The drive to the boarding house was quiet and tense. So many thoughts were running around in Miles' head, he couldn't process what was going on. They got back about two days ago, and his son had managed to get himself in a run in with the police. He stopped at a red traffic light, and looked at his son. Arnold was slouched in the passenger seat, his eyes glazed over. He was staring ahead, and he hadn't blinked at all since Miles first looked at him. What happened? Miles thought to himself.

When they finally arrived at the boarding house, Miles opened up his door and started to head inside. However, he realized that his son wasn't following suit and was still sitting in the car, staring straight. The father walked down the steps of the boarding house, and opened up the passenger door; his son had no reaction to the sudden movement. "Arnold? Arnold." Miles hated to shout, but he needed to get his sons' attention, "Arnold!" He yelled as loud as he could.

After his father loudly called his name, Arnold turned towards Miles in a slow manner, with his eyes still glazed over. "Sorry Dad, it's-it's just.." Arnold trailed off, looking at the crack in the ground below him.

Having a hard time staying upset with him, Miles put a hand on Arnold's shoulder and said, "it's okay, son. Let's just go inside and talk about it."

Arnold looked up at his father with heavy eyes, and nodded. He got up from the passenger seat, and walked up the steps into the house.

"Arnold! Honey, what happened? Your father told me you were at the police station?" Stella asked worriedly, while running over to her son.

"Short man! What the dam hill happened to your face?" Arnold's grandfather asked in astonishment.

"Oh Kimba," Arnold's grandmother said with concern.

Throughout all of this, Arnold had his head down, and was staring at his feet. He didn't want to look at anyone, and he didn't want to talk about what happened the day before.

"Guys, let's just give him some space," Miles added calmly. "Let's just go in the living room and talk about this, instead of crowding here in the entryway."

Before Arnold and his parents moved to San Lorenzo, the parenting was split up between his grandparents and his parents. So, it wasn't uncommon to have serious discussions with the four adults. They all sat down on the couch, with Arnold sitting in the rocking chair. Feeling as though he was an exhibit at a zoo, he rubbed the back of his neck. Stella could see that Arnold was getting nervous, so she said, "whenever you're ready, honey."

…...

THE DAY BEFORE:

There she was, Helga Geraldine Pataki. The one that he loved so many years ago. He saw her walking towards the park, with her head down and looking like she was not there mentally. He tried to call out for her name, but he couldn't get the words out. This was partly because he was caught off guard that Helga was in his presence, and he was scared of what she would do if she saw him. He saw Helga turn into the park entrance and stop, slightly turning her head to the side. Arnold ducked behind a car that was parked on the street, so she couldn't see him. He saw her shrug her shoulders, and continued into the park.

Arnold got up from where he was hiding, and stood there for a couple of minutes. Maybe I should go in the park and say hi, he thought to himself. He closed his eyes, shaking his head and adding to his thoughts, no. That's weird and creepy. Nothing's worse than your ex-boyfriend showing up in the same park as you and saying, "hey miss me? I haven't seen you in five years!"

He turned towards home, and started to walk. He suddenly heard a piercing scream, one that he knew all too well when Helga confessed her love of him a second time, and he didn't want to acknowledge it.

"Wolfgang, please stop!" A voice cried out.

That's...that's Helga. Oh my God, that's Helga! Arnold thought to himself. His heart started to race, and a rush of adrenaline ran through him. He turned back towards the park, and ran as fast as he could, following the screams that he was hearing. He was also hearing some sort of other noise while he was running through the park, almost like someone hitting a punching bag. What was that?

He turned to his left, and saw exactly what he was looking for. Upon what he saw, his chest felt like it was collapsing and he couldn't breathe.

Helga was in a fetal position, covering her stomach and crying. Wolfgang was kicking her severely, one could hear every thud that was hitting Helga's small body. "You're a fucking slut, Helga!" Wolfgang screamed, "You fucking trapped me!" There were two bystanders from afar, who put their hands over their mouths in shock.

Immediately, Arnold ran towards Wolfgang, whose focus was only on hurting Helga, and pushed him off of her as hard as he could. Wolfgang fell to the ground, and looked up at who just pushed him to the ground.

"What the fuck? Oh, it's you, the faggot with the weird fucking head! What happened to you? You realized you had a severe birth defect and ran away?" Wolfgang asked humorously, while getting up from the ground. He then formed his hand into a fist, and punched Arnold in the eye twice, with Arnold stumbling backwards.

Arnold felt a fire deep in his stomach, one that he had only felt before, when La Sombra took him and his classmates hostage in San Lorenzo. He was young at the time, and tried his best to fight back, without using physical violence. However, he was more than angry, he was filled with deep hate. He couldn't believe that Wolfgang was still hitting people, let alone a woman, a woman that Arnold knew for most of his life. Arnold grunted, ran towards Wolfgang, and gave him a hard punch to the side of his head. Wolfgang closed his eyes, and fell to the ground.

Arnold stood over Wolfgang, panting. He wanted to punch him more, and wanted Wolfgang to hurt the way he hurt Helga. Stop, Arnold, he thought to himself, go to Helga. Arnold turned around, ran to Helga, and kneeled on the ground. She was whimpering, and it looked as though she was in and out of consciousness. He looked at her face and neck, it was starting to bruise up. He didn't want to see Helga like this, he couldn't bear it at all. "Helga, I'm here. It's going to be okay," Arnold said, while stroking her face and trying his best not to cry. He could hear one of the bystanders murmuring, and was upset that they did nothing to help. Figuring that they could do something for once in this situation, he yelled, "Someone please call the police! She's badly hurt."

