A/N-I'm still working on "Till Death do us Part" if any of you are interested...but I had a brilliant plot idea and hey, I had to go with it!!! I think I've got this off to a decent start...and I have some pretty big plans for this. It'll be good. Ok..and with TDduP, I'm halfway through the next part so look for that up soon! Don't give up on that story because it does have a big twist ending. Please review! Constructive critism welcome!
Disclaimer-I do not own Hey Arnold, or coke, or Don Pablos, or...anything that you know is owned by big important people.
Vacation in Paris-part one
"CHRIS!!! Be careful, this stuff is old."
"I am being careful, why don't you watch what you're doing Susan, you just knocked over a box of old letters."
"I only knocked it over because you bumped into me dumbass!"
"Will both of you stop arguing?" a third voice entered the conversation.
Three kids were up in Susan's dusty old attic. Fourteen year old Susan, smart, and very witty and sarcastic, her best friend fourteen year old Chris, smart and athletic who was good at everything he tried, his sister, thirteen year old Porcia, smart and shy, she loved to read and was often the voice of peace between Susan and Chris.
"We're not arguing, Porcia." Susan said.
"Yeah, we never really argue...we have creative differences." Chris put in.
"Like, I'm creative...and he's not." Susan added.
Porcia rolled her eyes and picked up an old box of photos.
Susan had always lived next door to Chris and Porcia, their parents were best friends. They'd grown up together. Chris and Susan had completed the eigth grade and would be starting high school in a couple of weeks. Porcia was homeschooled through choice of her own, she didn't like having so many distractoins at school, right now she was studying 11th grade courses, sometimes the fact that his little sister was smarter than him drove Chris nuts. And on rainy days like today when they couldn't go anywhere they usually found something to do together. Today they were exploring all the old stuff which belonged to their parents in Susan's attic.
Chris dragged a big blue trunk out into the middle of the room and opened it up. It was full of clothes. "Oh my gosh! You guys these clothes are from...like 2015 or something!!! Look at them! The still have all these old brand names all over them! We could make a fortune off of these!"
"Chris we can't sell our parent's old clothes, they're probably keeping them for a reason." Porcia stated,
Susan began moving old boxes. Throughout the years they had already looked through half the boxes, she wanted to find something new... She moved the boxes around untill she reached the very last one in the corner furthest away from the door. It was taped shut and had "Paris" scribbled out on top in her mothers handwritting. Susan dragged the box out and opened it up. Inside were photos of their parents and a few others, as well as a bunch of letters and other documents written in french, and then there was a French newspaper article which struck her particular attention.
"American kids save Eiffle Tower" she translated, using her four years of french class. Susan studied the picture, the light wasn't very good but...sure enough it was her parents, and Chris and Porcia's, Chris and Porcia's aunt was also in the picture as well as four others.
"Hey guys..." Susan called. "Look at this."
The other two joined her in the back of the attic and looked at the article.
"Did your mom or dad ever mention anything about this to you?" Susan asked.
"No...yours?" Chris answered.
"Not a word." Susan said looking through the piles of photos and letters and brochures as well as menus and programs. "I wonder why...I mean...did they really go to France and save the eiffle tower?"
"I don't know...I mean don't you think they would have told us? Or that it would be in our history books?" Chris said.
"Chris our parents arent that old! This only happened about 20 years ago!" Susan said.
"So what? We should have still heard about it! Saving the eiffle tower is big!"
"Yes but maybe they didn't...I don't even know if my parents have ever been out of the country!"
"Well," Porcia said putting the newspaper article back into the box, "We could sit up here and ponder that question all day getting no where...or we could go ask our parents."
Chris and Susan glanced at each other. "Yeah ok." They said and picked up the box between the two of them carrying it downstairs. They reached the living room where their parents were chatting and drinking coffee and tea and heaved the box up onto the coffee table setting it down with a thud. The four adults snapped to attention.
"Care to explain all of this?" Susan asked picking up the newspaper article.
"Susan, honey, where did you find all of this stuff!" Her mother asked.
"In the back of the attic." Susan answered as the four adults began to crowd around the table together going through old photos and memoirs.
"Hello?" Chris said. "How come we never heard this story of you guys saving Paris?"
