It was early Wednesday morning, a week since her very first session with Angela and around eight hours until her second, and Doctor Helga Pataki, who was unfortunately not very well rested, all things considered, was making a quick visit to classroom 715 at PS118. In all honestly, she had debated the visit a little, on the one hand she did want to know if there had been any notable occurrences in Angela's classroom life over the five days following her last discussion with Arnold, but, on the other hand, it meant, well, talking to Arnold.

Arnold, who as Helga quietly slipped into the classroom, was erasing the names of various cities from around the globe, from the large whiteboard at the front of the room. Helga's eyes settled on the first city on the list, that being Paris, and was lost in the memories of childhood fantasies she used to have involving the French capital. That was, until she noticed Arnold turn around and grin at her, and then say, "Long time no see." in his usual pleasant and beautiful voice.

Scoffing a little at that, she wondered if it was supposed to be a joke, and responded quickly, "It's only been five days, Football Head, and prior to that you managed to go twelve whole years."

"Yeah, well I don't plan on going that long ever again." Arnold chuckled back, before frowning a little and clearly feeling the need to explain himself, "Twelve years, that is. Five days was okay- boring, but okay."

Immediately feeling flustered, and distracted and puzzled and every other synonym for 'not quite functioning properly', Helga was reduced to mumbling an awkward, "Uhh..." in the interim, before she remembered what she had come to his classroom for in the first place, "So, I have my next session with Angela this afternoon." she finally managed to explain, clearing her throat a little as the bewilderment thankfully passed entirely, "I was just wondering how she'd been doing over the past week."

"Differently." he responded quickly, taking a seat in his chair and motioning for Helga to do the same in her usual seat nearby.

Despite sensing that he possibly wasn't done with his explanation, Arnold wasn't a one-word conversations kind of person by any means, Helga cut him off anyway, having to know one very important thing, "Good different, or bad different?"

Arnold, who hadn't seemed to mind her interruption in the slightest, not that he ever really minded anything anybody did, considering his eternal patience and understanding, smiled a little "Good." he answered, "She's slightly friendlier I think, but I've noticed it's mainly toward one person in particular."

With great interest, Helga raised an eyebrow at this comment, "One in particular?" she repeated, pushing for a name.

"Yeah." Arnold mused, seeming to reflect and think things through for a moment, before asking, "Do you think she has a crush on Johnny Powell?"

Helga, unable to help herself, burst into a small fit of laughter and managed to ask, half legitimately wondering if he was just being ridiculous on purpose, "Johnny Powell, are you kidding me?"

Apparently, he wasn't, because he frowned in slight confusion at her reaction and subsequent question, "No..." he said slowly, "What's so funny?"

Calming herself down, mainly because continued hysterics on her behalf would have lead to endless questions she wasn't quite sure she wanted to field, she shook her head a little, "Ah, Arnoldo, your powers of perception are just as horrible as I remember." she sighed, letting out one final little laugh.

Still looking a little bemused, his green eyes searched her face, "So, I guess I should take it that she doesn't have a crush on Johnny?" he asked, just for final confirmation.

"No way." Helga responded, this time with a smile, "She hates his nose." and although she knew she was making this into a little game of indirect hints, much like she would have done back when they were kids, she could not have cared less.

Arnold rolled his eyes playfully at that comment, "Angela says she hates a lot of things." he pointed out, very seriously adding, "It's difficult to tell when she's actually telling the truth." and he, possibly not even consciously, shot her a look for that one.

Actually, Helga almost felt like she owed him this, this entire experience and that maybe it was only fair that, through Angela, he figure out at least some of the motivations behind Helga's childhood behaviour, and their own strange childhood 'friendship'. Surely it had confused him no end, and as she'd grown older she'd realised that it possibly also bothered, maybe even upset, him back then. If it had, well then he was entitled, and she was willing to oblige, to some answers.

"Okay, well let's start with this then..." Helga suggested, "Emma and Johnny like each other and Angela's improved behaviour toward Johnny is something we discussed her doing, for her best friends sake."

"Oh, right." Arnold said, blinking in a little shock for a moment, probably at the fact that Helga herself had just dealt him the unabashed truth about something important, in two sentences or less, "That does make a lot of sense."

Helga, who was currently feeling a strange sense of elation and relief from being so honest with Arnold Shortman of all people, now smiled at the fact that Angela had readily accepted, and put into play, her suggestion to treat Johnny a little more fairly. "I'm happy she's being a little nicer, it may only be one person, but it's a start." she said, but was almost wondering if she should take it back, when Arnold's face fell and he frowned just a little at her positive observation.

"Yes, well..." he began slowly, almost like he truly didn't want to have to say what was coming next, "... what she makes up for with Johnny, she lacks with Dean."

Surprising even herself, Helga lurched forward at the mere mention of Dean's name, and gripped at the desk like it was a lifeline, "Dean?" was all she managed to blurt out in her current condition of distress, and she was certain her eyes were probably alarmingly wide.

Arnold, as was to be expected, had been quite taken aback by her reaction, and was now looking at her a little strangely, "Yes, Dean." he confirmed, his eyes remaining full of questions as he continued, "She's been worse than usual toward him." and with that, he looked at her thoughtfully, as though he wasn't entirely sure what to expect from her next.

Probably what he didn't expect to come next, was for Helga to let out a pained sigh, slump her shoulders and fall back into the chair and then proceed to groan about the entire ordeal. "I knew I should have at least tried to broach that subject during the first session." she mumbled pitifully, eyeing her clipboard with an unsettling glare, as though it were entirely her stationary's fault.

