Winter break of Junior Year (HS)
Sitting at her desk reading over the letters in front of her, she had to admit people weren't as kind as she thought they were growing up. No, nothing was as sugar coated as she had painted it out to be. It was a special talent that her baby sister lacked, the ability to block out most unpleasant memories. Reading the harsh words addressed to her written by her ex-husband should have gotten some emotional reaction out of her, but all she felt was numb. Why had they separated? Why was she absolutely certain it was necessary to keep herself and their children away from him? She tried to remember, but every time she did all she saw were cold dark eyes, and a haunting laugh, not to mention the overwhelming sense to vomit.
"Miss Pataki, there's a Miriam on line two," her secretary Jan called out.
"Hello Mom," she answered the phone quickly. "What can I do for you?
"Olga, we missed you and the kids this thanksgiving," Miriam spoke softly. "Please come and spend Christmas with us."
"It's up to Helga," she replied easily.
"What about Courtney and Cameron, don't they want to see their grandparents?" she bit back.
"With the divorce and everything I think I'm gonna spend the holidays just the four of us," she replied.
"Oh but Olga-"
"I have to go mom," she hung up the phone before the woman could guilt trip her.
The last year had been tough, but she could handle it. She had cut all ties with Collin Brown, and rescued her sister from a life of neglect. Not that her parents were that bad, Miriam was just alcoholic, nothing she couldn't overcome if she really wanted to. Bob on the other hand only knew one way to show he cared, which was to simply throw money at them. He funded everything, and had on occasion tried several times to apologize to Helga for his inability to properly bond with her.
In the future he even wanted to institute daddy-daughter dates, apparently he wanted Helga to take over the family building. They had maybe two years before he realized she had no intention of doing that. Still, Helga had agreed to work for him in the summer, provided he allowed a couple of her friends to work there as well. Olga was proud of her parents, and of Helga, they had come a long way, but she wasn't ready for a Pataki family dinner. Not with Collin's threats floating at the forefront of her mind.
He was everywhere. His breath, against her face, his body, trapping her beneath him. She wriggled beneath him, crying.
"Please, I'm… I…"
"I know my dear," he kissed her forehead. "You're so beautiful!"
His hand gripped her chin, and he held her face still as he pressed his lips against hers. "mmm, cherry," he laughed against her lips.
A pained expression covered her face as he continued on, oblivious to her obvious discomfort. How had she gotten here? Oh, right, she had forgotten her purse and had insisted Nadine and Peapod go on without her. Cheer practice was over,and she was supposed to meet Gerald after school to discuss their outfits for the dance. He'd think she was blowing him off.
"Make love to me my dear," his voice brought her back to the reality of her situation. She couldn't stop trembling as he fumbled with her clothes.
The sound of books hitting the floor caused them both to look. She watched as he was shoved off of her.
"It's … it's not-"
"Get lost, before I kill you," the voice was low, and seemed to spook him into running off.
Rhonda didn't say anything as she collected herself off the floor, and readjusted her clothes. She grabbed her purse and then picked up the textbooks Helga had dropped. She was surprised to see the blonde in tears. The two had barely spoken two words to each other since fifth grade, yet Rhonda was relieved that of all the students who could've come to her aid. It was her.
"Thank you," her own voice was unrecognizable to her, shaky.
"Rhonda… he was… are you?" Helga was obviously shocked.
"He's always like that, but it's not that bad-"
"If I hadn't walked in-" Helga choked back a sob and pulled her into a hug. "We need to tell someone."
"I don't want to get the teachers involved."
Helga nodded in understanding. "I know, but… if you don't tell anyone, it's going to escalate."
Rhonda flinched at the thought. "Well, what do I do?"
"I have a friend who's pretty trustworthy with this sort of thing," Helga smiled.
Rhonda had been seeing Dr. Bliss since that fateful moment in eighth grade. The woman was surprisingly easy to talk to her. Now even at sixteen she found herself still confiding in the woman.
"Go on Rhonda, you can say it," Dr Bliss urged. "You've been sharing a room with Helga for four months now… is living with her triggering anything?"
"Not exactly," Rhonda blushed and put her face in her hands.
"Go on, take your time," Dr. Bliss waited patiently.
"I… just… I have these dreams, and their not nightmares, but still unsettling," she whispered. "Not about him… I mean, it's of what happened, but… I think that maybe… Ugh, I can not believe I'm saying this. In my dream I kind of block everything unpleasant out, and just focus on Helga, and now sometimes when I look at her I get all nervous and find myself blushing… Dr. Bliss… I think I might be… well you know."
"You think you could be attracted to Helga in a sexual way?"
"I…," Rhonda shook her head embarrassed at the thought.
"Have you found other women besides Helga attractive?" she asked.
Rhonda shook her head.
"Well what about Helga do you find attractive?"
