"So," They were sitting in a coffee shop. It was a nice one, with plush chairs and a cozy atmosphere. It was on one of the corners of their town that was safe from the frank gentrification of the whole town. The table was a little worn in, and there was at least three holes in the chair Arnold was currently sitting in. He liked the shop anyway.
Rhonda was sitting in an attempt to look poised while in an armchair, so not very successfully. She had grown to be very pretty, Arnold noticed, but she might be prettier without that weird posture she kept up so carefully.
"Where should I start?" She had her legs crossed, her shoulders were straight. "Okay, this was a while ago, so give me a moment. It might be a little confusing."
"Rhonda," Arnold resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "You don't have to tell me everything. Heck, you don't have to tell me anything, we don't even have to talk about it, if you want. We could talk about…Columbia, or something."
"Nonsense, Arnold, I know why you're here. I can deliver. Just give me a moment."
She did look like she was genuinely thinking.
Rhonda believed that she was the first one to notice, which was just delightful, really. "Well," She all but announced as the blonde trumped into the classroom. She looked like a pillsbury croissant, rolled into itself. She wore black leggings, dirty converse, and an oversized grey hoodie. It wasn't a bizarre look for the girl, the change was on her face. "Just look at you."
Sid looked up to where Rhonda was looking, and she enjoyed the little drop of his mouth. If they were ever a thing…well, Rhonda could say she called it.
"What made you do it?" Rhonda pressed, leaning forward. She sat up on her ugg- covered foot. "Lost love? Needed a change? Despair? Losing yourself?"
"Quit it, Rhonda." Helga looked pouty at best, plopping down into her seat. "Hey, Sid." Her hair was down that day, it seemed longer every day.
"I'm just merely asking my friend why she decided to up and-"
"Your friend? Really, Rhonda?" Helga asked hostilely, running a hand back and through her hair. Rhonda suddenly couldn't wait for the day her lily-white skin broke out. "Don't be fake."
"I like it, Helga," Sid piped up unhelpfully. "You look nice."
Helga's hand self consciously raised to touch the space in between her eyebrows- now free of hair. She smiled like she was still considering it. "Thanks, Sid. I think I like it too. It's just different."
"Well," Rhonda started, taking a sip of whatever was in her cup. "After you left, Helga went crazy. All depressed and the like." She said casually, as if she were discussing the weather.
"She…did?" Arnold questioned.
"It was only like…two weeks after you were gone, she waxed the eyebrow. And it never came back. It seemed like a cry for attention to me."
Arnold tried to analyze the look on Rhonda's face, the purse of her lips. She was a bit unreadable in that moment, looking not directly at him, not directly at anyone else.
"And of course, Gerald didn't really want to be associated with her anymore-"
March was the worst season for hair, in Rhonda's opinion. The weather couldn't decide what it wanted to be, making it nearly impossible to prepare. Her own wasn't cooperating, as she fussed with it in the bathroom of the first floor. Just then, cheerleaders, as they always traveled: in a pack, appeared around the corner, chatting away. Lila was removed from them that day, but they were being led by Kelly, whom Rhonda knew but didn't know.
Cheerleading was just so archaic, at any rate.
"Well, if I'm going to the dance with Jack, and Lucy might take Mike, then Peter is probably going to ask Steph. Which means, like, a lot of us will have dates. Which would make it awkward for everyone else, so we just have to find them dates too."
Rhonda tried to focus on straightening her bangs, making sure her side braid was just so, and not on the conversation. But they were talking so loudly, it was only natural that she would listen in.
"Lila said she doesn't want a date." One girl said as she typed on her cell phone. Kelly rolled her eyes. Rhonda tied off her braid, before smiling at the girls, remaining cordial, and walking around the corner. She should have just kept walking, but she paused around the corner, listening.
"Lila only says that because she hasn't been asked yet. But once we find her a date she'll definitely change her mind. We just have to think of who."
"If we get Gerald to ask her, then Jake could probably take Kylie, and that kills two birds with one stone."
"Gerald has a girlfriend."
