Disclaimer: (I ALWAYS forget this): I do not own any Hey Arnold! characters. You all should've known that by now!
Summary: Helga and Arnold: Their first night together.
Chapter Two: Allons-y!The first night they spent was each other was certainly memorable. Helga and Arnold stayed up late watching French soap operas, and TV shows. It amused them to watch things in a foreign language. They also stopped by a kid's show called Telefrancais. Yeah, a silly ananas* could talk! Oui, c'est possible! They also played some cards.
"Those cards look familiar," mumbled Arnold as Helga took out a box of cards from her bag.
She shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He narrowed his eyes and gasped. "Those are my cards!"
"They are not!"
"Yes! Yes they are!" he accused, "they're the Joker brand, right?"
"Yeah, so?" she gave him a blank look.
"Mine were the Joker brand!"
"Get a hold of yourself Arnold! Remember Career Day? Everyone got these cards!" she sighed. "Honestly…you thought I stole these from you, kept them in my bag, and showed you I stole them?"
Just as Arnold was about to nod, he sighed too. "You're right…you're right. I'm sorry."
Helga grinned. "It's too bad you are, because these really are your cards."
"WHAT?"
She laughed, "kidding, Arnold, just kidding!" She shuffled the deck. "So what'll it be? Five-card Monty? Blackjack? Poker? War?"
"Blackjack…"
"Playing it safe I see. Well, I'm the dealer." Her quick hands gave him and herself two cards.
She beat him 10-3.
Not only did Arnold discover how good Helga was at cards, he also discovered her bathroom habits too. She'd stay in the bathroom for forty-five minutes before getting out. She would shower, pamper herself, and get everything ready until she would come out. As for Arnold, he only needed twenty minutes in the bathroom. You jump in and jump out of the shower, and then just brush for two minutes, yadda, yadda, yadda; frankly, he couldn't understand why it took Helga so long to get ready.
Although it did pay off. When she walked out of the bathroom, he could smell a light scent of Cucumber Melon as the steam rolled out. She looked so good with her hair wrapped up in a towel and wearing a bathrobe. He liked the way she kept the bathroom neat and tidy also.
"Okay, Arnold, you can use the bathroom now," she said.
"What's that smell?" he asked in the wrong tone.
"It's Cucumber Melon. What, you think it smells bad?"
"No, not at all…"
"Just admit it! You think it smells like crap, don't you?" She put her hands on her hips.
"I do not!" he growled, "quite the contrary, I think it smells great!"
Helga cracked a smile. "Glad you think so."
That night he couldn't sleep. He just looked out at the window, at the stars. Paris was so different from the city. So tranquil, and calm...it was just beautiful out there. The thing he was most fixated on was the illuminated Eiffel Tower. Everyone raves about how romantic it is, and how everyone finds love in Paris.
What
he would give for something like that to happen to him.
He looked over at Helga on the other side of the room.
She was rolled up tightly with the blanket up to her chin wearing her pink pajamas. Her hair was in pigtails. Arnold remembered the days when she used to wear her hair in pig tails. Now she just had it up in a high ponytail or let it down. Actually, she barely let it down. Only for special occasions. But, oh, Arnold loved the way she looked with her hair down.
And for once she looked angelic. A side of her he had not seen before. He smiled slightly, and then Helga started to snore. Not just any snore; but a loud snore.
Okay, so maybe she wasn't so angelic anymore. But who cares? She was a great lay...in his dreams.
The next morning, while Arnold was in the shower, Helga woke up wearily. Her mouth felt like gunk, and her eyes were blurry. 9:00. She got out of bed, scratched her head, stretched her arms and walked to the bathroom. Opened the door, and walked into lots of steam.
"Wha...?" she mumbled to herself. Suddenly she realized, Arnold was in the shower. She didn't go any further than one step inside the door, but she could hear him singing Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head. She didn't even dare to turn her head to look at him. Quickly, she stormed out of there, closing the door.
"Oh my," she said to herself, her hand on her chest, feeling her heart beat a mile a minute. Yeah, she had seen half naked guys before, but then...this was different. She's only seen him with his shirt off in the summer once or twice. But seeing him completely nude was just crazy. Not like she did see him...but nearly!
