Disclaimer: Hey Arnold (tragically) is not in my possession. I can only claim this story about them.

"Arnold, what are you doing?" Gerald questioned one eyebrow raised.

"I'm asking Helga to help me find the person who is writing me all of these letters."

Gerald looked at Arnold in confusion. "Why?"

"Because Gerald she is the best person for the job. Have you forgotten who was able to help us translate all of those letters about my parents in no time at all? Well maybe she can use her expertise to help me out on these letters as well." Arnold calmly explained.

Gerald was silent. He couldn't deny that Arnold had a very good point. If anyone could help to figure out the letters it would be Helga.

"Okay, so what's your plan?" Gerald finally asked.

"Well I don't really know just yet. Helga said no when I asked her. In fact she looked terrified but I'm going to ask her again."

"What if she still says no?"

"I'll get her to say yes."

"And how will you get her to say yes?"

Arnold's shoulders slumped as he replied, "I have no idea."

*******

Helga knew that she and Phoebe couldn't hid in the bathroom all day but she sure as heck wanted to try! Phoebe was looking at her awaiting the signal for what they would do next. Helga sighed.

"Come on Pheebs." Helga got off the counter and made her way to the door.

"What are we going to do?" Phoebe asked ready for Helga's plan as a best friend should be. Helga looked over her shoulder at Phoebe as she exited the bathroom.

"Nothing."

The shock wearing off, Phoebe gathered her things and quickly stumbled after Helga.

"Nothing? We're not going to do anything? Nothing?" Phoebe squeaked. Helga turned to her friend.

"No. If Arnold ask me again to help him I'm just going to tell him 'no'."

"But what if he keeps on asking?"

"Then I'll just have to avoid him."

"But Helga, won't he get suspicious?"

Helga paused. "Maybe. But by then I would have come up with a better plan. I hope."

*******

Arnold spotted Helga and Phoebe come out of the bathroom before Gerald and began making his way over to them.

"So Helga have you thought about it, will you help me?"

Helga looked at Phoebe and Phoebe just nodded her head before turning to Gerald.

"Come on Gerald let's go secure a table in the cafeteria while we wait for Arnold and Helga." She didn't wait for his response before she began dragging him down the hall.

"But wait, I want to hear what Helga's gonna say." You could hear Gerald complain. Phoebe just yanked him all the harder into the cafeteria.

"Ouch Honey! Ease up!" Gerald whined as the doors of the cafeteria closed behind them. Finally Helga turned back to Arnold who was still staring at her, hopeful. Well little did he know she was about to dash them.

"No Arnold. I won't help you." she stated calmly. He looked at her shocked. He was sure she was going to agree.

"B-but why?" He stuttered.

"Because I just don't want to foot-ball head." Helga turned and started for the cafeteria.

Arnold just stood there staring after her. What was going on with her? Why wouldn't she help him? Arnold didn't ask for help often. The only time he really asked Helga for help was when he was desperate to figure out the tons of letters concerning his parents and she had not denied him help then. In fact now that they were friends she offered to help him even forced help on him though he said he told her it wasn't necessary. Now she was refusing to help him when he really needed it. Something wasn't right here. Something wasn't adding up. Helga was acting far to sensitive on the subject. Almost as if it affected her personally. With these thought hanging heavily in his mind, Arnold walked slowly toward the cafeteria.

Helga was already seated at a table next to Phoebe behaving normally as if she had not just been acting cryptic just minutes before. He walked up to Gerald who at the food line, presumably getting his second helping, to retrieve his own tray. As he approached Gerald looked over his shoulder at him.

"Hey man what took you so long. These sandwiches are bangin'. They finally have something good. I mean I 'm here for seconds!"

"Gerald you always come for seconds."

"Yeah but I don't do it with a smile on my face now do I."

Arnold just shook his head. Then Gerald recognized the somber look on his best friends face.

"What's happenin' Arnold?" He asked concerned.

"Helga's hiding something from me. I think that she knows the person that has been sending me the letters."

"What?! She does? Did she tell you who?" Gerald fired question after question at Arnold.

