The Sister
Arnold Shortman met Rob Pataki when they were three. They were in the same preschool together and quickly became friends. Rob was one of the oldest members of the Urban Tots preschool class, his forth birthday being in the third week of September. Rob's parents, Bob and Miriam, threw him a birthday party and invited all his new friends, Arnold included.
Arnold had never been to a birthday party, so he was curious about what one would be like. With his birthday only two weeks away and his grandparents throwing him own little party. He wondered if his own party would be any different. When Arnold arrived at the Pataki's he knew his party would be much different. As he stood in the living room he realized every single kid in their class was there, including all of the girls! Arnold's grandparents said he could invite three of his friends over for his party. He had decided on Rob, Gerald, and Sid.
While his classmates were running around the living room Arnold took a few moments to take in his surroundings. Rob's mom was trying to round up all the kids to play a game and he could hear Rob's dad yelling at the television in a different room. There was a playpen set up in the corner of the living room with Rob's little sister struggling to reach over the edge of the playpen to a doll she must have dropped. "Ma! Ma!" She pulled out her pacifier to call out to her mother. Arnold looked over at Mariam, who seemingly didn't hear her daughter's cries.
Arnold quickly walked up to the playpen, picked up the doll, and handed it to the little blonde girl with the curly hair. "Here you go." She smiled up at him before popping her pacifier back in her mouth and hugging the doll. "How old are you?" He smiled when he noticed the little girl smile behind the pacifier she was sucking on. She held up one finger. "You're one?" She nodded as she sat down with her doll.
"Hey Arnold!" Rob ran up to him, "I brought you a cookie." He looked over at his little sister. "Don't worry Helga I brought you one too." He handed Helga a cookie. Helga quickly ripped the pacifier out of her mouth before Rob handed her a cookie. "Come on Arnold, let's go play. My mom is setting up pin the tail on the donkey."
"Bye bye Helga." Arnold wave at her as he walked away with Rob.
Helga smiled widely, crumbs from her cookie falling from the corners of her mouth. Her left hand waved back, "Bye bye." Her smile lasted until Arnold and Rob were out of sight.
The Sister
Three year-old Helga Pataki tapped her foot impatiently as her older sister Olga continued to play the piano to her beaming parents. "Oh Olga you play so wonderfully!" Miriam clapped as Olga finished,
"Play the Minute Waltz now, would ya?" Bob requested with a large smile, squeezing his eldest daughter's shoulders. "I think that's my favorite."
Helga sighed, "Who's gonna take me to preschool?" She tugged on Bob's shirt to get his attention as Olga began to play again. She wished Rob wasn't sick because she could have just walked with him. "Dad!" She spoke louder and pulled on his shirt again. "I wanna go to preschool!"
"Helga, pipe down. Your sister is playing for us." He shushed her again when she started argue, "Just go play outside, would ya?"
Helga stomped out of the room, grabbing her lunch box on the way to the door. "I'm going to preschool now!" She yelled before slamming the door behind her. She heard the muffled voice of Bob as she walked down the steps to the sidewalk; she guessed he was yelling at her to be quiet again. She knew the way to school. She had walked with Miriam and Rob enough times to know where she was going, though walking alone while the sky was darkening because of an incoming storm was a little scary for Helga. She jumped slightly when thunder rumbled in the sky. She sighed sadly when it began to sprinkle and quickened her pace.
"Helga?" A soft voice caused Helga to stop in her tracks and turn around.
"Hi Arnold." She greeted quietly.
"Why are you walking all by yourself? Where's Rob?" The blond boy asked as he walked up to her.
"Rob's sick." Helga told him. The pair began walking towards the school.
"Why are you walking by yourself? Where are your mom and dad?" Arnold asked with a slight frown. He looked up as the light sprinkle became a bit heavier. He opened his blue umbrella holding it over himself and his friend's little sister.
"They were busy. I didn't want to be late for preschool." Helga told him as she avoided getting any more wet by stepping a little bit closer to her brother's friend.
"I'll walk you. It's on the way." He gave the younger a small smile, "I like your bow. It's pink like your pants."
Helga's small fingers touched the soft fabric of her pink bow. Looking down she smiled brightly, "Thank you."
