Author's Note: After some very careful considerations (this decision was hard to make), I've decided that the Spanish dialogues will resume to be translated in English as bolded text. However, if there's major plot points in the dialogue I will write them in Spanish. To my readers with Spanish as their native language, I am glad and thankful that you are willing to help. I will email you should I need your assistance. I haven't been to Costa Rica, but after writing about that country in this fic I suddenly develop an interest about it. I made a lot of research, and so far I love what I read. There are some scenes in this chapter that I feel 'not right', but that's just me. It must be those caffiene drinks that I took and my lack of sleep. But don't fret, it won't be weird or whatever. Argh, why am I droning... it must be those caffiene again...

Legal junk: I don't own Hey Arnold, but Nickelodeon does and Mr. Craig Bartlett created it. But this fic belongs to me. Clear? Good.

Chapter 4: Arrival

"I can't believe it's you!" Arnold exclaimed happily. He wanted to hug her tightly, but knowing Helga Pataki well, he decided not to as he did not want to get punched, slapped, or get kicked in the crotch. "What brings you all the way here?" Arnold asked, still smiling.

"Well…" she really didn't know what to answer him, plus she was quite reluctant to give him an answer, "I was… well… just, you know…" she shrugged.

"Hey, c'mon. The least I could do is to help you with the bags." He said. "Let me carry them for you."

But like the last time when someone offered to carry her bags, she refused, "Hey, easy with the bags, football head." she resisted. Football head, something Arnold hadn't heard in years. He was not offended by it, but was actually happy to hear it. The moniker sparked nostalgia in his mind. He was happy because it was the same old mean Helga, someone he knew very much.

"I can carry them myself." She added, but sounded less angry. Arnold smiled back, as if he could read her characteristics like an open book. He nodded softly, and said, "Okay, you do whatever you want Helga. But please, at least let me carry one bag, I insist. C'mon, let's go inside the house." He invited, "Put your bags inside, and then you can follow me send Marcelo back home. I'm not going to leave you all alone inside the house, you know. You just got here."

"Marcelo?"

Arnold just turned and looked at the little boy who was walking over to them. Marcelo had a curly black hair, green eyes, looked somewhere around nine-years of age and he had to walk with a walking stick. As he came closer, his eyes were set to Helga, warmly. "Marcelo, this is Helga, my old friend." Arnold introduced him to Helga.

After a long gaze, he greeted her, "Hola, Helga. Nice to meet you."

"Hi, nice to meet you too." Helga replied back warmly, and turned to Arnold, "Where are you taking him?" she asked.

"To his grandma's house. It's a short ten minutes drive from here. C'mon."

-

From inside the jeep, Helga could see Arnold holding Marcelo's hand as he knocked the door of a small village hut. She wondered how Arnold learned to drive. She also wondered who that kid with Arnold was. It couldn't be his brother, since she couldn't find any family resemblance between them. His head were neither football shaped nor he had a big rift on his chin. And considering that Arnold said he was going to send him back to his grandmother's house ruled out every theory she had about Marcelo being Arnold's kid brother. The door opened, and out came an old lady, which she presumed was Marcelo's grandmother. Marcelo smiled widely and hugged his grandmother tightly. His grandmother hugged back, embracing him like what you would except from a loving grandmother. She then said something to Arnold in Spanish, and Arnold replied back, also in Spanish.

As she listened to the conversation, Helga felt that Arnold's proficiency in that language was way off. She could hear him stuttering and saw him gripped his fist, as if he was trying to remember something. She also saw the old lady tried to correct Arnold, as he repeated it back again like a parrot embarrassingly at her. After some heartwarming conversation, Arnold gave the old lady a hug, got kissed on both of his cheeks and walked away as he waved back at them. He jumped into the driver's seat and drove of, leaving the village. Helga could see the old lady and the kid waving at them from the side mirror.

"Did you send that kid back home just because I'm here?" she asked accusingly at him.

