Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold or any of the characters. Hey Arnold is the property of Nickelodeon and Craig Bartlett.
A Trip Through Time (New Version)
Chapter 1: Time Night
It was a typical Saturday morning in the town known as Hillwood.
The sun is shining and kids were outside playing or hanging out with their friends. Others were indoors, either doing something like watch cartoons or, a little more productive, doing their homework or chores.
Either way, they were doing something and in a very distinct neighborhood, a certain football headed boy and his best friend were trying to think of something to do. They had just arrived to the boarding house, both were bored out of their minds and annoyed as well.
"So now what do you want to do?..."Arnold asked as he turned the corner.
"Heck if I know...Man, what's with Wolfgang, anyway? Why can't he and Edmund get a life?..."Gerald said in anger to his oblong head friend.
"I wish I knew..." Arnold said as he recalled what happened.
You see, after they lost interest with playing in the house, they had gone to the park for a chance to play some baseball. Unfortunately, they had a run in with Wolfgang and Edmund and the two bullies ended up hogging the park. As always, Arnold tried to reason with them but the two bullies made them leave by force.
Since today wasn't baseball practice at Gerald Field, they decided to just go home empty handed. They didn't want to but Wolfgang and Edmund were bigger than them and prone to violence, something neither wanted to deal with.
"Man, one of these days...those jerks are gonna pick a fight with the wrong guy..."Gerald said and Arnold sighed.
"Let's just go to the boarding house. I am sure that there is something for us to do there..."Arnold said in a diplomatic tine.
The tall-hair boy nodded and followed him.
A little later
At Sunset Arms
The two boys soon made it to Vine street. Arnold walked up to his family's boarding house, only to see his grandfather taking out the trash.
The old man spotted them and spoke up.
"Hey there short-man, back early?..." Grandpa said.
"Yeah grandpa...What happened?..."Arnold asked as he noticed that his grandpa was throwing away a lamp.
"Oh...your grandma got carried away again during one of her "safaris"..." Grandpa grumbled in annoyance before changing tune.
Arnold sighed and he knew then it was better not to ask. The last time his grandma had one of her in door safari's, they had to replace a few things around the house.
"So anyway, I got business to take care of. I'll let you know when lunch is ready..."Grandpa said after putting the lid on the trash can. "You staying over Gerald?..."The old man asked.
The tall haired boy considered it and shrugged.
"Why not?..."Gerald shrugged, not having a problem with it.
"Good, I'll let Pookie know..."Grandpa said before heading inside, leaving the two boys on the stoop.
Alone.
A few moments have passed and both were trying to figure out what to do now.
"So, now what do we do?..."Gerald asked his best friend.
"Checkers?..." Arnold suggested and Gerald shrugged before he agreed to it.
The two boys took out the checkers board and began to play. But one round came, then another and they soon found themselves becoming bored again as their little game came to a close.
"You're move…" Arnold said.
" King me…" Gerald said as he made his move, but he wasn't very enthusiastic.
"That's our third round…"Arnold yawned before putting the board away.
"Got any other games?..." Gerald asked.
"Wanna play go fish?..." Arnold suggested.
"Passé…" Gerald said.
"Darts?..." He said.
"We played that yesterday…" Gerald reminded him of the game.
The one which he, in fact, lost.
Arnold paused for a moment as he tried to think of something else.
"Chess?..."He offered and got a "are you kidding me look?" from his best friend.
"Okay, what do you suggest we do?..."Arnold said with a sigh.
"Anything other than chess, that's for sure…" The tall hair boy said with his arms crossed.
Before Arnold could think of something else, they heard this.
" Criminy! That Olga is going to drive me CRAZY!..." A loud, familiar voice suddenly screeched.
"Now calm down Helga..." A meeker voice squeaked out.
"How can I be calm?!..."Was the rebuttal as Arnold and Gerald turned around to see the source of the noise.
It was their classmate, Helga G. Pataki who was stomping forward, grumbling underneath her breath with her best friend Phoebe right behind her. A typical sight and they had a feeling they knew what it was about.
