Author's Notes:

Was originally supposed to be included in the previous chapter, but realized that it would have been over 5000 words long had that been the case. So it's a double feature update guys! Enjoy!

Chapter XVI

At Slausen's...

The partners took a 15-minute stroll to the town's go-to ice cream parlor. Rhonda immediately saw Patty outside watching the beautiful tangerine sun set with Harold. While their faces looked straight ahead, without a hint of romance on their faces, Rhonda's eagle eyes spotted their hands clasped together underneath the table.

Rhonda recalled the brief but repeated "episodes" she had with Harold. She remembered how, despite Harold eventually growing and maturing enough to be liked by someone as sweet and caring as Patty, she treated him rather unfairly and rudely. Still, she was glad that Harold found someone who fully accepts him and encourages his growth. While Rhonda could never personally see herself being with Harold, even with her fresh outlook on life, she could at least recognize just how more mature and sensitive the often misunderstood bully had become. 'Now if only we could get him to try on better clothes...' Rhonda's fashionable side immediately kicked in after mentally praising her once upon a time "boytoy."

Patty had the feeling they were being watched, and upon glancing noticed it was simply her dear friend Rhonda and...'well this is a pleasant surprise,' Patty thought as she saw Rhonda did not come alone.

"Hey you two!" Rhonda greeted the cute couple as she stepped onto Slausen's patio floor.

"Hey Patty, hey Harold! Nice to see you two here," Arnold greeted them as well.

"Oh hi Arnold, hey Rhonda. You two working on the geography report or something?" Harold inquired politely. A bit out of character for Rhonda and Arnold, but they figured that it's just the softer side of the class bully being brought out thanks to Patty's presence.

"Actually Harold, we just came from the library, and since we did a good job brainstorming, we decided to get a sundae," Rhonda replied.

"Any specials today?" Arnold asked. It had been a while since he bothered to pass by and get some ice cream, all because he promised himself that the next time he'd be at Slausen's he'd be on a date with...

"Oh hello everyone! It's ever so wonderful to see friends here!"

Everyone turned around to see that the 4th grade's miss perfect, and apple of Arnold's lovesick puppy eyes, Lila Sawyer, has graced them all with her presence.

Everyone greeted her normally, except for, of course, Arnold.

"Hey Lila, why are you here in Slausen's?" Arnold asked with immense and obvious curiosity, hoping that Lila wasn't on a date.

"Oh what's wrong Arnold? Can't I simply want to have some ice cream? I think a girl should just get some ice cream when she wants to, don't you agree Rhonda?" Lila answered back.

A slight worrisome feeling arose inside Patty. If she read Rhonda correctly during her fateful visit, this might be a bit too much for the Lloyd girl to handle. But to her surprise, Rhonda responded with a laugh, agreeing with Lila. No hint of jealousy, no sign of animosity.

"Of course Lila, I couldn't have phrased it better myself. Really Arnold...," Rhonda said with some sass.

"Oh, well...sorry. I just thought that maybe you were here on a...-"

"Hey Lila, I got you an extra...oh hola, everyone!" Lorenzo politely came into the conversation.

While it took everyone not named Lila or Lorenzo not long to put the pieces together, everyone - including Harold, who surprisingly read the implications well - looked at Arnold to see how he'd react.

"...Lorenzo? You and Lila are...?"

"Oh no, I think you misunderstand Arnold. Lorenzo and I were paired up for the geography presentation, remember? We're supposed to go after you and Rhonda, so we decided to work on it after school, and along the way we thought we'd pick up some ice cream," Lila explained. The absence of any hesitation indicated that what Lila said was the absolute truth.

"Oh...ok, that's...good to hear..."

Both Patty and Rhonda, the former mentally and the latter actually, facepalmed themselves, in disbelief in how Arnold easily loses his cool factor around his crushes. 'This is so undignified of him...,' Rhonda thought. She looked away at the embarrassing sight before her, and realized Patty was looking at her. She decided to approach her, as Patty let Harold know that she was gonna have a minute long girl talk. The two alumnae of the city's premier polishing academy went to a a corner, with Patty letting Rhonda know what was on her mind.

"I might be reading things wrong but, you're not at all jealous of Lila, are you?" Patty directly asked.

"That's silly Patty, why would I be -" Rhonda paused as she noticed the unimpressed look Patty was giving her.

