Chapter 10
A half hour had gone by-Phoebe got everyone drinks to calm everyone down though it was a little awkward for Helga; now that Arnold, Gerald and Phoebe knew everything, she felt exposed because they knew her secret. It had really been no secret before that she had problems at home, but now it was clear as day. They knew everything and even though Helga felt better for telling them-like a ton of bricks had been lifted from her shoulders-she still felt like she had just exposed herself naked in front of her closest friends.
Arnold and Phoebe were talking about small things-Arnold's scholarships, like nothing had happened. Arnold would glance at Helga every once in a while and would give her encouraging smiles, like he wanted to say 'its okay, I understand'. Helga gave him a look like 'whatever, I don't care' but the look Arnold gave back would tell her that he didn't believe her. Helga wanted to avoid it, but she felt it was inevitable and it was time to do what needed to be done.
Helga finally stood up and tossed her empty can of soda into Phoebe's garbage can. "I better get going," Helga said.
"Going?" Phoebe asked, shocked. "Where are you going?"
"Don't know," Helga said softly. "I'll figure it out when I get there,"
"What do you mean?" Gerald said.
"It was nice visiting you guys," Helga said, trying to smile, but failing. "Maybe I'll come back before school starts-"
"Come back?" Phoebe said. "You're not going back to Vermont, are you?"
"Heck no," Helga said immediately. "But I can't stay here-that couple who was looking at the house this morning bought it-I can't stay there anymore and I have nowhere else to go. So I guess I'm…moving on…"
"Helga, you can stay with me!" Phoebe said.
"You guys don't have room, and if your parents found out I was a runaway, they would call my parents immediately, same as everybody else here-I have some money so I'll go to another town, rent a hotel and then get a job…I'll be okay, really," Helga tried to sound encouraging, but she really felt like she wanted to curl up and die. She just got back, she felt like she was at home and she had been dreaming about this for years-now she had to leave.
"No!" Phoebe said, and started crying again. "No, no, no, you just got here! You can't leave again!"
"I have to, Phoebe," Helga said. "I don't want to leave either, but I have nowhere else to go and I'm not going-"
"Stay with me,"
That had come from Arnold-he had stood there, looking shocked and was quiet until that moment. Helga stared at him in shock and he looked back at her before blushing suddenly and clearing his throat.
"Uh, I meant…us. You can stay with us-at the boarding house,"
"The boarding house?" Helga asked. "You mean…your boarding house? How much is your rent?"
"Don't worry about that," Arnold said. "We have a few empty rooms right now so you're welcome to stay,"
"That's perfect!" Phoebe said, her tears gone instantly. "You can stay at Arnold's and you can even start High School with us this year! You don't have to leave and you don't have to go back to that stupid town in Vermont, ever!"
"Hold up," Helga said and looked at Arnold. "Look, Arnold, I appreciate the offer, but I can't just live with you guys for no rent-that's not fair to the other people living there and what will your grandparents say when they find out I'm a runaway? Won't they want to call my parents or something?"
"My grandma never remembers the news in the mornings," Arnold said. "Even if she did, she wouldn't remember long enough to do anything about it and if I explain the situation to my grandpa, he'd understand. He remembers your dad-he never did like him,"
"I don't want him to know," Helga said, groaning. "I don't want anyone else to know, this is so humiliating,"
"There's nothing embarrassing about it," Gerald said.
"It is," Helga said. "I used to be the tough girl, no one messed with me, nobody! I had to act like a pretty girl to survive; I have parents who don't even want me! This is so…so…"
"My grandpa will be the last to know then," Arnold said. "After this, nobody else will have to know,"
Helga glanced at him. "Nobody else will have to know?"
"Nobody else," Phoebe confirmed before Arnold had to.
Helga thought about it…it did sound like a good idea. She would have a place to live…she might even have a bed, food that didn't come from a can or a package. Wait, what was she thinking?
"I can't," Helga said. "How much is your rent?"
"You don't need-"
"I want to know," Helga said. "It's not fair that all your other boarders pay rent and I'm the only one who doesn't pay just because I have a rotten home life-how much is your rent?"
Arnold paused. "Our rent is 800 dollars a month, but that's because the people in the houses have full time jobs and my grandma provides cooking-"
"It' doesn't matter," Helga said. "I can't mooch off you guys, it's not fair,"
"You're staying with Arnold," Phoebe said suddenly.
Helga looked at Phoebe, shocked at her determination. "What?"
"You're staying with him," Phoebe looked at Helga with a small glare. "You can argue all you want, but I'll drag you there myself if I have to-I just got my best friend back, I'm not about to let her leave. Go get your stuff from your house so we can get to Arnold's,"
"Phoebe," Helga tried to start an argument but Phoebe wouldn't hear it.
"Don't 'Phoebe' me," she said. "We're going to Arnold's and that's that,"
Helga wanted to argue and wanted to tell her exactly who was in charge, but something told Helga that in this case, Phoebe was in charge. Helga somehow knew that arguing this was pointless so she just looked at Arnold instead.
"I have 175 dollars in cash," Helga said. "Take that as rent until I can get a job-I want to at least give you guys something for a roof over my head,"
Arnold finally consented. "Fair enough-we'll discuss rent rates once you get a job,"
"Fine," Helga said and walked out the door with Phoebe and Arnold.
. . .
Helga, Arnold, Phoebe and Gerald stood in front of Arnold's house-Arnold opened the door as a bunch of dogs and cats, including a pig, came running out of the house, racing past Helga's legs.
"Whose animals are those, anyway?" Helga asked.
