Sorry it's been soooooo long since i've updated- i'm working two jobs at the moment and just got a promotion at one of them so i'm working like 70-80 hour weeks which is taking up a lot of my time plus i've had writer's block but HERE I AM READY TO RUMBLE. Please review and leave me something good :)
Welp.
It rained.
And I WOULD be gloating about this because that means I won my bet with Miles from yesterday about it not raining if I hadn't been slapped with a hefty dose of karma at what I believe to be around 2am this morning. And I'm gonna tell you about it while Miles and Stella struggle to make fire while attempting to use the damp surroundings as firewood to make a fire for breakfast while Arnold sits nearby watching them try as they might.
I was sleeping pretty hard on the hard ground, not even tossing and turning as I usually do. I was right in the middle of a good dream too even though I don't remember what it was about. The rain had put me to sleep quite effortlessly as rain usually tends to do, and I was probably into REM when it happened. Stella says the rain must have softened the ground underneath us because the poles that held our tent into place slipped and it didn't take long for our tent to slip and slide and then roll altogether down the hill and into the lake.
So I woke up bright and early this morning with Stella soaking wet and in the lake. THAT was fun.
Miles found it hilarious and Arnold tried to cover his laughter though I could see right through his disguise. And thankfully, they helped us at the early morning hour to put our tent back up in a more secure location and we put our clothes up on a nearby tree's branch to dry over the rest of the night though they didn't dry very well because it's super humid today which Miles says is perfect swimming weather.
So of course, that's what's on the ticket for today- a nice swim in the lake even though I HAD one of those this morning already.
Anyway, it seems as though Miles and Stella have a fire going so we're going to make pancakes somehow with the pans they've brought. I can't wait to see how THIS turns out. I'll get back to ya.
Hungry and wet,
Helga G. Pataki
I might have sounded a bit negative this morning, but that's only because of the fiasco of the tent because I'm in a much better mood after the day I've had. We're currently in the car on the ride home from our camping adventure and I'll say, it sure was an adventure indeed.
We started off the day with breakfast though the flies were unending and ended up in our pancakes so we just picked them up as I wasn't about to have ANOTHER fly in my gullet for a dining experience. After breakfast, we decided to tear down our camp so we could save time later and spend the day exploring some more and swimming in the cool lake to take away some of the deathly heat that was bearing down on us. This time, Miles challenged us to another duel of who could take down the tents the fastest and guess what? This time, Stella and I won! Aha! Take that gentlemen!
So from there, Miles led the day because Stella led yesterday and we went on a scavenger hunt for various things around the woods. He made a list last night I guess in his brand new journal and we set off in the woods for the items he'd written down in preparation for us to find. It sounds lame, I know, but all these lame things the Shortmans have planned always end up being a lot of fun. We scavenged the woods looking for particular pinecones and specific plants that Stella had taught us about from the day before almost as a test of our knowledge from everything she'd explained and I guess we passed because we found almost everything within a few hours. And our reward? Swimming! At long last!
The water felt so cool and so refreshing from the heat. Nothing like the stupid heated pool at school that I was so used to at this point. But I'll admit, even though Arnold had seen me in my bathing suit before, I was still a little nervous to jump in with it on; anxious about the way my growing body looked in it.
"C'mon Helga," Arnold urged me from where I stood on the sand as everyone splashed about in the water, "Jump in! The water feels great!"
I looked around at my surroundings and reached up to wipe a few beads of sweat that dripped down my brow until I realized: the more I stood around, the more Arnold could look at me in my bathing suit and that was all it took for me to jump in the water and join the Shortmans in the lake to laugh and play and soon, I stopped thinking about my body and enjoyed the day entirely as we played chicken and other such water games.
Later, after we were tired from all our games, Miles and Stella decided to float on the waters of the lake and I stepped out of it to admire the water and the sky and the entire scene as a whole from the view of the small beach area. Arnold took notice of where I was sitting, and moved from out of the water to join me where I was sitting.
