Disclaimer: Me no Craig Bartlett. I do not own Hey Arnold in anyway. (Except for this story)

Author's Note: Before I begin I just want to say special thanks to those who reviewed my previous two chapters. THANK YOU~!

Sprinkles - Hold your horses, LoL. (BTW, your comment did make me laugh) I just said I am a Arnold and Helga fan (well, may be I did say I feel icky putting Arnold and Lila together. I don't remember). That doesn't mean I won't put Lila with Arnold. (and I don't mean I will do it) Don't kill me just yet. Just be patient and wait how the story will turn out! =)

Moonlight Whispers - I sometimes watch Rugrats, but not usually. My heart is still on Hey Arnold. (Sorry, if I disappointed you) But I'll come "visit" when I have time. =)

To the others - Onward I go! Woohoo!

And now. Here comes the 3rd Chapter of this story! Brought to you by the one and only. Me! Muahahahaha. :D

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Reserved

Chapter 3: Face Off!

By: AuAu

April 19, 2003

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Phoebe sitting on the stall pondering what she had just saw outside in the lobby. What was Lila doing? Who were those guys she was talking to? What about Arnold? Did she even genuinely have feelings for him? She didn't think so, she must be up to something, and so Phoebe concluded. But what? Trying to get her boyfriend jealous may be, if that was even her boyfriend. Suddenly the bathroom door opened and disturbed her thoughts. Someone walked in and immediately standing in front of the mirror, fixing her hair, Phoebe supposed. Judging by the green shoes the person wore, she knew that there could be only one person, Lila. Who else in the right mind would wear a shoe that's 'ever so' green?

Phoebe heard Lila smirked. It had brought her back to reality, and gave her a cue to listen to what Lila was going to say...if she was going to say something. She did.

"My plan had finally started working. Soon Helga's life will shatter like broken glass and turn ever so miserable. Nobody will be able to stop me. Not Arnold, not Gerald, not Phoebe! Lila you are oh so smart!" She said to herself and Phoebe inwardly gasped, trying not to give away her existence.

"Soon the mighty certainly will fall. I'll be standing on top, no one will dare speak against me! They will be oh so scared to do it. Not even Helga!"

Phoebe just sat there listening to Lila. Then she heard running water which it slowly stopped. Phoebe suddenly felt Lila looking her way, and she froze.

"Hey! Who's there? Who is ever so rude, sitting there eavesdropping?!" Lila practically yelled.

'Should I answer her? If I do answer her, she'll know it's me. If I don't...' Phoebe noticed her door was banging and the lock was shifting. 'Is Lila trying to pick the lock and open my door?' Phoebe couldn't take it anymore. She didn't care if Lila found out it was her who was listening. When Lila opens her door, she would know anyway. So she walked over and pulled the door with great force like she was going to rip the door out with one thrust. It made Lila backed off a little bit.

"LILA!"

"Phoebe! Why that's ever so nice to see you here!" Lila knew she was in trouble, but she refused to back off.

"We were watching the same movie." Phoebe responded coldly with her arms crossed.

Lila's face from scared quickly turned into anger. Tension filled the air. The two angry girls standing in front of the stall door staring at each other.

"So what is this plan you are strategizing?" Phoebe's tone hadn't changed a bit.

"Nothing." Lila crossed her arms and looked away.

"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO HELGA?!" Phoebe screamed.

"I'm certain that it's none of your business." Lila return to her annoying cheerful voice.

"Don't make me hurt you." Phoebe was actually clenching her fists ready to punch Lila, something that we didn't always see.

"Try me." Lila said confidently knowing that Phoebe would never hurt anybody. She was too petite and weak to hurt anyone bigger than her.

Phoebe immediately grabbed Lila and pushed her to one of the stall doors. Her behavior had caught Lila off-guard. "You asked for it!" Phoebe said as she gripped Lila on her arms harder. Lila struggled to get out of Phoebe's grip. She was surprised that her grip was actually pretty strong for someone who was usually so gentle.

Since Lila couldn't get away with Phoebe's grip, she decided to kick her at the stomach as hard as possible. It made Phoebe involuntary released Lila and banged herself on the wall behind her.

"That will show you the oh so small consequence for challenging me."

"Grrrr..." Phoebe swung her fist across Lila's face angrily.

"Ow! Watch my face! You are ruining the make-up and my oh so beautiful face!"

"Isn't that the point?"

"Ugh! Ok, that does it!" Lila punched as hard as she could. But Phoebe ducked and her fist ended up punching into the wall instead.

All the ladies who were planning to go to the restroom retreated after the saw the two girls fighting. One woman ran out of the restroom, when Arnold and Gerald both came out of the theatre room that was showing "Oh So Special Someone 2".

"Ahh!" the woman panicked.

"What's going on?" Arnold asked and trying to calm her down.

"There are people in the restroom are fighting... it looks like a really big fight."

