This is an absurdly intense chapter. haha Gerald really shines through this (I hope) and I hope I nailed it. Writing is his POV is MEGA hard for some reason.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this, R&R and let me know what you guys think!
As always, I do not own Hey Arnold! I only own the totally awesome legend ;) bahaha.
Hope you guys like it!
xoxo
Polkahotness
***GERALD***
It must have taken us four HOURS to get Gerald Field worthy enough of such a name. I called up the gang, (Phoebe did all the arrangements BEFOREhand) and explained the what, when, why and how.
Of course, Arnold didn't need an invitation. It was ARNOLD, and his whole idea to clean up the lot again to have an 'Alumni' game or some shit like that.
And his friend Ray just had to tag-a-long. Which, I said, made it NOT so much an alumni game, but no matter how close we were, Arnold just rolled his eyes and said it'd be fine.
It'd ALWAYS be fine.
Be fine my ass.
"You do realize these are shoes from the BEST name in ALL of France, yes? I can't just... get them dirty."
Helga frowned and crossed her arms.
"You do realize, Princess, that we are in HILLWOOD now, which means that whole, 'Look at how filthy rich I am' thing doesn't work on us, yes? I mean, we've grown up with you."
"Most of us, at least." I muttered under my breath, Arnold hearing it and shooting me a look. "What. It's true."
"Gerald..."
I shook my head and continued raking the dead grass from the ground. Mid-rake, I felt a cool hand touch my shoulder.
"Are you alright?" Phoebe asked, concerned.
"Fine, Pheebs." I mumbled, continuing my job to the best of my ability.
"Gerald, you know I can tell when you lie. And frankly, I don't really believe that you are telling me the truth about what's going on."
Sighing dramatically, I rested my arm on top of the handle for the rake and raised my eyebrow.
"I don't like this Ray guy."
"Why? He seems nice..."
"Seems, Phoebe. Only seems. But beneath that hair of his... beneath him is a monster."
She crossed her arms, unamused.
"You can't be serious, Gerald. You know next to nothing about him."
"I know enough." I glanced around to make sure nobody was paying attention to our conversation.
"How, may I ask? How do you know so much about him?"
Pursing my lips, my eyes roamed around their sockets in search for an answer that Phoebe wouldn't poke holes in.
"Sixth sense." I managed, tapping my temple with a sly smile and a silent prayer that she'd buy it.
From the look on her face, unchanging, it looked as if she didn't.
"That sounds rather ridiculous."
"No. No it doesn't."
"Gerald, yes it does."
She leaned up on her tip toes and gently pecked my lips, her hands on either side of my face.
"What was that for?"
"Even if you're ridiculous, and you're simply overreacting because clearly you are threatened by the presence of Arnold's roommate and new friend, I still love you."
"Phoebe... Phoebe... Pheebs you got it all wrong...!" I called after her as she turned around on her heel to make her way back to Helga who had been filling her in on the latest between her and Arnold.
That girl was lucky. Her and Helga had been so tight, that she didn't need to worry that she'd be forgotten or replaced.
But looking back, Arnold and I had always been tight, sometimes tighter than I thought Pheebs and Helga ever were.
"Hey Gerald!" He called just then, sauntering over to where I remained still resting on the rake.
I scrambled to make it look like I was doing something productive.
"Just thinking..." I said, staring up at the clouds.
"About what?" He asked, his hands in his pockets.
"School."
"Business that interesting, huh?"
"What? Oh right, right, business. Yea Arnold, I tell you, the world out there for business is just BOOMING."
"But how can that be if the economy is down?" he asked inquisitively.
I frowned.
"Since when did you enroll in business, man?"
He laughed and shook his head, reaching up to rub the back of his neck the way he always had.
"Hey Gerald? Can I ask you something?"
I started to rake up the dried grass once again and nodded my head.
"Shoot."
"Do you think Ray is fitting in okay? I mean, I talked to him last night, and he seems to like the people here and Helga seems to really like him, but I just... I wanted to make sure YOU like him."
"Why? He's your roommate."
"You always have that... weird intuition about people-"
"THAT's the word!" I said rather loudly, before clearing my throat and gesturing with my hand for Arnold to proceed. "I mean... go on..."
"-and I just wanted to know your opinion on him."
"Well, what's your opinion on him?" I asked, scrunching my brow together.
"He's really cool. I think you should get to know him."
"I have my own roommate."
"Gerald..."
