Well, my boyfriend's laptop broke down. I still have no internet at home or a working computer. So no more gaming. Lost my cousland save from dragon age, my renagon and paragon Shepherd save from mass effect, and my multiple Skyrim saves. Not to mention all my SIMS! Excuse me while I wallow in my unemployed self pity. Oh and if I want to use the computers at the library I have to pay off my fine and there is a 45 minute time limit, 1 use a day. FML. Not to mention the internet there suuuucks! by the way I don't know why but I find myself shipping Wolfgang and Helga from time to time.
Pink Ribbons and Blue Caps
Chapter 6
Meet me at Metro
After seeing Helga driven away by Wolfgang Arnold walked home with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slumped. That's how his father saw him walk through the door.
"So I'm guessing it didn't go well," Miles said to his son as Arnold kicked off his shoes. Arnold shrugged his shoulders in response.
Wanna talk about it?" Arnold was about to reject his offer, but then his grandpa Phil walked in.
"Guessing from the look on his face it didn't go well." Phil said to miles who nodded in response.
"Well Shortman it's best to get it off your chest. Your mother and grandmother are putting Lali to sleep so we can talk about it like men." Grandpa Phil said to Arnold.
"Nothing happened Grandpa, I didn't even get to talk to her. Some other guy came by to pick her up and they drove off before I could say anything." Arnold said with an exacerbated sigh.
Grandpa Phil patted Arnold's shoulder "Don't worry shortman. I'll take you to get your drivers license next week."
"Dad, I don't think that's the issue here." Miles cut in. Arnold's phone rang and he thanked whatever deity was watching over him for the welcome interruption.
"It's Gerald, he's probably calling about our plans for tonight. I'm going to take the call upstairs." Arnold said as he took the opportunity to escape.
"Hey Gerald, we still on for tonight?"
"Yeah I'm just calling to warn you that I'm picking up Patty and Harold. We'll be there at six so get ready."
"Can I call shotgun?" Arnold asked expectantly.
"Please!" We'll keep the love birds in the back."
Arnold laughed and said goodbye to Gerald. He stood in the middle of the room and looked up at the skylight in his room the very moment it started to rain and Arnold wondered if Helga had made it home.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Helga tried to get out of the Jeep before Wolfgang could, but her knee was throbbing and the Jeep was high off the ground. He picked her up despite her protests and carried her like a princess towards her front door. Cabal followed happily behind the two of them and Wolfgang rang the doorbell while Helga complained that she wasn't an invalid. Helga was blushing bright red when her mother answered the door. Miriam's eyes widened at the sight of the Thor-look-alike carrying her daughter.
"Hi Mrs. Pataki," Wolfgang said with a smile, "look who I found limping down the road."
"Oh," Miriam said still in shock.
"May I come in?" Wolfgang said as Helga fidgeted in his arms.
"Oh, of course. Come in." Miriam said as she moved out of his way. Wolfgang walked in with Helga in his arms and Cabal following happily at his heels. He finally set her down on the living room sofa where Bob stared at Helga and Wolfgang like they were purple skinned aliens from the planet Xenu singing kumbaya.
"Hey Mr. Pataki." Wolfgang said as he set Helga down.
"Sorry for the intrusion, I saw Helga limping down the road and decided to give her a ride home. Do you mind if I go get some ice from the kitchen for Helga's knee?" Wolfgang said
Big Bob stared at him with a slack jawed expression and pointed towards the kitchen. Wolfgang left the room and Bob looked at Helga with a questioning look. "What happened!?" Bob said regaining his usual surly composure.
"Calm down Dad, Cabal saw a cat and dragged me forward when I wasn't paying attention. I hit my knee on the concrete, Wolfgang saw me limping home and he gave me a ride."
"He looks like Thor", Miriam said from the living room doorway. Wolfgang walked in with a grin and ice pack wrapped in a dishcloth.
"Everyone says the same thing about me." He said as he put the ice pack on Helga's knee.
"Do you have a ride to open mic night?"
"You are not carrying me into the Metro!" Helga yelled at him.
"If you keep icing your knee I won't have to." He shot back. Helga crossed her arms and pouted. "Olga is taking me and Lila."
"Good, well I'm off." Wolfgang ruffled Helga's hair and turned towards Big Bob with his hand out. "It was nice to meet you Mr. Pataki." Wolfgang said as he shook Bobs hand.
"Mrs. Pataki you look very nice." he said as he shook Miriam's hand.
"Suck up", Helga muttered from her seat on the couch.
