Responses to reviews:
The J.A.M. a.k.a. Numbuh i: For now, yes.
Cre8ivelybankrupt87: You're right, Rodrigo wouldn't usually do this unless he has to. But like Helga, if he does it, he wouldn't have any regrets doing it.
She has beef with everyone, including Arnold.
LOL, omg that's funny!
Helga walked back inside the school and headed straight for her locker, looking incredibly frustrated and conflicted.
"Stupid Arnold, what does he know?" Helga angrily muttered to herself. "He doesn't see the things that I see, or how I feel. How could he? And how dare he take that newbie's side and not his girlfriend!"
As angry as she was at Arnold, she knew she couldn't hold it against him. He did nothing wrong, as always. If anything, she was angry at him because he finally managed to talk some sense into her and for the first time, began to have second thoughts about what she was doing.
Could I be wrong? She thought. Could I have been wrong about him? Could he maybe actually...like me?
Helga continued to think and ponder about the morals of what she did to someone she didn't even know and who said, almost genuinely, that he liked her, not like 'like'. Even now, that statement felt utterly foreign to Helga. She was still coming to grips that she was now dating Arnold, let alone have some total stranger say that he thinks she is cool.
By the time she arrived to her locker, Helga began to relent to Arnold's wisdom and to the growing guilt that she was now feeling.
I should just come clean and apologize to Rodrigo. She remorsefully thought to herself. I already caused enough trouble for him and I probably already ruined any possible chance of us being friends, but I can at least say sorry to him and hold my head up high.
Although she had no intention to telling Rodrigo why she did it, she will at least explain to Arnold what she had been feeling since school started and just how everything was so confusing to her. In truth, she didn't want to be that person anymore; that mean, emotionally cold, bullying, fearful person. She really wanted to show her more kinder and caring side. So, why not start with Rodrigo by apologizing to him?
Plus, Arnold was right about another thing; she really was lucky that only Arnold criticized her for her behavior and no one else. She didn't know what she would have done if everyone ganged up on her.
That's it, I'll go and apologize to him. She finally decided as she opened her locker. Say sorry to him, get that out of our way so that both of us can finally move-
*BANG*
"What the?!" Helga startlingly shouted as her locker door instantly and forcefully closed right in front of her, just as she was about to reach for her books, which she ever nearly managed to get out of the way.
She then saw a hand on her locker and while still startled, slowly turned toward her right side and saw a highly furious Rodrigo who was glaring at her with piercing red eyes. It took her some time, but after looking at him for a few seconds, she finally snapped out of her startled state and with her defensiveness kicking in again, began to frown.
"What do you want?" She retorted.
"What is your problem?!" Rodrigo angrily yelled at her.
Some time earlier, while Helga was at her locker, Rhonda was further down the hall, drinking some water from the water fountain. No sooner when she was done when she heard a faint banging sound. Turning around, she then saw Rodrigo furiously glaring at Helga. Although she couldn't really hear what they were talking, she assumed it had something to do with Helga exposing Rodrigo being arrested. But what really caught her attention was with the way Helga was behaving.
"You have some nerve exposing something so personal about me like that in front of everyone!" Rodrigo continued to yell at her as he angrily began to move forward, causing Helga to move back. The level of rage that she was clearly seeing in his eyes, followed by his shouting was having the incredible effect of dissolving Helga's toughness and causing her to become very uneasy, if not a bit nervous.
As Rodrigo continued to angrily shout at Helga, Rhonda continued to watch from afar, astonished at how nervous Rodrigo was making Helga, even causing her to retreat away from him.
"From the first moment I set foot in this school, you have been doing nothing but show me your contempt and making my life that much harder than it needs to be. Now what is your problem with me?!" Rodrigo continued to angrily shout at her.
But before Helga could even answer him, Rodrigo instantly spoke again.
"I have been nothing but nice to you since I arrived here, so I do not deserve to be treated this way!" He continued to shout at her as he continued to move ever forward. "I was willing to let bygones be bygones after your little ploy with Rhonda and the girls about 'social hierarchies', but after what you just did to me, I'm not going to tolerate anymore of this!"