"Hey Helga, whatt're you up to?" He asked me as he took a seat on the sand beside me and I shrugged my shoulders while continuing to stare out into the distance.
"Just admiring the view," I said dreamily as my eyes danced around at the way the light hit the trees' leaves and bounced off into the atmosphere.
"I see," Arnold mused before turning to face me and smiling. "Did you have fun this weekend?" He wondered and I turned to face him while nodding my head.
"Yeah, it was... interesting. I learned a lot and your parents are fun, as always." I told him but this made him frown and I raised a brow. "What's wrong?"
"I guess I just hoped you'd think it was more than educational..." He said and I smirked while leaning over to nudge him with my shoulder.
"Oh stop ya weirdo," I said, "I had a great time. Minus rolling into the lake of course."
"Yeah," Arnold said with a turn of his lips, "That was a little unfortunate."
"Kinda funny though in retrospect now that you think about it," I commented with a slight laugh and Arnold chuckled with me.
"Yeah, it'll be a great memory some day to tell someone."
I smirked. "What like my future kids?"
He shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head once. "Yeah, sure, I guess so."
"Is that a girly thing to do? Or do guys think about it too?" I questioned him.
"Think about what?"
"About kids and stuff. Like what your future will be like." I wondered aloud and Arnold turned to face out to the lake and answered me waveringly.
"I suppose I think about the future too," he said quietly. "Maybe not so much about my kids but about where I'll be and what I'll be doing with my life."
"Who you'll be with?" I blurted out and he continued to face forward and nodded his head.
"Yeah, I think about that too sometimes."
"And?" I pressed but he merely smiled and turned to look at me.
"If you're trying to get me to say if I think about the two of us in my future or not, I do, you know. Just maybe not as much as you do. I try to live in the present and just go with the flow." He answered and I nodded my head.
"Of course you do. You're like a weird-headed Buddha without the belly. All that mindfulness and other crap."
This made him let out a big laugh and he stood up and brushed some sand off of his shorts and offered me his hand. "C'mon, let's go attack my parents."
"What?" I asked and he gestured for me to take his hand once more.
"You know, a good old fashioned splash attack. They'll love it."
So I took his hand and off we went into the lake to disturb his parents' peace and splash them while laughing, all our talk of the future now in the past.
Soon, the light of the Earth dimmed and the sunset took over the sky once more with such hues of pink and purples that set on top of each other like an oil painting perfectly painted by the hand of a master painter. Unfortunately, the sunset signaled our time to go and we packed up our things to head out of Phil's 'perfect site' and hike our way back down the hill and to where the car was parked.
So here I am, sitting in the back seat of the car with Arnold on our serene ride back to the reality of the beeper emporium that awaits me. It was a great trip out and I'm glad I went even though camping sounded lame. But I'm starting to learn that even the lamest things are cool when you join with the Shortmans.
Let's leave it on a good note,
Helga G. Pataki
Tonight, in lieu of family dinner, we had an old fashioned barbecue, boarders and all. We held it on top of the roof and Miles grilled for us. Or at least TRIED to grill for us. Let me explain.
The roof was lit like a Christmas tree- lights all around the outskirts of the building and everywhere the eye could see. The ambiance was fun and light-hearted, full of warmth and enjoyment soon to be had by all. The boarders joined us in all their boisterous usual selves, laughing and arguing the way they typically did and Arnold and I sat among them watching as Miles lit up the grill to prepare the hot dogs first for the group.
"Who's ready for some grilled dogs hot off the grill?" Miles asked with tongs in hand, clapping them together a couple of times for exaggeration to his already obnoxious attire of an apron that read, 'This Dad is Flippin' Awesome' with two thumbs on either side pointing towards himself and a chefs hat that he probably took from Gertie's overwhelming box of props.
"Keep talking Sonny, we'll see how far you get with that grill," Phil said while pointing to it with another hand on his hip. "She's older than you are."
"I think I can handle a grill, dad," he argued while lighting the grill with ease and setting the dogs on top of it. "See? We're doing just beautifully."
