And I am back with another chapter! I want to thank CukooCoa and lily for reviewing last chapter. This chapter will be having some elements from the Mugged, and Girl Trouble episodes. Anyway on with the story.
I own nothing but the plot
Nadine pov
Though Wolfgang had asked her to come over for dinner on Friday it wasn't until Sunday in the late afternoon that he called Nadine to ask her to come over for said dinner. He even said that he found out some big news from his grandma that she wouldn't believe until she came over to see for herself. And that got her a bit curious though she supposed that part of it was because curiosity was in her nature. After the call Nadine walked over to the living room to inform her parents that she would be having dinner with Wolfgang and his family that evening. She could still remember how her parents reacted when they found out she was back together with Wolfgang, her mother wasn't surprise in the least and her father accepted it but gave Wolfgang a huge lecture when he came to the house to walk Nadine to the park the next day.
"Mom, Dad I'm going to head over to have dinner at Wolfgang's now!" Nadine proclaims to her parents whom were sitting on the couch.
"Lovebug before you go there is something that your dad and I wanted to talk to you about." Her mother states putting down her book to face her daughter. "Your father and have been worried about something ever since you got back together with Wolfgang."
"I thought you guys were okay that we are together." Nadine says defensively before her mother could finish.
"Lovebug the thing we're worried about isn't that you guys got back together its why?" Her father proclaims. "The fact that you were about to be beat up by some bully is troubling. You could have gotten really hurt."
"Yeah but Wolfgang defended me." Nadine explains again. "I told you Wolfgang made sure that Ludwig would never bother me again!"
"And that's good Lovebug it's good that Wolfgang was there to defend you this time." Her mother interrupts. "But what will happen to you next time when he's not around? That's what your father and I are worried about. Look Lovebug, you're getting older now and I think it's time for you to start considering taking self-defense classes."
"What?" Nadine exclaims in surprise her parents were the easiest peaceful going people she knew. They stayed away from anything that could be seen as too violent and she was the same way there wasn't a fighting bone in her body.
"Nadine we may live in a nice neighborhood in a fairly safe part of the city but bad things can still happen to you around here." Her father explained, this was true she could still remember the time when Arnold was mugged while walking home by himself. But he learned self-defense and went a bit crazy because of it for a short while.
"Nadine there are some bad people out there and it's not like we're saying something bad is going to happen to you but we feel that this is a good idea just to be safe. So that you don't only rely on Wolfgang or someone else to be there to save you." Her mother finished explaining.
"I guess that makes sense." Nadine admits after a while, she never really talked about it much but she had been terrified when Ludwig had grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving Gerald's Field. And though Wolfgang had finally snapped out of his stupid belief that people couldn't know they were together she still didn't like the idea of being pushed around by people like Ludwig. "It might even be a bit fun to learn something like this."
"We've already found a teacher for you." Her mother explains in excitement. "She's a bit up there in age but her mind is sharper than any instructor we could find that's half her age. You'll start seeing her on Tuesday."
With that conversation now out of the way Nadine was free to go over to Wolfgang's house where she would be having dinner with his mom, grandma, great Aunt and Uncle and his cousin…who turned out to be Arnold!
"You know it actually makes a lot of sense." Nadine says with a shrug much to Wolfgang's dismay.
"What?! How on earth could this make sense to you?" Wolfgang asked forcefully he hadn't expected her reaction to be so nonchalant.
"I mean it's not something that someone would guess or anything but it is something that's believable once you're told about it." Nadine finished explaining. "It's like an oh yeah moment!"
"How is this an oh yeah moment?" Arnold asked just as surprised as his cousin, the three kids were currently sitting inside of Wolfgang's room while his mother, aunt and grandma finished cooking dinner. Arnold and his grandparents had only been invited last minute after the fishing trip.
"Okay well now that I see you two sitting next to each other I can say that you guys actually look very similar." Nadine begins to explain.
"No we don't!" The two cousins protested at the same time.