With each passing second, Helga grew more and more uneasy as she nervously continued to listen to his rage and to take steps back. She tried to snap out of it, but the level of anger that she was seeing in his eyes and hearing in his tone made Helga shudder at the thought of what he might do to her. However, after a brief moment of looking so vulnerable, Helga eventually managed to get a grip, stopped moving back, regain her composure, frowned at him and began to back fight.
"Y-Y-Ya well, I don't need to explain anything to you!" She shouted back, trying as hard as she could to sound fearless. "You broke the rules of school yard, bucko! You were warned that there will be consequences if you did."
"Oh come on, Helga!" Rodrigo angrily shouted back at her. "No one cares about that and I don't believe that someone like you would ever about those rules. Even people like Phoebe, Nadine and Sheena have no problem mingling with the 'geeks'. I'll admit that Rhonda still needs some work in that area, but that is besides the point!"
"What is your problem, anyways?" Helga retortingly asked him. "By exposing that part of your life, I made you more popular than before. So, you should be thanking me."
"Yes, it did make me more popular," Rodrigo admitted, "But that wasn't your story to tell! You had no right telling people something so personal about me without my permission! Now fess up. What is your problem with me?!"
"Alright, fine! You wanna know what my problem is?!" Helga relented and shouted back. "I have a problem with you because I think you are a liar! You made all those nimrods fall for you, including football head, by acting all 'nice' and 'descent', but you can't fool me!"
"What are you talking about?" Rodrigo asked, now looking confused.
"Oh don't play dumb with me, Latino boy. You know exactly what I'm talking about." Helga exclaimed. "On the first day you came here you told me that you found me to be 'interesting' and 'funny' and 'strong' and that you liked that about me."
"So what if I said that?" Rodrigo irritatingly asked. "I meant it."
"Pff, ya right!" Helga merely scoffed at him. "Do I look like one of those pastes for brains out there? No one likes me, especially not on the first day of meeting me. It's a fact because I make sure that no one ever gets near me unless I allow them to!"
"What?" Rodrigo asked, looking surprised, if not shocked. "Is that what this is about? You are just that insecure that you refused to believe that someone could actually like you?"
"I'm not insecure, I just don't believe you!" Helga furiously roared at him, staring at him with such glaring eyes that it made Rodrigo to take a step back. "And because you are a liar, hiding behind a veil of charm, yes, I have been snooping around, trying to see what's really behind that mask and get the truth out!"
"Are you for real or just plain crazy?!" Rodrigo irritatingly yelled at her. "I'm not hiding anything! Everything that I said or did was the real me. Nothing about that was fake."
"Sure, keep at it, ese." Helga sarcastically remarked with a smirk. "But just know that I'm on to you," She continued as she then began to move back while still looking at him with frowning suspicious eyes "and sooner or later, I will find the truth and when I do, I'll – whoa!" She then exclaimed as she collided with a garbage can and fell down to the floor with the garbage can.
Rodrigo said nothing and with some form of amusement, just looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
Helga embarrassingly then instantly got up, dusted off any of the garbage that might have fallen on her dress and continued her stance of slowly walking backwards while giving Rodrigo a cold and suspicious stare until she finally reached the corner of the hallways and disappeared, leaving a very bewildered and confused Rodrigo alone.
After she left, Rodrigo out a frustrated sigh and then walked away.
Rhonda meanwhile was still standing there, having watched the entire incident unfold.
"Well, this will certainly make great news for tomorrow." She remarked with a smile before then heading off.
Later that day...at the end of school...
Rodrigo walked of the school and headed toward home. Feeling furious at Helga for outing something so personal to everyone like that, Rodrigo walked the sidewalk with a serious frown on his face. Even if this stunt did make him more popular with everyone, he still felt utterly uncomfortable, even creeped out that Helga had actually gone through all of this just to discredit him. If she was able to do something like that to him, Rodrigo recoiled at the thought of what else she was capable of.
"Rodrigo!" Someone then suddenly called out to him, interrupting the preteen's thoughts and prompting him to turn around.
"Arnold?" Rodrigo said when he saw him approaching him.
"Hey." Arnold said to him. "Are you heading home?" He asked him.
