**Welcome everyone who reads! This is my first Hey Arnold story but I am a very loyal fan to the show/movie. This story does follow a timeline related to TJM (#SAVETJM !) and it places Hillwood in New York City. Lots of Helga and Arnold love to come I promise but you'll have to wait for it, though all good things come to those who wait! Reviews both good and bad are highly welcomed! Thanks :D **

Chapter 1

Lights on Vine Street

It seemed like the sun would never set that night as Helga sat on her roof waiting for the natural darkness to attempt to creep over the city. Slowly the street lights turned on, the one on the corner of Vine Street always flickering ten times before it finally stayed on. The side effect of year's worth of home-run baseballs shot out of Gerald field using it as favorite target. She looked down at her lap with her journal open to the final page. Another journal finished, more words spilled onto pages, more expression released that no one would ever read. For a moment she considered running to the corner store and buying a new journal but considering that last book took her nearly two years to fill she didn't see the point, her muse was long gone. Instead she collected her things on the roof and headed back down into the Pataki house and went to bed.

Restlessly she did the best she could to sleep. Her bed felt like lumps and finally she just gave up and went to the living room. Mostly to check up on Miriam who almost always fell asleep on the couch. Helga had taken up this habit every night without notice. This night she had made it to the couch and wasn't on the floor, again. Helga made sure to cover her and headed over to the kitchen. Hoping a snack would calm her enough to sleep. Phoebe always made sure she kept tea around to help her de-stress. "They say Japanese Buddhist monks could meditate for hours, both alert and relaxed. One reason may have been an amino acid in their green tea called L- theanine. I read the whole article from the American Botanical Council." Phoebe would go on about all these things and Helga would humor her since it did work.

With one last check on Miriam she went back to bed. The tea did its job and slowly she started fading off looking around her room. The heart wallpaper was peeling badly and she smirked thinking that maybe one day she'll replace it. But as with everything in her life these days outside of work and school she didn't see the point. What was the point of anything without her Arnold?

6 Years ago

San Lorenzo

Helga sat next to Phoebe on the bus heading back towards the San Lorenzo airport. The bus was a buzz with the chatter of her fellow classmates talking about the adventures they had all just under gone. Fifth grade would seem so boring to them now.

"Helga are you okay?" Phoebe asked. Gerald had already told her what he had seen but she kept that information to herself knowing full well that it would just set Helga off.

Through gritted teeth and nearly in a low growl "I AM FINE Phoebe!" Phoebe dropped it leaving Helga to her own thoughts.

Arnold had found his parents! Miles and Stella had survived all these years in San Lorenzo but having been cut off from the world they had no way to contact anyone to return home. It was with great luck that Arnold had won that essay contest. Finding his parents was all he ever wanted. Though the trip had found him discovering more then just the whereabouts of long lost parent's but also the deep seeded feelings he had for Helga G. Pataki! Neither could have predicted that he would have confessed to Helga so suddenly the way he did. For a few years Arnold had been battling with how he felt, towards Helga but honestly she scared him. Not because of the outward way she always treated him but because of how strongly she loved him, it was something he pretended not to see and he would even lie to himself about it. But many times over the years he had over heard her little private speeches. Politely he would ignore it since he knew she wasn't ready to share them with him.

Ignoring it seemed to work up until that night on the FTi roof when she kissed him and confessed how she felt and he stopped her. He had always wanted to point out to her that he didn't stop her because he didn't want to kiss her back but just because they needed to save the neighborhood and had time against them. But now with the excitement of finding his parents and the setting of San Lorenzo that fear he always had just didn't seem to hold him back. This time he kissed her, the first girl he had ever been brave enough to really kiss, and be the one to do so first! Her hair was still a mess from running through the Jungle having lost her bow and her skirt was torn across her stomach. She wasn't angry or yelling at him for once. In fact it was highly due to her help that he had found his parents at all. So when they were finally alone just outside the main tents of camp he grabbed her hand and pulled her behind a tree took a second to look into those big blue eyes and without putting more thought into it he kissed her, snaking his free hand around her waist allowing his weight to lean on the tree since the moment had left him so weak in the knees.

"Helga I love you too… I just" He would have gone on to try and explain his feelings had Gerald not walked in on them.

