Once through the doors of the middle school, the four looked around in awe. The foyer that they had been so accustomed to seeing empty during the school day was now jam-packed before them. On one side of the foyer stood the giant carpeted steps kids would sit on while they awaited their rides home after a long day at school. Tonight, however, there now sat a menagerie of kids varying in ages who chattered about with one another rather than wait silently for whomever was picking them beside the giant stairs which led to nowhere stood two familiar faces, Eugene and Sheena, who were belting out as loud as humanly possible the lyrics to 'Summer Nights' from Grease into microphones for the karaoke machine. Their voices echoed through the foyer but ultimately mixed in the air with the loud thumping of the bass which was emanating from the gymnasium where the actual dance was being held.
It was a cacophony of sounds which mingled and blended with one another until a new sound entirely was formed; one which mirrored that of chaos.
Helga's eyes dodged to and fro in her eye sockets as she struggled to find any one thing to focus on. The environment surrounding her felt like a jungle of sorts with so many things happening at one time it almost made her head spin. While she knew that there were even more activities happening just out of her line of sight, something else became apparent as she observed the countless peers around her.
Their attire.
Compared to what the four seventh graders were donned in as they stood awkwardly in the center of the school's entrance, nearly everyone around them were dressed casually. It was almost as though people had simply picked out an outfit on par with something they might wear on a normal school day and it was clear to the group that they stood out like a sore thumb. That is, at least to the majority of their fellow classmates.
"You have got to be kidding me," Helga mumbled more to herself than anyone in particular. At the sound of her grumble, Arnold reached out to take his girlfriend's hand in his own and turned to meet her wild blue eyes with that of his own.
Offering a small smile, he squeezed her hand in his. "So we're a little dressed up. Big deal."
"A little dressed up?" the blonde girl repeated in a calm voice before changing her tone to one of severe frustration. "We look like we went to the wrong freakin' dance!"
"That's not completely true, Helga," Phoebe chimed in from where she stood on the other side of Gerald. "I've observed a fairly large number of our fellow students dressed in formal attire. Take Eugene and Sheena for example."
The group's eyes collectively looked over to where the pair were dramatically finishing up their rendition of the popular show-tune. Sporadic applause peppered around them as both Sheena and Eugene took their respective bows before handing off their microphones to the chaperone who was running the karaoke station. As they wandered back over to the book of songs they could choose from, the foursome glanced over the outfits they'd chosen to wear for this evening.
Sheena wore a long dress that was cut in a diagonal high-to-low direction at the hem which exposed her right leg from the knee down but kept her left leg mostly hidden. Like Helga's dress, the hem was cut in a zig-zagging fashion making the ends of her dress seem like random strips of fabric layered over one another. Poking out from underneath the hem was a dark black tool which seemed to pair well with the olive green that made up most of the base fabric. The bottom of the dress transitioned from dark green to a stark white at about her waistline. From there the bodice faded from white to a lighter olive green and from that to an almost forest green at the very top of the dress where spaghetti straps held the ensemble on Sheena's tall, gangly body. And, of course, the entire bodice was coated in glitter which shimmered in the florescent lighting.
However, Sheena's wardrobe choice was in stark contrast to what Eugene had chosen to wear.
Unlike Arnold, who Helga had imagined would wear a suit for their first dance in an effort to impress her, Eugene had chosen to wear a suit. It was a slim-fit suit that hugged his small frame a little too perfectly. Both the jacket and pants had the same attention-grabbing pattern of a fancy, elegant paisley that reflected the light off of it's iridescent blue color. The pattern caught ones eye as it lay against it's black backdrop and on his feet were a pair of perfectly shined black dress shoes that somehow were an outfit all of its own.
Sure, Eugene may have stood out from nearly everyone around him, however, even Helga had to admit that he looked kind of amazing for a weird little accident-prone nerd.
Breaking the silence that sat heavy between the four tweens as they inspected their peers' clothes, Helga finally voiced her opinion on Phoebe's statement while crossing her arms over her chest with a blank expression on her made-up face. "Cool. So we're no better than theatre thing 1 and 2 over there."
"Helga..." Arnold said softly which she shrugged off before declaring what the four of them should do next.
"Guess we might as well go get our tickets for this shindig, huh?" Helga announced before dropping her arms to her sides and stalking off in the direction of the dimly lit cafeteria.
"We already have our tickets though, remember? We bought them during lunch-" her boyfriend began before the tall blonde quickly spun around to look at him with a small smirk.