"Wow you two even sounded like each other there for a second." Nadine says in an amused tone giggling as the two cousins glared a bit at here. "Come on you two have the same green eyes, both of you even have blonde hair that sticks out the same way at the top! It's only because your heads are shaped differently and Wolfgang has some of his hair reaching the back of his neck that might throw people off." The two cousins turned to look at each other before shaking their head and looking away.
"She's crazy." They say at the same time.
"You both are smart and able to come with plans and you're both like leaders in your grade for example you both are always telling people in your class what to do but in like the opposite direction." Nadine finishes saying. "Wolfgang is of course more competitive and Arnold is more idealist but yeah other than that you two have a lot in common. Like I said it does make a lot of sense when you look at it deep enough."
The two cousins turn to share a look before shaking their heads at each other. "She's totally insane."
"And you're both clearly in denial." Nadine says rolling her eyes at the two. "Although I wish you guys had known you were related sooner, no one would have questioned why Arnold wasn't being bullied by the other fifth graders if they knew Wolfgang was his older cousin. And they wouldn't have asked me to get favors done for them."
"Speaking of which am I going to have to worry about that now?" Arnold decided to ask Wolfgang. "I'm sure that being your cousin is already going to change some things like it did for Nadine."
"Yes well I guess you do now qualify for family immunity." Wolfgang says in a thoughtful tone.
"Family immunity?" Arnold questions in a confused tone.
"Apparently there are rules among the fifth graders." Nadine tells him with a shrug.
"There are rules? I thought the fifth graders just did whatever they wanted!" Arnold says in a surprise tone.
"Hey we don't just do whatever we want!" Wolfgang says defensively he stood up and started pacing in his room. "There are procedures that have to be followed order to be maintain or else we'd all be running around like animals!"
"He takes his job as 'leader' very seriously." Nadine whispers to Arnold as the watch Wolfgang continue to rant.
"Of course you two don't see it now but when you're older like me you will see why the rules are important and must be maintain!" Wolfgang continues to explain pacing back and forth.
"He sounds like a drill sergeant." Nadine whispers.
"It's a Shortman family thing a lot of our relatives pasted and present have joined the military at some point or another." Arnold explains in a whisper to Nadine.
"I can hear you!" Wolfgang shouts to the two fourth graders glaring at them. "The rules are a serious matter!"
"Sorry I guess I just never realized you had rules that you cared about Wolfgang." Arnold states with a shrug. "Especially after you gave me that black eye."
"Not just me Ludwig too!" Wolfgang says defensively. "Though I guess that was a low point even for me."
"So you're sorry for punching me?" Arnold asked in a hopeful tone.
"I'm sorry for allowing Ludwig to punch you." Wolfgang tells him much to his cousin's clear disappointment. "As your older cousin I shouldn't have allowed that to happen."
"Kids dinner is ready." Ms. Fitzgerald says poking her head into the room.
"Yes Mom, Aunt Anna, Ms. Fitzgerald!" The three children say as one, standing up from the floor.
"Last one to the table has to eat week old mystery meat!" Wolfgang yells making a dash for the exit.
"Hey! No fair you got a head start!" Arnold yells running after his cousin.
Nadine just calmly walks out of the room and into the hallway where she found the two cousins trying to wrestle over each other to get to the table first. She laughed as she walked past the two antics it was nice to see that despite all the hostility from their past the two cousins were clearly starting to form a kind of bond with each other.
Wolfgang pov
"Arnold why do you have feathers glued to your butt." Wolfgang was livid at the moment absolutely livid. Ever since the bell rang closing another day at P.S. 118 Wolfgang had to hear students all around him talk about his cousin's transformation into a bird.
"I don't want to talk about it Wolfgang." Arnold says in an annoyed tone slamming his locker shout.
"We do have to talk about it!" Wolfgang states forcefully, once upon a time someone pranking Arnold wouldn't have even mattered to Wolfgang. But if his cousin was being bullied by someone Wolfgang felt that he had a right to know who it was. "You have feathers on your butt and you're publicly my cousin it's embarrassing for me!"
"Really because I'm having a blast being called chicken boy!" Arnold says in an irritated tone stomping away from Wolfgang.
