A/N: Okay, first off, BIG BIG BIG BIG HUUUGE THANK YOU to my awesome, wonderful, fantastical, totally attractive (XD) big sister Jenna (aka Azure129), who has been one of my biggest supporters for writing this and coming up with the plots and psychology and everything. It wasn't easy, but it was also like the most fun I've ever really had with a story before. :D Totally couldn't have done this without the support from Jenna, and her grammar checking for me were SO helpful and I'd like to give her a giant virtual hug for that too! :D :D :D *Huggles Jenna* And now for ANOTHER ginormous, Godzilla-sized THANK YOU to my wonderful, sweet, hilarious, insanely cool best buddy, NintendoGal55, who also offered insane support and gave me a lot of confidence in this story. ^_^ And now I'd like to give a thank you to the TippyToe Zombie, who helped me decide that this was DEFINITELY something I wanted to do, and giving me a little boost of confidence. :) Thank you! And a thanks to everyone who voted on my poll. :)
And now for the biggest thank you of all...
THANK YOU EVERYONE OF YOU THAT REVIEWED/READ/FAVORITED/ALERTED THE ORIGINAL STORY! :D :D :D I wouldn't have even considered doing this in the first place if it wasn't for all of your awesome enthusiasm for this fic.
I love you-love you-love you all! :D
And now, to explain a little... XD
If you have not read my original story, "The Pickle Jar," then this... will make basically NO sense WHATSOEVER. XD So you might want to read that first if you have any intention of knowing what the heck it is you're reading. XD
And now finally, for those of you that already know about TPJ but have NO idea what this is, you can read about what this is all about in my 'SuprNewsletter' on my profile. XD I've had to explain it to a lot of people already, so I really don't want to have to explain it AGAIN, you know? So if you wanna know, that's where you go. :)
But now, for all the people who already know what this is, what TPJ is, and are about to just skip my A/N altogether out of impatience, go ahead and read! :D And yes, they are first graders in this. XD And no, they will not be first graders in the next chapter or any of the other ones. It's only for the prologue here, to explain some stuff out. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own "Hey Arnold!" or the characters.
"The Pickle Jar"
The Series
Prologue: The Beginning of Forever
"This is the day, Gerald."
"The day for what?"
"The day I tell her how I feel."
Gerald blinked at that statement, his focus finally leaving his Math book to look up at a grinning and determined little first-grade Arnold standing in front of his couch with his hands on his hips. Gerald couldn't help but quirk one side of his mouth up in a half-smile at how determined he looked standing there, and he raised one of his eyebrows at his six-year-old best buddy. "You are? Why today?"
Arnold's grin widened a little, and he took a step forward as he explained, "Well, we just got into first grade a month ago, so now we're considered big kids! And it has been three years... I just feel like it might be time. I mean, three years is a long time to love someone, and I don't want it to go any farther. She needs to find out sometime anyway, and now that we're big kids, it seems like the perfect time." He grinned, walking over to his bed to rifle through his backpack. "Hey, how's the Math homework going, by the way?"
Gerald waved him off, rolling his eyes a little. "Come on, man. You just told me you're finally going to confess, and now you're suddenly talking about Math homework? This is big! Math is fine, but when are you going to do it? After we're done with our homework?"
Arnold nodded, still going through his book bag. "Yeah. She's always at Phoebe's house on Fridays, so I think I'm gonna go there. You wanna tag along?"
Gerald shrugged, looking back down at his Math book. "Sure. Maybe I can sneak a few answers from Phoebe while we're there. I heard from the teacher that she's already finished half of the year's homework, and we've only been first graders for a month. That girl is a freak, Arnold, I'm telling you."
Arnold laughed, picking out his notebooks from his bag and flipping through them a bit. "No one someone Helga's friends with could be a freak, Gerald. Angels generally have good taste in friends."
Gerald rolled his eyes to the side. "Whatever you say, man. I still think she's freaky, though."
Arnold just shrugged, tearing out some of the doodles from his notebook to throw away... so no one could ever see the tons of pages filled up with absolutely nothing but hearts and swirls and Helga's name. He crumpled them up quickly, tossing them across the room towards his trash can... and missing. "Awww..." He frowned, walking across the room to put the trash into the trash can manually. "Maybe someday I'll actually get it in..." He mumbled to himself vacantly.
Gerald observed his actions a moment, sitting up on his bed a bit to ask curiously, "Why are you throwing out your love," He had to just cross his eyes a little at the word for a moment, continuing, "doodles if you're going to tell her anyway?"
Arnold laughed a little nervously at that, continuing to tear out pages from his notebook and dropping them into the wastebasket now right next to him. He didn't quite meet Gerald's eyes as he answered, "Well, just because she'll know I love her, doesn't mean she has to know EVERYTHING, right?" His twitchy eyes met with Gerald's, finally, his face looking very sheepish with a blush. "I mean, the doodles are kinda... obsessive. I mean, I got this notebook just at the beginning of the semester, and I've already filled it up with nearly nothing but her name... and my name... and her name if we ever got married..." He gulped, putting his hands behind himself, still holding the notebook. "I just don't want to freak her out or anything."
Gerald rolled his eyes, smiling at how funny his best friend was acting. "Oh, come on, man. Everyone doodles when they get a crush. Remember when Jamie-O went out with that one girl, and we snuck into his room to borrow a pencil and saw his notebook laying open on his desk? The page was covered in her name!"
This time, Arnold rolled his eyes. "Gerald, there's a difference between dating someone for two weeks and filling up ONE page of your notebook with their name, and being in love with someone for three years and filling up hundreds of notebooks with barely anything BUT their name. It's creepy."
Gerald sighed, looking back down at his math book as he muttered out in response, "Whatever you say, man."
A few minutes passed then, as Gerald scribbled down an answer or two, and Arnold continued with tearing out pages and being careful to keep the few pages that actually had notes on them.
Suddenly, though, something occurred to Gerald and he looked up. "Wait a minute... You're going to tell her, right?"
Arnold nodded somewhat absently, staring at one of the pages in his notebook as he answered vaguely, "Mmmhm."
Gerald blinked, looking away with an eyebrow raised as he asked, finally, "Well, does that mean you think she's going to accept your feelings and love you back?"
That one got Arnold to drop his notebook straight onto the floor with a soft 'plop.' And that got Gerald to instantly shift his eyes back over to look at his friend, who now had wide eyes and an agape mouth. Arnold blinked once then after a few seconds, managing to look up at Gerald, his eyes still a little wide, "I-I hadn't really gotten that far... I just thought today might be a good day to finally tell her. I mean... three years?" His eyes shifted around a bit, before he stumbled over a bit and fell down onto his couch with wide eyes looking straight ahead now, suddenly looking very uncertain. "That's a really long time... and she deserves to know... but Gerald..." He looked up at him, his eyes wide and starting to look a bit distressed. "How is she going to react?"
Gerald blinked, an eyebrow still raised. "Well, that's kinda my question, man. How did you think she was going to react?"
Arnold frowned, looking down a bit thoughtfully. "I-I don't know... I hadn't really thought about it." He flushed a bit, twisting his hands in his lap.