"Yeah." He said.
"Mind if I walking with you?" He asked him.
"Sure." He just said and then began to walk again with Arnold walking alongside him.
"Listen Rodrigo," Arnold began to say to him, "I just want to say that I'm really sorry for what Helga did earlier today. That was uncalled for."
After his confrontation with Helga at her locker, Rodrigo never bothered to go back outside with his friends. He instead went to his locker to cool down and just waited for recess to end. Upon the bell finally ringing, Rodrigo just went straight to class and waited for it to start. By the time Arnold arrived, class was only within seconds of starting and so he didn't have the time to speak with him. He decided to do that after school.
Rodrigo initially said nothing and just glanced over at Arnold with a confused looked.
"Why are you apologizing?" Rodrigo asked him. "You didn't do anything wrong. And why are you apologizing for her?"
"Well, I tried to talk to her to get her to see how wrong she was," Arnold began to explain, "but she can be very set in her own ways sometimes. She told me the reason why she did this was because she doesn't trust you."
"I know." Rodrigo said. "I confronted her about it and she told me the same thing."
"Really?" Arnold asked, surprised. "Did she apologize?"
"No." Was Rodrigo said with a dry tone.
"Oh." Arnold disappointingly said.
Rodrigo however, was not all amused that Arnold was apologizing on her behalf. If anything, it irritated him even more.
Who does this girl think she is? He angrily thought. What nerve does she get to not only not admit that she was wrong, but have her own boyfriend apologize for her? And I thought was Rhonda bad; she's worse!
"Listen Arnold," Rodrigo then suddenly said to him with a stern voice, "I need to know what Helga's problem is. She told me that the whole reason why all of this started is because she doesn't believe a word that I said about me liking her. If made her suspicious of me."
"Well um, I um..." Arnold tried to come up with whatever reason without clearly divulging any personal information about her, but Rodrigo soon cut him off and began to talk to him.
"And what's more, I've seen the way she behaves and talks to you and everyone else, including her best friend and frankly, I don't like it. She is rude, inconsiderate, demanding, manipulative, intimidating, if not a complete bully. Now I was willing to stay out of it and not ask any personal questions. I was even willing to give her a chance, but after what she did to me today, this is now my business. So start talking, what is her problem?" He demanded.
Arnold was a bit taken aback by Rodrigo's sudden aggression, but he couldn't hold it against him. He had every reason to be. Again, Arnold tried to come up with some information that didn't fully reveal what the issue was. After thinking about it,
"OK Rodrigo," Arnold finally said with a sigh, "it's like this. You are right about a lot of things you said about her. But believe me, she is not a bad person. She does have a kind and caring side. I know this because Phoebe and I have seen it. She just hides it from everyone and puts up this wall of aggression and toughness because she has, well... a lot of issues that she is dealing with at the moment and that makes her react that way."
"What sort of issues?" Rodrigo asked with a still stern tone, frown and his arms crossed.
"Family issues." Arnold finally said. "She doesn't get along well with her family, at all."
Arnold's somewhat vague information was enough revelation to cause Rodrigo to let go of his frown and anger and replace it with a surprised, if not a somewhat now sympathetic look as it now made him completely rethink his whole view of Helga. In truth, he had been suspecting that may be the case, so he wasn't completely surprised when he heard it. He just needed confirmation to order to make his next move. Rodrigo also felt bad for Arnold, as he was the one taking the full brunt of his conflict with Helga. He clearly saw in his face just how distraught and upset he was over this. Not wanting to escalate things further,
"Oh alright." Rodrigo sympathetically said to him. "I'll let this one slide."
"Really?" Arnold said with a sense of hope.
"Yes." He said with a small smile. "But I'm not accepting your apology on her behalf." He then sternly said to him with a frown.
"What?" Arnold confusingly asked.
"It's really unacceptable, if not also immature of getting her boyfriend to say sorry for her, when you did nothing wrong. But, I'm not going to make things worse between us." Rodrigo began to explain, "I'm not going to confront her, or get into a fight with her. Whenever we see together I'm going to be cool and civil with her. But moving forward, I'm going to stay out of her way and she better stay out of mine."
