Everyone changes with time. A day, a week, a month, a year... they all count. So how much can a group of rag tag 4th graders from P.S. 118 change with junior high, high school, and a whole bunch of history between those seven years? A whole lot.

Years Later

The First Few Letters of...

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

Helga let one hand creep from underneath the warmth of her covers and let wave through the cool December morning air before she turned her clock off, but instead of getting up she lied very still in her bed, trying to ward of the tired spell on her.

I know I shouldn't of taken that damn shift, she thought as she rubbed her eyes, what was I thinking taking a shift starting at ten thirty pm that let up at four thirty in the morning?

Helga could hear another part of her reply, not much, considering you don't think all that much really, but decided to ignore it, after all, only crazy people actually talk to themselves and hear an answer, and Helga Pataki was anything but crazy. Unique, yes, bitchy, yup, sarcastic, definitely, stubborn, as a bull, but crazy?

Definitely not.

Helga was very tempted to stay home all day, but knew she couldn't and definitely didn't want to.

It seemed that Bob and Lexie were on the best terms they had been in months, so now the bimbo was once again taking up residence at 1422 L Street, much to Helga's utter annoyance.

Helga did not think that spending her Wednesday with a bimbo that loved to steal her ciggies seemed like a good day.

But, I'll just shut my eyes for a second... and then I'll start getting ready... yeah... that's what I'll do...

And close her eyes, Helga Pataki did, but she did not open then a second later, or ten seconds later, not a minute either. Not even five minutes... no, instead they were opened half an hour later, when a certain blonde first grader decided that it was the most opportune time to practice her Olympic winning Bedapult skills so early in the morning.

Helga cracked one eye and glared at her younger sister, who seemed to be ignoring her blithely, one of the countless bad habits she had picked from Sid. "W-what are you doing," Helga paused as she yawned. "Up so early?"

Hilda, who was already dressed for school in the clothes Helga had set aside for her last night, stopped jumping up and down to sit on her older sister's bed with the look that almost resembled a perfectly angelic cherub.

Almost.

Hilda was smirking– a bad habit she had picked up from both her older sister and Phoebe. "What do you mean, early? It's already seven ten."

Helga's eyes landed on her clock in panic, and there it was in bright neon pink '7:10 a.m.' Helga had exactly twenty six minutes to shower, get dressed, get breakfast, make Hilda's lunch, walk Hilda over to P.S. 118, catch her seven twenty bus that would arrive at the bus stop by her school around seven twenty eight, and get to school before the first bell rang seven thirty-two, warning students that they had exactly four minutes to get to class before they were marked late.

"SHIT!"

Hilda wagged one finger at Helga. "Tut, tut, you just said a bad word! You shouldn't ever say a bad word, 'member!"

Helga calmly looked at her sister, disregarding her dilemma for a moment, "How about three?"

Hilda shrugged her shoulders.

"SHIT FUCKERS!"

Hilda giggled and Helga smiled before she looked at the clock, now she only had twenty five minutes.

Helga shot out of her bed an ran for the shower, which was hopefully not being occupied by either the drunkenly stupid bastard with a hearing problem or the stuck up witch who was as sharp as a spoon and probably couldn't tell the difference between a spoon and a knife.

(YL)

Helga ran out of the house, dragging her sister behind her, very thankful that snow had not yet begun to fall in Hillwood, New Jersey. She only had two minutes to catch her bus and had a five minute walk to her sister's school.

In other words, Helga Geraldine Pataki, was very screwed, so screwed that in a way she was unscrewed.

"Wait, Helga."

Helga stopped and raised an eyebrow at Hilda. "What's wrong, you know we have to hurry."

"No, I can go to Eva's house and her mom will take me to school." She pointed to the house right behind her. "Her house is right here."

"But–"

"It'll be easier, plus Mrs. Baxter loves having me over!"

Helga checked her watch; she now had a minute to catch her bus. "Okay. Let's just be quick about it."

