A/N: Thank you all for your patience with this fanfiction. Life as a college student is often a busy and demanding one, so it's difficult to find time to sit down and write! I was finally able to finish this last part of this chapter, so I hope you enjoy. Arnold wakes up in the nurse's office and Helga faces yet another problem. Thanks for reading! I'll try to keep up with updates!
'I'm sorry, Arnold… I'm sorry, Arnold… I'm sorry, Arnold…' The apology of his angel sings him yet another note.
"Arnold?"
The glow beyond the angel grows brighter than before.
'I'm sorry, Arnold…'
Helga G. Pataki flies with her wings closer to him to shut her aquamarine blue eyes, which are smothered in eye shadow, and two tiny rose petals of her lips push together pursue its target.
"Arnold?" The high-pitched voice of a woman asks once more.
Her clear, comforting face leans in even further, a smell of roses capturing the taste buds of Arnold's awaiting, anxious lips.
"Arnold!" The call of the woman demands his attention as the ring of her tone echoes through his ears.
The shock of her lips on his pulses through his sleeping heart enough to charge him back to consciousness as he opens his green eyes to the light, which has been waiting to bathe him.
"Helga!" He cries out, sitting up while screaming out to the girl he just had contact with in his dream.
"Mr. Shortman, please! There are other students trying to sleep." A woman dressed in all white approaches him, holding her hand to his forehead.
He screeches once more, covering his pure eyes from the light above. The woman chuckles at his reaction to the overhead light.
"Welcome back, Arnold." She warmly smiles at him. "Your fever has gone away now."
"Are you an angel?" Arnold murmurs finally, uncovering his eyes to meet those of his savior from the pain of his realization that he wasn't locking lips with Helga Pataki.
She laughs that familiar sound again. "Oh, no. I'm the school nurse, and you're in the nurse's office."
"Why?" He rubs his forehead, not remembering that he had a fever.
"Another student broke your nose. You fell unconsciousness." She whispered, her glance leading to the trashcan on the other side of the office, overflowing with bloody tissues.
"Helga!" He remembers, his hand following down the trail of his face to his bandaged nose.
"Yes, Miss Pataki." She removes his hand from the damaged body part. "Please don't touch your nose. You want it to heal."
"Where is she?" Arnold demands, trying to peer around the curtains of his bed to see the other students checked in at the nurse's office.
The nurse shakes her head and blocks his vision by pulling the shower curtain further forward.
"She is in the principal's office."
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"Miss Pataki, can you please explain to me what the item in the Ziploc bag before you is?" Principal Wartz, their elementary school principal of P.S. 118, who was now the high school principal of P.S. 121 stood before Helga G. Pataki as she was being questioned about the incident between her, Arnold, Stinky and Gerald earlier that afternoon until he changed the subject.
"A drug?" Helga shrugged, wearing her gym sweatshirt that the janitor had retrieved out of her locker for her, since Principal Wartz had decided that her outfit for the day was too revealing for a high school teenager.
"Yes, a drug. A capsule with the drug marijuana mixed inside." Principal Wartz picks up and thrusts the baggie before her face. As he shook the content inside, Helga sighed, not understanding the point of this interrogation.
"Okay, but what does this have to do with me?" Helga asked, adjusting her leggings while watching Wartz walk around to the other side of the desk.
He let the plastic bag slip through his fingers to the desk below. "Miss Pataki, we discourage drug use. Especially on school grounds."
"Wait what?" Helga leaned forward, stabilizing herself with her hands presented on the principal's desk.
"We found this in your locker."
"HELGA!" The familiar voice of a certain football headed friend calls out her name from the other side of the principal's office's door.
"Arnold?" Helga attempts to ask, changing her curiosity to the activity on the outside of the office.
The office door slams the wall beside the entrance, causing all of Principal Wartz's accomplishments as principal over the years to shake as the boy of Helga's affection steps into the now silent office.
"Mr. Shortman. How kind of you to join us. Please have a seat." Principal Wartz gestures to the empty chair next to Helga, who now stands in shock.
"Principal Wartz!" Helga exclaims. "He can't come in here!"
"I'm pretty sure I was just invited in, Miss Pataki." Arnold smirks at the female of his affections as she folds her arms across her breasts.
Helga scoffs as she sits back down in her seat. "I don't understand why he's here."
"Why don't you ask my nose?" Arnold snickers as she slithers into the seat beside Helga, who is steaming at Arnold's sarcasm.
In one movement, Helga rips the bandage off of Arnold's broken nose, and causing him to cry out in pain.
"Ouch!" Arnold moans, covering his nose with his hands. "Why did you do that?"
"Miss Pataki!" Mr. Wartz scolds Helga for her actions against Arnold. "That was certainly uncalled for."
Helga shrugs her shoulders as she exhales. "I just figured that bandage wouldn't be enough to hold back the blood."
"What blood?" Arnold questions, and fails to notice the blood creeping through the cracks of his fingers, trying to escape from his palms being pressed together.
"I think you need a tissue, Football Head." Helga motions to his hands, which are now filling with blood resulting from the loss of his bandage.
"Oh, God!" Arnold muffles through his hands, gripping his grip tighter as a drop of red, sticky fluid seeks it way to the carpet successfully.
A tissue from Principal Wartz is held in front of Arnold's whimpering, which he now adds to the grip of his hands to soak up the liquid.
Principal Wartz coughs to avoid the awkwardness of the situation and pushes the tissue box in front of his injured student.
"As I was saying, Miss Pataki, not only will you not be allowed to attend the homecoming dance this Saturday due to your…" He coughs once more. "infraction against Mr. Shortman, but because of this…" His fingertips brush along the zipper of the Ziploc bag. "You will also be suspended from the softball team and the school newspaper."
"What?" Helga forces herself out of the chair now twice. "You can't do that! You have no proof."
"Helga doesn't do drugs!" Arnold stifles through his tissues, still seeping up nose blood.
"That's enough from you, Mr. Shortman. Miss Pataki, finding this evidence in your locker is proof. As school policy states, a student must be suspended from extra curricular activities and possibly receive suspension from school for drug abuse. However, seeing this is your first offense, I will not suspend you from school."
"This is bullshit!" Helga knocks the coffee cup off Principal Wartz's desk, with decaf coffee now coating the papers spread among the surface.
"Helga! Stop!" Arnold stands up with her, causing Helga to freeze in her path of destruction.
"You are not allowed to attend the homecoming dance also, Mr. Shortman, for your infraction with Mr. Peterson." Principal Wartz adds, reaching for the tissue box to attempt to clean up the coffee.
"What?" Arnold drops the tissues from his dried, bloodied palms. "I have to go to that dance, Principal Wartz!"
"You both should have thought about that this morning when you both chose to make irresponsible decisions with violence. I expect to see you both here Monday morning to discuss your punishments further after I do not see you both at the dance Saturday."
Helga shakes her head and Arnold sniffles, hoping no more blood bleeds from his nose.
"I also expect for both of you to visit Mr. Peterson sometime tomorrow during school to apologize for your actions, since he is the nurse's office at the moment."
"Fine." Helga snaps, and Arnold nods in agreement. They both sigh at the realization of their punishment becoming a reality.
"Oh, and Mr. Shortman? Please go check out with the nurse before bursting out of the office next time. I expect you to attend the rest of your classes today and receive a new bandage due to your…. miraculous recovery."
"Yes, Principal Wartz." Arnold doesn't have the opportunity to even check out Helga's reaction, because he hears the slam of an office door once more.
"Helga, wait!" While one hand holds the soaked tissue closer to his injury and with the other pushes off the seat in Principal Wartz's office, he chases after the angel of his heaven.
