Arnold stood at his locker while gathering his books for his next class. With a few minutes still remaining before next period began, the boy with the cornflower hair took his time while pondering inconsequential things. Among those thoughts was what his mother would be making for dinner that night or if his best friend Gerald had worked out the kinks in his idea for the school dance proposal he was planning for Phoebe.
As he bent down to reach at the bottom of his locker for a pencil that had fallen, a soft and gentle voice called out his name from nearby. "Arnold?"
Turning his head to look up at the source of the voice, Arnold smiled and stood up to face them more directly. "Oh, hey Lila. You need something?"
"As a matter of fact, Arnold, I do. Just ever so much," she responded with a look of melancholia behind her eyes.
Piquing his curiosity and always willing to help a fellow human being, Arnold nodded his oddly-shaped head. "Okay, sure. Is something wrong?"
Looking down at her feet briefly, she returned her line of vision to meet Arnold's before explaining further. "Nothing is wrong so much as I need your help with something. And, well, if I'm being perfectly honest with myself, it's more a someone than a something."
"I'm not sure I'm following you, Lila," Arnold said with a scrunch of his brow.
Nodding her head and taking a deep breath, Lila prepared herself before coming out with what she had been attempting to say. "You see, Arnold, I was wondering if you would be willing to do me a favor." Her eyes shifted to look down at her hands which were clasped as they usually were by her waist. She wrung her hands together anxiously while continuing with her request. "I was hoping to go to the dance with Stinky Peterson but I'm afraid I'm just oh too shy to do it myself and...and..."
"You were hoping that I would do it for you?" The football-headed boy finished for her.
Sheepishly, without raising her head, Lila's eyes raised to look at Arnold from beneath her eyelashes. "Would you, Arnold? I know we have a somewhat sordid history between us, with me like liking you and then you like liking me after I'd stopped like liking you... But I was hoping that we might be able to put all of that behind us since we're in middle school now."
Offering a small smile, Arnold sighed. "I'll help you with Stinky, but Lila, I'm not going to ask him for you."
"I-I'm sorry?" The freckled girl asked in her still sweet and polite voice, though it couldn't mask the shock wavering in her tone.
"I think you should ask him yourself."
"Oh Arnold, I'm certain that I couldn't possibly-" She tried to excuse herself as Arnold shook his head with his smile still planted on his lips.
"You can, Lila," he reassured the nervous red-head, "And you will."
"I don't know..." her voice sounded uncertain but the blonde boy wasn't ready to give up on her plight just yet.
"Do you think it might be easier for you if some of your friends were around when you asked?" He suggested. "It might come across more natural and casual that way. Plus, you'd have a support system to encourage you."
"Well, I-" Lila started before shrugging her shoulders and finishing her statement. "I guess that would be alright."
Turning back to face his locker and grab the remainder of his supplies for the next class, Arnold offered up his next suggestion. "Maybe during lunch we could sit together and casually ask him. You, me, Gerald, Helga and-"
Lila was quick to interrupt him, "Helga?"
"Yes, Helga, we're dating, remember?" A nervous laugh escaped Arnold's mouth. "Why wouldn't we sit together during lunch?"
A pause settled between the two as Lila waited for Arnold to figure out her hesitation at being around his girlfriend. As a few moments passed, Lila upturned her lips in a sad smile before speaking once more. "Arnold, I'm just ever so sure that Helga, well... she doesn't like me very much."
"Helga's harmless, Lila. She's a softie at heart, trust me," He tried to defend the girl he knew was not the horrible person everyone else saw.
Even at his assuasive words, Lila remained firm in her opinion. "That may be true and I believe her to be a kind person inside but...You do remember the beginning of the fifth grade, don't you?"
Arnold closed his eyes in defeat at the point Lila was trying to make by jogging his memory of the nickname Helga had indirectly given her. "Yes, I remember." After a beat, Arnold thought up another idea that could work if done correctly. "What if we asked him at the dance?"
Intrigued, Lila pushed for more details. "Whatever do you mean?"
"You wouldn't be going to the dance together," Arnold began slowly as if building up to his final idea. "but if we time it right we could ask him at the dance and there would be less pressure behind asking to dance instead of asking to go to the dance together. Then it would open up the floor for the two of you to be together one on one and maybe then you'll have the courage to ask him outright on a date."
Lila's smile widened at the plan posed. "I could do that..."
"Great!" Arnold exclaimed while digging in the top compartment of his locker for the water bottle he'd stashed in there earlier in the day. "And don't worry, I'll be there so you can hopefully feel a little less pressure."
"And Helga?"
The sound of his girlfriend's name rang in his ears as he took hold of his water bottle and dropped his arm to the side while gripping it tightly. With his free hand, he reached up and set it on the edge of the locker door as if ready to shut it without a moment's notice. "What about her?"
