A/N: The sequel to the Other Side of Helga Pataki is here! And yeah, okay I realize that the synopsis of this story is, well it's just plain weird and random, but I don't think it's been touched here. And yes, the main plot of the story is Arnold's jealousy with Helga's locket. But can you really blame the guy? Helga used to monolog to him, quite often at that, and now...she doesn't. Not at this point in the story anyway. x3 Anyway, I felt like this would be fun to do, and do it I shall!

"Oh, Arnold. Here I am once again declaring my love to you from behind a trashcan," Helga said, staring at the picture in her locket. It had been a week since she was cured of wanting to confess to Arnold. No longer did she monolog at random moments, or from just a single glance. She was as before getting hit in the head with a baseball, a nutcase, but not a total one. "Even with you finally confessing the words I had longed to hear forever, all it did was revert me back into the coward I was before. When will I stop hiding from you completely my love?"

"I don't know. I wonder that myself." At the sound of his voice, Helga whipped around and quickly hid her locket in the front of her dress.

"Arnold!" She said, still catching her breath from the shock. "I mean don't go sneaking up on me you little shrimp! I mean, criminy, can't a girl get some privacy?"

Arnold studied her and nodded. He wasn't smiling. If anything he looked…bothered? "Yeah, you can…I just…well, I just wanted to see you."

Ignoring that something might have been troubling her beloved; she melted at his words, but snapped back together before it became too noticeable. She couldn't help, but smile smugly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. After Helga realized she was in full control of her emotions around Arnold again, well as much as she could be, Arnold did his best to try to bring that other side of her out. So far she was doing her best not to fall for his nearly irresistible charms. She was proving that all of those years of keeping her love from him a secret was paying off, but if he wasn't persistent…

"Well, anyway," he stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked on the heels of his shoes. She loved that he didn't question her monologing about him from behind trashcans, even when he had obviously overheard her. If anything that alone made her love him even more, but he could have just been used to it at this point in time. "That was all I suppose. I've seen you. Heh." He said, staring at her with those adorable green eyes, but there was still something there she couldn't place.

"Well, if you're done wasting my time football head," she said, backing away from him and deciding it was time to abort this mission. She wasn't sure how much more of his adorableness she could take. "I have other things to do, and better places to be. So see ya around I guess."

Helga walked away, and after glancing around, hurried around the nearest corner to get one last moment to be alone. She took her locket back out and smiled slightly. "One day my little love god, I'll be able to express these feelings I hold for you openly again. Until then it's my biggest hope that you can tolerate me for that long."

The sound of breathing appeared from next to her. Scowling, she threw her fist up and hit the boy she knew was there with the all her might. His glasses broke on impact and she dusted her hands off. "Doesn't he ever get tired of having to replace his prescriptions?" She asked nobody in particular, and went home.

Arnold was feeling confused once he had made it home, and staring at the clouds just wasn't helping. So he did the next best thing: call up his best friend. "Hey, Gerald," he said once his friend had answered. "I was wondering if I could ask you a question?"

"Sure, man. Lay it on me."

"Um, have you ever been…jealous before?"

"Me? Jealous? Please, you know that I'm a ladies man. Why do you ask? Are you jealous?"

"No, I mean yes, I mean, I don't know. I guess so."

There was a pause on the other side of the line. "Arnold…you and Helga are dating now...right?"

"Um, not officially yet. I never asked her to be my girlfriend or anything."

"Why not? You both share the same feelings right?"

"Yeah…"

"Get that resolved quickly my brother. You never wait to make it official. Jamie O does that all the time, and the girl eventually leaves him high and dry. If you both like each other the next step is obvious."

"O-okay."

"And so if that's all good, who's making you jealous? There's some other guy hitting on Helga?"

"No…but, well it's complicated."

"I'm listening. If it's not another guy then who has you jealous?"

"…I do."

"…Arnold, I'm sure it's needless for me to say at this point, but…how can you be making yourself jealous?"

"Well, it's not me, me. It's picture me."

"Picture…you?" He could almost hear Gerald raising his eyebrows at that.

"Yeah…I've noticed that Helga carries a picture of me today. And well, it bothered me." He blushed. "She was…well saying things to the picture I wish she'd just say to me you know? But instead she was saying it all to this picture of me."

"Helga has a picture of you?"

"Yeah, I was shocked too, but I wasn't sure if it was something I should bring up at the time or not."

"Uh, what was that Arnold?" Gerald said, after a moment of silence. "I'm still shocked over the fact Helga goes around carrying a picture of you."

Arnold looked a tiny bit annoyed. "I know of way more crazier things Helga has done. Carrying a picture of me around is one of the more normal things she does." Arnold said, trying to get Gerald to catch up to his current dilemma.

"That's just…wow. How did she get it?"

"Gerald!"

"Okay, okay, sorry man. You know I'm still doing my best to not overreact that you like Helga. That alone is still waking me up at night. Now, knowing that Helga actually likes you, and not just basic like, but enough to carry your picture around, even when she sees you during school hours? That's just…hard to get my head wrapped around. It's like I don't know what's what anymore."

"Yeah, me either," Arnold said growing bitter.

"What?" Gerald said, hearing the shift in Arnold's voice.

"You're right. She sees me everyday, and she still carries that picture around of me and says all of those romantic things to him."

