Episode 7: Hey Gerald
"I see it, but I don't believe it." said Gerald as he arrived at lunch on Wednesday.
"It's like watching a National Geographic special on the secret lives of girls." Stinky observed as they ate their food and watched the anomaly before them.
"This is the end of the world as we know it." Sid remarked as he took a bite of one of his chicken nuggets.
Before them, in the center of the cafeteria sat Helga and Rhonda- and well Eugene as well, who looked as if the entire thing was natural- discussing the Macbeth Play that was to take place in the next month. Both girls seemed as if they were conversing cordially, bouncing ideas back and forth and taking charge of the project while leaving Eugene behind in his own thoughts.
They weren't the only ones to take notice of this highly irregular event, more than half of the cafeteria kept stealing glances towards the trio.
"Hey Gerald, go over there and see what's up." Sid said, "You're the Film President, you're the only one in the entire cafeteria who could have reason to butt in."
"Come on guys, can't we just eat our food and move on? So they made up- there have been stranger things." Gerald said, quite exhausted over everything and anything with Helga G. Pataki. "I get enough of that from Arnold."
"Maybe it's just an obligatory meeting between Poetry, Theater, and Fashion club presidents." said Stinky, the sentence still thick in his heavy southern drawl.
"Obligatory? There you go again with your random articulate words!" Sid said, completely sidetracked now.
"Have you guys seen Arnold?" Gerald asked, noticing the time and how late in the lunch period it was- and his best friend still hadn't arrived.
"I think it was Baseball Try outs today." said Sid, "He did say was trying out for the team."
"Nah, tryouts are tomorrow." Stinky corrected, "So it can't be that."
Gerald didn't have to contemplate long before Arnold himself walked in, looking a little tired and down.
"Hey guys, sorry I got caught up in helping the coach pick up dodge balls." Arnold said as he sat down.
"You okay, man?" Gerald asked, "Not coming down with that Chinese Flu are you?"
Arnold shook his head, "After that incident on Monday, I've been trying to convince everyone that Lila and I are not dating, and that Lorenzo and Sid-" at that Arnold looked pointedly at the boy himself. "Spiked the punch that Lila drank like water."
"I'll never forget that night." Sid said dreamily. "She kissed you, me, AND Harold." Sid explained. "Though I'm sure that's why she's not been in school for the last two days."
"She's humiliated, she apologized profusely yesterday morning over the phone." Arnold explained.
"Mmm. mmm. mmm." Gerald said as he shook his head, "I have a feeling that spiked punch just brought out her repressed nature." said Gerald. "That girl is nice to a fault, and borderline flirtatious with everyone. "
"Don't talk about her like that!" Arnold interjected. Gerald looked up at him.
"Oh, now we're focused on Lila again, are we?" He asked, sarcastically.
"What's that suppose to mean?" Arnold said, defensively.
"Nothing, forget it. Are you ready for Try-outs tomorrow?"Gerald asked, desperate to change the subject.
To be honest, he was getting sick of this whole charade. He liked to think of Helga as a 'friend', she was a very powerful ally to have when it came to his field. Phoebe had said that Helga had left early that Monday, he had a sinking suspicion about the reason why. But they were only suspicions.
Lila had drank 4 cups of punch in an hour, the fruity flavor disguising the adult beverage that it was laced with. He caught the end of the show thanks to Sid who was going around bragging about it, he knew his friend didn't intend to come off as sleazy, but he did explain to Sid the error of what he did- and how bad it made the girl in question look. He tried to retain some decency in Sid, but it was almost a losing battle.
"Yeah, I've been a bit distracted lately, so I'll be going to Gerald Field after school to practice, want to join?" Arnold asked, looking at Gerald expectantly.
Gerald had tried to keep his best friend's attention from the obvious elephant in the room, but it was for naught since Arnold had to follow the odd behavior from the rest of the student body.
"Is that Helga and Rhonda?" He asked, taking in the scene before him, just as they did before.
"Yep." All three answered him.
"And they're talking normally?"asked Arnold.
"Yep." came all three again.
"When did that happen?"
And all three of them shrugged their shoulders in sync with each other.
"I'm gonna go see what's going on." Arnold said as he got up to walk toward the other trio.
"Wait! It's a club meeting, you'll just be in their way." Gerald said, as he tried to prevent his friend from interfering with the natural process of things.
"I'm just going to say hi." Arnold answered, unrelenting.
"Whatever you say, buddy." Gerald answered, letting his friend go.
