Man, sitting up in the front row was a disaster.
Not only did he have to listen to Mr. Simmon's lecture on British poetry again, probably for the millionth time, but also the fact that he at least couldn't turn around to lay a hand on his best friend's shoulder. Gerald wanted to be there for him; however he had to at least stay awake in class long enough so that he could talk to Arnold later.
"Arnold really wants to win the essay contest too, which is weird. He may not have said it, but boy did he sound anxious." Arnold loved to travel – from going fishing to the country's capital with his grandpa, him, and his dad for Veteran's Day. "Not to mention he had to spend a whole week with Helga Pataki at the beach." The thought made him shiver because there was NO WAY he wanted to know what that girl looked like in a bathing suit. Even if Arnold told him that things were ok in the end, it didn't help him when he was flipping through channels only to come to Babe Watch. He could remember the phone call he made to him in the middle of the night about a month after the break.
It was around 7:30 on Tuesday night and Arnold had been asleep for around a half hour. It never took him long to fall asleep because he always loved to dream the imaginary. They were interesting – some of them were complete fantasy while others were a little more realistic. Currently, he was dreaming of him and Gerald having a better day of Hooky since they had a miserable day AND missed the school carnival day.
Then, the phone ran over by his red couch. And it wouldn't stop.
Groaning himself awake, he tried to put the pillow over his head, but it didn't help at all. A knock could be heard outside his bedroom door. "Hey Shortman, your friend Gerald is on the phone."
Removing the pillow, but still with his face down in the mattress, he muffled, "I'll get it. Thanks." After footsteps could be heard going down the stairs. Sitting up with a yawn, he stretched his way over to the red sofa, picking up the phone.
"Hey Gerald, what's up?"
Unfortunately the voice boomed into Arnold's ear drum. "You never said anything about Babe Watch man! And you kissed Helga Pataki again? For a long time too? Man that is sick! I know I know you wouldn't say that it was bad. But come on, that is like the second time the two of you were sharing spit! It's gross, but it is the truth my brother. Why didn't you mention that so I could have avoided that channel at all costs?"
All of his loud shouting became too much for the boy. "GERALD! Calm down!" Rubbing his temple with his right hand and he leaned back on the couch. "Well I am still trying to get used to the fact that my second kiss from a girl was not only Helga again, but also that it was on national television! I don't think that is a topic I would like to talk about. So I'm sorry."
Gerald seemed to get the message. "Right, sorry about the shouting. I mean I just saw it on television – for a full three minutes. Man, why did Pataki kiss you for so long? That was longer than the play I'm sure of it."
And as strange as it sounded to Arnold, his best friend had a point. Why did she kiss him for so long?
"I don't know. I remember asking her after the play was over. She said that it would make the acting more real."
"Well that actually does make sense to me Arnold. Remember the time when we almost missed her play? She went ballistic! I swear if she wasn't the bully of P.S. 118 then she would be Eugene's best friend and not Phoebe's."
Arnold chuckled. "Still trying to bring up Phoebe?"And Gerald was caught.
"What? No man. That was just because Helga and she are friends. Why does Helga have any friends for that matter?"
The blonde's eyes narrowed, somehow feeling offended by that. "Everyone deserves a friend Gerald, even Helga. Ok? You know the reason why I said that things got better in the end was that Helga was trying to help me by telling me that Summer was using me."
"Ok Arnold I believe you. It's just that Helga always seems to hate you. Why would she do that if she hates you?"
Then the line went dead. "Arnold? Hey man, are you there?"
For some reason the two of them never spoke of it again. Not that they really wanted to either. "At least no one has seen the show except for me. Otherwise Arnold wouldn't be here and Helga would have attacked the whole class by now."
After that school had let out, all of the students rushing to the door ways. Arnold still wasn't saying anything. He just got out of his desk and walked out the door. Well, not out the door exactly. Curly closed it when he was laughing at the possibility of winning Rhonda's affection again, not caring that there were others in the room. So Gerald's friend ended up running into a wall. He only stumbled back slightly. And his best friend was there to put his hand on the shoulder, coming around to face him straight on with his books in his hand. "Hey Arnold, you ok?"
The blonde, typically known for nodding his head to say he was fine, instead shook his head.
As they opened the door, Arnold replied, "Not really Gerald." They continued their way down the hall a lot slower than the other students. The darker boy rubbed his left arm. "Well would it help if we played basketball or go get ice cream? That always helps."
