Chapter 13

Helga woke up that morning in a nice warm bed that was a little lumpy, but still pleasant. For a split second, Helga thought she was back in her bed in Vermont, and the past week and a half had been a dream but Helga wrenched her eyes open to a practically empty room except for the lone duffel bag in the corner of the room. Helga saw her fluffy pink blanket on top of grey sheets that she was covered in and sighed when she remembered that she was back in Hillwood and it wasn't a dream. She had spent most of last night on the roof of the boarding house, just relaxing and being happy for the first time in five years. She was back home, even if she was living with Arnold.

That still felt weird….

"I live with Arnold," Helga mumbled to herself. "Nope, still weird…"

Helga heard footsteps outside, causing Helga to glance at the watch on her wrist, since she didn't own a cell phone-she was in such a rush to leave Vermont, she had completely forgotten about her cell phone. But her watch told her it was little after 7:45; everyone was probably starting to get breakfast.

Helga stood and got dressed only to realize she didn't have any clean clothes-she was really going to have to go shopping today. Maybe while she looked for a job…

Which was going to be today.

Helga wore a dirty shirt and decided to ask Arnold about laundry-she left the room to almost run into him.

"Sorry, Helga," Arnold said. "Want some breakfast? We're making waffles,"

"Sure, sounds great," Helga said. "Hey, do you know any places that are hiring right now?"

Arnold paused for a minute and scratched the back of his neck. "Not sure," he mumbled. "I think the local library is looking for people to shelve books,"

Helga flinched slightly at the thought of books, reminding her of her job back at the library in Vermont-she had to shelve books as well as check books out when the self-checkout book machine…things were down. The librarians who also worked at the library were older and in their forties-fifties but they were as shallow as the students who passed them. Thinking about it made Helga remember a little girl that came into the library regularly (she was about seven or eight)-Helga had heard that her father was out of the picture and her mother was horribly abusive; she would dress the little girl in shirts that were too big for her and wouldn't give her winter coats. Helga remembered how one of the girls from her high school called the little girl 'a pathetic brat who would never amount to anything'-Helga remembered how the little girl would be so cold in winter without a coat she would wear tights over her shirt so she could keep warm. Helga was the only one in the library who would hand the little girl a small blanket whenever she came in if it were winter-the other librarians would act like the little girl didn't exist-when she had a question, they would ignore her; when she wanted books checked out, they would pretend the computers were down and would tell her to come back tomorrow.

Helga blinked out of the memory of her job as a librarian. "Anything else?" she asked hopefully. She had hated her job and though she was sure the librarians of Hillwood weren't as shallow, she didn't want any memories of her past job.

"Well…I think the gas station Stinky's working at is looking to hire another cashier…" Arnold said.

Good enough, Helga thought. "I might check that out," Helga said. "Any rules about laundry?"

"There are a few laundry machines in the basement," Arnold said. "They're free and you can use them any time-just don't leave them in too long-the other boarders might get cranky and sometimes they take them out of the machine and just throw them on the floor,"

"Okay," Helga said, giggling to herself a little-the boarders were more eccentric than she remembered.

Really though, what else was new?

. . .

After breakfast, Helga got her keys, some change for some new clothes and headed out. She decided her first stop would be to go to the gas station since it was on the way to the thrift store.

Helga reached the gas station soon enough and entered, discovering Phoebe and Gerald buying some cheap snacks with Stinky behind the counter.

"Hey, Phoebs,"

"Oh, hi, Helga," Phoebe said excitedly. "Gerald and I are having a movie night tonight and we were just buying some snacks-what are you doing here?"

"Job hunting," Helga said and almost added 'don't want to stay homeless forever' but remembered Sid was behind the counter; Helga turned her attention to Stinky. "Arnold told me that the store's looking for a cashier-is that true?"

"Uh-huh," Stinky said. "Our last cashier quit on us," Stinky paused for a minute before continuing. "You know, I'll mention you to Joe-he's the manager-you might even get to skip an interview,"

"Seriously?" Helga said, feeling relief and excitement. "You'd do that for me, Stink?"

"Course I would-you're an old friend, Helga,"

"Gosh, thanks Stinky," Helga said and if she hadn't glanced in Phoebe's direction she would have missed the small glare Phoebe threw Stinky's way that only lasted a millisecond. But Helga had glanced Phoebe's way so she noticed it, even if the glare had only lasted a millisecond.

