Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold!

The Day You Will

By Moonlight

Execute

"Are you SURE about this?" Helga's concerned voice resounded through Arnold's room. She spent her time bouncing her gaze from his contemplative face to the phone resting in her lap. Olga hadn't messaged her at all since the night before, and it bothered her somehow. The last message she had sent last night left Helga with a heavy feeling deep in her gut. As if someone heave was sitting on her and wiggling around to get comfortable. However, She was also waiting to hear from Phoebe about the movie time. She was grateful for having a her own cell phone, as now she would be able to tell her best friend anything without having to call her from a landline.

Arnold slipped his sweater on and made sure to pop his dress-shirt collar from underneath it. Putting his hat on, he turned to face the girl who sat contemplating on the couch. "Yeah…" he said hesitantly. A slight inflection at the end of his word made Helga fold her arms over her chest.

"That doesn't exactly reassure me." She responded with a look of mild annoyance. "Don't you think Gerald with get mad if he catches you?! I mean, how do you even plan on being subtle enough not to be noticed?"

He sighed and slid his phone into his pocket. Looking at her and giving a slight shrug, he noticed Helga shaking. "Are you okay?" he asked.

No. She was most definitely NOT okay. She was doing her best to hold back an angry and concerned rant about pretty much anything that had to do with this entire issue.

Helga opened to mouth to retort, but was stopped by a ping from her phone.

"10:12am

Good morning, Helga. I'll be heading out to the theater now. I should be there by 10:30."

Quickly typing a response, Helga grabbed her coat. "That was Phoebe. I guess I'll see yah, football head." She felt relieved. That message totally saved her from exploding at the naive boy.

He smiled in return and nodded. As she turned to leave, he noticed her phone sitting on the couch. "Helga wait-" In one swift movement, he grabbed her phone and started towards her. Believing she would keep walking, he took a step too many and wound up nearly knocking her into the closed door.

BAM!

Their combined weight slamming against the door sounded louder to them than it actually had been. Startled, Arnold pushed himself off of Helga, though he didn't back away from her, and tried to balance himself on his own two feet.

Her eyes grew wide as she came to the realization of, once again, being inches away from his face. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Um…" Arnold did his best to keep his composure, though a part of him seemed to enjoy the closeness. "You… you forgot your phone." He said, handing it over and reaching around her to open the door.

Helga tried to speak, but was too entranced in his gaze.

"H-have fun at the movie." He smiled once more and she turned to leave as quickly as she could.

Arnold sighed to himself as he watched her leave.

Bolting it through the front door, Helga raced in the direction of the theater. The pounding of her heart was loud enough to drown out the noises of the passing cars and pedestrians around her. As she approached her destination, she heard Phoebe call out to her from across the street.

"Helga! Over here!"

Looking across the way at the entrance of the theater, Helga could see Phoebe waving her arms to get her attention.

After waiting for the cars to stop, Helga jogged across the street towards her friend. "I'm here!" she tried to announce herself after breathing deeply. She shuffled, trying to make sure her phone was still securely in her pocket. It would take some getting used to having it around, so she feared she might have been careless with the device while she was running. "Here it is…" she said to herself as she pulled it out, inspected it for a moment, and then returned it to her pocket.

Phoebe tilted her head a bit, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Why?"

Shrugging, Phoebe reached into her pocket for the tickets, "You look really flushed and flustered. I'm worried you might have a fever."

"What?" Helga touched the back of her hand to her forehead before realizing she was still a little in shock from how close Arnold had been to her. "O-oh! I just- I just ran all the way here, so-"

Phoebe nodded and smiled in return. "Well, let's get inside and have you sit down."

Following her friend, Helga tried her best to shake off the feeling creeping up her spine.

"Yeah yeah, Timberly. I'll be back later."

Arnold watched from around the corner as Gerald stepped out of his house. He noticed that his friend wasn't wearing the usual red hoodie. Rather, Gerald had decided to dawn a nice, flannel shirt. Odd, Arnold thought, as he had never in his life seen Gerald dress this way just to "work on a project". He could feel his chest tighten as the boy stepped down from the stoop.

"Where are you going?" Timberly's whiny voice called out from the doorway.

"I already TOLD you! I'm going to see a movie with Phoebe! Sheesh…" Gerald responded as he waved at his sister dismissively, and started walking down the street.