Gerald frowned, concerned for his friend as he looked down, "Well, now that you think about it, how do you think she might react? Do you think she's going to tell you she loves you too? Kiss you? Tell you she doesn't like you that way?" He winced at the last one.
Arnold's normally bright and sunny eyes turned blank, and his somewhat frown disappeared into a straight line as he stated out plainly, "She's never tried to talk to me before, she's never looked back when I looked at her, she never talks about me to her friends... she's never even actually smiled at me before." Arnold sighed, running a hand down his face in exasperation at himself. "What was I thinking? 'I know, I'll tell the girl that I'm not even friends with and have barely spoken two words to in the last three years that I'm crazy about her! It'll be great!'" Arnold growled a bit to himself, putting his face in his hands. "I really didn't think this through..."
Gerald laughed at his ever so dramatic little speech, unable to help himself. After shaking his head at his friend from across the room, he finally got off of his bed and walked over to sit down next to his best friend and put a hand on his shoulder in comfort. "Well, if you don't feel up to telling her today after all, maybe instead you could have today be the day you finally say more than two words to her."
Arnold peaked through his fingers to look at his friend, clearly a little intrigued. "What would I say?"
Gerald shrugged, scratching his chin as he looked up thoughtfully, mumbling out, "I don't know, something like... 'Hello, my name is Arnold. We're in the same class, and I think it might be cool if we were friends.' You know, it would be a good start to getting her to get to know you, and maybe even someday..." He grinned devilishly (Or... as devilishly as a six-year-old could), and shook the shoulder he was holding a little as he finished, "starting to fall in love with you a little..."
Arnold blinked, finally letting his hands fall from his face at this little suggestion... his interest peaked. "You think that would work?"
Gerald shrugged, still smiling. "It would be a start. I mean, what is she gonna say? No? It wouldn't be like you were asking for her hand in marriage. You'd just be finally letting her know that you exist." He snickered, finding it funny that anyone would ever have to announce their existence to anyone.
Arnold looked down at all this, considering... before his cheerful, optimistic expression instantly lit back up on his face and he grinned. "Okay. I can do that. I mean, how hard could it be? It's just talking." He shrugged.
Gerald grinned back. "That's the spirit, buddy! So after we're done with our homework here, we'll go over there and you'll introduce yourself. And speaking of homework, have you gotten that picture we were supposed to take for that one project thing?"
Arnold's eyes lit up in recognition. "You mean the picture of someone we admire for English class? Yeah, I've got it right here." He reached up under his hat on his head and pulled out a picture and handed it to Gerald.
Gerald stared at it a moment or two, before he snorted out a laugh and rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised?" He handed the picture of Helga back over to Arnold, who took it back gently. "But wait a minute, how did you get a picture of Helga?" And now an eyebrow was once again raised at the short little blonde haired boy.
Arnold gazed at the picture as he answered, a bit in a daze, "Oh... I just took it yesterday when she wasn't looking..."
Gerald's normally calm and cool eyes instantly went huge for a good three seconds... before they went half-lidded and he laughed a bit and responded, "You see, man? THOSE are the types of things you should be worried about Helga finding out."
Arnold looked over at Gerald with a blink. "Why?"
Gerald couldn't help but guffaw at the clueless question, crossing his arms over his chest loosely as he answered just a little flatly, "Dude, you don't just go out and take pictures of people without the person's knowing. It's creepy to think that there are people out there watching you and taking pictures of you without you knowing."
Arnold looked down again, looking a bit dejected now. "Oh." He looked back up then, a small blush now blossoming on his cheeks. "B-But it was for a school project. I'm not even gonna keep it. It's not like I just did it for the heck of it or anything. It's just, when Miss Young told us to bring in a picture of someone we really admire, she was the first person to come to mind." Arnold couldn't help but look back down at the picture affectionately and stroke the sides a little as he said this last bit.
Gerald observed him a moment during all this, feeling a bit of sympathy for him. "Okay, man, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have a picture of someone you care about. I'm just warning you that Helga might find it a little off-putting. And like you said, you don't want to freak her out. Maybe once you're good enough friends, you can just ask her for a picture of her. Friends can have pictures of each other."
Arnold smiled at the idea of her giving him a picture of herself... but then felt a strike of guilt at how she'd probably think he was just going to put it in a frame and put it on his bookshelf or something, when he'd really put it right by his bed so he could kiss it every night before bed... like he'd done with the one he was holding right now... He sighed, pushing those thoughts aside for now and putting away the photo back into his hat as he said, "We'll see, Gerald. But let's stop talking about this now. My grandpa said I can't go out until my homework is done, so let's get back to work now."
Gerald nodded, getting up off the couch to go sit back down on the bed and finish his Math homework. "Okay, man. Then let's get to work."
They'd literally been standing on Phoebe's stoop... with Arnold's fist just a few inches from the door to knock... for five minutes...
Gerald had wanted to be patient and wait for him to finally knock all on his own (Since this was a big step for him after all), but after standing in the same spot and staring at Arnold's twitching fist for five full minutes, three-hundred seconds... he finally got fed up and just grabbed his friend's fist and beat on the door with it frustratedly. Arnold jumped at hearing the loud knocking coming from his hand, looking kind of petrified. Gerald gave him a short apologetic look and then crossed his arms over his chest, hearing footsteps coming from the other side of the door and a timid little voice yelling out, "Coming!"
Just then, the door opened up quietly to reveal a little Asian girl with big, ovular glasses, half-hiding herself behind the door. "Hello? Can I help you?" she squeaked out, eyes shifting between the two slightly taller boys.
As Arnold remained frozen with his eyes wide, Gerald decided he'd address her first ('It's a good thing I came along...'), "Yeah, hey, my buddy here just came over to see if he could talk to Helga. Is she here?"
Phoebe blinked a couple times at the question, staring up at the moderately tall-haired boy. "Oh, yes, yes. Please come in." She opened up the door wider for them to come in, which Gerald did... and then pulled a paralyzed Arnold in by the arm.
Phoebe stared at the boys a moment after shutting the door, adjusting her large glasses. "Helga is in the living room with a few other girls. Follow me." She walked down the small hallway then, before turning into a doorway leading into what they guessed to be the living room. Gerald dragged a very reluctant and uncertain looking Arnold by the arm down the hallway and in through the doorway, where they came to see several girls all sitting around a very Japanese, foreign looking room, most of the girls even sitting on pillows on the floor. When the two boys entered the room, all eyes suddenly came down on them, and the talking ceased.
Rhonda blinked at the two boys, sitting right next to a curious looking Helga on a pillow. "Hello, I know you guys. You're from our class."
Gerald smiled, his arms crossing over his chest now. "You know it."
Sheena peeped up this time, sitting on the other side of the room, "Oh, yeah, you two are the boys that sit way in the back of the class. Gerald and... um... I'm sorry, what's your name?"
Everyone turned their heads to look at him, waiting for an answer.
He just stood there, not making eye contact with any of them.
Everyone blinked.
Finally, Gerald grunted slightly and jabbed Arnold in the ribs with his elbow.
