Author's note: Hey, Chapter Four is up - but you already know that. I have no witty remarks to write, so... yeah, read, and enjoy.

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: The Contemplation.

The five of them walked away from the warehouse, still in shock and in disbelief on what just happened and at the offer that were given to them. They were each with their own thoughts, not making a word out of it. "Say guys," Lila said, breaking the silence, "I'm feeling ever so extremely stressed from all the things that just happened to us so… wanna go downtown and have some snack?" she suggested, and all the other girls nodded in agreement.

---

"I can't believe that I, Rhonda Wellington Lloyd am going to eat in some dingy mom and pop's diner." She said disbelievingly as she entered a dingy mom and pop's diner with the other girls.

"Shut your hole, Rhonda," Helga scolded her, "not all of us are rich yuppies who have their snacks at Starbucks each and every day."

"At least could we go to a pizza joint?" she whined.

"Not to mention it's economical. Come on, Rhonda," Nadine said to her, "this place was our gang's favorite hangout when we were kids. Remember all the ice-cream we ate and the brain freeze we got afterwards?" she recalled the memory with a pleasant voice.

"Alright…" she replied in defeat, "but just this once." And the girls took a seat at a table near the window. And after a few moments, a middle-aged waitress came to them and asked for their order.

After she handed them the menu, she asked them, "Can I get youse girls your order?" in her crusty old voice, with her hands holding a notepad and a ball pen, ready to write the orders down.

"Lunch Lady Doris?" Phoebe identified her quizzically.

"You know me?" the lady replied with half of her eyebrow down, "Come to think of it, youse girls are very familiar…" she said as she pointed her pen at them.

"We should be. Don't you recognize us? We used to go to PS 118." Phoebe informed her.

She gazed at her thoroughly with her eyes squinting, "Oh yeah…" she chimed, "now I remember! You're that farting girl, aren't ya?" she said jokingly, which made Phoebe very sad and drew hysterical laughers from Rhonda and Helga and soft giggles from Nadine and Lila.

"Oh man… after all these years she still remembers that thing!" Helga thought as she laughed out laud, banging the table with her fist repeatedly.

Doris immediately apologized to her, "Aww, Phoebe honey, I'm sorry. We all had our worst days you know." She said as she hugged her from behind like a loveable grandmother, which made Phoebe smiled a little bit. "It's nice to see you all again girls." She said as she held Phoebe's shoulders and massaged them, "Yeah, despite my old age I can still remember your names. You're Helga, Nadine, Lila, Rhonda and this lovely lady here, Phoebe," she said their names correctly as she pointed at each individual. And the laugher finally died down. "And may I just say, all of you have grown up becoming very gorgeous looking ladies." She complimented, drawing some smiles from the girls.

"Thanks," Rhonda replied. "You don't look too shabby yourself. Say, is this like, your new job or something?" she inquired.

"Ah, nah… I'm still working for that old goat Wartz. I only work here after school is out. So, can I get anything from youse girls? And uh, since I own some shares of this diner, the drinks, is on me."

"Thanks, Helga replied on the gang's behalf. "I'll have a soda – Pepsi, and a beef burger."

"A tuna sandwich and orange juice, please." Lila ordered.

"I'll just have whatever is on today's special." Nadine said.

It was Phoebe's time to say her order, "I'll just have a glass of warm water and some fries."

And finally, Rhonda, "Diet soda and potato salad – after all, I have to maintain my girlish figure." And with that, Helga placed her fist over her mouth, making a fake coughing noise with a subtle word being said in it.

"coughcowcough."

It didn't take Rhonda long to be aware of that crude remark. "You know Helga; people would like you better if you weren't such a jerk." Rhonda said with an annoyed voice.

Helga didn't pay any heed to her statement; instead she did it again, "coughfatasscough."

Rhonda rolled her eyes in aggravation, immature bitch… she thought irately.

Doris could just smile at them, as they reminded her of her long forgotten youth. "Okay, youse girls just sit tight; your orders will come shortly." The girls then handed her the menus, and she walked off away to the counter.

"So, what do you guys think about the spy organization? Are you going to join?" Nadine asked to all of them, "I personally wouldn't mind joining it, seeing that I have no problems with it. But I do have to think about it more."

"I wouldn't mind joining it myself." Rhonda replied, "From the looks of it, their uniforms are sure nice looking with the sleek leather uniform and the beret…"

"Let me get this straight, the only sole reason that you're joining that organization so that you could wear their outfits!" Helga interjected.

"Aside from that, I do have some my own personal reasons to join, Helga." Rhonda riposted back. "And what about you, Ms. 'I-feel-so-badass-that-I-wouldn't-even-consider-joining-but-due-to-some-circumstances-I'm-willing-join-anyway'?"