"How long will that last?" Kelly snorted, "Phoebe's…nice, and all, and she's totally making my whole group come together for our bio project, but she's, like, a package deal with that freaky eyebrow girl."
"Helga." One of them giggled. "Her boyfriend just moved away, he was Gerald's best friend."
"He probably did it to escape." Kelly laughed. "I would. Ugh, does anyone have mascara?" There was a pause as someone flipped through a bag audibly. "It's a shame though, Arnold was a nice guy. Way too short for date material, but nice. So should I bother asking Gerald to sit with us at lunch today, or?"
"Let's see if they last," A girl added on kindly. "We don't want to get a rep as skanks or something."
"I mean, it was only natural of Gerald, I couldn't blame him, myself. But really, the rest of the year came and went without too much incident, at least that I knew about." She wiggled forward. "And then over the summer, that's when things started to get…weird."
Rhonda didn't know how to react when her mother called her into the kitchen, saying that there was a call from Nadine waiting for her. It wasn't that Rhonda didn't feel a little bad dropping the girl. But for Heaven's sakes, all the girl wanted to discuss was bugs. It was gross, and terrible sleepover talk, especially while they were trying to make new friends. It was just in the sake of interest, really, nothing personal.
"…hello?" She answered tentatively.
"Hi, Rhonda," The voice answered calmly. "How is your summer going?"
"…good?" She sat on a stool, resting her elbow on her marble countertop. It was awkward, Rhonda could admit it. She stared at the clock, wondering how long she had to prolong the phone call in sake of politeness.
"My mom is taking a group of friends to Wackyland this weekend, and Eugene can't come on account of being…banned. I was wondering if maybe you'd like to come?"
"…really?" Rhonda had no idea how to respond. Amusement parks were hardly her thing anymore, but the shock of it all kept her from just outright saying that.
There was a sigh. "My mom keeps asking why my little friend Rhonda never comes around anymore, and it's really hard to answer when I…" She trailed off for a moment. Rhonda shifted uncomfortable. "I don't know myself."
"I can come." Rhonda said quickly, before even thinking it through. Guilt was not becoming on Rhonda, and she hated feeling any part of it.
"Do you want to?"
"Absolutely, it'll be grand. What time are we leaving? Is there a dress code?"
Rhonda was sure the awkward car ride cramped between Nadine and her little brother was made up for by the absolute pandemonium that was going on in the parks that day. It seemed like the entire grade was there. She wondered why her friends hadn't told her about it, the impromptu reunion planned by parents.
When she ran into them, it seemed only natural that she and Nadine part ways. She meant, obviously they just didn't have that much in common anymore. Rhonda didn't know how to make that obvious fact obvious to Nadine, however, who simply…didn't seem to be getting it. She tried to conceal her body's little huff of relief when she saw Gerald, Helga and Phoebe, whom, as far as Rhonda knew, Nadine still ate lunch with daily. They looked...happy, standing in a trio, smiles dancing on all of their faces.
"You two are crazy." Phoebe giggled. "There is no way to 'win' at riding rollercoasters."
"She's just sayin' that to spare ya' feelings, you know." Gerald taunted Helga playfully. "She doesn't want to see you get hurt."
"Yeah," Helga had a smug smile on her face, "well, I don't really know how to tally the score on this, Tall Hair Boy, but when I figure it out, you're going down."
"No way," He shook his head and leaned in intensely, "whenever we figure out exactly what this game is: I'm going to destroy you at it."
"Bring it on," Helga challenged, "I've got years of experience in…whatever this is."
"What are you two talking about?" Rhonda interrupted, one hand on Nadine's arm, her eye on her friends who were getting dangerously close to the end of the line for water that she had left them in.
Helga and Gerald's eye contact broke, and they looked to Rhonda. They looked back to each other, and then shrugged.
"We don't really know." They said in unison. And then the tension completely broke, all three friends in fits of laughter over their fake competition with no rules and no way to win.
"What's up with you, Lloyd?" Gerald's easy grin was back on his face, and he looped an arm around Phoebe casually. He missed the look Rhonda saw on Phoebe's face, of warmth and adoration towards him. He also missed Helga's eye roll, but Rhonda saw all. "Since when do you talk to us?"