As soon as his elbow connected, the answer that had been stuck in Arnold's throat popped out in a squeak, "Arnold."
Immediately after hearing him answer, Sheena giggled in amusement. "Wow, Arnold, your voice is awfully squeaky. It sounds funny."
Rhonda couldn't help rolling her eyes at that statement. "You're one to talk, Sheena. But really, why are we talking about his voice and name when we SHOULD be talking about his clothes?" She looked back over at him, observing him up and down with a critical eye that only a six-year-old Rhonda could really pull off. After a few seconds of observing a now red-faced Arnold, she perked her lips up in thought a moment before grinning. "It's... brilliant! It's like... I don't even know... Where do you and your family congregate, Arnold?"
Arnold blinked at her, his face blank. "Huh?" 'Con... greg... ate? ...What?'
Rhonda rolled her eyes. "Ugh, boys... Where do you LIVE, Arnold?"
"O-Oh... uh..." Arnold looked down, scratching the back of his head a bit sheepishly for having not known what that word meant... "I live in a boarding house down on Vine Street..."
Rhonda grinned at that answer. "THAT's it. It's..." She held her hands out a little, judging the perspective a little, still smiling. "Boarding House Chic..." Her hands dropped now, though she still continued some light gesticulations, such as holding her hand up as she talked, "I love that little skirt thing you're wearing. It's very daring and interesting on a guy... Feminine, but daring."
Arnold looked horrified, and amazingly enough his utter shock managed to get some words to come out of his mouth all on their own, however freaked out and alarmed they were, "It's not a skirt! It's just my-"
Suddenly, though, someone interrupted loudly, clearly growing impatient, "For the love of creation, can we just get to the point of why in the heck you're here already?"
Arnold's words instantly halted entirely at hearing this voice, and his face went blank...
Helga looked at him, a slight scowl on her face and her hands on her hips. "Well...?"
At Arnold's continued lack of response, Gerald decided to come to the rescue and took a step forward to explain, working in as many 'big kid words' and smooth talk as he could to try and make himself and Arnold come across as smooth, sophisticated young individuals, "Well, Helga, my good friend Arnold and I just came down here because Arnold has something he'd like to converse with you about." He kept his face pleasant but overall blankly snobby with his hands behind his back and his chin held up just a little, copying Rhonda as best he could since she was apparently the very picture of six-year-old sophistication.
Half of Helga's brow extended up at this, and her hands remained on her hips, but for the most part now her face was blank and her posture a bit more relaxed. "Okay..." She shifted her blank, blue eyes to Arnold's green, and her hands finally slid off of her hips and just onto the floor on either side of the pillow she was sitting on. "Converse away."
Arnold swallowed hard and, unfortunately for him, with how large a gulp he ended up taking, the action was very loud and obvious. His pupils dilated a bit as he looked at her. "H-Hello, my name is Arnold..." He was so flustered and didn't know what to say, so he decided replaying what Gerald had told him to say was his best bet to not make a fool of himself.
Gerald, though, couldn't help but wince slightly and have to suppress the urge to slap him upside the head.
Helga's blank eyes instantly turned annoyed and... even a bit amused, and she really just couldn't help rolling her eyes to the side a little before making eye contact with him again. "Yes, I know your name is Arnold. We covered this as soon as you entered the room, remember?" Her eyes were half-lidded and blank again as she looked at him and delivered this flat response.
Arnold broke into a bit of a sweat at this. "R-Right, uh... W-We're in the same class, and... and..."
Helga couldn't help interrupting him there once more. "Yes, we've gone over that too. Criminy, what's with you? I'm not DEAF. I've heard everything that's been said since you got here. Could you please just get to the point?" It was more than obvious at this point that she was getting increasingly more impatient, and near the end of her miniature rant she'd even gotten herself worked up enough that she stood up off her pillow and walked over to stand in front of him so she could chastise him properly.
But having barely managed to speak at all just from being in the same room with the lovely, pigtailed girl, it was understandable that now that she was standing less than three feet in front of him (much closer than she'd ever stood by him before in the past three years of kindergarten), Arnold was having a great deal of difficulty untying his tongue and keeping his heart from completely thumping out of his chest and clinging to her. In fact, he was all but trembling from having her so near, and his arms were straight as boards at his sides. "I... I... I..." His eyes couldn't help shifting around in distress. 'You're going down, Arnold... down, down, down, and there's no coming back up...'
Helga's annoyance finally gave way to being just plain weirded out by his behavior, and it showed on her face. Her own eyes couldn't help shifting around a little then too, trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with him, before meeting back with his very pale-looking face. "Uh... are you feeling alright? You're acting kinda funny."
Arnold's distressed eyes, now focused back on her face again, were starting to get an entirely new look to them... his eyes were getting quite dark from his pupils growing larger and larger the longer he looked at her, they had gotten ever so slightly half-lidded, he was leaning towards her a bit unconsciously out of instinct... and when he spoke again, it was in stutters and his voice sounded a bit strained, yet relaxed in an odd way, like he was strained for the very reason that he was feeling relaxed... "U-Uh... I-I just came over to... um..." He couldn't think straight, his head was spinning, ideas and urges and things he'd never even considered doing with her before were bombarding his brain... It was driving him mad... she was driving him mad.
Helga looked just plain freaked out by this point, and was all but leaning back and away from him at his odd behavior... it was almost like he was trying to... ask her out or something... and the idea of this shrimpy little sweating, stressed, football headed kid asking her out was starting to really disturb her. But she stayed put, and kept quiet, waiting and hoping that he'd stop with... whatever the heck he was doing right now.
Arnold, seeing her expression and inwardly cringing, looked away right at the peak of the emotional tap dance currently being vigorously done in his heart and pulled at his collar, trying to relieve some of the heat that was suddenly feeling so overwhelming. "W-Wow, is it just me or is it getting kinda hot in here? Uh... Y-You know what? N-Never mind, we can talk about this another time when... when it's not so hot..." He was literally fanning himself at this point. "I-I'll just leave now a-and-and..." Feeling the need to get out of there while he still had a little speck of pride and before he died from his complete and total humiliation, he instantly dashed out of the room at the speed of light, and the front door could be heard slamming shut seconds later.
Gerald, on instinct, instantly dashed out after him, yelling out his name to try and call him back and see if they could somehow make up an excuse and save some face, "Arnold!"
With both guests now out of the room, everyone's' dropped jaws and wide eyes stayed for a few more seconds as they listened to the quiet of the room, their brains still processing what had just happened...
But once it did...
Their jaws snapped shut and there was suddenly quite a few very giggly whispers and Helga could just feel their eyes on the back of her head... but she was still too shocked and dumbstruck by what had just taken place to really care just yet...
She was snapped out of it, though, quite unpleasantly by the queen of gossip herself... "Oooooh, looks like someone has a little admirer... how cute..." The entire room of girls giggled at this little taunt from the fashionista.
Well, except for Helga at least... Her face went as pink as her dress, and her normally cool and relaxed posture instantly went as tense and stiff as a guy seeing the bill after his five-star vacation... She growled, not bothering to turn around to look at their snickering faces. "Shut up..."
