Author's Note: With 'Run' finally finished, I can finally concentrate my other stories such as this one as it seriously in need of an update. I must credit Mr. Orange and Number6 for this story though, since they're the ones who gave me this idea. I'm a Lila fan, and I'm kinda peeved that most episodes about her are always about her relationship with Arnold and make Helga angry and jealous. Now, we're going to see a different side of the girl, and focuses on her on being one of the poorest kid in class. And since don't know much about Social Service role in this kind of situation, I can only hope it's being done right. All has been said and done, and now here's the story of Lila.

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.

Episode 5: Desperate

I

The bus ride home was a long one for Mr. Sawyer, as he looked at the moving scenery sorrowfully while holding an envelope on his hand. Inside the envelope, there was a pink slip saying that his employment was terminated because the company he was working with was downsizing, a euphemism for a job layoff. He couldn't believe that his company would do this to him. He worked hard all day and night just to make ends meet. And even with all the hard work he did for his company they decided to stab him in the back. He now has no income. And without income, he wouldn't be able to support his only daughter. The thought of Lila being raised at a near poverty line really made his heart sink. He wanted the best for his daughter and as a father he wouldn't give up. He will bounce back up and find a new job again. But, should he tell her the predicament he was facing right now?

To have a kid like Lila to hear that her father was fired would be absolutely devastating for her, since she was totally depending on her father for everything. What would she react if she learnt that her father had no job at all and had no money to take care of her? And he feared the worst: what would happen if the Social Service knew about it? She'd be taken away to foster care for sure. That was the most absolute nightmare for him to bear if something like that happened to him and his beloved daughter.

It was a few hours before sunset and Lila should be at home by now. He got out from the bus and trudged worriedly to his house. A lot of thoughts lingered in his mind, mostly about Lila and his employment. Should he break the bad news to her? Or should he not tell her so she wouldn't be worried about him? What kind of job he would go after for a person such as himself? Being raised in a farm all of his life, such skills aren't necessary in the big city such as this. He got lucky on the first job he got in the city. He arrived in front of his house but somewhat reluctant to go in, knowing that the cheerful greeting that her daughter always gave him when he arrived home would worsen his guilt. After much thought and after he took a deep long breath, he went in.

Upon hearing the front door being closed, Lila quickly exited the living room and smiled at her father, "Hi daddy!" Lila greeted him cheerfully and ran up to him. Mr. Sawyer lowered his head to her level and Lila gave him a peck on his cheek. She would always do that as to relax her father after a hard day's work. "You're home early today, daddy. Is there something wrong?"

"Yes Lila… there's so many…" he replied back in his mind, not having the courage to tell his only daughter the bad news. He shot her a very weak smile and reluctantly replied, "There's nothing wrong, Lila. I just thought I want to go home early."

"Oh, that's nice." Lila replied back with a smile, although she had a feeling that there was something going on, since she knew her father wouldn't be home early at this time of hour unless there was something bad happened.

"C'mon, let's go to the kitchen," her dad said with a weak smile, "Let me cook while you tell me everything that you did at school today."

"Okay!"

II

Spaghetti in a can. Delicious. Mr. Sawyer took two of them out from the cabinet and opened it up as he listened to his daughter telling a story about how was her day in school today. He had hoped that her stories would be an ample distraction from his worries right now, as listening to her stories really lighten up his day.

"I'm somewhat surprised that Arnold has stopped helping me carrying with all of my books today because he used to insist on carrying them before. He's ever so sweet but his pestering can be annoying from time to time. Still, I try to be nice, daddy." Lila said sweetly, "It will be ever so rude and inconsiderate if I ignore him."

"Mm-hmm." Lila's dad replied and nodded as he plopped the spaghettis onto the frying pan. Lila then continued her story, "And there's this girl called Helga. I tried to be nice to her, but… I don't know…" she lowered her head, "It seems that everything that I do infuriates her." she then suddenly changed the topic, "Mr. Simmons taught us about this city's history today at school. Did you know that this city was once a huge landfill?"

