Hey guys! To start off this section, I'm making a shout-out to "Aliens ate my Brains." I was going to pm you, but I wasn't able. I wanted to thank you for such and inspiring review, and I am honored you think so highly of my writing! Thanks for that boost to my confidence!
Secondly, I know a lot of my reviews are about how dense Arnold is... Come on guys, I know he's dense. He was able to brush off Helga as Cecile, her confession, her being on his fire escape, and so much more. Need I say more guys?
Alright, Arnold is not my creation. Sadly.
"So you see, it's relatively simple when you break it down into smaller portions. If you just stare at the set up too long, it does starts to look like it's just too much to solve," I explained, correcting Lila's mistakes as I looked over her homework. She sat at the table beside me, her bottom lip sticking out in an adorable little pout that made my insides melt.
"You're make it look ever so easy," she sighed, brushing her dark hair back behind her ear. "I think I need a break. We should make a snack! I'm ever so hungry, now that I think about it," Lila suggested, turning to smile brightly at me. I had eaten a large meal only twenty minutes ago, but I couldn't say no to her face.
"Sure, like what?"
"Oh, I don't know! I'm ever so certain I can mix up some cookies in no time if you want. I can wrap some up for you take home, even!" She pushed her chair back, taking a moment to straighten the papers on the table. "It won't take long, I've memorized the recipe."
"Let me help," I laughed, following her into the kitchen. Her dad had given her free reign to decorate, and it looked like one of those country kitchens you see in magazines – but done thrifty style.
"The flour and sugar are in those tins on the fridge," she instructed, pointing. "And if you'd get the butter for me as well, that'd be ever so helpful."
I nodded, and we split directions to gather all the materials. I placed the tins over on the counter next to her mixer, where she was already setting up her little army of spices. I measured out the amount she instructed for me, and she went to work mixing the sugars and butter together. I was struck by the memory of us baking once before, and I smiled. It was nice to do things like this. I had always known Lila liked to cook, but I'd never really suggested we do it together-mainly because I didn't know how to cook anything. Maybe if that was something I'd suggested more of when we were dating, I wouldn't be trying to win her back now.
"Alright, add the flour in ever so slowly. A little bit at a time," she said, breaking me from my thoughts. I hesitantly shook a little from my measuring cup into the bowl. Lila giggled from beside me. "A little bit more than that, Arnold." I watched as the beaters pummeled what was already in the bowl in seconds, so I assumed I might as well add the entire cup. I tipped it up, Lila's "I'm ever so certain that's too much!" coming just a little too late. The cloud of flour caused both of us to throw our arms up in front of our face as it exploded from the bowl.
"I'll clean it up!" I offered immediately, shaking the front of my shirt out. Lila was doing the same, her face covered in the stuff. I could only imagine I looked the same, though not half as cute as she did, her wide eyes blinking.
"It's just flour, I'm ever so certain it's easy to get up," she said, her mouth twitching as she looked at me. A few giggles escaped as she made her way to the sink, pulling a washcloth out from the drawer nearby. She ran water over the edge of it, gesturing for me to come over. "I'm ever so certain half a cup is the right amount to add each time," she said softly, gently dabbing at my face with rag. It was almost like I could hear Helga's voice yelling in my head. Lesson 3, 4 and 5 all together! Complimenting, physical interaction and gentleman manners. Right. I could do this.
"Here, let's get you cleaned up first. Then I could clean up the floor and the counter while you add the rest of the flour. You're way better than I am at this, and I'd hate to ruin your awesome cookies. I'm sure you can save my mistakes," I said, hoping my voice wasn't sounding as shaky as I felt. I gently took the cloth from her hand, adding a bit more water and setting to work to get the flour off her face. Hands, shoulders, and hair where the key places to remember. And I had a perfect excuse to use the hair touch, what with the flour sticking to the bit surrounding her face. Okay Arnold, you can do this. Just be casual and cool. I decided to just go for it, using my hand not holding the cloth to run my fingers through her hair, gently shaking the flour that was loosely hanging on away. For a brief moment, her eyes flickered up to mine. Helga was right; you do know what time to let your touch linger for the brief moment. Then I chickened out, because how long it just too long? I pulled my hand away, gesturing awkwardly to the floor. "Let me just clean this up," I muttered softly, crouching down wipe off the flour from the floor.
