Hi y'all, sappy chapter I'm sorry! Thank you for everyone that's reading :) Let me know what you think so far. Don't worry some old characters are coming back too.

xoxoxKaren

Chapter 9

Strawberries

"Arnold, are you even listening?"

Arnold was in fact not listening. Lila, Rhonda and him had been spending the morning cake tasting. By the 4th piece everything just started to taste like sugar. It would be an understatement to say he was less than excited to be here. None of the wedding plans were exciting anymore. Helga sure had a way of spoiling that.

After dropping Helga off at her parent's house, Arnold took the long way home and started to cry. The songs on the radio must have known what he was going through because none of them were upbeat. He had never been this confused in his life. He knew Helga came with drama, that was one of the things that drew him to her, but this was on a whole new level. She was right, he was a cheater now, and he would have to live with that guilt. He wanted to tell Lila, he really did, he hated lying, but he knew he couldn't. That choice wouldn't just affect him but also Helga.

Could he really still marry Lila? Before Helga's arrival, he was comfortable with Lila, she was always such a sweet girl, sure it hadn't worked out in the past, but he thought this time it could. That was because he knew he could never have the girl he really wanted. For a moment right when they kissed again, it gave him hope that just maybe they would have their ever after.

He had to get Helga out of his head. She made it perfectly clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. It really didn't help that he lost his virginity to her. There were plenty of times where he could have done it with other people, Lila even, but he just never felt ready for it. He wasn't sure if he was really ready last night, but it's like his body went on autopilot and it just felt like the right thing to do. He never even thought about doing that when they were dating as teens, it must have been since they really didn't date for that long.

"Arnold?" Rhonda asked in an annoyed tone.

Arnold quickly snapped back to reality. "I'm sorry?"

She scoffed. "Which one do you like better, the orange or raspberry?"

"Why don't we just do something simple? Like maybe red velvet, chocolate maybe?"

"Arnold this is a wedding," Rhonda reminded him.

He was so sick of cake. "Look, how about you two pick, I'm fine with any flavor."

Arnold made an excuse to leave the bakery then. He really couldn't keep pretending he was ok. Rhonda agreed to take Lila to the flower shop after. As soon as he was out of earshot, he called his crew and announced an emergency meeting.

Helga and Phoebe called an emergency FaceTime with Jayla. Jayla and the girls became friends in college after being put on a group project together for American history. She was the perfect addition to their group. The girl had her thick curls tucked away into her bonnet and was already in her pajamas even though it was only 6:30. If Phoebe and Helga were there they would have all been having a movie night at Jayla's apartment, it was a Sunday tradition. Jayla had begged them to move in with her post college, but frankly, neither Phoebe or Helga made enough money as grad students to afford it. So they just bummed with Olga and Liam until they could save up enough to move out.

Phoebe and Helga set Helga's laptop in front of them at the foot of the bed. Helga hid behind a pillow to try not to explode.

"So what's going on 'Ole Girl?" Jayla finally asked.

Helga mumbled into her pillows, but it was too incoherent for anyone to understand.

"What?" Phoebe asked.

Helga took the pillow off her face but laid back on the bed, she couldn't say this to their face. "I-I…" She took a deep breath. "I hooked up with Arnold."

"WHAT?!" Both the girls screamed.

"Helga what the actual fuck." Jayla exclaimed. She smiled from the screen. "Dude you're a legend."

Phoebe shook her head. "Um not quite, Helga we agreed to be the bridesmaids for the wedding, this is completely unethical."

"Yeah but badass," Jayla corrected. "Helga you are that bitch."

Helga propped herself back up and finally looked at both of them. "Guys this was a huge mistake, and Arnold was a virgin."

"How did that even happen?" Phoebe asked.

"I don't know. Criminy!" Helga admitted. "It was like we caught up in the heat of the moment and then it all started happening so fast."

Jayla shook her head in confusion. "Woah woah woah, time out. Go back to the virgin part. By hooked up you mean all the way? You two fucked?"

Phoebe gasped.

Helga curled up forward into a ball. "Yes," she mumbled.

"Holy shit dude."

Phoebe was still too stunned to speak.

"So wait, does this mean you and Arnold are back or what?" Jayla asked.