Wolfgang realizing that his cousin wasn't going to give him any answers decided to grab the nearest fourth grader from Mr. Simmons class to get some answers. The lucky fourth grader chosen for the day was Sid.
"Alright Big Nose I have an important question and you'd better answer it." Wolfgang says in a threating tone pulling Sid up by his shirt.
"Ahh! Mr. Wolfgang sir please don't hurt me!" Sid says cowering in fear. "I swear I don't have any money!"
"Just answer the question Big Nose!" Wolfgang says forcefully. "Why does my football face cousin have feathers glued to his butt?"
"Please Wolfgang it wasn't me I swear!" Sid says in a frighten tone.
"Just answer the question!" Wolfgang snaps getting annoyed with the smaller boy.
"It was Helga sir!" Sid admits still in a frighten tone. "Helga G. Pataki she did it! She-she poured glue on his seat and then threw feathers at him!"
"So Eyebrow's the one that did this huh?" Wolfgang says to himself dropping Sid on the ground and walking out of the school.
"Look at you Arnold!" Gerald says in a huff to his friend. "You got to get back at her."
"What would that prove?" Arnold asked with a sigh. "I think it's better to ignore her."
"Doesn't seem to be working Arnold." Gerald proclaims to him as the two started walking away from the school.
"Hey Zygote, look up." Helga says in a smug tone from in front of the two pointing up.
"Huh?" Arnold and Gerald say at the same time looking up.
"Now look down." Helga continues on smugly pointing down to their feet and Arnold looks down to see that he had just stepped in gum. "Hahaha! Oh, that's a good one! Stepped right in it, look at him what a maroon." Helga continued to laugh alongside her classmates.
"HEY!" Wolfgang shouts in anger causing the kids to stop laughing some even backing away from Helga as he stomped over to Helga in a huff, luckily for the female bully Arnold and Nadine cut him off before he could get too close to Helga. "What's your problem Eyebrow?"
"Wolfgang calm down it was just a prank." Nadine says grabbing a hold of one of his arms.
"Wolfgang? Leave it alone just ignore her." Arnold tries to reason with the older boy grabbing a hold of his other arm.
"Ignore her?!" Wolfgang asked turning to his cousin in disbelief. "After what she just did to you?"
"I really hate to agree with him Arnold but Wolfgang might have a point." Gerald says to his friend. "Enough is enough man."
"No I'm not resorting to that! Please just let me handle it my way okay?" Arnold pleas with his cousin.
"Listen to Arnold Wolfgang." Nadine adds in.
"Whatever let's just go." Wolfgang says with a frown on his face as he walked passed Helga with his girlfriend and cousin. After separating from Gerald the three walked over to Sunset Arms together.
"How has your training been going Nadine?" Arnold asked wanting to take his mind off of his bad day.
"Alright I guess. Your grandma sure has a different approach to teaching self-defense." Nadine informs him.
"That's because Aunt Gertie is a little crazy." Wolfgang says with a laugh as they reached the steps of the boarding house.
"Grandma isn't crazy!" Arnold says defensively as he opened the door letting the pack of animals run outside before walking inside with the couple. "She's just a little 'Hiya' different." He says as they made their way to the kitchen to find his grandmother punching watermelons in half. "Hi grandma."
"Hi Aunt Gertie, Hello sensei." Nadine and Wolfgang say at the same time.
"Ah young grasshoppers." Gertie says bowing her head to the group. "How was school?" She asked.
"Terrible." Arnold answered while getting a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. "There's this girl at school who won't stop bugging me. She's driving me crazy, I'm really fed up grandma. I wish I knew what to do?"
"Hey I offered to handle the problem!" Wolfgang reminds his cousin balling a hand into a fist. "You're the one that decided to walk away with gum on your shoes."
"Really?" Gertie questions pondering out loud. "I have no idea why a little girl would behave like that."
"What were you like when you were a little girl?" Arnold asked.
"Well, I think I was quite sweet like Nadine." Gertie proclaims. "Well, actually I can't remember anything before last week actually." Arnold sighs and begins to walk away. "Just remember, Arnold violence is not the answer." With that said she Karate chomps another watermelon and turning to face Nadine. "Alright grasshopper wash your hands we're going to need more watermelon if we want to feed the rest of the troops!"
