AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yay! Finally, a new chapter! I hope you like it though. Part of it was inspired by the song "Ame ni Utaeba" by Plastic Tree, a Japanese rock band. The song title literally translates to "Singing in the Rain". Oh, and don't forget to read and review if you have the time. Enjoy!

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Helga sobbed uncontrollably, slamming the door to her room before collapsing onto her bed. She already knew that it was a mistake to come back, that old memories would surely resurface and haunt her. She knew that as long as she had a small chance of running into a certain football-head on the streets, she would no longer be able to keep her feelings for him at bay. But even after telling herself all these things day after day, she still didn't run away. In the end, she came back with her parents to Hillwood, the town she swore she would never set foot in ever again.

It didn't help the fact that the first person she ran into was Arnold. Oh, how she had cursed the gods because of that meeting. She was terrible at disguises and changing her hair color didn't make that much of a difference, but the same gods that she had cursed moments before were at least gracious enough to blind Arnold's eyes from the truth. She had panicked when he had said her name though, and for a brief moment, she thought she would respond to it. Thankfully, she didn't, and he had assumed that she was someone else, which gave her enough time to end the conversation and escape as fast as she could.

"Still as dense as ever..." She said in between sobs, her head buried beneath her pillow. The scene she had witnessed earlier near the movie theatre only proved to herself that she was still in love with Arnold, more deeply than she could ever imagine. She thought she could change that when she moved away, so she began to immerse herself in parties and other social gatherings in order to surround herself with new people and influences in her life.

But no matter how much she tried to forget him, in the end she just...couldn't. She still dreamt about him almost every single night, but most of these dreams scared her and only reminded her of that fateful day when Arnold finally told her that he would leave her alone for good. He had said goodbye in a voice that Helga didn't recognize, because to her it had been too cold and uncaring to have been able to belong to the boy that she loved. She had cried then, partly because she didn't want to see him go, but mostly because she was the one who pushed him away in the first place. In her head, it was entirely her fault.

During these past few days however, he had given her hope on their friendship. Even though she was just as cruel if not crueler to him in her disguise, he still gave her back her ring when he could have easily pawned it for some quick cash. That incident was also after he had saved her from a dirty thug and before he had offered to walk her home. She had refused his offer, of course, because she still lived in the same house that she had spent her childhood in; the very house that Arnold had visited numerous times before. She couldn't risk revealing her true identity just yet.

"I can't." Helga thought out loud, hugging her pillow tight. No, she couldn't reveal her identity to him. Not right now at least. His life was going so well and she didn't want to ruin it by putting herself back into the picture. Also, from what she witnessed earlier, he had a girlfriend now and that girl was the same one that he had pined for ever since the fourth grade. Lila.

"Besides... he hates me." She whispered softly, but at the same time wished with all her heart that it wasn't true.

The afternoon sun began to sink lower and lower into the sky and before she knew it, she was fast asleep, dreaming about things that to her, were never meant to be.

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"Bye Arnold."

"Bye Lila." Arnold waved as the redhead promptly closed the door to her house. He turned away from the porch and sighed. "That wasn't so bad after all..." He mused, making his way back to the boarding house. The date had gone just as he expected for the first half of the movie, filled with Rhonda and Nadine's incessant chatter and the annoying sighs of the almost all-female audience. But by the second half, Rhonda and Nadine had grown tired of each other's stories, and eventually, Lila had come to hold his hand. At first it felt weird and uncomfortable, but Arnold let it stay and soon found out that he liked holding her hand. A lot.

"Oh for- make up your mind already!" He mentally scolded himself. He sighed. He didn't know what was wrong with him.

First he wanted her, then when she was all his for the taking, he didn't want her anymore. But after one measly phone call, she got the better of him and he decided to give it a try after all. Now he--

"-doesnt know what the heck he's doing." Arnold said, finishing his thoughts out loud.

He looked up at the street sign and saw that he was already halfway home. Only a few more blocks remained between him and his nice soft sofa and surround sound stereo system. He dug his hands into his pockets as the cold night breeze enveloped him, making him shudder. His right hand touched something briefly in his pocket and it crinkled. It was a piece of paper.

"Great. Now I have another thing to worry about." he groaned. He had forgotten all about the gift that he was supposed to buy for the daughter of that loud mouth back at the movie theatre. He didn't think he was the right guy for the job at all, despite the comments that he received from the couple earlier. First of all, he didn't have that much money left after the date he just had with Lila. Second of all, he was completely clueless as to what a 16-year-old girl would want for her birthday. Arnold furrowed his brow, deep in thought.

"At least I still have a week." he said to himself as he finally arrived at the Sunset Arms Boarding House. The sky was almost completely dark now and he could already smell Grandma's signature roast beef wafting out from the inside. Arnold smiled to himself and entered, slowly closing the door behind him.

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"IT'S HELGA, DAD. AND FOR THE LAST FRIKKIN' TIME, I AM NOT GOING WITH YOU!" Helga screamed, slamming the door as hard as she could. She wanted to make sure that the sound was loud enough to add another vein to Big Bob's already throbbing forehead. If she was lucky enough, it might even pop, sending him straight down to the place where she wanted him to be in the most. Hell. She scowled, trying her best to tune out the muffled screams and crashes coming from inside her house. Taking a step forward, she looked up at the sky. It was a gloomy shade of gray. The perfect setting for a grade A storm. Nevertheless, she continued walking, and soon her house had disappeared due to the distance that her feet had taken her. She winced a little as the sky flashed bright with lightning, anticipating a loud boom of thunder. It came a few seconds later, and it sent shivers up Helga's spine.

