Thank you for the reviews! I really appreciate it, and glad you guys like it! I'll try to make it really long, but I don't want to bore you people out there! I'm surprised no one has done this Idea! Ok 'nuff blab.

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue!

(Chapter) 2: Late

The neighborhood didn't look in such top condition as he remembered. Maybe it was just the shadows? As he looked upon the brownstones and flats, his fears were answered. The buildings were falling apart. The boy began to run through the town. The closer he got to the park, the more miserable the town looked. As he got to the park, he called for anyone.

"Hello! Anybody here?"

A faint laughing.

He went deeper into the park, going off the pathway. He could still here the laughing. A happy type, not a maniacal type. As he reached the end of the path, he saw a lake. A small one. It was beautifully light by the moon. As the boy got closer, he was a person dancing on the lake. A girl dancing on the lake.

' This is getting strange.'

The girl stopped dancing on the lake as she turned to face the boy. She smiled and giggled. She was who was laughing. Her dress bellowed around her as she began to step towards him.

" I was waiting for you Arnold." Her voice sweet.

" You were?"

"Of course, silly." She smiled.

Arnold wasn't sure about this. He felt he should know her, but couldn't place her. . familiarity. She had golden blond hair, in low drooping pigtails. Her fluffy bangs waved ever so slightly in the wind. Her thin eyebrows brought out her soft blue eyes.

' Nah, it couldn't be.'

The girl walked up to the boy. She was a head taller than he was. She brought her hand to the sides of his face, cupping him in her hands. She glided down and leaned in to kiss him.

" Wait." Arnold moved away from her kiss.

" Why, Arnold. It's me." She looked a little hurt.

Arnold looked at the girl, his expression seeming to ask 'who?'

" It's me Arnold. It's H-"

"HEY ARNOLD. HEY ARNOLD. HEY ARN-"

Arnold woke up with a start and hit his alarm off. That dream had been so real. It was very nerve wracking. And who was that girl! Deciding to put it out of his mind, Arnold went down to get his breakfast. None of the other boarders were up, thankfully, save his grandparents. He went into the kitchen to see what there was to eat. Gertie, or grandma, was making French toast and Phil, grandpa, was sitting at the table.

" Mornin' Short-man."

" Morning Grandpa."

Arnold went over to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of Orange juice. He sat down at the table as Grandma put a plate of French toast in front of him.

" Eat up, Kimba. You need your strength today."

" Thanks Grandma."

"What's up Short-man, you seem a little glum. Have some kinda bad dream?"

" Well, not really bad, weird really."

It was always uncanny how Grandpa seemed to be ahead of him with the whole story.

" So, what happen?"

" I was in the neighborhood, but it was wasting away. I ran to the park trying to find someone, and then I heard laughing. As I got closer to the laughter, I found a lake in the middle of the park."

"Interesting."

" After a moment, I saw someone dancing on the lake, and it was a girl. I felt I knew who she was, but didn't."

"Really? What did she look like?"

" Well, she had blond hair, blue eyes,-"

" This isn't, by any chance, your friend with the one eyebrow is it?"

Arnold did a double take. The girl did look like Helga, but there were differences. And there was just no way, not when the girl was going to kiss him.

" She did kinda look like Helga, but I don't think it was her."

" Hmm, well, I don't know what to tell ya Arnold. Dreams are very hard to understand sometimes."

" Yeah. Thanks anyway Grandpa."

Arnold finished up his breakfast, went upstairs and got ready for school.

" Okay class, today you start your projects. If you just move your desks to sit with your partner, and get started. You can have the rest of class time to work." Mr. Simmons instructed. Once everyone was situated, the class began to work diligently.

" I'll tell you more about it later Pheebs." Helga said as she left her friend's desk.

Helga had the object in her backpack and had shown it to Phoebe during recess. Phoebe was in awe of it. Helga had read the papers on the ground she had found, and they explained how it needed to be worked. She figured the crazy guy was going to burn the instructions, the way he was talking. Helga had even found out how to move organic materials through the Time Frequency thingy. Would it be so wrong if maybe Lila was gone for a day or two? She grinned to herself.