"Arnold," Lila began before her clasped hands lifted to remain clasped in front of her chest as though she were quite literally begging and groveling to him. "Please, please don't tell her. I'm just oh so afraid she may say something or bring back that hurtful name and—and... I'm ever so certain it may ruin everything. Please."
Looking down at his feet, the boy reached up to rub at the back of his neck like he typically did in an effort to calm himself down from whatever was happening. It felt grounding to reassure himself this way, almost like pinching oneself to be sure they aren't dreaming.
Slowly, Arnold lifted his head and stared at the back of his locker as though the answer to his ethical dilemma were written on the metal wall. On the one hand, he didn't believe in keeping secrets in a relationship and that both parties should always, and would always be honest with one another. Yet, as Lila pleaded just beside him, he knew that he couldn't tell her secret, even if he decided not to help her. Lila trusted him and she did have a good point about Helga- should she find out about Lila's feelings for Stinky before he knew of them, there was no telling what she would do.
Sure, she may be with Arnold now and the Lila turmoil was long over, but Helga still hadn't let go of the animosity she still clearly felt for one Lila Sawyer.
Arnold tapped a finger against the cool steel of his locker door before taking a deep breath. As he shut the door, he allowed himself to nod his head solemnly. Yet as he nodded his head he knew deep down that this decision would either work out as planned and possibly end the issues between Lila and Helga once and for all, or it would destroy his budding relationship with her entirely.
Just as he had come to terms with the possible consequences of agreeing to hide this from Helga, Lila jumped for joy and enveloped the weirdly-shaped-headed boy in a tight hug. "Oh thank you, Arnold! Thank you just ever so much!"
It was the voice that echoed out next that alerted him his decision wouldn't be an easy one to commit to. "Hey hey hey hey HEY! Just what do you think YOU'RE doing?"
Arnold blinked himself out of his memories as he followed Helga to where the actual dance was occurring on the opposite side of the partition.
In front of Helga and Arnold's eyes were hoards of students pressed tight together like packaged sardines. Together the teenagers and preteens alike jumped and grinded one another in a way that made Helga scrunch her face together uncomfortably.
"Criminy, it's like a pit full of hormones in there," she mumbled to herself, though Arnold didn't seem to hear.
His eyes were scanning the crowd in search for Stinky; still determined to finish his mission of getting the tall lanky boy with his red-headed friend as he had promised her.
"Look at Princess over there," Helga said louder for her boyfriend to hear. Rhonda was dressed to look fashionable no doubt, however, the young girl had somehow heard from others of the appropriate dress code and didn't look as overdressed as nearly everybody else in their grade.
Helga eyed Rhonda's outfit which was made up of a tight red shirt with flared out short sleeves and a short dark-wash jean skirt. Around her neck was a red choker and a longer gold necklace that was surely real and around her waist was a matching gold belt that was clearly for show more than functionality. The ensemble was complete with red wedged shoes that buckled around her ankle and made her tower over most of the boys surrounding her to oogle over her beauty. She, like Helga and Phoebe, had chosen to wear makeup as well though hers was much heavier and made her look like some teen-scream in the latest gossip magazine.
Shaking her head, Helga continued to try and engage Arnold in a conversation despite his lack of recognition at her words. "I mean, the girl may not be overdressed like we are but she still sticks out like a sore thumb compared to everyone else."
Helga kept her eyes on Rhonda as she flirted away with the collection of boys vying for her attention; one of whom was none other than Curly. It was funny to Helga how despite all of her rejections, Curly never gave up on trying to get Rhonda on his arm. With a smirk, Helga thought to herself that perhaps her and Curly weren't all that different- they were both just two people in love with someone who never returned such affections. In Helga's case, however, she had come out on top and at last won her beloved. Secretly she hoped that the same happiness may one day come for Curly too- even though the kid was obviously crazy.
As Rhonda excused herself from the group of boys and gave a kiss on the cheek to the 8th grade boy she'd come with, Helga's eyes followed her as she wandered away and ran into none other than Harold. Squinting her eyes, Helga watched intently as the two shared a short conversation only to rush out of the gymnasium doors and disappear into the hallway together.
Helga's eyes widened as a smile tugged at her lips. "Did you see that?" She asked and turned to Arnold with a look of joyous surprise only to have her expression fall to one of utter disappointment.
As she looked at her blonde beau, she saw that he hadn't been listening to her at all and as his eyes were fixated towards the corner of the gymnasium. There, a small group of students stood against the wall- the wallflowers of the dance. Following his line of vision, her eyes quickly narrowed as she spotted the familiar young-woman that was the object of her hatred.
Gritting her teeth, Helga wondered what it could be about Lila that not only Arnold, but so many boys found intriguing. It wasn't like she was witty like Helga was or even as smart as her, though she hardly showed her intelligence off. Subsequently, Helga came to the conclusion that it had to be the rarity of her beauty and her overall do-gooded-ness that drew people in. To Helga, her overwhelmingly optimistic and perfect self was a nauseating quality that proved for a boring relationship, but maybe she was wrong. Maybe there was some special thing about Miss Sawyer to make her so wanted in comparison to herself.
