Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold or the characters…just this plot! Now on with my story…
The rays of light shown through the window and crept up the fourteen-year old girls' bed, tempting her eyes to open. She sat up and looked out the clear glass of the window to see outside. It was a sunny, spring day, with not a cloud in the sky. Today was the last day of school for two weeks because Easter vacation would be starting the following Monday.
She got up and put her pink, three-quarter sleeved shirt and light blue Jean shorts on. She gave up her pink dress when she had an incident on a very, very windy day. She was too embarrassed the next day to wear it again.
She went into the bathroom- her golden hair was a tangled mess. She brushed and parted it to one side. She grew out of the large pink bow and pigtails when she turned 10, figuring that being within an age of double digits was too old for that type of hairstyle. Besides, She wasn't the type of person to spend eternity just trying to get her hair in a perfect bun or something of the sort.
She headed downstairs to grab her daily fruit bar… she didn't exactly have a perfect body, and she wanted to lose just a few pounds.
Her dad, or Big Bob, was currently in South Dakota to start a Big Bob's Beepers emporium there.
Her mom would usually be fast asleep on the sofa in their living room, with the television at its highest volume. To Helga's surprise, she was in the kitchen on the phone.
"Oh B… that's wonderful! When are we going?" She said in her droning tone.
Helga didn't like that sentence; it sounded like they were planning on going on another trip.
"Ok, see you tomorrow." Miriam spoke into the receiver one last time, and hung it up.
She turned around and was startled to see Helga standing right in front of her.
"Oh hi Helga! You scared me!" She said, projecting her drunk-sounding laugh.
"Miriam, what were you talking about with Bob?" She asked suspiciously.
"Oh, right, right. About that… We have a surprise for you."
"Yeah? What's that?" She said, thinking that maybe it was something good.
"We're going to Alaska to be with Olga for Easter! Isn't that wonderful?" She said, her voice almost cracking from her enthusiasm.
"This can't be happening. I am NOT going to freezing Alaska just to see my over achieving sister." She thought, her eyes wide, a symbol of surprise.
"Oh look how happy you are! I knew you'd be surprised!" Miriam said.
"Oh I'm surprised alright. Surprised I'll have this house to myself while you and Bob take that trip a long ways away from me." She hastily pondered.
"Uh, that sounds great Miriam, really. But I think I'll stay here while you guys' go.
"You're such a kidder Helga!" She said as she lightly slapped Helga on the back.
"Oh yeah, what a great kidder I am." She thought.
"So, when are we leaving?"
"First thing Sunday morning!"
"Oh, Ok." She tried to sound a little joyful.
"I'm going to school, bye!" She said as she grabbed her brown-bagged lunch, and at the same time opened her fruit bar to eat on the way to the bus stop.
She got to her destination and stood with Phoebe, her full time best friend. Phoebe now wore a dark blue tee shirt and black pants. Her hair was pretty much the same as when they were fourth graders, except for the fact that it was a few inches longer. She no longer wore her glasses; she had gotten contacts when she turned 13. Her mother had finally thought she was old enough to take the responsibility of wearing them.
"Hey Phoebes."
"Hello Helga. Are you looking forward to Easter vacation?"
"Not anymore. I'm going to Alaska to see Olga and spend my whole vacation there."
"Oh, I'm sorry Helga. I know how much you despise her perfect ways. But I think you should at least try and have some fun."
"Yeah."
"When are you leaving? I got the tickets to the monster truck show!" Phoebe had grown to not mind the monster truck shows after all the years of being forced to go to them with Helga.
"I'm leaving Sunday." She said, uncomprehending what Phoebe's second sentence was.
"You what?!" She accentuated when Phoebes words soaked into her brain.
"I got the tickets you wanted- you told me to get them a few weeks ago, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah. I remember. Looks like I won't be seeing it though."
"Sorry Helga." Phoebe said, sympathetically.
"It's okay Phoebes."
The bus came, the wheels splashing through the puddles that were created by the rain, which had poured down like a waterfall the previous day. The door opened, but something down the street caught Helga's eye before she boarded.
It was Arnold and Gerald running at full speed to catch the bus. Now there was a sight. It made Helga forget about going to Alaska for a few moments.
Arnold was almost the same as when he was nine. His hair was the same, he wore his teal shirt underneath the large red with yellow plaid shirt, and his pants were the same color blue, only they were cargo pants. He was still shorter than Helga, but only by two inches. His head was still the same football shape. You might say he was pretty good looking.
