Chapter10

~~~HOLY SHIT! I MADE IT TO CHAPTER TEN! HURRAY!~~~

Okay, I don't own Hey Arnold, but I should, since I am still obsessed with it at my age.

Fun story – I went to see Spiderman for the second time yesterday with my friend and her brother. Well, I spent all my snack money on a hot dog. But after I bought it I noticed they had Hey Arnold Popcorn bags! The bastards wouldn't give me one. So I forced my friend to buy large popcorn so I could get the Hey Arnold bag. That is so sad. And I saw the theater preview for the Hey Arnold movie finally!!!!!!!

Okay enough of that, Arnold seems to changed from his "wimpy" side ever since he got some. Wanting to ditch school to stay in bed and then wanting to run off with Helga. What is going to happen to them?

"Arnold, are you serious?" Helga asked. Arnold turned to face her. He had a look on his face like he was made of stone.

"Helga, I know we just started everything in a few days. But I never felt this way with anyone. I mean I was miserable over that whole Lila thing, I thought no one could cheer me up. But as soon as I saw you again I cheered up. I don't know why, I guess it's since I haven't changed too much since I was a kid personality wise and neither have you. " Arnold said. He took a loving glance at Helga. "I mean if you miss your plane, I doubt Olga would send more money for a ticket. She isn't that well off is she?"

"No, not really."  Helga said, and then shook her head. "But she would do it anyway. Olga hated it when I left, even though I tried to make her life a living hell. She is weird like that."

"Well, I'll just have to keep you away from Bob and Miriam till you can stay for sure." Arnold said. Helga smiled for a second then frowned.

"Where am I going to stay Arnold? I mean your grandparents are nice, but they won't let me have this room for free. They need to rent out as many rooms as possible." Helga said. Arnold sighed, knowing this was true. Grandma and Grandpa didn't have the money to let a room go for free, except his really. Then it hit him.

"You could just move in with me!" Arnold exclaimed. Helga looked up at him questioningly. "I mean my room is pretty big. It could definitely fit in another dresser for you."

"You think your grandparents are going to let their 17 year old grandson's girlfriend move in with him and let her sleep in the same bed?" Helga asked. Arnold groaned. Every good idea he had seems to have logic behind it stopping him.

"Well, maybe, if we run away for awhile they will take us seriously. And your mom will be happy that you get to stay, so I think she will agree. " Arnold said. "Come on, I came up with all those crazy plans back then and they all worked."

"I guess I have to trust you Football Head." Helga said with a smile. She reached under her bed and pulled out a duffel bag. She started to pack all the clothes she could into it. Arnold ran up stairs and started doing the same. He also got fully dressed. After these two goals were obtained, he sat down and wrote a note. He then taped it to the outside of his door. Helga came up the stairs with her bags. He pulled the stairs closed behind her. He smiled at her, and she smiled back at her.

"You ready?" Arnold asked. She seemed a bit nervous.

"As ready as I am ever going to be." Helga said and they climbed to the skylight and out onto to the roof. Then walked down the fire escape to the side street where Helga's bike was parked. After they secured the bags to the back, they mounted the bike and were off.

Grandpa Phil sat down in the kitchen sipping his coffee; he heard Helga's motorcycle peel out. "That's odd, she wasn't up there." He walked up the stairs to her room. The door was a jar a bit. Everything seemed normal in there and he saw the open letter on the floor. "Hmmm, maybe shortman knows what's up. He should be leaving for school by now."

Grandpa opened the staircase to the loft. As he walked up he saw a note taped to the door. He peeled it off and read it:

"Everyone,

I know it seems weird for both of us to do this, but we love each other and won't be separated. I have always stood up for what I believed in, and I believe in this more then anything. So to keep her from going back to California, Helga and I have decided to hide till everyone agrees it is okay for her to stay with me in my room. I'll call in to see how the deal is going. Sorry to do this, but it is the only way.

-Arnold"

"SWEET MOTHER OF PEARL! POOK! ARNOLD'S RUN OFF WITH THE PATAIKI GIRL!" Grandpa yelled down the hallway. Grandma came out of their room.

"Ahh Kimba and Schala have run off the jungles to be free." Grandma said and went about hunting down a fly.

"Pokey this is serious, Arnold never run off like this before. We got find him." Grandpa said. It seemed to strike a nerve in Grandma and she sent into the closet and rummaged around for a minute or two. Then came back out dressed in Army apparel.

"It's a dangerous mission and I am the only ex-marine good enough to pull it off." Grandma said. Grandpa rolled his eyes; he figured this is as serious as he could get her.

Miriam listening over her cell phone sighed. "No, it's okay, I understand. I am sorry, this is like, totally nothing Helga would do normally. I mean, I didn't even know she liked boys. Okay well, yeah, I will be down there in a minute." She pressed the 'end' button on her cell phone and sighed. As if things weren't hard enough with getting robbed by her boyfriend of 6 months, now her youngest daughter had ran off with some boy at the boarding house.

Bob fumed as heard the message play over his message machine. "Yeah Bob, Hi. It's Miriam, Helga ran off with that Arnold kid. I am going over there to help straighten things out, it would help if you came too. Or whatever. Bye."

"Damn kid! I knew we should have just left her with Olga. Now she ran off with Orphan boy." Bob said and erased the message. He had no intention of going down there; she could stay gone for all he cared.

Arnold and Helga were eating at a dinner/ truck stop on the side of the road. They had traveled for a few hours. Helga had about four hundred dollars spending money Miriam had given her to buy anything she would need for school or her new room. Arnold had about five hundred and fifty he had been saving for a new electric bass. So almost a thousand between them.

"So what are we going to do?" Helga said, chewing a soggy French fry. Arnold was writing out numbers on a napkin.