Sid, Stinky, and Gerald looked on as Arnold walked toward the table- unknown to him that he had half of the eyes of the cafeteria on him.
They could see Arnold exchanging pleasantries to the three of them, they responded in kind, one a bit colder than the others. He made another comment before Rhonda smiled and nodded her head, she was explaining their meeting at the moment. Helga interjected with a poker face to win the series, and her words seem to be telling Arnold what Gerald already knew- he was butting in and they were busy.
Arnold nodded his head, scratching his head like he usually did when he was nervous. A few more words exchanged before Arnold made his way back.
"Well?" Gerald asked.
"It seems Helga is in a bad mood, but Rhonda said they were going over Theater business." Arnold explained.
"See, you didn't need to intervene, they worked themselves out." Gerald said, as he finished his lunch.
"Yeah, I guess you were right." Arnold said, as he took one more glance toward the other group in question.
"Now about baseball?" Arnold asked again, "Can you come?"
Gerald shook his head, "No can do, I've got meet with Helga after school to finish up one of her side projects.
"Oh, mind if I come too?" Arnold asked, Gerald rolled his eyes, careful that his friend didn't see.
"What about baseball?"
"Oh yeah." replied Arnold.
"You should practice, don't want to miss out on making the team." Gerald reassured him, hoping this would drop the subject.
After school
Gerald made his way toward Hillwood Records, the corner music store off of Broad Street. Outside were Phoebe and Helga, the former waved at him gleefully which he responded with just as much enthusiasm.
"Hey! I didn't know you'd be here." Gerald said as Phoebe hugged him.
"Helga invited me! I wanted to see how the recording went." Phoebe said. Gerald looked at Helga in confusion, normally she was all about business- today she seemed distracted.
"I brought her along because you'll be needing some support, I'm not very good at motivating people and today's kind of a big day." Helga explained.
Oh, so she brought Phoebe along to soften the demanding dictatorship she was about to lay out during the recording.
"The musician's inside, the owner has agreed to let us use the recording studio in the back for two hours." said Helga, "So let's hurry up, I don't want to run out of time." she motioned for all three of them to go inside.
Helga trotted inside, leaving Phoebe and Gerald outside.
"Sorry, should I not have come?" Phoebe asked. Gerald shook his head in objection, "No that's not it."
"So...I guess Helga and Rhonda are friends again, but why is she still in a foul mood?" Gerald asked, for the first time in a long time he was genuinely curious about Helga.
Phoebe shrugged, "Well 'friends' is a bit too strong, they're civil now- and her temperament is something else entirely. Helga's a complicated person." she explained.
"Lucky she has you to figure her out." Gerald teased, putting his arm around her and lead them inside before the subject of their conversation came looking for them.
The store was cluttered with old vinyl records, cds, and the occasional cassette tape. It wasn't a high end place by any means, but it was the only place in town willing to let a couple of 15-year olds record a song.
The musician that Helga had chosen was local, he had done a lot of events around the city and was willing to help them for no fee other than it would give him potential recognition at a studio.
Phoebe watched in delight on the other side of the room as her boyfriend and best friend worked. Gerald had always told her that working with Helga was tiresome, but she was also the most dedicated and through her headstrong nature- some pretty amazing results were made. Everyone was talking for weeks when Helga first took on the role as President and helped the Theater club bring the other Fashion, Photography, and Film clubs together to pull off the most elaborate Romeo and Juliet Play the school had ever seen. A song recording was a walk in the park for Helga, but she still showed the same dedication in those two hours as she did the entire three weeks of that play.
Gerald had mentioned to Phoebe also, that if Helga were to pursue a career, Art Director was a shoe in. Phoebe mentioned the idea to Helga, who seemed taken with it but still wanted to pursue creative writing before taking on such a responsible role.
Gerald listened and nodded intently, biting back the comments he wanted to say in his head as he worked diligently with the audio controls. Once the song was finally finished, Gerald knew he still had long hours of editing to go, but at least the hard part was over.
"Thank you so much, for lending us your voice." out came the polite young lady that Helga procured.
"Thank you, little lady. This was a treat for me as well." the musician said, nodding to all of them. "Just send me a copy of the song when you finish."
Gerald too, gave his thanks and helped pack their stuff up when he heard his name.
"Gerald, is that you?" said Sid, as he spotted his friend within the record shop.
"What are you guys doing here?" he questioned, as Phoebe and Helga came out from the back.
"Ah, just finished up on a project." Gerald said motioning toward his dufflebag of audio equipment.