"It's called manners Pataki." He said as he turned toward her. Helga stuck out her tongue and Wolfgang grinned. "See you later Pataki's", Wolfgang called out as he left.
Helga couldn't help but smile, the look on her parents face was priceless and she could never keep up with Wolfgangs antics.
"So who was your friend?" Miriam asked while Bob fixed his gaze back on his recorded soaps.
"Wolfgang, we went to elementary and middle school together. He's a grade higher than me. I tutored him in english and he plays the oboe in Phoebe's classical music club."
"Sure he's not a boyfriend?", Bob said as he munched on his baked chips.
"Positive." Helga said with a nod
Bob grunted and eyed her knee. "Did he patch you up?" he asked.
"No, I ran into an old classmate on my walk. His house was nearby and his Dad patched me up. He's a doctor and he told me that as long as I didn't do anything too strenuous and I iced it that I would be fine." Helga said hoping he wouldn't pry too much.
Bob eyed her a bit more then went back to watching his soap opera. "When you need to take a shower don't worry about the bandages, your mother and I were athletes and know a bit about knee injuries. I'll bandage it again before you leave."
Helga twiddled her thumbs and mumbled thanks. Her father nodded in response. Helga still wasn't used to her parents paying her too much attention, so whenever they did she usually wa overcome with inexplicable bouts of shyness. That was when her mom came in holding a tray of food. "Bob, the tv trays are next to you. Set one up so Helga doesn't have to get up." Bob grunted, got up and set a tray in front of Helga. Miriam placed Helga's dinner down on the tray and kissed her forehead. "We're having dinner in the living room tonight." She said as she walked out. Helga mumbled another thanks and started eating her food.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Arnold sat on the stoop and waited for Gerald to show up with Harold and Patty. He was wearing a red flannel shirt, white t-shirt and straight legged jeans turned up at the bottom over a pair of black converse. Right when Arnold reached into his back pocket to check on his phone Geralds 1969 red and black Pontiac trans am turned the corner onto his street. Gerald had some song with a low techno bass playing that echoed throughout the street.
Arnold stuck his head back into the boarding house and shouted "Dad, Gerald's here, be back at 11!" Arnold jogged over to Geralds car and hopped into the passenger seat. Arnold and Gerald did their handshake before he turned around to say hello to Harold and Patty. Patty had a grown her hair out to below the shoulder, she was wearing a light blue peasant top. She was holding HArolds hands who was wearing a pair of jeans and a football jersey.
"Hey Aaarrrnold" Harold said as he punched him in the shoulder. Harold meant it as a friendly gesture but it really hurt.
"Nice to see you too Harold." Arnold muttered. Patty shot him an apologetic smile. "Hello Arnold." She said as Gerald started to drive.
"Hi Patty, how's it going?" Arnold asked
"Good, I graduate this summer." Patty said with pride
"I'm going to try to get my GED this summer Harold added with a similar amount of pride."
"Wait Harold, I thought you were a sophomore?" Arnold said with confusion.
"I am, but I'm also 18. Remember I got held back twice in kindergarten. Anyways I've been saving up for six years to buy Mr. Greens butcher shop. I know every cut and marinade for any kind of meat and MR. Green already agreed to make me a full partner. Since his son is a vegetarian and he's so busy with his job as a city councilman he agreed to sell the shop to me once I graduate."
"Wow" Arnold said with some awe. He never would have thought that Harold would have worked out what he wanted with his life before him. Arnold looked in the rearview mirror and saw Patty kidd Harold on the cheek. Harold seemed pleased with himself and Patty practically glowed with pride. That was when Arnold noticed the ring on Patty's finger.
"Is that an engagement ring!" Arnold asked in complete shock
Geralds car swerved and almost his a passing bicyclist. "No way man!" Gerald said with an appalled look, "you haven't even graduated!"
Harold grew beet red and yelled "Shut up! You're not in love and it's none of your business! And it's just a promise ring!" Arnold settled back in his seat while Patty calmed Harold down from his outburst. Immature outbursts aside Harold's life seemed to be in order. He was going to by a business and possibly mary Patty, but this stirred and important issue in Arnold's mind. HE had no idea what he was going to do with his life.
"We're here," Gerald said
Arnold got out and pulled the seat forward to allow Patty out. Cafe Metro was situated on the corner of Merlot ave. and Spumoni st. There were a lot of teenagers milled around the cafe talking and eating in the outdoor seating by the heat lamps. Patty seemed to recognize someone and waved at a beautiful girl with long black hair sitting with a hipster with messy black hair and thick red rimmed glasses.
