Chapter sixteen: Love and Cheese: Part one
As Arnold stood under Helga's stoop he was worried that Helga would be in a bad mood. He really didn't want to be made fun of this evening. Even though he knew that there was more to Helga then just a mean, scowling bully, but sometimes it's hard to look past that. That's when the door opened.
"Hey football-head." Helga said while holding the door.
"Hey Helga." Arnold looked at her hair and was focused on it. "Wow, you look wonderful."
Helga blushed, "Well you don't look so bad yourself."
Arnold smiled, "Thank you, you ready to go?"
"Yeah, let's go. Bye dad, love you."
Arnold looked at her confused. Did she just say she loves Big Bob Pataki? As Gerald would say, 'now I've seen everything'. Even though this confused Arnold he decided against bringing it up.
"So, how's your day going?" Arnold asked.
"Oh, it's fine." She was lying; she was having a great day. First Big Bob told her that he's proud of her, and then she's going on a date with the one person she loves. Can it get any better than that?
"When we get to the Cheese festival, what would you like to ride first?" Asked Arnold.
"Well, I always see the Farris wheel and I always want to go on it, but I never had time." (Could have something to do with Helga trying to prevent Arnold from having a good date with Lila and Ruth.)
"Alright the Ferris wheel it is." After a while they started to make jokes.
"I sure love lemon pudding. I'll just stand here and hope I don't have to think." Helga was doing her Stinky impersonation.
"That's really good. You sound just like him!" Arnold wiped tears from his eyes.
"Thank you. I try my best. Well here we are."
Breathing heavily Arnold managed to catch his breath. "We would like two tickets and two ride bands please."
"Alright, here you go." The ticket lady told Arnold.
"Thank you. Here you are Helga."
"Thank you Arnold. There's the Ferris wheel. Let's go, move those short leg of yours."
As Helga was pulling along Arnold, Arnold wasn't having such a good time. He was having trouble keeping up. Then Helga made a sudden turn which caused Arnold to crash into a poll but Helga kept going with Arnold now in a daze. Then he hit another poll and then another. When they finally got to the line Helga looked at Arnold. His hair was all messed up. He had rips in his sweater and a minor black eye.
"Jezz, what happened to you?" Asked Helga. Arnold looked at her with no emotion in his face.
"I ran into a poll." He told her.
"You should watch where you're running football-head."
Arnold just looked at her and nodded. Then they were able to board the ride. They went up and down several times talking about random stuff. Then Helga looked over and saw Rhonda with Curly, Sid with Nadine, Harold with Big Patty, Stinky with Lila, and Gerald with Phoebe.
"Oh no." Said Helga.
"What? What's wrong?" Asked Arnold.
"The whole gang is here short of Eugene and Sheena."
"No they're over there." Arnold pointed Eugene and Sheena over by the Bomber cars.
"Whatever my point is that if they see us here they'll make fun of us."
"No they won't."
"How can you be sure?"
"Well for one thing you already told them that we're dating and they didn't make fun of us then and plus everyone looks like they have a date in their arms so, they're on the same boat we're on." Arnold's reasoning was so fool-proof that it even surprised Helga.
"You're right. I'm just being paranoid. Hey your black eye is going down."
"Is it? Good then I won't have to ice it. But it won't fool my mom. Right when I get home she'll lecture me for an hour on watching where I'm going."
"Why don't you sneak in through your skylight? Just climb up your fire escape to the roof and climb in your room go to your bathroom put some flesh colored makeup on your eye. Change your sweater, because I'm sure you have more than one of those."
"Yes, I have like six more like this one. And like five other plaid colored shirts."
Helga just looked at him, "Wow."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Good so, where do you want to go next?"
"I was thinking, the tunnel of love."