"Well...it's all part of a rather long story..." Susan's father said. "About how Susan's mother and I got together...and how Chris and Porcia's parents stayed together...Well, I'm not really a great storyteller. Honey? You're the published authoress, why don't you start."
Susan's mom set down the photograph she'd been staring at and sat back on the coach leaning into her husbad who put his arm around her.
"Ok...well kids...It all started at graduation I suppose..."
********************************************
Helga G. Pataki slouched in her chair for most of the ceremony. It was incredibly boring. Her father, The Beeper King, had given a *motivational* speech on how to succeed, the principal had lectured them all on their years of hard work, Next was the class president, Gerald Johansen. Helga sat up a little bit more, she'd known Gerald since they were in preschool, and even though she'd picked on him and teased him, as well as half of the graduating class, during grade school they had turned out to be pretty good friends, partially because he was dating her best friend, and partially because he was a good person in general. She listened to Gerald's speech about how they'd all suceed at various things and to always remember the fun they had and stuff. She had to admit, it was pretty good, he was a good public speaker, maybe that's why he was so interested in law and politics. Then Gerald introduced the valedictorian, Phoebe Hyerdahl. Helga cheered louder than anyone as Gerald stepped down from the podium and gave Phoebe a peck on the cheek before her speech. Phoebe stepped up, blushing furiously and began her speech. After a few short hours the ceremony was over. The principal took the podium once again and said. "I give to you...the graduating class of 2009!!!"
Helga sighed, so that was that. No more school. There was a big graduation reception for parents and students afterward in the school cafeteria. Helga congratulated Phoebe and Gerald on their speeches while her parents and principal spent time remembering Olga's graduation. She was chatting with Phoebe and Gerald when Rhonda Wellington Lloyd stepped over to them. "Gerald, Phoebe, great speeches, you looked GREAT, up there. Helga, nice to see you, listen...I'm holding a little graduation party at my house tonight, come by around 8, I'll see you there! Oh and if you see Arnold tell him he's invited too! kisses! Choa!"
Helga's heart gave a quick flutter in her chest when Rhonda said "Arnold". Though she was no longer obsessed with him or wrote love poetry to him and built shrines dedicated to him secretly...she still loved him. They had become good friends over the years, they had to while their best friends were dating, she'd still tease him with her cunning, wit and sarcasm but they were just joking. Yet, she still loved him, no matter how hard she tried to get over him she couldn't, he had grown quiet handsome, his football head had turned into a normal shape and he was a strong, cross country runner, he was gorgeous in Helga's opinion. She still kept her love for him a sercret, she didn't want to jepordize the friendship she so cherished.
"Well, well," Gerald said, "Sounds like fun. Do you want to go?" He asked Phoebe.
"Yes, it will be great to see our classmates one last time before we all split up and go our seperate ways." Phoebe said.
A silence fell over them as they realized that this was really going to be goodbye, that they may never see some of these people again.
"Olga!" Bob's voice boomed as he aproached the little trio. "Come on, your mom and I are going to take you to that mexican place you love."
Helga sighed..."It's Helga dad, and I don't like Mexican..."
"Yeah yeah...lets go."
"Bye guys." Helga said. "I'll see you at the party tonight."
*****************************************************
Arnold headed through the parking lot toward the packard, his grandfather had left him the car in his will. Arnold sighed to himself. 'So this is it...' he thought, 'I've graduated, I wish my grandparents, or my parents could have been here for this...'
Arnold unlocked the door and climbed in. His parents had been gone since he was a kid and his grandparents had died just two years ago of old age. Arnold started the car and pulled out of the schools parking lot. He knew that there was a reception being held in the cafetieria but he didn't want to go. Besides, he had to get to work.
About ten minutes later Arnold pulled into the parking lot of Don Pablos and let himself in through the back door. He stuffed his keys and wallet into his little employee cubbie and grabbed his apron throwing it over his head and getting a pad and pencil beforing signing in to work. He quickly checked the chart...he had table 1-5. For the next 30 minutes Arnold took orders and brought food out to the costomers. He liked his job, it kept him busy but he got to meet lots of interesting people and he got free lunch's and dinners. He finished relaying a message to the cook about an alergy to tomatos when a coworker tapped him on the shoulder, "New costomers at table two," He said before handing the cook his order sheet. Arnold checked his pocket for his pencil and hurried out of the kitchen.
