Cousin Hilda
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My first fanfiction.. I sure hope you enjoy reading it :)
My english isn't perfect, sorry for that ^^
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It's a warm day in August. The sun is shining it's light over the roofs of the large buildings that make the skyline of Hillwood City. The birds are singing their morning songs, and most people are getting ready for another day at work.
HEY ARNOLD! HEY ARNOLD! HEY ARNOLD! Arnold slides his blanket off and puuls out the little wire which is connected to the large potato with a football shaped head on top of it. His alarm clock immediately stops yelling his name, and the yellow haired boy gets up, stretches his arms and yawns.
He knows there's always a line for the bathroom at this time a day, so he walks downstairs to make himself some breakfast and lunch first.
"Good morning, Kimba. Sit down. I see you survived the attack of the maneating hyena's?" She gives him his breakfast in the shape of a smiley face. "Maneating hyena's?", Arnold asks with confusion in his voice. He grabs the piece of bacon and holds it under the table when nobody's looking, knowing that a certain pink resident is waiting for the crispy, greasy piece of meat. Abner swallows it in one bite, as he does every morning.
After finishing his breakfast, Arnold goes upstairs and opens his closet to search for his favorite red shirt with yellow stripes, his turquoise-like colored sweater and his light blue jeans. He walks to the first floor of the boarding house to find the line before the bathroom to be gone. "Just finished in the office, Shortman. It's all yours." The old man holds the door open for his favorite grandson.
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Gerald knocks on the door of the boarding house. Arnold rushes downstairs and opens the door while he grabs his jacket with his other hand and quickly pulls it over his shoulders. "Hey Gerald!" They perform their greeting ritual by shaking their thumbs in sync and head of to PS118.
The fresh fifthgraders are slightly taller, but that's pretty much all that has changed. Mr. Simmons is transferred to the fifth grade as well, so he's still their teacher. And all their friends are still in their class too.
They're chatting about random stuff while hurrying to get to school before the bell rings. The noise of passing traffic and horns of impatient drivers overpowers their voices while they wait for the light to turn green. "What did you say?", Arnold yells back at Gerald. "I said we should go to Gerald field after school!", the dark boy shouts back at his friend. "Ow. Okay, let's do that."
They walk on when the light changes color and a sudden bypassing wind blows a bunch of leaves forward. The two friends eagerly follow them till the end of the street, where PS118's playground is.
When they reach PS118, they notice the geeks running and jumping in circles, playing hide and seek. Eugene and Curly are dancing like girls and Nadine is petting her new ladybug friend. Most of their cooler classmates are sitting on the bench near the door, waiting for the bell to ring. It is unusually quiet though. Usually Helga's loud voice breaks that silence, yelling something like "Look who we have there, it's Footballhead and Tall Hair Boy...".
He looks around, but she is indeed nowhere to be seen. He doesn't mind at all. He does notice Lila standing near the cool group. Lila, the girl he had liked for a long time, but his love for her is over now, ever since she overheard his conversation with Timberly. But looking on the bright side, he now has more time to spend with his best friend Gerald, now that he is totally free from girltrouble and goofy feelings in his stomach.
They walk towards the group of kids sitting on the bench. "Hey guys.." Arnold says with a cool voice, while putting his hands in his pockets. The group responds by greeting back in their own special way.
"Is your dress new, Rhonda? It's ever so beautiful." Lila lifts her hands to her face, to make a gesture to emphasize her words. "Why yes, my mother bought this ensemble last week, it's made in Paris." They watch Rhonda standing up and spinning to show her new dress, which on her saying has cost a small fortune. It does look pretty nice, Arnold agrees.
One moment later, Sid, who sounds rather upset, comes running towards the group across the playground. "GUYS!" He's out of breath, he has clearly seen something amazing and has been running as fast as his short legs can carry him to tell his friends the big news. He places his hands on his knees while trying to catch his breath. "You.. wouldn't.. believe.. what I.. saw..!" He stands up and throws his hands in the air to make it look even bigger.. "I was.. ..saw Helga.. ..and then.. ..two Helgas.. and.." He is still out of breath and because of the excitement it's hard to form complete sentences
"TRRRRRR.." Before he has a chance to finish his story the bell rings. The kids get up from the bench and slowly walk towards the doors. They don't seem to be very interested in Sid's story. They know Sid tends to make a big deal out of most things. "Wait guys!", and he grabs Arnold's arm to stop him from going inside. The blond boy waits for the bell to stop ringing and pulls loose from Sid's grip. "You can tell me along the way to class. Let's go." He too knows how Sid tends to overreact on most occasions. Just last week he practically invited his whole class to his funeral because he ate a bowl of cereal which turned out to be expired.