Helga jumped out of her ball. "No!" Helga started to pace around the room. "No we are never talking about this again, he's getting married and I'm going back home and that's in."

"Helga," Phoebe began, "you can't just ignore what happened. I therapy has taught you anything, it's that our bottled up emotions will only hurt us in the long run."

"Pheebs, there is nothing to talk about, we were just caught up in the moment and didn't think, it's never going to happen again."

Helga made her way to the bed again. Jayla was smiling from ear to ear on the other side of the screen. "What's with you?"

"So was it good?" Jayla aske with a giggle.

"Oh shut up!" Helga rolled her eyes.

"'It was, wasn't it?" She teased her. "Aw little miss tough girl over there had a good time didn't she."

"Ok we're done here!"

Helga shut her laptop and buried her head back inside the pillow.

Abby's jaw was nearly touching the floor, and Gerald's eyes were open so big Arnold almost thought they would pop out of his body.

"You- you had sex with Helga Pataki?" Abby finally coughed up. "How many chapters did I miss here, how did this even happen? I'm so fucking confused dude."

"Yeah Arnold, you got me stumped too man. Please explain because I am not following."

Arnold took a big breath. They were sitting at their favorite new coffee shop in town. As soon as he left the bakery he made a beeline to the shop, he couldn't even wait to get home. Abby nearly spat out her cappuccino after Arnold told them what happened. He didn't even let them say hello first.

"Well we were kind of arguing and then one thing led to another and we just kind of did it."

Gerald and Abby still looked as confused as before.

"One thing led to another? Bestie, you're getting married, or are you?" Abby said.

"Yes! No? I don't know. Yes I am," Arnold convinced himself he was right. "Helga doesn't want anything to do with me, she said it was a mistake."

"Hmm," Gerald finally said, "well it was most definitely a mistake man, you're not a cheater."

"But I am!" Arnold admitted. "I cheated, Gerald, and well…I liked it."

Abby and Gerald turned to look at one another, clearly their friend was going through enough. "Arnold I'm not going to judge you," Abby said. "I know Helga and I never had a good history together, but whatever dude. Look I know you loved her, or still might love her? But the point is, if you plan on doing that again then you have to keep Lila's feelings into consideration."

"She's right man," Gerald continued, "it's not fair to Lila."

"It's never going to happen again," Arnold looked down at his coffee. "Helga made that perfectly clear."

"Well she probably doesn't want to be known as a homewrecker," Abby reminded him. "Quite ironic after all the rumors she believed about me."

Arnold didn't respond, he was too engrossed in his drink to say anything. He really didn't know how he was supposed to feel about this.

"There's something else that's bothering you, isn't there?" Gerald asked him.

Arnold knew the answer to that question but he wasn't sure he could say it. When did his life become so complicated? It felt like Helga just threw everything off its axis, and he was struggling to hold on to his sanity. "You two know that…you know, I never did that before."

"Right," Gerald said.

Abby looked him right in the eyes, she knew. "It wasn't hers."

Arnold's whole body deflated. He didn't want this to bother him, but it really did.

"It's been 5 years, Arnold," Gerald reminded him. "You moved on, so did she."

"I guess I just always thought she would wait for me too," Arnold admitted.

"Too?" Abby questioned him. "Arnold you didn't wait for her, why did you even agree to get married in the first place?"

"Because I couldn't have her."

The dinner at Rhonda's was agonizing, but Helga eventually zoned out. The wedding party was having a dinner to discuss the bachelor and bachelorette parties. There were certain ground rules Rhonda wanted to set in order for there to be no funny business, go figure. At this point it felt like it was more Rhonda's wedding than anyone else's. Helga and Arnold made it the entire dinner without looking at each other. Helga had released all the emotions back home so she wouldn't give herself away.

They were finally on to the dessert portion. One of Rhonda's maids was serving them each a small plate. There seemed to have been two different options. One was a crime brûlée and the other a strawberry shortcake. By the time it got to her and Phoebe there were only strawberry shortcakes left. Helga wasn't going to make a big deal of it, instead she would try to be polite and pretend to eat it.

"Oh wait," Arnold said from across the table. Everyone turned to look at him. "Helga's allergic to strawberries." He reached across the table and handed her his crème brûlée and instead took her strawberry shortcake. "Here you can have mine."