******************************************************
"Dad, I'm telling you, I don't like mexican food, that's Olga, I like Italian." Helga said as her father turned into the parking lot.
"Nonsence." Bob said, "All Patakis like mexican cooking."
Helga sighed and climbed out of the car. There was no use in arguing with Big Bob. He never listened to anyone but Olga.
Helga sighed, 'oh well,' she thought, 'at least they want to celebrate graduation with you.'
They were seated almost immediatly at a table near the back of the room. Helga picked up her menu and began to search for something that she liked enough to eat...burritos..tacos...yes! chicken!
"May I take your drink orders?" a familiar voice drifted through her thoughts. Helga looked up. "Arnold!?" she said as her heart skipped a beat.
Arnold smiled at her, "Hey Helga, it's nice to see you here"
Helga's heart began to beat double time. "So this is where you work?" She said, "Not bad Arnoldo." she teased.
Arnold smiled. "So, congradulations, I here you graguated third in the the class."
Helga smiled and glanced down at the table, "Yeah...mostly because I got all of my math and science over with quickly and could focus on things I like, like english and drama." she said. "Hey, congradulations to you too, you were in the top thirty"
"I was 29th," Arnold laughed.
Helga smiled, it was great talking to him..."Anyway," Helga said, "Rhonda's having a graduation party tonight at her house, it starts at 8, she said that you're invited."
"Really, that's great." Arnold said, "I get off here at 7, are you going?"
Helga's heart quickened, he wanted to know if she was going to be there! "Yes," she said, "And Phoebe and Gerald are going too."
"Ok ok, enough talk, I'd like a beer." Bob said.
"Do you have any strawberry margaritas?" Mirriam asked.
"Yes of course" Arnold said making a few brief notes on his notepad,"Helga?"
"Diet coke."
"Ok," Arnold said, "I'll be back with your drinks shortly and then I'll take your orders.
**********************************************
Helga looked at herself in the mirror, she spun around slowly, she was wearing blue jeans which flared a little at the bottom with her white sneakers, then she had on a pale pink spaghetti strap top and a white blouse over it. Helga ran a brush through her long blonde hair. She was really quiet beautiful, as she'd grown up Helga had abandoned her pink jumper and bow and started wearing her hair down more often, to her surprise it curled a little bit at the ends, Helga was about 5'6, she was thin and had a gorgeous figure. Helga smiled to herself, confident with the way her clothes looked and left. She decided to walk to Rhonda's since it was such a nice evening in June.
As Helga walked down the street she began to think about the future. She knew what she wanted to be...a writer. Helga loved to write, but she knew she probably wouldn't be able to support herself untill she published her first book and she had no idea how long that would be. Also she wanted to move out, she was sick of living with Bob and Mirriam. She knew that the best thing to do was to go to collage, she'd applied to quiet a few. She was planning on majoring in either english or journalism, getting a job,and then working on her novel in her spare time. It would probably take longer that way but at least she'd be independant. 'I can't beleive I graduated today...' Helga thought. 'I can't beleive we all graduated...now we're all going to go out into the world to make our livings, all at different occupations all across the world. I may never see some of these people in my life. What about Phoebe? I know she's going to Harvard but where will she go from there? And Gerald...he applied to Harvard but he hasn't gotten an answer yet, where will he go? And...and Arnold.' Suddenly Helga felt nausious. 'What if I never see Arnold again? I love him, this isn't just some childish crush or infatuation, this is LOVE, I love everything about him, his hardworking spirit, his morals and values, his kindness and genorousity to others, the way he treats his friends, the way he talks...just HIM, I love Arnold...what if I never see him again?' Helga felt a small lump raise in her throat. 'NO.' she said to herself. 'NO, you haven't cried in years Helga and you are not about to start now. Don't be so weak.'
Helga shook her head as if to compose herself and climbed up the steps to Rhonda's house. She rang the bell and the Lloyds butler, Harrison, answered the doors.
"Evening Ms. Pataki," Harrison said.
