Helga's Homecoming Chapter 4
The Queen of the Night and the King of the Day by Shadow D. X
Caution All characters are property of Mr. Bartlett and possibly Nickelodeon but that's a little in the gray right now for me. I'm using them simply for entertainment, not profit. Don't sue me - I'm just a misguided fan with a keyboard. Please R&R, if you like to see some more cameos here, I'm accepting all suggestions.
Those headlights were blinding, Helga had to look down at the pavement not to burn out her retinas. There was soon a rattling noise and then a calm roar of the engine, the headlights now turned down to just a gentle glow. Helga slowly stood on her feet, her head still pounding from lying down on the cold road. She couldn't see the driver but he was motioning to enter his pickup. Usually Helga would smack this yahoo's teeth out for even suggesting that she take a ride in a broken down redneck mobile. But tonight wasn't a usual night and she had no idea where she was so she slowly walked towards it and got in. "Can you take me back to town?" she asked.
The driver looked over at her, his large nose made his tall, slim face look like an ackward crow with brown hair. "What's wrong with you missy? You look like something the cat dragged in," said the driver with a heavily rural accent.
"I'd rather not talk about it. So can you take me to town?"
"Alright, I'm going there anyway so it's ok with me." He started his pickup and began to drive down back to town, hitting every uncomfortable bump. "I don't know what happened to you, but I'm guessing it's something that really bites."
Helga raised an eyebrow and looked over at the driver. There was a thought tugging at her but she needed just one more thing to make sure. "I know it's a weird question but what's your favorite snack food?" she asked.
The long-nosed bumpkin thought for a moment. "If I had to guess right now, I'd say my favorite snack is lemon pudding on account it's my favorite kind of pudding."
Helga groaned lightly and sank back into the hard plastic leather seat. "Thanks for the ride Stinky."
"Hey, how'd you know my name was Stinky? Are you some kinda mind reader or something? I've never met a genuine mind reader before."
"No Stinky, I'm not a mind reader, I'm Helga Pataki. Remember, we went to PS 118 together, you were always hanging around Sid and Harold, I had one large eyebrow."
"Hot dang, now I remember! You really have changed Helga; you used to be a grade-A meanie. I remember when you played with my emotions by making me act all lovely dovey to you back in 4th grade and then when it all sank in and I fell in love with you, you done put my down like a horse with no legs. But you look really different now with your eyebrows all-normal and you're natural feminine beauty showing cept you're a bit dirty from laying on the street."
Helga glared at him for a moment but then shrugged it off. "Yeah Stinky, I guess you're right. So what have you been up to since I've been gone?"
Stinky took his eyes off the road for a moment and pondered. "Well lets see, after high school, me, pappy and the whole Peterson family hitched up the old house and decided to move to the country side where we could feel more at home."
"You're house? You mean you literally moved that old wood shack from your old property to the country?" Before Stinky could answer, Helga saw a car coming at them so in a panic she screamed. "Keep your eyes on the road!"
Stinky quickly returned to reality and swerved out of the way. "Opps, sorry about that Helga. Anyway, that's exactly what we did; we moved our house to the country just like when my grand pappy took that house here from Arkansas. There were tried our hand at cultivating the earth and in just a few years, we were able to bring back Peterson Produce and make a pretty decent living. Since I'm still a little naïve about business, my pappy makes me take the produce to town and come back with the new orders."
"Well.you're a lousy driver, but it sounds like you're life is going on the right track."
"Yup, just about. I can't think of anything else I can do with my life better than working with my family doing the family business." A few moments later, Stinky stopped his pickup in front of Mickey Kaline's baseball themed family restaurant. "Well here we are. I can't be driving you nowhere special on account I'm on my way to a supermarket to pick up an order, but at least here you can grab a decent bite to eat."
