Chapter 17 – Isn't She Lovely?

Helga gently swept her hair up into its usual bunches in the morning with a smile on her face. The fact that her new 'nice-for-all-the-right-reasons' attitude had caused her to start her day on a dainty note made her very happy indeed. She thought she could see the goodness actually glowing out of her as she stared at her reflection. It was the same aura Lila seemed to possess that made the boys trip over their tongues. Helga never thought she had the capacity to be sweet to people she usually regarded as a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but the more she thought about it the more she realised she had never taken much satisfaction out of being horrible to them either. It didn't do her conscience much good every time she socked Brainy or pushed Stinky into yet another trash can, but she had grown so used to ignoring that little voice in the back of her head she had forgotten it was there.

Since the bet had started though Helga found it had gotten louder and louder. With so many circumstances arising where she had to hold back from her usual behaviour, she was starting to realise how regularly mean she was. The voice was now wagging an 'I told you so' finger at her, and Helga was not surprised to find that it sounded just like Arnold. It was nice to have his sweet preachy tones in her head though, and even if she felt at times like she was going a little crazy, it was nice to know that at least there would always been an optimist around. Bundling up her school books she opened her front door, and was quickly pulled back by her father.

"Hey, where do you think you're goin' Missy?" he barked.

"Uh, school dad," Helga answered, genuinely bemused.

"Oh, right," her father grunted, looking as though he was trying to remember something he had forgotten. "Oh yeah, that's it. You've gotta have those damn stitches out his afternoon, I'll pick you up from school at lunchtime." Helga glanced at her hand, she had totally forgotten about getting her stitches removed.

"Ok dad," she said sweetly, causing her dad to give her a sideways look. With a final smile at him she left her house whistling some tune she couldn't get out of her head. The bus pulled up in next to no time, and Helga felt like the day had already gotten off to a brilliant start. She was something like astounded that she hadn't had to remind Bob of her hospital appointment, he had remembered all by himself. She sat down next to Phoebe, whose sympathetic look towards Helga was immediately replaced with a smile when she saw how happy Helga looked.

"My, you certainly look cheerful this morning Helga," Phoebe said, smiling sweetly.

"I am cheerful Pheebs," Helga said, shrugging her backpack from her shoulders. "It's a nice morning, I only have a half day at school," here she pointed at her hand, "and the sun might not be shining but then I never was much of a summery person anyway."

"So," Phoebe said slowly, clearly choosing her words. "You're not upset about the bet at all?" Phoebe winced slightly, but Helga gave her friend a small smile and shrugged.

"I thought I would be, you know? But I'm not. You'll remember me when I'm gone, won't you?" Phoebe nodded bravely. "Then that's all I need." The bus trundled along it's usual route picking up it's usual students, and Helga and Phoebe lapsed into discussion about Helga's new nice attitude. Unless Helga was mistaken, Phoebe seemed a little uncomfortable with the idea of Helga changing her ways, but Helga thought it would soon pass when Phoebe saw how much better she was. She wasn't going to be sickly sweet in the Lila manner that she had adopted before, she was going to be less temperamental, as she knew that her short fuse was the root of all her anger and meanness. The bus rolled to a gentle stop and Rhonda climbed aboard with Nadine in tow. Helga knew that she was going to have to face Rhonda sooner or later, and she knew it wasn't going to be pretty, so she saw it as the best time to try out her new and improved mind set.

"Good morning Rhonda," she said when she realised that Rhonda was likely to walk straight past her. She was wearing large aviator shades to cover the bruise Helga had given her the day before, and Helga had to admit she was feeling a little guilty about it.

"Oh." Rhonda said stopping, and Helga could tell that her eyes were narrowed underneath those sunglasses. "You. Why are you speaking to me?" Though Rhonda said it in an obnoxious voice, Helga knew that what she really meant was 'as opposed to beating my face in?' Helga played nervously with the sleeve of her shirt.

"I just… you know, wanted to make peace. We seemed to get along ok before this bet thing and it's just made everything really tense… don't you think?" Phoebe rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the window.

"But Helga, darling, it's not over yet," Rhonda said in a voice that could have frozen water.

"It isn't?" Helga asked, and Phoebe found herself rapt once more.