Hilda ran up to the door and rang the doorbell and an eternity passed by before Mrs. Baxter opened the door and greeted the first grader, when it was only ten seconds. Helga explained to the older woman her situation, and within seconds Hilda was waving goodbye to her older sister, as Helga ran down the empty streets.

By the luck of some god, Helga was able to catch her bus, because Terry, the bus driver was late, something that never happened, but by some stroke of luck, it did that day.

Helga sat in her usual seat in the bus near the back door and leaning her head against the window, smiling happily.

Today was going to be a good day, she decided look at the sun that had just begun it rise into the sky.

(YL)

Helga happily walked into Crinshaw High School, which shocked any person that knew Helga Pataki well enough to know that she never walked into school with any emotion by utter displeasure.

Phoebe arched a single dark eyebrow, "And what are we smiling about?" Phoebe pretended to gasp, it was a good thing she did not want to be an actress or she would not be getting far at all in life. "Don't tell me you got laid last night... but wait a minute... Ian's not here, so who was it?"

Helga smacked Phoebe in the back of her head before she opened her locker. "Shut up Vega. People are allowed to be happy every once in a while."

Phoebe said nothing more, instead she looked to the window that gave anyone who actually paid attention, had a fantastic view of the football field. She put a hand over her eyebrows as if she was searching for something.

Helga said nothing as her best friend comically looked outside the window in the middle of a fairly busy hallway on the second floor of Crinshaw High School, no instead of telling her best friend how ridiculous she looked she just continued to get out the books she needed to merrily start her day in Hell.

Sid walked over to the pair with a lazy smile on his face; he took a glance at Phoebe before he turned to Helga. "What is she doing?"

Helga did not look up from the book she was reading, she unfortunately realized that she had four minutes to read four chapters before taking a test in Language Arts. "To find out that question, young one, you must seek it from the wise crack headed maniac yourself."

Sid smiled, it was just another normal Tuesday morning... at least as normal as Sid's morning could get with Phoebe and Helga being his best friends.

Sid tapped Phoebe on her shoulder and the petite female turned around to look at him with a very blank face. "What exactly are we up to Phoebe Gintsuko Heyerdahl?"

"We," Phoebe said as she pointed a thumb towards herself. "Are look for any large meteors falling to the Earth, the sun disappearing, large tornadoes, tremors in the ground, or any other telltale signs of the Apocalypse. Why do you ask?"

"Um, why?"

"Helga said it was okay for people to walk into school happy."

Sid looked back at forth at the smirking Phoebe Heyerdahl and the unpleased Helga Pataki as she quickly read, or rather skimmed through the four long chapters that were given as homework two days ago.

"I question both of your sanity, along with mine just because I voluntarily choose to associate myself with you both."

Helga snorted, but did not even bother to look up to let Sid see the smirk that he knew was gracing the blonde's face as she sarcastically said, "Wow, you used two big vocabulary words in one sentence. Are you okay Sid? 'Cause I'm sure your brain must be hurting from all that hard thinking!"

Phoebe petted Sid's head. "That's normal, I question my sanity quite frequently." She then turned around to look out the window once again. "Now back to my Apocalypse watch... yay!"

"Crackwhore." Helga mumbled under her breath, but kept on reading.

"Why do I even bother to put up with either of you?"

Helga finally stopped reading and winked at Sid. "Because we are so darn lovable."

"Plus we're damn sexy." Phoebe added with a large grin that even the Cheshire Cat would envy.

Sid closed his eye and leaned against a closed locker with his arms folded over his chest. "I don't know about the first half of your explanation, but I defiantly agree with the second half."

And before he knew it, a Language Arts book and a Trigonometry notebook was flying his way.

(YL)

"How the hell is it possible that you, who did not read, got a freaking ninety on that stupid quiz, while I, who read those four freaking chapters TWICE, only got a freaking eighty." Sid complained for what seemed like the umpteenth time at his score, when it was only third period, and they didn't even have second period together.