"Shut up and mind your own business. This is between Olga and me, so back off. God, it pisses me off just the thought of her! I mean, Could she be any more annoying! She has already made my life a living hell by overshadowing me, constantly bossing me around like she owns the damn place, and she – ARGH, I just don't want to talk about it, it's too depressing." Helga abruptly stopped with a scoff. Everyone at the table looked at her with melancholy; obviously felt the pain that Helga felt. Rhonda on the other hand, felt that she was over-exaggerating the bitter sibling rivalry.

"'Sides, I said I'll think about it, not agreeing into joining it. Oh yeah, I'm sorry I laughed Pheebs. You have to admit, that was pretty funny."

"At my expense…" Phoebe muttered under her breath, but held no grudge on her. "I, on the other hand am contemplating about it. I'm not exactly sure, but if Bridget was truthful about all of the former members becoming successful, I might consider of joining it – she kind of convinced me, in an indirect sort of way." She said to all of them. "What about you, Lila? What is your answer in regards of joining LES?"

"I'm 50-50 myself, I'll probably make my decision by the end of the day. But there is something that bothers me though; I'm ever so surprised that they didn't consider Sheena to join. I believe she has a lot of untapped potential, even more than us."

"Oh, please honey…" Rhonda sighed cynically. "Not to sound that I'm mocking her or anything, the girl is an extreme pacifist. She wouldn't join even if they handed it to her on a silver platter. 'Violence doesn't solve everything,' she said. Puh-leese..."

"And besides, a couple of years ago she told me that the sight of blood makes her queasy. Man, what a wuss." Helga added, "And with this line of job, I don't know about you guys but I feel there's going to be a lot of bloodshed." Helga said with a smirk. The other girls weren't amused by it, not even by a bit.

"Helga, would you be so kind not to say another word, again?" Phoebe said with a bitter, but polite tone.

"What? I'm just giving my opinion about this matter."

"Opinion about what?" Doris suddenly intervened, with her hands holding a tray with the ordered drinks.

"Oh, nothing." Helga replied, "Just about something that was offered to us just now." She elaborate further as she and the girls watches Doris put the drinks on the table.

---

It had been several hours after the snack at the diner, and Helga was in her room nearly finishing writing an email to Arnold. Her room had changed much since the fourth grade, it became untidy and maintenance of the room was not frequent. The wallpaper was chipped and torn off, the door to her closet was jammed and neither she nor her father bothered to repair it, and because of that she had to move all her 'prized' possessions (the Arnold shrine) up in the secret compartment just above her room. After she lobbied Big Bob and saved some of her own allowance money, she finally bought herself her very own laptop. She kept hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of Arnold conveniently stored in a folder and she adorned her wallpaper with a lovely picture of him in his new hometown that he gave to her, for some apparent reason. The laptop itself was her secondary, portable Arnold shrine. She never liked to Instant Message him anyway, so the only communication they had between them been either by email, or snail mail.

After she publicly humiliated a trolling newbie and threaten to ban him in a certain message board (she was the moderator), and sent the Arnold email, she went to her bed, threw herself onto it, and contemplated about Bridget's offer earlier today.

Olga… how I hate her. How'd did she came into the picture? Why must I always be in her shadow? WHY must she make my life a living hell? Doesn't she realize that she's ruining my life as much as it is? What can I do to be better than her? Well, there's that stupid spy organization… but is it really worth it to join just to show that I'm better than her?

She got up from her bed and made her way to Olga's room. The door to her room was unlocked and opened widely, and she was inside brushing her hair. Helga stopped at the doorway, leaning against it with her arms crossed as she looked at her with burning abhorrence.

"Hey Olga, a moment of your time?" Helga asked. A mental image played in her mind of her holding a shotgun in her arms and shot Olga at point blank range - repeatedly.

"Why, sure baby sister," she replied as she still brushing her hair. "What's on your mind?" she still didn't budge her face from the mirror.

"What do you know about Bridget and LES?" she asked demandingly.

Upon hearing that, Olga immediately halted brushing her hair, paused for a moment at her words, and threw the brush down. She quickly dashed to the door and pulled Helga in, as she then locked the door after looked on either side outside to make sure that the coast is clear. She then sprinted to the window, closed it up and pulled the curtains. Helga was puzzled at her sister's reaction. "Olga…? What are you –"

"Shh…" she shushed her off as she pulled her to her bed. They now both sat at the bed's corner, with Helga looking very baffled and Olga looking very cautious, "How come you know about it?" she said with a whispering voice.

