A Sure Thing Chapter 8: The Quiet Things that No One ever Knows, a hey arnold fanfic

A/N: If you want to know about updating practices by me (meaning when one will be coming and/or why I won't be updating that fast), look at my profile. 'Nough said.

Disclaimer – I don't own Hey Arnold! or any of the characters associated with it.

A Sure Thing

Chapter 8 – The Quiet Things that No One ever Knows

~ Monday, April 21 ~

"Eew! How can you eat that?"

Arnold looked up from his pepperoni pizza and stared at Lila. "Generally with my hands, but occasionally with a knife and fork," he replied. He was confused, but judging by Lila's toe-tapping, he assumed she wanted to eat with him. "Do you want to sit down?"
"Thank you," she said as she sat down in the chair to his right. "So, why didn't you call me last night? Your grandpa said you'd call me as soon as you got home."

Arnold was desperately waiting for Gerald to come and sit with them. What's taking him so long? He was not in the mood to talk to Lila. Oddly, his thoughts had been focused on Helga all morning. She did not eat during his lunch mod, but he saw her walk into school with crutches. He turned to Lila, who looked like a puppy waiting for a stick to be thrown. What's wrong with you? The girl you like is practically begging for you to talk to her. Say something! "Uh, um, I got in late last night, so I just went to sleep. Grandpa actually didn't tell me you called until this morning." Well, clearly honesty's not going to be a big part of this relationship.

"Oh, I see." Her face brightened, clearly happy that Arnold supposedly did not blow her off for one reason or another. She played with her salad. "I was ever so mad that it rained on Saturday. I was planning to go to your game." She smiled brightly at him and batted her eyelashes.

"Oh, yeah? I was actually kind of thankful for it. I'd gotten a bit behind on my homework, so…" He took another bite of his food. Where the hell is Gerald?

"Oh."

Arnold felt like slapping himself in the face. "But it would have been great if we did play. Yeah, you missed a chance to see a great game. We were going to play Creighton and they're really tough this year. They killed my friend Quin's team last week." Arnold laughed. "Man, all he did last week when we jammed was complain about how tough his coach was on his team."

"Jammed?" She took a sip of her Evian. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I'm in a band. Uh, we actually all played baseball together when we were little, and we all just stayed friends and decided to form a rock band. Do you remember Corbin Jeffries?"

She twirled her hair as she thought. "Oh, let's see…he's the short little kid who went to school with us at the end of elementary school and in junior high, right?" She made a face. "Wasn't he best friends with Helga?"

"Yeah, still is, actually." His mind wandered back to the blond.

Lila hit the table excitedly a few times. "Oh, oh, I remember him! Oh God, I had such a crush on him. I liked him ever so much!" she squealed.

She got Arnold's attention back right away. "What?" he snapped.

"Yeah," she breathed. "I can't believe I forgot about that. I was crazy about the boy, just ever so crazy about him." She shook her head. "But he was in love with Helga, which was just a damn shame because she was always in love with –"

"Hey, Lila! Whatcha doing over here?" Gerald asked as he sat down.

"Hi, Gerald," Arnold spat through gritted teeth. Naturally, Gerald showed up just when he did not want him around. Arnold was far more interested in who Helga had always been in love with.

"Oh, Arnold and I were just talking about who everybody liked when we were younger." She tilted her head, clearly trying to remember whom Gerald had crushed on.

"What took you so long?" Arnold asked, cutting Lila off just before she was about to speak. Like always, he did not want Phoebe's name to be brought up around Gerald. Lila stared at him carefully, and Arnold was determined not to return her gaze, letting her think whatever she wanted to.

Gerald groaned. "I ran into Rosalie. She kept asking me lame questions about prom." He took a bite of his hamburger. "Honestly, Arnold, I think I mighta made a wrong move by asking her."

"Yer kin Rosalie Enriquez ooh rom?" Lila asked with her mouthful.

"What?" the two boys asked simultaneously.

Lila swallowed. "You're taking Rosalie Enriquez to prom?"

