You Don't Know Me, Arnold

Chapter 14: Clarification

I want you all to keep in mind that Gerald and Helga are also going to have a serious conversation throughout this chapter BUT none of you will be able to hear it because this is Arnold's perspective and he's obviously not going to be there. We will only hear what Phoebe has to say, but I promise you that you will know the gist of what Gerald told Helga in the last chapter.

This chapter's purpose is for us to get some perspective of HELGA'S side of the story. We all know what's been going on through Arnold's mind, but what about Helga? Why DID she suddenly change so drastically? What is her opinion on some of the things Arnold has been doing for her?

I want you all the stop before you read this chapter and picture yourselves as Helga. Picture yourselves dealing with what she dealt with the entire story: From Arnold's outburst, to Arnold's constant pressure for her to talk to him again, to him giving her back the bow, to getting the Nancy Spumoni boots mysteriously, to what he said about her during the experiment, to her Valentine's date with "Alberto," to his poem, and to Arnold rescuing her from the clutches of Sean. I'll give you guys a few minutes to process.

...

Let's get started.

I had another one of those Jungle dreams again.

Why? I have NO idea.

This time I dreamt of a blazing green light, I don't know what it was and I don't remember it that well besides the fact that it was blinding.

I told Grandpa about it and he thinks I've been watching too many Disney movies.

"That stuff can rot your brain Shortman," he said as I helped him wash the Packard.

"Yeah but it's been happening way too often Grandpa, maybe it's a sign."

"I once had a dream I thought was a sign," he said as he passed me the hose.

"Really? What was it about?"

"I dreamt that I went into coma for eating too many raspberries, it was a sign Arnold. You know what the message behind that was?"

"Never eat raspberries?" I asked with a sigh, already expecting Grandpa to provide an example way out of proportion.

"Nope! Never eat TOO MANY raspberries hee hee hee."

"Grandpa!" I groaned as I face palmed.

"Have some sense of humor Shortman! I'm sure your dreams are only temporary, I mean, why would a Jungle hold any sort of significance to you?"

I widened my eyes in realization as I dropped the hose and ran towards our living room.

"Hey Arnold! Turn off the hose at least!" Grandpa scolded as I came out of the boarding house with a sheepish smile and turned off the hose, quickly running back inside.

"Where is it!?" I said to myself as I looked at our shelf. I grabbed the book I was looking for and set it down on our couch.

I kneeled down and started scrolling through the pages, Aha!

I carefully looked over my Dad's Journal and read the excerpt I was looking for.

Monday, busy day.

We learned from Eduardo that the evil river pirate La Sombra had stolen a sacred relic called The Corazon from the Green Eyes. We figured that returning this precious artifact would be the perfect opportunity to pay the Green Eyes back, so Stella and I tracked La Sombra down. It was a bright green, sacred artifact.

I stopped and gasped.

No... I couldn't have...

My dreams couldn't have possibly meant something, could they?

I turned to the clock and realized that there were 10 minutes left till noon.

OH NO! MY MEETING WITH PHOEBE!

I put the book back and grabbed a few bills as I booked it to Slausen's, I don't want Phoebe to think I'm irresponsible and incapable of being punctual or anything.

Luckily, I made it to Slausen's with two minutes to spare, and as expected Phoebe was already there.

"Arnold are you okay!?" Phoebe asked. "You seem rather..." she giggled. "Out of breath."

I gave her a sheepish look, "I was helping Grandpa wash the Packard and I lost track of time, so I ran over here."

Phoebe frowned, "Arnold I wasn't going to chop your head off just because you ran a few minutes late, I would have understood."

Oh. So the old Phoebe wasn't completely gone, that's a relief. I was beginning to think she and Helga had switched spots.

"Oh, well I'll remember that for next time," I said as I sat across from her.

"Arnold, do not be afraid of me. You know I'm only looking out for Helga, she is my best friend after all," she said as she was delivered her milkshake.

"I know, I was just... making sure. What did you want to tell me? I'm assuming this is about Helga."

"It indeed is," she said after taking a sip from her drink. "I want to give you a bit of perspective on what she has been going through these past few months, and let me tell you, it hasn't been anything good."

I gulped, had I really put Helga through that much torment?

I was about to speak but she held her hand up to silence me.

"She came crying to me that day."

I blinked, what day?

