Chapter 12
Curly ran up to Gerald and Arnold while they ate lunch. "Gerald! Arnold! It's great to see you guys!"
"Yeah, yeah, nice to see you too Curly." Gerald rolled his eyes, and his tone obviously sounded like he was trying to get Curly to go away.
"The musical is opening in a few weeks. Tickets are on sale you know…"
"That's great Curly, now can you leave?" Gerald insisted
"Oh! My pardons Gerald, I didn't mean to intrude. But next time try not to be so rude."
Gerald rolled his eyes and looked to Arnold for some back up. Curly caught Arnold's eye and smiled strangley, "Oh Arnold! I forgot to ask, is your pelvis bone okay?"
"What?"
"Is your pelvis bone okay from that terrible fall this morning, you know the one in the hallway before school?" Apparently Curly thought this was an invitation to sit down and make himself comfortable. He sat right next to Arnold and rested his head in one hand and smiled real sarcastically.
"Oh, that," Arnold grumbled, "Yeah, I'm fine Curly." He took another bite of his sandwich.
"What happened that made you collide with the floor in such a manner?"
In the corner of Arnold's eye, he could see Gerald mouthing "Collide with the floor?"
"I just fell." Arnold replied still chewing a bit, quickly getting bothered with Curly's nosy-ness
"Are you sure that's it? Sure you weren't… perhaps …distracted? Distracted from a cock kissing one of your friends?" Curly asked while Arnold started to glare at Curly. "Or should I say more than friends? It was quite a show really. Helga and Wolfgang." Arnold clamped his jaw while the grip on his sandwich tightened. "They're going out you know. Oh gee, what a cute couple. They just seem so right together, don't you think?"
"Curly…go away." Arnold demanded as calmly as he possibly could.
"Excuse me?" Curly asked, eyebrows raised.
He took a deep breath to keep from losing his cool. "Curly I said go away."
Curly's eyes widened and he put a hand on his chest, "That's awful rude, where are your manners?"
His anger built up inside of him and Arnold slammed his hand on the table, and shot a furious look at Curly, "PLEASE shut the fuck up Curly. And go away, no one wants you here."
"Oh." He looked a bit startled, "Well alright then." Curly stood up and looked from Arnold to Gerald, "I'll leave before the alpha male blows his lid. Have a nice day fellas!" With that he walked off with his head leading his steps, making him look like an awkward chicken.
Gerald put his feet up on the table, and leaned back resting his head in his hands, "So something IS up Arnold! How did Curly put it? Alpha male rivalry?" he snickered.
"Gerald, SHUT UP." Arnold crossed his brow. "There is no 'rivalry' or whatever the hell he said."
Gerald laughed at him, "How am I supposed to believe that if you're getting all defensive about it?"
"Just drop it, okay? I feel like a moron, and you're not helping." he said stiffly.
"Whatever you say."
"Good."
"Is that you, Helga?" A voice echoed in the empty bathroom in the band hallway. No one ever goes to this bathroom, so it was like Helga's little hiding spot.
"AH!" she squealed and dropped her apple in the toilet. Plunk! She looked frantically for whoever was calling her name.
"Helga?" The person's eye was looking through the crack in the door, "It's me Phoebe, I've been looking all over for you! What are you doing in here?"
"Nothing, nothing in particular." She said and started playing with her hands.
"Helga, you're sitting in the toilet stall...during lunch..." Phoebe said.
"Yeah, so?" Helga replied quickly.
"Helga," she put her hand on the door "please, come out I wanted to talk to you."
Phoebe heard Helga go "Pff..." and the door latch clicked, and the hinges swung open with a squeak, where Helga stood before Phoebe with her eyes red.
"Helga, have you been crying?" Phoebe asked.
Helga blinked hard and avoided eye contact after, "No, no...of course not, Helga G. Pataki doesn't cry. Never." Helga said as-a-matter-of-factly. She wiped her eyes with her hands and then crossed her arms walking toward the sinks in order to get more space from Phoebe.
"Okay, well then the only other logical explanation for why your eyes are red is because you're either A, hungover, or B, high."
"No! I don't do that stuff Phoebe." She looked away and at the ground, and then said slowly, "You should know that."
"So then you were crying, correct?" Phoebe persisted.
"Maybe..."
"Helga..." Phoebe gave her an impatient glare.
