A/N: Thanks for being patient, dear readers. And thank you for the reviews on the last chapter! I was so flattered =]...sorry for the delay. These past few weeks have been hard: school, family issues, and dance practice have been brutal. Oh, and my lappytop crashed, so I had to start over from scratch. It was a real struggle to get this out there. I think the chapter's so much better for it, though, even though it takes the story in a completely different direction. We shall see where it goes! Oh, and the title comes from the song "Reunited" by Peaches and Herb (I think…fact check me on it) and I don't own the title.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold! =[


Chapter 2: Reunited and it feels so good?


"Hey Arnold!" Gerald exclaimed upon seeing his friend waiting for him on the corner, a huge smile on his face. The two had not got a chance to hang out most of the summer. For Arnold, it had been a long one, and he was happy to see a familiar face again. The dark skinned boy's tall stack of hair had only grown taller and threatened to topple over, or it could have seemed that way since Gerald apparently grew a couple of inches. Arnold felt a small pang of envy over that; he had only grown half of an inch. Gerald still sported his red jersey shirt and ran over to Arnold.

"Hey Gerald," Arnold replied, grinning back. The two did their handshake, then began to walk to school together. Gerald pointed out small changes to the neighborhood along the way, such as Green Meats getting a new sign, or Slausen's new milkshake flavor. Arnold's green eyes drank it all in. He hadn't realized that he missed the neighborhood this much while he was gone.

Gerald shook his head. "Man, can you believe that we're fifth graders? One more year then we'll be sixth graders, then middle school, then high school, then college…" he trailed off.

Arnold rolled his eyes. "Gerald, it's the first day. We've got awhile," he said dryly.

"Yeah, but it supposedly goes by so fast," Gerald countered. "That's what THEY say."

Arnold shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Doesn't seem like it to me. Especially this summer. It dragged on and on for me. I'm almost glad to get back to school." Gerald looked at him in mock horror. "I said almost!" Arnold laughed.

"Well, you were at Arnie's house," Gerald chuckled, his chocolate brown eyes shining. "Why did your grandparents send you there for a month?" Arnold shrugged again. "Something about getting to know my mom's family. All I really found out was how high dirt could be piled. And that everyone has a collection. Arnie's got his lint collection, Aunt May has a roomful of porcelain dolls, and Uncle Dorian collects hair."

"Hair." Gerald stated flatly, his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, hair. He's the only barber in town, so its not too hard, I guess. He has hundreds of locks. I'm pretty sure that he got mine somehow, even though I never got a haircut." Arnold shuddered, fingering his dark blond hair. He used to examine it every night before bed to make sure that none had gone missing, and avoided his uncle, who was prone to carry around scissors and randomly snip into the air. "He saw a picture of you and started to talk about how you just hadto come for a visit."

Gerald shook his head ruefully. "Wow, that's all kinds of crazy, man." He fingered his own curly black hair protectively. "No one gets near the stack. Except the ladies," he said grinning. Gerald hadn't gave up on the notion that he was a lady's man.

Arnold sighed at the memory. "Especially when I had to run and hide in the barn for hours when Uncle Dorian got the bright idea that I should have that Jesse Beaver haircut. I'm just glad to be back, Gerald." Arnold smiled happily. "What happened while I was gone?"

"Well, to be honest, it was really quiet," Gerald started. "Stinky went back to Arkansas to visit relatives and so did Lila." He shot Arnold a look. Arnold tried to look his most innocent, but ended up grinning. He couldn't help it if he still held a small torch for the beautiful redhead. Gerald rolled his eyes and continued. "Phoebe went to science camp. Rhonda spent the summer in Paris and took Nadine. Harold's parents made him go to summer school. Sheena and Eugene went to some camp for singing. Me and Sid hung out until I had to go on a family vacation, and believe me, spending 10hrs in a car w/ both Timberly and Jamie-o was horrible." It was Gerald's turn to shudder. "The car stunk and somehow I got stuck in the middle. Either I was getting whaled on with a Barbie or struggling to breathe because I was in a headlock. And the sing-alongs…" He shuddered again.