"No… I don't really know…" Mr. Sawyer replied back with a soft smile. Lila then resumed telling her story to her father as he waited for the spaghetti to cook. She touched on every topic that a little girl would likely to say, such as boys, homework, ponies and friends. The spaghetti was cooked to perfection, and Lila's dad put them onto a plate for his daughter. It took Lila by surprise as she watched her dad shoved the plate at her.

"Daddy, aren't you eating?" she asked worriedly.

"I already had lunch, Lila." He lied reluctantly to her, "Don't worry about me." He then gave her a smile to ease her worry a bit. Still skeptical, she began eating whilst her father watched her eat every bite. Yet, Lila was uncomfortable because this was the first time that her father refused to eat with her since they would always have breakfast, lunch and dinner together. Halfway through, she stopped eating and asked again:

"Are you sure?"

Slightly irritated, Mr. Sawyer kept his coolness and replied, "Really Lila. You just finish your meal."

"I think I'm rather full, daddy." she replied.

"Please, don't waste it Lila." Her father pleaded back.

Lila gazed back at her father with a worried look as she was rather surprised at his response. The last time he said something like that to her was when they just moved in to the city and he was without work. She began to worry. "Please daddy. Is there something that I need to know? I'm really worried about you."

With deep sigh and much contemplation regarding it, he reluctantly replied to his daughter, "Lila… I'm not sure how you'll going to accept this but…" after a lengthy pause, due to the words were difficult to say to his daughter, he then forced himself to say, "we're going to face tough times ahead… all that I can say is that… we have to save our expenses as of now… I hope you'll understand…" he said with solemn, gloomy tone, almost had a hopelessness feeling to it.

"Oh…" Lila replied, trying to remain calm. She tried not to dig into it further as she did not want to depressed herself and her father. But deep inside her heart she knew that situation like this was about to begin again, just like when they arrived in this city for the first time. "Don't worry daddy… everything is going to turn out fine…" she said with her trademarked optimism voice.

"I really hope so, munchkin. I really hope so…" he gave her back a worried smile.

Lila then got out from her chair and slowly walked up to her father, and they embraced one another to give strength and some comfort and security.

"What's going to happen to us?" she asked worriedly, finally confided to her concerns.

"I don't know…" Mr. Sawyer whispered softly, "I don't know…"

III

Couple of days later in PS 118…

"There are five oceans in this world, class." Mr. Simmons said as he walked around the class, "Who can tell me the five oceans in this world?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" Harold rose up from his seat and raised his hand, as he enthusiastically wanted to answer the question, "I want to answer the question!"

"Okay Harold, you tell us." Mr. Simmons pointed to him, smiling proudly at him, "Ah… it seems that he's showing interest and keen to study." He thought to himself.

"Pacific, Artic, Indian, Atlantic, and Jersey!" Harold answered proudly, but right now everybody was laughing hard at his answer and made Harold embarrassed and frightened at them, "Stop it!" he demanded futilely, "Stop now or I'll pound ya!" but nobody stopped laughing and Harold's eyes began to brim with tears.

Mr. Simmons tried to conceal his laughter by putting his hand over his mouth as he too couldn't help but to laugh at him. But as a teacher, he would get in trouble if Harold saw him laughing at him. Mr. Simmons bit his lower lip and finally the laugher was suppressed. "Okay, okay class. Calm down." But the class didn't. Mr. Simmons scanned around to see everybody was laughing at Harold, except for Lila. Her head was put on the table and her arm wrapped around it to conceal her depressed look. But Mr. Simmons could see her worrisome state, and he realized that he should consult with her after the class session is over. "Class, quiet down please." And moments later, the class finally stopped laughing.

