Chapter#5: Take my heart but please don't break it.
October 2001.
"And that led to the war of-." The ringing bell announcing the end of the school day cut the history teacher off and sent ecstatic seventh graders pouring out of their classes.
Joey was the last to leave as the rush of children past him caused him to drop off his pencil box, spewing all his stationary onto the floor and he had to bend down and pick them up. When he was done he stood up, ready to leave but paused as he saw his history teacher sigh sadly as she took out a pink envelope from her drawer and looked at it as if she was contemplating something about it but placed it back in the drawer anyway.
"Joey? What are you still doing here?." She noticed the boy standing there.
"Uh, nothing Ms. Gross! See ya next week!." And with that he rushed out of the class room.
On his way home, Joey couldn't stop thinking about what he saw… maybe he should find out.
"Official?." Gerald raised an eyebrow as he threw back the baseball to Arnold.
The boys were hanging out in Arnold's room, discussing about the kart racing competition next month.
But Sid had more important news to share first.
"You heard me." Sid replied confidently as he leaned against the wall.
"You're dating a girl my age and I couldn't even get a girl my age to date me!." Harold pouted obviously wanting to beat up the lucky boy to a pulp.
"Wilikers Sid! You sure are one lucky fellar."
"I know."
"Well that's- great Sid!." Arnold tried his best to ignore that uncomfortable feeling in his gut… why'd he have to feel a little jealous? He has the most beautiful girlfriend now.
The rest of the boys genuinely congratulated their friend making Arnold feel even guiltier.
'Stop it!.' He tried to beg the feeling to stop.
"Ok back to our original topic." Curly ended the celebration. "I say we paint our kart red! Like my queen Rhonda's favorite color."
"I go with blue." Gerald defied.
"What? now everyone's gonna pick a color after their girlfriend?." Harold asked.
"Phoebe's not my girlfriend." Gerald unintentionally gave himself away.
"Neither is Rhonda, but I know someday she will." Curly grinned as if he counted on it.
"See? What's next? I bet Arnold is gonna suggest choosing pink after his dumb blonde girlfriend."
"Harold." Arnold said with that warning tone of his.
"I think Harold's jealous." Park suggested mockingly.
"Yeah Harold, why you hatin' on your brothers?." Gerald gave him that knowing look.
"Shut up! I'm not jealous!." Harold lied.
The rest of the boys started teasing him till the big boy has had enough and started beating up everyone of them.
Arnold rolled his eyes at the commotion and decided to get some snacks prepared and give Helga a call and ask her if she wanted to go out to the park the next day.
"Ok sure, what time?."
"Mm, how about around 5?."
"a.m.?." Helga jokingly asked.
"p.m." He corrected, like he needed to.
The blonde girl giggled, he loved it when she does that. Her giggle had a unique distinctive taste of butterscotch and pink lemonade to him… a striking contrast to her tough girl attitude.
That sweet feeling relieved him of the ugly guilt he felt a while ago. No girl in the world meant to him as much as the girl talking to him over the phone.
"Ok Arnold, I gotta get ready for Princess' slumber party." Helga woke him from his thoughts.
"Ok. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye."
"I- I love you!." Arnold remembered to say before she hung up.
They needed to practice this more.
"Me too." He could sense her blushing and sweetly smiling at the other end of the line.
"Bye." He grinned.
Lila lay on the soft carpet in the most beautiful room she's ever seen, the beautiful mini chandelier hanging from the ceiling, all that furniture covered in purple fake fur and that bed... fit for none other than a princess.
She'd do anything to trade places with Rhonda, after all, there wasn't much difference in their lives. They were both popular with the boys, both of them were beautiful, the only difference was that she had more money than Lila could ever have.
"Ok girls, it's time to play truth or dare."
The girls ooohed, while Helga and Phoebe merely rolled their eyes… birds of a feather.
"Hm let's see…" Rhonda scanned the PJ's clad girls in her room. "Phoebe, truth or dare."
"Truth." Phoebe smiled confidently making her best friend feel proud.
The little girl's come a long way.
"Ok." Rhonda was slightly taken aback by her courage. "Will you and Gerald be hitting it off soon?." She gave a curious smile.
"We're already good friends Rhonda."
"I mean a different kind of 'hitting it off'."
"Well." Phoebe shyly fiddled with her fingers and looked at her fluffy bunny slippers. "I'm not sure, if he wants to… hit it off with me."
"I'm totally sure he's thinking the same thing Phoebe." Nadine told her.
"You think?."
"I did say 'totally' didn't I?."
"Well I'm not sure, I mean, maybe I should wait for him to make the first move."
"Phoebe, we're in the 21st century, girls can ask guys out now."
"Really Rhonda?." Sheena innocently asked.
Rhonda nodded, "Why Sheena? Have anyone in mind?."
"I'm sure I know who it is." Katrinka teased.
The girls all giggled as Sheena's cheeks turned red.
(MUSIC-OLIVIA ONG:L-O-V-E).
Author's Note: Heard this sweet mellow song when I watched one of those make up application vids on youtube. I wanted to use it for my persuasive speech for my English class next week to show girls that there's no such thing as natural look as long make up is involved.
Go naked faced! No girl should feel that her confidence should rely on make up, I admit, I put on a little eyeliner sometimes but it's usually for those days when I barely got any sleep or when I wanna look a little intimidating.
Anyhoo, here I go blabbering, hope you enjoyed this chapter. And again, thanks for all you reviewers, unfortunately some of you don't have FFN accounts and it makes it hard to reply. As for those reading this and also waiting for an update for the last chapter of 'Abuse', don't worry I haven't abandoned it… Just mulling over for how things should end.
Once again, thanks for your support everyone. God bless!.