Disclaimer: Hey Arnold is not mine. But if
only…if only it was! The Jungle Movie is also not mine, but this is just what I
think will happen.
A/N: I've had this story in mind for
a while now. I've just never gotten to it until now. So anyway, I hope you
enjoy it. And let's all send in letters telling the idiots at Nick just how
much we want the real Jungle Movie made!! Just don't insult them, Craig said
that won't make a difference.
Chapter 1 – The Journal Goes Missing
"Grandma! Grandpa! You have to this! I found a map!"
Arnold shouted these words as he ran into the
boardinghouse with his father's journal clutched tightly in his hand.
Lights went on at the sound of Arnold yelling, and his
grandparents stood outside their bedroom door looking around for what he was
yelling about.
"What the Helen of Troy are you yellin' about, Arnold?"
his grandfather asked him.
Panting, Arnold held up the journal, which was open to the
two-page map. Phil took it and looked at it carefully.
"It has to be a map of where mom and dad were going on
their last trip to the jungle," Arnold informed them, still trying to catch his
breath.
"I think you're right, short man," he answered to Arnold's
guess. He looked up from the book and saw Arnold's hoping face. He looked down
at his wife with a sad look.
"I'm sorry, Arnold. There's no way we could get down
there. We just don't have the money," he said in a sad voice. He saw Arnold's
smile face away.
"That's okay, grandpa. I'll find a way down there! You
just wait and see!" Arnold went up to his room and placed the journal by his
parents' photo. Arnold smiled at the picture and as if talking to them, he
said, "I'll find out what happened to you guys. I promise."
He shut off the light with his remote and fell back onto
his pillow. He fell asleep just a couple minutes after his head hit the pillow.
(A/N: dream sequence!! Yayness! ^_^)
Arnold looked around at his surroundings. It was dark. Very dark. He couldn't see anything except a door with light behind it. He cautiously walked toward the glowing door, trying not to trip on anything along the way.
The closer to the door he got, the faster his heart seemed
to thud in his chest. He enclosed his hand around the handle and slowly opened
the door. Bright light stung his eyes and he held his hand in front of them and
walked into the room.
It took a while – too long for Arnold's liking – but he
finally got used to the light and was able to remove his hand and look around
the room.
He looked at the back of the room and saw something he had
been waiting for since October fifth when he was only one-year-old.
There stood his mom and his dad, sitting together with
their arms open wide. Arnold ran to them and finally was swept into the loving
arms of his parents. It was the happiest he'd felt in his short life.
"Oh, Arnold! We're so glad you found us! We missed you so
much!" his dad said to him.
"And we wouldn't have even known that you were going to
come here if it wasn't for that little girl with the blonde hair," his mom
said.
Arnold's eyes opened.
"What little girl, mom?" he asked her, puzzled. Then, he looked into the room where he had been
before and saw the silhouette of some one he knew, but couldn't figure out who.
All he saw was a flash of yellow and pink as she walked out of the door.
Arnold woke to the, "Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold!" of his alarm clock. He pulled the wire out of the potato and sat up in his bed. He thought about his dream and tried to think of who that little girl was who led his parents to him. But as he thought, the more his dream drifted from his memory. (A/N: Don't you hate that? Happens to me all the time.)
"Oh well. I'll think of it eventually," he
thought to himself.
***
Arnold got onto the bus
just as it was leaving. He climbed up the steps and sat next to Gerald. His
friend looked at him with concern.
"You okay now, Arnold? I mean, with yesterday…" Gerald
asked him.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Me, Grandma, and Grandpa just spent some
time together, and he told me stories about my parents. Nothing different,
really," he replied with a casual tone.
Gerald looked at him once more before turning forward in
his seat. A few minutes later, people were getting off of the bus and going
into their school, P.S.118. Arnold was last of the bus and walked up the steps
with Gerald, who had waited outside the bus door for him.
Helga walked behind Arnold and Gerald and thought to
herself:
"Oh, Arnold. I only hope that yesterday wasn't too
hard for you. If only I had the guts to reassure you that someday your parents
will return with opens arms to you. But alas, I can't."
Helga smiled a sad smile
at Arnold, who would have no clue of this. Helga finally snapped out of it when
the warning bell rang, signaling the last chance to get into class on time.
Helga dashed to her locker and grabbed her books as fast as she could. She
skidded into her homeroom just as the final bell rang. As their teacher, Mr.
Simmons, walked in, Helga walked back to her desk behind Arnold. She mentally
thanked the fruitcake – as she liked to call him – Mr. Simmons for placing her
there in the seat arrangement.
Math was their first
subject, so Helga went through her stack of books for her math book. She cursed
herself when she saw she had forgotten it in her locker because of her rush to
get to class on time.