"We're going to go on ahead, okay?" Phoebe said to Gerald, who nodded and said goodbye to the girls as they left the store.
"So, what kind of project?" asked Sid, as he continued to look through the mountain of music.
"Just some stuff Helga is doing. I'm helping her out."
The bell on the door rang twice as two more of his friends filed in, Stinky and Arnold who both had baseball mits.
"Hey Gerald! Are you finished with your club stuff today?" Arnold asked, "Uh, did you need a hand with that?"
Arnold motioned toward Gerald's heavy duffle bag, he rearranged the strap over his shoulder before replying.
"Yeah we just finished, and I'll be good- I was on my home, I still have a lot of editing to do, so I'll see you guys at school tomorrow." Gerald said as made his way toward the door, "Oh and good luck on your Try Outs tomorrow! I'll be in the bleachers cheering you on!"
Thursday
Gerald skipped his Health class that morning so he could watch Arnold's Try outs. Several familiar faces were seen upon the field, he could spot Park and another old classmate in line.
On the other side of the field he could see the Lacrosse team practicing for their game the next day, 'ooh' still brutal as ever', he thought as he watched Pataki on offense.
"Arnold Shortman!" yelled Coach Tish as Arnold went up to bat.
Overall his try outs were very strong, by the end of the hour Coach Tish had said she would post the names of the ones who made it by the end of the day on the gym board.
Arnold walked over to him, sweaty but in good spirits.
"You were great, man!" Gerald said as they did their usual secret handshake.
"Thanks, I really think that went well." Arnold said, wiping his forehead with a towel.
Just then, a rubber ball flew inbetween the two boys- taking them surprise and shock.
"Sorry! Could you toss it back?" asked a Lacrosse player.
"Careful where you throw that thing!" Gerald yelled back, putting everything he had into the throw to make his point- but the other girl caught it with little hesitation.
"Work on your hustle PATAKI! I don't want anymore balls leaving the field!" Coach Wittenburg yelled. It seemed Helga was having an off day.
"You don't think she meant to throw that at us?" Asked Arnold.
Gerald thought for a second, "You maybe, Me not so much."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Arnold asked, but Gerald started walking toward the cafeteria for lunch.
Lunch
"Still no Lila today?" asked Stinky as they sat at their usual table.
Arnold and Gerald shook their heads, "I think she's still pretty embarrassed, and the rumors going around don't help."
Gerald didn't comment. Day in and day out, it was either Lila or Helga and quite frankly he was getting really annoyed at his best friend for his unintentional callousness.
"Can we talk about something that doesn't have Lila, Helga, or Rhonda in it?" Gerald asked, working himself up.
"How bout we all go'n see that new Evil Twin III movie?" Stinky said, willing to concede.
"Yeah, I heard the reviews from that are pretty good." commented Sid as he spotted a cute girl from across the cafeteria.
"We can all go this weekend." Arnold offered.
"I'll get on board with that." said Gerald, finally happy that his weekend was going to be a guys night and stress free.
"Oh, but I was going to go to Helga's first Lacrosse game tomorrow night." Arnold said.
Gerald just let his head fall to the table in exasperation.
Calculus
Olga was lecturing about some formula, Helga was passed out in the back, Rhonda was too busy texting, and Arnold seemed still a bit out of it like he was the other day. Gerald would turn around and ask his best friend something, only to catch him leaning back and looking at their passed out classmate.
"Hey man" Gerald whispered, getting Arnold's attention as he snapped his eyes forward, "Do you have pen? I left mine in the cafeteria."
Arnold nodded and bent down to rummage through his backpack, giving Gerald a good view of Helga.
She was laying her head directly on the desk, a bit of drool was forming- it was nearly comical. Phoebe did say her friend had sat up most of the night to come up with another set of lyrics. It puzzled him as to why she was all of a sudden a songwriter but it wasn't his business.
"Here you go." Arnold said as he sat back up, and blocked her from view again.
"Oh thanks." Gerald said, turning back around.
This caused Olga to look their way, and notice her little sister snoozing through her lesson.
Olga walked over, the entire class now focusing on the teacher and her passed out student.
"HELGA!" Olga yelled, "This is not nap time!"
"What!" Helga yelled as she snapped up, wiped the bit of drool off her face and looked around.
"It's not my fault if you stay up till 3 a.m, little lady." Olga pointed out. "Helga what was the answer to the last problem?" for once trying to make an example out of her sister.
"42." Helga said automatically.
"So you were paying attention." Olga stated.