"Not really Gerald."
They made it to the door and down the steps, glaring at the harsh sunlight despite it being a slightly chiller day than normal. However it wasn't bad enough that they needed jackets or anything. Gerald, being annoyed at his friend's repeated answer also recognized that he needed serious talking to. Looking at the boy beside him, he had to stop and look down as Arnold was tying his shoe. It was normal behavior though, so he thought his buddy would open up.
"Arnold, let's just sit here for a minute. There is something I need to talk to you about."
The boy turned his way to seeing Gerald on the steps. And he was giving him his concerned/serious face.
After following suit and sitting on the cold stone, "What is it?" he asked.
The darker boy stared at his best friend, pulling his knees up to rest his arms on. "You know you can trust me right? With anything you know."
Arnold's face furrowed for a second. "Yeah, of course I do."
"Well, I don't want to upset you my brother, but I got to know why you are so down lately today. I mean I understand about it being a couple days after your parents left," he approached his words with caution so that Arnold would feel more comfortable, "But everyone said Happy Birthday to you! And you got a cupcake no less. But how come you never told us when your birthday was, let alone want to celebrate it all of these years?"
When he really got the chance, Gerald got the feeling that this had something to do with his friend's parents. "And, I know it's hard so if you don't want to talk about it I completely understand. But you were going to tell me about that thing that you found of your dad's too. And I was also wondering why you are so excited about some dumb essay contest."
"It isn't a dumb essay contest Gerald!" Arnold shouted. Seeing his friend scoot further away, he realized that he freaked him out. Groaning, he racked his hand into his hair. "Sorry about that. It's just; give me a second to get it out."
Turning to his books, he pulled out the brown one that he had dropped in class. And he turned it to the first page. As he read the page, he kept glancing at Arnold. He had a sad smile on his face as he began to tell Gerald the story.
"You see, when you guys went to Dino Land a couple days ago, you know I stayed home because of the anniversary of the day I last saw my parents."
"Go on my brother." He nodded with a grin to cheer him on. It seemed to help because Arnold began to calm down. "I trust Gerald. He understands."He continued to flip through the pages of his father's writing and various drawings.
"Well for some reason, I got fed up with the belief that they might actually come back someday. I mean, it has been seven years." His fists got tighter, but after taking a deep breath, he continued on. "Anyway, I started to take all of the stuff that reminded me of my parents and was planning on taking it into the attic because I didn't want to see them anymore, including my hat."
Luckily his friend put a hand on his shoulder. "But when I put the box on a shelf, my dad's journal fell down. When I realized what it was, I took my hat back and ran downstairs with Grandpa very excited. I wanted him to read it. Of course there were moments as we were reading that we were interrupted by food and other things going on. But to see something that my dad had a connection to and I could see it was unbelievable."
"That is cool. I'm happy for you man."
"Thanks Gerald. Anyway, I learned that my parents met in San Lorenzo. My dad was apparently an anthropologist and my mom was a doctor and plant specialist."
"You mean a botanist?" Arnold raised an eyebrow.
"What? So I know my vocabulary. Anyway, go on." He shooed his hand at him.
"Yeah, well of course they fell in love there, but they also helped out this civilization called the Green Eyed People. They are like today's Aztecs or Mayans or something. But they trusted my parents after my parents fell down a waterfall. The Green Eyes saved them. After that, they trusted only my parents to help them when crisis hit. Well after that they had gotten married. But shortly after, I guess it was during their honeymoon, the Green Eyes came down with the sleeping sickness that killed people. It took awhile gathering the ingredients in the jungle and finding the exact formula that would help. But they managed to do it." He smiled at the good that his parents did to help others.
"Of course – that's where you get the helpfulness trait from huh?"Gerald joked lightly. Arnold chuckled as he flipped to the page with the volcano drawing.
"Probably Gerald. Anyhow of course I came along shortly after that. But what was cool was that apparently when I was born I silenced all of nature during a volcanic eruption!"
His friend became wild eyed. "Wow, let me see that for a second. I promise I won't ruin it." The blonde handed the book over as Gerald read each page. Looking at his dad's drawings, Arnold felt a sense of pride for once knowing he had something to show off and be proud of.
"That is crazy man. I guess it just means that you were definitely meant to do amazing things like your parents! You really sound like each of them."
"Thanks Gerald," he took his book back, "can I continue?"
