Learning to be Helga

by Azure129

What could be more amusing than taking two hundred thousand words to make Arnold realize he loves Helga? Taking EIGHT hundred thousand words to explore in detail how this newfound relationship is working out! Sequel to Tutoring Arnold! Let's do this! FINISHED!

16. The Courtship: Part 3 of 6

A/N:

Hi all! :D Okay, sorry for major delays but these chapters take FOREVER and also I've been trying to update other stuff of mine regularly too in between this fic so yeah that explains the delays, lol :) But I'll never abandon this story, of course, and I appreciate all of your patience ^w^ Anyway there'll be three more courtship chapters after this and then we get along with this story's conclusion ;) And as usual I want to thank all of my HA! Fandom friends! :D You know who you are ;)

Anywho, here are the four mini stories we have in store for this chapter:

DOUBLE STANDARD

TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS AFTER SCHOOL

ANOTHER TOUCHING MOTHER/DAUGHTER MOMENT

EVERYONE'S OTHER FAVORITE COUPLE

*In "Everyone's Other Favorite Couple", the Arnold and Helga situation was inspired by an episode of "Doug" ;) I'll go into more details in the closing A/N so that I don't give anything away ^w^

*Also in "Everyone's Other Favorite Couple", special thanks to my baby sister SUPRSINGR for helping kind of jumpstart my inspiration with that one with her awesomeness ;) :333

Alright and away we go :D

(And please oh please oh PLEASE review! ^w^)

LEARNING TO BE HELGA

CHAPTER 16:

The Courtship: Part 3/6

---

DOUBLE STANDARD

Around ten minutes ago, a certain football headed fourth grader had finished not only his homework (which, being a very responsible young man, he had started right away upon getting home from school—and also his grandparents were currently having the hallways painted so he was kind of stuck in his room and figured he might as well start off up there with something productive) but also his daily attempt at working out a little bit of private writing focused on a certain young blonde haired, blue eyed, pink-wearing young lady as sort of an in progress surprise for the girl in question.

As a result of having accomplished these tasks (and, of course, still kind of not being able to go anywhere else in his house for at least a few more hours while the paint dried), Arnold Shortman had decided that now was as good a time as any to take care of a few necessary little chores around his room, and so, after tossing a few pieces of clothing into his hamper and placing a few empty Yahoo soda bottles into his wastebasket (but not before kind of smiling dreamily at one of them in his hand…the one that maybe someone special had drank from…the one that reminded him most of that Yahoo bottle shrine of hers up in the attic space above her closet), he'd decided to take the watering can always on a shelf near his bed and to tend to a few of the plants he always had growing on the top of his shelves, right where his skylight started so that they could get plenty of sunlight.

Climbing the wall ladder up to them and spreading a little water here and there, he smiled to himself and spoke to the plants a bit, like his grandmother had always taught him to do ever since he'd been little. "Hello, rose bush, how're you today?" He smiled a little more… Originally he'd been going to ask Mrs. Vitello for a regular, red rose plant to grow and let blossom in his little flower pot, but…since his trip to her shop for that purpose had occurred after a certain love confession of his a few weeks ago, he'd changed his mind and gone for pink roses instead…He'd really, really been getting a certain affection for that particular color…And happily the roses looked like they were coming in nicely…so cute and small and pink. He had to let out a lovesick sigh for just a moment but then shook his head and did his best to get back to the task at hand. 'There's plenty of time to think about her later…' He smiled a little more to himself and turned to his next plant. "Hello ivy, you seem to be coming in nicely…" He gave the ivy some water and shifted one or two of its tendrils to allow them to wrap around a few small objects which he had placed up there beside the potted plant just for that purpose. He turned to the last plant now (the one nearest the skylight panel that actually opened up to his fire escape). "And hello, bonsai, plant…" he observed the little tree, "Hmm…I'll have to trim you a little bit later, but your color's certainly been picking up lately." Arnold smiled and watered this last plant, and then placed his watering can down on one of the nearby shelves. "Would you all like some air?" he asked with a smile, glancing at all three plants. Assuming (as he usually did) that the answer was of course 'yes' he then unlatched the entrance panel of his skylight and opened it up, letting some nice, fresh, late spring air into the room…

…Along with the faint sounds of someone speaking in the alley below.

"This is so stupid…I should not rock the boat…"

Arnold knew that voice…so very very very well…His little heart made many beats and he eagerly looked out of his window, about to call down to the little love of his little life…when his eyes fell on Helga G. Pataki down in the alley below his window…not looking in his direction at all and actually appearing a little distressed…and she was pacing (she'd just gone to the right, actually, as she'd said what she'd just said).

"Still…" she went on to herself (and Arnold chose not to interrupt her just yet…). She paced to the left now. "I mean, it's a legitimate…thing…to bring up. A-And we're not getting any younger…" She paused and seemed to consider again.

Then she shook her head and paced to the right once more. "But, come on, I have DATES WITH ARNOLD! HOW stupid would I have to be to start nitpicking about them…Crimeny, I'm selfish…"

She let out a sigh and paused once again…and then went to the left once more. "But then again…I'm a girl…and a girl's got her needs…Olga's not the only one who deserves to have the full experience…"

Arnold, meanwhile, was finding this whole self-debate absolutely adorable. At this point he was just leaning out of his window with his head resting on one of his hands and an epically dreamy smile on his face…All this back and forth…all because she cared so much about something obviously involving him…Her working things out in that 'out loud' way that she had of expressing all of her inner creativity and conflict… 'It's like watching a play or something…Oh I hope she pulls out the locket next!' He almost had to laugh at the cute idea but did his best to still keep quiet while Helga finished her solo discussion…even though he knew deep down (just like he knew she must know deep down too) that eventually the love inside of her would bring her to him to help her with her problem…and he could wait until she came to that conclusion on her own…especially if it meant as fascinating a sight as all of this in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Helga had now turned to the right again. She shook her head to herself. "But no, no, no…HELLO! Arnold is your boyfriend and he loves you and showers you with hugs and kisses and affection…" Her look got dreamy and she let out a small sigh and indeed…reached into her jumper pocket and pulled out her little heart shaped locket. "And oh, my love…you are so very good at all of those things and more…" She giggled and gave the center of her locket a little poke and placed it back into her jumper pocket with a smile…

But then she let out a sigh and turned to the left again. "But…then again…we're supposed to have an honest, open, modern relationship…no secrets, not anymore…If I've got something on my mind, I should share it…"

But then she moaned a little and turned to the right again. "But should I still do that even if it could mess up all the loveliness I already have! Crimeny…" She glanced back to the left, a scowl upon her face. "Oh come on, Helga, buck up! You confessed to the football head already in your life—so just tell him this too!" Her head almost turned back to the right all of a sudden but then settled on just looking forward and down. "Oh for Pete's sake, I HATE moral dilemmas! Way too much indecision! And especially with this one—there're just as many reason to tell him as there are not to tell him…"

"Um…personally…if my vote matters at all…I'm with the side of you that was going left…uh, to MY left…YOUR right…you know, that side of you that wants to tell me what's on that complicated mind of yours…"

These words, accompanied by a small chuckle, met Helga's ears and caused her to freeze and her eyes to go wide…and then a very distinct blush to come to her cheeks. She blinked a few times in a slight fluster and then looked up…to see her boyfriend smiling and waving down to her, leaning out of his skylight window.

She absorbed his sudden presence for a moment and then scowled a little and rolled her eyes (though obviously she was fighting back a serious smile, and losing the battle on top of it all). "Arnold Phillip Shortman…haven't I told you time and time again that it is RUDE to eavesdrop?" She had to give in to the desire smirk just a little, recalling the time before his confession when he had secretly listened to a conversation she had been having with Phoebe in Slausens about him (and also the mention she had been sure to make of this action of his in the little note she had left him on his bed when she had returned her first pink book to him not long after that).

Arnold chuckled a little more at her comment and then just shrugged, still smiling. "Sorry…I've been picking up a lot of bad stalking habits from this girl I've been spending time with lately…Breaking into her room, listening in whenever I find her doing that adorable talking to herself/monologuing thing…"

"…Giving her kisses that would make some high schoolers blush…" Helga fluttered her eyelashes a little, smirking just a bit more.

Arnold blushed just a bit at that comment but still managed to smile. He shrugged. "Yeah, that too…But hey, she started it with that kiss she gave me on top of the FTi building…"

Helga chuckled a little herself and then just shrugged. "Point taken…I do hear that she is a dynamite kisser." And then she let out a sigh and just crossed her arms over her chest. "But anyway…all joking aside…I know we don't have a date planned for today, Arnold, but you wouldn't have a few minutes to give a little advice, would you, my prince?"

Arnold's smile went a little dreamier and he even gave a small, goofy laugh. "Sure, my precious princess…You always have a special, first priority place whenever you need advice." He winked down at her.

Helga giggled a little at his sweetness. "Ah, just like you always have a first priority place whenever a poetry tutor's needed." She winked back at him. "Okay, sounds good to me, my love." And with that she proceeded to climb up the fire escape and to the entrance to Arnold's room.

"Be careful, Helga…" Arnold couldn't help but call out as she climbed higher, even though he knew she'd been up and down this old fire escape probably more times than HE had.

"Crimeny, Arnold, I've been up and down this thing probably more times than YOU have…I think I'll manage…" she just called with an amused smirk as she made it to the first landing and started on her way to the second one. "Still though if only I'd had my grappling hook and some rope with me though—it's a ton more fun rappelling up the side of your house, Arnold, believe me." Helga winked as she finally finished getting to the landing that put her face to face with her beloved. 'Ah, the good old days…' she thought to herself nostalgically.

Arnold chuckled some more, smiling as their eyes finally became level. He raised an eyebrow, smirking a little. "Whatever you say, Helga…But I still can't help worrying when you climb up here sometimes…" He blushed a ton and glanced down with a shy little smile as he went on with, "…The only thing keeping you from being a real angel instead of just my angel is that you can't actually fly, you know…" He let out a little sigh and just barely brought his shy little eyes up back to hers. "In fact, I…still don't know how you didn't hurt yourself falling from heaven…"

Helga, who had been about to give a little playful shove past him to start him climbing down to his bed so that she could climb down too, blinked and stopped at this (TOTALLY unexpected) little, well… 'line' was really the only word for it…from him. She blushed like crazy…and then did everything she could not to burst into flustered little giggles. "O-O-Oh…I…I'm an angel now too along with being your princess, huh? How suave…" She rolled her eyes but then finally gave in to a giggle or two, always finding it so very charming when he flirted…and especially when he tried new stuff with her.

Arnold blushed a bit more at her words, still smiling a ton to himself. "Thanks…I try." And then he let out a sigh…gulped…and pushed forward to give her a small kiss upon the lips. He pulled back, his smile all the more dreamy.

Helga blinked at his action (once again, something kind of unexpected from him today), and but half smiled, obviously very pleased, and then raised part of her brow at him. "And…what, uh…what was that little treat for, my love? Not that I'm complaining, of course." She crossed her arms over her chest and glanced away with a proud grin at having apparently earned a little kiss from him without even trying.

Arnold shrugged a little, blushing even more and glancing a little shyly to the side. "Oh, um…just…felt like giving you a kiss hello. Trying something else new, you know? Was that okay?" He looked to her just a little bashfully, obviously genuinely wanting her approval of his little experiment.

Helga just chuckled and rolled her eyes at his slight unsureness. "No, Arnold," she began with a lilt of sarcasm, grinning, "I'm about to run away screaming my head off about you giving me 'hello kiss' cooties or something."

Arnold's look instantly relaxed at her playful response and then he laughed a little and raised an eyebrow. "Hey, aren't GIRLS the ones who are supposed to have cooties?" he asked with a small smirk.

Helga just smirked right back and shook her head a little at him, not missing a beat. "Arnold, even if that were true…after THIS many weeks of swapping spit with me I think it's a safe bet you'd have them too." She finished this counterpoint with a wink.

Arnold blushed a lot at her reasoning but then just shrugged and smiled again. "I…see your point, Helga…" He began to head a step or two down of his wall ladder, still looking at her as he started. "Anyway, come on inside…I'm pretty curious at this point about what's bothering you, you know…and, um…maybe we can even make this kind of a…surprise date." He smiled a little more. "I could use a little more poetry tutoring, to be honest, especially with our final creative writing projects coming up, and then maybe we could play a game or something and then we can walk to Slausens and buy each other ice cream if no one's around…What do you say?"

Sounds like a plan, my love. A surprise date, it is.

Something along those lines was the expected, normal response of Helga G. Pataki to this expected, normal suggestion by Arnold.

However, instead, Helga…interestingly enough…rather than agreeing with her beloved as per usual…looked at him kind of funny for a second…and then cleared her throat. "O-Oh…Yeah…Uh…we'll see…heh…" She then began to climb inside as Arnold now dropped down to his bed…and he was feeling very confused at the moment, to say the least.

'We'll see…?' He'd…certainly never gotten that reaction from her to the idea of a date with him. And it made him feel…not okay…Shifting aside on his bed now to give Helga room to drop down, he did his best not to frown too much and to try and think positively. 'Maybe she just means she's really distracted by whatever's on her mind, or that she's got some family stuff to do after this…Yeah…that could be it. Besides we hang out on dates almost everyday for a little while—it's not strange that she'd come over here one day and not necessarily want to stick around for hours. No problem.' Arnold gave a small nod at his own assuring thoughts, managing to smile a little again.

Helga now dropped to his bed then with a small plop and looked to him with a smile, bringing his attention back to her. "Uh…thanks for randomly finding me out there, by the way, Arnold. I'm still a little stubborn about asking for help with some things sometimes, you know?" She pulled her legs in, tilting them to the side, and placed her hands on either side of herself on the bed, looking a little shy for a moment as the issue on her mind obviously came to the forefront of her thoughts once more.

"It's okay, Helga…" Arnold assured her, his smile growing, "Besides, I knew that no matter how worried you might be about telling me whatever it is that's bothering you, you'd come to me eventually….Just like I'll always come to you about anything that might be bothering me, especially if it's about us." His warm green eyes brimmed with understanding and love.

Helga felt her heart warm up with happiness at his words. "I know, Arnold…" she replied quietly and with her own growing smile… "And thank you for that, my love…"

For a moment the two of them were caught up with just kind of gazing dreamily at each other with goofy smiles. And they were so close…both so very aware of how easy it would have been for Arnold to come forward to hug Helga and for Helga to hug him back…for little kisses to start…then bigger kisses…in love up here together.

Just before the compulsion became too much not to be acted on though, Helga managed to clear her throat and glance away from Arnold's eyes, breaking their locked gazes. "U-Um…about that advice I need, Arnold?" she questioned quietly.

Arnold was still just watching her dreamily though. He didn't respond. This pretty pink angel vision on his blue and green bed. Like a rose upon a warm sea. 'That's good…I should write that down…' he barely thought to himself as the idea of hugging her…among maybe doing other things with her… pulled at his thoughts again.

Helga, meanwhile, just smiled a tiny bit at his current daze, raising part of her brow. "Arnold…Advice, my dear? Unless this is a bad time of course…" She giggled a little. "Do you and the daydream version of me need a minute or something?"

Speaking a few full sentences to him finally made Helga's voice process with Arnold. His eyes went wide and he blinked a few times, and then cleared his throat and grinned a little sheepishly at her, putting his arms behind his back. "Oh, uh…" he gulped, "Heh…advice…r-right…S-Sorry…" He shook his head a little to clear it some more. "A-And, um, no, um…perfect timing…Me and the daydream…needing a…Heh…good one, Helga." He swallowed and cleared his throat, trying to seem calm again and finally bringing his bashful little green eyes up to meet her slightly smug looking blue ones. "A-Actually, I was just watering my plants before you came in and giving them some air. Nothing that can't wait until later." He was finally starting to move past the little awkward moment and to feel once again returned to his normal, calm, happy self around her.

"Talking to them again too, my love?" Helga couldn't help but instantly ask of him with a smirk.

Arnold blushed, his eyes going wide, and he was back in full embarrassment mode again. "H-How did you know that I—"

She just shrugged and spoke her reply in a casual voice. "Your grandma mentioned it to me that day I was helping her with the laundry." She smiled a little more and blushed. "And if you're interested, personally, I find that habit plus your flower arranging abilities rather cute…" She fluttered her eyelashes a little, totally on purpose, knowing that the only thing her beloved maybe liked more than flirting with her was being flirted with BY her.

A still slightly blushing but starting to feel a little calmer once again Arnold switched his legs around now so that he was sitting cross legged and just clasped his hands together with a small smile. "Thanks, Helga."

"No problem, Football Head." She winked…but then let out a sigh. She gave a noticeable swallow. "Now, um…a-about that advice I need…" she prompted once more, coming off as very shy once again.

Arnold let out a sigh at her words, and then rested his head on his hand and just looked at her with a half grin. "Alright, my Helga…" he had to let out a small, amused sigh, unable to help himself. "What small thing have you come across now that you think will put our wonderful, perfect, unstoppable relationship in jeopardy?"

Helga smiled and blushed more. "Shut up…" She rolled her eyes. "And yeah, I've got…well, I don't think it's going to break us up! It's just…something silly…" She wrung her hands a little, a slight frown/pout coming to her face.

Arnold just shook his head at her words (and tried not to focus too much on her pout…That pretty pink little lower lip of hers). "Helga, nothing important to you is silly," he quickly affirmed, putting aside the thought of her lips for now. "Now please share with me."

Helga blinked…then smiled…and then nodded, that total trust she had in him brimming in her eyes. "Yes…I'll share anything with you, my Arnold…" A little giggle escaped her and then she clasped her hands together, resting them on her knees, and finally began (looking to the side a bit shyly though still as she spoke. "Well…S-So, I was talking to Olga after school on the phone today, and we were, um…you know, just chatting about…boys…and stuff…" She blushed a bit more, still looking away from him.

Arnold glanced down and blushed a bit himself, unable to help interrupting her a little. "B-Boys, huh?" His smile grew. "Um…this might be a stupid question but…I'm guessing I fall under that heading, huh?"

"A-A little bit, yeah…" She smiled and shrugged a little, finally bringing her eyes up to glance to his again. "I-I mean, she and I weren't 'picking out china patterns for our big day' and 'planning my bachelorette party' or anything but, you know…Just a little friendly gossip…sister to sister…heh…" She let out a breath and rolled her eyes, finally looking at him fully again. "You tell anyone I participate in anything as girly as that, by the way, and I'll punch you right in the nose." She winked at him and chuckled a little.

Arnold rolled his eyes, chuckling as well. "Your 'secret's' safe with me, Helga." He winked right back at her, loving being ironic (as always). "A-Anyway, go on…" he was eager to hear more, "You were talking with your sister about…me…." Oh he really liked how it felt to think of Helga gushing about him…He always had.

Helga couldn't help but giggle a little at the obviously flattered look growing more and more on his face. "Whatever, Football Head…" She rolled her eyes in amusement, starting to feel a lot more relaxed now. "Anyway," she went on, smirking a little, "After I spent forever going on and on about how scrumptious you are," (she threw in a wink at Arnold's blushing face at this point just for the fun of it), "Olga started talking to me about some of her own boy experiences and stuff and…I guess it just…kind of occurred to me that…" She hesitated, obviously still wavering just a tiny bit about telling him what was on her mind, especially when they had been having such a good time just now with things just staying completely as they were.)

However…

"Occurred to you that…." A 'starting to come out of his lovesick stupor and back to planet Earth' Arnold prompted her kindly and understandingly.

Helga sighed and went on. She was bound to tell him sooner or later—after seven years of barely giving her beloved a peek of the real her, she no longer had it in her to keep secrets from him even if she wanted to…And, loving the openness between them, she really did not want to anymore in the first place. "…It occurred to me that…we're dating…but we're not really 'dating'…" She blinked a few times, looking at Arnold unsurely.

Arnold just looked back at her…took a second to consider her words, obviously…but then just had to raise an eyebrow. "Alright, um…I've been trying to be a lot less, well…dense about things with us, Helga, but…I'm sorry. I don't understand." He spoke very sincerely.

Helga couldn't help but smile a little at his honest response. "It's okay, Arnold…I know it sounds very basketcase-like…But, um what I mean is…Not that what he have isn't…absolutely the most thrilling and wonderful thing I have ever experienced in my entire life…" She leaned in close and smiled quite a bit more at this last part, causing Arnold to lean back a little in surprise and blink a couple of times…but then to obviously instantly melt.

"Uh…me…too…" he squeaked out a little with a goofy smile. Then he blinked and managed to clear his throat and speak in a more normal and casual tone. "I mean, it's the same for me too, heh…" He looked at her sheepishly.

She giggled a little at the effect she'd had on him and leaned back to her former normal position. "Anyway…" she glanced to the side with a coy smile, "What I mean is…all of this that we've had so far is heaven, my love…us just spending time together as we want…hanging out in each other's rooms, doing homework, flirting, playing games…But Olga…" a touch of concern came to her face again, "When she's always dated a boy…well, the boy would come to her and ask her on their dates. And they'd be these official dates like out of movies and Olga would dress up every single time and the guy would dress up every single time, and the boy always came and picked her up and brought her flowers or candy or some junk like that. And also those nights were very specifically datelike! Like Olga and her boyfriends would go to big, fancy, grown-up places like restaurants or out dancing or to the opera or something. And then when the date was over, they guy would even bring Olga back home at the end of the night and leave her on our stoop with a romantic, official goodbye kiss! And I guess part of me's afraid that if the two of us just keep hanging out like friends for our dates in our rooms or grabbing an ice cream cone together like we've been doing, even though it's been romantic, maybe we're…doing something wrong…! I-I mean, I know we're young but we're still preteens and we'll be in fifth grade before you know it and then that's just a year until sixth grade which is a year until junior high and…" She let out a sigh as this rather long and involved little explanation of her current qualm started to wind down a little, suddenly seeming rather frustrated with herself. "Look, I get that it's a random problem to bring up, okay! A selfish, random, totally unappreciative of how lucky I am that you love me back problem…but…I-I mean…maybe real dates instead of all of this would be nice, okay?" she finally finished with these words and just looked at Arnold, breathing a little heavily, feeling a little desperate inside. Not that she had much of any doubt, but would he really be the kind, loving, understanding, accommodating boyfriend he had been proving to be so far and agree to try changing things to something a little more traditional, a little more official, a little more grown up? 'O-Of course he'll want to help you, Helga,' she assured herself, almost managing to smile a little. 'He's the greatest guy and boyfriend in the whole world…why wouldn't he understand? Why wouldn't he want to try?' She let out a small mental sigh of relief at her comforting logic.