Gerald made a face. "Yeah. What of it?"

"Oh, nothing." Lila returned to her salad without another word.

Arnold and Gerald exchanged confused glances. "Anyways, she said that—"

"It's just that Rosalie's dating somebody from Roosevelt. At least that's what I heard." Lila said blandly as she took a drink of her water.

"WHAT?" Gerald cried as he jumped out of his seat, grabbing the attention of the nearby tables.

"Gerald, calm down," Arnold said as he pulled Gerald down.

"Rosalie's dating somebody else? That's impossible! She's crazy about me!"

"Chill, Casanova." Arnold could not suppress a laugh. "Look on the bright side, at least now you know she's not looking for anything serious."

Gerald looked at him. "Some friend you are, fuckin' bastard."

"Gerald, I'm joking." He cast a glance at Lila and was floored to see that she had a slight smile on her face. She almost seemed happy to see the turmoil her news had caused.

"Right, funny joke," Gerald snapped as he began to stab his lunch. "Honestly, she's cheating on me! ME!"

As opposed to you cheating on somebody else. Arnold did not know what do say. If he said what he really thought, which was it was bound to happen sometime, which was that perhaps Gerald had finally gotten what was coming to him, he had never really thought that much of Rosalie anyways (at least occurring to what he ever said about her to Arnold), and that you technically have to be dating someone for her to cheat on you, Gerald would probably knock his head off his neck before Arnold finished the sentence. Arnold shifted uncomfortably as Gerald's eyes dug into Arnold as he waited for him to say something that would ease the shock. Arnold looked to Lila for help, but she was staring across the cafeteria as she ate. "Maybe it's not true. After all, Lila said that was just all she heard. It might just be a bunch of bull and hearsay."

Gerald looked somewhat relieved, but Lila's head snapped back to him at his comment. "Are you calling me a liar?" she demanded, fire in her green eyes.

Can't you see I'm trying to help Gerald! he cried mentally at her. "No, I'm merely suggesting that you may have been misinformed."

Gerald must have felt better because he snorted with laughter at Arnold's politician-sounding response. Well, at least I don't have to worry about him that much anymore, Arnold thought grimly.

"Misinformed? Are you saying you can't trust what I say?" To Arnold's amazement tears were coming to Lila's eyes.

"No, Lila, I'm just saying that possibly the person who told you about Rosalie's supposed boyfriend maybe didn't have all the facts," he said slowly and carefully. He looked to Gerald for help, but his friend was too busy trying not to laugh hysterically in Lila's face.

"Oh, so I'm not a liar, but my friends are?" She covered her mouth and swallowed hard. "Is that what you are saying, Arnold? Is it?"

"No, Lila, that's not what I'm saying at all! I –" He was interrupted with the bell. "Lila—"

"I don't want to talk to you right now, Arnold," she snapped as she stalked off.

Arnold watched her go, still not sure if the last five minutes had actually happened. "What the hell just happened?"

Gerald laughed. "Your girlfriend just played the crazy card, in a pretty big way I might add."

Arnold picked up his tray and half listened as Gerald returned to complaining about Rosalie. Lord, even Helga doesn't give me that big of a headache.

¤ ~ ¤ ~ ¤

"Well, I talked to Rosalie," Gerald said as he and Arnold walked to their last period class.

"And?"

"And she said that she had started to see a boy from Roosevelt after I had already asked her to prom. She didn't tell me because she figured that I only wanted to go to prom with her and didn't want to make this any more serious than that, and she still wants to go with me but just as friends."

"Ouch. So are you okay with this?"

"Do I really have much choice? Who else am I going to find to go to prom with this late in the game?"

Arnold frowned. "You know, I technically don't have a date at the moment, so could you try not to be so pessimistic?"

Gerald shrugged. "Have you talked to the Drama Queen since lunch?"

"Tried to. She said she couldn't bear to speak with me at the moment. How's that for the cold shoulder?" Arnold ran a hand through his messy blond hair. "Seriously, what did I say that was so bad?"