"I talk to you guys!" Rhonda protested. It wasn't as if she avoided her old friends, they just ran in different social circles, that was all. She dropped her hold on Nadine's arm, completely unsure how to make this transition.
One of Helga's eyebrows, still an adjustment for Rhonda, raised. "Have humans mastered echolocation and no one told me?" She asked, looking amused, crossing her arms. Rhonda saw out of the corner of her eye her friends reaching the front of the line.
"Well, I need to catch up with some people now,"
"I'm sure you do-" Gerald muttered. Phoebe hit his stomach with a giggle.
"But it was great running into you all," and with that, she turned to hurry back across the opening of the park. Her friend's must have forgotten to stop and wait for her, as they were already moving away. She heard Nadine quietly behind her, but really she had to move fast, and if Nadine had wanted to come, she would have, really.
"Do you want me t-" Nadine had started, but she was intercepted by Gerald's voice.
"Forget her, Nadine. She just ain't worth it."
"Come on-" Helga's voice chimed in over top, "we can be third wheels together!"
"Well, you know," Phoebe had said, "four is always better than three. Four makes a moving vehicle."
"And ya' know- ain't nobody like a tricycle."
Rhonda couldn't feel guilty about the whole thing, not really. It was just better for them, naturally. Everyone moved on from childhood friends at their age, it was only natural. Nadine belonged with Helga and friends, not her, not anymore.
"I mean, it was middle school, of course, so things were naturally going to change a bit."
Arnold sat back in his chair, watching the odd look fall over Rhonda's face, as she thought about the summer time.
"A lot changed for me that summer. But the weird thing about it was…everyone else seemed perfectly happy. Peas in a pod. There wasn't really a spot for me in it, so I…"
Her voice sounded strange to Arnold, she sat there like she was still in a job interview, not relaxing into her chair at all.
"I had to move on from some things, I guess."
Rhonda didn't know what happened in those five minutes. She was getting off the ride, vehemently telling her friend that she wasn't sure if the fun to be had was worth the trauma to her hair, and collecting her little cross body bag. When she turned around, her friends weren't in sight. She raced out of the exit for the rollercoaster, but she couldn't find a trace of any of the six of them, the total of preteens that she had traveled around with that day, after two boys joined them at lunch. She walked around the section in a circle, once...twice... feeling more desperate each time. It had cooled down significantly, and Rhonda hadn't brought a sweater. Her sunglasses kept slipping off her head and hitting her nose. There was still no sign of her friends.
They hadn't invited her there in the first place.
They hadn't waited for her at the entrance.
She couldn't find them now.
Rhonda wasn't an idiot, after all.
She didn't know what to do, the sun was collecting in the bottom of the sky, people were starting to get ice-cream and haul their kids out of the park. She still had to find Nadine, but first thing first, she had to collect herself.
She never wanted to be the girl crying in the stall of a bathroom ever again.
Three laughing voices entered the bathroom, so she pitifully tucked her flip-flop covered feet up and under her on the toilet, so they wouldn't know she was there. Maybe she needed new friends, but she could at least keep her dignity.
"It's really not funny-" Rhonda's heart sank. The world couldn't give her one tiny break? It was Phoebe's voice she was overhearing, spoken over her small, soft giggles. "I hope Harold feels better."
"The lunk deserves it." Rhonda could hear the eye-roll in Helga's voice. "Who the hell eats an entire plate of nachos, and then rides the Great Wolf? Moron."
"At least it made for a memorable day." Phoebe amended quietly. Rhonda wondered what God she had pissed off that morning, that led her to this bathroom stall.
"You know, as all teens do in the summer with their friends, shove their sick, fat, friend over a fence so they can all run away from the raging soccer mom who's kid he just puked on. Yep, that's totally an episode of Dawson's Creek."
They all laughed again.
Rhonda felt a bit sick herself.
"Anything else you wanna do today, ladies? Phoebe?" Phoebe didn't say anything, so Rhonda could only guess that she gave a non-verbal cue. "Nadine?" She had her guesses as to who else was in the bathroom, but if her heart was in her stomach, it was now in her feet.
