Careful…
Someone's in on the gossip, and they're about to spill it all. The Golden Gang better be careful, because there's a Gossip Girl in Walkerville.
Gossip Girl in Walkerville
The reappearance of W shocks A, R and P.
Despite having been gone from Walkerville in long two years, everyone recognized her when she returned, because there was no one really new in Walkerville and no one could forget the bubbly and loud exotic, somewhat boisterous, Chinese girl – who still remained very much the same as before; silky-black short hair (true, it was longer, now shoulder-length), dark onyx eyes, and the extremely petite stature (she still wasn't an inch over 5'2").
However, for Wanda Li, the prodigal girl returned to Walkerville, she had never felt so lost. In the two years since she had left for Beijing, China, Walkerville had changed. Walkerville had been a sleepy town – almost a hamlet – and now? Everything had changed. Walkerville was now a bustling town. The only thing that hadn't changed? The house she'd lived in for the two years before her sudden departure to China, and that was because there was no one there to change it.
"Wanda, honey?" Her mother smiled. "You all right?"
Wanda couldn't speak. She simply nodded her head.
Mrs. Li went over across the lawn to hug her daughter. "Honey, I still don't know why you wanted to leave Walkerville for Beijing. And I don't know why you were so reluctant to come back. But we have to stay here permanently for now, for my carrier. You don't want me to have to give up my carrier, do you?"
Yes, Wanda thought angrily. Yes, I do. I never wanted to come back to Walkerville, and you're making us do this. Do you know how much I wanted to stay away? I hate this carrier. Why couldn't you have stayed in Beijing and continued your carrier? This is ridiculous!
But while she had been loud and boisterous in USA, China had taught her restraint. And though it was difficult to do, she bit the inside of her cheek to not say a word. Besides, wasn't it her culture to quietly listen and thus respect her elders?
Damn.
"Yeah, well," Wanda finally said. "I'll be adjusting then, right? I'll just take a walk or something."
Her mother was foolish if she still thought the world hadn't changed – if Walkerville hadn't changed – and she was still able to fit in. She hadn't fit in then, so how could she fit in now?
She took a walk to calm herself down. She was inevitably drawn to the playground where she used to play in, near the Walkerville elementary school.
It wasn't the same. Like everything else, it had changed. The swing sets had been replaced by newer and better ones, the slides had been changed –
"Wanda?"
Shoot.
She turned around. "Hey, Arnold."
He looked almost the same as he used to – or taller, if that was possible. At least five eleven. He still had that pretty-boy, geeky-guy appeal with that tousled strawberry-blonde hair and thick-framed glasses. And he still had that adorable nervousness he never seemed to have outgrown –
Especially when he was around her.
She shook her head. She couldn't do this to everyone again.
"Wanda." Arnold repeated her name. He looked dumbstruck.
"What, I look different now, huh?" She affected a coy smile, then wiped it off her face when she realized what it could possibly mean for Arnold.
Always doing stupid things, Li.
"Yeah, y-you do," he said, in that adorable stammer of his. He came closer, and her heart dropped. Oh great. "Why did you leave? And why did you come back?"
Wanda turned around. "Goodbye, Arnold. See you at school tomorrow."
"Damn it, Wanda!" Arnold swore. "You always do this. You always run away."
She knew it was a mistake to go there. And she thought she did the right thing by walking away.
Phoebe Terese was looking out of the window, peacefully waiting for the day to end. Tomorrow would be a lovely day, and that would be the day Phoebe Terese would change; become more confident, more assertive –
And get Arnold Matthew Perlstein to notice her –
She smiled inwardly. She would totally reinvent herself – maybe become The Cool Vegan? Maybe get a new haircut and dye her hair, although Keesha thought it was unfair that only Phoebe could have beautiful soft red hair, that curled gently at the ends, and having the model figure (5'9 and way skinny).
That was way lame.
Her eyes happened to stray towards that of the elementary school playground. All of them had such fun then –
Wanda?
And Arnold?
What were they doing together? And Wanda had promised her, all those years ago, that she'd leave, and take all her drama with her.
She picked up the phone and dialed a number. The phone rang for a short time, and a deep baritone voice spoke. "Hello?"
She choked a few tears, before drawing a deep breath and saying, "Ralphie, Wanda's back."
Ralphie Tennelli was having a perfectly normal last-day-of-summer-vacation, playing his PS2 in bed, when Phoebe called, in tears. His first instinct? "Umm," he began.
Thankfully, Phoebe knew what to say. "Ralphie, Wanda's back."
Ralphie fell off the bed. Wanda Li, exotic and somewhat boisterous tomboy, here in Walkerville. After the high school drama fiasco?
"And how would I know about Wanda?" Ralphie defended himself.
He struggled to remember the details. Wanda and Arnold had been flirting for a long time, oblivious to how Phoebe felt for him, and he sang Wanda's praises to his dear, sweet best friend, who heard all of this with a heavy heart. Phoebe enlisted Tim's help to make her more – appealing to guys (this after she and Tim had a heart-to-heart conversation on why guys were never attracted to her). Tim got Keesha (who secretly had a crush on Carlos at the time) to give Phoebe the makeover she needed, only for Arnold not to notice her, but for Carlos to notice her!