"What?" he chuckled, "No, I've made a promise with his grandma that I'll send him back home before seven every time he's here."

Helga nodded, "His English is pretty good."

"Yeah, he's a fast learner." He replied proudly, "I on the other hand, am dumb because I'm still struggling with my Spanish even though I've been here for nearly four years."

"So… who's the kid?" Helga asked. "I have a feeling the word 'sibling' is out of the question."

"Heh, yeah. Marcelo has been coming to my house almost every week without failing. But I treat him like my very own brother. Heck, even my parents have grown attached to him. He even called them his mom and dad. Nice little guy."

"Why is he living with his grandma?"

He paused for a while, and answered, "When he was very little, his real parents were killed… no, murdered during the war." Arnold replied sadly. Judging from his tone, he wouldn't want to speak of it again.

Helga felt bad when she asked that as he stared at Arnold, as he carefully navigated the jeep through the narrow, winding road. He was quite masterful at driving this particular vehicle. To remedy the already glum atmosphere, Helga decided to go to a more casual talk, and asked him, "Where did you learn to drive?"

"From my dad, I don't even have a license right now. But nobody cares around here." He chuckled, "I usually help my dad with the archeological expeditions and carry supplies to the Red Cross camp when a shipment comes. That's mostly what I do around here." They then arrived back at Arnold's place as he honked the guard to ask him to open the gate. Luis gave him a friendly salute and opened the gate. After parking the car they went into Arnold's house, which was a wooden one storey house built on stilts. Didn't look much from the outside, but on the inside it looked just like your modest modern home. The windows were opened wide to let the air in, so it was always breezy inside.

"There's a power generator out back. We ration the use for obvious reasons." Arnold informed as they entered.

The windmill and solar generator was used to power all of the houses inside the village. There were ten houses inside the village and all of them looked similar to each other but had different numbers as to distinguish themselves, and all of the inhabitants were foreigners living in San Lorenzo, working. Back at Arnold's house, he invited Helga to the kitchen where he would serve her some tea, to freshen her up from her long trip. Helga took a seat at a round wooden table as she gazed at Arnold, preparing the tea. He poured some into a cup, and another one into another cup. He then gave one to Helga first and another one for himself. He sat in front of her,while Helga with her arms crossed and elbows on the table, gazed blankly at the steaming cup of tea. After a long moment of silence, Arnold then said:

"How was your trip?"

"Tiring." Helga spoke wearily. "I even took a flight exchange from Costa Rica."

"Man, I hate it when they do that. When I first came here I had to take a stop in Florida." Arnold replied back.

"Wow, that's very informative of you. Anything else you want to share?" she said sarcastically. She then realized that she should go easy with the sarcasm and the snide remarks as to not to offend her hosts. Her worst fear that she could get kicked out from the house and she had no place else to go.

But Arnold chuckled back and smiled. "Man Helga, you haven't change one bit."

"Would you prefer that I changed?" she said back, holding the cup of tea.

"No." Arnold replied. "I like it just the way you are." still smiling at her. Helga was glad to hear that, concealing her smile behind that cup she was holding.

"So you've learnt Spanish, huh?" Helga asked.

"Heh, yeah, still learning. I'm terrible at it. You won't survive here if you don't know how to speak it."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, seriously. It's the only way to interact with the locals."

"Heh, if that's the case, I guess I'll need a crash course then. Hey, where's that pet of yours?"

"What, Abner?" he then sighed and replied, "A hunter mistook him for a wild boar, and shot him." he shook his head.

"Man, that's terrible."

"Yeah…"

There was another moment of silence.

"Hey, this tea is great." She praised.

"Yeah, grown in San Lorenzo itself. One of the finest in the world, I might add."

Then there was silence once more, as they sipped their tea.

"Things are pretty quiet around here." She opened yet another conversation. "Where are your parents?"

"They left to the Presidential Palace just before you arrived."

"I heard there's a party or something going on there."