Gerald had cut his hair; it was only six inches high, seven inches shorter than he used to have. He wore his famous red shirt with the number 33 on it, and also wore blue cargo pants.
Helga stared at Arnold running towards her, his body like a machine, moving in a constant pattern. She remembered the bus was there and looked up at the driver. He wasn't a very patient man, this she could tell just by his facial expression. She sheepishly smiled, and boarded the bus.
"Can you wait a second Mr.? My friends are almost here." Helga asked, politely.
The man rolled his eyes and nodded. A few seconds later the bus wobbled as the two boys jumped on, glimmering with the sweat they just worked up from running.
Later in school, Mr. Simpson, their English teacher was asking what everyone was doing over vacation. It was amazing, how Helga, Phoebe, Arnold and Gerald all made it into the same class, not to mention Eugene, Rhonda, Nadine, Harold, Sid and Curly.
The teacher called on Arnold, and he said he was just going to stay in Seattle and have Easter with his Grandparents and the boarders.
Mr. Simpson called on Helga, and, being in her negative mood, she glared at him.
"I'm not doing ANYTHING! Ok?" She said.
"Okay Helga, I was just being friendly. From now on, try not to get too worked up, it's bad for the soul." He said.
Mr. Simpson was very spiritual, he was similar to their fourth grade teacher, Mr. Simmons.
It was last period, and Helga just wanted out of that school. Mr. Simpson said they could have the last five minutes to talk amongst themselves. They packed up their bags, and started to talk. Arnold was sitting across from Helga, and was interested in what she was really doing over vacation.
"So Helga, are you really doing nothing for Easter?" He said.
"For your information, Arnoldo, I'm going to Alaska to see my sister Olga." She said "Olga" in her "she's so annoying" tone.
"Oh, that's nice." He said.
"Oh pa-lease Arnold. Like I want to waste my time in Alaska with my perfect sister and get ignored more than usual."
"You know Helga, you really should try and make the best of it." Mr. Optimistic said.
"Yeah, well…" the bell cut her off.
She got on the bus and sat down, with Arnold sitting in front of her. Her eyes went soft. She still loved Arnold, and being the dense boy he is, he hasn't caught on.
She got home, and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She went up to her room; Miriam was in it already.
"MOM! What are you doing in here!?" She yelled.
"Oh I'm just making sure you have enough underwear!"
Helga smacked her own face. How annoying can a mom get?
"She almost completely ignores me, yet she wants to make sure I have enough underwear? Criminey!" Helga thought.
"Come on Helga! You have to get ready to go to Alaska! Now start packing." Miriam said as she smiled and left the room.
She went to her closet and picked some of her favorite poetry books to bring. She parted all her clothing hanging up and went to the back of the closet, where her Arnold doll she had sewn after she took home economics in 7th grade was sitting. It was about a foot tall, and looked almost exactly like her love- It even had the same clothes on. She picked it up and danced around her room for a few minutes, saying "Oh… what's that you say? I'm the most beautiful girl you've ever met? Oh Arnold!" and so on…
Miriam had put a suitcase on her bed for her luggage. Helga could tell it had been Olga's once, since it had our number one daughter and best piano player in contest and more depressing words on it. She rolled her eyes, thinking that she would never be good enough for her parents.
She forgot about the suitcase and whipped out her locket- yes, the very same gold, heart-shaped locket she carried with her ever since she was three years old. She gazed into his fishbowl eyes…
"Oh Arnold! Why must I wait, here on a lonely land? A deserted isle, I stand alone, waiting. Waiting for my destiny to come and take me. One day I will no longer wait, you will realize we were meant to be. But until that day approaches, I will wait. Gazing across the vast blue waters, standing at the edge, waiting for you."
Her eyes shot up, realizing that she just thought of a pretty decent poem, the first in a few weeks.
"That's a keeper!" She said, as she grabbed her new poetry book that Phoebe had bought her for her birthday. She scribbled it down before she could forget any of the words.
The next day, Big Bob came home, ecstatic over the 'were gonna see Olga tomorrow!' thing. Helga came downstairs to say hi to Bob because Miriam made her. He just looked at her, like she was a disgrace.
"Why do I even bother with him?" She thought.
She had planned to play baseball at Gerald Field with all her friends the other day. She was happy- at least she could see everyone before she left for Alaska.
"Miriam, I'm going out for a while, be back later." She said, as if she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.
"Whatever." Miriam responded, not really caring.
Helga got to Gerald Field, only Arnold and Gerald were there.
"Well if it isn't Football Head and Tall Hair Boy." She teased.