That was the moment when everything changed. The bubble had busted and reality started to set back in. Gerald had come to inform them that everyone was told to start packing up to be ready for tomorrow's trip back into town. Arnold who still had Helga's hand in his tried to excuse what Gerald had really seen. Thinking it would be easier on Helga that way but Gerald wasn't buying it. He slowly released her hand from his and explained that he needed to meet back up with his parents who had been making much needed calls on the radio Mr. Simmons had brought with him. Helga and Gerald silently walked into Camp, both to afraid to speak about what had just happened.

Later that night as everyone was getting ready for there last night in San Lorenzo Arnold asked everyone to gather round. Word of all the medical advances his parents had made over the pass six years had spread quickly and thanks to the radio calls they had made back to the states many different medical groups where interested in proper development of those finds. They had already been offered something they couldn't refuse and now with Arnold with them it wasn't like when they left to San Lorenzo six years before, this time he was old enough to join them! Arnold's classmates all joined around the fireplace to hear what he had to say.

"The government of South America wants to thank my parents for all there hard work over the years. They've been awarded a grant and they've arranged to open a medical clinic in Africa, in the Congo! I…" He hesitated looking over the crowd all his friends waiting to hear what he had to say. His eyes locked with Helga's and for a moment he didn't think he could finish he statement, but then not far from Helga where his parents smiling, beaming really and he remembered that this was what he had wanted for so many years, his parents, so he went on. "I'm going with them! We are heading back to Hillwood tonight to settle some things before starting our new life together! Thanks guys for all the help with La Sombra! I expect to keep in touch with everyone!" The crowd was suddenly in a cheer! They all rushed over to him exchanging hand shakes and high fives, everyone but Helga. Arnold looked for her in the crowd he knew they needed to speak about everything. They needed to truthfully speak about how they both felt towards each other!

He finally found her under there tree from earlier she was sitting hugging her knees hiding her face. She seemed so small sitting there and when she heard him coming she turned her back to him, he hoped she wasn't crying.

"Helga, we need to talk."

Slowly she turned to face him and she wasn't crying but he could feel the emotion in her eyes even if he didn't fully understand what he was seeing.

"What about, football head?"

He took another step towards her but she stiffened up at his approach so he didn't get any closer.

"I wanted to tell you something before Gerald walked in earlier. We kissed Helga and I meant what I said, I love you too." She stood up and very quickly replied back.

"Don't waste your fancy words on me football head. Or any love you think you might have. We seem to get all excited when we are saving neighborhoods or battling strange Jungle men. It meant nothing, GOT IT!?" She turned around with her back to him, just in case her tears failed her she didn't want him to see.

He knew what she was doing because it was the same thing he had done for her after there last kiss on the roof of FTi. It occurred to him that he was leaving and who knew when he would see her again.

"Helga I'm leaving and I really want to keep in touch! If I write you will write back? I won't push you either way." Was that the right thing to say, because what he wanted to do was turn her around and kiss her again but he didn't and in time he would regret it.

"Got it Arnold, I heard your little speech. Have fun in Africa. Send me a postcard or whatever, I don't care." Good thing she had turned away from him because her tears had in deed failed her as she felt the burn of her tears run down her cheek.

She was acting so cold, as if nothing had just happened with them. He knew she was lying. He knew she felt the same way yet for whatever reason she refused to tell him and he didn't know how to make her without being to aggressive. But once again time was against them and he knew he had to go. His parents had a private plane taking them part of the way back home and they where waiting for him to leave.

"Bye Helga, I'll miss you and I'll write you even if you don't write back." Regretfully so he left her under the tree and walked away towards his new adventure with the parents he hadn't seen in nine years and away from the girl whom he had never spent a day apart from.

Present day

Arnold had kept his word and he had written her a handful of times but she never sent him a reply. What could she say? How could she explain how she had felt that day? She felt it didn't matter anyway. What someone feels at ten years old is much different then what they feel at seventeen, so she just kept to her journals. Over the years Gerald and Phoebe had kept in contact with him and kept her up to date though the updates had been fewer and fewer in the pass two years. Gerald politely never brought up the kiss he had interrupted which she was grateful for.

The next day started the last week of summer break before the start of her senior year of high school. "Oh boy, my last year of high school!" She thought as she finally drifted off to sleep.