A/N: Hey there, Hey Arnold fan fiction readers! It's been a while since I posted, and I know that some of you may not be too happy about that. I've finally reached the climax of this story, and I've been thinking long and hard about the path that I want this story to take. By reading your comments, watching Hey Arnold, eating tons of chocolate, and rewriting over and over, I finally found an ending that I want to stick with. I've finally finished this piece, after spending weeks writing it. I'm excited to say that I'm back and ready to post the remainder of the story! I'm sorry it took so long to get to this point, but I wanted to meet all your guys' expectations, as well as my own considering the amount of energy I've put into this fan fiction. So thank you all for your patience and I hope this chapter as well as the rest of the story is what you are expecting! We don't have much longer now to the end. So as my gift to you, I wrote long chapters with faster updates! I'm also considering the possibility of a sequel, but I really want you all to read the ending, before I ask that question. So without further ado, here's the next section of One More Chance! Helga meets Phoebe outside of the school after her argument with Arnold to discuss what she should do next. Thanks for reading! xx
Disclaimer: Guys, I still don't own Hey Arnold! or its characters. But I do own this fan fiction.
"Helga! I was just about to come inside looking for you after last period! How'd it go?" Phoebe stood still as a statue as Helga forced herself past the front doors of the building and down the slopped stairs to the entrance of their high school for the past four years.
"I talked to Arnold."
Phoebe cranked her head in confusion at Helga's sudden statement. "I meant meeting with Principal Wartz, but you finally talked to him?"
"He wouldn't leave me alone! He followed me to the principal's office and to my locker!"
Phoebe halted Helga to stop her from driving herself down the sidewalk to the bus stop. "That's a good sign. You must be driving him crazy."
"He just wanted me to give him another chance and let him help me. Like I need the football head's help. He needs a tissue for that nose, that's what he needs."
"Helga, he might just be the help we need."
Phoebe observes as Helga begins biting her lip as she sits on the stoop of stairs under her.
"He is going to homecoming with Lila, so she trusts him. We can use Arnold to take Lila down."
Helga simply shakes her head.
"This is between Little Miss Perfect and I. It has to be me and no one else."
Phoebe sighs as she shares the stair next to her closest companion that the elementary school gang had sat upon many other times before.
"I haven't heard that nickname in a while." Helga didn't even bother to bear the piercing pupils of the girl's eyes that she has looked into her whole life.
"Stop biting your lip!" Phoebe remembered the crazy compulsion that Helga had picked up during their years at P.S. 119, Hillwood's Middle School. Whenever she thought about Arnold, her teeth would repeatedly grind into the bottom lip of her mouth. At first, Phoebe never caught the hidden habit, until after Arnold and Helga's incident at Rhonda's summer splash before sophomore year of high school. Helga couldn't let go of the lock between of her lips. As Helga transformed into the woman that she is today, the urge disappeared and was never seen again. Until now.
Helga quickly complied and released the lip to lower her head under her arms.
"What happened in Principal Wartz's office?"
She hadn't seen Helga sob since that night that Helga decided to change, but now, Phoebe witnessed as the Helga G. Pataki began to crumble into cries for the second time this week. The surprises her friend kept showing continued to confuse Phoebe.
"I've been suspended from the newspaper and the softball team. I'm also not allowed to go to homecoming."
The convulsions of her cries cruised up and down her body as she tried to control the craziness of her combustion.
"What do you mean? You shouldn't have received such a punishment for punching another student."
"Lila planted marijuana in my locker. Wartz searched my locker for my gym clothes to wear while I was waiting in his office because my clothes didn't fit the dress code." Helga hid her entire face underneath the folds of the school sweatshirt she was wearing.
"Why would Lila plant marijuana in your locker? I didn't even know that she smoked it, much less had access to it."
"Does it matter? She's the only one that had motive to plant it." She muffled underneath the layers of fabric.
"But don't you find it interesting that she placed marijuana in your locker? It's almost like she knew Wartz would find it."
"That doesn't matter either. She knew Wartz would find it eventually. They do random locker searches during the school year."
"But that means…" Phoebe's hands hustled to cover her gasp.
"Yep, Phoebs. Lila is now not only the editor in chief of the newspaper, but also the softball team captain by default."
Phoebe stumbled as she struggled to spring from the stoop as the connection clicked in her mind. "We can't let her get away with this, Helga! What are we going to do?"
"We aren't going to do anything." Helga sniffled. "I'm done."
"What do you mean you're done? You can't be! Not the Helga G. Pataki I know!"
"That's the point! Don't you get it?" Helga challenged her classmate, as she jumped up to meet the anxious, awaiting Phoebe. "Why can't everyone just get it? I'm not that Helga anymore, and I never will be again!"
"Helga." Phoebe followed Helga back down to the sidewalk. "You don't have to become the old Helga again to get back at Lila."
"Yes, I do! I don't know how to do it, Phoebe. I can't channel the passion without the anger. I still can't, even after all these years." Helga wiped away the remainders of her tears, observing the mascara residue on her fingertips. "I have to stay quiet, or risk losing everyone and everything I worked for since sophomore year."
"You mean risk losing Arnold."
Helga couldn't face to find the facts that she knew were in her best friend's eyes.
"Yes." She admitted.