Helga then proceeded to watch as a rather blank looking though wide eyed Arnold seemed to absorb her words for a few seconds…and then his face shifted a little for a few seconds more…and then, finally, he seemed to be trying not to smile as he said what he had to say next. "Okay…A traditional, more adult style date." He cleared his throat (still, it seemed, trying not to smile about something). "Can I ask you a question, Helga?"

Helga blinked. "Uh…yeah?" she replied in a confused tone.

Arnold's 'not yet a smile' smile grew just a little. "So…you want traditional dates where people are dressed up and get picked up at their houses and bring a present and go somewhere fancy and grown up…Can I ask why you didn't decide to just…do it today and bring me an ice cream or something when you showed up here just now, and then take me out dancing or something?" (He just had to make sure of something…Something that was almost so amusing to him that he really could barely believe it).

At this very unexpected question Helga blinked quite a bit and her jaw even fell a little. She even scoffed! "Arnold! Have you SEEN a romantic movie ever? You're my boyfriend—you're supposed to woo me and ask me on the real date like I'm a catch or something, and preferably showing up with lots and lots of free stuff because you're all gaga over me…I-If I brought you stuff and escorted you on a real, official date that would just be…pathetic." Helga rubbed the back of her neck, looking rather unsure to say the least. The image of Arnold showing up at her door dressed in a suit and tie with a box of chocolates to take her out to the opera or a night club or something seemed heavenly…The image of her showing up at his door with Mr. Fudgie bars and getting down on one knee and asking him to let her 'whisk him away' as his escort to a super fancy restaurant or something just seemed…desperate and indeed a little pathetic. Olga had always had boys INSISTING on initiating official, like-in-the-movies dates with her…If she (Helga) was doing this girlfriend thing right…shouldn't Arnold want that with her too? "I mean, what kind of guy makes his girlfriend get down on one knee or something and beg him for a date, Arnold? Take some initiative as a boy, for Pete's sake!" She raised part of her brow and almost looked a little offended…and indeed she couldn't help but feel a little hurt, the only conclusion about all of this that she could readily draw being that maybe Arnold didn't consider her 'worthy' of such treatment or something…And that idea now, in turn, was starting to rub up against that little insecurity she'd always had about being a 'real' girl and whether or not she was 'pretty enough' or 'feminine enough'…So, needless to say, she wasn't terribly pleased with her love at the moment.

Helga watched Arnold blink a few times at her reply to him…until he then finally spoke again, a little smile finally coming to his face. "Okay…I think I understand what that problem is…"

Arnold's words snapped Helga out of any more thoughts on this subject (and why she was 'certainly' right about the whole thing) and she looked at him intently. Okay, so, he understood… Did that mean he was now going to ask her to start having official dates and then show up tonight at her doorstep all dressed up with flowers, whisk her off to something big and fancy and then drop her off at her stoop with a good night kiss, and repeat the process for the rest of their romantical lives? Oh she knew she wasn't all that into girly things but part of her couldn't help wondering how she should do her hai—

"You're being kind of a hypocrite, Helga…" Arnold even smirked a little as he suddenly made this rather interesting observation.

"Oh yes, of course, Arnold, that sounds lovely. I'll—" The fact that he wasn't asking her out then processed and Helga's jaw fell and her cooing voice went right away. "What?" came her flat, shocked reply.

Arnold shrugged and let out a sigh, half smiling. "You're being a hypocrite." He repeated simply. "You have a total double standard…" he then did his best to clarify for her.

Helga scowled now and put her hands on her hips, cocking her head to the side. "About what?" she questioned rather forcefully.

Arnold leaned back on his hands and shrugged. "Well…" his smile grew a little, "On our one week anniversary that you just brought up you yelled at me for trying to treat you like a girl and like you couldn't make your own decisions and like it was wrong for me to kiss you in your room…But now you're saying that I'm the guy and it's MY job to bring presents to dates and to officially ask you out on big, official ones all the time, but that you don't have to do those things since you're the girl and that's not 'the way it works in movies' and stuff…How is that fair? I'm all for some more official dates if you'd like them, Helga. That actually sounds kind of nice, but…you don't want to be treated like a girl who can't think for herself and who needs to be protected and restricted…so maybe I don't want to be treated like a boy who's supposed to be in charge of giving us this big, official grown up relationship and worshiping you…like I'm your slave taking you everywhere or something." He had to raise an eyebrow. "Didn't we agree this should be an equal, mutual relationship?"

Helga just looked at him…just looked at him and looked at him…blinked a few times… "Well, I…I mean…the physical stuff should still be mutual, of course, but…but…" 'But then again…' She sighed…because the thing that annoyed her about it was that…darn it, it kind of made sense…and on top of it all he'd even had the guts to say it right to her face. 'B-But still…' Still, part of her wanted…She sighed mentally…It was hard to describe…It was like she knew what Arnold was saying certainly had merit but she just…Her initial feelings and desires in regards to this whole thing couldn't just 'disappear in the blink of an eye' just because him and his loopy self had made some sense verbally. So for now she just settled on a sarcastic and ironic reply while she tried to think through how to put her current continued reservations into actual words. "Hmm, so you just made some big point about how we should have an equal relationship…Now what are you going to do?" She recalled that first anniversary when they had agreed on the mutual equality and give and take between them in their budding romance... "Seduce me in front of your skylight until I nearly fall out onto your fire escape and finally realize the error of my ways?" She looked at him with a smile…

Looked at him with a smile, that was, until Arnold suddenly glanced behind himself at the ladder leading to his skylight…and then glanced up at his skylight…and then crawled over and sat down so that he was now sitting in front of said ladder leading to said skylight. "Do not…tempt me, Helga…" He smiled at her just a little…a small little twinkle just catching in his eye (His heart raced and thumped, by the way.)

Oh, at this sight and these words Helga almost just rolled around on his bed in convulsions of laughter. The very idea of him even ATTEMPTING something like—oh that was rich! 'A-Arnold…SEDUCING…' She was off into chuckles again but eventually managed to just shake her head at him with a grin, not wanting to hurt his feelings too much or anything, and then she smiled and rolled her eyes and replied slightly sarcastically, "Oh dear, whatever will I do…Take the steps downstairs to leave here by the front door perhaps?" She scooted off the bed and took a few steps toward the middle of the room, and was about to indulge in another a little chuckle, and then turn back around and ask Arnold if they could go downstairs and talk more about this so she could explain things a little better or something…

"That could work, Helga…except that my grandparents are painting the hallways today and no one can walk through there for a couple more hours…That's why I've been up here all afternoon, actually. Guess you're, um…stuck a little…huh?"

Helga blinked, still facing in the direction of his door. This was so stupid. "Arnold, ha ha, this is SO hysterical." She rolled her eyes, putting her hands on his hips as she began to turn to face him again. "But really, now can't we just both get out of here and talk about this some more, because I'm not sure if you're getting what I'm—" She stopped talking…and blushed a fiery red. Because Arnold had just kind of…

Well, what Arnold was doing was…It probably needed some context.

'I can't believe I'm doing this…but…All's fair in love and war, I guess…' He had smiled just a little as he'd had this thought while Helga had been facing away from him. And so now that he had made a personal decision to do something rather…well, now that he'd made the decision to, um… (Well he was really having trouble thinking the word 'seduce' so he just decided to kind of go with the concept for now and work his way up to the word), he reached up and…unbuttoned a button or two of his shirt near his collar (just a button or two because anything else he COULD NOT handle), pulling it open just a little…and then pushed up his sweater and shirt sleeves to his elbows on either side…and looked to his rather blushing girlfriend standing not to far from him in the middle of his room. "Actually, Helga…maybe you made a good point," he started. "I mean…you're special…you deserve to get treated special…You…You deserve presents when we go on dates…and more official dates than just spending time in each other's rooms…But actually…as long as we're on the subject…"

And then he shifted forward and stood up from the bed…and Helga…took a step back. Because he wasn't just saying random things that could be laughed off…he was kind of…looking at her in that way…that dominating way, right now…His eyes burning into hers…That 'April Fools dance, the confession kiss he'd given her on the couch in her living room, the way he'd looked into her eyes when he'd had her on his lounge chair up on his roof the other day for his 'fantasy time' ' way….This was odd.

His voice continued…lowering…taking on that smooth, sultry tone that always had struck her to her core and practically made her shiver, "As long as we're on the subject of…me…acting more like an official grown up boyfriend…I guess this means that…if you think about it…" and indeed he really did seem to be thinking it through, a very pensive look on his…gorgeous face (Helga's heart was in overdrive, by the way). "If you think about it…" Arnold went on again, moving closer, "Along with being the one who's supposed to ask you out to do more grown up stuff…I'm also probably supposed to be the more aggressive one of the two of us…And now all the time, I guess, huh?" He stepped forward now so that he was right in front of her…but then at the last second glanced to the side as though recalling something kind of amusing. "You remember…like at the April Fools dance, Helga…"

And then, before she could even blink, he had his arms around her and her body pulled in close, one arm right around her waist and the other around the top of her back! Their noses mashed, his eyes burning, burning, BURNING into hers again in their life! "The first time I led….if you know what I mean?" His smile picked up just a smidge on one side.

'Alright, um…heh, heh…Yeah…' "U-Um Arnold…" Helga kind of managed to squeak out, trying to smile. "Okay, not that I'm not appreciating the closeness and a good joke but, uh…I get it…If I don't have to act like some helpless mushy ditz you shouldn't have to be my prince charming slave…Presents and junk can be a mutual thing…A-And now we can move on…" Her heart pounded—she'd never been able to help it around Arnold and now he was holding her like this…being kind of (she gulped at the word that entered her mind for the second time in her life) 'rough' actually…and she…wasn't…okay.

'No, sorry Helga…I have to make it stick….just like you did.' Arnold, his eyes still smoldering into Helga's, only leaned her back a little farther at her words…tightening his hold on her all the more and VERY effectively cutting her off. "You know…" he went on in his low voice…that voice he knew she liked, "I know this isn't very fair but…I kind of like them…Those…little aggressive moments I get to have with all of this, I mean… Hmm…maybe this won't be just a joke like you said…Maybe I…really should try being the aggressive one on a regular basis. Besides I kind of like of the idea of being in charge of when, where and how we date, in charge of giving presents and kisses. I kind of like pushing back a little. Maybe I'm just kidding myself with this whole modesty thing…" He stroked up and down her spine with one hand…and it took so much for him to not let his knees quake and give out at the fact that he was doing that…He couldn't imagine what it must be like for her right now… "Maybe I've been kidding myself all along…" he finished in a sultry whisper, just barely managing to not break.

"Arnold…" He heard her voice leave her in a trembling whisper. Her blue eyes looked with fearful wonder into his own.

"No. Go with me on this…" He ended his stroking, went back to holding around her perfect waist and also gently cradling the upper part of her back. He spoke as sincerely as he could. "Maybe the modesty thing…maybe it was just part of me as a kid…And like you said, we're only getting older…we're growing up….so maybe that piece of me…that dark side you keep mentioning…maybe that's the grown up inside of me waiting to come out." They were so warm, so close…It was so very hard to keep going without giving in and just….

"No, it's…it's not, and…" he heard her voice barely start to whisper to his claim.

"Helga, I'm talking right now. It's not very ladylike to interrupt me, is it?"

He watched her eyes go absolutely wide at his statement, and he felt her start in his arms…and then tremble a little as she resettled herself against him…pressing against him…Yes, she was scared a little…but also (if the way she was letting herself melt into him was any indication) she also, well…

"You like this…." he observed in his low voice…and then smiled just a little more. "Hmm…interesting."

"Ah…" he felt her stiffen completely as she squeaked this little sound. "I…" And then she tried to shake head a little…though she still really didn't do anything to really pull back…

"Oh but you do…" he assured her…almost cooing really, still holding her and leaning her back in such an intimate dip…purposefully talking to her in as patronizing a tone as possible. "The way your back's arching, the little trembles going through your spine…I can feel all of them, Helga…I can feel that heart of yours beating against mine…" He pushed their noses just a little closer together, to push their hearts just a little closer together…and he really could feel the occasional thump thump between their chests…and he tried not to let this fact make him absolutely collapse in love overload or something. "This is what you've wanted all along isn't it?" He let his voice pick up in a little in dramatics. "I'll be the boy…the right kind of boy, apparently…. and you be the girl and I'll give you nice things and be the only one who starts official dates, and I'll take control like a real boyfriend in a real relationship who takes his girlfriend on real dates…I'll lead for the rest of our lives, my…well, maybe you're not my talented blue eyed love then…maybe you're just my poor, helpless girlfriend."

She tried to shake her head again. Just a little but…

Arnold just let out a breath, still allowing his eyes to burn into hers in that way that always seemed to make her stop and blush and well…like he'd said, tremble… "But…then why does your body keep arching your body more and more into mine while I'm doing this…Why do I feel so many little shakes still coming from your delicate, frail, female body…Why do I feel your heart pounding against mine…?" He lowered his voice to the lightest whisper…smiling just a little smugly. "Maybe it would calm you down a little if you…went and made me a snack or something. That's something else a girl would traditionally do, right? And while you're doing that, as long as we're trying for a real date, I'll go out and get you those chocolates or flowers or a stuffed animal or something as a present, and then I'll invite you somewhere special…And then when we're done there and I bring you back to your stoop, maybe I'll come inside and you can feed me a snack and clean up after me, maybe bring me slippers. You know, like a 'traditional' girlfriend would…. You'll never have to work or fight or think again…I'll take care of all of it; I'll never do a single sensitive thing again for as long as I live…" He took in a breath and it came out in a slight tremble…but still he kept his eyes ablaze and his smile smug and dominant. "And now I've decided you'll kiss me. I AM the one in charge…being the man and all…" Silence…only silence came from her…and her heart was beating so very fast under his own. "Good." He smiled a little more. "You're not fighting me. You're learning how to be a good, quiet girlfriend to your boyfriend already…"

Arnold leaned in, closing his eyes, to finally collapse his lips into her pink, trembling ones—an act that would have relieved the tension that had been consuming not just her but him…so very much him…all this time…

Yet his lips met…skin, though it was certainly not the skin of Helga's soft, familiar lips, though…But to be honest, he hadn't expected anything less. His eyes opened and he almost smiled (a genuine one, not some faked seductive one.)

"I said…No." He heard her voice speak, so firm now…and her scowl was back in full swing, he noticed. His same old no nonsense Helga…and he loved her like that. So strong and brilliant. "And no one can make me be quiet. Ever. Not even you!" She went on, starting to wriggle a little in his arms, actually resisting him finally. "Now let me go or as Helga G. Pataki I'll slug you and then as a girl I'll smack you right across the face!" Her blue eyes SEETHED into his…and he knew she meant it.

Still he had to be sure… 'Remember…Make it stick, Arnold…' Although really he felt SO silly saying this…"Oh your lips say no but your body says…"

"…That it could take you and your shrimpy self down in half a second flat," she finished for him without missing a beat. "Now I don't want to hurt you. Ever. But if you don't let me go…"

'Make sure she understands why you went and did something this silly in the first place…just like she did with you…' Arnold willed himself to push it just that tiniest bit further. "I-I don't see why I should…This IS what you wanted…isn't it?" Those were his words yet he did loosen his grip just a little right now, and also shifted back so that now he and Helga were standing up straight…He couldn't help smiling just a little more, still looking into her eyes.

"Hey!" she announced right into his face in a VERY stern tone with her scowl back in full force (even though she still blushed a little while doing it). "First of all, as for this 'your lips say no but your body says yes' thing, it's not my fault that I can't control how I physically react to you being physically near me. Second…Second…" He'd loosened his hold enough that she really could have broken from him with little extra effort if she wanted to and suddenly he felt her indeed do so…but only to fly against him in the tightest hug he'd ever felt, practically lifting him off the ground much to his total shock and surprise! "Oh Arnold!" she suddenly started, sounding almost panicked, confusing him all the more at first, "If you lost that part of yourself that was sensitive and loving and sweet and modest and kind…I think I'd just…I-I don't even know what!…And especially if it was all because of me." His breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened at this sudden small confession from her… "And third," she pulled back…and looked at him…her blue eyes so unsure…He felt a pang of guilt for what he'd just put her through. "You're…You really are kidding, right?" she went on, almost nervously…almost like she really had started to believe it all, the whole act he'd just concocted. "I-I mean, I know there's that spark of something daring in you, my beloved, but…do you really think it's who you'll grow into being just starting to shine through…? I never thought about it that way before." And she began to fret and almost pace just like in the alley before when he'd been watching her have her self-debate! "And then what if…" she went on, her eyes wide and holding one of her temples in one of her hands, "What if those times you get me all mushy and doting and shy are really me...really who I'LL grow into being…What if we're not bringing out good things in each other—what if we're changing each other? What if we're making each other into different people…worse people…What if we change and can never go back…and I lose you and ruin you…and the same things happen to me…forever? And I—"

Helga, legitimately nearly in mid panic at this point, stopped just then…Arnold was now suddenly holding her shoulders after all so she really couldn't help it. Her wide blue eyes met his wide green ones.

"May I kiss you please, Helga?" he asked her so softly, so gently…almost guiltily…with the most sincere and loving little smile she'd ever seen in her entire life. She nodded because she wanted him to…And then he came in slowly and with care and placed the gentlest kiss imaginable upon her lips, their eyes both closed. They lingered.

He pulled back eventually, removing his hands from her shoulders, making sure to even be gentle with that as well, she could feel…and then spoke to her in the kindest voice he had. "U-Um…Helga…M-My Helga…we don't make each other different than who we are…We only seem different and act different sometimes because…we complete each other a little, I think." He blushed but kept going, his hands shyly folded in front of himself now. His quiet, kind little voice went on. "Like you said on our anniversary…maybe we just never knew some of this stuff about ourselves until now….like how I didn't know I liked kissing…until I realized I loved you." A little smile grew on his face. "You find parts of who I really am that no one else ever has. And I hope I've done the same for you. So my aggression and your, well, submission, I guess…aren't who we really are 'deep down' or something like that. They're just those other parts that have always been there but that we suppressed a little…or a lot…shining through sometimes while we learn to balance out everything each one of us is. Helga…" He looked up…looked into her eyes…his green eyes glowing with sincerity and love. "We're better for each other than…than anybody else has ever been good for anybody else in the whole world. And even if that didn't make any sense or you're still scared or worried…" he smiled more despite his shyness at all of these things he was saying and admitting to thinking and feeling, "…C-Can't you feel how good we are together when we kiss? I can, Helga…I-I mean, sure, there's, um…there's a certain amount of it that's just, um, physical pleasure…Heh…" He blushed a lot…a WHOLE lot.

Helga had been watching him with interest and curiosity and wide eyes as he spoke…Now, however, her jaw completely fell wide open right in front of him.

Arnold glanced down VERY shyly. "Um…something wrong, Helga?" he murmured out in his quiet little voice.

"You…just said the words 'Physical Pleasure'…" This tiny laugh that she couldn't control escaped her at the back of her throat…but she knew now was not the time. "I-I'm sorry it's just…Okay, never mind for now." She cleared her throat and shook her head to clear it. "Continue please, Arnold." She was smiling now…happily again.

A VERY blushing Arnold cleared his throat and did his best to ignore the fact that she'd just gotten stuck on (or the fact that he'd actually brought up the…) 'Physical pleasure'… (He still gulped at the very notion). "Um…anyway…besides that, um…thing you just said…" he shuffled on past the awkward topic, "There's other stuff that's there too when we kiss…" He was shy but looked up again, and asked with a little smile on his cute little face, "Don't you feel how beautiful it is when our loves for each other…come together? Don't you feel how we'll…" he gulped but had to say it…had to say what was in his heart, "how we'll be parts of each other for the rest of our lives…?"

He watched Helga blink, blushing…Her smile trembled, she trembled…She…And then he blinked as she came forward…placed her hands tenderly on either side of his wide head and then laid the sweetest kiss imaginable upon his lips… 'O-Oh…' He trembled a little, blushing more and more and…He let out a sigh through his nose and closed his eyes. Oh why fight it…There was love and there was physical pleasure and he loved the whole freaking package. He melted in happiness in her grasp.

He felt her pull back after a bit (QUITE a bit) (she always did love long, lingering kisses…one of her most attractive traits, in his opinion). His eyes fluttered open only to be met with her smiling, blushing face. "Sorry, Arnold…" she said quietly, lovely, as she removed her hands from his head. "For doubting us even for a moment…and thank you for reminding me…how beautiful it feels for our loves to come together…in the most beautiful thing in the world. A kiss."

He had to laugh and then just came forward and caught her in a happy and intimate hug. "You're welcome…my lovely angel…" he sighed out in bliss.

She giggled a little in his arms…and then after a sigh and a little snuggle the two kids separated a little to look at one another with half lidded eyes and smiles. "So…" Helga started in her normal voice now, all panic or frustration or confusion gone, "All that aggressive stuff really was just a goof, right, my paste for brains little love god?" She had to ask it, just to hear the words from his mouth.

