There were hard thuds on the carpet as his foot made contact with his white suitcase. And he knew he should have carried it to his room instead of trying to break his foot, but he really didn't care. He planned on whistling his way to the room when he got to the hotel, to prove that he wasn't as tired as the others. But just from looking up at Harold and Stinky who were ahead of him, Sid couldn't lie – they were all beat.
Couldn't anyone blame him? After not getting any sleep because his friends were snoring right next to him for the past couple of nights (as well as sleeping sitting up which didn't help at all), coming here only to have to walk from one end of the hotel to the other because Curly had to go crazy again with Eugene over something that happened a year ago…and lastly Helga. Why did she have to get in the way and laugh at them?
He kicked his luggage as it wobbled back and forth, mainly because he and the others had to walk to the center of the hotel on the second floor. That sucked for sure. Why couldn't the girls get the second floor and not him and the guys anyway? Hands in his jean pockets, he felt himself dragging his other leg across the floor as he suddenly ran into Stinky's back. Oops…
He raised his arms as if he were about to be arrested and backed away (almost bumping into the wall behind him).
"I'm so sorry Stinky, I didn't see you! I swear!" Once again, he could feel himself panicking a little on the inside. And he could see Harold raise his brow beside him, though he didn't say anything. But he did shake his head, so Sid didn't know how bad he bumped into his friend. Would Stinky yell at him? It wasn't a big push after all, but still he couldn't help think it.
Stinky frowned a bit, but not much else as he turned his head around with his own hands searching his pants for something. "Nah, your fine Sid," he said, "but how could you have not seen me? I was standing right in front of you on a count of we're at my room now."
He closed his eyes and took a big breath of relief. It was good that he wasn't mad.
Sid lowered his hands to his sides rubbing his bare arm. He didn't have his black jacket on him, leaving him in his white shirt. It was actually kind of hard to get used to, but he was getting hot just standing in the hallway. In fact, all of them had changed into different clothes. Stinky just changed out of his jeans for blue shorts, while Harold actually found a blue shirt (that covered his stomach) with a big white stripe across the bottom. Other than that, they were all the same.
"Sid, are you there?" asked Harold, who was tapping Sid's shoulder. And immediately he snapped out of it.
"Wow that was weird," he thought. Embarrassed, he laughed a bit forcibly. "Yeah, I guess I was out of it. You gotta blame the heat, you know," he said looking to Stinky, "I was paying more attention to my suitcase and kicking it instead of carrying it. It was already bad enough having to take it up the stairs."
"And the hallway too! All because of Curly! Next time I see him," Harold panted in his rant, "he's dead meat!"
"Ah come on Harold," Stinky pulled out a card, "Here it is!" Turning around, he slid it into the door before pulling it out. He opened the door, lifting his backpack over his shoulder. "Well you guys, I'm gonna unpack and take a nap. Hold the door Sid, would you?" Nodding, Sid walked over and held the door while Stinky stepped in there a bit. Walking back to him and Harold, he smiled. "Well the good news is that both Brainy and Lorenzo are asleep, and the room is mighty nice. Your room is probably the same. You guys know where you're staying?"
"Uh, well…" Sid and Harold both looked at each other. Harold wasn't saying anything and neither was he. "Leave it to the both of us to forget what room we're in. This is so bad! Now we'll have to knock on every door, embarrass ourselves, and then -" Sid thought.
"Hey Harold! Sid! Come on you guys! Get over here before I close the door on you both again!" Sid and the guys looked down the hall only to see Gerald peeking his head out of his room. It seemed that they were only two doors away from Stinky. "Oh yeah, that's right. Principal Wartz assigned him, me, and Harold as roommates. Awesome!" It was great having two of his closest friends with him.
Sid could see his friend struggle to keep the door open with his own bags. And he wanted to go help, but before that could happen, Gerald was coming to them instead. But he felt a little more nervous with the way his friend was looking at him and Harold. He had a hand on his hip and the other was just hanging there while shaking his own head. "What were you guys doing taking so long anyway? I've been wondering where you were because you all looked so tired. I thought you'd be up here a minute after I got there."
Harold scratched his head. "What do you mean? We were on our way up here. Right Sid?" He turned his face and Sid could see that he was giving some sort of look. Harold was frowning and kept glancing at Gerald. But he didn't know what he meant. Sid kept looking back and forth among his friends. Stinky also was just as confused, until they turned to each other – and then they remembered what held them back. "That is true, we were taking our stuff upstairs when, oh, that happened." And just like that, Sid could feel the sweat dripping down the back of his neck and he reached up to cover it.
