Author's Drabble:
Hello everyone, sorry this came so late. I haven't really been able to think up of much to get the ball rolling on this plot. As I said in the beginning (I think) there is no real plot to this story, more like a collection of thoughts tried to be written up together into a way that makes sense. I apologize if this was not worth waiting for. Please review anyway!
"Well that was weird." Arnold stated rather bluntly, sitting on the bench while the others were wrapping up basketball practice. He had returned to the school once Gerald called the boarding house to give the "a-okay" that school was out but even eight hours later Arnold was still a little pre-occupied by the memory of the lack of reaction from Helga. After all of the letters and hints of her missing him or maybe thinking about him it was a real wake-up call to see her casually walk past as if he wasn't even there.
"You okay?" Gerald plopped down next to him, rubbing at the sheen of sweat across his forehead with a towel.
"Hm, yeah." The blond glanced up at his friend. "Uh, where's Sid?"
"He's putting up the balls today; some of the guys are helping him out." Gerald smirked, "Coach didn't like how he kept watching the girls in the last game rather than focusing on the ball like the rest of us. So now he's gotta pick up after practice until the season ends."
"But that's months away, isn't it?"
Gerald's eyebrow raised, "And your point is?"
Arnold shook his head then looked out at the golden coloring of the gym floor, catching the vague shadows of the team meandering about to collect their things. He felt the eyes on them quickly though, smiling a little to himself as he looked back at Gerald who was still staring questionably at him. It was obvious Gerald caught on that Arnold was a little dazed and he wasn't surprised, he hadn't really been able to grasp the fact that he was really in the presence of his old friends again and yet it had been so casual to speak with them. Hillwood felt like a dream and he kept waiting for himself to wake up in the humid jungles of San Lorenzo again.
Hillwood was cool, crisp from the aging autumn atmosphere. It was during fall and winter that made the city air the most tolerable compared to the traces of gas and other smells in the air. Inside of the gym he couldn't tell the difference but after being outside in the brisk atmosphere, Arnold almost wished he hadn't bothered with a jacket. The coolness had felt good on his face and he even rolled up the sleeves of his sweater many times while taking walks along the sidewalks of his old neighborhood. Walking was all he seemed to do since he came back the other day before getting his driver's license. Even then the car sat safe in the garage until this morning.
"Gerald…"
"Yeah?"
"Did you and Phoebe…ever take a break?"
"A what?" Gerald's eyes widened, he then stared at Arnold, puzzled by the inquiry.
"You know, a break…" Arnold slouched a little, finding the question a little degrading since it looks like he already knew the answer. "Did you ever feel like you wanted to see other people or something?"
"Does this have to do with Helga?"
Arnold gave no answer, only stared at the floor with his hands on his knees.
"Phoebe and I've been going out since we were kids pretty much," Gerald said, leaning back until he was against the row behind him. "Sure, we have days where she'll get mad because I missed her karate event or something but I've never really thought about anyone else. As many girls as I thought were hot when we were kids, I'm a one woman kind of guy."
"You really like her, don't you?"
"You really want to make me look like a sap in front of the team?" Gerald asked flatly, indicating the other males lingering in the gym with his thumb.
"Sorry, Gerald. I guess I'm just trying to figure out what I'm feeling, that's all." Arnold crossed his arms, frowning at the floor. "I liked Helga a lot, but after living with my parents for a while, I kind of just forgot about it for a while. I know that sounds kind of heartless, but I didn't really think about her until a while ago since the letters started coming in."
"So everyone's been rubbing Helga in your face, myself included. But you have no idea if you still like her or not."
Again, Arnold was quiet as he shrank back to lean against the bleachers as well, his toes lingering on the gym flooring. He stared ahead, the thoughts running through his mind a lot slower than before, one image at a time now as he debated over it and tried to figure out an answer. Even if he found it, and he did still love Helga somehow, what good would it do when she didn't seem to feel that way about him anymore? The idea that he could love her for the rest of his life while she hated him for the rest of hers was rather bleak in his mind. Sad for him…because then he would have to deal with the same problem she did when they were kids and he would feel the same pain.
"Helga, your mom said you haven't come home yet. Just where could you be?"
"I'm fine, Lila. I'm just taking a walk. I don't have work today and I don't want to go home so just stop calling by my house." Helga hissed into the mouthpiece of her cell, "Now go do your own job or text Stinky or something, I'm busy!"
To prove she was done speaking, Helga hung up the phone and jammed it back into her pocket before sinking onto the toilet lid, pulling up her legs until she hugged them to her chest. She bent in her head until it pressed against her knees and the pressure of her compressed against herself made her abdomen ache but she held herself in. The English hall's girl's bathroom had become her refuge ever since the bell rang. She had chased off Phoebe long ago when her bespectacled pal was lingering outside of her stall and quietly trying to coax her out. Eventually Helga told her to leave and she thankfully obeyed but now Lila was trying to find her.
