Chapter 11 – Bad Plans And Good Intentions

Helga sat silently in the back of the car on the drive home. She looked down at her freshly stitched hand. Now that her light-headedness was gone it was starting to throb quite painfully. She gingerly ran her fingers along the stitches. Her thoughts remained on Arnold, and the look on his face as her father had pulled her away from him. She still suffered from the despair she had felt when her father had forbidden her to see him anymore. Tears welled up in her eyes; she was not brave enough to disobey her father. Had today really been the last time she would ever speak to him?

The car came to a shuddering halt and Helga unbuckled her seat belt and got out. She followed Bob up the steps, aware that he was avoiding speaking to her or even looking in her direction, but she was too consumed by her own thoughts to care. Bob pulled the door open and walked inside, immediately sitting down in his armchair and switching on the television. Helga just wanted to be alone.

"Hey hey, where are you going little lady?" Bob grunted, his eyes still fixed on the screen.

"To my room," Helga replied, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Just a second," Bob growled. "I meant what I said about that boy. You don't see him outside of school, and when you are at school you don't say a single word to him. You got that?"

"Yes dad," she whispered.

Helga sighed and went to her room. She threw herself onto her bed and pulled her soft pink pillow over her eyes. Half of her wanted to cry, but the other half wouldn't let the tears come. She had barely been there a few minutes when the phone rang. She sighed and picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"Helga?" It was Phoebe. Helga smiled.

"Hey Phoebes," Helga said in a weary voice.

"Helga, are you ok? Arnold phoned and told me what happened. How's your hand?" She sounded very anxious.

"Oh, you know, it stings a little but it's nothing I won't live through," Helga said, trying to calm her friend's fears. "Um, did Arnold tell you anything else?"

"No, only that you were hurt and he accompanied you to the hospital," Phoebe said, interested. Helga launched into the entire story of Arnold's showdown with Big Bob, and Phoebe was the perfect audience. She 'awwed' when Helga told her of Arnold staying to help with the dishes, she sucked air through her teeth when Helga described cutting her self, and she gasped when Helga told her of Bob's last words to her regarding Arnold. Helga sighed.

"And that's how bad Monday was, can't wait for Tuesday."

"Oh Helga, that's terrible," Phoebe said sympathetically. She was bothered, however, by Helga's omission of what happened before she had cut herself, when Arnold had asked Helga how she he felt about her. Many of the kids had just wanted to see what happened to Arnold, but Phoebe was worried, and a little excited about what would happen to Helga. Although it went against everything Phoebe felt might transpire, she half hoped there would be some very good news regarding Arnold on Helga's part.

"What is it?" Helga said, perfectly reading the distance in Phoebe's voice.

"Oh… nothing…" Phoebe said, twirling her phone cord between her fingers. She knew it wasn't safe to ask. Helga still had secrets from her, the same way Phoebe didn't tell her everything.

Helga did pick up on it, very well in fact. She knew what Phoebe had really called for, but she took a strange comfort in the fact that she didn't have to tell her. She didn't have to tell anyone that it was twice now she had denied having feelings for Arnold.

-

Helga's alarm woke her the next morning, as did a wave of nausea. She ran to the bathroom with her slippers half on and emptied her already void stomach down the toilet. She rinsed her mouth and crawled back to her bedroom, and it wasn't long before Miriam was at her door.

"Helga… are you… alright?" she mumbled, straightening her glasses. Helga held her stomach and didn't say a word. The cut on her hand was stinging terribly, and she was certain it was that which was making her feel sick. Miriam sighed. "Maybe you… shouldn't go in today."

Helga smiled weakly. That would be perfect for her. She could avoid her classmates and take some time to feel better. She lay back down on her bed and closed her eyes, and sleep took her before she even had the chance to think about it.

-

The class of PS118 immediately had their suspicions aroused by Helga's absence that day. Whispers flew through the classroom like paper aeroplanes and the class settled down at their desks, and almost ever single pair of eyes was fixed upon Arnold. Arnold had noticed, but was choosing to ignore it. Something nagged in the back of his mind about what Helga had said regarding Rhonda, and until Arnold knew what it was, he wasn't going to tell anyone anything. He did not know that Rhonda had confessed her lie to the rest of the class.

"Hey Arnold," Stinky drawled. "How'd it go with Helga yesterday? Did she beat your face in?" He laughed in his pleasant country way, backed up by Sid and Harold.

"I don't know Stinky," Sid snorted in between laughs, "he doesn't seem to have any bruises. Maybe she smothered him with kisses instead!" This was followed by a unanimous burst of laughter from the whole class, even Phoebe smiled a little. It was funny to think of Helga showering Arnold with that kind of affection. Phoebe knew, however, that if Helga had been seated behind her desk there would be no talk of any such kind.