"Yeah, Gerald. We were only busy because…" he couldn't think of what to say. "Come on brain, think of something!" Luckily, Harold finished for him. "We were trying to tell Curly that was a stupid move! Yeah! Otherwise we'd all be asleep right now." Sid thought about lowering his hand, but he was still holding onto it really hard.
"Oh boy. This is just great! Who knows if Gerald will buy it? And what about Helga? What will she do to us later? What if she tells on us that she almost got punched? What then? We're probably gonna get into trouble with Principal Wartz and be suspended! But how can we get suspended on this trip? Maybe when we get back to Hillwood?" His thoughts were only making it worse, and he knew it too. But he couldn't help it. There was no way Gerald would believe that!
He could feel his nails digging into his skin.
But his friend just rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Curly is a sick boy," Gerald turned to Stinky, "Sorry about that man, I just didn't know where you guys were at." His tall friend waved his hand off. "It's fine Gerald. We were held up downstairs. But you guys are only a few doors down the hall?" He nodded. "Yeah. These guys need to unpack and get some sleep. Man you guys look beat. Especially you Sid."
Sid could feel himself being pinched again. Staring down at the carpet, he picked up his suitcase and allowed him to let go of his neck. "No, I'm, I'm okay. Really," he panted a little, "Just tired like you said." He smiled as he stood up straight. "Now, are we going to the room? Because I just want to lie down." Gerald nodded, turning and walking back to the door. "Sure thing Sid. See ya Stinky! We'll talk later!"
Following their friend, Harold also carried his suitcase. "Yeah Stinky! Come on Sid. Let's go because I wanna sleep!" As he left, Sid lifted his bag, but struggled to take it to his room. "Meet you later Stinky!"
Stinky shouted back. "Okie dokie Sid! I'll see you fellas later." Sid could hear his friend shut the door behind him as he passed by room three and make it to room two. It was good that Gerald decided to keep his blue backpack by the door. Lugging himself inside, light got in his eyes and he couldn't see well.
"Hey could you guys close the curtain or something?" he asked.
"Why would we do that Sid? You got to see this view man! It's awesome!" Gerald yelled.
"Yeah, just put your sunglasses on. Oh and put your stuff on the bed closest to the door because Gerald and I called the other ones." Harold said.
Deciding that was probably the best thing Harold said all day, Sid kneeled down and looked through his suitcase's front pocket knowing that's where they'd be. Pulling out his blue shades, it felt a lot better knowing that he could see in his room. Of course the colors were different being that everything looked blue or brownish (probably because there were oranges everywhere). Oh, and some greens too because of the yellows.
And looking back at the door, Sid pulled Gerald's backpack causing the door to shut completely. He left it by the door, thinking that Gerald would know where to put it for later. Right now, he had business to take care of.
The beds were on the right wall, and there was a TV too! "Boy Howdy! Who knew people around here have television also!"
He set his suitcase on his bed really quickly because he just had to see what the guys were talking about outside. Sid pushed the glass door to the left a bit more before being blinded by more sunlight, regardless of his sunglasses. Gerald and Harold were leaning against the railing that sat on top of the small wall, looking this way and that. "Hey look over there! A pool!" Harold shouted.
Sid stood next to Gerald on the left. "Wow! Is that how close we are to the beach?" The waves were crashing on the shore, and there were piles of rocks everywhere – perfect for climbing on. His friend nodded. "Yeah. I guess it's hard to tell down in the lobby. Plus you got all of those trees and everything!" It was a pretty cool view. The beach was right in front of them, well past the trees anyway; a pool to the left passed what seemed to be where they all would have their food later. And even the balcony they were on was a large one with a chair and a small table in the right corner. But even so, Sid frowned. "But it sucks though that we're on the second floor – we can't go outside and lie on the grass like we're used to back home."
Harold nodded. "Yeah. And we can't get that dirty either."
Gerald rolled his eyes. "Guys, I'm sure you'll get plenty of dirt on yourselves later. And besides," he stretched his shoulders and arms, "I've got to get going." Sid turned to him confused. "Where are you going? Aren't you taking a nap like us?"
He shook his head before yawning. "I would, but I promised myself that I'd check on Arnold 'cause he's rooming with Eugene and Curly. And considering what happened downstairs earlier, I don't think anyone in there is sleeping right now." Sid was disappointed, but his pal was right. Curly was probably trying to hurt Eugene and, Arnold being Arnold, was probably trying to fix it too.