The teacher continued, "Four out of five answers the Harold given was true, and I commend him for that." He had his eyes on Lila, and decided to test the theory on her, just to make sure whether she was depressed, tired or just too lazy, which the latter was an unlikely trait to describe Lila. "Lila?" Mr. Simmons called, and Lila slowly lifted her head up. Mr. Simmons was a bit stunned to see her eyes were all bloodshot and weary. "Could you correct Harold's answer?"

After much thought, she replied, "I'm ever so sorry Mr. Simmons, I wasn't paying attention much…" the whole class gasped, except from some of her rivals, like Helga, Rhonda and Phoebe. Helga was smirking broadly, Rhonda was happy to hear that, while Phoebe, although she was a bit stunned and worried, but was glad that she couldn't answer the question. Her attitude, fashion and academic rival were all happy to see her like that.

"Uh… well…" Mr. Simmons rubbed his head, "I guess I should ask someone else then. And uh, Lila, can I see you after class?" Lila nodded weakly, "Okay… So Curly, what's the answer to the last one?"

"Um…" he contemplated as he rubbed his chin, "The Southern Ocean?"

"Correct." Mr. Simmons nodded.

"Wow," Curly said in awe and amazement of himself as he gazed at his hands, "and I gave a random shot at it. I must be gifted! I have discovered a new power! I can foresee the future! With these newly gained powers I can finally rule the world! AHAHAAHAHAHA!"

"You just got lucky, stupid." Sid scoffed at him.

"You're just jealous at my new powers." Curly scoffed back. "UNLIMITED POWER!" oh how he wished he could forced lightning out from his fingertips and zap Sid with it.

And then in complete suddenness the bell rang. The students got up from their seats and proceeded to the cafeteria. "Remember, we're learning about continents after this!" Mr. Simmons said to them all while pointing a finger up, which he questioned himself why did he do that. Lila trudged wearily to Mr. Simmons' desk and stood in front of him. Mr. Simmons was stunned to see her in such a depressed, melancholic state. And she used to be the most cheerful girl in school. This concerned him. A lot of images suddenly popped into his mind, trying to deduct what was actually happening to her.

"Lila?" he said, whilst twiddling his fingers nervously, "I've observed you for these couple of days lately, and to be honest I'm very concerned about you. You're not the Lila that I remember. What happened to the cheerful optimism and keen enthusiasm to study that you've always show to us?"

"Oh…" she replied dejectedly, "It's just for a couple of days, Mr. Simmons. I'm ever so sure I will bounce back after this."

"Is there something troubling you at home?" Mr. Simmons asked again. Lila was a bit stunned, and decided not to divulge about the dilemma that she and her father was currently facing.

"No… there isn't any sir." She replied, forcing a weak smile. The tone of her voice was not convincing at all, but Mr. Simmons decided that he shouldn't pressure her even further.

"Okay then…" he replied dissatisfiedly, "But let me know if you have any problems."

"Okay. Thank you ever so much." She then slowly walked away from him and opened the door. But when she was outside, she forced herself to put a smile on her face as she brushed off her skirt a little.

"Come on Lila!" Sheena shouted from afar, and Lila walked up to her. Mr. Simmons watched her from the classroom and he was very skeptical about Lila's behavior today, and the day before. "Hmm… something's not right." He said to himself, as he stroked his imaginary beard.

IV

Lila was walking slowly to her house as she thought of her family's worrisome state. She stared down to the pathway she was walking on, hugging her books with a gloomy expression on her face. In her mind, she really hoped that it wasn't what she thought it would be: which were she and her father went broke again. Her father had told her that they will face tough times ahead, and she would try her best to live through it, but she didn't know herself how she would cope with it. Upon arriving at her house, she was reluctant to go in, as she saw her father talking to an unknown person from the window, and she could hear her name was said indistinctly. She decided not to interrupt them, and felt like she should hear them what they were saying. She then climbed up on one of the trashcans near the window and tried to balance herself on it.

She peered into the window and slowly opened it a little to let the sound coming from the living room be clearer. She could see her father sitting on the couch while the stranger sat on another seat. She positioned her head closer to the window and began to eavesdrop on them.