Arnold hesitated on whether to accept this agreement as it wasn't really solving anything. Rodrigo noticed his hesitation.
"I'm sorry Arnold," He said to him, "but because of what she did, unless she directly comes to me and apologizes, I don't want anything to do with her."
Again Arnold hesitated on whether to accept it, but he realized that he had virtually no choice. If anything, he was lucky that Rodrigo was even compromising. Not wanting to make things worse, he relented.
"OK Rodrigo." He finally agreed with an unsatisfactory sigh.
"Thank you." He said.
The next few days...
Rodrigo kept his promise and over the next few days, made no attempt to speak, or even look at Helga. Helga in turn did the same and kept her distance.
However, quite ironically, she was finding him ignoring her to be a bit bothersome. Before he would greet her and say 'hi' to her with a smile almost everyday. Even when she never responded back or scoffed at him, he remained calm and continued being nice, if not just civil. Now, he was completely ignoring her, as if she wasn't there. One day after school, Rodrigo, Gerald and Arnold met up with Helga and Phoebe by the door. Every awkwardly, Rodrigo only greeted Phoebe, but said nothing to Helga. The blonde teen had quite a reputation for almost never greeting anyone, other than Arnold or Phoebe, which for everyone, had become normal. However, it was quite an unsettling experience to see someone doing that to Helga and with her not reacting with her usual aggression.
Yet, no one, not even Helga, said anything to him and just tried to continue on with their daily lives, despite the awkwardness and tension. What could anyone say? Finding his behavior unsettling, Helga privately admitted that she had achieved what Arnold had said she would do; not allowing anyone to get close to her. Not surprisingly, this only made Helga feel more isolated and alone.
The only time they spoke to each other was one day when they almost yet again, crashed into each other in the hallway. Predictably, instead of apologizing or even making the simple retorting remark, 'watch where you are going', Helga, startled by the near collision, exploded at him and chastised him for not being able to see properly, even going so far as to accuse him that he was trying to get her attention because he may liked 'liked' her.
Rodrigo however, just remained quiet. Now more irritated at her than before, he just glared at her, grabbed the book that he accidentally dropped and walked away, a gesture which Helga didn't take too kindly, mostly because she didn't get the kind of usual reaction she would have expected. But nevertheless, once he left, she went out her business.
To add to the frustration, Helga was still bothered that everyone was so enthralled with Rodrigo. Even after discussing this with Phoebe, Helga could not understand just what was it about this guy that made everyone like him. To them, he was the cool guy with the brains and charm to be able to smitten practically anyone. But to her, she felt something in her gut that Rodrigo was not who he claims to be and despite the serious debacle of his arrest, remained adamant that he was hiding something about himself, something dark. She got a glimpse of that when Rodrigo confronted her at her locker. The way he was looking at her caused her to shiver almost in fear. His eyes were not only full of rage, but also with piercing determination to get full vengeance on her. Helga had only seen that in one other person; herself.
Phoebe in turn still agreed with Helga about Rodrigo.
"I'm telling you, Phoebe!" Helga implored to her one day. "I'm absolutely positive that he is hiding something sinister about himself from us."
"Helga, as I said before," Phoebe calmly explained to her, "I believe you. But you need to understand, after what happened with us exposing his arrest like that, I no longer believe we should investigate further into his private life, nor do I think that whatever he is hiding, it's not anything serious that poses at threat to me or my friends."
"What about the way he was looking at me when he confronted me at my locker?" Helga asked. "Remember how I told you how his look completely unnerved me?"
"I do remember Helga, but you can't really blame him for being angry with you." Phoebe said to her. "Besides, how many times have you shown that same level of anger at anyone who tried to investigate your private life?"
"That's exactly my point!" Helga exclaimed. "The only difference is that while I make my anger explicitly known, Rodrigo hides it. Don't you see, Phoebe? He is like opposite of me; nice and charming on the inside, but sinister and violent on the inside."
"I'm sorry Helga," Phoebe said, "but even if that were true, I no longer want to be part of this. I happen to agree with what Arnold said to you; we should give him a chance, just like how he and Gerald are giving you a chance."