"Well if you need me to pound Curly," Harold grinned, "let me know!" He shot his fist in the air. And suddenly, Sid felt the sweat again on his neck and flinched. Harold's fist. Gerald stepped off of the balcony and back in the room. "Man, I think that'd cause more problems. But thanks anyway. I'll be back later." And as soon as he said that, he left with the door shut.
Harold also went back inside and laid down on the middle bed, using his right arm to cover his eyes. Sid followed in and sat on the edge of his bed as well, kicking his feet after tossing his sunglasses to the bedside table. Honestly, he really didn't know what to do. He knew what he wanted to say, but would Harold hurt him?
He took off his hat and beetle boots as well.
"I'm ready to sleep," Harold spoke up groggily, "Wake me up whenever ok Sid?" He turned over on his right side facing the window.
"Well here goes nothing," Sid thought nervously.
He coughed into his elbow, "Hey, um Harold?" His friend grumbled and curled into a ball. "What is it?" He sounded annoyed.
"I was wondering, um, what are we going to do about Helga? You know, are we gonna talk to her later about what happened?" And just like that, Harold shot up and turned around not looking happy. Sid backed away a few feet. "Oh boy…"
"Why should we? I thought we took care of this!" He shouted. Sid frowned, but continued cautiously. "I just thought that Helga could tell on us later and get us in trouble, you know? I mean, I know that she deserved it for laughing at us, but I don't want to get suspended when we get back home."
Sid thought that would help. But he was scared of the way Harold was looking at him. He waved his arms in the air shouting. "Well we're not! Did you see her face down there? She's not going to tell anybody as long as I have something to say about it. She's so stupid and mean. So don't worry about it, would you?" Harold huffed as he turned around.
He thought for a moment as he breathed in deeply. "Ok, so we're not going to talk to Helga. But what about the guys? Do you think they'll tell the others about it?"
Harold shifted to face him. "What do you mean?" He seemed confused and blinked for a moment, which Sid took it as a good sign. "Only a couple of the guys were with us. What if they told someone like Arnold or bragged about it? He'd surely have us apologize to Helga and tell Principal Wartz. Maybe if we set up a meeting later, then we'd all agree to not tell anybody and we wouldn't get in trouble." It sounded rushed, but Sid hoped that he proved his point.
And for a minute, his friend didn't say anything. He looked down on his bed as Sid looked him over. Or maybe he didn't prove his point… "Did I say something wrong? Was it a bad idea? What if Harold gets so mad that he'll -"
"Ok, fine." He muttered. At that, Sid's eyes popped wide open, almost like his frog, Sidney's would.
"What?" he asked uncertain, "Really?" He felt twitchy, and that was probably from the shock of what his pal said. Harold nodded. "Yeah. We got to make sure that nobody else finds out," he stared back at Sid, "So who should we get? We already know that Stinky will be there, but who else was with us?"
"I remember Curly being there," Sid replied, "But I'm pretty sure that Lorenzo was there too. He did bring more suitcases than any of us, so that held him back. But I don't know if he was even paying attention to what was going on." Harold smirked. "If that's the case, then I'll pound him if he tells on us! But until then," he yawned, "I'm going to sleep. We'll ask Stinky when we eat to help set up the meeting, ok?"
He went back to his nap in a matter of a couple minutes, snoring away. And for once, Sid didn't mind that he may not get the best sleep. He stretched his muscles, glad that his problem was going to be taken care of. "Yeah." Now having calmed down, he lied on his own bed with his eyes closed and arms behind his head.
But even though he wanted to sleep, his thoughts were anywhere but.
"Hey, come on you guys," Helga stuttered, "You know that I, uh, thought that it was a funny… story. Yeah that's it!" She rubbed her right arm nervously. "I wasn't making fun of you guys…really! I swear!"
"You know, Helga was acting really weird. It was like she was actually afraid of us. Helga? Afraid? Yeah right!" Sid tried to convince himself at first, but then another memory flashed in his mind.
Helga mumbled softly as she said, "Just go. Go before the Football Head shows up and you all miss out on the fun." The girl couldn't even bring herself to look back at them.
Then Sid's eyes went open. "But then again, she never yelled at us for almost hurting her and she didn't make any threats. That's not like her. Maybe she really was scared of us. And maybe we should also tell Arnold about it. He'd help us out of this mess. He could do it without bringing Principal Wartz and Mr. Simmons into this. And we could apologize to Helga and then go back to having fun."
And he frowned, closing his eyes once again before falling asleep. "I've got to talk to him about this. We need his help."
A/N **I chose Gifaldi for this chapter title because Sid's voice actor's last name is Gifaldi; so I don't own Hey Arnold! content at all**