I don't own any characters, except my own. Hey Arnold belongs to Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon.
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Two weeks later, Arnold and his family anxiously awaited the results of their DNA tests. Today was the day that their family could be reunited for good or be torn apart.
Arnold looked up his parents and said "I don't care what the test says, I seen your photos over and over again to know what you look like. You are my parents no matter what."
With that, Arnold pulled his parents into a tight embrace followed by his grandparents.
"You know what. I don't care either." Grandpa Phil added. "I know my own son like I know my own mind."
"And I know my own son like I know my own mind." Miles chimed in.
"Don't you mean, our son?" Stella added in a playful tone.
Arnold cringed uncomfortably at his parent's playfulness with each other.
Is this what other kids feel like when parents make out in front of them?! Arnold thought to himself as pulled his shirt over his head.
Then, he heard his parents and grandparents laughing and that made the 11 year old even more embarrassed.
Then, he heard the laughter quickly die down as Kate's voice joined in with "What's going on? What's so funny and why is Arnold's head inside his shirt?"
Arnold quickly pulled his head out of his shirt as his family said "Nothing."
Kate looked as though she didn't believe them, but said nothing as she handed them the envelope that contained the results of the DNA test. As Phil took the envelope and opened it, the tension was so high that it could be cut with a knife. Phil looked at the test results and said "I'm so glad to have you back, son."
As he finished speaking he threw his arms around Miles and Stella, Phil started to sob. Then Gertie and Arnold joined in the group hug and started to sob as well. They cried tears of happiness and joy, until an employee walked up to them and asked them what was wrong.
"The test says he is my son!" Phil cried out as he held up the DNA test results.
"And he's my son too!" Gertie chimed in as she wrapped her arms around Phil's neck. As Phil and Gertie hugged each even more tightly, Miles, Stella and Arnold all broke apart and formed their own little hug.
"You've grown so Arnold." Stella whispered as she hugged her son close to her chest. Before Arnold or his father Miles could reply to her words, an employee interrupted them with "I'm sorry to interrupt your family reunion, but all of you are starting to scare the customers."
Sometime later, the entire Shortman family was back at the US embassy with Katie. As they sat in her office, Katie said "As you all know, you all need passports in order to return to the states, sadly Miles and Stella's passports have expired by now. Fortunately, since the DNA test proved who they are, the hard part is over. We just need to have your photos taken and your new passports will be reissued in two weeks."
"Two weeks?!" The whole Shortman family cried out at once.
"We already spent more than enough time here! We want to go home now!" Miles protested.
"Dad…" Arnold interrupted as he put his right hand of his father's right shoulder. Man, that's cool. Arnold thought to himself. He quickly pulled himself out of his thoughts as he said "As much as I love to spend summer with you guys back in the states, I'm just happy to spend time with you and Mom in this country. Until we can go back, why don't we learn more about it. I was born here after all."
"How did you know that?" Stella wondered.
"I learned it after Grandpa read your journal Dad." Arnold explained. This is never going to get old. The young boy thought to himself.
A few minutes later, Arnold and his grandparents were sitting in the waiting room of the embassy as Miles and Stella were getting their passport pictures taken. Once they were finished, Katie walked up to them and said "I'm so sorry about this, but we need to do testing on you to make sure that the both of you are healthy before you can go back to the states."
"What?!" The whole Shortman family yelled at once.
"How much more stuff do they have to do?!" Arnold demanded.
"Welcome to beauacury, where the term 'Kafkaesque' is the norm." Phil replied in a disappointed tone.
"What does Kafkaesque mean?" Arnold questioned.
"It can be summed up in two words, nightmarish paperwork." Stella interrupted with a frown on her face.
"If the paperwork is so bad then why do you still do it?" Arnold questioned.
"Because they are a necessary evil to keep people honest about they say they are." Katie explained.
Sometime later, the Shortman family were having dinner in the hotel lobby as Phil was making a phone call back to the boarding house.
"So, Who did you guys leave in charge of the boarding house?" Arnold wondered.
"Ernie and Mr. Hyuh." Gertie replied in a matter of fact tone.
"How is the boarding house these days?" Miles questioned as he took a slip of water.
"It's going fine. It's me, Phil, Arnold, Ebner, Ernie, Mr. Hyuh and Oskar Kankaska." Gertie replied.
"Who are they?" Stella wondered.
"Ernie, Mr. Hyuh and Oskar are our boarding members." Arnold explained. "Ernie and Mr. Hyuh are cool, but I admit that Oskar can get on my nerves sometimes."
"What does Oskar do?" Miles wondered as a look of concerned appeared on his face.
"Nothing really until his wife had enough of his lasting around and left him." Gertie explained.
"What job does he now?" Miles asked again as Stella listened in.
Gertie thought about it for a minute before she answered "I have no idea."