"Yes sensei." Nadine says going over to the sink to wash her hands.
"What about you Sergeant are you going to help feed the troops today?" Gertie asked Wolfgang.
"Can't Aunt Gertie I have to go to my oboe lessons." Wolfgang say following Arnold out of the kitchen the two boys walked down the hall.
"That you Short Man?" Phil called out when he heard the sound of footsteps passing the living room.
"Hey Uncle Phil." Wolfgang says walking into the living room first.
"Hi grandpa." Arnold says dejectedly walking into the living room after Wolfgang.
"Ooh, bad day?" Phil asked his grandson putting down his newspaper.
"Uh-huh." Arnold says with a sigh looking down at the feathers.
"Your little classmate picking on you again?" Phil asked as Arnold and Wolfgang walked over to the couch to sit down. "The one with the big pink bow and one eyebrow?"
"Yeah." Arnold says setting his plate and glass down on the coffee table. "Why does she always pick on me grandpa?"
"Sounds like maybe she likes you Arnold." Phil suggests causing Wolfgang who was about to steal a cookie from Arnold's plate to burst out laughing.
"Helga?" Arnold manages to say over his cousin's laughter in disbelief. "Are you kidding?"
"Come on Arnold! She always picks on you in particular." Phil explains. "Sometimes I see her jumping rope in front of the house like she was waiting for you to come out or something?"
"Whoa? I've seen her do that too!" Wolfgang states after he stopped laughing.
"Yeah, so she can call me football head and Yutz and paste for brains." Arnold explains.
"Ah huh see that's my point." Phil proclaims.
"That's crazy grandpa!" Arnold says in disbelief. "She hates me."
"You know when I was your age I had the same kind of girl trouble myself." Phil says getting up from his seat to grab an old yearbook.
"Really?" Arnold and Wolfgang say at the same time.
"Give me one of them cookies and I'll tell you a story." Phil says sitting back down. "No, not that one. Ah yes oatmeal raisin. Back in the '20s there were only twelve of us kids in the whole grade school." Phil begins his story as Arnold and Wolfgang stood on either side of him looking down at the yearbook. "But there was one girl in particular that gave me no end of trouble. Went by the name of Gerty. That Gerty was downright impossible. Always calling me names and always making fun of my batting stance when we played Stickball. Everywhere I turned she was pulling some prank. Somehow she always managed to get me blamed for it." Phil laughed as he reminisced about the time Gerty blamed him for the ink stain on her pigtail. "Oh, I got quite a whacking for that one."
"Wow! That's exactly what I've been going through." Arnold says in disbelief.
"Uncanny, isn't it Arnold?" Phil says in a mysterious tone.
"What did you do about Gerty grandpa?" Arnold decided to ask.
"Well I ask my father for advice." Phil says.
"What did he say?" Arnold asked.
"Never eat raspberries!" Phil declares standing up. "The only advice I ever got from him. Good advice actually."
"That's it?" Arnold asked in a fed up tone. "I need real advice grandpa."
"You try ignoring her?" Phil asked.
"He tried that today and just ended up with gum stuck to his shoe on top of the feathers glued to his butt." Wolfgang answered for his cousin.
"I've pretty much been trying to ignore Helga my whole life." Arnold says sitting down in a huff.
"Maybe you could skip town and change your identity?" Phil suggest. "Grow a beard and open a blacksmith shop. Nah, that's no good is it? Well, follow your instincts Arnold that's what I did!"
"Did it work?" Arnold asked.
"Dinner!" Gertie announced in a sing-song voice cutting Phil off.
"Watermelon again Pookie?" Phil complained. "Oh, my stomach."
"Well I better get started on my homework." Arnold says taking his plate and glass and walking out of the living.
"And I better run if I don't want to be late for my lessons." Wolfgang states standing up to leave as well.
"See you at the next battle Sergeant." Gertie says while he walks out of the room.
"Bye Aunt…Gerty?" Wolfgang says her name in a whisper as his uncle's story started to click in his mind.