"Well, I'm going to go buy me a soda," Helga said and walked toward the back of the store to get a cup to pour soda in when she heard Phoebe whisper softly but Helga was still close enough to hear.

"Skip an interview, huh?" Phoebe whispered harshly to Stinky. "How much of an 'old-friend' is she, Stinky?"

"What are you talking about, Phoebe?" Stinky whispered back to her.

"You know very well what I'm talking about-,"

"Crying out loud, Phoebs," Gerald whispered. "Helga already said she didn't want to be set up-will you let the stupid Arnold and Helga thing go already?"

"Look, Stinky, I know what you're up to, and Helga's not going to like it, so you might as well just quit it," Phoebe, ignoring Gerald, continued to whisper at Stinky.

"We ain't kids anymore, Phoebe," Stinky whispered back. "I'm sixteen years old for Pete's sake-I think I can make my own decisions now, thank you very much,"

"Stinky, I'm warning you-" Phoebe stopped when Helga came back with her soda.

"What are we whispering about, guys?" Helga said and wanted to yell at Phoebe 'how stupid do you think I am? Just because I'm at the back of the store doesn't mean I can't hear!' but kept her mouth shut.

"Just some study plans," Phoebe said innocently.

"Yeah…" Stinky mumbled. "Study plans,"

"That's cool," Helga mumbled, now a little uncomfortable. "What do I owe you for the soda, Stinky?"

"Nothing," Stinky said. "'S on me,"

"You sure?" Helga asked.

"Course-I'll talk to Joe when he gets back from his break,"

Helga sighed a little, relieved that Phoebe's pestering didn't scare Stinky into not offering Helga a job. "Thanks Stinky-well, I better get going,"

Helga left the store and wasn't half way down the sidewalk when she looked back and noticed Gerald pulling Phoebe out of the gas station while she was trying to talk to Stinky still. Even though she felt that Stinky's kindness was a little more than just friendly, Helga told herself that she (and Phoebe) were overlooking the situation-Stinky was just being really nice…

…right?

. . .

It was later that afternoon; Helga had managed to buy week's worth of clothing at the thrift store and had to take the bus back so she didn't have to walk all the way back to the boarding house with a ton of bags. She had just finished dinner and was doing laundry (who knows where those thrift store clothes had been?) when Mr. Hyunh came downstairs and said someone was at the door for Helga-that someone turned out to be Stinky.

"I got you the job," Stinky told her, smiling.

"You did not," Helga said, suspicious of the quickness of it all.

"Did so," Stinky said. "I've been workin' at that gas station since I broke a window with a baseball when I was fourteen and had to sweep the bathroom floors to pay it off-Joe trusts me, so he trusted me when I said you would be a great employee. I got your uniform and everything," Stinky handed her a simple green polo t-shirt and black pants with black shoes. "You can come in first thing tomorrow morning-eight o'clock sharp-hope that's not too early,"

"It's perfect, Stinky!" Helga, without thinking, hugged Stinky tightly. "I don't know how to thank you," Helga backed away to see Stinky blushing profusely.

"Shucks, it ain't a big deal," Stinky said. "I'll see you tomorrow,"

"See you tomorrow," Helga said, smiling. "Thanks again, Stinky,"

Helga shut the door and started to head upstairs to her room to put her stuff away when she saw Arnold coming down the stairs.

"Was that Stinky?" he said.

"Yeah-he got me a job at the gas station!" Helga said it excitedly because of course she was excited! It was Helga's first job that was in Hillwood, which would give her a reason to give money to Arnold's grandpa and it wouldn't make her feel like a complete free-loader.

"That's awesome," Arnold said. "I'm happy for you, Helga,"

Helga smiled and continued up the stairs-she was so excited that she didn't notice Arnold staring after her as she walked up the stairs and she didn't notice Arnold's grandpa, who was watching nearby, wink at Arnold.

And she certainly didn't notice Arnold blush like crazy.

A/N: What's this? Another chapter? I'm alive, you ask? I haven't just given up, you ask? I know, it's a miracle-as for the next chapter….

…

…..

…

….I'll try.