I love my reviewers! They make my life so much happier. =D
Side Note: I'm so sorry it took this long to update guys (SuprSingr – Please don't hunt me…I don't want to be prey lol) Not meaning to throw excuses around or anything, but my classes this semester have really worn me down with work (I'm taking seven college classes)…plus there are so many personal things going on in my life that I won't get into. I can't guarantee that I'm going to update as soon as I want, but this story will be updated and finished. So don't worry about that. Just be patient and bear with me.
Also, tonight is the first night of spring break, so more updates!
Ok…so I'm a bit stuck on plot right now. I know what I want to happen next in the story, but I'm still working on how to get there.
This chapter was meant to be a long one, but because I made you guys wait so long, I'm splitting it into two parts so you guys can read this while I finish part two.
Also, you guys had questions about Nadine's ethnicity. I don't think it was ever stated, but during the episode where the kids had a contest on teams with their parents (the one where Bob calls Arnold an orphan…maybe called "Parent's Day"?)…they showed many of the kids beside their parents. Nadine was shown in front of a hippie looking white guy with blonde hair like Nadine's and a black woman. So, I assume that they are her parents; it would make sense.
Please don't hate me guys. Keep the reviews coming!
Chapter 4 is named after "I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)" by The Ink Spots (1944)
Disclaimer: You know.
---
Chapter 4: I'll Get By
August 1941
"Olga! Olga!" Helga awoke to hear her father yelling from the other room in German, "Get up for school!"
"Ugh..." The blonde rubbed her temples in an effort to sooth the headache that the screaming man wasn't making better.
She quickly dressed and fixed her hair in curls the way she liked it before grabbing her books and leaving her room.
Helga found her father, Bob Pataki, in the kitchen reading the newspaper and spreading jam on his freshly made toast. He was a big man with large arms and graying hair that still held a few strands of blonde intact. His original German name was Günter, but after coming to America and realizing that the "uncultured swine" of the country could never pronounce his name right, he picked the first English name he saw.
The blonde girl walked into the kitchen, grabbed an apple, and tried to leave before Bob noticed her.
"Olga!" His words in German boomed through the kitchen, "Where are you going?"
"It's Helga, Dad, and I'm going to school." Helga responded to him in English.
Bob continued to speak in his native tongue, "You know that in this house you will speak to your mother and I in our language."
"But, Dad, we're not in…"
He silenced her by raising his hand, "It is the language of our ancestors and of the fatherland."
"Fine," Helga huffed in German, "Now can I go to school?"
"No," he replied impatiently, "You must first say the pledge."
"But, Dad…"
"Not another word!" Bob's neck turned a little red, "You will honor the fatherland and the Führer by giving your pledge just like any other young German woman would."
The man stood and walked to the living room with a disgruntled Helga in tow. He stopped in front of a small picture on the mantle of a man with a scowled expression and a square mustache.
Standing with his heels together and waiting for his daughter to the same, he said to her as if she'd never done this before, "Repeat after me."
Helga stood stiff by her father, fists clinched until her knuckles were white. She never got used to this routine of giving support to a despicable man and a country that she had no bonds to.
"One people!" Bob put his hand on his heart.
"One people." Helga repeated unenthusiastically, rolling her eyes.
Her father quickly turned towards her and grabbed her wrist, making Helga wince. "I will not have you making a mockery of everything we stand for! You should be proud to be German and to be of the Aryan race! You are stronger! You are better than all others! Do you understand that?!"
Helga's fingers were turning purple and she nodded quickly so her father would let go.
He scowled at her and yelled, "Now repeat! One people!"
Helga repeated with the same volume and tone as Bob.
"One Reich!"
Again, she repeated.
"One Führer!"
The blonde girl repeated a third time.
The father than did the part of the ritual that Helga hated the most. He clicked his heels together, took his hand from his heart and shot it into the air, screaming louder than anything else, "Hail Hitler!"
Helga hesitated at first, but then looked at her hand that was slowly returning to normal color. Then with tears stinging her eyes, she followed her father, "Hail Hitler!"