Helga said nothing and just groaned in frustration, feeling completely disappointed that her best friend was abandoning her. But, she then thought that perhaps that wasn't a bad idea. Helga felt that Phoebe got lucky that Rodrigo also didn't confront her about her role in exposing his private life. If anything, she kind of wondered why he only focused on her, but didn't ponder much about it, as she now had more pressing issues.
To add insult to injury, word quickly spread of Helga's and Rodrigo's encounter at her locker. Thanks in no doubt to Rhonda, the rumor was that Rodrigo had not only stood up to Helga, but even managed to unnerve her a bit, giving a taste of her own medicine of the fear that she once used to spread around the school. Although no one knew why Rodrigo did to incur Helga's wrath, it nevertheless intrigued everyone to know just how Rodrigo managed unnerve Helga G. Pataki.
Helga, on seeing her reputation slowly being tarnished, groaned in anger at just how bad things were turning against her. With each passing time, Helga felt more and more of her power and influence was being taking away by Rodrigo. However, instead of doing something about it, she opted to just stay away from him and bided her time in the hopes allowing this to blow over.
Four days after the incident, Rodrigo was at his locker, grabbing the books he will need for that day's homework.
"Hey Rodrigo." Gerald then said to him.
"Hey Gerald." Rodrigo happily greeted him.
"'We're going to Gerald's field to play some ball. You wanna come with?" He asked him.
"Sure!" Rodrigo happily said as soon as he was done, went with him there.
By the time Rodrigo and Gerald arrived, everyone else was already there waiting for them, including an impatient Helga.
"Finally you showed up, tall-hair boy." Helga retorted. "We were just about to start witho- Rodrigo?!" She exclaimed when she saw him.
"Helga?" Rodrigo said, not looking at all pleased on seeing her.
"What's he going here?" Helga demanded.
"I invited him to play with us." Gerald casually said.
"Forget it! He can't play." Helga quickly said. "We already have an equal number of players here, so we don't need him."
"It's OK Helga. Rodrigo can switch with someone to play in the next game." Arnold offered.
"We could..." Helga said as she 'thought' about it, "but no. It'll throw off everyone's groove and plus, I doubt anyone would want to trade their spot for him."
Arnold and Gerald were about to protest, but Rodrigo then spoke.
"You know what? That's fine with me." Rodrigo said with a frown. "I don't want to play if she is here." He then turned around and began to walk away.
"See? There you go." Helga said with a triumphant smile. "Good sportsmanship, Latino boy! Way to take one for the team!" She sarcastically exclaimed. "Alright, let's get the game started. We wasted enough time already."
"Hold on, Rodrigo." Arnold then called out to him, prompting him to stop and turn around. "You don't need to go." He said to him. "We can all play. You can just be on a different time than Helga." He suggested.
"Thanks, but no." Rodrigo declined. "I don't want to play at all if she is here, regardless of what team we are in. You guys have fun." He said before once again turning around to leave.
"Way to compromise, football head." He sarcastically said to him with a frown. "Now if everyone is ready, let's get this game-"
"Rodrigo, wait!" Sid then suddenly called him, prompting him to once again stop and turn around.
"What now?!" Helga annoyingly yelled.
"Why does Rodrigo need to leave?" Sid then asked. "He didn't do anything wrong and it's not his fault that he is still angry at Helga. I don't think he should leave at all. I think Helga should be the one to leave."
"What?!" Both Helga and Arnold exclaimed in utter shock.
Even Rodrigo was completely surprised by this, but said nothing.
"That's a load of garbage! Explain Sid, why should I be the one to leave?" She demanded. "I was here first. Rodrigo came last."
"Well for starters," Sid then began to calmly explain, "whenever we played sports with him, he has shown us that he possess a lot skills. He is also good in coming up with good strategies with his team in order to win. So I figured, with him here, the team could win."
"So?" Helga retorted, not really convinced by that reason. "So what if he is good in coming up with good strategies? I'm also good at that. How many times did I come up with ways for our team to win?"
"Yes, but Helga," Sid then said, this time with a more serious tone in his voice, "the truth is, it's way easier to play with him than with you."
