After visiting Helga at work, which probably wasn't a good idea - not like Gerald was rubbing it in, oh no - the two boys decided to hang out at Arnold's while Phoebe went back to her house to do homework. They agreed to discuss plans for a meet up later.

"So, uhh…you guys…are you and Helga pretty good friends?" Arnold asked once they settled in his old room. Gerald was helping him unpack, like the good friend he was, and still before the dude can utter a 'thank you', he's gotta ask about Helga.

Gerald gave a long, dramatic sigh. "Maaaan, there's nothin' I like better, on a spring afternoon, after seeing my best friend for the first time in four and half years, than to talk about his childhood bully. mm, mm, mmm. Absolutely nothin' I'd rather be doing."

"Gerald…"

"Hanging; out, playing video games? Or maybe a rousing game of Monopoly? Nahhh, man! I just wanna talk about Helga all day long."

"Come on, Gerald! I've been gone a long time, I'm just trying to piece it together." Arnold pressed.

"Alright, alright! But seriously, can we have some guy time soon?" Gerald asked. Arnold nodded, and Gerald sighed again. "Alright, man. To answer your question… yeah. I guess, you know. She uhh…really mellowed out. I mean, she is pretty funny when you're not the one she's pickin on, you know?"

Arnold gave a small smile. "Yeah…"

"Yeah…" Gerald mimicked him, batting his eyelashes. Arnold gave him a playful shove as they both laughed. "And Phoebe and I spend a lot of time with her. Lila comes along sometimes if we need a twosome, too. We have fun, man. She ain't half bad."

"That's really great to hear, Gerald." Arnold smiled. "I'm glad you two became friends. Did Phoebe convince you to give her a chance?"

"Well, yeah, kind of, I guess. She uh…" he cleared his throat. "Well, look, I'm gonna level with you, buddy. After you left…"

"Uh oh." Arnold cringed. "That bad, huh?"

"She just… really needed some friends. She wasn't really herself, you know? Kinda…withdrawn, I guess. I don't remember much of it, but I do remember Phoebe freaking out. You know, I didn't really care much at the time…" he shrugged. "I didn't really know what was going on very much, either. I didn't pry. I just know she was real sad and…apathetic. So Phoebe and I would just…hang out with her, watch movies and stuff when her sister or Lila couldn't be around. It was almost like we took shifts or somethin', man…" he gave a hollow laugh at the memory.

"But she did get better, right?" Arnold asked, voice almost panicky, bringing Gerald back to reality.

"Man, of course she did!" Gerald replied, throwing his hands up in the air. That boy… "You just saw her, did that look withdrawn to you?" Gerald shook his head. "You gotta learn to read the atmosphere better…" he sighed again. "But, yeah, things got better…eventually." Gerald shrugged. Arnold was about to ask what exactly he meant, when he was interrupted by his parents knocking on the door, asking if the boys wanted a snack.

About an hour later, all of Arnold's items were unpacked and his room was cleaned. He didn't have much stuff; just clothes and a few momentos from his travels. Most of the time was spent cleaning, the room was rather stale and dusty. His grandparents left the room unoccupied while he was away, and he was thankful for it.

Gerald started to text Phoebe about their plans that evening. "Slausen's sound good to you?" he hollered, and Arnold nodded yes.

After their plans were set up, the two boys finally had some time to relax. Gerald brought his handheld gaming system with him, and he was updating Arnold on how far video games have progressed since he left.

"Oh, Helga's going to be a little late, I guess." Gerald piped up when he received her text, as they were getting ready to leave. "She wants to get that frosting out of her hair, hah!" Gerald snorted. "Classic."

"Oh." Arnold blushed slightly. "I hope she knows how sorry I am…"

Gerald rolled his eyes. "She does, believe me. And she even told you how much it wasn't a big deal. So cool it, will ya?" he texted back a response.

"Man, that girl better get in that damn shower…"

-

"Greetings, you two. Arnold, I take it you already know Helga will be joining us a bit later." Phoebe said as she met the two boys outside Slausen's.

"Yup." Arnold replied. "She had to, uhh, wash her hair right?" Gerald started laughing, but Arnold wasn't amused.

Phoebe giggled. "Yes, she did. I hope you don't mind that I added you to our group text, it just makes communicating much more simple."

"Oh, no, it's totally fine! It's nice to have an easy way to talk to all of you." He brought out his flip phone and showed it to Phoebe as they started walking inside the restaurant. "Gerald says I should get a new phone, but I like this one. It's sturdy. What do you think, Phoebe?"