His uncle's story kept replaying in Wolfgang's mind for the rest of the day, it didn't help that Helga was surprisingly jumping rope in front of the boarding house again. Earlier he had laughed at the idea that Helga was bullying Arnold because she secretly liked him but perhaps there was some truth to that. He had never really paid to much attention to the dynamics of the fourth grade class but even he would have to be blind not to notice that Helga always seemed to pick on Arnold. It just seemed to be this thing that had started even before that class had entered P.S. 118. Or maybe he was reading too much into it after all it wasn't like Helga was nice to any of her other classmates besides her sidekick and even then not by much. It could just be that she picks on him the way she does because Arnold can sometimes be annoyingly optimistic and upbeat about everything.
By the time Wolfgang was done with his oboe lessons he had all but dismissed his uncle's story as just that a story. Until he heard something startling while he was walking home from his lessons.
"Oh, my love why am I so cruel to you?" Helga says speaking to a heart shaped locket unknowing that a person was watching and listening besides Brainy. "Oh, Arnold would that you could see through this vain disguise and realize that my cruelties are merely a lost and lonely soul's cry for attention! Yes, and love, why you can not just see that I love you. I love you! I-" Heavy breathing is her and without Helga looking behind her back she punches the boy behind her.
"Wow!" Wolfgang states after witnessing this whole display causing Helga to go into a state of panic. "And here I thought the idea of you liking my football face cousin was out there?!"
"Wolfgang?!" Helga shouts in a nervous panic hiding her locket as quick as she could. "W-What a-are y-you d-doing h-here?" She asked in a nervous stutter.
"Do you do this a lot hanging out in back alleys near the boarding house declaring your love to my cousin?" Wolfgang asked in disbelief. "Geeze you're like five feet from his room's window?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about?!" Helga says very quickly backing away from the older boy. "I was just reciting a-ah poem! That's right it's just a poem for class that I was practicing that has nothing to do with Arnold…I mean football head!"
"Sure." Wolfgang says with a laugh as he continued on his way home.
"Wait, wait Wolfgang!" Helga shouted running to catch up to him. "You're not going to tell anyone about this are? I mean not that there is even anything to tell! But you know how it is someone might get the wrong idea."
"Hmm I don't know I'm pretty sure it's against family code to not tell my cousin that he's being stalked." Wolfgang says with a malicious smirk. "I better think about it." With that said Wolfgang walked into his house laughing at the panicked look in Helga's eyes.
The next day after school Wolfgang along with a lot of other kids at P.S. 118 were shocked to learn that Arnold was given detention for pouring paint on Helga. Everyone who knew Arnold couldn't believe it, there was even some murmurs that maybe Arnold was spending too much time with his newfound cousin. Either way Wolfgang couldn't wait to hear this story when Arnold got home from detention.
"You know I'm actually getting tired of punching these watermelons." Nadine states cutting Wolfgang out of his thoughts. "I wish your Aunt would move on to another lesson now."
"Hey at least you're doing something that has to do with fighting." Wolfgang counters back. "All Aunt Gertie tells me to do is mediate and work on the garden because my mind isn't calm enough!" When Wolfgang had first found out about Nadine's lessons he had been excited to learn from his Aunt as well but so far the old master wouldn't let him do anything aggressive.
"Maybe she's doing this to balance us out you know." Nadine suggest with a shrug. "Make me a bit more aggressive, make you a bit calmer."
"Or Aunt Gertie is just crazy." Wolfgang states shaking his head. "I don't understand why Uncle Phil married her especially since she used to bully him so bad."
"Really?" Nadine says in a surprised tone.
"Yeah she used to bully him as bad as Helga does Arnold." Wolfgang tells her. "I just don't understand how you can bully someone you have feelings for?"
"Bad attention is still attention." Nadine states plainly. "For someone like Helga that's important. She's had a crush on Arnold for a long time."
"How do you know that?" Wolfgang questioned Nadine after all he hadn't told anyone about that, though he definitely had fun today holding this info over Helga's head not that it had done his cousin any good.
"I observe the small things in life the stuff that people don't usually care to notice." Nadine explains to him. "Plus her monologues tend to be long and loud."
