Hey Arnold Quote of the Chapter:

Helga: Oh, Arnold, you're so droll. You're just ever so droll.

Arnold: I am?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 5 - Ice Cream and "Ice Cream"

"Triple Neapolitan Sundae, extra whip cream and don't spare the nuts!" Helga orders automatically. She plops onto one of the red stools along the long bar. "And make it snappy!"

The man in the white uniform just gives her a frown before deciding to ignore her tone, quickly setting the sundae before her.

"Finally. Decent service for once." She shoves a rather large spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and enjoys the sweetness.

Sure, she knew that Cecile warned her not to go out in public, but who cares? Helga was feeling too happy to be cooped up in the house all afternoon. So she decided to go to Slausen's and order her favorite sundae.

Eating another spoonful she thinks about the source of her happiness. The latest letter from Cecile she found this morning.

From what she had told Helga, everything is going great at school. Better even.

Cecile was popular. And this wasn't the kind where she had a few good friends in class and everyone else just knew her. This was the kind where everyone knew her name. The kind where everyone wanted to sit with her at lunch. AND the kind where the 6th graders actually want to hang out with her!

This is an amazing feat for a 4th grader. And only after three days!

Cecile, of course, was just flattered, and thought nothing of it. But that became harder as admirers started popping up at school. Boys constantly trying to serenade the exotic beauty from France. She couldn't go through the hall without a guy trying to impress her. The worst so far has involved Curly. He had painted himself in tiger stripes and performed a dancing ritual during lunch in order to prove he was the best "boyfriend" for her.

Helga shook her head at the thought of Curly doing some stupid dance in the lunchroom. Heh, she always knew he was a weirdo. This just takes the cake.

It's a good thing that Arnold was there both times. And to avoid future problems, he decided it was best to follow Cecile around to deflect the guys from her. To her locker, throughout recess, during lunch, he was always there with her. He even stays outside the girls' restroom while Cecile takes her "medicine", which surprised Helga on Wednesday.

She lets out a deep sigh. It's a dream come true for her. She followed her football headed love god around so often as Helga. Now he was following her as Cecile.

Helga slowly closes her eyes in pure ecstasy.

Arnold wants to be around me! He actually WANTS to be around me! The thought alone sends Helga into a daydream including her beloved.

Not aware of her surroundings at the moment, she doesn't notice the door's bells ring as it opens.

"I would like a Triple Neapolitan Sundae please."

Helga nearly chokes on her sundae's cherry. Arnold?! What in the name of criminey is he doing here?!

"And can I get that with extra whip cream and nuts?"

"Sure Arnold. One Triple Neapolitan Sundae with extra whip cream and nuts. Enjoy."

"Thanks." Arnold was about to sit in one of the booths when he sees Helga. "Cecile? Is that you?"

It takes all of Helga's willpower not to slap herself. Cripes! I forgot to change! Arnold think I'M Cecile! Hesitantly she turns on her stool to face Arnold.

"Uh, bonjour Arnold."

"Bonjour." He gives his famous smile. "Mind if I sit with you?"

His grin turns Helga weak in the knees. She hates it when she does that! She struggles to keep composed. "Uh, sure. Go ahead."

He sits himself on the stool next to her. "So…" he taps his fingers together nervously, not knowing exactly what to say.

Helga just keeps staring at her sundae, swirling some of the melted ice cream and hot fudge together with her spoon, trying to avoid his gaze, "So… what?"

"I'm, uh, looking forward to the movie tomorrow."

Helga nearly slaps herself again. How could I forget about the movie?! "Yeah, uh… me too." She winces at her lame response. "So… what's this movie about?"

"Oh. It's about this guy that becomes an expert con-artist. He cashes checks that bounce in every city he's in. He also pretends to be a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer."

"Sounds interesting."

"Yeah." A long silence lingers as they eat their sundaes. "Uh, I think I need to go to the restroom. Be back in a minute." He gets up from his seat and disappears into the men's room.

Helga lets out a long sigh in relief. The awkwardness was just too much. She rubs her temple while letting out another sigh. It was giving her a headache too. A dull one, but it was still there.

She has no clue if she could keep up this act. Should she just leave Arnold here and let the real Cecile make up an excuse tomorrow? Helga couldn't do that to her. Besides, this was her fault. She was the one that didn't listen when she was warned not to go out. She has to fix this. And the worst thing is that she doesn't want to.

Helga rests her head on the table, "Criminey." She mutters to herself.

"What did you say?" Helga's head shoots up and sees Arnold siting next to her again, his eyes large with amazement. "Did you just say 'criminey'?"

"I, uh—"

"You know I've only heard one person say that ever."

"R-really?" Helga stammers.