"The day you snapped at her, I remember it clearly. It was one of the most confusing days I had ever undergone. There was a knock on my door at midnight and she wouldn't stop rambling, Oh Phoebe now I've done it. NOW I've done it. He didn't call to apologize, he hasn't said anything to me. He hates me Phoebe he hates me! I, of course, had NO idea of what she was referring to but I had a good idea. When I asked her for specifics she wouldn't give them to me. She cried for the rest of the night."

My heart broke. The guilt I felt back in September was quickly crawling back into my chest. Grandpa told me to call her and my pride stopped me from doing it! UGH!

"She didn't speak to me for the rest of the weekend," Phoebe continued. "But I was pretty baffled to have seen you ask me where she was the next day at Gerald's Field. I admit I had originally assumed that this was about you but when you approached me the next day with absolutely no hint of contempt in your eyes I started doubting my insinuations."

"I tried to call her!" I suddenly exclaimed. "I really did! I admit that the reason I didn't call her on the first day was because of my pride, getting a big portion of my hair chopped off because of a wad of gum was not fun! But never did I once not feel regret and guilt, it was eating me up like a bunch of parasites. That's why I was looking for her at Gerald's Field, all the boarders and my grandparents were URGING me to apologize. But I couldn't track her anywhere! I called her a bunch of times and she either ignored me or she told her family to not pass it on to her. I was scared! I thought she was mad so I stopped bugging her. Then Tuesday came and instead of me getting a beating I came to the surprise that she was completely transformed into another person!"

"So you WERE the reason," Phoebe said but not in an angry way, more like in a "Eureka!" kind of way.

"Huh? Helga didn't tell you about our argument?" I asked as Phoebe shook her head.

"Not automatically, she told me in January after the Science Fair. You know, after she ran off," she said as I nodded, remembering that moment.

"So, what happened after that?" I asked.

"She just... changed. Just like you said. I would ask her why and she would say that it was for the best if she changed, and she seemed happy at the time, so I just gave up asking."

"And what was the whole deal with befriending Eugene and Brainy? If you don't mind me asking, she's never really cared for their friendship."

"I admit I was also quite confused about that too, I thought it was for the Science Experiment but I'm not so sure anymore. That's something you'll have to ask Helga. But there's something I was itching to ask YOU Arnold, why WERE you so keen in talking to her after you said what you said? Was it solely because of guilt?"

"No!" I exclaimed, receiving glances from people in the shop.

I blushed as I continued, "I mean at first it was, I was desperate for her to forgive me. I hate it when people are mad at me. But as time went by, I started finding out things about Helga that I did not know about her before. So that guilt and itch for forgiveness was replaced with an urge to get to know her."

"WHAT things exactly did you find out about her?"

"Well for example, I noticed that Helga has always been by my side with all the crazy ideas I've ever plotted these past 10 years. I realized this when Grandpa showed me an old photo album, she was with me when we: Saved the neighborhood, did the float, the vacant lot..." I smiled, realizing that the photo album was the turning point to me falling for Helga. "I realized that Helga has always been considerate and I never took the time to realize that. Ever since then, I was determined to get to know the REAL Helga and not the Helga who hides behind the mask of a bully."

I then went along to tell Phoebe about the hat, to me wanting to talk to her so that I can find out more about her, to me realizing that if I wanted to know more about Helga I had to do some investigating, to my conversations with Eugene and Brainy, to my conversation with Simmons, to the situation with Arnie and how she rescued us from the bullies by disguising herself as Hilda, to me returning her bow, to Thanksgiving, the experiment and the meaning behind my metaphor.

The only parts I left out was me discovering about what she did for Mr. Hyunh and what I did in return, me finding out she was Cecile and my Valentine's Alberto Scheme. And of course, my new found developed feelings for her.

Phoebe looked baffled, "You did all that JUST to get to know Helga!? And the poem too? Did you write that poem?"

Oh shoot, I forgot about the poem!

"How did you know it was me!?" I asked.

Phoebe blinked, "It was actually Helga who told me it was you, you're not very good at making anonymous poems."

I gave her an unimpressed look.

"That poem was actually the reason why I stripped her away from you."

I blinked, did I write something bad?

Phoebe seemed to have read my mind and shook her head, "Can you blame me? You have to see it from my perspective Arnold, from Helga and I's perspective it seemed as if you didn't care and you were just inclined to get her forgiveness and move on as if nothing happened. Which is something you usually do according to Helga when you two argued in front of the whole class back in November."