Helga slid out the pickup and stood by a streetlight as the pickup drove off with a bang of its exhaust. She knew where she was, but that wasn't her problem, it was what she was going to do next that made her shake in fear. Yes, it was fear, fear of the unknown, fear of losing the only man she loved. She had already been married once before coming back home. It was her first agent, but she never loved him, he was just someone to hold her in night to keep her from going into a mental breakdown. "Arnold.how can I believe that you love me if you call me another's name? How can you love the girl with two faces? Must I bear the arrows of your hate if I reveal my true self to thee? Or can the impossible happen you accept my love?" She mused to herself for almost an hour before deciding she was only succeeding in sounding insane. Just as she was about to stop, she suddenly felt a light, warm gust of breeze of her shoulder accompany a heavy wheezing. Silently she cracked her knuckles, not daring to look over her shoulder as these gusts became more rampant. With a deep breath, she cleared her mind and threw her fist over her shoulder, feeling it crack a tiny piece of glass. There was then a thud as if someone had dropped a sack of potatoes; this made Helga smile to herself. "Nice to see you too, Brainy." (Though they've all changed, I like the classic running gags they use on Hey Arnold. So much so I added this small scene despite how useless it is to the story.) Hailing a taxi, Helga returned home to find that everyone else has turned in, leaving her the only person awake. It was fine with her; she needed some sleep herself. Helga quietly entered her room, stripped down to her bra and panties, and plopped her exhausted body on the bed. Before slipping into complete nocturnal rest, she made a silent wish to any and all celestial deity to give her a good dream about her and Arnold.
(Let's mix things up a bit, shall we? Form this point on, you will now see the world through the eyes of Arnold.Arnold.. umm.oh hey, it's starting)
Arnold stood perfectly still, letting the steaming hot water from the showerhead pound down on his smooth well-toned skin. He couldn't stop thinking about Cecile, the mysterious blonde who had lied to him when he was 9 to get close to him and has now reappeared after almost 15 years only to push him away. Why does he do this to himself? Why must he always pursue that which he cannot have? First it was Ruth who turned out to be nothing more than an airhead and then Lila. Lila.now her name makes his stomach uneasy. Ever since his return home, Lila had been relentless into making Arnold her property. She had turned from the sweet, innocent girl he had fawned over because he foolishly tossed her aside to what she is now, an evil woman who uses everything in her power to get what she wants. No one knows why she changed; it just happened over night. When he came back, it was Lila who threw herself upon him, kissing him deeply and gently grinding her knee on his manhood so his mind couldn't focus. She said, "Arnold, I think I made you wait long enough and I'm sure we'd an ever so cute couple." This was too much for Arnold, he had learned to become a ladies man from living months at a time in France and Italy, mastering the languages and making a new temporary girlfriend in every country. Even in Russia he was able to use his charm and looks to melt the hearts of those girls born on ice. But it was all for fun and he never acted so raunchy around them like Lila was the second he started school again. After rejecting her, Lila had become extremely enraged with him and began to leave endless messages on his answering machine. In his senior year of high school, Lila began sending him nude pictures of her, sometimes just lying on her bed and some were of her at the height of climaxing. He finally decided that whatever happened to Lila, it made her stark raving mad and that there would be no force on heaven and earth that will make him date her.
"Maybe this whole Cecile thing is just a trick from Lila. But that's impossible, I met both of them at different times." Arnold shook his head and tried to forget about trying to connect the Cecile she saw at Park's with Lila. He switched off the water and toweled himself off. When he reached over to grab a pair of boxers, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and couldn't help but smile. As vane as it sounds, he knew he looked good. Not just his face, those expeditions with his parents and a new fondness for exercise had given him quite the chiseled physique. Seeing himself in the mirror explained how he was so successful with dating women and he has racked up quite an impressive list of girlfriends over the years; Nadine, Rhonda, even Phoebe. Sure everyone remembers him as Rhonda's homecoming king but it was his brief relationship with Phoebe that he cherished. She was always the smallest girl in school without being referred to as a midget so when they were together, it was such a spectacle since he towered almost 2 feet over her. He was even so bold as to get her in bed with him that one night.
Before Arnold could finish his journey down memory lane, he was shot back to reality by a knock on the door. He tied a towel around his waist, cracked the door open and peeked over to see that it was her mother. She must have been have been asleep because her hair was a mess and she was walking around with only a securely tied bathrobe. "Arnold, it's almost 2 in the morning. Have you been out all night teasing women again?" she asked.
Arnold smirked. "What do you mean teasing mom? I get pretty serious with them."
"Yes, until you decide it's not challenging for you and you go after someone else. Arnold, I'm getting old fast and I want grandchildren, not a 50-year-old womanizer."
"Mom, I promise as soon as I find the right girl, I'll get serious. But right now, I'm too young to be tied down with any one woman."