"Look, I'm not quite sure how to sort out whatever other feelings I may have for Arnold, but I'm honestly not jealous...should I be?" Rhonda asked, wondering if something was wrong with her for not being jealous.

"Hmm, not really, maybe you just aren't the jealous type I suppose?"

The two girls looked back at Arnold still fumbling with his words as he talked to Lila. They figured that any second now, Lila would tell him the truth that everyone knows but only Arnold has yet to accept.

"But I gotta admit, Arnold can sometimes humiliate himself a little too well...," Rhonda sighed, growing more annoyed with how uncool Arnold was being.

"Yeah, this is kind of sad. But it looks like you two are hitting it off well. But remember Rhonda..."

"I know Patty, thank you. Rome wasn't built in 1 day...," Rhonda finished, recalling her dear friend's advice to heart. "Looks like Lila's finishing her reminder, I'll head over. Enjoy your evening with Harold," Rhonda said with a wink. She was happy to see a blush emit from Patty's cheeks, satisfied that she got her friend back for making her blush last weekend.

Rhonda approached Arnold, noting the melancholic state he was in after once again being spurned by his crush. Rhonda pondered on her brief exchange with Patty, and was certain she didn't feel any envy that Arnold had eyes on Lila - but it did make her sad to see Arnold this way. She figured she'd be a friend today, even if such wouldn't warrant recognition from Arnold.

"Come on Arnold, let's go inside. You can really use the ice cream."

Once the pair were inside, they took in the the always invigorating smell of freshly made ice cream, and couldn't help but water at the thought of all flavored delicacies before them. They immediately approached the counter to see what flavor was to their hearts' desires. Rhonda asked Arnold if he decided on a flavor, to which the owner suddenly burst from out of nowhere to inform them that they have two special flavors making a return, and they'd give them an extra scoop on the house.

"I guess I can go for a double scoop cone instead of a sundae...i still have dinner to eat. What about you Arnold?"

"Yeah, same here. We'll both have a double scoop of the specials!"

Rhonda got the Blue Moon chocolate chip, which was surprisingly delicious, while Arnold got the raspberry cheesecake. After eating a full scoop out of two, Arnold approached the cashier to pay.

"Oh, your li'l girl friend paid for it kid. It's all good."

Arnold approached Rhonda about why she decided to pay for both of them. While he may have gotten over the tipping incident, he was worried that this may turn out to be a strong indicator of Rhonda still being in one of her inevitable loops.

"Rhonda, I could have paid for my ice cream...," Arnold came off reprimanding.

Rhonda figured that she rolled the dice with her actions, but remained firm in her decision. "I know Arnold. But I just wanted to treat you this one time, " Rhonda began to explain. "I...just didn't like seeing you so down after talking to Lila...that's honestly it..."

Arnold, realizing Rhonda's motivations, felt a bit foolish for having thought she was channeling her old mean-spirited ways. "I see Rhonda. Sorry if...I came out a bit sensitive about it..."

Rhonda put her hand on the boy's shoulder. "I don't blame you at all...given what happened last week. But please know I only meant to do it as a..." Rhonda couldn't find an alternative to the f-word. Partner? Companion? Girl f-word?

"Buddy...," Arnold muttered.

"What did you call me?" Rhonda responded, a bit perplexed.

"Geography buddy?" Arnold said with a warm smile.

'Oh gosh, have I missed that look on his face when he looks at me...,' Rhonda dreamily thought to herself. "Arnold, I believe Mr. Simmons called it geography partner, not buddy."

"Well, I think that we've been hitting it off so well while working on this presentation, and honestly I think buddy just rolls off the tongue better don't you agree?" Arnold replied, as if proposing to make the title official.

"...I already took Gerald's seat, and you're gonna give me one his names for you?" Rhonda reminded Arnold that the term 'buddy' had actually been used by his best friend on more than one occasion, the most memorable was during his "eccentric" episode one morning in Gerald field when he arrived in his pajamas. Not that Rhonda was complaining with what she saw...she just needed to point out how weird it was. A welcome sight, but weird.

"Hmm, I guess it never registered to me whenever Gerald would say it...I guess that's one more thing I'll have to explain to Gerald, huh, buddy?" Arnold said.

