Disclaimer: I do not own HA!
The Challenge
It was a bright afternoon and sweat glistened off the teen males. The young boys were playing a game of baseball in the famous Gerald Field. The summer heat started settling in and Arnold was up to bat with team member Sid Gilafi at second plate. Their team was down a run and if calculated just right Arnold could get the win. The young blonde could hear Gerald whistling in the distance cheering him on and a few opposing members, and friend cheering against him. Arnold's eyes were on the pitcher, his chubby friend, Harold Berman giving him a smug grin. The two stared each other down for a long while.
"Are you gonna hit like a girll, Arrrnoldd?" The chubby adolescent teased childishly.
Arnold gritted his teeth and his eyes went into slits as he watched every move his chubby friend was making.
"Just throw it." He practically sneered, his grip on his bat deathly.
Harold smirked and with a mighty swing of his arm, he threw the ball right into the catcher, Stinky's, mitt. Arnold missed the swing completely and let out a groan.
"You got this Arnold!" He heard Gerald shout from the outfield.
"Yea, you've got a strikeout coming Arwnold." Harold snickered.
Arnold started to become frustrated that a 17year old were still so childish. He wiggled his butt much like he had in his youth and told himself to concentrate and with another swing from Harold, he had swung but the ball went to his right.
"Foul ball." Stinky's country twang could be heard.
Arnold had struckout the entire game.
All five boys were sitting in the field eating some popsicles for the Jolly Olly man had driven by. The cool of the pops were easing the heat and clear tension away from the fact that one of their best players weren't here again.
"Why hasn't Helga been showing up?" Sid had asked tossing his stick far out into the grass.
"You better pick that up." Gerald narrowed his eyes at the long nosed boy, who had gotten taller over the course of years.
"Boy howdy, you act like this is your house or something."
"The field is called Gerald Field, Sid." Stinky stated eating into his italian lemon ice.
"What he said."
Gerald gave Sid a victorius smirk. Sid with a roll of his eyes lifted up with his palms and had grabbed the popiscle stick throwing it out into the street.
"Happy?" He plopped down sarcastically. All the boys had rolled their eyes save for Harold who was eating his third fudgy bar.
"Where's Helga? Cause if she saw how we were playing today she would grab us by the balls and hang us."
"The image is burned in my head, thanks." Gerald seethed.
"Helga holding our balls? Not a bad thought." Sid smirked while Gerald visibly blanched.
"Your secret crush on her is disturbing."
"Only cause you're obsessed with Phoebe you find it gross."
"I am not obsessed with Phoebe!"
"She's SO smart." Sid exaggerated.
"She has the cutest laugh!" Stinky mocked.
"Gerald and Phoebe sitting in a tree. K-I-SS-I-N-G!" Harold bellowed out a laugh and the three boys snickered.
"Real mature guys, I almost forgot we were going to high school."
"Don't remind me." Stinky grimaced.
"I can't wait. High school chicks." Sid swooned.
"You like anything with a vagina, I swear."
The boys mindlessly bickered and Arnold laid back into the grass thankful they hadn't further discussed Helga. Since their last argument he hadn't seen or heard from her in over a week. He looked to his popiscle that was melting, he hadn't even taken a lick from it. All this hadn't gone unnoticed from Gerald, he would later ask Arnold if he knew anything.
"Well what do we have here, the freshman losers."
All five boys had stopped all conversation and looked to see a handsome, tall and quite built young blonde with a group of peers who appeared his age with mitts, a bat and two balls. Sid was the first to stand up, and the rest of the boys stood up. They had met the other boys half way and stopped when they were nearly two steps away from being in each other faces. Obvious rivalry was there.
"Hello Wolfgang." Arnold greeted casually.
"Football face." Wolfgang smirked looking the rest of the boys down until his head tilted to the side in amusement.
"Where's long legs?" He bit his lower lip in a way that made Arnold's hand ball into a fist.
"None of your business Wolfgang!" Sid sneered. He had gotten quite gutsy over the years.
"Probably pms-ing." Edmund laughed his slowlike laugh.
"That's disgusting man." Gerald's face had begun to look ill.
"Shame, it's always fun messing with her." Wolfgang said distracting the situation.
"What do you want Wolfgang?" Arnold losing his patience.
"Came to play a game of baseball, got that Football Face."
"Go play at Tina Park. This is our field!" Gerald puffed his chest up while Harold had cracked his knuckles.
"It's a free country, Gerald. Besides its not like you losers are putting the field into good use." Wolfgang's goons snickered and clapped hands.
"Oh we can put it into good use right now. Bring it on!" Sid balled his fists up, Stinky holding him back.
Arnold was beginning to get annoyed with their childish behaviour, on both ends, and was going to settle it calmly.
"Let's settle it right now then. How about a quick game? My guys against yours?" Wolfgang looked confidently into the faces of the younger males.
Arnold looked to his peers and could see the anticipation for a good game but they were ill prepared and down a couple of girls.
"No thanks, Wolfgang. Let's go guys." Arnold grabbed his bat and headed from the field all while his friends complained and whined to him but essentially followed.
"Too busy taking care of your old folks?" Arnold froze at Wolfgang's nasty words and his hold on the bat tightened till his hand turned red.
Gerald looked in awe as Arnold swung the bat over his shoulder and stepped up in Wolfgang's face though he were shorter than the bully by a few inches.
"My team against your team two weeks after the Fourth of July." His voice grew husky nearly resembling a man. Wolfgang looked momentarily stunned but a confident smirk plastered his face.
"Let's make it even better. Whoever wins gets Gerald field."
