Everyone looked when Torvald drove up the next day with Helga in the front seat. Some girls in the senior class looked over enviously. For all he had a bad reputation, there were some girls in the school who were still interested in him. He just always seemed so unapproachable.
"Oh. My. God!" Rhonda cried. "Helga is smiling!"
The group of girls she was holding court for turned to stare. Rhonda and Helga generally ignored each other. They were never particularly close, but didn't hate each other and could be stuck in the same room as each other and survive. Rhonda's issues were actually with Annie, Arnold's boyfriend. Arnold stopped talking to he when she openly critisized Annie over an incident. Helga took Rhonda's side, and Arnold had claimed that Helga and Rhonda was jealous. Rhonda, because Annie was a better person and Helga, though he said it in private to her once, because he was dating Annie not her. At the time it had hurt, but now thinking back on it Helga rolled her eyes. Arnold was always one to be blinded by tits and a pretty face, thinking back on it. She waved to Rhonda with a smile, and Rhonda waved back with a genuine smile of her own.
"Excuse me girls, I just need to text everyone me and Helga have ever known!" Rhonda said, whipping out her phone and taking a picture of Helga and Torvald linking arms and smiling, then sending it out in a mass text.
…
…
"Whoa!" Gerald said. "Helga smiling?"
"Where?" Phoebe asked, grabbing his phone. "Oh my gosh, she looks so happy!" she squealed, delighted for her friend.
Arnold looked over her shoulder to see when a pxt arrived from Rhonda with the very same picture. Arnold stared at it, first shocked, then frowned. Helga's hair was loose down her back, her bow gone, a big smile plasted on her face as she looked up at Torvald smiling.
"What's wrong?" Annie asked, walking up to them. "A bunch of people a gasping and talking about Helga smiling."
"With Torvald!" Phoebe cried. "Of all people."
Annie smirked.
"Yeah, pity it's all faked, eh Arnold?" she asked her boyfriend, wrapping an arm around his waist. He snapped his phone shut and smiled at her.
"Yeah," he said.
"It's so sad, using someone to make someone else jealous," Annie said. "Expecially someone who has a girlfriend. Someone should teach her a lesson about toying with people's hearts."
Gerald and Phoebe looked at each other, then gave weak smiles.
"We better be going," Gerald said. "Later Arnold."
It wasn't until they disappeared that Arnold realised that he and Gerald hadn't done their secret handshake.
"Come on, Arnold," Annie said. "Gym!"
….
….
The first thing Arnold noticed at lunch time that day was Torvald, sitting at his table, talking to his best friend about sports. Helga was sitting there of course, talking to Phoebe and laughing. Rhonda was sitting at the next table leaning over and talking to Helga too, which of course meant that her entourage had followed her over. When he and Annie reached the table there was a space opposite each other, but not next to each other.
"We can go sit somewhere else," she suggested, looking at first Helga, then at Rhonda. Helga ignored her, and Rhonda regarded her coldly. No love lost.
"No," he said harshly, glaring at Torvald's back. What? First Helga, now Phoebe and Gerald? No way!
"But-" Annie started, but Arnold just walked over and took the seat next to Helga, leaving Annie to sit between him and Phoebe. She huffed, and blew her fringe off her forehead and took a seat. Looking over she saw her fellow cheerleaders getting up and coming to her "rescue", seeing that she was in the "snake pit", the snakes being Rhonda and co. Their head snapped at Eugene and Sheena and two of their other friends to "move it." Then they took over.
"Hey, Annie," said Carrie, the captain, smiling. "How's it going?"
The air between the tables began to crackle. Rhonda and her group were staring down Annie and her group. Neither side was going to show weakness.
"Wow, is it suddenly cold in here, or is it just me?" Torvald asked. "Maybe we should go sit in the sun?"
"Yeah," Helga said. "I need a bit of vitamin K."
"If you don't mind, I'll join you!" Phoebe said. She grabbed her lunch as well, and started to walk away. Gerald stood up.
"Where are you going?" Arnold asked.
"With my girlfriend," he told him shrugging.
"Your just leaving me?" he asked, shocked.
"Yeah. didn't think you'd mind," Gerald said.
"My best friend ditching me for his girlfriend and her bitchy friend and I'm not supposed to mind?" Arnold demanded. Everyone on all sides gasped.
Gerlad stood there for a moment thinking. Should he?
"You ditch me for your girlfriend and her bitchy friends all the time," he said shrugging. Rhonda burst out laughing, while Annie and her friends were outraged. "In case you hadn't figured it out Arnold, Phoebe doesn't like Annie. And neither do I."
Arnold's jaw dropped as Gerald walked away. Rhonda and her group just snickered and laughed then finally moved away. But for Arnold it was like someone had placed red glass in front of him. He had never been so angry. Ever! He stood up and started to follow after Gerald.
"Arnold stop, forget him for now," Annie said grabbing his arm. But Arnold shrugged her off.
