Hello again everyone I'm back with another chapter! I want to thank lily, Cre8ivelybankrupt87 and CukooCoa for reviewing last chapter, its always nice to get feedback. Now for this chapter I've decided to use parts from the Operation Ruthless and Love and Cheese episodes for this story you will see why soon enough.
I still own nothing but the plot
Wolfgang pov
Wolfgang at the moment was pacing inside of his room deeply engrossed in his thoughts. For the pasted couple of weeks all he could think about was winning the Grand Prix. The Cheese Festival had been the furthest thing from his mind until Nadine brought it up. Now he'd have to come up with a plan that will keep the other kids from finding out about his relationship while keeping his new girlfriend happy and content. It wouldn't be easy but if there was one thing that Wolfgang was surprisingly good at it was planning.
First step go as early as possible. Wolfgang thinks to himself, The Cheese Festival was open at eleven but most kids didn't actually get there until twelve or one when the rides were sure to be warmed up. But it wasn't out of the ordinary to see some kids there early especially the younger ones whose parents would leave the festival early because of the kids earlier bedtimes.
Second step stay away from popular rides as much as possible. Wolfgang continues to plan out, every ride was used during the Cheese Festival but some rides varied in popularity depending on the age range it drew in. Rides like Bumper Cars and Built-to-Hurl would have to be avoided as they always drew a crowd whether people were riding in them or not. The Fairest Wheel would be a safe ride only older teens to adults went on them since the younger crowd tended to not have the patience for the long and slow ride.
Third step keep some distance apart when kids we know are nearby. This Wolfgang was sure wouldn't be easy but bathroom breaks and stopping for food should be a good enough cover as long as it doesn't happen too often. And he wouldn't be able to hold Nadine's hand during the festival at all it would just be too risky.
Fourth step don't call any attention to ourselves. The Cheese Festival was a time where everyone in the city ran around in a slightly more organized chaos. It will be easy to call attention to yourself though at the same time because are is so many people around trying to do different things you could easily get lost in the crowd.
And step five make sure Nadine has the time of her life while doing the first four steps. That last one would without a doubt be Wolfgang's hardest step but he was determined to keep his girlfriend happy while also keeping his reputation. They'll still be able to go on some rides and play games, he'll probably even win her some kind of stuffed animal. As long as they avoided the other fourth and fifth grade kids everything should be just fine.
Before Wolfgang knew it the day of the Cheese Festival came, he woke up bright and early to go over his plan one more time before deciding that he was as ready as he would ever be for his date.
"Mom I'm leaving now!" Wolfgang calls out from his front door.
"Hang on a second Wolfy I just have to find my purse!" His mother answered back, Wolfgang could hear his mother moving around in her room in search of said purse. "Okay now I should be all set." His mother states Wolfgang turns around to see his mother was dressed to leave as well and to make matters worse she was already taking pictures of him with her camera. "Oh I can't believe you're going on your first little date Wolfy."
"Okay mom that's enough!" Wolfgang says forcefully already becoming embarrassed. "I have to go!"
"Okay, Wolfy I should save some film for when you and Nadine are at the Cheese Festival." His mother says with a sigh putting the camera away. "Come on then let's go pick up your little girlfriend."
"What?! No Mom please don't tell me that you're coming too!" Wolfgang asked in a panicked tone. "That will be way too embarrassing!"
"Oh don't be silly Wolfy you'll hardly notice that I'm even there." His mother states as she pushes him out the door. "Now let's get going you don't want to be late!"
Wolfgang grumbled down the side walk with his head down as his mother followed behind him quite happily completely ignoring the fact that her son was becoming more and more embarrassed to have his mother with him with every step that he took towards Nadine's house. Before long Wolfgang and his mother were in front of Nadine's with Wolfgang about to knock on the door.
"Oh Wolfy, hang on a second I want to get a picture of you knocking on the door." His mother says excitedly digging through her purse to pull out her camera again.
