A/N I would like to thank everyone who reviewed! It means so much to me! And, I am ecstatic that you all enjoyed the first chapter. This one is a tad bit longer. Also, as some of you might have noted the second genre I picked for this fic is mystery, this chapter isn't into the mystery as of yet, but will be picking up in the next chapter. Once again- my grammar is bad. I know this, I'm working on it. I promise. =D
Disclaimer- Hey Arnold is not mine, all related characters and such belong to Craig Bartlett.
Recommended Listening for this chapter- "The Nth Degree" by Morningwood (Oh and for the record, the song isn't mine either.)
Chapter summary: Spending the last few hours together, the gang shares where they will be going for the summer, also a new character is introduced- into the lives of the group. Everyone is set for the start of summer! But still, a sense of dread hangs in the air.
ENJOY! (And Review!)
Chapter Two: To The Nth Degree
Arnold looked in shock towards Helga and then back to the curtains acting as a door. Everyone inside had rushed off into the main hall and towards the kitchen to see just where the shriek had come from. Arnold hastily grabbed Helga's hand and pulled her to the red sheets that lead inside. Helga smiled in a dazed confusion, and let out a sigh of content. Before Arnold could turn back and ask what that sound was- Helga shook her head and yanked her hand away from his.
"I'm not a kid anymore, Arnoldo, I can walk just fine by myself."
With that Helga took a quick step in front of him and pushed him back placing a hand on his chest, she turned around to be greeted with the curtains, which she had completely forgotten about. Helga stepped into the sheets and immediately got tangled with in them. She swatted around and twirled, but ended up getting more tangled in them. Arnold looked amused. Helga stopped and glared at him, her hair now plastered against her face.
"Gonna' help me Boy-wonder? Or you just going to stare?"
Arnold raised an eyebrow and smiled at her.
"Mind if I stare then?"
He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively; Helga thought she was going to die. But being the gentleman he is, Arnold began to unwrap Helga from her chiffon cocoon.
"Don't move Helga- and don't shock me."
"Like I'm going anywhere. And why would I shock you? Am I going to do something amaz-"
Helga didn't realize his meaning until Arnold touched her arm while untangling her, and was shocked. Static cling was occurring due to her hair rubbing against the fabric.
"Sorry." She mumbled.
"S'alright, Pataki- no worries. But you might want to fix your hair."
He laughed has he finished untangling her. Arnold waved his hand slowly over her head, which strands of her hair met, standing up on end. She swatted his arm away in mock anger.
"Whatever." But Helga smiled and smoothed out her hair to the best of her ability. But Arnold was still waving his hand over her blonde locks, made it difficult.
"JESUS CHRIST!
"RHONDA,NOO!"
The two teen's heads snapped towards the kitchen, sharing a quick glance they rushed off to find all of their friends gathered around a fainted Harold, and an apologetic Nadine. Helga pushed the others out of the way trying to get a better view of Harold, who was laying on the floor; out cold. Patty had dropped to her knees and was now fanning his face furiously with her hands. Nadine seemed to be holding a shoebox, and looking quite sorry, but the strangest sight of all was Rhonda standing on the island in the middle of the kitchen, a rolled up fashion magazine held tightly in her white knuckled fists. The color drained from her face, her eyes locked on the floor beside Harold.
"Move it, Bucko."
Helga said to Sid who was staring in a daze at the kitchen floor where there seemed to be a dark mass stuck to the tile. Like a wadded up piece of grape bubble gum that had been chewed for days, except it was more like a years worth of wadded up bubble gum. Helga stared intently on it, it twitched. Helga's eyes swept the scene in search of answers.
'Ah, I get it. Nadine had brought that, that… thing. And Harold saw it, totally freaked- and then passed out. Rhonda came in here, and saw the… thing, and whacked it good. But was too scared of it coming back to life or something, she hoped up onto the counter to get away from it.'
Helga looked up to look at Nadine who seemed very sorry, her pleasant and kind nature had gotten the best of her, and she only wanted to show off her new pet tarantula. She just wanted to show someone before she ran home to put it into the terrarium, as she had gotten it about an hour before the party started. Walking by the pet store, she couldn't help but taking a look inside and picking up a new arachnid to add to her extensive collection, she was full of joy and pride about her new furry eight legged friend. She was only going to show her off at the party, and then run her home… unfortunately Harold was the first one she spotted.
