(Ok. My friends partner was murdered a few months ago, so updating my fanfics hasn't been a priority. People don't set out to NOT finish fanfics. Life happens, and that's just the way it is. In mine, I'm dealing with the fallout of a pretty horrific event, and it is. It's worse than any other after-effects of a death before, even within my own family. My writing probably won't be very good for a while, so bear with me. I will get through these remaining open fics eventually. But I have things going on. Please don't PM me complaining or whining about a lack of updates. I really don't care atm)
...
Waking up, Helga stretched and yawned and smiled. It wasn't often that she awoke with a smile on her face. But when she did, she knew it would be a good day. And with the memories of her time last night with Torvald fresh, she sighed and flopped back down, grinning at the memories.
It had started at Burger Hutt, a newish burger joint in town, where they got some food. Torvald paid. Then they played some arcade games while waiting to enter the theatre to see their movie. Whoever thought of putting an acade in the movie theatre was brilliant! Then Torvald got their tickets, got poppcorn and drinks, and they entered the theatre to watch the new horror flick 'I Know'. There was that short awkward moment at the end when he dropped her off. But he cracked a joke and they laughed and then she got out and he waited til she was inside and waved to him from the window.
Then she had gone upstairs, had a shower, and gone to bed, smiling.
Finally, she dragged herself out of bed and got ready. Hair, teeth, make-up, deciding what to wear she decided to keep it simple with jeans and a tank top. It was still a bit warm, though in the afternoons you started to feel the chill. Autumn was on it;s way. She sighed. She missed summer. Why couldn't this have started over summer? She hadn't gone anywhere this past summer because Olga had spent the majority of it sick. And she knew Torvald hadn't either, having seen him around town, but not really paying much attention.
"Helga, are you ready?" she heard her sister call. Rolling her eyes, she fluffed her hair again, and left, closing her bedroom door behind her, and making her way downstairs. There was waffles waiting. Helga resisted the urge to gag. She had gone off waffles and pancakes and such lately, much preferring a bowl of cereal with fruit, or even just fruit on it;s own. Maybe with some yogurt. She didn't know why, but she had lost an appetite for such things as presented in front of her. So she walked past the plate of waffles and grabbed an apple, banana, orange, blueberries and reached into the fridge for a yogurt.
"Is that all your having?" Olga asked. Helga was about to snap at her, but stopped. She looked at her sister, really looked at her. She seemed . . . gray? She definately didn't look well . . .
"Yeah, I'm not keen on that kind of food anymore," she said nicely. Something about her sister was off, and she looked away, but then back. "Are you okay?"
Olga looked surprised by her sister's question.
"Yeah, I'm just feeling a little under the weather," she told her smiling. "Migraines."
Helga continued to watch her sister for a bit, before finally nodding, and sitting down, pushing the sight of her sister out of her mind.
"So, how did your date go last night?" Olga asked, sitting down.
"It wasn't a date," Helga said, feeling her cheeks burn. "He's three years older than me. We can't date."
"Oh, nonsense," Olga said, waving her hand. "You can date, you just can't . . . you know."
"Yeah, well, why risk it, right?" Helga asked, taking a bite of her apple. "So what about you? What are you up to today?"
"Doctor visit," Olga told her. "I can't shake these migraines, and they're getting worse."
Helga noted the frown on her sister's forhead.
"I'm sure it's just stress," Helga said. Olga smiled, but said nothing. Helga could tell she was concerned, but didn't want to say anything to her.
"Well, you better get eating, or you'll miss the bus."
Helga shook her head.
"Torvald is picking me up," she informed her sister. "But he will be here in a minute." She picked up her carten of yogurt and drank it down, then smiling at her appalled sister, wiped her mouth, grabbed her orange and banana and took off out the door to wait on the stoop for him.
...
...
Helga was at her locker just before lunch when she was picked up from behind and swung around. She screamed out, and turned ready to attack, but saw a smiling Torvald behind her.
"I didn't get high, but scraped in on a mock test with seventy-nine," he said, showing her a piece of paper. "The last time we did this, I only got a twenty, so this is big!"
Helga smiled at him.
"See, I told you," she told him, turning back to her locker.