"Mom please!" Wolfgang exclaims with an embarrassed sigh. "You said I would hardly notice you!"
"Fine Wolfy go ahead and knock." His mother says in a still excited tone with the camera in hand. "Oh Wolfy maybe wait so we can run over to Mrs. Vitello's and get Nadine some flowers."
"Mom!" Wolfgang resist the urge to roll his eyes as he turns away from his mother knocks on the door and waited for an answer. It wasn't long before Nadine opened the door and greeted him. "Hi Nadine."
"Hi Wolfgang." Nadine says back with a smile only to be caught off guard by a sudden flashing camera, she looks up to see an older blonde woman taking pictures. "Eh? Hello?"
"Hello Nadine I'm Anna Fitzgerald, Wolfy's mother." Ms. Fitzgerald says smiling down at Nadine.
"It's nice to meet you Ms. Fitzgerald." Nadine says smiling politely back. "Would you two like to come in? My parents were hoping to meet Wolfgang today I'm sure they'll be happy to meet you as well."
"Oh Wolfy she's so polite and pretty I can see why you like her so much." Ms. Fitzgerald says to her son.
"Mooom!" Wolfgang whines in an annoyed tone while blushing. "What happened to I'll barely noticed you're there?"
"Okay Wolfy we'll just say hello to her parents' real quick before we head out." Ms. Fitzgerald states entering the house before her son could protest any further.
Saying a quick hello ended up taking longer than Wolfgang would have liked his mother and Nadine's parent's wouldn't stop talking for an hour, thus ruining the first part of his plan to get there early. Even worse when they finally did leave (after taking about a hundred more pictures) both sets of parents decided to walk with the two children over to the Cheese Festival of all the days for their parents to meet and hit it off it had to be today! So much for getting their early and not calling attention to ourselves. Wolfgang thought darkly to himself, there was no way no one would not notice him walking with his new girlfriend and their parents in broad daylight.
"Hey!" Nadine suddenly whispers catching Wolfgang by surprise. "When we take the next corner run as fast as you can down the alley."
"What?" Wolfgang asked looking down at her completely confused.
"Trust me." Nadine says just as they make their way over to the corner. "Now!" Nadine grabbed his hand and the two took off running before either sets of parents could react.
It was when the two cut through the alley that Wolfgang finally understood why Nadine suggested it. There was a tight corner in the alley that lead to the next that only a kid would be able to get through. "How did you know about this?" Wolfgang asked once he was sure that the two of them were out of their parents' vision.
"To collect as much bugs as I do you've got to be willing to search in every corner you can find." Nadine explains with a shrug. "Plus I could tell that you could use a break from our parents."
"More like I needed a break from my mom! She was acting so embarrassing! And she wanted to take a picture of me knocking on your door." Wolfgang rants as the two then start heading over to the Cheese Festival.
Nadine pov
Despite the unwanted attention from their parents (well honestly she didn't have a problem with it that much) Nadine was sure that today was going to be a good day. Everyone had been excited about the Cheese Festival all week Nadine included but she was sure that in some ways her best friend was more excited for her then she was herself. All Rhonda could talk about all week was how Nadine should do her hair and make-up and clothes over and over again to the point that she almost drove her best friend crazy. It didn't matter how much Nadine insisted that Wolfgang was a ten year old boy and therefore wouldn't care about what outfit she was wearing, Rhonda made her promise to at least wear a new dress that Wolfgang hadn't even noticed at all.
"Alright we're here!" Wolfgang says in an excited tone once they see the Cheese Festival up ahead.
"Great, I hope the Bumper Car line isn't too busy yet." Nadine says with equal excitement taking his hand and pulling him towards the entrance.
"No wait!" Wolfgang says in a tone that Nadine was sure sounded panicked.
"What's wrong?" Nadine asked in a confused tone.
