Thanks for reviewing everyone!

I didn't have an Author's Note last chapter so my annoying comments wouldn't distract from the actual story.

To answers some questions you may have, I do plan on making this story fairly long, ten chapters minimum. Although I'm used to writing short stories, I'll try to write more as it comes to me. Expect every chapter to be long and fufilling!

One more thing, it's kind of important. While mid-writing on chapter 3, I decided to change the plot a little bit. Not by much, but I decided that that internet buddy isn't going to be such a prominent character. Don't fret! The rest of the story line is going to be the same. So basically, disregard anything I said about the internet guy being important. He's not. That's all folks, thanks for reading, and enjoying two more chapters!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Hey Arnold and I am not gaining any profit from writing this. The only compensation I get is the joy of others. I know, I'm a born romantic.


"Oh Arnold... my love... don't leave me... Arnold..."

Helga awakened from her uneasy slumber and sat up, troubled by her dream. She rubbed her eyes and groggily looked over at the clock: 4:45 A.M. Too early to wake up, too late to try and fall back asleep. She would just have to get up in another hour or so anyway. She let out a miserable moan and climbed out of bed, ungracefully. Her arm knocked over something that fell on the floor and made an impressively loud CLUNK. An agitated groan escaped her lips as she rummaged about the floor, searching for the dropped item.

Her hands came across an all-too familiar heart-shaped locket. Inside was a picture of a handsome young boy, with blond hair and a little blue baseball cap. Helga traced the edges, remembering back to her elementary school days of unrequited love and adoration. She smiled, childhood memories flooding her mind. She couldn't help but laugh a little at her past immaturity. She had grown out of her childish bullying of Arnold once puberty hit, inspiring her to shed her awkward 9-year-old skin and finally blossom into a charming young woman. While she knew she would never be as pretty as her older sister (in her opinion), she wasn't so insecure anymore, and actually enjoyed girlish activities, such as makeup wearing and clothes shopping. However, she never passed up a good game of baseball, and she would never give up her enthusiasm for wrestling.

"Arnold... what happened to us..."

Her wish for his love had come true, after years of pining after him in secret. But it wasn't exactly what she had dreamed of.

She tucked the locket into a drawer and stood up, stretching. She decided to venture downstairs and make herself an early breakfast. She carefully placed the locket in a drawer and tiptoed across the room, aware of the flimsy floorboards that made loud creaks whenever you stepped on them.

Helga walked through the dark and lonely house, not hearing a sound. Funny, her parents were usually home by now. She peeked into their bedroom. Mirium was passed out around a couple dozen bottles of liquor, snoring like a lumberjack. Helga rolled her eyes. So much for the AA meetings.

Her mom had been an alcoholic ever since she could remember. Once when she was five, Helga saw her mother mixing some strange pills in her drink in the kitchen after an argument she had with Bob. She was out for days after that. Helga couldn't really blame her, though. Bob never came home without lipstick on his face and a faint scent of perfume on his clothes. She wished her mother at least had the balls to leave him, instead of drowning her sorrows in liquor.

Bob was nowhere to be found. Not even a note on the fridge. He used to write them almost everyday, scribbling lies on unsuspecting paper:

"Working overtime, be back by dinner. Make sure you grill the steak right this time, Mirium. - Bob"

"Conference call. Working late. Be home after dinner. - Bob"

"Big beeper imports, don't know when I'll be home. - Bob"

As time went on, the excuses got less and less amusing and more pathetic.

"Office dinner. - Bob"

"New employee training. - Bob"

"Work. - Bob"

Lately, Mirium did nothing but sit and stare out the window, looking out at the city for hours while waiting for her husband. Sure, she was a bit of an airhead. And neglectful. And a terrible mother. But she was still a human being capable of love and deep emotion. All she wanted, and deserved (in Helga's opinion) was just a bit in return.

Helga was used to being ignored in her family. Heck, after a while she didn't really mind. It helped her get away with a lot of things, especially when Olga was over. Whenever she came to visit, their parents put aside their differences and showered her with attention. This allowed Helga to accomplish many tasks, including sneaking out of the house to go to parties, or going to a late night concert at the local club.

Or sitting on a rooftop, watching the stars with the boy of her dreams.

