The sun bore into Helga's apartment, forcing her eyes open, despite how much Helga willed her eyes to stay shut, they eventually opened. She stared at the ceiling above her head for a second before rolling out of her white down comforter and onto her feet.

Helga paused for a second, looking at her bed, which hadn't been slept in, then down to the balled up comforter on the floor. She rubbed her neck and shrugged before moving out of the bedroom and into the living room. She walked into the bathroom, yawning and stretching her arms over her head and sharply throwing her head towards her shoulder, resulting in a loud and refreshing crack. She brushed her teeth and flossed before making her way to the kitchen, working a brush through her hair.

The brush caught on something and she tucked the brush under her arm to examine her tresses. She pulled out a large and mossy twig and wrinkled her nose at it. "Hm. That's weird."

She wasn't paying attention to where she was going when her heel was pierced by shattered glass.

"Ow!" She exclaimed, hopping onto her other foot to yank the glass out of her foot. She looked at the rest of the glass on the floor and her mouth feel open. "What the hell." She said softly to herself. Her window was shattered from the outside in. She got to work sweeping up the mess before she made her way to the pile of drenched clothes that nestled in the middle of the army of broken glass. She picked up the first article of clothing, recognizing it as the jacket to her gray pinstripe pantsuit. It was beyond repair now. She glared at the jacket. It had been her favorite work piece.

She was pulled from her thoughts when her house phone rang. Trying to hide how frazzled she was becoming, Helga picked up the cordless phone and answered it on the way back to the wet pile of clothes. " Helga Pataki, make it snappy." She answered shortly. 'Ha. That rhymed. Good one Helga, ole girl.'

"Helga, it's Phoebe."

"Hey Pheebs." Helga's tone wasn't annoyed anymore, but still rushed. She didn't really want to talk to Phoebe, or anyone at the moment. Not until she figured out what the hell had happened the night before, and why she couldn't remember it. "I'm kinda in the middle of something. Can I call you back?"

"Helga, I've been trying to call you all morning. Why did you turn your cell phone off?"

As if to answer Phoebe's question, Helga's smartphone tumbled out of her jacket pocket, drenched and ruined. Helga glared at it. "Yeah, my cell's gone through some water damage." "Apparently." she mentally added to herself.

"Well your boss has been trying to get in touch with you. Something about delivering designs last night. Why doesn't he have your house number?"

"Because it's my personal number, Pheebs." Helga answered shortly. "Look, I'll go into the office later or something. I've got other things to deal with right now."

"Helga, do you need me to come over?"

Helga rolled her eyes, "No, Phoebe, I don't want you to come over. You have too much wedding stuff to do anyway. I'm fine. I'll see you later."

"You mean tonight." Phoebe corrected her friend.

"What?"

"Arnold got into town last night. We're all going out to dinner, remember?"

Helga's heart stopped. How could she have forgotten. "Yeah, yeah I'll see you tonight." Helga disconnected the call before Phoebe could and tossed it onto her couch. Her apartment wasn't anything fancy. It was pretty plain, but the roofs didn't leak and the only thing she could really complain about were her noisy neighbors and peeling paint. It was the only thing Bob had been willing to help her out with while she was going to college.

She went through the rest of her wet clothes, hoping that maybe she'd be able to find any answers about the night before. To her dismay, she found nothing.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Helga did everything in her power to not bellow back at her boss as she simply explained that she really had no idea what had happened to the designs and then explained that she couldn't remember anything that had happened the day before.

Mister Raydon finally managed to yell himself out and sighed, falling into his chair behind his desk. "Helga, you're a great employee. The best secretary I've ever had. The last thing I want to do is give you the boot."

Helga's gaze dropped, "I understand , sir."

Mister Raydon sighed, "I'm going to suspend you for two weeks."

Helga looked up at him, mouth agape and eyes wide. "You mean…you're not firing me?"

He smiled and shook his head. "No. We're just lucky we have copies of the designs. But anything like this ever happens again."

"It won't!" She answered hastily. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Mister Raydon chuckled and shook his head, "You're going to have to leave the building now. I'll see you after your friend's wedding."

Helga thanked him a few more times before skipping out of the building, waving goodbye to Tom and Whitney, the only two people she worked with that she really got along with. Tom was flamboyantly gay and an absolute riot. Whitney was sassy and flirty, despite the fact that she wasn't the typical vision of beauty. Whitney was content with it though, constantly saying 'a guy is more likely to sing Fat Bottom Girls to me than any other song ever written, but I'm good with that. No one writes songs about 'wanting the skinny bitches"…no offense, Helga'.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Back at her apartment, Helga was finishing getting ready for dinner, her hair hanging around her shoulders in curls. She wore a little black dress that clung to her curves. She probably didn't need the pink bolero she slipped over the top of the dress with as warm as it was out, but she'd already decided that she needed a pop of color.

Scratching against wood caught her attention and Helga first went to the door, looking down and around and finding nothing and no one who could be responsible for it. She then went to the board she'd placed in front of her shattered window. On the other side of the whole window, a silky black cat with bright yellow eyes stared back at her.

Her eyes locked with its and she inched closer to the window. The cat mewed and she cocked her head to the side at it.

She could have stared at the animal for hours, but more scratching caught her attention. Helga focused her eyes and found everything was so much more clear than it had been before, even the shadows of the room were illuminated.

Then she saw it. In the blink of an eye, she'd shot across the living room and into the kitchen, where she reached under the bar and batted and scraped like a maniac until she had it in her hands.

She grinned, almost manically as she stood upright, a mouse held tightly in her fist. With a giggle she dropped the mouse on the floor and chased after it when it ran again. She caught it and released it a few more times before a knock on the door brought her to her senses. The mouse was trembling in her grasp. She screamed and dropped the mouse before rushing to the sink and washing her hands, fully aware of the plethora of diseases mice could carry.

There was another knock at the door.

"JUST A MINUTE!" she shouted as she dried her hands and opened the door. Her face softened instantly. "Arnold?"

He smiled, "Hey Helga. I was just wondering if I could give you a ride to dinner."

She smiled weakly. They'd become pretty good friends after Arnold found his parents and they maintained their relationship through letters. They'd never done anything romantically besides letters though, to Helga's dismay. "Yeah, sure. I'm already ready. Just let me grab my purse."

She slipped back into her apartment and seized her bag, giving the window a last glance before leaving on Arnold's arm. She'd hoped the cat she'd seen earlier would still be there, but the only thing on the other side of her window was her fire escape.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review and let me know what you think will happen or what you want to happen or whatever. Thanks for reading.

P.S. I think it's pretty obvious where this is going (so far), but it's gunna get more complex. I promise.