Author's Note: Returning back to the regular format with this one, and this is an Arnold focused chapter. Please enjoy.
As the bus came to another sudden halt, Arnold returned from his daydream to discover two friendly faces entering the bus. He quickly turned off his music player and welcomed them to the seats beside him only to notice that there was only one seat to give. As the duo paid their fare, Arnold trying to be the gentleman he sought to be and instead stood up giving them both a chance to sit down. Gerald, his tall and slender dark skinned friend spotted his red basketball jersey which showed off some of his muscle, while the girl beside him was drastically different in appearance.
"My, my, quiet the special treatment" Gerald said taking his time so fall into the chair, making an over the top "Ah" sound as he slid.
"Thanks Arnold, but you can take my seat if you want. I wouldn't want to get in between your love affair with Gerald" the female said. She was much shorter the Gerald and very thin, much like Arnold. She hid a set of beautiful green eyes behind oval glasses and held a constant smile wherever she went. Despite her frail figure and beauty, she was able to play off her humorous remarks, almost as if to look like she was serious about it. She wore booty shorts, that seemed to disappear under her large T-shirt which some would mistake as Gerald's, however this young lady preferred the coziness of an oversized shirt.
"No, no. I insist Phoebe. Besides I already had some time with Gerald this morning, albeit on the phone" he said while giving a quick flirtatious wink to his friend.
"Oh no, I'm pretty sure I was the one who got a grouchy boy when I woke him this afternoon. Remember Gerald? You told me I had to MAKE IT UP TO YOU" She said giving her boyfriend a menacing look and poking her finger into his gut. Gerald simply put on a wicked smile and looked over to Arnold, who despite not wanting to, knew what the implication was.
"I don't want to know what you two are up to behind closed doors, I'll just assume you two innocently watched some horror films and I'll keep my sanity intact" Arnold replied with his head in between his lap, fighting the erotic imagery that came to mind.
"Of course that's what happened Arnold" Phoebe stated, her eyes flapping endlessly. "We're just experiencing puppy love. Nothing more…nothing less"
As the two embraced a quick kiss, Arnold began to wonder who the bad influence was. Phoebe was a star student with skills in math, science and music but found herself making more of the moves then Gerald did. It could just be the fact that Gerald was a very laid back guy, but his skills in all respects seemed underused these days, it was as if he was bored with the world or he simply didn't care about much anymore. The three teenagers continued to make their way via bus to the city park, where the usual crowds of kids were finally disbanding after lengthy days of water balloon fights, park activities and biking. The wind was finally picking up and a gentle breeze grazed Arnold and his friends as they left the bus.
In the Pataki household, a sudden loud thumping awoke Helga, who wasn't feeling anywhere near perfect. Her head was aching and her arm was numb but the banging coming up the stairs was forcing its way into her half-conscious brain. As she began working out the muscles in her hand, hoping the tingling sensation of her hand would go away she realized that her father must have returned home. Not caring about her appearance she tilted the door open slightly, peaking out to see a frustrated middle aged man forcing his luggage through the hallway. He had died his hair brown once again, to appear younger then he actually was and had a much larger unibrow then her daughter. He was a little overweight, but still had some muscle in his arms and chest which almost balanced it out.
"Light as a feather Bob…" Helga mumbled as she picked the gunk out of her eyes.
"Yeah, Yeah" he growled. As Helga became more attentive she noticed Bob's hair colouring had been recently applied and as always looked horrible in her opinion. He must have put it on for the convention, but no matter how he looked his personality couldn't be hidden behind anything. The beeper emporium he owned was doing well as it expanded into a multipurpose store, selling equipment for camping, car supplies and security equipment all under the Pataki name. "Where's Miriam?" he shouted from his room.
"Dunno, she was asleep earlier" Helga replied as she headed over to the washroom.
"Did she go shopping?"
Helga shut the door to the washroom and checked up on herself in the mirror. "Yeah don't worry she got what you wanted, keep your head on."
Helga could hear her father huffing through the different rooms in the second floor, but sadly it wasn't completely improbable for Miriam to randomly be asleep in some area of the house other than her room. "She better not be wasting all the gas in my car!"
Helga meanwhile was continuing to clean herself up, fixing up her hair and checking her teeth for any random gunk from not brushing her teeth the night before. "I thought that was HER car?"
"I paid for the damn thing! I can claim it as my own" he continued.
She could hear him now repeating a pattern as he walked up and down the hallway, he was either checking the rooms again or simply pacing. "Okay Bob…calm down"
"What was that young lady?" Bob growled from outside the door.
Helga clenched her teeth, letting out her own growl. "KINDA ON THE TOILET DAD!"