For example, there was this one time Helga had climbed out of her window to go clubbing with the girls for the night, and ended up half-naked in a city cab in the middle of Central Park, surrounded by a bunch of zucchinis and high people. Helga somehow made it back to her house by using a bed sheet to jump from roof to roof. Too tired to climb back through her window, Helga simply walked into her house through the front door and was greeted by her father in the kitchen, and by then it was 6 A.M.

"Mornin', Olga."

"It's Helga, Bob."

But that's another story...

And one that couldn't even compare to the joy of the night before.

Helga opened the note-less fridge and grabbed a pack of sugar free jell-o. Ever since the pork rinds incident, Helga wasn't so trustful of junk food. While she wasn't exactly the epitome of health, she certainly stayed away from the salted goods. She sat at the dining room table and cast her eyes out the window. She watched the sky, and saw a hint of orange in the distance.

She chose to go outside and wait for the sunrise.

Still in her nightgown, she quietly crept out of her house and into the night. She gazed up at the stars, watching them twinkle and dance in the sky. They reminded her of Arnold, the way his eyes twinkled whenever he looked at her. It was still dark, but the sun was slowly rising above the horizon, as if it were only just awakening itself. She sat on her stoop, scooping out the jell-o in little bites, waiting for the early morning miracle.


Arnold couldn't sleep. He hadn't been able to sleep for days. Even the sleep aids his grandparents gave him seemed to have no effect on the young teenager. There had been something on his mind ever since that fateful night on the roof, clawing at his heart, never allowing him a moment of rest and escape from his conscious mind.

Of course, he knew exactly why. It started with an H and ended with an A.

Helga.

He breathed in and out, staring at nothing. He had closed his shades on all the windows because the moon was bright that night, and he thought that he'd sleep better in the darkness. It didn't work however; his eyes were playing tricks on him, and he saw shadows in every dark corner of his room.

He jumped out of his bed, finally giving up on sleep. He drowsily walked towards his bathroom, feeling a sudden urge to release his bowels. As he walked past the mirror, he noticed his sleepless face in the mirror. He stared at the dark circles under his eyes, touching them lightly in case he would deepen the crow's feet. He sighed heavily, wishing for a second that he could just forget about that night and get some sleep.

He quickly took that back. He wouldn't give up the memory of that night, not for all the sleep and the dreams in the world.

"Arnold?"

She admired him with those adoring eyes, overflowing with love that leaked into her smile.

"This is the best night of my life."

Her hair in the moonlight... a beautiful, silky blond that flowed downwards like a river on her back...

He moved closer and closer to her lips, ready to risk it all for this one night.

"I never want this to end."

And then they kissed. And kissing her was more amazing than he had ever dreamed.

But then, she was fading away, fading into the gloomy city, and he heard a blood-curdling scream...

Arnold snapped himself back into reality. He raised his arms to rub his temples, and in the process managed to knock over a bottle of Ibuprofen. It hit the floor and spilled little red pills all over the floor, and Arnold scrambled to pick them back up again. Before he could gather his thoughts again, he heard a knock on his bedroom door.

"Shortman?" an elderly voice asked.

"Yeah, Grandpa?"

"I heard a racket and woke up, what in the heck are you doing?"

Arnold let out a deep breath and walked to the door. He opened it slowly and stared at his grandpa with a sullen expression.

"Geez, Arnold, you look like you've got a case of malaria. You okay?"

Arnold couldn't help but smile at his guardian's concern. His grandfather had raised him since he was a tot, and although he was getting very old he still had a lot of life left in him. Never shying away when Arnold asked him for help, Phil was always there to provide support and love for his beloved grandson. Arnold felt very lucky; even though he missed his parents very much, he was happy with his grandparents and the boarders.

"I'm fine, grandpa. I just couldn't get to sleep again."

Grandpa scratched his head. "You know, my father always told me there's only two causes for insomnia. A bad case of the runs, or a bad case of lovesickness."

Arnold's heart skipped a beat when his grandpa said "love". He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Come downstairs for a bit, since I'm guessing you're not getting to sleep anytime soon I want to talk to you about something."

Arnold followed him downstairs and out of his bedroom the attic. They were careful not to stir any of the other boarders of Sunset Arms; if any of them were woken by their activities, they would never hear the end of it.