Helga smiled, Harrison knew all of Rhonda's friends through various gatherings at the Lloyds house.
Helga headed into the party room, or lounge, and found about twenty of her classmates mingling and chatting. Glancing around she realized that a lot of these people were Rhonda's *newer* friends, the kids who had money and wore only the latest trends. Throughout highschool Rhonda had become one of the more preppy crowd, but she never forgot any of her friends.
Helga spotted Sid trying to make conversation with a girl decked out in Abercrombie and Fitch summer wear and headed over to him.
"Hey Sid," she said.
"Helga!" Sid said, "How nice to see you! Want to go for a walk about?" Sid excused himself from the girl and Helga and Sid headed over to a couch. "Thanks Helga, I was dying in here. All these people want to talk about is clothes and money."
"What are friends for?" Helga said.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Sid asked her, "Career wise I mean."
Helga gave it a quick shrug, "Probably journalism." She said. She never told anyone about her ambition of being a world renowned author. She didn't want to tell everyone her goal if she might not succeed at it.
"That's cool Helga, You're a great writer! I read all of your stuff in the school paper. It was great! And the paper was great all year with you as senior manager."
"Thanks," Helga said. "What about you though, what are you going to do?"
"Undecided." Sid answered. "Though I was thinking of being a detective, but I'm not sure what type of detective, and I'm not positive yet."
They chatted for a while when Phoebe and Gerald showed up. Phoebe was holding Geralds hand and leaning into him ever so slightly, she tended to become even more shy and nervous around this group of Rhonda's friends then she was with complete strangers.
Eventually they had gathered a nice group of all their close friends, Helga, Phoebe, Arnold, Gerald, Sid, Harold and Lila. They were all enjoying themselves immensly, reminiscing about the past and teasing each other about the future. At 9:30 Rhonda stopped over at their little group.
"Oh good, you're all here. I need to talk to you all when everyone else has gone, Ok? good." Rhonda said before moving on to her next group of friends.
"Hmmm...wonder what that's about?" Gerald said. Everyone shrugged and resumed their conversations.
"Hey babe..." Helga could here someone saying, she looked around to see Curly flirting with a girl in an addidas outfit. She turned her nose on him and left. Curly shrugged and moved onto the next girl. Helga couldn't help but laugh.
By 12:40 all of the guests were gone accept for those who Rhonda wanted to speak with. They all were lounged about on coaches and chairs, Gerald was on the love sofa with Phoebe resting her head on his shoulder. Harold was in a big arm chair, Sid, Arnold and Helga were sitting on the long couch and Helga was pleased to notice that her arm and Arnolds were slightly touching and was careful to keep it that way. Lila was in another chair.
Rhonda finished waving goodbye to her guests and shut the door. She came in to find her friends, all utterly exhausted and slouching around.
Rhonda smiled. "You will never guess what I have planned this summer!" she said in a chipper voice.
"Crimeny Rhonda, we're all exhausted, just tell us." Helga said.
"Well..." Rhonda said. "As you may know, my family owns a mansion in France, it's one of our several summer places, any way, Mummy and Daddy have given me permission to use it this summer, since it's my summer between senior year and college, I'm aloud to use it however I want. And so I thought to myself, what would be better than spending the summer in France with my closest friends? So, I'm inviting you all to go on vacation with me in France this summer! I've already got the tickets! We leave in three days!"
The seven were stunned. No one seemed to know what to say, they all just sat there with their mouths open.
"Well?" Rhonda said. "Say something!"
"Gosh Rhonda, it's a very generous offer, but I think that I'll need a little bit of time to talk to my parents about this..." Phoebe said.
"Yeah Rhonda, I'd love to go," Sid said, "but I've got to talk to my parents and my boss..."
Everyone began agreeing with Phoebe and Sid.
"How long would we be gone Rhonda?" Arnold asked.
"One month." She answered.
Everyone agreed to talk about it with their parents and supervisors. And they all wanted to go, what else could be more fun than a summer in Paris with your friends? They all thanked Rhonda for the invitation and got up to say goodbye...what they didn't know was that a ninth person had been listening...
