The Pink Ribbon that He Untied
a Hey Arnold fanfic by Pyrex Shards
A/N: I apologize in advance for the short length of this chapter.
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It was four in the afternoon by the time Arnold found Helga. He walked into the park, towards the large pond in the park's heart, and he could see Helga standing on top of the pedestrian bridge looking out over the water. He walked to the bridge itself, but stopped, content with just watching Helga's profile and her forlorn but thoughtful expression in her eyes as she looked out over the water. She seemed unaware that she had an audience.
He looked around Tina Park. It was winter, but it wasn't a cold day; just mild enough that a sweater would suffice. The area was pretty vacant. This of course meant, if Arnold's hunch was right as he walked towards Helga, that she wouldn't hide in her clamshell. He could talk with the girl that he wanted to talk with instead of the bully who would scowl at him and storm off.
Arnold stopped beside Helga and stood there with his palms resting on the ledge. He looked at her and smiled. Helga turned to look at him out of the corner of an eye. "Hey football head."
"Hey there." He said simply, then he looked out at the water below, at Helga's reflection, and then to his, then somewhere in the middle, at both of them. Something, a fish perhaps, flinched in the water between their reflections and left a disturbance that rippled out, enveloping both of their reflections before continuing on to the rest of the pond. "Wanna go to Slaussen's?"
Helga looked at his reflection in the water and nodded. Arnold smiled.
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They sat by the wall, not by the window, so that Helga could be on a vigilant lookout for any familiars who might wander in and ruin her chance at eating ice cream with Arnold. As she spooned into the ice cream of her banana split and brought it up to her mouth, her eyes frequently darted towards the entrance at any sudden movement from outside.
Arnold shook his head sadly as he watched Helga watching the entrance like a nervous finch. "It's okay, Helga. People don't usually come in here on Mondays." He slowly mashed more of the sliced strawberry topping down into the ice cream in his sundae. "Monday's too much of a hangover from the weekend."
"Doi! I know that Arnoldo. Why do you think I agreed to come here in the first place." she hissed half-heartedly.
Arnold put his hands out towards Helga in a playful manner, palms forward. "Okay, I'm humbled."
Helga smirked at him and visibly relaxed as she looked into his eyes. She went for another bite of her banana split. "So, what did you want to talk about?"
"I don't know." He sighed as he took a bite of his sundae. "I guess I'm still confused about what happened today. You didn't sit with me on the bus and then you gave me nothing but hell all day. Then you flipped Gerald off and stormed away."
"So you're going to list all my crimes and look for a pattern?"
"We just, we made so much progress on Saturday. I've never seen you that way before Friday night." Arnold watched as Helga's eyes fell to look at her Banana split, he continued. "Well, perhaps a couple of times in the fourth grade, and once in preschool. But I really liked the time we spent together on Saturday. I want to do that again."
Helga looked back up at him and shook her head. "What makes you think we won't. Criminey. Look, I've told you, I just can't do that around everyone else."
"But why?" He let the words draw out of his mouth slowly. Helga stared into his eyes again but looked away from him almost as fast. "Because people will laugh at you? I thought we got through that Friday night... I'm here for you. You're here for me. We're in this together."
Helga shook her head and spooned another bit of her banana split. Arnold frowned as he did the same with his strawberry sundae.
The conversation ended at that moment as the two teenagers sat in silence. Helga continued to steal glances at the entrance to Slaussen's. Arnold watched her mannerisms in silence as she continued eating her banana split. Finally, Helga looked up at Arnold as he scooped up another helping of ice cream along with a nice large strawberry soaked in syrup.
"I'm allergic to strawberries."
Arnold looked up at her. "Huh?"
"I can't have any because I break out into hives and my throat tries to close up on me."
"That's really sad," Arnold stated as he brought the spoon to his mouth and continued eating his sundae. He let the ice cream and the sugar-softened strawberry roll around in his mouth as he looked down at his sundae. He suddenly felt guilty about how good the strawberry tasted mingled with the vanilla ice cream when he swallowed. "Strawberries are good." He finished, then reached for a napkin.
"I can eat the fake stuff. I love faux strawberry milkshakes. I have to be careful and ask first. I'm allergic enough to the real thing that just one little bite... Or if, say, I kissed you right now..." Helga whispered and then smiled at him. "...would set it off."
Arnold believed this was the first time in a long time that Helga had volunteered information about herself out of the blue, he was bound and determined to have her continue. "What do you have to do if you get a reaction?"
