HAFanForever: A part in this chapter is based on an episode of I Love Lucy. I have drawn up ideas from real-life events or episodes of my favorites TV shows.
NintendoGal55: I ain't got much to say...just enjoy! :)
Enjoy this chapter and remember the disclaimer.
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Helga was wandering the empty, lonely halls of P.S. 118, in bit of a sour mood. Anyone who looked at her on a daily basis would think she was in a bad mood, being a bully and all. But no, today she really was in a sour, foul mood.
It all just came to a head when she was yelling for Miriam to wake up this morning and ask if she'd made her lunch, which, of course, her mother did not. This resulted in Big Bob yelling at her to pipe down so he could watch his store's new commercial, which he had already seen about five times now. Helga, of course, yelled back, in no mood to deal with this, and he'd gotten mad enough as they argued and ordered her to leave the house.
Not like she had a choice, since she had school today. But right now, she didn't feel like sitting in class and learning about things she either already knew or didn't need to know. She didn't feel like being around anyone. She just wanted to wander the empty halls alone for a while, maybe go sit in a bathroom stall and wait until recess.
Coming to a stop, Helga heard footsteps somewhere off behind her. Great, now what? Who was out of class? Who was going to see her in the hall and either question why SHE wasn't in class, or recoil away from her in terror, or just give her a dirty look and walk past her?
She stood there, waiting for the person to just go. But the footsteps came closer, closer.
Great, someone was going to question her.
But then all of a sudden, the footsteps stopped abruptly and she heard someone leap from the floor, and then a pair of teal blue arms came around her from behind, and a football-shaped head snuggled against hers.
Helga's scowl immediately melted in a half-lidded, lovesick smile as she realized who was hugging her. Her mood lifted, and she forgot why she was even mad. Her beloved Arnold always had a way to make her feel better on any given day. She patted his hand, grateful for his presence.
"Hey Helga." Arnold said sweetly, still holding (and hanging) on to her as he smiled widely. "I noticed you weren't in class and I saw you in the hall, you looked pretty upset. So I decided to cheer you up a bit."
Needless to say, she was more than cheered up. Clasping his hand in her own, Helga replied, "Being hugged, kissed, or touched by you in anyway always cheers me up, football head!"
Arnold laughed as he snuggled his cheek into Helga's and continued holding onto her, like he never wanted to let go. Then he kissed her on the cheek, hoping that would help even more. Helga swooned lovingly, and was a little disappointed when Arnold finally let go and jumped down off her back.
Coming around to the front and facing her, Arnold gave a little smile. "Let me guess: you were upset because your mom didn't make your lunch again and your dad was watching a new commercial for his store and paid no attention to you, either."
Helga nodded sadly. "You're right on the money, Arnoldo."
Arnold took one of Helga's hands in his own, then began stroking the side of her face with his other hand, hoping to keep making her feel better.
"Don't worry, Helga. As long as you have me as your boyfriend, you can tell me anything, and I'll always be here for you."
Helga smiled again and put one of her hands on Arnold's (the one that was touching her cheek) and the other on his face as she leaned in and kissed him, all while he kept his hands on her.
When they pulled apart, they looked at each other lovingly, not really wanting to move from their current spot.
"Well, we should get to class now, before we get in trouble." Arnold finally spoke, breaking the moment of silence. "I'm sure you thought about not going to class earlier, but just remember: think about me in the class and you'll feel better."
"Okay, Arnold."
As they pulled out of their embrace, Arnold took Helga's hand, the one he was holding earlier, and they walked to the classroom together.
Once they got to the door, however, they pulled their hands apart, as they didn't want some of their classmates to think that they were walking to class together and have teasing at them start the moment they walked into the room.
Arnold opened the door, and Helga soon followed him, secretly beaming with delight at what happened in the past few minutes, considering how bad the morning started at home.
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Since Arnold had unexpectedly surprised her with that hug in the hallway, Helga had been feeling better for the rest of the morning. Now that she was Arnold's girlfriend and not just his romantic stalker, she felt happier than she had in a long time, even though her home life was still about as bad as it usually was.