Phoebe had been watching the whole thing in the comfort of Gerald's arms; Gerald looked on to the scene with a twinge of horror in his eyes. Arnold had made his way over to the fridge to find an ice pack for Harold's head after seeing him lying on the floor. Stinky and Sheena exchanged glances and intertwined their fingers in hopes that Harold would be alright. Lila took her free hand and bit her finger nails looking at Harold, hopefully he was alright- Peapod kid held her other hand tightly, shaking his head holding sunglasses in his other hand. Iggy sighed,
"Man- a whole football season up against the toughest guys in state, and he tweeks out about a spider."
Walking back from the freezer, Arnold gave the ice pack to Patty who was propping up Harold's head on her lap.
"Thank you Arnold, I imagine he will have quite the headache when he comes to." Patty smiled meekly up to Arnold.
"No problem, and yeah- I imagine he would, too."
Arnold shook his head and walked back over and stood in the back of the group gathered around the center of the kitchen. Rhonda seemed to gain her composure slowly, the color returning to her knuckles and her pale face. She cleared her throat and smoothed out her hair, she climbed down from the island gingerly with the help of Curly.
"I'm sorry Nadine. You should have warned me. It's just that, well you know how I get around bugs."
"Harold isn't any better." Nadine said quietly.
"I'm sorry again you guys, I didn't mean to scare him."
Nadine looked ready almost to burst into tears when Harold began to stir.
"Harold! Harold, You alright?!" Patty looked into his eyes trying to observe if they were glazed over. But they weren't, Harold blinked a few times before muttering softly;
"S'fine, I'm fine. Fine. Fine, Fine… What happened?"
Harold's eyes caught the twitching tarantula sprawled out by him, on the floor.
"EEEEEKKK!"
Shrieked Harold again, this time more sounding like a girl, his head hit the floor with a dull thud, before Patty had anytime to react. Everyone let out a sigh, and looked down to Harold again. Nadine had calmed her self down and was now scooping up her dead pet, she sighed the loudest of all. Helga had quickly moved her hand to cover her mouth and the growing smile; she bit back laugher and listened to Nadine.
"I'm sorry guys… I didn't know Harold was so freighted of them, I thought that he would want to see Betty." She nodded her head to the box.
"I just got her and all, I wanted to show her off, I guess."
"Nadine, dear…" Rhonda said slipping an arm around her shoulders trying to comfort her. Trying to make light of the situation she smiled kindly, and squeezed her shoulder.
"Doll, I'll buy you all the spiders you could ever want. Just, no bugs in my kitchen. Kay?"
Nadine's cheeks flushed. "Oh, yeah, that would be nice Rhonda. Thanks."
Helga couldn't contain her laughter anymore, her smile reached her eyes and then she burst out laughing breaking the tension in the room. Pointing to Harold she tried to speak, but her words were interrupted with gasps of air in between laughs.
"You.. yo-.. spider…screamed like a gii-rrrrhh-lllll."
She placed her hands on her sides and doubled over laughing. Rhonda looked to Nadine who couldn't help but catch the infectious laughter. Nadine's face exploded into a smile, than her whole body began to shake from keeping in her giggles, Rhonda and Nadine seemed to start laughing almost as hard as Helga. Everyone joined in and soon the whole group seemed to be bent over clutching their aching sides. Patty had joined in too, until Harold finally gained consciousness. Patty stopped laughing abruptly and looked down.
"Ughhhh,"
"Harold!"
"Patty?"
"You alright?"
"Yeah, M'fine."
He shook his head and sat up, his hands clutching the back of his head. He looked up from his spot on the floor to notice everyone doubled over in what seemed pained, as it seemed they we're all howling like mad.
"Patty…" he looked alarmed.
"Did someone poison the punch?"
Patty laughed and patted his head, lightly hoping that she hadn't hurt him.
"Oh, no… they're just laughing, at, well- you sadly."
"Oh, I see. How come?"