Gerald grabbed the door handle. "I don't know. That girl lives in la-la land some days. Don't worry about it. She's probably just on her period."

"So is that your excuse for every time some girl refuses you, Johannson?" a cold voice said behind them.

"I'm sorry I offended you, Pataki, seeing as how you're eternally suffering from PMS." He turned around. "Oh, sorry, or is it that you are naturally a bitch?" He took a double take as he saw her on crutches. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Ask Arnold, and if you don't mind I'd like to go sit down. As fascinating as I find your troubling love lives, I've got a test to get ready for."

"At least we aren't dried up hags with no love life," Gerald snapped back, not moving an inch.

"Ouch, that one hurt. Now that you have caused be so much psychological pain and have put me in my place, will you please move?" she asked dryly.

"Gerald, would you just shut up and let her in?" Arnold said finally just as Gerald was about to open his mouth.

Helga and Gerald's jaws both dropped, but Helga was the first to recover. "You heard the little man."

Gerald opened and held the door open for her and watched her hop along. "Since when do you defend Helga G. Pataki?"

Arnold avoided Gerald's eyes as he walked into the classroom. "Just, just cut her some slack. She has to deal with enough as it is."

Gerald's eyebrows rose. "Well, this can't be good," he muttered as he sat down beside Arnold.

"Everyone, we have a lot of work to do, so please calm down. The AP test is only a few weeks away, and you have got to get ready," their teacher Mr. Heinrich said quickly. "Now, I am going to break you into groups to review over the material for the test."

"What if you aren't taking the test?" Mallory Hodges asked.

"Then go over the information in chapter twenty-seven, I don't care. Now you three are together, you three," he continued to point people in their groups as he walked around the room. "And you three, that's the last of ya," he said, pointing to Arnold, Gerald, and Helga. "Now, if you have any questions I'm ready to help…"

"Great, we get to work with Helga," Gerald said sarcastically.

"Gerald."

"What? I'm excited to work with my best friend Helga," he said with a horrible smile on his face.

"Ugh, I didn't think you could get any uglier, but clearly I was wrong," Helga said as she sat down in the seat beside Arnold.

"Helga."

"Helga, my dear, you are just like a bright ray of sunshine in my life. I don't think I tell you that enough," Gerald said to her.

"Gerald."

"And I don't think I tell you enough what a pain in the ass you are to me."

"Helga."

"Oh, but what a fine, fat ass you have, Helga."

"Would you two please shut up?" Arnold cried. "Honestly!"

"Fine by me," Helga said as she pulled out a pile of notes. Gerald and Arnold followed in suit, and the three sat studying in silence.

"Why did we take this class again?" Arnold whispered to Gerald after five minutes.

"Because when we signed up, Mrs. Greenly was planning on teaching it, but she decided to go and have a baby, so we got stuck with the only other teacher who was qualified to teach AP US History, and you are looking at that disaster right now."

"Just out of curiosity, does everything in your lives have to revolve around a beautiful woman?" Helga asked without looking up.

"No, Helga, because at the moment we are stuck with you," Gerald snapped.

She raised her head and stared at him. "Gerald, seriously, you have to get over me. It never would have worked out, and this juvenile attempt of insulting me because of your rejection is just silly. Can't we grow up and get over this?"

"Like I would ever be interested in you, and God help anyone who ever will be," Gerald snapped.

"Oh, yes, that's right. You never liked me," she said.

Arnold watched her carefully. Helga, please don't bring that up. Please, Helga, for the love of God, please!

"You supposedly liked my best friend, but you had a very funny way of showing it." Her eyes flashed. "Maybe Rosalie really does see you as more than just a prom date. Oh, wait, that would mean that she would have slept with the boy from Roosevelt. Oops, my mistake."

Gerald's face turned to stone.

"Helga, drop it," Arnold pleaded

"No, Arnold, I'm not going to drop it. Stop trying to protect him. Gerald was clearly man enough to have sex with a girl who wasn't his girlfriend, so he should be man enough to live with his mistakes." She glared at Gerald. "And trust me, he'll be paying for that one until the day he dies."

