YOU GUYS ARE SO LUCKY.

Two chapters in one day?! (:

I'm not too sure if I will have enough time to update over the weekend, so I wanted to give you guys another chapter to tide you over. (:

And you're in luck, THIS IS AN IMPORTANT CHAPTER YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.

Some pieces are finally starting to fall into place!

I hope you guys enjoy, and I promise I will update as soon as I can. (:

Have a good weekend!

-xo

"Ah, for cryin' out loud . . .who bets it all on the last spin?!" Bob yelled, throwing a crumpled up beeper ad and throwing it at the TV. "This show isn't what it used to be." He reached for the remote to change the channel, when he heard the front door open and then slam. Bob winced, wondering what Helga was angry about this time. He got up from his recliner, walking over to the foyer. "Helga, for cryin' out loud, how many times have I told you not to slam the-Helga, what happened?" Helga's face was soaked with tears, her face red from the obvious attempt to try and stop them.

Bob continued to stare at her, leaning against the doorframe as he waited for her to answer. "Oh, nothing out of the ordinary Bob," Helga began, walking past him and climbed the first few steps of the stairs. "Just wishing I didn't exist, as usual." Bob raised an eyebrow as he started to follow Helga up the steps. "What the heck is that supposed to mean, Helga?" He had a pretty good idea what this is about, and he was getting tired of it. Helga sighed, slouching her shoulders before turning around to face her dad. "Mom didn't tell you? Arnold came back, dad. And I really, really wanna be left alone." Bob sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Couldn't there be at least one time in his life where he wasn't right?

He walked with Helga up the steps to her room. "And? That can't be the only thing he did to make you upset." He asked, a strong irritation growing from within him. "And what gave you that clue, Big Bob?" Helga replied, as they reached the door to her room. Helga swung her door open and tried to slam it behind her, when Bob caught the door just in time. "Helga! What did I just say?! Anyway, are you gonna talk to me about this or what? I'm sick of this kid hurting you." Helga turned around, and looked up at her dad. She took a deep breath, and then sighed. "Well that makes two of us, Bob. Now please, it's been a long . . .long day. I just wanna be alone." She pushed her door closed and Bob moved his hand out of the way, letting her.

He sighed loudly, deciding to leave Helga alone as he walked over to his bedroom. This kid is really starting to get on my freakin' nerves, Bob thought as he took a ring of keys out of his pockets. He found the little silver key that opened the drawer to his bedside table, and unlocked it. He rummaged his hands around old beepers, bank statements, old letters from Olga and pictures he had forgotten about, until he came to the bottom of the drawer; pulling out an old letter that was addressed to Helga from over a year ago.

He sat on the edge of his bed, turning the letter over in his hands. He remembered the night Helga had her episode over this kid, and it genuinely scared him. He had never really seen Helga cry, let alone as hard and long as she did that night. Nothing him or Mariam did would calm her down, and it was as if the more they tried to comfort her, the harder she cried. It took months of therapy, a trip to see Olga and a good number of poetry books to get her daughter even half way back to normal. Even then, something inside Helga had snapped, and he didn't know if it could ever be fixed.

He remembered picking Helga up from the airport the day she came back with her class from San Lorenzo. She was trying to play herself off as the angry and mean girl everyone thought she was, but even then, even before he had grown closer to his daughter, he knew there was something wrong. Then before long Helga started to receive letters from this kid named Arnold, addressed from San Lorenzo. He didn't think anything of it, until he started to see a change in Helga. She became happier and more pleasant, coming off less abrasive and more kind. She started getting in less fights at school, and even brought her parents to one of her therapy sessions. That's when his relationship changed with his family for the better, with him starting anger management classes, Mariam with her AA classes and Helga continuing on with her private therapy sessions. Bob never thought his family would function as well as it had been, it started to feel normal for once.

Until the day Arnold stopped writing to Helga.

Then one night, when he went to get the mail, he found a letter from Arnold. It was the first letter he had seen from the kid in months, and it made him angry, really, really angry. He squeezed the letter in his fist, about to throw it away when he thought how Helga might accidently find it. He folded the letter up and put it in his pocket before walking back inside. "We get anything good?" Helga asked, lying on the couch as she lazily flipped through TV channels. "Nope." Was all he said, as he put the bills on the counter and then went up to his room to hide the letter.

He hid the letter in the one drawer he knew Helga would never look in, knowing that he had to do something to protect his daughter. No way Arnold, he thought as he crammed the letter to the bottom of the drawer, you were a nice kid, but I can't let you crawl under her skin again. She's starting to get over you, and I won't let you put her through that again. He then locked the door to the drawer and he hadn't looked at the letter since.

Now he was sitting on the edge of the bed holding the letter a year and a half later, and the kid had still found a way to hurt Helga. I tried to protect her, and this kid still got to her. Some dad I am . . .He turned the letter over, looking at the back of the envelope. Would it have been better if I had just given her the letter? Without even thinking twice about it, he opened up the letter and took out the single paper that laid within, wanting to know what this kid had to say for himself:

"Helga,

I just wanted to apologize if my last letter was too forward, if I pushed you away or if I scared you. I just needed you to know how serious I am about you. I knew I should have waited to tell you all of this in person, I just didn't know when I would be coming back from San Lorenzo. I wanted you to know so you would wait for me . . .

And that you wouldn't have to wait much longer. My parent's are sending me home to graduate with you, and all of our friends. They see how important it is to me that I see you before you go to college, and seeing how we are almost done we haven't got much time left. I will be home senior year, or a little half way into it. I am so excited to see you Helga, this is seriously a dream come true.

I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, and maybe we can talk this out when I see you?

I hope all is still well with you Helga. I miss you more than you know.

Always,

Arnold.

Bob heard himself chuckle out loud. "So the kid thought he could make up for all of this in a letter?" He laughed again as he stuffed the letter back in its envelope and stuffed it back in the drawer. He locked it back up with his keys again, and then got up to leave the room. Even though the kid did write back, it wasn't enough to make up for the damage he had already done, and Bob wasn't about to just sit back and let him hurt Helga again. She may not have improved since this whole fiasco, but he wasn't about to send her through hell and back again.

He walked by Helga's door, and then took a couple steps back. He leaned his ear against the door, listening for any voices or movement. When he heard nothing he slowly and quietly opened the door, looking in to find a sleeping Helga. Bob smiled to himself, it was the most peaceful she had looked in months.

Helga will get through this, someday. And she's gonna do it without having to deal with this Arnold kid lingering in the background.