Fallen
Demile: If you want to listen to the songs, go to the Evanescence homepage. They have copies of all the songs on there. About V-Day II, I'm working on it. I have a lot of different writing projects outside of FFN at the moment, though, so except for everything that's already almost done, it's going to take a while. This and the next chapter were already written, though.
Wyldheart: Thanks a lot! It's another Evanescence fan! Anyway, I hope you like this one, too.
Oh, this is my favorite song on the disc! As soon as I heard it, I thought of the story line! This is a lot longer then "Hello", just to tell you. I gave it three points-of-views: Arnold, Helga, Lila (sorry for pulling down on her for all you Lila fans), and an author based view. I hope you all liked my last one. And, I know, I will finish one of my works SOON! I've had all of these since around December of 2002, but they're sooooooo long and soooooooo many! I've been working harder on my original works lately, though. Email me and I may give you a blurb. Well, this track is kind of aggressive, but it's one of my favorites on the disc!
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to "Hey, Arnold," Evanescence, or "Everybody's Fool".
"Everybody's Fool"
The perfect person to show to anyone who was thinking about transferring schools. She made the best first impressions for anything. One look at her and automatically you would take a second, third look. She was simply the kind of person that you had to stare at to fully take in. Popular, smart, pretty, kind, and of course, funny, were all of her aspects to speak of. Faultless, startling green eyes. Gorgeous, wavy red hair. A voice as sweet as any. It's what made her a symbol of what everyone wanted to aspire to be.
She was someone to either love or hate. Almost everyone she met couldn't help but love her twinkling eyes.
Perfect by nature
Icons of self-indulgence
At least almost everyone did.
For example, Arnold couldn't help but fall under her spell, and neither could Stinky. Even some of the boys at the high school with girlfriends felt her charm whenever she walked by. She was perfect in everyway, and exactly what anyone could want to see everyday.
Well, some people didn't. The more realistic people didn't, at least.
Helga Pataki watched her walk down the hallway, smiling at no one in particular, carrying her binder under her arm. Rolling her eyes, Helga shut her open locker door and sighed very loudly. She turned her head to look down at Phoebe. "Why does everyone love her?" she asked, annoyed.
Phoebe shrugged. "Helga, you've got to admit that it's very hard not to admire her," she replied. She held her hand out toward the red head. "Just look at her. She has a sort of aura that people are attracted to."
"Pft." Helga blew a lock of hair out of her face in aggravation. "To everyone else, you mean."
Phoebe lifted her eyebrow and glanced at Helga. "I don't fully understand why you don't like her," she confessed.
"Yeah, well…" Helga trailed off, trying to think of a word her thoughts. "She's too perfect."
"Usually people tend to be attracted to perfection."
Not me, Helga thought bitterly. Anyone smart would realize that the world isn't like her. It doesn't relate to her at all.
Just what we all need
More lies about a world that…
"She… is so… beautiful."
"Uh, Arnold? Wipe your mouth, man."
Arnold stared at her as she walked through the packed hallway. He had stopped with Gerald as soon as she was within his sight. He moaned whiningly and looked at Gerald. "Why do you think she doesn't like me yet? All these years, and sometimes it looks like she might start to, but then she doesn't. It's like I'm not even there."
Gerald shook his head and smiled. "Man, Arnold," he said, "you are too romantic for you own good. Now I can't answer you that, dude." He patted him on the back. "Let's get to class."
Arnold and Gerald walked by Helga, who looked at him wistfully. Phoebe had headed off to class already, leaving Helga to dwell on her thoughts. She looked back over to her, who was now talking to Rhonda. She sighed contemplatively. Then she turned her thoughts to Arnold, who couldn't help but fall victim to her charisma. While he spent his time looking over to the gleaming, shining diamond, he never noticed anyone else… especially her.
Was she the only one who saw through her? Helga didn't know exactly what it was, but anything that happy and clueless was hiding something. If only she knew what. Then maybe she could do something about the pretty little green bug that haunted her windows.
Never was and never will be
Have you no shame don't you see me?
Somehow you've got everybody fooled.
She smiled as she talked to her best friend, spinning her hair around her finger and nodding at the right moments.
"So, the dance. Has anyone asked you yet?" Rhonda lifted her eyebrow and smiled.
"I think that George made it nine," she answered. She thought about it and then nodded. "Yeah, nine."
"Any… worthy candidates?" Rhonda asked, leaning in on her.
She laughed and shook her head. "No one that I'd like to go out with, yet. Not that any would be to horrid." She sighed and slouched to her right. "Of course Arnold's asked me. I just wish that he'd understand that I don't like him like that."
Rhonda chuckled and looked at her with slight amusement. "Come on, girl," she said. "Look around you. Everybody loves you. You are one of the most popular people in school. Why, I'd say that you almost reached my standards!"
