A:N/ Guess what this is? Another Chapter of Valentines Week! Just so you know, this story is post-Hey Arnold Movie.

I don't own Hey Arnold.

Thursday.

The rain poured down on Arnold's skylight. He lay in bed with his hands behind his head, staring up at the rain hitting his window. 'At least the rain knows its fate.' Arnold sighed sadly. 'Why didn't I see it sooner? Now that I think about it, I see all the similarities; the bow, the pink and her blonde hair. I guess what really threw me off was that I never EVER knew she could be so…so …so… pleasant.' Arnold turned on his side and closed his eyes. He definitely wasn't going to school today.

Meanwhile a block down, Helga was doing the same, watching rain hit her window like a drum.

"How could I have been so stupid? He would have to found out sooner or later." Helga plopped down on her bed with a frown. "Maybe I should give Phoebe a call…when she gets home…"

The hours ticked by. Both blondes spent the day in bed, mourning over what happened.

"All this time, she was right under my nose. How blind could I have been?" Arnold tossed and turned, conflicting emotions overpowering him.

"I wish Arnold would have let me explain. What would have said? Arnold is never going to listen to me anyway, much less forgive me." Helga face planted into her pillow.

School had finally finished. Everyone but two certain blondes were on their way home. Lila walked as if she was on a mission impossible. She went to that dark alley where she met Fuzzy Slippers one night before.

"There's my baby doll." He greeted her, sitting on dumpster hidden by the shadows. Lila could see the outline of his shadowy figure. "C'mere. I found something that might interest you." He said with a smirk. Lila jumped and sat on top of the green but surprisingly clean dumpster.

"Hmm… You did? It better be ever so good." Lila smirked. He opened his laptop, Lila leaned in closer to get a good view of the screen.

"You wanted some dirt on this so called "Cecile" who happens to be Helga's cousin, right?"

"Yes. You know, now that I think about it. They had some impeccable similarities. Almost as if they were twins…"

"Well, you almost nailed the dart. Cecile is definitely not Helga's cousin-"

"I knew it!"

"Would you let me finish?" He shot her a glare. "Okay, Cecile and Helga are one and the same."

"What?"

"Cecile is Helga. As in Helga has been impersonating this so called Cecile."

"Wow. It all makes sense now, well not everything. How does Arnold know this "Cecile" anyway?"

"Well, here's the fun part. She and Arnold had gone on a date two years back!"

"Whoa! GET OUT! How did that happen?"

"Well, see. Arnold had asked Ruth McDougal out, anonymously but he got this note from his actual pen pal Cecile in France," He pulled out the letter. "Here, this is just a copy."

"Look at that! The handwriting changes at the bottom, its a different pen too. Purple ink. It looks familiar. I have seen that ink before." Lila thought for a moment and it hit her. Helga had used purple ink for the poster project. "Wow, it was Helga."

"Yeah. Anyway, so the letter says to meet her at Chez Paris. Ironically is on the opposite side of the restaurant Arnold invited Ruth, Chez Pierre…" He continued on with the story.

~~~~~ Several minutes later. ~~~~

"Yeah, so he is running back and forth between each restaurant. To keep both girls happy." Slippers smiled and Lila laughed.

"And here I thought that I gave Arnold trouble." She chuckled.

After an hour, Fuzzy Slippers finished up the story. "You know, I think that was the best Valentine's day of his life."

"Wow. And Helga has loved him that long? I have only known since that fateful Romeo and Juliet play. I thought it was just a crush." Lila had that twinkle in her eye.

Slippers closed his laptop and turned toward Lila. "That was a very interesting predicament. I enjoy doing these little searches for my lovely Lila. I also need that other half of the payment." He tapped his foot impatiently.

"Sorry. Here." She slapped the money on the dumpster lid. "Thanks." She left quietly as a mouse. She walked down the side walk debating what she should do. She has all the information. 'I think I should tell Arnold. Spare him the ever so sad story. Then and only then-' Her thought was caught off when she realized she was at Arnold's place. Sitting on his steps, she sighed. 'I guess I should think some more.'