"Yeah those tickets. We still need to go and pick up the other tickets for all the lame activities they have around this joint." She watched as Arnold looked at her blankly which made her sigh prior to explaining. "You know, like that loud monstrosity behind us Sheena and Eugene are trying to outdo each other on or the sumo-suit wrestling thing they have in the gym which, if you think you're getting out of a match with me, you have another thing comin,' bucko."
A grin crept up on the football-headed boy's face as Helga spoke and he nodded his head a couple of times once she had finished talking. "I think I'm up to that challenge," he muttered with a raise of his brow that took Helga off-guard and brought a smile of her own upon her lips.
"You don't stand a chance football-head," she countered which made Arnold eye her slyly and take a few step towards where she stood.
"Guess we'll see about that, won't we, Helga?"
A tremble went through the young girl's body at the sound of her boyfriend's words as though a current of pure electricity had sent a shock-wave to swim through her veins. With a slight gulp, Helga tried to maintain her confidence without showing Arnold his challenging phrase had had an effect on her.
"Right," she managed as her nerves continued to dance in a frenzy beneath her skin, "Well you'll be sorry you challenged Helga G. Pataki."
"Oh, I'll be sorry?" Arnold's grin shifted from casual happiness to one of teasing that made Helga's eyes widen slightly. "Fine, Helga." Leaning in and up a few inches towards Helga's face, Arnold quietly let out two words the blonde girl had imagined him saying countless times and in countless other situations- most of which took place far in the future and were hardly as innocent as one would imagine a nearly 13-year-old girl would think up. "Make me."
"Mm mm MM!" Gerald interrupted the young couple which caused them to turn and look at their friends who had been watching. "Can you just cool it with the flirting already?" Red pigment flooded to Arnold and Helga's cheeks as they realized they'd been caught in the act, though Gerald hardly seemed to care by the sound of his next statement. "Let's just get our tickets and then you guys can go and flirt to your hearts' content while dressed like fat wrestlers. And while you two are off doing that, Phoebe and I here can do some flirting of our own, right Pheebs?"
Phoebe raised her hand up to her mouth to let out a soft giggle at Gerald's insinuation while simultaneously nodding her head in agreement to his suggestion.
With a heavy roll of her eyes, Helga brushed off Gerald's words. "Smooth, Geraldo. You're a regular Casanova, aren't you?"
Proudly smiling while reaching up to adjust his tie with an air of confidence, Gerald agreed wholeheartedly to Helga's sarcastic comment he knew hadn't been meant to be taken seriously. "I'm such a Casanova that they might as well start calling me a supernova, Pataki."
"Riiiiiight," Helga replied skeptically as Phoebe chimed in to add some of her own wisdom.
"Actually, Gerald, a Casanova is completely different from a supernova," she began to explain as her date maintained a fierce stare-down with his best friend's girlfriend. "A Casanova is a term relating to a smooth-talking charmer who has no difficulty seducing beautiful women; often referred to in connection with the classic tale of Don Juan."
Distracted from Phoebe's defining, Gerald allowed himself to blink which in turn made Helga smile a victorious grin at him from where she stood just a few steps ahead as her best friend continued to speak. "A supernova, however, is an astronomical term for a star which has expanded and consequently exploded into a very bright, well, explosion. Not to be confused with the word's root of 'nova' which also happens to be a word for a star exploding, except a supernova happens to have more energy behind it."
Helga took in a deep breath before at last breaking her eye contact with Gerald to look over at his date who had finished her educated explanation. "Thanks for the astronomy lesson, Pheebs. Now, how about we go and get those tickets before Tall Hair Boy over here makes some other uneducated statement, shall we?"
Leading the way, Helga began walking towards the cafeteria once again with Arnold following close behind her. Further back was Phoebe who was anxious to begin her date with Gerald who, at the very end of the group, shook his head in irritation before muttering to himself, "So much for clever smooth-talking..." With another shake of his head, he too began walking in the direction of the lunchroom; at last following his three friends who were already fairly far ahead of him.
The four preteens stood stunned on the linoleum of the old cafeteria which had been decked out to look festive for the dance. Despite it being much later in the day than any of them had ever been in there, the cafeteria was nearly unrecognizable with it's decorations trying to convey it's tropical theme. While the large room was usually filled to the brim with long lunch tables and hundreds of kids, tonight it was adorned according to what Rhonda had described to the student body before she had her little fit. Helga assumed that as some kind of compromise the other members of the committee agreed to let Rhonda decorate like she'd wanted to on the condition that she remain confined to these four walls.
