Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story.
They all belong to their rightful owner: Craig Bartlett.
Title: "Leave the lights on"
In the last chapter: When Miriam and Miles decided it was time to intervene in their children's lives, they sent them to Sunset Arms to work out whatever problems they had. At Sunset Arms, the blondes were quick to realize that there was only one room available and that they had to spend the night together. The temptation was too grand for the teenagers and gave up on their life in celibacy.
This left them with only one choice; to come out in the open with their relationship and Helga decided they'd might as well come out with a bang. At the prom, Helga performed the song she had written herself for their classmates and left with Arnold right after. Now their classmates were left wondering if there was something more between the blonde stepsiblings than what they had first thought.
Author's 1st note: I don't know what to say! Enjoy Cx
[Please notify me if you notice any grammar mistakes. This isn't my first language, so there's bound to be mistakes.]
Chapter 31: "This time I'll protect you"
"Helga?" Arnold asked quietly as he walked through the hallway of Sunset Arms. When he had woken up early this faithful morning, he had noticed that Helga wasn't in bed with him. Despite the early time he had gotten out of bed to find her. He was worried; she had been so quiet on their way home from the prom and had gone straight to bed as soon as they reached Sunset Arms.
Helga was nowhere to be found though. With a frown, he headed towards the front door and opened it. At the stoop he saw Helga's back turned to him, clad in the white dress shirt she had slept in since they got to Sunset Arms. She heard the door open and turned around, a bit of a scared look in her eyes. When Arnold saw what she had in her hand, he understood why.
"You're smoking?" the boy asked, more curiously than accusingly and closed the door behind him.
Helga sighed. "I… don't need a lecture right now, Football Head." She said and turned her back to him.
"No, no. I…" Arnold started and walked down the steps until he reached her and sat down. "I wasn't going to lecture you. I'm just… confused. I thought you quit?"
"I did." Helga replied matter-of-factly and put her lips around the cigarette. "But I started again after you and I broke up or… whatever I should call it."
The words stung, but they weren't far from the truth so Arnold simply sighed. "I'm sorry."
"Why? You're not one with the addiction." Helga countered and pressed the cigarette on the sidewalk. "Speaking of which… I have a feeling it was so easy for me to quit because you became my new guilty pleasure."
Arnold couldn't help but smile at those words, especially when she leaned closer to give him a kiss. He closed his eyes, ignoring the fact that her lovely vanilla scent was mixed with smoke. When he leaned back though, his thought must have shown on his face because she started laughing.
"That was my last, I swear." Helga said with her hands up in self-defense. "I hate the smell too now thanks to you."
Arnold snickered lowly and leaned back on the steps to look at the sky. "Why were you up so early?"
"I was hoping you'd catch me so we could see the sunset together." Helga replied in a romantic voice to which Arnold shot her a pointed look. "Ok, I'm lying. I just couldn't sleep properly…"
"Nervous?"
"Nervous don't even begin to describe it, Paste for brains." Helga countered and leaned unceremoniously back on the stoop. "I'm terrified."
"You, the girl with the iron fists?"
"You can't punch your way out of everything… but I can't promise certain people won't get smacked around if they don't know when to shut up."
"Helga…"
"I'm serious, you may have to hold me back today. Like physically restrain me… Do you own a straitjacket?"
"Helga!" Arnold scolded, but couldn't help but laugh at the image. "Even if I had one, you could rip it open."
"True." Helga agreed and sat up straight to look at him. "But I am scared. I know you want to believe in the good in people, but people, especially our classmates, aren't going to be very understanding."
"Some might be."
"Yes, but most of them won't. Think of Sid for example. And Rhonda, probably Nadine too and Lila… I have no idea about the others though."
"Oh, God. Sid." Arnold remembered and hid his face in his hands. "He's gonna kill me."
"I won't let him. Even if you hadn't been in my life, I still wouldn't have wanted him." Helga said and put her hand on Arnold's back to make some soothing circles. He looked at her with a small smile. "But I know he isn't gonna see it that way. Don't worry though. I won't let him hurt you."
"Why can't you tell yourself not to worry too?" Arnold asked curiously.
"Because you and I are different."
"How?"