~~~~Meanwhile, Helga was on the phone with Phoebe… ~~~~

"…So that's what happened, Pheebs. Now he is absolutely angry with me. He thinks I was playing with his feelings." Helga sighed again. She seemed to be doing that a lot today.

"Oh, Helga. That is horrible but Helga, you must place yourself in his shoes. He has Nothing to go on. Arnold is dense as a rock." Phoebe grinned. "I understand he must be angry, Helga but give him a day of space. Then try to explain. I will do what I can."

"You mean, flirt with Gerald." Helga rolled her eyes.

"N-no. I am on your side, Helga."

"Ha ha ha. Okay." Even though Helga was on the verge of tears, she smirked at her friend. "I guess, your right. I should wait till he cools off. Then I will give him the full honest explanation. Everything!"

"Including your love for 'ice cream?'"

"Yeah. I mean what I have got to lose."

~~~~ At Sunset Arms… ~~~~~

The door opened behind Lila. "Lila, what are you doing here?" came a sad, dull voice, no familiarity to Arnold's perky voice at all.

Lila turned around slowly. "Hey Arnold."

"So, just sitting on my stoop like you do everyday? Oh! wait! You don't! I repeat, why are you here?" The anger was rising in his throat.

Lila looked up, hurt and confused. "Well. I wanted to talk to you."

Arnold sighed and sat down beside her. It was 5 pm. The sun was beginning to set, orange hues already painting the pavement. Fresh tears began to dampen his eyes. "Okay, okay. Sorry. I just been thinking about…stuff."

"It's okay, Arnold." She patted his shoulder. "Anyway. I just wanted to warn you…about…about…"

"What?"

"Cecile. She is not who she says she is! Cecile is Helga!" She blurted.

Anger inside Arnold had finally reached its boiling point. "YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT!" Arnold lost all his cool and calm then. He hated this feeling. He just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

Lila was taken aback. She had never seen Arnold like this before. "You, really liked her didn't you?" She asked in the quietest voice.

Arnold stared at her. "No, I liked someone who didn't exist. A fantasy that existed in my own mind." His tone was blank, without emotion. With that he stood up and slammed the door. But he didn't realize, Lila had done the same and stuck her foot in the door. He heard a painful whimper. Turning around, he realized he slammed the door on Lila's foot. Arnold quickly took her inside and helped her sit on the couch, then when to go get some ice from the kitchen. After he fixed up Lila's foot, he sat in the armchair.

"You know, Helga was always the best actress." Lila smiled, staring at her foot.

"Too good." Arnold frowned but doing the same as Lila, staring at her foot.

"I don't understand, Arnold. Why are you so angry?"

"Let's see. Well, Helga impersonated Cecile for a funny prank. She was tampering with my feelings. That was going to far."

"Oh, Arnold. You are always saying "Let's pool our resources and work together," something like that. Isn't one of those resources, Helga's side of the story?"

"I guess so. I need you to leave now, Lila."

"What? Why? You really need to hear Helga's side!"

"What side? That she pranked me so well? She can finally declare herself, victorious. She won." Arnold held up his arms in defeat.

"Ugh, I have to ever so take drastic measures, don't I?" She pulled out a pair of trick handcuffs out of her pocket, credit to Fuzzy Slippers. Quickly she placed the handcuffs on Arnold's wrists.

Opening his eyes in shock, feeling a cool metal around his wrists. "Lila? What are you doing?" He asked in alarm.

"I am not going to unlock you, unless you go see Helga and listen to her explanation." She placed her hands on her hips.

"What? Why? I thought Helga hates you."

Lila could have punched Arnold then. "Oh, Arnold." She giggled. "You are just ever so dense." And with that she grabbed his handcuffed wrists and led him out the door. It was a quiet walk, well until Arnold broke the silence.

"Why are you doing this, Lila?" He looked at her with curious green eyes.

"Why am I doing this? Hmm… You'll see, Arnold. You'll see." Lila deviously smiled.

