It's been a few weeks since I moved in with Phoebe, and overall, it's going pretty good. Phoebe's parents are really making me feel welcome. It's so weird though, being part of a family that isn't really my family. I can't remember the last time my family actually sat down at the dinner table and had dinner. It was unsettling at first, listening to Reba and Kyo talk about their days, then asking Phoebe's about her's, then about mine. It was weird, I've never been treated like this. But I've gotten used to it. Phoebe and I walk to school together every morning, and she's helping with a few subjects I've been having trouble in, like all of them.

It's not that I don't get it, it's just that it's all too easy. It's that I'm smart enough to realize that none of this bull that their trying to cram into our brains is actually going to help me in real life. But Phoebe actually got me thinking about my future, and asked me what I see myself as, and when I didn't have a real and solid answer, making me realize that I had no real concrete goals for my life, non-romantic life anyway, it got me thinking, and a little introspective.

"So Gerald and I are taking Arnold out to a movie tonight." Phoebe says after a block or two of silence.

"Okay." I say after a pause. I haven't spoken to Arnold since I moved in with Phoebe. And all Phoebe ever does is parrot this little voice in the back of my head. But he's been acting like a complete jerk lately. He started hanging out with Lila again. He's probably doing it just to spite me.

"I wasn't asking you to come with us, Helga. I was just letting you know."

"I wouldn't come if you drugged me." I mutter under my breath and pull my phone out after I feel it start to go off in my pocket. I look at the screen and see that it's a number that I feel like I should know, but I don't. "Hello?"

"Hello, Helga?" A very familiar female voice says.

"Yeah?"

"It's Stella." A lump forms in my throat, my mind going off with a slew of made up reasons why she's calling me on my cell.

"Hi Stella." I say as politely as I can.

"I was wondering if you could stop by on your way home. There's something that Miles and I wanted to discuss with you."

"Um... sure?"

"Wonderful, dear. We'd really appreciate it."

"Yeah, no problem, Stella."

"See you soon, Hun."

I hang up, my mind still coming up with three theories at once as to why she wants to talk to me, and slide my phone back into my pocket. "What was that about?" Phoebe asks.

"No clue."

"I'll be back in a while." I call through the house, grabbing Nelius' leash off the hook beside the door. He's bouncing off the walls, like he always does when I get home. He knows that I walk him as soon as I get home, and Mom asked me to pick up some dinner from Coleen's since the boarders are all out for the night, it being Friday. "Ready to go, buddy?" I ask Nelius and bend down to find his collar under all of his fuzz. He barks a high chirp and licks my face before I stand back up. He's a real affectionate dog, I have found out. Well behaved overall though.

I start down the street towards Coleen's, not really knowing what everyone wants, but I think I know them well enough to guess. Nelius tugs on the leash the whole way, and after about a ten minute walk, I get to the diner, and tie Nelius up to the bike rake that's out front. "You gonna be here when I'm done?" I ask him. He just whines and wags his tail. "Good."

I head inside and find that it's not that crowded. This place is relatively new, and I found out recently that Lila works here.

I've been talking to Lila a lot lately. She's been talking me through my "break up". I figured I can't break Helga's trust anymore than I already have by talking to Lila about Helga and I. She's been helpful. I've told her a few stories about me and Helga, the first one being the first time we kissed, then about the time we kissed the morning after just before she walked into the kitchen of Rhonda's beach house.

She says that she's happy with Sid, and very excited about prom. I had this idea of putting on some music up on the roof and having Helga dress up and have a private prom for just the two of us on that night. So much for that.

I look around and see Lila with somewhat of an angry scowl on her face, speed walking around behind the counter. She seems upset. "Hey Lila." I say and approach the counter.

"Hi Arnold." She says in a low voice and grabs a few glasses off the counter and walks away.

When she comes back she takes out a rag and starts to angrily wipe off the counter. "Something wrong?"

"Nothing." She hisses and tosses the rag back underneath the counter and pulls out her pad. "What can I get you?" She says on a sigh. I just order four cheeseburgers to go and let her give the order to the cook. When she's facing me again, she lets out a heavy sigh and leans against the counter and hands her head down. "I'm sorry, Arnold. I didn't mean to snap at you. I just had this... stupid fight with Sid."

"Oh..." I say, not really knowing if it's my place to ask her what it was about. "Have you taken your break yet? I have my dog outside and uh... if you want to talk about it..."

