Chapter 10!

After only two people voting...come on now. I'm gonna give you guys another shot at voting for next song selection. But different songs this time! OH GOD DIFFERENT it won't go up for another three weeks. Voting will be in a poll starting tonight and going up until the release of Chapter 12. So you have plenty of time to vote. SO DO IT. Please and thanks. :D

As for the songs in the other voting thing...I will still do those songs, I promise! Actually, I decided that La La by the Cab is next week, cause one reviewer has been asking since forever and it's about time I obliged, right? Chapter 11 is La La by the Cab featuring Rhonda and Curly. YES SIR. And sorry Rhonda fans, she's gonna be a complete asshole again. I can't guarantee I will right Rhonda as the good guy anytime soon. NO REGRETS.

Chapter 12 will be for all my Sid fans in the audiences. Chapter 12 is Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Buble. A Sid centered Songs of Hillwood? SAY IT AIN'T SO. Well, yes. I do love Sid a lot. I just haven't looked at anyone else in the gang as someone for him. BUT...it will tie heavily into my new story! Considering I do actually give Sid some loving in that story. New stories are so much fun.

Enough about the future. TO THE PRESENT I SAY.

Chapter 10 is here! Enjoy it!

I heard he sang a good song

I heard he had style

And so I came to see him and listen for a while

"Pheebs, you really want me to go to one of these poetry slams?"

"Of course, you're so talented at poetry."

"Yea, but my poems are kinda sad. I guess I don't wanna depress the audience."

"Sometimes sad poems are the best kind of poems. Just give it a shot."

Helga was nervous to say the least. It was her first time in New York, as she was visiting Phoebe on a long weekend. After Phoebe had gotten into NYU and Helga had gotten into Bennington College like her sister had, Helga hadn't done much on the weekends besides writing stories and poems in her room. Her roommates had tried to convince her to come out with them, but Helga always refused. She wasn't much of a partying person or a very emotional person, only really to Phoebe.

She skimmed the edges of her tattered pink notebook and wondered if she was actually going to open herself up to complete strangers. She needed something to drink first, she concluded.

"Hey Helga, there is this boy that I think you'll like. He's a local musician here and plays here."

"Isn't it supposed to be a poetry slam though, not a musical styles of some kid slam."

"Well it isn't just the slams, they are only on Saturdays. I performed here once. The rush of the crowd is rather exhilarating."

Phoebe reading poetry? And she had thought she knew her best friend.

"Phoebe, you hate writing poetry and writing in general. What's with this whole poetry thing?"

Phoebe blushed a wild shade of pink before walking up to the door of the local coffee place on campus called the Cocoa Hut.

"It's actually because of the barista."

Helga turned to look in the window at the rather attractive brown haired boy working behind the counter. She grinned.

"Good eye, Pheebs. He is pretty cute."

"His name is Tom. We talk almost every day."

"You're here every day?" Helga was slightly concerned.

"Oh no! He's in one of my classes. So we see each other a lot."

"So he's one of those smart types too."

"He's very smart. And adorable. And sweet. And…"

"I get it. He's perfect. Maybe we should go in and say hi."

Phoebe pulled open the door with a grin as the brown haired boy named Tom waved at her. She blushed again and walked over to the counter.

"I guess I'm alone here."

Helga sat at one of the tables beside the window in the corner of the shop while a girl was playing her guitar and singing a song into the microphone. She sighed and turned her head down to the table and then back out the window to watch the people walking by. She had to admit that New York was an incredibly beautiful and lively place, but maybe not the place for her right now. She watched Phoebe at the counter as Tom leaned over the counter with a huge grin on his face while Phoebe blushed and giggled her way through the conversation. It was about time Phoebe found her Mr. Right, now if only she could find hers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a warm Cocoa Hut welcome to Arnold!"

And there he was this young boy

A stranger to my eyes

Helga turned her head towards the stage as a cornflower yellow haired boy with a guitar took the stage and sat on the stool. He smiled quickly at the audience and Helga felt herself relax in her seat. As the music started to play, Helga felt her heart beat slowly, almost to the rhythm that the guitar was playing. He looked up from his hands towards the audience before he focused on Helga and quickly shot another grin before looking back down at his fingers for the notes. She felt her face growing red quickly as she looked down at the table. She remembered his eyes. Green, not a simple green, a complex and rather overwhelming shade of green that seemed to be keeping Helga of her game. She scrambled to the book in her lap and flipped through the pages, attempting not to get back into eye contact with the beautiful boy in front of her. She only looked up when she heard his voice echoing throughout the coffee house.