Stella glared impatiently at her son and crossed her arms. "Maybe if you were worth your weight in gold you can marry anyone you want at any time. But if you keep waiting, you're going to wake up old, alone, and don't forget - bald." This made Arnold quickly pass his hand on the top of his head to check the body of his hair. Stella sighed. "Arnold, what am I going to do with you?"
Arnold stepped out the bathroom and closed the door. "How about letting me decide what's best for me? It's my life mom and I think I'm doing a pretty good job living it." He didn't feel like fighting with his mother tonight so he simply swaggered off and went upstairs to his room. He hasn't changed it much since he was a kid; it was the kind of room that can withstand the tide of change. He snapped off his towel and slipped into a pair of boxers. He thought about getting his own place once, since he was working as a financial consultant he had enough to get his own apartment but he stayed. Something about his old room, the skyline over his bed, his remote control furnisher, even his old potatoe powered alarm clock made him feel like this was home. He gave out a roaring yawn before throwing himself on his bed, staring at the half moon through the skyline. "If I ever see Cecile again, I'll try my best to win her over. She called me a pig.I'll have to show her I'm a gentleman." After making this silent vow, Arnold went right to sleep, dreaming of Cecile in his arms staring at the moon that shown through the skyline.
Arnold was awoken the next morning by clam headed toy version of himself repeating "Hey Arnold!" Arnold groaned and pulled off one of the cables connected to the potatoe soaking in water. "I guess this just proves you can power a clock with just one potatoe for more than a decade." Arnold rolled out of bed and changed to a red flannel button shirt and a pair of faded-in jeans. "Thank god it's a long weekend, I have two more free days to find Cecile and show her how nice a guy I am." He quickly passed a comb over his hair and slid down to the kitchen for some breakfast. He wasn't alone though; there was already someone else at the table, eating as much cereal as he can. "Oh, good morning Mr. Kokoshka."
Oscar looked up from his bowl and laughed. "Oh Arnold, I'm so glad to see you. You look so handsome the way you comb your hair back and wear your clothes. It's a sign of a very successful man with a great deal of generosity."
"I'm not loaning you any money Mr. Kokoshka, you still owe me from the 10 bucks I loaned you last week."
"But Arnold, I'm good for it. See, if you loan me 20 dollars I can give you 10 and that way I'll only owe you the 10 I have left."
"Mr. Kokoshka, if I gave you 20 and you give me 10, you'll still owe me 20 dollars."
"No Arnold it's simple. You give me the 20 and I give you 10, that way I pay off what I owe you. In fact, I'll give you back the other 10 and we'll be even."
".Just no Mr. Kokoshka. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go to Sheena's cafe for breakfast." Arnold grabbed his keys and left the boarding house. He revved up the engine of his 65' Mustang and cruised down the calm twilight of morning. It was about 6 in the morning so there wasn't much traffic from the Sunset Arms to Sheena's cafe. After finding a decent parking spot he walked up to the counter and tapped the counter twice to grab Sheena's attention. As she turned toward him, he shot her a warm smile. "Morning Sheena, how are you?"
Sheena smiled and walked over to him. "I'm ok. Hey, did you hear who's back in town? It's Helga G. Pataki."
Arnold just blanked out. "Helga Pataki? What's she doing back in town?"
"I'm not sure. All she did was buy a cup of coffee and then she talked to Phoebe for a few minutes before leaving. Personally, I'm glad to see an old friend come home."
"Friend? I may have been gone for a few years but I remember that Helga was no friend. I'm sure she's here to make everyone miserable."
"Come on Arnold, everyone changes over time. The Helga I gave a cup of coffee to was friendly, quiet, and a bit somber. I just hope there's nothing troubling her; I have a sixth sense about that. I can almost feel when someone is feeling down."
"Yeah, well I still think this is just bad news waiting to happen. Anyway, can I get an order of French toast?" Sheena nodded and went to the kitchen while Arnold sat down on a stool. Helga is back in town, now that's a nightmare. But its strange, Helga was here yesterday morning after leaving town like 10 years ago and Arnold met Cecile at Park's last night after about 15 years ago. Is their being in the same town at the same time just a coincidence? Or are the two blondes closer than they seemed. After thinking about it, Arnold nearly busted a gut. "Helga and Cecile, now that's funny. It would make more sense that Cecile is tied to Lila than Helga actually being Cecile."