"I'm used to being hated. You, on the other hand, are not. You're Mr. Popular, the guy people go to for advice and the one they look up to. This whole thing is gonna blow their minds. It's probably the most unethical thing you've ever done in your life."
"Are you trying to make me nervous?" Arnold asked with a slanted look on his face.
Helga laughed as she took his hand in her own. "I'm trying to prepare you. This is going to be a really hard day. For the both of us and I just don't want you to think that it'll be easy."
With a smile, Arnold placed his other hand over Helga's. "Thank you, but I still think you need to trust our friends a little more." He insisted.
Helga shook her head solemnly. "No… you need to trust them less."
"So, big day, huh?" Gerald asked with a grin when Arnold and Helga reached the school gates. "Are you ready for this?" he asked with an energetic voice, which earned him some confused stares from the blondes. He sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm nervous and I don't know what to say to make this easier."
Phoebe patted his back comfortingly. "How are you two feeling?"
"Nauseous." Helga snapped and crossed her arms. "And annoyed. Arnold refuses to accept that our classmates aren't understanding, loving, non-judgmental people."
Arnold sighed. "I just don't believe they would judge us that hard, Helga. It's not like we planned this or have done anything illegal." He argued and Helga rolled her eyes.
"Help me."
"Dude," Gerald said and put his arm over the shorter boy. "I'm sorry, but I'm with Helga on this on."
Arnold gave him a look of disbelief. "You really think our friends will hate us for this?"
"Hate is a strong word, but they won't be happy."
"They'll just have to get used to it." Arnold insisted and wiggled out of Gerald's grip. He took Helga's hand in his own and dragged her with him. "And we're starting now."
Helga had been about to argue against Arnold's method of heading to class, but there was something about his resolve that made her stay quiet. The fact that he loved her so much that he was willing to go through this warmed her heart and she couldn't help but want to trust him. It was trusting their classmates that was much harder.
On their way to class, people called out to Helga and complimented her for her song at the prom. Helga thanked them awkwardly and Arnold smiled at her. "See? People aren't that judgmental."
"These are people who don't know us, bucko." Helga pointed out.
Arnold sighed. "Fine. Let's see how they will react then." He insisted and opened the door.
"Arnold, I don't think you should - - " Helga started and tried to wrestle her hand out of his grip before their classmates saw them, but it was too late. They had all been in the middle of chatting heatedly when they heard the door. Every single classmate was looking at the blondes, most of them with confused or disapproving looks. Helga could feel Arnold's hand slipping from her own and when she saw the way he was looking at their classmates, with realization in his eyes, it broke her heart.
With resolution, Helga walked into the classroom, ignoring the stares of her peers. She saw a leg stretch out in front of her and she jumped over it easily before sitting down at her seat. She gave Rhonda, the owner of the leg, a seething stare. Rhonda's own stare matched Helga's as she sauntered over to her and put her hands on the table between them.
"What was that song about?" Rhonda asked with her teeth clenched.
Helga sighed. "I'm not going to analyze my own song to you, princess. You can interpret it anyway you want."
"Oh, bullshit!" Sid declared and the girls looked at him. "The song was clearly about you and Arnold!"
Helga considered lying, suddenly coming out seemed like an extremely bad idea, but she kept her promise to herself and Arnold. "If you already knew that, why did you bother asking?"
"I wasn't asking!" Sid pointed out and looked at Arnold who was walking towards them.
"So… all this time, you two have been…?" Sheena asked, letting the question hang in the air as she pointed between the two blondes.
"Not all this time." Arnold started lamely and stopped at his seat, but didn't sit down. "It just… happened."
"When?" Nadine asked with disgust on her face.
"When does it count?" Helga asked and crossed her arms, genuinely wondering when it did indeed all start. Was it at their first kiss, the first time they had sex, when they told each other they loved the other?
"I don't know!" Nadine admitted and looked at the others for help.
"When did you first kiss?" Sheena suggested and the others nodded in agreement.
The blondes looked at each other awkwardly before looking away. "Well… I kissed Arnold's cheek before we moved in together, but that wasn't really because I liked him or something."
"Then the next kiss!" Nadine insisted.
Arnold looked shamefully at Helga when he remembered the first time his lips touched hers. "I'm… not sure if that kiss really counts." He whispered and Helga shook her head in agreement. "So… the next one was - - "
"After Rhonda's party." Helga responded and looked at the ravenette.