---
Whenever Helga reached the steps of the school, she stopped to sit down and catch her breath. After completing the "morning ritual" with her father, she had rushed out of the house quickly in case he wanted her to go through it again with reasoning that she didn't say it "proudly" enough, which he had done before.
She looked up at the moment to see Harold, Sid, and Stinky walking past her. At first she had expected a smile or a friendly acknowledge, but instead she was greeted by three sets of furious stares.
"Great, it's Boston all over again," She thought to herself, "Thanks Mrs. Slovak."
"Hi, Helga," said a voice beside her.
The blonde looked to her right to find Phoebe, smiling brightly at her. She asked, "How was your morning?"
"Same as it usually is," Helga answered casually, placing her other hand over her wrist where Bob's finger prints could still be seen on her red skin, "No offense, but why are you talking to me? No one else is."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, no one wants to talk to the big bad Nazi…" Helga held up her hands like claws.
"I don't think you're a Nazi, Helga," Phoebe said honestly, "and neither do the other girls."
"Really?" Helga asked, sounding surprised.
"Trust me. We are excellent judges of character." Phoebe answered with a giggle.
"Did you see the looks the boys were giving me, though?" Helga gestured to where the boys had gone.
The dark haired girl gave the blonde a sad smile, "Boys are ignorant in general. They'll come around."
Helga pulled her knees up to her chest. "I guess, but it's not fair! They don't even know me."
"I think Harold felt a little threatened by you, and of course Sid and Stinky followed suit." Phoebe looked away.
"Why would he feel threatened?"
Phoebe shifted uncomfortably, "Well…Harold is Jewish."
"Perfect." Helga put her head in her hands, and then looked at the other girl through her fingers, "I am not a monster, Pheebs."
Phoebe put a hand on her shoulder, "I know you're not, Helga, and soon Harold and the boys will see that too."
Helga was so thankful for Phoebe at that moment.
---
"Hey, Pheebs! Go on ahead and save my seat. I've got to get my book out of my locker." Helga said as she reached her assigned metal door.
Phoebe winked, "Saving."
As soon as Helga retrieved her book and closed her locker door, her body was forcefully pushed against the metal wall by a large hand. She turned around to see Harold walking past her, chuckling to himself. The blonde immediately knew he had pushed her.
She called after him, "You do know that a gentleman never pushes a lady!"
He turned around and said with a snarl, "You're no lady."
Helga wanted to beat him to a pulp, but Phoebe's words echoed in her mind. She decided to give him a little more time to get over his insecurities. When he left her sight, she released her long-held breathe and allowed Old Betsey and The Five Avengers to rest peacefully at her sides.
---
When Helga got to English, the girls greeted her enthusiastically and conversed with her like yesterday. She was surprised that Patty was talking to her, considering that she was Harold's girlfriend, but she agreed with Phoebe and the other girls about the boys' ignorance. Much of Helga's stress and worry about the day was lifted at the moment. Even if the boys were unnecessarily rude to her, she at least had the girls to stick by her. Whenever the class started, Helga noticed something was missing.
Arnold wasn't there.
Helga felt that the room seemed colder than it had been the previous day and on the few occasions that Harold turned around to glare at her, the blonde felt very exposed and unprotected.
English could not have gone any slower.
Lunch was not as awkward as Helga had envisioned it. The other girls had planned ahead and claimed the lunch spot before the boys entered the cafeteria, causing the males to relocate. During the period, Rhonda put an arm around Helga and said, "Don't worry girl, we'll take care of you."
---
The rest of the day seemed to pass in the same slow fashion. Helga was too busy watching the clock to pay attention to anything her teachers were saying.
The clock said 2:45, the final bell rang, and Helga rushed out the door, toward the main entrance. She opened the big double doors, allowing the fresh sunshine to soak into her skin. Her mood instantly lightened upon seeing the fresh green nature outside the walls of the educational institution.
"What's that smell, Fellers? It smells like ash out here," someone with a deep Southern accent said behind her, "Oh, it's probably that Nazi girl over there."
