Chapter 2: A Special Guest

HEY ARNOLD! HEY ARNOLD! HEY ARNOLD!

Arnold awoke the next morning, wondering how his friends were doing. As annoyed as Helga seemed to be at his advice when things in her life appeared hopeless, his emotional support always managed to get her through to the next day.

After getting dressed, Arnold headed to the kitchen for breakfast. Sitting down in his chair with a stack of pancakes in front of him, he listened to his grandpa say "Mornin' shortman! Ready for school?"

"I guess."

"Hey, what's eatin' ya?" Phil wondered, recognizing the said tone in his grandson's voice.

"I don't know. Well, let me ask you something."

"Shoot it at me shortman!" Phil insisted, ready for anything his grandson had to say.

"Do you think I'm too optimistic? Is it pointless for me to try to find a positive side to every situation?" Arnold asked, pushing his plate aside.

"Nonsense! Everyone needs someone around to make 'em feel better! Their advice may not always work, seeing as how some things in life are hopeless, but it at least gives them something to dream about!" Phil insisted, as Arnold began to grab his things.

"Thanks grandpa. I'm going to head out."

"See ya shortman!"

Classroom

Arnold walked into the classroom to see Gerald speaking with Mr. Simmons about Phoebe's homework, while Helga had already taken her seat at her desk.

Although she seemed okay on the bus that morning, he could see she wasn't quite back to her usual witty self. After taking a seat in his desk, he turned around to see her staring sadly at the sheet she was doodling on.

"Are you going to be okay Helga? You didn't say much on the bus this morning." Although Arnold knew the reason behind it, he couldn't help but point it out.

Not bothering to make eye contact with him, Helga sighed deeply at her picture, as she responded "Yeah football head, I'm fine."

Before saying anything else to her, Arnold watched his best friend take his seat with all of Phoebe's missed assignments. "Man, something tells me this is going to be a long week of catching up for her."

"It won't be that bad. She's at home, so she'll be able to get it done."

As Helga sat rolling her eyes at her boyfriend's positive excuse, Gerald said "No offense man, but doing your school work is hard enough when you're NOT sick."

After placing his girlfriend's assignments in his backpack, the class heard Mr. Simmons say…

"Alright class! Yesterday on my way home, I ran into an old friend of mine. This is Mr. Jackson!" Mr. Simmons exclaimed, welcoming his guest into the classroom.

"He majored in Philosophy, so I invited him over to give us all a special lecture on the importance of logic and reasoning."

While Helga could have cared less about the subject, Arnold sat in his desk thinking to himself…

I wonder if this is just a coincidence?

There wasn't that fine of a line between his optimism and the ability to dream big when it came to situations that appeared to be hopeless. While his girlfriend could afford to have a little positivity added to her attitude, much of her pessimistic attitude came from her ability to face up to the facts of every situation. Her ability to suck it up in the toughest times and admit to herself nothing could be done to fix the problem.

"Hello class. Philosophy has many different areas that can be covered, depending on how far into it you're willing to study. These are four basic branches I believe worth covering…

Metaphysics - Study of reality (existence, time, objects) and its properties (causes of their events and relationships between the mind and body).

Epistemology - The study of knowledge (rationalism, skepticism, empiricism; questioning the likelihood of something based on already given facts).

Value Theory - Goodness, beauty, justice.

Logic - The study of reasoning.

Some of the students sat puzzled, not knowing what this had to do with helping them later in life. Helga had no need for paying attention to something she experienced as much as she believed in every day. Arnold was the only person who sat in his desk, taking an interest in what was said. Would it sink in far enough to change his actions however?

When morning classes were through, Arnold turned to see his girlfriend still sitting in her same somber position.

"Ready to eat?" he asked hopefully, as he watched her lift her head from her hand. "Guess so football head."

Cafeteria

"That was an interesting topic this morning." Arnold said, moving through the lunchline with Gerald.