"Let's go say hi to Rhonda and Thaddeus." Patty said to Harold who followed her. Arnold and Gerald followed the Harold and Patty to say hello to the couple. Rhonda was wearing a small red dress, black gladiator heels and a leather jacket that obviously belonged to Curly. Curly had become taller and was bordering on 6 feet. He still wore red glasses, but instead of looking nerdy he came of as hip with his ironic shirt and straight legged jeans with custom vans.
"Oh my God! Is that Arnold!" Rhonda said as she walked forward to give him a friendly hug. She kissed both his cheeks and an analytical look. "You're so tall."
"Thanks Rhonda, You look good." Arnold said
"Careful Arnold, I might think you're putting the moves on my girl," Curly said with a grin and a warning tone in his voice.
"Don't worry Curly, I'm not that type of guy." Arnold said as he put his hands in his pockets and took a relaxed pose.
"Good to know, and no one calls me Curly anymore, It's Thad. Remember that." There was an uncomfortable silence, then Thad smiled. "It's nice to see you again Arnold." Thad turned towards Rhonda "Let's go inside. Shiro and Phoebe are saving us a booth." He place his hand on Rhonda's lower back and began to guide her inside.
"Since we're both going why don't we join you?" Arnold asked. Rhonda and Thaddeus looked at him with odd looks before Rhonda burst out laughing and Curly turned towards Gerald.
"Explain it to him QB." Curly said with a wicked grin as they walked away.
"I'm missing something aren't I?" Arnold asked
"Shiro is Phoebe's new boyfriend, they've been dating for about three months. Since I cheated on her Phoebe and Rhonda don't speak to me. Helga only talks to me during tutoring. Lila is polite but distant. So sitting with them would be more than a little uncomfortable." Gerald said while he observed the ground with great interest.
"Oh" There was an uncomfortable silence between the four of them for a moment, then Gerald noticed Edmund, Ludwig, and Wolfgang by another heatlamp.
"Yo, Wolfgang!" Gerald called out. Wolfgang turned and smiled then motioned for them to come over.
Arnold, Gerald, Harold and Patty walked over to Wolfgang who was wearing a faded blue Thor t-shirt and cargo shorts. Wolfgang and Gerald grasped eachothers forearms and quickly gave eachother a manly backslapping hug.
"My man Wolf, How's it going?" Gerald asked
"Pretty good man, pretty good. How are you guys doing?" Wolfgang asked as he shook Arnold and Harold's hand, then gave Patty a quick hug.
"Good, you remember Arnold,"Gerald said as he motioned towards Arnold. Wolfgang raised an eyebrow "Uh, I'm not sure I do."
"We had that football game in grade school when the fourth graders played against the fifth graders. He tried to talk you out of that trash dumping tradition."
"Oh, right. Now I remember. Hey man, You liking Hillwood?"
Arnold shrugged "So far so good."
"Nice, you play any sports?" Wolfgang asked as he leaned against the wall.
"Mostly soccer, It's about the only thing we ever played in San Lorenzo" Arnold said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Righteous, you need really high stamina to keep up in soccer. Personally I'm more of a fan of contact sports. Football. Hockey, boxing, it helps get rid of most of my latent aggression. That and paintballing. Which reminds me that I'm thinking of setting up a paintball retreat in a month. Gotta hash out the details but you guys are certainly welcome to come. My family has a pretty big cabin by the lake."
"Sounds good," said Gerald
Wolfgang smiled at the group then excused himself, "There's a cute blonde inside that I'm just dying to buy a frap for." Arnold watched him leave and head straight towards Helga who was inside talking to Phoebe and her boyfriend. Helga frowned at Wolfgang which only seemed to make him grin harder. They talked animatedly for a while until Helga punched him in the shoulder and limped away with a pout. Phoebe followed her while Shiro and Wolfgang stayed behind and ordered drinks.
"Looks like he's finally making a move." said a feminine voice behind him.
Arnold turned and saw a gorgeous girl with long, curly light brown hair, forest green eyes and caramel colored skin. He couldn't pinpoint her ethnicity but everything about her seeme exotic.
"It's been over a year, I'm just surprised it took so long." Gerald chimed in. The pretty girl turned towards Arnold and gave him a friendly hug. "I haven't seen you in so long Arnold. Thank you for sending Gerald those beatle samples from SL. I know it must have been hell to get it approved my customs."
Arnold wracked his brain until he finally remembered Gerald asking him to find samples for Nadine. "Nadine?"
Naine and Gerald laughed at Arnolds surprised look.
"You really need to update your Facebook picture." Gerald said to a still giggling Nadine.