"Mmhm," Phil hummed flatly, "Keep talking wise guy, we'll see."
"Ye have little faith," Miles mumbled while turning his attention to the grill as Arnold and I watched on to Ernie who began berating Oskar ahead of him as they played poker at the foldout table they'd brought up with them.
"Hey you wise, guy! What, do you think I'm blind?!" He called out while pointing viciously in Oskar's direction.
"I don't know what you are talking about little man," Oskar said with a bad pokerface as Ernie only became angrier and stood up on top of his chair to confront him across the table.
"The ace! I saw you slide it up your sleeve!" Ernie hollered and Arnold and I turned our heads simultaneously to wait for Oskar's response to his allegations.
"What ace?" Oskar asked while raising his hands as cards fell out of his sleeves to flutter down to the floor and Ernie's brow furrowed in anger; Oskar laughing a weak chuckle. "How did those get in there?" He asked while looking around for an answer to his obvious question.
"Why I outta-" Ernie started only to be stopped by the giant flame that emitted from the grill at that very moment.
"Woah!" Miles yelped while stepping back from the grill and waving his hand quickly through the air as if it would stop the pain now shooting through his hand; a clatter of metal sounding through the air as his tongs dropped to the ground.
"Miles, sweetheart," Stella said while rushing to his side to examine his hand, "Are you alright?"
"Ha! I told you she wouldn't take pity on you, son!" Phil said as Stella and Miles glared in his direction.
"Not now, dad," Miles grumbled while still shaking his hand through the air as Stella tried to get him to stop long enough for her to look at it.
"Oof, Miles, I can't believe you just burned yourself like that," Stella commented while tsking her tongue. "We'd better get you bandaged up."
"Is he going to be okay, mom?" Arnold asked as Stella smiled his way and nodded her head.
"He'll be fine, honey," she answered, "Your father is just a bit of a klutz is all," she said while tapping his hurt appendage and he flinched while snapping his hand back.
"Hey, hey, hey," he said and she looked at him sheepishly while gently taking his hand back.
"Sorry," She apologized as they exited the roof for the first aid kit down back inside the boarding house.
After that, Phil took over manning the old grill that Miles continued to protest was the real cause of the outbreak of the fire though Stella still blamed his clumsiness. And as it ruined all of our hot dogs, we stuck just to hamburgers which we had plenty of until Oskar began eating and he ate most of them in a surprising festival of eating that I honestly never believed would stop.
"Are you planning on leaving any for the rest of us Kokoshka?" Ernie asked as Mr. Hyunh quickly took another hamburger from the plate as we all were eating.
"Yes, Ernie right, Oskar. You will get sick! No good!" He warned, though Oskar merely swallowed and shrugged his shoulders.
"I'll be fine-" he burped rather loudly "-really."
"Maybe you should slow down at least, Oskar," Arnold forewarned after his bite of his own burger, "Maybe some other people would like some seconds."
"Then maybe they should take some," Oskar said almost sourly though I knew he didn't mean it, the guy wasn't smart enough to have a malicious bone in his body.
So we ate, and Oskar ate, and ate, until there wasn't anything left and we were all stuffed to the brim with hamburgers, chips and the fixings. Once the eating was complete came the fun part of my entry, the moment when things got really interesting or at least fun. Mr. Hyunh brought out his guitar and announced that he would play a few numbers for us as the sun set over Hillwood.
I'll admit, I forgot how good Mr. Hyunh was at playing guitar since 'Simple Things' came out over the airwaves, but his playing was soothing and his voice even more calming over the quiet night as it approached us.
As the colors of the sky painted themselves around the picture of our group, Gertie moved to pull Phil to the center of the roof and hold him close to her where they began to dance to the soft acoustic music playing in the background of the chatter among the other boarders. Soon, Miles and Stella joined them and as I watched them dance, only moments later, Arnold approached me, his hand outstretched towards me.
"Helga," He asked me softly, "Would you like to dance with me?"