"It was?" Gerald asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. It made me realize why Helga sees things the way she does. It's hard to look on the brightside when you're way of thinking is based on reality."

"You mean like I've been saying to you for the past decade?" Gerald glared, following his optimistic friend back to their lunch table.

Arnold set the tray of food on the table in front of his girlfriend, who appeared to be working on an assignment to pass the time.

"Here you go Helga."

"Thanks." she sighed, reaching for her chocolate milk.

Before another word could be said, the kids heard a familiar noise from across the cafeteria "OW! I'm okay!"

Turning their heads towards the incident, Helga rolled her eyes and smirked "Criminy! Will that loser EVER get it together?!"

"It's not his fault someone spilled their drink on the floor." Arnold said, shrugging his shoulders, once again trying to point out the positives.

"I hate to break it to you football head, but in case you weren't listening in class, right there's a perfect example of today's sorry excuse for a reasonable outlook on life."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Setting her drink aside, Helga leaned closer towards her boyfriend and scowled "Think about it football head! That teacher just finished preaching to us about reality and its properties. That jynx's ability to find a way to entertain the school with self-abuse is worthy of being called Metaphysics.

"She does have a point man. Just because it would be nice to see him go a day without tripping on something, doesn't mean it'll ever happen." Gerald nodded in agreement, while Arnold couldn't help but eye his clumsy classmate.

Classroom

After returning to the classroom, Arnold took a seat beside his best friend and said "So, just a few more day until the baseball game."

"Thanks goodness. This weeks barely begun and I'm already ready to get it over with!" Gerald exclaimed.

"Pttss...you said a mouthful there pal." Helga scoffed, holding her head in her hand, while seeing Mr. Simmons enter the room.

"Alright class, I'm sure you all enjoyed the lecture this morning!" Mr. Simmons said excitedly.

"It was just ever so interesting!" Lila couldn't help but interrupt.

"I suppose he made a few good points. Beauty is highly valuable. As long as you know what you're doing that is." Rhonda smirked.

"I don't understand what being skeptical has to do with doing well in school?" Sid asked, as Helga sat rolling her eyes.

Maybe you should take a look in the mirror dweeb! Sheesh!

Once afternoon classes ended, Arnold watched Gerald head for Mr. Simmons' desk to grab Phoebe's assignments.

Arnold turned to see his girlfriend gathering her things, once again carrying a look that implied heading home didn't sound any better than staying in class.

"Would you like to take a walk around the park Helga?"

"I don't know about you, but I don't feel like lugging this book bag of mine around all afternoon." she scoffed.

"We could drop them off at your house. Then I'll pick up mine when I take you home." he suggested.

"Eh, works for me."

Phoebe's House

"You look a little better babe." Gerald said, handing his girlfriend her books.

"I'm no longer experiencing frequent chills or muscle pain." Phoebe explained, reaching for a few kleenex.

"That's great!"

Nodding her head in agreement, Phoebe asked "How are things proceeding at school? Have I missed anything extraordinary?"

"Today one of Simmons' old buddies visited to give us a lecture on Philosophy. That's about it." Gerald explained.

"Philosophy can be quite useful…" Phoebe began, while seeing her boyfriend lift an eyebrow.

"While there are many different areas to study, it overall pertains to a person's outlook on life and everything included in it."

Helga's House

"Criminy! I don't care about your stupid dessert! I just came to drop off our bags. Sheesh!"

Helga stepped back out onto her porch to see her boyfriend waiting nervously for her.

"Ready to go football head?"

"I uhh guess. What happened in there?" he couldn't help but ask, taking her hand in his.

"Pttss...Ms. Perfect thought I'd actually be interested in helping her with her stupid lemon soufflet."

"Well, at least she noticed you." Arnold pointed out, seeing his girlfriend roll her eyes.

"Arnold, it wasn't an activity she had been planning for us to do all week together. She saw me walking by and thought to herself 'Oh good! Someone to help speed things up for mom and dad, that I can still take all the credit for!' Sheesh!"

