"Have y'all been sittin' like that the whole damn drive?" Gerald blinked at Helga and Arnold. Helga was very nearly nodded off on his arm. Gerald parked at a lot by the dorms, not bothering with Lila and Sid before getting out of the truck.

"Fuck off, Johannsen." She yawned. She stood up slowly, carefully not stepping on Arnold or the boat. "What do you think the odds are that Lila knows where she lives?"

"Fairly high," Gerald scoffed, "she's drunk, Helga, not suddenly blind."

Arnold giggled. Helga kicked him.

"I'll take them, then, you guys take a two minute nap, or something." Helga- standing in that truck bed, let the reality of the last twenty minutes- of straight up laying on Arnold, wash over her. She wanted a few moments without either of the two guys.

She hopped over the side of the truck bed.

"Do you have your student i.d.s?" She grumbled as she opened the front of the truck- where both Lila and Sid were snoring, tangled together. "Great. Just…great."

"Man-" Helga actually managed to get Sid and Lila to walk like semi-functional human beings, ids in her hand. It was a pretty impressive feat. Gerald watched them stumble into the building. "Can I ask?" Gerald asked Arnold, leaned up against the car on one arm.

Arnold groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. "Gerald, I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Like…not to pry, man, but like, did you…not move on?"

"I did- I did." He shook his head dismissively, "I just like to mess with her with the whole 'we're still dating' thing. I gave up after two years of letters with no responses." He shrugged. "I dated a few girls- one girl in India really seriously, actually. I miss her, a little bit. It was never gonna work, though."

He paused. Gerald wondered if he was supposed to say something. He never had these kinds of talks.

"Honestly, it got to a point where she really didn't cross my mind unless Lila mentioned her in a letter." Arnold leaned an arm over the truck, looking pensively out across the parking lot. Gerald forgot that Arnold was hardly a normal boy when it came to feelings. Most of his guy friends would have answered that with 'yeah, she's cool.' Not Arnold, never Arnold. "I really don't think I was hung up on her before, but I might just be getting…"

"Re-hung up?" Gerald finished for him, cocking his head to the side with curiosity.

"I mean…have you taken a good look at her?" Arnold asked, looking serious.

Gerald…had and hadn't. He had watched her grown up, which made the change less drastic. And Helga was never really his type. But the long legs and the longer hair and well defined waist in what she was wearing that night- he couldn't exactly blame Arnold.

"She looks beautiful," He shrugged and agreed with him.

"She is beautiful," Arnold corrected. Gerald wanted to roll his eyes but he let sleep-deprived Arnold have his little moment. Arnold seemed to have realized what he just said, and he groaned, shoving his face back in his hands. "I'm so done for."

Gerald looked down at him, and then up to the sky, shaking his head. "You're a bold kid, Arnold, a bold kid."

Helga was tired and annoyed by the time she reached Lila's dorm room, which was nearer than Sid's, so she said to Sid "Sid- bud, can you get back to your dorm on your own?"

"Psh- yeah," he said confidently, with a deep slur. "I'm fine," he shrugged, only swaying in place a little. Lila had hung up many polaroids of her friends with string lights on her walls. It took all of Helga not to roll her eyes…how Lila continued to fight to be the most basic girl alive surprised her every day. The dorm room was a dungeon, as they all were, but between that and the Lilly Pulitzer-esque bedspread, it was obvious that it was Lila's. Which Helga was privately thankful for, because if she dumped them in some rando's room- well, that would be a disaster for another night. Lila had already sat down on her bed, kicking off her heels like they were on fire. Which Helga couldn't blame her for- she had already left her own in the back of the truck.

"Can," Lila hiccuped, "can one of you unzip this?" She turned around and moved her hair- sweaty and looking ratty, off her back to show the zipper of her dress.

Sid blushed red, but did as she asked with only a bit of struggle.

"See, fine?" He told Helga- and Helga was tired enough to believe him.

"Then I'm leaving, goodnight, guys!" She turned around and left the dorm before another moment- she just couldn't wait to go to bed. It was almost four in the morning.

