Arnold hadn't been there when it happened, but he had heard the explosion from two halls over. No, seriously. The sound was like two mack trucks colliding into an opera house full performers. He jumped, his papers and textbooks flying out of his hands and scattering across the floor. Everyone in the hallways momentarily froze at the sudden sound before resuming their previous activities.
What the heck was that? He wondered gathering his things. I hope no one got hurt.
"Come on, let's see the carnage!"
Two freshmen rushed by, heading towards the direction the commotion came from. Curiosity overcame Arnold as well and he followed them. As he drew closer, he began to hear someone screaming curses and cringed. Arnold would know that voice anywhere. Pushing through to the front of the crowd, he froze when he witnessed the scene before him. Helga was being bodily lifted and carried away by Patty, kicking, and screaming, and cursing something fierce. Phoebe clung to Patty's arm trying in vain to calm her down. Sid and Stinky clung to each other in terror, obviously the target of Helga's rage while Harold slumped against the lockers unconscious next to suspiciously Harold-shaped dent in the mental.
"Man you totally missed it!" Gerald exclaimed popping up next to him, "Those three finally signed their death warrants. They put gum in Helga's hair!"
"Gum!?" Arnold's stomach immediately dropped. Ever since seventh grade, for some unknown reason, Helga had ditched her pigtails and began wearing her hair loose. Four years later, it now reached the small of her back. Or, at least it had. It was obvious that Helga had gone through a lot of trouble growing it out that long. No wonder she was so furious. But as much as Arnold wanted to lend a hand in consoling her, he had his own personal safety to worry about. He would definitely wait until after she settled down a bit.
The bell rang as Helga was carried out of site and the student body dissipated to their classes. Arnold walked beside Gerald as they headed to Western Civ.
"So which one of them did it?" Arnold asked. "Was it Harold? It looked like she slammed him against the lockers pretty hard."
"Man I don't even know. They set it up so the gum would explode from her locker. She just happened to turn her head at the wrong time." Gerald snickered. "You gotta love this prank war they got going on."
"I don't know Gerald. Helga seemed really upset. I hope she's not hurt."
Gerald scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. It was clear that he could care less about Helga's well-being. Sitting in class though, Arnold couldn't stop worrying about her. Her screams had been especially vicious sounding with an underlying tone of panic. Which meant that his earlier assumption was right about her being attached to her hair. The question came to mind of exactly when he became able to read the tone of Helga's voice so well, but the more pressing question was when did Helga care about her hair so much? Before she wore it out, her hairstyle choice had been two low pigtails with a tattered gray beanie on top. It could have been attributed to her wanting a new look, but she never changed her customary jeans, t-shirt, and combat boots that she wore since the end of middle school.
Well, whatever the reason, Arnold just hoped that Helga would be okay. They weren't exactly close, but she seemed to have mellowed towards him since they began high school. As a matter of fact, she behaved downright friendly towards him most of the time. As friendly as Helga got anyway. "Football head" became more of an affectionate nickname than an insult and she had gone from disgusting spit balls to flying rubber bands. Okay so the last one wasn't so much an upgrade, but at least it was more playful than spiteful.
As soon as his class ended, Arnold made up his mind to find Helga and make sure she was okay. Maybe he could even offer to take her to the movies or out to dinner? Arnold suddenly smiled. Helga was probably the only girl he actually enjoyed going to the movies or out to eat with. She didn't care about eating messy, greasy food in front of him or watching gory, violent, or scary movies with him. Unlike his two previous girlfriends, he actually had a lot of fun with Helga.
But Arnold saw no sign of Helga in the hallway as he changed out his books for his next class. Nor did he see her after his last class let out. He waited by her locker but she didn't even show up there. Sticky, pink gum still oozed from the vents. After a few minutes though, Arnold spotted Phoebe walking by with twice the amount of paper in her arms.
"Hey Phoebe," he waved her down, "Have you seen Helga?"
"Oh," Phoebe frowned and fiddled with her glasses, "I'm afraid she went home after the, um, gum incident. She was rather upset."
"Oh," Arnold frowned too. Seems like he was looking forward to taking her to the movies more than he realized. "Well… do you know how she is? She seemed really upset. I didn't realize she cared about her hair that much."
"Well, it was a rather humiliating experience for her." Phoebe pointed out, "Anyways, I'm sure she'll be in school tomorrow. See you later, Arnold."
"See ya." Arnold waved half-heartedly and headed out of school alone. Guess he would have to ask her out tomorrow… to make sure she was okay of course.
Tomorrow came and went though and there was no Helga. No stomping down the hall, no playful insults or rubber bands. Not even a hurricane of rage and fury. Arnold was surprised at how empty the school was without her. The day after that fared the same. Sid, Stinky, and Harold (the last sporting a neck brace and a black eye) crept around the hallway like mice, but no avenging blonde, fiery angel of death descended on them. On the third day, Arnold made up his mind to go to Helga's house himself if she didn't show up today.
"I'll just walk right up to her door and ask how she's doing." He rehearsed at his locker. "If she's still pissed I'll take her to an action movie. It'll be cathartic. Or give her ideas on how to get payback." Arnold briefly shuddered at the thought but continued. "And if she's in a better mood, I'll take her out to eat. That should keep her in a good mood."
Again the thought made Arnold happy. Just the two of them hanging out would be nice. Maybe they would end up talking and he could find out why the sudden change in hair style.
Satisfied, Arnold closed his locker, turned to walk away, and knocked shoulders with someone who was hurrying by.
"Sorry," He called over his shoulder to the stranger.
"Watch where you're going next time football head!" Came the familiar response.
Arnold quickly snapped his head around but only saw an unfamiliar girl walking away. She was tall and statuesque, with curves to her hips and long legs clad in jeans. Her soft blond hair was cut shoulder length in choppy layers.
"Wait," Arnold blinked again and called out before she could disappear too far into the flood of students, "Helga?"
She paused and turned her head for only the briefest of moments before hurrying on again, but those intense blue eyes and unibrow had already given her away.
"Helga wait up!" Arnold hurried after her, not caring if he was late for class. "I almost didn't recognize you."
Moving a little ahead of her, Arnold could see that her hair cut framed her face accentuating angles at he never knew were there. The new short length also revealed curves that were no longer hidden by her waterfall of hair.
"You look beautiful." Arnold breathed before he could stop himself. "That haircut looks great on you."
Helga froze and whirled on him so suddenly that, he almost ran into her again. At first he thought she was going to hit him, but her fiery blue eyes softened into something resembling vulnerability.
"You um, actually like it?" She mumbled touching a hand to it. "I had to cut it because of those three bozos. Speaking of which, I outta-"
"It's beautiful." Your beautiful. The words almost came out of his mouth but Arnold stopped them in time. Where did that come from?
The warning bell rang and Helga suddenly looked impatient and uncomfortable.
"So, um, did you need something else?" She asked him gruffly. "You already checked up on me so you did your civic duty already."
"Actually yeah, I wanted to…" Ask her to dinner, that was the plan. If she was still upset take her to the movies, and if she wasn't take her to dinner. As friends. Just to make her happy. Because he was her friend.
But as Arnold stared at her, he felt his mouth go dry and his stomach clenched. The hair cut seemed to make her edgier, sexy even. It more than complimented her, it magnified her
Helga narrowed her eyes and a wary look appeared behind her annoyed expression. A hand drifted up to subconsciously touch her hair. Finally, her shoulders dropped and she walked away.
"Whatever, Arnoldo."
She disappeared inside her classroom just as the hallways emptied out leaving Arnold to stare blankly where she had been. What the heck just happened.