"Stay out of it," he snapped at her and walked outside. He saw where they were sitting and reached them as Gerald was settling down in his seat.
"What did Annie ever do to you?" he demanded. "Bro's first, you said."
"Hmmm, what did Annie do to me?" he asked, stroking his chin. "Hmm . . . Well, she insults my girlfriend, for starters."
"When has she ever done that?" he asked.
"Just the other day I heard her putting Phoebe down to her cronies, calling her four eyes, and one of her skank friends saying I could do better than, and I quote "some four-eyed nerd". your girlfriend laughed and said "I'll see what I can do"."
Arnold frowned. He hadn't heard her say mean things about Phoebe before.
"And that dirty trick she and you pulled the other night, listening in on Phoebe and Helga's conversation about Torvald," Gerald reminded him. "You've been pissy ever since Helga gushed that Torvald was a big teddy bear and you were a dick."
Helga went bright red, and Torvald hid a smile. She looked back to see Arnold standing there looking stunned.
"Since you've started dating that bitch in there you've become a right a-hole, man," Gerald said. "And dishonest as all hell. And don't pull the whole "Bro's before Hoes" shit on me man. Your pussy-whipped by her. How many times have you ditched me for her? I even cancelled plans with Phoebe one day to hang out with you on your request, only for you to not even show up or call me to let me know you weren't coming."
Helga looked over at Phoebe, who was looking down at the table. How horrible for her! And to then have to hang around with the girl, have her over at her house, knowing what she was saying behind her back. It made Helga so angry.
Arnold said nothing, just stood there staring at Gerald.
"Sort your shit out, Arnold, and then we'll talk," Gerald said, sitting down. "And muzzle your bitch while your at it."
….
….
"I'm so sorry Gerald," Phoebe said woefully. "You and Arnold have been friends forever-"
"So have you and him. And he still chose his girlfriend."
"Good luck to him," Helga said. She turned and rested a hand on Torvald's arm. "I'll meet you after practice okay?"
"Sure thing," he said, leaning in and giving her a kiss on her cheek. Then he walked off. Helga felt her heart rate pick up. And a smile form on her face. She placed a hand to the spot where he kissed her cheek. Then she remembered she was supposed to go to Arnold's after school for their project.
This wasn't going to work.
…
…
Helga had chosen study hall for last period. It was her way to wind down at the end of the day at the end of the week. She sighed going over a plan for Torvald. He was smart, just not about the right things. He seemed to know a lot of seemingly useless trivia, some of which was pretty weird and wacky, but it wasn't going to help him get into College. She needed to find a way to make it fun or something so the lessons would stick.
Then there was the whole Arnold issue. She really didn't want to go to his place today. She wasn't sure she could face him without punching him in the face or something. She got up from her chair and walked over to the fiction section. She felt like some brainless drival to read. Her brain was hurting. While looking through the young adult section she heard crying and someone obviously trying to calm the person down.
"So he didn't say why he broke up with you?" one voice asked. It sounded vaguely familiar
Sniffle "No, he just said 'I cant see you anymore. Your not the person I thought you were," the other girl said. Annie. It sounded like Annie.
"Oh, Annie, I am so, so, sorry," said another voice.
Helga moved away as Annie continued to sob to her friends.
So Football Head had broken up with her, huh? Sitting down at her spot at the table she looked down to see what she had picked up. Sweet Valley High. She sighed, and opened to the first page and started to read.
"Helga?" Arnolds voice asked.
"Yeah?" she said, not even looking up.
"Are you reading a Sweet Valley High book?" he asked.
"Yes, Arnold, I am. It's a free country, I can read whatever I like," she snapped, glaring at him.
"Are you still coming over after school?"
Helga was quiet a moment.
"I don't know," she answered. "Have you sorted things out with Gerald?"
"I was going to work on that tonight," he said, taking a seat.
"Your girlfriend, or should I say ex-girlfriend is around the corner bawling her eyes out," Helga told him.
"Uh, yeah. I broke up with her," he said, looking down at the table.
"Yeah, I figured that much out," Helga said, putting the book down. "How about you just give me a photocopy of the budgets and I will look them over and let you know what I think?"
"Helga, there's more to all this than just budgets," he told her frowning. "Budgets are only half of it. I need to see the other side of this assignment, too."
"Great, I'll photocopy it all for you," she said, picking up her book and going back to reading.
"Helga," Arnold started.
"Let's just make this easy on us both, okay?" she said. "I have to help Torvald this afternoon with some applications and stuff. I don't have time to run around playing mommies and daddies with you."
Arnold stared at her hard.
"Anything else?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said. "Stop being a bitch."
"I'll take it into consideration."
…..
…..
Helga sat down and pulled out a book, planning to read while Torvald finished practice. She saw the cheerleaders working on cheers, but ignored them. Then she noticed them making their way over to her. She sighed and put her book away.