"I was..", he pauses, "searching for my schoolbooks..", he pauses again to show his books, which he obviously found.. if he really did loose them, Arnold thought.. "in our treehouse in Mighty Pete, and I suddenly heard voices. Familiar voices. It was Helga. But she was not alone, Arnold! She was together with a girl who looked just like her! It wasn't a dream, Arnold. I know what I saw. There are TWO HELGA's!"
"Slow down, Sid. I'm sure it was someone else. Don't worry about it, okay?" Even though Arnold deep down does see his unibrowed classmate as a friend, and he does care about her, he won't show it. Especially not in front of his friends. So even though he's curious who exactly it was that Sid saw, he decides to wait and see.
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They all sit down in their seats and wait for Mr. Simmons and his 'special introductions'. The door opens, but it is Helga. "Ya are just in time, Helga. Mr Simmons ain't here yet.." Stinky announces. "Thanks for clearing that one up.." she growls while rolling her eyes. She just passed her teacher in the hallway, but even if she didn't, it was obvious that he wasn't in yet.
She walks towards Phoebe. "I saved you a spot.", Phoebe shakes her head in the direction of the seat next to her. "Thanks.." Helga sits down and lays her head down on her arms. "I'm having the worst day of my life, and it's not even noon yet!" "Really, Helga? That sounds awful. What happened?" Phoebe asks.
Helga sits up and leans her head on her hands while staring into the distance. "It's my cousin Hilda.."
Arnold, who is sitting one seat next to Helgas, looks up when hearing the name Hilda, although he doesn't remember where he heard it before.
"She's visiting us this week, and I have to spend the whole day with the geek."
"I'm sure she's not that bad, Helga.", Arnold responds
"Well, I'M sure YOU of all people know better, footballface! Being stuck with that geek Arnie wasn't a lot of fun, was it?" She turns her head and looks him in the eyes with her hands crossed, waiting for an answer. He decides not to go there, and wipes the question away with one of his clever answers. "You shouldn't judge people before you really know them."
"Look who's talking.." she mutters beneath her breath.
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A few minutes later, the door opens and Mr. Simmons enters the room. "Class! Be quiet please. I have a special announcement. We'll be having an exchange student this week. Please treat her with the same respect you all treat eachother!"
"Well, that won't be a problem.." Helga smirks, after which some laughter sounds, coming from different places in the classroom. "Please welcome Hilda."
He raises his hand at the door, making a gesture to let her know she can enter the classroom. "Please come in.."
While Helga seems obsessed by her pencil which seems to be able to bend pretty far without breaking, the rest of the class is eagerly watching the door opening to check out the new girl.
Hilda steps inside and looks self assured into the classroom. The similarity between the two cousins is amazing. Apart from the slightly lighter blond haircolor, the pony tail to the back, and their clothes, they could have been twins.
"Hey guys, I'm Hilda." She looks around. "Well.. this doesn't look all that bad. Yep, I think I'll have a great time hangin' out with these people..", she says out loud to herself.
Mr. Simmons explains some stuff to her, while dragging an extra desk into the classroom.
Stinky suddenly notices the similarity too, and informs the class. "She looks just like you, Helga, only she's prettier. And she talks just like you, only she's nicer.." Helga turns around, raises her fist and scowls: "You'd better put a sock in it if you want to make it till tomorrow, Stinko!"
Some laughs are hearable across the classroom. Gerald turns to Arnold, who is sitting on his left. "I agree with Stinky this time" he jokes, but notices that Arnold doesn't react. He's staring at the chalkboard, looking slightly confused.
"Arnold?" Still no reaction from his best friend. "Hey man, you okay?" Arnold snaps out of his daze and turns to Gerald with his eyes wide open. He leans over and whispers: "I.. I had a dream about this girl!".
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So, that was chapter one. Hope you liked it.