IS THIS ABOUT THAT HEAT OF THE MOMENT THING!? Good job Arnold, that's probably the worst thing you have ever said in your entire life.

"How were we supposed to know you were doing all those things behind the scenes?" Phoebe continued. "And it looked like Helga was determined to move on, since she actually went on a date with a guy named Alberto who came to visit back in February. I didn't want her to fall back onto you just because of some poem so I snatched her away from you. I'm sure you know what I mean, since she poured her heart out to you on the roof of FTi."

"Oh... you know about that?" I asked as I scratched the back of my neck.

Man, I didn't think Helga would tell Phoebe to be honest.

Wait.

I suddenly snorted, "Alberto huh?" I asked in a teasing tone.

"Yes, he looked a lot like you, and Helga told me that you and him knew each other."

"Interesting..." I said as I nodded slowly. So, Helga didn't find out it was me, man I'm pretty good.

"But now that I see that your intentions have been honest this whole time, I don't see a problem with you and Helga talking it out," Phoebe said with a smile. "Just... don't say anything like that to her again Arnold, I know how to fence," she threatened.

I held my hands up, "Trust me, I LEARNED my lesson."

She sighed and sat down, "I promise to talk to Helga so that she can digress with the bullying. I also need to talk to Gerald and apologize for undermining his statements about you. I'm sorry for doubting you Arnold."

"It's okay, I was being a bit ambiguous now that you mention it," I said - and I truly was - Phoebe doesn't even know the full story!

"But I guess it was also Helga's fault considering the fact that she refused to speak with you," Phoebe added. "Oh boy! You two have a lot to talk about!"

We do Phoebe, we CERTAINLY do.

When I walked home, I noticed that Gerald was waiting for me on my stoop.

He had a solemn and thoughtful look on his face.

"Gerald?"

He jumped and turned to me in shock, "Oh... it's just you Arnold."

"You okay?"

He sighed, and it was a really long one, "I just came back from having a talk with Pataki..."

I nodded, "I just came back from talking to Phoebe."

He stayed silent, "How is she?"

"She wants to talk to you. She wants to apologize."

"So do I..." he said which is something that caused me to blink in surprise.

"What?" I asked in shock.

"Let's just say I underestimated Pataki... turns out all those things you discovered about her were true. I mean, I STILL don't know why she did those things... but it's Pataki, she's unpredictable."

We stood in awkward silence, both of us drowning in our thoughts.

"You know, the Fifth Grade Dance is coming up Arnold..." Gerald said as I nodded.

Yeah, the Fifth Grade always has this "Almost End of the Year" Dance that they hold every April before State Testing. Principal Wartz cancelled the April Fools Dance permanently after the Superintendent found out about what happened with the pool last year...

"I know..." I said as Gerald sighed. "So?"

"You are SO dense! Ask Pataki to go with you Arnold! I'm taking Phoebe to apologize. You should take Helga to finally talk to her, this is a conversation that has been pending since September. It's time Arnold."

Gerald's right.

It's time.

This chapter was short because it was mostly a build up to the FINAL CHAPTER! I'm pretty positive Chapter 15 is going to be LONG!

Also, today is my birthday so posting this chapter is a birthday present to me!

The last chapter is going to be posted... mark your calendars... ON NOVEMBER 22ND! TWO DAYS BEFORE THE JUNGLE MOVIE LAUNCHES!

The reason why I chose that day is because I want this Fanfiction to be fresh in your minds before watching the movie and I wanted to give you guys two days to fanboy or fangirl about it in the reviews! I also want you guys to come back after watching the movie to point out any inconsistencies or consistencies between this story and the movie.

BECAUSE I SWEAR CRAIG BARTLETT, IF ARNOLD PULLS OUT HIS DARN HARMONICA DURING THE JUNGLE MOVIE AND STARTS PLAYING IT I'MA BANG MY HEAD ON A WALL!

Some inconsistencies that I predict could possibly occur is the whole deal with Cecile and the Christmas Special, I believe Craig might take the time to have Helga BARELY address that during the movie and THAT'S GOING TO MESS EVERYTHING UP Dx

Until then, REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU PREDICT IS GOING TO OCCUR IN THE LAST CHAPTER! LET'S TRY TO GET THIS TO 200! IT'LL BE MY BDAY PRESENT!

Dear Call Me Nettie,

No, I don't think this story will continue :( it ends at Chapter 15. But I'm glad you are really liking this!