"What? All I'm saying is that you brought him here to hang out with you, so go talk to him." The words came out bitterly and I frowned as he nodded his head and made his way across the field to Ray's side.
Man, that guy was BEGGING for attention.
I kept catching my eyes watching with mild fury as they talked and laughed and mingled with the other members of our gang.
What HAD been our gang, that is, until he butt in.
"C'mon, Pig-boy, let's get a move on!"
"Shut up, Helga!" Harold screamed back, swiping the bat from Sid and glaring at him. If he missed one more time this game, he would be in a whole bunch of pain by the time we were finished.
"Don't have to be so dang rude, Harold."
"Just because he's your best friend doesn't mean you have to stick up for him all the time, what is he? A big huge WUSSY boy?"
"Guys, guys, guys..." Arnold stepped in as usual in such situations, "it's just a game. Shouldn't we just be having fun playing baseball together and seeing everyone again?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Ray nodded his head and piped up from his spot on the bench.
"Did you guys always act like this? Maybe it's because you haven't seen each other in so long, you forgot why you came here to play." He said, the group nodding their head slowly.
"Who forgets why they play baseball, man?" I asked, Helga oddly coming to his defense.
"Clearly we ALL do, Tall Hair Boy. I mean look around! We're yelling at each other like a bunch of freaks, or something!"
"I wasn't yelling! I was just encouraging Sid to do a heck of a lot better!" Harold whined and Rhonda thumped him on the back of the head before replacing her hand back on her hip.
"Maybe we could do something else?" Ray offered.
"We are NOT doing something else, man. This is the plan! A game in Gerald Field." I said rather loudly, Ray looking startled and then glancing around the rest of the group.
"Gosh, Gerald. You don't need to sound so irritable about it. Maybe doing something else would be an ever so great idea." Lila added in, with that smile of hers that used to make the guys go mad.
"What would we do?" Sheena chirped, Eugene shrugging though seeming to be amused at the idea.
"We could see a movie?" Arnold suggested.
"Too much money," grumbled Sid. "but we could go to the park?"
"And do what Sid? Sit on a bench? Let's go to Slausen's. That way you don't have to spend money, but the rest of us can grab some grub and catch up. Plan?" Helga said quickly, Pheebs nodding her head.
"That's a great idea, Helga." she said and I shrugged.
Couldn't be any worse than what we were doing now.
"I swear if you take any more than one SIP, fat-boy, I will personally see to it that you will have to drink EVERYTHING for the rest of your LIFE through a straw. I don't come here to mingle, I come here for these malts, BUCKO."
Harold stuck his tongue out in Helga's direction and took a large sip from the silver malt canister and smacked his lips.
"Aw MAN! I should have gotten the vanilla!"
"Yeah, well taste it and weep. This baby is ALL mine."
Arnold wrapped his arm around Helga's shoulders and smiled, content with himself, while we smushed as many people into the small corner booth as possible.
"Rhonda, my pet, would you scoot over an inch or two?" Curly asked, trying desperately (and I mean that in every way possible) to sit beside her.
And as snooty as usual, she turned up her nose looking away from the poor kid.
"First of all Curly, you and I both know I don't scoot. Second of all, and for the hundreth time, you are NOT sitting by me. You will touch my hair the entire time, and as I've told you before, it takes me HOURS to get it to this level of shine and bounce AT the same time."
"I can look..." He said, forcing his way beside her.
"Nadine..." Rhonda gritted between her teeth; Nadine however busy with whatever Peapod Kid was saying in her ear.
Mm mm mmm. They were definitely one odd couple.
Though I had to give it to Rhonda, even though she had claimed her ora-what-zi marriage predictor in 4th grade, quite a few of the couples she had picked out had happened.
I mean, first there was Peapod Kid and Nadine.
Now Arnold and Helga.
Coincidence, maybe, but I don't know... seemed to be a little something more to it.
"You guys should see Arnold and I in the DS," Ray started telling with a loud chuckle, Arnold smirking and shaking his head, "I smoke him in the eating department."
"I can hold my own just fine, Ray."
The group started nodding their head.
"He was in an eating contest once you know," I chipped in, his eyes drifting to my direction. "that is a TALE to TELL." I finished, the gang chattering about that day's events.
"Nah. No one can beat me in eating."
"I bet Harold could!" Sid said.
"Yeah! He eats so dang much, one day, I bet he'll up and explode!" Stinky added, laughing all the while.
"I bet I could out eat ya..." I challenged, Arnold shooting me a look.