"Guys-" it dawned on Gerald as they pulled up to the funeral home- himself still in the driver's seat. Arnold, bless him, was passed the fuck out in the passenger's seat. Helga sat on Arnold's smartphone, doing God knows what, in the middle. They had driven there in silence, and Gerald was all a dead man walking by that point, just going through the motions. He parallel parked directly in front of the home. "This place is going to be locked up."

"This is also not only a little-" Helga squinted at the fine print of whatever she was reading, "this is hella illegal. Like…really, really fucking illegal."

Arnold snored. Gerald tried to ignore the fond look Helga sent his way. He rubbed a palm on his face.

"Do we have a game plan?"

"I'm bringing in reinforcements." Helga said decidedly, and pressed the phone to her ear.

When Arnold woke up, crook in his neck, face pressed up against the glass, no one was in the car with him. He panicked, for only a moment, floundering a little in his seat. When he turned to the side, he saw that his friends were within arms reach- and thank whoever, he didn't fall asleep while driving- Gerald was driving.

They were also joined on the sidewalk by his parents. They seemed to be debating something respectfully, Helga's mouth already running quickly, he could tell. There was lots of nodding going on. He opened his car door.

"Hey, sleepy head!" His mom called fondly.

"Good, you're up." His dad said, uncrossing his arms, and then recrossing them. "We're taking the car, anyway. Did you know that that's technically illegal too, because you're all under 25? Like, jeez, American laws are stupid."

"Yeah-" Helga blinked, then yawned, really cutely, actually. She had her arms crossed over her- it was chillier than it was outside of the city. Arnold thought that he should offer her his jacket, but she was talking. "I can't believe that there are laws about what you do when you die. How can that be illegal? Death laws? We're never free of law-"

"Yes well, it was illegal when that guy got stabbed and thrown into the river last May, but someone did it." Gerald spoke over her, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Now, as your resident-" He looked around at the people he was standing with, taking in something, but Arnold didn't know what "guy who has to worry a little more about being arrested than y'all," Arnold understood then, "I know the longer we stand here- the worse it gets, so let's get a move on y'all."
Arnold's dad tossed Gerald the keys to the car they had driven there in, and already had the truck keys in hand. He trudged to the car slowly, listening in somewhat on Helga and Gerald's conversation, but definitely not fully.

"So you're telling me that we coulda cremated her, and then put her in the boat, and this woulda been legal?"

"I mean- yeah, kind of-"

Arnold sat in the back.

"But as Miles said, that wasn't really her goal. Because all dead, once living organisms have nutrients left to give to the Earth, it's kind of selfish that we, and no other animal, don't…give back what we took."

"And I get that, I do, I'm just sayin' that this all would have been legal if we-"

"Yes, Gerald. Yes."

"Good, I just needed to know exactly how crazy these white people are."

"He's got a plan, Gerald."

"That is such a white person thing to say, I can't even with tha-"

Helga was chatty when she was tired, she had pulled enough all-nighters to know that. But there was a point in time every time Helga was really, really tired, when she just shut down. When she moved, and knew what people were saying, and what she was saying, but it was like it was a dream and none of it was real. It would stop, it would go away soon enough, and she'd be back to talking quickly and heatedly, but when it happened, it was surreal. Like everything was happening slowly, in a vat of pudding.

Getting to the nursing home to pick up Arnold's grandfather all passed in a blur- it really, truly did. She had a conversation with Gerald the entire way there, and she couldn't tell you for love or money what on earth it was about. She followed the boys down the hall in the home, which smelled terrible, as all nursing homes did.

"Hey!" Grandpa Phil sounded surprised when Arnold opened his door, despite being fully dressed and waiting for them there. "You brought Eleanor! Pookie woulda loved that, Arnold."

"Well, I-"

"I'm glad," Helga interrupted, smiling at the old man. Jesus- they really were getting up there, weren't they? He looked really old, but it was also almost 5 in the morning. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, well, there's one thing." He said, shifting around in his seat. "How did you guys get in here?"

