Part 4. Uh-oh. This chapter is gonna be juicy. Seriously, I couldn't think of a better name for this chapter.
The Last Temptation of Helga Chapter 4: Wrapped Up Like a Fortune Cookie
'What was she thinking? She can't come to his house. It would be… unheard of. She had to find some way to cancel. Oh, but Jason would be so disappointed.' Helga couldn't think of a better answer as she was pacing back and forth in her room. All these problems were flying at her faster than the spaghetti at last week's food fight.
Helga still loved Arnold, but Arnold loving her back... that she wasn't sure of. She didn't know what to do. She was torn between the love of her life and a crush. She was in a hard place if you will. She needed some advice.
Helga picked up the phone from beside her bed and started dialing the number for Phoebe. She heard the other line ringing as she threw herself onto her bed, relaxing a little.
"Hello?" A voice on the other line picked up.
"Phoebe, it's Helga," She said, trying to brush off the anxiety in her voice.
"Oh, greetings, Helga. Did you have questions about our homework?'' Phoebe asked.
'Homework? Mr. Herbert was serious about that?' She shook her head of her thoughts. "No, it's somethin' else. I need some advice." Helga explained, rubbing her neck. She didn't know exactly how to break it to her best friend. She would normally go to Arnold for such questions, but seeing how he technically had something to do with it, she didn't want him to think she was putting him in that kind of situation.
"Oh..." She said. "Well, that's no problem then. How may I be of assistance?" Phoebe asked.
"Oh, um... well, I was actually calling to ask you… um, let's say hypothetically... that if you had a small crush on someone and they ask you to come over to their house for a tutoring session and you said yes, but you thought you would be betraying the one you're destined to be with, what would you do?" She asked.
Phoebe thought for a minute, mainly about why Helga would ask such a thing. Then it came to her... "Helga, this doesn't by any chance have something to do with Jason, does it?" Phoebe asked curiously.
Helga's eyes widened. "Well, what makes you say that?" She asked nervously, rubbing her fingers through her hair.
"Yeah, you know, because of the way you look at him in class, talk about him every minute of the day, and how you act all nervous around him." Phoebe listed.
Helga relaxed her shoulders a bit. "Is it that obvious?"
"Oh, Helga!" Phoebe gasped. "I should've known you liked him. Oh, that's just wonderful."
"Uh, yeah, wonderful." Helga mumbled, brushing her hair out of her eyes, only to find it still blocking her eyes.
Phoebe noticed her best friend's tone. "My, Helga, you sure don't seem all that excited about it. It's Ice Cream, isn't it?" The Asian girl asked.
"It's just that... I don't know who to pick, Arnold, my one true love or that God who sits next to me in class. Ugh. And then there's that tutoring session that I'm supposed to go to in a few hours..." Helga explained, her words drifting off.
Phoebe, on the other line sat up in alert. "Wait, tutoring session?" She asked before she narrowed her eyes. "Helga, you didn't." She hoped.
She did. "You got that right, sister. I'm coming over to his house for a tutoring session and I'm going to meet his family." Helga rolled her eyes.
"Helga, you make it sound like you're marrying him or something."
"Well, this whole thing is very hard to process." She said. "And I don't know what to do. Phoebe I can't help it, I'm a sucker for guys with brown hair. Especially his..." Helga caught herself before drifting off into 'Dreaming-About-Jason' mode.
Phoebe sighed. "Well, all I know is that you'd better keep away from him, Helga. Or else, you or Jason might do something you will both regret." Phoebe warned her.
"Oh, come on, Pheebs. I still have some self-control." Helga said, totally missing the point.
Phoebe sighed in defeat, knowing Helga's never going to get this by herself. "Hel-ga, what if he tries to kiss you?" Phoebe asked.
"KISS ME?" Helga gasped, nearly dropping the phone out of her hand, and her mouth hanging open.
"Well, that's what guys do when they like you." Phoebe said, rather calmly.
Helga was definitely not taking this calmly. She stood speechless and motionless on the other end of the phone. Phoebe was trying to check if Helga was alive.
"Helga, hello? Are you still there?" She asked over and over, but Helga still didn't give any response.
'Kiss me? That's ridiculous. What is he, like three years older? And handsome, and cute and sweet and... Oh, crimeny.' She thought as she slapped her forehead. "That does it. I'm going to march straight up to Jason tonight and just tell him how I feel..." She said pausing for a moment. "… Just as soon as I put on something nice." She said, rising up from her bed.
Helga hopped into the shower and had carefully washed and brushed her hair out, using some mousse to give it some shape and smoothed it out as it fell past her shoulder in a light wave and curl. Her unibrow never left, but she decided to shave it, making two separate eyebrows.
