Arnold stood nervously outside of PS 118 as a cool breeze billowed through his cornflower yellow hair. The bell had rung nearly two minutes ago and Helga was still nowhere in sight. Had she forgotten that they were supposed to walk together to his house to work on the project? He began to think that she had and started to head over to his home himself, however he was brashly knocked over by a flurry of pink and white.

"Watch where you're going, football head!" screeched Helga as she dusted herself off and collected her belongings that were now strewn around the sidewalk.

"Uh, sorry Helga. Didn't see you coming," Arnold said with a shrug. He helped Helga gather the rest of her things before offering his hand to her to help her up. For a split second it looked as though Helga was going to accept his help, however she quickly swiped his hand away as she leapt up with a scowl. "Ready to go?"

"Lead the way, Arnoldo," she grumbled while shifting her backpack on to her shoulders. For the first several minutes, they walked in absolute silence and pretended to be interested in the most minute things.

Finally Arnold broke the silence. "We should probably stop by your house on the way. You can pick up some things you might need for the project."

"What would I need from that hell hole?" spat out Helga in a disgusted voice.

Arnold shot her a disappointed look before replying, "Photo albums, journals, letters. You know, stuff that will tell you about your family's past." Scowling, Helga muttered something nasty under her breath that Arnold was sure was directed at her family. However, she nodded once in agreement with his suggestion and they continued their walk in renewed silence.

It wasn't much longer before they reached the periwinkle blue building that was Pataki abode. Helga sauntered up the stairs and swung the door, turning back and impatiently asking, "Well, aren't you going to come in or just stand out there like a dunce?" Arnold scrambled up the steps and dashed in before the door crashed closed. "Wait here while I go get some stuff, and if I find out that you've been snooping anywhere in my home then I will let Ol' Betsy come out and teach you a few new lessons on respect. Got it?" Arnold gulped and vigorously nodded. Even though he knew that she probably wouldn't dare hit him, he wasn't too keen on disproving that theory.

Helga swept up the stairs swiftly and quietly entered her parents' room to find Miriam passed out on the bed with her glasses all askew on her face. Rolling her eyes Helga stealthily made her way over to the night table and opened up the top drawer to find her mother's old photo album. Quietly she took it out and stuck it in her bag before heading back downstairs. She then went to the family room and yanked down the large family album on the topmost shelf.

"Okay that's everything. Let's get out of here now!" Helga whispered in a sharp voice as she yanked on Arnold's arm and half dragged him out her front door.

"You really didn't want to stay there long, did you?" He inquired after they had gone a few blocks.

"It's none of your business, so don't go poking around where you ought not to, got it football head?" Arnold raised his hands in defeat and dropped the subject, going back to his own inner thoughts about how much he did not want to do this project. He certainly wasn't in the mood to dance on cracks today with his personal tormentor.

"Welcome home, Shortman! I see you brought your friend with the one eyebrow!" Phil greeted the two exuberantly as they walked into the entrance hallway of the Sunset Arms boarding house. Helga scowled at Phil which only caused him to let out a chortle. This reaction confused Helga enough to break her scowl and turn to Arnold.

"Where do you want to work on this thing? I don't plan on being here all day, bucko."

"We can go to my room. Grandpa, we have to do a family history project for school. Mind if I borrow a few of the photo albums from down here?"

"Sure, Shortman! Take them all if you'd like!" He smiled as his grandson darted towards the book case and grabbed several albums. Phil could tell that something wasn't quite right with his grandson. "Everything okay, Arnold?" He soothingly asked while placing a hand on Arnold's shoulder.

"Everything's fine, grandpa," replied Arnold with his best attempt at his usual smile. He then sped up the stairs to his room with Helga hot on his heels in order to avoid any further questions from the old man. Phil just shook his head and strode back to the kitchen to help Gertie dinner. If Arnold wanted to talk about it, he would in due time.

As soon as the pair of fifth graders were settled on Arnold's fold out red couch with their respective family mementos strewn across the floor, Arnold pulled out his notebook and pencil. "Should we research your family first or mine?" Helga crossed her arms across her chest and turned away.

"I have absolutely no desire to find out anything more about my so-called family than I already know," she muttered.

"Well, I don't really want to talk to others about mine either," admitted Arnold with a sigh as he slumped back against the couch. This caught Helga off guard and she immediately perked up and turned towards him with concern etched on her face.

They stared at each other for about a moment before Helga broke the silence. "You don't want to talk to the class about your parents," she put forward before turning away again. Now it was Arnold's turn to be taken aback. Her sudden insight into his own thoughts made him start to wonder as he had so often done whether Helga was as atrocious as she often seemed.

Scratching the back of his head awkwardly he nodded, then asked, "What about you? Why do you think that your family is so terrible? At least you have a family." A hollow laugh escaped Helga at this ridiculous suggestion.

"Correction. I have a shell of a family. I have an alcoholic mother, a miss perfect sister, and a father who wishes that the aforementioned sister was the only daughter he had. You know what I found out only a month ago? I wa-" Helga caught herself before revealing too much. She wasn't quite ready for anyone to know the truth of her existence. Not yet anyways.

"You were what?" prompted Arnold, hoping that Helga would continue to open up to him. It was a side of her that he was only rarely granted permission to see, and he relished those opportunities as they were the only chances he got to gain real insight into who Helga Pataki truly was.

"Never mind. It's not a big deal anyways," she said as she leapt off the couch and began to collect her things. "Look I've got to get going. Plans that I can't change, have your people call mine, yada yada yada."

Arnold knew that she was simply looking for a way out of the situation at hand, but he did nothing to stop her. "Okay, same time tomorrow at your place?" Helga nodded before darting out of his room and down the stairs before he could say anything else. Exhaling, Arnold flopped back on his couch and stared up at his ceiling. He had always known that Helga's family wasn't the best one around, but how terrible could things really be for her? Besides, at least her parents were in her life to some extent while his were still missing, probably even dead.

Gertie calling from downstairs for dinner awoke him from his thoughts several hours later. He sat up and began to stand when he noticed something on the floor. Quickly he bent down and picked it up. A small smile crossed his face as he realized that Helga had left her family photo album behind in her haste to leave. Silently he weighed his options in his mind. He could flip through the album before returning it to her, possibly incurring her wrath in the process. However he would gain more insight into her home life and just who this girl truly was behind the wall that she worked so hard to keep up. He knew that the right thing to do would be to simply return the album to her without invading her privacy. Even though Arnold was known for always doing the right thing, he decided that this time he would go with the option most beneficial to him.

His decision made, he sat back down upon his couch and flipped open the album, ignoring the grumble in his stomach. Dinner could wait.

A/N: Thanks for reading this second chapter! Any feedback is greatly appreciated! :)