"Ho, ho, just take a look at that. Looks like you had a fun day eh? Shortman".

"I wouldn't call it exactly fun, Granpa".

Phil barked in laughter, holding his stomach. Arnold frowned and pressed his lips before turning his head to the other side. It took exactly a minute before Phil stopped and sat on the border of the bed. Arnold felt his right hand over his shoulder, he sighed before turning back and straightened up. There was still a trace of a smug smirk on his grandfather but his eyes told Arnold differently. Arnold bit his lower lip and sighed.

"So, wanna talk about it?" Phil said placing his elbows on top of his knees.

Arnold took a deep breath, even if he trusted his grandfather with his life he decided that he needed to sort this it out before sharing it with anybody. So he just shook his head before looking away. From the corner of his eye Arnold noticed the pain of his rejection on Phil's eyes but almost immediately he composed his face and stood up with the same old smile he always carried everywhere.

"Well I'll make a sandwich, if you feel like pastrami you're welcome to join me" he said as he walked to the door.

"Thanks Granpa" Arnold responded with a small smile.

"And there's a cream for that, in the medicine cabinet. It's the one with purple lid and labeled 'Yeast infection cream'"

Arnold frowned disgusted making Phil laugh.

"Don't worry" he said with a dismissive hand gesture "I changed the labels so Kokoschka stopped stealing from it"

Arnold smirked and nodded "Thanks"

Phil nodded before closing the door behind him. Arnold felt guilty for not sharing how his first day had gone with him, but to be honest he still didn't understand it either. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he started to count to ten before throwing himself on top of his bed, facing the sky. The sun was about to set, giving space for the stars to shine in all their glory. As he watched one single cloud swim lazily across the sky, he closed his eyes and started to wonder what exactly had happened.

It had all started just like he had expected, most of his classes he had the fortune to share them with Gerald so he didn't feel that left out. Also it had been nice to see all his classmates from elementary school around the hallways, even if he had met most of them in his welcoming party, there were a few faces that he hadn't had the chance to meet. After some minor chats and few updates, by the third period Arnold had already caught up with everybody's lives. Making him feel pleased that some of them still kept some of the quirks that made them who they were.

All of his classes had turned just like he imagined them to be, not very different from the ones he had on the school he attended back in San Lorenzo. The only difference was the language and that he was treated like the new toy of the class, which it wasn't that bad but at some point Arnold felt embarrassed and a little annoyed that he had to repeat about his life on San Lorenzo in every single period. So by the time the bell for lunch rang, Arnold was more than grateful.

As he made his way through the cafeteria with his plastic tray to the table where Gerald, Phoebe and some others were already eating, he heard someone call him from the back. Arnold turned to the direction of the voice and found a tall slim guy with blonde hair and dark eyes behind some thick black-rimmed glasses. Arnold blinked a couple of times, he had seen this guy on most of his classes but he couldn't remember meeting him. He was wearing a yellow cardigan, black snickers and a set of brown trousers. Arnold tried hard to remember where exactly he had met this guy, before his thoughts were interrupted.

"You don't remember me, do you?" the guy said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Arnold shook his head feeling embarrassed of not remembering someone that did remember him.

"It's Brian" the guy declared, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Arnold felt his neck burn, still the name hadn't rung any bell inside his head. Arnold gulped and shook his head once again, feeling dumber by admitting not remembering this guy. The inability of Arnold to recognize him, made Brian frown and snort.

"Figures" Brian said as he unfolded his arms and adjusted his glasses with his right hand.

Arnold felt a pinch of anger spark inside, he felt that this guy was been unfair with him. It wasn't like he had forgotten on purpose or decided to pretend not to know who this Brian was. Honestly he didn't remember meeting anyone with that name before in his entire life, so he couldn't understand the anger directed towards him. Holding the tray with a little more strength than needed he fired up.

"Look Brian, I'm really sorry but seriously I have no idea who you are. And it's not like I'm doing it on purpose, so there's no need for you to get mad"

Pushing his glassed to the top of the bridge of his nose, Brian straightened up. Making evident the 5 inches of difference between him and Arnold. The scold on his face was still present as a cruel smirk appeared on the corner of his lips.

"Oh that's correct, I forgot there's no much brain mass inside that misshaped head of yours to remember who my actual name was" he declared as he took a look to the nails of his right hand before he proceeded "you probably just remember my hideous but nevertheless accurate nickname back in elementary school"

Arnold frowned, tightening up his grip around the tray. His anger was increasing by the second as he noted that this guy was successfully pissing him off. It wasn't just the insult about his head, but the mere attitude was the one that was pulling him off his center and by the corner of his eyes he spotted that they were attracting stares from all over the place.

"Maybe you don't remember me because you are so full of yourself or perhaps the heat in that third world country you live in had fried up your brain" Brian declared with a loud voice, making everyone around to pay close attention "But doesn't matter, I'm feeling generous today so I'll give you a little hint".