Rhonda simply laughed at this. "Sorry, Helga, couldn't resist. It WAS just shoved into our faces just now after all."
Helga, her arms now folded over her chest and looking down with a small scowl and a bit of a pout on her lips, just mumbled out in irritation, "Drama Queen..."
"Drama Maker," Rhonda quipped back with ease, her nose held up high and her smile smooth. "But come on, Helga, you just found out you've got some guy going crazy wanting to ask you out. Aren't you going to do anything?"
This question managed to get Helga to turn around, her expression firm and dismissive as she stated, "I'm going to tell him I'm not interested."
Rhonda blinked in surprise at her immediate answer, and looked at her from under her dark black bangs, her high ponytail visible from the back of her head from her tilting her head down, "You've made your decision already? You don't even know the kid."
Helga rolled her eyes to the side at that, her arms still crossed over her chest. "I don't need to know him. You saw how he acted around me. He's weird, and I don't like him. Simple as that." She shrugged and sat back down on the pillow next to Rhonda, yawning a little and leaning forward a bit to relax her head into her hands with her elbows on her knees. "I'll just let him down tomorrow at school."
Rhonda sighed, rolling her own dark brown eyes to the side. "Whatever, Helga..."
Meanwhile, rushing out of Phoebe's house, Arnold had managed to run clear across the street and into an alley.
Gerald chased after him, going as fast as he could on his little six-year-old legs that, though small, were considerably longer than Arnold's. It was amazing how fast he could go with those small little stubby legs if he was freaked out enough.
When Gerald made it to the alley, though, Arnold was nowhere in sight. But from stepping further into the alley and realizing it was a dead end, Gerald figured Arnold must be hiding somewhere. When he turned around from the brick wall concealing off the alley, his eyes immediately came to rest on Arnold sitting behind a dumpster with his legs pulled up to his chest, and his eyes downcast. And although Gerald knew that Arnold must know he was there, he didn't look up at him...
Upon first seeing him, Gerald blinked, but then after a second of taking in the entire situation, he walked over to him, and upon closer analysis, he realized that Arnold was trembling...
Now standing over his slightly shaking best friend, Gerald plopped down in front of him and tilted his head, his expression overall worried but also with a hint or two of curiosity, "Arnold...?"
Arnold, still trembling in his little ball, just groaned a muffled groan in response, his head buried in his knees and his arms wrapped tightly around them.
Gerald blinked at his groan, his expression worried and a tad bit wary of his friend. He'd never seen Arnold look so emotionally... he didn't know. He couldn't quite place a word with his friend's odd behavior currently. Which only made him ever warier, of course. Nonetheless, he managed to ask the question that had been pulling at his mind ever since he saw Arnold dash out of the house, "Man, Arnold, what happened back there? Why'd you lose it like that? I mean, I know things weren't exactly going perfect, but you just sunk your own ship."
Upon these words reaching his ears, Arnold only groaned again and huddled further back into the corner against the wall and dumpster, but stayed otherwise unresponsive.
Gerald frowned at this. "Ah, c'mon, man. We're best buds. You can tell me."
For several more seconds, Arnold was unresponsive to his pressing, but Gerald stayed quiet and waited... and soon, Arnold poked his head up a bit to look at him and Gerald was shocked to see some tears gathering in his eyes that he was more than obviously trying to hold back, if his rapid blinks and sniffling was any indication. Arnold, seeing his expression, just settled on burying his head in his hands and rubbing his eyes a little as he sighed and finally managed to speak, "I blew it..."
"No, you didn't-" Gerald tried.
"Yes, I did, Gerald." Arnold let his hands drop from his eyes, revealing dryer but still very sad looking light green eyes. "I tried, and I failed. You were there, you saw. I couldn't do it. I couldn't even talk to her. It was awful." He sniffled. "It was like my entire brain froze and everything disappeared except for her, and she was looking at me like I was crazy. And... I am!" He pulled at his hair, his face set in a cringe.
Gerald, getting increasingly more uncomfortable with where his friend seemed to be going with this, tried again, "Oh, come on, Arnold, you're not crazy. You're an easygoing, cool guy and anyone would be lucky to-"
"No, I am crazy!" Arnold interrupted again, his hands away from his hair now but his expression filled with sorrow and even a bit of suppressed heartache starting to creep into his eyes as he went on. "What normal person spends his days thinking about nearly nothing but one person? What normal person follows someone around daily? What normal person spends their school days doodling nothing but someone's name and staring at them? What NORMAL person spends THREE YEARS doing NOTHING but thinking about how wonderful it would be to just... kiss her soft mouth and see if it tastes like candy..." His expression had turned very lovesick near the end there, and his eyes had become very out of focus and wistful. He started talking again after a few seconds, his expression still more looking past Gerald than at him as he continued softly, "I've never really gotten that close to her before... It was always easier to just admire her from afar. It was simple, and easy, and I could just focus on how good it felt to love her. But now that I've tried to talk to her for the first time... it's made me realize something..." And suddenly his face was very serious and looking Gerald straight in the eye. "She can never find out that I love her. Never."
Gerald, by this point with a deeply disturbed expression from everything he was hearing, with nothing else to think to say after all that, just asked, "Why?"
Arnold's serious tone and look didn't leave him, though a bit of sorrow managed to slip into his voice again as he explained, "You saw how she looked at me, Gerald. Before there was hope that she could love me, or even that she was secretly in love with me back and just too shy to admit it, like me. But now... Oh, she hates me, Gerald!" He hid his face in his hands at this last part, shaking his head a little.
Gerald, really not used to seeing his usual bright and happy best friend so forlorn and heartbroken, tried once again to spark some hope back into his eyes, "Arnold, she doesn't hate you. She was just freaked."
"Freaked by a freak." Arnold mumbled.
Gerald ignored him, going on, "You were acting weird, and she didn't know what to think of it. But she really can't hate you if she doesn't even really know you, right?"
Arnold sighed at that, settling on just resting his head in his hand and balancing his elbow on his knee as he responded, looking straight ahead, "It would seem like that, wouldn't it... But I know her, Gerald, and there was more than just confusion in her eyes... There was repulsion there too." He sniffled again, thinking back on how she looked at him... There was indeed confusion but there was also a tint of horror and repulsion in those big blue eyes... Those eyes that he'd always known were bright and beautiful and could make him melt, but it had never occurred to him that they could cut through his heart like a knife, too. He sighed again, adding in after a few seconds, "I never knew feeling this way could actually be painful, too..."
Gerald looked down at that, really not knowing what else to add at this point... He glanced back up at him, his face full of sympathy. "Well, what's the game plan then?"
Arnold glanced at him, his eyes kinda tired at this point. "I don't know, Gerald... I guess I'll just continue what I was doing before. Loving her from afar and coping best I can. I can't help how I feel," He glanced away from Gerald's eyes then, not really entirely believing himself as he said, "but maybe with time things will look up..."
Gerald looked down again, once again not knowing what to say.
It stayed quiet for a few seconds, each just letting it all sink in...
And then Gerald sighed himself and looked up at Arnold, deciding to ask, "So where's the bright side in all of this?"