She searched her closet and took out a black short-sleeved buttoned, silk shirt and blue bell-bottoms attached to a black belt. She didn't have any other nice shoes, so she put on her usual black low-top converse and used her pink bow as a tie around the collar of her shirt. She didn't bother to put on any makeup, but she spayed on some of her perfume that smelled like bubblegum. She stepped in front of the mirror after putting the final touches on her outfit. Not bad.
Not bad at all.
On her way out the door, she grabbed an umbrella. Something inside of her told her that she needed it, so off she went.
When she arrived at the front door of his house, she took the time to prepare herself by brushing over her hair and shirt. She was reading over the lines she wrote on her hand, explaining to Jason that they shouldn't hang around each other anymore. "Jason, because of our uncontrollable attractions, I think we should avoid each other from now on." She practiced, reading her hand. "Okay, Helga, old girl. It's just a tutoring session and nothing more." She took a big breath and ringed the doorbell.
Jason opened it and saw Helga, his eyes the size of dinner plates. She had her hair tamed and brushed back and a nice outfit on her. Her eyes seemed really beautiful and soft now that he was able to see them.
"Wow, Helga," He breathed. "I never knew your eyes were so... blue. Well, now that I can see them." He said.
"Oh, well, thanks, Jason." Helga blushed, her arms behind her back. The two were just standing there awkwardly before Jason broke the silence.
"Would you like to come in?'' He asked, allowing her access to his house. Helga nodded and entered through the door. The house was beautiful and looked really cozy. She was right; the inside did smell like him.
She looked at her hand with the writing on it and cleared her throat. Unfortunately, the palms of her hand were really sweaty and the ink was runny. "Oh, no, I'm sweating like Roger Ebert." She said as she squinted her eyes. She turned around and faced Jason. "Jason, you are... you are an elf, uncontrollably... I think shol oi ehoth?" She tried reading what was left of her message.
"Heh, heh." Jason chuckled.
"I mean, um..." Helga ran out of words to say.
"Helga, you're funny." He said, calming his laughter down. "Would you like to sit down?" He asked, pointing to the couch.
"Sure." Helga answered, already walking towards the sofa.
He led them to the couch and motioned for her to sit down. She sunk into the couch and set her watch. It was now 6:30.
2 hours later…
"Crayon!" Helga said, looking at the pencil in front of her face.
"Bien!" Jason said, showing her the next vocabulary word. He picked up another card with a picture of a heart on it.
"Uh, Je t'apprecie vraiment?" Helga guessed.
Jason gasped. "Bien." He said, congratulating her. He then pointed to his face, smiling.
"Faum." Helga replied, dreamily. His face was so handsome and his smile looked so warm.
"Tres bien. Helga, you're amazing. Before you couldn't say bonjour, but now you can conjugate all the regular verbs, two irregular verbs and sing the first verse of Alouette." Jason said.
"Alouette, gentille alouette,
Alouette je te plumerai," She sang fluently, without making any mistakes in her accent.
"Bien." He said impressed.
"I can't believe it. It's sticking. You're telling me new stuff and minutes later it's still there." Helga said, unbelievably. Jason smiled at her, pleased that she was learning from him.
"Jason, when I see you forming the vowels and continents... "
"…Consonants." Jason said, correcting her.
"... Consonants with your beautiful mouth and your beautiful breath pushing and passing your beautiful teeth..." Helga went on and on about him, making him chuckle shyly.
"Merci, I guess." He said, blushing a little. The two seemed to really connect and talk about everything and that's what they did for the past half hour.
"So, you're from New Jersey and your dad works as an accountant and your mom...?" Helga left her sentence in the air, hoping he would answer it before she does.
Jason had a glum expression on his face. "Actually, I-I don't have a mom anymore. She died when I was a baby." He whispered the last part softly.
Helga covered her mouth in shock. "Oh, man, I'm so sorry. I didn't know..."
"It's okay. It happened a long time ago. I barely remember much of her though. It's still pretty rough on my dad, but he's holdin' on, you know? It gets pretty lonely around the house since my dad works all day and my older sister is away at college so I'm the only one here." He confessed. "You're actually the first person that came to my house since I moved here."
"Well, I for one feel special." Helga smiled. She placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling sympathy for him. "Oh, but I'm sure your mother was a beautiful woman. At least you know she loved you, right?" She nudged him.
"Yeah, thanks, Helga. You sure know how to cheer a guy up."
Helga turned her head away shyly and then turned back to Jason. She rubbed her neck nervously. "Jason, i-if you're not doing anything tonight, would you like to come to dinner with me?" She asked.
Jason stared at Helga in surprise. He figured he should at least give Helga a chance. He smiled at her. "Sure, Helga, I would love to come to dinner with you. I saw this fancy restaurant not too far from here."