Arnold was afraid to ask more questions. He stared at the moving sidewalk. They finally arrived at Helga's house, upstairs you could see a shadowy figure on the bed, just sitting there. Lila knocked on the door, seeing that Arnold could not. It took Lila 5 minutes of knocking to finally get an answer. The door slowly opened, revealing a very miserable Helga. Helga had only noticed Lila, she hadn't noticed the attached Arnold behind her.

"What?" She asked in a raspy voice.

"Can I come in?" Lila asked.

"Um… I don't know."

Lila made her way inside. Helga still not noticing Arnold trailing behind her. Helga went into the living room, leaving the front door open. Arnold had closed it when he came in. The room was very neat and tidy, no parents in sight. For a 12 year old girl, she sure knew how to take care of herself. Helga and Lila sat on the pink stained couch, Arnold stood by the doorway.

"So…" Helga started.

"So…" Lila said, looking around and taking everything in.

"Why did you impersonate Cecile? What is some kind of sick joke?" Arnold blurted from the doorway.

Helga's head snapped up, recognizing the voice. "W-what are you doing here, Football Head?"

Silence. That was all Helga got for an answer. Arnold did not know how to answer that question. Five minutes passed, five minutes of silence, complete silence.

"Okay, enough silence. Nobody died." Lila chirped. "Arnold came here to talk to you about this "Cecile" situation. So I am going to go out and pick up so chinese takeout and when I come back, nothing better be broken." Lila got up from the couch and left. The house was so quiet, you could hear the ants scurrying inside the wall. Helga was busy looking at the trophies, trying not to look at Arnold. Arnold was staring at the back of Helga's head.

"Okay, okay. Helga, we should really talk about this. Why would you create this horrible, sick joke?"

"Just go, Football Head. You don't want to be here, you are only here because of Little Miss Perfect. So GO!" Helga stood up and turned so she was facing Arnold.

'Time to play hardball. I need answers. Now that I am here, I can see she is hiding something.' Arnold thought. He had known Helga long enough to figure some parts of her out. "You know, I always knew you had a good side." He replied smoothly.

What is he up too? Just a second ago, I could have sworn he was angry. Helga sighed. "Yeah, so?"

"I mean, you spent a whole week with me and you didn't gag once. That's a lot to say for someone who claimed to hate." Arnold smirked. He knew he was playing off the words he used on FTi.

Whoa, what just happened? Did he just flip the tables on me? Oh, so Dark Arnold has come out to play. So much for being angry. Helga smirked back but didn't reply.

'Well, that anger came and went. How does she do it? I can never be mad at her for however long.' Arnold was thinking this while he moved over to sit on the couch. Helga watched him. She, then sat down too, a reasonable distance from Arnold.

Wanting to throw Helga off, Arnold moved closer. He watched as her eyes widen with ever closer inch. Soon enough they were only centimeters apart, knees touching and elbows bumping. Arnold looked into those deep blue eyes and saw innocence and sincerity that he had seen a few days ago to yesterday. "It wasn't a joke, was it?" Arnold's quiet voice filled the room. His voice echoed in her ears. Helga just looked at him with wide eyes. "You really did mean what you said on FTi, didn't you?"

Where did that come from? What do I say? If I say it was a joke, he'll hate me forever but if I say it wasn't… Man, He is good. Cornered and trapped. For a goody two shoes, he sure knows how to play the game. Helga admitted to defeat and simply nodded. Arnold smiled and hugged her. "Thanks for being honest."

Helga smiled. "Yeah, well…"

"I should go, Grandpa might need me." Arnold got up from the couch, grabbed the purple blanket near him and wrapped Helga in it, so she'd be warm. Then he let himself out. Helga dozed off on the couch, with a smile plastered in her face.

Arnold made his way home, his hands in his pockets thinking about what happened. 'What am I supposed to say to that? I really thought it was a joke. I don't love Helga. Do I?'

Lila had never returned from getting the chinese takeout.

A:N/ I am sooooo tired of writing Fuzzy Slippers. x_x Well, what chou think? Review?