" Hey, Arnoldo."

" Hi Helga." He said, not looking up.

Arnold still felt weird out a little by his dream. Helga noticed his unease.

" What wrong with you?"

" Uh nothing, just a dream. So I was thinking of doing a project on Archeology. Dose that sound good?"

" Sure." Helga nodded, putting her feet on the side of her desk. " What kind of dream?"

" A weird one. Why?"

" Hey, just trying to get you to relax bucko. Geez."

" Sorry, it's just. .-"

" Yeah?"

" Embarrassing."

Arnold looked up for a moment to find Helga grinning.

' It's me.'

Arnold snapped out of his trance. The girl had just appeared in his head again.

" I think I need a drink. I'll be right back."

" Yeah, yeah. Go ahead." Helga waved her hand towards the door, and grabbed up a book Arnold had brought for their project.

' I think I'm losing it.' He thought to himself.

Class had gone relatively well the rest of the day. Arnold and Helga didn't fight very much, give or take a few remarks on their behalf, but they had gotten along well. Arnold, for one was happy to see Helga's nice side again. Helga herself was in pure awe of herself. All the other previous times, she couldn't handle being nice to him for more than a few seconds, and now, she had been nice the entire day; she had even been nice to him when they were in lunch. Helga thought maybe something was wrong, but denounced the idea. She was simply getting better at being herself. It made her feel good.

When school was over, Arnold went to find Gerald.

" Hey Gerald."

" Hey man."

They did their secret handshake.

"So how is your project going with 'Horrible Helga'?"

" It's actually not that bad. She's been nice to me all day. . . did you just say

'Horrible Helga'?"

" Yeah, I made it up. Kinda has a ring to it, don't cha think?"

Arnold sighed.

" How's your project with Phoebe going?"

" Great man! The girl knows what she doing, more so than I do." Gerald grinned.

They boarded their bus, and sat down in their usual seat. Phoebe and Helga got on not long after them and sat behind the boys.

" So, how much of the project to you have done Helga?"

" We have what we're going to write about, we just need to write it. Also, we have some pictures were going to show. You?"

" I'm almost finished."

" Crimaney, Pheebs, it's not even due till the end of next week."

" I know, I just wanted to get a head start."

Helga chuckled.

" You've got plenty of that Pheebs."

After a few moments, Arnold turned and peered his head over the back of his seat.

" What do you want, Football-Head?" Helga said, only without much hostility.

" Are you doing anything tonight?"

Helga raised her brow, in a questioning look.

" No, why?"

" I was thinking I could come over to your house so we could work on the project."

" I don't think so."

" Why not?"

" I don't think Bob will be wanting your company. 'Alfred'." Helga grinned.

Arnold knew what Helga was saying to be true. Bob Pataki didn't very much care for him, of course, Arnold didn't think to highly of 'Big' Bob either.

" Well then why don't you see about coming over to my house?"

" Sure, that's not a problem. I'll just come on over around seven. Sound good?"

" Great! Make sure to bring any books you might have with Archeology."

Arnold turned back in his seat and continued to talk to Gerald. Phoebe looked to Helga in awe. She leaned into Helga and whispered to her.

" Helga, how in the world were you able to do that?!"

" Do what?"

" Carry on a normal conversation with Arnold?"

" Oh that. You know Pheebs, I really don't know."

As the bus slowed to a stop, the two girls got up, along with the other kids at the stop and got off. Helga then explained to Phoebe the entire events that unfolded today in school, and how she had acted. Phoebe was just as amazed as Helga was with herself. After a while, they came to Phoebe's home and she bid her friend evening. Helga walked home contemplating what she would do in the hours before meeting with Arnold. She also wondered what she'd do while she was with Arnold. Would she still be able to be nice like she had been?

" I'm home." Helga called as she closed the door. " Not that you care." She muttered under her breath.

" Yeah yeah, Olga, there's some dinner for you in the kitchen."

" Helga, Bob Hel-. . .wait, dinner? This I gotta see." She said fleetingly.