Arnold, who Helga assumed was now possibly even further confused than he previously had been, looked at her almost sadly and then, probably hoping it would make her feel better, assured her, "Well, it probably is better that Angela try being nicer to people she actually cares about first, and then move on to people she doesn't get along with."

Unfortunately, all the comment earned him was a stupefied look from the tall blonde woman, who was honestly wondering just how he couldn't see that Angela didn't hate Dean at all. Instead of losing her marbles at him, which would have been her first reaction had this been twelve years ago, she said as calmly as possible, "Yes, that does tend to be a good idea."

Of course, she could not expect him to suddenly understand from that comment alone, but she had hoped maybe it would push his thoughts in the right direction. And, at the very least it seemed to make Arnold realise that Helga felt Angela and Dean's relationship was an important thing to work on, even if he still had no idea why.

"I guess, if you wanted to improve their friendship, maybe you could talk with Dean too?" Arnold suggested, simply trying to be helpful again, "Help him understand how to deal with her... I think he's getting pretty stressed out by all the pranks."

Helga had to roll her eyes at this, she simply had to, despite his good-natured intentions , "Dean doesn't need my help, actually, there's nothing I can do to help him." she paused for a moment, before adding, "Besides giving him the answers."

Nodding slowly, but still a little hesitant about her view-point on the issue, Arnold asked, "And you're not going to give him the answers because...?" and from there he trailed off, and waited patiently for Helga to fill in the blanks.

Helga sighed, and looked down at her hands, which were now fidgeting in her lap as she contemplated the best way to explain the situation, without properly 'explaining' the situation, "Arnold, there's a difference between needing guidance to help you resolve your problems, and simply not knowing what the actual problem is in the first place."

"So, you're saying Angela knows what the problem is but can't fix it..." Arnold began, looking at her for confirmation that he was indeed understanding her correctly, which he received in the form of a firm nod of her head, "but Dean doesn't know what the problem is, and needs to figure it out?"

"Exactly, Football Head!" Helga exclaimed, almost excitedly, completely slipping out the old nickname in general conversation without hesitation, only to feel a little weird about it once she heard it escape her lips, "Angela knows the problem, and she knows the answer too, the problem is she doesn't know how to handle knowing those things. Dean, on the other hand, either needs Angela to tell him or, with time and patience, he might even figure it out for himself."

Arnold smiled at her, "Wow, you really need to come to the Boarding House and analyse Oskar for me." he suggested playfully, laughter in his voice.

Very maturely, in her expert opinion, Helga resisted the urge to squeak like a frightened mouse at the subject of her visiting the Boarding House, and visiting the Boarding House as an invited guest no less, for the second time in just under two weeks. As though it were a defence mechanism literally built into her at this point, which it possibly was, Helga rolled her eyes and laid the sarcasm on thickly, "Oh please, I'm not wasting years of training on that man!"

And, to her surprise, the comment made him smile, or rather grin at her, "Fair enough." he conceded happily, "But you did promise to come by for dinner sometime."

Helga knew she was looking at him like an idiot at that point, like an absolute moron probably, but she couldn't help but be baffled by how incredibly serious he had sounded. "Dinner?" she asked dumbly, her fingernails clawing at her forearm, which didn't matter a whole lot because it felt numb right now, "I mean, I know you said I should stop by, but I thought I'd just, you know, stop by for a bit to say hello." and, with much difficulty, she managed to cut herself off there before she continued rambling and stumbling over her words and sounding like the nervous wreck she certainly, and undeniably, was.

Arnold shrugged his broad, and had she mentioned beautiful, shoulders at this, "Well, if you're stopping by you may as well stay for dinner, right?" he asked, and maybe it was her overactive imagination, but he sounded a little hopeful, like maybe he truly wanted her to eat dinner with his zany, yet loveable, little family. Until, he continued to speak, "Grandma would insist, anyway." and Helga sadly realised it had been her overactive imagination, but it was nice to be wanted nonetheless, even if it was just by his grandparents.

"I guess you're right." Helga agreed, not willing to disappoint Arnold's fantastic grandparents even in the slightest, "How about Friday?"

Arnold's eyes lit up a little, "Great, that will be perfect. They're going to be excited when I tell them, and-"

Unfortunately, whatever Arnold was about to say, was cut off by the loud ringing sound of the school bell and Helga could hear the hoards of small children groaning a little out in the hallways, and preparing for the journey into their classrooms.

"Well, I should get going." Helga announced, standing and packing her things into her briefcase with haste, and for very good reasons. One being that she desperately, and pathetically, needed to go sigh longingly in a corner about being invited to the Boarding House for dinner and the other being that seeing her in the classroom this morning would probably make Angela a little nervous, and she wanted to avoid that.

"Yeah." Arnold agreed after a fairly extended pause, in which he had been watching Helga cram her papers back into their place, and strangely hadn't offered to help like he usually would, "I guess so."

Helga stilled in her movements for a moment, and took the time to peer back up at the tall football-headed man, since his voice had seemed a little... off during his previous sentence. Yet, immediately she wished she hadn't because their eyes met awkwardly, and he seemed incredibly uncomfortable, and her fight of flight reflex immediately suggested she get out of there. And so, with all the grace and finesse of a wild elephant, Helga fled from the classroom like she had just committed a crime, and spent the entire drive back to her office wondering if she possibly could have done anything more embarrassing.


p.s. some people have mentioned Angela or Dean being children of one of the old PS118 people, but, I just wanna remind you that the 'gang' are twenty four years old, and Angela, Dean & co. are ten years old... sooo... they would've had to have the child at fourteen... and sorry to disappoint but, no, that's not the case (also Angela has three older brothers... so in that case they would've had to start popping out kids at, like, three... and that's just... you know...)