"You fucking bitch," Gerald spat at her, murder in his eyes.

Helga returned to her paper. "Say what you want to say to me, Gerald. It doesn't change the fact that she hates you, and that you are the reason she's not here anymore."

"That's a fucking lie, and you know it!"

"Don't tell me what I know or don't know. Remember, Gerald, I'm the one she still talks to!"

Gerald was shaking head to toe. He turned to Arnold. "You keep your business partner shut up, Arnold, unless you want me to do more damage to her."

Helga remained stoic, and Arnold was relieved to see Gerald regain some of his composure, and the three sat in silence for the next hour. Arnold did not get anything done, however. He had too much on his mind with the problems with Lila, Helga, and Gerald. The last bell rang, and Arnold had to admit he had never heard such a sweet sound.

"Helga?" Gerald asked as he stood up.

She glared up at him as she packed her bag.

"You know, maybe you are right. I probably will regret that until the day I die, but at least I had her. I didn't spend my whole life chasing after something I could, or will, ever have." He leaned forward. "I can promise you that."

Her expression did not change as Gerald left, but Arnold could not help but notice the deep pain that was in her eyes. "Why did you have to bring that up?" he asked her.

She searched his eyes anxiously to find some form of empathy. "I'm sorry, Arnold, I really am."

Arnold sighed, not wanting to believe her for Gerald's sake.

"But it killed me to see it kill her."

Arnold watched Helga leave, wondering how he could have forgotten how much Helga had care about her. The scandal from the year before clearly was not about to go away from their minds any time soon, and it was probably going to be the biggest obstacle between his friendship between Gerald and his uncertain relationship with Helga.

¤ ~ ¤ ~ ¤

"Where are you going?" Gerald asked as he and Arnold walked out of the locker room after practice.

"To watch the softball game."

"Are you serious?"

"That's what I was planning to do this morning, so I figure why not? Even with everything that happened today."

Gerald grabbed Arnold's arm. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Arnold turned around. "What do you want me to say, Gerald? I have nothing to say."

He crossed his arms. "She listens to you, Arnold. Helga's always listened to what you say. Why didn't you stop her? You knew that was coming up, I know you did."

"Gerald, Helga doesn't stop when I tell her to anymore than you do. I don't know where you get the idea that I've got such an effect on her."

They walked in silence. Arnold waited for Gerald's next comment as he opened the door and started towards the softball diamond. "You still should've done something other than just sit there."

Arnold kicked a pebble. "That's between you two."

"Damnit, Arnold, it's almost as if you think she had a point! God, I'm your best friend! What's she?"

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, Gerald. Helga overstepped that line, but we all know you pushed her close to it."

"Excuse me?"

"Gerald, would you please admit that that whole mess caused Helga a lot of pain too? Yeah, you lost a girlfriend, but she lost her best friend. Probably her only one, and one of the few people who genuinely cared about her."

Gerald stared at Arnold, and it crossed Arnold's mind that he was going to beat the tar out of him. "What has happened to you?" He paused, and a look of horror washed over his face. "Oh, God, please tell me I'm imagining things."

"What?"

"You're falling for Helga, Arnold. There is no other way you would be defending her like this, not with me."

"That's—that's crazy. I mean, I like Lila—" he stammered.

"Today at lunch you looked like you wanted to be as far away from her as possible. And I know what you two were talking about before I came. You wanted to know who Helga liked."

"I—I was just curious, that's all," Arnold stammered, his face bright red.

"Bullshit, Arnold. Ever since you two agreed to that deal, you've been acting different. You've been asking all types of questions about Helga as if you can't get enough of her. And how long were you around her yesterday?"

"What?"

"I called your house like three times, yesterday, and you were either out with her, with her at your house, or at her house."

Arnold blushed even more. "Look, yesterday was crazy, and that's one time—"

"That's probably longer than all the time you've ever spent alone with Lila!" he cried.

"She needed my help, okay? She sprained her ankle if you didn't notice!"

"And I'm sure you were right there to help nurse her back to health."

