Responses to reviews:
The J.A.M. a.k.a. Numbuh i: Nope, it didn't.
Veganmama: Thanks! I wanted to show that when compared to Helga's and Arnold's relationship, Gerald's and Phoebe's relationship is running more smoothly. Although Helga is bothered that her own relationship has a lot of challenges, she is still happy for Phoebe. I feel this is something Helga will always come back to 'what's their secret? How do they make things go so smoothly?', etc.
LOL, thanks! I do think that Rhonda will get suckered into something like Rodrigo or anyone showing strong signs of refinement. However, I also don't want to make Rhonda look like she is naive or a simpleton. She is not, far from it. I will address this in another story that I have in mind.
Yeah, I'd figured this was Helga's way of saying, 'Hi'.
Hm, Rodrigo and Lila? Interesting...
LOL, yeah I thought it would be fun to draw parallels between this story and the other ones, only just as opposites. I think anyone who meets Helga the first time will be left wondering if they did something wrong to upset her, lol.
Lila is too nice and smart to get suckered into doing something like that to Rodrigo after what the girls did to her. While I tried to make it look like she did forgive them, she hadn't forgotten. After what she went through, I'm surprised she even forgave them.
Maybe Helga has met her match? Non-romantically speaking, lol.
Cringey for everyone, but normal for Helga. Insane but also sad that she can't accept the fact that there is someone other than Arnold who actually likes her traits.
As for the soliloquy, this is actually the second, if not maybe the third time I had Helga monologue about Arnold as a whole. She did do a monologue in 'Hey Arnold: Civil War', right as the group splintered, although that was not just specifically to Arnold, and it was a bit less romantic and more out of genuine concern for them. I also did have her to a monologue, kind of, in 'Helga's Transference' when she was writing a letter to Arnold acknowledging her feelings for Rodrigo. Obviously she never sends those letters to him. But yes, her monologues are rare because they are hard for me to write. Like her, I need to be inspired in order to write them, otherwise it wouldn't work for me. Plus in my other stories, she isn't with Arnold and has been struggling to get over him, so it would have been counter productive for her to do a monologue about him.
Helga should apologize, but we all know she is too proud to easily admit when she is wrong or defeat. It's a Pataki thing.
Helga spent the next day during lunch recess at the library, scanning through the internet in the vain attempt to find any more dirt on Rodrigo, but ultimately found nothing.
"Crub!" Helga frustratingly exclaimed as she hit the computer desk with her fist.
"Sshhh!" The Librarian then shushed her.
"Ya, ya, keep your pants." Helga muttered back with a frown, but then slumped down and groaned, feeling utterly exhausted by this enter enterprise.
"Maybe I am going crazy." She whispered to herself. "Maybe there is really nothing there and Rodrigo really does like me. Or rather, used to like me."
Helga then got up and walked out of the library while pondering again if she should just let this all go and apologize to him.
But why do I have this serious funny feeling about him? She thought as she walked out. Do I really think there is something wrong with him or is it really my insecurities?
Whatever the reason, Helga's only possible option, if she wished to further pursue this, was to perhaps spy on Rodrigo or even break into his home to see what evidence she can find in his room.
Problem with that idea, She thought, is that I might get caught, not to mention if I even have the will to do that. The only person's home I was willing to break into was Arnold's.
"Ah crimeny, I'm going to be late." She then groaned when she realized that the bell was about to ring soon.
Wasting no time, she pushed all thoughts aside and headed straight back to her class.
Later that same day, after school…
Once the bell rang, school was over for the day and everyone quickly headed to their locker to get their things and head home. Helga, not really in any rush to head home, for good reasons, just calmly walked to her locker to get her things as she thought about what she could do to procrastinate the inevitability of heading home. She must have walked very slowly because by the time she made it to her locker, the hallway was almost empty.
"Wow, I must have really taken my time." Helga thought as she opened her locker to get her things.
Once that was done, she closed and headed toward the main exit door.
Let's see, what can I do to not head home? She thought. Phoebe is going to be busy with Gerald today and Arnold said he had some stuff to do at home, so I could just relax at the park, or go to the arcade.
As she continued to think, she reached the end of the hallway and was about to turn to another hallway.