Arnold's blank green eyes flicked to him for a second, and then glanced down... and he confessed quietly in a level voice, "I really don't know..."
The next day at school, it was lunch time and all the kids were gathered in the lunch room as usual, and the entire cafeteria was abuzz with kids talking, laughing, silverware clinking and lips smacking. Helga was just sitting on the other side of the room, blissfully unaware of a certain football headed little boy's longing stares as she ate her apple...
"So then SHE said that ponytails were SO outdated, and I told her that she really couldn't talk, because pigtails are even MORE outdated than ponytails are - no offense Helga - and at least ponytails are cute. Pigtails are named after PIGS for Heaven's sakes, but everyone loves ponies! Ponies are cute. And she looked SO mad. But it just couldn't be helped. Nobody tells Rhonda Wellington Lloyd what fashion is. I MAKE the fashion. Hmph!" Rhonda finished, her arms now folded over her chest and her chin held high.
Helga stared at her blankly for a few seconds, chewing her apple, before she said monotonously, not even bothering to feign enthusiasm, "Wow, you really told her, Rhonda."
Rhonda nodded. "Of course I did." She unfolded her arms then, taking a dignified sip of her milk. "But I don't know, maybe I do need a change. After all, we're not little kids anymore." She took out a mirror from her lunch box, staring at herself with a hint of concern and bouncing her ponytail a little with one hand.
Helga shrugged carelessly, her face still blank, clearly uninterested. "Eh, it keeps your hair out of your face, and it looks okay. I don't see any problem with it."
Rhonda couldn't help rolling her eyes a bit at Helga's statement as she observed herself a bit more closely in the mirror. "It figures. I forgot who I'm talking to here, after all."
That one earned an eye roll from Helga. "Well, come on. You already changed your hairstyle last year, and I never saw any problem with your pigtails. Why would you want to change it again?"
Rhonda looked at Helga, bringing her mirror down and away from her face a little as she looked at her with one side of her mouth quirked up, "Well, of course you didn't see any problems with my pigtails, Helga. You never did change yours. Not even when I nudged you to."
Helga merely shrugged.
Rhonda rolled her eyes to the side. "And the reason I'd want to change it again is because that girl was right, no matter how much I don't want to admit it. Ponytails are just so out of date now." She looked at herself in the mirror again, adjusting her bangs around a little, contemplating.
Helga blinked blankly, scratching the side of her face a little as she asked, "Well, fine then. What are you going to do then? Let it down? Then it'll just get in your face all the time, and that'll be so annoying."
Rhonda hummed a bit in thought, grabbing her ponytail around and looking at it in her mirror. "Maybe I'll cut it short or something... I don't know. I'll ask Mummy when I get home."
Helga yawned, pushing her food aside and resting her head in her hands as she said flatly, "Great. Sounds like a plan."
"Mmmhm." Rhonda sat her mirror back into her lunch box then, and took a bite of her tapioca pudding, and then blotted her mouth with a napkin and asked, "So when are you going to let, um... Arnold down? You said you were going to do that today."
Helga's half closed blue eyes opened wide again at that, and she blinked and sat back up. "Hm... I nearly forgot about that. I do need to do that, don't I?"
Rhonda glanced at her. "Well, unless you've changed your mind-"
"I haven't." Helga stated firmly, her eyes in slits and her shoulders tense.
Rhonda scoffed. "Okay, okay, no need to get all defensive. We all know how weird you are about people making fun of you, and don't worry, we won't. It's not a big deal."
"Good." Helga scowled, glancing around the cafeteria to look for the little shrimp. Almost as soon as she looked up, her eyes came to meet with green, boring holes into her from across the room. This fired her up, and her displeasure at being stared at must have showed, because Arnold immediately glanced away. Helga huffed, standing up from her chair. "In fact, I'm gonna do it right now."
Rhonda looked up at her, her face clearly showing her surprise. "Right now?"
Helga nodded, already walking away and looking over her shoulder at Rhonda. "This won't take long. I'll be right back."
Rhonda just blinked, watching her walk away.
Helga walked across the cafeteria, not having to walk for too long to make it to the blonde boy's table. He was still looking away when she got there, but her slamming her hands flat down onto the table managed to shock him into snapping his eyes to her. And as soon as he saw her, his entire face flushed and his eyes grew two times bigger than before. Helga merely gave him a serious, take-no-prisoners look and leaned across the table into his face as she stated, "We need to talk."
His mouth trembled a bit at her close proximity, but he didn't lean back. He didn't want to. He gulped. "Uh..." was all he could manage out.
Helga ignored all this, though, and merely continued, "Now I have something very important to tell you, and I want you to listen very clearly to what I'm about to say. Understand?"
Despite himself, Arnold couldn't help all the emotions that overwhelmed him at that very moment, and every emotion he felt showed through in his eyes. Hope was the most prominent... hope and admiration, awe, love, shock, fear, pain, longing... all swirling around like a hurricane in his wide green eyes as he looked at her. All he could manage in response was a weak nod.
Helga, though, upon seeing the look he was suddenly giving her... forgot her anger and conviction entirely. There was so much emotion in his eyes as he looked at her, and his green gaze was so intensely focused on her... it was so overwhelming to her senses. And with how close she was to him, she had the best view possible of those eyes... there was so much hope, and sorrow, and... longing... She... She couldn't even comprehend how someone could possibly have that much emotion in them, or eyes that were so expressive to them... She... 'I can't do it.' There was no way she could kill all that hope just like that. She just couldn't. "Um..." Her shoulders relaxed and she sighed a little through her mouth, leaning a little bit away from him. Her voice was weak and defeated. "I just wanted to tell you that... you have a big glob of mustard on your chin."
Arnold blinked at that, and to her both relief and disappointment, all the emotion and hope in his eyes was immediately dashed. "O-Oh..." A blush rose in his cheeks then, and he grabbed a napkin and wiped his chin off. "Uh, i-is it better?" He looked at her.
Helga looked at him blankly, nodding her head a bit weakly. "Y-Yeah, you're good."
Arnold looked back down at his sandwich then, unwilling to look her in the eye again. "Okay... Th-Thank you... Helga."
Helga blinked at that, stopping in her actions of standing up straight again to walk away... She couldn't recall ever telling him her name. She looked back at him again, her expression surprised. "Um... You're welcome."
He managed to look back up at her at that, and he smiled a small, unsure smile, nodding his head in acknowledgment.
Helga nodded back, unmoving for a few more seconds... Finally, though, with things starting to feel a bit awkward for her, Helga walked away. 'That was... weird.' She thought to herself as she sat back down at her table, right next to an overly anxious Rhonda.
As soon as she sat down, Rhonda flocked her with questions, "Well, how'd he take it? Was he heartbroken? Did he cry? I couldn't hear what you said over everyone, and right after you left a bunch of students came running through to throw away their trays, so I couldn't see you. Dish, Helga! I want to know everything!" She was practically bouncing in her seat.
Helga simply snorted at her enthusiasm, though, and crossed her arms over her chest. "Geez, calm down, Rhonda. Don't pee your pants." She rolled her eyes. "I didn't do it."