"Oh, right," she muttered in response, stepping back and refocusing her attention onto the cookies. She was putting the little mounds onto a try by the time I had managed to get all the flour off of the floor and the counter. I'd had to go back with another rag to dry up the water I'd left behind. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to find I had a text message. I opened it to find a short message from Helga.
"You should get your butt outside. I brought you some food."
"Sorry, can't. I'm not home right now."
"It's a school night, don't tell me you're actually out doing something."
"Well it is school related." I figured I wasn't lying by saying that.
"…?"
"I'm helping Lila do math homework." I didn't think I needed to add in the part about making cookies.
"Oh, so when you said homework earlier, you really meant you had to do little miss Mary Sue?"
"What? No. It was a last minute thing."
"Whatever. I got my bag."
"Are you upset with me over it?"
"Why would I be upset you're with her? It's a free country, bucko. We can hang out with whoever the frick we feel like. Criminy."
So we could, it seemed. I looked up from my phone to find Lila scrubbing at dishes in the sink.
"Oh, I can get those. Sorry, it was just Helga," I groaned, starting to dry the dishes she had stacked.
"Oh it's alright. Things okay? You look ever so upset," she asked, her brows furrowing.
"She got a little upset I wasn't there when she went to pick up her stuff," I said, frowning. "But to be fair, she never did tell me when she was going to be there."
"Well I'm ever so sure it'll be alright. Sometimes Helga can be a bit rough, but she's nice. Sometimes." She rinsed the suds from her hands, drying them on a cloth. "Are you two friends now?" She said the word 'friends' as though it didn't feel right coming out, screwing her face up.
"Well, yeah. She's been helping me this past month with an important project."
"Oh, what kind of project?"
"Um, a social experiment?" I said awkwardly, rubbing the back of my neck. "I'll let you know how it turns out."
"Oh, I'm ever so curious about it," she laughed, walking over to the oven to check the trays. She grabbed an over mitt from nearby, setting the two trays out on the stove top. "Would you grab one of those plates?"
"On it," I replied, setting the plate down next to the trays. She moved some of the cookies onto the plate, and then used her spatula to make sure none of the others had stuck.
"Thanks ever so much for helping with the math problems. Take the plate with you," she said with a smile, pressing the plate in my hands.
"Just call if you have any more questions," I replied, my heart pounding. "Now that you know the process, you should get it in no time."
"Thanks ever so much to your great tutoring," she said sincerely, opening the door for me since my hands where full. She waved to me as I reached the sidewalk, closing the door.
"Where'd you get the cookies, Shortman?" Grandpa asked as I set the plate down on the table in the kitchen. He immediately picked one up, not waiting for an answer.
"Lila baked them for me after I helped her with her math homework," I explained, picking one up for myself. "Grandpa, what do you do when you want to have a girlfriend and a girl that's a friend? Is that possible if they both hate each other?"
"Are you talking about the one with boots? She your girlfriend?"
"No, grandpa, she's just my friend! But I don't know if she'll still be my friend if I start dating the girl I like," I confessed.
"So, can't she just be both? Then everyone's happy!"
"Grandpa!"
"Alright, alright! It's just a situation where you have to figure out which is more important. Having her as a friend, or having this other girl as a girlfriend?"
"But the only reason we're friends now is because she's helping me get the other girl to be my girlfriend!"
Grandpa looked at me like I was a lunatic. "So the one with the boots, who is your friend, is helping you get a girlfriend, which is the girl she hates? And how would she not be okay with you dating the other girl?"
"Because I didn't tell her it as the girl she hated," I groaned, sinking down farther in the kitchen chair. I shoved another cookie in my mouth. "Can I have both?"
"Listen here Shortman. With women, it's always going to come down to making a decision. Male nature is going to put you liking one over the other. Best to figure that out in advance, so you don't get put in a situation where you have to decide on the spot. Cause that's when someone gets hurt, do you hear?" He pointed ferociously, cookie crumbs spewing from his mouth. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be in my office."
