Helga G. Pataki was your average preteen.
She was kind, polite, paid attention in school, always wanted to look cute and do her best. Known in her school as the class goodie-two-shoes, she never went out of her to stand out, but never truly blended in either. There wasn't really anything at her surface that made her extraordinary in any way.
At least, that's what most people would say, Arnold Shortman saw something completely different.
To Arnold, Helga was the loveliest girl he'd ever laid eyes on, her long golden hair that seemed to glow when the light hit it right, her crystalline blue eyes that pierced into you like a sword when she looked at you, even her unibrow, as awkward as it could look sometimes, gave her a somewhat humble and cute charm. He found her love of the color pink endearing, admired her work ethic, how she always put in effort in her classes and never settled for less, how she tried to help those she felt needed it at any given time, how she wore her heart on her sleeve and dreamed of finding a perfect love one day despite being so young. She was like a fairytale princess come to life in his eyes, and what he would give to be her prince charming.
Though naturally, he'd never say this out loud.
You see, Arnold Shortman, despite living up to his last name, had a fierce reputation at PS 118. Nobody messed with him, he was a bully with fists of steel and a kick that could send the strongest man to his knees. Slick with his words and his presence as intimidating as it was, he couldn't ruin his image by expressing his borderline crippling love for his classmate, vulnerability got you nowhere in life. Plus, he was sure that she didn't feel the same way, and would rather her never find out as opposed to risk getting his heart broken by the girl that took over his mind almost 24/7.
So that is why he bullied her. To Arnold, calling it bullying was a bit of a stretch, sure he picked on her a lot, and often made her the butt of the joke, but he didn't believe that things he would do were that mean. Sometimes he wasn't even fully there when he did it, and would be overtaken by strong guilt and anguish over his actions shortly after. It was just his way of hiding his emotions, all his life showing how he truly felt only lead to problems, and he knew this would end the same way, Helga Pataki could never find out how he felt about her, ever.
Hence why he threw a crumpled sheet of paper at her.
"Hey!" she squealed, it took Arnold a lot of strength not to gush at how cute she sounded, "who did that?"
"Who do ya think Unibrow!" he cackled in response, smirking when she turned to face him with a pout.
Helga huffed "gosh, what is your problem? I don't even do anything to you!"
The blond boy shrugged, "eh, I personally think being in the same room as a one-brow freak is enough"
Helga's face turned a bright red at the comment, mostly because half of the class began to laugh at it, and turned around with a cross of her arms. Their teacher, Mr. Simmons, was quick to settle the class before going on with his lesson. As she began to calm down, Arnold was forced to inwardly swoon, careful to not express it in public. Even when angry Helga was so positively cute! He wanted to just go over there and give her a thousand kisses just as an apology for what he said.
Once the class was over, Arnold was quick to leave the classroom, not even acknowledging his best friend Gerald as he left. Practically running down the halls, he finally found his favorite secluded staircase, and hid underneath it. Once sure that there was no one around, he searched through his pocket and brought out a golden, heart shaped locket. Once opening it, the inside had a cropped picture of the girl of his dreams, smiling blissfully without a care in the world. Lovingly stroking the picture with his thumb, Arnold smiled happily, before he suddenly felt the suppressed guilt from earlier begin to seep into him. He held the locket close to his chest, and let out a heavy sigh.
"Oh Helga, my sweetest rose, why must I hurt you so?" he began, his face donning a look of grief and regret, "you make me feel so warm inside, yet all you feel from me is strife... your eyes of blue like the bird of sake fill me with love and joy I can't shake, how I wish to hold you close and proudly say you were my own" he then stood up, staring intensely at nothing in particular, "yet we are star-crossed, never to be, that is while I continue to mean! But I cannot tell you, at least not now, my heart too tender, lacking safe and sound... however one day we shall be together, our lives so bright and filled with splender! But until that day comes, my most beautiful love, please just put up with me, if only for just once..."
"Uh... dude?"
The blond awkwardly perked up with a yelp, quickly stuffing the locket back into his pocket before looking behind, "w-what the heck do you want?" he snapped, quickly adopting his usual gruff persona.
The intruder, who he quickly identified as Gerald, snorted, "calm down big fella, it's just me" he chuckled, walking over, "you for real gotta stop that monologue nonsense, one day Helga's gonna catch you and it'll be all over for ya"
Arnold softened considerably when he realized it was just his friend, he then slumped back beside the staircase and sighed, "I know, it's probably a stupid idea, but it's the only way I can get my emotions out without having to... actually express them to people"
Gerald nodded, he knew Arnold was a complicated individual, and that he wasn't as mean and heartless as his classmates made him out to be, it was just his way of coping with things, as weird as it may be, "well, there's no use moping, might as well get some lunch aye? I heard it's burgers today"
His friend scoffed, "you say that like it's a good thing, school lunches suck"
"Aye, don't be dissin' Ol' Bessie's lunches now!"
The two boys shared a laugh, before making their way to the lunch hall.
"I just don't get it, why does he always go after me?"
Helga was sat at a lunch table beside her best friend, Phoebe, as well as a few other girls in her class. Miserable and still peeved at being picked on in class earlier, the blonde poked at her food reluctantly; not like she would have been to eager to eat it if she was in a good mood anyway, the burger patty jiggled jelly and had something green looking sticking out of it. Yuck, the lunches here really did suck.