"Hi Helga." They both said.
"So Helga, when are you leaving?" Arnold asked inquisitively.
"Tomorrow morning."
Helga turned around, hearing the rest of the kids on their way to the game. They started playing, Helga was in the outfield, and Arnold was up at bat. He hit the ball, and it came right down on her head.
"What is this? Whenever Arnold hits a ball, it always seems to find its way to my head." She said quietly.
Later on, the game came to an end, and everyone went home. Phoebe and Helga wanted to spend some time together, so they went to Helga's house. Phoebe knew that Helga was obsessed with Arnold, so Helga shared her poem, which she had written the day before. Phoebe loved it, but had to go home for some kind of family business. They said bye, and hugged since they wouldn't see each other for two weeks.
The next day Helga woke up, feeling like she was in an earthquake, because her mom was frantically shaking her.
"Ok, Ok, I'm up already! Criminey!" She yelled as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
"Hurry up Helga, we're leaving in 10 minutes!"
Helga looked at her clock. It was 5:05 in the morning. She hated getting up so early. She got up, got dressed and brushed her hair, like she did every morning. They packed up their blue car and were on their way to the airport. They got their cards, which told them the number order at which they would be seated. Their cards said 40, 41 and 42. They sat near the B30 gate and waited for their plane to be ready to board.
"Flight 1450 to Alaska is ready for boarding. Passengers with card numbers from one through fifteen can board the plane at this time. Again, passengers' with numbers one through fifteen are permitted to board at this time." A woman said over the loud speaker.
Helga was bopping her head to her CD she had in her Walkman.
The woman's voice came on again, this time saying, "Flight 1450 to Alaska will now let passengers' with numbers one through thirty board. Numbers one through thirty."
A few minutes later, the same woman announced, " Flight 1450 to Alaska will now let passengers' with numbers one through forty five board the plane."
"That's us!" Big Bob said as he grabbed Helga by the wrist and they were on their way to take their seat on the plane.
They found their seats smack dab in the middle of the plane, Helga got the window seat because she liked to overlook the land and sea when they were high above the ground. She looked out the window, they were right over the wing.
"So much for looking out the window." She said beneath her breath.
10 more minutes passed while the rest of the passengers loaded their carryon luggage in the compartment above them and took their seats and settled down. The "fasten seatbelt" sign flashed on, while they heard the tone notifying them about it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the control tower has informed us we are clear for take off." The captain announced.
"Hello ladies and gentlemen… since we will be taking off shortly, we authorize that you turn off all electronics, for example, laptops, walkman's, and cell phones. Thank you." One of the flight attendants said.
Helga didn't hear, so a flight attendant came and told her father to tell her to take them off. Instead of telling her to take them off, he tore the headphones off.
"Ow! Bob! What are you doing?" She said loudly, attracting attention from a few people around them.
"Your not allowed to wear these while we take off!" He said equally loud.
"Fine then Bob." She crossed her arms over her chest and pretended to look at the ground.
The plane started going fast, then faster, and tilted upwards. They lifted off, and were on their way.
Ten minutes later, an announcement was made again.
"You may now use your walkmans', and laptops, but we authorize that you do not use cell phones. Thank you."
Helga snatched her walkman away from her dad and put them on in a huff.
An hour went by, everything was going fine. Suddenly, the lights flickered, and went out. Helga had her eyes closed, so she didn't notice. Then, the sound of the engines started to fade out and come back, and the plane jerked forward and backward. Then the engines went out all the way, slowing the plane. Helga recognized something was wrong and took her headphones off.
"Attention passengers, we've lost all power of the plane, we're going down. Please remain calm!" The flight attendants yelled as everyone panicked. One Mother couldn't find her toddler which had gone to the bathroom a few minutes ago, so she got up and ran down the isle screaming "Jimmy! Jimmy! Where are you?!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, we need you to put your head between your legs and brace yourselves!" The flight attendants yelled over the screaming passengers.
Helga didn't know what to do.
"Am I going to die?? I can't! I haven't confessed to Arnold! No!" She thought.
She did as the flight attendants said.
The pressure in the plane was going fast, as well as the oxygen, so the oxygen masks were dropped from above and they were told to but them on, but stay in the position they were in.
They heard the sound of air rushing past the windows, they didn't know if they were right side up or upside down.
"Please remain calm! Please remain calm!" The flight attendants screamed as they still saw frantic passengers running up and down the isles.
OK.. that's the end of this chapter… tell me what y'all think k? thanks!