"Wait, that's right?" Helga asked, astonished. "I just pulled that out of thin air." she said laughing at the coincidence, causing the rest of the class to chuckle.
"You know what this means, right?" Olga said, trying to maintain her stern expression.
"I should start doing hotlines?" Helga retorted.
"You can march your smart mouth down to the guidance counselor!" Olga about yelled, pointing her finger toward the door.
Helga shrugged, picked up her bag and tossed it over her shoulder. "Haven't seen Dr. Bliss in a while, so why not?" Helga said as she casually walked out the door.
"Now back to our lesson..." Olga said as the rest of the class continued.
After School
Gerald was on his way up to the office to check in the school's audio equipment when he spotted Curly walking down the hallway. Gerald had made it a point to keep Curly at a distance, the boy was insane.
His suspicions were rewarded when Curly opened a janitor's closet looked around, and went inside. A part of him said, 'keep going, don't ask.' and the other part was always dangerously curious when it came to Curly.
"Uh..Curly?" Gerald asked as he awkwardly knocked on the janitor's door. He heard weird chirping sounds inside.
The door cracked open a bit, "What do you want?"he asked, suspiciously.
"Uh, what are you doing. In a closet?" he asked.
Curly peeked outside, and looked around him. "Promise you want say nothing?" he asked.
"I'm not sure if I want to stand here anymore." Gerald said, raising his eyebrow.
"I'm devising a plan to set barn animals free throughout the school...I've got six chickens in here..."
Gerald shook his head and walked off.
He arrived at the front office to see Helga leaving Dr. Bliss's office.
"...and remember Helga, you don't have to be in control all the time." Dr. Bliss said as she followed her out.
"Thanks Doc." Helga said. "I'll schedule a meeting with you again after my game."
Helga spotted Gerald as she was walking out, and he could have sworn there was a tint of a red on her cheeks.
Everyone knew Helga was seeing a Therapist, one of the many rumors before, took it as a negative thing- when in reality to him and all of those who knew her before- it was something the girl needed. He guessed she was embarrassed that he caught her after one of them.
She nodded toward him in greeting before exiting.
"Hello Mr. Johanssen, what can I do for you?" Dr. Bliss asked.
"Just came to return some equipment." Gerald said, motioning toward his bag.
"Aw yes, Mr. Tildon is in the back, he can help you with that."
Slausen's
"What's got you so worked up that you had to call me six times?" Gerald asked as he sat down infront of his best friend.
The minute Gerald had gotten home, his mother had said Arnold called him repeatedly. When he called back, Arnold was rushed and he could barely make out what his friend was saying, and they agreed to meet up and chat.
"I got home today and Lila was outside my door." Arnold said.
"So? What's the problem. You like Lila, right?" Gerald asked and was already tired, as he knew exactly where this conversation was going.
"I do, but as a friend. The thing is though, she's convinced she should switch schools because of that Labor Day incident." Arnold explained.
"So let the girl switch schools." said Gerald, quite glib. "Her embarrassment is not your problem."
"But I don't want her to, and I feel bad about the party thing." said Arnold, sighing and taking a sip from his soda.
"Look, you wanted to butt into Rhonda and Helga's feud, and that worked itself out- I'm telling you man, stop getting into other people's problems."
"But I still think Rhonda and Helga have a bit of ways to go.."Arnold said, "And I'm still conflicted over this whole kiss thing with Lila."
"Helga's paying a therapist for that!" Gerald practically yelled, nearly fed up with his best friend's denial. "Do you realize that you are hurting people with your unintentional callousness!"
"What do you...I'm not being callous." Arnold said, defensive.
"Yes, you are. Believe it or not but you tossing Helga and Lila back and forth under some excuse that you're 'only helping', can hurt them." Gerald explained, still angry.
"I don't mea..."
"You don't mean to be, but this is apart of growing up! Realize that you paying attention to one girl then switching back and forth when the other one comes into the picture...is...is...wrong." said Gerald, trying to make a point to his friend.
"Helga doesn't..."
"Please! A girl who throws spit balls at you everyday and picks on YOU in particular for five years, had SOME feelings for you, I'm not even going to TOUCH that kiss I witnessed in San Lorenzo." he was caught up in the moment now, and stood up from the table and looked down at Arnold.
"We're not 9 anymore, the things we do and say HAVE an effect. So which is it Arnold? You may be in denial, You may say it to yourself but refuse to acknowledge it to me, but I can see it clear as day. And until you figure it out for yourself..." At that he stumbled, and knew that it was for the best for his best friend.
"Then I don't want to see you."
End of Episode 6