Arnold chuckled. He did not envy Gerald one bit. Gerald joined in, then said "But, everyone came back together last week, and we played some football in Gerald Field. Good times, man. Too bad you weren't there. It was a good game, but we definitely need to practice before the first game.

Arnold nodded. "I wish I was…definitely beats hearing Arnie read ingredients." He paused, then asked as nonchalantly as he could, "Um…so, what about Helga? What was she up to this summer?" He hoped that he wasn't blushing; thinking about Helga these days always brought him back the the FTi roof and that kiss.

"I don't know, man." Gerald shrugged. "Phoebe said something about Big Bob shipping her off to North Carolina or something like that for the summer, but she was supposed to be back. She didn't show up for the game, so I guess we thought she was still gone. Whatever, it was nice without her. Peaceful." He eyed Arnold suspiciously, seeing his friend go half-lidded, which was a dangerous sign in Gerald's opinion. "Why so curious?"

"Just wondering," Arnold lied smoothly. He had a lot of practice lying lately when it came to Helga, whether it was to sidestep Arnie's questions about the blonde girl, or to himself late at night when he was alone and his thoughts floated around unchecked.

Helga. Arnold inwardly sighed with frustration. She was like this puzzle to Arnold. Not one of those stupid easy ones of Elmo or something that Timberly was constantly having trouble with, all five stupid pieces of it. More like the ones that had hundreds of pieces. His Grandma was constantly working on one, laboriously putting together the outline, and it always surprised Arnold that she could make a picture out of the pile of jumbled pieces. With Helga, Arnold felt like he was only seeing the edges and the whole picture eluded him. There was no box with a picture to guide him; all he had were scraps of clues gathered together over the years that he tried to make fit, but the gaps remained. Arnold still couldn't help trying to solve her, though. Especially after that rooftop confession; he was unsure where it fit. After everything was over, he realized that he couldn't just leave it at "the heat of the moment," even though she seemed more than willing. The problem was, Arnold realized, that if he talked to her about it, he would have to explain how he felt and he didn't know.

The boys walked on in comfortable silence, the din of the city around them. Arnold had missed it, realized he couldn't sleep without it. He knew that he was a city boy, through and through.

"Gerald? What do you think 5th grade will be like?" Arnold questioned.

The taller boy took his time answering. "I asked Jamie-O and he said that its when people start to change a lot," Gerald confessed, glancing at Arnold.

"Like how?"

Gerald looked glum. "Well people get braces, or grow taller, or…girls…grow. And Jamie-O said that some kids moved away. And the work was harder. Something about taking pre-Algebra and current events and stuff." Gerald brightened. "Oh! And we get to take the 5th grade trip too!"

"I thought only 6th graders took a trip." Arnold said, feeling confused. Every year, the sixth graders took a trip to Canada and his class had been looking forward to it for years.

"5th graders do too. It's just for a weekend though. I don't know where, since apparently it changes every year." Gerald replied. Arnold nodded. "That's still cool."

The boys finally reached the school. PS 118, a tall red bricked building, hadn't changed a bit. Arnold looked around the schoolyard and could tell the sixth graders, tall and confident in their status as rulers of the school, from the little first graders that looked around nervously. Beside him, Gerald puffed out his chest and begin to announce "Today is a day of new beginnings. The start of a new era. A new world! A new…"

"Gerald. It's the first day." Arnold reminded him. "And we're not even at the top yet."

Gerald waved him off. "Can't you feel it in the air! Something big is gonna happen! Something major!" His eyes gleamed almost manically in their fervor.

Across the schoolyard, Eugene tripped over his untied shoelaces and proceeded to roll down the slide, landing face-first in the sand. His arm was bent at an extremely awkward angle. "I'm okay," Eugene yelled weakly, lifting his head. "But can someone call the nurse?" Sheena rushed over to him, but when she saw his arm, fainted on sight and landed beside him.

