The subject of the essay will be your knowledge of the location you wish to visit and why you think you deserve to go there. The essay must be printed, double spaced, with a Times New Roman font. A minimum of 500 words is required. The entry will be due by -
Gerald shaking Arnold's arm violently took Arnold's attention from the sheet of paper with information about the essay contest. "Huh?" Arnold asked, having not heard a word that Gerald had just said to him.
Gerald rolled his eyes, "Man, what's gotten into you? You haven't said a word since the end of class. You've just been reading that paper over and over since class got out. What's the big deal?"
Arnold frowned, "Sorry, Gerald. I'm just...really excited about this essay contest."
Gerald crossed his arms over his chest and gave Arnold a look, "Yeah, right. Why do you have your head so set on it?"
Arnold glanced over his shoulder to make sure that no one else was listening. Sid was listening to Stinky drone on about lemon pudding. Rhonda was rambling to Nadine about a pair of shoes she wanted to buy. Phoebe had already gotten off the bus and Helga was in the seat behind Arnold and Gerald, but she had on a pair of headphones and was completely ignoring everyone and everything around her, sprawled out on the and Sheena were talking about choreography. Everyone was thoroughly occupied, and those who weren't were too far away to hear. "I want to go to San Lorenzo."
Gerald shrugged, "Before today I've never even heard of the place. Why do you wanna go there?"
Arnold then began to explain about his parents. He even showed Gerald his dad's journal. He'd hardly gone anywhere without the journal since he and his grandpa had read it. By the time Arnold had finished his explanation the time had come for Gerald to pull the cord and for the two friends to get off the bus and go to the Johansson's house to watch Pop Daddy. "That's rough, man." Gerald state as they started to leave the bus. "I hope you win that contest. Your reasons for wanting to go to San Lorenzo are way more important than my reason for wanting to go to Austrailia."
"Well we won't know if I've gotten it or not until next month." Arnold answered as he jumped off the bus behind his friend, fully unaware that Helga had heard everything he'd just said.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Hello Helga." Doctor Bliss said with a smile as she entered the lobby of Hillwood Medical Center. "I didn't think you were supposed to be here for about another half hour. Is something the matter?"
Helga instantly shot up onto her feet when she saw Doctor Bliss. "Wrong? Oh, no not at all. I just decided to come here instead of go home after school."
"Well why don't you come in and we can have some extra time this session?" Doctor Bliss suggested kindly.
"Oh it's fine, I can wait." Helga insisted, shaking her head.
Doctor Bliss didn't take no for an answer. She took a seat in her armchair and pulled out a notepad. "So, Helga, how was your weekend? We certainly left our session on Thursday on a tender note."
Helga nodded, "My weekend was ok. I didn't do much."
"Did you have time to think about what I recommended?" Doctor Bliss asked.
"Yeah, I thought about it a lot." Helga answered as she made herself comfortable on the couch.
"Did you reach any conclusion?" Doctor Bliss pressed, knowing that it was unlikely that Helga would straight out tell her without a little bit of probing. Then again, Helga was always full of surprises.
With a shrug, Helga said, "You were right. It's not healthy for me to go on the way I've been. So...I threw it all out."
Bliss's brow furrowed, "Threw what out?"
"The shrine, the mementos, the volumes of poems about him. I got rid of everything." Helga answered, "It wasn't easy, but...I actually felt better about it."
"And how do you feel now?" Doctor Bliss asked, noticing the sad look in Helga's eyes.
Helga shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, I've done this once before, but it all panned out...differently."
"How so?" Doctor Bliss asked as she scribbled a few notes on her sheet of paper.
"Well when I did it before I thought I had taken a love potion that it so I didn't love Arnold anymore. I couldn't write poems anymore, and I can still write poems now, they're just...not love poems anymore. I was this...emotionless blob. I didn't yell at anyone, I didn't want to sock Brainy in the face when he hovered over my shoulder. I still yell at everyone, and I punched Brainy on my way over here."
Doctor Bliss crossed her arms over her chest, "Helga, what did we say about punching Brainy?"
