An hour later the school was about to get locked up for the night so the volunteers had to leave. Inga was waiting outside to accompany Helga home while Arnold, Gerald and Lila walked home. On his way home Harold came out of an alley and grabbed him. "Look it's Arnold, the orphan" he taunted.
Arnold just stood there, Harold had never been that mean and even Helga with her sharp tongue had never said something so hurtful, she apologised for when her dad said it. He said "now that is too much".
As he pushed Arnold over Harold asked him "well, what you gonna do about it orphan? Gonna go cry to mommy and daddy, oh wait you can't".
He chuckled as he hit Arnold as he got up knocking him back down. Harold quickly got Arnolds backpack dumped everything out of it and threw his empty backpack over a fence where you could instantly hear dogs barking. Arnold waited until Harold left to gather everything that had been in his backpack and continued to walk home. That was not the Harold he knew, that Harold was a worse bully than Helga had ever been.
When he got home Arnold's Grandpa called from the living room "is that you shortman"?
Arnold walked into the living still holding everything Arnold's Grandpa sighed and asked "did that boy give you trouble again, the big one with the tooth sticking out of his mouth"?
Arnold took a breath and said "pretty much, grandpa have you ever tried to turn someone into someone else".
Arnold's Grandpa asked "you mean like make them go against their basic nature".
Arnold said "not exactly, more like changed them before they could become someone else".
Arnold's Grandpa "like going back into the past and making someone make different choice than the one they did".
Arnold answered "exactly".
Ernie said "that would be nice if it was possible, we could go into the past and stop Kokoshka from being a lousy, no good bum".
When Arnold went upstairs and dropped everything he'd been carrying onto the bed. He went to go on his computer when he noticed how different his room was. The wallpaper, carpet and his things were still here but so were a bunch of things he'd never seen before plus a bunch of photographs on his Wall. He looked at the photographs first, there was one of him, Gerald and Helga when they were still in pre-school. There was another more recent one of him, Gerald, Helga and Lila sitting on a park bench. He guessed with Helga's new personality and best friend it would make sense. It was the photograph of both Lila and Helga doing ballet and Helga holding the statue of Emily Dickenson that Phoebe got that he didn't get. And since when did he have a snow-globe of the jungle and a very young child's colouring of him with the words 'my hero' underneath, obviously written by a child.
The next day as he and Gerald went towards the auditorium he talked to Gerald who told him "what do you expect Helga's taken ballet lessons since she was five and when Lila got here she joined Helga's ballet class and they're the best dancers. As their best friends they invited us to their first ballet recital. And Helga got the Emily Dickenson trophy for being the best poet in class".
Arnold asked "and do you know why a have a snow-globe and a child's colouring"?
Gerald replied "man, are you lucky the girls didn't hear you say that. Lila gave you the snow-globe for your birthday after finding out you were born in the jungle. Helga did that colouring for you as a Christmas gift when we were four. A week or two before Harold talked Sid and Stinky into stealing Helga's ribbon and it made her cry but you got it back for her".
When he and Gerald arrived Arnold put his books, pencil case and lunch down. Lila asked "Arnold, what happened to your backpack"?
Arnold said "I'd rather not talk about it".
Helga said "no need," she started rubbing her arm "I heard Harold talking to Sid and Stinky as I got here. He was telling them how he stole your backpack last night and threw it into a yard with a vicious dog".
Arnold asked "did he hit you"?
Helga said "I may have made the mistake of telling him he shouldn't have done it and he may have hit me, pulled my backpack off me and thrown it onto the roof with everything still in it".
Gerald said "there is something seriously wrong with that guy".
Lila asked "did you hear what happened to Nadine this morning"?
Arnold asked "what"?
Lila said "she was picking up Rhonda's new coat after getting Rhonda's boxes of imported chocolates. She dropped one box and as she picked it up she didn't see a car coming right for her. She got hit and now Nadine's in the hospital but Rhonda's not even sorry, she's just complained about how no body's gotten her, her new coat".
Helga said "if it was me I would have gone to the hospital straight away to apologise and try and find a way to make it up to her".
Arnold said "I'm sure you would" he remembered when the exact same thing happened to Phoebe. Helga was telling the truth, she did go to the hospital to see Phoebe the moment she heard and she felt so guilty she did everything for Phoebe from them. Rhonda seemed to be a much worse version of Helga.