"Why did I care? I've been late before," she thought angrily.
Mr. Simmons excused her
out of the classroom to get her book from her locker. Helga stomped down the
hall to her locker and put in the combination on her lock. It opened with a
lift of the silver handle and she grabbed the last remaining book in the
locker.
Helga was half way back to
the class when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She took a
few steps backwards and found herself in front of none other than Arnold's
locker. At first she couldn't figure out what had made her stop, but as she
looked up she spotted something brown on top of the locker. Helga brought it
down in her hands and saw that it was a book. And an old book at that. She
observed it and read the word, 'Journal' in gold lettering on the cover.
Thinking it might have been Arnold's journal, she opened it to the middle of
the book and scanned the sentences.
As she read, she saw that
it wasn't Arnold's, but what had to be his dad's.
"Oh my. I could learn so
much about Arnold's past if I read this. But…he would surely miss it. Should I
return it? Yes. That's exactly what I'll do. I'll just tell him that it was on
the floor and just happened to come across it," she told herself. She began
walking to the door, which was drawing closer with every step she took. She
stopped just before the door.
"Or maybe, I can read it
tonight and give it back to him tomorrow. I'll say I found it on the bus. Yeah
that's it! Helga, you're a genius," she said in a boasting voice. She lifted up
her hand to reach the doorknob, but she had used the same hand that was
carrying both the journal and math book and they fell onto her foot. She
flinched and tried her hardest not to yell out, and jumped up and down,
clutching onto her bad foot.
***
Arnold stared desperately
at the clock, as if begging it to turn 12:00. At long last, bell rang and
everyone filed out of the classroom and to his or her lockers. Arnold ran to his locker and looked in horror at the empty
space on top of his locker. Earlier in class, Arnold realized he had left his
father's priceless journal there, but now it was gone. What could've happened
to it? Who could've taken it? And why?
"Oh no. What am I going to do? I'd never be able to forgive myself if something happened to that journal," he thought desperately.
Arnold walked all around
the hall and in the boy's bathroom, hoping to find the journal somewhere.
Ten minutes had passed
before Gerald came in looking for Arnold and found him scouting over by Mr.
Packenham's class.
"What are you doing,
Arnold?" he asked him with a puzzled voice.
Arnold looked up at him,
startled. Gerald saw the worried look on Arnold's face and felt concerned.
"You okay, Arnold? What's
the matter, buddy?"
"I lost my father's
journal, Gerald! You've gotta help me find it!" Arnold shouted as he ran over
to check by the water fountain.
Gerald stood there, trying
to figure out what in the world Arnold could be taking about.
"What? Arnold, I must've
missed something back there. Did you say your father's journal?" he inquired in
both a shocked and confused voice.
"Yes. Yesterday, I found
it in the attic and Grandpa read it to me. I brought it to school to show you,
and I left it on top of my locker and now it's not there! I don't what I'm
gonna do, Gerald! If I lost it-," Arnold stopped himself and suddenly felt a
strong surge of panic wash over him.
What if he didn't find it?
What if it was lost forever? What would he do to himself if it was gone? He
didn't even want to think about it. All he wanted to do right now was look for
it.
Gerald looked worriedly at
his life-long friend.
"If I lost it, what? Arnold wouldn't…no! Arnold would never go to such drastic measure just because of a book. Don't think that, Gerald!"
Gerald shook his head.
"I'll help you, Arnold.
And don't worry, we'll find it," he told him reassuringly.
Arnold smiled at him.
"Thanks, Gerald."
"Hey. What are friends
for?"
They laughed and began
scanning the whole floor for Arnold's prized journal. They searched for twenty
minutes and would've continued, but as the clock hit 12:30, the lunch bell
rang. Arnold looked up and heard the sound of people coming in through the
doors from downstairs and the babble of their talking and laughter.
"We didn't find it,
Gerald. It's nowhere to be found. What am I going to do?" Arnold stood up from
where he was sitting and kept his head facing the floor.
Gerald frowned and put a
hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, man. I'll
bet anything that you'll find it tomorrow. But right now, let's go eat. Take
your mind off things," he told him and awaited his answer.
For a few seconds, Arnold
didn't say anything, but soon came out of his daze.
"Okay. I guess it might
help."
The two walked down to the
cafeteria and in through the double doors. Arnold still had his head tilted
down as he sat down with his friends with his lunch.
But Helga, who had been
watching him from across the cafeteria, knew exactly why Arnold was acting this
way.
A/N: So what do you think so far??? I hope this will be my
best story yet. Won't go too fast, and pretty long. Please review so I know
your opinion! You can flame.