"Gerald, c'mon..." He tried to convince me.
"No, no, no, Arnold. You forget that in tenth grade, I beat the Triple Whipple Swissle Burger."
The voices stopped suddenly in quiet remembrance to the memory.
"The Triple Whipple Swissle Burger?" Ray questioned.
"The Triple Whipple Swissle Burger." I repeated. "And since that day, no one, not even my man Harold, could finish such a challenge."
"Hey! I was sick!" he instantly whined.
"But you didn't finish. That picture on the wall, is me in all of my Swissle glory."
"I bet I could out do ya." Ray said, leaning over the table and grinning.
"Boy, you don't even know the legend beHIND the TWS burger."
With that, Sid stood up on his chair, taking his worn hat off of his head to rest over his chest.
"The legend of the Triple Whipple Swissle Burger has been long questioned since it's creation roughly in the year 2000. Lucky for us, our own Gerald is the keeper of it's extraordinary tale. Gerald?"
With Sid sitting down, I stood up, clearing my throat as the eyes stared up at me in interest.
"Our story begins in Hillwood as it lay in it's infancy while our great country thrived. A tiny boy dreamed himself a big dream, the dream to change the world as we knew it. His father, though a quiet and poor man, owned a small cheese business behind his barn and opened it every Saturday afternoon to sell his freshly made cheese products. One day on a dark and cold night, his son Alfred Whipple found his father lying dead atop of a giant cheese wheel, the entire store robbed of his finest of cheeses: the cheese of the Swiss variety. Now Alfred ran for the sheriff and while the funeral was planned and as young Alfred, now both motherless AND fatherless, took over his father's barn and cheese business, he swore never to make the cheese that had stolen the life of his one truest and best friend.
"Years passed and our city began to grow in businesses, Alfred growing older, wiser, and more bitter with time. Naturally, more cheese businesses sprouted up and tried to overthrow his own store still bearing his father's name. Yet, whenever these new stores tried to sell the painfully familiar holey cheese Alfred detested, he would run to the store and buy every slice, block and wheel. 'As long as I am alive, NO ONE in Hillwood will taste Swiss cheese, I swear to you in my father Thomas Whipple's name.'
"Passing down his story to his grandkids, his great-grandkids and them spreading this story down and down the genetic line, it was our proud owner Mr. Slausen who took the Whipple Cheese store and dared to change our city forever. At it's new ownership, he waited and waited until the last of his older family had passed away. And after all of the mourning, he took down the name of this proud store and changed it to his own, 'Slausen's.' And as we know, no longer a cheese store, he began to sell burgers and ice cream and other delicious food for all of Hillwood to enjoy. And we did. But the Swiss? Would he change that too?" I took a moment from my story to look down at the crowd of our gang, them smiling as I didn't let them a chance in hell to answer.
This was MY story.
"Of course! Our Mr. Slausen bought in the finest of Swiss cheese, and put it on such a burger... a burger not to be trifled with. With it's 3 juicy, thick hamburger patties, it's medley of fresh mushrooms sauteed to the finest quality, mayonnaise and it's 3 especially delicious slices of Swiss cheese, no man dared try and finish the great flavors in one sitting..."
"But then, there was Gerald." Sid added, his hand gestured to my direction.
"Then there was me, and I dared. I dared to finish this burger in spite of all and did I do it?"
"Yes!" Sid answered.
"I said, did I do it?"
The gang smirked and giggled and laughed, but answered with a booming, "Yes!"
"And forever, as the Triple Whipple Swissle burger's one true champion."
They clapped and murmered amongst themselves, Arnold reaching up to do our signature handshake with a grin.
"Good one, Gerald." He said and I nodded my head, brushing invisible dust off my shoulders.
"I still got it, don't I man?"
"What a tale!" Sid commented, patting me on the back.
"Sounds kind of... cheesy to me. No pun intended." Ray of course had to say.
I frowned.
"Excuse me?"
"Just sounds like some myth."
"This is stone cold FACT, right Gerald?" Sid piped up and I sat down in my chair.
"Now, now Sid. If Arnold's roommate doesn't believe-"
"Oh I believe the story. It's just from the sounds of that burger... I doubt you could finish such a burger again."
"Is that a challenge, man?"
"Gerald... just drop it..." Arnold pleaded but my mind was set.
He'd stolen our friends.
He'd stolen my BEST friend, my brothern.
He'd mocked my legend...
He would NOT steal my glory. No way I could let this RAY win.
"Sounds like it, doesn't it?"