"We just walked in," Gerald said plainly, looking behind himself with paranoia. "…why?"

"Because I'm not allowed ta' leave in these hours of the night- but if there ain't no security guards well, then…"

"Oh my god-" Helga groaned, shoving her face in her palm. "Did we really not think any of this through?"

"She never thought anything through!" Arnold's Grandpa interjected. She looked up at his bed in his room. She never, has ever, had the urge to sleep in a nursing home. But damn if she was well fighting it. "It's all very her, in her own way."

They were coming up on the corner by the entrance, and there was, actually, a security guard at the front desk. The sole front door had actually been propped open for the delivery man for the kitchens, he was getting his paperwork signed, and then he was rolling his cart back out through the front, shutting the door behind him.

"Okay, this looks bad…" Grandpa Phil was saying. "But don't you kids worry, I've got a plan!"

Any hope Gerald had for getting the stains out of his dress pants were officially dashed as he jumped out of the window in the lobby, into the flower gardens of the exterior of the building. He ruined someone's petunias, they probably worked hard on those, but they could suck it, because he was a tired man, in someone's damn flower garden.

"This is so damn stupid," He muttered to himself. He stood up, looking back through the window, watching Helga try and disable the technology that tracked Grandpa Phil's wheelchair, so that they wouldn't set off an alarm.

He shook his head. "So damn stupid."

And of course, this plan involved him getting yelled at by some old guy in a security officer's uniform. Just long enough for him to distract him so Helga and Arnold could wheel Phil out of there.

He walked around to the front, grumbling the whole way. He pressed the buzzer that called the guard's attention.

"Visiting hours start at 9." The guard's tired voice came over the monitor.

"I'm not here for a visit-" That was a lie, but everything was a lie. "Please come to the door."

"What do you want-" The guys mean face was staring blankly at him, throwing open the door wearily.

"Okay, maybe it was a visit, but my Grandmum is sick," Gerald did not know how or why the british accent got involved- it just did. "And my work starts at eight!"

"Then you can come after."

"That's when my dog is going to the veterinarians!" Gerald didn't actually think british people always spoke with the full words instead of abbreviations, but it seemed to fit. "Please, Sir, she'll be so upset."

He paused. "Who's ya Grand…mum?" He asked suspiciously.

Gerald blanched, if only for half a second, but then his phone started to ring. He reached for it, and it was Arnold's number pulled up across the screen.

"That's her now." He told the man, concealing Arnold's name on the screen by answering quickly. "Grandmum, I'm trying to come for tea-" He was trying to talk before Arnold did, so that he knew the conversation they were 'having.'

"What up with the british?" Grandpa Phil's voice came over the line. "Nevermind- your grandma is Phyllis, in 23C!"

"Mumsie, maybe you could speak to the gentleman, explain this situation, you know, with Patsy. You know how I have to take him to the veterinarian the afternoon, poor darling, with his cancer, and all." Who named a dog Patsy- no one knew. Did dogs get cancer? Gerald didn't know. He prayed that the guard wasn't a secret dog cancer expert. He was already holding his phone out to the guard, looking insistent, hoping the scuffle on the other end, likely over who had to play Phyllis, wasn't too audible.

"Uh, hello?" The guard was apprehensibly answering the phone, "yea' listen, lady, I get it but- Well I didn't, well of course I- No, I completely respect the elderl, no I don't hate dogs, I just can't, well I suppose there are… 2C you said? Well, I understand Patsy is sic- listen, I grew up with two dogs, I know… well couldn't it, okay, yes, yes, I'll send him over." He passed the phone back like it burned him.

"Take a badge and please don't make me talk to anyone else," The guard walked around the back of the counter and handed him a guest badge. "Tell Phyllis I said hello, she's a good woman."

Gerald thanked him, and walked around the corner, noticing that Phil, Helga and Arnold were gone. Leaving him with only one small problem- how was he supposed to get out? How were they supposed to get Phil back in? He was walking quickly then, wondering exactly where the break room that he jumped out of was- he was visiting a dear grandmother, he wouldn't be aimlessly wandering around, when he heard a faint 'psst' noise.