"How much time can you give to me?" Mr. Sawyer said weakly as he hung his head looking at the floor miserably.

"Only a month, but that's because your former employer was kind enough to give you a pay advance before they laid you off." The stranger said as she showed him a piece of paper.

"Yeah…" he scoffed back, "Kind enough to lay me off…"

Lila put her hand over her mouth in shock, "Laid off?" she gasped in horror.

"Look…" the lady stranger sighed, "You're a good father and parent, Mr. Sawyer, and it hurts me to do this to a person like you. But you must know, if you don't have a job, you won't be able to make money. And without money, you won't be able to raise your daughter. And… if you don't secure a job within a month…" she paused for a while, reluctantly trying to say it to him, "I'll have to take her away and put her into foster care…"

Lila turned away from the window and leaned against the wall with both of her hands in the middle of her chest. All the books that she was holding fell down. She was trembling in fear to know that there was a probability that she could be separated from her father, someone that she cared and loved so much. Tears began to fall from her eyes, fearing for herself and her father. With her whole body still shaking and trembling, she weakly stepped down from the trashcan, sat against the wall and began crying.

"I'm sorry…" the stranger said as she patted Mr. Sawyer's shoulder. He was brimming with tears. He felt like he was such a loser because he couldn't raise his own daughter right. What kind of father was he, he thought to himself. "I'm just doing my job…" the lady said weakly, but she knew it wouldn't draw any reply back from him. "Promise me Mr. Sawyer, think of what's best for your daughter. Promise me that you will find a job."

Back outside, Mr. Simmons was shocked to see Lila sat hugging her legs whilst putting her face on it. "Lila?" Mr. Simmons asked, and Lila gazed sorrowfully at him. Her whole face was full with tears, as she continuously sobbed wistfully. Mr. Simmons was extremely touched and brokenhearted to see her like that, and decided to comfort her. But as soon as he walked up to her, the lady who spoke to Lila's dad earlier opened the door and saw them.

"Sir, who are you and what happened to that little girl?" She asked Mr. Simmons with an alarmed tone.

"Oh, I am Mr. Simmons, Lila's teacher at PS 118. I came here to see her father to ask what has been troubling her these past few days." He replied back. And then Mr. Sawyer walked out from the house and was shocked to see his daughter crying on the street.

"Lila?" he called worriedly. Upon hearing that, Lila ran quickly to his father and hugged him tightly.

"Daddy, please! Please don't leave me! Don't let them take me away from you!" she pleaded and cried, like she felt there was no hope for her anymore.

"Oh, man! How did she know?" Mr. Sawyer thought worriedly to himself, and he immediately hugged her back tightly to comfort her and said to her, "It's okay honey, it's okay! Daddy's here. I won't leave you alone! I love you so much Lila! And I will not let anyone take you away from me! It's a promise!"

"Please daddy…" she pleaded again, hugging her dad tightly, as though she wouldn't want to let him go. The lady wiped her tears with her thumb whilst Mr. Simmons just looked at the touching scene in stunned silence. Something must be done.

V

On the next day…

"Class, I have a very troubling news to tell you today…" Mr. Simmons said, standing in front of the classroom. "The reason why Lila isn't here is because I sent her to counseling so we could begin this meeting. So don't tell her that I deliberately sent her there just so we could hold this meeting up."

Phoebe raised her hand, "Mr. Simmons, why is this meeting so secretive that we can't divulge it to her?"

"Well…" he replied as he fiddled with his thumbs, "She's having a problem at home—" and there was a ripple of murmurs and whispers from the class, "quiet please, class. Let me finish." Mr. Simmons said again, "Okay. So, I'm asking you, as her friends and classmates, to do whatever it is possible to make her… well," he shrugged a bit, "feel comfortable and not lonely."

"I think the latter won't be a problem Mr. Simmons." Helga replied.