Brian passed his right hand on top of his head, messing up with it until it was shaped in spikes. He proceeded by curving to the front, making it appear that he had a hunch on his back. And to finalize he grinned goofily as he let out a raspy, loud wheeze. In that instant Arnold felt how his brain was pulled 8 years to the past. How could he have not remembered? It had been that obvious, the name, the wardrobe. He gulped.

"Brainy?" he declared with a low voice.

Brian smirked as he straightened up and clapped twice slowly as he walked a step closer to Arnold. "Bingo, a price for the midget here".

Arnold half closed his eyes in anger, his rage bubbling up inside of him, reaching closer to his boiling point. The insults were taking a toll on his composed demeanor. Checking his surroundings, Arnold noticed that now they were the center of attention and that everybody had stopped eating their meals. Arnold felt a presence approach them.

"Is there a problem here, man?" Gerald declared as he placed his left hand on top of Arnold's right shoulder.

Arnold looked up at his friend before returning his stare back at Brian. He couldn't understand why he was so angry with him, true he had been dense for not catching up with his name. Considering that it was real similar to the name he used to know him for. But the attitude was overboard considering that his only fault was not to recognize him at first. Deciding to take the high road he swallowed his anger and count to ten before speaking.

"Look Brian, I am deeply sorry for not recognizing you at first, but you have to admit that you changed a lot. It's quiet difficult to recognize someone after such a long time and after such a dramatic change".

This had seemed to do the trick, because the tension on the atmosphere was lighter than before. Brian took the compliment well as he relaxed his shoulders and looked up feeling cocky.

"Yeah, you're right" he said as he passed a hand on top of his hair.

"So, once again I'm sorry for being rude to you. I hope we can catch up some time later".

Brian stared at him for a long time, analyzing if there was any sort of trick on Arnold's apology. It took a couple of seconds before he blinked lazily and nodded.

"Yeah, whatever" he said dismissive with a slight smirk on the corner of his lips.

Arnold smirked and nodded as he turned back to the original destination he had in mind before he was interrupted, walking with Gerald by his side. He didn't make two steps before he was called once again. Arnold turned back.

"Welcome back to Hillwood"

Arnold smiled as he nodded, he was ready to walk away when his intentions were interrupted once more.

"Oh and Arnold, one last thing" Brian declared as he walked closer to him.

Arnold tilted his head, waiting for whatever he had in his mind. What he didn't expect was Brian raising his right hand in the form of a fist and making contact with his left eye, taking him completely out of guard. The impact made him collide with the floor, dropping the tray of his hands as it made a loud noise as it crashed on the floor. Arnold couldn't see what was happening but by the noises around him and the multiple presences moving around him, he could guess that Gerald had jumped to Brian as he tried to contain him, forbidding him from taking any other hit on his best friend. In all the ruckus he finally managed to open his good eye as he saw how one teacher was pulling Brian to the exit, restraining both of his arms behind his back. Brian was struggling to release himself, but his attempts were futile. Before he was pulled out of the room, Brian gave him a murderous stare.

"That's for breaking up your promise!" he yelled as he was pulled out of the place.

Arnold felt how the pain started to spread to all his face as Gerald and Stinky pulled him up. Both help him to clean his clothes, take his things and accompany him to the nursery. After the nurse applied some unguents with foul odors, Arnold was asked to go the Principal and explain the incident. After telling his version of the events to Mr. Raditch, and receiving a lecture of the school policy against violence, he was excused for the rest of the day.

As he walked back to the boarding house and ignoring all the stares and comments he got on the way there, he walked straight to his room where he felt asleep almost instantly. It wasn't until later that his grandfather arrived and mocked him about his purple eye. Arnold sighed as he stood up and walked to the mirror on the corner, the bruise was getting nastier. There was some purple shading along with green. He decided to go downstairs and use the cream his grandpa had suggested. As he closed the door of the bathroom and pulled out the cream, he started to wonder about the last words Brian had said to him and the meaning behind them.

Applying carefully the cream around his eye, his stomach started to grumble in protest. He hadn't eaten anything since that morning. Deciding it was best to grab something quick to eat and go straight to his room, he walked out of the restroom and picked up a package of cookies and a glass of milk. Fortunately he didn't encounter anybody on the way, so he didn't have to explain the dark eye to anyone.

As he closed the door of his room behind him and locked it, he started to gulf down the pastries. After his stomach groaned happily, Arnold went downstairs and brushed his teeth. Once that was settled he went back to his room and locked the door, taking his pajamas out he jumped into bed and decided to call it a day. Even if it was early at night, he had a lot of thinking to do. As he closed his eyes and felt the cream making its effects on his skin, he started to seek deep inside his memories what exactly Brian had referred to.

-.-.-.-.-.-

A/N: Wow… long time right? Well tonight I decided to cut the crap and go with it. Turns out that's the only way the brain works, when you squeeze it to work. Anyhow hope you had liked it and you know the drill: Don't kill me or you won't know the ending muahahahaha.

Thanks for reading, reviews = love :D