"Oh my no," Rhonda said with a small laugh. "You lost the bet. You have to pay the price." A memory flashed in the corner of Helga's mind. Dunked at your last supper. How could she have been so wrapped up in the bet that she had forgotten there were consequences to losing as well as winning? "I know you've got a few weeks left yet Pataki, but mark my words, I will not forget." Rhonda put her nose in the air and went to sit next to Nadine. Helga was proud that she had not lost her tempter in the face of the Princess, but she knew that could only be attributed to the fact that Rhonda had struck her dumb with her last comment.

"I'd forgotten all about that," Phoebe said in a small voice.

"So had I," Helga replied as the bus pulled up to the school.

-

The morning passed without incident. Helga barely spoke at all and only responded to questions with single word answers. Her English assignment, which would have glowed with creative promise on any other day, was badly misspelled and poorly thought out. She sighed. She had no idea why this was depressing her so much, but then she remembered that everyone's last image of her would probably be of her with spaghetti dripping down her face. Rhonda had an air of sickening smugness, and she didn't seem to notice that most people were shifting away from her as though she were a bad smell during the lesson. Lila and Rhonda now occupied opposite ends of the classroom, Rhonda having decided that Lila was no longer to be associated with. Helga had noticed that Arnold was throwing her odd glances every now and then, but for once in her life she didn't care, or wonder why. She wasn't bombarding him with spit balls now she was no longer prohibited to do so, so maybe that was the reason he couldn't keep his eyes off her. The bell rang, and the class dashed outside to enjoy an overcast recess.

"Helga, are you ok?" a voice asked as Helga sat miserably on the swing. Phoebe had gone to the library to finish her English assignment, picking up very well on Helga's desire to be alone.

"Huh?" Helga said, looking up. Arnold was standing over, that concerned look in his eyes yet again. Maybe feeling sorry for everyone else was his way of keeping from pitying himself. "Oh, yeah, I'm ok." Helga was trying to sound perky. This new nice attitude was all for him after all, and she might as well keep it up.

"You seem really down. Is it what Rhonda said? I can talk to her if you want, you know, get her to change her mind." He sat down on the vacant swing next to Helga, curling his arm around the chain.

"No, it's ok Arnold. I gotta take my punishment or everyone will think I'm a pansy."

"Trust me, no one thinks that." Helga and Arnold both laughed and Helga found she already felt a little better. She hoped she would never feel depressed in England, as Arnold wouldn't be around to cheer her up. However, that was going to be the cause of her sadness so she didn't have much hope. She looked at Arnold, and he was smiling faintly at her. She was astounded. How could a boy she had been unrelentingly mean to for the past five years be so forgiving? And she had never even really said she was sorry.

"Look, Arnold, before I go, I just wanna-"

"Arnold?" Helga looked at him. Yes, Arnold, that is your name after all.

"Get a name change while I was away?" she asked with faint amusement.

"No, it's just that that's twice now you've not called me Football Head or Hair Boy or anything else. Are you feeling ok?"

"Oh, do you like it? I decided I am going to be fine and lovely for the rest of my time here," she said in what was clearly a mocking voice, but her words still held sincerity.

"Really?" Arnold asked, looked shocked. "Why?" Helga shrugged, dancing around the real reason in her head despite her resolution to tell him how she felt sooner or later.

"Just because," she said simply, and Arnold looked at her strangely.

"Ok." A strange silence passed between them. Arnold didn't take his eyes off Helga but she looked to her feet, trying to avoid his searching gaze. He couldn't be on to her, he just couldn't be. The bell rang and both of them stood up.

"Helga?" Arnold asked quietly.

"Yeah?" she responded, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Is it weird that it feels strange when you aren't calling me names?" Helga rolled her eyes and looked at Arnold, expecting him to be smiling but instead he was looking at her deadly serious.

"What?" she asked, but he was looking straight into her eyes and making her feel a little uncomfortable. He cocked his head to the side, thoughtful, still fixed on Helga's eyes.

"Nothing," he said simply, and they went inside.

-

The bell rang to signal lunchtime and as hoards of kids made their way noisily to the cafeteria, Helga set off quietly to the school office. She pulled a note from her pocket and waited for the secretary. The office seemed to be empty, and she sat herself down on a rickety seat and waited patiently. Bob would go crazy if she was late, but it wasn't really something she could help. She flicked through an old school newspaper and hummed gently to herself.