"Oh, you heard? Actually, it's more of a formal function than a party."

"Why aren't you there?"

"Formal ain't my thing." He shrugged, "Besides, I had a feeling that someone might show up today." He smiled, and Helga snickered softly. Arnold continued, "Can't believe it was actually you." He chuckled, "you should've call me or something Helga, let me know you're coming. I would've spruce the place up for your stay here."

"What can I say? I'm full of surprises." And with that she gulped down all what's left in the cup.

"So uh…" he placed his hands on the table, playing with his thumbs, "can I ask what made you decide to come all the way here?" he inquired.

Helga was afraid that he might ask her that. The reason why she distracted him with such silly questions was because she didn't want him to ask her that question. In her heart, she really wanted to let out all her feelings and tell him all the problems she was facing. She wanted him to comfort her. But her logic stated that this was not the right time to do so, and also the fact that she knew that she'll go overboard and would accidentally confess her secrets to him. Oh how she hated that the fact she had come so close, and yet she was still far away from it. As the battle of logic and emotion raged, she slowly turned away from Arnold, not looking at him as she prayed and hoped that Arnold wouldn't stress that question again.

Arnold looked at her, and saw the conflict. Maybe it wasn't the perfect time to ask that, since she was all tired and weary from her trip. He then took some last sips from his tea, and got up from his seat. "You must be tired, Helga. Let me show you your room."

Helga was relieved, and thanked the Almighty as she raised her head upwards and sighed in relief. They then went back to the living room to pick the bags where Helga put them earlier. Arnold then gave a short tour of his house. The living room was your typical living room. "Ugly couches that my mom bought from IKAYUH before we moved here. You won't see anything on TV, since there's nothing on it. Dad use it to watch his expedition videos and I use it to watch movies that grandpa sent to me." He said while pointing to the old television located at the corner near a window. There were some DVD boxes on the TV and Helga could read some of the titles. Her favorite movie was one of them. They went pass the kitchen that they were in earlier, nothing exciting about it.

"Here's mom and dad's room." He pointed to a door leading to a large room. They then went further inside the house. "This used to be the guestroom, but since we, heh, never had any visitors, mom and dad converted it into a computer room slash mini laboratory. Mom uses this room to conduct experiments and stuff while dad uses it to decipher some old manuscripts and contact the museum he's working with. And I use it for home schooling." Next to the computer room slash mini laboratory, was a room where they entered. "This is my room," Arnold said. Helga's expression changed, and he turned to Arnold with an incredulous disbelief look on her face. Yet, she was somehow delighted.

"Your bed, huh?" she asked.

"Well, would you prefer to sleep on the couch?" Arnold asked back, "You're a guest, Helga. My hospitality to you is my absolute concern right now. Besides, this is only temporary. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have the computer room ready for you." He said to her as he pondered.

"So, where will you be sleeping tonight?"

"Where else? I'll be sleeping on the couch. Oh and uh, if you want to take a bath or do 'business' or something there's some bushes outside at the back."

"Bushes?" she said in horror.

"Welcome to San Lorenzo, Helga." Arnold smiled back, as he took a book out from a shelf. "Heh, I'm just jesting with ya. Bathroom and the outhouse is out back, but don't worry, they're pretty clean. You'll feel just like home in no time."

"Outhouse?" she thought, as she widened her eyes in horror. She really hoped that he was joking again as she stared at him in disbelief. Arnold looked back, and said, "I'm not kidding Helga. There's an outhouse at the back of the house." He smiled, "Just get used to it, like I do. Oh yeah, before you sleep, please close all the windows and switch the mosquito repellant on. Enjoy your stay." And with that, he closed the door for Helga to have her privacy. Arnold then went to the living room and read the book that he brought with him.