"Here we are." Since it was raining fairly hard at that point Arnold walked her to the door, holding the umbrella over them both the whole way. "I hope you like your first day of school." He paused, "I'll walk by here after school, in case your mom and dad are still busy so wait for me, okay?"
"Okay." Helga nodded, "Bye Arnold." She walked into the building and watching Arnold as he walked towards PS 118. She smiled releasing a girlish sigh.
"Come on Rob! Can I please go? I won't bug you I promise." Seven year old Helga practically begged her older brother as he tied his sneakers.
"You're already bugging me. Just stay home. Why do you always want to be by me and my friends? I know you have your own friends." Rob grabbed his baseball glove as he stood up. He was nine years old and he did not want to spend his Saturday with his little sister. There was a soft knock on the door as he grabbed his bat. "Hey Arnold. I'm ready to go."
"Please! I don't even have to play. I just wanna watch." Helga pleaded, her bottom lip quivering just slightly. "Please."
Arnold looked at the two siblings, "What's going on?" He asked, his bat resting on his shoulder.
Rob rolled his eyes. "Helga wants to come with us to Gerald Field. I keep telling her no one wants some little kid hanging around." This remark earned an eye roll from Helga.
"Just let her come." Arnold told him. "She's not that bad. She can keep score or something. Maybe she can even play catcher for a while. You know no one in the gang really likes to be catcher. You know how to keep score, don't you?"
"Well doi. Of course I do. I can throw too, right Rob?"
"Pretty good for a little girl I guess." Rob mumbled, "Go get your mitt. You're lucky Arnold is nice."
She grinned, "That's why I like Arnold more than you." She began to jog upstairs, "I'm getting my mitt!"
Rob groaned, "Why'd you say she can go? She can be so annoying."
"Come on, she isn't that bad. She's a cute kid."
Rob's nose scrunched up, "Gross."
"Helga!" Miriam yelled at her youngest daughter from the bottom of the stairs, "It's your turn to empty the dishwasher."
"I'll do it in a minute!" Helga yelled back. The twelve year old was currently lying on her stomach on her bed writing in her journal.
Helga Shortman
Mrs. Helga Shortman
Helga Geraldine Shortman
Helga Pataki-Shortman.
She quickly crossed that last one out; realizing pigs would fly before she would want to keep the Pataki name. She began to absent mindedly doodle hearts and small rough drawings of her and Arnold. She had a dreamy smile on her lips as she wrote their initials in one of the hearts.
HGP
APS
"Olga! Get your butt down here and empty the dishwasher!" Bob yelled, his voice booming throughout the house.
"Ugh! Criminy!" Helga clasped the lock on her journal and shoved it under her pillow.
"OLGA!"
"I'm coming!" Helga yelled as she shut her bedroom door behind her. "And it's Helga, Bob!"
It only took Helga about five minutes or so to empty and reload the dishwasher. She flopped back onto her bed and reached her hand under her pillow in search of her journal, but instead of feeling the leather bound book she only felt the fabric of her bed and pillow. In a panic Helga pulled up her pillow. It wasn't there. Her heart began to beat rapidly, it felt like it was about to burst out of her chest. Maybe she pushed it too far back and it fell behind her bed. She dropped to her knees and peered under her bed after clearing away random junk she kept under there, but was horrified to find that there was no journal. Where could it be? Then it hit her.
Rob.
She felt like she was going to be sick. If Rob saw all that she had written…He'd tell Arnold. Arnold would know! That was literally one of the last things she would ever want to have happen. If Rob knew she had a crush on his best friend he'd never let her live it down. No! This couldn't happen.
She pushed herself up from the floor and practically sprinted to Rob's bedroom. "Rob!" She pounded on the door after discovering it was locked, "Open up!" She yelled as she continued to pound. "I know you have it! Give it back!"'
"Stop that racket up there!" Bob yelled from the den down stairs, "I'm trying to watch the game!"
"Rob please do not read it. Please!" She begged from the other side of the door continuing to try in vain to open the door.
"Why do you care if I read it? What do you write about in here anyway? How you're team Edward or team Jacob?" Rob laughed from inside his bedroom. Luckily for Helga Rob was still struggling to open the lock.