"And she's supposed to be out of town." He says, he raises an eyebrow in suspicion, another thought occurs to him, "Your accent sounds more American than usual. Why is that Cecile?"

"I, uh…" Think Helga, think! "I've… been practicing my diction in my spare time!" Helga says quickly. "I want to sound more American so I could be just like you and your friends Arnold. I want to be, how you say, 'cool'." Helga's French accent is now obvious. "And what I said was 'this is a crime'. Because your sundae has been melting while you were in, what's the word, the 'John'?"

Arnold starts laughing at her reference to the bathroom, making Helga smile also. "Well thank you for being so concerned about my sundae Cecile, but it's just ice cream. It's no big deal." He moves his hand to cover hers. Helga looks from their hands up to Arnold, her eyes wide from his bold move. "You don't have to change yourself for anyone to like you Cecile. You're already cool the way you are. I already like you the way you are."

Helga gives a half smile, then turns her hand to clasp his with her own. "Because I'm me…" she says, almost sad-like.

Arnold blinks in surprise at the statement. "Well, yes. I do." He could have sworn he saw a tear fall down her cheek, but she brushed it away so quickly that he could have mistaken.

"Um, I'm sorry Arnold. I have to go." She leaves a few bills on the table for the ice cream and gets up from the stool. "I'll see you at school tomorrow." She briskly walks away and out the store's door.

"Wait! Cecile!" he calls after her, but it's too late. She's gone. "What did I do?…"

~~~~~

Helga runs hard all the way to the one place where she could be herself and not worry about being judged. Tina Park. Only when she reaches the bridge crossing over the pond does she stop. She sits herself on the edge, dangling her feet over the side. Staring at her reflection she tries to ignore her headache, she has bigger problems to worry about.

"Why?!" she asks herself, "Why him, of all people, have to walk into Slausen's at the exact time I was in there?! The EXACT person I wanted to avoid had to find me!"

Her reflection smirks at her. "I hate to say it, but I told you not to go out in broad daylight Helga. But you didn't listen."

Helga blinks in surprise, "Cecile?!"

Her smirk seems to widen "The one and only."

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CRIMINEY IS GOING ON HERE?!"

"Calm down Helga. Stop acting so surprised." She says calmly.

"But it IS a surprise! At least to me it is sister!" Helga shouts, "How could this happen?!"

Cecile rolls her eyes, "It's one of the aftereffects of the potion. Doi."

"Then why did you have to write those freakin' notes to me?"

"Because only when your body starts getting used to taking the concoction does the aftereffects, like being able to talk to me, happen." She waves a hand as if to brush the topic aside. "But that's not the point. The point is that you ran into Arnold." she crosses her arms, "And he thinks Cecile is a dimwitted ignoramus now."

"But he held my hand! He thinks I'm cool!" Helga argues.

"Correction, he held Cecile's hand, and now he doesn't think I'm cool." Cecile narrows her eyes at her counterpart. "How am I supposed to win Arnold's love for you if you mess everything up?"

Helga looks down at her feet. She doesn't want to admit it, but Cecile is right. The only reason Helga was doing this was for Arnold, and she was messing it up. "You're right. You can't do it if I keep messing things up." She slowly nods her head. "I won't go out in public from now on. I promise."

Cecile smiles warmly at Helga, "Good. And in time Arnold will be ours."

Helga nods her head in agreement. "Yes, in time." With renewed strength, she gets up and starts walking home. The gorgeous colors of the sunset behind her.

~~~~~

Arnold's feet drag as he slowly makes his way back to the boarding house. His head down low, staring at the sidewalk as it disappears underneath his feet. The dull headache that he has is hardly noticeable. His football shaped head was, more or less, confused about a certain blonde haired girl.

Cecile was acting so strange at Slausen's. Why did she run away like that for? Was it because he put his hand on hers?

Arnold scratches the back of his head thoughtfully. Maybe it was too big of a step for them right now. Heck he was only nine years old. But at the time that's what his heart told him to do. He wanted to feel the softness of her hand on his. So, he did what his heart told him to do. And if it was such a big deal for Cecile to run away like that, why did she hold his hand back?

Arnold nearly stops at that thought. She did hold his hand back! That has to at least mean something!

But she ran away from you. What's up with that? Maybe she was just being nice. She could have thought that it was an American thing that friends do. Kind of like a handshake, only more personal.

And what about what she said? 'Because I'm me.' That was almost exactly what Helga said at the bus stop on Monday. That had to be a coincidence, right? Yeah. That's it. It was a coincidence. It had to be.

Arnold lets out a deep sigh. He doesn't know what to think of Cecile, or what to do. The only thing he could think of doing was to keep being his optimistic self and talk about what happened with her tomorrow at school.

Hopefully she'll still want go to the movies. He's still looking forward to tomorrow.