Arnold groaned out of frustration. "Yes! Are you happy? That's what friends do. They help each other. What'd you expect me to do, leave her laying there?"

"Yes!" He stopped and frowned at Arnold. "Since when is Helga G. Pataki your friend?"

"What does it matter?" Arnold asked in exasperation.

"It matters a hell of a lot. That girl's put you and me through hell—"

"Only because she was in it too!"

Gerald glared at Arnold in disbelief. "You know what, why don't you call me whenever the real Arnold steps back into your body, okay? That means when you realize that you are throwing away a great girl for something so ridiculous and useless." He turned to leave.

"You know what, Gerald? How about you give me advice when you have room to give it," Arnold said instinctively.

Gerald turned around. "Since when is my advice not good enough for you?" he asked coolly.

Arnold sighed. Well, the toe's already on the line. "Since you had sex with some freshman when you had a great girl like Phoebe."

Gerald looked as if he had just been slapped. "Forget calling me at all, Arnold. Throw away your whole God damn life, see if I care."

"Gerald—"

"Save it." He shook his head. "She's already had too much of an affect on you anyways."

Arnold watched him leave before heading over to the ball diamond. "Great," he muttered as he watched cars drive away and the last of the remaining fans file out of the bleachers. Just great. Wonderful, really. I mean, who needs a best friend anyways?

"Looking for me?" Helga asked, leaning against a parking post for support.

Arnold walked over to her. "Yeah, I was, but I guess I'm a little late."

She shrugged. "You didn't miss much anyways. We were shut out again, and I got the pleasure of watching the whole thing from the bench. Trainer said it's not too bad but I should give it another day to rest before I start practicing on it again," she said, watching his eyes fall to her ankle.

"Look's like you didn't miss much then."

"No, I pretty much saw everything."

He eyed her, frowning slightly.

She looked away. "I saw you and Gerald fighting, quite animatedly might I add."

"Yeah," he said simply.

"I'm assuming it was about earlier," she started slowly.

"Yes, it was," he snapped. "Why didn't you just let it go?"

She gave him a sheepish look. "Personality malfunction. When do I ever let those things go?"

He looked away from her, slightly disgusted with everything.

"Look, I'm sorry."

"I don't blame you," he said quickly, cutting her off from completely defending herself.

She was surprised. "You don't?" she asked in disbelief.

"No, I'm not." He kicked a pebble. "I don't know why, but I don't blame you at all. Well, maybe a little, but Gerald…he just doesn't want to deal with the fact that he messed up royally. I guess he'd rather forget it ever happened."

"You were defending me, weren't you?" she asked flatly.

"Pretty much." He looked at her, awaiting her reaction.

"You don't have to—"

"I wanted to."

She stared at him.

"I mean, you know, since Gerald's acting like a … can we talk about something else?" he asked desperately, squirming under her gaze.

"Sure," she said, looking as relieved as Arnold. "So Lila was talking a lot about you today in Spanish."

"Not that," he said under his breath. She heard him anyways.

"Is there something I'm missing here?"

He said nothing.

"Look, Hair Boy, if you are getting cold feet about this, tell me now because I don't want to waste my time—"

"Can we just talk about something that doesn't have to do with those two?"

"Sure," Helga said.

He closed his eyes tight. He was not comfortable with the fact that his behavior was making her scared.

"So, how's Cory and the rest of Called Strike Three?" she asked, frantically trying to make him happy and end the silence.

Lila's words echoed in his head. But he was in love with Helga… "No, not about Cory either!"

Helga's eyes were wide as she stared at him.

He was about to ask something lame about their English paper, but he was cut off as a horn sounded from a black limonene. "I'm guessing that's yours?" he asked her.

Helga frowned. "I told Marquis to pick me up in something normal."

He shrugged. "So that explains the regular-sized limonene."

She hit him. "Shut up."

"Sorry," he said, laughing softly.

She frowned.

"Aren't you going to go?" Arnold asked. Marquis was glaring at him, and he was not in the mood to deal with a snobbish bellboy.