She looked up at Rhonda, obviously confused. "What do you mean, 'everyone'?" She turned around to see almost everyone who walked by look at her. Sometimes it was a fleeting glance, but others gaped at her until their necks were craned too far. She turned around and shrugged. "I guess they do look at me a lot."
Look, here she comes now
Bow down and stare in wonder
Oh how we love you…
It was the night of the dance. She walked down her street with a dress in a dry cleaning bag slung over her shoulder. She hummed, obviously excited about her date.
An older, homeless man walked in her direction with an old can of beans that was taken from a trashcan. She stopped to look at him. He came up to her and held out the can. "Please," he said, "be a kind soul." He was really shaken up and beaten.
She frowned sympathetically at the old man. She reached into her pocket and pulled out two dollars. She placed them in the cup and pulled her hand out. "I wish you good luck, just ever so much," she said sweetly. She continued walking.
She looked over her shoulder to make sure the man was gone. She unclenched her hand and revealed a ten-dollar bill. She smirked and looked at it with a strange sort of pride. She went on to her house.
It was a good thing no one talks to me that much, she thought, because then they'd see this. She shrugged. "Oh, well." She walked into her still run-down house with a skip in her step.
No flaws when you're pretending
A gasp came from the alley next to her house. Helga ran out from behind a trash can and looked at the stoop that she had just stood on. She smiled, looking shocked, disgusted, and happy all at the same time. "Man, Phoebe. I've gotten some nasty stuff, but nothing as horrid as that!" She lifted her hand, which held a video camera.
Phoebe emerged from behind the trashcan Helga just came from with her hand over her mouth. "I can't imagine anything more foul than that!" she said, appalled. "But if what you've been saying these past two weeks is true, than she really is a beastly person! How she can hide it…"
But now I know she
Never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled
"… is a mystery to me."
"Yeah, but now we can prove it!" Helga cried triumphantly, holding up the camera. "The big screen on the stage will be playing slides as the band plays. I just have to get Brainy to put this in the VCR and the entire school will she her with out her mask!"
Phoebe looked troubled and rubbed her arm. "It seems so cruel," she whispered, "but what she's done to that man, her classmates, and even Arnold is repulsive. Do what you must, Helga."
!@#$%^&*()_+{}:"?
Arnold drank from his cup of punch. "Good thing it wasn't a couples only dance," he said.
Gerald, with his hand wrapped around Phoebe's waist, rolled his eyes. "She's turned you down so much, Arnold. I know you practically love this girl, but you get too disappointed about it. Just have fun tonight, man."
Arnold thought for two seconds and then nodded in agreement, saying, "Yeah, Gerald, you're right. I won't let that pull me down tonight. Besides, Forte is playing tonight. I heard their background slides are some of the best."
"Yeah, some of the best all right," mumbled Phoebe, looking at the floor.
Gerald looked at her with concern. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing at all," she said.
!@#$%^&*()_+{}:"?
"You look great tonight."
"Thank you so much."
"Uh… how do I look?"
"Great!"
She leaned in closer to her date, a football player. "I really like you, Brad."
Brad smiled as they danced to the slow song. "I really like you, too. Maybe we could head somewhere else after the dance?"
She was just about to respond when Helga appeared next to him. "Hey, bucko," she said, "mind if I cut in?"
Brad looked at her reprovingly, and then shrugged. "Uh, whatever," he said, and ventured off to the snack table.
She looked at Helga angrily as Helga moved slightly to the beat. "What was that for?" she asked her.
Helga sneered at her and whispered, "You're not going to be able to hide yourself forever, Miss. Perfect." When she got a response from her, a questioning look, she continued cheerfully. "Don't worry. Everyone, especially Arnold, will see your true colors soon!"
"What are you talking about," she asked naively, but Helga had already gone away, twirling around. She was left to wonder what she meant by her mysterious message. Her eyes widened and she tried to find Helga in the crowd. "Wait!"
Without the mask
Where will you hide?
Can't find yourself…
She couldn't find her, so she just stood there, fretting over what she didn't know would happen. Wondering what Helga was going to do to her. Whatever it was, she feared it. No one ever noticed that she wasn't… something.
Lost in your lies
"So, all you've got to do is put in there, hit play, and turn the volume up and the microphones down while Undecided plays, right?"
"Uh… yeah, Helga."
"Great. Thanks so much, Brainy!" Helga pulled out a fine dollar-bill and handed it to Brainy. "Whatever you say, just keep it, Brainster. Do it right, okay?"
Brainy nodded and took the video and bill from Helga's hand. He smiled. "I… uh, got it," he said.
Helga walked away with a mischievous gleam in her eye. This was a plan considering her victim that might actually work.