Lining the walls of the open space were various plastic palm trees illuminated with green and dark orange lights on the leaves and trunks. Just above the tallest of the palm trees began the strings of lights shaped like stars and lit up by solely clear bulbs. To finish off the overall look of the cafeteria there hung blue paper lanterns which contrasted with the decorations. Whoever had hung them had seemingly spent a lot of time doing so as the lanterns were perfectly spaced from each other to look aesthetically pleasing. Naturally, the lanterns were probably lit with battery-operated candles, but even so they seemed to do the trick in adding to Rhonda's precious theme.
To top it all off, tucked away in the corner of the lunchroom, resided the selfie station Rhonda had boasted so much about. It was a scene that looked to fit her theme of 'Caribbean Sunset' to a t- all the way down to the sandbox Rhonda had been forced to use to contain her imported Pink Sand Beach's sand. Two tiki torches jutted up from where they were stuck in the box and portrayed fire with some air, orange light and strips of fabric which danced in the wind the fan blew from inside of the torch. Behind the serene scene was a backdrop that pictured a beautiful pink and orange sunset across some beach that overlooked calm waters.
And, of course, no selfie station is complete without matching props. Sitting just out of the scene was a black table covered in various props that included, but were not limited to: various colored leis made of what looked like real flowers, sunglasses, cups made of coconuts complete with a straw and umbrella toothpick (but no liquid), a selection of hats, sticks in a cup that had different things like monocles, mustaches and big lips on the end to hold up to one's face and a bunch of expensive-looking fans.
Adding to the general theme of the decorations was a bluetooth speaker carefully hidden behind one of the tables that were set up around the perimeter of the room. Coming from the speakers was the sound of waves at full blast in an effort to not be drowned out by the other noises infiltrating the carefully constructed ambiance. Unfortunately for Rhonda who probably cared more than anybody else, the speakers could only be heard when standing fairly close.
Helga looked around at the decor surrounding her from all sides and shook her head in disbelief. "Wow. Princess really outdid herself on this little venture."
"I'm surprised she was even able to do all of this," Arnold responded as Helga turned to look at him with a laugh.
"Or that she even still wanted to after her tantrum and dramatic announcement of her resignation," she said before her eyes caught Harold who seemed preoccupied with the snack table he was treating like an all-you-can-eat buffet. "Looks like piggy over there found the trough," Helga noted more to herself than any of her friends.
Even though she'd tried to be quiet, she hadn't been silent and by the glare she was receiving from Arnold, she immediately realized she probably should have kept that observation inside of a thought bubble rather than voice it aloud.
"Right, sorry," she apologized with a sigh. "You know what they say- old habits die hard, am I right Geraldo?"
Minimally shaking his head without so much as a look in her direction, Gerald answered her question so fast that he almost cut her off before her nickname for him could finish passing her lips. "Not at all, Pataki."
"Always knew I could count on you, Johanssen," Helga deadpanned while sending a stink eye in her counterpart's direction.
"Can't you two get along for even one minute?" The football-headed boy asked in exasperation from his girlfriend and best friend.
"I too agree with Arnold," Phoebe added from where she had been silently standing beside Gerald. "It isn't unbeknownst to us of your feelings towards one another, however, for the sake of the dance, couldn't you two attempt to at least act cordial to one another?"
Turning to look at Helga more directly, Gerald took in a deep breath before outstretching his hand towards his classmate. "Temporary truce?"
Glancing over to Gerald's hand which remain waiting for her own, Helga soon looked away and waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, fine. Truce, okay? Now, I suggest we quit wasting time trying to be the next four goons to skip merrily on down the yellow-brick-road and instead we just go get our stinkin' tickets already."
Slowly taking his hand back, Gerald pressed his lips in a hard line in hopes of controlling himself. Rather than making a comment he would soon regret, the dark-skinned boy simply took another deep breath and said in a calm voice, "Why don't you lead the way, Helga?"
Smirking at his suddenly formal attitude towards her, Helga perked up and said with mock sincerity, "It would be my distinct pleasure, Mr. Johanssen," before stalking off in the direction of the table other people had been collecting their tickets from.
Standing just behind the table Helga was headed for was Rhonda's main cohort and lead disciple, Nadine. Directly next to her, leaning against the table in a relaxed fashion while sitting with his back predominately facing Helga was Peapod Kid.