For all she knew, maybe it was that spin-the-bottle kiss that drew Arnold in and haunted him ever since. Maybe to him, Helga's lips weren't as soft or maybe she pressed hers into his too hard. Maybe he didn't see the fireworks Helga did or feel the tingly sensation that traveled all over Helga's body whenever they kissed as though his lips were the conductor to a surge of electricity. As much as Helga didn't want to think about it, maybe their kiss made the ones her and him shared less special and the feelings he once felt for Helga had been extinguished by Lila's own lips.
With a big gulp, Helga promised herself that she wouldn't let Arnold get away this easily, and not for Lila stinkin' Sawyer. And while she didn't exactly know how to accomplish such a thing, she knew someone who might- Phoebe. At the very least, her best friend could offer her up some advice and calm her nerves.
"Hey, Arnoldo," Helga called to the football-headed boy who tore himself from where he'd zoned out trying to figure out how to execute his match-making plan. "Whattya say we-"
"You want to dance, Helga?" He interrupted and Helga's eyes widened slightly in surprise.
"D-dance?" She stuttered out before turning to look out over the vast crowd of bumping and grinding teenagers. "You want to dance like... like that?"
Arnold shrugged his shoulders before grabbing her hand and pulling her into the sea of students. "Let's go!"
Together they pushed their way through the moving bodies around them. All the while, Helga felt Arnold's hand tight around hers and she smiled at his sudden desire to dance with her and in a way she never thought he would want to. While Helga found the grinding to be almost too close for comfort, she was excited at the prospect of dancing with her one and only true love. Maybe, she thought, maybe he wasn't really looking at Lila. Maybe...
Her thoughts were soon halted once they reached the DJ towards the corner of the gym. It was there that Arnold and Helga had run into Sid and Stinky once again who were trying to talk to the DJ himself. Though she couldn't hear what they were asking, the man continued to shake his head towards them while hitting buttons on his computer to control the music.
"What do you wanna be by these two goons for?" Helga hollered over the even louder music coming from the speakers that were now mere feet away from where they stood.
"What?!" Arnold yelled back and Helga huffed before shouting again as loud as she could possibly muster.
"ARE WE GOING TO DANCE OR WHAT?" She asked and Arnold nodded his head while scrunching his brows together as if thinking intently about what his response should be.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY'RE UP TO?" he asked while gesturing towards Sid and Stinky and Helga offered up a shrug with a shake of her head and an irritated look on her face.
"WHO CARES?!" Helga countered though Arnold seemed not to care about her answer.
"SID! STINKY!" the football-headed boy yelled and the two boys turned to look at who had called their names.
Grinning, the pair left the DJ to his devices and wandered towards a curious Arnold and a furious Helga.
"HEY ARNOLD!" Sid greeted and Helga crossed her arms over her chest at the lack of acknowledgment of her presence.
"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?" Arnold asked and Sid exchanged a look with Stinky before returning his attention to the questioning boy.
"YOU SEE THIS SONG?" he asked while showing Arnold the screen of his phone which displayed a popular song known to have a lot of explicit words in the lyrics.
As Arnold nodded his head, Sid and Stinky laughed to themselves before elaborating. "WE'RE TRYING TO GET THE DJ TO PLAY IT!"
"YEAH," Stinky added with a smile, "WITH ALL THEM BAD WORDS IN IT TOO!"
Helga raised her brow at their admittance. "YOU MEAN THE UNEDITED VERSION?" She shouted and the two looked at her in confusion.
"WHAT?" Sid asked and Helga leaned in towards them to shout even louder.
"UN-ED-I-TED" She enunciated and they quickly nodded their heads in confirmation.
"PEOPLE MIGHT NOT LIKE THAT," Arnold added loudly and the two boys eyed him curiously.
"OH YEAH?" the shorter of the pair challenged Arnold, "LIKE WHO?"
"WHAT ABOUT...LILA?"
Leaning in again because he clearly hadn't heard, Sid asked for clarification. "HUH?"
Taking in a deep breath, Arnold prepared himself to shout again; this time cupping his hands around his mouth in an effort to amplify his voice even further. "LILA!"
At the sound of the familiar name leaving her boyfriend's mouth, Helga perked up at the conversation; her attention missing Stinky's reaction which was one of immediate anxiety.
"LILA?" Stinky repeated at the same moment that Sid laughed off the name entirely.
"WHO CARES ABOUT LILA, AM I RIGHT, STINKY?" he said while nudging his tall friend in the side, though Stinky didn't appear to agree.
"WHY DON'T WE INVITE HER OVER HERE?" Arnold suggested making Helga flinch mildly before turning around to see Lila standing by herself a few feet away from where they stood.