A little voice inside Helga screamed a 'Yes!' as she stared up at him, beaming with delight.
Madame Chao's was the only Chinese restaurant in town. They had some pretty good food there and cheap reservations. Other couples or first dates filled the room with class and elegancy.
Jason and Helga were sitting near the kitchen which was by a window. They were finished their meals with satisfying looks on their faces. Jason took his glass of sparkling water in his hand and sighed. "This was a perfect evening. It was sure nice of them to make us cheeseburgers."
"Uh, yeah." That was the only thing she could manage to speak. Their waiter had brought them the final dish, which were two fortune cookies on a plate. Helga was the first to open hers. 'You will find happiness with a new love.' The message read. "Oh, even the Chinese are against me. Oh, what's the point?" She gave up. "I can't fight fate." She kept on reading the fortune. "Hmm, my lucky number is 066613." She said.
The two teens walked back to Jason's house. He pulled out his house key and unlocked the door, pushing it open. "Um, you can come in if you want." He offered quietly.
"Okay." Helga shrugged as she walked past him and into the house. She sat down on the couch like before, her head slumped in sadness.
Jason walked over to the couch and plopped down next to her. "This was a really nice night, Helga. I don't think I've ever had this much fun with a girl before." He said softly.
"Thanks." She said, unable to look at him.
Jason rubbed his arm. "I, uh, I wrote a poem today, if you'd like to read it." He said, trying to cheer her up.
"Uh-huh." Helga nodded, turning to face him so she would listen.
"I call this 'Friendship Is.' " He said, clearing his throat.
"Friendship is there where ever you go,
Friendship is there wherever you dose,
Friendship loves and Friendship cares,
Friendship is life with a little dares.
So go back to school and make up,
Tell your old pal you screwed up,
And maybe just maybe they'll say 'Okay!'
You can tell your friend you love them that way,
Now go home and explain everything,
Friendship means multiple meanings every day." He finished.
The words off a simple piece of paper seemed to warm Helga's heart. She thought about how perfect those words sounded and about -Gasp- Arnold! Her best pal, her beloved angel, Arnold.
Helga was too silent after Jason had finished reading. "That was beautiful." She said, tearfully. Then, she buried her face in her hands and started sobbing.
Jason noticed she was crying. 'Was the poem too sad for her?' He placed his hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?" He couldn't help but ask.
Helga lifted her face with tears in her eyes. "Oh, yeah, like you don't know." She harshly told him. "We're gonna kiss." She trembled.
"Oh, but..." He found himself at a loss of words. "We don't have to." He said, comforting her.
Helga nodded her head. "Yes we do. The cookie told me so." She lamely replied.
"Well, desserts aren't always right." Jason said.
"But they're so sweet." Helga whimpered like a little baby.
Jason sighed. "Helga, you don't have to do anything you don't want to."
"Well, maybe I want to." She boldly said. "But then I tell myself it's wrong and..."
"Helga," He stopped her. "You know how I feel. So it's up to you." He looked down from her. He gently put his hand on top of hers'. "Look in your heart; I think you'll see what you want." He said.
Helga stared at him in awe, her eyes still sparkling with tears. She could feel that her cheeks were still wet. Her blue eyes met his and they came closer to each other, decreasing the amount of space between them.
They both leaned a bit closer, and their eyes began to drift shut...
Before long, their lips brushed. They pulled away from each other, looking in amazement and confusion. The teens lifted their eyes slightly before closing them again and kissing for the second time that evening.
As they dived back into each other, Helga added firmer pressure to his lips, bringing her hands into his hair. She massaged his scalp and felt the soft strands of his hair. She felt almost satisfied when stroking his hair.
As for Jason, he kissed her back with equal fervor. One of his hands came to the back of her neck while the other one hung wrapped around her waist. Is this what Heaven felt like?
The lack of oxygen was getting to them and they both pulled away again like before. Helga stared into his eyes and he did the same. They separated and Helga got up from the couch. "Well, maybe I'll see ya when I see ya, Jason." Helga said glumly.
"So long, Helga. I hope you find the right one." He said, giving her a final kiss on the cheek. She walked away to the front door to fetch her umbrella. She started to call for a cab, but couldn't, seeing how her pockets were empty. "No, that's okay. I'm broke, I'll walk home." She said, sulking her head.
She went out the door and saw that it was raining, She didn't even bother to spread out her umbrella as she silently let the rain pellets drizzled down her bangs so where nobody could see her eyes again. Back to normal.
Helga walked on through the rainy streets, hands in her pockets and her head sank. Her hair was completely ruined, but she didn't care. No one could be as miserable as she was right now.
Through her bangs, Helga saw that she wasn't the only person looking depressed. A boy was walking further on up the sidewalk towards her with his head low, too. His football head hanging down and he looked kind of lost. 'Arnold?'