Ugh, I just remembered that I don't have any money. She groaned in thought. I spent it all on my lunch today. Thanks a lot, Miriam. Well, looks like it's off to the park with -
"Off!" Both her and another student grunted loudly as they forcefully collided with each other, hitting their heads just as both were making a turn around the corner.
The collision was so great that it knocked both student off of their feet and right into the ground. With the pain on their heads, both students just sat there for a little while and groaned, rubbing their heads.
Helga was the first to come to and when she opened her eyes to see who she collided with, she was stunned.
"You?!" She angrily exclaimed when she saw that she crashed into Rodrigo, who was still disoriented.
Startled and angry that she crashed into him, Helga immediately got up, grabbed Rodrigo by his shirt and pulled him closer to her.
"Crimeny Latino boy, are you blind?!" She angrily began to yell at him and shoved him back and forth. "Didn't you see me walking in the opposite direction? What were you doing?! Day dreaming?!" She continued to berate him, until she let him go and began to stomp her foot in anger.
Rodrigo was still disoriented when Helga shoved him back and forward. However, upon letting him go and hearing her yell at him again, he finally regained his composure and looked up to view her glaring at him as she continued to yell at him for crashing into her. Then, he noticed that something was missing.
"You could have given me a concussion!" She continued to yell and stomp. "Or a nose bleed! The last thing I want is to spend my afternoon in the nurse's office after school!"
He reached for his head and noticed that his hat wasn't on his head. Looking down, he then saw, with growing abject horror and distraught on his face, his hat on the ground, with Helga angrily and mercilessly stomping on it.
"NO! My hat!" He cried out as he instantly leaned forward and pushed Helga away.
"Whoa!" Helga exclaimed when he pushed her, forcing her to lose her balance and fall to the floor for the second time.
"You...have...some nerve pushing me after you just crashed into me!" Helga now furiously began to berate at him again as she got up from the floor.
Rodrigo meanwhile was still on the floor as he picked up his now dirty and squashed hat, looking incredibly distraught and upset. The incident would have brought him to tears, had he not heard Helga's still rampaging voice. As soon as he looked up right at her, his hurtful and desolate face soon gave way to a fiercely angry scowl. Tuning out all noise, including her incessive yelling, he slowly got up and like lightening, instantly grabbed onto her upper part of her dress and pulled her close to him. His sudden hold of her finally forced her to go silent as she once again stared at the same raging, skin piercing eyes.
"How dare you stomp on my hat, especially after I told you never to touch it!" Rodrigo furiously roared her.
The blond preteen was induced by heavy shock, if not fear as she gazed upon his eyes that were like fire. However, she soon snapped out of it.
"I didn't know you're stupid hat was even there!" Helga then angrily yelled at him. "I was too busy yelling at you for crashing into me!"
"I don't believe you!" Rodrigo yelled at him, but before Helga could respond, he quickly continued. "I'm going to give you this one last chance to apologize, or I will make you pay." He angrily snarled at him.
Helga, never one to back down from a fight, especially after being threatened, only glared back at him with her own piercing eyes.
"You can forget about me ever apologizing to you or about your stupid hat!" Helga yelled at him. "Especially after you put your hands on me after I told YOU never to touch ME!" As then she then slapped his hat from his hand, causing it fall right into the ground again.
Rodrigo watched with dismay as his hat steadily fell. The second it hit the floor,
"How's that for an apology!" She said to him as she pointed at his hat that was now on the ground.
"Aaarrrggghhh!"
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Helga yelled and grunted when Rodrigo, in a fit of rage, suddenly charged at her, grabbed her head, put his arms around it and using his other hand, began to quickly untie her pink bow from her head.
Helga struggled to break loose, but his grip was too strong. Eventually, he let her go and took a few steps back. Upon being released, Helga looked forward and saw what he now had in his hands.
"You will apologize to me right now," Rodrigo angrily said to her as he wrapped her bow around his hands and held it right in front of her, "or I will rip it in two."