What a gentleman, Helga thought. It was one of many merits that she liked about him. Helga was sitting on Arnold's single bed as he looked around his room. His room was surprisingly clean and neat, unlike her room back home. All his books and items were carefully placed on the shelf and his desk was tidy. The only eyesore she felt was his bed, since it was messy, probably because Arnold was too lazy to make his bed up. Messy… she then realized that she hadn't taken a shower ever since she left home. Quickly she rummaged through her bag and took her towel and some clothes out and went to the bathroom outside the house located at the back. It was a rectangular wooden building, which to her surprise was bigger than she imagined. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as she had expected, and she quickly took a shower.

The water was quite refreshing since it came from the mountains, and Helga felt recharged again. She went out from the bathroom and into the house again, only to find Arnold in the room as he put on his nighttime clothes. She could briefly saw his body, and she was kind of attracted to it. Arnold then realized that he was being observed at and he quickly spun around only to see Helga smirking at him. He looked embarrassingly at her and said, "Uh… I'll just head back to the living room…" while pointing to the door, "and uh… I've switch the repellant on and closed the windows for you. You… you call me when you need help, all right?" and he walked off, rather hastily. "Yeah Arnold... act like stupid nine year old..." He smacked his forehead.

Helga looked at him smiling. She shook her head and went into the room. Closing the door, she thought now was the time to compensate all her lost energies by sleeping again, even though she felt it was sort of early to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow would be a great day for her.

-

Later that night…

"Monzano should've used that money to rebuild his country, not throwing a stupid party." A man, somewhere in his 40's, muttered angrily under his breath to his wife who was sitting next to him. They were both in a jeep, driving through the dense forest on their way back home. The forest was creepy during the night, where spooky noises could be heard and visibility was near impossible even with the spotlight beams on. However, the ambiance didn't scare them since they knew a lot about this place and they recognized almost everything in their path.

"Ah, cheer up, dear. At least he invited all of his countrymen to the banquet." His wife reasoned.

"Oh, come on Stella. How many did you actually see came to that function?" he asked, "That's right: Only us foreigners and a bunch of people who lives around Bolivar!" he answered his own question. "What about those other people who's starving to death, huh? You know, I felt really guilty every time I swallowed the food down my throat." He shook his head. "It felt like I was eating ash."

"Miles," Stella said, "Ernesto told me that if there's still food left, and he knows there will be, he'll send them to every needy village in the country, and everybody will get their share. Don't worry about it."

"But the question is: will that be sufficient enough?"

"They say that the food is catered for 16000 people. That's more than enough."

"Well, that's a start." He scoffed, but he was still angered by the President's decision. "Hopefully he won't make any stupid decisions like that again."

Stella smiled at her husband's remark and said, "Heh, I like it when you're all concerned like that." She said as she stroked his hair, and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Hey, hey, hey! I'm driving here!" he replied jokingly, but still was serious nonetheless. Stella chuckled back, and they continued to talk whatever married couples would talk when they were in the car together. After a few minutes the car finally arrived at the front entrance of their home and they quickly got out from it. They were so tired, that even the thought of their bed would make them sleep.

"10 o'clock, lights out. Just like we told him." Miles said proudly, which also perplexed him too since lights weren't usually out at this time of hour. He then looked at one of the house's stilts and sighed, "I thought I asked that boy to put that rake back into the shed…" he muttered quietly to himself.

"What? Are you expecting that he was going to throw a party of his own or something?" Stella asked her husband.

"Honey, he's the only teenager in this place. The worst thing he could do around here is air guitars in his room screaming like a banshee." He replied back, smiling. "Or worse…" he added more, with his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Oh you…" Stella jabbed his shoulder, laughing. "I kinda feel sorry for our son though, with his friends thousands of miles away and all, and he got nothing to do here but to listen to our every whim…" she said as she put the key inside the keyhole.