What a quandary!
But what Arnold perceived in Wanda as potential gf material, Wanda thought she and Arnold were just friends. Until the gang's spring-break-school party at Phoebe's and Ralphie brought over a keg of beer, and at night, when Phoebe's father had gone for a university event, they began drinking.
D.A. declined, but the other seven members of the gang began having truth-or-dare-or-have-a-shot outside at the lawn. And Phoebe had a little too much to drink, and –
"Get off of Carlos, bitch! What the hell's with you? I thought you liked Arnold!" Keesha pulled Phoebe off Carlos, who was also a little drunk himself. Actually he was a lot drunk, since he passed on all of his 25 truths and 2 dares, and so didn't really hear what Keesha was saying. He was all but almost unconscious (although he probably would have enjoyed the fact that Phoebe was making out with him since he had a crush on her).
Arnold could hear what Keesha was saying, though. "What? Phoebe, you knew I liked Wanda!"
This time, it was Wanda who was shocked. She jumped up, and wobbled. "Oh dear, I'm so drunk I can't balance on my two feet." She hiccupped and laughed."And I'm hearing things too. I thought I heard Arnold say he liked me –"
"I do," Arnold said quietly.
"You like Wanda?" Dorothy Ann asked. "But Arnold, I –"
"Oh no, please tell me you don't have a crush on Arnold!" Keesha began, but Dorothy Ann was silent.
"Shit," Tim said.
"Yeah, D.A, how could you? I thought you knew I liked Arnold!" Phoebe yelled.
"While we're at it, Wanda, why don't you tell us who you like?"
"N-no," she said. "I'm going home," she wobbled a bit, and fell over Tim.
"Holy crap, you like Tim?" Ralphie, who had previously just been downing more and more beer, managed to pause in between beer-gorging sessions to exclaim that.
"No! I don't have a crush on anyone at all! How can you guys be so stupid?" And Wanda stormed off. "Tim, don't act so shocked. After all, you have the hots for Phoebe too! Aaargh!"
The party had fallen flat after that. But the next week, Ralphie caught Phoebe in tears, claiming that Tim and Arnold had gotten into a fight when Wanda confronted Phoebe on her coldness (which had hitherto been considered impossible, since Phoebe was easily the sweetest girl in school). Phoebe refused to, and according to her, she gave Wanda 'a piece of her mind'. Arnold, who was going to try and talk to Wanda again, tried to stop them from fighting (but he took Wanda's side, so it didn't really help things much). At that moment Tim appeared, and he told Arnold to back off. Inevitably, there was a fistfight. The girls then tried to break the fight, but Wanda got seriously injured, falling off the stairs, when Tim pushed her off.
It was all so surreal to Carlos (who was surprisingly not involved; Carlos had joked around that whenever there was chaos, there was Carlos), Dorothy Ann (who was shocked by the turn of things), Ralphie (who secretly wished he was there to see the fight) and Keesha (who sighed and gave the other four a telling off they did not need, which only made things worse). After the incident, Wanda never returned to school. Instead, it was announced in homeroom that Miss Wanda Li would be leaving for China and would not be returning for the end of term.
And none of the other seven had been the same since, although eventually, things seemed to return to normal. Arnold, Tim and Phoebe eventually reconciled, and Arnold and Phoebe even began to hang out as best friends again (and Phoebe was wise enough not to tell him she still had a crush on him). Everyone else seemed to have forgotten they had a crush on the other in the gang though. At any rate, Arnold spoke less and less about Wanda, and soon it seemed like Wanda would never come back. Ralphie noted that despite the fact Arnold was never short of admirers now he was considered good-looking (although he was shortest among the guys in the gang), he was always somewhat of a loner and never had a girlfriend, nor did he seem to want one.
Poor Phoebe. Despite her best efforts, Arnold never saw her more than a friend. And Phoebe, frustrated, would confide her Arnold problems with Ralphie and Carlos. Mostly with Ralphie, because although Carlos had many girlfriends after Wanda left (Phoebe was a slight infatuation, it turned out, since Carlos thought it would be novel to date her), he wasn't helpful when it came to boy-girl relationships.
And now that Wanda was back –
Ralphie was lost in these musings. Not that Wanda was evil or anything, but if there was chaos, there was Carlos, then if there was Wanda, there was disaster.
And there was that little matter of the more-than-friendly feelings Ralphie was beginning to feel for Phoebe –
Author's Note…
I didn't want to make the chapter too long, so I stopped it here. I realize this chapter's only focusing on Arnold, Phoebe, Ralphie and Wanda, but the next chapter, featuring Wanda's return to her final year of high school, will show the other's return.
Now, I was planning to make this a mixed-up ship fanfic (despite my preference for C/DA and A/P), but if you guys prefer to just see where this goes, then say so! :)