When Helga saw what was in his hands, she immediately began to tense up and was rendered completely numb. Her eyes revealed a level of shock that had been made in only a few times in her life. Yet, there was no denying what she was seeing; he had her pink bow! For a few seconds, the entire universe stopped moving as Helga looked on with increasing horror. But just as quickly, a sudden surge of rage began to quickly rise up inside her. Then suddenly,
*SSSHHHRRRRIIIEEEEKKKKK*
Helga let out a ferocious shriek that was so loud and penetrating that it forced Rodrigo to cover his ears. The shriek quickly made its way throughout the school and right outside, allowing Arnold and everyone to hear it.
"Helga?" Arnold said when he heard it and recognized that it came from her. "Something is wrong. She's in trouble. We need to get back inside."
Arnold then quickly made his way back up the stoop and into the building. Gerald, Phoebe, Rhonda, Nadine, Harold, Sid and Stinky quickly followed suit.
Rodrigo was taken back by Helga's sudden shriek but he had little time to ponder about it as she, in a fit of her own rage, charged right at him and the two began to wrestle with each other.
Unbeknownst to Rodrigo, he had no idea of the significance that pink bow posed for Helga. All he knew was that it meant something to her because, not only did she wear it every single day, he figured that someone like her would never wear something so...innocent, unless it meant something and that was enough for him to threaten to rip it in two.
"Give me that bow!" She angrily snarled at him as she attempted to grab it.
"No!" Rodrigo just exclaimed.
Now getting even more angry by his defiance, Helga tried to grab onto Rodrigo's hands in order to unbound the bow from it and get it, but Rodrigo held it firmly and merely attempted to push her away. Helga then suddenly pushed Rodrigo right up against the locker, startling him.
"Aah!" He grunted when he felt his back and head slam right into it.
He realized to his shock that Helga, despite being a girl, was far stronger than he thought she was. However, undeterred, he merely pushed against the lockers and pushed her back, causing her to slam against the wall across the hallway.
"Ow!" She yelp in pain when the back of her head hit the wall. But that only served to anger her even more.
Realizing that he was stronger than her, Helga opted to fight dirty and suddenly slammed her forehead against his face.
"Ow!" Rodrigo yelled out in pain, but Helga wasn't done yet.
"So you wanna tango?!" She, with an almost fiercely haunting voice, "Then let's cut her up!" As she then used her free hand to punch him right in his rib cage, barely missing his stomach, but nevertheless causing him to grunt in pain.
"Alright, fine. A que bailar!" (Let's dance!) Rodrigo exclaimed as he used his strength to swing Helga around and slammed her again against the wall for the second time. Only this time, he then ran and slammed his body against hers, squishing her.
"Argh!" she grunted when she felt the full force of his body slam right into her.
But she then felt Rodrigo swing her around and again threw her against the wall and then felt his body slam right up against hers a second time.
"Ow!" She yelled again, but then,
*crunch*
"OW oh oh!" Rodrigo yelp in pain when Helga bit hard into his arm, causing him to lose his balance and fell down.
Helga, who was still holding onto his hands, was pulled down with him and landed right on top of him.
"Had enough, Latino boy?!" Helga exclaimed with an almost sadistic smile as she was taking some amount of delight in hurting him.
"Are you kidding-Ow!" Rodrigo fired back as Helga tried to punch and kick him. "I'm just-Ow! Getting started – Ow!"
Angered now by Helga's incesstive attacks, Rodrigo then rolled over in order to get on top of her and gain an advantage. However, Helga merely used that same initial momentum to continue to roll around and get back on top. However, Rodrigo would not give up and merely continued to roll over in the hopes of trying to get on top.
As the two wrestled with each other on the ground, Arnold and everyone else finally arrived at the hallway where they were and upon seeing them, were shocked.
"Rodrigo!" Rhonda exclaimed in utter disbelief when she saw him fighting Helga.
"Helga!" Arnold shouted her name in utter worry.
Not wasting any time, Arnold ran towards them, followed by the rest of his friends.
Not noticing that their friends had arrived, Rodrigo and Helga continued to roll around on the ground, moving farther away from them.
"I swear Rodrigo, if you don't let go I'll rip your arms off!" Helga angrily threatened him.
"Not if I rip your bow first!" He responded back.