Lifting her head, Helga glared at the chipped paint of the stall door. "I wouldn't be in this state if someone had told me sooner that Arnold was coming back." She growled, banging her fist into the side panel wielding the toilet paper with a loud crash. Had she checked, she would have seen the small dent left under her fist but she held her position, staring at an oblong-shaped patch of metal revealed by the paint. The image that came to mind made her lips tremble and her eyes sting with the blissful memory of what she had seen so briefly that very morning.
Short no more, Arnold was not a giant but he had grown gracefully in the last four years. From her brief glance she had absorbed every inch of him, her eyes had been thirsting for it for so long they took that one sip and managed a gulp instead. He was probably a few inches taller than her now, his hair still untamed by time or gravity and his little blue hat still placed not quite in the center of his head. He wasn't muscled, like most men from the jungle tended to be and she couldn't tell in the first place since he was clad in late fall garb; regrettably preventing any kind of rating of muscle tonnage. He hardly looked any more tan than the last she saw of him either. Then again her memory of that one month together was hardly something she could count on. But even though she only saw his tall, lanky frame from afar, he was beautiful! Weird-shaped head and all!
"Cruel world, why must you mock me by dangling love's sweetest form right before my eyes?" She whimpered, staring up at the ceiling and clutching at her heart. "I see what I want and yet I cower away, averting my eyes from my golden-haired angel."
Her face suddenly went slack then while her hands froze still grasping her t-shirt. After a second, Helga reached down and pulled her backpack into her lap, pulling out a notebook and fishing for her pen blindly while trying to open up to a fresh page. With the first ball-point in hand she rest the notebook in her lap and smiled at the familiar pale blue lines while scribbling down the first words that floated into her head. It wasn't until she reached the bottom of the page that she was smiling to herself. Dropping the pen she clasped her hands together and looked to the ceiling again only this time more grateful.
"My muse has returned! Oh, Arnold had you not shown up with nary a whisper of your return I would run to you now, my darling and embrace you until the force of my devotion snaps your frail little spine!" She pressed her joined hands against her cheek before snapping to and lowering them slowly to her lap again while staring at the metal spot she had found earlier. "But, alas, I have already shunned you in the hall. My behavior was that of a foolish coward…I was…I was just a little kid again."
"Ronda?"
"Arnold?"
"Why are you down here?"
"Down where?"
"Um, in this alley…"
Rhonda looked from the curious eyes of Arnold to the skeptical stare of Gerald, both of them standing at the mouth of said alleyway. She stood erect even though she was nervous as hell while grasping her purse tightly in her hands, her thoughts in a mess when she tried to think about a good excuse for her presence in the alley. A lie about her purse almost being nabbed wouldn't have worked since they would have heard her screaming if she were attacked. Before she could think up of something, Gerald spoke up again and she silently hoped he would provide something to make them leave but fate was never that kind.
"Hey Arnold, you go ahead and get what you can from her but I'm headin' home. We'll talk later, alright?"
"Yeah, see you later, Gerald." Arnold nodded as his friend turned away and headed back down the sidewalk.
Rhonda swallowed when the male then turned back to her, slipping a pair of car keys into his pocket while fixing her with a stare that was more penetrating than Gerald's had been previously. She groaned, covering her face with her hands. Of all the people to find her! But wait, this was a good thing wasn't it? This was Arnold in front of her. A guy who is known for helping people out in the past and was only a visitor in town, no real threat to her social status should she leave him with this burden she had been carrying since God knows when. Perfect, she could just tell Arnold about it, get his totally fab advice from him, then throw him a welcome home party to show that she was grateful and not to mention be able to keep him quiet because she was oh-so kind and celebrated his return with everyone in the proper method! Brilliant deduction Rhonda, well done!
"Alright, Rhonda, I'm listening." Arnold stated, folding his arms with slightly narrowed eyes while still blocking her path.
"I know this looks and seems awkward, and it is, but Arnold—I have a very good reason for being here." Rhonda said, a little nervous even though she concluded it was safe to tell Arnold. Tugging at the collar of her Givenchy sweater and crossing her arms over her chest, clinging to her forearms. "Actually, Arnold, I have no idea why I'm here in an alley not three feet from Green Meats."
Arnold glanced at the store she named out loud with a questionable glance then turned his head back to her. "Do you need to talk to Mr. Green about something?"
"Oh yes, I need to have an engaging conversation with Mr. Green and his positively stimulating company—no!" Rhonda snapped, cutting off her sarcastic reply with a hiss. "Let's just say…I have business with Harold."
"Harold?" Arnold repeated, his resolution turning to confusion again. "Harold Berman?"
"Yes, if you want to get down to the details, yes, I need to talk to Harold." Rhonda said, her hands beginning to tremble until she clamped her fingers down harder on her bag. "Since he dropped out of high school we haven't really been able to talk and it just seems wrong that someone from my past would just suddenly want to drop out of contact with me. I mean, what could he benefit from not talking to me anymore?"