"Uhh… why are you whispering?" she asked back with a quizzical tone.

"Keep your voice down…" Olga replied back, "just how did you got acquainted with them?"

"How should--"

"Shh…" she cut her back again, "I said, lower your voice."

And Helga finally lowered her voice, "How should I know? She's the one who came to me earlier today and asked if I wanted to join some creepy spy organization!" she explained with an annoyed tone with the last half of her sentence was being said louder.

"Shh…" Olga shushed her again, waving her hand as to say no to her, "didn't she already tell you that it's a standard procedure should they acquiring new recruits?" she asked.

"Well… yeah, she did." She replied. "But that's no reason to make me freaked out about it!"

"Every one of us experienced the same thing you did, Helga. It doesn't make you any more special than us."

"You still haven't answered my question, Olga…" Helga retorted back, reminding her question again.

"About that, well…" she said as she rubbed her neck, "Back I was a chief --"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she cut her off, "you used to the head honcho, you kicked ass, you nearly crippled some loser criminal organization, and Bridget used to be your apprentice…" she explained to her in a bored tone because she already knew the story. "Tell me something that I don't know."

"Oh, so she did tell you then?"

"Not by much. She just said that you used to be her mentor, and that's it. By the way, she's the chief now."

"REALLY! I'm so proud of her…!" Olga chimed delightfully with her hands clasping together.

"Yeah, whatever. So what's the deal, anyway?" she asked, becoming impatient.

"Well, if you must know, baby sister--"

Duh, that's why I'm here…

"I got offered to join when I was no older than you, Helga. They thought that I had the potential to become one. So, after I agreed, they put me into training for a couple of weeks and after that gave me my first assignment."

"And you rose up to become the chief, when?" she asked again demandingly with a trail of cynicism.

"Seventeen. I became the deputy at sixteen."

"Whoa… that fast?" Helga asked skeptically.

"Why yes. I was the youngest chief ever." Whether she intended it or not, she didn't realize that she was bragging.

Great… more reason to hate her.

"Oh. OH! I want to show you something!" Olga said joyfully, but still in a low voice. Helga felt that she was going to boast again. She then walked to her closet, rummaged through it and took a bag out from it. She walked back to the bed, opened the blue duffel bag and revealed to Helga her uniform, back when she was a chief and a regular member. The uniform distinguished each other by its color. Dark Blue means that it's for the Chief, whereas light blueish-magenta and a purple beret is for the regular member.

"Nice." Helga could only say. "What, you're giving me this as a hand-me-down present or something?"

"I would if you considered joining it. I think the uniform fits you perfectly."

---

So on the next day after school, the selected potentials were at the same not-so-abandoned warehouse, as they waited for Bridget to show up. They were unanimous, they wanted to join. Actually, there were only four people there, as one of them was missing – Helga was no where in sight.

"Told you she wouldn't come." Rhonda said with a smirk as she extended her hand at Nadine. "Cough it up."

"Crap," Nadine sighed under her breath. With utter disappointment and reluctance, she rummaged through her pocket and gave Rhonda her five dollars. Both of them earlier made a bet that whether Helga would come to join them or not . "Easy five bucks." Rhonda said joyfully as she put the money in her pocket. Phoebe looked at her feet in boredom with her hands in her pants' pockets as she nodded blankly at Lila with the occasional "M-hmm" and "I see," being said. Lila was droning something about her 'relationship' with Stinky.

Footsteps were heard approaching them and all the girls looked at the direction where the sound originated. Bridget emerged from the corner, alone without anyone else in sight. "Only four of you? Where's Helga?"

"Unfortunately, she is unwilling to join with us today." Phoebe replied back.

"Well, that's too bad. She would make a great agent." Bridget said disappointingly.

"Who said that I'm unwilling to be here?" a voice shot out behind them. They all turned back, and saw Helga. "Stupid bus left without me, again." she pointed behind with her thumb.

Nadine gazed at Rhonda with a smirk as she gestured her finger for her money. Rhonda rolled her eyes, and gave her five bucks back. "Ah tut-tut-tut. Where's your five bucks?"

Bridget smiled broadly, "So you're in or not?"

"I'm in, alright. Just want to join this stupid organization so I could prove to the world that I'm better than that idiotic sister of mine." She explained her vendetta with an exasperated tone.

"Very well then. Ladies, and it's with a great pleasure I bid you welcome to our humble organization."

I originally planned to have a Charlie Angel's style introductory to end this chapter - you know, the one with fiery explosive background, fast, funky disco/techno music and have the girls flipping their hair, but I soon find out it was too freaking stupid to even consider putting it in. So, I leave it to your imagination. Adieu, and stay tuned for the next chapter.