A hand was waving at him from one of the dorms. "Come here!" A voice jeered at him.

He hoped this wouldn't get him killed, and followed it. A small, aging woman was beaming at him. Her curtains breezed behind her, her window open.

"Phil's gonna bust me outta here in a few weeks-" She didn't have any teeth. It was the only thing Gerald could remember about her. Nursing homes smelled awful. She pushed him towards the window. "Go, go, and bring back some Dunkin Donuts, will ya?"

They should have made Helga do this. That window was too damn small for any man his size.

Gerald was too tired after that to remember anything other than falling out of the window, ruining someone's lilies, and clomping defeatedly to the sedan that was parked on the street nearby.

"Uh, Pops-" Arnold almost wanted to laugh, because Gerald was referring to his father, not Gerald's, "who's this guy at our family funeral?" Arnold was helping his Grandpa out of the four door and into his wheelchair- which was tough to roll along the gravel, but it would have to do.

Gerald was referring to the man they didn't know, who was standing with them in the parking lot clearance for the park and the lake. He was tall and wearing an odd trash-man kind of suit.

"He's going to completely ignore the next ten minutes, and then be the man of Mom's hippy dreams." Arnold's dad said confidently.

"Lucky bastard," Grandpa swore, and Arnold would have laughed if he was even slightly less tired.

"It's called human composting, it's an entirely legal and natural process in which we-"

"No offense," Helga interrupted, "but I have learned more about death through personal experience and Google tonight than I have ever, ever wanted to know, and I really just need to get this the hell over with."

He blinked. "Fair enough."

"Here, here, sister!" Grandpa reached out a hand to high five her. "I always loved this girl, Arnold."

"Basically, folks, it's so the city doesn't come after you when chunks of your loved one's dead body comes floating up on the shore and they run a DNA test on it."

"Yeah," Grandpa blinked, "I probably could have died without knowing that, but thanks though." He grabbed Arnold's Dad's pant leg furiously. "Cremation," He whispered to it. "You're promising me cremation, aren't ya?"

He snorted. "Yes, Dad."

"Good," He clapped, "let's get this show on the road, folks!"

Grandpa was singing, the boat was on fire, and Helga's knee was pressed into his knee as they sat on the bank of the lake, when Arnold realized he actually wasn't okay with the fact that he'd never see his Grandma again.

This was goodbye, this was the goodbye she wanted, and that made it goodbye and Arnold never handled those well.

See you laters, those he could handle, goodbye was a new territory.

It was never perfect- it was never exactly what he wanted, as a kid. Just like now, like how they couldn't let her body burn up partially in a boat to then float up on children, like she had wanted, he guessed.

That was just life. He was just finally starting to get his hands on that concept- that life was what it was, and not what you wished it could be.

She had never gotten that concept- in life or in death.

His heart ached- and God, did he miss her.

She had fought so hard when he was a kid to make him feel the way all kids should, special, cared for, included. She had her own ways of going about it- but she tried, and she tried hard.

He reached up to brush his hair off his face, and it was wet and he knew he was upset, but he didn't know he was tears level of upset.

"Pookie, you were crazy-" Grandpa was saying, "but you gave me the gift of adventure, of life, in a world of people who want to sit inside, a gift I can't ever repay and one that I am forever grateful for-"

Arnold, for a fleeting moment, looked down at Helga. Her face had tear tracks, Arnold was almost glad he hadn't really listened to his Grandpa's speech. She tucked her head in between his and his shoulder. He let his head rest on top of hers.

"But I won't cry tonight," his Grandpa's voice floated back into his consciousness, "for we were never connected by anything earthly, as you used to say. And I always knew it was true, even if I called you crazy. And I know I'll see you, somehow, someway, soon enough."

Arnold pressed his face into Helga's hair. He just hoped she never brought up him crying on her ever again. He felt Gerald's hand wrap all the way around her from her other side to grab his shoulder.

Arnold thought, for a moment, that feeling loved when you're really really sad makes you sadder, because it didn't really help that much.

