The next day, when I walked into school, the whispers of my peers still crept upon me. While I was opening my locker, I caught some tidbits of what they were chatting about. Yet again, they were talking about me receiving detention two days ago. Couldn't these people just mind their own damn business?

I was about to grab my English textbook from the bottom shelf of my locker, but I heard another person gossip.

"Why isn't Helga wearing her leather jacket? I bet Arnold stole it, since he's no longer a good boy, it seems!" Someone in the halls said, a mocking laugh following her statement.

Instead of grabbing my textbook, I slammed my locker door shut. I couldn't stand being in the halls with people talking about me anymore, so I rushed to the bathroom to hide. Once I arrived, I locked myself in a stall.

I'm sick of being perfect.

I'm sick of being known as a perfect person.

I do one thing that's not perfect, and everyone criticizes me, gossiping about me in the halls.

It's only been going for two days, yet I'm sick of it.

Except, it hasn't just been going on for two days, it's been going on my whole life. I've always felt like I've had to be perfect for everyone and it's too exhausting. I want to break away from that image everyone has created for me. Technically I have now, but them knowing I did something flawed is not enough. I actually want them to be able to just move on and do nothing whenever they hear stuff like that, and not act surprised talking about it.

I wish I didn't care what other people think. I've always cared too much about that.

I burried my face into my hands, feeling exhausted. I loved to help people, but trying to act flawless for them felt like a chore.

"Arnold Shortman? More like Arnold Detention Man!" I heard a guy say.

I had already reached my breaking point. I unlocked the stall door hastily and opened it, making my presence known.

"Oh, speak of the devil!" The guy said.

"That's enough. You don't even know me. So what if I got detention? It's none of your goddamn business. And if you're going to gossip about me, at least come up with better insults. Your insult sucked." I lashed out, standing up to the random guy. My heart raced after I lashed out at that guy. I wasn't used to lashing out at people, since I usually stayed calm and collected. Though it was not an impossible occurrence, on account of the fact that I have done if before. But if I did lash out at someone, you would know I had enough.

I didn't even give that guy a chance to respond, since I didn't want to hear any more of his bullshit. I just waltzed out of the boys bathroom. I wanted to keep hiding there, but I didn't want to add stuff on my reputation ruining list by skipping class.

When I arrived to my first period English class, the teacher was handing back our homework assignments with the final grades. While I waited for mine to arrive, I thought about how Rhonda and Sid asked me to take notes for them. I was happy to help and I didn't hesitate at all. But what if Helga was right when she said they were taking advantage of my kindness? What if I really was going outside of my boundaries for others? But I just wanted to help...

The teacher set my homework paper onto my desk, snapping me out of my now daily session of overthinking. On the top of the paper, it said "98%" in blue pen.

There was no denying that 98% was a damn good score. Though I was shocked to see that number because I was used to it being 100. I wasn't devastated though, because of my inner conflict of not wanting to be perfect. I still snatched my paper off my desk in a blink of an eye so nobody could see it. As I put the paper in my backpack, I heard a whisper beside me. I wasn't one hundred percent sure if the person was talking about me, and I didn't want to assume so. But I had a feeling they were.

People in high school are so damn nosy.

After going to my classes, lunch, and more classes after that, I decided to stay at school a little longer to check the lost and found. Helga's jacket most likely wasn't there, because it was stolen while the two of us were going swimming in the lake. It didn't make much sense that someone would take it to our school lost and found while they could clearly see Helga and I in the lake where it was possible to infer it belonged to one of us. But I decided to look at the lost and found anyway, since that was the place of lost items, and I told Helga I would look out for her jacket.

The school lost and found was a white table by the entrance of Hillwood High. There was quite a pile of items on the table, since I guess high schoolers are prone to misplacing or losing their things.

As I started to scavenge through the lost items, I was greeted by Gerald.

"Hey, Arnold." Gerald greeted.

"Hi." I briefly greeted back.

"Did you lose something?" Gerald asked.

"Helga did. I'm trying to find her leather jacket."

"Well that explains why she wasn't wearing it today."

"Yeah. We went swimming in the lake yesterday and her jacket went missing."

"Hold up. You spent time with her yesterday, and you went swimming?"

"Yeah, we did."

"Did you spend time with her because you like her? And are you trying to find her leather jacket for the same reason?"

"No, we're just friends. I'm trying to find her jacket because I love to help people."

"Whatever you say."

"That's my line..."

I had two people in my life suspect that I had feelings for Helga. I thought about her a lot, but it was complicated. It was also confusing, but I just wanted to focus on the task at hand, which was finding her jacket.

Gerald and I scavenged through the pile of student's lost items. I came across some notebooks, a pair of earbuds, a pencil case, and a few articles of clothing. But the articles of clothing in the pile did not include Helga's leather jacket. I had a feeling it wouldn't be there, but I had to at least try.

"It's not here." I said.

"Yeah. Let's just go home." Gerald agreed.

Before the two of hs could walk out the school door into the parking lot, Helga approached me.

At this point, I was used to seeing her with a leather jacket. But the only article of clothing that she owned that was even weirder to see her without, was her pink bow. Once high school rolled around, I never saw it on her again.

Helga was still wearing her black laced up combat boots and hoop nose ring. She was also wearing a black tank top which was tucked into her denim shorts that went inches above her knees.

"I thought about it. I'll let you tutor me." Helga said quietly.