran to her older sister, "Owga!" she whined and tugged on the hem of the bigger girl's skirt, "Why wont he say anything? Doesn't he wike me?" she pointed accusingly at Brainy, who wanted to cry.
Olga knelt down in front of Helga and hugged her, "I'm sure Brainy likes you, Baby Sister," she assured her, "It's just... he can't speak very well... Actually, his Mommy says he doesn't talk at all. Brainy is a bit of a slow learner, Helga, we need to be patient with him. Maybe then he'll talk to us."
Slow. That was what his Mommy and Daddy and everyone else called him. Just because he didn't talk, or run around like all the other children his age. That was where the nickname came into play. They called him Brainy, something like an ironic joke because that was what they thought he wasn't. And the name had stuck, his parents even called him that, laughed at it as if it really were a joke.
But Brainy wasn't stupid. He understood, and he knew that they were wrong. He didn't talk, not because he was stupid or "slow" but because he didn't have any reason to, and didn't want to. Until he met Helga, that is. It was too bad that he couldn't explain himself, he had so much to say.
"Oh." Helga said with a pensive glance in Brainy's direction.
At this, Brainy looked down. He didn't want to see the look of pity she most likely was wearing. He looked at the tiny shoes on his feet instead. They were white and blue, blue like her eyes. They didn't help at all.
******Aww.. I thought that was kinda cute... doncha just wanna hug Brainy? Such a cutey he is... *huggles Brainy* there there, i love you sweety...******
****** K, well, I would do more but it's getting late and I wanted to get some of this up before it turned tomorrow, know what I mean? No? Eh, well, Review please!******
******Do you like it? I mean, really, do you? I kinda like my idea, I don't think anyone's really done it before... but maybe they have... this is like, the second idea that I've come up with that I haven't read somewhere else ^.^ heh... so please lemme know if I did it right, if you like it, if I should continue (most likely I will even if you don't like it, lool)******
******Wow, this is the longest first chapper I've done that wasn't mostly babble... I am... in awe... O.O******
****** REVIEW BEFORE I CATCH THE PLAGUE OR SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!! COME ON!!!!!!! IM DYING HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!******