"And why is that?"

"Because more than half of the boys in this grade just won't leave her alone." She replied back scathingly. All the boys in class looked at her back in a displeased gaze. As much as they wanted to deny it, her remark did hold a lot of credibility.

Mr. Simmons sighed and shook his head to shrug off her comments, "Please class. Be sincere to her. She's going to face a lot of challenges ahead, so I hope all of you will be as helpful as possible." Stinky raised his hand.

"Mr. Simmons, I may be intruding, but could you tell us wut kind of problem is she facing?"

"Um… I think I'm not in the liberty to say…"

"Aw, come on Mr. Simmons." Stinky replied back. "How can we offer our help if we ain't have the faintest idea wut her problem is?" in class, he was concerned about Lila the most of them all. And his classmates agreed with his statement as they too, curious about Lila's problem.

After much thought about it, Mr. Simmons finally caved in to their plea and said to them, "Okay, but promise me that you will keep it low profile." Most of the class nodded, "Lila's family is having a financial problem as his father just got laid off."

Some of them gasped in shock, and again there were murmurs and whispers coming from the class. Sheena suddenly raised her hand, "Mr. Simmons, what's a layoff?"

He then explained to her and the class altogether, "A layoff is when someone got fired unexpectedly and without any reason at all because the company that he or she is working for is trying to save some money. Lila's father is, unfortunately a victim of this procedure."

And there was even more gasps of shock from the class. Now Rhonda, Helga and Phoebe were feeling guilty about badmouthing her yesterday. "So Mr. Simmons, what do you propose?" Rhonda asked him.

"Well… Mr. Simmons replied, thinking about it, "Any kind of help would be appreciated of course, but try to ease her pain by contributing something that she need in her time of hardship. Be a good friend to her."

VI

Lunch time, playground…

"Oh man, I couldn't help but to feel sorry for Lila." Rhonda said to her friends on the jungle gym. "She's poor enough as it is, and she has to go through this again? Man… it's hard to imagine being in her shoes…"

"Well, you're rich Rhonda, so it's obvious that you have a hard time trying to imagine it." Helga replied back, which Rhonda responded back by looking at her irritably.

"Speaking of Lila, where is she now?" Nadine asked.

"Still at the counselor's office. I don't know what the heck are they doing to her." Sid replied.

"We have to do something to help her fellas." Stinky suggested to them all.

"Oh look, it's Mr. Knight in Shining Armor." Helga said sarcastically as she pointed to him, "Well, what do you propose, Stinko?"

"Well, I do declare that we should pull our resources together and buy her something nice?" he said to all of them.

All of them stared at him blankly.

"My word, you're even worse than the Football Head." Helga rolled her eyes.

"Wow, so how come you suddenly become the leader of this pact, Helga?" Gerald asked her, "I thought you hated the girl."

"Well, I just love to boss people around you boob." Helga shrugged back. "Sides, I'm venting my anger out since my dad couldn't keep his mouth shut about one of his best beeper sellers just quit!"

"Omigosh Helga just said a dirty word!" Sid exclaimed accusingly whilst pointing a finger at her.

"I have an idea." Arnold said to them in the midst of it all. "Or how about if we individually help her in our own way?"

"Or better yet," Stinky said, "Why don't we collect money for her? Kinda like a donation or something?"

"I think both of your ideas have a lot of merits to it." Phoebe nodded approvingly.

"Hmm… I could ask daddy if his company has any job offerings and save Lila's dad the time from job hunting." Rhonda said. And everyone began to contribute their ideas amongst themselves to help their friend, with the exception of Helga. Helga was in the group, but couldn't produce any suggestions to them as she was reluctant to tell them, even though she had numerous proposals to help her out. She felt like if she helped Lila, then she would help her most intense rival. As they continued to discuss about the matter, Arnold was a little perplexed to see Helga just sat there not saying a single word.

"Helga, do you have any suggestions at all to help Lila? We could use some of your suggestions if they're good."