"I..I..ah-" Wolfgang was trying to come up with something to say when their parents came into view.
"Wolfy there you two are! Wait there so I can take a picture." Ms. Fitzgerald calls out.
"Quick let's lose them in the house of mirrors." Wolfgang says in a hurried tone running off before Nadine could question him.
Nadine could only hurry up and follow as Wolfgang quickly made his way over to the house of mirrors, luckily though it didn't take her very long to reach him although now she had to figure out which one of the reflections was the real Wolfgang. "Wolfgang?" Nadine asked to who she thought was Wolfgang only to get a laugh in response.
"Behind you Bug Girl." Wolfgang says catching her by surprise.
"You ran over here pretty quickly?" Nadine states when she turns around to face the real Wolfgang.
"Sorry. I just wanted to get away before my mom made us wait forever because she wanted to take like a thousand pictures." Wolfgang explains as the two started to walk through the room.
"I think it's kinda sweet that your mom wants to take pictures of us." Nadine proclaims honesty. "It means that she cares about you."
"Yeah…well she doesn't have to get so overboard about it." Wolfgang states trying not to blush. "I mean it's not that big of a deal."
"I don't know about that, I mean it is our first date right?" Nadine questions shyly. "Is it not a big deal for you? It's a big deal for me."
"Of course it's a big deal for me!" Wolfgang tries to reassure her. "I just you know wish that my mom could tone it down a bit. It's our first date and I want it to go well." He explained in a nervous tone. "I just don't think I can do that if I'm looking over my shoulder hoping my mom doesn't embarrass us."
"Okay I guess I can understand that." Nadine tells him, personally she really didn't mind his mother's behavior when you had parents like hers you kind of learn to go with the flow and let people do what made them happy but clearly this was affecting Wolfgang very strongly. "We'll just try to avoid them as much as we can."
"Great." Wolfgang says in a happy tone. "So than is it okay if we avoid the really popular rides for right now?.. I mean that's probably where our parents' would think to look for us first?"
It seemed innocent enough so Nadine went along with it after all she didn't want her new boyfriend to be nervous on their first date. So the first part of their date was kept simple enough the two of them rode on some least popular rides, played some games ate junk food together. There were a few times when Nadine spotted Ms. Fitzgerald taking pictures of them but she made sure Wolfgang didn't notice.
"Let's go on the Built-to-Hurl next." Nadine suggests after they had gotten off the Fairest Wheel.
"No I heard someone puked all over that ride." Wolfgang says dismissing that idea very quickly.
"We haven't checked out the Bumper Cars yet?" Nadine tries again.
"I heard on of the cars hit the wiener stand." Wolfgang tells her.
"Again? Didn't that happen last year?" Nadine asked.
"Yeah they really need to do a better job with the cars." Wolfgang just says with a shrug.
"That's too bad I really like the Bumper Cars." Nadine says with a sigh feeling a bit sad. "I go there every year."
"Don't be sad Nadine." Wolfgang says quickly trying to cheer her up, he looks around before spotting the Cheeseball Toss game. "Look the Cheeseball Toss! I haven't won you a stuffed animal yet let's go to that stand."
"Sure." Nadine following after him to the front of the stand. "Oh look at that they have a stuffed grasshopper!"
"I'll get that for you Nadine no problem!" Wolfgang says with a determination, to win the grasshopper you'd have to make three hits in a row which was easy enough for any kid. "Three turns." He says handing the teenager worker behind the counter the money.
"I got to warn you kid no one been able to knock the bottles down all night." The teenager proclaims. "Are you sure you want go through with it?"
"Please this game is cake." Wolfgang says dismissing the teenager whom then hands him three balls, Wolfgang took the first ball and tossed it towards the bottles which much to his dismay didn't fall down and neither did the second ball.
"Gosh I guess no one really can knock them down." Nadine says in a tone that was both slightly disappointed and in awe.
