A/N: Thanks for all your patience. Seriously.
Disclaimer: The prologue says it all; no repetition for me, thanks. (read: last disclaimer for the story)
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Because You Said So
Chapter One
By VirgoMaiden
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Fifth grade had been in session for two weeks – now being the second, glorious weekend – when Gerald woke up to the sounds of little tiny pebbles being thrown at his bedroom window. Groggily, he sat up and, absently scratching his side, made his way over to said window. He opened it, stuck out his head, and his nose was immediately stricken with a pebble.
"Ow! Hey!" he said, rubbing the sore spot. "What the…"
"Gerald!"
Looking down, Gerald saw Arnold, bat resting on one shoulder, glove in one hand. "Some of the guys are going to the park to play Gerald Ball!" he shouted up. "Come on!"
"One minute, man!" Gerald called down, now fully awake.
He shut the window, his last sight of his buddy being his goofy smile, and made his way to his dresser.
Arnold had been really happy lately, he mused, pulling out his trademark jersey. Like spring-in-his-step, a-little-ray-of-sunshine happy. While not unusual for his football-headed friend to be a mini sunshine ray, it was for him to stay so happy for so long. And the only logical reason for that, he figured, was because Helga G. Pataki had just about dropped off their radar in a split second.
She hasn't made a single snide comment to him for a few weeks, he thought, putting on his sneakers. Even Phoebe's keeping her distance from us…
He grabbed his bat and wrote a note to his parents on the kitchen counter. It's almost like she moved away.
But she hadn't. Helga, while still having her usual in-your-face attitude to a select few (their new teacher, Ms. Ralston, Harold, Brainy…), she had basically been ignoring Arnold completely. If they were headed for a collision in the halls, she would take a sharp turn. If their table was the only one open at lunch, she sat on the floor, facing the opposite direction. Her peculiar behavior had been getting a lot of attention lately, but not from her ex-prime target, Arnold.
He had taken it in stride, hardly looking Helga's way as she chose a seat far away from him and resorted to shooting spitballs at Eugene (who promptly fell over onto the floor, earning a few snide laughs).
In fact, the only people that seemed to care lately that Helga was forgetting Arnold entirely was Phoebe and Gerald.
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"So…" Gerald said slowly as he made his way down his front steps, "who's coming to this thing?"
"Harold, Curly, Stinky, Sid… the usual crew," Arnold said, smiling widely. "Maybe that new kid, Adam? I hear that he's a real Babe Ruth."
"He is," Gerald said, waiting for the cross light to go on. "When you were sick last weekend, he was one of the main reasons that we were able to beat the sixth-graders. Wolfgang was furious."
"He's pretty cool, too, you know," Arnold added, waving to Mrs. Petrelli. "He hasn't made a crack about my head yet."
"Maybe because he's got a crazy haircut," Gerald said. "Or the fact that Helga hasn't made reference to it yet."
He looked over at Arnold, almost hoping that the mention of his one-time adversary would trigger a suitable reaction of sorts: a diss, a mention of how weird she'd been acting lately… but nothing.
"Yeah," Arnold said absently, looking across the street as they waited to cross over to the lot.
As they neared the playing field, he spotted a familiar pink bow winding up for the pitch. Speak of the devil, he thought. He saw her finally throw it, and how far Harold went when he caught it.
Practice, I'm guessing. Nice to see that Old Betsy hasn't failed her yet.
Harold, catching sight of Gerald and Arnold, took off his glove to wave. Helga looked over at the two of them, not fully recognizing them at first. Then, when she did, Gerald saw her so something that she hadn't done in all the years that he had known her:
She froze.
But only for a second, for the next, she shook her head and waved her hand over to whom he then saw as Phoebe. The two conferenced for a moment, before she took off her glove and tossed it to Stinky. As he and Arnold neared, her heard what she was saying to them.
"...Home! I forgot that I gotta go in for boxing soon."
"Aw, come on, Helga," Harold whined. "You only showed up last week by chance. And we lost week before without you!"
"Adam can handle it," she said, mentioning to him.
"No problem, Helga," he said in his smooth voice, taking the extra glove from Harold. "Make sure you can come next week, okay? It's great playing with you."
"Sure thing," she said, before looking over her shoulder. "Come on, Pheebs."
Phoebe looked back at Gerald, giving him a confused expression, before following her best friend across the street.
"Well," Sid said, surveying the spot where the two had just left their line of vision, "that was weird."
"If you say so," Stinky said, shrugging. "Hey, Arnold, mind if I see that bat for a minute?"
"Sure thing, Stink," Arnold said, completely oblivious to the transaction that had just taken place before him. And, as Gerald supposed, because of him.
Yep,Gerald thought, passing the ball with Harold, something's up. And he's not telling me what it is.
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A/N: I posted the first chapter (the prologue) on a whim, but I started to feel really bad about leaving it for so long. (like my other stories…)
Another thing: It's been a while since I've watched, but if I've gotten the name wrong for that fifth grader that they're constantly fighting with, would you be so kind as to tell me? I really don't want to seem like an idiot…
Review, please.
VM