"WHAT?" the long-nosed boy asked while cupping his ear as if to hear better.
"LILA!" Arnold reiterated, "LET'S INVITE HER OVER!"
Still looking behind the group towards Lila, Helga tried to think up anything to stop her boyfriend from inviting her enemy over into their midst. As she watched her foe's attention focused on where Arnold stood, Helga began to shout once more. "BLUTOOTH!"
The three boys turned their attention to look at Helga with obvious confusion.
"WHAT?" Arnold asked.
"WHAT DID SHE SAY?" Sid joined in asking.
"BLUTOOTH!" Helga repeated before pointing towards where the DJ stood. "YOU CAN PLAY YOUR SONG THROUGH THE BLUTOOTH!"
Immediately lighting up his face in sudden excitement, Sid nodded his head vigorously. "YES! THE BLUTOOTH!"
"WHAT ABOUT LILA, GUYS?" Arnold attempted to gain control of the situation and while Stinky seemed to think twice on what he'd just said, Sid remained oblivious to what Arnold was trying to do.
Grabbing his friends wrist, Sid began to pull Stinky away towards the opposite side of the gym where the bleachers were set up. "C'MON STINKY," He told him loudly, "WE CAN HIDE BY THE BLEACHERS!"
"But..." Stinky said softly so only his mouth moved while no audible sound seemed to escape his lips.
"BUT...LILA?" Arnold tried once more and Helga shot him a glare as Sid called out towards the couple as he ran off with his friend trailing behind.
"THANKS HELGA!"
However, Helga didn't even hear Sid's thanks as she remained focused on her boyfriend who deflated at the two's departure. "Really, Arnold?" She said at a regular speaking volume and Arnold turned to look at her blankly.
"YOU WANNA DANCE?" He shouted and instead of jumping at the opportunity as she had only a few minutes prior, she shrugged her shoulders and gave him a lackluster look.
"DO YOU WANT TO?" she replied and Arnold raised his brow at her.
"WHAT?"
Helga sighed as she figured he hadn't heard her once again due to the extreme noise around them. Unfortunately for Helga, Arnold had indeed heard her; his 'what' being more of a question as to why she didn't think he wanted to dance with her.
"NEVERMIND," Helga said even louder than she previously had.
"C'MON," Arnold told her while taking her hand in his once more and leading her away from the screaming speakers threatening to deafen them.
As they made their way through the crowd once again, the dramatic notes of the song Sid and Stinky had been planning to play began. Glancing over to where the duo had disappeared by the bleachers. Allowing herself to smirk, Helga quickly spotted Sid and Stinky chuckling to one another under the light of Sid's cellphone.
At least she'd been right about the blutooth.
The dance was not going according to Helga's plans.
As hard as she tried, she couldn't seem to get her boyfriend to focus on the dance itself. She grew tired of suggesting to slow dance (even though her older sister Olga had deemed herself the 'space police' in terms of proximity towards couples) and had decided to settle for following Arnold around to wherever his weirdly-shaped heart desired.
The pair wound up in the hallway just outside of the gymnasium. Away from the ear-shattering volume that was the DJ's music, Helga finally turned to address her other half.
"Hey, Arnold," she asked him while crossing her arms over her chest. "What gives, huh?"
Tilting his head in question, Arnold raised a brow to answer her with a question of his own. "What are you talking about?"
"This!" She exclaimed while letting her arms to uncross and gesture around herself at the hustle and bustle of teenagers around them like ants on a mission from the queen. "You know, since we've been here we haven't done one thing other than run into other people and TALK to them, for cripes sake."
Looking at Helga with a sad expression, he sighed and nodded his oblong head. "You're right. It's just-"
"It's Lila, isn't it." The words came out in an accusatory statement rather than that of a question and Arnold furrowed his brow.
"Lila?" He repeated before shaking his head rapidly, "No, Helga, you-you don't understand. With Lila it's—you... you wouldn't understand."
"Huh," Helga sounded while crossing her arms once more. "I probably wouldn't understand, now would I, football-head?"
"Helga-" Arnold tried but was thwarted by the call of his own name from that of his best friend.
"Arnold!" Gerald yelled towards where Helga and he stood. The pair turned from each other to look at their two closest friends who were now holding hands and appeared to be incredibly happy.
Secretly and silently, Helga's body tensed with envy that their relationship seemed to be going so well in comparison to hers with Arnold; a relationship unraveling at the seams like the yarn from an old sweater.
Letting go of Gerald's hand, Phoebe scurried over to Helga's side while Arnold walked over toward Gerald.
"Oh Helga," Phoebe began in a chipper almost lovesick tone, "I am absolutely positive that this night is one I may never forget!"
"Yeah?" Helga asked without much care; her eyes remaining locked on Arnold and Gerald who seemed to be discussing nothing of importance. "Why's that, Pheebs?"