"Fine. I'm going to watch the game, call up your mom" Bob continued down the hallway and presumably downstairs, finally giving Helga the comfort and quiet she needed.
"When I'm done peeing if you don't mind…" she whispered to herself.
Back at the park, Arnold Gerald and Phoebe had finally arrived at the baseball diamond where they discovered a group of kids playing and off in the background a group of bored teenagers waving the trio over. By the looks of it, the kids had been playing for some time as they were all fairly sweaty and screaming out things about catching up in score, but all that really mattered was how long they were going to stick around. As they made their way through the back of the diamond, Sid stood up and walked over.
"Hey look what the cat dragged in" Sid commented.
"Hey man, whatcha been up to?" Gerald replied.
"Not much just been working hard, or so I'd like to think…Hi there Phoebe, you here to cheer for your man today?" Sid sarcastically stated.
"Oh No, I'm here to hand you your asses again" Phoebe said, clenching her less then menacing fist in Sid's face.
"Again?" Sid asked.
"Two years ago man!" another voice shouted.
Arnold and the others looked over to see a short tanned figure come towards them, with jet black hair and a forming mustache. He raised his hand up to greet them, but his hand was shaking just enough to be noticed.
"Hey there Michael, you remember that game too?" Arnold said.
"Oh you know it. We let those girls play and before we knew it they wiped the floor with us…It's been a long time though hasn't it?" The teenager replied.
"That's quiet the memory you got in their Michael. I'll give you bonus points if you remember my name" Phoebe stated, once again batting her eyelashes to appear innocent and feminine.
"Yes I'd like to think my memory is…fffffairly good." Michael stuttered. "But you might call it a bluff if I said I remember your name is Phoebe"
"A bluff, why would you say that?" Phoebe questioned.
"Because Sid just called your name not two minutes ago, then again with these loud kids I could just say I was unable to hear him say that." Michael replied.
"Oh…Okay" She replied, trying to make sure she understood what he meant. "That's quiet the thought process you have there Michael but none the less Origato"
"Oh uh thanks…" he mumbled.
Arnold could see how nervous Michael was, and rightly so. He was the odd one out in this little conversation, in the big group of people waiting to play kickball Michael was one of the guys but here he was the newbie. Sid, Arnold, Phoebe and Gerald all knew each other since they were kids and Michael was simply a guy from high school. He was a friend in Arnold's mind, no doubt about it but he wasn't one of the original gang which had since disbanded. It was all just part of the changes that happened with growing up. The kids could no longer claim Gerald field as their own, it was for the new fourth graders to use, now they had to find other places to play there sports instead of being the same menacing teenagers they hated as kids. Even some of the cast of Arnold's life had changed, some people like Brainy and Stinky had left when Arnold was away, and others like Rhoda and Eugene instead did different things with their time instead of playing a game like kickball for the sake of Nostalgia.
"Also where's that girl Helga?" Michael asked.
"Oh…she was busy…today. Don't worry about it" Phoebe replied, trying to hide the awkwardness of the situation behind a fake smile.
"Hey that's fine by me. After the damage she did last time; I'm good with who we've got around" Sid stated.
"Yeah how many do we got?" Gerald said.
"With you guys it's 12, plus Herald is actually coming for once though he'll be late" Sid said excitedly.
"Alright, do we know how long the kids are going to be?" Gerald asked, while Arnold scratched his hair trying to figure out if he wanted to ask something.
"I think they said they were on the 4th quarter? Or something stupid like that. I don't even know what the hell they're playing It LOOKS like baseball, but they're treating it like Football too!" Michael noted.
"Sounds friggin weird man" Gerald said, looking in on the game.
"Dude" Sid began "It IS friggin weird"
Arnold took a look over to Phoebe, who glanced his way, let out a quick smile and then turned to hide from his gaze.
"Phoebe…how is Helga?" Arnold asked with a look of worry on his face.
"Oh she's fine. She's just busy partying it up today with the girls. Why?" Phoebe replied, still not looking directly at Arnold. He knew something was up.
"Well I was…" Arnold started, catching himself before revealing too much. "4th quarter?" he asked over to Michael. "That's sound pretty strange…"
"Yeah that's what the one in the hat said" Michael replied.
"Alright, hey could we…talk for a second Phoebe?" Arnold asked, waving to get a response from her.
"I guess? I hope you're not about to hit on me or something. I'm taken if you can't tell" Phoebe replied, she was desperately clinging to a fake sense of strength but Arnold could easily see past it. For the strong woman she had developed into, Arnold had found a way to tell when she was lying or uneasy.
"Don't worry, I noticed" Arnold said with a smile.
"And yet you still send me those DESPERATE messages" Phoebe said, walking towards a bench up a hill.