"No way." Wolfgang says narrowing his eyes at the bottles, he now looked at them like they personally offend him by not falling down with his third and final toss he threw the ball with such force that it ended up shattering the glasses. "Yes!"
"Wolfgang you shattered the glasses!" Nadine proclaims in awe.
"I knew I could get those bottles to fall." Wolfgang says in a pleased tone.
"Congrats kid you're the first person to win this game all day." The teenager states after he cleaned up the glass. "Pick whatever prize you want."
"I'll take that grasshopper over there." Wolfgang says to the teenager who hands him the stuffed toy which he presents to Nadine. "Tada!"
"Thanks Wolfgang!" Nadine says happily as she takes the grasshopper. "You were really great."
"Yeah…well you know it wasn't that big of a deal." Wolfgang says his face getting a bit red. "I said I would get it for you."
"Well I'm glad you won it for me." Nadine says smiling at him as they walk away from the Cheese Toss stand. "You put in a lot of effort and I appreciate it."
"Yeah well boyfriends are supposed to do that kind of stuff right?" Wolfgang asked sheepishly feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Right." Nadine says with a small giggle as they continued to walk. "Hey look Wolfgang it's the Tunnel of Love let's go on that ride."
"The Tunnel of Love? But that's so sappy." Wolfgang said shaking his head.
"Come on Wolfgang it will be fun." Nadine states pulling him towards the ride. "I mean I went on it last year-"
"With who?!" Wolfgang asked forcefully.
"It doesn't matter." Nadine says ignoring his question. "The boat ride is really fun and I want to go with you."
"Okay." Wolfgang says deciding not to argue with her any further, the two quickly made it to the front of the line and go onto the swan shaped boat.
"See Wolfgang this isn't so bad." Nadine says after they had been on the boat for a while.
"Yeah it's still pretty sappy though." Wolfgang says disinterested until he sees Nadine getting a bit sad at his comment. "But you know romantic sappy not bad sappy!" He says trying to cover his tracks. "I mean its nice Nadine."
"That's okay Wolfgang you don't have to pretend to like it." Nadine says looking away from him. "I shouldn't have made us come here."
"Aww Nadine don't be sad okay." Wolfgang says putting a hand on her shoulder. "I may not like this sappy stuff but…I really like you and doing stuff with you." He tries to reassure her. "And I'm sorry if I made you feel bad."
"Thanks Wolfgang." Nadine says pulling him into a hug and kissing him on the cheek. "That was really sweet of you to say."
"Yeah…well-" Wolfgang stutters out blushing he seemed to be at a loss for words at the moment. "Your dress is really nice."
"Thanks." Nadine just says as the boat ride comes to a stop, the two of the get off the boat and start to walk away from the Tunnel of Love ride. "Wow look at the time the Cheese Festival will be closing soon."
"That's too bad I was having a lot of fun." Wolfgang says with a disappointed sigh.
"I guess we should get to the entrance our parents are probably waiting for us there." Nadine suggest, a lot of people were already starting to make their way out of the Cheese Festival at this point. From a distance you could even hear some boys around their age getting rowdy.
"Yeah we should." Wolfgang says very quickly getting a bit nervous and looking around. "But first I just need to use the bathroom real quick, I'll meet you at the entrance."
"O-" Nadine begins to say but Wolfgang takes off before she could finish.
"Nadine!" a voice calls out she turns around to see Rhonda making her way over to her. "There you are I haven't seen you all day! I wanted to see how your date was doing."
"Sorry." Nadine says with a shrug. "There's a lot of people that go to the Cheese Festival maybe we just kept missing each other."
"Well I guess that is possible." Rhonda says with an annoyed look. "Though I was looking forward to giving you important advice during your date. Oh well at least you wore a different dress. Speaking of your first date where is Wolfgang?"
"He had to run to the bathroom a few minutes ago." Nadine tells her friend. "I'm supposed to meet him at the entrance."