"Excuse me?" Helga asked with annoyed look.
"Rodrigo actually plays as part of a team." Sid explained. "You just order us around, threaten us if we don't follow your plan and insult us whenever we make mistakes."
"Of course I threaten you; because my plan usually works and many of you have this bad habit on changing the plan right in the middle of the game! And as for the insults, I was just trying to encourage everyone." Helga firmly protested.
"Helga, I doubt you calling me a grade A moron and threatening me to bury me alive on this field if I don't do what you say counts as encouragement." Sid countered with a frown.
"We were losing 7-3 in that game!" Helga loudly protested. "And you kept on missing the ball. What did you expect me to say to you? 'attaboy Sid'? 'good job Sid'?" She continued with a sarcastic tone in that last sentence.
Upon hearing this, Helga then heard some of their friends muttering in agreement, much to her growing uneasiness.
"But in any regards," Sid then continued, "the whole reason why Rodrigo doesn't want to play with you is because of what you did to him a few days ago. I don't know what your problem is with him, but doing what you did was really uncalled for. So, why should he leave when it's your fault that he is angry with you?"
"Sid," Helga just snarled as she initially rubbed her eyes before then cracking her knuckles, "the only way I'm leaving here is if I drag you out of this field inside a trash can." She threatened him.
"Pfft, ya right." Sid said, unfazed by her threat. "You sound all tough and mean, but I'll bet those are just empty words. Rhonda told us about your littler encounter with Rodrigo at your locker and the way it sounded, you looked very nervous, if not even scared when he confronted you about what you did to him. Seems to me that Rodrigo exposed to everyone who you really are; all words and cracking knuckles but no stomach to follow through them."
Helga just angrily growled as she turned around to face the socialite who, much to her surprise, also remained unfazed by her scowl.
"What? I only told about what I saw with my own eyes." Rhonda said with her arms crossed.
Helga then looked around and saw how almost everyone was either nodding or looking at her with disapproving looks. The only two people that were not doing that were Phoebe and Arnold. Gerald was neutral, although he secretly agreed that Rodrigo shouldn't be the one to leave.
Arnold looked on with growing uneasiness and disappointment at everyone's reactions.
Helga, on seeing how everyone had just sided against her, privately felt utterly hurt by this. She had known everyone all of her life. They grew up together, go to the same school together, play together, had adventures together. Heck, they even went through the same trails and challenging times, AKA their neighbourhood being torn down and San Lorenzo, together. Although she had never been really close of any of them, safe for Phoebe, she thought she at least had some sort of rapport with them, even going so far as to believe that in some ways, they had accepted her into the group. To her hurt and dismay, all of that now seemed like an illusion.
Instead of showing the hurt and pain she was feeling, instead of crying about it, even apologizing to Rodrigo, Helga instead began to frown and with a cold, glaring stare,
"Alright, fine!" She angrily yelled at them. "If that's the way you traitors want, who needs any of you?! But don't come running to me if you don't win a single game!" As she then turned around and angrily, but also hurtfully began to leave the field.
"Helga, wait!" Arnold frantically cried out.
"Forget it, football head." She retorted. "I'm leaving!" As she continued to stomp away until,
"Helga!" Another, almost seemingly unfamiliar voice then called out her name. Had it not been for its unfamiliarity, Helga would have continued to walk away. But, rather curiously, Helga then stopped and turned around to face the person who called her.
"You don't need to go, Helga." Rodrigo gently said as he approached her.
While was Sid was talking, Rodrigo remained virtually silent, listening attentively and watching everyone's reactions. As more and more of their friends began to agree with Sid, Rodrigo in turn began to grow more and more uneasy. Despite their animosity, Rodrigo never liked when a person was ganged up by people, even if they deserved it. Yet, it was only when Helga began to frown and glare at everyone did Rodrigo see how much all of this was affecting her. Even though he only briefly managed to look into her ocean-blue eyes, he could see not only the level of anger, but also the level pain, hurt and humiliation that she was feeling. It was only then that Rodrigo saw for the first time what Arnold was talking about and why she felt she needed to act all tough and aggressive against everyone; she was hurting on the inside. Feeling bad for her, Rodrigo felt he needed to intervene and put a stop to this.