"It's a bad thing to do, whatever." Helga answered before carrying on. "Anyway, why is it that that happened to me then, but it isn't happening now."
"I'd say that it's probably because when you took this...'out of love' potion you were denying your feelings. Now that you're confronting them, the situation is very different.
"There's something else." Helga admitted. Doctor Bliss motioned for Helga to continue. "Well...there's this essay contest at school. An essay contest I could win easy and the prize is a class trip to one of twenty locations. I set on winning the contest, just to put my mind on something else. One of the places we could go is Germany and I thought it might be fun to meet some of my family there."
"That sounds like a wonderful idea, Helga." Doctor Bliss mused.
Helga rolled her eyes, "Yeah, it did. Before I heard Arnold talking to Gerald on the bus."
Doctor Bliss eyed Helga skeptical, "I'm not sure following Arnold around is-"
"I wasn't following him." Helga snapped, "I've wanted to, but I haven't. I haven't even spoken to him since I threw everything out. Anyway, I heard Arnold talking about how important this contest is to him and why he feels like he needs to win."
"And why does he need to win?" Doctor Bliss asked. Helga then began to explain what she had heard Arnold say to Gerald. Doctor Bliss was saddened at the story, and she could see where Helga could see it as a problem. "You want him to win the contest."
Helga nodded, "I think I could help him."
"Helga, I'm not going to allow you to cheat on this contest." Doctor Bliss chided.
"But-" Helga began.
Doctor Bliss held up her hand, "I'm sorry, Helga, but despite how sad the story is I can't support your choice to cheat."
"But he needs to win!" Helga exclaimed. "He deserves to win."
Doctor Bliss sat on the couch next to Helga and gave her a brief squeeze, "I know this is important to you. If you can think of some way to help Arnold win without cheating then that's fine."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Helga was the first to turn her essay into Mr. Simmons, over a week before the entries were due. She handed over the sealed envelope and tried to keep a smirk off her face when Mr. Simmons took the envelope and realized how thick and heavy it was. "My goodness, Helga, how many pages did you write?" Mr. Simmons asked.
Helga shrugged nonchalantly before answering, "Just thirty-nine."
Arnold watched the exchange between Helga and Mr. Simmons. Arnold felt like he had gotten a good start on his essay with five pages thus far about San Lorenzo and why he felt like deserved to go to South America. That was before he learned that Helga had already finished her essay. Helga, who was now tied for the best of the class with Phoebe. Not only that, but she had written thirty-nine pages. Chances of him winning now seemed bleak, but he still needed to try.
Helga got into her seat and watched as Mr. Simmons placed her envelope into the once-empty binder with the contest entries.
'I really hope this works.' She thought to herself as she pulled out a blank sheet of paper for their upcoming math quiz.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Hey Harv." Arnold greeted the mailman enthusiastically, springing onto the sidewalk from his stoop.
Harv, in turn, smiled and reached in his bag to give Arnold the mail for Sunset Arms, "Hey Arnold."
"Is it here?" Arnold asked zealously.
Harv shook his head, "Sorry, kid, but not today."
Arnold frowned and accepted the mail, "Thanks."
For the next three days, Arnold greeted Harv the same way and Harv gave Arnold the same news. That was, up until Friday. On Friday, Harv presented Arnold with a clipboard and asked him to sign for a package. Arnold carefully signed his name, Arnold Shortman, before accepting the package and running up to his room to rip it open. Inside was a binder full of information about San Lorenzo. Where he'd be staying, what the class would be doing, and when they would be leaving. Arnold was too excited to even finish looking through the binder. He had won! He ran through the house whooping and shouting. It was really happening! He was going to San Lorenzo!
Hey everyone. Sorry my author's note didn't make it to the end of the last chapter. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still going to be finishing my other fics. I have to write them when I have muse to write them. If I force myself to write with no muse it all ends up horrible so I don't even bother trying. They are not forgotten, and I should probably not keep starting fics, but it's too late for that. That's probably going to be my last scene with Helga at therapy, but there's still everything else to write about, so I think that's enough of Helga at therapy. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I love you, and don't forget to review this chapter if you have any questions or anything to say about it.