My eyes grazed him from his toes and up to his oddly-shaped head only to settle on his emerald eyes. "Dance?" I repeated to him and he nodded his head while pointing with his thumb at his parents and grandparents behind him.
"I figured since everyone else is dancing, maybe you might want to. Dance. With me." He managed and I cleared my throat while adjusting in my seat.
"Well, not EVERYone is dancing," I said while gesturing towards the other boarders that were sitting with me, arguing with each other and paying no mind to the dancers in the center of the roof.
"You really think that they're going to dance with each other?" Arnold questioned me and I turned around on the chair to look at the boarders who were still contesting with each other and then turned back around to face him and frowned.
"You're probably right, there," I agreed and he offered his hand once more.
"So why don't you want to dance with me?" He asked. "Is something wrong?"
"No," I replied, "Nothing's wrong, it's just, well, the LAST time we danced, you sort of through me in a pool."
He raised his brow and a sly smile spread across his face. "And what, you think I'll throw you off the roof?"
"Well, no," I answered, adjusting in my seat once again, "I just-"
"You just what, Helga?"
I blinked twice before sighing and whispering out, honestly, "What if we look dumb in front of your parents?"
Arnold smiled and reached for my hand pulling me up to stand with him and holding my hand tightly. "Who cares? I just want to dance with you." He said and who could say no to that?
So in his arms I flew onto the clouds of cloud 9 and danced away to the soft pluckings of Mr. Hyunh as he played in the corner of the roof. I stared into Arnold's soft green eyes as he smiled back at me and soon we weren't stepping on each other's feet and were just floating as we swayed to and fro to the music as it swirled around us with the ebbs of the wind and chill of the night. It was beautiful. I couldn't imagine a more perfect way to end the night. And were there eyes on us? I couldn't even tell and frankly? I didn't even care.
It was a summer barbecue to remember.
Sore feet but a soft heart,
Helga G. Pataki
Mom took me school shopping today. What a joy THAT was.
She's still free of smoothies, and sharp as a tack as ever. We went to Office World for my school supplies, me grabbing the school supply list from the cardboard centerpiece in the center of the store.
"You know mom," I told her, "you could have just given me some money and dropped me off so I could get the stuff myself."
"Yes, but honey, where's the fun in that?" She asked me, "Besides, don't you think it's high time we had some mother daughter bonding? We haven't done that since you were a little girl."
"I mean I GUESS you're right, but who bonds over buying school supplies? Can't we do something FUN?" I asked and she shrugged her shoulders while picking a cart from the lot of carts and setting her purse in the baby seat section.
"Well I thought maybe after we're done here, we could go and get something to eat, just you and me. We could talk about some things. Maybe go to that place you like so much? Slausen's? With the great milkshakes?"
I raised my brow as I turned to face her. "You remember?" I wondered aloud and she nodded her head with a smile.
"Of course I remember, silly," she said with a gesture of nonchalance, "you want to go there, honey?"
"Yeah, I'd... I'd love to," I said with excitement at the thought of their milkshakes making my mouth near drool.
"Well great! It's a plan! Let's get that stuff on your list first though, okay? So what's first on the ticket?"
So off we ran around the store picking up folders, notebooks, pencils, pens, and all the other items on my list that deemed necessary for my upcoming school year. It must have taken at least an hour and it wasn't entertaining because she kept insisting that SHE look at the list to make sure I got everything like I was illegible or something. It was ridiculous.
The high ticket item on the list was a brand new calculator, and not just ANY calculator, a crazy-looking computer-in-your-hand sort of calculator that would take me years to understand. There must have been hundreds of buttons on the dang thing and I couldn't imagine using all of them. These teachers better be good if I was ever to understand how to use this piece of crap. Not to mention it cost nearly a hundred bucks! Who ever heard of spending a hundred bucks on a CALCULATOR?
Anyway, soon we were done with the shopping and it was off to Slausen's where my milkshake and burger and fries awaited me as a reward for all my patience in school supply shopping. It was as I sat across from Miriam that she decided to set off the bomb of information for me to hear.