"Hmm, let me guess, not a fan of spiders are you Harold?" She grinned and almost began to laugh again, but held it in for Harold's sake until he figured out just what was going on. His face flushed red, he remembered.
"Ahhhmmaaannnnn. I screamed didn't I?"
"You most definitely did."
Harold looked around again at the room. His friends simply laughing he realized. He looked at Rhonda as she reenacted smacking the spider while it climbed from off of the lid of the shoebox while it sat on the counter when Rhonda first appeared in the kitchen to see what had happened. Rhonda laughed as she held the magazine high above her head then began waving it around, like cowboys trying to lasso cattle; hamming it up- which only brought tears of laughter to everyone's eyes. Harold began to get up off of the floor and joined in with his booming laughter, extending a hand to Patty still kneeled on the floor. She accepted it gratefully and smoothed out her plaid skirt, once standing.
"Hey man, nice pipes." Laughed out Peapod kid,
Sid chimed in with "Dude, you should try out for Choir next semester."
Sid raised his hand in anticipation of a high five, one that was met by Stinky.
"I recon' you'd get a great part in a horror movie Harold!"
Everyone had just started to calm down but with Stinky's remark they all began their fit of laughter all over again. Harold's face turned red,
"You guys saw how big that thing that was."
"Yeah, but you sreamin' like a virgin in a horror flick at it;" Helga started and puffed out her chest and broadened her shoulders
"Mr. Co-Captain of the football team." she smiled. "Makes it all the more fun to laugh about. No hard feelings there, kid."
"Yeah, fine… just wish you guys would quit it."
Rhonda regained her full composure, and resumed her role of hostess.
"Alright everyone, cool it. Lets head up to garden on the roof; it will be nice to spend the last hours together before everyone jets off on their summer adventures."
There was a clamor of enthusiastic agreement from the group. Rhonda grabbed a pitcher of iced tea, Sheena following suit picked up a stack of plastic cups. Everyone in the kitchen grabbed some sort of snack, or drink to bring with them, so there would be refreshments as they lounged around under the stars. Rhonda on her way out of the kitchen clicked a small button on the intercom, that connected her to her various persons of wait staff,
"We are ready to go on the roof, please have the girls set up the chairs and fire, Thank you James."
"Right away, Miss."
"Much appreciated." She sang into the white speaker mounted on the wall.
"Lets get a move on, so we can have a few minutes left before it really gets dark." Rhonda said to her crew of friends standing around her, their arms filled with pizza boxes, and other things to eat. They followed her out, and up the staircase to the roof access door.
Having the garden installed on the roof was really an idea of her mothers, but once everyone had found out about it- it just reinforced the idea of Rhonda's house being the one everyone would hang out on weekends with nothing else to do. To the east there was the ocean stretching out, and to the west the whole city shadowed on the horizon as the orange sky turned blue. It was beautiful; peaceful; it was; in a word, perfect.
Lounge chairs and small couches, created a circle around a small fire pit. The pit wasn't that large; it had a stone wall and was about two feet deep. The fire had already been set up much to the dismay of Curly who wanted to light it… or light anything on fire for that instance. They set their things down by chairs they wanted to claim. There were three couches which, Gerald and Phoebe, Sheena and Sticky, and Peapod Kid and Lila scrambled to get and mange to plop down before everyone could sit. In between the couches were single chairs. Helga sat next to Phoebe and likewise for Arnold sitting next to his best friend.
Sid, Iggy and Harold chose to sit on the opposite side of the fire from Nadine and Patty and Rhonda, who chose to sit next to Nadine. Curly was the last one to sit down, of course he wanted to sit next to Rhonda- but she was in between Nadine and Arnold- so Curly settled for sitting next to Sid, across from her.
"Seniors." Rhonda said loudly to quiet everyone down and the attention to shift back to her.
"This is it guys, our last official day as high school juniors, the last summer we have before the real world."
Rhonda raised her glass of iced tea to the stars, the others flowed suit raising their soda cans and cups of lemonade to the sky.
"Make it count." She clinked cups with Arnold.
"Here, Here!" The group toasted with those around them.