A/N#2-hey, so what do you think? Promising? I hope you like it...it's going to get better when they actually get to Paris. Does anyone know Sid's last name, or Curly's or The mailman for arnold's neighborhoods name? Or Lila's last name? Please put it in the review if you know! Thanks!
Disclaimer-I do not own Hey Arnold, or coke, or Don Pablos, or...anything that you know is owned by big important people.
Vacation in Paris-part one
"CHRIS!!! Be careful, this stuff is old."
"I am being careful, why don't you watch what you're doing Susan, you just knocked over a box of old letters."
"I only knocked it over because you bumped into me dumbass!"
"Will both of you stop arguing?" a third voice entered the conversation.
Three kids were up in Susan's dusty old attic. Fourteen year old Susan, smart, and very witty and sarcastic, her best friend fourteen year old Chris, smart and athletic who was good at everything he tried, his sister, thirteen year old Porcia, smart and shy, she loved to read and was often the voice of peace between Susan and Chris.
"We're not arguing, Porcia." Susan said.
"Yeah, we never really argue...we have creative differences." Chris put in.
"Like, I'm creative...and he's not." Susan added.
Porcia rolled her eyes and picked up an old box of photos.
Susan had always lived next door to Chris and Porcia, their parents were best friends. They'd grown up together. Chris and Susan had completed the eigth grade and would be starting high school in a couple of weeks. Porcia was homeschooled through choice of her own, she didn't like having so many distractoins at school, right now she was studying 11th grade courses, sometimes the fact that his little sister was smarter than him drove Chris nuts. And on rainy days like today when they couldn't go anywhere they usually found something to do together. Today they were exploring all the old stuff which belonged to their parents in Susan's attic.
Chris dragged a big blue trunk out into the middle of the room and opened it up. It was full of clothes. "Oh my gosh! You guys these clothes are from...like 2015 or something!!! Look at them! The still have all these old brand names all over them! We could make a fortune off of these!"
"Chris we can't sell our parent's old clothes, they're probably keeping them for a reason." Porcia stated,
Susan began moving old boxes. Throughout the years they had already looked through half the boxes, she wanted to find something new... She moved the boxes around untill she reached the very last one in the corner furthest away from the door. It was taped shut and had "Paris" scribbled out on top in her mothers handwritting. Susan dragged the box out and opened it up. Inside were photos of their parents and a few others, as well as a bunch of letters and other documents written in french, and then there was a French newspaper article which struck her particular attention.
"American kids save Eiffle Tower" she translated, using her four years of french class. Susan studied the picture, the light wasn't very good but...sure enough it was her parents, and Chris and Porcia's, Chris and Porcia's aunt was also in the picture as well as four others.
"Hey guys..." Susan called. "Look at this."
The other two joined her in the back of the attic and looked at the article.
"Did your mom or dad ever mention anything about this to you?" Susan asked.
"No...yours?" Chris answered.
"Not a word." Susan said looking through the piles of photos and letters and brochures as well as menus and programs. "I wonder why...I mean...did they really go to France and save the eiffle tower?"
"I don't know...I mean don't you think they would have told us? Or that it would be in our history books?" Chris said.
"Chris our parents arent that old! This only happened about 20 years ago!" Susan said.
"So what? We should have still heard about it! Saving the eiffle tower is big!"
"Yes but maybe they didn't...I don't even know if my parents have ever been out of the country!"
"Well," Porcia said putting the newspaper article back into the box, "We could sit up here and ponder that question all day getting no where...or we could go ask our parents."
Chris and Susan glanced at each other. "Yeah ok." They said and picked up the box between the two of them carrying it downstairs. They reached the living room where their parents were chatting and drinking coffee and tea and heaved the box up onto the coffee table setting it down with a thud. The four adults snapped to attention.
"Care to explain all of this?" Susan asked picking up the newspaper article.
"Susan, honey, where did you find all of this stuff!" Her mother asked.
"In the back of the attic." Susan answered as the four adults began to crowd around the table together going through old photos and memoirs.
"Hello?" Chris said. "How come we never heard this story of you guys saving Paris?"
"Well...it's all part of a rather long story..." Susan's father said. "About how Susan's mother and I got together...and how Chris and Porcia's parents stayed together...Well, I'm not really a great storyteller. Honey? You're the published authoress, why don't you start."