"Of course! This may be a future legend to tell. That is if you'll let me or you can tell it if you want."
He smiled slightly at the thought. "I'll think about it. I am still getting used to knowing all of this."
"Alright, I get it. Go on my brother."
"As new parents, they had a challenge with settling down and raising me. But they loved it I guess. One night though, they decided to move back here and in the boarding house because I crawled my way out of the hut and almost got attacked by a snake."
Gerald laughed at that. "Well if you hadn't we would never become friends huh?" They did their "secret" handshake. The storyteller joined in. "Yeah you're right."
When their hands fell, their legs stretched out over the remaining stairs, the tips of their feet touching the side walk. Arnold looked up at the clouds that were slowly starting to cover the sun. At least it made it easier to see without the glares of passing cars or the sun rays hitting him in the eyes.
He also continued to talk, dreamily as his tone seemed to get sadder as his story was finishing.
"When all of us came here to Hillwood, we lived a pretty good life in the boarding house. Mom and Dad were always with me, we went around the city often, and I had fun with my grandparents," he removed his hat for a moment staring at it as he twirled it in his hands, "And when I had my first birthday, my dad got me this hat in the park. They probably saw all of us as babies, even you Gerald. But when they turned their attention back at me, I was gone again. Apparently I somehow got to the top of the slide and slid down into a puddle of mud."
Once again he got a laugh out of his friend. "Man, were you always a little baby dare devil?"
Arnold chuckled as he put his hat back on. "Yeah, I guess I was. But it wasn't until before I turned two that my parents' friend Eduardo came into town. He told them about the sleeping sickness killing the Green Eyes again. My parents said that they couldn't leave me, but Eduardo told them that it would be the last time they had to leave."
His friend remained silent. "This must have been when Arnold last saw them. I wish there was something I could do."
"They still didn't want to leave but," he leaned over as one tear fell down his cheek. Gerald rubbed his pal's back a bit, knowing that it still bothered him. "But they knew that they owed the Green Eyes because they saved us time and time again – what with the waterfall and the volcano. So they left on October 5th. I barely remember saying goodbye to them, not knowing that I'd never see them again."
He stood up all of a sudden, setting down the journal, and paced, going on in an outburst of hurt emotion. And his best friend let him - partly because he didn't know what to say and partly because Arnold needed to vent. He always was helping others with their biggest issues that he couldn't even ask for help with his biggest issue – because there was nothing he or their classmates could do about it. All of them would feel bad that he had to suffer, but not understanding that he had to suffer on his own with only his grandparents must have been very hard. "Wow, he really is a strong friend and a good one at that too."
"That is why I don't want to celebrate my birthday every year Gerald. It reminds me of them too much and thinking that they could have been here with me, well it just makes me sad. I'm not mad at them because they were only trying to help and wanted to come back home and be with me. But it just hurts. Maybe helping others is a part of what I get from my parents. I love helping you guys out. I also guess that it is my way of dealing with it because I don't want to see you guys hurt at all, especially not as bad as I have been."
He took a deep breath and stopped in front of the steps. "And when Ms. Soto came in to tell us about this writing contest, I wasn't too interested in it at first."
"But," Gerald prodded on.
"Then I saw the list. I was in the middle of reading the journal when I glanced at the countries we could go to. One of them was San Lorenzo, Gerald – the place they flew to help the Green Eyes when they disappeared."
His best friend stood up as well, handing the book back to Arnold. "So you wanted to win the essay contest in the hopes of finding your parents?"
He smiled at that. "Normally I would say that is way too dangerous and just settle for finding typical answers from the locals. If it weren't for the map I found that my dad drew. It was probably the map that they were going to use when they left." He flipped to the uncovered page, no doubt that there was the map.
"If I win that contest, then I would have the opportunity to really find them. That is if they are, well you know."
Gerald frowned. "Don't think like that man. If they are that adventurous, strong willed, and love you that much, than I'm sure that there is a big possibility that they could be alive. Now I don't want to say for certain since I am just as clueless as you are, but you got to look on the bright side like you always do. Remember?"
Shutting the book, the two boys made their way back to their houses. Arnold gave another handshake to Gerald. "Thanks for listening to me Gerald."
He smiled at his best friend. "Hey it was no problem at all. You know I've always got your back."
As they left, they never once took notice in all that time they were sitting on those steps that someone was behind the garbage can nearby, hearing Arnold's story.