He looked up at his Grandpa. He smiled at him.

That helped.

The three of them sat in silence. The entire group of them sat in silence, as the man from the composting unit drew in the boat with a rope. Arnold just hoped his heavy breathing wasn't audible.

They drove the sedan back to the nursing home in silence. When they pulled into the lot, Grandpa was still smiling. "Just help me out, and drop me at the front, kiddos. I'll take it from there." They did as he asked, moving slowly from exhaustion, and watched him roll up to the front of the building with a shit-eating grin.

For the first time in hours, Arnold laughed.

"So, uh," Gerald was blinking at the darkness that still engulfed the nursing home parking lot. It was crazy how late the sunrise was in the autumn. The sun probably wouldn't start rising until Arnold's Grandma's funeral started. "What now?"

"Uh, I have a funeral to go to." Arnold blinked. He looked down at his pants, which had dirt grown into the knees. His jacket was probably a crumpled nest- sitting behind the seat of the truck all night. "I guess I should probably change."

Helga snorted. "Yeah, you look like you dug the hole they're throwin' her box into. Which is stupid, just so you know, because those coffins are literally thousands of dollars, the bounds that rich people will go to to avoid having conversations with each other honestly astounds me-"

Gerald put a hand on her shoulder- trying to give her a signal to please, for the love of God, shut the fuck up.

She did, and Gerald's tired ass thanked the Lord.

"The funeral home is where my car is-" Gerald yawned, walking ahead of his friends. "Let's get you home, and changed, and then you can take us there, and I'll take Pataki home." He got into the passenger seat of the truck without waiting for a response from his friends.

Arnold was officially too tired to be sad. Helga had gotten suddenly very chatty, in the way that tired people like to ramble. He only listened partially to her rant on mortality on their way to the boarding house. He changed into his only other black pants and a grey button down in his bathroom, before walking back to his room to tell them that he was ready to go.

They were knocked out, straight asleep, strewn out across his bed.

He smiled, snapped a picture on his phone, and left for the funeral, deciding to let them sleep.

He was probably too tired to legally drive himself, but he did anyway.

The only thing that he remembered in between leaving, coming back, and laying down to fall asleep beside his friends, was the thought that ran through his mind the night before and all morning.

Funerals were not for the dead, they were for the living.

He didn't shed one tear as they lowered the empty box into the ground, not one.

However, he did watch the rise and fall of his friend's chests beside him, and felt slightly more grateful to be alive. Grateful to be alive, grateful to be him, grateful for all the things his life had given him, but mostly the love. He was loved.

He was exhausted, emotionally drained, and had an ache in his ankle like no other, but he was lucky.

He was so lucky.

Something was making a jingling noise at him and there was something…very human… breathing on Sid's neck. Sid tried not to move at all. He opened his eyes- looking left, which had a desk and…another bed, unless Sid wasn't currently in a bed, if so- Jesus Christ. On this right there was a wall with polaroid pictures strung up along it.

His head was about to explode, and there was hair that definitely was not his itching his arm. Why was it so damn bright in that room? The jingle was so loud it might as well have been a fucking gong clanging in Sid's head.

More importantly- why was he in that room? Who was sleeping on him? He prayed- momentarily, to whatever God was up there, that it was Helga.

He glanced down, and nope- that was definitely red hair.

Fuck.

Helga was curled into a ball in the corner of a bed- Gerald's head on her knees- Arnold with one hand on her arm. Her phone was ringing on the floor. She groaned, digging her head further into the pillow she was curled around.

"What time is it y'all?" Gerald stretched out- arms reaching over Helga's thighs. She would have considered that more intimate if she was less fucking tired- but she'd rather get hit by a baseball bat than move at the moment.

"It's 10:04" Arnold yawned. "Gerald, are you aware that you're laying on my entire lower half?"

"Sure am, bud." He rolled over- even more so on Arnold, yawning deeply.

Arnold sighed, "just checkin'."

