AN: Hey again, thanks for reviewing and for sticking with the story! I really do mean to update more often now. Especially since this term I only have four days of class… so more time to write. : )

anonymous latina: that's so funny you were thinking about this lol what a coincidence that I updated it

She followed him up to the second floor and up to his room. Of course, she had been there before, but he didn't know that. Arnold went and put his things near his desk and then he went to sit near his bed. Helga watched him; she wasn't sure how she was supposed to react. She put her things down just inside the entryway and then walked around the room, looking at all of Arnold's things.

There was a picture of Arnold and his grandparents. She picked it up and imagined the scene coming to life. They were such a happy family, even if Arnold's parents weren't there.

"You're so lucky…" Helga said, although not really realizing that she had said it out loud.

This made Arnold look over at her, "Every family has its issues, Helga." But after seeing Helga's dad at the market he realized this probably wouldn't help her any. Even if he didn't have his parents here, he still had loving grandparents and the boarders who were like his uncles and aunts.

"Helga, why did you run away?" he asked when she came and sat down a few feet away.

"I… I don't want to go back there. I'm so sick of having to be a grown up when I'm just a kid. I hate not being noticed unless it's to take the blame for something. I just wish I had a normal family."

Arnold just looked at her. He didn't know what to say to make her feel better. How could she feel better? He certainly couldn't change her situation even if he wished he could.

Then he saw her become angry. "You wouldn't understand! You've got a perfect family here. Why did I even come here? I don't need your pity!"

She went to get and try to run out of there, but something made Arnold stop her. As she went to get up, he grabbed her wrist so that she came crashing back down onto the floor.

"Stop running away! That's not going to solve anything," he told her. "I'm sorry, I really am."

"Can I… just use your washroom?"

He let go of her wrist, "Sure, it's down the hall on the left."

She practically ran to the bathroom. After locking the door she slumped down to the ground behind it. I shouldn't have come here, he won't understand. How could he… why is he trying to be nice to me? I treat him like crap every day. I make his life miserable. I'm such a jerk. I deserve to have horrible parents!

She got up and washed her hands. When she looked into the mirror she noticed how terrible she looked. Her hair had tiny bits of dirt in it and her dress was dirty as well. She tried to wash it as best as she could with cold water from the sink. She stuck her hair under the faucet and tried to rinse some of the dirt out of it. Now her pigtails were wrecked so she had to pull her hair back into a ponytail, which she secured with her new raggedy pink bow.

She peered down the hallway; she wasn't really in a rush to go back and see Arnold after what'd just happened. Still, she didn't have anywhere to run so she headed back to his room.

"Are you okay?" he asked, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to grab your wrist like that."

"It's fine. It's no big deal." She sat down next to him, but still kind of far away.

Arnold wasn't sure what to say. He could tell that Helga didn't trust him. She was right. How could he understand how her family was? His was different in its own way, but he had never experienced a family like hers before.

It was so quiet right then. Arnold usually had some kind of music playing while he worked on homework or read or just daydreamed. But this instance was so quiet. He could hear his clock ticking the seconds away. Two floors below he could here his grandma singing and talking cheerfully as she fixed their dinner. This silence was just so unbearable.

"I saw your dad. At the market, I ran into him."

Helga just replied with a simple, "Oh."

Again, there was silence for a long while.

"Well…" she said, "Did he… what did he say?"

I shouldn't have said anything, Arnold thought. How was he supposed to respond? Mr. Pataki seemed like he couldn't have cared less about Helga's being missing. He didn't want to tell her that.

"Helga, what's going to happen when you go back home?" he asked instead of giving her an answer. He had a feeling she knew the answer to her own question and he didn't want to make anything worse than it was.

"Who knows? Miriam probably won't have even noticed. She probably thinks I've been in my room all this time. Bob will probably go crazy for a bit, but Olga's home so I'm sure she'll probably have won some award that'll cheer him up. And Olga?" she explained and then mocked Olga's voice, "She'll probably hug me to death and say something like Baby Sister! Where did you run off to? I missed you so much! You missed my dinner the other night. It was just oh so wonderful spending time with mommy and daddy again! And then things will go back to how they were and they won't have remembered me running away. We'll just be back at the beginning again. It's a big vicious circle, but I just had to get away from it for a while."

Arnold tried to imagine what Helga's home life was like. Sure, he had seen her father before and he was kind of a jerk, but he had no idea. And how could her mother not even realize she had been gone for this long?

He thought of his own parents… the ones he had never met, but had imagined. What if they were like that? How could he be so sure that his parents were as good and wonderful as he pictured them being? Why would someone have a child if they didn't mean to love it?

"Helga… you're right. I don't have any idea what you're going through. My grandparents are some of the best people I know. I don't remember my parents, so I don't know what they were like. I know you don't think your parents love you, or even like you, but you just have to try and find the good in them."

"That's not as easy as it sounds, you know," she replied. She didn't want to argue with Arnold; she knew this was just how he was. He always tried to do the best thing and find the best in everyone, even in her.

"So will you come back to school tomorrow?" Arnold asked.

She didn't respond for almost a minute and then, "I don't know." She got up and went over to Arnold's radio, turning it on and tuning to a random station, "Can we talk about something else now?"