"I believe that this night," Phoebe began, her voice softening as she leaned in towards her friend, "could perchance be the night of our first real... kiss!" The word squeaked out of her and Helga's eyes shifted away from the two boys to focus down on her dark-haired counterpart.
"I thought you two had kissed before," Helga stated, though Phoebe shook her head before the sentence could even be finished.
"Not in the technical sense, no."
Helga smirked and eyed Phoebe curiously. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean? The technical-sense?"
"Surely you know, Helga," Phoebe told her and waited a beat for confirmation that Helga understood what she was getting at. Based on the blank expression still lingering on the tall preteen's face, Phoebe took her friend and pulled her to the side to further explain herself.
"Gerald and I have kissed by the mere sense of the word, yes," she began as Helga kept eye contact to the wild-eyed Phoebe; eager to discuss her crush for once. "However, a true kiss is one that is fueled by passion and mutual feelings towards one another."
"You two have always liked each other, though," Helga retorted and Phoebe sighed; a soft smile resting on her plump lips.
"While that may be accurate, spin the bottle kisses and pecks on the cheek don't exactly qualify towards a true and real kiss."
"Sure, I guess," Helga said and nodded her head slowly yet barely retaining the information Phoebe had told her.
Still believing her friend wasn't exactly on board with her way of thinking, Phoebe continued on. "For example, when you and Arnold shared kisses in plays or on top of the FTi building, one couldn't entirely count that as a 'kiss' per-say. Your first true kiss would have been in San Lorenzo as it was the first time you both reciprocated such feelings of intimacy towards each other."
As if to bring herself out of her trance by the sound of her boyfriend's name, Helga blinked a few times before scanning the hallway her and Phoebe were standing in. Her eyes frantically danced around the students making up the crowd in search for the wild blonde hair she knew better than anyone else's- with little success.
"Personally," Phoebe went on though Helga had officially checked out of the conversation, "I believe that given our past feelings for one another and the atmosphere of our first middle school dance will ensure such a kiss to be pro-"
"That's great, Pheebs," Helga interrupted as her head dodged to and fro in an effort to see around the countless individuals blocking her path. As she searched, Helga continued to speak in a now panicked voice, "hey, have you uh, did you see where Arnold went?"
Turning her head to look out around the crowd Helga had already inspected, Phoebe offered up a lackluster shrug. "Unfortunately no, Helga. I'm sure he's simply off with Gerald, though."
"Gerald. Gerald, right," the tall yellow-haired girl repeated to herself as her eyebrows scrunched together while her mind remained deep in thought.
Noticing her friend's obvious display of despair, Phoebe reached out towards Helga's shoulder and asked tentatively, "Is something... the matter, Helga?"
"The matter?" Her voice raised an octave and made Phoebe flinch at the sudden change in tone. "Why do you say something's the matter? Does it seem like something's the matter? Nothing is the matter, Phoebe!"
Taking a beat to process the words being rapidly given to Phoebe in the form of what sounded like an excuse without reason, Phoebe took a deep breath before venturing further into the conversation with an ample amount of caution.
"You know, Helga," she began carefully and in a hushed manor, "this fear and anxiety you are feeling is entirely valid, however, I'm afraid that you may be focusing a bit too hard on-"
"Too hard on making sure that Arnold doesn't ditch me for Lila?" Helga knew just how paranoid her words sounded the moment they left her mouth, yet she didn't care. As far as she was concerned, Arnold had given her every right to induldge such paranoia and its conspiracy-fueled whispers.
"Helga, I really don't believe that Arnold would-" Phoebe attempted once more with little success.
Holding a lone finger up to silence her friend, Helga intesified the look she was giving with as much silent subtext as possible. "And I don't either, Pheebs. I really, really don't... at least I don't want to believe he could or would but... but... until he tells me exactly what's going on, do you really blame me for being afraid of losing the one person in my whole life I've been fighting to be with practically since birth?"
Huffing where she stood awaiting her intelligent best friend to give her some kind of answer or profound advice, Phoebe dropped eye contact after a prolonged moment and hung her head while letting out a long reluctant sigh.
"I suppose I can't blame you, Helga, no," she said quietly and as Helga strained her ears in an effort to catch each and every one of Miss Heyerdahl's words, Phoebe looked up at the tall blonde once more.
Helga's blue eyes searched Phoebe's deep brown irises as if begging to be told what to do next. It was in that moment that young Phoebe knew which ever advice she chose to give Helga would ultimately either terminate or prolong their relationship. Silently, she struggled on whether to give any advice at all considering how dysfuctional their partnership appeared to be going.
Yet, despite her reservations, Phoebe opened her mouth to give Helga the advice she seeked anyway. "With that being said, a relationship is built on mutual trust. Perhaps whatever it is that Arnold is keeping from you isn't appropriate to tell you at this time. It is up to you to trust that whatever it is, it won't be detrimental to your relationship and will eventually be revealed to you at the proper moment in time."