Crystal blues looked into vine green as tension grew. In the background could be heard the protests of Arnold's friends, mainly that of Gerald. Arnold was tired of being the odd man out, the wimp, the orphan boy with sick grandparents. He had something to prove wether it be to Wolfgang or a stranger on the street. He would prove himself through baseball.
"Deal." Arnold had held his hand out and Wolfgang gripped the hand unecessarily tight but Arnold, determined, didn't show an ounce of discomfort.
"I can't wait to change the name of this field."
"Be prepared Wolfgang." Was all Arnold said as they released hands and Arnold walked ahead of his stunned friends who after a minute ran after the boy with the blue cap.
On the corner of Meeting Str. the boys had stopped Arnold with a firm hand to the shoulder from Sid. Arnold spun around annoyingly and looked to his distressed friend's faces.
"What. The. Hell?!" Sid yelled. Arnold was pretty sure his screams could be heard from ten blocks away.
"You signed a deal with the devil! Are you serious?!"
"Lower your voice please." Arnold stated calmly.
Sid began to pace around speaking to himself angerily. The rest of the boys looked to Arnold, Harold with an angry expression.
"How in the heck do you expect us to beat Wolfgang's team?" Harold stomped a foot.
"Yea, most are on JV at Hillwood High." Stinky crossed his arms. Gerald's "mm mmm's" were followed.
"Guys, we can beat them. I'm postive." Arnold urged.
"Ohhh he's postive. We've got a Mr. Brightside over here!" Sid glowered.
"Sid, breathe buddy." Gerald said calmly. "Arnold I know you felt like a macho man back there but c'mon, we don't even have enough players and we...we kind of..."
"We stink. Suck. Blow!" Sid threw his hands in the air.
"Exactly!" Gerald pointed.
Arnold took a moment to breathe in before speaking.
"Guys, I know we can do this. We'll start recruiting people tomorrow and we'll practice everyday and we will be ready. Gerald and Sid, you guys can make money off of this. Get people to see us play. Harold you can show off your pitching skills and Stinky you have a crazy swing. We can do this!"
Not all the boys had looked convinced but they put their hands in the middle along with Arnold's and raised it high before departing for the evening.
The sun was beginning to completely set and a blanket of black were covering the sky with the flash of street lights coming into view. Two of the oldest best friends were walking together on the way home. Arnold appreciated the silence for he needed to think and come up with exactly what to do. He had accepted Wolfgang's challenge on a frustrated whim and wish he were more levelheaded than that. With age he had become less enthusiastic and more reserved. He was still optimistic but with maturity came reality and it wasn't always nice.
Gerald, along side Arnold, was thinking silently himself on the events of today and this past week. Had Helga been there they probably would have played Wolfgang today and a challenge wouldn't have even come into the equation but it had and was provoked by none other than his pacifist friend Arnold. That was surprising but he had seen more surprising things in his life. Life was full of them.
"What happened the night you walked Helga home?"
Arnold had momentarily paused in his steps but continued walking along side Gerald.
"How do you know I walked her home?"
"You always do." Gerald raised an eyebrow a smirk forming. He heard his friend sigh as they came into view of the boarding house stoop.
Gerald had sat down on the stoop steps and looked to Arnold waiting patiently for him to as well. But Arnold, instead, stood with his arms crossed and a troubling expression on his normally smiling face.
"Something...bad." Gerald was almost afraid to hear what could have happened but his curiousity got the best of him.
"We sort of talked about her feelings and I sort of rejected her." Arnold looked up to the streetlight on his block that had been flickering for the past few nights. It was sure to go out soon.
"Damn." Gerald's voice broke Arnold's focus. A dark chuckle escaped the football headed boy followed by a slight grimace of the mouth.
Gerald seeing the affliction on his good friend's face quickly followed with a question.
"Think she'll come back and play ball?"
Arnold had finally sat down, his elbow resting on his knees with jaded eyes staring at the cement sidewalk in front of him.
"I don't even know if we'll be friends anymore."
The young man with the darker complexion ran his smooth hands together in thought a soft hitch of breath escaping his plump lips as he sincerely spoke.
"She'll always be your friend. She cares about you."
"But I don't feel the same way she does." Arnold looked to his dirty laces and reminded himself to clean off his shoes later tonight.
"Helga's not gonna let your rejection stop her from being your friend. She's a tough girl. Start believing that." Gerald stated knowingly.
A few crawling bugs and a stray cat could be seen not far away on the sidewalk. Arnold looked to his friend Gerald and for a change put his guard down.
"I feel like its my fault we haven't talked about it sooner. I kept putting it off selfishly because I didn't want to disappoint her but I did anyway, huh?"
It was a peculiar thought that someone could disappoint Helga. The girl who had little faith in anyone, including herself, Arnold thought. But he couldn't deny it. He had seen the disappointment when she turned her back on him. He almost wished he could take it back if it weren't for the fact that these just were his feelings.
"Can't blame yourself, man. You were just being honest." Gerald patted Arnold's shoulder. The blonde feeling slightly better about his decision that night.
"Besides you guys have plenty of time to get married and have football shaped unibrow headed babies." Gerald chuckled before he felt a fist collide with his arm. "Owe!"
"It was deserved. Spend the night, I don't feel comfortable with you walking home this late."
The neighborhood had changed throughout the years. While the metropolitan area grew larger crime had risen. Gang violence, muggings and robberies often took place in nearby areas but fortunately it hadn't been in Hillwood.
"I'll be fine. Don't worry, worry wart." Gerald smirked.
Arnold had believed the boy though he rather have the company tonight. He stood up along with Gerald and they did their signature shake with the wiggle of their thumbs. With a wave from Gerald and soft bye from Arnold, they had went their seperate ways for the summer evening. Tomorrow would be a busy day.