"Make sure you get plenty of rest now," a voice said from the nurse's office. A half-hearted murmur of agreement followed this, and Helga was surprised to find that Sheena's aunt was leading Arnold out into the hallway, and he was clutching his stomach with a pained expression. With one last reassuring smile, the nurse disappeared back into her office and Arnold waited until the door clicked shut before straightening up and beaming at Helga.

"You're faking!" she said in a scandalised whisper. His smile didn't falter.

"Maybe a little, but I wanted to come with you to the hospital." Helga raised her eyebrow quizzically.

"Why?"

"Well, I was too much of a sap to see them get put in and in the spirit of turning over a new leaf I went to see them get taken out." Helga frowned at the boy. She could tell he had a different angle but she was so pleased to have his ill-gotten company that she didn't much care to find out what it was.

"You can't come with me though, Bob's picking me up," she said sadly. Arnold's eyes widened.

"Is he still mad at me?"

"Well, you did imply he was a lousy father," Helga said, trying to make a joke of it but not being completely naïve to the harshness of her words.

"Oh yeah," Arnold said nervously, fully appreciating what Gerald had said about it not being a bombsite he would want to chance near. "I can still meet you there though, right?"

"Wow Arnold, look at you. Faking illness to get out of school, sneaking around behind my dad's back, I must be a bad influence on you."

"Well, someone's gotta be the rule-breaker now that you're all lovely and sweet," he said, fluttering his eyelashes. Helga rolled her eyes.

"How did you know I was going to hospital today anyway?"

"I was there when you made the appointment, remember?" Helga blushed and nodded, before handing her note into the secretary and together they left the school.

Helga's mood, which had been getting a serious lift anyway, was improved even further when she saw not Bob but Miriam parked outside the school. Her head was lolled back on the seat and she was snoring, a thin line of drool making it's way down her chin. Helga grabbed Arnold by the elbow and dragged him over just as he was about to make his sly way to the bus stop.

"My mom's here, its ok!" she said as he tried to make his non-verbal objections.

"Won't your dad have told her?" he asked in a worried voice, but when Helga didn't answer him or even meet his gaze he could have kicked himself. Helga wrenched open the back door of her mom's car and pushed Arnold inside roughly before climbing in herself. "Hey mom!" she said brightly, causing her mom to wake up and bash her head slightly on the rolled up window.

"Uh? Oh, hello Helga," she said weakly, starting the engine.

"Hello Mrs. Pataki," Arnold said, and Miriam spun around in her seat, clearly noticing him for the first time.

"Oh, you're Helga's little friend," she said, before facing front again. Arnold would have thought it was strange that she hadn't asked him what he was doing there, but then he had heard a few rumours about Helga's mother in the boy's bathroom. Gulping, he fastened his seatbelt. They sped along the city roads, getting lost a few times but Miriam was soon set straight with a little help from Helga. Helga felt as though her heart was about to burst as Arnold sat willingly beside her, smiling at her occasionally but not saying much at all. She wanted to strike up a conversation, but she couldn't think of anything to say. His hand lay unguarded on the upholstery of the back seat, and she longed to take it in hers. She swallowed thickly and turned her attention to the horizon that was speeding by.

"Is it… left here, Helga honey?" Miriam asked, peering through the windscreen and pushing her glasses back up. Helga glanced out of the window.

"Uh, yeah, I think so." The car turned the corner and the big red building that was Hillwood Hospital appeared before them. Miriam pulled into the car park and switched the engine off. Helga had a little difficulty undoing her seatbelt, and it took Arnold a good five minutes to pry it open. "Mom, you don't have to-" she was going to say come with us, but her mother already had her forehead pressed against the window and she was snoring gently. With a small shrug at Arnold both of the children climbed out of the back seat and made their way up to the hospital.

"I think she's narcoleptic," Helga said jestingly as the automatic doors parted in front of them. She walked up to the reception in the outpatient's department, where a red-headed receptionist sat, doing a crossword and looking bored. She coughed politely and the receptionist looked up, chewing a pink wad of gum like a cow.

"Name?" she said smartly, not asking why Helga was there or what she wanted.

"Um, Helga Pataki," Helga said quickly, aware that she had almost forgotten. The receptionist searched through some file on her computer, tapping at her keyboard with long manicured nails, before sighing and turning back to Helga.

"Half-two, Dr. Marshall, stitches removal?" she said in a tired tone that indicated that she knew she was right.

"Er, yeah," Helga replied.