"Look, Arnold—"

A funny feeling filled him as she said his name.

"I just wanted to thank you for, um, you know, defending me and taking care of me yesterday. I know how hard that must have been for you, but don't feel obligated to do it."

Her face was bright pink, and Arnold could not remember ever seeing her more beautiful. "I didn't do it because I felt obligated, Helga. I wanted to," he whispered, his voice slightly deeper than normal. He met her intense gaze, practically drowning in it, desperately fighting the urge to do something crazy, although it almost felt natural to want to touch her lips with his own…

"Well, then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow," she said, bending down to pick up her bag.

He blinked, coming out of his daze. "Right. Um, be careful," he said lamely. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

She smiled weakly at him. "Right. Adios."

"Bye," he said as she limped to the car, his head spinning from the last ten minutes. I almost kissed Helga G. Pataki…

This can't be good.

¤ ~ ¤ ~ ¤

"Arnold, there you are!" his mother cried when he finally arrived home.

"Hi, Mom," he said as he threw himself on the couch. He was not in the mood to talk about his day, but such an activity was nearly impossible to avoid with his mother.

Stella moved his feet and sat down at the end of the couch. "Lila called."

"Oh?" he asked, trying desperately to sound pleasantly surprised.

And apparently failing miserable at it. "Don't you want to call her back? She seemed upset that you weren't home."

"Mom, don't worry, I'll call her back. Just give me a minute."

She stared at him. "Arnold, you better not be leading this girl on."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not leading her on, Mom! If anything, she's taking me for a ride."

She raised an eyebrow. "And what about Helga. What are you doing with her?"

He propped himself on his elbows to see her better. "What? What are you talking about?"

Stella struggled to find words. "Arnold, are you leading her on?"

"No! Helga and I are just friends."

"Well, only a few days ago you were going on and on about how insufferable she is."

"She is!"

"But now she's your friend? Arnold, you spend a lot of time talking, thinking, and worrying about that girl, rather it be good or bad."

He frowned. "What are you saying?"

She patted his feet and got up. "I'm saying maybe you should rethink things bit."

"I don't know what to do!" he cried as she started to leave. He was treading in unknown waters; he normally talked to his father or grandfather about such matters, but Stella had a way of getting words out of his mouth before they even formed in his mind.

"You don't know what to do about what, honey?" she asked as she walked back to the couch, leaning on the back and staring down at him.

He sighed. "I've liked Lila for ages, but now that I'm finally getting to know her, I'm staring to think that she's not what I thought I was."

Stella shrugged. "It happens, Arnold. Now what's really the matter?"

"I think I might like Helga, but I'm not supposed to like her." He looked frantically up at her. "Why do I like her?"

She smiled. "Maybe you've finally been able to see what's been there all along. The good in Helga, and the not-so-good in Lila." She ruffled his hair. "Don't think too much about it, Arnold. The answer will come to you plain as day." She glanced down at him. "Just don't do anything to hurt either girl, Arnold. You're better than that, and they deserve that."

He nodded. "Thanks, Mom."

She nodded as well. "Oh, don't forget to empty the dishwasher."

Groaning, he dragged himself into the kitchen. Skipping dinner and his homework, he quickly took a shower and headed up to bed, again deciding not to call Lila back. He was not in the mood to listen to her gossip or talk about the new dress Ellen was going to buy her. The more and more Arnold listened to her talk, the more convinced he was that there was not much to her. Maybe Helga was right all these years…

He smiled at the memory of the evening and of the feeling he had when he was around her. It felt like the world was made for the sole purpose of making sure they were together at that moment, that there was no possible way he could ever be unhappy if she was near him. Every bad thought and feeling escaped him, replaced by only the most blissful happiness. To think of how soft her lips would feel on his, how perfectly she would fit in his arms, how he wanted to spend the rest of forever with her was nothing but euphoric.

"An angel of darkness for my paradise…" he whispered as he closed his eyes.

Yes, I'm definitely in trouble.

A/N: So I lied, but I need to update this, since half of it was written anyways… Later days.