Arnold's stomach grumbled. He stepped out of the shower with a plush white towel around his waist and another around his shoulders and opened the door slightly, sticking his head out. "Hey, Helga."
Helga was leaning against the wall next to the bathroom door.
"Sorry if I kept you waiting," he mumbled.
"No," she shook her head, "not at all." She tried not to look at his wet hair which always turned her on.
"I'm kind of hungry, why don't you order some breakfast from room service? I'll be out in seven minutes." He was toweling off his hair with an end of the towel.
"Oh okay, what do you want?"
"Anything is fine, and the menu is on the coffee table, okay?"
Helga nodded and he closed the door. Why does he do this to me? She drew in a deep breath and could smell the Old Spice Arnold used lurking around in the air.
"Hello? Service d'étage?" Helga asked after pressing the "#" button on the phone. "Oui, um," she looked over the menu, "Je voudrais une tranche de pâté en croûte de pomme, d'un ordre des oeufs et du lard, et de deux ordres des crêpes, et de deux ordres de pain grillé français. Ah, et deux verres de jus d'orange. Pièce 103. Merci."
She hung up.
Arnold, fully dressed (thank God), walked up next to her. "What'd you order?"
"I ordered two glasses of orange juice, one slice of apple pie, and order of eggs and bacon, two orders of french toast, and two orders of pancakes." She smacked her lips together.
"You remembered..." he smiled.
"Of course I remember, you're the one who likes eggs and bacon." she sat down on the chair by the coffee table. "I mean, it was only one of the most important meal of our lives."
"I guess," he said, sitting next to her.
"You guess?" she repeated. "It was, like, the last meal we had with our two best friends! Phoebe was going off back to Kentucky, and Gerald and his family moved to California for his dad's job. Well, it wouldn't have made a difference now anyway. Phoebe would be off to Harvard, or Stanford..."
"Gerald would've gone to Michigan State on a basketball scholarship," he sighed.
"And we," she said, "we are going off to Columbia."
Arnold leaned back in his chair. "And you remembered what I ate for that breakfast?"
"You clearly stated 'every good breakfast must include eggs and bacon'. Phoebe had the blueberry pancakes, Gerald had the steak and eggs, and they were still feeding each other. They must've been sadder than us."
"Yeah, after all, they were one hell of a couple. And I remember you had, what was it? Oh yes...french toast. With syrup on the side."
Helga nodded. "It totally drenches the toast with the syrup on top." she paused for a moment, "So, do you still talk to Gerald?"
"On and off...do you talk to Phoebe?"
"I suppose. Just. You know, we're both...busy."
"Busy?"
"Yes, busy. Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, not at all. It's just that I was with you all the time after they left."
"No you weren't."
"Yes I was."
"No," she shook her head, "you weren't. You were with Lila for most of the time until you two broke up at the beginning of senior year."
"I don't know anyone by the name of Lila," he replied coldly. "As far as I'm concerned, that name reminds me of a stuck-up, conceited, bratty, no-brained, pig-nosed bitch who has no feelings what-so-ever..."
"Whoa there, Arnold! She broke your heart, so what? There are other fish in the sea, as I told you before."
He sighed. "Yeah, sorry I over-reacted a bit."
"A bit?" She laughed.
"After breakfast," he continued – changing the subject, "we're going to go somewhere...special."
"Special? You mean, we're going to go to see Simmons?!"
Arnold pushed the side of her head with his two fingers jokingly and chuckled. There was a knock on the door. "Breakfast!" he grinned and joined his hands together.
***
After breakfast, Helga had to hurrily get ready for Arnold. It was just quickly soap, soap, soap; lather, lather, lather; rinse, rinse, rinse. Pluck the eyebrows, put on the mascara, glob on the lipstick, slap on the powder, and just put on whatever was on top of the drawer.
"Okay, okay! Allons-y!" he pulled her by the arm out the door.
"Man, Arnoldo, what's the rush? You act like you're late for a hot date or something..." she murmered.
He glanced at her quickly.
"Oh no, nuh-uh," she said hastily, "you are not taking me on your little date with Cecile."
"It's not a date..." he said in the elevator. "I'm just going to meet her."
"Where?"
"It's not important..."