"Well if we find a cheap little motel to hold out in and eat economically. We can last about a week or maybe two. I mean, we could go longer if we didn't get that flat on the bike." Arnold said. Helga sighed, she hoped Arnold's plan worked.

"Well I am sure your grandparents will take whatever it takes to get you back home. Miriam is our only real problem as I see it." Helga said. She knew her mom would want her with Olga so she wouldn't have to worry.

Gerald got worried when neither Helga or Arnold were at school that day. It's wasn't like Arnold to miss school not matter what. He talked Phoebe into going to the boarding house after school to see what's up.

"I am sure it's nothing Gerald, I mean maybe they both caught a cold since they are in close contact." Phoebe said. She doubted anything bad had happened since Helga would have called her and told her. They pulled up to the boarding house to see a police car parked out front. They looked at each other fearfully.

"You don't think anything bad happened to them? Like they got hurt?" Gerald asked. Phoebe sighed.

"Well best way to find out is to go and ask." Phoebe said and they got out of the car. They walked up the front steps to the door and knocked. It took a minute but eventually Mr.Hyunh answered the door.

"Oh Gerald is here! Maybe you can help!" Mr. Hyunh said and grabbed Gerald's wrist and dragged him into the parlor. Gerald and Phoebe spotted Helga's mom in the room. They knew something did happen. A police officers and a few other tenets were there too.

"What's going on?" Gerald asked. Phil sighed and stood up.

"Arnold ran off with Helga." Grandpa said. "Wait now that I think of it he has always been a ladies' man. Oh wait sorry, wrong thing to say."

"They ran away together? Why?" Phoebe asked. Miriam stood up to answer this one.

"It's my fault Phoebe, I lost all my money to my boyfriend, and had to send Helga back to Olga's. I guess her and this Arnold kid had something going on and decided they would run away so she would miss her plane. But, I just don't see why, Olga said Helga was doing great out there, straight A's and on several sports teams." Miriam sat down and took a swig drink she had in her hand.

"Oh my, that is very odd for Helga to do that. But I guess all the years of pressure…." Phoebe trailed off. Everyone looked at her.

"Years of what pressure?" Miriam asked. Phoebe slapped her hands over her mouth. She didn't mean to let that slip out.

"Come on Phoebe, tell us what you meant, it's ok." Gerald said trying to reassure Phoebe it was alright for her to tell. Phoebe knew it was too late to cover up.

"Well, you see Helga has had a huge crush on Arnold since they meet in kindergarten. I always thought she would run away from her home in California to come back here." Phoebe said. Everyone's jaws dropped.

"I knew it! I knew it! Pookey treated me like dirt when we were kids, just like that Pataiki girl and Arnold!" Phil exclaimed. Just then the phone ringed. Everyone's eye narrowed on it. Grandma walked over casually like nothing was wrong and picked it up.

"Hello! Why yes it is! Nice to hear from you Kimba!" Grandma said.

"What Pookey, hand the phone over!" Grandpa Phil said and grabbed the phone from her. "Hello Arnold?"

"Grandpa?" Arnold's voice called back on the other end.

"Yeah! What is Davey Jones locker do you think you are doing? Have you gone off the deep end?" Grandpa yelled. Normally he wouldn't have, but this girl just moved in three days ago and it seemed silly to run off.

"Grandpa, I just made a choice to stand up for what I believe in. I love Helga and we both believe she belongs here not matter what. Now is it okay for her to staywith us in my room?" Arnold asked. Phil sighed and groaned.

"Arnold, it's not like you trying to save a building or a turtle. You are trying to invade another family's personal matters. Now come back. This doesn't involve us, it's the Pataiki's dilemma." Grandpa instructed.

"No Grandpa! How can you say that? You have always been there for me in my fights. Can't you think of what the right thing to do would be? Would it be right to send Helga back to a place that makes her miserable after she finally is happy?" Arnold said. There was silence. "Come on Grandpa. You would want someone to take me in that lived here if anything ever happened to you and Grandma."

"Alirght Alright Shortman, I surrender! But you have to pass it by her mother." Grandpa Phil said. He handed over the phone to Miriam.

On the other end Arnold panicked and handed the phone off to Helga. She sighed, this was going to be a long battle, she could tell.

"Hello mom." Helga said.

"Helga Sweetie! I am like, so glad to hear your voice." Miriam said. " I was so scared when I heard you ran away. Helga, whatever it takes to get you back I'll do, if you want to live here, that's fine."

"What?!" Helga asked in surprise, "Just like that?"

"Well yeah, I mean, I am not a total airhead, I know what is best for my daughter." Miriam said. "Now stop talking on the phone and get back here."

"Oh thank you mom! We'll head back right away!" Helga said and hung up the phone. She jumped into Arnold's arms. He took this as a sign for 'yes' and hugged her back.

"I guess it worked?" Arnold said. Helga planted millions of kisses on his face. He laughed. "I knew it would."

Helga let go and regained her composure. "Well yeah I did too. Not a doubt!" Helga laughed a smug laugh. Arnold could just smile at her cockiness. They picked up there duffle bags from the hotel bed and headed out the door.

"That was an awful nice thing to do Miriam." Phoebe said. Miriam just stood and walked to the door and took a step outside.

"Wonder what is bugging her?" Gerald said.

Miriam leaned against the siding on the stairs. She felt horrible lying to Helga like that. She loved her daughter and wanted the best for her, but she wouldn't let Helga throw her life away on some boy. She was going back to California and attend that girls school, it was one of the top in the nation. She gave up her life to become a house wife, she wouldn't have Helga do the same. She just hoped Helga got back in time to make her 9 o'clock flight.

To be continued…….

Will Helga get sent back to California? Will Arnold be able to save her? Stay tuned….