"So after New Year's eve?" Rhonda asked and put her hands on her hips.
Helga shook her head. "Your first party."
"What?!" the teenagers exclaimed in absolute shock and started complaining loudly, their voices drowning in other angry voices.
"Shut it!" Helga shouted and her classmates quieted down, mostly because they wanted to hear her explanation. "Look, we didn't plan this. One thing led to another and it just happened."
"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Harold interfered. "What happened to Hilda?"
Arnold scratched his neck awkwardly. "Well - - "
Sid groaned. "Hilda… Helga." He realized and the others groaned in understanding.
"What do you take us for, idiots?" Harold asked insulted.
"Well, no one figured it out, did ya?" Helga asked and stood up to get in Harold's face. He growled at her, but that was all he did before Arnold grabbed Helga by her shoulders and held her back. "I wasn't gonna punch him, Arnold." she insisted, but let him pull her away from Harold.
"So, whenever you talked about Hilda, you were actually talking about Helga?" Sheena asked in a much less agitated voice than everyone else.
Arnold nodded meekly. "I had to come up with an excuse when you guys saw… um…"
"Oh!" Stinky said and shook his head. "Them hickeys were made by Helga then?"
The girls groaned in disgust, all except for Lila and Phoebe though Helga wasn't sure what the redhead was thinking. She hadn't said a word and her facial expression had been so neutral since they walked in. The blonde almost feared her reaction more than anyone else's.
"And you two!" Sid interfered and pointed at Phoebe and Gerald. "You two knew about this from the beginning, didn't you?"
"Actually, Arnold didn't tell me until we saw the hickeys." Gerald confessed.
"And Helga didn't tell me until she needed my advice." Phoebe confessed, leaving out the details on purpose. There was no reason to tell everyone that Helga had almost had a nervous breakdown the first time Arnold had told her he loved her.
"Still! I can't believe this, Arnold." Sid said as he chewed on his lip. "You knew I was sweet on Helga and you were dating her behind my back."
Those words tied a knot in Arnold's throat, but he forced himself to speak. "I'm so sorry, Sid, I really am. Helga and I… we didn't plan this and we had to keep it a secret."
Sid just shook his head. "You're supposed to be my friend, how could you do that?"
"Hold on." Helga interfered. "Look, I know how this must seem to you all, but Arnold didn't do anything wrong. Sid, I'm sorry, but even without Arnold, you and I wouldn't have happened."
"That's not the point! I don't care about you anymore, Helga! It's the fact that this bastard betrayed me!"
"Hey!" Helga shouted and stepped up to Sid. "Don't you dare talk to him about that. Have you forgotten everything he's ever done for you?" she asked and stepped back, looking at the others one by one. "You're all forgetting who you're talking about here! It's Arnold, for crying out loud! The guy who's been there for you since you were in diapers! He's never judged you for anything you've ever done and even helped you hide your secrets. Does that mean nothing because of this?"
The teenagers looked at each other guiltily, but Rhonda stood her ground. "All that doesn't change the fact that this is super creepy! I mean, you live together! Like siblings." She pointed out.
"But we aren't siblings, princess, or maybe the fact that you don't have any yourself confuses you about the difference?"
Rhonda growled, but it was Lila's voice that got everyone's attention. "I actually think it's ever so romantic." She said.
If it was physically possible, everyone's chins would have hit the ground at that comment. "What?" Helga asked with an emotionless voice along with a numbed face.
"Star-crossed lovers who should not have fallen in love, but they couldn't help themselves and now they are fighting to be together in a world that will never accept them." Lila said dramatically and with a twinkle in her eyes. "It's like taken out of a romance novel."
Helga looked at Arnold in shock. "Of… Of all the people here, I never thought you'd support us." She muttered and scratched her head, wondering if she was in fact asleep and all this was a dream.
"Oh, everything makes so much sense now!" Lila squealed and tangled her fingers together. "How angry you got when I was pursuing Arnold, that was jealousy, wasn't it?"
"Well, I, uh - - "
"And the way you almost ran me over after I kissed him."
"Um - - "
"And all those love poems I noticed in your notebooks."