The silence settled over them again. Helga was thinking that the entire thing should be a little more weird- and maybe it would be in a few hours, but for the moment, it was comfortable.

Helga's eyes creaked open. "10:04…" She muttered to herself.

"Probably 10:05 now." Gerald said into Arnold's bedsheets.

Helga bolted up. "Ah, fuck," She said quickly, rolling on to the floor in her tight skirt. How she made it through the entire night in it, she had no idea. "Yup." She picked up her phone- she missed the call, but Lila was already calling her again.

"Hey, Lila- are you at work yet?"

"No- I just woke up." If Helga felt exhausted, Lila sounded like she lived through at least three apocalypses. "We're gonna get murdered if we don't get there in time to open." The store opened at 11. The openers were supposed to be there by ten- which Lila and Helga, evidently, were not.

"Yeah- yeah, I know, I'm not home yet, though, so I'll need a change of clothes."

"I'll bring you pants, I think all my black polos are dirty," Lila yawned, "Do you need shoes?"

Helga looked down at the ground- her heels from last night long forgone. She thought she ditched them somewhere in between the party and the funeral home- she was lucky she came home with both.

"Yeah." She sighed.

"You're a 9, right? I'm an 8. We'll figure it out. Try and get there in fifteen." Lila yawned again. "I'll bring makeup wipes. We'll make it." She was trying her best to sound optimistic.

"I'll need a ride if I'm gonna get there in fifteen-" Helga was turning around, pushing a hand through his hair. Arnold was already sitting up- with his shoes on. Gerald was fast asleep. "Nevermind. I got it." She smiled fondly at him. She turned back around, looking at Arnold's mirror. She was fiddling with her hair- anything so it looked less tangled. "Anything else?"

"Yeah- uhm, you wouldn't happen to know if I had sex with Sid last night, do you?"

Helga stopped dead in her tracks. "If you…what!?"

"You know what, we'll talk when we get there, love you, see you, bye!"

And the line went dead. Helga turned around slowly, facing Arnold and a dead asleep Gerald.

"I hate our friends." She grumbled, and Arnold smiled at her for some unknown reason. "Gerald," She sort-of yelled, "Get up, I need your shirt."

Arnold was up just one and a half hour after falling asleep after trekking all over the place for hours the night before- and smiling because Helga Pataki admitted she had friends.

She was also fast asleep beside him- but that didn't matter to him in that moment, because she was the one who had to work all day, not him. He was gonna go straight back home and fall asleep- probably next to Gerald, who barely woke up enough to take his shirt off. His shirt sleeves were now rolled up and safety pinned on Helga.

He remembered, vaguely, where the shop was- and thanks to the relatively earliness of the morning, was able to parallel park directly outside of it.

"Helga, babe-" it slipped before he even realized it was coming out of his mouth, luckily she hadn't really regained consciousness yet. He grabbed her shoulder- vaguely remembering something about that being the best place to touch a sleeping person. "We're here."

She blinked blearily in the sunlight, and half-heartedly shoved his hand off her shoulder. She didn't say anything, just yawned and opened the car door. Arnold held in a laugh at her ensemble- wearing his socks, a tight skirt, and Gerald's shirt, she made quite the picture.

"Shove off, Football-head." She groaned, shutting the door quickly. He laughed then, rolling down his window to lean out the side.

"What time are you done?" He asked.

"3:30." She yawned, punching the alarm code into the door. She must have been too tired to ask why. Arnold waved at Lila through the giant glass windows, but she was tying her shoes and didn't notice.

"Here's a phone charger, there's make-up wipes and pants on the table, I left out some slip ons for you, they'll stretch, and I picked up bagels. After you get sorted, could you please start up the machines? I'll start on toppings, and we are not talking about Sid until after we have this place ship shape!" Lila spit that all out in an ungodly amount of time, whirling around the register, counting the drawers quickly. She was exhausted and her head hurt like hell and if she and Sid fucked they most definitely didn't use protection, she checked, she checked every inch of her room for a sign of it, and she really, really, did not want to get in trouble today. She wanted to do her job, flip out with Helga for a little, then go home, or as much of a home as her dorm was, and go to sleep. Sleep sounded so good it felt dirty to even say the word.