Grandpa set him down at the kitchen table and made him a hot cup of herbal tea. The insomnia had begun to really hit Arnold, as he struggled to concentrate on his tea. His head hurt like it had been hit with a bowling ball. He grasped his forehead as he struggled to keep himself from passing out.

"What's in this tea, grandpa?"

"Eh, some sort of weird ingredient. I think Pookie said it was imported from the Amazon. Or was it Vietnam?"

Arnold couldn't help but be a bit frightened to hear that the tea was his grandmother's. She had gotten crazier over the years, sometimes disappearing for days at a time before coming home with an armload of goodies for the entire apartment. One time, she was gone for a week without telling anyone, and returned wearing nothing but a skimpy toga and a bowl of fruit on her head. With her she brought home a spear made out of elephant tusks, a box of plantains, and a live platypus, adding on to the crazy number of animals they already owned. Grandpa scolded her for a good hour, but they quickly made up when grandma gave him one of her famous "tiger kisses". Arnold was a romantic himself, but even he couldn't stomach the sight.

His grandpa sat down on the other end of the table.

"Tell me what's been on your mind, shortman. You've done nothing but mope around and sigh for days."

Arnold stared intently at his grandfather, then went back to staring at his drink. That's all he seemed to be doing lately was stare, stare, stare. And he was never looking at anything in particular. It was like he was trying to see something that wasn't there.

"I don't know, grandpa... I'm so mixed up. I've never felt this way before. I'm so confused. Everything's weird now and I don't know what to do to feel normal again."

Grandpa sat for a moment and pondered his grandson's words. He rubbed his chin with his hand, entranced in deep thought. He looked straight into his grandson's eyes with wisdom and determination.

"It sounds like you're in love, sprout."

Arnold shot up at the word "love" again. He almost spilled his tea in the process. He sighed and look back down.

"I don't know... I thought I was in love before, with... you know, Lila. But this doesn't even compare. Doesn't even come close."

Grandpa's eyes narrowed. "That girl was no good, I'm telling ya! You never should have gone steady with her in the first place."

Arnold sighed, suddenly feeling a tinge of melancholy. "I know, it was a big mistake."

His grandpa raised an eyebrow. "Maybe it didn't turn out the way you thought it would?"

Arnold's body was tense now. Arnold wasn't the type to cry over spilled milk, but the mention of Lila made his heart quiver like a pair of nervous knees, as his grandpa would put it.

"She wasn't at all what I wished for."

Grandpa continued to look him in the eyes.

"Maybe it's time you let go of her for good."

Arnold didn't respond for a few minutes. His cup was empty now, a little bit of the tea bag's contents left at the bottom. He swirled it around in a circle, wondering if it would contort itself into a shape that would tell him something. Something that he could actually understand.

"Love isn't about perfection, sprout. In fact, nothing about it is perfect. Look at me and Pookie! Married for fifty, sixty years and still going strong. Sure, she's a little crazy and sometimes she does things that baffle the heck outta me... but I still love to her pieces. All of her, even the crazy parts. I never thought I'd end up with someone like her, not in a million years... but thank gosh I did, because I couldn't be happier. Sometimes life surprises you with something unexpected. It could be bad, it could be worse, it could even be the most terrible, horrible thing that's ever happened to you. But it could also be the best thing that you've ever had. You just have to learn to take a chance and risk everything."

Grandpa stood up and put his hand on Arnold's shoulder. "Don't let this one go, shortman. She could be everything you wished for and more. But you'll never know if you don't give it a shot."

He was about to leave the room when Arnold finally spoke up.

"Thank you, Grandpa." He was actually smiling again.

Grandpa returned the grin. "Anytime, shortman!" He began to walk back to his bedroom quietly.

"Wait, grandpa!"

"What is it, shortman?"

"What really woke you up? All I did was drop a bottle of Ibuprofen, and it didn't make that much noise."

Grandpa grabbed his stomach as it started to rumble. He gave Arnold a jolly smile.

"Bad case of the runs."

Arnold laughed with him before he made a run to the bathroom.


Sorry it's a been an uneventful chapter. Things will pick up the pace once I get going.

Reviews are greatly appreciated and very inspiring!