"Well, that's - - Wait… What?!" Helga shouted in terror and ignored that Arnold was looking questioningly at her.
"Oh, I noticed that you were always writing in those pink notebooks you have and I couldn't help myself; I was simply too curious so I looked over your shoulder one time. You are really talented and the words you wrote were so - - " Lila cooed happily until Helga stepped up to her and put both her hands on the redhead's mouth.
"Please shut up." Helga hissed at the girl and she nodded. With a sigh, she let her hands fall down. "If you talk about my poems again, I'll rip your tongue out and wrap it around your neck." She whispered to which the redhead simply giggled.
"I understand." Lila said and put her hands on Helga's shoulders. "But I really do think you make an ever so adorable couple, Helga." She continued as she turned the blonde around and pushed her towards Arnold. Helga stumbled and Arnold held his hands out for her. Her palms ended on his chest and his hands on her shoulders and they looked at each other shyly before Helga pushed herself away from him, looking away with reddened cheeks.
"I reckon that's the first time I've ever seen miss Helga blush." Stinky observed and leaned closer to the blushing girl, which the other classmates did as well.
Helga made a sound of embarrassment before she waved her hands at the curious teenagers. "Out of my space!" she hissed, silently pleading with her blush to disappear, but it didn't work.
Curly hummed thoughtfully. "If you think about it, it actually makes sense."
Rhonda stared at the shorter ravenette in shock. "You're kidding?!"
"Not at all." Curly said with a wide grin. "Arnold and Helga are opposites which must make them soulmates. Just like with me and sweety pie."
Rhonda groaned loudly before pushing at Curly's head, successfully causing him to stumble and fall to the ground. "Twisted little freak."
"I believe I agree with Curly." Eugene interfered with his index finger lifted. "If you think about Arnold's former crushes and girlfriends, he definitely seemed to have a type that is very opposite Helga and those never ended well. So it makes sense that a girl like Helga would sweep him off his feet."
Arnold and Helga stared at each other before Helga looked away, putting a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. Arnold scratched his neck in embarrassment, his eyes closed and cheeks flushed as he did so.
"Willikers." Stinky said curiously and scratched his head. "When you say it like that…"
Harold made a sound that was a mix between a hum and a groan. "Helga is a pretty cool girl so it's not like I can really blame Arnold…" he muttered thoughtfully.
"And they met each other before they knew what their parents were up to." Gerald suddenly remembered.
"They did?" Sheena asked curiously and looked at the blondes for an explanation.
"The bus." Arnold and Helga remembered and chuckled at the memory.
"Oh, boy." Helga said and nudged her elbow against Arnold's arm. "If someone had told me that I'd end up with that shy, nosy, rather special, dense excuse for a teenage boy, I would have punched them."
Arnold smirked. "And if someone had told me I'd end up with that overconfident, antisocial, outspoken, cantankerous know-it-all, I wouldn't have believe them either."
Helga crossed her arms. "Cantankerous?" she repeated with an obviously impressed tone in her voice.
Arnold shrugged. "You rub off on me." He explained somewhat shyly and she couldn't help the lopsided grin that grew on her lips.
"Cantankerous? What in the heck's that mean?" Stinky asked in confusion.
"It means to be bad-tempered, argumentative or uncooperative." Phoebe explained and smiled innocently when Helga shot her a pointed look.
"Thank you, miss Googles-too-fucking-much." Helga joked and Phoebe snickered.
"Bad-tempered is an understatement." Harold interfered and started laughing with some of the others.
Helga huffed, but Arnold was snickering as well so she couldn't help but join them. "You're the one who loves this cantankerous girl, what does that make you?"
"A lovesick fool." Gerald answered on Arnold's behalf and doubled over laughing.
"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Nadine interfered with wide eyes and pointed at the blondes. "Loves? Y-You love her?"
Arnold blushed again though he was ready to answer truthfully until Sheena interrupted. "I asked him that some time ago! He said yes. I thought he was talking about Hilda, but… it was actually Helga, wasn't it?"
Arnold wanted to hide himself in a hole in the ground. He felt so shy with all these inquisitive eyes on him, but he had decided to come out in the open so he figured he'd might as well truly go all out. "Yes. I love Helga." He stated decisively.