Eyeing him curiously, Helga's thoughts momentarily roamed as she considered how much the boy had changed since their days as youngsters together in the fourth grade at P.S 118. Of course, moving back and forth from their hometown to big cities all over the world due to his father's business taking off internationally and making his family possibly even richer than the Wellington-Lloyds could certainly cause a guy like Peapod Kid to have an identity crisis or two.
The dark-haired boy was wearing a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the buttons undone at the top to reveal a plain white undershirt. His pants appeared to be pressed black dress-pants and resting on his face were his usual glasses; although his usual wire frames had long since been replaced by a fancy name-brand thick-framed black plastic pair with the lenses permanently tinted as if it made him more mysterious.
To Helga, it seemed unfair that he could look so dressed up and yet so casual all at once. Compared to him, the group Helga found herself a part of were relatively hopeless; especially the girls. Like so many of her other classmates, Peapod Kid had probably dressed too nicely for such a casual event. However, the difference between Helga's group and Peapod Kid was that once he noticed his clothing was polar opposite to what the older kids had on, he immediately adjusted himself to coincide with those around him. In a stroke of brilliance, he dressed down his originally classy clothes and effectively set off a trend that spread like a ripple throughout the rest of the boys in the grade.
Alas, it was just one of the many reasons why Peapod was so popular- he was quick to adapt and lead the pack with his actions. That, and there was no shortage of girls who worshipped the ground he walked on.
According to the whispers that filled the hallways of the seventh grade wing, most of the girls in the class had developed quite the crush on Peapod Kid. Even Rhonda herself; the self-declared queen of the grade (and one day, she hoped, the entire school), had fallen under his spell.
Unfortunately for Miss Lloyd and the rest of his adoring fans, Peapod Kid proved not to return such feelings for anyone.
Anything that is besides Nadine.
After all, Nadine was the girl he had maintained a crush on from late fourth grade year until now and it was obvious he'd had his sights set on dating her ever since he had returned to Hillwood. Naturally Rhonda disapproved and subsequently blasted Nadine in the hope it might win her Peapod's affection. Much to her dismay, the argument simply pushed her best friend into Peapod's open arms and Rhonda lost the battle.
Of course, just because Rhonda lost the battle certainly didn't mean that she had to admit she was wrong for starting the fight in the first place. Eventually, she posted a long post to all of her accounts saying she had elected to 'take one for the team' and 'seed him' over to Nadine in a microscopic gesture of guilt. Thankfully after that the drama had seemingly ended and Nadine and Peapod had practically been inseparable since.
Of course, after his year abroad living in countless foreign countries with the best amenities, his grand return to Hillwood in the tail-end of summer break signaled a desperate need to re-brand himself. In addition to his new wardrobe, he quickly announced that he would no longer be referred to as 'Peapod Kid' and would henceforth only be called by his actual name of Carson.
Although, much to 'Carson's' dismay, hardly anybody participated in calling him by his proper name and more often than not chose to opt out for the popular moniker of 'Peapod Kid' instead.
"Hi Helga!" A cheerful Nadine greeted pulled Helga from her thoughts the moment she was close enough to hear the popular girl's words.
"Hey Nadine," she said casually before looking over to Carson who simply ignored her. "Peapod Kid."
Hearing the use of his despised nickname, Carson spun around slowly on his seat to turn and face Helga with what were probably narrowed eyes hiding behind his dark-tinted lenses. "It's Carson, now, Pataki."
Flashing him a sarcastic toothy-grin, Helga soon lost it to the return of her bored expression as she readjusted her attention to Nadine. "We're here to pick up those tickets for whatever weird activities you have around here."
"Oh, my," Carson addressed the easily-irritated tall blonde girl, "Helga, I am terribly, terribly sorry but it appears that we gave out our last tickets to a group right before you."
"Ha. Ha," Helga uttered in a caustic tone. "Very funny, Peapod."
Carson let out a low growl to the smirking Helga as Nadine ignored the feud brewing between the two. "Don't be silly, Carson," she said while lightly setting a hand on his shoulder which caused him to lean back slightly and let go of some of the tension growing inside of him.
"Who said I was being silly, Nadine?" He countered to Nadine as Arnold, Gerald and Phoebe finally approached the ticket table to stand beside the final member of their group.