Rhonda blinked at that, tilting her head a bit skeptically. "You didn't do it? Why not? I thought you said you were going to." An idea occurred to her then, and she smirked. "Unless you changed your-"
"I did not change my mind!" Helga cut her off curtly through clenched teeth and a scowl. She calmed down after a second, and explained a bit more civilly, though there was still a very strong sense of annoyance in her voice, "I just told him I had something very important to tell him and to listen, and he got this stupid really hopeful look on his stupid face. He must've thought I was going to tell him I liked him or something. And I started feeling really guilty for being about to crush that. So I didn't do it, but don't get any wrong ideas! I'm going to do it! I just... have to wait for the right time, and figure out how to put it in the gentlest way possible so his stupid feelings aren't hurt too much." She shrugged, an irritated look on her face from how... stupid the entire situation was. 'Stupid Arnold...'
Rhonda stared at her a moment, before she groaned a little in the back of her throat to herself and sat back in her seat, clearly disappointed and irritated. "Ugh, since when do you not have a backbone?"
"I do have a backbone!" Helga nearly yelled, her face once AGAIN set in a scowl. "I just also happen to have a HEART, Rhonda."
Rhonda just rolled her eyes to the side at that, away from Helga as she mumbled, "Since when..."
Helga, luckily for Rhonda, didn't hear her comment and just continued, still clearly ticked off, "He just clearly likes me a lot, and I want to let him down gently. How is that such a bad thing?"
To Helga's surprise and further annoyance, Rhonda answered immediately, her wide brown eyes full of incredulity as she looked at Helga, as if the answer was obvious, "It's a BAD thing because I was expecting some real, juicy details! But instead, you're going to let him down gently? Where's the juiciness in that? The scandal? The excitement?" She humphed, even going so far as to pout a little to herself.
Helga's face immediately went flat and she just simply stared at Rhonda for a long, hard moment... just trying to figure out... 'How in the heck did I become friends with Liz Smith...?' Instead of saying anything, though, she just let out a sort of grunting sigh of air through her nose and laid her head in her hand, her elbow propping her up on the table as her other arm just rested on the table by itself, and she turned her head away, still with that flat expression. "Sorry to disappoint you, Princess..."
And as for Arnold, well... 'I'll get to it when I get to it... With any luck, he'll be over this whole 'crush' thing within a week all on his own...'
As soon as Helga left from his table, Arnold touched around on his face a little self-consciously, his blush growing pinker and pinker with the seconds in both embarrassment at not only having mustard on his face, but having thought that maybe... there was something more to it...
Arnold groaned to himself, and picked up his tray, walking over to the trash bins and dumping all his food. He just... wasn't hungry anymore. Putting his tray away on top of the others, he depressively made his way out of the cafeteria and down the halls towards the classroom, his entire body drooping over and his eyes focused on the floor.
Soon enough, he'd managed to slowly drag himself into the classroom and sat down at his little desk with a long sigh... And with a clunk, his head was on the desk.
Not too long after, the first grade teacher, Ms. Young, walked into the classroom with a cup of coffee and a small smile on her face. Upon sitting her coffee down and turning around, though, her eyes had to widen in surprise at realizing she wasn't alone. "Oh!" Her surprise subsiding a bit, she managed a kind smile at him. "Arnold... I didn't see you there." Her smile dissipated, though, once she noticed the position he was sitting in his desk. "Are you... alright, Arnold?"
At this question, Arnold managed to sit up in his seat a bit to look at her a little better, and he managed a small, sleepy smile and a yawn. "Yeah, I'm... I'm fine. I'm just..." His eyes focused down on his desk, a small frown starting to creep it's way onto his face without his knowledge. "...I'm just tired."
Miss Young hummed in understanding, taking a sip of her coffee. After sitting her cup back down, she walked over to Arnold's desk and knelt down to his desk to look at him better, smiling. She wasn't clueless enough to not see that clearly something more than just a little six year old fatigue was going on with the young boy. "Ohhh... and why do you think that is, Arnold?"
Arnold just shrugged blankly, his eyes still intent on the desk.
Ms. Young sighed a little, deciding on trying a new strategy. "Okay. Well, I'm sure you'll feel a lot better after nap time, just after English class today... Which reminds me, did you manage to snag that picture of someone you admire for class today?" She smiled.
At that question, Arnold just emotionlessly reached up and pulled the picture out of his hat. He couldn't help but stare at it a moment or two, before sighingly handing it over for her to see.
Upon taking the picture (making sure to handle it carefully since she saw him doing so) and seeing who it was of, the teacher had to just blink. "Arnold..." she asked slowly (but in no way an unkind tone), still staring at the picture, "you took your picture of Helga...?" It was a simple question.
Arnold merely nodded, not quite looking her in the eye and a small blush unavoidably rising in his cheeks.
Ms. Young slowly managed to drag her eyes away from the picture to Arnold's face again, a very knowing smile growing larger and larger on her face with the seconds, many, many questions she'd had in her head from the moment she met the young boy all being answered almost simultaneously and more and more realizations hitting her. "Ahhhh... now it all makes sense." She nodded with a smile, her eyes closed.
"What?" He was afraid to ask, but he had to know what she was talking about.
She opened her eyes to him warmly, and placed the picture back down on his desk gently in front of him as she said, "You have a crush on this girl?" Though she meant it to be a question, it came out as more of a statement since she already knew the answer.
Just as she'd predicted, as soon as the words left her mouth his entire face instantly heated up and his normally relaxed and happy green eyes went huge with fright when they snapped to her. "N-No!" 'How'd she...'
Ms. Young just laughed at his reaction, and, seeming to read his thoughts, explained with a smile, "Well, you did take a picture of her as the one person you admire, Arnold. It wasn't too hard to put the pieces together." She patted him on the head with a smile as she stood up, and walked across the room as she continued, "But don't worry, Sweetie, I can see that you want to keep it a secret." As she grabbed the chalkboard eraser and turned to look at him, though, she couldn't help but ask, "Well, that is, unless I'm wrong and you ARE planning on telling her today. After all, the entire point to having you bring a picture of someone you admire today was so you could come up to the front of the classroom and explain why it is you admire them."
"What?" Arnold nearly yelled in terror, standing up from his desk with his hands flat down on his desk. "I never heard that!"
The teacher smiled at him sympathetically. "Well, I never exactly said it, Sweetie. I hadn't anticipated anyone coming in with a picture of someone they wouldn't want to talk about."
Arnold instantly sunk down all the way in his desk, looking sick to his stomach... which, really, wasn't too far from the truth. "Oh..." 'I guess it would figure that as soon as I decided I wanted it to be a secret that I'd be forced to practically announce it to everyone...'
Ms. Young, seeing his expression, smiled a bit in amusement and shook her head a little at him. "Arnold, I won't make you do it if you don't want to."
Arnold blinked at that one... and looked across the room at his teacher, his mouth forming a small 'o' of surprise. "Y-You won't? ...But what about the assignment?"
Ms. Young just sat the chalkboard eraser back down and leaned back against the board, her arms crossed over her chest. "Well, since you don't want all the other kids to know, then you can just do your presentation right now."