Her beloved before her chuckled and blushed a little, giving a nod and rolling his sleeves back down and redoing the button on his collar. "Of course…" finishing these actions he then rubbed the back of his neck a little bashfully. "I mean, I was channeling all of that darker side stuff you mentioned, so I guess it all did come from me…but I'd hate being that intense about it all the time…" He shuddered a little, really having hated being like that for so long…among other things. "It took everything I had to keep it up for even that long…And plus I…" He looked at her very sincerely. "Helga, just like you with me, if YOU ever changed…if you ever lost all of your wit and fire and independence and stubbornness…and all because of me…I really think it would be the only thing in the whole world to ever make me want to leave you because I don't think I could live with myself knowing I'd ruined some of the best parts of the greatest person in the whole world…if that makes any sense." He smiled more.

Helga just blushed and giggled and looked down, looking so happy. "You really do like me for me, don't you, Arnold?" Her eyes came to his again.

"I always have…" he nodded, "And now that I know all the stuff I was missing out on for all those years…I do even more…and I always will…."

She let out a breath, their eyes still melting warmly together. "Good, I like you for you too…Now come on." She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a small smirk. "We're gonna go to Dino Land together and screw the dating rules and tradition and me and my double standards or what the heck ever, I'M inviting, I'M escorting, and I'M paying. No strings attached. After all of that effort, I get the message: if we want 'grown up like' dates, they can be initiated by both of us, not just you to fulfill some romantic stereotype or something. And an amusement park really is kind of an official traditional date location." And then she rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Besides, maybe all of Olga's boyfriends DID do all the official movie-like stuff with sweeping her off her feet, but they were all tools, I guess, come to think of it, and she's always broken up with them pretty quickly…So maybe what we've got…just hanging out but maybe sprinkling in a more official date here or there, and both of us taking turns 'leading'…maybe that's…something stronger." She winked, smiling proudly.

Arnold smiled in total agreement. "Perfect. That all sounds…perfect. Every single thing you just said…" He chuckled a little and then stepped closer to her, still smiling like crazy. "And then when we're done with our date at Dino Land maybe we can go back to your place…and I'll go downstairs and makes us a snack and then bring it up there and serve it to you in your bed, Helga. Just like that one time when you had amnesia. I know it's not a very traditional 'boy' thing to do…" he rolled his eyes just a tiny bit, smirking more, "but I liked taking care of you and helping you that time…and I wouldn't mind the chance to do it again." He looked into her eyes, smiling sincerely. "I…love taking care of you whenever you want it or need it, Helga…You're so strong and brave that I hardly ever get the chance, so whenever I do get it…I like it so much…" He let out a little, happy sigh at those few precious memories he had of genuinely getting to take care of Helga.

While his reminisces completed, Helga chuckled a little at his obvious little gender role reversal with preparing the snack to balance with hers of paying for and escorting him on a more official, grown up type date. "I'm glad, Arnold…And that all sounds great…" she concurred…and then took a little step very close to him as well. "Oh but, um…" she rolled her eyes to side with a small smirk and blush, "If you wanted to get all mushy and classic boyfriend on me and win something for me by playing one of the games at Dino Land…I wouldn't complain…and it might mean just a little bit to me, Arnold." She looked at him just a little sheepishly. "There is at least a little something to be said for getting treated like 'the girl' every once in a while…Just in a nice sweet sentimental way instead of letting it define who I am or something, you know?"

Arnold blinked and smiled at her words, raising an eyebrow, and then nodded in understanding...and then blushed and rolled his own eyes to the side and had to add shyly, "And well, Helga, if you wanted to let me maybe put my arm around your waist when we're sitting together on some of the bigger roller coasters at Dino Land, so that just in case you get scared…even though I know that never happens but still just in case, the first thing you'll do is cling against me…I…wouldn't mind that all that much, Helga…It's nice to get treated like 'the boy' every once in a while too, you know." He gave her a sheepish little look of his own.

"Deal, my dearest," she assured him with a giggle, her hands on her hips. "Let's go!" And with that and a beckoning wave she headed over to his bed and got on her knees on the covers to start her climb up to his skylight.

"And…um…about other people maybe seeing us…at the amusement park and everything?" Arnold just had to ask with a smile as he climbed onto the bed to follow up after her.

Helga just rolled her eyes and glanced back at him, starting her ascent up the wall ladder. She smirked a bit. "Hey, can I help it if you keep randomly losing bets to me and having to cart me places?" She chuckled a little at that excuse they'd come back to more than a couple of times so far over the last couple of weeks upon seeing people they knew when they were walking around on one of their dates.

Arnold rolled eyes, following up after her on the ladder. "Hey can I have won one of these 'bets' just once, Helga?" he asked playfully. "Just to be fair and equal of course." He winked and tried not to laugh.

Helga just shrugged and smiled, climbing out of his window to the top landing of his fire escape. "Oh fine," she started 'dramatically, smirking quite a bit at his little request, "YOU won this time and I'm the one carting you to Dino Land." She giggled a little as she looked down into the window at Arnold's head slowly coming up to emerge through it. "We'll say it was a doing good deeds contest and I lost…"

Arnold just rolled his eyes once again, smirking a little more as he finally emerged onto the top landing of the fire escape with her, closing the skylight window behind him. "How about it was a bet to see who could hit the most balls at the batting cages and you lost…? It's a little more believable as something we might compete at and besides if I'm finally winning one I want it to be a good one." He crossed his arms over his chest, looking at her with a grin.

Helga rolled her eyes. "Whatever floats your boat." She sighed dramatically and chuckled a little, smirking as she looked into his eyes again. "Crimeny, you've got an ego, Arnoldo." Her smile grew.

Arnold's smile grew a little too and he just shook his head, always loving her humor so much. "Come on, let's just go, Helga…" He walked toward her…blushed a little. "Maybe we can even…share some more beautiful kisses when we go through dark roller coaster tunnels." Arnold, if it wasn't apparent at this point, had been getting a lot more comfortable with being just a little more forward with Helga lately…and he always seemed to enjoy the 'results' of this newfound little boldness (and was truly much MUCH more comfortable with such little bursts of modest boldness than some big constant aggressive male ego induced power trip).

Helga blinked at his little surprise request…but then oh she giggled like crazy at the very suggestion from her little love's little dark side. She gave him a big nod, putting her arms coyly behind her back. "You got it…" she swayed a little back and forth in this position, and then tacked on with a very suggestive little smile, "And all I can say is look out for yourself, Arnold." She lowered her voice just a little…looking into his eyes. "You never know what can happen alone together in the dark…."

Arnold's blushing increased, but still he held his own. His smile remained. "Neither do you, Helga…" He countered, and even winked. "Especially with my arm around you…" he added in his own little whisper.

Helga just giggled a ton more and then was about to start heading down to the lower fire escape landing, but stopped all of a sudden and looked to Arnold and then gestured forward with her arm, offering him the chance to go first. Her love blinked and for a split second he was going to insist (as usual) that she go first…but then realization came over him and his eyes brightened at her gesture and why she was doing it, and so instead he just nodded graciously and appreciatively and went to put his footing on the ladder first.

"Hmm…" However, the sound of her starting to speak made him pause from heading down for just a second…and he turned back to look at her with a smile. "You know…" she went on, still looking all coy ('Wow she's cute like that…' he couldn't help but observe to himself, feeling all fluttery inside), "Since YOU just put me through one of those 'life lessons via seduction'…I guess that entitles me to one free 'cornering of you to show you how much it stuck, how much I understand'…To make you want to collapse into a puddle like you did with me that one time…"

The words were out of her and then the next thing Arnold knew she had grabbed him by the collar, whipped him across the fire escape landing and now he felt himself pinned against the rail. 'Wh-What did she just say?' He was having a lot of trouble processing it…and even when his head really did process the individual words she'd just said as one coherent sentence, he still couldn't quite…couldn't…

His wide eyes went to her face, searching for answers…and she had this look in her eyes and it made him gulp…made him shake…this intoxicating look like she'd gotten during her confession or that she got sometimes during her more involved monologues…That look that made his knees buckle with the realization that even though they were only ten, he was all hers…and she would never let him go…and he was just fine with that whole situation. "I guess, um…all's fair in love and war, right…" It was the only thing he could squeak out in his shaky little voice…Exactly torn inside of himself between fear of what might come…and total anticipation of it all. Being a puddle didn't sound so bad, after all. It was probably a neat experience.

"Oh you…have NO idea…." She giggled EXTRA coyly…and he knew she was doing it to drive him nuts, considering how she knew full well that he loved her giggling… She still gripped his collar in her fist. "Now come on, Arnold…" her voice was low again…and she moved close…slowly pressing herself against him against the rail… He wanted to gulp again but he couldn't even manage that! "Let's have our loves come together…" '(Arnold. 'O-Oh boy…') "Gosh I'm so happy you were kidding with all of that stuff, Arnold…"She smiled so sweetly…so close…her pretty eyes looking into his. "Really…because if I could never see your modest blushing wide eyed face as I corner you for a kiss again, it would just be unbearable…" Another giggle…and she was still pressing against him against the rail. "Now, you might feel a slight tingling, well, everywhere…Just go with it though." His breath stopped as she released his collar…only to slip those long, light, soft but so very strong arms of her around his back, pulling his practically limp little body fully tightly against hers. Her whisper went on and she smirked a little…those blue eyes still burning with passion. "And NOW who's back is arching, whose spine is tingling…whose heart is pounding, pounding, pounding away?" (Arnold. 'Wh-Why is she so good at this…?') "As I said in a poem once, three guesses stupid: Arnold, Arnold, Arnold! And I believe the line before that was something about whose red hot lips I want to…taste…"

She'd been leaning in, tilting her head, teasing and teasing and TEASING him with it… And then suddenly now, in a forceful little press forward her lips met his in something deep and passionate and so heart pounding he was sure it was going to kill him! His senses all stopped and then were overwhelmed at once and parts of him were only just vaguely aware amid the flickers and sparks pulsing through him that she was moaning, savoring, drinking, squeezing with this kiss…Oh…he still didn't really understand how he'd gotten here to this moment on a day when they weren't even supposed to have a date but…whatever…He had NO complaints.

Helga released him eventually…though she still cradled him (probably aware of how limp he was and how obviously he needed her to help hold him up for a bit longer maybe). Arnold felt her let out a beautiful breath near his face and then speak…and she was obviously pretty 'affected' by all of this herself from the cooing, shuddery tone of her voice. "Oh yeah…definitely some love combining…" She giggled like crazy at copying his words…and then… "…and also all that 'physical pleasure' you talked about before." Blushing. His smiling pink princess was blushing so much. He loved the color of her blush. Like those strawberries she couldn't eat. He almost had to chuckle at the irony. "And also…" and then his eyes came into focus enough to watch Helga press her lips together again and say quite shyly, for the first time giving words to something they were both aware of in regards to their kisses even if it was never really spoken about aloud, "There's your delicious flavor upon my mouth. The little bit of you that you always leave behind…."

"O-Oh…" Arnold just kind of slumped forward, gripping the rail of the fire escape behind him, and shivered a little with the goofiest smile EVER on his face! Oh there just weren't WORDS!

A little giggle met his ears again. "Now come on, Arnold," Arnold then heard Helga say shyly and then he blinked as he felt her flick the spot on his head between the tufts of his hair. She went on. "You take a few seconds to recoup while I climb down and get your hat," ('O-Oh…Did she knock my hat off again? Heh…Heh, Heh…Only her…') "and then we'll head to the amusement park together, okay?... Arnold, youwho, Arnold?"

"Oh Helga…" he took in a deep, shuddery breath and then let it out and just said whatever came out. "We are definitely DEFINITELY good for each other…And you are especially…absolutely necessary for ME…."

He heard her swoon in happiness from just across from him, and Arnold's eyes started to come more back into focus on her again. "As you are for me…" she added so sweetly. And then she chuckled a bit more normally, and he blinked a few times, really finally starting to come back to the land of the non-dazed as she went on again in her much more normal, playful tone. "Okay, now come on, seriously, Football Head, we're burning daylight and Dino Land closes at eight! Those dark tunnels on the roller coaster rides are just going to waste!" She leaned in close to him and winked and then moved past him and started to head down the fire escape herself, just shaking her head in amusement at him. "And don't worry…" she tacked on with a wink, "To make up for me going first down this thing instead of you like you were supposed to do (since you're obviously a little…out of commission just this second), I'll be certain to bow as graciously as you always do, my little prince, and offer to let you leave the alley first to start on our walk to get to Dino Land." She chuckled a little more to herself as she disappeared from sight for the moment.

Arnold just let out one more deep sigh and then finally began to climb down as well (now that feeling was starting to return to his limbs again.) And he couldn't help but observe as they continued descending, "You know, I like when we have problems and then make up, Helga…It's always very…very…very… good." He laughed a bit, unable to help himself. "I almost can't wait for our first fight…" he had to add sentimentally.

He heard her drop to the lower landing below him and reply in her normal tone, "Ah, I'm a lover not a fighter when it comes to you, Head Boy. Now come on, last one to the bus stop has to pay the fare for both of us."

"Fair enough." Arnold agreed and then dropped to the lower landing as well.

Helga giggled a tiny bit. "Good! And, uh…" she looked at him just a bit coyly once more…and he felt such a tremor go through him, "On the way there maybe I can hear more about this 'deep physical pleasure' thing you brought up before..."

Arnold blushed so much…if there was one thing to top her actually bringing up the fact that there was kind of a slight natural taste of each of their mouths involved with their kisses…it was the fact that he had actually outright admitted to her the physical pleasure part of all of their love together and that she was bringing it up now to top it all off. "M-Maybe later, Helga…" he could only mumble out shyly though, for now…knowing he'd need some mental preparation before going into a discussion like that one of these days.

"Okay…" she just replied with a shrug (MUCH to his relief), "But…" she tacked on surely, "One day I think you need to find a way to tell me about it in detail." She giggled a little to herself and then slipped down the ladder to the street, blushing cutely.

Arnold blushed a little more himself and thought back to something he had been doing this afternoon before Helga had arrived…something involving poetry... 'Already planning to, Helga…Already planning to…' He recalled that poetic line he'd thought up before about her looking like a pink rose on the blue sea of his blankets, and reminded himself once more to write that one down later.

"Arnold, come on, I'm waiting to let you go first out of the alley! Doi, my paste for brains little love god!"

Arnold shook his head, smiling to himself, as her little shout to him brought him out of these poetic thoughts. "Coming, Helga!" he called down with a smile, and with these words he climbed down to the alley…refocusing his mind on the here and now, and getting taken out on a bigger date than they usually did together and all by his lovely Helga G. Pataki…and then getting to cook her a little something when they went back to her house later on (and all the roller coaster tunnels she'd let him hold her in and stuffed animals he'd win for her in between all of that).

He'd write more secret poetry for her later.

---

TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS AFTER SCHOOL

Walking down the sidewalk casually with her backpack slung over one of her shoulders and without really a care in the world at this particular time (which just happened to be right after school on a Thursday afternoon), a certain blonde ten-year-old young lady had her hands behind her back and was kicking a tin can along in front of her. She gave it another kick forward and it bounced off a curb and landed neatly in a trashcan. She smiled at her unintended trick. "Hey, not bad."

"Helga! Helga!"

Helga G. Pataki froze on the spot, her eyes very VERY wide.

"Helga, there you are!" The familiar voice of a certain football headed ten-year-old young man only sounded closer this time, and Helga whipped around in surprise to indeed see him suddenly running the last few feet toward her up the sidewalk, his own backpack securely on his back. Reaching her now, he put his hands on his knees for a moment and took a second to catch his breath, then straightened up and looked at her with a smile. "Where did you go—the bell rang and then I went to my locker and then I was waiting for you out on the steps in front of the school but you never came out. How did you get out of there so quickly?" He raised an eyebrow in genuine curiosity. Arnold knew that their date for today wasn't scheduled to start until a bit later this afternoon (Helga always did seem to need a couple of days during the week to take care of other things, at least until around 4 or so, and he understood that she had doctors appointments and stuff like she always told him if he ever asked…But still, he'd at least wanted to catch a glimpse of her and maybe share a small word or two today. It was hard having to stay away from someone you loved and were happiest with six hours a day (seven if there was baseball practice), and he'd just wanted a quick 'Hi and Bye' with her before she went off to take care of whatever she had to take care of for the next hour.

And so, as luck would have it, from his place on the P.S. 118 stoop, Arnold had been lucky enough to just catch a fleeting glance of a familiar shade of pink popping quickly around a street corner (and, to his interest, a street corner that was not in the direction of her house or any of the other usual hangouts of the kids), and now, to his apparently continued luck, before him stood the love of his life whom he'd quickly chased after. He smiled a little more at his good fortune.

Helga, meanwhile (and slightly to Arnold's confusion, by the way) just blinked several times at his question about how she had 'inexplicably' managed to avoid him as she had left school, and glanced around uneasily. "Uh, I uh…Heh, heh…" She did her best to laugh it off, smiling sheepishly. "Guess I'm just too quick for my own good sometimes…" 'Yeah or not quick enough! Ugh, I can't believe he caught up with me! That's it, I'm keeping my backpack pre packed on Tuesdays and Thursdays from now on…' Helga shifted nervously on her feet. So far in their relationship she had been doing a very fair job, in her opinion, of keeping her beloved in the dark about the details of her activities Tuesdays and Thursdays after school…an activity that involved a certain child psychologist, the subject of whom Helga had yet to find the 'right time' to broach. But now he'd gotten it into his head to follow her a little…and he was already making her late. 'Crimeny, how am I going to get out of this one?'

Meanwhile, Arnold's curious look about how she had managed to slip away from P.S. 118 so quickly today only grew even more curious looking at her strange reply. "Helga, are you okay?" he had to ask, sensing from her tone and movements that something was obviously a little amiss. He hadn't seen her this jumpy since that sudden talk alone of theirs right after her confession all those months ago.

At this fresh inquiry from him, Helga blinked a few times and then, though it was certainly unmerited, couldn't help but feel her defensive nature kick in a little. She scowled and extended her arms down at her sides, gripping her hands into fists. "Yeah, I'm fine, you just surprised the heck out of me and now you're giving me the third degree about leaving school after the bell rang. Sheesh, I didn't think I had to 'check in' with you or anything! Correct me if I'm wrong but last time I checked we were 'dating' not 'joined at the hip', head boy!" She glared at him in that way she had throughout their entire lives.

Arnold just blinked and his eyes went a little wide at her strange outburst. "Um, Helga…" he glanced from side to side just to double check, and then brought his eyes back to the scowling image of her once more and raised an eyebrow. "You know, there's no one around here…you CAN stop acting like you hate me." He crossed his arms over his chest, genuinely unsure of how to respond to this situation or what was wrong with her…but he was getting more and more concerned as the minutes passed.

At the innocent look on his face and his obviously confused words, Helga blinked a couple of times and felt herself snap out of it. 'Okay, okay…losing my temper for no reason is not going to help the situation…Focus!' "Um…" she cleared her throat and lost the scowl, still looking a little wide eyed and worried though (although she was doing her best to seem casual). "Sorry, Arnold I…" she rubbed the back of her neck, "I just…wasn't expecting you, and…you really did kind of surprise me." She swallowed and looked up at him, bringing her hands behind her back. "I mean I wasn't expecting to see you until we got together to do history homework with Gerald and Phoebe at the library today at 4, heh…" She then reached out and gave him a playful light punch in the shoulder with one of her hands. "You gotta quit sneaking up on me, Mr. Secret Agent Man—me and my reflexes, I'd be liable to hit you, believe me." She smiled, both at her little private joke to herself about the good old days of socking Brainy and at how her little love's smile was returning…always so full of understanding and forgiveness as he was. 'Oh how can I stay mad at that face…' she couldn't help but think and had half a mind to go forward and give it a belated little 'hello kiss'…but then she swallowed and recalled why she was acting so defensive in the first place and her thoughts changed direction. 'No, no time for that now. I've gotta get him on his way home—I've got an appointment to make for Pete's sake.' She felt a small twinge of guilt. 'I'll tell him about Bliss later when he and I are a bit more…established… Five or ten years ought to do it, heh…'

Arnold's smile grew a little and he just chuckled warmly as she finished her explanations. "It's okay, Helga. I guess I did kind of just pop up behind you. Anyway…" he pulled his backpack forward and reached inside and then pulled out a small pink item in the form of a book, looking to her, "Before I forget, part of the reason I wanted to find you before you left today…a-along with just getting to see you and say hi…was that, well, I know you said you really needed this pink book to copy down a poem from it for class, but I forgot to give it to you at lunch so I just wanted to make sure you had it…" A slight blush came to his cheeks and small smile to his face. "And also well…I was hoping…as long as we're together right now…and I mean you can say no if you want because I know there's a chance someone could see us and that you might be busy, but…I was kind of figuring that before the library I could maybe walk you home or walk you to get an ice cream sundae….maybe…" He looked back up at her very shyly. He couldn't help it—he knew they were about as official as any couple could be but…she was so perfect and funny and pretty and great to him that even all these weeks in he still felt butterflies about whether or not she would say yes every time he asked her out or to do something romantic together. And plus he really was trying to make the asking out on dates thing more official just like she had done the other day with Dino Land—doing that made a lot of sense, actually, and on top of everything else they had discussed about it that afternoon, it would keep them from taking dates with each other for granted and from getting into a rut, come to think of it.

Helga's annoyance at being pulled from her normal routine still pricked at her a little…but it was overcome quite a bit to say the least by the feeling of herself instantly melting at the adorable words that had just come out of her beloved's mouth and the adorable way he'd made his simple request of wanting to walk her home or to get ice cream, and the adorable shy, hopeful face he was giving her! She felt her mouth opening to say something along the lines of, 'Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes, my darling!' but quickly caught herself at the last minute and did her best to snap herself out of it. 'Focus, Helga! WHAT did I just say! Crimeny!' "Uh…" she began, doing her best not to hurt his feelings or make him think that there was any other place in the world she'd really rather be besides with him (and also trying to avoid pulling out that 'a lie but technically not a lie' doctor's appointment excuse yet again, as she so often did, because he was bound to start finding her going to the doctor this much fishy one of these days). She reached forward and took the pink book from him, slipping it into her own backpack (she really had needed it and really was grateful he'd decided to bring it to her.) "That really is sweet of you, Football Head…the book and the…walk…and I really would love to, but…I mean, like you said, someone would be bound to see us especially this time of day and especially if you took me to a place as crowded as Slausens, and I really would like to spend time with you but…you know…" She looked down just a little guiltily, hoping Arnold would interpret it as guilt about still being scared of having their relationship go public (which indeed she was feeling right now, sort of) instead of the greater guilt she was feeling about ditching him like this and not being honest with him.