"I told him it looks like a grandpa phone. You can't do anything on that brick, man! You need to get with the twenty-first century!"

Phoebe examined the phone. "While I agree that it is sturdy, and apt for adventuring through rugged terrain and more humid temperatures, I do have to agree with Gerald on this matter. To adapt to this environment, you need a more modern phone with less protection, but more features."

"I just got this phone last year!" Arnold exclaimed. "It's practical." he shrugged. "But, I'm using a travel SIM card anyway, so I'll need to get a new one soon."

The three of them sat down at a booth near the window. Arnold was excited to be back in one of his childhood hangouts; this place held a lot of memories for him. He often daydreamed about their banana splits or their milkshakes while he was in South America. Unsurprisingly, he didn't get to eat many American delicacies while he was on humanitarian missions in the jungle. They placed their orders once the waitress came around - gosh, he was so excited for that banana split.

"So, what's been going on while I've been gone?" Arnold asked, eager to get the scoop on their childhood friends.

Both Phoebe and Gerald spoke about their previous classmates, helping each other with the specifics. Oh, Rhonda is doing very well for herself, she convinced her parents to invest in an upcoming cosmetics company—and its new line is set to debut this fall, right?; Harold works for Mr. Green after school sometimes— he's learning a lot, he might take over the shop one day; Sid and Stinky filmed a Vine that went viral a few years ago — oh sorry, well Vine is, er, was this website where you upload six second videos—

The couple was interrupted by their phones buzzing at the same time. Phoebe and Gerald looked at each other, then looked at their phones.

"Oh…Helga is on her way." Phoebe announced curtly after she checked her message. Gerald put his phone away and didn't say anything.

"She…didn't like that I was included in the group message, did she?" Arnold asked after noticing that their phones buzzed, but his didn't.

"It might have been…premature for us to include you, Arnold, I'm sorry. This day must have been exhausting for her, and we gave her no warning of your return." Phoebe grimaced. "And after I just apologized for the bakery incident…" she muttered to herself.

The Bakery Incident. Great. It has a name now.

"Yeah…I kinda forgot how little can overwhelm her, sometimes." Gerald responded. "She'll come around, man." he patted Arnold on the shoulder. "She's just real emotional sometimes, remember?"

Arnold cracked a sad smile at that. "Yeah, I remember." he sighed.

"Oh…Arnold…one more thing before Helga arrives. She's currently dating her coworker's twin brother, so could you do us a favor and keep that in mind?" Phoebe asked, almost not realizing what a bombshell she was dropping on Arnold. "Maybe keep your stares and lingering touches to a minimum."

The waitress came back with their food and started dispersing it to the three teenagers.

"Oh she's…dating someone? Um…good for her." Arnold replied.

"Double cheeseburger, chocolate shake, onion rings?" The waitress asked. All three of them pointed to the blank seat next to Phoebe.

"Phoebe! Baaaabe!" Gerald whined, the waitress not affecting their dialogue one bit. "A little compassion for my main man, here? A little finesse, maybe? Sorry, Arnold, I should have told you earlier. I totally forgot that she started dating Dipper. I can't make excuses for that delivery, though. Come on, babe. Wow."

"No, no. it's fine." Arnold held up his hand and gave a small nervous laugh. "I prepared for this. I didn't expect her to stay single…she's just so great…I knew once she got older, more people would start to notice her."

"Alright, cool it, loverboy. Look, she's almost here." Gerald pointed at her in the window. She pretty much looked the same from earlier, except she was wearing two buns instead of one (with two itty bitty bows, he noticed), and she wasn't wearing the fake jungle uniform they made her wear. Instead, she was wearing an oversized black sweatshirt that said…

"Best Dad in the Universe?" Arnold read out loud, squinting. "But she isn't…a dad?" Arnold asked, confused. "…Right?"

Gerald started laughing. "Oh man! Alright, I guess I gotta explain something to you real quick. See, there's this thing called ironic clothing…"

Ugh. The States were really, really weird sometimes.

"So you wear that sweater because it's…funny? Right?" Arnold asked after Helga got inside and sat down across from him.

"Yeah," Helga said as she took a big bite of her cheeseburger. "It's funny because I'm a teenage girl, not a middle-aged dad." She said, not caring that her mouth was full. "Get it? Plus, the space graphic is pretty sweet, right?" she looked down at her sweatshirt. "Got it for a buck fifty. Isn't it hideous? I love it." she said dryly as she continued eating her burger but quit talking to him.