"What was that?" Gerald barely said, still trying to make heads or tails of the game and not even looking to notice his girlfriend walking away.
"Just keep watching the game and I'll keep your girlfriend busy man" Arnold said to Gerald, patting his shoulder. His inattentive friend probably wouldn't have noticed if Arnold did make the moves on Phoebe, but he had to admit to himself he was fairly curious with what was going on in the diamond himself. Arnold headed up with her, giving them enough distance to carry a conversation without being heard from the gang. As they both took a seat the kids shouted out "GOAL!" and several of them ran around dancing, confusing the teenagers around them.
"What did you wanna talk about Arnold?" Phoebe began.
"I was hoping to call in a few favours." Arnold stated, looking off into the distance and fiddling with his hands. It was clear he was just as nervous as her.
Phoebe put some of her hair behind her ear. "I don't remember owing any favours and I'd like think I'm good with debts"
"These favours are off the table if you remember"
"Off the table?" she questioned.
He let out a deep sigh and turned to face Phoebe's gaze. He could see the look of terror in her eyes, he almost didn't have to say what he was thinking, because she obviously knew what he meant. "Grade 9. Under the stairwell, I think it was November?"
She let out a similar sigh before he had even finished the last few words. 'I knew it' she thought to herself. She put her head up and looked to the orange sky, thinking back to that day many years ago. "So you're bringing up that…"
Noting her demeanor, he turned away from her and looked towards the diamond, neither of them wanting to look each other directly in the eye for this. "I'm desperate. So yeah, I'm bringing it up"
Phoebe put her head back down and started to clean her glasses, she had to distract herself as well. "I needed to know he still liked me…he just sort of changed when you left, and for all I knew I was just another friend to him"
"And that's fine. I'm glad you two got it sorted out, I was willing to play cupid…or whatever you want to call it"
She stopped for a second, alerting Arnold who was caught it from the side of his view. He looked over to her and saw her letting out a faint smile. She put her glasses back on and slowly crept her arm across his shoulder as sort of a half hug. "Yeah, you have no idea what it meant."
Arnold just smirked and let out a small chuckle, putting his arm around her for a brief second before both parties stopped the intimacy. "I'm just glad he shows some drive for you, although he needs to apply himself a little more in other categories"
"He'll find his way I'm sure. He's just struggling to find himself and not become his brother"
"No I know, he's still the same old Gerald…just a lot more popular and a lot more wild"
"Yeah…but I guess that's what I like about him…he doesn't worry about everything, he keeps me calm and keeps me sane. He's my Gerald…But enough about my love life what did you want from me?"
Arnold pulled off his hat and started to roll it around In his hand, trying to keep it spinning with his movement. "Last night I went on…well…an unofficial date with Helga"
"Okay…"
"I don't know if she told you about it or not, but the fact is; I had a great time and she left without saying goodbye or anything, and I want to know why"
"And you think I know the answer?"
Arnold stopped rolling his hat, which fell straight to the ground. "I KNOW you know the answer." He stated, a hint of a laugh and a growl in his voice.
Phoebe swallowed. It wasn't like him to have such aggression in his voice, and the fact that he wasn't looking at her made it twice as scary. "You sound pretty sure" she mumbled.
"I…" A sudden change hit Arnold, he had realized what he'd just sounded like and felt like a fool. He shook his head and tilted down to pick up his hat. "Okay maybe you don't know but I-"
Upon getting back up, Phoebe was focused on him again, trying to catch the attention of his eyes. "I'm not going to tell you what me and Helga talk about, that bond is stronger than any blackmail. I will give you this though, your right that I know about it, and although you do sound a little cocky…don't doubt yourself yet"
"Yet?"
"Well you might be right about me knowing what happened but my question to you is…why do you think it happened?"
Arnold looked away, massaging his chin for a moment to figure out what to say. A number of ideas came to his mind, but none of them sounded logical, instead he just came up with the only words he could. "I think I upset her"
"Okay…" She sounded confused.
"Am I on the right track?" Arnold tried to get her to look at him again; he needed to know what she was hiding. He had to know.
When Phoebe finally did look at him, her eyes were as menacing as she could muster. "Did you not hear me before?"
He paused and looked away, placing his hat back on his head. "Right…sorry"
"So you think she's upset with you…why would she be upset with you?"
"I don't know, maybe…forcing her to do stuff?"
Phoebe was fairly confused by that statement. She didn't want to look directly at him, but her mind did wander to the idea of Arnold being aggressive in a sexual manner, which didn't seem to fit. She didn't want to seem like a fool for asking but she had to know. "…Is there…more to this story then I know?"