Helga's face instantly went hot, she hoped no one else noticed it.

"Oh right," Abby agreed, "Helga is totally allergic to strawberries, how could we forget. Helga remember when you had that piece of strawberry gum and you had to go to the nurse's office?"

Helga smiled, Abby was trying to keep the attention away from Arnold and her. "Yeah except you were the one that gave me the gum."

"Oops," she smiled too.

Maybe Abby wasn't so bad.

By the end of dessert, the group agreed that no erotic dancing was allowed, no hard drugs, and of course no funny business. Lila's bachelorette party would be the night before the wedding at a new local night club, and they would invite all their old friends to tag along. Arnold's would be at the place next door, even though Arnold wasn't much of a dancer to be in the club scene.

Helga really didn't want to attend the party, but there was no way she could get out of it. It was all really hitting her that Arnold was getting married in 3 weeks and then he would really never be hers again.

After dinner she stopped out to the balcony to get some fresh air. She could see the whole town from this view. She really did miss it sometimes. She wondered how her life would have been if she never left Hillwood, would she be happy? Was she happy now?

Without her noticing, Peapod Kid joined her on the balcony. She never really talked to him much, but they knew each other enough she supposed.

"You seem like you need someone to talk to."

Arnold made his way to the balcony, needing some fresh air and some time alone. It was getting increasingly difficult to keep lying to Lila. Arnold wasn't a good liar in the slightest and so far avoiding her was becoming less of an option. Before he could open the door to the balcony, he saw Helga standing with her back turned from the glass. His heart started beating impossibly fast when he saw Peapod Kid standing a little too close to her. They were smiling and laughing with each other. Arnold felt a range build up inside of him. He felt so stupid.

Arnold hurried to find Gerald and Abby, he had to get out of here. Before He could find them Lila found him. She intercepted him with a smile.

"Hi there, sweetie. Are you ok?" She asked.

Arnold's mind went blank, it was as if every function in his brain shut down. He stared at her but no words came out.

"Arnold?"

Nothing.

Lila looked around hoping no one noticed how odd he was acting. "Hun, I'm afraid I don't understand what's going on with you at the moment. Do you need to go home?"

Home. He knew that word. "Yes!" Arnold finally blurted out. "I'm sorry, I just think I ate something that didn't agree with me."

She smiled that sweet innocent smile Arnold had learned to love. "Of course, Arnold. How about I ask Gerald to take you home?"

"That sounds great, thanks Lila."

Before he knew it, Lila leaned in and kissed him. Arnold's eyes went wide as if he'd never done this before. In a way it made him kind of upset, it was like the memory of that last kiss with Helga was being erased from him.

He really wished he had closed his eyes instead. Just at the corner of his eye, he saw Helga coming back inside from the balcony. Her smile dropped but she quickly rolled her eyes and headed toward the kitchen. Arnold wanted to pull away and go after her, but he knew she didn't want to see him.

The boarding house was quiet when Arnold made it back home. His parents were already in their rooms and only the hum of TVs were heard in the house. Arnold made his way upstairs looking to talk to someone about the situation he found himself in. He opened the door to his grandparents' room and shut it behind him.

Grandma Pookie and Grandpa Phil's urns sat at their old dresser in front of their wedding photo. Grandma went first a couple of years ago, and Grandpa followed after her within a few weeks. The loss was difficult on Arnold, but he was happy they had made it well into their 90s. It didn't make things like that any less hard. He knew his grandpa would know exactly what to tell him if he was here. He probably would have convinced him not to marry Lila.

When Helga left, Grandpa told Arnold to give her some time. If someone is meant to be in our lives, they would find a way to come back. Maybe he should have listened. Grandpa did always like Helga. Grandma did too, so much so that she would mistakenly call Lila Helga when they started dating again.

Arnold wondered what Grandpa would say now. Would he be disappointed that Arnold was a cheater? Would he be happy Helga was back? Would he tell him to be a man and make things right?

I killed him that he would never know. Hot tears started rolling down his face. God, he missed them so much. He always dreamed that they would have been at his wedding. When he first brought the urns home, he felt as if his whole world was falling apart. The sleepless nights and long days almost made mourning Helga seem like a walk in the park. He had to admit, Lila was there for him in that difficult time. For that he would be forever grateful.