"Um… well I just feel safe around her, and I… it's not that I'm physically attracted to her, I just feel nervous around her."
"Maybe its not that your sexual orientation changed, maybe it's just left over feelings of what happened," Dr. Bliss said.
Rhonda bit her lip and thought about it, "Maybe, I mean I didn't start getting nervous around her until she started going out with Arnold. I mean it's pretty safe to say that it will take me a long time to start trusting the opposite sex again."
"So you could just be scared for her," Dr Bliss pointed out.
Rhonda took a sigh of relief. "Most likely. I mean I feel nervous around any guy."
"Have you taken my advice and hung out with some of your guy friends? It'll help get you past all the nervousness."
Rhonda nodded, "I mean I hang out with my best friend and her boyfriend, Peapod, but I've known Peapod for years, we practically grew up together, it's the guys that go to school with me that cause it."
"That's completely normal Rhonda," Dr. Bliss gave her a small smile. "But… has anything else happened. You haven't been this emotional in awhile."
"I heard he moved back to town," she mumbled. Rhonda had never reported it, and the only people who knew of the event were herself, Dr. Bliss, and Helga, even then she never gave Dr. Bliss the name of her attacker. He had ended up moving out of town that week, so she figured why bother Perhaps that was why he did it.
"That is something to be worried about," Dr. Bliss sighed. "Has he tried to contact you?"
"No," Rhonda sighed. "He's just… we sort of have the same friends so I just might run into him."
"Maybe if you-"
Rhonda's phone went off interrupting her, "Actually, I have to go." Rhonda stood and rushed out of the office. Her heart was pounding just thinking about it. She had never seemed so weak in her life. Eighth grade had started out normal enough. She had agreed to date Gerald to help him get Phoebe's attention, which definitely worked, but it also got someone else's attention. It started it with letters, and phone calls. Then it escalated to stalking, forced kisses and embraces, and then that last time, just think what might have happened had Helga not walked in.
"Miss. Lloyd, your mother awaits at the airport," her driver said as he held the door open for her.
"Thank you," she smiled as she slid in, a family vacation was just what she needed to calm her nerves.
Helga was glad school was out. The work load had ended up being extremely hard, all she wanted to do was sleep for the next few weeks. Of course her first morning back that's not what happened.
"Aunt Helga!" A smaller person tackled her in her bed.
"Well good morning Cam," Helga gave a small smile to her nephew. "You didn't wake your sister up did you?"
He shook his head.
"Good, we don't want your mom going all crazy on us," she chuckled, and then gasped when she looked at her clock, "Sheesh, kid it's six thirty in the morning, what's got you up so early?"
He looked up at her with large brown eyes, "I had a bad dream, about daddy."
Helga sighed, "want to sleep with me then?"
He shook his head. "We can watch cartoons."
"Alright," Helga caved knowing she wasn't going to get any more sleep anytime soon. "Why don't we make breakfast too… banana pancakes."
"Yay!" Helga quickly put a hand over his mouth.
"Quiet voice, ok?"
He nodded.
Helga got all the ingredients out and let Cameron mix the batter. By the time she sat him down to eat with a glass of milk Olga was walking in with her daughter Courtney in her arms.
"It smells wonderful in here," Olga said as Helga took Courtney from her arms and handed her a cup of coffee.
"I got to help make pancakes!" Cameron grinned.
"And they smell wonderful baby," Olga smiled as she went to make Courtney a bottle of formula. "Helga I'm so glad you're home! I was telling Arnold the other day, you're definitely a little house wife in the making."
Helga flushed, "You did not tell him that!"
Things were going surprisingly well with Arnold. He'd often come over after baseball practice and they'd watch movies or do homework together. Not to mention the family dinners. It was crazy how easy it was for them to further their relationship. Nothing really changed, aside from the hugs, kisses, and holding hands, other than that he was still the same old Arnold, and she was still the same old Helga.
"I did," Olga grinned. "Do you have plans today?"
Helga rolled her eyes, "Don't worry, we've already incorporated the kids in our daily outings."
"Thank you lovely little sister," Olga sat at the table with a plate of pancakes as Helga sat Courtney in her high chair with the bottle of formula.
"Aren't they yummy?" Cameron watched his mom intently as she took a bite of her food.
"Of course they are, you made them," she winked.
Helga smiled as the four enjoyed each other's company. Olga had been through a lot, and the fact that Cameron still had so many nightmares was proof of that, but looking at them now, you couldn't even tell. Helga had seen the mail on the counter and knew something was up, but figured it was better not to press her.
"Do you feel up for a Pataki Christmas?" Olga asked suddenly.
"Hmm… I don't know, it might cause me to back out of this summer's arrangements. Better hold it off to another, less important holiday, how about Easter?" she replied.