"But shouldn't he trust me in that I wouldn't ruin his little secret or whatever?" Helga immediately countered, "I mean for cripes sake! If a relationship is built on trust, he should trust me too, right?"
Furrowing her brows, Phoebe have a mild nod of her head in regards to Helga's point. "I suppose, but that's not entirely-"
"Then I have the right to find out the truth, don't I? Because in all reality, it's Arnold who's not trusting me, isn't it?" The words rattled out of Helga quickly and to her, the reasoning she had come up with seemed sound. In fact, no matter what Phoebe told her next, Helga Pataki already knew what she was going to do.
"Are you sure you're thinking this through, Helga?" Both Phoebe and the inner voice inside of Helga's head asked.
"Pssh," Helga waved the short dark-haired girl off while surpressing her concience who seemed just as worried as her best friend. With a smirk, Helga gave one more statement in an attempt to silence both the voice and her friend's sage wisdom once and for all. "If anything, I've thought it through too much."
Shaking her head in quiet disapproval as Helga turned around and headed back for the gymnasium, Phoebe murmured more to herself than to her self-destructive friend, "Oh Helga... I'm afraid you have."
Helga's eyes darted around the gymnasium frantically; the room still filled to the brim with laughing teenagers who appeared to be having the time of their lives. I have to find him, I just have to, Helga found herself thinking as she continued to look for the familiar football-head she could usually spot with ease from nearly a lifetime of practice.
With a huff and the sudden realization that she wasn't going to find Arnold from the back of only one side of the gym, Helga took off to weave through the clumps of students. Pushing aside people she couldn't care less about, Helga stomped her way through the path she forged.
It wasn't until she caught sight of a thick stalk of hair peeking out through the mass quantity of bodies that she came to a halt.
"Gerald," Helga muttered to herself with a narrowing of her eyes before she took off to resume fighting her way through- this time towards the tall-haired-boy who stood among his peers.
"Hey! Geraldo!" She decided to yell with little success at grabbing his attention. Rolling her eyes, Helga cupped her mouth to amplify her voice before shouting once more. "I said, GERALDO! HEL-LO!?"
Turning his head to glance behind him, Gerald spotted Helga waving her arms wildly in the air above her head. With a sigh, he reached up to point towards where the bleachers sat and gestured for her to meet him there.
Like salmon swimming upstream, Gerald and Helga swam through those dancing around them to meet one another at Helga's relief.
"Gerald," she said the moment they were within earshot of each other, "have you seen-"
Without hearing her, Gerald spoke up himself, his words interrupting Helga from finishing her desperate plea. "Do you know where Phoebe is?"
"What?" Helga asked as her eyes widened in surprise.
Gerald sighed before leaning in and speaking a little louder. "Phoebe. You know, your best friend. Where is she?!"
Reaching up to cross her arms over her chest, Helga frowned. "I know who she is, Johanssen," she said in irritation before slowly letting a grin overtake her face as she spoke her next sentence. "Kinda sucks that your date was obviously going so bad that she decided to ditch."
Letting out a hardy laugh, Helga dropped her grin as Gerald shook his head and finally replied. "Nice try, Pataki, but I know she didn't leave. She just went to go to the bathroom or something, I don't really know, it's kinda hard to hear in here."
"Yeah no doi, Gerald. Now look," she began once more, "I've been running around here like a madwoman trying to find-"
"She's been acting kinda weird though," Gerald said and Helga dropped her head back in severe agitation at his seeming persistence to stop her from completing her sentence.
"Seriously!" Helga yelled while throwing her arms out before letting them drop to her sides.
Lacking the ability to hear exactly how Helga had exclaimed, Gerald took her word as one of mutual understanding. "I know! I can't figure out what's got her so wigged out... it's like, when we're alone together she keeps waiting for me to say something but how am I supposed to know what she wants me to say, right? What is up with that?"
Helga reached up to cradle her forehead in the palm of her hand while slowly rocking her head back and forth with her eyes softly closed. She was getting nowhere with Gerald and if she didn't indulge the poor sap she would never find her beloved.
"Gerald," she said under her breath before dropping her hand and opening her eyes to look at him directly. Once his eyes met hers, she began speaking loudly so he would be sure to hear her every word. "She's WAITING for you to KISS HER, ya goon!"
Under the bright multicolored lights and amidst the countless people sharing the half of the gym with them, silence settled between the unlikely pair. It took a moment for Gerald to speak again as he tried to processthe information Helga had practically spat at him.
"Kiss?" He managed after a moment and Helga eyed him curiously as he repeated himself. "Kiss? Like... like a KISS kiss?"
Impatiently, Helga shouted at the boy. "YES a kiss! Criminy! Are you DAFT?"
"Are you kidding?" Gerald responded immediately with a look of faux confidence, "Obviously I knew that..." A smile hinted at his lips as the thought of kissing Phoebe crossed his mind and played in his imagination like a memory that had already passed.