Unbeknownst to them, they continued to roll over until they reached another exit door. They rolled over against the doors, forcing them to open and rolled right onto the school's stoop. Whether they even knew they were now outside of the school, it was anybody's guess. The fact of the matter was that the neither of them were willing to stand down and just continued to roll around on the floor, then onto the stoop until finally rolled onto the sidewalk.
Finally, they managed to stop rolling and just continued to wrestle with each other on the floor, with Helga still on stop of him.
Helga, by now losing all patience, grabbed his hands and tried to forcefully open his fingers, even if it meant risking breaking them, she didn't care anymore! Because she was on top of him, she used her legs and pin him down and distract him while she worked on his hands. However, one of her legs got too close to his face and then suddenly,
*crunch*
"Ooww!" Helga yelp in pain when Rodrigo bit her, but she merely used that same leg to pin his face and slam it right onto the ground, somewhat neutralizing him.
Finally, after a fierce struggle, Helga managed to open his fingers. Seeing she was within inches of finally getting back her most cherished possession, Helga couldn't help but let out a smile on her face, even while Rodrigo was posing a threat. However, just as she was about to reach for it,
"What the-!"
A strong gust of wind suddenly blew at just that moment when Rodrigo didn't have a firm grasp on it and blew her pink bow right out from his hands and her grasp.
"Oh you gotta be kidding me!" She frustratingly exclaimed, but then, the wind ceased and the pink bow began to fall down right on the street.
Just as when the pink flew off, Arnold and everyone else reached the exit doors and went outside, enabling them to witness as they saw a pink bow falling down.
"Phew." Helga let out a sigh of relief when her pink bow landed not to far away from her.
However just then, a street cleaning truck suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and was heading right where the bow had landed.
Helga had little time to comprehend what was quickly unfolding before her very eyes, for as soon as she saw the cleaning truck, it approached her pink bow and with one of its twirling street brush, brushed it inside it as it continued to drive on.
"AAAAHHHHHH!"
Helga let out horrifying scream as she witnessed with a mortifying look, her pink bow being swept away.
She then immediately got up and tried to hurriedly ran towards the cleaning truck.
"Helga!" Arnold called out to her as he and everyone else then ran towards her and Rodrigo.
Helga ignored Arnold's calling and continued to frantically ran, but the cleaning truck soon began to accelerate, driving faster and further away, making it now utterly impossible for Helga to catch up to it.
"Nnooo!" Helga shouted as she saw with devastating eyes the vehicle hastily driving away, out of reach and then, out of sight.
Realizing that it was now hopeless, Helga stopped running and while still looking at the horizon from where the truck disappeared to and feeling utterly numb, knelt down on the floor in utter defeat.
Rodrigo meanwhile managed to get up when Helga pulled herself away from him, but witnessed everything that was happening. After his serious scuffle with Helga, he was tired and breathing heavily.
"Rodrigo, what are you doing?" Arnold frantically asked him. "Why were you fighting Helga?"
"You're stupid girlfriend attacked me!" Rodrigo angrily yelled at him. "All because of some dumb bow!"
"What? What do you mean?" Arnold asked, looking confused as to how her bow enticed both of them to fight each other.
"I snatched her bow from her head and then she suddenly attacked me and starting hitting me!" Rodrigo angrily explained.
"What?! Why would you do that?!" Arnold asked him with a frown, now clearly upset himself.
"Rodrigo!" Rhonda then quickly exclaimed as she gave the Latino kid a seriously disapproving, but also mortifying look for his actions. "Why would you put your hands a girl, even if it's Helga?"
"Because she stomped on my hat!" Rodrigo angrily shouted his reason. "She collided with me in the hallway and instead of apologizing, she started yelling at me and accused me of crashing into her, all awhile stomping on my hat! When I told her to apologize, she refused! So, I did what I had to do."
"Helga, is this true?" Arnold asked her. "Did you really stomp on his hat and refused to apologize to him?"
Helga however, not only didn't respond, but made no attempt to turn around to face Arnold and her friends and just continued to stand there completely still, while staring at the direction where the cleaning truck drove to and disappeared with her pink bow.
"Helga?" Arnold gently called her again, now getting a little worried. "Are you OK?"