"Okay FINE!" Helga crossed her arms and stood more confident and pointed to her self, "I WAS crying Phoebe! Is that a big deal? And why should you care? You should be off somewhere holding hands with Gerald in your la-di-da land COMPLETELY oblivious to the rest of the world. Well guess what Phoebe? While you were busy with Tall Hair Boy, I've been ALONE, and you never seemed to notice." Tears began to fill her eyes, and in the look she gave, you could see all of the sadness, loneliness, anger, love sickness and insecurities she felt. "What's with the sudden change of heart, Phoebe?" She asked sadly.
Phoebe's confidence was lost. She didn't expect Helga to react like this. She should have known better, expect the unexpected from her. But now, she didn't know what to say. What could she say after that? "Helga..." she began.
"Don't 'Helga' me Phoebe." Helga retorted. Crossing her arms over her chest, she scowled and turned halfway to avoid any possible eye contact. She didn't know whether she wanted to listen to Phoebe, or just reject her apology.
"I just...I just..." Phoebe took a deep breath. She knew what she had to say, she just had to say it. "Considering the events of the recent past, you probably don't want to listen to my apology, Helga." Phoebe took another deep breath and tried to hold back oncoming tears while her voice shook, "The only way to mend a relationship is to start with the simple things."
Helga sniffled and stiffened her posture, waiting for Phoebe to continue.
"I know that I've been very selfish with my time lately, and I know that I hurt your feelings by ignoring you like that. It was wrong for me to do that to my best friend. I just want you to know that I'm very sorry. You deserve better than that. You deserve a lot better. You're a brilliant friend to have, and I can't believe I missed that." A tear rolled down her cheek leaving a glimmering streak on her small face, "I'm truly sorry, Helga. And I can understand if you don't accept my apology." She looked up at Helga and waited for a response, but Helga simply stood with her arms crossed. Phoebe looked to the ground in defeat, and started walking out of the bathroom.
She walked the walk of shame out of the bathroom, and Helga knew she couldn't end their friendship like this."Wait!" Helga's voice squeaked and Phoebe turned around, "You know I can't stay mad at you after that Pheebs." Helga smiled, "Apology accepted."
"Phoebe! Sup!" Gerald shouted across the lunch room to get her attention.
Finally! Now Gerald would stop pissing him off about this 'alpha male' and 'Wolfgang' crap. It was really annoying when Gerald made fun of him like that. Thank God Phoebe showed up, otherwise Gerald probably would have ridiculed him for the rest of lunch.
But wait, why did Phoebe come late to lunch today? Didn't Gerald say something about her talking to Helga? Arnold looked for where Phoebe was in the crowded lunch room, and she was accompanied by none other than Helga. How convenient...
"Hi Gerald, Arnold." Phoebe said sweetly, and she set down her lunch bag. "Can we pull up an extra seat for Helga?" she asked.
"Yeah, sure." Gerald said, "Hey Arnold, can you get that seat from the other table? You're closest."
Clearly Gerald was doing this on purpose, but Arnold gave him a look that said "You are really immature." But Gerald smiled right back with a look that said "You're the 'alpha male' right?", so Arnold stood up and got an extra chair.
The girls sat down, and as Arnold sat down too, he noticed that Helga's eyes were a little red and swollen.
There was an awkward silence for a while, but it was broken by Gerald. "So how was driver's ed yesterday?" Gerald asked Helga.
She shrugged. "It was ok. I had to walk there though," Arnold looked slightly guilty, "And it was raining, so when I walked in to class late, the teacher was all like," she clamped down her nose with her fingers, "'Excuse me Ms.! You're late for class. This won't happen again, will it?'" The whole table laughed. "Oh my God, she had the most irritating voice."
"I was so bored." Arnold added.
"Yeah, so bored that Ms. Johnson noticed! Nice job…"
"At least I didn't fall asleep." He snapped
"At least I didn't get caught." She shot back
He laughed, "She sits down to teach us."
"Yeah she can hardly fit in the chair." Helga said and rolled her eyes.
"Doesn't she look like a chicken?"
"Oh my God yes," Helga turned her attention back to Gerald and Phoebe, "You don't understand, this lady is HUGE!" Helga used her arms to exaggerate. "I mean, she's so huge that I'm surprised the floor didn't break from underneath her."
