Time for another chapter.
At the same time Arnold was heading towards the jewelry store with stolen money, Phoebe was leaving her house and carefully walking over to Gerald's place where she met up with him.
"All right." Gerald nodded as soon as the two were sneaking off. "First of all, what do we do?"
"What we CAN do." Phoebe said. "First, we need to make sure to call ourselves in sick so that we have more time to solve this mystery."
"Way ahead of you." Gerald said as he pulled out a signed excuse document.
"So did I." Phoebe smirked, also holding one as well. "The wonders you can do with scissors and glue."
"Let's sneak these into the school as quickly as possible, then we can start this investigation!" Gerald said as Phoebe quickly nodded.
"Well, I'm off to school, Lulu. Sure you'll be okay on your own?" Lila asked as she grabbed her backpack.
"Oh no, don't worry about me. I'll still be here when you get back, and besides, I have some forms of entertainment to keep me about." Lulu smiled.
"If you're sure..." Lila said as she opened the door. "Just remember what Daddy told you, his work number is on the fridge if you need anything."
"I won't need anything, thank you." Lulu said as she opened the door for Lila and shooed her out the door. "Now go, have a good day at school, and I'll see you later after school."
"Okay. See you when I ever so get back." Lila said as Lulu shut the door. Lulu then watched from the window as she saw Lila skipping over to the bus stop. As soon as she was sure that she had left, Lulu gave a big smile as she went over to the phone and started to dial a number.
Lulu waited for someone to pick up until they answered. "Hello, Mother. Sorry I haven't called you lately. Oh, Lila and Dad are just fine. No, they still don't suspect anything. Listen, you're not going to believe this, but... I think I found someone. Why, yes, this IS a very big day. Why, yes, he WOULD go well in our home, I do believe. Who is he? Well, do you remember that weird football head kid from that other school that I go to at home?" Lulu frowned as she scoffed, "I know, mom, I know, but, well, this is his cousin. And he's nothing at ALL like... that kid. I think he's more worthy of the... 'collection' than that other kid ever is. I mean, come on, the kid I went to school with has odd obsessions. At least with his cousin, I have a little more fun. Well, yes, I am currently...'arranging plans' for him. Don't worry, when we get back home, I'll be more than happy to introduce you to him."
Lulu giggled a bit as she said, "Oh, Mom, you always know what to say. Don't worry, he's most of the way there. I'm just going to say this now... prepare the dress when I get back with him, okay? All right, love you too. By the way, my friend Fifi's going to be by with another living doll when she gets back, could you pick them up when they get home Friday? Thanks. See you when I get back on Sunday!"
Lulu sighed as she hung up the phone as she sighed, "The things I do just to gather..."
All of a sudden, she heard a knock on the door. She smirked, suspecting that her 'toy' had arrived. She then called out, "Who is it?"
"Lulu, it's me, Arnold! Can I come in, please?" Arnold asked from the other side of the door.
"Just a moment..." Lulu smiled as she undid her pigtails, letting her hair flow down. She waved her hair around as she gave a sigh. She then went towards the door and opened it to reveal a nervous looking Arnold holding something behind his back.
"Good morning, Arnold. Thank you for coming over so quickly." Lulu smiled as she opened the door. "Won't you come in?"
"Of course." Arnold said as he walked inside, carefully shuffling himself along as he looked over to Lulu, who closed the door. He immediately noticed her flowing hair as he said, "Lulu, have you let your hair down?"
"Let's just say I thought it would be a good day for it." Lulu smiled as she waved her head around. "What do you have behind your back?"
"Oh... uh... this?" Arnold asked nervously as he eyed his back. "Well... it's my gift to you."
"Oh? And what did you give me, my blonde haired stud?" Lulu asked. "Come on, I'll give you your gift if you give me mine."
Arnold looked a little chipper as he said, "Uh, well... sure. Here you go."
The football headed boy pulled out a box as he handed it to Lulu. Lulu opened the box and gasped as she pulled out a green pearl necklace. "Oh, Arnold, that looks so pretty. Did you buy all this with your money?"
"Well... not all of that money was... mine..." Arnold blushed in embarrassment. "It cost me like... a thousand dollars..."
"A thousand of which you STOLE!" Arnold's shoulder angel glared at the boy.
"It's lovely." Lulu smiled as she put the necklace around her necklace. "Who knows? I might even want to wear it on a special occasion."
"I'm glad you love it, Lulu." Arnold smiled, knowing that he had pleased his girlfriend.
"Now... let me give you your present." Lulu smiled as she undid the knot on her shirt and pulled it off, revealing a beautiful green bra from underneath.