"We have no idea," Arnold said as he ushered everybody in. Helga had been to Arnold's house before and it looked the same as it always did-Helga wanted to laugh at the memories of the trouble she'd gotten into in this house. Dropping her pink diary on Gerald's stack of books on the bus, having Arnold's grandpa accidentally take Helga's locket, the voice message she had left on Arnold's answering machine when she was doped up on laughing gas when she went to the dentist-so many memories…and for a minute, Helga felt happy she was living in Arnold's house.
"Wait here for a second," Arnold disappeared into the family room for a few minutes before coming back with a hook full of keys. "I'll talk to grandpa later," Arnold said. "Come on," Arnold led his friends up the stairs into the hallway of bedrooms. "The bathroom's right there," Arnold pointed at a door. "Everyone's free to use it when it's empty and the residents ask that you knock first before entering-I would suggest staying away from it after dinner though. That's when Ernie does his…business,"
"Right," Helga said…she wasn't sure how she felt right now. She felt like it was all just too good to be true.
"Here," Arnold went to a door with a number three on it-he pulled out a key and twisted the lock, revealing the room to be completely empty except for a lone bed on the far side of the room with a window looking out to the backyard. "Every resident gets two keys-one for the actual house and one for your room-if you lose either one, it'll be ten dollars to replace it,"
"Okay," Helga said, walking into the room. All she had was her duffel bag with clothes and money-speaking of which, she pulled out the blanket and pillow she had grabbed at home before she left and put it on the bed before grabbing her money box and pulling what money was left out of there. "I know it's not much…"
"Use that money to buy you some more clothes," Arnold said. "…it looks like you only have three shirts in there,"
"I have eight, thank you," Helga said and pulled bills from the handful of money. "At least take fifty,"
"Fine," Arnold took the five ten dollar bills and stuffed them in his pocket. "Grandma serves breakfast at 7:30, lunch at noon and dinner usually varies from 6:00 to 7:30. There's a specific cupboard that has snacks for the residents, but we had to start locking it because Oscar kept trying to eat it all and wouldn't bother to pay the money to replace it,"
Phoebe giggled at that and Gerald chuckled-was it some kind of inside joke Helga didn't know about?
"If you want a snack, you can ask me or my grandpa-don't ask my grandma because you'll be in a discussion about the dangers of junk food before you know it,"
"What about chores?" Helga asked, sitting down on the bed.
"You don't have to worry about that-I usually do the chores,"
"Then let me do some chores then," Helga said. "It'll be some form of rent-that way I won't feel like I'm completely mooching off you,"
"I can handle it," Arnold said.
"But you said your grandma hasn't been able to do much since her leg's been amputated, right?" Helga asked. "So then let me do the dishes, or clean the bathroom and stuff-it can be considered part of my rent,"
"That does sound fair," Phoebe said.
"Fine," Arnold said. "I'll have grandpa leave a list of chores you can do,"
"Great," Helga said.
"Is that blanket the only blanket you brought?" Arnold asked.
Helga nodded and blushed a little-when she had first left, she thought she was careful and organized but the more Helga thought about it, she realized she was actually rushed and didn't really think much about stuff to bring.
"That's okay-we have some extra sheets and blankets you can use,"
"Hey, short man," Arnold's grandpa had come in and noticed Helga on the bed. "We get a new resident?"
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that, Grandpa," Arnold looked at his friends. "Just hang out for awhile-I'll be back," Arnold left to talk to his grandpa and Helga could imagine the words 'please let this girl I knew in elementary school stay here for free because she was bullied a lot in middle school and her parents don't want her-by the way, she ran away from home'.
"Arnold'll take care of it," Gerald said.
"Hmm," Helga mumbled a little but was too distracted by it all to really respond.
"Helga?" Phoebe said and sat beside Helga and took her hand.
"Yeah, Phoebs?" Helga asked.
"I know it's a lot to take in," Phoebe said softly. "I know you feel uncomfortable having this offered to you-you're probably used to fending for yourself often…but I really think this is best for you. I think this is the only way for you to be truly happy again,"
Helga paused before nodding. "I guess you're right…it just…feels so weird,"
"It's okay to feel that way," Phoebe said.
Arnold and his grandpa walked back in.
"Well, I guess you'll be staying with us, Helgen," Arnold's grandpa said.
"Helga," Arnold corrected.
"Right," Arnold's grandpa scratched his head before continuing. "I'll leave a list of chores on the fridge every morning for you to do-I don't care when they get done as long as they're done by the end of the day. And you don't have to worry, the list won't be a mile long-it'll probably only be three chores for you to do. Think you can handle that?"
"Yes, sir," Helga said.
"Good, I'll have Arnold leave you sheets and a blanket that you can sleep on-breakfast starts at-"
"I already explained stuff grandpa," Arnold said.
"Did you tell her about noise violations?" Arnold shook his head so his grandpa continued. "You can't make noise from 10:00 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. If you do, it'll be a strike against you-three strikes will get to either a raise in rent…but in your case it'll just be extra chores. Fair?"
"Fair," Helga agreed.
"Good, you don't have to sign contracts or anything, so I better get back downstairs,"
"Thanks…um," Helga wasn't sure what to call Arnold's grandpa…it felt awkward to just call him Arnold's grandpa…
"You can call me Phil," he said and left.
"Thanks, Phil," Helga said as Phil walked out of the room.
"Why don't we go get some food?" Gerald said. "We'll wait downstairs while Helga unpacks,"
"Good idea," Phoebe said and they all began to shuffle out of the room. "Come downstairs whenever you're ready, Helga," she said and she shut the door behind her.
Helga just sat at the bed before lying down…even though she had been home for about a week…this time, she felt like she was really home- REALLY home.
Helga sighed in content before realizing something and sitting up.
She was staying in the house of the boy she not only had a crush on but was practically obsessed with for most of her elementary school years.
She was staying in Arnold's house.
SHE WAS STAYING IN ARNOLD'S HOUSE.
"…crap," Helga said softly.