"Let's compromise and do what Arnold suggested;" He calmly said to her. "You be on one team and I'll be on the other team. I can draw straw with my team to see who I switch places with every other game. You won't need to get involved."
Helga initially looked at him with a suspicious look, initially not really buying his sincerity. But after seeing just how genuine he was about it, she began to think about it.
"We could..." She said as she rubbed her chin.
Arnold let out a happy sigh, feeling so relieved that Rodrigo, out of everyone, stepped forward to avert a possible tragedy. However, his celebration was premature.
"Yes, we could," Rodrigo said, "if,"
"If what?" She asked him.
"If you just apologize to me for the stunt you pulled." He said, intentionally then giving Helga a smirk.
Arnold said nothing and groaned as he saw his hopes for a peaceful settlement between the two completely dashing. Yet, he remained optimistic, if not slightly fanatical, in the hopes that Helga would accept this term. After what she did to him it really wasn't an unreasonable condition.
Unbeknownst to Arnold, he didn't see the smirk the Rodrigo gave to Helga. But, she did.
"I thought football head over there already apologized in my stead." She said.
"He did." Rodrigo confirmed. "But I declined to accept it. I will only accept it if it comes directly from you."
"Oh." She calmly said. "Well in that case, forget it!" She predictable exclaimed, much to everyone's shock.
"Helga!" Arnold began to protest, feeling utterly disappointed at her decision.
"Relax, football head." She said to him. "I'm giving him a counter offer."
"Counter offer?" Rodrigo confusingly asked.
"Yes." She said with her own smirk. "I'll apologize to you, if you tell everyone here what you are hiding."
"Again with that?" Rodrigo irritatingly asked. "I can't accept that because I'm not hiding anything." He firmly exclaimed.
"Well then, I guess I can't apologize to you." She then said with her arms crossed.
"Oh come on Helga, that's not fair!" Arnold again began to protest.
"Forget it, football head." Helga quickly cut him off. "I know exactly what his guy is trying to do, which is why I made that counter offer in the first place."
"Well then, I guess you can't play with us." Rodrigo then boldly declared.
"That's fine with me!" Helga angrily yelled as she then turned around and walked away, much to Arnold's dismay.
Rodrigo watched in utter astonishment at her refusal to apologize to him. But in truth, he wasn't surprised by this. Rodrigo for his part, felt that because Helga had wronged him, he wanted her to apologize to him, but under his terms, not hers. Hence why he gave her that smirk, to indicate to her that this was not under equal footing. However, he also knew that given her personality, she would never accept such a term under those conditions. In truth, he wanted to spite her. But, he did have some small hope that she would apologize to him so they could move on with their lives.
I guess not. He thought.
Seeing that how upset Helga was and wanting to make sure she was OK, Arnold ran up to her.
"Hey Arnold, where you going?" Gerald asked him.
"You guys go on ahead and play." He told everyone. "I'm going to go and see if Helga is alright." As he then ran up to catch up to her.
Gerald just let out a sigh, but heeded his instruction.
"Alright guys," he then casually said to everyone, "let's start the game."
Phoebe, as much as she wanted to go over and see if Helga was OK, reluctantly stayed put, knowing that Arnold would do that in her stead.
"Helga, wait up!" Arnold called out to her as he eventually caught up to her.
"What do you want, football head?" She annoyingly asked. "Don't you have a game to play?"
"Helga, I don't understand." He said to her. "Why is it so hard for you to just apologize to him? He is not asking you to beg for his forgiveness. All he is asking for is a simple, 'I'm sorry'."
"Look football head, this maybe hard for you to know what's it's like, but I am certain that this new kid is hiding something sinister." Helga began to explain. "And I know this because of my own experience. As hard as this is to believe, the reason why I am being so stubborn over this is because out of genuine concern for you and our friends. You weren't there when Rodrigo confronted me at my locker after my little stunt. The way he was looking at me was fueled with so much rage and anger that there was no way it could have just been about what I did. The only person whom I have seen that has that amount of anger is me. So, something else must be fueling it and I am determined to know what that is."