The girls, except for Rhonda and Helga, cooed happily at Arnold's words. While the ravenette was still wearing a scowl on her face, the blonde was trying to hide her smile by looking down at the ground. Her heart was pounding as if that was the first time she had heard him say it, but it was far from it. He had whispered it to her over and over again just the former night and she had told him too many times to count as well. Yet still, as he was telling what felt like the world, her heart was threatening to pop out of her chest.
"And based on that smile, I assume Helga feels the same?" Eugene asked with a wide grin.
Helga looked at the probing eyes around her, feeling like a deer in the headlights as she did. She shut her eyes, shaking with frustration and embarrassment. "S-So what if I do?" she hissed defensively and ignored the excited sounds her classmates made at her confession. She looked at Arnold, hoping he could see the smile she was hiding behind her embarrassed scowl. Based on the smile he was showing her, he definitely saw through her exterior.
"Whoa, wait, hold on!" Rhonda interfered and the others went silent. "Are we totally forgetting who we're dealing with here? They are stepsiblings! Their parents are married! They live together, all of them! And I'm assuming your parents don't know?"
The blondes looked guiltily at each other. "We haven't really thought about telling them just yet." Arnold admitted and Helga nodded her head.
"They have enough to deal with at the moment. We wanted to wait until that storm is over."
"So you can start another one?" Rhonda asked and lifted her arms in confusion. "Have you even considered how this will affect your parents' marriage? I mean, I'm not surprised that Helga doesn't care what happens to her mother, but what about your father, Arnold?"
Arnold got a guilty look on his face, but Helga was quick to step in. "Come off your high horse, princess. We have thought about it. Hell, if we hadn't, we would probably have started dating a lot earlier."
"Oh, your sense of right and wrong is so messed up. Do you have any idea what kind of damage you've done to your family?"
"Excuse me?!"
"Arnold would never have thought of doing this on his own!"
"Kinda hard to. It's not exactly a crime to do it with yourself." Helga pointed out, which some of her peers snickered at.
"That's not what I meant! You have twisted him! I don't know how, but you did! You're a bad influence on him."
"Wait, wait. Rhonda." Arnold said and stepped between the girls. "I'm actually the one who fell in love with Helga first."
Rhonda stared at him in disbelief. "I don't get it. What's to love about this girl, Arnold? How can you go from a sweet girl to Lila to a… nothing like Helga?!" she asked.
"You know what?" Helga interfered. "I'm starting to think you like Arnold."
Rhonda froze at those words and that reaction didn't go unnoticed by her classmates. Curly's mouth curled into an O. "Say it isn't so, sweety pie!" he pleaded and grabbed her by her hand.
Rhonda shoved him off her and stepped around Arnold to get in Helga's face. "You know nothing about me, Helga." She hissed lowly, but not so lowly their classmates couldn't hear her.
Helga got a superior smirk on her face. "And yet I'm pretty sure I'm right. Why else would you be so angry?"
"Shut up."
"You could handle it when Arnold liked Lila. I mean, she's a sweet, pretty and funny girl so it made sense, right? Losing to someone like her, that was doable - - "
"Stop it!"
"But for Arnold to fall for a girl like me… that you can't handle." Helga said and crossed her arms again. "You lost to someone like me and you hate it."
"Of course I hate it! You are the rudest, most insufferable, most unattractive girl I've ever met and yet someone sweet and kind like Arnold likes you?! Of course I hate it!" Rhonda responded and turned to look at Arnold. "Why her?! What's so special about someone like her?!"
Arnold was staring at the two girls in front of him, one who was clearly amused by the situation and the other who was seething with anger. This was not how this had supposed to be, this was not how he would have guessed it would have turned out and he most certainly hadn't hoped for it to be like this. He took a deep breath.
"I don't have to explain to you why I love Helga… I just do." Arnold replied, which Rhonda simply shook her head at. "And I had no idea that you… that you felt that way about me. If I had known I would have talked to you privately before - - "
"Stop." Rhonda said and put her hand up. "Don't you dare feel sorry for me, Arnold, I'm too above you for you to feel sorry for me."
"Interesting way to talk to someone you like." Helga huffed and noted in her mind that her statement was rather hypocritical.
"It's not about whether I like him or not, you bitch!" Rhonda screamed. "It's about how wrong this is! Someone like Arnold should not be with someone like you!"
