A/N: They are fifteen when they start out in this story and start off in Middle School. Tragedy befalls Helga's family forcing her to go to another household to be taken care of. I know that I wrote most of this when I was feeling down, but I'll try to give you some happy moments.

Also I'm still co-writing another story with Everclear so updates may be slow. They may not. Depends on how I can snap my mind back to another subject.

Kind reviews get cookies.

Flames receive a visit to the exit door. I don't feel like having any smores, I don't own a fireplace, but I do have a fire extinguisher.

I don't own Hey Arnold.

It had been announced that Olga Pataki was dead. A drunken driver hit her as she was walking down the sidewalk. Olga was not only a legend in PS118 but her reputation followed her to middle school where they were now attending. Lila was visibly upset letting others comfort her for losing her Big Sis. Helga didn't attend school and not even Phoebe knew what was happening to her. Arnold and her tried to call their house, but kept receiving the Pataki's answering machine. They tried to go to their house to pay their respects, but it was fully dark.

When Helga finally showed up she waved off any resemblance of a condolence that came her way. Her hair was constantly down now and she had a beanie now on her. Helga didn't want to talk to anyone, especially Phoebe. Walked away from Lila as she started sniffling about Olga. Helga remained quiet.

"Man she is really taking her sister's death hard. I didn't think she could possibly care." Gerald observed as Helga stood leaning against the farthest fence possible.

Arnold almost berated his friend. "Helga is actually a nice person. Of course she would be upset over her sister's passing."

Phoebe approached just desiring not to be alone. "I heard that her parents are divorcing."

"Really?" Gerald looked at his crush. "Who told you this?"

"Rhonda. I wonder who will get custody of Helga?" Phoebe looked over to her friend.

Arnold watched as Lila approached Helga once more just for Helga to walk off. He couldn't take this anymore so he went after Helga in spite of his friend's objections. Dashing off he found Helga walking across the field. "Helga!"

Helga paused, but didn't turn around. He was thankful she did stay. Walking around to face her he saw that there were no dark circles in her eyes. No sign of her having cried. She just looked almost dead herself. "Go to Ms Perfect. That was Olga's sister. Don't think I didn't see you always holding her."

"I was comforting a friend."

She shook that off. "This is the first time you approached me and I can count to thirty in two days in how you ran to her to hold her. You and my family are quite alike." She began to walk past him. "Olga wasn't my sister. She didn't know me. Just like my own parents didn't know me."

"I bet you did to them like you did to me, that's why." He shouldn't of shouted at her, but he did. "You always push people away."

"You ever think why I really did that? You think that since I had a family it meant my life was great. I remember you telling me that. Not all families are families, Arnold. What you have with your grandparents, before your parents re-entered your life, that is a family." Helga didn't speak out of anger. It was like she was too tired anymore to even talk. "Olga took more time to get to know Lila than her actual sister. She assumed I was more like Lila. Once she said that I was lucky not to perform like some wind up doll, but that was one time. My own family wished I was more like Olga and Lila. They ignore me all the damn time except to say something disparaging to my face. Many kids would get hell for leaving the house in the middle of the night to wander around. Mines just look the other way."

"Helga, I didn't know." Arnold felt ashamed.

"Of course not. I did things out of self defense just to cover my emotions, but the times I wanted to talk to you, you ran to Lila the second she called for your attention. Phoebe has been busy with Gerald's attention. You made me feel like how my own family made me feel. Just when I wanted to really open up, you ran to Lila. You always run to her." She glanced away from him. "My parents are divorcing and neither want me. They got into an argument about who didn't want me. Not in who wanted me. It is in who didn't want me."

Arnold couldn't believe they would do that to her. "So what is going to happen?"

Helga spotted Lila approaching in that stupid upset expression on her face. "Your perfect dream girl is approaching. Go to her because at least I won't get to be around when you marry the sap one day." Leaving quickly, Helga paused long enough to speak to Lila. "My family loved you and not me. I don't give a shit right now. Go to your future husband since he never gave a shit about me."

