So this is my first time actually writing a story, so hopefully you'll enjoy it. I'll try my best to write more and as often as I can. Please be a little easy on the criticism, I hadn't had that much time to actually edit this.

Update: Alright so I decided to go over each chapter and kind of edit it, in a sense. So far I've done this chapter, more to follow after, then I'll post new chapters. Enjoy!

I also do not own anything Hey Arnold.

Just a fan from the 90's television show.

Helga's transition

It was Monday, Helga's first day at a new school, she felt lost since she was the new student starting in the middle of the semester, but what could you do when Big Bob didn't want to wait till she was done her first semester in Hillwood. The moment the opportunity for Big Bob to really take off his business was knocking on the door, and he couldn't pass it off, let alone wait.

Helga had grown a lot since she was 9; puberty was definitely in her favour. She was about 5'7, still with her blonde hair but it reaching a reasonable length brushing a few inches past her shoulders with a natural beach wave to it. Her wardrobe consisted of skinny jeans, converse, a basic white or black tank top, and an endless amount of basic and plaid button ups, occasionally throwing on a random printed scarf if she was wearing a basic button up. Her eyes still blue as ever and her make up being of minimal just simple eyeliner and mascara, occasionally lip balm if her lips felt dry.

As she took a deep breath and entered the school for the first time, she had thought to herself, she should try to be her own person since she hadn't been able to see herself without her obsession over Arnold. She had decided it was a clean slate for her to start over, a new impression of who she was, a new opportunity.

She had gone to her classes, feeling like an outsider at first, but slowly finding her way through the school and meeting people in her classes, whom eventually become her friends over time. They seemed pretty cool from what she could see, and she started to feel like she belonged, instead of some reject that only saw her as a tormented bully.

Helga started to discover more things about herself she didn't seem to know before, music, concerts, and more towards the negative, partying. High school was definitely not as bad as she thought, but people would talk about how high school was either the worst or the best time of their lives. Soon she would understand all the fuss over it, for better ... or worse.

She had made friends with mainly everyone within' her grade, but like everyone else she did have her close knit of friends, some being older than her though they seemed to find her pretty cool despite the fact that she was a year younger. There was one particular guy whom she became quite good friends with to the point where Arnold seemed to be a distant memory.

He was quite the opposite compared to Arnold, more into the body building and more of the jock type, but yet they seemed to click and became quite close, quite quickly. He was tall, short brown hair, tanned skin, bright blue eyes, and an unbelievable build. With a simple name to follow, Gabe.

It's funny how her friendship began with Gabe, finding an interest in Helga and going out of his way to convince a mutual friend of theirs to give him her number to ask her out to the dance. Gabe had dialled her number that night excited to ask her, sure she'd say yes since they'd walk home together every day after school, even though it was with a group of friends, he still felt they clicked.

The phone had rung a few times, and finally Helga had answered with a simple "Hello?"

Gabe had a bit of a shaky voice, but managed to get out, "Hi, is Helga home?"

Helga had replied back with an unimpressed tone to her voice, "speaking." She was pretty confused considering she didn't enjoy talking on the phone and couldn't imagine any one of her friends from school calling her.

Gabe had replied back, "Oh, hi! It's Gabe, how's it going?"

Helga didn't enjoy small talk; she preferred conversations to be straight to the point and not sugar coated. So, she replied back "oh, nothing, what's up? Why are you calling? And how did you get my number?"

Gabe was taken by surprise by Helga's forwardness on the phone, and how her voice seemed a little hostile. His cheeks flushed pink, and replied, "Oh, Sam gave me your number ... sorry I should've said that originally. But anyways I was just wondering if you were planning on going to the dance at all."

Helga nonchalantly replied "Oh no, not my thing, I'm actually just gonna ditch school and head over to the mall or something just to kill time. Dances are the last place I'd want to be caught dead. It's just a lame excuse for people to dress up and act important, definitely not my cup of tea." Deep down though she thought to herself 'of course I'd want to go to the dance, but with whom ... no one, I'd rather just stay away than go and depress myself.'

Gabe felt a little let down by what she had said, he was so excited about asking her to the dance considering he actually didn't normally go to dances, but he found Helga to be the perfect person to go with. He simply replied "oh, that's cool I guess, I was just gonna see if you wanted to go to the dance with me. But since you're not a fan, that's alright I'll just hang out with the guys at the dance that's cool."