"Shut up Rob! You know I couldn't get through the first book."
"Rob! Arnold's here!" Miriam called from down stairs, "I'm sending him up."
Helga's eyes widened in fear; silently praying that Rob didn't know her deepest secret yet. "Rob! Arnold's here! Open up. You gotta let him in." Please don't know, please don't know, please don't know.
"Hey Helga." Arnold greeted as he walked up the stairs. "Rob in his room?" He quickly noticed the younger girl looked visibly upset. "What's wrong?" He asked with a frown.
Helga chewed on her bottom lip debating if she should tell him that Rob stole her diary, since many of the entries were about him. She sighed, figuring if she told him he'd more than likely help her get it back. She could only hope Rob didn't know yet, since he hadn't started to tease her about it yet. "Rob took my journal." She admitted.
Arnold sighed; having a sibling looked absolutely exhausting. Rob and Helga were constantly on each others cases, the same was true for his other friend Gerald and his little sister Timberly. He knew he should probably be thankful he was an only child, "I'll get it back for you." The fourteen year old tapped on his friend's bedroom door, "Come on dude. Let me in."
A couple seconds later the two blondes heard the click of Rob's door lock and a second later the door opened. Before Rob or Arnold could react Helga charged into the room pushing past her brother, "Where is it?" She snapped.
"Where is what?" Rob mocked smirking at her.
"You know what!" Helga screeched.
"Just give it back to her Rob." Arnold was clearly annoyed now. "We're going to miss the movie." He tried to reason with the older Pataki. The newest Evil Twin sequel was supposed to start in fifteen minutes.
"Fine." Rob reluctantly gave in without a fight. He really didn't want to miss the movie. Pretty much everyone in their middle school was going to see it sometime this weekend. It was Sunday so it was his last chance before the school week. He walked over to his bed and reached between his mattress and bed spring and pulled out the pink journal.
"You wanna come to the movie with us Helga?" Arnold asked.
"She can't!" Rob snapped before Helga could even think of an answer. "It's PG-13, remember? She's only twelve." He thrust the diary into Helga's hands, "These things are lot harder to open since Olga kept one."
Helga's lips twitched into a small smile for a moment before remembering she was furious with Rob, "I hate you." She told her brother before turning on her heel and stomping out the room. A moment later the boys heard Helga's bedroom door slam.
Rob rolled his eyes, "Drama queen."
Fourteen year old Helga wanted to cry. She followed slowly behind her bother and Arnold as they chatted about how Lila Sawyer, the beauty of the tenth grade, finally agreed to go on a date with Arnold. He had liked her for years. She didn't know why she was surprised that Arnold would want to date someone like Lila Sawyer. She was so pretty and Helga was…so not.
She didn't say anything when they arrived at home; instead she went straight to her room as Arnold and Rob headed straight to the kitchen to find something to eat. Locking her bedroom door behind her she took a deep breath before studying her reflection in the mirror. She frowned.
Her arms and legs were long and lanky. Her eyes and nose seemed too large for her face. Her ears stuck out too much. She closed her eyes picturing how pretty Lila was. The girl's features actually were proportioned to her body. She was flawless. Sighing heavily, Helga turned on her iPod dock and curled up in bed wishing she was just half as pretty as freaking Lila Sawyer.
Two hours later Helga and Rob were sitting in the living room waiting for the pizza they had ordered. Bob and Miriam had gone out for dinner with a prospective client of Bob's. "What's wrong with you tonight?" Rob asked from his position on the couch. He looked over at his younger sister, who was curled up in the arm chair looking more miserable than normal.
"Nothing." Helga mumbled, "Why would you care if something is wrong anyway?" She questioned, brushing some stray hairs behind her ear.
"Come on…" Rob rolled his eyes. "I'm your brother. I can care about you sometimes. Seriously, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing." She muttered, "I'm just sick of being so ugly."
Rob frowned. "You're not ugly. Why would you think that?"
"I have eyes?"
"Did someone call you ugly? Was it a boy? I'll kick his ass." Rob promised. He was angry that anyone would call his sister ugly. Sure, he liked to make fun of her once in a while, but that didn't mean anyone else could.