Nadine sighed. "I have to find Rhonda, my mom was her ride."
"She might have already left," Phoebe added, warmly and…sadly? "Maybe one of her friend's took her?"
"I can't believe that," Rhonda could see Helga's feet disappear from the window under the stall. Rhonda could only guess she sat on a sink. "You invite her here, and she ditches you, what? Five minutes in? God-" She sounded so angry.
"Helga," Phoebe warned. Of course, Rhonda thought, Phoebe was against trash talking.
"No, Pheebs, really. She deserves it. You're a great friend, Nadine. I'm so glad you could hang out with us today, really." Rhonda didn't know when Helga got so nice, even if it was…aggressive. "But I'm so pissed it happened this way. God, what a bitch."
Tears stung in the corner of Rhonda's eyes.
"I'm not gonna disagree with you," Nadine sounded so solemn. "But whatever she is, my mom will kill me if she's not in that car on the way home, so please, help me find her?"
Rhonda would be grateful for one thing and one thing only that day, and it was that she heard the door swing shut before her sob was audible.
"I mean, I just had to focus on me, that year," Rhonda was staring out the shop window pensively, face still twisted up in thought. "It was a big year for me, everyone really. I remember Helga and Sid were best friends suddenly, it like, happened over night."
Rhonda had never spent a summer feeling more alone in her whole life. She didn't have anywhere to go, persay, so she didn't have anything to do. She was waiting outside for her mom to pick up whatever designer purchase she had on preorder at Sak's, when suddenly the door opened, and two kids were shoved out by their collars, maniacal laughter creating so much fuss. The door swung shut behind them, and one of them fell over, they were laughing so hard. She looked at the one on the ground, green beanie shoved over long, dark, skater-esque hair. It was Sid. She looked up, and the one standing directly to her right, taller than Rhonda and doubled over with laughter, was Helga.
"That-" She wheezed, "Was so worth it."
"My only regret:" Sid mustered up a serious face, "was that we didn't get a picture of his face-" They split into giggles again.
Rhonda wondered incredulously whether or not they were rude enough to not even acknowledge her. So she coughed. She didn't want to interrupt, or anything. She just wondered if they saw her standing there, that was all.
"Oh," Helga's face fell, and she leaned down a hand to help up Sid. "Hey Rhonda."
"Oh!" Rhonda didn't know why she was faking surprise. "My! I didn't even see you two there." She saw the look Sid sent Helga. "What are you two doing all the way uptown?"
"Ah, the usual Tuesday afternoon stuff." Helga explained easily.
"Putting the male mannequins in the suit department in ladies' lingerie." Sid's grin ate up half his faee.
"Don't you think that's a bit," Rhonda sneered, "immature."
Rhonda didn't know the reaction she was expecting but it wasn't the cool, calm one that Helga had.
She was squinting at Rhonda, genuinely puzzled expression on her face. "Do you even know how to have fun?"
It was July, but Rhonda hadn't felt particularly humid, like the air was sticking to her, until that moment.
"I do!" Sid interjected, grabbing Helga's wrist, "and I know we're not having any, so come on, I bet we have enough time to make it to the paint shop before they close, later Rhonda!"
They didn't bother to wait for her response, not that she really had one.
"And then that autumn, the autumn of eight grade, well, I just got so involved in my own activities I barely saw any of our old chums, until…" Her eyebrows scrunched up, and unfurrowed. A light of mirth spread across her face. "Until Helga got involved. She does that, doesn't she?"
Rhonda had a good September and a better October because she single-handedly willed it into existence. It wasn't so much that clubs forced others to be in her presence, but she certainly got around, being on the Newspaper and Yearbook committees. She had drive that others didn't have- and that's why she was the lead editor. The allegation that Rebecca Yoshen's mom had, that Rhonda bullied her way into her seat, was absolutely preposterous.
But it wasn't quite enough, and that's how Rhonda found herself sitting there, waiting to audition for the school musical, Footloose. She'd be a shoo-in for the lead role, Ariel. She at least had the look for it, and the sound would come with time. She felt confident as she sang for the role, and even more-so reading for the part.
