So it was settled. They were, without a doubt, stuck in the library. Until Monday morning.
"How are we going to eat?? It's about seven pm, right? So if you think about it, thirty-six hours is when we're going to be able to get out. What are we supposed to eat?" Gerald thought aloud.
"What?! I haven't eaten anything since breakfast!" Rhonda realized in horror.
There was no way Helga was going to tell them about her minurature stash of candy bars.
"Vending machines!" Curly offered.
"The vending machines are all off." Arnold told them bluntly.
"Rhonda! Don't you have a cell phone??" Helga reminded her.
"Oh! Great! Yes, I do!" Rhonda squealed in delight. "We'll be out of here in no time!" Rhonda pulled out her cell phone and turned it on. She dialed her mother's phone number.
"Oh..." Rhonda moaned. "There's no service in here!" There was a chorus of moans. The walls and ceilings were made out of cement.
"Let's face it, guys. We're screwed," Curly told them casually.
"Oh and no thanks to you, right?" Gerald snapped.
"We might as well get comfortable if we're going to be stuck in here for the day and a half," Arnold told them. Helga grinned. She didn't mind being stuck in a place with Arnold for that long. Curly thought a moment.
"Wait! What about the mini-cafe on the bottom floor??" Curly reminded them. There was a silence. For a breif second, they stood there, staring at eachother.
"Let's go!" Helga exclaimed, spinning on her heel and running towards the cafe with the rest of the gang running quickly behind her.
The door to the cafe was open!
They entered the small space and before they could touch anything, Helga shushed them.
"Mute! Mute!!" Helga yelled harshly. "Now we have to think this through. Sure, we got pretty lucky for this place to be open, but we have to think like civilized human beings. What would these "Library employees," Helga held up two of her fingers on each hand. "think if they were to come back on monday morning and half this cafe is raided?? Not only we would get lectured on "How immature teens are today," but we'd have a hefty bill to pay." Helga finished, placing her hands on her hips.
"Helga's got a serious point," Phoebe agreed.
"So what do we do?"
"Not eat at all?"
"But I'm starving!"
"Where's the bathroom?!"
Helga sighed.
"Who all brought money?" Helga asked, raising her hand. Everyone raised their hand but Curly.
"Here's what we do. We buy only what we can afford and pay these people on Monday. I GUESS I'll pay for Curly's food; but only because he told us about this cafe," Helga glared at him.
The kitchen door was locked; so the only thing they could really eat were the chilled glass bottles of juice and the fudge, cookies, and cake behind the glass storage cases.
It was a good thing Helga had brought twenty-five dollars.
They left the cafe with snacks and fruit juice under their arms; figuring they'd pay when the employers came to work on Monday morning.
7:58.
"I'm bored," Curly moaned.
"Get used to it," Gerald told him glumly.
Now the gang was sitting in the Childrens Reading area, sitting comfortably on beanie bags in a small corner.
"So. What do we do now?" Curly asked, staring up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. Helga laughed.
"We sit." Rhonda said.
"And wait till Monday morning." Phoebe told him casually. Curly glanced at the girls, then at the guys to see if they were serious.
"Screw this," Curly groaned and left towards the young-adult-fiction novels; just out of sight from the rest of them
There was another moment of silence.
"I'm going to make sure he doesn't hurt himself," Gerald got up and followed Curly; half joking.
"Or do something drastic," Arnold too got up; following Gerald.
Now it was just the girls.
More akward silence.
Fifteen minutes later they were playing an intense game of Truth or Dare.
Rhonda looked over at Helga.
"So. Helllga. Truth. Tell me who you like?" Rhonda asked her, grinning. The hair on Helga's neck stood up. This is exactly why she didn't want to play this game. Phoebe looked at her expectantly.
"I'm not telling you," Helga told her firmly, slightly smiling.
"You have to. This is what this game is about," Rhonda told her, closing her eyes in defense. There was a breif silence.
"It's Arnold, isn't it? I know it is!" Rhonda lied, making something up just for the hell of it. Every ounce of blood in Helga's body fled to her face. Rhonda's eyes widened with realization.
"Are you serious?!" Rhonda covered her mouth with surprise as she held back a small laugh. Helga scowled.
"I didn't say anything! Why would I waste my time on that football head?" she lied, thinking quickly.
"Oh man! You expect me to believe that? Especially after the way your face turned bright red? That's rich! Man i can't believe it! At first I was just screwing around! But it's true! YOU LIKE ARNOLD!" Rhonda laughed shrilly.
"Keep it down! Will you?!" Helga told her in a whisper, tilting her head towards where Arnold and them had left too. Helga groaned. There was no use in denying it.
"You listen here, because I'm only going to say this once. If you tell anyone; and I mean ANYONE; then you will NEVER want to look in a mirror again, you got that?!" Helga hissed.
Rhonda giggled, nodding in agreement. She couldn't keep a straight face to save her life. Helga moaned. She was never going to hear the end of this.
"Helga, now do you know w-" Phoebe started. She was interupted by a loud crash that made the three girls jump.
It was coming from where the guys had left too. Startled, they ran to see what had happened.
The site was pitiful.
An entire shelf had fallen over, along with the couple hundred books that were on it. Curly sat in the middle with his glasses half on and a look of pure shock on his face.
"What the hell is going on in here?!" Helga practically screamed.
"Curly! Are you alright?!" Rhonda squealed, running over to him.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Curly replied with a smirk. He adjusted his red rimmed emo glasses, and pushed off any books that were on him. With weak legs, he stood up and walked out of the pile, careful not to slip on the books.
"What happened?" Phoebe asked quietly. Gerald sighed.
"Curly started climbing the shelf. When we told him to come down, he said it was all for the entertainment," Gerald informed them; still cross from the fact that they had to spend the next 35 hours in there together.
"Curly; you have to put those books back on the shelf," Arnold told him, lowering his eyebrows; still shaken but trying not to show it.
"You're lucky that shelf didn't crush you to death; you know that?" Helga fumed. Gerald put his hands on one end of the shelf, then motioned for Arnold to help lift the other end.
After a few seconds, the shelf was on it's upright position. Helga thrust a book from the pile into Curly's face.
"Start working. It's going to be a few hours to get these in the right order," she smirked.
"What?! Are you crazy?! That'll take me all night! There's no way I'm putting all these books in the right order! " Curly whined.
"Oh and who's idea was it to pull a Laura Croft?" Gerald asked him dryly. Curly began grinding his teeth. It was no use trying to fight against five people.
Furious, and still mumbling to himself, he picked up a book, shoved it in the shelf, picked up another, glanced at the bar code, and shoved the book in front of the last one.
8:37.