Watching him intently, Helga huffed in anger before reaching her hand out to wave it dramatically in front of his face. "HEL-LO! Earth to Geraldo!"
Gerald blinked his eyes as if to reset his own mind and come back to the moment at hand. "What? Oh, right... you wanted to talk to me of all people about something." It was his turn to cross his arms as a smug smile took over his face. "Now what ever could THAT be about?"
"Oh can it, Tall Hair Boy," Helga retorted with a narrow of her eyes. "Have you seen Arnold or not?"
"Trouble in paradise, Pataki?" Arrogance infused Gerald's words as he kept his gaze on the angry preteen in front of him.
"Alright, smart guy," she began while clenching her hands into tight fists, "you can either help meOR I can arrange a family reunion for ol' Betsy here and the five avengers. Right. On. Your. FACE."
Without so much as a flinch, Gerald continued to stare at Helga with an unimpressed expression. "Mm mm MM," he hummed with a minute shake of his head. "Must be pretty bad if you have to come to me just to find the kid."
"Gerald..." his name came out of her mouth in a snarl that warned Gerald of Helga's inevitable attack if he didn't do what she was asking.
Sighing with a sad look on his face, he pointed his thumb over to the right where the door let out to the hallway. "Cafeteria," he stated with simplicity. "But Helga... I'd be careful if I were you."
"Oh really?" Helga replied with a cock of her brow. "And what is that supposed to mean, exactly?"
"It means," he began before pausing to think briefly and then starting again. "It means that you've been acting a little crazy lately." Waiting for a moment to gauge her reaction before continuing, he took in a deep breath as if the extra air would help him get out what he needed to say. "My man Arnold is a patient guy, I think you know that, but everyone has a limit when it comes to that particular brand of crazy."
"So he thinks I'm crazy then, huh?" Helga snapped and, much to her surprise, Gerald shook his head.
"No, he doesn't," he said before pointing in at his chest with his thumb, "I do."
Helga scoffed prior to letting out a nervous laugh. "Well what do you know anyway? You've been off galavanting with Pheebs all night and-"
"And," he interrupted her yet again, this time with good reason, "I'm Arnold's best friend. I've known the kid my entire life, Helga. And maybe he doesn't tell me everything, but I know him, okay? And I know that this whole, paranoid girlfriend thing isn't what he signed up for back in San Lorenzo."
Gerald's blunt words slapped her violently in the face as she stared at him for a long while. The two maintained eye contact in a stare-off of sorts that Helga tried to and yet would never win. Finally she shook herself out of it to say something, anything, back to the boy who, in her opinion, should mind his own business.
"How about you let me worry about Hair Boy, okay? We're FINE and we certainly don't need you butting in on something you know relatively NOTHING about." Gerald continued to watch her as she proceeded to throw anything she could at him in an effort to hurt him. "This is your FIRST DATE with Phoebe. You could have asked her out YEARS ago but instead you sat around WAITING like an IDIOT. What could you POSSIBLY know about the complicated inner workings of a relationship?"
Keeping a sad smile on his lips, Gerald offered a small shrug of his shoulders as an answer to Helga's argumentative words.
"EXACTLY," she said as if he had admitted defeat. "Now, I'm going to go find the football-head and you're going to go off and give Phoebe the kiss she's been waiting for since the fourth grade. Got it?"
"Sure, I got it." Gerald agreed before giving one last shot at salvaging his best friend's relationship via Miss Pataki. "Just think about what I said though, okay Helga?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll tone down the crazy, blah, blah, blah." With a raise of her hand, Helga gave him a sarcastic salute. "Thanks for the advice and all, but I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing."
As he watched her stalk off, Gerald sighed with a sad shake of his head. "Sure you do, Pataki. Sure you do."
The foyer of the middle school had emptied for the most part. While she didn't linger on thinking about it for very long, Helga figured most people had found their way into the gym. As she walked towards the cafeteria, she muttered to herself irritably as if her quiet chattering could calm the nerves going wild underneath her skin.
"Been acting crazy. Me? Crazy? Pssh, yeah right. I have every right to be crazy. The kid won't even tell me what's going on and they expect me not to be worried? Criminy, what are they stupid?"
As she rounded the corner that led to the row of windows looking in towards the cafeteria, she continued to talk to herself under her breath. "I mean seriously! Given the circumstances, I think that I'm acting like any other normal, rational, logical-"
Helga halted in the entryway to the lunchroom while intently staring just ahead of where she stood. Right in front of her, completely oblivious to her presence, was Arnold and Lila who were talking fairly close to one another. Helga watched as Lila reached out to take Arnold's hand in hers while asking something of him. With a smile, he nodded his head and Lila grinned before asking something else. Instantly, he laughed before nodding yet again which provoked Lila into pulling the football-headed boy into a big hug.