Noticing the way that Arnold noticing her, she sighed admirably at him, but then she immediately snapped back, "Nope. I'm drawing a complete blank." She replied nonchalantly.

The nonchalant reply made Arnold frown at her, "Helga, I know you don't like her much, but at least be considerate to help her in her time of crisis."

"What?" Helga exploded, and unintentionally making the discussion stopped instantly as the gang looked at her in shock, "You think I don't care about the problem she's facing right now?"

"Technically yeah, Helga." Stinky interjected and accused her, "Ya hated her ever since she came into town, and it's obvious that you want to see her suffer!"

"Don't you accuse me like that, Stinky!" Helga retorted back fumingly, "Regardless of my view towards her, I do have a sense of compassion for other people!"

"Well prove it then!" Rhonda asked her skeptically.

"Guys, please… stop it." Arnold intervene the fiasco by walking in the middle of them and stretched his arms wide, and the argument instantaneously died down. "Arguing won't help her or anyone else, so let's just concentrate on our efforts, okay?" After a collective nods and agreements from his friends, the party resumed back discussing about Lila, with the exception of Helga, who stood alone out from the group, looking at them forlornly in realization she was being excluded. Arnold, being the most sympathetic of them all, tried to make all parties contented, in which including to calm Helga, even if she was labeled as an antagonist in this tale by her friends.

"Don't worry Helga." Arnold said to her calmly, "They'll come back to their senses."

"Yeah, right." Helga scoffed back, closing her eyes tightly.

"I trust you that you have lots of idea on how to help Lila." Arnold put a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her, "I have faith in you." Helga opened her eyes widely and gazed back at Arnold.

Somehow, his smile assured her confidence and she began curved a smile to him back. "Thanks, Arnold." And after the long admirable gaze, her expression turned drastically and she scowled at him, "Now peddle your behind away so I could think up a scheme to help her out." Arnold just continued to smile at her, knowing she was just being herself.

VII

Two weeks later at Helga's house, in her room…

"Hmm…" Helga said thoughtfully, as she paced around in her room while looking at the ceiling above her, "This situation could be best considered as a win-lose situation. If I help Lila, I will gain Arnold's trust and a peace in heart that I have helped a fellow friend slash rival in need. But on the other hand, if I do want to destroy her life – which I would love to, I will lose Arnold's trust and confidence. Not to mention I will be labeled by my so-called colleagues as a big fat jerk for all eternity. Hmm… decisions, decisions."

She had been thinking about this for a whole week already, analyzing every pros and cons, length and breadth, strength and weaknesses of her plan. She then stopped pacing and looked at her beloved Arnold shrine, "As of now, Lila is feeling indifferent about Arnold and from what I have gathered from Phoebe when she was talking with Gerald, in his words: 'It's over between me and Lila'. Should I be an insensitive lot and not help her out even though my not boyfriend no longer worships her? Or I should be decent and help the poor girl?" she placed her hand on her chin, and began to contemplate it.

"I think the answer is obvious enough." Helga said to herself and exited from her room. "Bob?" she called for her father, "dad?"

"Jeez, no need to shout girl! I'm in the kitchen for crimeny's sake!" he shouted from the kitchen as he prepared a huge sub sandwich for himself.

"Dad!" Helga jumped from the stairs and ran into the kitchen, "I think I know how to solve your problem!"

"About what?" he asked back, deploying nachos with cheese inside the one foot long sub.

"I think I know someone who can replace the beeper seller guy who just quit from your store!"

"What? How do you know I'm looking for a guy to fill in my best seller's position?"

Helga looked at him skeptically, "Bob, you've been ranting about it to me and mom for weeks."

"Oh, oh… yeah." Bob replied back, and headed to the living room as Helga followed him from behind, "Look Olga—"

"Helga."

"Yeah, Helga. I've lots of people in line waiting for me to give them an interview. If he wants the job, he has to apply like everyone else. And who is this guy anyway?"