"You know that I would rather be behind a camera than in front of it. Besides, the new beatles found in the congo are far more interesting than a selfie." Nadine said with a flip of her curls.
Arnold smiled, while Nadines outward appearance had changed drastically her interests remained the same.
"You want to sit with us?" Gerald asked as he put his hands in his pockets.
"Some other time. Since Rhonda is in a different school I don't get to see her too often. We text like mad all the time but Cur-I mean Thad monopolizes her." Nadine bit her bottom lip, "We need another sleepover or spa weekend." She turned and gave Gerald and Arnold a kiss on the cheek, then went to join Rhonda.
"Wow" was all Arnold could say after hurricane Nadine left.
"Yeah, she's great" Gerald said with a sigh. Geral composed himself after he saw the teasing look that Arnold was giving him. "If you can ignore the whole bug thing I mean." he said quickly.
"Right, We going in?" Arnold said with a grin.
"Yeah, I see an empty section. Yo Harold. We're going in."Harold grabbed Patty's hand and followed them inside. Arnold
Arnold took few moments to take in his surroundings. Cafe metro was an ecclectic mix of boho chiq and Art Noveau. Towards the entrance there were about a dozen tables small enough for two or four people to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the stair from the rear. Between the stage in the rear and the tables in the front were sofas assorted around coffee tables. No sofa matched each other and a few didn't even have matching cushions. To the left there was a bar where food and coffee were being served to whoever took a seat. The walls were covered with paintings and other pieces of art and when Arnold took a closer look he noticed that the paintings had notecard placed below them with the name of the artist and the price of the piece. He noticed Helga's name on one of the paintings, it was a painting of a girl with short blonde hair walking away from a tower with a golden rope hanging from the window. Arnold smiled, it was obviously Rapunzel escaping from the tower, sans prince. He saw a few more paintings with Helga's signature, most of them were fairytale themed but on was an apocalyptic Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving.
Arnold was distracted from the paintings when Gerald tapped his shoulder and pointed to their spot. Arnold sat down with Gerald, Harold and Patty on a lush couch with red pillows. A waitress with fishnets and blue hair came by to take their orders. A tall lanky guy with a familiar southern drawl came by to say hello.
"Stinky, Remember Arnold?" Gerald said as he offered their old friend a seat.
"I reckon I do. Hey Arnold, how ya been?" He said with a friendly smile Arnold smiled and shook Stinky's hand.
"I'm good. I hear about that scholarship that you got from the agriculture society, congrats!"
"Aww shucks, it was easy after they found out about my prize winning organic garden." Stinky sat down with them and talked about using ladybugs and other natural predators to keep pests away. The waitress came back with their order and a pretty red head with a pixie cut joined them.
"Hello Arnold, it's ever so nice to see you again." she said with a familiar voice.
"It's nice to see you too Lila" Arnold said with relief at the fact that he didn't stutter or act like a fool old crush. Lila smiled politely at Gerald towards Stinky. "Honey, did you buy the tickets for
Thaddeus' play yet." she said as she placed a possessive hand on his elbow.
"Aww shucks pumpkin, Thad promised to give us two tickets tomorrow."
Arnold turned towards Gerald while the couple talked.
"How long ago did this happen?" he asked as he watched the unlikely couple converse.
"Honestly, I cant keep up with Lila and Stinky. 3 weeks ago they were both seeing other people. He was datong Sheena and she was dating Lorenzo. with those two it's better to just go with the flow instead of questioning it." Lila kissed Stinky and left to join her friends on the other side of the cafe.
Arnold looked at where Helga, Phoebe, Rhonda, Thad, Lila and Shiro were sitting on a sectional recliner sofa. Helga was wearing a lace mini skirt and a pink sweater. Someone had changed her bandages and replaced them with pink ones. Wolfgang came over to her seat and handed her a mug, she scowled at him and reclined the seat making her yelp out in surprise. Wolfgang laughed at Helga and she punched him in the shoulder. He put his arm around her and whispered something in her ear that seemed to make her blush. Wolfgang reclined the seat, pulled Helga closer and sipped his late. That was when the lights in the cafe dimmed and the lights on stage brightened. Arnold couldn't see much after the light dimmed but he could see that Helga and Wolfgang looked comfortable with each other.
)O(
I know that I categorized this story an Arnold/Helga. I don't know why Wolfgang is having such a big influence on this story. I didn't plan it, but the more scenes I write with the two of them interacting the more I like him. I actually love writing scenes with the two of them interacting. I am staunchly pro Helga/Arnold, but I think I'm going to play with this pairing for a while before I start with Helga/Arnold. you have to admit, they are adorable.