"Hey Helga…" Arnold greeted when she suddenly came by, though she flinched when she suddenly saw him.
"A-Arnold?!..."Helga stammered a little too quickly, only to realize this and put on her "mean face". "Um…Uh…What are you doing here, Football-Head?..."She said in her usual tone.
"I live here…" Arnold pointed out and noticed an embarrassed look on her face.
"Oh yeah...I guess I took a wrong turn…" She said, before putting on her typical scowl.
Gerald shook his head at this typical scene before turning his attention to a cute, intellectual girl with glasses.
"Hey Phoebe..."He said suavely.
"Hello Gerald..."Phoebe greeted as she sent him a smile. One he returned.
As the two dark haired kids flirted silently with each other, Arnold was dealing with a crabbier-than-usual Helga G. Pataki.
"Is anything wrong, Helga?..."Arnold asked, used to her grumpiness but noticing that it was worse today...if that's even possible.
Helga responded in her usual Helga-ish manner.
"What's it to ya, Football Head?!..."She said in her typical, grouchy way and the young boy tried to be patient with her.
"You just shouted your sister's name and didn't even notice us until I called your name…Arnold pointed out.
He wasn't trying to be nosy, he was just a little curious is all. Helga did her typical "hmpt" before finally addressing them.
"Not that it's any of your business, Bucko...but my sister made another one of her infamous surprise visits and totally ruined my morning and I just had to get away…" Helga said in her typical way.
She wasn't lying.
Her sister came yesterday during dinner time and as always, Bob and Miriam swarmed over her as she began to gloat about her latest accomplishments. Accomplishments which includes the award she received for her college food drive to feed the homeless and her appearing on YET ANOTHER magazine cover for winning yet another contest about whatever. Helga didn't know and she didn't care.
She didn't want to deal with this, so she just went to her room to avoid her perfect older sister. She just threw herself into her poetry to try and filter out the most annoying aspects of her life(e.i: Her "perfect" sister).
However, it didn't end there.
No... this morning, her sister had woken her up at 5:30 AM!. She interrupted a really WONDERFUL dream where she and Arnold were watching the sunset together and were about to share a kiss, only for her pain-in-the-butt sister to wake her up before she got to the good part, trap her in a bone crushing hug and she announced that she was going to make breakfast for the family and she wanted to "bond" with her by cooking together.
Helga didn't want to since she always hated being "Olga's little assistant", being ordered around by her to make a meal for Bob and Miriam, which her sister ALWAYS gets ALL the credit for!
Unfortunately, she couldn't get out of it and she found herself being forced to be Olga's little helper by peeling potatoes and getting the ingredients like she was some mindless little drone.
After that horrible breakfast, Olga then made a huge announcement of wanting to take her shopping for some lovely "lady-like" clothes and then suggested they go visit Lila for the day.
Helga couldn't take it anymore and lied that she had to go over to Phoebe to do homework and ran out of there before her sister could offer to "help". She can still remember how that went down.
FLASHBACK
It was just after breakfast and their parents had left but not before thanking OLGA for all of "her" hard work.
"Oh, baby sister. Breakfast was just splendid, wasn't it?..." Olga said in a merry way, totally oblivious to the state Helga was in.
The dark circles under her sister's eyes were visible due to being forced to wake up so early and be put to work just for breakfast. Helga wasn't a morning person and her genuine inherit annoyance with her sister was fouling her mood even more, not that the other girl noticed.
"Oh yes, it was SOOO worth being forced out of bed at the crack of dawn..." She said sarcastically, which was sadly unnoticed.
The perky college student had just finished "perfectly" washing the dishes, before turning to her younger sister.
"Anyway, Baby sister...I was thinking that maybe we could go shopping later for new clothes for you...find something very lovely, lady-like and flattering..."Olga said with that irritating smile of hers..
"And what exactly is wrong with what I am wearing?..."Helga muttered but her sister didn't hear her as she kept flapping her gums.
