Hi guys! Chapter 2 already! Hope you liked the last one. This thing sort of has a slow start. I think it gets better, but tell me what you think ok? -JIA

Chapter 2:
Arnold saw Helga as he passed by the harbor coming home from a day of riding his bike down the steepest hill in the neighborhood. He was hesitant about going over to greet her. He hasn't been able to say much to her since that night.

After all, what do you say to the girl you've had your first kiss with?

Much jeering from the other guys had not helped matters either. He's been feeling uncomfortable around her lately. They've been bugging him about whether he liked Helga now and refusing to believe him when he denies it.

To be honest, he doesn't really know.

It was all so childish. It's not like he was the first guy to be seen with a girl. Earlier that year they were teasing one of their other friends, Harold Berman because they saw him with Patty, but they got over teasing him pretty fast.

Of course, that's probably because Harold's thirteen years old and big.

"I'm gonna beat you guys up so bad it won't even be funny!" he heard him tell them if they didn't stop making fun of Patty. Most of the time, Harold annoyed him, but that day, he thought he was pretty cool.

It wouldn't sound cool coming from him though. Harold was big and he was...

Not.

Of course, that didn't mean he couldn't prove he could if he said it. His grandmother had taught him the art of self-defense some time ago, but he promised himself never to seek the fly again.

He couldn't very well hide from her or avoid her forever.

Not if he wants to be sure about how he felt.

He decided that there and then was the time to start trying to return to normal with her, you know, taking a step backward. Either that or...

At least this way, Arnold reasoned, if ever it ends up terribly embarrassing for me, nobody else will be around to add insult to injury.

That also means that there'll be no witnesses, he argued with himself. Helga could throw me in the lake and no one will be the wiser. No one would know where to find me.

No, he didn't mean that. He took it back. He watched her from afar. He couldn't believe she was the same Helga who'd terrorized him and his friends since he could remember.

But he'd seen her like this before. He'd caught glimpses of this Helga, who sat there quietly by herself, sporadically throughout his life.

This Helga whose brows weren't constantly furrowed and whose mouth wasn't scowling. On the contrary, it was turned up at the corners in a sort of half-smile.

It was almost like she could control her own emotions, he observed. Like she had several settings and right now she's in neutral.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even consider what he was planning to do next, but as he watched her in this state, he thought, maybe.

Just maybe...