"Well, as you all know," Rhonda flipped her hair over her right shoulder, she had let it grow out, she kept it short- but still had enough length for her to try different styles.
"I am spending the first part of the summer in Paris, as an intern for a very chic' designer. She's all the rage in Europe." She beamed proudly and took a sip of her drink.
"Arnold dear, what are you doing this summer? Are you finally going to leave town?"
Arnold laughed; ever since he was a kid he never left the city for an actual vacation. Sure a weekend camping now and then, and maybe a trip to the beach over the last few summers with everyone.
"Nah, just going to hang tight around here like usual." He replied.
"Same here." Said Harold, his mouth full of cheese doodles. Patty smiled and said the same for her. Although at the end of the summer should be going to visit her grandparents in North Carolina.
Stinky would be around Hillwood too, working on conditioning for his final year of football.
"Me too." Said Helga. She had intended to spend her summer filling out college applications and working on her writing.
"Well while you guys are jus' chillin' here- me and Peapod are going to Basketball camp." Iggy said leaning over and giving a high five to Peapod kid.
"And I'm afraid I will miss you ever-so much." Lila said as she snuggled into Peapod kid's side.
"I'll be back, its only for three weeks. No worries." This seemed to put Lila at ease.
"But remember Lila, while they're gone we will be gone too!" Sheena said excitedly.
"Oh yes! I'm certain I forgot all about that!" Lila added,
"My Uncle Earl is letting me, Nadine and Lila, take one of his boats to sail around the coast."
"It's going to fantastic! Just think of all, the animal and bug life we'll see!" Nadine smiled, while Rhonda looked disgusted.
"I told you Nadine, you should have chosen to come with me to Paris, go sightseeing, not on a bug hunt."
"Rhonda, your love for designing, is equivalent to my passion for insects." Rhonda sighed defeated,
"Alright then… still- none of them will get through my front door when you get back."
The group erupted into laughter again.
"Well I'm going to Cape Cod with Eugene and his family, they invited me since my mom and his mom are pretty good friends." Curly stated once everyone had calmed down again.
"Wait a second…" Gerald looked around at the faces surrounding the fire.
"Where is he anyways?"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked around; he was missing from their gathering.
"Huh… that's odd." Phoebe said.
Sheena's face grew hot. "Oh, my… well, Eugene texted me earlier that he couldn't make it tonight."
She looked sincere, "I'm sorry I forgot completely about it."
Everyone looked relived at the news.
"Thank goodness he isn't hurt or anything." Lila remarked.
Sid leaned back in his chair and looked up at the sky,
"I'm hitchin' a ride out to Cali. Gonna' hit the beach every single day and check out the tanning babes."
Harold smacked him in the arm. Sid snapped back to reality, startled.
"Dude, no your not. You're going to sit around all summer, on X-Box live- and when you're not doing that, you'll be at work. Or sleeping it away"
"Crush a guys dreams why don'tcha! Yeeesssh."
Gerald stretched his hands over head chuckling at Sid's expression.
"Well, me and Phoebe are going on a College road trip if you will." He didn't sound too happy, but Phoebe was positively glowing.
"I'm so happy that you decided to go with me Gerald."
"Anything for you, Pheebs."
She smiled and pecked him on the cheek. And suddenly remembered something
"Also, my cousin is coming in from Japan, my Uncle thought that it would be good to have her here for her senior year. So they're sending her over here for the summer so she can get settled."
Gerald nodded, "That's right- we have to pick her up from the airport right? On our way back."
"Yup! Two weeks on Sunday"
"That's cool Pheebs, I didn't know your cousin would be coming." Arnold looked interested,
"Oh, well- neither did I until I got home today. I haven't seen her in the longest time… it was all so sudden too. But she's family and always welcomed." She smiled.
"Is she nice?" inquired Lila,
"I recon she is if she's related to you Phoebe." Stinky added.
"She is, or well- what I can remember, it was so long ago. I don't remember her much."
"What's her name?" Rhonda asked Phoebe leaning in her chair towards the fire to roast her marshmallow.
"Rebbeca. But she likes to go by Bex."
Rhonda nodded her head in approval, "Cute." Rhonda thought about it, "Bex… I like it."