She couldn't believe it. Her beloved, actually jealous? Maybe this is her chance. With confidence she walked on over to him, handling her umbrella.
Arnold was just in misery. The truth was he knew Helga had a crush on Jason and he was happy for her, but something inside of him told him that it was going to come back and haunt him. And it did. He started to get a little puppy crush on Helga before Jason came into the picture and snagged her up before he did. He was just infected with jealousy, betrayal, anger and sadness. He wanted Helga back, and just when they were getting so close.
Suddenly, he no longer felt the rain hitting his body. He looked around and saw her. Helga was beaming up at him, sheltering him and not her from the cold rain, using an umbrella.
"Hey, Football Head, how's it goin'?" She asked casually and smiling at him.
"Helga?" He asked, just checking to see if it was her and not some hallucination.
"Yeah, you wanna walk with me?" Helga blushed a bit, rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand.
"Sure..." Arnold said as he gazed over Helga's outfit. Her hair looked slightly more tamed and silky. Her shirt was drenched, but looked incredible on her and she was wearing her bow. "Helga, you look really beautiful tonight."
Helga blushed a bit. "Oh, well, thanks, Arnold."
As the two walked on along the sidewalk, Helga was filling him in all the details that went on between her and Jason. She could tell from his expressions and tight grip he had on his hands that he was jealous, but he toned it down a bit. "And so that's what brings us back to date." Helga finished.
"So, he's gone?" Arnold asked.
"Yep, today was his last day, and then he goes back to school. At least he'll be happier."
"Oh, that's good." He smiled and walked on. They stopped to look at each other. Arnold was the first to speak. "Helga, I'm really sorry about what happened with you and Jason and for not coming to you sooner about how it bothered me."
'Oh, you have nothing to apologize for, you angel.' Helga brushed her hair over and over in shyness and sighed. "Actually Arnold, I'm the one who should be sorry. I totally blew you off these past few days and I shouldn't have."
"I forgive you and well, we did have a lot of fun together over the years and I really wanted to spend more time with you and get to know you as a friend." He had quickly added, not quite ready to admit that he had a crush on her. Not to her face at least. "If you still wanna be friends, that is." He asked, rubbing his arm.
She smiled a little at him and nodded. "Sure, buddy. Of course we can still be friends."
Arnold let out a breath of relief and slight disappointment, giving her a grateful smile. "Good."
Helga smirked at him a little. "And who knows? You can even still follow me around like a lost puppy." She joked. He laughed softly. "Although, I can't help but feel like I'd be the dog out of the two of us because... Well, simply because I'm more intimidating." She smirked.
Arnold chuckled at her analogy. "But a dog is a man's best friend. So you'd be my protector also, and not to mention very loyal." Arnold said sincerely, fixing her pink tie from getting wrinkled.
Helga smiled at his little gesture in fixing her worn out tie. "Well, I AM a man's best friend in a way. I'm your best friend. And I can promise that I'll never stop being your friend as long as I live. So that's something." She hadn't meant for it to sound so... sincere. But it did. She blushed otherwise, but stood her ground.
He smiled and blushed, feeling humbled and flattered. "Thanks, Helga. That means a lot to hear you say that."
Helga chuckled shyly. "Well, you know..." She said, her words drifting off and scratching her head. "Friendship means multiple things every day." She said profoundly.
A lovesick grin came to Arnold's face. "Whatever you say, Helga…"
"Y-Yeah..." She nodded her head, gaining a bit of confidence back in her voice. "Yeah, exactly, whatever I say. I am the dog in this relationship after all." She flipped some of her hair back.
"Uh-huh." Arnold rolled his eyes playfully, obviously knowing that Helga knew everything. "Good girl, Helga." He said, ruffling her hair like she was a dog and laughing.
"Woof, woof." She giggled, lifting her eyebrows up and down to have Arnold get a taste of that charm she had.
He giggled some more before taking a bold step. He leaned in and gave her a soft peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Helga." He whispered. He pulled back and saw that her expression changed. "Why so glum?" He asked her curiously.
Helga sighed, looking at the ground. "I got a problem." She said softly. Arnold kept looking at her, hoping she'd tell him what's wrong.
"Once we get out of this rain... I'm gonna hug you and maybe... just maybe, I'll buy you an ice cream." She said, smiling at him and holding his hand.
Arnold pulled her in to a hug, unable to resist and held her tightly. She hugged him back and breathed in the intoxicating scent of his hair. She mentally swooned.
"I'd love that, Helga." He said, still hugging her. The rain was still pouring, but they didn't care. Being with one another would be all the warmth and care from the rain they would need. As long as they had each other... That's what friendship is.
Aw, what do you think is gonna happen next? Review!