"Nadine, Carson," Arnold happily stated their own names to the couple who in turn looked to the football-headed boy with joyous faces.
"Hey Arnold!" Nadine returned with a beaming smile of her own.
"Arnold, it is a pleasure to see you tonight," Carson replied with a small nod of his head in acknowledgment before tilting his head mildly in curiosity before asking, "here to collect your tickets for the dance I assume?"
Turning her head to face the direction of her boyfriend, Helga looked at him briefly before snapping her head back to look at Carson with a twisted expression. "You just said you didn't have anymore."
A lone brow raised on Carson's face as a smile teased at the corners of his lips. "I do for Arnold."
"Carson!" Nadine scolded while taking her hand off of his shoulder with haste.
Without so much of a look in her vicinity, Carson shrugged his shoulders and without much care simply told Nadine, "Arnold is a true up-and-comer. I predict that, given a change in his dating preferences, he could be very, very high-up in this school's hierarchy."
With a roll of her eyes, Helga reached up to cross her arms loosely over her chest and shifted her weight onto her left leg while opening her mouth to shove a witty retort into Carson's smug face.
However, despite the words he had heard the most popular guy in the grade say, Gerald was anxious to find out Carson's opinion on himself. Eagerly, he spoke up in a trying-too-hard-to-be-cool voice while adjusting his stance to what can only be described as the caricature of a relaxed position. "What about this fly-lookin' guy?" Gerald asked, "You got enough tickets to throw a few this way for a fine lady and her boo?"
Reaching up to pull his glasses minimally down his nose for his brown irises to peek out over the dark rims, Carson looked Gerald over before returning his glasses to their normal home where they could hide his eyes.
"I suppose I have enough," Carson answered after a brief pause before adding, "for someone as mid-range on the food chain such as yourself and your... boo."
Oblivious to Carson's verbal belief that Gerald ranked only as far up as mediocre in his esteemed opinion, the dark-complexioned tween nodded his head with a large smile before turning to look at Phoebe who only offered a mildly disappointed expression his way.
Ignoring the exchange between Gerald and Carson, Arnold took a step towards the table and looked both Nadine and Carson directly in the eye while wearing a sincere smile. "Since you're just joking, is there any way we could get our tickets? I think I speak for all of us when I say we can't wait to check out all of these fun things you have going on around here."
Nadine grinned before counting off twelve tickets and ripping them off with haste at the perforated edge. "There's three activities that require tickets: karaoke, the bouncy house and inflatable sumo wrestling," the girl explained with excitement. "Of course, you can always buy more. Individual tickets are a dollar fifty or you can get five for five!"
With a nod of his head, Arnold reached out to take the tickets from Nadine. "Thanks, guys- we'll see you later." Pivoting around, the blonde boy lead their group out of the cafeteria and back into the foyer where Eugene and Sheena were still dominating the karaoke machine.
"Well, I can assume we won't be participating in the Japanese-invented activity of 'karaoke,'" Phoebe murmured while looking on at the pair harmonize to another showtune; this time a song from the popular musical, Eugene, Eugene!. "At least not at the moment."
Crossing her arms with a lackluster expression, Helga eyed her friend with the smallest of smiles. "You got that right, Pheebs." Turning to face her boyfriend, Helga shot him a quizzical look. "So, my little elf, you ready to put on a fat suit and fight me to the death?"
Smirking slightly, Arnold narrowed his eyes while donning a playful expression and raising a lone eyebrow. "Betsy and the five avengers, prepare to meet," he lifted his fists with confidence and continued, "Johnny and his... five outlaws."
Helga's smile dropped to change her expression from joyous to deadpan as she looked at her blonde boyfriend. "Yeah..." she said with an elongated vowel and reached over to pat the football-headed boy on his shoulder. "Let's leave the naming-of-the-fists thing to me, shall we?"
With a small nod, he shot her a heart-stopping smile and Helga tried not to visibly swoon from his pearly white grin and half-lidded gaze.
Pulling herself from Arnold's magnetism, Helga turned to look over at Gerald and Phoebe who were chattering between themselves. "Hey, uh, we're gonna head over for that boxing, wrestling thing in the gym. You guys coming or what?"
Turning her head to look up at her dashing date, Phoebe shook her head while keeping eye-contact with Gerald. "I believe Gerald and I will look around at the other festivities for a bit."
In obvious agreement, Gerald raised his brow while eyeing the short, dark-haired girl. "Oh yeah. Or maybe we can head for the actual dance and get our groove thang on."