I snapped my finger.
"The record!"
"The record!" The lady behind the counter echoed and she came scrambling over, flipping pages in a small notebook.
"One hour on the dot is the time to beat, Gerald. Made by you in the year 2 thousand and-"
"Yes, yes. Thank you Shannon."
Nodding, she scurried off and I leaned over the table, looking deep into Ray's hazel eyes.
"You ready to lose?"
"One hour? For that whole burger?"
"And fries."
"And fries, hmm?"
The gang looked anxiously between us and I nodded once.
The silence cut between us like knives as a slow smile spread across his face.
"You're on."
"Shannon!" I called again, her smiling and once again scrambling to our table.
"Yep?"
"Two Triple Whipple Swissle Burger baskets, please. We have a challenger."
From there... it all went down in a blur.
We silently while awaiting for our baskets to come. Arnold sat by my side, shaking his head.
"You don't have to do this, Gerald. Do you remember how sick you got after you finished that burger last time?"
"You saw what he did, man. He CHALLENGED me. He even ripped on the legend. The LEGEND, Arnold!"
"He doesn't know any better. He probably just thinks it's all a joke-"
"I don't joke about LEGENDS."
"I know you don't, but Ray doesn't."
"Does he even know who I am?"
"What do you mean?" He asked, clearly confused.
"Legends are my thing. You know that. I got Phoebe, my hair and my legends. That's ME. Did you even TELL him about me, man? Or did you just forget that I existed while in Florida?"
"Gerald, of course I didn't. If there's something wrong, you can tell-"
But there was no time to tell.
The smell of the melting Swiss under it's filling whole wheat bun was drawing near as Shannon approached, a basket in each hand.
"The rules are simple," she began to explain as she set them down in front of us, "you must finish the burger and the jumbo fries in under one hour flat to beat the record-"
"Held by ME." I cut in.
"Right. To beat Gerald's record. However, you must be at least a FULL MINUTE under his time. So you must be at-"
"At the most 59 minutes to beat the record. Gotchya. You ready?" He offered his hand to shake mine and I raised my eyebrows.
"Bring it."
Shannon pulled out the timer and set it on the end of the table. Ray frowned slightly and pulled his hand back, preparing for THE burger as it sat in front of him.
"On your mark... Get set..."
"He won't do it. He barely did it last time." I heard Rhonda doubt with a smug smirk nicely attacked.
"My money's on Ray, Geraldo'll toss his cookies before he even makes it to the fries." Helga said, Arnold swiftly shooting her a look and whispering something in her ear.
"EAT!" She yelled and ran away as we began to devour the food before us.
I didn't remember being so full before.
Arnold sat quietly, not knowing who to cheer on as our group strategically picked sides.
"Go new feller go!" Stinky yelled.
"His name is Ray, Stinky." Arnold corrected.
"Like it matters," Sid replied, "he'll just be another loser when Gerald beats him!" He patted my back as I shoved the burger in my mouth.
Ray however, sat on his side of the table and carefully ate each fry.
Mm mm mmm... poor guy. He won't make it passed the first patty... I thought in my head as I picked some mushrooms up that had fallen from the burger.
50 minutes had passed, and we were both almost finished, but MAN, my stomach was ready to exPLODE. I had tuned out the crowd in hopes it'd give me an edge.
Like I NEEDED one.
This was my ARENA. This was my PLACE. I had grown up here and been with these people in this restaurant COUNTLESS times, so I had the edge.
"No WAY!" Sid exclaimed.d
"He didn't..." Arnold said, his voice dropping.
"He DID, foot-ball head!" Helga cheered, her voice overpowering the rest.
Or at least, I THOUGHT I had the edge.
I glanced up, my jaw dropping as food fell from it.
In front of me, in front of Ray, was his empty basket, him licking his fingers.
"You're right, good Swiss."
"Fifty One minutes!" Harold yelled. "That sure beats your DINKY record, GERALD! Haaaa ha hah ha!" He laughed and I felt my stomach churn, trying to balance the feelings of the loss and the exceeding amount of food that sat in my stomach trying to digest.
"Gerald..." Arnold was looking at me and I could feel the blood drain from my face.
"He's gonna hurl!" Harold yelled, too much excitement in his voice.
I booked my way to the can as fast as humanly possible and lost it.
Not just my food.
No man, I lost my DIGNITY. And as I flushed it down the toilet, washed my hands of it and stared at myself in the mirror, I frowned.
"This... this is WAR."