(Original Authors Notes)

OMG! One review on chapter eight! You're killing me here! I need feedback to make the story better! I'll never get the number of reviews I planned on getting now. Oh well…I'm glad I held out for a review, cause I don't post new chapters until I get some insight on the others. Thanks for your articulate review, Will.

Here's chapter nine in all its glory. This is where I was struggling for ideas to keep the story going. The first eight chapters came out so fast I was stumbling over the keyboard to type them. After that, I never had the same inspiration and the rest of the fic took a looooong while to finish.

o----o

From the bus ride in the morning I had made sure to look around at the surroundings, knowing if I ever needed to walk to the boarding house from PS 118, I knew exactly how to get there and where it was. I walked with knapsack on my back, again viewing the environment, the people, and so forth. I had always seen myself as an observer of people, which came in handy in a world like this.

The city seemed to be winding down for the day. Kids leaving schools to go home and play with friends. Parents would soon be home from work, able to spend time with their families, maybe sit down and watch some TV, eat some dinner. The temperature was warm but the humidity wasn't suffocating. I made my way to the front of the boarding house, kind of wishing I didn't have to see Arnold since he would probably still be cross with me. I entered the house and Phil immediately greeted me, eating a rather large submarine sandwich.

"Oh Stephen, good to see your back. How was your first day at the school?" he said as he spit tiny bits of food at me.

"It was okay I guess, I…-" he cut me off.

"Oh, that's good. Anyway, Arnold is downstairs doing laundry, could you please go and give him a hand?"

"Sure." I said, knowing that I had to do some chores or I may be out on my ass.

I went down to the laundry room where Arnold was working two machines, putting a load of clothes into a washer. Our eyes met, both full of regret and sorry for our actions earlier in the day.

I took off my knapsack and put it on the ground. "Arnold, I'm…"

"Sorry?" he interrupted, "Yeah, I am too. We both went a little stupid back there, didn't we?"

"Yeah." I agreed as I took out a load of clothes from the dryer.

"I recognize your opinions of Lila, and I can't change that, but…why don't you like her?" he probed.

"This really bugs you, doesn't it Arnold?" I sighed, "It's a complicated story. She just seems odd to me, she's too perfect. There are better fish in the sea."

"Oh c'mon, Lila is a nice girl."

"Arnold…it's just the way she carries herself…so girly and such…I dunno, it's hard to explain."

"And besides, what other girls do you have in mind?"

"Uh," I wanted to say Helga, but that would complicate things plenty. I just wanted to drop the subject and let Arnold have the upper hand. "I dunno."

"See what I mean."

Arnold and I started to walk up the basement stairs with a basket of laundry each. "Come to think of it, there really isn't much selection in the way of fourth grade girls at PS 118."

"What do you mean?" he asked as we made our way up the stairs to his room.

"Well, if you pair them up…" I calculated, "You got Sheena and Eugene, Rhonda and Curly, Harold and Patty, Phoebe and Gerald…I mean you see the way they look at each other.

"You're telling me you caught all of that from one day of school?"

"Sixth sense." I said as we entered his room. "Then there's Sid and Nadine, Lila and…well…and then there's Helga…"

Arnold sort of gave me an awkward look. "So?"

"Yeah, Helga…whatever, like she could ever really like anyone, am I right?" I said as I lightly elbowed Arnold jokingly in the arm.

"Y-yeah, sure." he said. I knew he was thinking of what happened between them, but I didn't push on it. It wasn't time yet.

"Hey Arnold!" Phil called from down the hall, "Phone! It's your little friend, Gerald!"

"I'm gonna take this downstairs."

I quickly asked since I had nothing else to do, "Arnold, you mind if I use your computer, surf the net, check my e-mail?"

"Yeah sure," he replied, "just don't give it a virus." he chuckled as he went down the stairs to answer the phone.

I turned on Arnold's computer, which looked as if it hadn't been updated since 1996. It was slow, but finally the Windows 95 boot screen came up.

'Christ Arnold, get with the times.' I thought to myself.

While Arnold's slow ass computer was booting up, curiosity got the better of me and I quietly walked over to Arnold's phone and gently picked up the receiver to listen in on Arnold and Gerald…

"How about that new kid Stephen? It seems that dude has some sort of control over the bullies. I saw him ward of Helga, and we all saw the stuff that went down at recess."

"Yeah, I know Gerald, but doesn't something seem odd about him?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well, he sometimes acts really weird, like I dunno, he knows something we don't – and he has to keep it secret. And what about his parents? They haven't called here or anything to make sure he's okay."

"Chill Arnold, he's only been here for a while. I'm sure he's just adjusting."

"I hope so. Oh, I almost forgot about the math homework, what did you get for number four?…"

That's when I noticed the computer was finally done booting up. I gently put the receiver in its resting place and went back to the desk. 'I had better watch myself,' I thought, 'or this could all blow up in my face.'

I got on the Internet, which was as slow as anything, and seeing if it worked, typed in the address of my e-mail provider.

"Wonder if they have Hotmail in this dimension." I asked myself.

And sure enough, the Hotmail page came up. It kind of caught me off guard, and I reluctantly typed in my e-mail address to see what would happen. And sure enough, my account registered and soon I was able to check my mail.

"But…how can this be? I'm in a world of fiction, aren't I? How can I check my own mail if I'm not even in my own world?"

Then, slightly trembling at what would happen, I typed in the address for my Hey Arnold! website, Arnold's Room. And sure enough, the page came up as clear as day.

"Oh man, what the fuck?" I nervously said quietly to myself. "How can this be…how can my site exist in this world?" Then, like the ton of bricks that hit me the day before, like something out of The Outer Limits or X-Files or something…I was able to get to my world through the Internet. But how would I use this to my advantage? How could I get this link to my world to work and get me back home?

My thoughts were interrupted as Arnold walked in. "Hey, you havin' fun? What site are you on?"

"Ahh!" I quickly turned around and blocked the screen with my body. If Arnold saw my website he would totally flip out of his mind. "Ahum, nothing…it's nothing."

"C'mon, let me see." he said as he walked over.

With my back turned to the screen, I grabbed the mouse with my left hand and moved it around, clicking vigorously searching for the close icon on the browser, hoping I would click it. "No, no, you don't wanna see this page Arnold, it's not suitable for your eyes!"

"Ah, it can't be that bad." As he said that I had successfully clicked on the icon and the webpage was gone.

"No Arnold, it was bad adult stuff, you know. Not till you're older." I said shaking my finger.

"You sound like Grandpa. Besides, you're the same age as me."

"Yeah, sure. More like nine plus ten years." I whispered under my breath.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, I said nothing."

Arnold raised an eyebrow in suspicion at me, and looked as if he was going to confront me further, but just then…

"Arnold, Stephen, dinner! Pookie made a turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with salmon! Yummy-yummers, good eatin' tonight!" Phil called.

"I'll be down there in a sec, Arnold." I said as he made his way out the door.

I sat quietly at the desk, a little chilling feeling going over my body. Again, asking the plaguing question…how was I going to get home?