She just sincerely wanted to know who in the Heavens she pissed off so badly, as she read the cast list and saw that Helga Pataki got Ariel, and she got the part of the main guy's mom.
"We actually did the school musical together-" Rhonda began to tell Arnold, hand adjusting her grip on her coffee. Arnold took a tentative sip of his own- finding his own to still be warm. Warm, but not good. Nothing compared to the coffee in South America, nothing. "That lasted all the way from October through Februrary. And if I can recall properly, right around Christmas time, that's when everything started to fall apart…"
"I don't understand,"
"There isn't anything for you to understand, Gerald."
"Clearly, there is, Phoebe."
Rhonda knew better than to snoop, but she wasn't snooping. She had the right, as every other student did, to use the library. So she was taking an extra interest today in… she looked around for what section she was standing in.
Pre-Civil war autobiographies.
They always were interesting.
She picked up a book to flip through, and she wasn't shifting closer to the bookshelf so she could hear better. The lighting was simply so much better if you had the shade of the bookshelf over your text. That was all.
"Why won't you come to practice tonight?"
"I told you, I'm busy."
"Doing what?"
Rhonda flipped a page, reading the text more intensely.
"Are you at least coming to the game tomorrow?"
Rhonda noticed the lack of Phoebe's voice more than she would have noticed if she spoke. She really was a mouse of a girl.
"Phoebe!"
"Gerald, I'm sorry, but I can't. I just can't. I have other obligations."
"That you can't tell me about?"
More silence.
"What is it with her and all of these fucking secre-"
"Language, Gerald. And, really, it isn't any of your business."
"It becomes my business when it directly affects me! I swear to God, Pheebs- she's doin' this on purpose-"
"That's so incredibly self-centered of you to say, Gerald. And this is hardly the place to discuss this,"
Phoebe was nothing if not the voice of reason.
"I will text you later," Rhonda heard the sound of her lips on his cheek, and her footsteps leading away.
Rhonda couldn't help that she had overheard, it was just that, she checked the cover of the book she was reading again, Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War was just so fascinating.
"That was when Gerald and Phoebe started fighting. I'm not sure why, or maybe I don't remember. But I'm fairly certain it must have had something to do with Helga."
She shifted again, sipping another time.
"Anyway, me and Helga- our characters didn't interact much during the play, but as the leads," Rhonda had another odd expression on her face, the one that made it seem like she was lying, "we saw each other. I don't remember much of it."
It was February, and it was opening night. Helga was standing by the sound and light board, letting Sid tape a microphone to her face. Sid was dressed in all black, as he worked the sound board for the show, his hair grown into a bieber-esque swoop then. He still was shorter than her, reaching up to press the tape into her cheek. She complained loudly about it, edging away from his hand.
Rhonda only let the jealousy burn in her chest for a moment. Rhonda had to share her microphone with other students, so it was clipped to her shirt, not taped to her face. Helga's hair was blown out into voluminous curls, wearing jean shorts and the signature red cowboy boots. Rhonda had to have her hair in a bun, and she was wearing mom-jeans.
"Sid, Sid," Helga admonished. "It's fine, they'll be able to hear me in Singapore."
Rhonda wasn't sure if her mic was working, so she was going to have Sid check it again.
"Did you save the seat?"
"No."
"Sid," she whined.
"I'm joking. It's right there." He pointed to a seat with a black leather jacket laid over top of it. "Where it's always been. Every single time, of the ten times you asked."
"Sorry." She apologized. Rhonda thought she never really did get used to the sound of Helga making an apology. "Do I look okay?"
"You look awesome!" Sid enthused, touching her hair so it fell over the tape of her microphone. "Go stand on stage, I want to check your sound one more time."
"Sid, this is like the sixth time-"
"There's nothing wrong with a little extra preparedness."