As usual, she was upset with Arnold, she just didn't understand, why was he so mean to her all the time? Had she upset him once? Helga always tried to be nice to people, even her father, as brutish and neglectful as he was, never received a verbal lashing from her, though he probably deserved it in hindsight. Arnold however always made sure to push her buttons and ruin her day, even though she rarely if ever even spoke to him! At first she tried to just brush it off as run of the mill classroom teasing, but it was getting to the point where she was beginning to really dislike him, though she hated disliking people.
Helga was soon brought from her thoughts when a dark haired girl at the table cleared her throat. Rhonda Wellington-Lloyd, the ever so rich and (apparently) popular fashionista, always sure to speak her mind no matter what, "well, my mommy always told be that when boys are really mean to you it means they like you"
Another girl, Lila Sawyer, gasped, "what? You can't possibly think Arnold likes Helga, right? I thought he was just a fiendish brute that liked picking on helpless maidens!"
Helga held back a chuckle, she'd always liked Lila, something about her overtly old-fashioned and ladylike demeanor as well as speech pattern was always a treat to listen to. In a way, she kinda aspired to be like her, especially considering how popular she was with the boys in school.
Rhonda sat back and held up her nose "even if he does, she totally shouldn't go for him, she's too pretty for that thing" she said casually, "though, to be honest I think you'd be so much prettier if you plucked that hideous unibrow of yours"
Helga bitterly looked to the ground, "gee, thanks Princess, really boosting my ego here" she had wanted to try and get rid of it, but she was too scared of messing it up my doing it herself, and her dad claimed she was too young to worry about cosmetics and such (which was weird considering how obsessed he was with her keeping up appearances). Helga then felt herself flustering at the prospect of Arnold liking her, she highly doubted it though, "I don't think he does... I mean, when you like someone, aren't you gonna try and be as nice as possible to them? Arnold just picks on me..."
Phoebe hummed, leaning forward, "in defence of Rhonda, it's pretty common for people who aren't used to expressing their emotions to do it negative ways, a lot of boys show their crushes through teasing because they don't know what else to do, y'know how people treat sensitive boys"
Helga found herself frowning, "and I think it's stupid, boys can be sensitive and emotional too... still, I really don't think he... likes me..." her voice began to trail off as she quickly found herself being distracted by something – or more so someone – else.
Another girl at the table, a dark skinned blonde named Nadine, raised a brow at Helga's sudden strange behavior, "what's got her head in the clouds?"
"Wouldn't you know about heads in clouds?" Rhonda giggled, before then rolling her eyes, "but duh, she's staring at that Lucas kid"
Ah, Lucas Sanders, the boy that Helga couldn't help but stare at whenever he walked by. He was everything she was sure she ever wanted in a boy; handsome, polite, chivalrous, artistic, never joined in the other boys' vulgarity and ickyness. He had short and curly ginger hair, just a few shades lighter than Lila's dark red, his skin had a soft tan, smooth and blemish free, and his dark brown eyes were enough to make Helga swoon. Plus he was tall, which Helga liked considering she herself was a pretty tall girl. He wore a white hoodie, with grey jeans and a pair of red converses.
Seeing her friend's dreamy expression, Phoebe giggled, "if you like him so much, why not just ask him out?"
"I could say the same for you and that Gerald kid" she retorted, giggling when she saw her usually calm and collected friend suddenly become rather bashful, "I'm not sure though... I do really like him, but you know I've never been good with boys..."
"That's 'cause you fall for 'em too easily, remember what happened with that dude you met at the beach, Sammy?" Rhonda was quick to point out, which made Helga pout, she'd rather not remember the time she fell for a guy at a beach only to find out he had a girlfriend and was just using her to build the best sandcastle, "Lucas only transferred here a few weeks ago, give it some time"
Helga thought for a second, before nodding, "you're right, but for now I'll just look at him a little..."
Phoebe grinned, "well, he is nice to look at"
Though trying not to express it, Arnold was seething.
He was forced to sit and watch as the love of his life stared lovingly at Lucas Sanders. God, he couldn't stand him and his stupid hair and his stupid good looks and his stupid artistic talent and his stupid effect on girls (including his Helga), he just didn't see the big deal around him, he wasn't even all that, yet Helga was staring at him with those beautiful diamond eyes as though he were the only person in the room.
Oh how I wish you would stare at me that way...
Arnold slid his hands into his pocket, caressing his locket to calm himself down. One day, Helga would be his, he would confess his feelings to her and they could finally be lovers, but until then, he was forced to yearn from afar.
Although it made his heart ache to do so.
Ya typical role reversal fic, ya love to see it
I made Lucas cuz whilst a lot of ppl just genderbend Lila for their role reversal fics, I wanted her to still exist as her own character so here we have Lucas Sanders taking her place!
Helga's gonna be quite sweet here, mostly bc I believe the only reason she puts up the tough front is bc of her fear of expressing her true feelings, so when she doesnt have that fear anymore, I imagine she'd be quite the lovely gal :)
Anyway, see y'all soon!