"Are you guys really going to do the cliché bitchy cheerleading routine?" Helga said. "Because I know a couple of cheerleaders from another school, and they're perfectly normal."
"Who do you think you are?" one of the senior girls asked.
"I'm Helga Pataki. And I know I'm Helga Pataki. I don't just think it," she said, crossing her arms and leaning forward.
"I just don't understand what Torvald sees in a little girl like you," she said, looking at her nails.
Helga rolled her eyes.
"More than you, obviously," she said smiling.
"Your so pathetic, using him to make Arnold jealous," Annie said snarkily.
"Oh my God! How many times do I have to tell you people? I'm not doing this to make Arnold jealous!" she yelled. She saw Arnold coming up behind the girls and took the opportunity to really put Annie on the spot. "And you keep your mouth shut about Phoebe. She's a hundred times better than all of you, and Gerald couldn't do better, because there's no one better than Phoebe!"
"Yeah right. Phoebe's nothing. Gerald should be dating someone higher up the school food chain. Like Misty," Annie said, pointing to a shy looking girl, whose eyes went wide, and face went red. She looked at Helga apologetically then down at the ground.
Poor girl is obviously way in over her head, Helga thought to herself.
"Phoebe is boring. She's a nerd, and for God's sake, has she never heard of contacts?" Annie said, laughing. "And she's dumpy."
At that the rest of the girls laughed. Helga looked over to see Arnold's face turning purple. Instead of saying anything he turned and walked away. Helga felt a bit dismayed by that. Did he really not care?
"What's going on here?" the Cheerleaders coach called out to them. They all turned to stare at her. "Get your butts down here! You girls aren't good enough to be slacking off! Hurry up! Four laps!"
Helga smirked at them when they looked back at her.
"I'll say!" one of the football guys yelled from the field, which made the rest laugh.
Carrie went red, and glared at Helga.
"You heard coach Wittenberg and the team. You guys suck, so you better go practice," Helga said.
"This isn't over," Carrie threatened.
…..
…..
Torvald watched as the group of cheerleaders walked up to Helga and started talking to her.
"A bitchier group of girls you will never see," said one of his team mates. "Especially since that Carrie girl took over from Connie and Maria. They were a reasonable bunch, but then they left, and in comes this girl, and man oh man."
Torvald agreed. There had been some kind of drama, and Connie and Maria had quit the squad. Carrie had taken over, relationships started to break up, and the group turned crazy. The girl in charge had a real attitude problem, and no guys would go near her, for all she was a gorgeous girl. She had already tried trashing one guys reputation by claiming he tried to rape her after he rejected her advances. She had trashed her ex-boyfriend by saying he had a small penis and other nasty things. And all because he found a new girlfriend who shrugged and told people "He's perfect for me. Not everyone wants to fuck a horse." So amongst the guys she had a bad reputation. No one would come near her. And if she couldn't have a boyfriend, she seemed hell bent on making sure other girls, wether on her squad or not, wouldn't.
"Helga can hold her own," he said quietly, watching the scene unfold. They watched as the Coach walked over to them and started yelling at them to get back to practising.
"I'll say!" another of his team mates called out. They had a bit of a laugh. Since this Carrie girl had taken over, then squad had gone downhill a bit. Connie and Maria had them to a point where they were going to competitions. This girl couldn't even get a routine together for practice. The boys wondered how long it would take Mrs Wittenburg to demote the girl, if not drop her completely. They'd overheard the woman moaning to her husband, their coach the other day about how if they put as much effort and energy into cheerleading as they did into drama, they'd be at Nationals.
"Just keep the drama queens away from my boys," Coach Wittenberg had said.
"Your such an insensitive jerk!" and so a fight ensued. The boys moved away because they knew where it would it head, and hearing to teachers making out was beyond gross. Especially because they were so old!
"Hit the showers boys!" their coach called out. They turned a bit shocked, but saw that he was looking over to where the cheerleaders were. His wife was really having a go at them all.
The boys didn't need to be asked twice though, and trudged off to get dressed, while their coach started towards where his wife was. Serves them right.
…..
…..
"I was thinking we could go to a movie!" Helga said excitedly.
"Sure thing, when?" Torvald asked.
"Tonight? We could grab some grub then go see that new horror comedy!" she said, grabbing his hand
"Sure," he said, smiling down at her. "But don't you need to work on an assignment with Arnold?"
"Nope. I just need to drop some photocopies of stuff off to him, and we're sweet," she said, leaning into him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Up ahead he saw Arnold and Gerald sitting on the stoop to the Sunset Arms, talking. Gerald saw them first, and waved. Arnold glared and sulked. Helga waved back and started to pull out her folder and shuffle through papers.
"No car?" Arnold asked.
"Nope," Helga said, handing him the papers. "We decided on a walk instead."
Arnold took the papers and dropped them on the stairs.
"Thanks," he muttered.
"No problems. See ya Gerald, bye Arnold," Helga said. She stretched her arm out in front of her. "To the movies!"
….
….