"I saw this adorable yellow dress that will look wonderful on you..."Olga said in her perky tone, not noticing the scowl on her sister's face.
She then had an idea.
"Maybe I'll call Lila and see if she wants to come as well..."Olga suggested and that's where Helga has had it.
"No stinking way!..." The younger Pataki thought in fury as she tried to find an escape.
She already has been robbed of the chance to sleep in on the weekend. There was no way she's going to lose the rest of her Saturday, being stuck with her sister and LILA, going dress shopping!
She had to get out of here and she knew how.
"Gee Olga...as fun as that sounds, I just remembered that I have to meet up with Phoebe have to study together for a test..."Helga said with a fake, calm smile and her sister began to speak again
"Oh, well...if that's the case..."Olga started but was interrupted by the younger blonde, who knew that she was going to offer to "help" and she wanted none of that.
"I have to get going, don't want to keep Phoebe waiting. Bye!..." Was heard, before fast footsteps and a loud door closing.
Olga blinked in surprise at how fast her sister was already out of the house before she could even finish her sentence. Olga didn't understand but didn't question it. She just decided to go and spend some ore time with her parents, since she had nothing else to do now.
End of Flashback
Present Time
That was how it all went down.
After her grand escape, she had gone to either go spit in the river or throw rocks in the dumpster to blow off steam and by coincidence, she ran into Phoebe who had come out of the bookstore.
The two girls decided to hang out but even then, Helga had been so angry that she didn't even notice that she ended up heading to Arnold's house...almost subconsciously.
Anyway, she had to save some face.
"Anyway, enough about that. What are you two dorks up to?..." Helga asked with her arms crossed.
"That's what were about to figure out, Helga? We just finished a game of checkers and we're bored…."Arnold said plainly, used to her snarkiness.
Helga raised a brow at that, not impressed.
"Checkers? Well...don't you know how to paint the town red, Football head?..."Helga said sarcastically while on the inside, she was swooning over her beloved.
"Oh, Arnold...So, benevolent...so totally kind...so handsome...so wonderful...Oh~..."She thought as she had one of her internal monologues while maintaining her "mean face".
"So, who won?..."Phoebe asked in a more polite tone, snapping Helga out of it.
"I did but whatever..."Gerald shrugged.
That's when Grandpa Phil suddenly appeared, coming out of the Boarding House.
"Hey there, short-man. You boys finished playing checkers?..."He said, seemingly not noticing the girls.
"Yep...and darts and most of the board games in the house…'Gerald said in exasperation.
"We're bored, Grandpa…."Arnold confessed, feeling a weird sense of déjà vu.
Why does he feel like he said that once before?
However, his grandfather scratched his chin upon hearing that, being deep in thought.
"Bored, huh? On a day like this?..."Grandpa said in a strange tone, getting his grandson's attention.
"What do you mean, Grandpa?..."Arnold asked, sensing that this was heading somewhere.
"You do know what today is, don'tcha?..."The old man asked.
"Saturday?..."Gerald guessed.
"Not just any Saturday…Tonight is "Time Night"!..."He suddenly shouted dramatically, getting attention from the other neighborhood kids as well.
"Time night?..."They both questioned and even Helga raised an eyebrow at that. Phoebe merely blinked at the sudden change.
"What are you talking about?..."The pigtailed girl demanded.
"Take a seat sister and listen…"He said before turning to his audience.
He then began telling yet another one of his stories.
"Every 25 years or so, a cosmic phenomenon occurs where there is a ripple through the fabric of time..."Phil began, looking at his captivated audience. "Where the past and the future begin to intertwine... creating a portal that can take you either to the past or the future…"He said, causing some gasps. "
"Wait a minute, time travel?..."Arnold questioned.
"Yes, time travel. This portal could let you see things like the dinosaurs of the past or flying cars in the future..."Phil explained before he smirked. "That is why it's called "TIME NIGHT!..."He said dramatically.
"Oooh!…"The rest of the children said in awe while Helga looked unconvinced.
"What a load of hooey! There's no such thing as time travel!…"She said flatly, not buying it at all.