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Helga, in a fit of unprecedented rage, then suddenly turned around, screamed at Rodrigo and then began to charge right at him, intending on sending him to an early grave.
"Helga, no!" Phoebe then shouted as she, Gerald and Arnold ran up to her and grabbed her, preventing her from getting to Rodrigo. Rodrigo for his part, made no effort to move away nor even brace himself for another possible second round with her.
Yet even with three of her friends restraining her, Helga still incredibly managed to slowly make her way towards Rodrigo. All of her strength and rage was directed at one target only and come hell or high water, she was going to reach him even if it killed her.
"Helga, stop!" Arnold implored her as he tried to pull her away. "It's no use fight-"
"You idiot!" Helga furiously screamed at Rodrigo as she struggled to free herself from her friends' grips. "Do you realize what you've done?! Do you know what that bow meant to me?!"
"Whoa, Helga!" Gerald grunted as he tried to push her away from her front. "Let's just cool our heads a bit-"
"I hate you!" Helga shrieked at him, surprising Rodrigo. "You are the worst thing to have ever happen to me! I never want to see your face ever again! In fact, go back from where you came from AND NEVER COME BACK!"
"What..?" A dazed and disbelief Rodrigo was all able to mutter out.
"ARE YOU DEAF?!" Helga furiously screeched at him. "I said I hate you! Get lost!"
"Get off me!" Helga yelled at Arnold and her friends. "I said get off me!" She yelled again as she pushed everyone away.
Helga may have stopped her charge, but she was still utterly furious. For a few moments she remained silent as she just glared at Rodrigo, hoping to just use her eyesight to tear him into pieces. She was breathing heavily with almost some of saliva dripping down from her mouth.
"My bow!" She furiously yelled at him.
Rodrigo remained at his place and just watched in astonishment at just how angry Helga was. Never had he witnessed anyone have this much anger and now hate against anyone, not even him over something trivial as a bow.
"You-You made me to lose my…"
But Helga couldn't finish her sentence. Almost immediately, Helga's glaring anger soon began to give away. No longer able to contain the pain, tears began to form around her eyes and pretty soon, began to fall down, much to the surprise of everyone. Her raging and piercing glare, which just a moment ago, demonstrated pure unmitigated anger and hatred, began to demonstrate the level of hurt and pain that she was feeling on the inside. She still breathed heavily, but it was quickly replaced with her gasping for air, as if she was on the verge of sobbing.
Everyone looked on as Helga's facial expression quickly transformed from anger and hate, to one of extreme sadness and pain. The level of shock of seeing Helga be so angry in one second, only to succumb to tears in another second stunned everyone, not to mention that this was the first time they were seeing Helga G. Pataki, one of P.S. 118's fiercest tormentors, on the verge of sobbing, rendered everyone motionless and silent.
Finally, feeling utterly humiliated, angry and hurt, Helga could no longer stand everyone watching her and with now fully crying, turned around and ran away, heading home.
"Helga, wait!" Phoebe then called out to her and then began to ran after her.
Arnold was also about to run after her, but at the last second stopped himself when he saw Phoebe running after her. As much as he desperately wanted to catch up to her and comfort her, he decided that it was perhaps best he let Phoebe calm her down. Apart from the fact that she was Helga's best friend, Arnold had some serious questions for Rodrigo. Growing ever more anger on seeing Helga this upset, he turned around to face Rodrigo and with a frown,
"Rodrigo, what gives?!" Arnold angrily exclaimed at him. "Why did you take her pink bow and why did you get into a fight with a girl?! I understand you were upset with her stomping on your hat, but that's no excuse for antagonizing her the way you did! I know that you know how much that bow meant to her, so would did you take it when you knew it would upset her?"
Rodrigo however remained virtually silent, looking visibly stunned at what he just witnessed.
"Rodrigo!" Arnold yelled at him, trying to get his attention.
"Huh? What?" Rodrigo finally responded.
"I said," Arnold annoyingly said again, "why would you take her bow when you knew it meant something to her and why would you get into a fight with a girl?"
"I um…" Rodrigo then began to nervously attempt to respond while everyone's gaze were upon him, clearly showing their disappointment in him.