Rhonda didn't remember much else from that night, except that when she retired from seeing her mom and her dad, holding a large bouquet of roses, and a handful of Kisses to the Cast the yearbook team had sent her, she walked back towards the gym where the girls were changing their clothes. She wondered how she would open the door with her hands so full, but that thought was answered for her- because she didn't. Helga pushed through, changed out of her costume before most of the kids even made it back to the dressing room, pushing her way out of the door, storming down the hall, wiping furiously at her face.
Rhonda was kind enough to return Helga's microphone, which she left sitting on a chair, so unprofessional, to the sound booth when she returned her own. The boy who collected it was a zitty boy named Marvin- not Sid, as it normally was.
"I guess the play didn't go as she planned," Rhonda frowned, looking at Arnold's eyes for the first time in a while. "At any rate, it was the last one she did, as far as I knew. And after that, things got kind of, really weird for some reason. You only ever saw Phoebe and Gerald or Phoebe and Helga, never all three. I think Helga was in love with her or something."
"Helga?" Arnold raised an eyebrow. "In love with Phoebe?"
"Well, Helga's into girls now, as I mentioned before," Rhonda uncrossed her legs, leaning forward with a look of sympathy. "Oh, god, I'm sorry. Do you know what gay people are?"
Arnold had to crack a smile. "Yes, Rhonda, I know what gay people are."
"Oh," She leaned back again, recrossing her legs in the other direction, "well Helga isn't all the way gay, but she's bi, or something. I don't really know. She came out in, like, tenth grade."
"And you think that's what led to her and Gerald fighting? Her being in love with…Phoebe?"
"Why do you sound like you're doubting me?" Rhonda tossed her hair over her shoulder.
"I've known Helga for a long time," Arnold said carefully. "And it…doesn't seem like her."
"You weren't there, Arnold. It's about how you act around a person. I'm good with telling, trust me-"
"I'm not doubting you are, Arnold, but Helga has known Pheobe for forever, so don't you think that-"
"Do you want me to finish the story or not?" Rhonda dead-panned.
Arnold, paused. It had grown a little cold between them, the coffee shop still brim and bristling with noise and light. He settled back into his chair, calming himself, and nodded for her to continue.
"Anyway, everything came to a head at the school dance-"
Red really just was Rhonda's color, she saw other girls wearing it at the dance that night, naturally, but Rhonda couldn't help but feel for them. It just didn't warm their skin the way it did hers. She had spent most of the night with her friend Maggie, who worked on the yearbook with her and agreed with her on many things, standing by the punchbowl, discussing dresses. Lila and her friends, a little stuck up, in Rhonda's opinion, passed by. Lila probably looked the best of them. Or maybe Kelly- but her long, blonde hair did the talking for her.
Helga's hair choices after the musical, to dye the under parts pink, were a little tacky, in Rhonda's opinion. At least she went with a black dress, to tone down the whole look.
She was talking with Maggie and her friend, Jamie, about whether or not neutral toned dresses were always to be accessorized with bright accessories, when they heard shouting, and Rhonda had to stand up from the lunch table they were sitting at.
"What the FUCK" Rhonda knew that voice, too, "WAS THAT?"
"WHAT YOU DESERVED."
Rhonda was, maybe mildly undignifiedly, power walking towards the source of the shouting, ergo, Helga and Gerald. She thought Maggie and whomever were trailing nearby behind her, but she couldn't be sure. She had other things to focus on.
She missed whatever Gerald said next, because Lila, followed by her gang of friends, made an entrance near the front of the gym, Lila mimicking Rhonda's powerwalk.
"ENOUGH!" A shout brought her attention back to the action, a small, trembling Phoebe standing in between Gerald and Helga. "JUST STOP IT!"
"Phoebe, I-"
"I don't want to hear it!" She exclaimed. A hush had fallen over the entire cafeteria. "I KNOW you two decided to hate each other- but do you know what else I know? My two best friends haven't talked to me all night, in favor of fighting! And I'm sick of it."
"Pheebs- she start-"
"Enough with the excuses! You two will use any excuse in the book to treat each other, and me, like garbage. I'm done with fighting, and I'm done with picking sides, and I'm…"
Rhonda's breath caught in her throat as she noticed Phoebe's voice was welling up the way one's did when they tried not to cry.