"Groove thang? What are you, 50?" Helga retorted with a small smirk, although Gerald and Phoebe paid her no mind.
In fact, they acted as though they hadn't heard the words she'd said or even noticed her and Arnold were still in the vicinity.
With a small giggle, Phoebe quickly added, "I'm not entirely sure I posses those kinds of... moves, Gerald."
"You kidding me, Phoebe?" He responded in mock surprise. "You just gotta feel the music, you know?" With a few snaps in time with an imaginary beat, Gerald began to sway and move to display some of his own 'sweet moves.' "You see?" Gerald asked while continuing to jive to and fro in front of her. "It's all in the shoulders and hips."
A bright pink hue began to fill in Phoebe's cheeks. "You'll teach me?"
"By the time we're done, you'll be a master- probably even better than me."
Taking a sharp breath, Phoebe continued to gaze at her date who had now stopped his dancing. "I highly doubt I'd be able to surpass you and your dancing, Gerald."
"Criminy," Helga muttered to herself before turning to look at Arnold who watched his best friend flirt in front of him- and this time with success. "We'd better get going before they start doing more than dancing..."
Suddenly noticing her friend's presence, Phoebe turned her head to look at both Arnold and Helga. "I'm sorry, Helga. Did you say something?"
Following suit, Arnold and Gerald both turned to face Helga and she reached up to cross her arms over her chest and roll her eyes before answering. "Just get a room, already. Arnoldo and I here are headed off to pummel each other in fat suits."
Pivoting on her foot, the tall blonde turned around to lead the way towards the gymnasium with Arnold following her closely behind. As Phoebe and Gerald watched their friends walk away, the pair's hearts began to collectively race with the knowledge that the rest of the night was entirely up to them.
Hanson Middle School was home to roughly 300 students per class making the school crowded with students for their school dances. Teenagers forced their way through narrow hallways that felt more like rivers jam packed with fish trying to swim their way upstream. Inside the large gymnasium an entire sea of students bumped and grinded on one another to the loud music; their bodies fueled by hormones and gratuitous amounts of sugar found in the energy drinks and/or soda they consumed.
Pushing aside anyone who was in the way of their path to the main area of the dance, Helga forced her way through the crowd with Arnold just on her heels; the duo making their way into the doorway which ultimately led to the school's gymnasium.
The partition for the gym was up to effectively separate the large open space into two different rooms. On the left lay the dance itself with hoards of students chattering, laughing and dancing under the blinking, rainbow-colored lights. On the right, however, was the bouncy castle that had been talked about briefly in comparison to the other activity that stood just beside it- a large wrestling ring.
Inside of the ring were two students both Helga and Arnold recognized. The two figures were donned in inflatable suits made to look like the body of a sumo wrestler. Atop their heads were what resembled a stereotypical sumo hairstyle. As Helga narrowed her eyes in an attempt to see more clearly, she soon realized that what her two classmates were wearing was indeed a helmet; a helmet made to not only add to the sumo-wrestler-aesthetic, but also to aid the wrestlers in the name of safety.
When Helga and Arnold finally approached their destination, the tall blonde girl crossed her arms and smirked at the boys fighting one another in the ring. It was apparent to her that, from what she knew of Stinky and Sid, they had clearly found their way into the ring for their chance to fight each other without consequence.
That is if Sid screaming in a high-pitched, bloody murder shriek while desperately trying to run away from Stinky who slowly waddled towards him in his fat suit could even be considered fighting without consequence.
"Look at those goons," Helga commented to Arnold as they took their place in the waiting queue, "Seems like a waste for anybody to fight Sid and his precious beetle boots."
"I don't know," Arnold replied as he too looked on at the 'fight.' "I'm sure they're having fun."
Glancing at Arnold briefly, Helga returned her attention to Sid who was trying to climb out of the ring while still wearing the sumo-suit. His arms flailed about as he tried to grasp the ropes and hoist himself over with little success. All the while, Stinky was working his way towards him with his arms outstretched making Sid only scream louder for him to get away.
"Right..." the preteen muttered softly with a minimal nod of her head. "Sid looks to be having a great time. I mean, look at the way he's clawing his way out of the ring for cripes sake."
"Helga..." the blonde boy scolded which only made his girlfriend sigh and drop her arms to her sides in mild irritation.
"What? You really expect me to believe that that-" she gestured up with her arm to Sid who was currently trying to straddle the ring's rope in an effort to escape Stinky, "-is what fun looks like?"