Susan's mom set down the photograph she'd been staring at and sat back on the coach leaning into her husbad who put his arm around her.
"Ok...well kids...It all started at graduation I suppose..."
********************************************
Helga G. Pataki slouched in her chair for most of the ceremony. It was incredibly boring. Her father, The Beeper King, had given a *motivational* speech on how to succeed, the principal had lectured them all on their years of hard work, Next was the class president, Gerald Johansen. Helga sat up a little bit more, she'd known Gerald since they were in preschool, and even though she'd picked on him and teased him, as well as half of the graduating class, during grade school they had turned out to be pretty good friends, partially because he was dating her best friend, and partially because he was a good person in general. She listened to Gerald's speech about how they'd all suceed at various things and to always remember the fun they had and stuff. She had to admit, it was pretty good, he was a good public speaker, maybe that's why he was so interested in law and politics. Then Gerald introduced the valedictorian, Phoebe Hyerdahl. Helga cheered louder than anyone as Gerald stepped down from the podium and gave Phoebe a peck on the cheek before her speech. Phoebe stepped up, blushing furiously and began her speech. After a few short hours the ceremony was over. The principal took the podium once again and said. "I give to you...the graduating class of 2009!!!"
Helga sighed, so that was that. No more school. There was a big graduation reception for parents and students afterward in the school cafeteria. Helga congratulated Phoebe and Gerald on their speeches while her parents and principal spent time remembering Olga's graduation. She was chatting with Phoebe and Gerald when Rhonda Wellington Lloyd stepped over to them. "Gerald, Phoebe, great speeches, you looked GREAT, up there. Helga, nice to see you, listen...I'm holding a little graduation party at my house tonight, come by around 8, I'll see you there! Oh and if you see Arnold tell him he's invited too! kisses! Choa!"
Helga's heart gave a quick flutter in her chest when Rhonda said "Arnold". Though she was no longer obsessed with him or wrote love poetry to him and built shrines dedicated to him secretly...she still loved him. They had become good friends over the years, they had to while their best friends were dating, she'd still tease him with her cunning, wit and sarcasm but they were just joking. Yet, she still loved him, no matter how hard she tried to get over him she couldn't, he had grown quiet handsome, his football head had turned into a normal shape and he was a strong, cross country runner, he was gorgeous in Helga's opinion. She still kept her love for him a sercret, she didn't want to jepordize the friendship she so cherished.
"Well, well," Gerald said, "Sounds like fun. Do you want to go?" He asked Phoebe.
"Yes, it will be great to see our classmates one last time before we all split up and go our seperate ways." Phoebe said.
A silence fell over them as they realized that this was really going to be goodbye, that they may never see some of these people again.
"Olga!" Bob's voice boomed as he aproached the little trio. "Come on, your mom and I are going to take you to that mexican place you love."
Helga sighed..."It's Helga dad, and I don't like Mexican..."
"Yeah yeah...lets go."
"Bye guys." Helga said. "I'll see you at the party tonight."
*****************************************************
Arnold headed through the parking lot toward the packard, his grandfather had left him the car in his will. Arnold sighed to himself. 'So this is it...' he thought, 'I've graduated, I wish my grandparents, or my parents could have been here for this...'
Arnold unlocked the door and climbed in. His parents had been gone since he was a kid and his grandparents had died just two years ago of old age. Arnold started the car and pulled out of the schools parking lot. He knew that there was a reception being held in the cafetieria but he didn't want to go. Besides, he had to get to work.
About ten minutes later Arnold pulled into the parking lot of Don Pablos and let himself in through the back door. He stuffed his keys and wallet into his little employee cubbie and grabbed his apron throwing it over his head and getting a pad and pencil beforing signing in to work. He quickly checked the chart...he had table 1-5. For the next 30 minutes Arnold took orders and brought food out to the costomers. He liked his job, it kept him busy but he got to meet lots of interesting people and he got free lunch's and dinners. He finished relaying a message to the cook about an alergy to tomatos when a coworker tapped him on the shoulder, "New costomers at table two," He said before handing the cook his order sheet. Arnold checked his pocket for his pencil and hurried out of the kitchen.