Arnold truly believed he could spend the rest of his life with Lila and be content. She was truly a great person and they meshed together so well. Yet as he looked at his grandparent's wedding photo, he wondered if he would ever be able to love Lila as much as Phil loved Pookie. They had a wild and crazy love, and on paper they really didn't make any sense, but there was something about them that made them absolutely perfect for another. Arnold wasn't sure he would ever find that kind of love again. Maybe getting married at 22 was him trying to force that connection between him and Lila.

In spite of all that, the plans were made, the guests were coming, there was no way he would be able to get out of this without being the bad guy. Marrying Lila would be fine, he did love Lila. Just two weeks ago he was ready to say I do to Lila. That didn't have to change. He had to forget those wild ideas and come down to Earth.

It was Monday and Arnold had made it bright and early to Paul's tutoring session. Paul was such a great student that teaching him was relatively easy. Soon enough Arnold would have to start working on his actual lesson plans. Arnold had graduated earlier that spring with his teaching degree and a job offer at PS 118. He had been a student teacher the past semester teaching 5th grade alongside his old 4th grade teacher Mr. Simmons. With Simmons' stellar recommendation, Arnold was offered the position of teaching 3rd grade the following fall. Arnold decided to go into teaching in college after volunteering to tutor kids for extra credit in his sociology class. From then on out, he was hooked.

He hoped that he would be able to make a difference in people's lives, even if it was just teaching them math. He hoped Paul was able to gain something from this too. He had to admit, after Paul was born, he had hoped to be like an uncle figure to him, but this was good too.

Helga didn't come down that morning to check on them, but Olga made great company. Liam was working from home in Olga's old room, so he didn't come down much. He was reminded why Helga left with Big Bob Pataki, he was really the worst. Since his retirement, all he did was sit at home yelling at the TV. It was a bit distracting for their lessons in the kitchen, but Olga was usually able to get him to quiet down. As for Miriam Pataki, well she didn't do or say much.

At 11:45 sharp, Helga made her dissent into the kitchen. She didn't so much as look at Arnold as she started preparing lunch but nonetheless she still handed him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"Helga," Paul complained. "This is grape jelly."

"Yes Paul, I know, that's all we had today," she told him.

Paul frowned. "But I don't want grape jelly, I want mixed berry jelly."

Helga sighed. "Paul, I'm sorry that's all I had today. You can have mixed berries tomorrow."

"But Helgaaa," he moaned.

Helga rolled her eyes and huffed. "Ok, ok fine, but only because I love you you little turd."

"Mom!" Paul cried. "Helga called me a mean name!"

She cursed under her breath and headed for the door. "Ok, I'm going to the corner store." She turned her head toward the stairs. "Olga! I'm going to the store for your crotch goblin! I'll be back in ten!"

Olga made her way down the stairs. "Ok baby sister, thank you. Arnold, would you mind going with her."

Helga stopped dead in her tracks. She looked first at Olga, then Arnold, then back to Olga. "Oh right…sure thing. Come along Football Head."

Arnold was confused at her agreement, but nevertheless followed after her.

"I'll say, Helga," he began as they walked down the street. "I didn't think you would want me to tag along."

Helga rolled her eyes. "Get over yourself Arnold, I just didn't want Olga to suspect anything, that's all."

Right, he almost forgot.

They walked in silence until reaching the corner store. Helga made her way to the jarred foods shelf and looked for the jelly. "Criminy, they only have strawberry."

"Maybe he'll like that one," Arnold said.

"No," Helga insisted. "He only likes mixed berry. He has to stick to his routine or he freaks out."

"He doesn't seem like he'd act out," Arnold protested.

Helga continued to search toward the back of the shelf. "He will, it's part of his Asperger's, he needs to keep to his routine."

Arnold was a bit stunned. He never really suspected Paul to have Asperger's. He wasn't all that familiar with the characteristics, but he knew it was a form of autism. He would have to keep it in mind moving forward.

Helga turned back to him quickly but didn't notice Arnold was standing much closer to her than she expected. Their faces were only inches away and both turned red as they made eye contact. Helga was the first to step away.

"Listen, just don't treat Paul any differently now that you know," Helga asked. "He's just like anyone else."