"Where?" she said in a sharper tone.
He sighed. "A café in the middle of town..." he grumbled.
"A café? Sounds like a date to me." she crossed her arms. "I should've known by the way you dressed."
"The way I dressed?" he opened his arms and looked at himself up and down. "What's up with the way I dressed?"
"Well, first of all, you're wearing really nice shoes. Not your regular sneakers, you're wearing a vest over a polo shirt, which I know as a fact you barely wear, and you've also got too much cologne on." she waved her hand in front of her nose.
Arnold lifted up an arm and sniffed. "It is not a lot. And I just want to make a good impression."
Helga rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I really don't want to interfere with the two of you love birds."
"You wouldn't be interfering!"
Helga arched her right eyebrow.
"C'mon, Helga...I need you there with me. You're the person who keeps me going, and keeps me lively. You're practically my best friend now. Please?" His eyes so big and blue, so wanting...needy...
"Ugh, fine!" she pursed her lips. Damn, why does he keep doing this to her? "But you owe me!"
They walked out of the elevator and began walking to the subway.
The subway was really big and busy. All the people in there were so active. There were old men missing teeth with long grey hair begging for money. Young French boys with pony-tails had guitars and were singing songs in an awful key. The most amusing thing Helga and Arnold saw was a lady with a child in a wheelchair missing half of his leg, she was also begging for money. It was so sad, Helga wanted to give them a coin or something! but Arnold kept insisting that if she had to give it to one person, she would have to give to everyone.
And that was a lot of people.
Then a subway train (I really don't know what they're called...) pulled up. Helga and Arnold walked in along with another group of people. They found all the seats full, and they had no choice but to hold on to one of those things which hung from the top of the train. (A/N: Man, my subway vocab is very low...)
There was a loud buzz and the doors closed, then whoosh! the train went super fast.
"So, Arnold, do you know where we get off? Or are we just going to wing it?"
"We get off of the stop after the next one. Then we have to walk a couple of blocks." he looked up for a second and nodded, "yeah, I think that's it..."
"How do you know?"
"Oh, because Cecile told me. I called her before we even got on the plane."
"You called long distance?" she asked in disbelief.
He shrugged. "Well, yeah."
Helga rolled her eyes and the train stopped. She let go of her grip and shook her hand, letting it breathe a little. Curse her palms...they always got so moist when she gripped something too long. She must have missed the loud buzz, but once the train took off again, the force of it made Helga fall back.
With a squeak, she fell back on an old grey-bearded french man. Quickly, she stood up and apologized. He just grumbled.
"That was so embarassing," she muttered to Arnold.
"No," he snickered, "that was funny."
Angrily, she pushed him and he fell over too.
A couple of minutes later, they arrived at their stop. They got off and walked up to the surface.
"Man, it's bright," Helga groaned, with her hand over her eyes. "Now which way do we walk?"
"Uh," he stuttered, looking left and right. "Right."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, c'mon." they began walking, passing grocery stores, and cheese stores, and bakeries.
After fifteen minutes, Helga began to get cranky. "Arnold, this is stupid, I think we've been walking the wrong way for fifteen minutes! Shouldn't we be there by now?"
"In a second!" He was really beginning to worry himself. There they were. Two tourists in a foreign country, lost. How perfect. He looked across the street and saw a sign that said Au Café.
"There it is!" he exclaimed happily.
"Obviously," she muttered. But Arnold didn't hear her. He practically carried her off across the empty street to the café.
There were a few round tables on the outside with red and white umbrellas. The Au Café sign was painted brightly on the white wall. Inside was cool, and there were quite a few people. It looked just the way Arnold had pictured it. Nice and cozy…
Then he caught sight of a French girl, sitting solemnly by the window in the corner. Nothing was on her table but a notebook with the word Cecile written largely on the cover. She had beautiful blonde hair, big soft eyes, and rosy complexion.
Finally, after all these years…he finally saw her.
Cecile.
A/N: *ananas = pineapple. I don't know if you've seen Telefrancais before. Hehe, I have. Well, anyways…you know that whole incident with Helga falling on that man? That actually happened to me when I went to Paris.
Yeah, very sad.
Please R/R! Hope you learned a lot today. Haha.