She heard Arnold let out an obviously sad little sigh and it really almost broke her heart. She glanced up, hoping he would now be on his way with a small, understanding goodbye and maybe a hug…but to her further nervousness he instead seemed to consider for a second and suddenly his eyes lit up, meeting hers again. "Well…Well, what if I walked with you someplace our friends wouldn't be around as much? I mean, like you said, the ice cream place is always crowded and a lot of people walk the same way you do to get home but…maybe we could head in a different direction and just spend time together. I mean…I know we'll be together later with Gerald and Phoebe but…I'd like the chance to be alone with you too." He smiled just a bit more and gave her a half lidded gaze. "I really do miss you when we're in school…the real you, Helga…my Helga." A little rosy blush came to his cheeks.

'Uh oh…' Helga could feel her heart beating faster, feel the sparks going through her body, the unstoppable desire inside of her that she'd had for as long as she could remember whenever Arnold spoke nicely to her to hold him and coo poetry to him and wrap them together in love forever and ever…And for the first time ever she was regretting this compulsion. She felt herself smile, unable to stop it, as the temptation got to her more and more though. "Oh…Aw, Arnold…" She hesitated—no, she could not do this! She needed to make him go away…now! Before she ran off with him instead of going to her appointment with Dr. Bliss like she was supposed to, or before (she gulped) he found out about Dr. Bliss…which might make this a very unexpectedly awkward afternoon to say the least.

Arnold, still standing right before her, smiled just a bit more at how softer her tone had been when she had said his name this time plus at that little smile of her own that seemed to be coming back and growing a bit. Taking all of these things as hints that she was going for the idea, he took another little step toward her. "Why don't we walk together wherever you're walking right now? I've almost never seen anyone head in this direction to head home or anywhere after school…It…would just be you and me."

His eyes were half lidded and he was so close and there was just a lilt of suggestion in his voice, and Helga could already feel a giggle in her throat and a blush warming in her face. "Well…I guess that we could…" 'Wherever you're walking right now…' Helga's eyes flew open and she came back to reality like she'd just been splashed with cold water. "I MEAN…" She glanced around nervously, her eyes wide and almost fearful once more. "N-no, Arnold, I…I have a very, um…important errand to run and I'm…I'm already late! Thanks for my book though and I'll see you later with Gerald and Phoebe. Maybe we can hang out alone after studying with them!" And with this announcement she turned away from him so as not to be suckered in by his inevitably disappointed green eyes and started heading up the street at a brisk pace, trying to take deep, even breaths and soothe the pounding of her heart, which was obviously all but screaming for her to return to her love.

Arnold, meanwhile, suddenly abandoned like this, just stood there in his spot on the sidewalk in utter perplexity, totally unsure of what had just happened. 'Did I do something wrong? Or say something? Is she mad at me?' He shook his head and instantly raced to catch up with her, very very concerned again all of a sudden. "Wait, Helga—I can help you with your errand if you want!" he offered, unable to think of anything else to say to get to basically stop 'running away' from him so that he could figure out what the problem was.

Helga stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of him still following, nay running after, her again and blinked. Arnold had never been a persistent one: he had always been very easygoing and understanding and willing to let people do their own thing if they wanted. 'So…what's the big deal about…' But then Helga's memories progressed a little and she also recalled that though Arnold had never been persistent or almost desperate with most people…he certainly did have the capacity to get that way with girls he liked. Spending every moment he could with that Summer girl during their spring break, always trying to get together with Lila for dates back when he'd like liked her, always making googly eyes at Ruth and trotting after her way back in the day (she did her best to keep a small flare up of jealousy at a minimum). Anyway, the point was that once Arnold was hooked on a girl…he was hooked deep…and that was just with the chicks he'd had crushes on. And apparently, when it came to her (Helga G. Pataki), he was in full blown love with her…which meant after quite a few weeks of little ditchings right after school, his poor little smitten subconscious was probably eating him alive about being ditched right now. 'Great, I think I actually just had my first regret about Arnold liking me back.' She let out a breath and rolled her eyes at herself, and then looked at him over her shoulder as she continued on up the street with a shake of her head and he followed behind her. "No, Football Head, this…" she searched for ANYTHING that wouldn't be an all out lie but that wouldn't hurt his feelings too much or let the cat out of the bag, "This is…kind of a…well, it's kind of a 'one person' errand…" she finally explained lamely, and then almost smacked herself right in the forehead. 'Oh brother, I really am horrible at lying to him now…even small little white ones at this point…Darn it…'

And indeed, this painfully obviously lame excuse just made Arnold raise an eyebrow at her as he followed in her wake. "A…one person errand?" He had to actually half smile. "Helga…" He gave her a bit of a look.

She let out a sigh and rolled her eyes to the side. "Uh…yeah…" She was going down like a lead balloon and she knew it, but still she clung to the excuse just the same, hoping it would pull her through somehow. "It, um…It's an errand that…requires special skills that…only I have?" 'I don't know what's lamer, Helga old girl—that explanation or the fact that you phrased it as a question.'

"Right…" Arnold looked very amused at this point. "Skills like…what for example?" He was so obviously trying not to laugh at this point and she knew it.

"Uh…" Helga could feel the blush growing in her face. "Skills…like…n-not being a Football Head…Heh, heh…"

"Ah!" Arnold announced suddenly from beside her, much to her surprise. He feigned understanding in his tone. "Well that does make sense, Helga. I mean, I know I've had plenty of solo errands to run lately that have required me to NOT be a pigtailed poetess…"

Helga just let out the most exasperated and defeated sigh in the universe, officially no longer able to take the guilt or how he was toying with her and how lame her whole attempt at this excuse really was getting. She stopped walking again, as did Arnold, and now just stood there, rubbing her temples with one of her hands. "Okay, look, Arnold," she opened her eyes and looked at him with a 'let's level here' scowl. "I get it—you know that I'm lying right now. But seriously…" she blushed, dropping her hand away from her head, and glanced away, "I just…have somewhere to be and it's…a…a little…well…"

Arnold, who really had meant for her to laugh rather than be upset but his humorous little replies to excuse about her 'errand', blinked at the almost sad look that had now suddenly come to his girlfriend's face. "Helga," he stepped back toward her and put a hand on one of her shoulders causing her wide eyes to look to his again. He looked at her sincerely. "You can tell me anything. You know that, right? You can tell me any secret you have in the whole world and I'll never stop caring about you."

Helga felt her heart skip a happy beat and instantly smiled as his lovely reassurance washed over her. "I…I know, Arnold…" she replied sincerely, "And thank you for that. It means more to me than…It means a lot…B-But…" She swallowed and glanced away again, pouting a little in worry. "I just don't want you to think that I'm…I mean, I know I act a little… strange sometimes and you're okay with it, but…where I'm actually going right now…I guess I'm just afraid that you'll think that I'm…" She gulped, not wanting to say the word.

"That you're what, Helga?" her love couldn't help but ask, his hand still on her shoulder and concern growing inside of his little heart. "What?" He had to know…not even so much because he was curious but just because…he could feel that what it was was important to her and he knew that something that big was bound to have to be a part of their love for one another sooner or later. And he wanted it to be sooner if he could help her at all with it.

"That I'm weird or crazy or something okay?" Helga announced looking at him with just a touch of hurt…and then her eyes went wide at what she'd just admitted and she blushed. Arnold's breath caught in his throat at her very VERY unexpected (and rather confusing) exclamation. But then before he could respond or even fully process it, Helga shook her head and suddenly grabbed his arm with her hand. "Never mind. It's stupid. Come on…" she began to try and head back with him in the direction from which they'd come up the sidewalk. "I don't have to go today. Let's just walk together or whatever and then head to the library."

Helga had to stop in this new course of action though at the feeling of Arnold, after a stumbling step or two forward in is surprise…just plain stopping moving, even though she was still trying to pull him. "Helga," he stated firmly from behind her.

Helga turned back to look at him (still holding his arm though her efforts to change their direction walking direction had ceased), her eyes wide again. And those blue orbs of hers stayed that way as she watched her beloved glance around all of a sudden, and then out of nowhere suddenly grab one of her arms himself and pull her a few feet ahead into an alley, upon which he looked at her, grabbed her shoulders and then without another word closed his eyes and pressed forward and up a little and (to her total surprise and confusion and shock…and also pleasure, of course) kissed her quite firmly upon her lips.

Arnold pulled back after several seconds, blushing considerably but still looking at her firmly and still holding her shoulders. He spoke sincerely as he looked into her eyes. "Helga, I really want to respect how you feel about things—you know that, but… Nothing…Nothing could ever make me think you were crazy or weird. I think you're…" he smiled…and it was a dreamy one, "I think you're the nicest, sweetest, kindest, most passionate and caring person I know. Okay?"

"A-and beautiful. Don't forget beautiful…heh, heh…" she couldn't help the joke escaping her in her shock at suddenly being pulled aside and kissed and reassured by him like that. And she was smiling pretty dreamily herself at this point.

Arnold smiled a little more at her cute little addition. "Well…that almost goes with out saying, you're so pretty…" He gave a low little chuckle after saying these words in a lower, more romantic voice.

Helga giggled at being him making her feel pretty like that, and then just gazed into his sincere, caring eyes for another moment….and then lunged forward and hugged him tightly as she felt her heart completely melt. She let out a happy sigh.

"Helga?" she heard him ask in amusement at her sudden action, warm laughter under his voice as his arms came around her to hug her back.

She just hugged his adorable, supportive, understanding, loving little self even more and giggled in reply. "I…I love you, Arnold."

She felt him let out a happy sigh in her arms, and then one of his hands came up her back to touch at her hair a little. "Even if I can't help you with your errands that require the special skill of not being a football head?" came his cute little voice into one of her ears.

That question finally made Helga just laugh entirely, feeling all warm and happy all over. She released her beloved and took a step back, looking at him lovingly. She sighed and rolled her eyes to the side in reply to his inquiry. "Yeah, I GUESS…" He chuckled and it made her chuckle a little too.

And then Helga took a breath, a slight bit of worry returning to her face, and she swallowed and glanced at Arnold, her arms behind her back, having come to a decision. "Okay…Arnold…you…you can come where I'm going right now. You can't stay…but you can come…okay?"

Arnold looked a little confused at this condition, but just nodded supportively. "Okay, Helga. Whatever you say."

She smiled at him in satisfaction. "Good. Thanks, Football Head." And then she reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the alley with her. "About time you found out why I always avoid dates with you right after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays anyway…" She gave him a wink and then began to lead him up the street with her in the direction they had originally been going.

Arnold's eyebrow raised just a little more at her words and then he blinked as he suddenly realized that, if he thought about it, she was right about what she'd just said…Tuesdays and Thursdays always did seem to be the day when something would 'come up' and she would mysteriously disappear between the hours of 3 and 4.

---

"O-okay…here we are…" Helga finally announced nervously several minutes later, stopping in front of a familiar building.

Arnold stopped walking as well and looked up at the sign above the building's front entrance. 'Hillwood Medical Center.' He glanced at Helga, a serious amount of worry coming to his face for a moment. "Helga…are you sick or something?"

She blinked, then glanced from the sign back to Arnold. "Oh NO!" she quickly reassured him, understanding what he meant. "No, Arnold, I…well…" she rubbed the back of her neck, "In a manner of speaking maybe but…" she looked up at him firmly, "But not like dangerously ill or anything. I just…." And then she let out a sigh and grabbed his hand again. "Come on…there's someone you should probably meet…and who's actually kind of been wanting to meet you, especially for the last few weeks…And I mean, meet you for real. Like personally. You'll probably recognize her but…." She sighed again. "Let's just go inside." She half smiled as she pulled her beloved up the stoop.

The two kids entered the cool, air conditioned building, the glass doors closing behind them. Arnold just glanced around with interest. He blinked as he saw Helga go over to the front desk, say a few words to the receptionist, write her name down on a sheet and then return to him again. She let out a sigh, still obviously nervous despite her continued efforts to smile. "Okay, now or never I guess…Come on, Arnold…" And then she proceeded to head down a hallway, Arnold following diligently after her.

Eventually Helga paused at a door and knocked softly a couple of times. Then she waited. "Hey…Arnold?" she said calmly and quietly all of a sudden without turning around to him.

"Yes, Helga?" he responded supportively, an eyebrow raised.

She let out a breath, still only looking at the door…wringing her hands behind her back at the moment. "Just be honest with me, okay…you know, like usual…"

Arnold, looking more and more curious, was about to ask what she meant when the door she had knocked on suddenly opened.

A familiar woman stood before them.

"Hello, Helga…Arnold." The woman's smile grew just a bit more as she looked from her to him, and then her eyes returned to Helga once more. "The receptionist said you were bringing a guest. I must admit I was a little surprised to hear who it was, Helga."

"Dr. Bliss…?" Helga heard the general question sound from her beloved behind her, and let out a sigh as she heard him go on to add, still obviously sounding a little confused, "The psychologist who watches our class sometimes?"

Helga cleared her throat and did her best to smile up at Dr. Bliss, decided to address her first and then move on to the mess of a conversation surely waiting for her with Arnold. "Hi, Dr. Bliss… Yeah, I brought a very special, um…'guest'…" she gestured with her head back to Arnold, her smile growing a little sheepish. "Heh, you know me—spontaneous to a fault." And then she swallowed…and finally found it in her to turn around to face Arnold once more.

Her eyes met him and Arnold was just standing there with kind of a blank look on his face. Kind of a dense look actually…It took Helga a second to place it as she hadn't been seeing it much lately considering how well he'd been coming to know her and how much more of a clue he'd gotten in general ever since her confession…but then it finally processed. He just wasn't getting the exact connection here right now between herself and Dr. Bliss. And so she cleared her throat and decided to connect the dots for him. "Um…Arnold. You know Dr. Bliss…" She gestured back to the older woman with her head and felt a touch of scarlet come to her face. "I-I mean of course you know her, you recognize her obviously. Heh, heh…" She rubbed the back of her neck…then finally took a deep breath, looked him in the eye, and announced with all of her courage, "She's my…my therapist."

Arnold blinked at the admission.

Helga swallowed and continued. "I…kind of go to her after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays just to…well, it used to be to talk about how I felt about you and how angry Bob and Miriam and Olga always made me…Now though it's mostly to talk about me kind of worrying about if Bob and Miriam will ever really slip up and go back to ignoring me all the time again…and to talk about trying to work out when I'm going to have it in me to let everyone know how I feel about yo—I mean how we feel about each other…and, um…other stuff…" She cut herself off there, deciding that she had elaborated enough for now, and glanced up at him shyly, awaiting his reaction.

Arnold just looked from her to Dr. Bliss, and then again back to her and then back to the smiling doctor once more.

Then he walked past Helga…and held out his hand to Dr. Bliss with a smile. "Hi, Dr. Bliss. It's nice to see you again. I didn't know you helped kids outside of school too."

Dr. Bliss smiled down at the young man and reached forward and shook his hand. "It's nice to see you as well, Arnold. Yes, I've got a small private practice here. Sometimes…kids need help after school too." Her smile grew. "I think you know what that's like…You're sort of the giver of advice for your class, right?"

Arnold's smile grew and he nodded with a touch of a proud blush… "Yeah, something like that… I understand what you mean about kids needing extra help sometimes…" He let the psychologist's hand go…and then turned back to Helga.

She still looked at him unsurely, practically holding her breath.

"Helga G. Pataki…" a small grin on his face, he shook his head back and forth (and Helga, in her nervousness, really had no idea what to make of this, by the way…that was until he continued with), "If I wasn't so relieved I think I'd actually be angry with you." He let out a sigh, a really happy smile coming to his face. "You know you had me scared half to death with all of that build up and pulling me practically into a hospital and saying you were sick 'sort of'…" He shook his head again, and then grabbed her hand and lifted it up, squeezing it. He looked into her eyes. "Did you really think even for a moment that I wouldn't love you the same if I knew you see a therapist?" There was a touch of hurt underlying the question.

Helga blinked several times and blushed. "N-no…I mean, I…" she stuttered, and then let out a guilty sigh and finally just admitted, "I don't know, I guess I just figured that you've seen me do a lot of arguably crazy stuff and that you've heard tons of stories from me about me doing a lot of arguably crazy stuff, especially when it comes to you, and that somehow knowing about this would confirm for you that I'm not just 'playfully' off my rocker but actually off my rocker and I…I…" Her eyes were wide and she just shook her head and…it was all just coming out and she felt so stupid. She just stood there, blushing in embarrassment.

"Helga, you know better than that..." Dr. Bliss suddenly interrupted kindly and supportively, squatting down to her eye level and looking at her with a caring smile. "We went over a long time ago how it's okay to express yourself as long as you're not hurting anyone, remember?"

Helga couldn't help the scoff that escaped her, though she appreciated the support nonetheless of course. "Yeah, well, I might believe that and you might believe that but that doesn't mean the rest of the world is gonna bite, sister…" And then she glanced down guiltily again.

Suddenly the sound of Arnold chuckling a little met Helga's ears, and her wide, scared eyes went over to him once more. He was smiling and now shaking his head at her a little. "Is that where you got that advice, Helga?"

Helga blinked and raised part of her brow. "Huh?"

Arnold smiled a bit more and explained. "Back during our one week anniversary…when I was kind of afraid of kissing you…you told me that as long as I wasn't hurting anyone I shouldn't be afraid of how I was feeling or how I wanted to express myself…And then you said that I was the opposite of hurting you when I kissed you."

Helga blushed just slightly. "Oh…uh…I…" she blinked a few times, actually having almost forgotten all about using that piece of Dr. Bliss advice in that situation, "Yeah….I guess so."

"You see, Helga—I knew you knew better." Dr. Bliss interjected with a smile, standing up straight again and looking down at the two ten-year-olds.

"Helga…" Arnold looked down with a smile and seemed to consider for a moment, and then looked back up at her with just a touch of seriousness. "You know…I know a lot of things are a lot better for you now but…sometimes…when I think about how for so long you really didn't have me, and you and Olga weren't very close, and you were always having those problems with your parents, and you even found it hard to open up to Phoebe…it…it makes me really sad because…" A touch of hurt came to his eyes. "It…It all must have been really…really lonely…especially with all of those feelings to keep hidden…" But then he smiled again. "But it makes me really happy to know that you at least had someplace to go and someone to talk to to help you through everything, Helga." And then he went forward, opened his arms, and wrapped them around her in a tight, warm hug.

Helga genuinely thought she was going to cry. That little speech…how her being sad made him sad…how he was just relieved that she had at least found someone to talk to to make the loneliness easier…and now he was hugging her of all things…safe in her Arnold's arms…

They remained like that for several seconds, Arnold holding Helga in his hug and Helga just taking it all in and feeling loved, loved, loved.

"Helga…" Dr. Bliss began quietly after a little time had passed, her smile picking up on one side. "Would you like to skip today's session…? I mean, since it seems like you and Arnold might have some talking you have to do yourselves…?"

Helga blinked from her place still in Arnold's arms, feeling the mist in her eyes pull back a little, and moved her gaze to the doctor. "Um…are…are you sure, Dr. Bliss? You…always say it's not good to start skipping sessions…"

Dr. Bliss looked at her with understanding and did her best to explain. "It's not good to start skipping because you're avoiding a problem…but if you're going to use that time to really talk to someone important to you and to be honest and open with them then it can be very good, Helga…as long as it's what you want. Otherwise we can start the session whenever you're ready and you can talk to Arnold again after."

Helga took a second to absorb this information…considered…glanced down at Arnold who was still holding her warmly…and then looked just a little unsurely at the doctor. "Could I reschedule instead? Would that be okay…? Kind of a…compromise?"

Dr. Bliss smiled a bit more (really actually trying not to giggle about the cute little sight before her of Arnold STILL hugging Helga like this.) "That would be fine, Helga. Just let the receptionist know and I'll see you whenever you come in next."

Helga smiled appreciatively. "Thanks, Dr. Bliss…" Then she let out a happy sigh and glanced down, and spoke in a quiet, sweet voice to the little shrimp with his arms still clinging around her. "Arnold…Hey…Arnold? You know if you keep hugging me like that you'll get frozen that way…" She gave a small laugh.

He chuckled. "Do you really think so?" came his reply of obvious anticipation. He still didn't let her go, only burying his head against her a little more now actually.

She giggled. "Yeah, I really do…But however much I'd love to have your arms around me forever I have to say goodbye to Dr. Bliss right now, and I usually do that with a hug. So do you think you could let me go for just a second or two, my love? I promise I won't run off or anything…" she ended sarcastically, but still talking sweetly to her sweetheart.

She heard Arnold let out a little sigh and felt him squeeze her just a little harder for a moment before he then finally released her, his half lidded gaze meeting her face. "Are you sure you're really okay with making your appointment for another day, Helga?" he asked sincerely.

She just smiled at him and his concerned little inquiry and crossed her arms over her chest. "Arnold…what you just said and did made me so happy…made me so happy that I…" she could feel that teariness coming back. She let out a breath and with a smile quickly turned to the doctor and leaned over and up to give her one of her customary quick goodbye hugs. "Bye, Dr. Bliss."

The older woman smiled down at the young blonde and hugged her back warmly...feeling very happy for her little patient. "Bye, Helga."

Helga let out a happy sigh and then with a satisfied smile turned back to her beloved, stepping back over to him once more. "Come on, Arnold." She reached out and shyly took one of his hands in one of her own…a coy little grin very distinctly coming to her features.