"R-Right now?" Arnold stuttered.
"Yes." She smiled, her eyes kind. "All the other children are off eating lunch and won't be back for another ten minutes, at least. You can just do the assignment right now. All you have to do is answer one question."
Arnold blinked, still looking unsure and shy... After all, within the course of two days, his love had gone from something he would've gladly admitted to anyone if all they'd done was ask, to something he was terrified of anyone ever finding out, Helga especially. But still, feeling the need to get a good grade, he couldn't help but be intrigued at the idea. After all... 'She already knows anyway. What's the harm in one question?' But still, he hesitated... "...One?" He looked at her worriedly, just having to clarify.
Ms. Young nodded. "Yes, Arnold. Just one question, and that's it."
Arnold looked from left to right of his desk in the back, making sure there were no voice recorders or cameras hidden anywhere... which he knew on some level in his paranoid little mind was absurd, but he couldn't help the need to just... make sure... Finally, though, he looked back at the teacher with his worried green eyes and swallowed, nodding his head in agreement.
The educator smiled a bit brighter at this, and nodded her head back understandingly. "Okay... the question is very simple, Arnold. All you have to tell me is... Why do you like her?" She picked up her coffee off her desk, right beside her, and took a small sip as she awaited his answer.
At her question, though, Arnold was genuinely surprised... He'd expected something much more humiliating than that. That was usually how his luck went... or at least, lately, anyway. But it wasn't just her question in general that was surprising to him, it was the question itself specifically. Why did he love her? Well, he'd... never really thought about that before. Certainly, he'd gone into lovesick babblings before to Gerald about all the things he liked about her, but hearing the question put so broadly like that... How could he possibly answer such a question? To put his feelings for why he felt the way he did into one explicit, lucid answer... and in only ten minutes? His reasons for loving her were so vast and deep... How could he possibly put it into one answer? "Um..." He looked extremely pensive, deep in thought... a very odd looking expression on a six year old, to the interest of Miss Young. But after several more seconds, Arnold finally managed to settle on an answer... "It's because... she's her." It was as simple as that. "She doesn't hide who she is or care what other people think. She's strong and stands up for herself and the people she cares about. She knows when to be pushy with people and when to be caring. She's bright and funny and knows how to have fun. But behind all the toughness, there's a sweet girl with a good heart, and even though sometimes she doesn't always know what to do, she always ends up doing the right thing in the end. Her warmth, her fireworks, her push... I like her because she's her. A better question would've been what reason is there to NOT like her..."
There was a long moment of silence in the room, a cool sense of shock having settled in somewhere in the middle of his answer to her question.
Ms. Young could only blink, and the only reason she came out of her state of shock was because she realized her coffee was slipping out of her hand from her grip weakening so rapidly. She quickly firmed up her grip and fumbled with her cup a bit, very nearly spilling it all over herself.
Arnold immediately became concerned at this, fully prepared to stand up from his chair should she need help. "Ms. Young, are you alright?"
"Y-Yes, Arnold, I'm fine." She managed to stutter out, placing her cup safely back on her desk and looking over at Arnold with wide eyes. She'd expected plenty of answers: "She's cute," "She's nice," "She's funny." But that... the answer he HAD given her... THAT she had most certainly NOT predicted... at all. It was... "Remarkable..." She mumbled to herself, blinking at the young blonde boy across the room.
Arnold blinked at her, still looking a tad bit concerned. "What?"
The instructor merely shook her head, though, looking down. She just couldn't comprehend it. He was six years old. They were ALL six years old... and yet... 'It almost seems as if he...' She shook her head at the thought, banishing the very idea. That was ridiculous.
Arnold, though, seeing her looking down (in perhaps... disappointment? He couldn't tell very well from this angle...), and shaking her head like that, couldn't help but start to feel a bit worried. "Ms. Young, did I not do good? I answered honestly."
That just got another brief headshake out of the teacher, though, before she finally just sighed and looked back up at Arnold with a smile. "No, no, you did... wonderful, Arnold. A plus. I'm just... surprised." She sat down in her desk chair with a small plop, still feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all.
Arnold could only blink. "Surprised? By what?"
Ms. Young looked over at him, tilting her head a little... studying him... Finally, though, she just smiled and waved it off. "Oh, it's nothing, Arnold. That was just a very mature answer for someone your age, and I wasn't expecting that. It sounds to me like Helga is a very lucky girl."
That statement struck a nerve in Arnold, though, and he suddenly looked and felt acutely grief-stricken, immediately slumping over in his seat. "No, she's not..." he managed out quietly, staring forlornly down at his desk.
Once again this afternoon, the young caretaker had to blink in surprise. How could so many emotions all be inside of such a young soul? She sat up a bit more in her seat, leaning over her desk to get a better look at the young boy. "Now why would you say that, Arnold?" she asked softly, carefully.
Arnold sighed and dragged his eyes off of his desk to the teacher's face, still looking entirely too sad for a normal six year old child (Or at least, in the opinion of Miss Young). "She doesn't like me like that. She doesn't even really like me."
Ms. Young couldn't help but smile a little at that and ask a little accusingly, having heard this excuse from many children and people before, "Now Arnold, have you ever even talked to her?"
To her (once again) surprise, Arnold wailed out in distress, "Yes!" and his head was instantly thrown back down onto his desk with a loud 'clunk!' He sniffled a little here and there, elaborating a bit in a quiet, clearly very upset voice, "I did yesterday, and I was just trying to ask her to be my friend, and she looked at me like I... like I was asking her if she'd share her lollipop with me or something." He moaned a little in humiliation, managing to sit back up in his desk, albeit very poorly. "She just doesn't like me."
Ms. Young stood up from her desk at hearing all of this and walked across the room to him, only to put a hand on his shoulder and smile down at him sympathetically. She knew what it was like to have her heart broken like that, too... Oh, wonderful, she was relating with a six year old. Instead of shaking her head this time, though, she smiled... smiled a very understanding smile, though her eyes remained sympathetic for the small boy. "I'm sorry, Arnold. I know how that kind of thing can feel. But..." But... But what? She couldn't quite think of what to say. How did you give romantic advice to a six year old? It was a very critical age. She couldn't just say to give up and get over her, because that would send out the message that love was hopeless or something. But she couldn't very well tell him not to give up if the girl didn't like him in the first place, because that would only cause him pain... After a few seconds, though, she managed to settle on something, and she knelt down to the side of his desk to ask, "Would you like me to talk to Helga about maybe being friends with you?" It was the best thing she could think of. At least that way there would be a chance.
But unfortunately for her, Arnold's reaction was... less than desirable. He snapped his eyes to her in sheer terror and shook his head vigorously. "What? No!" He stopped shaking his head then, distressed still. "I don't want to force her to be my friend. It's her own choice. And if she doesn't like me, then she shouldn't be forced into it."
Once AGAIN, Ms. Young had to blink in surprise. Such a mature little boy for his age... She had to smile. "Well, Arnold, if not that, then what are you going to do?"
Arnold just looked away at that question, telling her right away that he had no answer to give.
