Hey, two updates in a day! I got the idea for this from the previous chapter. I'm planning on alternating between Arnold and Helga's POV's though their won't be a pattern. I may do a few chapters of Helga and then one or two for Arnold's point of view.
Helga got to her table at lunch as quickly as possible; she had to tell Phoebe about this. She'd just walked with Arnold to lunch and they talked and- Helga stopped herself. Why she so worked up about this, it was just Arnold. Who walked her to lunch and smiled at her more than she ever remembered him doing. Helga spared a quick glance backwards; she spotted Arnold walking to where he and his friends had always sat during lunch. They'd been seated at that table during every lunch ever since the table they'd sat at it for a good part of the year was blocked off for renovation.
Helga turned away to see a smiling Phoebe, she waved at her friend and gave a small smile back. Phoebe held up a notepad and her smile grew wider. Helga wondered vaguely what they'd be doing at lunch, Phoebe seemed excited about it.
"Helga, my mother and father said yes to you and the others coming over!" Phoebe blurted out before Helga could even sit down. Helga leaned over at the notebook, Curly leaned over too. He tried taking her sandwich but Helga smacked his hand rather hard.
Curly scooted away, unsuccessful in his endeavor. Every lunch period Curly ended up trying to take someone's food for reasons only he knew. Helga often found herself repeating the words "Poor Twisted Little Freak," the reason being much more contact with the deranged guy.
Phoebe flipped the notebook around and brought out a pen from behind her ear, she started by explaining the plan for when everyone was at her house. Helga recognized it as she was the one to start the list with Phoebe and Sheena.
Sheena had doodled little characters around the edges of the paper, Helga added on to them by giving each and every one of the doodles names. Most of the names were weird and really quite silly but the girls had a lot of fun. Sheena liked to say that "it got her juices flowing."
Phoebe nudged Helga, realizing her friend had not been listening. Helga was busy reading the ideas for what they could do anyways. She grabbed Curly's pen and started circling ideas. Curly whipped around and glared, Helga wasn't sure why and never will but the weirdo had a sort of attachment to pens.
Phoebe had once theorized that maybe the pen represented something, Sheena agreed and mourned the almost loss of her hand the one time she touched one of his many pens, and Eugene simply shrugged. Helga suspected Curly just liked having something to stab people with if they got too close or something. It made sense in her friend's case, he once freed all of the animals in the zoo and that included tigers and lions!
Helga kept on circling around one single idea in the notebook. It read "News Series," something that Helga thought was the best out of all the potential plans. She handed the notebook back to Phoebe who looked it over for a few seconds until she handed it off to Sheena.
Lunch continued on and there were a few comments here and there. Everybody seemed to agree on the news show idea; Helga was, by default, pleased.
The conversation turned to Helga's encounter with Arnold, Sheena had turned down her music and Curly finally stopped trying to summon Rhonda from a distance with his nonexistent magic. Eugene leaned in from where he was sitting to listen; Helga would have scowled if she weren't in such a good mood at the moment. Everyone wanted to hear about Helga's walk to lunch and the photo escapade, not a surprise.
"And then we walked here together after he just kind of looked at me until I did it. It was awkward but then we just fell into this conversation, we got here though and the moment ended…" Phoebe smiled and congratulated Helga. The conversation ended when Eugene had gasped at something on the screen of his phone, which he guarded viciously.
Helga leaned back and rested against the wall in relief. It felt good to tell people, she'd spent her earlier childhood locking up her secret with only two others who knew. Phoebe and, surprisingly Lila were the only two who had known of Helga's crush. Helga had always thought that was it, she wouldn't have a circle of good friends and people wouldn't like her. But then life just threw her for a loop!
Helga often wondered how she had gotten to this point. It all started with Curly, big things somehow tend to, being who he was. They were all in 7th grade and up until that year they didn't really talk to each other too much (Excepting Phoebe and Helga who were best friends.)
Curly had come to Helga with a plan. An outrageous, nonsensical plan but it was also fun. Eugene also joined in; an unexpected but not unwanted addition to the plan.
Curly was going to flood the school hallways, release the frogs and fish from the science lab, and hack into the school (Helga couldn't remember why.) but not necessarily in that order.
Sheena and Phoebe came into play when they both wanted in and said so very clearly while the trio was standing around Eugene's locker planning. All five students were getting revenge against the administration at the time for different reasons but the aim was the same so they banded together.
After the prank, which the teachers couldn't pin on them but got back by assigning lunch detentions, the five students became fast friends and from then on there was somebody to sit next to at lunch and in Curly's case, call when he was feeling talkative in the middle of the bloody night, Helga was still planning her revenge for that one time.
Helga, being lost in her memory, was not happy when she was rudely interrupted by Curly cackling loud enough that the people at the next table could hear. Helga scowled and opened her mouth to tell Curly to tone it down when he looked her in the eyes with that crazy light he gets when he has an idea. Helga's brow raised high above her bangs as Curly slammed his hands on the table and stood on top of the bench.
Then he started shouting, Helga heard only enough to make her slam her head on the table and mutter something about the lethal uses of a book bag. Curly was going to be the school cupid for Valentine's Day; Helga knew where that would go. Normally she'd be game to the idea but considering Curly's and even, Eugene's matchmaking tendencies she'd find herself on a date with Arnold which sounded good in theory but Helga would mess up, she knew that.
Speaking of Eugene, he was on hanging off the bench with a dazed look on his face; he had been in the wrong spot at the wrong time and ended up being whacked across the face!
Helga watched with a growing headache at Curly who was running around going psycho. He decided to kiss Rhonda, Helga felt bad for the girl even if she was a snob. Curly may be Helga's friend but he has his days and Helga liked them about as much as the next person! Which is to say, not at all.
Curly escaped through an open window and Helga imagined he'd first do something even weirder, go to his therapist, and then crash at the treehouse. That was how these days went; the reactions didn't change too much though.
When lunch ended Helga's day went faster and without incident except French class where Stinky, Harold, and Sid had a loud conversation in broken French. The conversation was littered with dirty jokes and as soon as they finished Madame Henderson wordlessly pointed toward the door, her face red with anger. The bell rang soon so Helga and the other students were out of the classroom before they could find themselves being cooked over a fire or given something equally horrific, extra homework.
Helga wanted nothing more than to go home. The day was okay, great even but she was tired and Miriam would probably be too drunk to make dinner. Bob didn't "do the whole making dinner thing" because he was "A Man." Plus he ate nothing these days but microwave meals so Helga had to magically develop cooking skills in a short time.
On the walk to the house Helga remembered the photo. It seemed like she'd lived two separate days! Lunch had distracted her from the earlier happening with Arnold. Helga stopped walking and dug some more into her bag. There was a zipper in the bottom of the larger pocket and in it Helga had her locket. It had been hers to use since she was 6 years old. When Helga was 9 the locket was pretty big but now it looked so small to her eyes (but still good enough for a photo). Helga opened the locket and slipped in the new photo of Arnold. She smiled down at it and for a moment she was in her own little world.
Of course her little world came crashing down when the sky turned dark and it started to release a torrent of rain.
"And now I'm cold, wet, and I still have a large hill to get up. How wonderful, I hate you!" Helga said loudly toward the sky. It didn't listen and cease raining, if anything it was coming down even harder
I hope you guys like this, I wasn't actually sure how to end this and I really wanted to include the picture in some way because it was the starting point of the whole story!