Chapter 2
Who is she..?
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Thanks for the reviews ^^ Yes, Hilda is a very interesting person, and because she only appeared in Arnold's dream, the story can go so many ways without ruining the canon.. I have an awesome idea for an ending, but that's a surprise, you'll have to wait and see xD
Well, on with the story!
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„I had a dream about this girl!"
Gerald looks at Arnold as if he is seeing a ghost, with his mouth half open. „You.. what..?!",he loudly whispers back and lifts his arm to rub his ear, making sure he heard correctly. „I'm telling you, it's the same girl! Even her name.." he looks back at Hilda, who's still helping Mr. Simmons with placing the desk in front of Phoebe's, near the window. „You're crazy,man." Gerald answers „You probably saw her picture once, you've been at Helga's place before, right?"
„Class, be quiet please. Get your books and open them on page ten." Mr. Simmons sits down behind his desk and searches for his teachers book. Arnold turns back and looks in his desk to get his book. He opens it, and then looks at Hilda, who sits in front of Phoebe now, close to the teachers desk. It's weird how things can turn. One moment he's chatting with his friends, sharing memories about a birthday party they all went to last week, and the next moment he's staring in confusion at a girl which he never expected to be real, always had believed to be merely a reflection of his own subcontiousness. He leans his head on the palms of his hands, while staring at her, trying to remember his dream. The blond boy closes the little gap between his eyelids, and sees her sitting on the ground near the movie theater, while looking at the moon which lit the landscape in front of them. She liked watching the moon better than seeing a movie, it gave her inspiration. At least that's what she told him in the dream.. He feels a smile growing on his face while thinking about that.
„Arnold! ... Arnold!! Please pay attention!" The voice of Mr. Simmons suddenly sounds in his daydream, and he opens his eyes while still having a large smile on his face, he seems totally lost in his memories. The daydreamer looks up and notices all his classmates watching him, grinning and whispering. Hilda smiles back at him. His cheeks color slightly red. It's not like this never happened before. Like the dreamy kid that he is, Arnold tends to daze off pretty often, but usually he's staring outside through the window, painting the sky, coloring the clouds, flying along with his imagination. Never before has he gotten lost into.. He looks at Mr. Simmons, who is waiting for him to pay attention to his book instead of the inside of his eyelids. „I'm sorry" And he turns to his book, trying to find out where Mr. Simmons stopped reading.
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12 'o clock, the first half of the day passed without any abnormalities. The bell rings, the cue for the fifthgraders to jump up from their seats and Mr. Simmons is left talking to the walls. The kids try to beat the other grades to the lunch line to be the first so they won't miss the mashed potatoes, sugar corn and lemon pudding. After attacking the lunchlady and putting their plates on the table, the group gathers around Hilda when the two cousins enter the lunchroom. Helga's standing next to Hilda, looking rather uninterested. She has been planning to shake her off, and hopes she can dump Hilda with her classmates by introducing them. „Well.. you probably wonder who these looo.. guys are.. These are Rhonda and Lila.. „ She turns towards Hilda, holds her hand next to her mouth so her classmates can't hear her, mumbling „you don't want to hang out too much with Little Miss Perfect and the fashion queen.." And turns to the group again, pointing at the next one. „This is Eugene.. stay away from him, he's a total jinx. And these are Stinko.." „Ma name's Stinky, Helga!" „Whatever, Smelly.. And Harold and Sid.. And then we have the Footballhead and Tall hair b.." She points to an empty spot where she thought they were standing, but they aren't there. „Hey! Where ARE the two lame-brains..?" She looks around, but unable to spot the two.
Meanwhile, Arnold and Gerald are still near their classroom. „I'm tellin' you man, you're startin' to loose your mind!" He looks slightly worried at his best friend. Gerald has always been the cool guy, rational, not believing in supernatural things like visions and fortune tellers. So there has to be a reason why Arnold dreamed about Helga's cousin. And the only explanation he can think of is that he has seen her before. It makes perfect sense to Gerald. And he wants to prevent Arnold from being disappointed if she'd turn out to be far from the girl in his dream. Arnold on the other hand, always trusts his heart, his intuition, his dreams. It never turned out to be wrong. He looks back at Gerald and smiles lightly. „I know what I'm doing." He starts walking towards the cafeteria and Gerald follows him. „Don't worry about me, man. Let's go, maybe Helga wants to introduce us to her." Gerald looks slightly confused at him. „Don't forget she's Helga's cousin, loverboy.."
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When the two reach the cafeteria, they notice the group of fresh fifthgraders, who are now walking towards a lunch table to sit down, Hilda's walking in the middle. They all seem to be trying to find out more about her. Although she doesn't really like all the attention, she answers all the questions. Helga's sitting at a different lunch table, together with Phoebe. Unfortunately there's no place left at the table where Hilda's sitting, so Arnold persuades his friend to sit at Helga's table, with the intention to hear her out about her cousin. Gerald growls quietly about not wanting to sit over there, but he doesn't want to sit alone either, so follows Arnold anyway. That, and the fact that Phoebe is sitting with Helga, the quiet, sweet Japanese girl he's had a little crush on ever since the fourth grade. They step in lunch line to find most of the food already to be gone.