"Uh, Arnold."

"Yeah?"

"Did you just say…him?"

"Did I?" Arnold blinked, unsure.

"Yeah, I'm sure you did, and I'm sure you know as well as I do, that, oh I don't know, it's a picture! Of you! Why are you even jealous? If anything it shows that she likes you."

"But she treats that picture better than she treats me. Maybe at this point she's more in love with that picture of me than me, me you know?"

"I hate that I actually understand what you're getting at."

"See! So that's why…I'm jealous. It's embarrassing, but I can't help it."

"Mm, mm, I hate to tell ya man, but this sort of thing is what happens when you fall in love with the school bully."

"I'm not in love! At least not yet anyway. I just…like her, like her."

Gerald sighed. His conversations with Arnold had been odd as of late, but this one took the cake. His best friend was now currently jealous of a picture of himself. If that wasn't a crazy headline he wasn't sure what was.

"Look, if you feel so strongly about this, why not just work harder at making her like you. I'm not saying change who you are, but do things to get her to notice the real you more."

"How?" The eagerness in Arnold's voice brought a smile to his face. No matter what he said, Gerald was one hundred percent sure his best friend was on the verge of loving Helga Pataki of all people.

"You know, the small stuff," Gerald said, getting into the groove of telling Arnold what he should do. "Talk to her more and be the one to initiate conversation, ask her about her wants, things like that."

"But whenever I try talking to her, she bites my head off." Gerald rolled his eyes. It was still a wonder to him how his best bud could like a girl like that.

"Pataki is a mystery, but if you're sure she likes you, then maybe you should try doing things that make her let her guard down around you."

"I don't know how anymore. It used to be a simple touch, or me saying something that would get her to lower her guard, but that doesn't work anymore since….well, since the day I confessed."

"Hmm," Gerald hated trying to analyze Helga, but if she was going to be a part of his best friends life, she was most likely going to be more in his. That was an unsettling thought. "Maybe try doing more of that then, but in a different way."

He heard Arnold sigh. "Why does it have to be so complicated? I bet she's snuggling up with that locket right about now since it's not like she enjoys talking to me."

"Uh, Arnold. I think the best thing for you to do is forget about the picture."

"But I can't! Whenever I think about Helga, I remember seeing her gazing adoringly at that picture of me in a locket that…hmm."

Gerald perked up. "Hmm, what?"

"Well, thinking about it, it sort of reminds me of this locket my grandpa used to have. It went missing before I could change the picture to one of my grandma."

"When did all of this happen?"

"I dunno, when we were in the forth grade sometime, but I wonder…"

"What are you thinking about?" He could practically hear the gears winding in Arnold's head.

"I was wondering if maybe Helga had stole it. It went missing in the basement, but even after searching every nook and cranny we didn't find it."

"You think Helga broke in your house and stole a locket?"

"Maybe, I dunno. It seems a bit farfetched."

"Glad you didn't need me to say anything this time."

"But I was thinking about something else." Uh, oh.

"Uh, like what?"

"What if I stole the locket from Helga?"

"I'm not sure that would win you any brownie points. In fact, if Helga ever learned you did something like that, she'd rearrange your entire face."

"Yeah, I thought that too, but when I think about how she would want to do that to me, it just shows that she likes that picture of me more than me."

"My head hurts every time you say stuff like that."

"But it's true! I mean sure there are occasions where I can see that she cares about me, but then there are there times when I wonder if she actually likes me. It was easier to see after I hit her with that baseball that day. And I feel bad that I feel that way."

"Well, if she was being nicer to you than she is now, I can't really say I don't see why you feel that way. It's understandable." Gerald was kind of in the loop about Helga's 'condition'. It was hard not to see (well, unless you chose not to), but he didn't know all the particulars.

"Yeah, exactly. I guess I became used to her acting that way."

"But Arnold, stealing isn't like you. That's Helga's bad influence rubbing off on you man. I mean, do you even hear yourself? You're going to steal something from Helga just because you're jealous of it? I'm not saying you were always a super goody two shoes, but I think that's a little much."

Arnold groaned. "I know. I never actually planned on doing it. I wouldn't have the guts, but the thought has crossed my mind quite a bit."

Gerald snickered. "Well, I'm glad you haven't gone totally insane. Just make sure you keep up that do the right thing attitude. I'd hate to see Helga convert you to having a life of crime."

"That already almost happened without Helga's help," he reminded him and Gerald snickered.

"I did forget that. Man, we had a lot of good times in the fourth grade. I hope we don't lose our touch this year, not much has been out of the ordinary."

Arnold didn't necessarily agree. True, on an overall scale nothing much had happened, but for him it felt as if a lifetime had passed. He had seen that side of Helga she tried so hard to hide, and he had begun to like her more than he ever had in life. If that wasn't out of the ordinary, he didn't know what was anymore.

"Well, Gerald it's almost time for dinner. The last time I had gone down late my grandma came up banging pot lids together and singing the 'Star Spangled Banner'."

Gerald chuckled. "There's no such thing as an uninteresting day at the Sunset Arms. Alright Arnold, I'll talk to you later."

Arnold hung up knowing that this was probably the true beginning of his problems with Helga, but he definitely wasn't going to give up without a fight. If anything, he should be able to win a battle against himself…right?