With his own intrigued grin and an eyebrow raised slightly at her sudden change in attitude (she was blushing too on top of everything now), Arnold let out a goofy little chuckle and then managed to have it in him to turn back to the good doctor and give her a little wave with his free hand. "Bye, Dr. Bliss. It was nice seeing you again."

"Goodbye Arnold." She waved back. "I'll see you in school."

Arnold nodded and then a giggle from Helga caught his ears and he was instantly very focused on her again, especially as she was now lightly pulling him down the hall for this little spontaneous afternoon together it seemed they would now have.

As the two kids departed, Dr. Bliss just watched them go with a smile and sighed to herself. "Hmm…Helga wasn't kidding. He really does have it bad for her, doesn't he?" she remained standing in her doorway for a second…still with a grin. "I'm going to have to remember to visit the teachers lounge and have a talk with somebody, aren't I…?"

Mulling over this little reminder to herself about something involving Arnold, Helga and a certain educator at P.S. 118, she just shook her head to herself in amusement and then stretched up and headed back into her office to take a little afternoon break of her own before her next appointment…and who knew? Maybe after this week of rescheduling one appointment, Helga would eventually be able to shift into being a one-day a week patient instead of a two-day a week one… Even though Dr. Bliss of course loved talking to and spending time with Helga, as a professional and as her friend she really hoped things would work out in Helga's life where she could go down to only one therapy appointment per week, and maybe one day even none at all…and it was nice to see first hand that things really were looking up for her.

---

Helga, having made her next appointment with the receptionist in the lobby, pushed open the glass front doors of the Hillwood Medical Center, and now she and Arnold exited the air conditioned quiet office for the noises and temperature of an average city street in spring.

"Hey…Helga?" Arnold asked with a happy smile, enjoying that she was still holding his hand (and in public!) and pulling him along with a very pretty smile on her face.

With a half grin she turned back to him. "Mmm hmm, my love?" She made sure to specifically coo as she responded.

"Um…" he was doing his best not to dreamily chuckle at her as they reached the sidewalk, "Where are we going now?"

She giggled as they stopped at the bottom of the Medical Center stoop, and turned to him, blushing a little. "Well…" she glanced down shyly, "I feel so great right now thanks to you that I want to spend this afternoon writing a little poetry…and it's such a nice day I thought I might do it outside. There's this great ridge in the park that no one can see you under if you lay at the right angle. You wouldn't want to…maybe come with me, would you…?" She brought her half lidded eyes up to his.

"Really!" He blinked and beamed. "Outside? Together? Are you sure that's okay…?"

She just shrugged, her grin growing a little at his obvious (and SO very cute) enthusiasm. "I told you—no one'll be able to see us. We'll be all alone next to each other… in each other's arms." Her voice lowered to a soft whisper. "Maybe you could even write while I dictate my dedications to you, my perfect angel…my Arnold…"

Arnold's smile widened so much. "I…I'd love that, Helga…" he replied in a dreamy tone, squeezing her hand. "I always love watching and reading how you express yourself…It's so…beautiful…." He picked up her hand and kissed it…and added in a little whisper of his own. "Just like you….my…my beloved Helga…"

Helga instantly melted. She had never heard him call her that one back to her. Beloved. It made her tremble with love. "W-well…th-thank you…A-Arnold…" She swallowed, blushing, and glanced away, squeezing his hand back a little. Then, however, realizing that if she didn't put their flirting on 'pause' for the moment that they'd probably end up making out or something right here and now on these steps, she stepped back from him and lightly slipped her hand from his, clearing her throat (though she couldn't help the dreamy smile remaining on her face). "Okay well…about that little ridge I mentioned, then…since it's right after school and there's bound to be a lot of people we know swarming around the park and since we've been getting caught walking together lately enough as it is…how about you head that way and use the east entrance to get there…" she pointed forward behind Arnold, "And I'll head this way and use the west entrance to get there…" she pointed behind her with her thumb, "And let's meet at the fountain once we're both finally in the park. And then we can sneak over to where the ridge is, okay? Oh and…I think this kind of goes without saying but…I'll stop by a pay phone and call Phoebe on the way to reschedule our library double date with her and tall hair boy, okay?" She smiled at him.

Arnold nodded, smiling back at her. "Whatever you say, Helga! See you soon!" He winked and then began to eagerly walk in the direction he'd have to go in to enter the park by the way she'd suggested.

"Um…wait! Arnold?"

Arnold stopped and turned around at the sound of his beloved Helga suddenly calling his name from back in front of the stoop of the Medical Center. He smiled at her. "Yes…m-my beloved?" He blushed at the new little pet name to call her, but…it was certainly growing on him.

Arnold watched her glance down and blush a bit…and then suddenly she quickly ran forward to meet him and instantly dove against him in the tightest hug imaginable. "Y-You're…" he heard her begin in a shaky voice, squeezing around him with all of her might. "You're…You're the best friend and boyfriend and do gooder little shrimp and person I've ever met. And I just wanted you to know that…that…" He had to blink. She sounded almost in tears, but happy tears. "That just in case you ever feel like acting as ridiculous as I was just now…" he heard a small laugh manage to escape her, "Nothing…Nothing could ever make me not care about or not love you either. No matter what. And…And every new thing I do learn about you makes me love you even more, and I didn't even think that was possible but I do and I…"

Helga, who knew she was getting carried away but just didn't care (and was thankful that they were in a part of town that their friends and people they knew didn't tend to frequent), suddenly paused in her rant as she felt her love's warm arms come around her again on this day, hugging her back. "Hey…Helga?" he suddenly whispered up to her ear, sounding so very happy.

She let out a deep, peaceful sigh. "Mmm hmm…?"

He sighed too. "Just promise me you won't ever forget that I feel the same way, and I think we'll be okay…"

Helga had to let out a small chuckle at his sweet little advice. "Whatever you say, Arnold…my love…my sultry preteen…why must I hold you only whilst I dream…" Her eyes fluttered a few times and then she slowly pulled away from him and their hug with a smile, her eyes half lidded. "See, the poetry's just bursting out of me…" She giggled at the distinct shade of scarlet now upon Arnold's face and how his was glancing down so shyly and yet with such a happy smile at her loving words. "You know…" she then continued, her grin picking up a little on one side, "That's actually the first few lines of that poem the parrot that almost blabbed my secret to you kept reciting…I don't think I've given you the pink book with that one in it yet, but…I know that poem from memory since the darn bird said it so many times while I was trying to nab him." She glanced at him shyly. "I'd be happy to share the rest of it with you once we're at the park."

Arnold, his heart already pounding from being so close to her and also from those few lines she'd revealed so far, managed in a weak though obviously quite content and pleased voice, "Wh-whatever you say, Helga…"

Helga just giggled a ton at his cuteness. "Well…until then, Arnold…" And with this farewell accompanied by a quick wave and a wink, she turned and raced in the opposite direction to get to her entrance to the park.

Before embarking for his own park entrance, Arnold took a second to just a stand there with his arms limp at his sides and the biggest grin ever on his face, letting some things absorb to make sure his heart wouldn't fly out of his chest as he gripped his sweater over it. "I'm…I'm her…sultry preteen…" He almost gave a lovesick giggle… "Wow I'm gonna have to work really hard to find a way to top that one in my next poem for her…"

He took a deep breath, waited another moment or two until he felt the heat draining from his face and the feeling starting to return to his limbs, and then raced off like a shot down the sidewalk in the direction he was supposed to go…to encounter once more Helga and her poetry and the chance to celebrate their relationship deepening just a little more.

---

"Arnold, my love, my sultry preteen,

Why must I hold you only whilst I dream?

Will I forever be enslaved by your spell?

Why must I worship you and never ever tell?

Arnold you make my girlhood tremble,

My senses all go wacky.

Some day I'll tell the world my love

Or my name's not Helga G. Pataki…"

"So…what do you think, Arnold?"

Alone with Helga now, laying on the grass under the little ridge at the park, Arnold melted inside, gazing into her eyes. "I think…I think…you're my favorite poet in the whole wide world."

Helga giggled. "Thanks, Arnold…it's nice to have a number one fan. And you're my favorite poetic subject, of course…my little…sultry preteen…" She'd seen the blush on his face at those words…it was darker than most blushes she got him to do…and she liked it.

His smile went all goofy. "Always happy to help, Helga…"

Her smile warmed. "And what a sweet, little help you are…"

They remained that way, under the ridge, as the sun started to set, just near each other, looking into each other's eyes in the warm spring air. They lie there and felt their love grow, not even needing to speak…They just naturally grew more and more together just by being together. Eventually, among the gentle quiet they shared, Helga sprinkled in some more poems and even wrote a few lines (or rather, dictated to Arnold a few lines) for one or two new ones in her latest pink book that she luckily had with her in her backpack…And Arnold listened and wrote and took the time they had on this afternoon to savor her precious creations, the precious fruits of her love. And they stayed there like that as long as they could just simply because they could, sometimes in quiet, sometimes in poetry—the language of love between them. Arnold and Helga—crazy in love.

---

ANOTHER TOUCHING MOTHER/DAUGHTER MOMENT

Helga G. Pataki, sitting up a little, cozy under her covers, sighed happily into the phone receiver currently pressed against her ear, and then let out a giggle. "Oh stop it, Arnold…You're making me blush…" She continued to listen, reclining upon her pillows, and her smile more than continuing, as her beloved said a few more things into the phone during one of these little flirting phone calls he liked to give her every few nights when he was feeling a little bolder than usual…and then she had to giggle again. "Oh get over it, Football Head—I am not getting you a picture of me blushing! You'll see me doing it in person, I'm sure, the next time we're together so why don't you just—" She paused as something else was said into the phone, and instantly felt her heart pleasantly flutter. She let out another sigh, half grinning in amusement as this whole conversation she was in the middle of with her love. "No, Arnold, unfortunately I can't come over right now just to let you 'see my pretty, blushing face' one more time before you go to sleep. It's already nine o'clock at night and a school night and you know we have that history test tomorrow to cram for, Einstein! Just keep studying and then admire some of my poems or something until tomorrow, okay?"

All of a sudden there was a light knock on Helga's bedroom door.

"Helga…?" came the familiar voice of her mother from the other side, and then slowly the door was pushed open a tiny bit and Miriam's head appeared in the room, a smile on her face.

Helga, phone still pressed to her ear, blinked and started a little at the entrance of her mother at first…but she'd been getting used to Miriam 'knowing' for a couple of weeks now and so her shock quickly just turned into a bit of mild embarrassment. "Uh, Arnold…?" she started into the phone in a much less flirtatious voice, still glancing over at her door. "My mom needs me for something and, like I said, sadly it's getting late and we've got a test tomorrow so…I've gotta go now, okay?"

Miriam, meanwhile, from her place peeking in through the door, just watched in mild amusement as her daughter sat in silence for a moment, listening to whatever Arnold was saying on the other end…She then noticed (with interest) Helga blush just a bit darkly. "Arnold…" a slight smile came to her face, and she glanced down a little shyly. "Come on, my Mom's right here…I can't say it right now!"

Some more silence as Helga listened and Miriam tried very hard not to laugh.

"Football Head, quit sounding so desperate…" Helga then rolled her eyes, smiling a little more to herself. She even let out a small chuckle. "Crimeny, let's not forget that it wasn't too long ago when all you wanted to do was forget that I'd said those three words to you on the roof of that building in the first place…"

Miriam watched, still waiting until her daughter's phone call was over before entering the room completely. A couple more seconds of silence with Arnold obviously talking on the other end of the line passed, and then finally she observed Helga sigh, swallow, blush a little more…and then finally the young girl said into the phone with a half grin, "Okay, okay…Goodnight, Arnold..." She swallowed. "I love you!" she managed to get out shyly and then she quickly hung up the phone and instantly brought a hand to her forehead, rubbing her temples and blushing in a little embarrassment.

After a second or two, Helga sighed and then finally glanced back over at her mother. "Okay, Miriam, you can come in…as long as there are no comments about what I just said to Arnold, okay?"

Miriam just let out a small chuckle behind one of her hands and finally entered Helga's room fully, closing the door behind her. "Oh but Helga…it's so sweet that you say I love you to each other before you hang up the phone…" She smiled. "When did that start?"

Helga let out a deep sigh and half rolled her eyes, almost chuckling and shaking her head to herself…seeming to be thinking about something for a moment. "I don't think you'd believe me if I told you, to be honest…"

Miriam had to raise an eyebrow at this absentminded comment as she walked forward into her daughter's room…and she couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean, Helga?"

Helga blinked, suddenly brought out of the small lovesick state Arnold had just sent her into (as well as some memories in regards to that phrase 'I love you'), and realized what she'd just said aloud to her mother. "Uh…" she swallowed and sat up more in her bed, glancing to the side in just a touch of embarrassment, "Nothing…" She took a breath and did her best to move things along, looking back at her mother. "Something on your mind, Miriam?"

Miriam smiled a little more and took a step forward, trying not to chuckle at her daughter's obviously unintentional little slip. "Well…" she figured she shouldn't push it for now—she knew Helga could get very private about Arnold, "I know you have that test tomorrow, sweetie, and I was thinking that maybe I could…help you study…and maybe we could make some snacks or something and we could talk. Like we used to do when I was helping your father out with the Emporium…You remember…?" Miriam looked at her very hopefully. Actually, some serious mother/daughter bonding stuff like they had done back then had been on her mind lately and this really did seem like the perfect opportunity. She crossed her fingers that Helga would say yes.

And indeed from across the bedroom, Helga lost all look of embarrassment for a moment and just blinked…and then smiled. "Really, Mom?"

Miriam, smiling gratefully, nodded and crossed her arms over her chest. "Mmm hmm… I've got a fresh batch of cookies baking and some other snacks down in the kitchen that we could make, and some of those Yahoo sodas you kids like so much. I thought we could bring it all up here and study on your bed together in our pajamas. What do you say?"

Helga's face instantly brightened completely. "I say…uh…great!" But then a second passed and suddenly (to Miriam's initial confusion) her face fell slightly. "Oh, but actually…I'm pretty much set for the test tomorrow myself… I was just kind of trying to light a fire under Arnold by telling him we both needed to study more right now before going to sleep." She blushed a tiny bit…and then smiled sheepishly. "He can, uh…get a little distracted by me sometimes, so he needs the occasional bit of prompting to get him focused on other important things besides me, heh, heh…"

Miriam's smile fell just a little bit at this explanation but there was understanding in her face. "Oh…" Then she almost had to chuckle as she added, "Helga, I know you're different from your sister but to be honest she was sort of the same way…never needed even a little help with school work…."

"Thanks, Mom…" Helga had to smile at the comparison…It was nice to get recognized as just as academically brilliant as her older sister, especially after all of those years of her parents parading Olga's straight A report cards around and never noticing that her own grades were just as good when she felt like getting them. Still though part of her couldn't help but feel a little bummed out…Getting an offer from her Mom to spend time with her and help her…and then not needing the help, really. She considered…and then glanced up at her mother hopefully. "But, um…as long as I'm good on studying…the two of us could still…spend some time together up here…just talking or some junk...you know, if that's okay…" She swallowed, trying to seem casual, though it really was important to her. And it would even be nice to spend time together without something like 'studying' as an excuse…Just pure quality time. She awaited her mother's reply.

"Really?" Helga's ears perked up at the sound of Miriam's eager voice meeting her ears. The young girl blinked and came out of her thoughts to see her mother smiling happily.

Helga smiled happily too and then just let out a sigh and rolled her eyes playfully at Miriam's question, the grin still on her face. "Yes, really! Just because there's no pretext of studying doesn't mean we can't still, you know, do something together. Doi!" She then smirked a little and added, sitting up more and propping herself up on her hands (and putting the phone on her nightstand). "Besides like I'd ever turn down free snacks and the chance to stay up a little past my bedtime." She winked.

Miriam smiled warmly and then put her hands on her hips. "Alright then little lady, I'll get the food and change into my pajamas and then I'll meet you in here and we'll have our own mother daughter sleepover!"

"You got it, Mom…" Helga gave a nod of approval at this intended course of action as Miriam left to get things all ready for this evening of theirs together.

---

"Helga…?"

Helga finished chewing the cookie she was currently eating and swallowed, glancing up at her mother on her bed and reciprocating her smile. "Yeah, Mom?"

It was close to an hour or so after Miriam had initially walked in on Helga's phone call with Arnold, and the time in between had just been spent with Helga talking about school and her friends, thinking out loud about plans for the summer and feeling kind of in disbelief that they would all be in fifth grade soon, and Miriam listening and talking a little bit herself about what she had going on in her own life and how she was thinking of going back to work at the Emporium a little, just a few days a week in the mornings while Helga was in school, just to get out of the house a bit and add a little extra something to her days (and she'd already promised up and down about a million times to her daughter not to let herself get carried away this time, much to Helga's amusement and happiness.)

But, anyway, now that they had finished talking about each other and little things and just laughing and enjoying each other's company, Miriam…was hoping that they could maybe broach another subject, as long they were here and being this open with one another.

And so, at her daughter's response, the older woman glanced down and seemed to consider for a second more, and then turned her eyes back to Helga and smiled. "I know you don't like getting asked too many questions about…Arnold…but…would it be okay if I just asked you one, Helga? You don't have to answer of course but…I'm just curious about something…" She looked at her hopefully.

Helga, meanwhile, still sitting propped up on her pillows and nestled under her covers, felt her stomach tie in a small knot at the sudden abrupt mention of her beloved (especially after her mother had walked in on the tail end of that intimate phone call they had just shared) and she glanced away a bit nervously, shifting in her long purple nightgown. "Um…" 'It's okay, it's okay, Helga old girl….Remember, Miriam's been really cool about everything and you don't HAVE to answer whatever it is anyway if it's really embarrassing…' With these thoughts, Helga just did her best to seem casual as she shrugged and finished, glancing at her mother again. "Yeah, uh…sure… Ask away, heh, heh…"

"Thank you, Helga." Miriam smiled supportively at the touch of nervousness apparent in her daughter's face and voice, and continued, readjusting herself on the far end of Helga's bed so that she was now sitting cross-legged on top of the covers, facing Helga. She asked her question. "Well, sweetie…before when I came in…when I asked when you two had started saying 'I love you' to each other and you said that I wouldn't believe you if you told me…" She raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious. "What did you mean by that?"

The color drained from Helga's face and she tensed up for a moment, her eyes wide…Finally, though, she blinked and seemed to calm just a little, allowing her eyes to refocus on Miriam again as she observed and took in the genuinely curious look on her face for a moment, and then came to a conclusion. "So…" Helga finally started, and then actually half grinned a little, "Olga really hasn't been spilling things to you on the side, has she?" she couldn't help but remark with interest (and relief). Helga had long since told her sister the specifics of her confession and her 'I love you, I've always loved you' to Arnold, and even though Olga had promised to keep things 'just between us sisters' ever since spilling the beans to Miriam about Arnold in the first place nearly three weeks ago, Helga still figured that maybe a thing or two she tended to mention to her big sister had slipped through the cracks thanks to Olga's usual bubbling enthusiasm and inability to lie, and had thus gotten through to their mother. However, it seemed Olga had indeed at least kept the truth of Helga's confession and the details of her finally getting together with Arnold under wraps. 'Thanks, Olga…' she mentally thought to herself, smiling more.

Miriam, meanwhile, still looking at her daughter curiously, blinked in what seemed to be a tiny bit of confusion at first at Helga's words…but then it seemed to process what her daughter meant. "Oh, so you told your sister about the 'I love you' thing…" She smiled and then shook her head, her grin picking up a little on one side. "No, Helga," she assured, "Olga's very strict about not telling me anything you two talk about regarding Arnold unless you tell her to…But I really would like to know the story behind your 'I love you's'…if you'd be willing to share it with me." Miriam took another sip from the bottle of soda in her hands…really, really hoping her younger daughter would trust her and say yes. Even though she had gotten that one decent talk about her little boyfriend out of Helga during the night of their (it still made her chuckle to think about it) one week anniversary, Helga had only opened up to her about her relationship with Arnold in the smallest of ways ever since then. Miriam knew that it was something important to her though and that she felt shy about it sometimes of course so she hadn't yet pushed the subject at all…but she really was hoping that Helga would open up and share more with her about something this big in her life, and regularly…that she really would be coming to the point of trusting her that much. Miriam turned her eyes back to her daughter and eagerly awaited her answer.

Helga, still a little wide eyed, took in her mother's reassurance about Olga's secrecy, remained hesitant for a moment or two more, then looked down like she was considering something…before finally letting out a breath… 'Why not…' she had to think to herself, and really Miriam had been a sport about everything. 'She's been really good about things and being okay with Arnold and keeping Bob kind of out of the loop and away from us on our dates over here…' (Helga almost had to roll her eyes as she recalled some of her father's lame excuses to just kind of pop in on Arnold and herself in whatever room they happened to be spending time in to 'ask the time' or to triple check about whether one of them was eating over at the other one's house or even just saying he'd forgotten the paper somewhere in there or something…though luckily, upon hearing him interrupt the kids, Miriam usually ended up calling out to Bob that she 'needed him right away for something', and that would usually distract him for a little while much to Arnold and Helga's happiness). 'And anyway,' Helga went on to herself, 'Letting her in more about Arnold and…our love…' Helga blushed a little, 'It'd probably help us get closer as mother and daughter…And besides…' her grin picked up a tiny bit, 'I do love sharing stories about my beloved now that we're together.' Helga smiled to herself fully and, now set on her decision about this matter, looked up at Miriam. "Well…if it's okay for me to stay up for another half an hour or so even though it's after my bedtime already…" she shrugged casually, "Then…I think I could share…" She smirked just a little at her mother.