However, Rodrigo then got a grip and with a determined frown,
"I'm sorry Arnold," He began to speak, "but ever since I came here, Helga has been nothing but a serious thorn on my side. I have been nothing but be nice to her and all she gave me return were nothing but constant yells, threats and rude remarks. I honestly don't know what I did to get on her bad side, but her stomping on my hat was the last straw!"
"Rodrigo," Arnold said, trying to remain his usual calmness and attempt to explain things to him, "I understand that Helga is a difficult person to deal with, but that doesn't give you the right to put your hands on her."
"Put my hands on her?" Rodrigo rhetorically asked with a dumbfounded face. "Do you not see what she did to me?!" He exclaimed as he pointed to the bruises on his face. "And besides, she put her hands on me first! All I did was snatch her bow from her head after the fact, but I otherwise did nothing else to her. She was the one who charged and attacked me. I'll admit, I underestimated how how much that bow meant to her, but that still doesn't give her the right to grab me and shove me around like a ragdoll, even if she is a girl! Besides, with the way she was fighting, I had no choice."
"Wait, so Rodrigo got beat up by Helga?" Harold asked. "Bahahahaha! Rodrigo got beat up by a girl!" Harold then burst out laughing and began to make fun of him.
"Harold!" Rodrigo then suddenly and angrily roared at him. "Now is not the time for one of your immature mocking sessions!"
The sudden ferocity of Rodrigo yelling at him, not to mention the glare that he was giving him immediately prompted the former bully to go completely silent.
"Uh, OK." He almost whimpered with fear in his eyes.
"Be that as it may," Arnold then continued, "Helga has never laid a finger on you, so why would go about and grab her bow like that? And even if she did, she is a girl! Look, I'm sorry your hat got ruined, but I'm sure her stomping on it was by accident. I know she never would have done something like that on pur-"
"Why are you always making excuses for her?!" Rodrigo then angrily cut him off.
"I'm not making excuses!" Arnold firmly countered.
"Yes you are!" Rodrigo fired back. "From the moment I first set foot in this school, all you have been doing is apologize to me and everyone else on her behalf or come up with justification as to why we should tolerate the way she treats us. Not once had I ever seen her even admit for anything wrong that she did. I have seen the way she talks to you and I'm really surprised at just why you tolerate that from her!"
"You already know why, Rodrigo." Arnold tried to calmly remind him, "Because of that, she has a lot of anger in her, which I have been trying to help out with her. But despite her aggression, she is not a bad person. There is good in her, a lot of good in her, which I have been trying to help her let out. I thought you also saw that in her." He continued with a disappointed tone and look on his face.
"I do see that, Arnold." Rodrigo confirmed. "It's a fact. There's is no way you or even Phoebe would in any way associate yourself with her unless there was something about her that was good. I see it, Arnold. And despite what you may think, I am sympathetic to what she is going through."
"You are?" Arnold asked.
"Yes, I am." Rodrigo confidently responded. "I know she is having a rough time, but you need to understand there are limits! I, or anyone else have nothing to do with what she is going through, so she shouldn't be taking it out on us. And just because you have an infinite amount of patience doesn't mean that everyone else has that same capacity. Yes, everyone should try to be understanding, but not up to the point where we, or even you, are condoning her behaviour."
"You have no idea how much she crossed a line when she exposed that part of my life to everyone like that!" Rodrigo, now getting angry again, continued. "While I am not ashamed for doing what I did, it's something very controversial and I don't want just anyone to know about it, unless I decide to. Just as she doesn't like it when people stick their nose into her business, I honestly expected her to do the same with me. She didn't even confront me about, not even blackmailing me! She just went to the school yard and told everyone about it, without even reading the entire article properly!"
Arnold knew that this was one particular place where he really could not argue against. Indeed, he himself was surprised by Helga's action, even if she was suspicious of him. She could have at least confronted Rodrigo about it privately, or at least spoken to him first. What she did was out of character, even for her and he had no way to explain what compelled her to do it. However, just then, Rhonda stepped forward.
"I'm afraid Rodrigo has a point, Arnold." Rhonda then said.
"What?" Arnold said, surprised.