Arnold blushed a deep pink. "Aw look, isn't that sweet?" Rhonda said in a high-pitched voice. "He misses her so much he's gone the same colour as that stupid bow of hers!" The girls in the class, minus Phoebe, all shrieked with laughter, while the boys made soppy kissy faces. Despite the fact that his mind was very much elsewhere, Arnold couldn't help but notice that Lila was laughing very hard at Rhonda's comment. He frowned at her.

Gerald was looking at his friend with an expression of worry. Arnold had neglected to phone him the previous night, too lost in his own thoughts but ever the do-gooder he had remembered to phone Phoebe. He also knew that Rhonda's words were a lie, but Arnold had marched into the Pataki household unaware of this vital information. It was clear to Gerald that Arnold had not been harmed during his confrontation with Helga, but now that he was starting to develop the reputation of being her sweet thing, his social standing was likely to take a severe bashing. Say something Arnold, anything, he urged in his mind.

"You were gone an awful long while Arnold, whatever were you doing?" Lila said prissily, trying to egg him on. The colour of his cheeks turned from pink to red as the embarrassment transformed into anger.

"For your information," he began calmly, addressing the whole class, "Helga had to go to hospital, and I went with her." The entire class gasped. Phoebe smiled. It was a clever trick. They both knew that Helga hadn't been seriously hurt, but by telling everyone she had gone to hospital, coupled with the fact that she wasn't in school today, they would cease the mockery and maybe even feel ashamed.

"Oh no," Sheena said. "Is she alright?"

"She cut herself pretty badly and had to have stitches," Arnold said quietly. The class were clearly relieved that she was not too badly hurt, but obviously infuriated that there was a perfectly innocent explanation for everything. Not one to be defeated, Rhonda blundered on regardless.

"But when she gets back I have no doubt you two will be walking around holding hands in the corridor and fawning over each other on the bus," she said dangerously.

"Oh come on Rhonda, you know it's not like that!" Arnold snapped. "And besides, her dad won't let her hang around with me anymore." Gerald groaned and Phoebe slapped her hand to her forehead. Just when it looked like he might get off unharmed as well. Rhonda grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Doesn't want you touching his little girl, huh?" Rhonda said, laughing and turning to the front of the class.

Arnold couldn't find his voice to explain at all.

-

At lunchtime Arnold and Gerald sat by themselves on a table tucked away in the corner of the cafeteria. Arnold wasn't eating anything, just holding his head in his hands while Gerald reassured him that everything would be fine once Helga was gone. Arnold rubbed his eyes and looked as his best friend.

"I think I might actually miss her a little bit," he whispered very quietly, desperate for no one to overhear him.

"Miss her!" Gerald shouted, dashing Arnold's hopes. The whole room turned to look at them, and they both blushed. "Sorry man," he said, lowering his voice. "But why?" Arnold shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Gerald was his best friend, he did tell him everything, at least under normal circumstances. But he had come to the conclusion that these weren't normal circumstances.

Last night, Arnold had lay awake for hours thinking about the days events. It scared him a little to find that he was very reluctant to let Helga go to England with things the way they were. More than once he had been told he was too much of a goody-goody, always poking into everyone else's business and trying to make the world a better place. He wanted to help Helga, making sure she had something to hold on to when she got to England. But before, when it was helping Chocolate Boy or Monkey Man, it had been simple.

Making the bond between Helga and her father something credible was not.

"Loose ends that... need to be tied..." he said vaguely, and yet still expected no questions from Gerald. Of course, he was sorely disappointed.

"What are you talking about man?" Gerald said, genuinely bemused. Arnold wasn't sure he could explain, and he knew he didn't want to even try.

"Helga and…her dad," Arnold finally said, making it clear that he would say no more to explain. Gerald clearly recoiled in his seat.

"Geez man, there's a bombsite I wouldn't even try to chance near," Gerald said, and it was there the conversation ended. Sure, both boys were used to facing the problems of adults, but they were not accustomed to discussing them with one another. Arnold's mind was made up and Gerald was subconsciously wishing him all the best, and with those barriers broken the boys reverted back to their usual talk of school and baseball.

However, the subject of Helga and her father was never far from Arnold's mind, and he was determined to help them both. He was going to turn break down the barriers that separated them, just as soon as he found out what they were.

-

The majority had been wondering at lunch why Rhonda had left Arnold alone for the whole hour. If only their focus had actually been on Rhonda, instead of Arnold, they would have been wondering where she was at all.

As the rest of the school trudged to the cafeteria, Rhonda Wellington Lloyd tiptoed to the janitor's closet, nabbing a very confused yet delighted Curly on the way.

"In!" she barked, whilst throwing Curly roughly through the door and not giving him much choice. She followed sedately after, shutting the door with a gentle click and switching the light on. "Right, you are going to do me a little favour, lover boy," she purred.

Curly was visibly salivating. "Anything for you Rhonda," he gushed.

"That's the spirit, hunk-o-matic," she said scathingly, rubbing her hands together in a very sinister way. She pressed a hand to his mouth as she heard the rush of kids going past in the corridor. Then she leaned closer and began whispering into his ear. "Ok Curly, here's the plan…"