At the mere sight of their embrace, Helga's eyes practically bugged out of their respective sockets and without thinking, she stomped her way over to break the two of them up.
"I can't BELIEVE this!" She shouted as Lila and Arnold pulled apart to look at her in a mixture of confusion and fear.
"Why Helga," Lila began in a nervous yet cheerful tone, "A-Arnold and I were just-"
"I have EYES, Lila. I KNOW what you two were doing," Helga said in utter confidence as Lila shared a look with Arnold before returning her eyes to the blonde who was practically shaking with rage.
"You-You do?" the red-head wondered aloud.
"Of course I do!" she exclaimed before taking steps towards Lila as she spoke. "You were trying to get your grubby little hands on Arnold. Are you DELUSIONAL? Are you absolutely INSANE?! You really think that your prissy little miss perfect act will still WORK on him? You think that you can just swoop in and take him from me without so much as a FIGHT?!"
With each step Helga took towards her, Lila stepped backwards while cowering away from the girl filled with anger who towered over her. "Helga... I-I-" She stuttered out, though Helga didn't even slow at her words.
Stopping in her tracks, Helga leaned away from Lila with a small and facetious giggle. "I-I-I" she mocked before glaring at her once more. "You WHAT, Lila? You didn't think I'd find out about your little game? You didn't think I knew what you were up to?"
"ENOUGH, HELGA!"
Silence filled the cafeteria as echos of Arnold's voice rang through the room. Curious eyes looked over to where the three stood and concerned whispers began, though Helga didn't hear a thing.
Her eyes were focused on Arnold who had a look on his face she had never witnessed in all her years of knowing him. He was mad.
However, he wasn't just any kind of mad.
No, Arnold was livid.
All of the anger, fear and ferocity Helga once felt seemingly melted away in an instant. As though she herself was shrinking, Helga found herself feeling microscopic in size compared to those around her. It was as if she had swallowed the final gulp of the 'Drink Me' potion and was preparing to enter a world she knew nothing about.
Arnold was angry. Arnold was furious. It was uncharted territory for Helga and she suddenly realized she didn't know what to do to stop or fix it.
The three stared at each other as their classmates looked on in fascination.
"Arnold..." Helga tried while taking a lone step towards him and reaching a hand out as if to sooth him with her touch. As her arm extended in his direction, thoughts swirled around her head in a frenzy. Please, Arnold, my love... I only did this for you- for us. So we could be...
"Arnold," she tried to intone her own thoughts and force the words through her lips. "Arnold, my love, I only did this-"
But what Arnold said next stopped her dead in her tracks. "I don't want to hear it, Helga. It's over."
Slowly, Helga dropped her arm while swallowing the lump growing in her throat. "Ov-Over?" she asked with a small hope that she had simply misinterpreted his words continued to burn inside her like the most stubborn of birthday candles.
Yet, as the couple stared at each other from inside the cafeteria now thick with tension, Helga knew that her small hope was futile. From the look in Arnold's eyes she knew what she'd done was unrepairable from his point of view.
This whole, paranoid girlfriend thing isn't what he signed up for back in San Lorenzo.
Gerald's words rang in her ears over and over again like the middle school's fire alarm during a drill.
...paranoid girlfriend...
...girlfriend...
...isn't what he signed...
...what he signed up...
...signed up...
...up...
..for...
Her chest tightened as Helga at last came to grips with what was about to happen. Muscles in her face began to twitch in preparation for the tears welling in her eyes. Try as she might, Helga knew it was only a matter of time before those tears spilled over onto her cheeks to make two messy rivers of black. For a split second, Helga found it odd that the very mascara soon to bleed onto her supple cheeks was that of her own sister's- her sister who was practically the queen of tearful mascara mishaps.
"I'm sorry," she choked out, but it wasn't enough to save what had already been lost.
Arnold was angry and despite her broken apology, his enraged expression never faultered. Helga's words hardly affected him as he remained stoic in front of her like that of a disaproving statue.
Helga continued to watch him while clinging to every blink of his eyes and every rise and fall of his chest with each breath he took. When he at last parted his lips to speak, Helga took in a sharp breath and shut her eyes to prepare for the final blow she knew was about to be dealt.
As she awaited what Arnold would say next, a shiver went up her spine at the knowledge that this time, there was nobody else she could blame but herself.
Sorry for the long chapter, folks! Thanks for sticking around so patiently- I promise that by next month I will have much more time for writing for a while. I just started (another) new job so I'm juggling jobs and teaching and writing which is a tough act to do. Either way, I hope that this chapter was worth waiting for at least? It was a tough one to write so please PLEASE drop me a review and tell me what you think!
See you all at the next chapter and thank you again for continuing to follow this story and review- it truly keeps me going and means the world to me.
xo
Polkahotness
PS: I got more artwork (again, because i can't stop myself from the amazing art that Jebbie creates) so all credit to Jebbie for the artwork!