"You think so?..."Phil said in a challenging tone.
"Yeah! If any of this story is real, then where's that portal anyway?..."She demanded and Phil smirked.
"As I said, it only happens every quarter century…near the woods a mile from the shore...around sunset…"He added those details in a casual tone.
"There, the portal will appear...showing amazing images of events that have yet to have come or have long passed us…"He said mysteriously to his captivated audience...before having a casual look on his face.
"But you guys don't have to believe me, if ya don't want to…"Grandpa shrugged as he suddenly went back into the house.
The kids began chatting. The other children in the audience left, amused by the story while Helga, Phoebe, Arnold and Gerald remained and were still talking about it.
"What do you think, Gerald? My grandpa does tend to exaggerate…"Arnold mulled over.
He didn't really believe the story is real but a part of him couldn't help but be a little curious about the legend. At least, it made him feel a little less bored.
"Well I don't believe a single word of it..."Helga said stubbornly. "I want nice, hard, solid evidence!..."She said as she put her hands on her hips.
"I concur, it's highly improbable the very topic of time travel..."Phoebe agreed before having a curious look on her face. "Still, it does make a rather fascinating tale..."She admitted while Helga scoffed.
"Yeah, well...I'm still not buying it without proof..."She said in her usual way.
"Somethings just can't be proven unless we see it for ourselves..."Arnold said sagely.
"Yeah, right..." The blonde girl spat.
Arnold merely gave her a look, before an amused one came on his face.
"Well, I would understand if you were...scared..." Arnold challenged.
"What? I'm not scared..."Helga said quickly while she sent the boy of her dreams a glare.
Arnold still had that challenging look on his face before he spoke again.
"Okay, then...why don't we go check it out. Let's all head to the woods at sundown and see if there really is a time portal or not..."Arnold announced, surprising Gerald.
"What?..." The tall hair boy exclaimed and Phoebe looked surprised as well but they were both ignored as their best friends continued to talk.
"Then we'll see for ourselves if the legend is true or not..."Arnold said.
Helga blinked at that. She was going to reject and call him crazy, until an idea formed in her mind.
"Sunset...with Arnold?!..."She managed to think as her heart skipped a beat at the thought but tried to maintain appearances.
She knew that the other alternative was being forced to help Olga with dinner and she much prefer this...
"You're on, Football head!..."Helga said, accepting the challenge while on the inside she was swooning over the boy,
"At long last! A chance for me to share the evening sky with my beloved...oh~..."She swooned while she kept her distinctive scowl on the outside.
Suddenly, the door opened and Phil came back...causing the three kids to flinch.
"Almost forgot kids, under no circumstances should you touch the portal or you'll be sucked in..."He said loudly, startling the kids before giving a smile... "Anyway, have fun...heh...heh..."He laughed before closing the door again.
The four kids blinked at that, before shrugging and went back to discuss their plan for tonight.
In an unknown place
At an unknown time
Unknown to the group of kids and even Phil himself, another young child had heard the exact same story...and had an intrigued look on his face.
"A time portal, huh?..."This boy said as a smirk formed on his face as he got ideas.
Unknown to him, the other kids had the same idea...only they had it years ago.
With Arnold
The oblong headed boy and his friends soon arrived to their destination near the woods. It was nearing sunset and the temperature was beginning to drop but they brought their jackets and flashlights just in case.
"Are we there yet?..."Helga complained for the tenth time.
Her petite friend nodded.
"Yes, this is the place..." Phoebe said as they all stopped.
They all looked around the area and as always, Helga is the first one to speak up.
"So where's the portal?..."The blonde girl asked impatiently.
"Grandpa said that it will appear at sunset..."Arnold said as he glanced at his watch, it was already 6:25 and the sky was already getting dark.
"I still can't believe you talked me into this, I mean...I may be the keeper of the tales but I kinda have to admit that time travel is a little far-fetched..."Gerald said as he kept his hands in his pocket.
"See, even Geraldo thinks this is crazy..." Helga said smugly while Phoebe settled for silence.