Helga felt a little embarrassed considering she hadn't thought he'd want to ask her to go to the dance. She thought to herself 'why am I so dumb?! I shouldn't have opened my mouth! UGH! He's interested in ME! Me! Of all people, and I blow him off before he even asks me! I'm so dumb!' Helga composed herself and shock herself to try to sound normal simply replied, "oh well, that's too bad, I'll see ya tomorrow though. Bye." then simply hung up the phone to avoid any more awkwardness.

Gabe thought to himself after she hung up, 'I guess I should've figured she would say no, but I swear I was sure she'd say yes, I guess we can just be friends, we get along well anyways.'

The day of the dance came and as Helga had said to Gabe that she'd probably ditch and go to the mall or something, she did just that, ditch. Gabe thought she would've at least shown up for her classes that day, but she didn't come at all, he felt kind of bad since he hadn't had a chance to talk to her since calling her randomly out of the blue last week. He really wanted to apologize and go back to just talking and joking around like they would after school walking home. He thought to himself, 'maybe I'll catch her next week.'

Helga still felt really dumb about shooting Gabe down before he even had a chance to ask her to the dance. She had considered going to school that day just so she wouldn't miss her classes, but she thought to herself 'euh, why bother.' She was taken back to reality when she heard Jon over the phone. They discussed where they'd be meeting and what they'd be doing.

They decided to go to the docks instead and just chill there for the day. Helga simply just began to get ready and headed out the door, when she looked over to see Big Bob hadn't gone to work yet. She simply shrugged her shoulders and walked out the door not caring all that much if he noticed her or not. She said to herself as she walked out the door 'what's the point, I'm ahead of my class anyways, plus Jon and Monica want to hang anyways. It's just the dance.'

As she called them up to see where they're meeting at the mall and what time she should leave, a thought shot through her mind Arnold. She shook her head, and thought 'WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT ARNOLD?!' it caught her off guard and she stopped in her tracks, then shook herself back to reality and tried to forget about the football headed teen.

The following Monday after the dance, Gabe managed to spot Helga standing with her group of friends, Sam, Jon, Monica, Pauline, Todd, Jeremy, and Quin. He walked over to Helga and asked if she was heading straight home after school and if maybe they wanted to hang out for a bit. Helga had said she would be and agreed to hanging out since she didn't have any plans anyways.

Her group of friends weren't aware that Helga was 'friends' with one of the jocks, especially the fact that she hung out with him. She shrugged it off and said, "He's a pretty cool guy actually, not just a meat head." Her friends didn't seem to care much that she hung out with him or anything, other than Quin, she seemed to find it a little annoying.

After school when Gabe and Helga had started walking home things didn't seem weird at all, they headed down to the local park nearby and just hung out and started swinging on the swings and joking around. Helga would make witty little remarks like "Gabe you really think you could fit in that swing now, it might break" with a sarcastic smile on her face. He knew she was just teasing him with him being on the football team and all and being so muscular.

After swinging on the swings they decided to lay on the grass and just relax for a bit and talk. Helga couldn't believe how much fun she was actually having despite the fact that Gabe was a football player and thought he'd just want to talk about football or something.

While lying in the grass their hands had brushed against each other and Helga couldn't help but feel a blush run across her cheeks. Gabe had stood up and looked over at Helga and couldn't help but notice the slight tint of pink across her cheeks, he smirked and remembered how Helga had mentioned how it's uncomfortable when the dudes in her gym class take their shirts off as if showing off something.

Gabe had then started to take his shirt off, just to get a rise out of Helga of course. Helga propped herself up on her elbows wondering why Gabe had gotten up, only to find Gabe shirtless, her face went stark red, she couldn't help but notice his tanned skin from constantly practicing outside for football, and his unbelievably built body. The only thing Helga managed to get out while covering her eyes "GOD Gabe, put on your shirt! What's wrong with you! It's not like it's a public strip show out here!" Gabe chuckled and grabbed Helga over his shoulder and started walking, all you could hear was Helga yelling and flailing her arms "PUT ME DOWN! GAH!"

Gabe continued to walk and chuckled saying "lets head home c'mon now I have a ton of homework, football practice is making me fall behind on my assignments." He placed Helga down and they continued to walk home until finally reaching Helga's house first. Helga said bye to Gabe and started walking towards her house, while walking Gabe jokingly slapped her on the butt, like he would a teammate. Helga turned and glared at him while he walked off and winked at her. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed and annoyed, but still a little flattered despite it being a little inappropriate.