"Great. I wish I can watch them fight. It would have been cool."

"Gerald. That would not have been cool. Someone will get hurt. What if it's someone we know?"

"Arnold, it's Phoebe AND Lila we are talking about. They are two of the least vicious people in our school! How can they be them?"

"Boys, they were two girls who are around your age, I think." The woman chimed in urgently. Then she quickly ran to the restroom door and took a peek again. "It's an Asian girl with glasses, wearing blue and a red- headed girl with freckles and a disgustingly green outfit. They look pretty bad."

"PHOEBE AND LILA?!" Arnold and Gerald both yelled at the same time.

"Ahahahahah!" Gerald burst out laughing out loud regarding the woman's comment about Lila, a red-headed girl with freckles and a DISGUSTING GREEN OUTFIT. Deep down he couldn't agree more, but he never told Arnold since it would really hurt his feelings. It was such a weird time to laugh like that, especially their two very girlfriends are fighting in the bathroom. How ironic. But Gerald just had to get that out of his system.

"Do you think the ladies in the stalls would mind if we go in and break them up before they kill each other?" Arnold returned his composure, though still wondering what in the world it was so funny that Gerald had to laugh.

"Well, if I was in there I would appreciate someone to break them off before they decided to get her killed too," with that the woman ran off.

"C'mon, Gerald!"

"Man, do we have to?"

"Gerald, we will be the only ones who will do that. I'm sure we can break them off. If we don't no one will!"

"Aw man!! Arnold, why do you always have to look on the bright side?"

"Well, somebody has to."

Both Gerald and Arnold knew what they had to do next -- went into the women's bathroom (hopefully none would mind due to the circumstances) and broke the fight apart. If they didn't do it, no one would. Before they entered they could hear them arguing, punching and fighting noises. But they stormed in anyway.

"Lila!"

"Phoebe!"

The two girls kept on fighting just like they hadn't heard their name was called. Arnold and Gerald ran towards them and pulled them apart so they were unable to reach each other. But both were trying to struggle their way out of the guys' grips and back to their fighting. Luckily they did not have the strength to do so.

"Whoa there, Phoebe, calm down! I've never seen you like this! What's going on?" Gerald asked worried. But Phoebe didn't respond but making noises and whining.

"Lila, Lila! It's okay. What happened?" Arnold asked Lila as he pulled her to a hug and put his hand on her back and brushing her hair with his fingers.

"SHE!" pointing at Phoebe and pretending to cry. "She did it! She started the fight. I was just defending myself. Arnold, she was just ever so mean!"

Gerald was shocked. 'Phoebe? His Phoebe??' He looked at her and her sadness plastered on her face. "Phoebe would never do it. If she did she must have a really good explanation for it."

"Well Phoebe, what is the reason for doing all of this?" Arnold spoke trying to stay as calm as he could.

As she was about to speak, she saw Lila beaming at her as if to say if you tell them anything, you are ever so dead! So she closed her mouth, defeated. Gerald saw Lila's glare, but he didn't mention anything. May be he was just seeing things and have bias towards her. If he said something that was no true, he was afraid that he would make the matter at hand messier and a lot more complicated. He decided to talk to Arnold later about it.

After a few moments of silence and gasping for air, Arnold finally spoke up.

"Okay. Let's go. We're all tired. We can talk about this later." He helped Lila up as Gerald did the same to Phoebe. The two guys practically had to drag the girls out of the bathroom. The girls still hate each other. They walked to the bus stop and waited for the bus to come.

"Hey Phoebe, you okay?" Gerald asked with concern.

"Yes. I am better. Thank you Gerald." Phoebe gave him a reassuring smile and he smiled back.

"Oh of course she is oh so better, she beat me most of the time and it's ever so painful," Lila whined.

"Lila." Gerald said, clearly annoyed.

"Am I ever so right, Phoebe?"

Phoebe wanted to say something but Lila's annoying voice suddenly made her anger rose above her.

Gerald noticed Phoebe was trying to hold back before she blow up, so he spoke up to defend Phoebe from Lila's remarks. "I'm sure Phoebe will never do something like that all of a sudden!"

"Well, Gerald, you are just ever so wrong! She did beat me up, can't you see the ever so gruesome bruises?" Accusing Phoebe and showing her scares to Gerald and Arnold. "Oh Arnold, please believe me. I am ever so innocent. You do believe me right?" she begged.

"Yeah, well.uh." Arnold struggled to respond.

"Arnold, come on man! You know Phoebe would never do something like that without any reasons!" said Gerald. "But Lila on the other hand-"

"Hey, what did I do? I am ever so innocent, remember?"

"-she is bad news, man. Arnold, think about it."

Arnold bit his lip, and even his anger arose. "I'm sure there are some logical explanations. I really doubt that Lila would do something like this."

"Arnold!" Gerald whined. "Why are you siding with Lila? Are you saying that Phoebe is actually the one who started the fight?"