Helga sat her spoon down and then reached into her pocket, produced a small pink flower-print case, then sat it on the table. Arnold watched as Helga opened the case and then took out one of two gray cylinders, about the size of a large pen, with a clear plastic end-cap and instructions printed on the side. She handed it to him across the table. Arnold quickly wiped his hands on a napkin and then took it from her. He studied it for a moment, curiously, at the strange instructions on the side. "What is this?"
"It's epinephrine."
"What does it do?"
"If I'm having an allergic reaction, and it looks like I'm having difficulty breathing, or I faint, or have an anxiety attack, you take this, and... You stab that EpiPen into my thigh for ten seconds, then call for an ambulance."
Arnold could feel his upper legs twitch at the thought of stabbing Helga in her thigh with the object in his hands. He suddenly realized that the device itself had a needle in it. He hated needles. He winced as he imagined what it would feel like. "I've heard about that before. It's called, anapha something."
"Anaphylaxis."
"So, if you eat a strawberry, you could go into anaphylactic shock?"
"I could die." Helga nodded, then reached for the pen in Arnold's hand. He was more than happy to give the pen back to her. Helga looked at the pen and rotated it around, between her fingers. "This pen keeps me alive long enough to get help." She then returned the EpiPen to the its case, and shoved the case back into her pocket. "Sometimes I wonder if I should just try it once. Eat a strawberry without having to fear what would happen to me. Then all I'd have to do is use this pen while someone called for an ambulance."
Arnold looked at Helga in alarm. Helga looked at Arnold with a deadpan expression that quickly faded into a warm smile. "I'm just kidding Arnoldo."
Arnold smiled back and reached for his spoon to finish off the rest of his sundae. "Well, that's a relief. I don't know how to dial 911." He winked at her.
Helga looked around, then leaned forward to whisper. "Are you trying to flirt with me football head?"
"Maybe... So, no strawberries at all. How did you find out you were allergic?"
"Do you really wanna know?"
Arnold nodded. Helga leaned back and started slicing up pieces of banana with her spoon. "It was the Fourth of July, at my grandmother's house in South Dakota. I was four. We had strawberry shortcake for desert that night, and the next thing I knew, I woke up in an emergency room at some hospital in Aberdeen. I had broken out into these horrible hives, hyperventilated, and passed out. My parents knew I had problems with strawberries, but I didn't because they always kept them away from me, and the one time they conveniently forgot, it almost killed me."
"That sounds pretty scary."
She closed her eyes and nodded. "It was. We never keep strawberries around the house. We didn't back then either. When I saw them at my grandmother's, sitting on top of that shortcake, they looked so good. My grandmother was a wonderful cook so I just had to try one. I stole one little strawberry off the top of my mom's plate of shortcake. Now I have to carry this horrible needle-thing around."
"I wouldn't call it horrible, Helga. It could save your life." Arnold reached out his hand to place it on top of hers. She immediately pulled her hand away.
Arnold frowned, and then leaned in to whisper. "It's because there's people around, isn't there. Look, Helga, I know this is hard but..."
Helga snorted then folded her Arms. "You don't know the half of it bucko."
"But if you could just tell me why you are afraid."
"That's just it hair boy. I just told you why."
Silence reigned between the pair as Arnold looked at Helga in surprise. Was there something there in between the lines of the story concerning her strawberry allergy? Was that entire thing an anecdote with a hidden meaning? He knew she had an allergy because she wouldn't be carrying epinephrine pens around just to play an elaborate prank on him.
Helga stood up. "You know what, I have homework to do." She said softly. But she only took a few steps towards the entrance before she stopped and then turned around on heel. "Look" she started, Arnold could almost see her fidget, "would you, like to go with me to a movie, Friday night?"
Arnold smiled at the prospect. Helga had asked him instead of the other way around. Was this progress. He had to take it. "Are you suggesting a date with me Miss Pataki?" He teased.
"Can we?"
"Shall I pick you up at your house, or do you want to stop by?"
"I'll meet you at the boarding house."
Arnold nodded as Helga smiled at him sweetly before walking away. Once she was out the door and the little bell attached to the door handle stopped clanking, he looked back at the two empty bowls of ice cream. Helga had just told him something of an explanation behind her behavior, but why did it make him feel so stupid that he didn't understand it right off of the bat? It was so confusing. Was he looking too deep for an answer that was right in front of his face? He sighed, then rested his forehead against the palm of his hand while he spooned around the melted ice cream at the bottom of the dish in front of him.
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Author's Corner
I apologize but I simply ran out of time on this chapter. I couldn't wait until Saturday because tomorrow night I'll be in Alexandria, Louisiana for a family reunion. Thank you all for your thoughtful reviews. I'm really enjoying reading your thoughts about where I am going with this story. Expect a longer chapter 5 next Saturday as a thank you for all these awesome reviews. Keep them coming!