Strumming my pain with his fingers

Singing my life with his words

Killing me softly with his song

His voice was incredibly haunting, like a beckoning, a question. Directed towards her? It seemed to be almost speaking to her. She couldn't keep her eyes off of him as he continued to strum each note that her heart seemed to beating, singing about a lost love and all the pain that seemed to go with it. It was all too familiar. She felt like she needed to run, needed to scream. Was he singing it to her? To remind her of all the pain she had been through? He couldn't. They didn't even know each other.

Killing me softly with his song

All that mattered is that it was literally killing her to listen to his voice singing the pains of her heart.

I felt all flushed with fever

Embarrassed by the crowd

I felt he found my letters

And read each one out loud

There was a lot that happened in her life. Mostly dealing with her family. Her less-than-perfect parents who continued to either yell and scream at her or ignore her existence completely. Her perfect sister that seemed to be hogging all the limelight and attention from their parents and she didn't care, she relished in the moments. Helga knew that the only person that she had in her life that she fully trusted was Phoebe. Though now, after several months of not having Phoebe by her side, she was slowly starting to lose their friendship. She stared back at the couple back at the coffee counter as they both seemed to be intensely staring at the stage with smiles on their faces. Phoebe turned to meet her gaze and grinned at her, mouthing the words "That's the kid I was telling you about. Isn't he great?"

Yea, so great. Almost too great. A little bit scary about how his song seemed to be accurately terrorizing Helga.

The song was too much like the letters that she would write to herself on days where she couldn't handle the world around her. The letters from her past that filled a shoebox in the back of her closet back home. It was like this mysterious boy was flipping through the letters and singing whatever she had carefully sprawled across the lined pages.

I prayed that he would finish

But he just kept right on

It was like she was reliving one of her worst nightmares. A beautifully tuned nightmare. And this stranger was directing the entire thing. She wasn't sure whether or not to hate him or question how he could pick a song that could crush her sprits and make her re-imagine her worst moments over and over again. This song needed to end before she letting everything completely go and start sobbing uncontrollably.

When the song finally ended, she watched the audience attempting not to scream and rave for the boy with the beautiful voice. They simply clapped politely as they could were a few murmurs: not something he'd usually sing, this song was so sad, he usually sings such happy love songs, is he okay? It was enough to spark an interest in her. Helga kept herself composed and walked up to him at the end of the night as he started to pack up his guitar and his music.

"Um…hi."

He turned around and smiled.

"Hi. I remember you. The cute blonde girl from the crowd earlier."

She felt her face flush.

"I guess."

"Well you know my name. Well part of it. I'm Arnold. Arnold Shortman."

"Helga. Helga Pataki."

"Well, Helga Pataki, do you go to NYU? I've never seen you around here."

"I go to Bennington. I'm visiting a friend."

"I hope your friend doesn't mind if I steal you for a little bit then."

"Why did you pick that song? People were saying that's not one of the ones you usually sing."

His smile turned into a frown.

"You know, I do sing happier songs. But that's cause I look into someone in the audiences eyes. Always the happy ones. People like happy music. But something drew you to me, Pataki. Something that made me sing that song. I had no idea you were that sad."

She cringed.

"I've dealt with a lot."

"Your eyes tell it all."

"You can tell all that pain with just a look in my eyes."

"Not usually. You're just very expressive."

Helga shuffled her feet.

"Not that that's a bad thing! I'm sorry, you're just someone that intrigues me. You are something different from all these people in here. You're something real and beautiful."

"You still want to steal me for a bit." She whispered.

He grinned and took her hand.

"It will be a lot longer than a little bit, Helga Pataki. I intend to figure out what's going on in that head of ours."

"You're gonna be around for a while then."

"Perfect. Just what I wanted."

Well that was cute, right? Maybe?

Thanks for reading! 3

Now here's your song choices!

Two is Better than One by Boys Like Girls and Taylor Swift

Paralyzer by Finger Eleven

Save the Last Dance for Me by Michael Buble

I'll Meet You There by Owl City

Heartless by Kanye West