Miles and Stella exchanged glances, they may not have met Oskar, but it sounded like he was not the kind of person that they wanted around their son.
Changing the subject, Miles asked "What are Ernie and Mr. Hyuh like?"
"Ernie's a nice guy who enjoys his job as a construction worker and Mr. Hyuh is a nice guy who also enjoys his job. I have no idea what he does but both men pay their rent on time." Gertie explained. Then she changed the subject with "Your father and I have been discussing this for the last few days and we've been thinking you and Stella can stay in the boarding house for as long as you need."
Miles smiled at his mom as he said "Thanks."
Then he stood up and gave his mom a hug. As he sat back down besides his wife, Stella added "I can't believe that so much has changed while we were asleep. I can't believe what happened in New York, what had a Black President and cell phone can so much more than the normal phone."
"The normal phones don't exist anymore Mom and Dad, unless you live in Alaska." Arnold explained.
"Why don't they have cell phones?" Stella questioned.
"It's because most cell phones nowadays have WiFi and WiFi is very expensive in Alaska." Arnold explained.
"What's WiFi?" Stella asked.
Arnold was taken aback, then he remembered that his parents were asleep for the last ten years. The young boy let out a sigh before he said "WiFi is short for wireless frequency. It makes it easier to get the internet anywhere."
"Why would you want to get the internet from anywhere?" Stella questioned.
"Because you can do so much on the internet nowadays, you can upload pictures and videos online." Arnold started to explain. However his mom interrupted with "You can upload videos to the internet now?"
"Yeah and they even have special sites for it. They even shows that you can only watch online." Arnold explained.
"What are these shows like and what are they called?" Stella asked.
Before Arnold could continue to explain, the waiter came over and asked "What would you all like for dessert?"
"I would like to look over the menu." Arnold said as he opened up the dessert menu.
"Me too." His parents agreed as they opened their dessert menu.
Sometime later, the whole Shortman family was enjoying their desserts. Arnold had decided to have an ice crake that he could share with his parents, while Phil and Gertie shared a banana split with each other. On their way back to their rooms, Arnold looked up at his parents and said "This was the best dinner I ever had."
"Why?" Stella asked as she placed her left arm around her son's shoulder.
"Because my family was back together again for the first time in a long time and we all had dinner together." Arnold stated.
At once, the whole family engaged in a group hug. Then they broke apart and returned back to their rooms.
As Arnold and his grandparents sat down on their beds, Arnold looked at them and said "Can I go to my parents room and watch a movie with them please?"
"Sure." Both Phil and Gertie said at the same time.
Arnold gave his grandparents a hug and left the room. Once he reached his parents room, he knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Called the voice of Miles.
"It's me, Arnold." The young boy replied.
At once, Miles opened the door and asked "Are you okay? Are grandma and grandpa okay?"
"We're fine, I just want to watch a movie with you guys." Arnold explained.
A grin cracked across Miles's face as he invited his son into his room.
Upon seeing their son, Stella opened her mouth to ask Arnold if everything was okay, but Miles quickly explained "Arnold just wants to watch a movie with us."
Stella gave her son and husband a lovely smile as she said "What would movie would you like to watch?"
"Anything as long as it's in English." Arnold stated as sat himself down on his parent's bed.
Miles and Stella joined their son on the bed as Miles picked up a remote and hit the 'on-demand'.
As he looked through the movies, he muttered "Wow, I still can't believe that the world changed so much while we were sleeping. When did this 'on-demand' thing start?" Miles said in a voice between amazement and sadness.
"Sometime in the year 2000, I think." Arnold replied as he took out his phone and started to look up when on-demand came into existence.
"When did cell phones started to do that?" Stella wondered.
"Awhile ago." Arnold answered vaguely as he discovered the year on demand was invented in the year. "1990?!" The young boy muttered in shock.
"What's wrong?" Both Miles and Stella asked at once.
"Nothing, I didn't mean to scare you. I was just surprised that ondemand was invented in the early 90s." Arnold explained.
"Please don't scare us like that again." Stella replied as Miles started to look through the movies.
"I found some movies in English and they are Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, Batman and Superman. What would you like to watch?" Miles stated as he scrolled through the movie menu.
Arnold always enjoyed watching Harry Potter, but he thought it over and realized he would be explaining so much of the world of Harry Potter to his parents that he wouldn't have time to enjoy the movie while explained it all to his parents, so he looked at his parents and said "Let's watch Batman."
Soon the three of them were enjoying the classic movie, with laughter and fun. By the time the movie ended, the three of them were chatting about their favorite parts.
"As horrifying as it was when the Joker poisoned Gotham's hygienic projects, I can't help but admit that his commercial was pretty funny." Miles stated.
