Flawed

By Miss Matched

Chapter Two: Sore



"Helga!" Phoebe exclaimed as her best friend walked up to the table. It was lunch time, and Helga had finally showed up at school. Naturally, her best friend was worried to death; usually Helga would have called before school started had she been sick. "Are you okay?"


Helga sighed, physically worn out. "Yeah, Pheebs. Just..." She slumped down into the nearest chair. "Actually, I don't wanna talk about it."


"Changing subject!" Phoebe sang out, picking at the food on her tray. "Well, Mr. Simmons announced this morning that we'd have a new 'Uniquely You' project this week. He promised that he'd tell us exactly what it was after lunch." She smiled broadly, "Oh, Helga! Isn't it just, exhilarating?"


"Oh yeah, Pheebs." Helga mumbled, pulling a sandwich out of her sack lunch, "I'm all a-twitter." As she took a bite out of her sandwich, she noticed Mr. Simmons seated at a table in the corner of the lunch room. "Funny," she thought to herself, "the fruitcup usually eats lunch in the classroom." She tore another piece off her sandwich and chewed at it while watching Simmons out of the corner of her eye.


Phoebe slunk down a bit lower in her chair. "I'll only bring this up for a moment, Helga, I promise, but you do know you can always tell me anything, right?"


Her chewing slowed slightly, Helga smiled. "Yeah, Phoebs. Later, I promise."


"Thanks, Helga!"


Attention fully directed back to Granola-boy, Helga watched as a woman sat down next to him. "Oh. No." she thought. "Please, no, no, no!"


"Helga," Phoebe began, spearing a piece of salad, "Isn't that Dr. Bliss sitting by Mr. Simmons?"


Helga groaned in reply. "This is turning out to be a long day..."



The noon day sun filtered in through the open window of Mr. Simmon's fourth grade classroom. Light danced across the shiny surfaces of the desks and again off of Mr. Simmon's balding head. "Good afternoon, class!" he smiled, cheerfully. His class mumbled a response.


"Now, I know how excited you are about your Uniquely You projects this week, but I'm afraid my idea has been put on hold." Some pupils cheered at that. Mr. Simmons laughed. "Now, now, class, there will still be a project!" The classroom door swung open, and Dr. Bliss walked to the front of the room.


"That's right. This week, your uniquely you presentations will be about one of your classmates. At the end of the week, you will do a presentation showing all of the person's good aspects in a new light." Dr. Bliss explained. "Now, Mr. Simmons will read off the list of partners."


"Naidene and Sid," Mr. Simmons read out over the classes murmuring, "Harold and Rhonda, Gerald and Phoebe, Naidene and Sheena, Park and Robert, Gerald and Phoebe..."



Helga slunk down in her seat as Mr. Simmons continued to read off names. "Great, the doctor and the fruit cup are in this together. They'd better not have put me up with...."


"And Helga and Arnold!"


"My life is over..."