She looks up to me and manages to give me a smile and pulls off her apron. We head outside and Lila sits down on the bench beside the bike rack, closest to Nelius and starts to coo and play with him. "So what did you and Sid fight about?"

She lets out another heavy sigh and sits back. "He wants to go to prom with Stinky and Harold in Stinky's truck. But I wanted to go with Eugene and Sheena." She explains to me that Harold was given permission to have one night out with the guys while Patty had a night out with her friends and Harold's parents took care of their baby for the night. But Lila didn't want her prom night to be rough and wild, and they fought about it. Lila really wants to go to prom, and says that she already has her dress and everything, and thinks that this might be it for her and Sid. "I just don't know what I'm going to do, Arnold."

I've had this nagging thought in the back of my mind for a few minutes. It would be out of kindness, and she knows that it wouldn't mean anything. And I know Phoebe and Gerald are going together, we could go with them. "You know Lila, Gerald and Phoebe are going as a couple in his older brother's car. And I don't have any plans for that night, so I uh..." I shake away the heart break I can already see in Helga's eyes, and swallow my lump in my throat, "I could fill in if you want."

"Oh, no Arnold, I couldn't ask you to-"

"No, Lila, it's alright. Grandpa has an old tux he's been trying to get me into for a while anyway." I say with a smile. "But it would just be as friends."

"Of course." She says with a strong nod. "I wouldn't want to hurt Helga's feelings. You... you don't think she's going, do you?"

"She wouldn't go to prom if someone paid her to."

I let out a nervous breath and knock on the door. I still have no idea why Stella asked me here, but I cant shake the feeling it has something to do with me and Arnold.

After a moment, the door slides open, and in that moment, I can feel my heart stop, just waiting for it to be Arnold that answers. But when I look up, I see Stella's smiling at me. "Please, come in, Helga." She says and ushers me inside.

"Um... thank you." I say and creep inside.

"We made sure Arnold is out, honey, don't worry. We didn't ask you here to talk about him."

A flood of relief washes over my system and I can finally breath right. "Okay."

She shows me into the kitchen, where Miles is sitting in one chair and Stella pulls out the one next to him. "We asked you here to offer you a proposition, Helga." She says and motions for the chair across from them.

"A proposition?" I say nervously and pull out the chair and hesitantly sit down. I have the feeling that I need to bolt, and sitting down will kind of hinder that.

"Well, here's what happened." Miles starts. "About a week ago, we went out to dinner with an old college friend of her's, just to catch up. And eventually, the conversation got to what we had been up to, and after we had told our story, she told us that she works at a publishers office. Long story short, she wants to base a series of novels... on us."

Oh, wow. That's pretty big. "That's amazing, but um... what does this have to do with me?"

They smiles at each other and Stella starts. "Well, we've been talking, and me being a botanist, and Miles being a anthropologist, we don't really have the ability to tell the story the way they want it to be told. And, out of fear of upsetting you," they look at each other nervously and then back at me, "when we brought this to Arnold, he showed us a few things that you've written."

Oh my god. The notebook I left in my drawer upstairs. I had doodle and jotted a couple things down in it when there was nothing to do. Just sappy poems and some love notes that I thought weren't worth much, but I would always say that he loved them. I should be angry at him, well, more angry than I already am, but I just realized what they asked me here for. At least... I think.

"So, what we wanted to ask you is..." Miles starts.

"Sweetie, we want you to ghost write these novels." Stella finishes, and I feel my breath being stolen. Me, having a shot at being an actual writer. I can't even wrap my head around it.

I let out a breath that turns into an exacerbated chuckle and shake my head, "Stella, I-I don't know what to say."

"But there is one condition." Miles says.

"Oh.. um... okay." I say and sit back in my chair, hoping to god that it doesn't have anything to do with Arnold.

"The only thing you have to do... is go to college."

With that, I feel all these new found hope vanish. "Oh..."

"Well, ha..." Miles laughs lightly and waves his hand a bit, "let me be a little more clear. All we want you do to, is just go to college."

"We're not saying you have to be valedictorian, or get a phd, or masters, or even have to graduate. All we're asking you is to just... just go to college." Stella says.

I laugh a bit, mainly at this weird idea they have. "Can I ask... why?"

"Well," Stella starts and looks over to Miles again, "over the past months, we've overheard a few things you've said about your future, and what it is you see happening and... well, all we want to see is for you to try."