Harold followed to where Stinky pointed and glared at Helga, "Yeah she should be used to the smell of ash by now…that and burning flesh."
Helga's fists clenched harder than they ever had, but she used her better judgment and walked away from the boys; however, they caught up to her.
They spoke around her in German-sounding gibberish while walking in a line with their legs completely straight. She didn't get but to the bottom of the steps when Harold, Sid and Stinky blocked her from leaving. They put their left hands against their chests and shot them up to the sky, screaming quite loudly, "Hail Hitler!" Their rendition was very similar to that of her father's.
Helga's face turned red in embarrassment as more students exited the school and stopped to view the show occurring at the base of the stairs. The blonde girl tried to get around the boys again, but they still wouldn't let her pass.
Harold then put his finger under his nose, forming an imaginary mustache. Stinky put Sid's hands behind the smaller boy's back, as if he were under arrest, and presented him to Harold.
"My Lord, this man is a traitor to you and our nation." Stinky tried his best to speak in a German accent, but his Southern accent drowned his attempts.
"What did he do?" Harold gave Sid a smug look.
"He didn't say your name proudly enough."
Harold narrowed his eyes and said, "Finish him."
Sid pretended to beg at the feet of Stinky and Harold. The tallest boy pulled an invisible gun out of an imaginary holster and shot Sid. The shortest boy dramatically rolled around on the ground, holding his chest before finally resting with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Harold then turned to Helga.
He pointed to her and ordered, "Bow to your leader!"
Helga was mortified, "What?"
Stinky aimed his imaginary gun at her and yelled, "You heard him! Bow!"
The girl tried to back away, but the gathering students had created a wall behind her.
She had nowhere to go.
"Sorry, Pheebs," Helga thought as a few tears gathered in her eyes, "No one treats Helga G. Pataki like this."
She cracked her knuckles and gave Harold a challenging snarl. Her right fist quickly met his jaw and she heard it pop in a few places. He turned to look at her in shock and rubbed his chin.
Before Helga could defend herself, Harold grabbed her wrist, the one that was still sore from the previous morning, and held it tightly. Helga eyes widened and Harold whispered, "Don't try to fight me. Everyone knows that in a fight between a man and a dog that the man always wins."
Filled with anger and fear that she had tried to repress, Helga released it all and fell to the floor. Tears met the ground below her and pain still existed in Helga because Harold had not yet let go of her wrist.
"Let her go, Harold." A bold voice reached Helga's ears.
A tall figure with blonde locks emerged from the crowd and got nose to nose with Harold. "Let her go," he said through gritted teeth.
"No, I'm not going to, Arnold," Harold stated plainly, "and you trying to act tough is not going to change my mind."
Arnold spoke low enough for only him, the bald boy, and the girl still on the floor to hear, "She hasn't done anything to you, Harold."
"Don't defend her, Arnold. She's a Nazi! A filthy Nazi!" Harold's face grew redder and redder, as did his grip on Helga's wrist.
"No, she's not. You're letting your negative feelings toward Germans block your better judgement and now you're hurting a girl you don't even know."
"I know that she's German and when given the chance, she'll strike and kill us all, me and the other Jews first!"
"Harold..."
"She's got you wrapped around her little fingers, Arnold, and now you can't see her for who she really is."
Helga could see Arnold's eyes narrow with his brows lying close to them. His breaths became deeper as if he was trying to calm himself down, "Harold…"
"She's a monster!"
Harold's fingers were instantly released from Helga's wrist, and she looked behind her to see the large boy on the ground, holding his face in his hands. Arnold kneeled at her side and whispered, "Are you alright?"
Helga felt like she couldn't speak, so she nodded.
"Come on, let me take you home." He said as he helped her up.
Arnold walked very close to Helga as they past Harold, who sported a giant red mark on his cheek and was being helped off the ground by Sid and Stinky. They didn't turn around when a voice reached their ears, "You're a traitor, Arnold! You're a traitor to me and a traitor to this country!"
---
REVIEW!!