"Is she hot?" Sid asked grinning. Phoebe laughed, while the boys looked eagerly waited her reply.
"Well, I suppose." Phoebe said finally.
"DIBS!" Iggy called out.
"Dude, no way." Sid challenged.
The two fought for a minute before Rhonda broke them up.
"Look!" she shouted, pointing up to the sky, shooting stars passed over head.
"Make a wish quick!" Nadine exclaimed.
Everyone closed their eyes and made their wishes, everyone besides Arnold.
Arnold looked around at his friends and thought how lucky he was. All of his friends had grown closer over the years as most people grew apart. The smile grew on his face, but fell quickly as he felt his left pocket vibrate. He placed his hand over it, and sighed.
'Not now, please, not now.'
Arnold looked up into the sky and wished.
The night went on, everyone laughing and talking the details of their summer plans. Even Helga was in a good mood. Talking and laughing, the smile almost never leaving her face. It was different for her. She missed her scowl that was ever present on her face. But still like the idea everyone was more open to her with out it. Rhonda had called her wait staff, to see if they could bring up a radio or a stereo- something that would fill in the silence of lulled conversations.
"Ah thank you Marcie." Rhonda nodded to the older woman carrying a stereo. She placed it on a table to the right of the circle where everyone had put down their snacks and drinks after claiming their chairs.
"You are welcome Miss Lloyd, anything else I could get you?"
"No thank you Marcie. You may go."
Rhonda got up and switched on the radio. The loud sound of static scared the kids.
"Gah!" Rhonda exclaimed turning down the volume which had been switched to the highest level.
"Sorry." She turned it up to a reasonable volume and began fiddling with the dial. The sound of static went in and out, while everyone shouted suggestions.
"Somethin' country Miss Rhonda!"
"Nahhh, heavy metal definitely."
"I'm ever-so sure that heavy metal wouldn't suit everyone."
"Heavy metal? You insane Sid? Find that underground station Rhonda."
Rhonda played around a little more with the tuning dial until a bass line pulsated from the speakers, followed by a drum beat and a guitar rift.
"M-o
m-o-r m-o-r-n-i-n-g
M-o m-o-r m-o-r-n-i-n-g
M-o m-o-r
m-o-r-n-i-n-g
M-o m-o-r m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d"
"Wait a tic, I know this song." Patty sat in thought.
"Well, it's catchy, that's fer darn sure." Stinky said his fingers tapping.
"Oh my Gosh!" Everyone looked confused, but with joy present on her face Patty went on to explain.
"Remember a few years back when this song was so big- we heard it every where. It was crazy."
The song began to pick up, and Patty started singing along, the other kids still trying to remember.
"If you rock'n'roll"
Helga
smiled and began singing along.
"Disco,"
Sid recalled the next part and jumped out of his seat and played air guitar, and sang his best falsetto to the next bit
"heavy metal angel!"
Everyone
laughed and Phoebe stood up pulling Gerald with her, smiling he
twirled her as she sang.
"Come
on everybody
to the nth degree"
Everyone got out of their seats and began to dance, twirling and singing- everyone (whether they wanted to admit it or not) could recollect singing along to the song in their bedrooms or their cars at one time or another. The next part of the song had split into a duet like bridge- the girls started
"The
four of us"
to which the boys answered,
"The
royal we"
"He
bangs the drum"
The girls sang while pointing to Peapod kid who had been percussion
section leader since sophomore year, he played the air drums to show
off.
"She's
VIP"
They all smiled as Rhonda did a turn and batted her eyelashes.
"He's
never done"
"Got
OCD"
Curly stopped dancing crazily, and seemed to sing this louder, Nadine
giggled, and Curly went back to dancing like an idiot.
"Our
love is
to the nth degree!"
Everyone joined in and sang the last two lines of the stanza. It seemed to be the perfect song to begin the summer.
"Woah-oh,
here we go!
Turn up the radio.
Come on everybody,
to the nth
degree"
Peapod Kid and Lila danced together near the radio which they tuned up louder. He then pulled her close and dipped her.
"Oh, you are ever-so sweet!"
"You got it Darlin'" he winked.