"Helga, this has absolutely nothing to do with your relationship with our son. This is just about you. We want to see you succeed. There are a lot of people that are told they can do anything they want, when the reality is, they can't. But it isn't too often that someone that actually can do anything they want believes they can't do anything."

"You are a very smart young woman, Helga. And you are one of the few people that actually can do anything, and it would be awful for all of your potential to be wasted."

"That's why all we are asking is for you to just attend college. That's it, no strings attached. If you agree, Stella and I will talk to Janette, then we'll sit down with you and talk about what our experiences, and have you write a chapter or two, you'll sit down with Janette and talk it over, and we can go from there."

Wow... just, wow. I honestly don't know what to say. They're giving me the opportunity of a life time. "And... you really think that they will like my writing?"

"If it's half as good as the stuff Arnold showed us, they'll love it." Stella says.

"And all I have to do is just... go to college."

"Yep, that's all." Miles says with a smile.

I nod, a feeling of hopefulness that I haven't felt in a long time surging through me, "I think I can do that."

"So they're really going to have you ghost write their story of their time in the Amazon, like as a novel?"

"Yeah." I say with an almost unbelieving tone.

"Oh my gosh, Helga, that's amazing!"

"Tell me about it. And all I have to do is go to college."

"So, your going to college then?" Phoebe asks and sits down next to me on her bed. I just nod. "Oh, Helga, I'm so happy for you." She says and hugs me.

I hug her back, "Thanks, Pheebs." We separate and I continue. "I don't know, for the first time, it feels like I have something to really strive for. Like I'm not completely terrified of the future." I look over to Phoebe and she has her head hanging down slightly and a worried look in her eyes. "Something wrong, Pheebs."

"I have something to show you." She stands up and walks across her room to her desk and opens the top drawer and pulls out a small stack of papers. She walks back over slowly and hands the stack of papers to me. I take them and start to open the one on top.

"Harvard?" I ask out loud when I see the letterhead. "Dear Ms. Phoebe Heyerdahl, we are pleased to invite you to attend... oh my god, Phoebe!" I look up at her, expecting to see a smile on her face, but all I see is her leaning against her desk with her arms crossed and her head bowed, staring at the floor. I look back down at the stack of papers in my hand and go to the next letter. There's one in here from almost every ivy league school in the country, Harvard, Stanford, Cornelle, MIT, all saying the same thing. "Phoebe, you got accepted to all of these schools?"

"Not exactly..." She says in a low, hushed voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Helga, I've had enough credits to graduate for two years." She says and looks back up to me.

I can't believe what I'm hearing. What is she still doing in high school?! "Phoebe, what are you still doing in high school then? You should be off at college, changing the world!"

"I'm scared, okay!" She shouts, and I can plainly see tears in her eyes. "I want to graduate with you, with Gerald and Arnold, with all of my friends. I'm not ready for college life, all those expectations they would have of me, and dead lines, and papers, and... it's just too much, Helga! I mean, I'm just starting to be in a really good place romantically with Gerald, and I wouldn't get to go to graduation with you, a-and it's just... it's just all too much, Helga."

Wow. I had no idea Phoebe was holding all of this in. I see Phoebe reach under her glasses and wipe away some tears from her eyes, and I feel like I should say something, but I don't know what to say. "Does Gerald know any of this?"

She sniffles and shakes her head. "No. I know that if I tell him, he'll tell me to go and I'll tell him I don't want to, and he'll feel like I'm staying for him and he'll feel guilty and it will just... ruin everything."

"Well... I mean, why can't you graduate with us? Who says you can't graduate with us, with all of your friends?"

"The principal said..."

"If you don't want to skip a grade, or two or three, then they can't make you. No one is rushing you into anything, Pheebs."

"But Helga, all of this pressure, I don't know if I can-"

"Set your own pace, Phoebe. Just... don't overload yourself."

Phoebe smiles a small smile and nods. "Thanks, Helga."

"Eh, college might even be fun."

A/N: I was going to add another scene, but I didn't want the chapter to run too long, and felt like it was a good place to end it. I'm going to try to make the next chapter the last one before the final chapter, if not, then it will be the chapter after that. Then I'll start the epilogue.

Also, had no idea that you guys would be mad at Helga, honestly did not intend that. But thanks to your reviews, you guys helped me decide how I want Helga to develop. Thanks big time for the support and reviews!