I sighed, covering my face with my hands. I really hadn't bargained for this. Taking one more cookie, I trudged up the stairs sluggishly. I figured if anything I just need to get some sleep. I plugged my phone in the charger, realizing I hadn't responded to Helga's earlier message. I felt like I should say something, but I had no idea what that might be. My calendar on the wall caught my attention, and I remember that this month would be ending soon. I flipped it up, my mouth twisting as I remembered the whole point of this lesson thing. I had about a month more of lessons with Helga left until her beeper banquet. Her show was the weekend after, so it seemed even up until that point I wouldn't be able to escape her and David together. Like it was even my business. So I was just nosy. Friends were nosy sometimes, right? Gerald was super nosy. He'd been on my case almost every day at school about spending so much time with Helga and the more I tried to explain it was just for the getting advice on Lila, the more he reminded me that spending more time with Helga meant less with Lila. He didn't approve of either, but I could tell he'd obviously pick Lila over Helga if I had to. I'd told her I wouldn't just vanish after our lessons ended, but if she was the one who dropped me, then what?
I shook my head furiously. My thoughts were just swirling back to Helga all the time. I let the page fall back down, plodding back over to the bed. I stripped off my shirt, tossing it over toward the sofa. It fell a bit short of landing where I wanted it, but I didn't feel like going to pick it up right now. I sat down on the bed, undoing the laces of my sneakers, kicking them off and peeling off my socks as well. I supposed I could take a shower. Maybe that would help me sleep. I pulled a pair of flannel pants from my dresser, tossing them over my shoulder. The bag with my toothbrush and whatnot was on the dresser where it usually is, so I grabbed it as well and headed toward the door. My mouth dropped when I opened the door to find Helga poised with her fist up as though she were about to knock.
"What, you don't know how to answer your text messages?" she floundered, her eyes trying to lock on anything other than me.
"No, I just- how'd you even know I was home?" I fumbled.
"So maybe I was on Facebook, and maybe Lila had updated a status about how she was going to sleep – not that she's on my friends list, Rhonda is and commented on her status and it kinda showed up on my dash- so I kinda assumed you'd be back home, but then you weren't answering messages or anything. Basically, I've been carrying this stupid take-out plate around my house, and If I put it in the fridge, Bob will probably eat it in the middle of the night. So just take it." She pressed a Styrofoam box into free hand, looking down at the floor.
I blinked, flipping the lid open. "Oh wow," I said quietly. "You brought me macaroni….with little bowties." The corner of my mouth twitched up.
"Yeah, well, I remember that one time you said you had that phase in middle school well whenever you were upset about something, your grandma would you make you bowtie macaroni, and you felt better. I figured I'd kind of upset you by pulling a ditch, so I asked Mr. Jonnes to make it for me special."
"You didn't have to do that," I assured her, smiling. "Thanks, though. That's…that's awesome." I felt like I should have had better words to say, but I fell flat. I kind of felt like a jerk now for being so upset about David earlier.
"No big deal, just some stupid macaroni," she said, sort of bouncing on her heels and still not looking at me. I rolled my eyes, dumping my clothes and bag on the floor, putting my good down carefully on it. Helga had given me a hug when I'd given her a gift, and I felt that this was just as big a gesture to me as my gift had been to her.
"Come on," I laughed, reaching out and pulling her into arms. An odd noise seemed to squeak out, and for a moment she seemed to go limp. Then she awkwardly patted me on the back, her hands making loud noises as they made contact against my skin.
"I, uh, need to get home," she said, her expressions a bit spacey. Her foot missed the top step as she tried to back down, but she caught herself and her expression immediately shifted back to one of anger. "I'll just see you at school, or something."
"Okay,sure," I muttered, clamping down my mouth to keep in all my sudden questions I wanted to ask. I still hadn't answered my own, so I guess I could wait to get her to answer my others. I shook my head, gathering back up my materials and heading toward the bathroom. It had certainly been a day.