"Well hopefully he gets there soon the festival will be closing any minute." Rhonda reminds her. "Well I better get going the driver is waiting for me at the front. Call me later and tell me all about your date!" She says as she waves goodbye.
"Sure Rhonda." Nadine says as she waved back, a couple of more minutes go by and Wolfgang was still nowhere in sight. "It sure is taking him a while? I'll just go over to the bathrooms and see if he's still there." She says out loud walking over to where she knew the bathrooms were located. It doesn't take long before she get to the area but it was pretty clear that no one had been there for a while. She was about to walk back towards the entrance when she heard the sound of some boys laughing one of them in fact sounded very familiar.
"Oh man that really happened?!" Wolfgang asked laughing not noticing that Nadine was walking closer and closer to him.
"Yeah Wolfgang that red-headed fourth grade girl...Lila puked all over Arnold while they were on the Built-To-Hurl in front of everybody." Edmund explains to his friend.
"I heard that later on their Swan boat sank and Lila almost drown." Another fifth grade boy proclaims.
"How could she have almost drown it's like what maybe a feet of water?" Wolfgang asked though he was still laughing. "Man there is nothing more pathetic then fourth graders."
"Especially when they're on a date." Edmund adds in laughing.
"Image if you were dating a fourth grader that'd be even more pathetic." Another fifth grader says laughing. "No self-respecting fifth grader would ever do something so stupid right Wolfgang?"
"Right." Wolfgang says nodding in agreement. "That fifth grader would have to be out of their minds." He continues to laugh not knowing that Nadine had heard every word he said from behind a corner. "Well I got to get going see you guys later." Wolfgang says walking away from the group of boys, he walks behind the corner and sees Nadine there with her hands on her hips looking angry at him. "Nadine!" Wolfgang says jumping back in surprise.
"A fifth grader would have to be out of their mind to date a fourth grader huh?" Nadine says in a huff walking away from him.
"Nadine wait!" Wolfgang says in a panicked tone walking quickly to catch up to her. "Please don't be mad it's just how it is!"
"It's just how it is?!" Nadine repeats back angrily refusing to look at him.
"Yes!" Wolfgang tries to explain. "It's not like I don't think you're great and everything you are and I really like you but people can't know we're together."
"Why not?" Nadine asked forcefully she finally stopped walking so that she was facing him. "Why shouldn't people know we're together?"
"Come on Nadine!" Wolfgang tries to plea. "You know about how the whole fourth grade fifth grade works it's just the way it is! And I have a reputation to keep."
"Your reputation? That's what's most important to you?" Nadine asked in an upset tone looking down at her feet. "I thought I was your girlfriend?"
"You are its just…what would people think if they saw me and you together like that?" Wolfgang tells her.
"Well you don't have to worry about it anymore." Nadine finally says after a while looking back up at him with tears in her eyes. "I'm breaking up with you. You don't have to worry about me messing up your reputation anymore." She says before throwing the stuffed grasshopper in his direction and running away from him.
"What?" Wolfgang says catching the stuffed grasshopper out of reflex while he processed her words it suddenly hit him all at once. "No! Nadine! NADINE!"
THE END…No but can you image how messed up that would be?!
You know one of the things I really like about Hey Arnold is that it doesn't go along with the old kids cliché that children don't start liking each other until puberty case in point Arnold is never teases by anyone for liking Lila or Ruth. It's people's reputations that's really the deciding factor. Like with Harold and Patty, Sid and Stinky both say it's okay to like a girl it just doesn't make sense to them why someone would like Patty. And with Helga it's very clear that a lot is going on there but she's not afraid of people knowing she has a boyfriend she paid Stinky to make Arnold jealous and she agreed to fake date Arnold so that Lila would be jealous and leave Arnie. I think she mostly just doesn't want people to know how deeply she feels because it makes her vulnerable. And with Wolfgang well... take a guess? Anyway please read and review.