„Looks like we're in luck, Phoebs.", Helga says while looking at Hilda's table. Her plan has worked, she got rid of Hilda quite easily. She grabs her sandwich and takes a bite, when she notices that Arnold and Gerald are walking their way. Slightly shocked she tries swallowing the whole piece of bread to be prepared to react when her beloved footballhead dares sitting down at HER table, but nearly chokes in the chunk. She gasps for air, balls her right hand into a fist and hits her chest while coughing. „Are you alright, Helga?" Phoebe asks. She doesn't respond and tries to keep her cool by taking another bite and acts as if nothing happened. „Well, if if isn's foosfallheas 'n wall hair woy.." she mumbles with her mouth full, while looking at Arnold and holding her sandwich tight with both hands.
„Mind if we sit here?", Arnold asks politely, but doesn't wait for an answer and the boys sit down to dig in to the bowl with corn and the half sandwich, which Arnold brought, and shared with his best friend. They got some extra corn, 'cause corn was all that was left. „Hilda seems to be quite popular.", Arnold announces while turning around in his seat to look at the group. „Indeed she doesn't seem to have a hard time fitting in..", Phoebe reacts. Helga just looks at her now flat sandwich, she feels like strangling it. „No kiddin'.." Gerald answers.. He decides to keep quiet, let them have fun with the new girl for a while, it'll all blow over soon and then he'll be the coolest guy in class again. He smiles at himself while thinking that. Arnold looks up at Helga after swallowing the last piece of his sandwich. „Helga.. Do you think you could.. introduce us.. me.. to your cousin when we're back in class?" „Ow.." she looks up at Arnold and smashes the remaining part of her sandwich on the table. „So, you like miss popular too, ey?" Arnold looks down at his hands while pushing his thumbs together. He's thinking about whether or not to tell her about the dream. He decides not to, Helga will probably just ridicule him for it. He looks up again, and answers: „She looks like a nice person.." he pauses.. „Uh, Helga.. Do you know by any chance if you cousin might know Arnie?" Nooo, I DON'T know that." She growls. „Why?" „No reason.. I just wondered.. cause.." he pauses again. „..Cause they wear the same sort of clothes?" Helga finishes his sentence. „So? There are millions like that. Why would you care anyway?" „Well, it's not bad to show some interest, it's not easy being new in the group..", he aswers. „Yeah, she's having a hard time fitting in..", Helga says sarcastically.
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Meanwhile, at the other table, Hilda has been telling about her life at the farm. „It's kinda boring where I live actually. I go to our little school a few days a week. And afterwards we usually hang out, go to the movies, or go fishing. The nights are beautiful though. We have a great view, the sight of the sun fading behind the horizon is incredibly inspiring. And when I can't sleep, I get up and stare out of the window, I watch the moon, and you hear nothing but the songs of crickets and frogs." The kids have been watching and listening to her every move. „That sounds ever so enchanting!" Lila says. Stinky turns to Harold and Sid, „Willikers, she is as lovely as the girl on the milk package.." „No way!", Harold yells, „Now who likes to watch the moon? It's boring!" And Rhonda of course is fascinated by her clothes. „Although your outfit isn't very.. modern, and those socks are really not-done.." She sticks her hand out to make a gesture of repulsion, „..I like how you matched the hair ribbon with your.." she spins her hand while trying to think of a word for the weird looking combination of a dress and pants that she's wearing, „..dress-thingy.. Your handbag is VERY cute by the way." Hilda looks down at her dress, and then looks at Rhonda's. „Now that you mention it.. My jumper pants do look kinda off here in the big city.." Although she just like Helga doesn't care about clothing that much, it seems that she really wants to fit in. „Maybe you could help me to find something better." Rhonda's eyes are sparkling, she immediately begins imagining what could look good on Hilda, and smiles widely when realizing that Hilda wanted her help. „I'm sure I can find you the perfect ensemble!" Hilda looks back at her. „Great"
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After lunch, they walk back to their classroom. Gerald and Phoebe have been chatting about the annual cheese festival which will be this weekend. And Arnold and Helga are following them while Helga is talking, more to herself then to Arnold, about her horrible morning. „..Can you believe that?! And then Big Bob said.." she stops when she noticed Hilda. „Hey! Hilda!" she yells. Hilda, who just came out of the girls room together with Lila, turns around while giggling at Lila's cute story. „Hey Helga." She looks back at Lila, „I'll see you in class." And she turns to Helga again and walks in their direction. „What's up, girl?" Helga looks back at her, clearly not enjoying how she hears herself in Hilda. Hilda seems to be just as cool and spontaneous and direct as she is, only without the 'I'm bad' attitude, and their classmates just seem to like her more. How frustrating. „Uhrr.." Don't say something bad, be nice!, she thinks to herself.. „I.. This is Arnold." She gasps while preparing to make some nasty comment about him, but can stop herself just in time, and to prevent herself from snapping again she crosses her arms and walks away, trying to look tough without having to say anything.
„Why hello, Arnold.", Hilda says while shaking his hand. „Hi.." Hilda looks at him for a moment, and immediately notices the similarity. „Are you by any chance Arnie's cousin?" Arnold's eyes widen. „Yeah..!" he answers with great disbelieve. This is getting too weird. Hilda looks at him slightly confused because of his reaction.. „Well.. it's a small world, isn't it..?" „It.. is..", he answers while rubbing the back of his neck and staring at his feet, trying to figure out what to say next. „So, have you been to the big city before?", he asks. „No, never..", she starts walking towards their class while telling Arnold about her trip and how she almost missed her train.
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That's the end of chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it!
Reviews are always welcome ;)
Next chapter will be up soon!
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