"No she didn't tell me anything. In fact she refused to help me, that's what makes me suspicious."

"So how does that tell you that she's hiding something?"

"Because it's not so much that she refused as it is how she refused."

"Huh?" Gerald let his confusion show.

"Listen Gerald. She couldn't give me a good reason why she wouldn't help me, she became far too sensitive about the issue like it personally involved her and most of all she stuttered and I think you and I both know that Helga doesn't stutter. The only time she does is when she's trying to deny that she did something nice for someone else or trying to cover her feelings about something which leads me to believe that she knows something." Arnold explained.

"So what are you going to do?"

Arnold stared at his feet. "I do have an idea as to what I could do but I don't think that it's right."

"Well," Gerald said impatiently after Arnold was silent for a full minute. "What is it?"

Arnold rubbed the back of his neck "I know that Helga has small soft spot for me and, well I was going to sort of use that as an incentive to get her to share with me what she knows."

"Let me get this straight. You know that Helga may like you a little bit and you're going to use her feelings as a way to get what you want?" Gerald sniffed. "My little boy is growing up."

"Stop it Gerald. I'm probably not even going to do it. I feel sick already just thinking about it."

"Okay but when you get kidnapped in the middle of the night by some hairy, big-nosed, hunched back, moley, bad breath woman who ships you to her pig sty in the far away land of Bangladesh, where she hides you in her basement with all her pet rats until it's time for the wedding ceremony and then on to the rest of your life tossing pig slop, don't say I didn't tell you so. Or you could turn up the charm with Helga and nail this creep."

Arnold's expression went from one of horror at the very descriptive picture Gerald had painted in his mind to a small smile that swept across his lips at Gerald's last sentence.

"Gerald." Arnold chuckled.

"Yeah?"

"I think that Helga and I are going to be spending a lot of time together."

It was Gerald's turn to smile. "That's my boy."

*******

Helga felt like a criminal on the run. And if the situation served correctly she kind of was. She was avoiding Arnold as best she could in this three story wasteland called school, and had been since lunch. Arnold would just not let it drop. All through lunch he had asked her the same questions 'will you help me find out who it is Helga? Will you help me please?' so many times that it had driven her to scream yes in his face just to get him to shut up only to realize seconds later what she had just done. Now she was hiding from Arnold like a trapped rat and she hated it.

This was ridiculous. She was Helga G. Pataki and wasn't scared of anybody. Not even Arnold. She ought to go out there right now and give him a piece of her mind. She put her hand on the door of the cabinet she was cowering in.

"Helga. Helga are you in here?" Arnold called. Helga quickly removed her hand and sat very still until she heard Arnold leave moments later.

She had told Arnold that she hadn't meant to say yes but he wouldn't let her back out of her word. Didn't he know what was at stake? Didn't he know that if he found out it was her that nothing would be the same. That it would ruin her, kill her. This wasn't like the FTI incident. She wouldn't be able to blame all on 'the heat of the moment'. These letters were premeditated, deliberately delivered and had been going on for months now.

She could say that it was all one big joke and that she just thought it would be funny to freak him out, but that could destroy their new friendship all because Helga thought if 'funny' to play with his emotions for months. But she couldn't let Arnold find out it was her, she just couldn't. There had to be someway out of this or at least someway to turn this in her favor. But how? She knew that she and Arnold would probably be spending a lot of time together making it all the harder to keep this her secret with him so close.

She could always pound his head in, but she had never hit Arnold and she was in remission from fighting right now. Was there any bright spot in all of this? Under different circumstances she would have loved to be spending all of this extra time with Arnold but it wasn't.

Ugh! Apparently she wasn't going to come up with a plan in here, with her legs all cramped up and losing oxygen fast, she needed to get home and really think this through and she would...as soon as she found a way to get out of Mr. Simmons storage cabinet.

A/N: Don't panic I know Arnold's got a little edge to him in this chapter but I promise he's still the Arnold that we all know all love. Sorry it took so long to update. Life gets in the way sometime. Hope it was worth it. Jadeykins and Shahrezad1 you guys rock! And to those who have reviewed, new and old, thank you so much. You rock too.