Everyone was red from laughing at Helga's description of their teacher, but she still continued, "Out first drive is today. I don't know how Eugene, Arnold and I are going to fit in those tiny little cars with Ms. Johnson sitting in it. Hopefully the car won't break down from an 'Oversized Load'." Everyone laughed.
"Speaking of Eugene, wasn't that blackout this morning really creepy? I mean, think about it, the fire alarm gets pulled and then someone's voice comes over the intercom asking for Eugene? Who would have the motive to potentially get expelled so they could threaten Eugene? What could have Eugene done?" Phoebe asked.
"I don't know," said Helga, "But who ever blackmailed Eugene must be one twisted little freak..."
"I want to know who actually went down to the auditorium and what was down there. I mean, they obviously got the power back on, and the day is back to normal, but did they ever find out who actually threatened him?" Arnold added.
"Mr. Albertus probably sent Rory and Boyd down there." Gerald said.
"Whose Rory and Boyd?" Arnold asked.
"They're the two loons who are the head janitors. They're both Scottish and Rory is the fat one and Boyd is the ginger." Helga explained.
"Well that's a nice description Helga." Arnold said sarcastically.
"Well what else am I supposed to say? It's the truth isn't it?" She argued.
Arnold laughed, "Let's just hope this blackout blackmail thing doesn't become routine. They really need to find out who did it. Like Phoebe said, why did they want Eugene?"
Who would have the motive to potentially get expelled so they could threaten Eugene? The memories from last night came flashing back to her...
xXxFlashbackxXx
"Oh, a little birdy told me. Besides, how could I not? The whole school knows about it now, after my swe-" he stopped and shook his head, "my co-star came ranting into rehearsal one day. I've never seen her perfect face so angry."
"Do you mean Rhonda?" she shivered.
"Yes, my Rhonda...my Christine... she seemed very upset about it. 'How is Wolfgang in love with Helga Pataki when he hardly talks to me? Am I a turn off or something?'" he took a deep breath, "WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT HIS ATTENTION WHEN YOU HAVE ME? ALWAYS STANDING IN THE SHADOWS, ALMOST INVISIBLE TO YOU." he screamed to himself.
xXxEnd of FlashbackxXx
He wants Rhonda's attention.
He wants her attention and he thinks the only way he's going to get it is from jealousy.
But what' this got to do with Eugene? She thought.
Curly's role, the Phantom, shunned by the one he loves, Rhonda's role, Christine, who loves Eugene's role, Raoul.
He has the motive to potentially expel himself just for Rhonda's attention...the little freak...the Phantom...
Was she just imagining this? Maybe the anger she felt toward him was making her think like this, but at the same time, is seemed amazingly ironic.
"Helga? Are you okay?" Phoebe asked, snapping her back to reality. Helga realized she'd been staring with a glazed, worried look, lost in thought while twirling the hair in one of her pigtails.
"Yeah, Phoebe, can I call you tonight?" she asked, still staring into the distance.
"Yeah, no problem." Phoebe replied. She still had to talk with her about…Ice Cream anyway.
Arnold noticed her worried look, "Helga, are you okay?" Arnold asked.
"I'm fine. Just peachy. I was thinking about something, but it's not important anyway." She said and stopped playing with her hair. They made eye contact, and then Arnold's considerate nature came out once again as he noticed that Helga brought no lunch. "Helga, where's your lunch?" Helga remembered this morning…when her mom gave her a credit card for lunch money, and rubbed the back of her neck. "When I asked my mom for some lunch money she gave me her credit card. But you can't buy stuff from the cafeteria with a credit card, so I brought an apple from home. But then it fell in the toilet."
"It fell in the toilet?" He asked.
Helga glanced quickly at Phoebe. "Long story."
Arnold stood up and smiled, "I'll buy you some lunch."
Helga shook her head, "Arnold, it's no big deal, really, I-I'm fine, you've done enough for me today."
"No. I'm buying you lunch."
"You are NOT buying me lunch."
"Great! I'll make sure to avoid the mystery meat."
Helga groaned while Arnold walked away.
A/N: Okay, I know I have some lose ends to tie up with Helga and Phoebe, even Curly and Eugene, and Arnold and Wolfgang. But we're almost there, so keep holding on! Also, I'm going to start posting a lot of shorts on my account later, so watch for those too :)
Thanks so much for the reviews! I really do like reading them!
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnddd I'm out!