"Maybe he's just playing it up?" Arnold suggested.
Just as Helga scoffed at Arnold's ridiculous notion, Sid let out one final scream before at last falling from the ring to land on the gym's lacquered wooden floor in a muffled PLOP.
Slowly, Helga turned her head to look at Arnold with a satisfied smile resting on her painted lips. "I rest my case, football-head."
Ever the optimist, Arnold tried once more with little success. "Still, he-"
"He's a wimp, Arnoldo," Helga interrupted. "The kid's practically been screaming about every little thing since he was born."
Taking a slow and deep breath, Arnold relaxed the muscles in his body before replying to Helga's statement. "You and I both know that Sid has his moments, Helga."
"Yeah, okay, Hair Boy," she said under her breath and out of earshot from her boyfriend, though he knew she had said something even though he couldn't hear just what it was.
It wasn't long after Sid's dramatic exit from his match with Stinky that the two were helped out of their sumo suits and ushered away from the ring. As they wandered off, Helga grinned to herself before calling out to them as they walked passed.
"Nice moves in there, Beetle Boots," Helga hollered as Sid turned to glower in her direction at the nickname.
"Yeah," Stinky agreed with a laugh while elbowing his long-nosed friend in the side. "I reckon I sure gotcha good, huh Sid?"
"Laugh all you want, Stinky," Sid shifted his glare towards his taller friend. "I could have beaten you if I wanted to, alright? I just... I just... hadn't warmed up yet, that's all."
As the two boys continued to bicker with one another just beside Arnold and Helga, the youngest Pataki found herself distracted by an all too familiar figure standing at the back of the gymnasium. Her hair was shadowed by the dim lighting and though she couldn't see the details of the clothing the figure had on, Helga knew instinctively that it was none other than Lila Sawyer.
Grinding her teeth together in irritation, Helga stared at the girl who was in turn staring at what appeared to be Arnold with a pleasant expression gracing her perfect face. Even though she tried to talk herself off of the ledge from confronting the red-haired girl, Helga couldn't help but allow her hands to curl into fists as thoughts of jealousy began to flood her mind.
Noticing the sudden tensing of Helga's hands at her side, Arnold reached over to set a hand on her tight fist. "Helga," he called to her in a soft, but louder than the music, voice. "Are you okay?"
Shaking her head to pull herself from the rage that was clouding her vision, Helga forced a smile and nodded her head. "Oh, you know me, Arnoldo. Just as peachy as can be."
Glancing back to the direction Helga had been fixated on, he too spotted Lila who's eyes were focused on something in their general direction. "I know you're looking at Lila."
"Lila? Lila Sawyer? What's wrong with Lila Sawyer?" Sid asked at rapid-fire speed as though he was fishing for some nugget of information.
"Oh there's plenty-" Helga began but was quickly thwarted by Arnold who began talking over her.
"Nothing's wrong with her, Sid," he stated as his blonde date narrowed her eyes in his direction. "She's just looking over here, that's all."
"Like you don't know what she's looking at, Shortman," Helga snarled with heavy insinuation.
"And you do?" He countered.
"I think I have a pretty good idea, thank you very much. And if your enormous head had a brain that properly fit inside of your skull, you'd have a pretty good idea too."
The comment was harsher than Helga usually put out these days and it caught Arnold by surprise for her to talk to him in such a manor. Sure, he was used to her picking on him, but ever since they started dating she had toned down the level of her teasing to more playful than hurtful.
For Arnold, however, her words cut like a knife and he found himself feeling sad and dejected, but mostly disappointed. He was disappointed that even though they were at the dance together as dates, Helga still believed the lie she'd made up herself about the nature of his and Lila's conversation. It seemed to him that no matter what he said or did, Helga would always blame Lila for her insecurities and the oddly-shaped-headed boy suddenly felt a surge of confidence and determination in his body that welled up inside of him, ready to explode.
Arnold Shortman decided that at that very moment, he was going to prove to Helga G. Pataki once and for all that Lila was of no threat to their relationship.
"Maybe we should see what she's looking at then, since you want to know so bad," he began before reaching his arm up into the air and waving Lila over to come and join the four of them as they stood together in line for the activity they'd all but forgotten about.
"What are you doing, Arnold?" Sid asked and Helga clenched her jaw before reiterating the question just posed.
"Yes, Arnold, what exactly are you doing?"