"Like that?" Arnold said, holding back his chuckle for his friends' sake.

Gerald deflated. "Yeah, that was probably it."

Arnold smiled and patted his back. "Let's go, Gerald."


Since Mr. Simmons was their teacher again this year-he had been switched to fifth grade and was delighted that he could teach his "special" students for another year-the pair took their old seats by sheer habit. Arnold looked around and saw that everyone else had did the same. He cautiously glanced behind him, but didn't see Helga glowering at him as usual.

Arnold looked around the classroom for her, but couldn't find the blonde. He glanced at the clock and saw that there was only 2 minutes before the bell rang and she wasn't here yet.

That was odd.

By now, Arnold expected to have already collided into her in the hallway, gotten tripped, pinched or poked by her, and endured at least 10 spitballs from Helga. In a strange way, Arnold kind of missed it. He turned to Phoebe.

"Phoebe, have you seen Helga?" Arnold asked. Phoebe shook her head. "No…I waited by the bus stop as she requested, but she failed to show, so I walked to school by myself. I believe that more than likely, she has failed to wake up on time and that is the reason for her near tardiness." Phoebe looked at him curiously. "Why do you ask?" she said softly.

Arnold slightly blushed. Ugh, I can feel it! Stupid blush, Arnold thought. He bit his lip nervously. He hadn't expected that question. "I-I-I just wondered…it's a little too quiet around here. And I have to ask her something. That's all, yeah, I just had to ask her something." He abruptly stopped rambling, feeling his face get hotter. "What's wrong with me?" Arnold thought. "It's just a simple question."

Phoebe smiled at him, looking at him as if she could read his thoughts. "She should be here momentarily." She turned her attention back to Gerald, who was telling Phoebe about finding out the mysterious collector was Scheck himself. "Arnold didn't believe me, so I had to convince him to go…"

Arnold snorted. "Exaggerating much? Whatever helps him sleep at night…or impress Phoebe," he thought, as he saw that she was hanging onto every word that his best friend said. Arnold's attention turned to the door, and waited for Helga to show.

...

8:00-No Helga. "She'll be here soon," he thought, tapping his pencil rapidly. "She probably just overslept. Any minute…"

9:30-No Helga. "Maybe she had a doctor's appointment? It IS flu season…or something like that." Arnold sighed.

10am rolled around. It was almost lunchtime, and Arnold was getting worried. There was this sick feeling in his stomach and a weird feeling he couldn't shake. Kind of like when he thought he could hear something that Gerald or no one else could hear. He was just about to ask Phoebe for the millionth time if Helga wasn't sick, or had a doctor's appointment, or had to go out of town, or was skipping, when she walked through the door.

She looked…different.

Arnold always thought of Helga as this massive blur of pink and fists, but this Helga was wearing a black turtleneck, jeans, and Converse shoes instead of her usual pink jumper and white shoes. Her blond hair was swept up in a messy, tangly ponytail, and her trademark pink bow was missing. Arnold felt a twist in his stomach he couldn't explain. As long as he had known her, Helga had worn a pink bow in her hair. Seeing she was without it was…wrong, somehow. It was distinctly Helga.

Helga handed Mr. Simmons a note and quietly went to her seat, eyes on the floor. As she passed Arnold, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. She turned and locked eyes with Arnold, a mixture of confusion and weariness on her face. "Helga, where were you?" he whispered, his eyes searching her blue ones.

Helga shook her head. "Nowhere," she whispered, and started to pull away from him, but Arnold's grip tightened. A look of pain flashed on her face, and Arnold immediately dropped her wrist. "Sorry, Helga. Where's your bow?" he demanded. He didn't know why, he just had to know. Helga looked at him blankly. "Gone," she replied quietly. She continued to her desk and sat in it, eyes straight ahead, never looking at him. No insults, not even a peep. Not even a spitball.


Again, reviews are MUCH appreciated! The next chapter should be up in a couple of days; I need to edit and I may change some things depending on reviews.