Just as Arnold said that, an individual took out his phone, and started to call someone, which ended up being 9-1-1. As soon as the bystander hung up his phone, sirens were heard throughout the park.

Two police officers and an EMT team came running into the park, with the EMT team rolling a stretcher. Arnold was holding Helga's small, frail hand, while the EMTs and the police officers came toward them.

"What happened here?" One of the officers asked in a neutral tone, looking at Arnold suspiciously.

Arnold was about to answer, when the other bystander interjected. "This young girl was getting beaten by the man over here," she said, while pointing to Wolfgang's passed out body. She then continued, "that guy right there came in and defended the girl," she said, while pointing to Arnold.

One of the EMTs ran over to Wolfgang, and started examining him. "He looks like he's just passed out from shock."

One of the officers walked over to the EMT near Wolfgang, and said, "Okay, check him out here while we get statements from these two," as he was pointing to the bystanders. He continued, "Once we get confirmation on what happened, we will book him up after and notify his guardians." The EMT nodded, and started to check on Wolfgang, while the officer started talking with the two bystanders.

The other officer crouched down, looking at Arnold and then Helga. "She doesn't look good, she'll need to go to the hospital ASAP." She looked at Arnold, and said, "Do you know her, or were you just someone that saw what was going on and defended her?"

Arnold paused for a minute, as the adrenaline in his body was starting to slow down. He looked at the officer and said, "I know her, we grew up together." Arnold closed his eyes, placed his head down, and said, "I was on the street near the park and I heard screaming. It sounded like her, and I came in the park to check it out. That's when I saw-" Arnold started shaking, with tears streaming down his face. He couldn't say the last part of what happened between Wolfgang and Helga.

The officer understood what Arnold meant. She got up, as the EMTs moved in to work on Helga. "Sir, you have to step aside so we can work on her," one of the EMTs said to Arnold hurriedly. Arnold quickly moved out of the way, and let the EMTs do what they had to do. They took out a yellow board of some sort, and placed it next to her, turning her to one side and sliding the board underneath her. The two EMTs then picked up the board, with Helga on it. They placed her on the stretcher, and got her buckled up, ready for her to go into the ambulance.

Arnold noticed while the EMTs were placing Helga on the stretcher, that her phone fell onto the ground. Once they started moving the stretcher out of the area, he picked up her phone, and walked over to the female police officer. "Her phone dropped while they were putting her on the stretcher. Is it okay if I call her parents to let her know where she's going?"

Shocked that this young man wanted to be so involved with the injured young woman, she replied, "Um, sure. But after that, you will have to come down to the station with one of us."

Arnold understood, and said, "Okay." He looked at her flip phone, and went to her contacts section. He wasn't too familiar with how to use a phone, but he knew how to make a simple phone call at least. Let's try the beeper store first. Mr. Pataki should be there, he thought to himself while dialing the number that he knew by heart. However, when he dialed the number, an inactive number dial tone followed. That's weird, maybe the business has a different number? Arnold asked himself. He went to Helga's contacts, and saw Bob and Miriam's contact on the list. Figuring that they may not answer, as well as the police officer was starting to get antsy, he called the only other family member that he knew would come to Helga's aid.

"Hello Baby Sister!" Olga said excitedly.

"Hey Olga, it's me, Arnold," he said exhaustedly.

"Oh! Baby Sister's sweet friend! Why are you calling on her phone?" Olga asked.

Arnold rubbed the back of his neck, took a deep breath, and said, "Helga has been hurt, bad. She's headed to Hillwood Hospital and she needs someone there. I knew you would answer, so that's why I called. Any chance that you can get to the hospital soon?"

Olga was silent, and didn't know what to say, "Oh. My poor Baby Sister," she started to choke up, "I will be there as soon as I can, thank you." She started to cry, and hung up the phone.

Arnold flipped the phone closed, and gave it to the female officer that he was talking to earlier. "Thank you. We will make sure to give this back to her," she said. "I'm headed over there now, and you will be going with Officer Taft." She walked towards the ambulance, while the other officer, who was presumed to be Officer Taft walked over to Arnold.

"Okay, kid. Let's get down to the station," he said neutrally.

…...

After Arnold told his parents and grandparents what happened, they looked at him with concern and sadness. Miles felt especially bad, because he thought that Arnold committed a crime when all he did was defend his old girlfriend from getting beaten to death.

"Now that I've told you what happened, can I go upstairs?" Arnold asked in a depressed and exhausted tone.

Miles and Stella, who at this point, didn't know what to say or do, said, "Of course."

Arnold got up slowly, and went upstairs to his bedroom. When he got to his room, he shut the door, and slid down the back of it, laying on the ground. He closed his eyes, and kept flashing back to the incident and then to when him and Helga were kids. Why didn't I go into the park sooner? Arnold asked himself. I should have stopped her, and talked to her before this happened. Why did I ever leave here? I could have protected her more if I never left. This is all my fault, I should have done more for her...

Arnold moved to his bed, laying in it with his clothes on, and cried himself to sleep.