The thirty minutes they had to properly open the store flew by- Helga moved quickly after brushing off her face with the makeup wipe. Lila unlocked the door with pride- and right on time.

"Well," She turned around, looking at Helga, with a sigh. There wasn't actually anything to do then- no one would be in the store for another two hours, likely. "What did you do last night?"

"Oh my god," Helga groaned, "please, do not ask."

If Sid and Lila actually started dating, Helga thought as she listened to Lila piece together exactly what happened the night before, she would probably jump off a cliff. Everyone in her life was getting too touchy feely and close for her comfort anyway- like, couldn't everyone ignore the prior night, and go back to normalcy, quietly hating each other from a distance? That was comfortable, that was good.

Luckily, it was a busy day in the store, Sundays were one of their peaks, with the after church crowd and the hung over college students later in the day. Lila barely had time to flip out at her about Sid, and Helga was still too tired to even process it. Three thirty came in a whirlwind, probably because she was half asleep for most of it, and she was counting down the minutes, when Lila was nudging her shoulder.

"What?" Helga looked up from ringing up someone's order. Arnold was standing outside, waving at her through the window. He didn't come inside- he looked like he was into a conversation with someone on his phone.

"Am I going to get an explanation for this?" Lila muttered to her as Helga thanked the customer, and they picked up their cup.

Helga groaned. "Would you believe me if I said I didn't have one?"

"Partially."

Helga groaned again, fiddling with some of the topping spoons.

"What, Helga? You don't exactly have the best track record with lying."

"Neither do you!" Helga exclaimed- and Lila turned bright red.

"Hey," Arnold said loudly as he walked into the shop, shoving his phone back in his pocket. "Are you ready to go?" He looked like he had been up for a few hours, but not done anything of specific importance, wearing old blue jeans and a plain grey sweater. His hair was rumpled. Helga wondered if they had reached the stage where she could straighten it, but she figured not.

"I-" Helga looked around, unsure, but not knowing why. "Yea, I guess. What are you doing here?" She felt aware how she looked, not that it mattered, as he saw her all the night before, but her hair was in a knot on her head, and her face had been rubbed raw that morning of makeup. She was wearing Lila's pants, that were probably three sizes too big, and four inches too short.

If he noticed, he didn't let it on.

"I still have your stuff at my place, and I thought you might want the ride. Also Gerald just woke up and he says we forgot to do something, but I think he might just still be tired."

"Just woke up?" Helga questioned. "That's over 12 hours!"

She was still a little alarmed that she was going to go hang out with Gerald Johannsen, whom she not only didn't speak to, but actively avoided for four years, again, after just spending 15 hours with the man. She didn't know how she was going to explain this to Cass.

It felt like she had lived at least three lives in the span of leaving for the funeral the night before and then. Even the house party and stealing the boat...it all felt years away and miles apart.

"Tell me about it." Arnold grinned, "he was on the phone with Mari when I left. Are you done, Lila, do you wanna come?" He asked politely.

"I've got three more hours," Lila was a team leader, meaning longer shifts. "Have fun, though!"

Helga was so tired that she didn't ask any questions- and got back in the car, which was now the truck, so Arnold must have traded with his parents at some point.

sid 3:32

hey guys

do you like the name ferdinand for my first child

cass 3:32

boy or girl?

sid 3:33

its unisex!

cass 3:33

it definitely isn't

also

sid

what the fuck did you do

sid 3:34

well i don't exactly know, so that's part of the thing…

cass 3:35

oh my god.

a/n i prefer to leave end caps on everyhitn but really i dont have any words for this piece right now...lol... sorry if ur only in it for die hard arnold / helgs bc i obv...am not in this one lol. they're still main characters but i like to spread the drama sprinkles on everyone. i love pookie and i am sad now but phil will be returning soon so there's that. thanks if u support this fic or comment or whatever u do it means a lot to me & i very very much appreciate thank u very much

love u all

xx k.