"done with both of you."
And with that, Phoebe turned around, and stormed past Rhonda, past Lila, and her gaggle of friends, and through the doors of the gym.
"This," Gerald looked… more infuriated than Rhonda had ever seen him look. He looked…older, when angry, "is all your fault." Gerald spoke through gritted teeth to Helga cooly as the door slammed shut.
Her hand raised again, and the students gasped, but Sid's reflexes were fast, and he appeared out of nowhere, roughly grabbing her arm.
"Students-"
Rhonda forgot there were even chaperones. Rhonda also didn't notice when the music had stopped playing- but at some point it had.
"What is going on here?!"
"She-" Gerald pointed a finger in Helga's face, face mustered up in anger, before he turned away, letting out an exasperated cry. "Agh!" He pushed his hands away from his body, like he could shove the anger out of his bones through expression. He pushed through the crowd that had formed, grabbing his suit coat off the back of a chair, and stormed towards the exit Phoebe had just ran through. Rhonda watched the still staggeringly-tall, Stinky, follow him.
"Helga, please," Rhonda's attention was back on the floor, as Sid wrestled, sort of, with her. She wriggled loose from him.
"God, just FUCK OFF, Sid." She shouted, as she finally pushed him away from her. She turned, and literally shoved a student, as the teacher who had just spoke admonished her.
"Helga, language! You'll have detention for that! COME BACK HERE, YOUNG LADY."
Rhonda didn't know where she was going, doing her stormy walk towards the opposite direction Phoebe and Gerald had gone in, towards the only other door in the room. It was an emergency fire exit.
She turned around with a grimace. "Bite me." She growled, as she pushed the handle.
The alarm sounded. Everyone in the room, Rhonda included, hunched over, covering their ears from the alarm's loud attacks.
Everyone in the room, except Sid, who had already taken off in a run towards the door.
"SIDNEY JONES, YOU COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT, YOUNG MAN, YOU CANNOT LEAVE THE DANCE WITHOUT A PARENT-"
Sid apparently cared about as much as Helga did, as the pandemonium ensued of the kids whining and the adults shuffling to shut off the alarm.
Rhonda felt someone brush by her shoulder,
"Oh, Helga…" Someone said, so quietly Rhonda could barely hear them over the alarm, sounding disappointed. She looked up and Lila was standing there, staring off at where Helga and Sid had disappeared.
Rhonda watched Lila consider the situation, teachers herding kids out into the halls where the sirens were less loud, two dads fiddling with the music in the corner, her friends with their hands clutched over their ears.
Rhonda watched Lila slip, undiscovered, out the door that Sid left ajar.
Rhonda thought there was no one in her life that she understood less than she understood Lila.
"I mean, long story short, Helga punched Gerald, Gerald called her a bitch, Phoebe dumped both of them, and Helga set off a fire alarm." Rhonda summarized quickly for Arnold.
Arnold blinked, that was more information than he had gotten in the last hour in one sentence. Rhonda said it so casually too, although he guessed the story must have been legendary- he was sure she told it many times.
"Whoa- what? Why?"
"You'll have to ask them." She shrugged. "I just know the events. Of course, you know my theory-"
"Helga and Phoebe, yeah, I got it." He sat back in his arm chair, drinking what was left of the mediocre coffee. She was talking again, but Arnold wasn't really listening, running over all the information she just gave him in his mind.
Arnold never thought he'd leave that shop, hugging Rhonda one more time before he went, with more questions than he came with.
Hillwood had a knack for surprising him in that way.
a/n this took me a while...rhonda is tough & the way i wanted this to go is tough. this really is about /everyone/ tho not just the fearsome foursome as i call them in my head, so i will be taking time in these chapters to shed light on other characters- of course, in my style, so minimal, confusing light. sorry if that isn't your cup of tea 3 im really having a ton of fun writing this, and i hope you're having fun playing nancy drew with arnold & piecing together pieces of what happened 33
thank you for reading, & if you leave reviews, thank you so, so much. it warms my heart from the inside out and really encourages me to keep going. it's really impactful, thank you so much. love y'all.
xx k.