After letting out a deep sigh, Helga looked down to see her boyfriend rubbing her hand with his thumb. Looking into his sweet eyes, it was hard finding ways to be negative as long as he was showing her that type of care.

Park

After making a few strolls around the park, the two of them took a seat on the bench by the fountain. Arnold wrapped his arm around his girlfriend, rubbing her arm, hearing a soft sigh release from her.

"So what did you think of the lecture today?" he asked.

Not knowing why he would care, she replied "Pttss...the guy was literally just giving us a reality check. How logical our thoughts are compared to the way things actually are."

"In a lot of ways that's true, which made it easy for me to understand why you think and feel the way you do. I also found it to be disappointing."

"Pttss...since when do you not find a way to see something good in every stinkin' area of life?" Helga smirked, cocking her brow at her boyfriend.

"Having to have a logical explanation for everything made it seem like there can only be so much hope for everything in a person's life. Every problem has a limitation when it comes to finding a solution for it. There's only so much a person can do." Arnold explained lifelessly, as Helga sat thinking to herself…

DOI! That's what we've been telling you football head!

"Yeah well, that's reality bucko. You've done some amazing things, but you're not Geraldo's next urban legend."

Lacing their fingers together, Arnold examined the hopeless facial expression his girlfriend appeared to be delivering. It was as though she was admitting defeat to her life and all the drama in it. Why did it matter how tough she was if she never gained any recognition for it?

"Everything's going to be okay Helga. I know that sounds more hopeful than logical, but the world would be an even sadder place if we didn't have anything to hope for."

Listening to these words reminded Helga of all the torture she felt from the unrequited love she had built up for Arnold. Despite the agony she went through because of it, the one thing that gave her the strength to do it was hope. Hope that the two of them would maybe one day end up together; hope that he would return her strong feelings. She couldn't just shatter that hope by revealing her secret and have her life's dream ruined in ten seconds all due to rejection.

Perhaps deep down in that tormented soul of hers, she had been looking on the brightside. If she continued to hold on each day by having hope for the two of them, that possibility would one day become a reality. Sure enough it did.

As Arnold's eyes were about to change to match his girlfriend's desolate ones, she leaned in to kiss his soft, sweet lips. As she held his face in her hands, he could feel her release a satisfying sigh. One that told him although she still wasn't content with her home life, she was more than grateful for him.

Helga's House

The two of them made it back to Helga's house as the stars were beginning to appear in the night sky. Arnold followed Helga inside to grab his bag, rather than making her bring it out to him.

"This casserole's amazing Olga! I'm gonna have to put another notch in my big white belt!"

Arnold looked over to see Helga's family enjoying dinner without her. They were all so happy together. Her dad wasn't talking about business, her mom was sober, they didn't even care that Helga wasn't with them.

"Well, here's your bag football head. See ya tomorrow." Helga said in a monotone voice.

After moving his eyes from the table with the happy Pataki family to his neglected girlfriend, he kissed her on the cheek and said softly "Uhh thanks. See you tomorrow."

Placing a hand to her face, Helga would have turned red, had she thought her family actually cared to notice her.

Boarding House

Making it back to his place, Arnold opened the door to get a viewing of the usual stream of pets pouring past him.

As he was walking inside, he heard Phil ask "That you shortman?"

"Hey grandpa."

"Oohh bad day?" Phil asked, setting his paper aside.

"Well, we had a guest come to our school today and talk to us about Philosophy."

"Philosophy? Is that that thing you see a therapist for?" Phil asked, rubbing his chin.

"No, he was talking to us about logical reasoning." Arnold explained, looking at his crossed arms on the table.

"Logical eh? Well you know shortman, not everything in life makes sense."

Arnold began to lift his head, feeling a bit of support from his grandpa's words. "Really?"

"Sure. You really think I would have married your grandma if it did? Hehe." Phil laughed, seeing his grandson roll his eyes.

"Night grandpa."

"Night shortman!"