Arnold felt himself tightening as Arnold's dark side was starting to grow excited. "Is she offering what I think she's offering?"
Lulu noticed the slight shape that was starting to form in Arnold's bottom area as she gave a smirk, knowing for sure that she had officially trained and tamed Arnold. "Oh? I believe your 'friend' is forming the idea of what I want to give you."
"H-he does?" Arnold blushed nervously as Lulu came closer and bent down, her hand close to pulling down her pants.
"Uh-huh. And by association, what your friend wants, I believe you want as well." Lulu smiled. "And I know I want you..."
Arnold felt his dark side taking over as he put his arms on her shoulders and fingered with Lulu's bra strap. "I love you, Lulu..."
"I love you, Arnold." Lulu smiled. "Let's make love."
That pushed Arnold over the edge as he pulled off Lulu's bra.
Meanwhile, Gerald and Phoebe were carefully going around as Gerald noticed they were rounding a corner. "Where are we going?"
"Over to Helga's house. Who knows? Maybe she came back." Phoebe asked.
"And if not..." Gerald frowned. "We'll need more evidence just in case."
Phoebe nodded as they carefully navigated their way to Helga's place... only Phoebe stopped as her eyes widened in shock and horror. Gerald looked up and noticed the horror on his face as well.
Where the Pataki residence once stood was now nothing more than a pile of rubble and burnt ashes from material possessions. Most of all, police had barricaded the area as they were looking around.
Gerald and Phoebe quickly hid as they overheard the conversation between two policemen.
"Any idea what occurred?" The first officer asked.
"From what I can see, this house seemed to have filled up with gas and somebody threw some fire inside to ensure an explosion... like a match or a cigarette." The second officer said. "But so far, there seems to be nobody in the house at the time."
"Anything from the neighbors?" The first officer asked.
"Well, they did tell me that this place was the Pataki home." The second officer pointed out.
"The Pataki home... as in Big Bob Pataki, the owner of the Beeper Emporium?" The first officer asked.
"That's what I got." The second officer said. "You don't think the person who caused this was a business rival, do you?"
"I don't know for sure, but I do know that he and his family went to a convention. I'm just going to say this, I would NOT want to be the one to tell him his house blew up." The first officer yelped.
"Oh well..." The second officer shrugged. "Let's go through everything again and see if we're missing anything. Something could have escaped our eyes the first search through."
With that, the officers left the area to enter the marked area around.
Gerald and Phoebe came out as soon as the coast was clear.
"...H-Helga... you don't think..." Phoebe said nervously.
Gerald was in shock as he looked around. "She couldn't have been in there... she just couldn't have been."
The two carefully walked towards the remains of the house as they looked over the damages... until Phoebe noticed that the stone steps looked to be intact for the moment... and near the bottom was a note... something that the officers had overlooked. Phoebe took the note as she and Gerald looked at it... as Gerald covered his mouth in shock.
'Goodby, cool world.
Helga Patackey'
"Oh no... this isn't..." Gerald said in shock as Phoebe looked closer at the handwriting.
"No it isn't. Helga doesn't write like that. That's not how she spells her last name, and even she knows it!" Phoebe pointed it out.
"Why would she want to leave such a groovy place?" Gerald said in horror.
"She didn't die! At least, I hope she didn't. Somebody FORGED this note! I should know, because that's not her hand writing. This isn't her right hand writing, and this certainly isn't her left hand writing either." Phoebe frowned. "I think her kidnapper destroyed her house and put this note here so that we or anyone else wouldn't find her."
Gerald paused as he examined the note. "So you're saying that..."
"Helga could STILL be around." Phoebe said as she held up the note. "And this note is the only evidence we have right now!"
Gerald then noticed something on the corner of the note... a logo of some kind. "Verisitiy Co.: Milk and Services?"
Phoebe looked over as she raised her eyebrow on the logo. "Strange. Never seen THAT logo before..."
"Shouldn't we tell the police about this?" Gerald asked.
"We can't. If we show them this note, they'll just take it from us and escort us back to school... and they'll come to the same conclusion that Helga offed herself! We can't risk that!" Phoebe frowned. "Come on, if this house is gone, let's search around the last area Helga was at least seen at..."
"You mean..." Gerald asked.
Phoebe nodded. "Yeah. We need to go to Lila's place and find out where she would have went."
And thus, we will end off this chapter here! Next time, Gerald and Phoebe arrive at Lila's place to find clues, but will they notice what is going on on the INSIDE of the house?
By the way, the private chapters will be about done. I'll let you guys know through PM when I post the first 'private' chapter up! Tune in next time!