This. Was. Not. Good.

There was no way in the world Gerald was meeting Macy innocently. The guy had straight up lied to his family. Arnold whipped out his phone and started typing a message.

"11:35am

Helga. He just lied to Timberly and said he was leaving to see Phoebe. I'm going to follow him, but I already know this is exactly what we were afraid of."

Slipping the device back into his pocket, he walked Gerald's path, keeping a safe distance away so as to not get caught. He seemed happy, judging by the way he was whistling and taking each stride with confidence as he walked down the streets of Hillwood.

The more Arnold watched him, the more his blood boiled under his skin. He never expected something like this from Gerald. Sure, he would flirt harmlessly, but something like this made Arnold question if he had even know the real Gerald.

Suddenly, Gerald stopped in front of a large apartment building, which Arnold could only assume was where Macy's family lived. He ducked around the corner of the building, quickly, and listened as the front door opened.

"Hey you~!" Macy's all-too-chipper voice called out, as she exited the building and skipped down the steps.

Peering around the corner, just barely, Arnold watched as Gerald took her hand and walked her down the street. He took off after them, however, he was starting to feel like he didn't really need to anymore. He'd seen enough and wanted to back out. However a part of him pressed on to follow them down the street.

Typing another message, Arnold sighed to himself.

"11:53am

He's heading towards downtown with Macy. It might be best if we get them to talk to each other. Phoebe and Gerald, I mean."

"Helga, you've been staring at your phone since we left the theater." Phoebe pointed out, as the two walked towards the ice cream parlor for a treat. "Is something wrong?"

Completely entranced by the messages on her screen, Helga didn't hear her friend. Instead, she thought deeply about what to do with this new information that was just dropped on her. Should she just tell Phoebe herself? Save the poor girl the trouble of confronting Gerald?

"Helga."

Should she just listen to Arnold's suggestion and be present when the two of them speak, giving Phoebe a crutch with her presence?

"Helga."

She was at a loss. Her mind cycled through a million options, it seemed, and yet she couldn't even bring herself to bring the topic up.

"Helga!"

"Huh?" Helga finally looked up from her phone and acknowledged her friend.

Phoebe giggled and smiled up at her, "We're here."

Before Helga could answer, she felt a strong force push her back.

"Wait!" a voice called out.

SLAM!

"ACK!" she cried as she hit the pavement. Dusting herself off quickly, Helga angrily looked around to see who had the audacity to tackle her. Her fists were up and ready to punch the lights out of the idiot, but immediately dropped to her sides as she spotted Arnold, fallen over ...and Phoebe on the ground below him.

The boy pulled himself off of the small girl quickly, with a flushed face. "I'm so s-sorry, Phoebe!"

Helga watched as he helped her friend up. Her eyes focusing carefully on his face, which was now glowing from the heat that filled his cheeks. She could feel something tighten within her chest. Her breath came in shallow pants as she tried to calm the emotion bubbling up her chest.

'Stop it, Helga!' she thought to herself, 'It's just Phoebe. It was an accident. Jealousy isn't your thing…'

"Helga?" Arnold called out to her in a harsh whisper as he pulled both of the girls around the corner. "Helga, maybe you should go to a different ice cream place." he said with some nervousness in his voice.

She couldn't hear him. Her thoughts overpowered his voice, and he body proceeded to move on its own. "Don't. Touch. Me." She pushed his hand away and glared at him without thinking through her actions first.

Phoebe raised a brow at her friend, "Are you hurt?"

She growled in response, "I'm FINE. Or at least I WAS before this guy here treated us like sandbags. Sheesh!"

"I'm sorry…" Arnold rubbed the back of his neck and blushed slightly.

"What are you doing here, Arnold? Were you getting ice cream too?" Phoebe asked.

Waving his hands in front of him, Arnold shook his head. "N-no! He's in- he- gee...gee it's cold! Actually, it's not a good idea to get ice cream today." he tried to lie, horribly, and Helga smacked her forehead in response as she realized what was going on.

"But the weather is nice enough for it." Phoebe giggled and started for the door.

"Pheobe don't!" both Helga and Arnold called out in unison.

But she had already stepped inside.

Moonlight: I'm so so so sooooo sorry for taking so long. I just got done taking both of my teaching exams that I was studying like crazy for. Well, for those of you who are still reading, THANK YOU SO MUCH!