It was lunch time, and although Helga still had no lunch or even money to buy food, Arnold came to her rescue once again and offered to buy her some lunch. Helga felt bad that Arnold would often share his food with her or buy her something, but he told not to feel that way. He said that since she was his girlfriend, he just wanted her to be happy, and seeing her happy made him happy, so that made Helga feel even happier as well.
At this moment, they were in the lunch line picking the foods they wanted to eat. As usual, they came across the very last tapioca pudding at the end of the line.
Arnold reached for the pudding at the same time he saw Helga reach for it, then they both pulled their arms back and laughed nervously.
"Go ahead and take it, football head. I know how much you love that kind of pudding." Helga offered her hand to it.
"No, you go ahead and take it, Helga." Arnold smiled and gestured in return. "You didn't have a lunch made this morning, so I just want you take the foods you really love for lunch, and I'm paying for it."
Helga only smiled back. "Oh Arnold, you're such a gentleman."
Arnold grinned embarrassedly. "Yeah, I know."
"You put all romantic gentlemen to shame." Helga winked before they moved on to go find a table.
They finally came to an empty table and sat down. Remembering that he had them with him to show her, Arnold pulled the now-developed pictures they took at the zoo out of his pocket. Sticking them in Helga's direction, he said, "Hey, I almost forgot. Last night, I picked up the pictures we took at the zoo."
Helga immediately grabbed them, which surprised Arnold, who continued holding onto them. "Oh, I was hoping we would get them developed soon! Let me see them!"
"Hey, hold on, I haven't looked at them, either!"
"Well, I don't want you to see them before I do!" She said as she tried to pull them out of his hand.
Arnold chuckled as he tried to keep his grip on the pictures before Helga could tug them out of his hand. "Well, Helga, then we'll look at them together!"
Defeated, Helga let go of the pictures. "Oh, all right." As Arnold started taking the pictures out of the envelope, she commented excitedly, "Man, I can hardly wait to see what they look like after all we went through taking them."
"What do you mean, we went through?" Arnold frowned in a puzzled manner. "I took most if not all of the pictures of the lions, cubs and adults."
"Well yeah, but I was the one who had to keep petting Luke so he would stay calm enough for some good pictures." The moment she saw it, Helga snatched the first picture out of Arnold's hand before he could take a good look. She frowned at it. "Hey, what happened to this picture? It looks like there are two shots of Luke composed in one."
Taking a glance at it, Arnold shrugged embarrassedly. "Oh well, it's a double exposure, I guess. Must have messed it up during the development." He pointed at the second picture. "Well look, there's only one of him in that shot."
Helga frowned again as she took a closer look at the next picture. "Yeah, but that's so blurry!"
Sure enough, this shot was another bad one because it was out of focus. Helga scoffed as she handed the picture to Arnold. "You take wonderful x-rays, football head."
Arnold just rolled his eyes at Helga's remark and said sarcastically, "Hey, sorry, I guess sometimes I forgot to make sure the camera was in focus, and sometimes animals move a lot so it's hard to get a good picture."
Suddenly Helga's face brightened as she looked at the next picture. "Awwww, look!"
This one was much better than the first two, as it showed Luke on his back waving his paws in the air playfully.
Arnold smiled widely and took the picture from Helga. "Isn't that great? Hey, I am a good photographer after all!"
"Oh, I'll say you are! Awww, look, here's another terrific one!" She showed Arnold the picture that included Luke and his two siblings.
"That's so adorable! Look at the spot patterns they have on their backs. They're all different; that's probably how they can tell them apart, especially the boys."
"Yeah probably." Helga said. As they finished looking through the pictures, with the majority of them having turned out well, Helga came to one final picture - which didn't include any of the lions. She frowned and said, "Hey Arnold, where did this picture come from?"
Arnold gaped at it and started to blush. It was a picture of him and Helga kissing. He suddenly remembered a moment back at the zoo when he spoke to Helga privately and they kissed. He realized he didn't have his camera on him at that moment, so Larry must have had it and secretly took a picture of them when they were in their…moment.
He laughed uneasily. "Uh, I…well, I guess Larry still had my camera before we left the lion's house and he secretly took that picture of us when we weren't looking." He laughed again. "Sorry…"
Helga shrugged. "Oh well, I guess it's no biggie…" She smiled deviously as she finished, "As long as I can keep it."