******************************************************
"Dad, I'm telling you, I don't like mexican food, that's Olga, I like Italian." Helga said as her father turned into the parking lot.
"Nonsence." Bob said, "All Patakis like mexican cooking."
Helga sighed and climbed out of the car. There was no use in arguing with Big Bob. He never listened to anyone but Olga.
Helga sighed, 'oh well,' she thought, 'at least they want to celebrate graduation with you.'
They were seated almost immediatly at a table near the back of the room. Helga picked up her menu and began to search for something that she liked enough to eat...burritos..tacos...yes! chicken!
"May I take your drink orders?" a familiar voice drifted through her thoughts. Helga looked up. "Arnold!?" she said as her heart skipped a beat.
Arnold smiled at her, "Hey Helga, it's nice to see you here"
Helga's heart began to beat double time. "So this is where you work?" She said, "Not bad Arnoldo." she teased.
Arnold smiled. "So, congradulations, I here you graguated third in the the class."
Helga smiled and glanced down at the table, "Yeah...mostly because I got all of my math and science over with quickly and could focus on things I like, like english and drama." she said. "Hey, congradulations to you too, you were in the top thirty"
"I was 29th," Arnold laughed.
Helga smiled, it was great talking to him..."Anyway," Helga said, "Rhonda's having a graduation party tonight at her house, it starts at 8, she said that you're invited."
"Really, that's great." Arnold said, "I get off here at 7, are you going?"
Helga's heart quickened, he wanted to know if she was going to be there! "Yes," she said, "And Phoebe and Gerald are going too."
"Ok ok, enough talk, I'd like a beer." Bob said.
"Do you have any strawberry margaritas?" Mirriam asked.
"Yes of course" Arnold said making a few brief notes on his notepad,"Helga?"
"Diet coke."
"Ok," Arnold said, "I'll be back with your drinks shortly and then I'll take your orders.
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Helga looked at herself in the mirror, she spun around slowly, she was wearing blue jeans which flared a little at the bottom with her white sneakers, then she had on a pale pink spaghetti strap top and a white blouse over it. Helga ran a brush through her long blonde hair. She was really quiet beautiful, as she'd grown up Helga had abandoned her pink jumper and bow and started wearing her hair down more often, to her surprise it curled a little bit at the ends, Helga was about 5'6, she was thin and had a gorgeous figure. Helga smiled to herself, confident with the way her clothes looked and left. She decided to walk to Rhonda's since it was such a nice evening in June.
As Helga walked down the street she began to think about the future. She knew what she wanted to be...a writer. Helga loved to write, but she knew she probably wouldn't be able to support herself untill she published her first book and she had no idea how long that would be. Also she wanted to move out, she was sick of living with Bob and Mirriam. She knew that the best thing to do was to go to collage, she'd applied to quiet a few. She was planning on majoring in either english or journalism, getting a job,and then working on her novel in her spare time. It would probably take longer that way but at least she'd be independant. 'I can't beleive I graduated today...' Helga thought. 'I can't beleive we all graduated...now we're all going to go out into the world to make our livings, all at different occupations all across the world. I may never see some of these people in my life. What about Phoebe? I know she's going to Harvard but where will she go from there? And Gerald...he applied to Harvard but he hasn't gotten an answer yet, where will he go? And...and Arnold.' Suddenly Helga felt nausious. 'What if I never see Arnold again? I love him, this isn't just some childish crush or infatuation, this is LOVE, I love everything about him, his hardworking spirit, his morals and values, his kindness and genorousity to others, the way he treats his friends, the way he talks...just HIM, I love Arnold...what if I never see him again?' Helga felt a small lump raise in her throat. 'NO.' she said to herself. 'NO, you haven't cried in years Helga and you are not about to start now. Don't be so weak.'
Helga shook her head as if to compose herself and climbed up the steps to Rhonda's house. She rang the bell and the Lloyds butler, Harrison, answered the doors.
"Evening Ms. Pataki," Harrison said.
Helga smiled, Harrison knew all of Rhonda's friends through various gatherings at the Lloyds house.