Lila opened up her mouth, but couldn't speak even as Arnold approached where she instantly ran into his arms crying away.

Arnold looked up to Helga who held a disgusted look on her face before walking off. "Lila, she needs me now."

"No Arnold. Don't go. I need you. She never loved Olga like I did." She whined.

Pushing her away gently, Arnold shook his head. "That is a horrible thing to say when even you don't know a thing about her." With that he rushed away to take Helga's hand. "Please Helga. Please come to my house so we can talk."

"Out of guilt? No." Removing her hand from his, Helga move to leave once more just to get him to stop her again. "This doesn't prove anything. You only want to talk to me out of guilt. Go back to the girl of your dreams."

"She isn't." Arnold peered into her emotionless eyes.

Scoffing, Helga moved away just as the bell rang. "Just forget about me."

For the rest of the day all Arnold could think about was Helga. He questioned Phoebe what will happen to Helga and even she had no clue since they haven't been speaking. Opening the door to the boarding house he let the barrage of animals storm past him before entering. Seeing his mom in the living room, Arnold entered just as she put something away in a folder.

"Work?" He questioned as he pointed to the folder.

Stella smiled at her son. "You could say." Seeing how troubled he was, she asked, "What's bothering you?"

"You remember Helga, right?" She nodded. "Her parents are sending her away. I don't know where, but I don't want her to leave. I want her to stay."

"Because you both are friends."

"Right."

Stella heard something more to that answer. "You like her more than just a friend, correct?"

"You could say that, but she is convinced that I still have feelings for Lila. I don't. Well I think I don't." Arnold was confused between the two girls. One was sweet and open. The other had her sweet spot, but was very defensive. "I know that I'll miss Helga very much if she leaves."

In truth, Stella loved Helga compared to Lila. His grandparents were far more open to Helga. "Well honey I do believe that things will work out for the best." She told him gently.

"How do you know?"

Stella always had such a warm smile. "Because a mother knows."

Her belongings in hand, Helga was surprised to find herself in front of the Sunset Arms. Was this some sort of sick joke being played on her? It was bad enough her own family didn't want her and now here she was where Arnold lived. She glanced over to the court worker who ascended the stoop to knock on the door. Moving to one side, Helga wasn't stupid about the animals. Seeing the door opening up and the woman still standing there, Helga almost smiled at her screaming out at all the animals rushing out.

"That's normal." Helga could only say as she looked at Stella and Miles standing there appearing amused.

"Are you all right?" Stella wondered. "My son's pet pig loves having his animal friends over."

Straightening her outfit, the worker wondered if this was a safe environment for Helga to be in until she piped up.

"Trust me when I say this is far safer than living in the environment I was in before. I never really ate and my mom was passed out on smoothies." Helga blurted out.

Clearing her throat the woman looked to the couple in front of her. "My name is Ms Hannity. We spoke over the phone. This here is Helga Pataki."

"We know. We've known Helga since she was 10." Miles smiled at her. "We are going to be very happy to have her here."

Helga remained quiet as they all entered and, Ms Hannity hammered out more details before she was shown to her room. Feeling at least satisfied there, Helga began to unpack her stuff as they were being informed about some other belongings that were coming by later today. Hearing the old crow finally leave, Helga was still straightening out what she already had.

Stella and Miles watched her as she went about her business. "Arnold is at school. He doesn't know about this yet since we know he would be talking your ear off with all the excitement." Stella told her.

"He'd be more excited if his dream girl was here." Helga informed her. Coming over to them she had to at least be grateful. "You know I hear how so many get lost in the system. How many get abused. At least I know it won't happen to me with you being my foster parents. I do enjoy doing my school work so you have no worries there."

"We already know how bright you are so we know you will continue to make us proud." Miles interjected. Handing her the keys to the place he told her, "Welcome to the family."

She stared at the keys not knowing what exactly what she should say. "I'll pitch in whenever you want me to. I am grateful for this."

Both nodding their heads, Stella and Miles thought it would be best to leave her be to get settled. Leaving her be they had no clue what was really going on in Helga's mind right now.