"If
you rock'n'roll. And I've got my family,
Disco.
Heavy Metal Angel.
Come on
everybody!
To the nth degree!
and
one big bed is all we need.
With m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d"
Stinky and Sheena danced together swaying with the beat. While Nadine and Rhonda danced together as most girls do when no one offers to dance with them. Sid and Iggy jumped up and down, and swinging their arms about, like they were in a mosh pit. Helga smiled but didn't move, she still sang- but stood rooted to her spot, afraid to break her façade. Arnold danced over to her, resembling someone in the midst of the electric slide.
"Common' Helga, just dance already."
"I don't dance Arnoldo."
"Everyone dances Helga."
"Oh-oh,
here we go! If you rock'n'roll.
Turn up the radio.
Come on everybody,
to the nth
degree
Disco!
Heavy Metal Ange!
Come
on everybody,
to the nth degree!"
Arnold grabbed Helga's hands and pulled her into his chest. Helga surprised by the action, almost went to her knee jerk reaction, pushing him away. But she melted into his embrace. Her hips gave way to the beat and she began to sway.
"There you go Pataki!" Arnold laughed, and lifted her hand above her head to twirl her, just as he had seen the other couples doing. She slid out, smiling while she twirled, she sang along.
"M-o
m-o-r m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d
alright."
The lead singer dropped her voice to a whisper; the kids also changed their tone.
"M-o
m-o-r m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d
a little louder.
M-o
m-o-r m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d
and harder!"
They sang with delight, and danced through the last few bars of the song.
"M-o
m-o-r m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d!
Let's go!"
They laughed and continued jumping up and down, having the time of their lives.
"Oh-oh
here we go! If you rock'n'roll, M-o m-o-r
m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d M-o m-o-r
m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d M-o m-o-r
m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d M-o m-o-r
m-o-r-n-i-n-g-w-o-o-d
Turn up the radio,
come on everybody.
To the nth
degree!
Disco,
Heavy Metal
Angel.
Come on everybody,
to the nth degree
To the nth degree!
To the nth degree!
Come on everybody
To the nth degree!"
The song ended and every laughed, as they pulled apart from their dance partners, Rhonda once again lifted her cup to the sky after retrieving it to the side table. The others scrambled to their cups and raised them high.
"To summer!" said Rhonda.
"To summer!" the rest responded.
The teens smiled widely and sat down enjoying the rest of the night.
--
"It was fun, thanks for walking me home Football head."
Helga stood on the doorstep of the Pataki household While Arnold stood on the sidewalk. Arnold had his hands shoved in his pockets willing his Blackberry to stop going off in alert of almost ten missed calls or text messages.
"Anytime Helga. These streets aren't safe anymore, not like when we were kids, yeh' know?"
"Mmm."
Helga looked down at him standing on the sidewalk from her top step; he had offered to walk her home when Gerald and Phoebe had split off to head to their own streets, knowing full well, that her house was out of his way. Her feelings for the football headed boy hadn't changed over the years, she still loved the guy. But his feelings for her were still virtually unknown- though every now and then she would catch him looking at her across a crowded room.
"Thanks again Arnold, it was nice of you."
He stepped onto the bottom step and leaned forward kissing her on the cheek,
"Like I said, any time Pataki." He smiled and stepped down.
Giving a small wave he turned and left. Helga's hand touched the burning spot on her cheek where Arnold's lips had been, her grin stretched across her face.
"Oh, and a movie sounds great, Helga Pataki." Called Arnold now almost half a block away.
Helga opened the door with her key, and swiftly walked up stairs and promptly crashed in her bed once she reached her room.
"Oh, Arnold."
She sighed, and happily drifted off to sleep.
--
"I'll pick you up bright and early in the morning."
Gerald kissed Phoebe goodnight standing in her entrance way.
"Alright, should I make breakfast?"
Gerald shook his head,
"Nah, we can go out- it's our last full day here before we head off for our trip."
Phoebe hugged him tightly.
"Alright then, I can't believe in less then four days I'll be at Princeton! And I'll be with you!"
Phoebe gushed into Gerald's chest.
"I still can't believe you talked me into driving around visiting Colleges the first two weeks of summer vacation." Gerald shook his head, smiling down at her.