"I liked the part when Bruce tells Vicki and Knox that the amor's from Japan, because he bought it in Japan." Stella stated. "It's pretty obvious that Knox never took a history class in college." She added.
"He went to college to be a newspaper writer not to be a world historian, Mom." Arnold reminded her. Still not tired of saying it. Arnold thought to himself.
"Anyway, What was your favorite part Arnold?" Stella asked.
Arnold thought it over for a moment before he replied with "My favorite part was when Batman finally got revenge on the man that killed his parent. Who would thought that it was the Joker of all people?"
Miles looked at his son with an amused smirk as he replied "You never watched this movie before have you?"
"No, I only watched the Dark Knight Trilogy." Arnold explained.
"Is it a new series of Batman movies?" Miles asked.
"Well, there not new anymore. They got replaced the DCEU." Arnold remarked. "That's short for extended universe." He quickly added.
"Why is it called the extended universe?" Miles wondered.
"Because they're a bunch of different movies that all take place in the same universe." Arnold explained.
"When did that happen?" Miles questioned.
"About a couple of years ago." Arnold replied.
"It must be really good for DC to take a big risk that like." Mikes remarked as he mused over the idea.
"Actually most fans hate it and see it as a ripoff of the MCU. MCU stands for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's also a shared movie universe, only it's all about Marvel movies. They came up with the idea first a couple of years ago Now just about every movie company is trying to copy their success." Arnold explained.
"When did this happen?" Miles inquired, amazed that comic book movies had suddenly become so popular.
Then, Stella looked at the time and said "I think that while Arnold would love to answer all of your questions, it's starting to get late and we all need to get a good night's sleep."
With that, Arnold gave both of his parents a hug as he went to back to his grandparents room. He do be them getting ready for bed and brushing their teeth.
"How was the movie?" Phil asked Arnold as he left the bathroom.
"It was fun." Arnold remarked as he gathered his pajamas in his right arm. "We laughing, gasping and cheering all at once." He added before he walked to the bathroom. As Arnold closed the door, he heard Phil say "Sounds like you guys had a great time."
As Arnold changed into his pajamas and brushed his teeth, he heard the phone ring. Arnold tried hear what his grandpa was talking about over the phone, but the door blocked out the sounds and so did brushing his teeth. Arnold finished getting ready as quickly as possible and hurried back to the main room just as Phil hung up the phone.
"Was that Katie? Did she say we could go home? Did she say when?" Arnold asked, unable to contain the excitement in his voice.
Phil let out a chuckle as he said "Slow down Shortman. Of course she said we can go home. Your parents passports are ready to go!"
Arnold let out a cry of joy and he lept in the air.
"We're going back to Hillwood! We're going back to Hillwood!" He cheered, alongside Gertie before Phil told them both not to disturb the other guests.
"Sorry." Arnold apologized as he calmed himself and his grandma down.
Then, Phil called Miles and Stella's room and told the pair the good news.
The next day, the whole Shortman family was on their way to the San Lorenzo international airport.
"I can't believe that we're finally going home!" Arnold cheered in excitement.
At once, all of the adults held a finger up to their lips as they whispered "Shhh…"
"I'm sorry, I'm just so happy to be going with all of you guys." Arnold apologized.
"I'm just happy to awake at last, seeing my son again and going home with the family I love." Miles stayed as he looked over his family with happiness.
"Don't you mean, our son." Stella reminded her husband in flirty manner.
"Right, Sorry." Miles apologized as a look of sadness suddenly appeared in his eyes.
Arnold quickly took notice as he asked "Dad, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, It's just that we've been away from you and Hillwood for so long, I'm afraid of what I might go back to." Miles confessed.
Arnold put his hand on his Dad's shoulder as he looked him in right in the eye as he said "No matter what happens, I'll help you and Mom adjust to all the changes."
Awhile later, the Shortman family were each showing their passports to the flight attendants as they loaded their luggage on the plane. Then all that was left to do, was waiting in the boarding area. As the Shortman family say the lobby, they each looked around at many of the happy families that were waiting to go back home. In particular, Miles and Stella looked at a couple who was watching their baby boy walking and talking. However, then they heard the parents mention that their son was two and it hit Miles and Stella how much they missed during the years they were asleep. As Miles and Stella each tried not to cry, it was soon time to board the plane. They stood up with their family, showed the flight attendants their boarding passes and walked into the plane. Soon the Shortman family found their seats. They then sat down and buckled up, as they waited for the plane to take off.
"Are you excited?" Arnold asked his parents.
"A little bit." Miles stated just as the plane began to take off.
This is it. After all this time, we're going home as a family. He mused to himself as he looked out the window, watching the ground get smaller beneath him as the plane took them back to Hillwood and an uncertain future.
I know Arnold jumping up and down and cheering is out of character for him, but I think he would do this under the circumstances.
What do you think?
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