Well, I'm glad you all like this.. I basically have it written, except for one or two chapters in the middle (I actually knew where I wanted to go with this one, so I wrote the beginning and the end, but not the middle) so I'll update it more often than I've done with other stories in the past. I don't own Gatorade, k? Lol.. alright, here we go. "Okay, five minutes break."




I smiled sort of evilly, and went off in the direction of the basketball courts. I spotted Arnold talking to some kid I'd never seen before, and took a very long route around the court with Phoebe in tow.

I snuck up behind Arnold, and poured my entire bottle of water over his head. I ran off before I even had a chance to see his face, but I heard him yelling something I couldn't quite understand.

We went back to the patio, and Traci looked at us oddly when we sat down against the wall, panting from running so much.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

I laughed, and told her the whole story, starting with the fake love letter, leaving out the part about me actually liking him.

A few seconds passed far too silently, and I should have known something was up. I raised my eyebrows at Phoebe and Traci. They had both-as far as I knew-taken to seeming as inconspicuous as possible for no apparent reason. I was about to ask what was going on, when I was suddenly engulfed in icy water. I mean, literally, it was like I had jumped into a swimming pool. I was completely drenched. I knew the culprit, and as soon as the initial shock wore off, I ran away screaming at my attacker, vowing they would not get away with it and would have no time to bask in their glory of defeat, not even for a minute. I wondered how he had managed so much water at one time, and how it had been so freaking cold. (I'm doing so good not using curse words! Praise me. I really deserve it.)

As I pondered this thought, I flew past an empty cooler-ya know those ones they put Gatorade and stuff in during football games? It looked rather out of place in the middle of the indoor hall, and I immediately came to the conclusion that it was what Arnold had used to soak me. I turned my attention back to the marathon. See, the problem with it was that we were both equally good runners-not to say that we were good runners, but I could never outrun him, and vice versa, so we basically would just keep running until we were both equally as tired Which meant that it wouldn't matter then that we had stopped, because I would be too tired to spring revenge on him.

I pushed these thoughts away as he took me on a wild goose chase all the way around the gym, going out from the hall, around to the office, back towards the patio, across the 'west side,' and down the length of the field. He ran through center hall and to the left, up the stairs, along the front, and turning right again to go through south hall. Was I tired yet? Heck, yeah, and I was pretty sure he was too. But I could still push myself.

Well, back to the marathon. I saw him run down the quad, then go back on the sidewalk a little before the new hall. He went back into center hall, but slid between a gap in the lockers.

"So he thinks he can hide from me?" I whispered to myself as I ran towards center hall. "Where did he get that idea? That would never work!"

I ran behind the locker where he was, and before I knew what was happening, he had pulled me into his arms and kissed me. I was... shocked to say the least. Pleasantly surprised, you can be sure, but shocked none the less. He finally pulled away and took a deep breath. "Sorry, I've just wanted to do that for a while, so I figured..." his voice trailed off and he shrugged, looking down at the ground.

I could only stare at him. 'Could this be true? It has to be a dream... and I never want it to end.' But it wasn't a dream, it was very real. I was reminded of that by the quick beating of my heart and the gasps for breath I was taking, not only because Arnold had kissed me, but also because of the run we had just taken, and I noticed that he was having the same sort of problem. I took a few short, quick breaths, trying to steady myself. I noticed that Arnold had his hands in his pockets and was tracing something in the dust on the ground with his foot.

After a few minutes, he spoke in a very low whisper. "Helga, I'm sorry. I just... I mean, we've known each other for too long for me to ruin things with this, and I'm sorry. Let's just forget it ever happened, and stay friends. Because I can't lose you as a friend, even if-" he stopped, as if he was thinking that he had said too much. "Do you think we can still be friends?"

"No," was my quick response. He looked up at me and I actually saw hurt in those soft blue eyes. "Arnold, I can't forget this ever happened. I don't want to forget it ever happened. And don't be sorry, because you have no idea how long I've waited for this. Do you wanna know?" I cursed myself silently for opening up so much, so quickly. There was no way I was telling him that I'd liked him since I was three years old. "Since the first day of fifth grade, when Harold made fun of me and said I was big and ugly and annoying and mean and-"

"I said I thought you were beautiful and sweet. And I meant it. That's about the time I started liking you, but I never told you because I was afraid of, ya know, screwing up the friendship and everything. Oh, yeah, and the idea that you wouldn't feel the same way was really restraining me." He paused for a minute and just looked at me, then he started laughing.

"What's so funny?" I demanded.

"You're soaking wet!" he exclaimed.

"Don't act all innocent, you know what happened. You did it," I accused him.

"Yeah, I know, sorry," he answered, more softly this time, but I could tell he didn't really mean it. "Aren't you cold?"

"That's putting it lightly. I am beyond freezing."

"Oh," came his reply, and he tightened his arms around me.

"Finally," I whispered under my breath. Of course, he still heard me, I had my chin rested on his shoulder. He kissed my cheek in response, and I felt safe there with him. Even in the empty hallway of our school, with three surveillance cameras above us-

"Oh, crap!" I said out loud. He pulled away from me a little, and looked at me questioningly. "There's, like, three video cameras in here," I told him. He just smiled and took my hand, walking me out of the hallway. "Oh, crap again! I need to get back to practice, Traci's gonna be seriously po'd."

"Okay. So, uh, are we, ya know, together now?" he asked.

"Do you want to be?"

"Yeah, do you?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then."

"Right." I turned to walk away.

"Hey, uh, Helga?" he called to me.

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"We are together, right?"

I laughed at his confusion with the conversation. "Yes, we're together," I answered.

"That's what I thought. Okay, good." And with that, we both went in our separate directions.

"Well, look who decided to grace us with her presence?" Traci commented, glancing up from the stereo to smile at me and feign disapproval.

"Sorry, I, uh, got sidetracked," I apologized, giving Phoebe an 'I need to talk to you later' look.

"Sidetracked right into a river," Lila commented, laughing. We just looked at her with deadpan expressions. "Uh... never mind."

"Sure, Lila," I laughed.