"Did he hurt you?" Arnold asked him.
"No. But for a brief second, I really thought he was going to." Helga admitted.
Arnold went silent for a moment to think about what Helga said. He had been so focused on what Helga did to him, that he hadn't considered at the possibility of what Rodrigo might have done to her in the hallway. Could he have actually put his hands on Helga?
"What, you don't believe me?" Helga asked him after waiting for a long while for him to say something.
"No Helga, I do believe you." He said. "I'll admit, I didn't really consider what he might have done to you and I promise that I'll take that under consideration."
Helga couldn't help but let out a very small smile, relieved to hear that her own boyfriend thinks she is not crazy.
"But," Arnold then continued, prompting Helga to drop her smile, "even if he has repressed anger, he has only shown it to you after what you did him. And if he really had a lot of unbottled anger as you claim he has, why are you enticing him like that? Why not just apologize to him so he can leave you alone and you don't have to worry about it?"
"Because football head," Helga angrily snarled at him, "I'm not going to apologize for something that I know that I'm right about."
"And what's more," She then continued, "I'm also getting tired of you constantly defending him and taking his side. Crimeny, I'm you're girlfriend to Pete's sake! You're suppose to be on my side."
"I am on your side, Helga." Arnold calmly said to her. "That's why I'm here and not back in the field playing. And that's also why I'm trying to get you to see his side of the story."
"Oh, right." Helga said dismissively, but now with a mocking tone. "What exactly did the cry baby tell you? That I exposed his wee wittle secwet? Oh boo hoo. What a joke!"
"Helga, it's not just about you exposing something personal about him." Arnold then firmly said. "Rodrigo also told me something else."
"What?" She asked him with a frown.
"He told me that it is only out of pure good luck that things weren't as bad as it went for him." Arnold began to explain. "He told me if he really did vandalize his school and if he really is a troublesome kid, you exposing that to everyone would have made him into a pariah. Any chances of him getting a second chance in life would have been ruined."
Helga went quiet for moment as she grew a bit uneasy by what Arnold said. From that perspective, she hadn't thought just how bad she could have made things for him. And if Rodrigo really did have a lot of repressed anger in him, who knows what he might have done to her in that scenario.
"Yeah well, good thing it didn't turn out like that." Helga just countered.
"Yes, but Helga don't you see how bad you could have made it for him?" Arnold said. "You only managed to do avoid that only because he is not a bad person. How would you have been able to sleep at night knowing you almost ruined someone's life?"
"Hm, I would have slept just fine." Helga just shrugged.
"Helga, this is serious!" Arnold angrily yelled at her. "You need to apologize to him." He uncharacteristically demanded.
"I will do no such thing!" Helga angrily yelled back at him.
"Will you do it for me?" He then asked her, catching her completely off guard.
"What?" She nervously asked him.
"Will you apologize to him for me?" He asked him.
Oh com on, that is so not fair! Helga thought.
Helga tried to fight it off, but felt herself buckling under the pressure. Her strong, undying love for him was vastly overpowering her will to resist.
"Arnold, I..." She tried to say something but nothing else came out. "I..." She then looked at his eyes and in mere seconds, nearly collapsed when she gazed upon his grassy-meadow green eyes and hopeful look.
"I..." She nervously said again. "I...I need go." She finally said and then quickly turned around to head for him.
Arnold couldn't help but feel not only seriously disappointed, but also a bit hurt that even for him, she wouldn't do it. Arnold had repeatedly tried to get Helga to see the bigger picture of things and although he believed that what she said about Rodrigo is true, he still felt because it was her that enticed his anger, only she could calm him down.
"OK." He sadly said to her. "I'll walk you home."
"No, don't." Helga then said to him, trying to sound firm even though she was collapsing on the inside. "I'll be fine. I don't need you to walk me home."
"I know you'll be fine, Helga." Arnold said. "I want to walk you home."
"Thanks, football head, but I'll be fine." She nervously, if not also tearfully insisted. "Just go and play with everyone. Hope you win."
Helga didn't wait for Arnold to say anything else and just quickly began to walk away, leaving a highly frustrated, demoralized Arnold alone in the street.