"Take a seat, someone will call you." The receptionist turned back to her crossword without giving Helga a second look, so she went to sit down next to Arnold, who had already taken a seat.

"Thanks for coming with me Arnold," Helga said brightly, striving to be nice.

"Whatever floats my boat, huh?" Arnold replied, and Helga felt that familiar uncomfortable feeling again and stared at her hands.

They had been there for about half an hour when a middle aged woman with a bandage on her wrist came and sat next to them. There was something about her that both Arnold and Helga took an instant dislike to. Maybe it was the way she looked as though she was in a bad mood all the time, or the way she pursed her lips and kept throwing them dirty looks, but they chose to ignore her and continued to wait in silence. Helga got to her feet and picked up a tattered magazine to read. It was some pre-teen drivel she wouldn't have read on any other day, but she felt like she was being suffocated in the silence between herself and Arnold, which she could neither explain nor being herself to break. She returned to her seat and began flipping through the pages, pausing on an article about a girl who had fallen in love with her step-brother.

"It's not like we're doing anything wrong," Deidre explained. "We're not even blood related, it's just through marriage but everyone acts like we're doing something really sick." Relationships between step-brother and sister have always been a taboo subject, but as Mike explains here, maybe it's time we adjusted our thinking. "If I had met Andrea first before our parents married and then my mom and her dad had gotten together as a result, it wouldn't be as strange then, would it? I mean, that has to have happened more than once, and no one would stop our parents marrying because there's no word for the relation between the parents of a married couple…

Helga got to her feet, intrigued by the story but no longer being able to fight her urge to use the bathroom. She laid the magazine face down on her chair and walked to the toilets quickly. After she was done she washed her hands and stared at her face in the mirror. Was it just her, or did she look different? It seemed as though something was missing, and she had tired lines all around her eyes. She shrugged. She didn't really feel different, just a little down, and that was to be expected, wasn't it? She splashed some water onto her face and then hurried back to the waiting room, not wanting to miss her name if it was called.

Bending down to pick her magazine back up, Helga was immediately hit with the realisation that it wasn't there. She looked over at Arnold, who looked a little catatonic. He was clearly bored out of his mind, his eyes were half closed and his mouth was hanging open, catching flies. Helga sighed and wished she had made an effort to talk to him. But she found that when she wasn't arguing with Arnold they really had very little to say. Her eyes flicked to the uptight woman who had sat beside her, and she was outraged to find that clutched in her bony fingers was her magazine. Helga said back down heavily, trying to indicate that yes she was back and she would like her magazine again now thank you. The woman didn't even seem to register Helga's presence.

"Hey Arnold," she hissed, snapping Arnold out of his stupor. "She took my magazine."

"Ask for it back then," Arnold said. Helga shook her head.

"I don't want to cause a fuss," she said, blushing and feeling stupid.

"Oh come on Helga, since when do you let people get away with doing things like that?"

"Since… you know…" Helga said, making a strange motion with her hands. Arnold frowned.

"Oh come on Helga, this isn't you," he said, raising his voice to a normal speaking level that seemed strangely rude in the quiet of the waiting room.

"What isn't me?" Helga said defiantly, controlling her temper but also raising her voice.

"This!" Arnold shrieked. "You're not like this! I always thought you'd be better if you were nicer… but…" he faltered, realising both what he had just said and what he had just acknowledged.

"But what?" Helga demanded, but still managing to keep her sweet demeanour.

"You're… fiery," Arnold said, chancing a smile.

"Fiery?" Helga repeated, not returning his smile at all. So that was how he saw her? A hot headed scowling bully? Well, maybe she was reading a little too much into it, but she wasn't so stupid as to not know what he was getting at.

"Well, yeah," Arnold said pathetically, rubbing his elbow. Helga felt something inside her break. Did everyone have this opinion of her? Did they all have this hot and cold attitude to her, like she was ok only sometimes? But she was nice. She was kind and caring and sweet. She was, she knew it.

"I'm nice," she said softly, almost pleadingly, as though she needed Arnold to confirm it.

"Um, sure," Arnold said, sounding a little freaked out.

"Lovely and nice," Helga uttered as her eyes glazed over. Arnold took a step back.

"Helga, are you ok?" he asked cautiously.

"I'm fine," she said sweetly as her name was called. "I'm just lovely." Arnold watched her disappear into the doctor's office with a worried look on his face.

"I hope so," he said gently, and he sat back down to wait for her.