Helga headed into the party room, or lounge, and found about twenty of her classmates mingling and chatting. Glancing around she realized that a lot of these people were Rhonda's *newer* friends, the kids who had money and wore only the latest trends. Throughout highschool Rhonda had become one of the more preppy crowd, but she never forgot any of her friends.
Helga spotted Sid trying to make conversation with a girl decked out in Abercrombie and Fitch summer wear and headed over to him.
"Hey Sid," she said.
"Helga!" Sid said, "How nice to see you! Want to go for a walk about?" Sid excused himself from the girl and Helga and Sid headed over to a couch. "Thanks Helga, I was dying in here. All these people want to talk about is clothes and money."
"What are friends for?" Helga said.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Sid asked her, "Career wise I mean."
Helga gave it a quick shrug, "Probably journalism." She said. She never told anyone about her ambition of being a world renowned author. She didn't want to tell everyone her goal if she might not succeed at it.
"That's cool Helga, You're a great writer! I read all of your stuff in the school paper. It was great! And the paper was great all year with you as senior manager."
"Thanks," Helga said. "What about you though, what are you going to do?"
"Undecided." Sid answered. "Though I was thinking of being a detective, but I'm not sure what type of detective, and I'm not positive yet."
They chatted for a while when Phoebe and Gerald showed up. Phoebe was holding Geralds hand and leaning into him ever so slightly, she tended to become even more shy and nervous around this group of Rhonda's friends then she was with complete strangers.
Eventually they had gathered a nice group of all their close friends, Helga, Phoebe, Arnold, Gerald, Sid, Harold and Lila. They were all enjoying themselves immensly, reminiscing about the past and teasing each other about the future. At 9:30 Rhonda stopped over at their little group.
"Oh good, you're all here. I need to talk to you all when everyone else has gone, Ok? good." Rhonda said before moving on to her next group of friends.
"Hmmm...wonder what that's about?" Gerald said. Everyone shrugged and resumed their conversations.
"Hey babe..." Helga could here someone saying, she looked around to see Curly flirting with a girl in an addidas outfit. She turned her nose on him and left. Curly shrugged and moved onto the next girl. Helga couldn't help but laugh.
By 12:40 all of the guests were gone accept for those who Rhonda wanted to speak with. They all were lounged about on coaches and chairs, Gerald was on the love sofa with Phoebe resting her head on his shoulder. Harold was in a big arm chair, Sid, Arnold and Helga were sitting on the long couch and Helga was pleased to notice that her arm and Arnolds were slightly touching and was careful to keep it that way. Lila was in another chair.
Rhonda finished waving goodbye to her guests and shut the door. She came in to find her friends, all utterly exhausted and slouching around.
Rhonda smiled. "You will never guess what I have planned this summer!" she said in a chipper voice.
"Crimeny Rhonda, we're all exhausted, just tell us." Helga said.
"Well..." Rhonda said. "As you may know, my family owns a mansion in France, it's one of our several summer places, any way, Mummy and Daddy have given me permission to use it this summer, since it's my summer between senior year and college, I'm aloud to use it however I want. And so I thought to myself, what would be better than spending the summer in France with my closest friends? So, I'm inviting you all to go on vacation with me in France this summer! I've already got the tickets! We leave in three days!"
The seven were stunned. No one seemed to know what to say, they all just sat there with their mouths open.
"Well?" Rhonda said. "Say something!"
"Gosh Rhonda, it's a very generous offer, but I think that I'll need a little bit of time to talk to my parents about this..." Phoebe said.
"Yeah Rhonda, I'd love to go," Sid said, "but I've got to talk to my parents and my boss..."
Everyone began agreeing with Phoebe and Sid.
"How long would we be gone Rhonda?" Arnold asked.
"One month." She answered.
Everyone agreed to talk about it with their parents and supervisors. And they all wanted to go, what else could be more fun than a summer in Paris with your friends? They all thanked Rhonda for the invitation and got up to say goodbye...what they didn't know was that a ninth person had been listening...
A/N#2-hey, so what do you think? Promising? I hope you like it...it's going to get better when they actually get to Paris. Does anyone know Sid's last name, or Curly's or The mailman for arnold's neighborhoods name? Or Lila's last name? Please put it in the review if you know! Thanks!