Caution All characters are property of Mr. Bartlett and possibly Nickelodeon but that's a little in the gray right now for me. I'm using them simply for entertainment, not profit. Don't sue me - I'm just a misguided fan with a keyboard. Please R&R, if you like to see some more cameos here, I'm accepting all suggestions.
Those headlights were blinding, Helga had to look down at the pavement not to burn out her retinas. There was soon a rattling noise and then a calm roar of the engine, the headlights now turned down to just a gentle glow. Helga slowly stood on her feet, her head still pounding from lying down on the cold road. She couldn't see the driver but he was motioning to enter his pickup. Usually Helga would smack this yahoo's teeth out for even suggesting that she take a ride in a broken down redneck mobile. But tonight wasn't a usual night and she had no idea where she was so she slowly walked towards it and got in. "Can you take me back to town?" she asked.
The driver looked over at her, his large nose made his tall, slim face look like an ackward crow with brown hair. "What's wrong with you missy? You look like something the cat dragged in," said the driver with a heavily rural accent.
"I'd rather not talk about it. So can you take me to town?"
"Alright, I'm going there anyway so it's ok with me." He started his pickup and began to drive down back to town, hitting every uncomfortable bump. "I don't know what happened to you, but I'm guessing it's something that really bites."
Helga raised an eyebrow and looked over at the driver. There was a thought tugging at her but she needed just one more thing to make sure. "I know it's a weird question but what's your favorite snack food?" she asked.
The long-nosed bumpkin thought for a moment. "If I had to guess right now, I'd say my favorite snack is lemon pudding on account it's my favorite kind of pudding."
Helga groaned lightly and sank back into the hard plastic leather seat. "Thanks for the ride Stinky."
"Hey, how'd you know my name was Stinky? Are you some kinda mind reader or something? I've never met a genuine mind reader before."
"No Stinky, I'm not a mind reader, I'm Helga Pataki. Remember, we went to PS 118 together, you were always hanging around Sid and Harold, I had one large eyebrow."
"Hot dang, now I remember! You really have changed Helga; you used to be a grade-A meanie. I remember when you played with my emotions by making me act all lovely dovey to you back in 4th grade and then when it all sank in and I fell in love with you, you done put my down like a horse with no legs. But you look really different now with your eyebrows all-normal and you're natural feminine beauty showing cept you're a bit dirty from laying on the street."
Helga glared at him for a moment but then shrugged it off. "Yeah Stinky, I guess you're right. So what have you been up to since I've been gone?"
Stinky took his eyes off the road for a moment and pondered. "Well lets see, after high school, me, pappy and the whole Peterson family hitched up the old house and decided to move to the country side where we could feel more at home."
"You're house? You mean you literally moved that old wood shack from your old property to the country?" Before Stinky could answer, Helga saw a car coming at them so in a panic she screamed. "Keep your eyes on the road!"
Stinky quickly returned to reality and swerved out of the way. "Opps, sorry about that Helga. Anyway, that's exactly what we did; we moved our house to the country just like when my grand pappy took that house here from Arkansas. There were tried our hand at cultivating the earth and in just a few years, we were able to bring back Peterson Produce and make a pretty decent living. Since I'm still a little naïve about business, my pappy makes me take the produce to town and come back with the new orders."
"Well.you're a lousy driver, but it sounds like you're life is going on the right track."
"Yup, just about. I can't think of anything else I can do with my life better than working with my family doing the family business." A few moments later, Stinky stopped his pickup in front of Mickey Kaline's baseball themed family restaurant. "Well here we are. I can't be driving you nowhere special on account I'm on my way to a supermarket to pick up an order, but at least here you can grab a decent bite to eat."