"I reckon he's telling Lila over there to come join us," Stinky chose to answer as Lila took notice of Arnold's flailing hand in the air and offered a warm smile before beginning to carefully wander through the thick waters made up of what seemed like hundreds students blocking her path.
"DOI," Helga exclaimed while throwing her arms out in exasperation. "Criminy, Stink-O! I meant why is he asking little miss perfect to come over here and ruin the night!"
"Well garsh, Helga," the tallest member of the small group began, "I don't think Miss Lila could ever ruin something. I reckon she's just about the prettiest, most kindest girl in the whole grade."
"Sounds like you might like her, like her..." Arnold egged his friend on though he never had the chance to reply.
"Who, Stinky?" Sid spoke for the two of them. "Boy Howdy! That's a good one, Arnold! Stinky doesn't like anybody like that, do you?"
"Oh no, Sid," Stinky said as Sid nodded his head triumphantly but quickly lost his confidence as his friend finished his sentence. "I reckon that I got more feelings for Lila than I do about lemon puddin'..."
"Stinky!" His best friend yelled.
Hurrying to get his question out before Lila at last made her way through the crowd to join their group where they stood, Arnold spoke quickly. "Why don't you ask her out then? I bet she'd say yes."
"I sure would love to, Arnold," he said with a forlorn sigh and shook his head, "I just know I'd screw it up somehow. Especially with someone as darn close to perfect as Lila."
"Give it a try, Stinky," Arnold encouraged as Lila began to close in on the small group. "We'll be right here to support you, won't we, Helga?"
But Helga wasn't listening.
Rather than listening to the conversation happening in front of her, Helga had been transfixed by her red-headed nemesis whom she saw as a direct threat to her relationship with Arnold. Despite Phoebe's advice or her own sister Olga's advice or even Stella, Arnold's mother's advice, Helga couldn't shake the feeling of severe anxiety bubbling up under her skin. With every inch that Lila grew nearer, the nerves in Helga's body felt as though they were being set ablaze and her muscles began tensed without command. It was in that moment that she knew she had to do something, anything to stop Lila from sinking her teeth into her beloved.
Thinking fast and impulsively, Helga began speaking at the speed of a seasoned auctioneer to Arnold who watched her in utter confusion. "You know what? I'm not really in the mood for this thing anymore, are you, Arnold? No, I didn't think so. Let's uh, let's go over, over... somewhere else and talk, just you and me, huh?"
Yanking on his arm, Helga pulled her football-headed boyfriend away from Sid and Stinky who both tilted their heads in unison and stared as the two headed towards the other side of the partition.
Phew! Helga thought to herself. You did it, Helga ol' girl. Now we can dance in each other's arms while staring deeply into each other's eyes like we're supposed to. Just Arnold and me, drifting and gliding across the dance floor like some cartoon prince and princess.
Arnold on the other hand sighed to himself as he followed Helga and looked over his shoulder toward Lila. He continued to watch as Lila witnessed Sid say something to Stinky before they walked away in the opposite direction of where she now stood alone. With a dip in her smile, she stopped in her tracks before turning around on her heel to walk back in the direction of where she'd come from; a little less pep in her usually bouncy steps.
I'll just have to try again, Arnold thought to himself.
I just gotta make sure they don't run into each other again, Helga silently told herself.
If I do that, then the rest of the night will be just fine, they thought simultaneously.
And while they considered these things to themselves and imagined what the remainder of their night might entail should their plans work out, it was Helga who would be right in the end.
Lila Sawyer truly was what would destroy their young relationship.
She was, and by the end of the night, she would.
Thank you one and all for being patient in waiting for this chapter! Besides it being the most difficult one I've had to write yet as it is mostly a lead in chapter to the next one, my irl has been NUTS so i apologize for taking so long. I had actually originally planned to do the whole dance in one chapter, but I found that with everything I wanted to fit in, I would have to split it in half in order to accomplish what I wanted without the chapter getting too lengthy.
Anyway, please be sure to leave me a REVIEW and let me know your thoughts on this chapter. I truly appreciate each and every one of you for continuing on this journey with me and being so supportive. See you at the next chapter!
xo
Polkahotness
ps- before i get comments about Helga being too mean, please keep in mind her vulnerabilities leading up to these events. I obviously love Helga and i know she isn't horrendous, she's just kind of got blinders on right now and is a little fixated and VERY insecure about Lila which i think is completely in character for her.