"You enjoying your meal, honey?" She asked me as I inhaled my burger and fries and took a sip from my milkshake and nodded my head.
"Yeah, Miriam, it's great. Yours?" I asked while gesturing to her plate of salad and she nodded her head with a smile before taking a sip of water.
"Yes," she said, "It's wonderful. I can see why you enjoy this place so much. You come here with your friends?" She asked and I nodded my head.
"Yeah, we usually come here after games and stuff," I told her while dipping my fry in ketchup and popping it into my mouth.
"At Gerald Field?" She wondered and I raised my brow in surprise.
"You remembered," I commented and she nodded her head.
"I remember a lot of things these days, honey," she said with a smile and she reached across the table to take my hand. "In fact, I wanted to talk to you about a few things today while we were out eating if that is alright with you."
I nodded my head quietly to let her continue as she took a deep breath and prepped herself for what ever she was about to say next. "First, I wanted to apologize to you, Helga."
I sat back and eyed her curiously. "Apologize?" I asked and she nodded her head.
"Yes, sweetie. I haven't been a very good mom for a few years and I just wanted you to know that because of your friend Arnold's mom, Stella, I've seen the light so to speak. And I want to make it up to you. I'm trying to make it up to you." She huffed out a shaky breath as if she were trying to suppress tears and continued. "I know there's nothing I can do to make up all those years I've lost with you, but I want these next years to change and I will do the best that I can to do that. Can you forgive me?"
I thought about this for a long while; thought about all the times Miriam forgot about me and chose my sister instead to remember. I thought about all the times that she forgot my lunch and forgot my dry cleaning or forgot to bring me to school on important occasions- the times that I had to walk to school in the freezing cold or the pouring rain but I wanted to give her another chance. For all the times that she messed up, there were a few memories of Miriam where she hadn't messed up entirely. The times where she proved to care more than she led on and that she COULD be a good mom if she needed to. It was in her.
So with a deep breath, I let it out and nodded my head. "Yeah mom, I forgive you. I'll give you another chance."
A smile spread across her face and she moved on to the next topic at hand. "I wanted to talk about something else too, honey. Something on behalf of both your father and me."
"Oh?" I asked, intrigued by her setup.
"Well, you may have heard your father and I talking a lot more lately-" she began but I stopped her mid-sentence and shook my head.
"Honestly, I don't pay much attention to what you two do." I said bluntly and this caught her off-guard though she continued.
"Alright...well, we've decided that I should take over the beeper company while your father focuses on marketing and advertising so we can keep the good name of the company." She finally said and I smiled at the good news.
"Mom! That's great!" I said, enthused.
"It's been going really well. We're slowly switching over to the world of smart phones and we have a few clients really interested in helping the company get back on its feet. We're getting there. But to do that, we can't be living in the emporium anymore." She finally said and I raised my brow at her.
"What are you saying?" I asked and she leaned in to take a deep breath and finally spit out her words.
"We're moving, honey."
"Moving?!" I exclaimed for the whole restaurant to hear, images flashing in my head.
We couldn't move! Not with everything going so well in my life! I finally had everything I wanted! I had Miles and Stella in my life and Arnold, dear, sweet Arnold who made my heart palpitate at his every move. I finally had things to live for and now it would all be taken away?!
But Miriam was quick to hush me and shook her head vigorously. "No, sweetie, listen, I've talked to the real estate agent associated with our house and I've negotiated that we move back in and begin paying for it again."
"Our old house," I stated and she nodded her head. "Well that's great! When do we move in?"
"On the second of September." She said and I frowned.
"But that's the first day of school..." I said and she smiled.
"It will all be ready by the time you're out of school."
So there you have it journal. No more emporium living for this girl! We're finally and I mean FINALLY moving back home to the house and I couldn't be more thrilled. It really feels like the puzzle pieces of my life are falling into place and I don't know what it's like to be TRULY happy, but I think this is it, and I'm loving every minute of it.
I can't WAIT to tell Arnold!
Truly Happy,
Helga G. Pataki