Takes place during the "Magic Show" episode.
"Make Helga disappear!" One kid shouted from the crowd.
"Make Helga disappear! Make Helga disappear! Make Helga disappear!" Everyone started to chant.
"Alright, you bunch of clods! I'll do it! I'll go in the stupid box!" Helga marched up the stairs, onto the stage, and into the large box. She stood in the box with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.
"You don't have to do anything, just stand right here." Arnold informed her with a smile.
"Hmph! Arnold-eenie! You couldn't make an ANT disappear!"
"Helga, for once in your life, would you just go along with this?" Arnold asked her, getting annoyed at her comments. Without another word, Sid closed the box door. Arnold made up a gibberish spell name and a banner that looked liked the back of the box was pulled down in front of Helga. She heard the box door open again, and the kids' in the audience gasps in awe. Then applause and cheers.
"Oh, come on! What a cheap trick!" Helga said out loud to no one in particular.
"Man, Arnold! I wish we could REALLY make Helga disappear." Helga overheard Gerald say.
"Ohhh, that's funny! That's VERY funny! I'll show that Arnold-weenie a little trick of my own." Helga pushed the back door of the box open, and started to walk away.
"Dastardly do right, burns and rubble, send Helga Pataki back on the double!" The door opened up to reveal nothing. "Um...there seems to be a technical problem here." Arnold said to the audience with a nervous smile.
Helga giggled as she started running. "Once everyone finds out I'm gone, they'll be so, so sad! Boo hoo! And then search parties will be formed on every continent! Crowds of strangers will comfort each other, weeping openly like babies!" She made an evil laugh. "What a bunch of geeks..." She muttered with a smirk. "I really fooled them. They'll all miss me, they'll all- OOF!"
(I'm gonna skip the dream to get to the good stuff! Also, pretend that Helga already got Bob a present so she doesn't have to run around places, haha)
"NO!" Helga jerked up, finding out that she was on the sidewalk, looking up at a 'No Running' sign. "It was all a dream...but it seemed so real!" She thought, then it hit her. "My parents seemed so happy, and Miriam was actually sober for once. Phoebe would have a better best friend than I ever was to her in our whole lives, and no one would miss me if I left... Wait, it all makes sense now! The world would be a better place if I didn't exist, wouldn't it?"
The Magic Show - I do not own Hey Arnold. Hey Arnold belongs to Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon...yay.
Helga got up from her spot on the ground, and started to walk back to the stage. She couldn't help but zone out on her way there. "No one missed me because I was so mean and cruel to everyone.. I have to go back and apologize."
"All magicians know that it takes..uh..48 attempts to bring someone back. So finally, here she is, Helga!" The box opened to reveal Helga, and the crowd started to cheer.
"The time is now, Helga," she thought to herself, and she began her most important apology she would ever make, "I just wanted to tell everyone that I'm so sorry for-"
"INTERMISSION! FREE YAHOO SODAS OVER HERE!" Sid shouted, which caused the crowd to cheer even louder, running to the coolers for sodas.
Helga just watched as all the kids immediately dismiss her 'almost' apology to go get sodas. "Typical. It was stupid of me to think they would even listen."
She looked over at Arnold, and she knew what she had to do.
"Arnold, I'm sorry for making fun of your magic show, and the shape of your head," Arnold was least interested in her presence, and more interested in his rubber pencil, "and I just wanted to say that-"
"You already ruined my last trick!" Arnold interrupted, looking extremely ticked off.
Even though Helga understood he had every right to be angry, him looking at her like that still hurt her a thousand times worse than she had expected.
"But..but I was gonna say that I.." She suddenly couldn't form her words into sentences. At this moment, she remembered what Gerald had said to Arnold earlier, about wishing that he could actually make her disappear, and the dream she had.. Both of these things were not helping her confidence in this situation.
"What? I'm listening," Arnold said more calmly, but still annoyed.
"Well..I..I.." She felt a sudden lump in her throat, "no. Don't you dare cry."
Arnold began to notice a huge frown forming on Helga's face as she tried to hide it by biting her lip. His ticked off expression and attitude vanished and was replaced with concern, "Are you okay, Helga?"
Her vision began to get blurry, "I.."
"Leave. Go. Now. Hurry! You can't do this!"
Helga quickly turned her head away from him and darted off, "Never mind," was the only thing she said while heading off the stage and towards an exit.
Arnold's eyes widened as he watched her run away. This was the first time he ever saw Helga Pataki cry...
(Updated version made on 10/21/17)