"Yeah, yesterday she was going on and on five feet from Arnold's window." Wolfgang says shaking his head. "Maybe she secretly wants to be found out." The sound of a pack of different animals was suddenly heard meaning that Arnold had made it home from detention. He and Nadine got up to greet the would be delinquent. "Hey at least now I'm not the only one in this family without a goody two shoes rep anymore."
"Yeah, yeah." Arnold said rolling his eyes at his cousin.
"It's kinda unfair that you got detention though." Nadine adds in. "I mean it's not like Helga didn't intend for the paint to get on your shirt."
"I just want to forget about this whole day." Arnold states as the three walk over to the living room.
"Look, there's Gerty rolling me in honey and staking me out on top of an anthill." Phil laughs fondly as he looks down at the pictures. "Oh that mischievous pig-tailed little imp! Ah Mercy."
"Hi grandpa." Arnold says once he makes it to the living room.
"Well if it isn't young Arnold home from his day at school." Phil says looking away from the yearbook to his grandson. "How come you're all covered in paint?"
"Helga poured it on me, so I poured some on her." Arnold explains to his grandfather.
"What?! You…Oh, my word." Phil begins to say completely shaken up. "You've snapped Arnold! You've turned into a vicious paint-pouring thug! I don't know what to think about you anymore! Why didn't you follow your instincts like I told ya?!"
"I did grandpa." Arnold tells him rolling his eyes at his grandfather's dramatics.
"I wasn't talking about your cousin's instincts!" Phil explains causing Wolfgang to frown. "I meant your good ones!"
"I know grandpa." Arnold says with a sigh. "I feel terrible, what should I do?"
"Well, you may be stuck with this girl for a long time, so you better try and make peace." Phil tells his grandson.
"Yeah, I'm going to call Helga and apologize." Arnold says walking over to the phone.
"That's crazy!" Wolfgang states shaking his head at his cousin. "So what's the lesson here don't stand up to someone bullying you because they might secretly have a crush on you?"
"It's kinda funny hearing you say something like that." Nadine states laughing at the older. "Who would have thought you'd be pro standing up to bullies."
"This isn't the same thing!" Wolfgang argues. "I stopped bullying you when I realized I like liked you! In fact my bullying before that wasn't even personal!"
"Wolfgang when you're older and have good instincts this will all make a lot more sense to ya." Phil explains with a chuckle to his nephew.
"Hey I have good instincts sometimes I even listen to them!" Wolfgang says defensively.
"Yeah it just takes him a while sometimes." Nadine says teasingly.
"Well that takes care of that." Arnold states walking back into the room after the phone call was done.
"Oh, oh yeah. She's off your back forever short man." Phil says in a knowing tone. "Now go upstairs and change out of those clothes. It's almost dinnertime and you've got paint all over you." With that said Arnold walks out of the room to go get changed.
"He's going to marry that girl isn't he?" Wolfgang states with a sigh.
"Rhonda's marriage predictor did pair them together over a hundred times." Nadine brings up.
"Great I'm going to be related to eyebrow stalker girl." Wolfgang says sarcastically. "I guess it can't get any worse than that."
"It can and it will Wolfgang." Phil says in a mysterious tone. "It can and it will."
A/N and that's the end of that chapter! I really wanted to start the ground work for how Wolfgang and Arnold's relationship is going to be now that they know they are cousins in this chapter. I'm hoping to curve them into a sibling like dynamic eventually after all the point of this story is to try to make Wolfgang a better character slowly but surely. Also of course to give Nadine some growth which she never got in the series which becomes more and more annoying every time I re-watch episodes. Also in re-watching Girl Troubles I can't help but think that from like the '20s to early 2000s teachers did not care about students being bullied. Like Phil is looking at a yearbook that had a picture of him being covered in honey and put on an ant hill 'WHO WAS TAKING THAT PICTURE FOR AN ELEMANTRY SCHOOL YEARBOOK? AND WHY DIDN'T THEY STOP IT? Anyway three guesses on what the next chapter will be about? I'll give you a hint it involves a certain relative! And please read and review!