He felt like his shirt was tear stained from Lila. She kept constantly coming up to him just to cry on his shoulder. As much as he wanted to comfort his friend, he was finding himself a little tired of it. The one he wanted to speak to was, Helga. It was true he had trouble sorting out his true feelings for her most days, but there were days he couldn't help his attraction towards the blonde spitfire. He enjoyed her unconventional beauty. Enjoyed her take charge attitude most of the time. Loved that surprised gawking look she would offer him if he surprised her. The thing he couldn't take was how standoffish she always ended up being. Didn't she trust him? He would never betray her.

As he thought about her, Arnold lugged himself through the front door to find his parents in the living room together. They were beckoning him to enter so they can talk to him. They seemed both excited and nervous making him hope that they weren't about to go off on another adventure.

Stella was smiling at her son hopefully. "How was your day?"

He sighed as he seemed to have melted into the cushions. "Long. How was yours?"

"Eventful. Both of our days were eventful." Stella clarified as she pointed to also his father.

Arnold felt intrigued, but nervous. "How was it eventful?"

Miles took Stella's hand. "We were both approached to become legal guardians about a couple weeks back." He began to explain. "We were both shocked, but flattered to have the opportunity to become a guardian over a teenager your age. Someone who is highly gifted. Someone that your mother and I adore. We both adored this person since we first were introduced to them in the jungle."

He felt lost a bit. "Someone from San Lorenzo?"

Stella laughed kindly at the question. "No dear. You've known this person since they were three." She really hoped she didn't need to spell it out.

His eyes blinked rapidly. "Helga?" They both nodded. "You mean she'll be living here for now on?" They nodded again. "I know she has an aunt. I thought she would be going to her place."

Miles let out a huge breath he seemed to have been holding in. "Her aunt has children of her own and couldn't take care of her. She has no other relatives to go to. We think that even Helga was surprised to be coming here. She's upstairs currently still in her room organizing the last of her items."

Arnold glanced up towards the second level. Helga is here. She'll be living here. If filled him with relief to know that she won't be disappearing off the face of the planet. "Who came to you anyhow?"

"Her parents." Stella spat out with some distaste. "Said that since she seems to keep coming here that it was best of she stays here. We can have her or she'll be tossed in an orphanage. Her father's words, not mines."

Hearing his mother hooting and hollering upstairs, Miles smiled. "Your grandma has been over the moon about this whole thing."

He didn't want to hate anyone right now, but he hated her parents for abandoning her. Helga was a good person who deserved love too. So what if she wasn't like her sister or even Lila, Helga was her own individual. Arnold had an idea which room she was in. There were two available ones and there was no way his parents would cramp her into one of the tinier rooms.

Stella and Miles noticed how long he had been quiet for. He held no expression on his face. "What do you think, Arnold?" Miles wondered hopefully.

He gave his parents the needed attention back as he smiled a bit. "I'm fine with her being here. I'm glad you guys took her in."

After his chat with his parents, Arnold headed upstairs to his room. Very slowly he trudged down the hallway just to stop in front of the door where Helga was currently occupying. He could hear his grandma inside talking even if he couldn't make out what she was saying. Raising his hand to knock he stopped himself. His pause was lengthy before he decided to go the rest of the way to his room to do his homework. He'll see her at dinner.

He didn't see her at dinner. He was told she was far too depressed to handle company right now. So as he heard Oskar complaining about lack of food while his grandpa kept hitting his hand away from his own, Arnold remained quiet.

In her room, Helga stared at the wall in front of her. She felt like a zombie as she sat there on her bed. She could hear them from downstairs. Glancing a little bit too forlorn at her food, Helga slunk down more on the bed as she just stared at it. A few nibbles here and there, but she couldn't stomach anymore. She did take the proffered drink at least for her burlap sack of a throat right now. She ignored the messages on her phone from Phoebe. Eyes closing she could hear the terrifying scream in her memories. Her eyes snapped open to erase that sound away. It always happened each time she closed her eyes.