She walked over to the wall where Arnold was leaning, jerking his head to the music and watching Gerald and Phoebe dance. She took her place on the wall next to him, smiling. He leaned over curiously and asked her, "What are you doing here?"
"Can't a person stand off to the sidelines to watch her friend dance?" she asked.
"Yeah, sure she can," he replied, turning back to the couple. His face perked up and his eyes twinkled. Helga, not surprised, looked in his visual direction to see her enemy of the night walking up to them.
"Hey," she said, sweetly as ever.
"Hey," Arnold said nervously. "What's up? Where's your date?"
"Bathroom," she said dismissively. She turned to Helga and said, "Helga, what did you mean-"
"Oh, look," Helga said cheerfully. She pointed to the stage. "Undecided is coming on." In fact, four female teens were coming onto the stage and taking their places at their instruments. A blond girl walked up to the microphone and said, "Hello, Hillwood High!"
A cheer erupted from the students below the stage.
"I hope you guys like us, because we'll be playing all night," aid the blond. She looked back to band mates and nodded. They started playing.
Immediately, a black slide came on saying 'Lila'. Helga leaned her head to face her, smiling. "True colors," she said.
Lila looked at her in a fury.
A Hispanic girl on the bass looked off stage and said, "What's up with our slides?" But they mini movie continued.
First, it showed Lila pointing at a girl with glasses who had tripped and smashed them. She was looking for her books as students walked by. Lila covered her hand with her mouth, stifled a laugh, and walked on.
Next it showed the scene with Lila and the homeless man. Lila's mouth dropped as the screen zoomed in on the ten dollars in her hand that she'd stolen from the man.
The next scene was one from a very long time ago, about three years when they were in the seventh grade. Arnold had just walked away from Lila, with a look of pride on hi s face. Lila rolled her eyes and said, with the speakers up to their full blast, "Arnold, he's just ever so naïve. At least this mall trip will buy me a couple of shirts if I play my cards right. Four years and he still hasn't caught me. Hmm."
Arnold gasped and looked over to Lila. She turned her head uneasily to face him. Arnold looked at her in despair. Then he turned back to the screen with the same look everyone else had: anger.
It showed more and more of Lila being cruel, uncaring, and plotting. It did show some of her being nice at the end, but it only let the students wonder what she was pretending then. The entire school just saw Lila for her real side.
Helga looked at Lila and smirked. "Well, at least we know you're as good of an actor as a singer," she said, not helping at all.
Arnold looked at Lila just as everyone else did. He looked pained. "I can't believe you," he said. "How could that be true?"
Lila didn't say anything. She just looked around at everyone, her friends, her fans, and her worshippers. She bit her lip and ran. The crowd cut to let her pass, staring at her in a new kind of wonder. That or they didn't want to touch her new reality. She ran out of the auditorium to leave them all.
I know the truth now
I know who you are
And I don't love you anymore
It never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled
Arnold turned to Helga and asked, "Did you do that?" He pointed to the stage, where the video had stopped playing and the four musicians stood, looking at each other in mystification.
Helga nodded, feeling even a little sorry for Arnold. "Yeah, I did."
Arnold bit his lip and nodded. "Well, thanks. You showed me that she wasn't perfect after all." He sighed and hit his football head on the wall. "Man, but I really thought that was her!" he exclaimed.
"Her what?" asked Helga. Now she was getting a little annoyed, but it was hard to in that tense room. Everybody was talking amongst himself or herself, and Forte had started playing an instrumental while the room recomposed.
Arnold held out his hand and flexed it in stress, finally moving it to his head. "I don't know. I thought she was the one. Everyone in the movies always talks about the perfect girl, and I thought Lila was the perfect girl."
It was Phoebe's turn to speak, though she did it timidly. "The perfect girl or your perfect girl?"
"Yeah, man, you can't expect a girl to be completely perfect. If you do, then you'll grow up very lonely," Gerald said, patting Arnold on the back. "Though it is a disappointment."
Helga smiled at Arnold and said, "Well, at least now people will believe me when I say Lila's a sniveling, dirty animal. She couldn't help anybody, Arnold. Just herself." She spat in her empty cup of punch. "At least we're not all fools anymore, right?"
Arnold sighed sadly. "Yeah, we're not," he admitted.
Never was and never will be
You're not real and you can't save me
And somehow now you're everybody's fool.
I think I did a good job. Oh, yeah, and guess who the blond was? Yeah, it was me, it was so me! And yeah, that was the band I'm about to start. I can use all the publicity I can get, man. Anyway, I hope you all liked it. I got it from the stupid Cheese Fair, where she's all like "I can't swim!" "I'm allergic, but please, please get me a teddy bear while I make pouty faces." Anyway, review and I'll now what you think! Wait, now, for "Taking Over Me", okay?
You Gotta Love Her!
Briana LFBH
