A/N: So Helga got kicked off the newspaper, the softball team, and can't go to the dance! Do you think someone framed her, or is she guilty of marijuana use? Arnold can't go to the dance either for punching Stinky. How is he going to tell Lila? Will Arnold and Helga spend their homecoming night together? Will Helga ever forgive Arnold? Keep reading to find out, Hey Arnold fans. In this section, Arnold and Helga have their first conversation since the confrontation on the porch. Thanks for reading!
Gotta Go My Own Way
"Helga!" Helga G. Pataki shakes her head at the thought of her classmate chasing her, and tries to spin the combination of her locker quickly as she hears the chants of her football headed prince, who was currently trying to save her day, even though the Royal Highness himself already ruined it. Besides, wasn't a prince supposed to be riding on a majestic unicorn carrying a heavy sword, defeating a dragon?
'Damn. We watch too many Disney movies at our sleepovers…' Helga sighed as she hesitated on the last number of her combination. 'I wish I could go to sleep for one hundred years like Sleeping Beauty.'
How could this have happened? How dare Principal Wartz remove her from the newspaper and the softball team! Helga has never tried any drug, and wouldn't even know where to find any if she wanted to try some. This was clearly set up by another student, and she could guess whom. With Helga out of the way, Lila Sawyer would become the new editor in chief of the newspaper and team captain of the softball team. Now that Lila was successfully stealing Helga's fairytale of a perfect senior year from her first with her prince, and now her court, she had just become a poor peasant. A poor peasant who couldn't pry open her locker. She slowly let her face lay onto the locker door to feel the falling temperature.
"Helga!" Groaning in defeat, she raise her head off of the locker to finally reach to the last number to successfully open her locker door. Her schoolbooks, once stacked, now were plummeted in a pile below the locker, and the outfit she wore earlier was tossed on top.
Great. She leans forward to grab the controversial crop top from earlier to shove with her other belongings in her backpack.
"Helga!" As she is about to dig into the tunnel of her locker to adjust her books, the locker door slams shut.
"Hey! What gives? You almost slammed my hand in the door!" Helga growls to meet her challenger.
"Helga. Don't pretend like you didn't hear me shouting after you in the hallway." Prince Arnold Shortman scoffs, placing his hand on his hips.
"I actually couldn't. I had my headphones in." Helga protests, and starts to set her locker combination again.
Arnold's hand holds Helga's from turning the dial. "You wear those huge pink headphones. I would have seen them on your head."
"So now you know what kind of headphones I have? You've been stalking me, football head?"
He removes his hand from hers to allow her to continue to ring up her combination. "I feel like I've had to recently! You've been ignoring me!"
Helga pauses turning the dial to breathe.
'Don't let him get to you, ol' girl.' She smirks as she finishes the combination and pops open the locker.
"Go away, Arnoldo. You should go to the nurse. Your nose is still bleeding."
He wipes the beginning blood from his nose with his shirt sleeve. "I don't care."
Helga ignores him as she begins to line her books up in order from which class she had first to last, just as they were before until the school administration decided to rearrange it themselves.
"Helga, please. I just want to say I'm sorry." Arnold whispers, whimpering into his shirt sleeve. "Why won't you give me one more chance?"
"Look, hair boy. I just got kicked off the paper and the team, and I found out I can't go to the dance because of YOU. So can you please just leave me alone? I've had the shittiest day." Helga completes the organization of her books inside the locker.
Arnold tries to find Helga's eyes, which were focused on her books, but he could spot the snapshot that they was taken together at that party before sophomore year before they had that troubling tangle. They were both beaming, and he had the limited opportunity to put his arm around her waist. He was facing the camera, but she was staring at him, which is why he loved that picture. If it was still displayed up in her locker, he still must mean more to her. She hadn't removed it yet.
"Then tell me why you won't give me one more chance." He insisted, demanding for eye contact from his crush.
"You don't deserve one." Helga gives in to the plea of his green eyes at last as she locks the locker door.
The waves of her blue irises were calm, but colossal. There were threatening to tumble over onto the beach of her sandy skin any moment.
Arnold attempted to change the subject. "Helga, you should fight this. I know you don't do drugs." Arnold tried to comfort her by positioning his palm on her shoulder, but she swiftly stooped the advance.
"Like I need your help, Arnoldo. There's no point fighting Lila Sawyer." She exhaled at his enthusiasm, and located her Calculus book for her homework.
"Who said it was Lila?" He crossed his arms as she dropped her book into her backpack.
Helga snorted, but it was forced, and not friendly. "Way to defend your date."
"Helga…" Arnold complained, coming in closer to the area between her and her locker.
"What happened to the Helga I used to know? She would never let Lila win."
Helga zipped up her backpack and swung it on her shoulders as she shrugged. "That Helga is gone. I'm just me."
Arnold couldn't halt lowering his head at her response, realizing that this was true. Helga couldn't be the person she used to be without being criticized by her classmates.
"So you admit that your girlfriend's guilty?"
"I never said that." Arnold assured, raising his head to return his gaze into the ocean of Helga's eyes. "And she's not my girlfriend!"
"I don't need your help to prove she's guilty." Helga whirled around to unzip the front pocket of her backpack.
"I don't want to help her." He promised, pursuing her other hand to hold within his. "I want to help you."
Helga didn't answer, but allowed herself to abandon her occupied hand to join the other connected with Arnold's, to leave a present behind.
"Goodbye, Arnold."
As he waited to watch her disappear down the hallway they had traveled times before during their four years at P.S. 121, he caressed the company of a soft string within the windows of his fingers.
The pink ribbon.