Helga didn't say much after their exchange about her outfit, she mostly listened as Phoebe and Gerald continued to speak about the past few years, sometimes interjecting with her own details. She was mostly on her phone, or looking out the window. She seemed distant, even more distant than she was earlier. At least she said she missed him earlier, right?

So Sid and Stinky had a taste of internet fame for a little bit, they did have a YouTube prank channel with Harold, but it was low-key pretty awful—Arnold made a mental note to ask Gerald if he could see it later. Nadine got to spend last summer at the University of Nebraska for their entomology studies program for high schoolers, and she plans to go there for college—Even though Rhonda would rather be dead in Washington than alive in Nebraska, Helga joked.

"Eugene produced the Spring musical; it was a fantastic rendition of Grease. If I recall correctly, Lorenzo was Danny, Rhonda was Rizzo, and Stinky was actually Kenickie. He surprisingly preformed very well; I had no idea he was interested in the performing arts." Phoebe said.

"Rhonda made a great Rizzo, actually." Helga chimed in. "Color me surprised, but she really knocked it out of the park." she took a sip of her second chocolate milkshake. "I wanted to try out for that part, but I didn't want to lose hours at work." She shrugged. "Gotta have my cakes." she smirked, and she was obviously referencing something, as evidenced by Gerald and Phoebe's smirks and exhaling laughter, but Arnold didn't understand it. He figured this would happen a lot. That's what happens when you're gone for almost five years - you miss a lot of small things. Inside jokes, pop culture references, memories that seem insignificant but are developmentally important in a friendship. He chose this life, and it's not like he regretted the choice to spend time with his parents in the jungle…but man, he didn't feel like being left out.

"Speaking of cakes…can I see some?" Arnold asked as he started to eat his dessert. "O-of yours, I mean. Can I see some of the cakes you decorated?"

Helga coughed a bit. "Uh, sure, I guess." She gave a one-arm shrug, and took out her phone. She tapped on it for a few seconds. "Go wild." She held out her phone to him across the table, nonchalantly and he took it, eagerly.

It was her Cake Album. Arnold scrolled through each photo, carefully looking at the details. One cake was a dark, midnight blue with hues of purple and dark pink; another was a light blue with perfect pink rosettes and white polka dots; a third was a delicate ombre red-to-white with strawberry roses adorning the top. One after another, they continued to amaze him.

"Wow, Helga, these are really good!"

"Yeah, you kinda get good at something you do for nine months straight." She said as she looked straight ahead, but not at him, sipping her milkshake some more. Arnold chuckled, but he noticed that Gerald and Phoebe exchanged slightly worried looks - it wasn't a joke.

He stopped once he got to a tall, brown cake. It looked like a volcano - it was beautiful. The mountain was dark brown, and it looked like it had a rough texture. The lava at the top looked like it was frozen fire. More lava cascaded down the cone shape; red orange and yellow frosting flowing along the volcano, and rested on the base, which was a bright green color, littered with trees.

"Oh, yeah." she said, looking over at her phone. "I remember that one was a pain in the ass. I made the spouting lava at the top out of melted lollipops. Man, that one took forever. The little kid was pretty excited, though. So I guess all the effort was worth the dumb smile on his face or something, I don't know." she shrugged. "That one took a while, but it's a nice add to the portfolio."

"It's amazing! It kinda looks like the one we saw in San Lorenzo, remember?" Arnold asked excitedly.

"I mean, I don't know. It was for some rich kid's dinosaur party, I just looked up pictures of volcanos for reference. Criminy, I probably looked at three hundred of them." She crossed her arms and stopped looking at her phone with him. "Not everything has to involve you." she added, quietly.

He felt a bit hurt at that statement. Was she not happy to see him?

Phoebe and Gerald looked at each other again, and could seem to sense the tension in the air. "O-oh, why don't you keep scrolling? I think Lila's birthday cake is my personal favorite…here, let me show you, I have a photograph…" Phoebe fiddled with her own phone. "It was breathtaking…dark emerald, gold accents, maroon…oh, it was lovely. I mean, you'd assume with those colors that they wouldn't complement each other, but it was the complete opposite…" she stuck out her phone for Arnold to see.

"I dunno, man, I think Stinky's cake was my favorite. A lemon pudding cake and a Beyonce reference all in one? I gotta say that one…really takes the cake." Gerald and Phoebe giggled at his joke. "It was black, gold, and yellow. She even made little fondant lemons too!"

Helga tried to look like she was indifferent, but her blush on her face gave it away. "Alright, alright. Enough of that nonsense." she said as she took her phone back from Arnold. "Why don't you pull up your YouTube channel and show him some of your basketball highlights or something, friendo."

