Author's Note:
I'm sorry about my long absence from this fan fiction.
I did warn everyone in the beginning that this would progress with reviews and whenever inspiration struck me.
After so long I was re-reading this story and decided to post the last chapter I had worked on since drifting away from this project.
Hopefully someone will find this short chapter amusing and maybe I can move on to Arnold and Helga's official reunion...hopefully.
Arnold
"Boy, you're a sharp one." Helga's sarcasm dripped through the phone, "Yes, it's me."
"How…How have you been?" Arnold asked, leaning against the wall; pressing his shoulder into the wallpaper. The pressure seemed to be a sort of guarantee that he was actually awake and talking to Helga for the first time in years. Yes, he was , but she was making it sound as if they had never stopped, something he was grateful for, if not a little disappointed since he half-expected an awkward conversation with her.
"Everything's just peaches and cream over here, football head. Got a job, keeping up with school, trying not to go crazy whenever Olga tries to drag me to one of her plays…nothing to complain too much about. What about you? Are ya swinging from trees and talking to the local wildlife yet?"
"I don't swing through trees, Helga." He stated flatly, feeling as if someone had assumed this before.
"You know I'm just messing with you. But listen up, okay? Tonight I'm coming by your house so we can play catch up like you've been doing with everyone else. You can do that, can't you?"
Arnold rotated until he had his back against the wall. "Yeah, that'd be great, Helga…but can I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"If you wanted to talk tonight, why didn't you just say something when I was at the school this morning?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a minute and Arnold's hand tightened a little on the grip when he heard a soft thud on the other end of the line. He waited a little longer, wondering if he should see if she was even on the line anymore when he heard Helga's hurried voice that was a note higher than it had been before. "Oh, you were here this morning? Must've not seen you, I was in a hurry. No offense, Arnold, but I've got business to do other than stand around gabbing in the hallways on weekday mornings. When Phoebe told me you were here I thought I'd give you a call since I missed spotting you this morning."
"I see," Arnold doubted what she said, she had seen him this morning. They had made direct eye contact when she had looked up at him and her face had appeared stricken before she had turned away. "Then, how did you know I have already talked to everyone else?"
A loud clatter made Arnold jump, he stared ahead, unable to figure out what the sound was this time when he heard a few grumbled words and fumbling hands. Helga returned with rushed words that made Arnold smile when he found out that he had caught her on her lie. "I've got stuff to do, I'll see you later, football head." With that he heard the click of her hanging up and the dial tone that proved she had cut off their conversation. Smiling to himself, Arnold hung up the phone, his fingers lingering on the handset.
"See you."
Helga
Helga stared straight ahead, her hand releasing the cell phone and letting it drop to the trophy room floorboards. The distinct clatter shook her out of her shock and she reached for the phone but her foot kicked it across the flooring. Cursing to herself, she dove for the phone and fumbled to get her hands back on it. Holding it up to her ear she scrambled her brain for something to say to him. Swallowing her nerved, she propped herself up on her elbows, leaning her mouth towards the speaker.
"I've got stuff to do, I'll see you later, football head." She snapped, pressing the power button until the unit shut off. Dropping it back to the paneling, Helga flopped back down face-first onto the floor while heavy footsteps shuffled past the doorway. She lifted her head, twisting it slightly to see Big Bob staring at her with his brow arched. She offered a smile, unable to explain why she was lying on the floor. He backed off without a word but his expression held all sorts of confusion on it.
With Big Bob gone, Helga flopped over onto her back, staring at the ceiling where she wouldn't have to eye the Olga pictures plaguing the walls. So, Arnold knew she was lying now. Back in the day it used to be so easy to lie to him. He would simply pass it off and say "Whatever you say, Helga" before leaving her to enjoy getting away with another nearly exposed secret. But that was changing. It changed when she confessed to him, now he knew everything about her adoration and how she tried to cover things up. Arnold knew her so well that she felt it would be impossible to see him tonight and not make it painfully obvious she still cared. Cared was an understatement, she was still obsessed!
"What was I thinking?" she groaned, "Inviting myself over to Arnold's house all of sudden…do I want to embarrass myself?"
Slapping her palm against her face, she dragged it down until she practically felt her mouth being pushed out of place. Releasing and letting her face reposition itself, Helga grabbed the phone and abandoned the living room; climbing the stairs to her bedroom in view of a more private place to freak out. Shutting the door behind her, she leaned against it, lowering her eyes to the floor and weighing the cell phone in her hand, bouncing it up and down to mimic her mentally weighing out the pros and cons of going to see Arnold tonight.
"Okay Helga, let's look at the facts. Some good, strong, hard facts." Helga stated aloud to herself, striding away from her bedroom door only to turn around and walk back the way she came. It turned into pacing after two repeats of this same motion. "Fact one, you're still absolutely gaga over the guy and of course you want to see him again. Fact two, it's been four years since you've had a decent conversation and a friendship with Arnold is a better boat than no ship at all, right?" Helga turned around for another repetition around the floor. "On the other hand, Fact Three is that I'm a basket case and I'll most-likely make a fool out of myself. And Fact Four is that I consider myself a master of hiding my deepest and darkest secrets ridiculously well."
Clapping her hands on either side of her head in frustration, Helga immediately flinched in pain when she realized she was still holding her cell phone and she had slammed the device into her temple without thinking. Rubbing the sore spot, Helga tossed the phone onto her bed, tugging on her pigtails and walking in a circle just to vent the pain. Stopping herself, she sat down on the edge of her mattress and rest her hands on her thighs. "The fact is, Helga G. Pataki, you can handle this. And you will. Nothing good will come out of falling over him blubbering and asking him to take you back now, will it?"
Helga reached over and picked up her ball cap from the end of her nightstand. Sighing, she pulled it on securely in place. She stood up and braced her hands on her hips; satisfied that maybe she could do this after all but only after realizing something. "One of these days, I've gotta stop talking to myself."
Author's Note:
Thank you for reading.
Hope you enjoyed it.