She frowned at him compassionately, unable to help feeling pretty bad for the poor boy. "Well, Arnold... then I can honestly tell you that I don't know what to say... I guess that's just a situation you're going to have to handle on your own." She hated having to say it, it sounded so awful. "But I want you to know that I'm always here if you need someone to talk to, okay?" she added softly, managing to ward off some of her guilt with this one little consolation for the sweet boy that had pulled at her heartstrings so.
Arnold nodded slowly in response, still looking sad but also grateful... It felt so good to get all of that off of his chest to someone OTHER than Gerald. Just as she was standing up, though, since he knew the other kids would be arriving very soon, he hastily grabbed the picture off his desk again and pushed it into her hands. "Oh, and here! I don't want the other kids to see!"
Ms. Young blinked a few times at suddenly getting his precious picture shoved into her hands, careful to keep her hands flat so that the picture wouldn't get crumpled at all. Once having it in her hands, though, and observing the blushing, little football headed boy sitting back in his seat, and remembering how sad he was mere moments before... She looked down at the picture, then smiled, making a decision. She gently took Arnold's small hand and placed the picture into it with a kind smile. "No, I think you should keep it, Arnold. It means more to you than it does to me."
Arnold blinked at her, looking down at the picture now in his hand. "But..." He looked back up at her. "I thought you said you were going to be keeping the pictures."
Ms. Young chuckled at that, shaking her head a little in amusement at him. "Yes, I was, Arnold. So I could put them on the bulletin board behind you for everyone to see, and I doubt that's anything you'd like."
Arnold's pupils dilated at the thought of his love being publicly broadcast for the entire class to see... He could just see Helga's face in his mind's eye... She'd be repulsed, disgusted, and utterly humiliated... He clutched the picture to his chest at the thought.
Ms. Young merely chuckled again at his reaction, and patted him on the head gently. "It's okay, Arnold. That's why I gave you the picture back. You don't have to have your picture put up on the board if you don't want it to. The main goal of this assignment was reached, so it's fine." She knelt back down to his level one last time, smiling at his worried green eyes. "I think you need the picture far more than I do."
Arnold blinked at her, before looking back down at the picture, thinking back on how nice it was to look at it before bed and feel so close to her... even if it wasn't real, and he knew it. He couldn't help feeling a bit possessive of the picture, it being of his love and all. And he was being offered to keep it... Well... "Okay!" He'd tried desperately to keep the delightedly excited tone out of his voice, but had to cringe at how very miserably he'd failed.
The teacher didn't say anything back, though, and merely smiled and stood up. It was right around this time that the sound of children's chatter and laughter sounded from the hall and Arnold panicked and quickly replaced the precious item back into his hat for safe keeping and folded his hands on his desk, whistling away as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.
The children all filed in and English class went on just like any other day, only Arnold's heart felt just a little bit lighter and he could breathe a little easier. With a photo of Helga tucked away in his hat and Helga herself sitting not too far away, Arnold felt a bit more at peace...
How long it would last, though, was an entirely different question...
Upon returning home from school, Arnold threw down his backpack onto his bed and his hands instantly went for his hat where he found the picture and his face instantly turned ardently smitten. With his hat placed slowly back onto his head, not taking his eyes off of the picture, Arnold contemplated where would be a good place to keep his picture of her. Surely he couldn't keep his only picture of her in his hat. With how windy Hillwood could be at times, it would surely get lost. He needed some place safe to keep it... But not out in the open, then Gerald would see it. "W-Which wouldn't be a BAD thing, it would just... W-Well, I mean, I already told him I wasn't going to keep you." he said to the picture, staring at it affectionately. "And he said keeping a picture of you that you didn't know I took would be creepy... But what people don't know, can't hurt them, right?" He grinned lovesickly, glancing around his room with dreamy eyes.
Over by the bed? No, Gerald would see that...
In his desk drawer? Too impersonal!
Under his bed? No, it could get eaten by bugs or something if it was down there...
"And I can't ever let anything harm you, now can I?" he asked softly, gently petting the sides of the photograph. "No, you need to be put in a place that would be private, but safe... Hmmm..." He glanced up then, his eyes landing on his closet door...
"The closet..." He mumbled to himself, thinking that over... It was definitely private in there, Gerald never went into his closet, and if he hung it-her on the wall, then that would be plenty safe, and he could go in there to look at her any time he pleased... He grinned, looking back down at the picture lovingly. "You'd like it in the closet, wouldn't you? " he asked, already walking over to his closet, picture in hand as he uttered to it tenderly, "It's nice and safe in there, and it's fairly spacious, so cute little you will have plenty of room..." He had opened up the door at this point, walking in and pulling down a little metal cord. Light overwhelmed the room and Arnold smilingly made his way through the the clothes and deeper into the closet. Inside was a small bit of space, plenty big enough for little Arnold to roam about in, and he did so happily, walking over to the very back of the closet to tape up Helga's picture gently.
Once satisfied that the picture was well secured to the wall, Arnold pulled back and just observed his handiwork with a small proud smile. He gazed at the picture then, and couldn't help just needing to sit down and stare up at it for a few seconds... or minutes... just enjoying the view... In the photo, Helga was turned a bit away from the camera, so it was angled a bit to her side, and she was smiling at something that Phoebe had said. Although all that was left of Phoebe in the photo was a small hand held up into the shot, but luckily not blocking any part of Helga from the camera's view... She looked happy and relaxed in the photograph, and Arnold just loved the idea that he'd permanently captured Helga's happiness in this one, perfect snapshot...
And so he sat there, in his closet, on the floor at six years old, gazing up at Helga's picture in the privacy and comfort of the boarding house...
It was amazing how three years could change a person.
And even more amazing how six could...
A/N: Okay, sweet. :) That's the end of the prologue. The first official episode to be written out will be "The Little Pink Book," only it will be renamed, "The Little Blue Journal," to fit the plot. ;) So you guys know what's coming up. :)
And now to answer some basic questions. You guys can ask questions in your reviews for anything that you may not understand or something you're curious about, and I'll be answering them in my A/N's. :) But for now, here's a few I'm sure are pulling at two or three of you:
Q - Is Arnold always going to be so depressing?
A - No, there'll be definite times of happiness for his optimistic little self, but he's just a little sensitive. :)
Q - Why does Helga hate Arnold?
A - She doesn't hate him, he just creeps her out. Wouldn't he creep you out?
Q - How the heck did Helga and Rhonda become friends?
A - Without Helga's bully facade and fears keeping her from being herself and being open with people, she's friends with a lot of people. But I wouldn't say Rhonda and Helga are exactly 'friends' so much as they are frenemies. They're close and hang out with each other a lot and watch each other's backs, but they have their moments of disagreement and argument, as demonstrated here. You can't possibly tell me you never thought they wouldn't make a good friendship pair.
Okay, there. If you have any other questions, ask them in your reviews. ;) But as for this prologue here, this is done with. If you liked this and want more, then I'm afraid you'll just have to...
REVIEW!
PLEASE!
IT'S OVER 12,000'S WORDS!
THAT'S LONG!
COME ON, YOU KNOW YOU WANNA... ;)