"Let's just wait a little bit and see..."Arnold sighed.
"Fine..."Helga groaned while on the inside she was trying to contain herself.
She spent countless times daydreaming of watching the sunset with Arnold. True, this was a little different...obviously... but the fact remains that she was with her beloved and that was all that mattered to her.
The only downside was that Gerald and Phoebe were here too, ruining the mood but Helga would take what she could get. She could almost pretend that this outing was a double date, even if it was just another wacky childhood shenanigan.
Anyway, they waited and waited and soon the sun began to set.
"Now let's wait..."Arnold said as he watched the sun set until it was out of sight. After about 5 minutes, Helga was tapping her foot impatiently.
"So, where's that stupid time portal?..."She asked with a scoff and the oblong headed boy sighed.
"I guess it's not real..."Arnold shrugged.
"Uh...Doi! That's what I said hours ago..."Helga said in exasperation before sighing. .. "Whatever, this still beats "quality time" with Olga..."She muttered, although Arnold heard her.
"Let's go home..."He said while the others noticed his expression.
"Don't feel so bad, Arnold. Some myths have to be proven false..."Phoebe said softly.
However, before either of them could leave, a sudden huge gust of wind came, along with a flash of lightning.
"Criminy! Don't tell me it's going to rain!..."Helga whined but to her surprise, no storm clouds appeared or raindrops fell. They suddenly heard what could be described as a whistle.
"Do you guys hear that?..."Arnold said in a worried tone as he looked around.
"Helga, are you trying to play us?..."Gerald accused but the blonde girl looked annoyed.
"Does it look like I'm doing anything, Geraldo!..."She snapped before something unbelievable happened.
The wind and lightning stopped and suddenly, what looked to be a white ball of light appeared before them. The four kids stood there in shock, Helga's being the most visible.
"What...the...HECK?!..."She barely squeaked out as she stood there dumb at this unknown object.
"Oh my!..."Phoebe squeaked, unable to believe her eyes.
Suddenly, the light got bigger and brighter and what could probably be described as a "screen" appear.
"Wow..."Arnold whispered in awe as they suddenly saw images of their home town but during the day time.
They had a sinking suspicious about it.
"I can't believe it!..."Gerald whispered in astonishment and the others felt the same way.
"Grandpa was right!..."Arnold said in a similar tone.
He couldn't believe what was happening before his eyes. He was witnessing time itself unfolding before his very eyes. He was completely entranced by the images that he took a step closer to take a better look...except he wasn't exactly watching his step and accidentally stepped on a rock, making him lose his balance.
"Whoa!..." Arnold said as he fell forward, only for someone to catch him.
It was Helga.
"Criminy! Watch it, Football head!..."She yelled.
However, even as she grabbed him, Arnold ended up touching the portal by accident...and that's when things began to go south.
Something weird happened as they portal suddenly began growling and before they could get out of there, it began suck Arnold in.
"What's going on?!..."Arnold shouted as he found himself being pulled inside, only for Helga, Gerald and Phoebe to each grab onto him, trying to pull him to safety.
"ARNOLD!..." Helga shouted, her love and concern leaking out of her facade as she tried to hang onto him.
"We got you, Man!..."Gerald yelled as he tried to pull his best friend to safety.
"Hang on!..."Phoebe yelled as she tried to pull as well.
However, whatever force this was, it was too strong. It soon began pulling all four of them inside as well.
"AAHH!..." They all screamed as they were soon sucked inside the time portal.
Soon the time portal disappeared and the three kids were no where to be found.
Oh boy...
-To be continued-
Next time on A Trip Through Time (New Version)
Where are we? When are we?!
A/N(1): I hope that you all enjoyed the first chapter of my re-write.
The reason I am doing this is because it's been a long time since I worked on the story and I noticed that it could use some improvements. So, I decided to start over. I hope this is alright.
A/N(2): This is dedicated to my family, my friends and my love for God! Enjoy :)
:) Till next time beautiful people, remember to read and review :)