"He's a dad of a friend of mine. He just got laid off from his job." Helga replied, "C'mon dad, have a heart. Give him a job!"

"Laid off?" Bob asked back incredulously as he sat in his couch in front of the TV. "The only company in this city that I know that's laying off jobs is the one that supplies me with the beeper accessories! It's sad to hear them laying off people, Helga. Their promoters are always excellent— wait, are you saying that the dad of this friend of yours used to work there? Is he a promoter?"

"Umm…" Helga was stunned, not able to give any kind of answer. She did not know where Lila's father used to work at.

"Hmm…" Bob pondered, stroking his chin, "Having him on the company would boost the sales of my beepers tenfold!" he smiled broadly, and then turned to Helga. "Hey girl, can I have your friend's phone number? I need to talk with her dad."

VIII

On the next day, Monday in school…

"Mr. Simmons, I'd like to thank you ever so much for escorting me from the counseling's office. The counselor and you really helped me a lot throughout these past few weeks." Lila said to him as they walked side-by-side through the school hallway to the class.

"It's no problem at all, Lila. I'm just glad to help a student of mine cope with their personal ordeal."

"And I really would like to assure to you that I no longer need their services. I appreciate how they're teaching me how to cope with the problem I'm facing and all but I feel I can manage with it as of now." They arrived in front of their classroom door.

"I agree with you Lila, but I think right now, I you don't need to worry anymore!" he then opened the door for her, and to Lila's surprise, everyone in her class stood in front of the door and clapped their hands as soon as the door was opened. Lila was shocked but she did not understand why there was such a commotion in class as the situation didn't call for it.

"Oh my…" Lila said as she put her hand on her heart, slightly overwhelmed, "But today's not my birthday…"

"Lila," Stinky said as he stepped forward from his classmates, "All of us were informed of the quandary you're facing and we've decided to help ya out, on account that ya really needed the help."

Nadine then continued Stinky's explanation, "We set up a fund to collect money for you Lila, and as of right now, we managed to collect about 200 dollars for you and your dad. It's not much, but it should help you until your dad gets a job." Lila was touched and extremely overwhelmed by the support from her friends. Tears were running from her eyes right now.

"But…" Lila replied, sobbing with joy, "I can't accept all these kindness—"

"Ah," Helga scoffed, "Don't be so humble, just accept it. And speaking of jobs…" she stepped forth, smiling at her, "Your dad is attending a job interview right now with my dad, and I would say the outlook will be bright for the both of you. So… you don't need to be worried getting foster care or anything."

Lila was ecstatic, and she quickly ran to Helga and embraced her tightly, "Oh, thank you everyone! And thank you ever so much, Helga!" everyone clapped their hands, in happiness and also in shocked to hear that Helga actually gave a hand in helping her most bitter rival. They guessed Helga wasn't so heartless after all.

"Hey, hey!" Helga said back embarrassedly, trying to escape from Lila's clutches while still smiling, "I'm happy for you too, Lila. C'mon, let go off me. It's getting embarrassing." And with a reddened face, Lila released her grasp. And Lila started to hug everyone in class, much to the boys' delight. Helga looked at Arnold, and he looked back at her. Arnold was relieved that Helga fulfilled her promise that she would help Lila, and he was proud of her for staying truth to her words. Helga was delighted to see the smile radiating from Arnold. She knew that she had gained his confidence and heart – a bit. But suddenly the smile turned into an extremely angry scowl when she saw Lila hugging Arnold. But, she cooled back, and thought, "Well, just this once…" as she smiled at Lila, obviously euphoric that the dark shroud had finally been lifted away from her and her father.

One of my greatest disappointment in writing this story is that I couldn't tell more about Lila and her dad's suffering during his layoff stint, because the story has become too long. I wish I could, since it'll make the story more dramatic. Well, that's that. I'd like to thank you for reading and please leave a review.