Arnold's face fell to one that quite plainly asked: "Are you serious?" and she didn't quite like it but after a moment she finally heaved a sigh. Reaching over, she grasped his collar and pulled him into the alley with her. The teen's shock was soon attempted to be vocalized but she slapped her hand over his mouth and shushed him frantically. Lowering her hand again, she clung to his shoulders, staring at him in a sudden panic since her attempt to trick him had failed. "Rhonda what are you—"
"Shhh!" she tightened her grip a little more, glancing back out into the street then back at him. "Arnold, I am behaving like a pathetic stalker! " She cried in a breathless whisper, "Ever since Harold dropped out of school he's been avoiding everyone, including me! It's driving me crazy that I can't just see him as often as I used to. Right now, I'm at the point where I try to make it over to this neighborhood daily to at least see him in the windows of that disgusting butcher's shop. I make up excuses to pick up meat orders so I can hear his voice, whether he is handing the order to me, personally, or calling out to Mr. Green from the back. I find his crooked tooth adorable, his cluelessness endearing, and I barely even mind the fact that he's pudgy! What about any of this that I'm saying makes sense, Arnold?"
Arnold reached up, taking hold of her wrists and trying to pull her hands off his shoulders but he tried to keep calm in the process. "It sounds like you like him, Rhonda."
She paled, "What?"
"That's what it sounds like." Arnold said nodding a little, not wanting to mention that he had heard of this kind of stalking before. "You come all the way over across town just to see him even though the high school is on the other side of the city, you find him attractive, you appreciate who he is and it doesn't bother you what sort of physical state he's in though it seems like it normally would bother you. To me, it just sounds like you like him and you just don't know how to handle that emotion."
This wasn't happening. Was Arnold really going to stand there and tell Rhonda Wellington Lloyd, the most popular and—not to mention—most stylish girl in the whole school since she was four that she liked Harold Berman. The next thing he was going to tell her was that she and Curly Gamelthorp were soul mates and should totally hook up sooner than later, right? Rhonda's face grew pale as she released Arnold after his gentle tugging and leaned against the wall, staring at her shoes. She let her purse slide off her shoulder, catching the strap in her hand. Even though she had been denying it, the whole thing seemed to make sense in the end. She actually knew that this was the reason. She did adore Harold. She had since grade school, though it never came out in the open. Her crush only seemed to grow more unstable when he quit school.
"You should talk to him."
Rhonda gasped, stepping away from Arnold, "Talk to him? Arnold, I haven't had a single conversation with him not related to how much a lump of meat is since who knows when! What can I talk about because I'm sure he won't want to hear about Armani's fall line?"
"Okay, don't talk to him now," Arnold said, holding up his hands as if to defend himself from her lunacy, "But you should try, even if it's just asking how he's been…it's something we both need to try."
Rhonda raised an eyebrow at his final addition to his words. His voice had grown quieter then as if she was not meant to hear it. Puzzled, Rhonda avoided it and thought about the day she would try to talk to Harold face to face and not with a meat counter between them. It was too distant to envision the words they would exchange but the hope was there. Now that someone had figured out she was falling for the apprentice butcher, she felt a little better about her obsessive stalking. She straightened up, pulling her strap back onto her shoulder and meeting Arnold's eyes confidently even though she still felt shaken.
"Thank you, Arnold." She patted his shoulder a moment before her face lit up with a pre-thought up 'ah-ha' moment. "You know what? I should throw a party for you."
Arnold now seemed to be a little embarrassed now as he shook his head. "A party for me? No, no…I just now got back into town and I'm still trying to meet up with everyone."
"Then a party is just what you need! I'll invite everyone we used to hang out with to it so that you can meet all of your old acquaintances and maybe before your visit is over we can introduce you to some new ones. It's settled, I'll work on making up the invitations tonight when I get home." Rhonda smiled, passing Arnold and walking out onto the sidewalk. "I'll call your house when I get everything settled!"
Turning her back on a speechless Arnold, Rhonda glanced discretely over at the butcher shop, her eyes lingering on a shadow behind the glass before she strode away. A small smile settled on her lips, knowing she had managed to let out her secret without losing her status at the same time. Arnold was no tattle-tale. Besides, his presence in town was limited, who could he tell?
"Popular today, aren't you, Shortman?"
"What?" Arnold glanced up from the book he had settled in his lap.
Phil held up the phone, "Some girl is calling you, didn't ask for her name but she's asking for you. You don't waste any time, do you?"
"Must be Rhonda," he sighed, setting the book aside and rising from the couch. He took the phone from his grandfather, ignoring the wink the old man gave him. The attempt to not notice the wink failed though the moment Phil left the room for Arnold's cheeks soon felt warmer than before as he put the phone to his ear. "Hello?"
"Hey, football head, how's it going?"
Arnold jumped, his eyes widening as he clung to the receiver, "Helga?"
Author's Drabble:
So, yeah...the Helga monologues were never my forte. To me when I was a kid, I always thought Helga's monologues were whatever mush popped up into her head at the time. They kind of made me embarrased as a kid as well. xD So I tried, please don't hate me if people seem out of character here. I've not written for them for days and I lost most of my muse during that time.
PLEASE REVIEW!