Miriam had to give an impressed half smile at her daughter's (eternal) shrewdness. She let out a sigh and then nodded. "Okay, sweetie…I suppose one more half hour wouldn't hurt…"

Helga shrugged. "Fair enough." She then sat up a little more and seemed to consider something…which she was… After all, how best to start presenting this…the story of her and Arnold and the phrase 'I love you'? But then as she'd shifted up she felt something familiar shift against her skin underneath her nightshirt…something cool and smooth…and heart shaped…and an idea came to her. Doing her best to ignore the blush about to flower in her face, Helga slowly reached up to her collar (to the chain just circling around the inside of her collar, specifically)…and removed her Arnold locket from around her neck/inside of her nightshirt…and now held it before herself in both hands, the glass front and her beloved's visage facing toward her. "Miriam…" she began in a quiet, kind of bland voice, just doing her best to keep going, "I'm…going to have to give you the standard threat I give to people who I let really into the loop about Arnold and me. You tell anyone else and I'll rip your tongue out and wrap it around your neck." She looked up at her mother with a small sheepish smile, knowing how childish the threat could sound. "Okay?"

And indeed Miriam had to do her best not to chuckle at the overly dramatic (and of course totally unnecessary) threat from her daughter. "Okay, little lady." She nodded and smiled back down at her. "I tell anyone and you can do just that to me." Her gaze became intrigued and now fell to the familiar object in her daughter's hands…a little object that she hadn't seen in a few weeks at this point. "Now…" she smiled more, "What does that sweet little locket of yours have to do with anything?"

Helga sighed and felt the predictable blush start to come on…and it only intensified as she now started to undo the latch of her locket. She spoke as she fumbled with it (darn thing HAD been sticking randomly ever since that jeweler had had it…and it wasn't helping that her palms were just a bit sweaty all of a sudden.) "W-Well…" she started with a shrug, still keeping her eyes very focused on her task as she worked, "If we're going into the history of the whole 'I love you' thing with me and the Football Head, then…I just figured we should start at the beginning." The clasp came undone and Helga slowly opened the locket (keeping the inscription as hidden as possible—hey, some things were just for Arnold and her eyes only) and then pulled out a small folded piece of paper, and placed the locket off to her side on the bed… "A-And this kind of has a small description of the beginning right here…" And then before her mother could question her further Helga gently unfolded the precious page before her…and read a single stanza. One of her favorites, actually.

"I met her when we were both still little,

I remember something about the color pink,

And there was rain and she was wet,

And I said something to her and smiled, I think…"

Not that Helga hadn't memorized everything in Arnold's poem for her down to the punctuation marks a long time ago, but…somehow she'd just wanted to hold it again and look at it and feel it, especially if she was going into all of this. She loved it and it gave her courage.

Finished with the few lines now, she refolded the poem carefully and placed it ever so gently back inside of her locket, closing the clasp, and then she placed the locket back over her neck and hid it inside of her shirt once more. She cleared her throat, blushing quite a bit and not making eye contact with Miriam. "That…was…um…" 'Oh boy, this is awkward…Not 'the first time she found my locket' awkward, but still…', "That was…a stanza from…um…a poem Arnold wrote for me…about us… The only poem he's ever written for me about us, actually…" She let out a breath, still not making direct eye contact with her mother just yet. "And those, um…those lines I read kind of describe…the day we met…" she went on to say, and then took another breath. "It was, um, the first day of preschool…and…" She closed her eyes and just said it. "That was the first time I ever said to myself I loved him. I…was three…"

Several seconds of silence passed.

Helga, feeling a little frustrated with herself for genuinely not having the courage right now to just open her eyes and look up and see just how freaked out Miriam probably was, and also frustrated with the fact that Miriam wasn't making a sound to let her know what was up, finally couldn't help scowling and opening her eyes a little (though they were directed down at her blankets) and suddenly speaking just to fill the room with SOME sound. "Look, okay, I KNOW that sounds crazy and that someone who's three (heck someone who's TEN) should not be able to know what love is but they're MY feelings and even if they're not normal I'm NOT just going to sugar coat them or pretend they don't exist, and in my defense anyway that's the first memory I have and the FIRST part of it involves you and Bob and Olga ignoring me all morning until I had to walk to school alone in the rain and have my lunch stolen by a stupid dog and then…" she could feel tears forming at the back of her eyes but tried to push past it as she continued, "And then I end up at the stupid school and I feel horrible and suddenly…suddenly this little voice behind me says hi and the rain goes away because he shares his stupid little umbrella with me and then he tells me he likes my bow because it's pink like my pants and smiles at me and cares about me and I—"

Helga G. Pataki stopped and her eyes went wide as she suddenly felt hands gripping her shoulders. She felt herself coming out of rant mode and instantly looked up to see her mother looking at her…with her own tears in her own eyes. "Helga…"

Helga took in a very deep breath and let it out. "What?" She couldn't think of anything else to ask or say.

And then Miriam took in a deep breath and suddenly went forward and hugged her daughter as tightly as possible. "I'm sorry…" Helga heard her whisper into her ear.

Helga's eyes went wide at first but then…she just closed her eyes and let the hug and the apology wash some of the anger at the bad parts of her memories out of her. And then she let out a sigh… "I know…" she whispered back.

Mother and daughter remained like that for several seconds.

Helga let out a breath and did her best to smile a little again and lighten the mood. "So…you… don't think I'm a complete nutbag for falling in love at first sight when I was three years old all because some little shrimp let me borrow half of his umbrella and complimented my fashion sense?"

Miriam chuckled at the question and gave her daughter one final squeeze in their hug before letting her go and pulling back, smiling down into her eyes. "No, sweetie, I don't think you're a 'complete nutbag' for falling in love with someone who made you happy when you were sad, and all just because he liked you and he's a good person."

Helga smiled at her words and glanced down. "Um…thanks, Mom…" she replied warmly.

A moment of silence passed.

Then Helga let out a deep breath and rubbed the back of her neck, glancing up at her mother again. "Uh…and I…didn't mean to blow up like that just now, Miriam…I just naturally get defensive when I start talking to people about Arnold and—"

"Helga…" Miriam cut her off, looking at her firmly. "You have a right to blow up about something like that…Especially about something like that…" She frowned a little. "And we all really are sorry. Really."

Helga swallowed and half smiled. "I know…and I forgive you…" she tried to smile more and make things more casual again, "Heh, didn't I already tell you, Miriam, no more apologizing—just doing better from here on out?" She grinned more and Miriam gave another little chuckle, and Helga felt a bit more comfortable again…which she needed to feel if she was going to go into the next part of the story about herself and Arnold and 'I love you.' "Well, um…" she cleared her throat and rubbed the back of her neck, "A-Anyway…getting away from the past and closer to the present again…like I said, that first day of preschool was the first time I ever said to myself that I loved him…As for the first time I ever said it to him though…now there's a tale, heh…" She half smiled, then looked up at Miriam again. "So, um…you remember that whole Sheck/destroying the neighborhood thing, right, Miriam? Bob convinced he was going to get rich…Nick screwing him over…Me maybe…missing for a day or two…." She rolled her eyes innocently to the side a little.

Miriam blinked at this unexpected new direction which the conversation was now taking…and then she raised an eyebrow at the fact that certainly the first two parts of that incident Helga was now bringing up were familiar but…had her daughter really been gone for two entire days?

Helga just rolled her eyes at her mother's apparent surprise and confusion, still half smiling. "You didn't notice, huh?" She shook her head to herself in amusement. "Actually, that time might have been a little understandable since I had Phoebe cover for me in advance by saying I was sleeping over there for the weekend…" She came back to the point of the memory at hand. "Anyway, what I was actually doing that weekend was, um…" Helga swallowed and then glanced to the side sheepishly. "Uh, Miriam? There's no…retroactive grounding allowed…right? I mean, if I did something that might have been a little dangerous in the past, I can't get in trouble for it now, right?"

Miriam blinked again at her daughter…then half smiled and gave her a nod. "You're safe, Helga. I promise. So, what did you really do and how does it relate to you telling Arnold you loved him?" She smiled more and took another sip of her soda, very intrigued at this point.

Helga let out a breath, blushed at the direct question and then finally admitted, "Well…you see, Arnold was trying his best to work things out with Sheck and save the neighborhood but…" she looked up at her mother and just shook her head, "Miriam, the boy is a very nice person and his heart is always in the right place but for the love of humanity he cannot do cunning and sneaky to save his life!" She rolled her eyes and then gestured to herself. "So I had to go and follow him around all disguised…you know, sneaking after him here and there, giving him quick pointers and ways out and stuff…" She looked up at her mother hesitantly (now that she was coming to the 'big finish') but Miriam was still just smiling happily and that made Helga happy, and so she just swallowed and continued, summing up the rest of her courage. "Anyway…I've, uh…done a few things in the past that had almost let him find out how I felt about him but with a ton of luck and cunning on my part the little shrimp never busted me once during the six years between when we met and that whole FTi thing…but then he goes and stumbles across me on the roof of the FTi building in the middle of trying to find him a way out of there before Sheck's guards caught him, and he starts asking and asking why I'd bother helping him, and I was a little completely in shock to say the least so I could only come up with lame excuses but of course he picked that day of all days to not just believe me and go with it!" She rolled her eyes again at the whole insane thing…and then just swallowed and went on as causally and briskly as she could. "So I just…told him that I did it all all because I loved him…kind of screamed it at him actually, heh…And um…and then to prove to him that I was telling the truth I…kissed him." Her face felt fiery at this point. "I mean…" she began to ramble a little, "He's a bit…COMPLETELY dense about things sometimes and it was the only thing I could think of to do to prove to him I was telling the truth…" She almost smiled as she added, the memory recurring to her, "Heck, though, even after that kiss he still asked me if I 'really had just said I loved him', like he wasn't quite sure if he'd 'heard right' or something…" She let out a sigh and shook her head at her beloved's whole ridiculous reaction. "And then, um…well, we kind of avoided each other for a few weeks until Mr. Simmons made me his poetry tutor…and then all the time we had to spend together for that plus a bunch of other stuff kind of got to him I guess because Olga invited him over here for our 'surprise' first date," she made air quotes around the word, "And that was when he told me for the first time that he was falling in love with me…and…kissed me to kind of prove it too." She finished with a blush and a smiling shrug, letting the whole lovely thing just wash over her.

"That's a very sweet story, Helga." Her mother's kind voice came to her ears and Helga turned her slightly lovesick eyes back to her to see the older woman smiling at her and the tale she'd just told. "You know…I know it must feel a little awkward for you sometimes with your sister finding out about your feelings and then me and even your father seeing you and Arnold spending so much time together but…we really are all happy that things are working out between you two, and also that you…actually want to bring him around and have him have dinner with us. It's nice getting close to both of you, Helga."

Helga's smile warmed even more. "Thanks, Mom. I…yeah, it can feel a little, um…a-awkward…" she played with her hands in her lap a little, "But I…really like the two of us being a little more open with you guys too. It's nice. Oh, and, um…" Helga blushed a lot more, "Thank you, um…A LOT for…for understanding about Arnold and I maybe needing a little privacy sometimes when we're over here on dates, and for, you know, knocking whenever we're up here and you come up here…We appreciate it…Especially Arnold…Heh…" she laughed to herself just a tiny bit, "Silly thing's shy enough when it's just the two of us alone kissing, but anyone else comes close to walking in and…" she laughed a little more, "Although, I guess I shouldn't complain—I nearly jumped out of my skin when his family caught us together the other week at the top of his room steps." She shook her head to herself at the memory. 'Ah, who are we kidding—at this point we're BOTH certifiable basketcases about all of this physical stuff…Me because part of me's still in denial that it's all really real and happening, and Arnold because part of him's still 'shocked and appalled' that he has a dark, daring, passionate streak deep within him…' She almost chuckled at the whole cute, funny thing, and even at the fact that it…didn't feel too bad gossiping with Miriam like this a little like she did with Olga. Her sister still being in Alaska for another couple of weeks until summer started, it was nice to have someone live and in person to chat with. 'Heh, wonders never cease…'

"Helga…um…just how much kissing do you and Arnold do, exactly?"

That VERY VERY VERY unexpected question instantly got the smile off of Helga's face and made her swallow and look in shock and embarrassment at Miriam…who was still just sitting there with her legs crossed…with a look that was kind of just pleasantly interested…but also maybe a little concerned…the overall effect of which was to leave Helga a little unsure about how to field this one, to say the least, though somewhere at the back of her mind part of her had known ever since Miriam had busted her about her one week anniversary with Arnold following his little surprise visit to her room that something like this was bound to come up sooner or later. 'Arnold's so lucky—Phil and Gertie were just like us when they were little so the two of them GET that two ten-year-old kids sharing the occasional…o-or frequent…deep passionate kiss isn't the weirdest thing in the world…' But Miriam had been used to Olga: Olga who hadn't even gotten her first kiss until she was twelve, Olga who had grown up dating a little here and a little there, Olga who had taken until high school until she'd tried getting boys in her room…Olga who had not been one of the random people lucky enough in life to turn around one day as a child…and know the person their eyes had suddenly fallen upon and could not look away from…was the person they were meant to be with for the rest of their lives.

'Alright Helga old girl,' the pensive fourth grader thought to herself, 'Play this one close to the vest.' She took a breath and replied simply to her mother, her eyes still a bit wide, "Miriam…I think that's…private. You're asking me how often I kiss my boyfriend. That's…between me and Arnold." She let out a breath. "And if you don't mind my asking…why do you want to know?" She eyed the older woman just a little curiously…Miriam's motivations about this particular topic interesting her quite a bit.

Her mother continued to give her a mixed look at first. Then she let out a breath and looked to her daughter sincerely. "I'm sorry, Helga. You're right…" She nodded. "That's a private question and I shouldn't pry. But…you're still only ten Helga." She looked into her eyes. "I just…want to make sure you and Arnold are taking things…slowly." She smiled. "You're so young, you've got your whole lives ahead of you. I just want to make sure you two are enjoying being kids just as much as you're enjoying being a couple. I know having your first relationship can be very exciting but…I just want to make sure you don't get too carried away. It seems like you care really deeply about Arnold and I know he cares deeply about you too. With something like that…going slow can work a little better, okay?" She smiled a little more and shrugged. "I'm sorry, Helga…Even though I want us to be friends I'm still your mom first…Asking things like this is part of my job."

Helga was blushing. A lot. She was now officially MUCH more than a little uncomfortable with the direction in which this conversation was going. Talking about 'going slow' and 'what she and Arnold did as a couple in private'…the two of them getting 'carried away'…"Uh…Miriam…" she started slowly, trying not to let herself give in to nausea or total and complete 'hiding under the covers' blushing, "Listen, I, uh…" she tugged at her collar, "I understand the concept of…g-going slow, and believe me, Football Head and I are both aware of how young we are. But…" her voice firmed, "I'm in love with him and he's in love with me. And we're together. And we kiss and it doesn't hurt anybody and it's how I express myself and how he expresses himself, and we both only do what feels right and comfortable and of course we do other things besides, um, intimate stuff together, believe me—Arnold's very determined to make sure that we take breaks and bond as friends too, a-and I like that too because the only thing he's even close to being better at than being a boyfriend is being a friend..." She smiled to herself at how true that statement was…How Arnold had always brought her such comfort as a friend over the years, and now he could bring her that and a world more of things since he had begun to love her back. Realizing she was getting a little dazed though and that now was NOT the time, Helga shook her head and came back to the point at hand, deciding to wrap things up. "But the point is, Mom…no one tells Helga G. Pataki what to do or how to live her life. I call my own shots and as long as Arnold's okay with what we're doing together since he's just as much a part of it all as I am…we'll do whatever's right for us. And so far, I've gotta say…we're really, really happy having a relationship like that. Do you…understand, Mom?" She looked at her mother seriously.

Miriam just looked back at Helga a little unreadably…but then sighed and closed her eyes, bringing a hand to one of her temples. And then she almost seemed to chuckle (confusing and worrying Helga all the more, by the way). "Helga…" she merely started, now shaking her head and then opening her eyes and just smiling at her daughter. "Do you have any idea how much easier it would have been raising your sister if she knew half the stuff you seem to already know? I mean, there are women my age who aren't even close to as self-aware or full of conviction as you are, Helga."

Helga blinked and blushed a little brightly. "Oh! Um…thanks, Mom…" She really wasn't sure what else to say, how else to respond to this compliment/observation.

Miriam just let out a sigh and smiled and looked at Helga. "Helga…you really are happy having whatever kind of relationship it is you're having with Arnold, aren't you?"

Helga didn't have to think twice. She nodded, her eyes still wide and still blushing a little. "I've been in love with him since I was three…I finally told him and he fell in love with me back." She gave a small smile, almost unconsciously. "And now we spend time together and help each other and support each other care about each other and…kiss each other…" she gulped and blushed and went on, her smile only growing as she spoke. "It's all part of a wonderful package…this wonderful life we have together now when we're with each other. We're like best friends but deeper than that…Like parts of each other…We make something good when we're together…" Helga realized she'd been getting a little dazed again as she was speaking at this point, and so now she stopped and swallowed and glanced up at her mother unsurely to see her reaction.

Miriam was still smiling warmly…and actually seemed to have a tear in her eye again tonight. "Helga…that's…very beautiful…That's a very beautiful way to put it. And Arnold…feels the same way?"

Helga nodded up at her mother, smiling again. "Yeah. He…actually he's the one who said that to me first…about us being like parts of each other…being something good when we're together." Her grin grew and picked up a little on one side. "Sappy little thing sometimes, isn't he?"

Miriam actually chuckled at that and then leaned down and caught her daughter in a quick hug before sitting back up again. "Helga…from one woman to another I've got to say…you'd be surprised at the shortage of boys in the world who are available and also good and nice and really caring. And Arnold is…Arnold is all of those things. And you could see that…right from the moment you met him…when you were three…" She just...looked at her with an amazed smile. "Olga's right. You're an excellent judge of character, Helga. And probably the most mature ten-year-old girl in the whole world."

Helga blushed a lot, never used to getting too many compliments from her parents, and now suddenly she was being almost bombarded with them by her mother tonight. "Oh, I, uh…th-thanks, Mom…Olga…really said that?" She raised part of her brow.

Miriam nodded. "Uh huh. Actually sometimes she feels likes she's the baby sister and you're the big sister…I think that's why she likes helping you with this Arnold stuff and talking to you about starting out dating and trying to find makeup for you and stuff—it lets her feel like she's the one teaching you something for once."

Helga smiled even more at this cute piece of information. "Aw…that's…kind of sweet, really." She chuckled a little then let out a sigh and shook her head in amusement. "Olga...always putting things so sickeningly sweetly and adorably." She looked back to her mother, feeling like some hump of awkwardness had finally been gotten over, making the conversation between them now a lot more fun and enjoyable. "But, uh…I really like getting to bond with Olga over this stuff too. It's…been kind of fun for me, actually…gossiping about boys and stuff…" She blushed a little and smiled to herself, and then stretched up and looked to her mother with a slight smirk. "Of course, you repeat what I just said that to anyone and that whole ripping your tongue out and wrapping it around your neck thing still stands." She winked.

Miriam chuckled and smirked a little back at her. "Mums the word." Taking in her daughter's tired stretch up, she glanced over at the alarm clock by her bed and noticed that by now it was indeed well past even the most mature and exceptional ten-year-old girl's normal bedtime. Her eyes went back to Helga. "Now…it's getting late..." Miriam stood up from the bed. "And it's time for you to get to sleep…Even girls in love need their rest. Can't live on kisses alone." She winked.

Helga giggled a little and blushed, but then yawned and lay back in her bed a little. She really was getting tired. Being a fourth grader was hard enough—being one in love required two or three times the work, at least! "Actually I hear you, Miriam." She snuggled in, smirking a little to herself. "Gotta get all rested up for another day of bugging Football Head at school and then cuddling with him after the bell rings."

Miriam blinked at this small joke of her daughter's and looked at her curiously as she leaned down to tuck her in a little. "What do you mean, Helga?"

Helga blinked a couple of times and brought her sleepy eyes back to Miriam, giving another yawn. "Oh…" she realized what might need explaining, "Well, you see, it's taking me a little while to get used to going completely public with the fact that I'm dating someone, so for now Arnold's okay with me still picking on him a little when we're around our friends and then only dating in private. Don't worry though, it's all just harmless stuff I do to him at school, and…more like secret flirting between us really…And anyway I promised him I'd tell soon and he's okay with that. We've had talks about it. Just like we always do…" another yawn escaped her, "…about everything." She blinked a few more times, preparing for sleep.

Her mother watched her and smiled as she straightened up now that Helga was all cozy and tucked in. "Talks about everything…That's a very good thing too, Helga. And it's nice that he understands and only wants to do things when you're ready…" She leaned down once more and gave Helga a small kiss goodnight on her forehead.

Helga's eyes were closed and she was fading fast. "Yeah…If anyone knows about going slow and 'waiting until you're ready', it's him…A whole month just to tell me he loves me back after I confessed…" She chuckled a little to herself, her voice starting to quiet a little. "We talk about everything…kiss about…everything…say I love you about…everything…And one day I'll tell everyone that I'm in love with Arnold Phillip Shortman. I gave him my word…and a Pataki…never goes back on her…word…" She let out a sigh… "Arnold…" It came out of her as a whisper as she prepared to begin to dream.

Miriam stood, observed the happy sight of her soon-to-be-slumbering daughter for a moment longer, and then quietly leaned over to shut out the light on her nightstand.

"Um…Mom?"

The older woman paused though at the sudden address from her daughter. Miriam glanced down to see Helga's eyes having blinked open…and a small crimson blush upon her cheeks…

"Yes, Helga?" she asked with a small smile.

The ten-year-old blonde seemed to consider…and then said, pulling her blanket around her a little more tightly for the feeling of comfort and support it gave, "Um…remember back during our 'anniversary'…when I asked you not to go in my closet because there was some, um…Arnold stuff in there…?"

Miriam looked at her daughter curiously and nodded.

Helga went on. "Well, what's in there…A-and…you won't go snooping, will you?" She looked up at her desperately.

Miriam looked at her seriously and gave her another nod.