"Everybody in this country plays a role. And don't forget, honey. He chose to live here. It was his decision to stay. Besides, the Red Cross guys, Father Campbell, and Marcelo especially, need him the most. And I for one am glad that he decided to stay here." Then the both of them had a sudden flashback at the time where Arnold wasn't there with them, and they weren't there for Arnold. Each and every time they thought of it, a sense of guilt, remorse, and sorrow always enveloped them. Stella sighed, and said to her husband softly, "Yeah, I'm glad that he decided to stay with us too…" and Miles nodded in agreement. The door then opened and they went in, only to see Arnold sleeping on the couch.

"Did his room caught fire or something?" Miles assumed jokingly to his wife, as they looked at their son quizzically.

"Strange, he usually watches a movie or uses the computer at this time of hour…" Stella then walked over to his son and woke him up.

"Mom…?" Arnold said sleepily, "When did you got back?"

"Just now," she replied back, "why aren't you sleeping in your room?" she asked.

Arnold widened his eyes, and he instantly got up while rubbing his eyes. After gathering some thoughts as his parents looked at him, anticipating for an answer, he said, "We have a visitor."

The answer that Arnold gave pretty much startled his parents as they gazed at each other in disbelief. "What? Who?" His mother asked. Feeling that his son wasn't being sincere and honest, Miles folded his sleeves and said to them, "That's it, I'm going in." in a joke threat kind of way.

"No dad, wait!" Arnold stopped him, "I'm really serious. There's this girl and—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Miles extended his hand, with his palm facing towards Arnold, "Are you saying that there's a girl, inside your bedroom, sleeping on your bed right now?" he said disbelievingly.

Arnold just nodded, in hoping that his parents wouldn't freak out about it.

"Whoa-ho!" Miles exclaimed, "Man, Arnold! Mom and I just gone in a couple of hours and already there's a girl on your bed? Good job!" the playful remark didn't seem to humor Stella as he glared at her husband and her son angrily.

"Miles, we're not encouraging this." She said sternly.

"Heh, of course we're not. If he was really doing what I think he was doing, I'd probably beat him up with that rake outside he forgot to put back." He joked again.

"And we're not encouraging that either." She replied harshly, and she looked back at Arnold, "I've got three questions to you, young man." She said while glaring, showing him her three fingers, "Firstly, who is she, second, why didn't you tell us that your friend is coming and thirdly, why didn't you let her sleep in the computer room?"

"Hey, whoa, whoa… hold on a second there. The computer room?" Miles interrupted and protested.

"Oh come on, dear. It's not like your using that room everyday." Stella argued back. "And the room is pretty much safe as long as she doesn't touch the medicine cabinet."

Arnold then resumed and answered, "I don't know mom. She just showed up all of the sudden. And the reason why I couldn't let her stay in the computer room is because it'll take hours just to move all the furniture and equipments to make room for the bed."

"Arnold, I thought I've told you that I hate it when you lie."

"Mom, I'm not joking, I'm serious. I would've informed you if I knew she'd come. And I promise you, by tomorrow morning I'll fix the room up for her." He replied back assuredly, as to reaffirm the mother.

Stella sighed back, although still in doubt, but she accepted it reluctantly, "All right, all right. Make sure you take extra precaution when moving the cabinet and the desk. Well then. Tell us who is she?"

Arnold took a deep breath, and replied, "Okay… Do you guys remember Helga? Back from Hillwood?"

"Helga? As in, Helga Pataki? Bob's kid?" Miles exploded, "Oh, great. What is she doing here?" he asked incredulously.

"She hasn't told me yet dad. I did asked her, but she was too tired and was like, don't wanna talk about it. Mom, dad, please. She's tired, I'm tired, and you guys are tired; so can we please talk about this tomorrow?"

The glare from Stella's face was gone, sighed, and nodded at her son's suggestion. "Yeah, I think it'd be the best. We all need a good rest tonight."

"All right." Miles sighed, wiping his face, "She better have a good explanation about this."

For those who want clarification, yes, Marcelo is a member of the green-eyed tribe of San Lorenzo. And I will try to elaborate the tribe's history and culture later. Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading and please leave a review. Man, I need to sleep.