"What?" Arnold couldn't put two and two together at first, but after a minute of Phoebe's shifting eyes and red face he started to figure it out. "Oh…NO. NO. I mean, forcing her to go out with me"
"Helga is her own woman, she can make her own decisions and she'd say something if she didn't want to be there with you"
"So she WANTED to be there with me?"
Phoebe put her finger up to Arnold's face. "Don't you try and find hidden meanings in my words, what I mean is think a little harder"
He pushed her hand away, she was small but she still was scary. "Maybe…I wasn't asking her to do enough?"
"That could also be it, but do you think she's an easy girl?"
"If she was an easy girl, we wouldn't be having this conversation"
She nodded gently. He was starting to get somewhere. "Good point. Well what kind of a girl is she Arnold?"
"A complex one."
"Do you think she's the type of girl who is into dancing and stuff?"
"Well she seemed to enjoy it too…but apparently not?"
"Why wouldn't she enjoy it?"
"Because…" Phoebe asked, rolling her hand around.
"Because?"
'I'm going to sound like an idiot here…' he thought to himself. "she's not…used to it?"
"Ah" Phoebe let out happily with a smile "Now that's an idea!"
"She wasn't comfortable? She wasn't comfortable." He kept repeating in different ways.
She let out a small giggle, it was cute seeing Arnold trying to figure this stuff out. "I'm not confirming that" she said, trying to contain composure "You need to talk to her"
"Is it okay to talk to her?"
She nodded. "Logically talking to her is better than not talking to her. That is all I can say"
"So she won't kill me if I contact her?"
She gave him a sinister look. "I will not confirm or deny that"
He let out a happy huff like noise and stood up. "Okay…well thanks Phoebe" But suddenly something was pulling his arm.
"Wait." It was her hand.
"Wait? What for?"
She used her grasping arm to pull him back down to her level. "Do you really want to talk to her?" This time it was her studying his eyes.
He knew he couldn't look away, no matter what she thought of his look…if he looked away then he she'd never let him talk to her again and he couldn't have that. "Yes. Of course…why?"
"You're positive?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Was she uncomfortable? Yes. I'll admit it." She let out a deep sigh, she was defeated for the time being. "But there is more to it than that and if you're not ready for more than just that, then you shouldn't try and find her"
Arnold took a seat beside Phoebe again, who was hiding in her lap. "I don't understand"
"It tells me a lot when you say you come up to me, demanding answers and showing interest. It really does"
"Okay"
"I just need you to help me realize you're in this for real. Beyond my own images of getting to go on a double date with Helga, I need to remember what's best for her and maybe that's talking to you, or maybe it isn't." Phoebe was truly unsure of herself, which was odd for her.
Arnold sighed. "She's got some serious things going on in her head doesn't she?"
Phoebe scowled at that comment. "She's not a basket case. Don't think of her that way"
"I'm not… I'm just trying to figure out who she is because you can fool a ten year old kid into thinking that yeah; there is someone out there that genuinely enjoys ruining people's days, but I've seen a lot and I'd like to think I've gotten smarter. Helga isn't a bitch, but she certainly knows how to play one"
Phoebe let out a small chuckle before catching herself, a little embarrassed at laughing at that last part. "You've got some brains under that golden hair"
"Thanks. It's also good to know you're willing to be my friend beyond the necessary girlfriend interaction"
"I'm not that kind of Girl Arnold. Though for future reference, nothing happened under that stairwell in Grade 9"
"The memory is gone from my mind"
Okay so that was fun for me. Another one shot character named Michael appears, who is based on a friend of mine but yeah, as I've said before things have changed for Arnold and now I've dropped a few names. Brainy and Stinky aren't around any more, not dead but not exactly around. One day I'll get into Brainy's situation, but while I enjoy the character of Stinky I figured that someone wouldn't move along with the gang and people like Peapod kid, Nadine or Sheena weren't as strong of a relationship with Arnold for him to be thinking about.
Phoebe is a great character and was always the smart one of the group, but every once and a while we'd have a story about something she isn't good at and so who else but Arnold would she go to for the advice of dating. I'd like to do a one shot one day about their discussion in the stairwells of grade 9, but it isn't coming anytime soon.
So next up we have a Helga focused chapter, with her meeting a mysterious female though I'm sure some of you could guess who it is. Speaking of though, this will be the last chapter I update for a bit. I've still got work to do on these chapters, but now that I've built up the story enough and people can at least read the first bit of the dramatic side of the story...then I can sort of reel you guys in to check back on the story when it updates. That being said though, I'm going to try and keep to a schedule for released depending on editing and such I for one got into writing this because I loved reading other people's fan fictions and while that was all said and good several were still in the midst of being update or were incomplete...that won't happen to me. Thank you for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