"Fine. But I like it, too, so I'll make a copy."
"Fair deal." Helga started gathering the pictures and put them back in the envelope. Then she said, "You know, Arnold, looking at these pictures of baby lions makes me think of something."
"What's that?"
"Well, have you ever noticed how parents often fuss over their new babies and when they take pictures of them, they always want to take out the pictures and inflict them on others, insisting they look at them? Don't you think that's boring?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, I guess it's different if they're baby pictures of a family member or close friend. But strangers or people you don't like…that's different."
"Since we're on the subject, can I ask you to take a vow with me?"
Arnold crossed his arms. "What kind of vow?"
"Just that if there's a chance that we ever marry and have a child someday, that we won't inflict his or her pictures on other people."
Arnold smiled a little. Since she loved him like she did, he had a strong hunch that Helga would have had dreams of the two of them getting married and having children someday, so he was not very surprised that she brought up this subject. Since it seemed mutual, he began to have an even warmer feeling at the idea of it happening in their future. Smiling wider, he stuck his hand out for her to shake. "Okay, it's a vow."
Helga stuck out her own hand and shook his. "Good." Then she smiled.
Realizing they barely touched their lunches since they looked at the pictures, Arnold and Helga started eating quickly before lunchtime was over, especially Helga, since she hardly had any breakfast.
Before they were finished, Arnold turned to Helga. "Um, Helga, are you doing anything tonight?"
She looked over at him. "Why do you ask, football head?"
"Uh, because I wondered if you wanted to see a movie with me…or at least do something with me."
Helga sadly smiled. "Arnold, I would love to, believe me, and we being together has made me happier than I've ever felt in my life…"
"But…"
"But…the truth is, I'm scared."
Arnold was a little puzzled. "What scares you, Helga?'
"Just the fact that we're together now scares me because of my reputation, even if I am shedding my defenses some. A lot of the kids in our class have already suspected something going on between us, and I'm really worried about being teased if they discovered the truth. I remember in preschool, the moment I showed signs of liking you, Rhonda, Sid, Stinky, and Harold were the ones who teased me the most. And the four of them are bound to tease me again, especially Princess, who would definitely spread hot gossip about our relationship. And I just don't know how to handle teasing. I became a bully so that people would fear me and not ever dare to tease me. If those four ever discovered how nice I really am, they might think I'm a pushover and take advantage of me. I always told myself that Helga G. Pataki takes lip fro no one! I guess the other part is that I don't want them to tease you. They wouldn't accept our relationship; they think we're just polar opposites who aren't meant to be. They just don't see me the way you did and still do. I bet Princess would even think you match up better with Lila!"
Saying that last word made Helga want to cry. Arnold put his hand on her shoulder and rubbed it gently. "Well Helga, I can understand why you feel this way, especially with the fear of being teased. And while those kids are my friends, I do think they can be jerks sometimes. They're not my best friends, not the way Gerald is my friend. Never mind about Lila, I'm well over her now, and I know well enough that she would accept our relationship. Phoebe does since she's your best friend and Gerald's learned to accept it, too. But Helga, this is all why I see that you need me. You should know that it's not important what the others think, just what you and I think. And since we love each other, we shouldn't let the others opinions' stop us from spending time together."
Helga's face brightened and smiled a little. "Arnold, you truly are a Saint. How do you know the best advice to offer and what to say to make me feel better about us?"
Arnold just shrugged. "Just natural, I suppose. Now how about that movie? What do you say?"
Helga brought her hand to her chin and scratched it thoughtfully, pretending to think, then she smirked lightly. "Mmm…Okay. And because of your heartfelt speech, hair boy, I'll buy the tickets this time, but you buy the snacks."
"You got it, Helga." Arnold smiled. "So why I don't I meet you in the theater at 7:00?"
"Sure, whatever floats your boat, football head." Helga laughed.
At that moment, the bell rang and everyone started to get up and head out the doors for recess. Arnold and Helga were the last people in there after everybody left, and they smiled at each other and joined hands before walking out the doors together.