Rodrigo, even thought he was a bit surprised, said nothing.
"Even though I am completely appalled by his fight with a girl and I am in no way condoning his behaviour," She said as she looked at the Latino kid with a highly disappointed, if not a disgusted look, "by the way Rodrigo, you have been demoted from the 'cool kids' status until further notice." She said to him. "We will have to reevaluate you in the coming future to see if you are even descent enough to be part of our group."
Rodrigo said nothing and just rolled his eyes and had an irritated look on his face. He really did not care at all about his status in school. That was the not even on his mind.
"Helga has been like this for many years," Rhonda then went back on topic, "and while I have little clue as to what 'issue or issues' she is going through, Rodrigo is right; that doesn't justify her behaviour, especially after what happened in San Lorenzo."
"At the risk of even sounding inconsiderately blunt, " the socialite continued, "It's growing tiredness. She should just let go whatever is causing her to be so angry and just move on."
"Rhonda, it's not that simple." Arnold said. "It's not something that she can just push aside. Believe me, I wish it were that simple. She has her reasons why she feels she needs to act like this."
"Arnold's right." Gerald then stepped forward. "I'll admit that while Helga is not my favorite person, I am vouching that she does possess a lot of good qualities. And as hard as this is to believe, she does have a softer, caring side to her. I know because I saw it in San Lorenzo."
"It's not that we don't believe with you fellers," Stinky then said, "but we've never seen this other side of her. Even after we got back from San Lorenzo, she continued to act the same way as she always does. To us, nothing changed."
"Ya, what have we done to her that we deserve to be bullied and yelled by her year after year?" Sid then said. "OK sure, we can be a bit immature sometimes, but that's no reason for her to treat us like dirt."
That last thing that Sid said caught Rodrigo's attention and it made him think about Helga's situation more deeply. It was then that he realized that perhaps there was a legitimate, if not good reason as to why Helga had been so reluctant to show that side of her at school...
"But in any case," Arnold then said again, "this is not really the time to discuss this. There is still the issue of what Rodrigo did to Helga."
Rodrigo however, was deep in his own thoughts to register that Arnold was now focusing on him again.
"Rodrigo!" Arnold then called out again when he was noticed that he seemed 'lost'.
"Huh? What?" A startled Rodrigo said when he heard his name.
"Do you have a sleeping problem or something?" Gerald then asked him, noticing his distraction. "You seem to doze off. Or you got something else on your mind?"
You could say that. Rodrigo agreed with Gerald thought.
"Um, no, I don't." Rodrigo answered. "Sorry, but I uh, I need to go." He then quickly turned around and ran back up to the stoop and into the school building to get his things, without even saying goodbye to anyone.
"Rodrigo!" Arnold frustratingly called out to him, "Come back. We're not done talking!" But it was no use, Rodrigo made no attempt to stop and just ran back inside.
"Well, that was rude." Rhonda commented with a frown. "Ugh, I swear that kid is just asking us to kick him out."
"Why did he take off like that?" Arnold asked.
"Maybe he didn't want to interrogated anymore." Gerald assumed.
Arnold just sighed as he watched the Latino kid go inside and disappear, never getting a chance to finish questioning his actions.
"Well Arn, what are you going to do now?" Gerald then asked him. "Are you going to call Helga or go to her house?"
"No." Arnold just said, feeling utterly exhausted by all of this. "I'm just going to message Phoebe and ask her how she is doing and if I can call her later. But for now, I have to get home. I promised my grandpa I would help him with something. I'll see you later guys."
Arnold then began to walk away and head home. Feeling utterly bad for Helga, but knowing that he can't really do anything at the moment, only intensified his growing level of anxiety and worry. It also didn't help at what the future will bring for him, his girlfriend and Rodrigo. He didn't even know if Helga would even show up for school tomorrow and certainly didn't know what he should do about Rodrigo. Should he be forgiven for what he did to Helga? Should he even still be a part of their group? These were all these questions that he will have to figure out eventually. The only thing he knew for sure was that any hope of those two reconciling was now permanently out the window. With the future looking very uncertain, Arnold 's only source of comfort was his usual optimism that, however bad things might get, things will eventually get better. Well, one can only hope.