Helga slid out the pickup and stood by a streetlight as the pickup drove off with a bang of its exhaust. She knew where she was, but that wasn't her problem, it was what she was going to do next that made her shake in fear. Yes, it was fear, fear of the unknown, fear of losing the only man she loved. She had already been married once before coming back home. It was her first agent, but she never loved him, he was just someone to hold her in night to keep her from going into a mental breakdown. "Arnold.how can I believe that you love me if you call me another's name? How can you love the girl with two faces? Must I bear the arrows of your hate if I reveal my true self to thee? Or can the impossible happen you accept my love?" She mused to herself for almost an hour before deciding she was only succeeding in sounding insane. Just as she was about to stop, she suddenly felt a light, warm gust of breeze of her shoulder accompany a heavy wheezing. Silently she cracked her knuckles, not daring to look over her shoulder as these gusts became more rampant. With a deep breath, she cleared her mind and threw her fist over her shoulder, feeling it crack a tiny piece of glass. There was then a thud as if someone had dropped a sack of potatoes; this made Helga smile to herself. "Nice to see you too, Brainy." (Though they've all changed, I like the classic running gags they use on Hey Arnold. So much so I added this small scene despite how useless it is to the story.) Hailing a taxi, Helga returned home to find that everyone else has turned in, leaving her the only person awake. It was fine with her; she needed some sleep herself. Helga quietly entered her room, stripped down to her bra and panties, and plopped her exhausted body on the bed. Before slipping into complete nocturnal rest, she made a silent wish to any and all celestial deity to give her a good dream about her and Arnold.
(Let's mix things up a bit, shall we? Form this point on, you will now see the world through the eyes of Arnold.Arnold.. umm.oh hey, it's starting)
Arnold stood perfectly still, letting the steaming hot water from the showerhead pound down on his smooth well-toned skin. He couldn't stop thinking about Cecile, the mysterious blonde who had lied to him when he was 9 to get close to him and has now reappeared after almost 15 years only to push him away. Why does he do this to himself? Why must he always pursue that which he cannot have? First it was Ruth who turned out to be nothing more than an airhead and then Lila. Lila.now her name makes his stomach uneasy. Ever since his return home, Lila had been relentless into making Arnold her property. She had turned from the sweet, innocent girl he had fawned over because he foolishly tossed her aside to what she is now, an evil woman who uses everything in her power to get what she wants. No one knows why she changed; it just happened over night. When he came back, it was Lila who threw herself upon him, kissing him deeply and gently grinding her knee on his manhood so his mind couldn't focus. She said, "Arnold, I think I made you wait long enough and I'm sure we'd an ever so cute couple." This was too much for Arnold, he had learned to become a ladies man from living months at a time in France and Italy, mastering the languages and making a new temporary girlfriend in every country. Even in Russia he was able to use his charm and looks to melt the hearts of those girls born on ice. But it was all for fun and he never acted so raunchy around them like Lila was the second he started school again. After rejecting her, Lila had become extremely enraged with him and began to leave endless messages on his answering machine. In his senior year of high school, Lila began sending him nude pictures of her, sometimes just lying on her bed and some were of her at the height of climaxing. He finally decided that whatever happened to Lila, it made her stark raving mad and that there would be no force on heaven and earth that will make him date her.
"Maybe this whole Cecile thing is just a trick from Lila. But that's impossible, I met both of them at different times." Arnold shook his head and tried to forget about trying to connect the Cecile she saw at Park's with Lila. He switched off the water and toweled himself off. When he reached over to grab a pair of boxers, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and couldn't help but smile. As vane as it sounds, he knew he looked good. Not just his face, those expeditions with his parents and a new fondness for exercise had given him quite the chiseled physique. Seeing himself in the mirror explained how he was so successful with dating women and he has racked up quite an impressive list of girlfriends over the years; Nadine, Rhonda, even Phoebe. Sure everyone remembers him as Rhonda's homecoming king but it was his brief relationship with Phoebe that he cherished. She was always the smallest girl in school without being referred to as a midget so when they were together, it was such a spectacle since he towered almost 2 feet over her. He was even so bold as to get her in bed with him that one night.
Before Arnold could finish his journey down memory lane, he was shot back to reality by a knock on the door. He tied a towel around his waist, cracked the door open and peeked over to see that it was her mother. She must have been have been asleep because her hair was a mess and she was walking around with only a securely tied bathrobe. "Arnold, it's almost 2 in the morning. Have you been out all night teasing women again?" she asked.
Arnold smirked. "What do you mean teasing mom? I get pretty serious with them."
"Yes, until you decide it's not challenging for you and you go after someone else. Arnold, I'm getting old fast and I want grandchildren, not a 50-year-old womanizer."
"Mom, I promise as soon as I find the right girl, I'll get serious. But right now, I'm too young to be tied down with any one woman."