"Stop it! I am sure Lila has her reasons, and I just want to hear both side of the story first."

"Arnold get it through your mind, she is not the one for you! So stop side with her!"

"Okay that's it, that's the last straw. I am siding with her, but I am not siding with her cause I might have better chance with her. It's just that I still have reasonable doubts that she would be the cause of the fight. If you've got a problem with it, deal with it!"

"And may be I won't even deal with it!"

"Fine, then!"

"Fine!"

At that time the bus just came and the four eventually got on the bus as smooth as it could get. However Gerald and Phoebe sat together in the 2nd row of seats, when Arnold and Lila sat a few rows from the back. Arnold got off the bus before Gerald because he had to walk Lila home. As he got of the bus he darted at Gerald and Lila gave Phoebe a "Humph!"

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The first half of the walk to Lila's house was mostly silent. But then Arnold started a conversation.

"I'm sorry that Gerald keep blaming you, Lila." Arnold said apologetically.

"It's okay Arnold." Lila said with a caring voice and laid her hand on his shoulder. "We both know that I am ever so innocent, and that's oh so enough for me."

"Yeah, I guess. Gerald can be very judgmental sometimes, and it's starting to get on my nerves. When I sometimes wanted to talk to him about something, he always laugh at me or how bad it is going to be."

Lila thought for a moment and said, "well, you've got me. I'll be your oh so attentive best friend."

When they reached her house they said goodbye, and Arnold headed home.

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Gerald and Phoebe got off the bus when it stopped a couple blocks near Phoebe's house. The couple strolled down the sidewalk alone in peace, at last without Arnold & Lila hanging around them. That's what Gerald liked about it. So that way he could really show how much he cared for Phoebe without any changes of the mood. Knowing sometimes his mood could change drastically from caring to plain annoyance sometimes when Lila's around.

"Hey Phoebe, I'm sorry Lila snapped on you like that. If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have taken you there. I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay, Gerald. I understand. It's not your fault."

"And that Arnold, how can he stand Lila? I just don't get it sometimes. What's so good about her anyway? He has been fawning over her since 4th grade. Sometimes I just can't stand him always talking about her."

Phoebe chuckled a little bit, but did not say much. Then Gerald continued with a more serious question. "Phoebe, can you tell me what happened?"

She shook her head and looked down at her feet. "This isn't the time yet. I will tell you later. I need time to think about it first."

"Alright. It's okay Phoebe. Just tell me whenever you are ready."

As they reached the doorstep Gerald kissed Phoebe lightly on her forehead.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Gerald."

"Bye Phoebe. Night."

"Goodnight."

After Phoebe closed the door of her house, she quickly ran to the phone and gave a call to her best friend. She waited for a while and someone picked up the phone.

"Hello." A low, manly voice spoke into the phone. It clearly was Helga's Dad.

"Hi, Mr. Pataki. Is Helga there by any chance?"

"Oh, yea. Hold on."

Then she heard Bob yelled, "Olga! Phone!"

"It's Helga, Bob, Helga!"

Phoebe heard her coming to the phone and Phoebe began to collect herself.

"Hello."

"Hey, Helga, how are things?"

"Oh, hey Pheebs. As usual. I just locked myself in my room so I didn't have to see my pathetic family downstairs."

"I'm sorry, Helga."

"Oh, it's okay. I'm used to it. Hey, how did things go with Geraldo tonight?"

"Huh? Oh, um.it was quite fun. We went to the movies with Arnold and Lila."

"Oh, what movie did you end up seeing?"

"Oh So Special Someone 2" Helga laughed, "you guys actually like those kinds of movie?"

"No! We were all going to see "The Evil Twin 4", but LILA talked us into it and Arnold wanted LILA to be happy so we had been constrained to see it with them."

"Oh, how did that go? Was it boring?" Helga laughed a little and decided to brush the emphasis off on the name Lila. 'It's probably nothing. She probably got that bias from me.'

Phoebe paused. "It was. fun, exhilarating!"

Helga could sense the uneasiness in her voice. What could have happen tonight? They were the nicest people around.

"Did something happen tonight, Pheebs? First your mind was like scattered to somewhere else; second, you sounded down and angry; then you emphasis the name Lila. What happened? Because I doubt that my opinion of her will change yours."

"Uh, no. . It's nothing. Well, it's getting late and I'm tired. I'll talk to you tomorrow okay?"

"But, Phoebe!"

"Bye Helga!"

The phone clicked right away leaving Helga on the other line bewildered.

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There goes another chapter. In case you if you haven't noticed I'm trying to keep my chapters around the same length. (But I think this one is a little bit longer though) I hope you liked it. I thought including an arguing/fighting scene of the two girls would be interesting. The next few chapters I will try to get inside their heads as much as possible. Remember to review! It would be GREATLY appreciated.