"I just know how to persuade you is all." She said standing on her toes to give him a final kiss.
"Ahem."
The two broke apart and looked to the stairs. A taller version of Phoebe stood on the stairs.
Slender and athletic, the girl looked as if she had just walked out of a photo shoot. Her hair reached the lowest part of her back, and swayed as she walked down the stairs. Her eyes shone through her electric blue frames of her glasses as it swept over the two standing at the bottom of the landing. Her pajamas were simple, but seemed to be high-end. Hello Kitty with Japanese characters graced the shirt, as well as the pants; she smiled to the pair at the pair in front of her as soon as she reached the carpeted hallway at the bottom of the stairs. Her smile seemed to dazzle both Phoebe and Gerald, who stood in awe.
"B…Bex! It's been so long!" Phoebe opened her arms to hug her cousin.
"Ahhh, Phoebe! So goo to see you, it's been so long!" She met her relative half way her arms wrapping around her back.
"My goodness, have you changed!"
Bex laughed pulling out for the hug.
"Phoebe it's been, ages!" Phoebe smiled.
"Oh, this is Gerald, my boyfriend." She walked back a few steps and put a hand on his back.
"Yo." Gerald gave her a salute.
"Hello." Bex bowed her head lightly in greeting.
Gerald checked his watch, a quarter to three a.m.
"Pheebs, I'd love to chat- but I have to go, Jamie-O said he'd only cover for me until one, then I was on my own." He laughed and kissed her on the forehead.
"Nice meeting you Bex."
"Likewise." The Asian girls bade him goodbye.
After Gerald had left the two ascended the stairs and quietly went to Phoebe's room. They talked and got ready for bed, or Phoebe did, seeing as Bex had already gotten into her pajamas. Phoebe went into the bathroom to wash her face, and brush her teeth, Bex who already done so, sat on the toilet turning a cell phone over in her hands.
"You know, I thought that you would have the latest phone from Tokyo. Your father likes to spoil you."
Bex stopped, and looked up from her hands.
"I do- its just this is my old one, and since I have my new one, I thought I would use this one until its finally dies, so I wouldn't waste my newest piece of tech." She flashed a smile. "It looks pretty beat up, like you've dropped it quite a few times." Phoebe said as she splashed water in her face.
"Yeah, I'm quite the klutz to be honest." Bex shrugged her shoulders.
Phoebe put her glasses back on, and began asking questions about Japan. After catching up, they settled into bed.
"Bex, I thought that you wouldn't be here for two weeks."
"Dad sent me on an earlier flight."
"Ah, but that poses a slight problem."
"A problem? I'm sorry Phoebe for the trouble, then." Bex propped up her head on her palm, her elbow in her pillow, looking at Phoebe.
"Oh no! It's just I had to set up my interview at Princeton over seven months ago, and I have my heart set on going…"
"Say no more, I'll just stay here."
"I couldn't possibly let you stay here, in a town you don't even know!" Phoebe sat up straight, she hadn't seen her cousin in so long, and she wanted to catch up- but leaving in two days wouldn't give her a lot of time, though Phoebe and Bex would have the entire summer to spend together, then the school year. Phoebe didn't want to leave her so early.
"Oh,
I'm a big girl now! And besides, I'll find stuff to do."
Phoebe
mulled it over.
"Well, if its okay with my mom and dad… that's alright, I can introduce you to Arnold and Helga tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure you guys will get along fantastically. They're two of my best friends."
"Helga… and Arnold?"
"Yes, they're great."
"Sounds perfect."
"G'night Bexy."
"Night Pheebs."
Both of them took off their glasses and set them on the pillows beside them. Phoebe fell asleep in minutes, leaving Bex to stare up at the ceiling, smiling wickedly into the dark.
--
In an abandoned warehouse located in the Warf district, sat a tied up redheaded boy whose face was covered in freckles. His voice hoarse and hollow from hours of screaming, tried once more.
"Help, please… someone."
and with that collapsed back into the chair in defeat, the light above him buzzed in response.
--
A/N Bex is mine, not Craig's- just to make things clear. Thanks for reading!