"Good idea!"

Once Helga was done with her second milkshake, she stood up to leave.

"Alright, see you guys at school tomorrow." She fished some money out of her shorts pocket and set it on the table. "I'm going to bed. See ya." She gave a short, sarcastic wave as she walked towards the entrance.

"Wait, are you leaving already?" Arnold called out to her, even though she was at the door. She gave another wave without looking back over her shoulder to indicate yeah, I am leaving already. Boy, bye. And then she walked out the door.

Arnold scrambled to get out of the booth and chase after her. She left so suddenly, he wasn't prepared for it. He didn't want the night to end just yet - he was having so much fun just being around her.

"Did you want to come over?" He called out to her once he got outside.

Helga turned around and quirked an eyebrow. "Uh, no?" she said, without a hint of remorse in her voice. She turned back around to continue walking.

Arnold's face fell. "Well, maybe just for a little bit? My parents—they were really excited when they found out I was going to see you tonight. They, um, want to see you too."

"I said no." she growled.

"Please?" Arnold called out one more time.

Helga gritted her teeth as she turned around sharply. "Holy balls Arnold, it's 9:45 on a Wednesday night. I have an AP Lit test tomorrow, and I worked today, and I'm tired. You think the world just stops when you get back in town? Criminy, get over yourself!" Helga yelled. "I didn't even want to come along but I didn't want to be rude, either."

"Oh, um, sorry, I didn't think—"

"I mean, you decide to show up out of freakin' nowhere, and you can't leave me alone!" she yelled. "You showed up to my work? And then my coworkers wouldn't shut up about you, and then Lila came on and couldn't shut up about you either, a-and then—fucking, this whole thing; heck, even Olga knew you were here?" Her voice started to crack. "And then they fucking add you to the group chat? Our fucking group chat? Who do you think you are?"

They were both silent for a few seconds, Helga still raging over her outburst and Arnold trying to process it.

"Helga, I'm really sorry. I didn't know that this would overwhelm you so much. We—we can start over—I just didn't think—"

"Well you should start thinking." She sighed, and slid down the brick wall of the alley they were in. "I'm sorry…for yelling." she wiped a stray tear that fell out of her eye (it wasn't because she was crying, it was because she had allergies, duh). "I went through a lot…when you left. And it wasn't just because of you, before that big head of yours gets even bigger. I just…don't want history to repeat itself, okay?"

Arnold pursed his lips, and nodded. "I'm sorry if I came on too strong. I was just really excited…" he rubbed his neck nervously. "But, you know, we can start small. Just be friends."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone's just so darn excited today. Seems to be today's secret word or something."

She didn't object to the "start small, be friends" part of his response, so he assumed that they were good with that. He decided to mimic her body language by sliding down the brick wall.

"You seem to apologize a lot now." Arnold said, without even thinking. That wasn't the smartest thing he said all night, as that was something that could definitely set her off if she took it the wrong way. He was already on thin ice. Why did he say something so dumb?

"What?" She asked, an expression of what the fuck are you even talking about apparent on her face.

"I mean…just now. You were sorry for yelling."

"Oh, yeah." she shrugged. "I'm trying. I'm not… good at apologizing. …..my… therapist said I needed to 'put forth an effort' or something like that, I don't know." she rolled her eyes after she made air quotes to almost mock her therapist. But he could tell she was really taking their advice to heart. "I was…really mean when I was younger. It's a hard cycle to break. But it's easier…now. Like, when you're not around it all the time…" she was quiet for a moment. It almost seemed like she was waiting for a response, but he was waiting for her to finish her thought.

"Welp! Thanks for noticing, Arnoldo. Means a lot." she said dryly as she got up off of the floor and started walking away. "See you in the funny papers." She gave him another backwards wave.

He was about to turn around and head back into the restaurant - Gerald and Phoebe were probably wondering what was going on - when he heard Helga stop.

"Hey…" She croaked out, almost too quiet for him to hear. Her head turned backwards slightly, but she wasn't facing him.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Tell your parents that I'm…sorry… I couldn't make it. And tell Phil and Gertie…thanks, for me, will ya?"

"S-sure, Helga."

She turned her head and smiled. "Thanks, Football Head."

And with that, she walked away.

sorry if this chapter seems kinda weird, my betas have been a little busy lately. also sorry for the late upload lol the world series was too good so i wasnt writing much

thanks for all the reviews, guys! 'preciate ya. keep em coming, they actually motivate me to upload faster.