Helga shifted…but went on. "Well, I-I, um…m-make these kind of sculpture…shrine things inspired by him sometimes…to express myself…and I hide them in there. Heh, you've actually thrown a couple of them out over the years because sometimes they really do tend to look like just a pile of random junk and stuff I guess...A-Anyway, along with that I, um...keep my p-poetry books in there too…those little pink ones th-that Arnold always seems to have and that I keep near my bed sometimes…because I write love poems about him. Oh and um…" She reached under her pillow and pulled out a small, folded, red and yellow plaid item, and then unfolded it a little and snuggled against it. "I…He gave me one of his shirts and…I like to sleep with it near me." She looked a little scared about admitting all of this… "Um…A-Arnold thinks it's all cute, heh…" But she really did want to try getting close, very close, to her family, to her mother…even about this most sensitive subject…even about the details of it. She bit her lower lip, awaiting her mother's reaction.

"I think it's very cute too, Helga…And very creative…And I'm happy you shared with me."

The words met Helga's ears and she instantly let out a sigh of relief and then smiled and looked up at Miriam happily. "Thanks Mom…" her mother was just smiling warmly and supportively down at her now and it made Helga feel just…good…Really really good… "Goodnight." She closed her eyes again, snuggling comfortably in her blankets (and now with her Arnold shirt) to finally fall asleep.

"Goodnight, sweetie…" With these words Miriam finally reached over and turned out the light and then walked across the room quietly, leaving Helga there and happy and with a smile in her bed. And the older woman was feeling very good about this whole night and especially the end of her conversation with her daughter. Helga knew what she was doing. She would be okay. Arnold would be okay. They would be okay. All of this really was good for Helga. And Miriam instantly trusted Arnold just as much as Helga did. And… wouldn't it be nice to see Helga happy and married one day with a family of her own…and maybe even with Arnold…whom she loved so much and who loved her so much, in their own, young but still very special way… 'Helga's wedding…' It was a cute idea…Miriam shook her head though as she exited the room, lightly shutting the door behind her as she entered the dim hall. 'It's so far off though…But…still…' her thoughts went on as she walked to her and her husband's bedroom. Helga was already in love…already becoming not such a little lady. Her wedding day would probably come in the blink of an eye. Miriam let out a sigh and smiled to herself. 'And you know…even though they're only ten…if she actually does end up marrying Arnold…it wouldn't surprise me in the least.'

Yawning she reached her own bedroom door now and did her best not to giggle about the image of her little Helga in a wedding dress and walking down the aisle with a tall, football headed Arnold while herself and Bob and Olga watched from the pews in the church. As for actually sharing the cute concept with either one of those two other members of the Pataki family though, certainly Miriam would probably mention it to Olga the next time they talked but as for B it would probably be better to 'ease' him into the idea… Miriam recalled the incident with Olga and her fiancée not too many months ago, and how that escapade plus Bob's natural disinclination for seeing his daughters getting very close to boys probably would not bode well for him finding the idea of Helga and Arnold's wedding as charming as she herself did, at least not right away. 'Yes. Definitely better to ease him into things…'

Miriam yawned once more and then entered and closed her bedroom door behind her, very thankful for another close mother/daughter chat with Helga…as well as for the fact that since this was the second time it had happened recently, perhaps that meant it really could become a regular thing in their lives and in her and Helga's relationship. Yes, maybe she and Bob really hadn't been too late with trying to connect with their younger daughter, with helping her grow up, especially at this crucial time in her life. Not that Helga seemed to need too much parental guidance, of course…but it was wonderful just to be there for her when she needed it and to be a part of her life in general just the same. And maybe she did need them more than they realized, just like Miriam and Bob hadn't quite realized just how much they needed a real relationship with her until it had been really brought to their attentions… and just like how Helga and Arnold seemed to need each other more than Arnold had realized before this whole 'confessions' thing…

Miriam chuckled to herself as she prepared to begin getting ready for bed. Helga, in love with a little boy who would grow up one day to marry her and love her forever and ever. 'Helga and Arnold…' It really did have a nice ring to it. She couldn't help chuckling a little more though she did her best to keep it as quiet as possible so as not to wake her sleeping husband, already in their bed. 'Better ease B into that idea too…Oh, and I'll have to remember to put a little note in Helga's lunch box wishing her good luck on that history test of hers tomorrow…' She gave a small nod to herself at the plan, and then crawled into bed and went to sleep with a smile…and did her best not to giggle, as she did so, at the idea that Helga might be spending the next eight hours dreaming about Arnold, if the way she had whispered his name before almost falling asleep that first time (or the fact that she slept with his shirt pretty regularly) had been any indication of what topic her sleeping thoughts usually focused on.

---

EVERYONE'S OTHER FAVORITE COUPLE

"Hup! Hya!"

"Whoa!"

"And…HIT!"

"Okay, okay, I give! Phoebe, you're lethal!"

"Arigatoo gozaimasu, Gerald."

A chuckling (and still slightly disbelieving) Gerald Johanssen finally put down his practice saber and took off his fencing helmet. He smiled at his girlfriend and shook his head. "Heh…and I was worried for all those years about you holding your own around Helga…She might be able to throw a punch but I'm pretty sure sword fighting on top of the martial arts trumps that by a long shot!"

Phoebe giggled a little and pulled off her own fencing helmet to reveal her now slightly blushing face. "Oh…well, um…I try, Gerald." She shrugged…and then shyly put her hands behind her back. "Oh and, um…sorry if I got a little aggressive with the fencing…It's just something I tend to use to relieve pent up energy and I can get a little carried away at times…" She looked at him just a little unsurely…She hadn't meant to show him up or anything at this activity she had picked for their date together this afternoon—she'd just been trying her best at something she loved.

Gerald only smiled all the more at her question though and raised an eyebrow. "Babe, you know I love your aggressive side. We've been over this…" He blushed a little, his arms going behind his back shyly for a second. "I mean, as long as you don't mind that, when you get right down to it, all my coordination is wrapped up in dance moves, heh…" He rubbed the back of his neck.

A giggle from Phoebe met his ears. "Well, um…" And then she'd slid closer to him and he blinked and looked now at her smiling face, "If you'll promise to take me dancing at some point in time so that I can see firsthand these dance moves you keep referring to…then of course I don't mind, Gerald." She gave him a small wink.

Gerald blushed quite a bit at this point…and then a grin consumed his face. "Sure thing, babe!"

The two shared a small chuckle/giggle…and then they cleared their throats and quickly moved forward to share a little peck on the lips, before pulling back awkwardly and blushing all the more (though they were smiling, of course). They were still getting used to kissing (and especially the mutual 'kissing at the same time') being part of their relationship…but they were both definitely warming up to the action.

"U-Um…anyway…" Gerald cleared his throat now, looking down, hoping to move things along a little before he could think too much about the fact that once again in his life he had just kissed Phoebe Heyerdahl's lips and get all goofy and dazed because of it, "Um…could we do a snack break now, babe? My arm's starting to get a little tired and I could use a breather anyway."

"Of course, Gerald," Phoebe replied brightly (happy as well to be moving things along from their little kiss), and then she took his helmet along with hers as well as both of their swords and walked them over to the equipment area in her house's fencing room, and then she gestured across the room to the tray she'd brought in here with them, which was set upon a large pillow on the floor. "We have Yahoo sodas, carrot sticks, and some fresh chocolate chip cookies."

"Ah, the three basic food groups." Gerald chuckled and looked back to his girlfriend (they…were warming up to the terms 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' right along with the kissing lately) with an appreciative smile. "You're the best, Babe." He winked at her and she just rolled her eyes and giggled at his little joke as the two walked over and sat down next to each other to share their small repast together.

"Itedokímas!" Gerald announced with a smile as he reached for a cookie.

Phoebe smiled and lowered the carrot stick she was about to take a bite of for a moment. "I-ta-da-ki-ma-su, Gerald."

"Oh, right…" Gerald blushed a little and then said it slowly as she had. "I-ta-da-ki-ma-su…" He looked to her hopefully.

Phoebe nodded in approval. "Yes, correct, Gerald. The traditional Japanese saying before commencing to eat." She glanced back to her carrot stick and took a small bite and swallowed…then let out a little sigh, sitting beside her boyfriend. "Um…Gerald?" She looked at him unsurely. "A-Are you sure you don't find learning the occasional bit of Japanese a little…boring?" She had to ask. After all, Helga had always seemed on the fence about getting Japanese words thrown at her and Phoebe really didn't want Gerald doing anything he didn't like or want to do just to impress or please her or something.

"Hey…if I'm going to be, um…you know, d-dating the smartest girl in the whole world…I consider it an honor that she's letting some of that smartness rub off on me…"

Phoebe blinked and blushed at the response and then looked to Gerald. He was smiling and blushing a little and kind of shyly taking a bite of a cookie. "Plus, I like learning about things you like, Phoebe. That's the point of dating, right?" He brought his eyes up to her and smiled.

Phoebe's smile blossomed and bloomed. "Y-Yes, Gerald…I suppose you're right."

Gerald let out a sigh and looked at her lovingly. "Besides, you get new experiences from hanging out with me too, so that kind of evens us out…even if the stuff I have to share isn't nearly as brilliant as your Japanese and fencing and stuff." He glanced down a little sheepishly.

"No, Gerald…" he quickly heard her add though sincerely and happily, "The poetry readings and the urban legends and the video games are some of the most fun I've ever encountered…"

Gerald's smile instantly perked and he looked right back up at her. "Thanks, Babe…I'm happy you've been enjoying yourself so much."

Phoebe nodded, glancing at him as she took a cookie now herself. "Yes. It's been very nice to get out a little more…Usually I've just always gone to school, perhaps attended one of our baseball games and then come back here to study…except of course for occasionally helping Helga out with one of her former Arnold schemes." Phoebe almost rolled her eyes at the memories before going on. "It's been rather…exhilarating to have so many new experiences…and not ones involving grappling hooks or burnt cork…and um, also ones with someone whom I care…very much about…" Her cheeks pinkened a little, and she swallowed a bite of her cookie.

"E-Exactly," Gerald stuttered out a little in agreement, finishing a tiny bite of carrot. "It's nice getting to share things and learn more about who we are…and to have a special relationship….You know, besides just being friends like we were…" He rolled his eyes to the side innocently and then slid a little close to her…and put one of his hands on top of one of hers on the floor.

"Y-Yes…" Phoebe let her hand melt against his, shifting a little closer herself. "I…like us better this way too. As a…a couple instead of as just friends." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "No more slight glances and shy, embarrassed attempts at walking together places..." She had to smirk just a little.

"Yeah…" Gerald smirked a little back, "And no more worrying about the other person finding out how each of us felt about each other…" he added and then chuckled and continued, "And no more trying to keep our best friends around whenever we were together to make it seem like we weren't some kind of unofficial couple or something."

"Agreed, Gerald." Phoebe chuckled herself, "I like just admitting that I like you like you…and getting to know that you like me like me. Especially after all those years of learning to like each other more and more from afar." She smiled shyly.

Gerald laughed a little, finishing up his carrot stick (and so happy to have his hand on hers and to have her hand snuggling his a little back). Then his eyes lit up as he recalled something. "Hey, remember that time in second grade when we both kept pretending we were at the school carnival by ourselves but we kept managing to 'accidentally' sit or stand right next to each other at all the games, and to end up right behind one another on the lines of all the rides?"

Phoebe giggled a lot at the memory and nodded. "Of course, Gerald…." Her own eyes lit up (and she let her fingers play with his fingers a little). "Oh, and remember that month at the start of third grade, before all of our friends put our baseball team together and practices got in the way, when we both started coming to Slausens separately right after school, only to order the same thing every single time and glance at each other from our stools at opposite ends of the counter."

Gerald laughed. "Yeah! Or hey in first grade when I made sure to always come to YOU whenever I needed extra paste in art class, even though Arnold was sitting right next to me and always had some!"

Phoebe rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Yes, and I always begged Helga to give me some extra of her paste if I ever saw you coming over and didn't have anymore myself…"

"Really?" Gerald raised an eyebrow and smirked a little, this information being news to him. "Hmm…I'll have to thank Pataki for that later."

Phoebe giggled, and smiled at her boyfriend. "Oh yes, Gerald…however much I helped out Helga with Arnold, she certainly always helped out me when I asked her for assistance with you…and she was kind enough to never bring it up too much too." Phoebe smiled a little more to herself, making a mental note to really thank Helga for that help later.

Gerald nodded. "Yeah, same with Arnold…he was always willing to help out and never brought it up much either, come to think about it." He smiled more to himself at this sudden realization. "Huh…pretty cool of the two of them…Hmm…" He shook his head in amusement, then focused back on Phoebe again. "And then of course they both made us finally come clean with each other…probably the coolest thing they ever did." He winked at his girlfriend.

Phoebe nodded and gave a little wink back. "Yes, very cool. Phoebe and Gerald…It does have a nice ring to it…" She blushed so much, smiling all the more.

"I always thought so…" The warm reply met her ears and she was so happy.

For a minute or two, the two children just sat next to each other, hands resting together, enjoying their snack and each other's company here on their date.

"Um, Gerald…Thanks for, um…agreeing to have dinner here with my mother and father this weekend. I'm very happy they're going to meet you." Phoebe spoke the words suddenly and quietly and with a small smile…She knew a family dinner was a big step and this would of course be her first time bringing home a boy to her parents and also she couldn't imagine how stressful the prospect must have seemed to Gerald…but he'd said yes and she was so happy about it!

"No problem, Phoebe." His reply brought her thoughts back to the here and now and she looked at him as he went on. "I'm…kind of honored actually…You asking me to officially meet your folks and everything…" He blushed and smiled to himself. "It's…pretty cool…getting asked to really meet a girl's parents…"

Phoebe smiled and blushed a little more herself, glancing down shyly. "I'm happy you're comfortable and happy about it, Gerald. And yes it's…a rather big thing for me too, but…I think it'll be nice."

Her boyfriend nodded and let out a sigh. "Yeah…and um, listen…I-I should have said this before but…the only reason I didn't invite you over to my house for dinner right after you invited me over here is because…" He looked at her with a great deal of concern. "Phoebe, I just plain care about you too much…"

Phoebe looked at him kind of strangely.

Gerald sighed and explained, blushing and rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Phoebe…Yeah, dinner here with your parents might be a little awkward or tense but for the most part I know it's going to be great…and it'll be especially good because you'll be with me." He smiled and Phoebe blushed…but then he frowned a little, going on. "But, um…Phoebe? At my house…there's Timberly and Jamieo…Timberly, who will immediately inform you out loud in front of everyone that you are pretty and ask you if you're my girlfriend and Jamieo who will…make every joke he possibly can about, um…dating and hugging and touching and um…that, uh, kissing thing…heh…" He smiled a tiny bit and then cleared his throat and glanced up, trying to move along and lighten the mood a little. "A-And then, you see, I'd have to sock him one for bothering my lady and, well, he's a lot bigger than me so I could probably get off that first initial hit but then he'd cream me right on the spot and…I do not want to put you through the experience of seeing your boyfriend given a wedgie and having his head shoved into a bowl of mashed potatoes so…" He shrugged and grinned. "So, that's why I…hesitated on giving you an invite to a family dinner at my house after you gave me an invite to dinner at yours. Because when we're out on dates and it's just us it's calm and I can feel like I'm coming off as 'cool' and like things are going good…but with my family… I guess I'm just scared that I'll come off as a total dork or something and the whole thing'll be really embarrassing. I-I'm sorry, Babe…" He looked at her with a touch of concern, hoping she'd understand and not be too upset or anything.

Phoebe just looked at him…and then her mouth trembled…and then she burst into such laughter!

…The sound of which made Gerald blink in confusion at first. "Uh…Phoebe?" He was almost laughing a little himself as he then asked, "You okay, Babe?"

"Y-Yes, Gerald, I…" She laughed some more, holding her sides. "It's just…Oh Gerald…" She sighed and just looked at him with a smile and shook her head a little. "You will never 'not be cool' to me—that I can certainly promise you…No matter how many wedgies your older brother might give you or what embarrassing things your little sister might say…As long as I'm with you at the dinner, I'll have a great time." She smiled at him sincerely.

Gerald just looked at her…and then let out a sigh and shook his head, a happy grin on his face. "Phoebe…you are some kind of groovy chick…You have a death wish…but you are still some kind of groovy chick…"

She just blushed and giggled a ton at being called that… a 'groovy chick'. "And…you're a…groovy dude, Gerald…" she reciprocated shyly.

Gerald's eyes went wide and his jaw fell a little.

Phoebe just shrugged at the reaction. "If you're learning Japanese, then I can pick up some new vernacular as well, Gerald." She winked.

There was silence and then the two of them just shared a happy laugh and smiles.

Next they separated their hands for the moment and grabbed and opened their soda bottles, then sipped their drinks and ate some more.

Eventually (a few minutes later) Gerald turned to Phoebe again. "So…" he grinned a little, "Dinner next weekend at my place maybe? As long as you're really prepared for the chaos…"

"I would be honored Gerald," Phoebe assured him with a smile.

Gerald smiled a little more at her response. Then he let out a sigh. "Hey, um…Phoebe?"

"Yes, Gerald?" she asked sincerely, taking another sip of her soda and then placing it down upon the floor.

"Um…I…know this might sound a little random but…I've just been…curious, I guess…" hey, now was as good a time as any to ask it, especially since they had just gotten all of that 'family dinner' stuff out in the open, "Are, um…Are we supposed to be acting like we're, you know… 'in like with each other' …in public or something?" He gulped and blushed, gripping his soda bottle with both of his hands very tightly. "I-I mean, I know Arnold and Helga don't act like they're together in public but they've got that whole 'Helga's reputation' thing to think of and also…they are the STRANGEST ten-year-olds on the planet…as we have both agreed." He tacked on the last part again to try and lighten the mood.

Which worked, since the two shared another laugh at his comment…

And then Phoebe considered for a moment, looking down…and then she shrugged and looked back up at Gerald and spoke carefully and sincerely (and to be honest this topic had been…slightly on her own mind as well). "Well…I don't think we have to hide our relationship, personally, Gerald, but…I like the idea of us just keeping things a bit…low key. What I mean is…when Arnold and Helga finally decide to tell the truth about their feelings to everyone…" she sighed and rolled her eyes to the side with a grin, "It's probably going to involve some epic confession, possibly a passionate kiss, the two of them going on and on and on about one another…" She smiled at Gerald again. "But I like us just being who we are, keeping our more…intimate experiences private not because we're afraid to tell the truth but just because they're intimate experiences and private and ours. And…maybe later we can try and incorporate some more milder experiences into our public lives as we get more comfortable but, for now…I like us like this. Just the way we are. Casually together. Is…Is that okay, Gerald?" She looked at him a little unsurely, hoping she'd expressed herself well and that his feelings on the matter wouldn't be too different. What if he DID want things to be seriously upped publically though? The thought made her cringe a little…She was just a private, shy girl, and she needed time to ease into—

"Oh THANK YOU! YES! We're on the same page!"

These words of relief met Phoebe's ears and she looked at Gerald with wide eyes. "Huh?"

Gerald just laughed and let out the happiest sigh ever, smiling at her so very gratefully. "Thank you…" he repeated, now going for her hand again and this time actually picking it up and giving it a squeeze. "I'm really, really, really happy you like taking things slow like this, Phoebe…I was starting to get worried that now that we've been together a few weeks you might be getting a little…I-I don't know, bored with me and my, uh…shyness about all of this," he blushed a little, "…a-and that you might be wanting something more intense and public and stuff, but…" He looked at her with a happy smile. "You really want to just keep going slow and steady and low key too? Because that would be…perfect with me…" His eyes became a little half lidded. He loved how in tune they could be sometimes. In tune with the most brilliant girl on the planet…It made his heart spark a little and he was really, really starting to like that feeling.

Phoebe's smile beamed in front of him. "Gerald Martin Johanssen …" Her grin grew. "I do believe this is the start of a very…compatible first relationship for the both of us."

Gerald's grin grew as well…and he picked up her hand a little higher. "I…do believe you're right…Phoebe Kyoko Heyerdahl," he said smoothly…and then with a blush went forward and kissed the back of her hand.

Phoebe's breath caught on her throat at the sudden action and she blushed…but then melted into a smile and a giggle. "Oh…Gerald..." She giggled a little more. Ever since they're first date, sometimes when they were alone and close he'd do that 'kissing her hand' thing and she loved the feeling. It was so sweet and romantic.

Gerald was feeling shy, of course, (as he usually did with intimate things like this between them) but he summed up more courage and shifted a little closer and looked into her eyes. "You have the cutest laugh, Babe…" He took a breath and lowered his voice a little, doing his best to keep his blushing at bay and to keep his courage up. "Um…you know, um…I-I've been looking up some Japanese vocabulary in my spare time and…um, correct me if I'm wrong, but…I think kireina is a good word for you…" He gave another little kiss to the back of her hand, doing his best to maintain (and also to not get too freaked out by the fact that a…little shudder had just passed through him…and it felt kind of…good.)

"Gerald, I…" Phoebe was blushing like mad and looking shyly down…and dealing with her own little shudder at the moment. She…really really liked whenever Gerald took a little initiative with things like this. And now he was complimenting her of all things.

Another very tiny little kiss came to the back of her hand, and it caused her breath to catch in her throat and her eyes to dart back to his. "Dai kireina desu…" His grin became a little prouder now as he saw how saying this sentence deepened the blush on Phoebe's face. "Ah, so it looks like I got the meaning of the word right with how much you're blushing, Babe…" A small laugh escaped him and then Gerald shifted closer…and managed to place a tiny kiss just a little farther up her hand…almost making it to the beginning of her wrist and arm. He'd been…getting some tips from Arnold and what girls might like, which included things like compliments on how cute they were and the occasional bit of spontaneous romantic flirting…and…he was more happy to try them out (now that he'd given himself a couple of weeks to psych himself up a little and make sure he WOULDN'T have a panic attack from trying to be more romantic with Phoebe, though, of course)…

"Gerald wa kawaii shonen desyo…" Gerald heard this rather unexpected sentence from the girl so very close to him, and his eyes widened and went to hers just as she giggled and looked back at him...actually fluttering her eyelashes a tiny bit whether she knew it or not. ('Whoa…Th-This is actually working… Neat!' he couldn't help but think to himself, his heart starting to pound just a little). "The means…sort of what you just said to me…but for a boy…A-And you really are rather, um…cute, Gerald…" Phoebe managed before her blushing consumed her face entirely…He was so close…She could have easily taken her hand away, grabbed his head and just… Needless to say, she had also been getting some dating advice lately (though hers was from Helga, of course)…Though naturally roughly ninety percent of Helga's suggestions for what to do with a boy on a date made her blush like mad just hearing about them…let alone trying to actually do them herself with Gerald! But…But still…Something about this moment, right here and now, just… Her breath caught in her throat again. 'I-I really need to let Helga's courage in love rub off on me more…' It just…felt like something could maybe happen. That was the only way that it felt right to put it.