' A piece of stale bread? A left of lettuce? Maybe even a carrot stick. Nah, that's wishful thinking.' Helga thought as she entered the kitchen. But there was an actual decent plate of food in the kitchen. A cold chicken leg, a spoon of mashed potatoes and half a roll.

" Well, if today isn't my lucky day."

Helga removed the plate off the table, away from her passed out mother, and up to her room. She watched a little TV and ate the meal. When she looked back to her clock, she still had and hour to kill.

" Crimaney, this is getting boring."

The thought for a moment, then grinned. Reaching for her backpack, she took out the 'phase blaster', as she so called it, and went outside with some other books in hand.

" I'll be back later." She called going out the door.

" Don't get run over." Bob yelled out to the already gone Helga.

She began to walk around town, ducking into allies and trying out the blaster. A few times she'd walk into a store, blast a comic, walk out, blast it back, read it, then repeat the process to put the item back into the store. It wasn't stealing. She did return the item. Besides, how would they find the item? She laughed in delight.

" This is great! I can take anything I want, without paying for it, then return it when I'm done. Well, you can't return soda." She finished off a yahoo, then threw it away.

" Ehh, I'll just donate some money to those charity thingies next time I go in."

Helga started walking her way towards Arnold's house. She did and didn't want him knowing about the blaster. On one hand, it'd be a good thing, on the other, if he found out what she did use it for, he'd give her a long boring lecture. She grinned at the thought.

" Now Helga, you know that's wrong."

" Oh, but Arnold."

" No 'buts' Helga"

" Hah ha ha."

Helga laughed as she played the conversation to herself. She felt herself in a chipper mood.

" Thank you ever so much Arnold. That was very nice of you."

Well, was in a chipper mood.

" You're welcome Lila. Anytime."

Helga jumped sideways into an ally. The ally that just happed to be next to Sunset Arms.

" Lila." Helga said in a scowl. She still did not care for the girl in the least bit. At least when she was near Arnold.

" I'm glad you weren't busy, and were able to help me. It was just ever so sweet of you."

" 'It was ever so sweet of you.'" Helga mocked. " Gag. Me."

Arnold blushed lightly, with a flash of a dumb grin on his face.

" Sure."

Helga clinched her fists but stopped, realizing she held her blaster in one hand. A wicked smile played on her lips.

" Heh, heh, he."

The two were across the street of the boarding house, talking. Helga, in the meantime, was setting the blaster.

" Let's see. ORG for Organic. Year 2023. Heh heh, and finally, R. Have to return her sometime." She rolled her eyes.

ORG/2023/R flashed on the LED screen inside the compartment. She shut it as the LED screen on the out read: Initializing . . . Scanning frequency . . .

Lock Target:

Helga aimed it at Lila.

" Would you like to come in for awhile?"

" That's really sweet Arnold, but I have to go home now."

" I could walk you."

" That's okay. You've helped enough today."

" But I-"

Arnold got a glimpse of something shining in the glass of the building behind Lila. Her turned around and could make out a figure of a person in the ally. As he looked closer, her saw. .

" Helga!"

" What?" Lila looked on.

Helga stepped slightly out of the shadows and had it aimed at Lila. Arnold, seeing the 'blaster' thought it was a water gun, but still did not like what Helga was going to do.

" You're just going to experience the future Lila. Just for a day or two."

" I'm oh so certain I have no idea what you're talking about!"

" Helga, put down the water gun!" Arnold said.

Frequency Target Match. Powering . . .

" Have fun Lila!"

The Frequency Time Object Displacer (FTOD) powered up with a low humming.

" Helga, Stop!"

Arnold ran at her and grabbed her hands.

" You don't know what you're dealing with Football-head!"

The two struggled to keep a hold of the blaster. Helga thought she still had it on Lila as it fired off, but it had been knocked way off by Arnold's interference. The beam hit the glass behind Lila and bounced off, coming right back at the two blondes. As Lila watched, one minute the two were there, the next they both were gone. All that was left in their place was the blaster, humming quietly.