It was the night of the dance with her surprising Arnold wearing a pink dress for the evening. It had been some time since she wore anything that held any color and figuring how Arnold has been to her, she thought it would be a good thing to reward him in some small way. She had to admit that it was a great reward in how he couldn't stop holding her hand or having it securely around her waist. She did hate most of the songs they were playing, but danced to some of them anyhow just to have some fun.

At the table, Gerald, Phoebe, Arnold and herself were laughing at how Curly was dancing with Rhonda. They would be dancing very well together till she turned his back to him making him dance like a crazy maniac till she turned around. They knew he wasn't mocking her since it was his way of simply cutting to his craziness just to keep her happy for the rest of the night.

"You enjoying yourself tonight?"

He should know not to breath in her ear like that. With others she freaked out, but with Arnold she felt those moments alone with him take center stage. The way he held her. Touched her. Kiss her. It made her tremble in such a pleasurable way. "Yes. How about you?"

Taking a not so simple scan from her face to her lap, Arnold smiled almost too goofily. "Yes. Did I tell you how much I love that dress on you?"

"Since you first saw me." Giggling, she leaned in close to him for a kiss. "Did I tell you how handsome you look?"

Moving even closer to her, he kissed the corner of her mouth. "Since we first sat in the car."

Gerald and Phoebe were staring at their friends not acting like friends at all. Giving his girlfriend a silent signal, they both left the table to catch another dance. Wrapping his arms around her back, Gerald felt at immediate ease at how she rested her head against his chest.

"They are confusing me." Gerald mentioned.

Phoebe decided to dismiss his thoughts on that by nipping it in the bud. "Just go with the flow, Gerald. Let whatever will happen, happen."

"But."

"Just let it happen." Phoebe interrupted.

Helga giggled against Arnold as they both stood up to wave good bye to their friends. They had enough of the dance. Walking hand in hand out of the gym, they headed almost too slowly to the car as they spoke of the past when they were just kids.

"Harold even had that appetite at three. Remember when he took apart the macaroni that was already glued down to the house?" Helga asked as she practically leaned against him.

"He was always complaining that he was hungry."

In a voice as close to mimicking Harold she bellowed out, "But I'm hungry!"

Chuckling he hoped that Harold wasn't around to hear them. "I still remember the sweet little girl I met before you turned bully."

Rolling her eyes, she poked him. "I was sitting at my table swooning over you when Harold teased me making the others laugh in my face. I was so upset from that in combination with my family that I lost it. I thought it was the only way."

"I knew you weren't that bad, but unfortunately that reputation stuck."

"Unlike you, I was teased relentlessly for showing a bit of my true side. I tried not to let it bother me, but it did." Bowing her head down, she felt his arms wrap around her body.

"I'm sorry."

Pulling away from him, Helga began to walk again. "That is always getting tossed to me. I'm still sick of feeling like a damn charity."

"You know you aren't though, right?" Taking her hand again, Arnold squeezed it lovingly. "I know you aren't fond of it, but it does show that people care for you."

Still hating it, Helga continued on in silence as they reached the car to climb in. Hearing him ask if she wanted to head for ice cream she just told him that she was rather tired, and wanted to head home. Arnold didn't argue with her, but he was concerned. While he hated the pity, she felt that someone was just around the bend for them.

The next week, Dr Bliss had Roxie spend time at the park. Between home and school, Roxie never went out so Dr Bliss thought it was time for her to spread her wings. Roxie felt strange out in the open like this. Felt very exposed as if left naked for all the world to see. When a guy glanced in her direction, she would not only shy away, she would move as if that will take care of the problem.

"You know you cannot act like that towards all males. Not all will hurt you." Bliss declared easily as she watched another jogger look in the young girls direction. "You didn't think that of Arnold or Gerald."

Walking along the pathway, Roxie took in the scenery as they continued on in a very easy manner. "I found it easy with them. I thought of Arnold as my brother. With Gerald I began to think of him the same way. I can't think of every guy that way."

"No, but there will come a time when you will want more someday. I'm no saying now, but it will happen." Smiling at a monarch butterfly landing on some nearby flowers, Bliss turned her attention back to her to see her looking at someone. "Tell me what you are thinking right now."

Roxie knew she couldn't hide anything from the perceptive woman. "There are times I think it will be safer to be with my own sex. I never thought this way before. Lately I have whenever the girls are around." She looked away when another male jogger came past. "I never experienced these thoughts before until recently. When I see a guy I think of that guy doing that to me. Is this normal?"

Bliss nodded her head. "It is for some. There isn't anything wrong with that, but you need to be really sure or else you, and someone else might get hurt in the process. Some just attack sex again as if that will immediately cure them, but end up hurting more in the end."

"And in the case of Helga, she isn't doing that with Arnold. This much I know. If I knew someone like him in that way, then maybe I won't be so horrible." Running her teeth along her lower lip in thought, she blinked rapidly. "Then again, possibly not."

"Helga is different from yourself. Yes she is very lucky to have someone like him around. I even known him a long time to see a very trustworthy young man. He was pretty mature when he was nine. You don't see that too often."

Roxie had to agree with it as they continued to walk down the pathway during her entire therapy session. She wondered how many Psychiatrists would do this.

His morning was unexpected. Arnold was woken up very early in the morning by his Grandfather saying that there was someone there to see him downstairs. Confused to why they weren't sent up, Arnold went down to find himself face to face with his parent's old friend. It was something he was angry at as he accused this person for taking away his parents in the first place. It took plenty for his Grandparents to quiet his mood down so he could listen to, Eduardo. It was what he was listening to that made him sit in his room now in complete contemplation. Hearing the door, he bid whomever to come in. Glancing up, he found Helga standing there. She sensed his noisy mind as she went to him to sit by his side as he rehashed everything.

"So they requested for you to come personally to see you." Helga was leaning back to stare through the skylight. "You are afraid to go because of your Grandparents."

"And you." He added thoughtfully. "Couldn't they of sent me a message? No, they had to do it the hard way."

Watching him get up, she saw his anger making her prop herself up to examine him looking like a caged tiger. "Aren't you at least curious?"

"Well yeah, but it doesn't mean I should just drop everything to head over there. Why now? Why not before?" Turning around, Arnold found her in front of him. The way her eyes appeared seemed to be at so much peace. Why was she being like this right now?

"You haven't shut the door. There are still so many unanswered things right now. This is a way to help move on." Helga was afraid herself that he won't come back like his own parents, but she did have a point. "Even I have unanswered questions to why this happened to me."

Arnold quickly hugged her. "I'm afraid of leaving you and them behind. You are my life, Helga."

"Your mines too, but Arnold it is time to close the door."

"What if the same fate that happened to my parents happen to me?" He wasn't meaning to voice it at first, but he had to. Arnold could never lie very well.

Helga couldn't lie either. Not to him. "The thought crossed my mind too."

They fell into silence as he took her hand to lead her over to the couch to sit down. He did have a passport, but never thought it would come to use now. Arnold didn't want to leave her behind so what should he do?

"Come with me." Was his request. It sounded plain and simple, but he knew it wasn't truly the case. Arnold wanted her with him. Always will.

Time stopped for her as the gears in her head began to work as she thought of so much at the same time.