Helga watched as her sister gave a small nodded and took another sip of her coffee. "Easter sounds nice, we could all go to church together."
Helga chuckled, "we haven't gone to church in years."
"But they have those lovely Easter egg hunts for the kids, and Court will be walking by then," Olga grinned.
Helga smiled but said nothing as she finished her breakfast.
Memory loss. That's what had kept them in a third world country hospital for all those years. It was strange, the green eyed woman speculated to herself, how she could not know herself one day, and then remember an entire lifetime the next. Even stranger that her husband had the same miraculous experience but with a different outcome.
"What did you call it again?" her voice suddenly held no accent, the way it had before. She suddenly sounded like a foreigner.
"There's no name for it Mrs. Parker. You and your husband were infect by several local diseases and viruses, you were healed, but suffered severe memory loss, I'm glad to see you've regained your memory," the doctor smiled at her.
"I… where is he buried?"
"Oh, you misunderstood me, your husband isn't dead, you should recognize him any moment, it was a miracle when he awoke from his coma just two weeks after you both were admitted here. He's been waiting for you to remember him for awhile, though I'm sure he's going to be slightly disappointed."
That's when she turned to meet his gaze. There was that blonde haired man with green eyes that rivaled her own, and a lazy smile that seemed to infuriate her all the same. "And tell me Dr. Parker, do you always talk of yourself in third person?" she snapped.
His reply though was to pull her into his arms, tears already streaming down his face.
"I'm so sorry Stella… Oh how I've missed you," he wept. "I… I never left your side."
She cried to. How many years had they lost? Why hadn't he gone off without her?
There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but right now she just wanted to enjoy being held in his arms.
Once she was released from the hospital, Miles took her to their apartment where she showered in slipped into her old clothes. It felt good to be back in them. She noticed the suitcases.
"Our flight leaves in an hour," he explained. "I wanted to take the first trip back."
"For Arnold?"
He nodded, "For Arnold. We've been exchanging letters for awhile. Since i recovered from my coma and discovered you had your memory loss. He's sixteen now, a teenager."
"I... I don't even know my own son, I'm a horrible mother," she grimaced. "What if..."
"He's come once, to see you," Miles said gently taking her hand in his. "He loves you, and he can't wait for you to come. What better Christmas present to give him, than his parents."
"But your father told him that ridiculous story about us being taken hostage or something," she trembled.
"He's not naive, but I didn't tell him the whole story yet," he replied. "I was waiting for you. Dad has a room for us at the boarding home. It'll be fine Stella."
She continued to hold his hand the entire ride to the airport, and even as they boarded the plane. Hopefully he would forgive them for their selfishness.
"The trio is at last united!" Sid grinned as they clanged their mugs of rootbeer floats together. "So tell us of your grand adventures of grand one!"
"There's not much to tell," he said casually, "played football, dated around."
"You lost weight," Stin commented.
"Football practices tend to do that for you," he shrugged. "So what are the plans for the day?"
Sid took a huge gulp of his float and smirked, "It's too cold for baseball at Gerald field, and Rhonda's out of town so the gang is thinking of meeting up at Arnold's for a video game tournament. Though Helga's place is pretty snazzy, we might be able to kick it there."
"How is Pataki?" he chuckled.
"I reckon' she's good," Stin replied. "She and Arnold ended up gettin' together."
"Huh? so I take you never asked out Lila?"
Stin blushed, "Nah, that quiet kid, Brainy beat me to it. They've been together since homecoming. But Sid aint asked out Rhonda either."
Sid chuckled, "Enough of this lovey dovey girl talk bullshit, we're too young to think about being tied down."
"Eh you're just sayin' that on account that you're the baseball captain, and girl's like you," Stin sighed. "I wish a girl would ask me out."
"Well if it isn't Harold Berman in the flesh." The three turned to see Gerald, and Peapod kid making their way over to them.
"Hey, long time no see," Harold gave a nod. "Gerald, Peapod kid."
"Arnold's grandpa ordered us pizza so we're good to head over to his place now," Gerald grinned. "So down your drinks and let's go."
"It's crazy how different you look," Peapod kid said as he pulled up a fifth chair, and Gerald sat next to Sid.
"Really?" he asked.
"Yeah, what made you move back?" Gerald asked.
"Parent's divorced," he shrugged. "Think I'll have a chance on the football team?"
"Dude of course," Gerald grinned. "Tryouts are at the end of the year, and then we all go to camp for the summer to prepare for the upcoming season."
"Awesome," Harold smiled. It was good to be back with his friends. It was good to be back in Hillwood. And the news that Rhonda Wellington Lloyd was still single, well that was definitely a bonus.
Author's note: Sorry my first chapter was really rushed, I was really indecisive about the plot. Hopefully this chapter is better. Thanks for the reviews :) A lot of conflict is coming up by the way. The next chapter will be up soon.