"And who is someone like me, Rhonda?" Helga asked sarcastically. "Besides a bitch."
"Everything Arnold should be against!" Rhonda replied. "And anything I may have felt for Arnold disappeared the moment I figured out that you, of all people, are someone he would fall in love with. Only an imbecile would love someone like you."
Helga's fists clenched at those words. Her anger was obvious, but the reason for it was not. She didn't care what Rhonda thought about her, it was the fact that she had just called Arnold an imbecile that got the blonde girl's blood boiling. "And what does that make you, Rhonda, since you're the girl secretly pining for the guy who prefers a girl like me over you?"
"It makes me an idiot." Rhonda admitted with surprising ease. "I'm disgusted with what you have turned him into. You made him betray his dad whom he only got to meet two years ago! All because you're a slut who - - "
"Enough!" Arnold shouted when he saw Helga's fist clench again. He stepped between the girls, put his hands on Helga's shoulders and made her step back. "Please, Helga. She's not worth it." he whispered soothingly, hoping Helga wouldn't give herself trouble by falling into Rhonda's trap.
"You need to keep your bitch on a lease, Arnold." Rhonda mocked which she quickly regretted. Helga stepped around Arnold and stomped her foot on Rhonda's foot which made her shriek. "Are you insane?! These are Manolo Blahnik! Do you have any idea how much these cost?!"
"Not a clue, but the expression on your face is pretty fucking priceless." Helga countered and added some pressure to her foot before she stepped off the girl's foot. After giving the ravenette a warning look, Helga turned around to head towards her seat. It was almost time for class and she prayed everyone would keep their mouth shut until then. She was already at the brink of going berserk. She knew that one little word could push her over the cliff.
"Maybe you do deserve each other!" Rhonda said as she soothed her sore foot. "You have at least one thing in common: Parents that didn't want you."
Helga halted and saw the way Arnold flinched at those words as if he had been struck by lightning. She knew how abandoned he had felt when his parents left him, how much he secretly loathed them for it and how he had wished they would have chosen him. He had stopped breathing and he didn't even register that Helga had turned around again. Everything had gone silent in his head until he heard the unmistakable sound of Rhonda screaming like a pig and people shouting either hers or Helga's name.
Arnold turned around clumsily and was met with the sight of Helga hovering above Rhonda as the black-haired girl was holding a hand over her face. Blood was trickling down her nose and the same blood was falling from Helga's clenched fist. Some of their classmates were trying to help Rhonda while others were circling around Helga to hold her back even though she wasn't trying to hit Rhonda again.
This is my fault… Arnold thought when he got eye contact with Helga. She told me to stop her, to hold her back today, but I didn't… Why did I freeze like that?!
At that moment, Mrs. Oah walked in the door with quick steps. She had obviously heard the piercing scream Rhonda had made out in the hallway where she came from. After asking what had happened in a panicked voice, Nadine shouted that Helga had punched Rhonda. When Mrs. Oah asked Helga if that was true, the blonde simple lifted her fist to show the blood on the knuckles. Mrs. Oah told Nadine to take Rhonda to the nurse and told Helga to come with her to the principal's office. Helga followed her obediently without looking in Arnold's direction.
How did this happen?
"She's been in there for a long time…" Phoebe muttered and looked at the big sign that said Principal on the door. "They're so quiet."
"It's gonna be ok, babe. Helga's not going down without a fight." Gerald tried to soothe the worried girl and caressed her shoulder.
"But she hit someone, Gerald. That's violence on school premises, that's a serious offense. She could get suspended for this!"
"I'm sure you're exaggerating. It's not like Helga was beating up Rhonda, she just… Maybe we should stop talking." Gerald suggested when he saw the pained look on Arnold's face.
The blonde boy hid his face in his hands. "This is my fault."
"How?" Gerald asked in disbelief.
"She told me I had to hold her back, she warned me that she might lose her temper… She trusted me and I failed her! I was supposed to stop her!" Arnold said and banged his head backwards until it connected with the wall. "This is my fault…"
"Arnold, I am positively certain that if Helga was here to hear you say that, she would tell you that you are acting foolish and that it isn't your fault." Phoebe pointed out. Arnold wanted to argue against her, but he didn't have it in him. He simply shook his head and massaged his scalp to get this burning headache he felt away.