Stella glared impatiently at her son and crossed her arms. "Maybe if you were worth your weight in gold you can marry anyone you want at any time. But if you keep waiting, you're going to wake up old, alone, and don't forget - bald." This made Arnold quickly pass his hand on the top of his head to check the body of his hair. Stella sighed. "Arnold, what am I going to do with you?"
Arnold stepped out the bathroom and closed the door. "How about letting me decide what's best for me? It's my life mom and I think I'm doing a pretty good job living it." He didn't feel like fighting with his mother tonight so he simply swaggered off and went upstairs to his room. He hasn't changed it much since he was a kid; it was the kind of room that can withstand the tide of change. He snapped off his towel and slipped into a pair of boxers. He thought about getting his own place once, since he was working as a financial consultant he had enough to get his own apartment but he stayed. Something about his old room, the skyline over his bed, his remote control furnisher, even his old potatoe powered alarm clock made him feel like this was home. He gave out a roaring yawn before throwing himself on his bed, staring at the half moon through the skyline. "If I ever see Cecile again, I'll try my best to win her over. She called me a pig.I'll have to show her I'm a gentleman." After making this silent vow, Arnold went right to sleep, dreaming of Cecile in his arms staring at the moon that shown through the skyline.
Arnold was awoken the next morning by clam headed toy version of himself repeating "Hey Arnold!" Arnold groaned and pulled off one of the cables connected to the potatoe soaking in water. "I guess this just proves you can power a clock with just one potatoe for more than a decade." Arnold rolled out of bed and changed to a red flannel button shirt and a pair of faded-in jeans. "Thank god it's a long weekend, I have two more free days to find Cecile and show her how nice a guy I am." He quickly passed a comb over his hair and slid down to the kitchen for some breakfast. He wasn't alone though; there was already someone else at the table, eating as much cereal as he can. "Oh, good morning Mr. Kokoshka."
Oscar looked up from his bowl and laughed. "Oh Arnold, I'm so glad to see you. You look so handsome the way you comb your hair back and wear your clothes. It's a sign of a very successful man with a great deal of generosity."
"I'm not loaning you any money Mr. Kokoshka, you still owe me from the 10 bucks I loaned you last week."
"But Arnold, I'm good for it. See, if you loan me 20 dollars I can give you 10 and that way I'll only owe you the 10 I have left."
"Mr. Kokoshka, if I gave you 20 and you give me 10, you'll still owe me 20 dollars."
"No Arnold it's simple. You give me the 20 and I give you 10, that way I pay off what I owe you. In fact, I'll give you back the other 10 and we'll be even."
".Just no Mr. Kokoshka. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go to Sheena's cafe for breakfast." Arnold grabbed his keys and left the boarding house. He revved up the engine of his 65' Mustang and cruised down the calm twilight of morning. It was about 6 in the morning so there wasn't much traffic from the Sunset Arms to Sheena's cafe. After finding a decent parking spot he walked up to the counter and tapped the counter twice to grab Sheena's attention. As she turned toward him, he shot her a warm smile. "Morning Sheena, how are you?"
Sheena smiled and walked over to him. "I'm ok. Hey, did you hear who's back in town? It's Helga G. Pataki."
Arnold just blanked out. "Helga Pataki? What's she doing back in town?"
"I'm not sure. All she did was buy a cup of coffee and then she talked to Phoebe for a few minutes before leaving. Personally, I'm glad to see an old friend come home."
"Friend? I may have been gone for a few years but I remember that Helga was no friend. I'm sure she's here to make everyone miserable."
"Come on Arnold, everyone changes over time. The Helga I gave a cup of coffee to was friendly, quiet, and a bit somber. I just hope there's nothing troubling her; I have a sixth sense about that. I can almost feel when someone is feeling down."
"Yeah, well I still think this is just bad news waiting to happen. Anyway, can I get an order of French toast?" Sheena nodded and went to the kitchen while Arnold sat down on a stool. Helga is back in town, now that's a nightmare. But its strange, Helga was here yesterday morning after leaving town like 10 years ago and Arnold met Cecile at Park's last night after about 15 years ago. Is their being in the same town at the same time just a coincidence? Or are the two blondes closer than they seemed. After thinking about it, Arnold nearly busted a gut. "Helga and Cecile, now that's funny. It would make more sense that Cecile is tied to Lila than Helga actually being Cecile."