Rhonda could feel her heart skip more than the occasional beat at this point. She actually had a pet name from Arnold, and given how her experience with pet names was literal and outright disgusting thanks to Curly, she's simply ecstatic that she's been graced with another that's actually appropriate, sweet and surprisingly does roll of the tongue easily.

"Ok then. You better explain it to him, buddy..."

"Explain what now?"

Arnold and Rhonda looked behind them to see a confused Gerald, with a concerned (?) Phoebe...

'Why does Phoebe look concerned? wait, focus on Gerald, Rhonda, come on!' Rhonda mentally groaned that the moment was too brief for her liking.

"Sorry Gerald, Rhonda and I just figured to drop the 'partner' after 'geography' and replace it with 'buddy,' rolls off the tongue better..." Arnold nonchalantly said.

"So she's not just getting my lines, the way she got my seat earlier today, huh?" Gerald said with a playful, but secretly envious, tone. He wasn't enjoying how it wasn't enough for Rhonda to make things more complicated for Arnold, but she also had to encroach on the friendship territory. 'I do not like now this girl plays...,' Gerald thought to himself, careful not to give himself away.

"Gerald..." Arnold began to groan, until Gerald assured him that he was just kidding. Arnold was mostly convinced, while Rhonda was not. She could suddenly feel the uninviting aura that Arnold's best friend was radiating towards her. She quickly decided to shift the focus elsewhere to relieve the uneasiness growing between Gerald and her.

"So you and Phoebe working on the geography project too?" Rhonda questioned them.

"Oh! Gerald was simply kind enough to accompany me to buy some ice cream tubs to bring home. They're feeling a bit adventurous with our usual macronutrient balanced food recently..." Phoebe explained, flustered and unconvincing. She was far too astonished by the sight before her. 'Ice Cream' and 'Raspberry,' together outside of school? 'Helga musn't know about this...'

Rhonda, smugly glancing at Arnold, who also gave an equally smug grin, simply stated "yeah, sure..."

"Well anyway, it's getting kind of late. I'll see you tomorrow at the bus Gerald. Don't worry, seat won't be taken," Arnold gave his best friend the guarantee. Gerald, still a bit unsure of Rhonda, did his best friend the honors of showing everyone the classic Shortman-Johanssen winning handshake of ultimate friendship.

"Well make sure you two take care going home, it is getting late...," Gerald said as he looked towards Rhonda.

"We'll be fine. You know how Arnold's martial arts skills are after all. But thanks for the concern Gerald. You and Phoebe enjoy." Rhonda retorted, attempting to kill the boy with kindness.

Meanwhile, Phoebe, having regained a bit of composure, observed the body language and glances exchanged by Rhonda and Arnold. She deduced that it wasn't anything like Arnold's previous infatuations - not like with Miss Felter, or with Ruth, or even his current one with Lila. But she truly realized why Helga was visibly bothered by the sight of Rhonda with Arnold. There was something growing between them, and once you feel that 'something,' you can't deny it. Something was going on between those buddies...

At the Lloyds...

The newly christened geography buddies could have simply taken a bus, it would have taken them 7 minutes to arrive at the Lloyd residence. But Arnold learned that Rhonda was now on more restrictive and reasonable allowance ever since they came back from Aspen, and that to his surprise she actually asked her parents to enforce the measures. It made her gesture of paying for his ice cream all so much sweeter...

But because of Rhonda's kindness, they ended up walking for what felt like half an hour. Rhonda checked her watch, noting that it had been 33 minutes since they left Slausen's.

"You sure you don't want to stay for dinner? Mother might have something new cooked up that you'd like...," Rhonda teased the blonde boy, knowing how he was impressed with her mother's cooking.

"I can't, as much as I'd like to. I can't ditch dinner after ditching lunch a few days ago. But send them my regards please," Arnold assured Rhonda.

"Oh I will. You know how absolutely fond they are of you Arnold..." Rhonda trailed off, cutting herself from mentioning how fond she particularly is of him.

"I just try to be as understanding as I can...I'll take my leave. Have a good dinner, Rhonda..." Arnold waved goodbye as he made his way to the boarding house just a few blocks away. Rhonda watched her dear geography partner go, only when he was out of sight did she open her door...

"You too...buddy..."

Rhonda absolutely loved how it rolled off the tongue. She was simply enamored that of all the people to call her that, it would be everyone's favorite football head. She just couldn't believe her luck.