Suddenly the door opened and Helga stepped out of it with a somber expression on her face. Phoebe, Gerald and Arnold stood up from the benches and looked at her expectantly. She didn't look at them at first, but then she looked at Arnold. The somber expression turned into one of remorse and she looked away again.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?" Arnold asked in a broken voice.
"That you had to see me punch your friend." Helga explained dully.
"Not that you punched her?" Gerald asked with a small, crooked grin.
"No." Helga stated matter-of-factly and looked at Phoebe who was silently asking the question they were all wondering. "I'm suspended." Helga continued and they all gasped. "I am not allowed to come back until the exams."
Phoebe sighed in relief. "I feared you wouldn't be allowed to take your exams here."
"He said since this was my first offense he wouldn't do that to me." Helga said and crossed her arms. "That's not what I'm worried about though."
That got Arnold's attention. "What then?"
Helga took a deep breath. "They're gonna call my mom…" she explained and bit on her lip. "They're gonna tell her that I punched Rhonda and that I refused to tell why so… she's going to ask me herself."
Arnold's green eyes widened when he realized what this meant. Helga was looking at him with so much guilt that he couldn't help but wrap his arms around her. Her hands gripped at his shirt in desperation and she hid her face in his shoulder.
"We're going to have to tell them." Helga whispered as she trembled in Arnold's arms.
He shut his eyes tight and put his hand on her head. He nodded. "It's gonna be ok."
"The hell it is… You saw how our classmates reacted… Our parents' reaction is going to be a hundred times worse."
Phoebe looked at Gerald with tears brimming in her eyes and when he pulled her in for a hug, she hid her face against his chest. "I could have tried stopping you, Helga. I saw how angry you got."
"No." Helga insisted and pulled away from Arnold. The shorter girl opened her arms towards the blonde and Gerald let go of her so the girls could hug. "No, this isn't your fault. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I should have ignored her. She wasn't worth it."
"Y-You have your grandparents on your side, right?" Gerald said, attempting to look on the bright side which Arnold was obviously incapable of at the moment. "They'll support you."
"I don't think Phil and Gertie's opinions matter to our parents." Helga interfered and looked at Arnold. "At least not to Miriam."
Arnold shook his head. "Not to my dad either… I've seen some new sides of him lately and I just… I can't imagine that he'd be very understanding." He admitted painfully and looked away, his eyes starting to glaze over.
With everything that had happened, Arnold hadn't had much time to think of his newest discoveries of his dad. The way Miles had talked to Helga, to himself and even the way he acted. There were sides to Miles that Arnold had never imagined would be there. Things he thought his hero would never do or say, but Miles was only human and Arnold had since his birth put his dad on a pedestal. It was time that he realized Miles wasn't the man he thought he was and had hoped he would be once he got to know him. He feared Miles' reaction more than Miriam's. Miles was the temperamental one, the one who would see this as betrayal and the one who would blame this on Helga because it was easier than admitting that his own son was to blame too.
"I'll be there for you." Arnold stated out of the blue. His friends turned to look at him and the girls let go of each other. Green eyes looked at them with determination. "I won't be naïve anymore. I know that this might end badly… so I promise that I'll take up the fight with my dad."
"We're in this together." Helga insisted and rested her forehead against his.
"Yes…" Arnold replied and kissed her temple. "But this time I'll protect you."
Author's 2nd note: Now, this thing about Rhonda before anyone asks… It was always part of my plan to have her be the one to react the strongest, but while I was writing this I realized that except for the fact that I've always thought she was a miserable bitch, then there wasn't really much reason for her to get more angry than the others. So I read through her profile on wiki and noticed that apparently there are hints that she likes Arnold (along with Curly, Harold and Sid – boy, does that girl get around!) in some episodes of the show and I figured… perfect reason! xD So yes, Rhonda had a sort of admiration for Arnold that was only just discovered by everyone in this (including myself, ha-ha xD) which made her ticked off that he would choose a girl like Helga over her. Just wanted to make it clear what that was about.
By the way, I don't know what the school police of violence is in America. I guessed it depended on the school, but in case Helga's penalty makes absolutely no sense, I apologize.