"No one called me ugly." Helga told him as she hugged her knees to her chest. "I just know I am." She said softly.
"Look, everyone goes through this stage where they think they're ugly. You're fourteen Helga; you are allowed to be going through an awkward stage. Remember what I looked like at fourteen? But really, I don't think you're ugly." He told her seriously. He sighed when he saw she looked completely unconvinced. "How about after we eat the pizza I take you out for ice cream? My treat."
Helga offered him a small smile, "I'd like that."
Tragedy struck just a month into Arnold and Rob's junior year of high school (Helga's freshman year). Arnold lost both of his grandparents within a time span of just four months. Though his grandmother's death had been suspected, Grandpa Phil's had not been. He died suddenly of a brain aneurysm and Arnold was devastated. His grandparents had raised him from age one and now he was all alone. The circumstances around his parent's disappearance had been a mystery up until he was thirteen. That's when he learned their lives had been claimed by the very illness they were trying to stop just a few weeks after they first arrived in San Lorenzo.
Now, with his grandfather's passing he was all alone.
What he didn't know until after the funeral was that shortly after his Grandma Gertie died his Grandpa Phil made arrangements with Bob and Miriam Pataki that if anything should happen to him before Arnold turned eighteen that they would be his legal guardians until he was. Since Arnold was such good friends with Rob, they were happy to take the boy in. Since Olga was grown and moved Arnold was given her old room. Bob had said if Olga came to visit she could bunk with Helga, to which Helga replied she'd rather sleep outside.
The following summer when the boys were seventeen and Helga was fifteen Bob and Miriam took the three teenagers, along with their eldest daughter Olga, to the beach. They rented a beach house to stay at for the week.
"Oh little sister!" Olga called out as she made her way to Helga, Arnold, and Rob. They were setting up their towels and cooler that was filled with water and Yahoo sodas to save their spots on the beach. "Why are you wearing Rob's old t-shirt?" She asked with her hands on her hips. "I took you shopping and bought you three new bathing suits for a reason. Take that over-sized shirt off so everyone can see your new bathing suit." Her bottom lip quivered, "Please little sister?"
"I don't want to." Helga argued, "This t-shirt is just fine."
"Helga take the shirt off. You're sister spent good money on you. Be grateful." Bob demanded as he set up his fold up lawn chair.
Helga groaned loudly deciding to just listen to Bob, knowing the fight just wasn't worth it. She ignored Rob's laughter as she slipped the shirt over her head, tossing it on to the sand next to her beach towel. She frowned looking down at the pink bikini Olga forced her to put on. She felt ridiculous. She looked up at Rob, noticing his laughter stopped.
"Olga! Why the hell did you buy that for her?" Rob nearly yelled. Rob looked at Helga wide eyed. She was wearing what he viewed too revealing for his fifteen year old sister to be wearing. He looked over at Bob, "Dad, did you see what Olga put her in?"
"Yeah, yeah, it looks nice." Bob muttered as he put on a pair of sunglasses. "You kids go have fun."
Arnold said nothing as he looked at Helga. He was wide eyed for an entirely different reason. When the hell did Helga get so…so…hot? She was always kind of pretty; she had most defiantly blossomed into her looks over the past year. She grew into her slightly over-sized features and became especially pretty over the last year. Though Arnold had known Helga since she was like a year old he had never seen her like this. Normally, she was in one of Rob's old baggy over-sized shirts and baggy jeans. But now…
She had a killer body. The sports she had been in during her freshman year had been good to her. He never would have guessed that Rob's little sister actually had muscle tone and had the all curves he loved to see on girls. And her breasts. Oh God, her breasts.
He blinked.
Did he just think about his best friend's little sisters' boobs? Yes. And he was looking at them. "I'm going to go swimming." He mumbled, praying the water was cold.
"Arnold?" Rob called after his friend confused. "What's with him?" He looked around the beach and noticed that many of the teenage boys were looking in his direction. He frowned. No, not his direction. They were looking in his little sister's. He looked over at Helga, "Come on, you are hanging out with Arnold and me today." He sighed; it was going to be a long week of keeping Helga away from these guys.