"I hate you, Bob…. I hate you, Miriam…. I hate you all!" she muttered under her breath, slowly zipping up her light pink jacket. The wind was pretty strong now, and it had messed up her signature pigtails, but she didn't really care. She was already too mad about what had happened earlier during dinner to care. She shut her eyes quickly, trying her best to prevent the image from coming back into her mind once again. No, she didn't want to think about it anymore. Thunder crackled suddenly, startling her out of her thoughts. At the third intersection from her house, Helga began to cry.

The first few drops of rain had already fallen, hiding her tears in the process. She continued walking, and soon found herself picking up pace together with the storm and the howling wind. Before she knew it, she was running as fast as she could, trying her best to forget about her problems and the rest of her so-called "life". She couldn't feel her legs anymore, and she had raised her arms as high as she could, savoring the storm, the rain, and everything else in it and about it. She screamed then, without a care in the world, and by the time she slowed down enough to catch up on her breathing, she was ready to explode.

Helga stopped running once she reached the stairs of an old abandoned building. She sat down slowly on the cement, already very much aware of the tingling sensation engulfing her legs. It had felt good doing what she had done, but as she sat there quietly on the pavement, everything just came crashing back down to her again, invading her thoughts and even the innermost corners of her mind. She lowered her head onto her knees and sobbed. She felt horrible.

"Helga, is that you?"

Helga body stiffened at the sound of his voice. Arnold's voice.

Crap, she thought to herself, not daring to look up. Out of all the people in Hillwood, why him? Why did he have to be the one to catch her being uncharacteristically emotional and vulnerable? She felt so humiliated.

"Helga, what happened??" Arnold continued, concern draped all over his voice. "Why are you out in this kind of weather? Do your parents know where you are?"

"Just shut up for a second, Arnold." Helga replied coldly. She didn't feel like talking to anyone, especially Arnold. She needed time to think. She knew that she had to tell everyone what was going to happen to her, but right now she still didn't know what to say and how on earth she was going to say it. Her brow furrowed once he stepped closer. His footsteps made tiny splashes in the rain.

"Why do you always stick your nose into other people's business like that, football-head??" she snapped at him, relaxing a little once the footsteps stopped. This was it, she thought. He was going to leave her now, and she could just go about her misery until she summoned enough courage to tell him and the rest of her class about her moving to California, which was probably going to be the day after tomorrow… or maybe the day after that. She sighed, waiting for him to walk away, but a few moments had already passed and he still didn't move.

"Just… just leave me alone." She said hesitantly, hoping that it would finally make him leave her be for the rest of the afternoon. "I did it…" she thought, finally hearing his footsteps in the rain once more. She lifted her head up just to make sure that he was really leaving, but instead of seeing his back turned to her as he walked in the opposite direction, she saw and felt his arms wrap around her tightly.

"A-arnold?" she gasped, completely taken aback by his actions. She tried to move away, but the boy managed to tighten his grip around her when she did so. "What… what are you doing?"

"Something I should've done a long time ago." Arnold replied softly. Helga immediately looked up at him in response to his words and froze as Arnold swiftly pulled her in for a kiss. It was short and sweet, but still passionate, taking Helga a second or two after it was over to realize what had just happened.

"Arnold… you-"

"Helga, please don't keep me out of your life like this. I love you and I want to be there for you." He interrupted, stroking her hair gently as he spoke. Helga stared at him in complete disbelief.

"Y-you love me?" she asked him, her hands reaching for the collar of his t-shirt. He nodded slowly, placing his hand on top of hers.

"Yes, Helga. I do. Now please, tell me what's wrong." He said, his voice sounding very worried. Helga sighed before opening her mouth to speak.

"You see…"

"HELGA! WAKE UP! GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE AND EAT YOUR BREAKFAST!" Big Bob shouted from the outside of Helga's room. He knocked on the door a couple of times before Helga shouted back that she was indeed awake, then he left, his footsteps echoing loudly as he climbed down the stairs.

Helga opened her eyes slowly, squinting in pain from the bright sunlight that flooded her room. She knew she had dreamt about Arnold again, but this time he had done something different. Instead of leaving her in the rain, he had…had…

Helga grunted in frustration. She didn't remember. She tried again, gathering as many fragments of the dream as she could. But in the end, she still couldn't. She finally gave up trying after a while. She moaned as she got out of bed, suddenly remembering what had happened the day before.

She sighed. Today was not going to be pretty.

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HEY ARNOLD. HEY ARNOLD. HEY ARNOLD. HEY-

Arnold groaned as he slammed him palm onto the off switch of his alarm clock. He had dreamt about that night with Helga again, only this time, it had gone quite differently compared to all his other dreams. Instead of leaving her out on the streets, he had held her in his arms and had told her that he… he…

"I don't remember…" Arnold mumbled, suddenly very pissed at his alarm clock for waking him up on time. He sat up quickly, trying to get his thoughts in order. He had a lot to do today, and he had better get an early start if he was going to finish everything.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I rather enjoyed writing that dream sequence and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as well. I've also been getting a lot of inspiration for my stories recently. I just pray that it doesn't run out until I finish this one. XD