"Because," Phoebe said as she took random notes as their inept teacher confused chemical formulas with molecular formulas. "Helga's got skills."

"Oh shut up."

"Of course Ms. Drama Queen. It's okay that you're just not up to par with my level. You'll get their eventually."

Phoebe snorted. "Yeah, in about four years or so."

Sid crossed his arms over his chest in a huff. "I hate you both."

"No you don't. You could never hate me or Pheebs."

Sid continued to pout.

Phoebe and Helga both kissed Sid on the cheek. "Now stop pouting and be the abnormally perverted self again."

"I am not perverted Phoebe, I just like to express myself... and my needs... and my wants... and–"

"Your erotic dreams?"

Phoebe and Sid continued to argue with each other over Sid's perversion, but after five minutes, Helga tuned them out.

The class was startled when they heard the sound of...

...KC and the Sunshine Band?

Phoebe, Helga, and Sid all looked as astounded as their class and teacher were and looked around for the source of the sound, even though they all knew that it was Helga's ringtone for anyone's number that she did not have in programmed in her phone.

The phone stopped ringing, but Helga had a feeling it would start ringing again. She raised her hand and asked Ms. Zuhoshky to go to the bathroom and once she was excused, she took off in a sprint in the opposite direction of the nearest bathroom. Somehow, Ms. Zuhoshky didn't notice, just like she didn't notice when Phoebe asked to go to the bathroom, and went in the same direction Helga had five minutes ago. In the opposite direction of the nearest water fountain.

Phoebe found Helga quite easily; after all, there were only a few places in the school where you could actually get good service. The blonde was in the empty entrance area of the school's auditorium, sitting on the ground and huddled in a corner with her back against the large windows and her head in her lap.

Phoebe plopped herself down next to her. "So who was it? Your secret lover that you've never told me about?"

"No."

"Then who?"

"Hillwood Hospital."

"The hospital? Why would they call you?"

Helga was suddenly very quiet except for her heavy breathing. And it was at this moment that Phoebe saw the way her friend's back was irregularly rising up and down, the way it usually did when she was fighting back tears, Phoebe's eyes then landed on the broken pink pieces of Helga's phone scattered by a brick wall.

Now, Phoebe was worried. "Helga, what's wrong?"

Silence.

"Helga, tell me what the fuck is wrong, right now!"

Helga raised her face out of her lap and Phoebe now saw the black streaks of tears mixed mascara that covered Helga's face. She mumbled an answer, but all Phoebe caught was accident, car, and hospital.

"What?"

"Mrs. Baxter's car got hit on the way to P.S. 118."

Phoebe raised an eyebrow. She did not think that Helga was that close to Mrs. Baxter to actually cry about the woman. "Why are you upset?"

"Hilda was in that car with her."

(YL)

I do not own Hey Arnold! And I doubt I ever will in this universe... now in another universe, it might be negotiable. Thank you Demile, Garlic Blanket, Starry Nights, Drucilla Black, CaramelAriana, and Raine84 for the awe inspiring reviews.

Can you actually tell me you were expecting that ending?

PS:

Raine84, Sid tells them that he asked Nadine out to a date and she says yes. As Helga says, he finally grew some balls.

Jaded Angel, Justine T. Melanson, and BellaMay76 were are y'all? I miss you guys!

Next Chapter: ... Goodbye?

Click the button, it has been having withdrawal clicking problems for the last few months. Just put it out of its misery and click the darn review button

S.L. Cipher (Who will gladly accept all criticisms, advice, reviews, praises, and flames with a large Cheshire Cat like smile just because Cheshire Cat like smiles can piss people off and Cipher loves pissing people off because it is exceptional fun... Especially when they try and attack you. That's why it is so important to always have a mace and a sword on hand– it helps to keep those crazy people off your back!)

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