"Let's celebrate," he said. "Another movie? Or maybe dinner somewhere a little fancier?"
"Sounds great," she said, taking out the tummy and putting it on. She tried to pull her shirt over it, but it didn't quite work out. A bit was exposed, and she shrugged. And there was a bit of weight on it. "I hate this thing."
"At least you can take it off at the end of the day," he said to her.
"True. Well I better get going," she told him, putting her books against her chest. Torvald leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips.
"I'll meet you after school," he said to her, smiling, then walking away.
Helga watched him leave, then bit her lip and turned to see Arnold was just down the hall looking her way. She felt a queasy feeling in her stomach. Had Torvald only kissed her because Arnold was near-by? She hoped not. She had no intention on making Arnold jealous. She didn't want to. Making her way over to him he handed her some papers then walked beside her in silence.
...
...
I can't make it today, have to do a late minute practice.
Helga read the text from Torvald and sighed. She felt a little dissapointed, but it couldn't be helped.
"What's wrong?" Arnold whispered to her.
"Nothing," she said, putting her phone away before the teacher saw she had it out.
"Are you able to come over after school?" he asked her.
"Do we really need to?" she asked back.
"We're supposed to work on this together, and so far we haven't," he told her. "How is it we're supposed to put together a convincing, working marriage, when we don't even work together?"
"No one said it had to work," Helga snapped.
"No, But I want a successful marriage, and I wont that to show!" he snapped back. "Maybe you couldn't care less about your grades, Helga, but some of the rest of us have to."
Helga snorted and looked away.
"So are you coming over or not?" he demanded. Helga just nodded. "Thank-you."
...
...
Helga was waiting for Arnold to meet up with her when she got a text meassage from her father telling her to come home now. Helga text back she'd be home in time for dinner, but had some school work to do.
It's important, Helga, come home now!
Helga frowned. Usually her father was reasonable when it came to her not coming home after school. The only times he hadn't been was when Miriam was hospitalised for alchol poisioning, and when her Grandmother died. She looked up as Arnold started walking towards her, and decided to call him.
She put a finger to her lip to tell Arnold to be quiet.
"Hey, dad, I'm going to -"
"You gotta come home, Helga," he said subdued and in an ominous voice.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"It's your sister," he said.
A shiver went through Helga's body. She looked at Arnold, frowning.
"What's wrong with her?" she asked.
"This isn't something to talk about over the phone, girl. Just get your fanny home, now."
He had hung up and she pulled the phone away from her ear to look at it. "Okay."
"What's wrong?" Arnold asked. Helga looked at him and saw he was genuinely concerned.
"Um, I have to go home," she said, deep in thought.
"Want me to walk you?" he asked. She just nodded. All thoughts of anything else went out the window as she started thinking of her sister. She had been sick over the summer, and hadn't gotten better. She had finally gone to the doctor, who sent her to the hospital, and now this? And Olga had looked absolutely awful this morning. Was Olga really, seriously ill? As she thought of everything she had seen, worst case scenarios flitted through her mind. Was her sister going to die?
Arnold grabbing her arm pulled her from her thoughts. They were at her house. When had they gotten here?
"Text me later," he said. "Maybe you can come over after dinner or something?"
"Maybe," she said. "Thanks for walking me home Arnold."
"Anytime Helga," he said with a smile and a wave. She watched as he walked away, then she went upstairs and entered the house.
...
...
Everyone was sitting in the kitchen around the table. Olga looked worse than ever, her father looked grim-faced and her mother had obviously been crying. The air in the house was heavy and thick.
"What's going on?" she asked, coming and taking a seat. Everyone looked at each other, then at her.
"I have a tumor," Olga told her. "In my brain. They weren't migraines."
No one said anything for the longest moment, and Helga sat there quietly for a moment before finally speaking.
"Can they fix it?" she asked. Again a long silence before Miriam burst into tears again.
"No, not this one," she said.
"This one?" Helga asked.
"Before you were born, I had one," Olga confessed. "It was removed. It's why I lived my life to the fullest. I always wondered if one day I would get another."
Helga watched as her father stood up and exited through the back door without a word. Miriam just sat there, staring into space.
"But, I-" Helga didn't know what to say. "So are you going to die?"
"Yes."