They were still close and neither of them was showing any signs of moving away…kind of locked into each other's eyes…nervous and blushing.

Gerald gulped and somehow, though he had NO idea where it came from…he managed to lean down and kiss her hand (this time actually on her wrist) again. He heard her giggle. He did his best not to collapse in shock at his actions and…reached up and shifted back Phoebe's sweater sleeve a tiny bit, letting his next kiss move onto her actual arm. He'd NEVER done anything this bold before, and he waited to see if she'd be upset, his eyes closed…but she just giggled a little more, and the sound made his heart flutter a little…and…as long as they were caught up in the moment…he pushed up the sweater sleeve a tiny bit more again and gave another kiss…though this one he let linger a bit…working up to something…maybe…something that would eventually involve not just his lips…maybe…

DING DONG

The doorbell.

They ignored it. Hey, if it was Phoebe's parents they wouldn't have rang the bell and anyone else…could, um…wait…

DING DONG, KNOCK KNOCK

"Mmm…" Gerald groaned a little and could already feel his nerve slipping away. He lowered Phoebe's hand a bit. "I swear, if that's Harvey trying to deliver a package or something, I'm gonna…"

"Gerald, ignore it." His eyes kind of popped open a little—he'd never heard Phoebe sound so…forceful…and now that he really listened she was almost breathing a little shallowly… "Hmm…" she giggled a little again…and it felt like she even shuddered a little too. His eyes snapped to hers to see the most content look he'd ever seen on her face ever. "I-I mean," she went on, her eyes actually half lidded, "I-It's probably nothing…Just, um…someone selling something maybe…And anyway…" her voice went to the lightest whisper of a shy squeak, "You were…heading in a certain direction, I-I believe…" She pushed her hand up a little…moved forward so that their noses were almost together…Gerald was blushing a lot.

But then he just smiled. "Well then…" and his own eyes went a little half lidded, "Who, um…Who am I to deny the foxiest girl on the planet…?" And then he had her hand, her whole arm, and with a gulp he was kissing her hand/arm again (slowly but maybe…gaining speed), pulling her in a little and pushing up her sweater sleeve as little lingering kiss followed little lingering kiss… working up all the courage he had. And Phoebe just let him do whatever this was he'd had an impulse to do, and her heart was fluttering and she was feeling more and more of that bold loving sprit of her best friend channeling into her to just let herself loosen up a little with the boy she cared out and…and maybe…maybe—

"Hey, for crying out loud, we KNOW you and tall hair boy are in there, Phoebe—his bike's outside! Now open up, it's an emergency!"

"Helga, they're probably in the middle of their date…"

"Arnold, it's a Gerald and Phoebe date…that means Gerald's negotiating whether he's bold enough to hold her hand and Phoebe's trying not to die from blushing because they're finally dating…It's not like us where people would walk in to see, well…you know…"

"Helga!"

"What, no one's standing around out here besides us! Who's gonna hear about how anyone who walks in on us is very likely to find…"

"Helga, Gerald and Phoebe can…probably hear you from inside and…"

"Ah, let 'em hear!"

"Helga…"

"Oh calm down, I'm only kidding, let me just try the bell again and then if that still doesn't work we can head in through the wind—"

The door opened…and a wide eyed Arnold and Helga (who were also…handcuffed together?) were met with a blushing Phoebe and a blushing Gerald both giving them slightly frustrated though smirking looks.

Gerald spoke first, and VERY firmly. "Guys, this had BETTER be a good on—" His eyes then fell on the handcuffs. He stopped. And blinked. "Huh…Wow, this is a good one…I stand corrected…"

Phoebe glanced at Gerald curiously at his response at first, but then looked back at Arnold and Helga and…really noticed now that they were indeed…handcuffed together.

Her jaw fell and she just kind of looked at them.

Helga G. Pataki just grinned at her two fellow fourth grade friends and gave a small wave with her non-cuffed hand. "Uh, hey guys. Sorry, we know you're on a date but…we have a small emergency and Phoebe's probably the only one who can help us…or at least the only one we trust who can help us…" Now she lifted up the cuffed wrists of herself and a VERY sheepishly smiling Arnold. "As you can see, uh…me and the Football Head are handcuffed together and, before you ask, the key is long gone. Any ideas for how to unhook us, Pheebs?" She sighed and looked to her best friend, grinning like crazy of course at this whole freaking thing.

Phoebe just… she took in Helga's question, upon which she remained with her jaw dropped for another second or two…and then, seeing Helga raise part of her brow and about to prompt her for a response, the young dark haired girl closed her mouth and actually held up a singly finger in a 'just a moment' motion…and then stepped back inside of her house, away from the doorway and out of sight. Along with Arnold and Helga, Gerald as well even looked kind of confused at this course of action from her…until exactly one more second later when not terribly far from the door an unbelievable bout of laughter met their ears (after, of course, the sound of the aforementioned young dark haired girl in question falling to the floor in said fit of giggles).

Arnold and Helga sighed but still grinned. Yeah, they were being laughed at technically but…really…handcuffed? Even Helga had to chuckle a little too now at this fact, and Arnold as well had to laugh a tiny bit, both well aware of the amusing sight they must be making.

From his place still standing in the doorway, Gerald just smiled to himself and sighed and shook his head in amusement, and then looked to the blonde couple still standing before him. "Alright, alright…while my lady's getting it together…and I CANNOT blame her for needing a minute…Arnold, Helga…I KNOW I'm going to regret this but…How did you get handcuffed together? And the rated G version if you don't mind." He rolled his eyes and couldn't help but blush just a little at some of the (indeed potentially very intimate) possibilities for what might have happened between them to result in their current situation. 'Only those two…' he couldn't help but think to himself with another amused sigh.

Gerald watched in amusement as Helga just blushed even more at his question…and then her smile grew a little and she just rolled her eyes to the side with a slight scoff. "Oh come on, Gerald, not EVERY wacky situation me and Arnold get into is the result of our uncontrollable urge to kiss each other. Actually…" she glanced at her football headed companion a little coyly, "What happened was we were just on a date in Arnold's room and he was trying to impress me with a few little magic tricks leftover from that whole adorable Great Arnoldini thing…"

Gerald now watched as Arnold beside Helga blushed quite a bit more and swayed a little shyly. "Helga, I…I was just, um…" But then he just smiled a little and let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. "Okay, yeah, I was…trying to impress you a little. Continue."

Helga just giggled at his cute little interruption. "Anyway," she went on, now turning back to Gerald to finish her explanations. "The cuffs stuck in the middle of the trick. And then when Arnold finally gave up and decided to get the key from the box to let us out, I…" she blushed a little more and glanced shyly and coyly to the side with a grin. "I…might have mentioned something about how his top hat was really cute…and wondered out loud how hard I'd have to kiss him to get something like THAT to pop off of his head like I usually end up doing to his regular hat during our kisses…" She cleared her throat, blushing all the more and now and doing her best to move on. "A-Anyway, then he tripped and the key slipped out of his hands and went right down the heating vent. We went through a few wacky but cliché hijinks trying to get it, and then just decided to head over here since you two are the only ones who would understand and who could maybe help us and also who would NOT mock and ridicule and tease us for the rest of our lives." She let out a sigh as she finished, just looking at Gerald with a shrug and a predictably sheepish smile.

Phoebe suddenly reentered the scene now, holding onto the doorframe a little as she returned, smiling to herself and obviously having only just regained even some of her composure. "A-And um…" she managed to get out, still only barely maintaining, "Might I ask how you two walked here like that without attracting attention?"

Helga full on scoffed at that question, flipping her free hand forward. "Oh, no, we attracted TONS of attention, ran into a bunch of people we know, the whole nine yards, but I just scowled and said the loopy Football head was trying to put on another magic show and that I knew he was a fraud so I challenged him to pull off a trick using me, he bungled it, and now we're STUCK like this until we get help." She smirked and held up her free hand, looking at her nails with a smug grin. "Not a bad one, if I do say so myself."

"Hmm," Phoebe replied, looking at her best friend with interest and crossing her arms over her chest, "I'm surprised, Helga…Why didn't you just wait until nightfall to come over? That way you wouldn't have had to make any excuses and also…you would have prolonged being handcuffed to Arnold of course." She giggled a little.

Arnold, beside Helga, blushed A LOT.

And Gerald beside Phoebe just raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend in a bit of surprise. A scheming romantic idea coming from his sweet innocent little Phoebe's mouth? 'Man…women are kind of secretly sneaky, aren't they? It isn't just Helga, is it?'

Helga just laughed a bit at Phoebe's latest question. "Oh believe me, Phoebe, I already explained to Arnold that we can stay like this FOREVER but, uh…" She cleared her throat, blushed a bit more again and jerked the thumb of her free hand in his direction. "Somebody needs to use the little boys room apparently, and, well…"

"Helga…." came Arnold's level, shy voice…though it was obvious he was trying not to smile at how hilarious and awkward this whole thing really was.

Helga just giggled a bunch more. "Yeah, he's 'all in a fluster' about that." She sighed and rolled her eyes and then turned her sights back to Phoebe. "So, um, since you're always really smart and handy…could you, Phoebe?" With a sheepish grin, she offered her and Arnold's handcuffed hands forward.

Phoebe just chuckled a little, nodding her head in amusement. "Of course, Helga. I'm sure I can untrip the lock. And if worse comes to worse, I could always use one of the fencing swords to cut it off." She gave her friend a humorous wink.

"Ha ha, very funny, Pheebs…" Helga smiled even more. "Alright, come on, Arnold…" she glanced at her boyfriend. "Let's get this over with before that football shaped bladder of yours bursts…"

Gerald just sighed and rolled his eyes, moving out of the doorway to let the blonde couple pass. "Oh brother…Although I guess I should be thankful you two showed up handcuffed and not to show off Helga's new 'engagement ring' or something." He smirked a little.

Helga just smiled like crazy and blushed all pink and this low little giggle/chuckle escaped her as she walked inside…. "Heh…good one, Johanssen …" Some more giggles then came from her at the very idea of showing up at the doors of their friends to show off an engagement ring from her beloved Arnold one of these days.

As for Arnold, he just blushed red and went wide-eyed and looked forward…not saying a word, though he did give a small gulp.

So the four kids headed into Phoebe's house to unlatch Arnold and Helga from one another (the first of many times to come in their crazy, love filled lives that they would be participating in helping out their friends with a silly, romantic task such as this one…)

---

"Well," a finally free (and no longer having to 'use the little boy's room') Arnold sighed out as he turned to his girlfriend who was sitting beside him on a loveseat in the Heyerdahl living room with a sheepish grin, "I guess no more magic tricks from me for a little bit, huh, Helga?"

Helga just smirked a little at her boyfriend and shook her head at him, stretching up and crossing her legs. "Hey, I already told you…You and me handcuffed together forever is aces in my book, Football Head…" She winked. "We could eat together and walk everywhere together, live together…wake up together each morning in your cozy, cozy bed…" She blushed tons but smiled all the more.

Arnold's cheeks burned with rosiness too. "W-Well, um…n-not that that doesn't sound…v-very n-nice, Helga…" He heard her giggle at his stuttering and that adorable sound didn't help improve either his blushing or tonguetied-ness. Still he did his best to go on. "B-But, um…even though I liked the little bit of time we had today stuck together, I still wish I could have done the trick better for you…" And really he felt so sheepish—Helga was so very impressive to him with her creativity and brilliance and the shrines and poetry and schemes and all of her talents and…he'd really been hoping today to impress HER a little with something about himself. He knew she loved him tons but…to see her eyes go wide and to see her smile and to see her be genuinely surprised and delighted with him…He sighed at the idea. (The last time he'd gotten that look from her had been the other week when she'd found out after his escape from behind his couch that he'd wired his own room all by himself…and he'd been secretly craving getting that impressed gaze from her again ever since).

"Ah, it's okay, Football Head." Helga just waved him off with an understanding smile. "You did your best, and besides the card trick and that thing with the rings beforehand were pretty cool." She shrugged and smiled at him, trying to be supportive…even though those two tricks had been kind of shaky too (his nervous little palms had been so sweaty that the cards had fallen to the floor, and the rings had taken a ton of excess pulling to pull apart). But still she could sense that this little 'magic show date' idea of his had been very important to him, and that he'd really wanted her to have a good time. And she had, of course, even though it hadn't been some big mindblowing thing! "You're a good little magician, my Arnoldini." She leaned over and hugged him and then pulled back, smiling at him again.

Arnold smiled back at her. She was trying to be supportive and he knew it…and it was sweet…but still… With a sigh, he glanced down and considered, and then smiled a little more to himself. At first he'd thought doing a certain something at this point might be silly, but… 'I guess it couldn't hurt…'

"Something on your magical mind, Arnoldo?"

The question brought Arnold's eyes back up to Helga's and he chuckled a little. "Well…one thing, actually…I know it might seem a little silly now but…it's been a long day and I'd like to try it if I could…Sort of a finale to all of this." He gave her one of those full smiles of his that showed his teeth and went from ear to ear across his wide head.

Helga blushed at that smile (she really liked that smile…) but then she remembered where they were and glanced across the room at Gerald and Phoebe who were in sight and actually smiling and chatting a little together not all that far away on the couch with one another (definitely within hearing distance and of course absolutely within seeing distance). "Um…Arnold…" she turned back to her beloved and blushed quite a bit, her smile growing, "Maybe we should save whatever you've got on your mind until we're alone again…"

Arnold raised an eyebrow at her suggestion at first but then it clicked what she meant and he blushed but then just chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Helga, not THAT kind of a finale…" He lowered his voice to a whisper to make sure only they would hear. "At least…not yet…" He winked at her, causing her blue eyes to go wide and then her to break into a little bout of giggles.

Arnold kind of trembled all over at that pretty sound and then let out a sigh and hoped, hoped, hoped that this would work! "Alright, my precious Helga…Um…" He cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter. "Nothing up my sleeves…" He tugged at each of the wrists of his sweater. "And…." And then he lifted up his little blue cap and with a flick of his wrist…suddenly had a little bouquet of pink paper flowers in one of his hands, which he presented forward. "For, um…for my charming assistant…heh…"

Helga looked at the flowers with suddenly wide eyes, and then she blinked a bunch of times, and then raised part of her brow… "How did…?" She glanced back up at his hat again ('So small…') and then down at the flowers again ( 'So…not small…') and then finally she looked back to Arnold's eyes in total perplexity. "Arnold…how did you do that?" She just HAD to ask!

His smile grew and he just shrugged. "A magician never reveals his secrets, Helga…"

She still looked so confused…but then smiled a little and even giggled, and batted her eyelashes at him. "Not even to his…charming assistant?" She winked.

Arnold just sighed and shook his head with a grin. "No, sadly not even to her…It would spoil the magic…and maybe she's so magical all on her own to everyone around her that she deserves someone giving her some magic in her life for once." He winked right back.

"Hey, do we need to get you two a room or something? For crying out loud, we can hear you guys, you know, and you're giving us cavities over here!" Gerald suddenly announced from the other side of the room with a smirk.

Helga rolled her eyes and looked over at him. "Gerald, we're flirting. Focus on your OWN date right now." She turned back to her love and then finally took his flowers in her hand and smiled sincerely. "Arnold, seriously, that really was an…amazing finish…I didn't see it coming at all…You really do still have a trick or two up your sleeve that I don't know about, don't you, Football Head?" She grinned.

He just shrugged, feeling SO very happy that this had worked out and that he'd actually managed to impress her a little like this! "I think I'll have to have a few secret things if I'm going to keep up with you, Helga."

She just smiled at him. "Oh Arnold…you're just…" And then she sighed and glanced across the room with a small eye roll. "Hey Geraldo, fair warning! What I'm gonna do right now might set off that 'hurl alert' of yours!"

Gerald just rolled his eyes at her again, crossing his arms over his chest. "Okay, I'm prepared. Do whatever you've gotta do. Just, please, nothing that's gonna set off any smoke detectors and no 'making his hat pop off his head' or whatever it was you were talking about before." Gerald faked a grossed out shudder and Phoebe giggled beside him at the joke.

Helga just rolled her eyes at the two of them. "Nah…I'll save all that stuff for later." She turned back to Arnold and cooed as she spoke, letting it out. "Oh Arnold you're just the most adorable, cutest, most charming boy in the whole entire world." And suddenly she dove at him in a hug, still holding her paper bouquet in one hand. "Flowers…Now you know why I would have stayed handcuffed to you forever if you wanted. I really am very impressed…I didn't see that coming at all…my creative and talented and impressive little love…."

Arnold hugged her back in happiness, that extra wide grin returning to his face. "Happy you liked the finale, Helga…"

The two of them just remained like that for a little bit (and Arnold was very VERY happy that Helga had actually felt comfortable enough to do something this intimate and prolonged in front of other people.)

---

As Arnold and Helga sat together hugging like this and then eventually pulled apart to just talk with and smile at each other some more…Gerald and Phoebe were talking on their own right across the room from the happy blonde couple.

"Good job with the lock, babe. Didn't know you knew how to pick one of those…and with a hair pin and a can opener no less…" Gerald raised an eyebrow giving her an impressed look, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, thank you…" Phoebe shrugged modestly, resting her hands on her knees. "I suppose that reading as much as I do and also having been involved in as many schemes as I've been with Helga has left me with some rather…unusual skills, Gerald." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and blushed. "Incidentally, I believe I could also hotwire a car if pressed."

Gerald was silent and just blinked…and then he smirked at her a little. "Okay, it's official: you are a genius, Babe. No question." He grinned and gave her a wink.

She giggled at his response, blushing a tiny bit more. "Thank you, Gerald…But…" she glanced down shyly, "Just being able to turn on a car like that isn't nearly as cool to me as apparently being able to drive one…like the bus you drove to help Arnold save the neighborhood…That was rather impressive, Gerald…" Her eyes traveled back up to his, "…and very brave."

"O-Oh…" Gerald blushed a lot and gulped, and then rubbed the back of his neck, grinning a little. "W-Well, I mean…half of it was those two nuts across the room working the pedals…" Gerald glanced over to see Arnold and Helga smiling at each other still and now he that his attention was focused on them he could overhear them sharing some joke about Helga putting her flowers in water (he tried not to roll his eyes at the corniness overload). "B-But thanks…" he turned his attention back to the girl beside him, a tinge of red still in his cheeks and his eyes going a little half lidded. "When, uh…When I actually have a license someday maybe you could hotwire my brother's car and I could, uh…drive you somewhere."

"That would be quite…cool, Gerald. It's a date." She smiled more at him.

Gerald's heart kind of filled up with something and his eyes glowed. "Really?" He looked at her almost in disbelief. "E-Even though it's…years from now?" he gulped and had to ask.

Phoebe blinked and raised an eyebrow, both at him asking and at the answer she was just now fully processing that she had given in the first place to his basically asking her out for six years from now. But then she just put aside the logic or the probability of being able to make a date for six years in the future…and just really thought about her feelings. And then she sighed and looked into his eyes with a smile. She nodded. "Really. I like you, Gerald…very very much…I'd like to think that we'll have dates…even years from now." She glanced down shyly.

"Me too, babe…Wow I guess we really are on the same page, huh?"

Her heart skipped a beat at his reply. "It would seem that way, Gerald." She looked up again, smiling as he was smiling.

They looked into each other's eyes.

The sound of Helga giggling all of a sudden brought them out of their small mesmerization with one another, though, and the two blinked and on instinct looked over to see Arnold and Helga still on the loveseat together, and Arnold currently whispering stuff into Helga's ear, obviously flirting with her right now as whatever he was saying was only eliciting more and more giggles from his delighted female companion.

A sigh from Gerald caused Phoebe to turn to him. He was smiling to himself and shaking his head, still looking in Arnold and Helga's direction. "Besides, Babe…I think we'll kind of have to stay together anyway to keep America's cutest kiddie couple over there from disappearing into each other or something…You know, to even them out—give them an example to look at of NORMAL ten-year-olds dating." He turned to Phoebe with a smile.

She smiled right back and chuckled quite a bit at his joke. "Indeed, Gerald," she had to agree with the smart observation with a nod. "Otherwise Helga really MIGHT have an engagement ring to show off before the fifth grade." She smirked a little at the memory of her boyfriend's well-placed joke from before.

"Good one, babe." He chuckled and she giggled…and then the sounds of Helga giggling like crazy yet again caused them to turn their attentions back to the goo goo eyed couple across the room and finally they both had to roll their eyes and stand up and go forward.

"Alright, alright you two," Gerald started, shaking his head and smirking, as he now came within a few feet of their 'in love' friends. "Seriously, save it for the honeymoon…"

Arnold instantly stopped his whispering in his love's ear at the sound of his best friend's voice suddenly so close and the words he had just said, and Helga instantly glanced away shyly at the sight of Gerald and Phoebe suddenly before them, both blondes blushing and smiling to themselves. Arnold cleared his throat and did his best to smile up at Gerald casually, though it was obvious he was still a little gone. "We were just…talking, Gerald…"

"Mmm hmm…." Gerald replied skeptically, and then he grinned wryly and crossed his arms over his chest. "Talking about goo goo eyes and making out and 'Oh Helga, I never realized before but your blonde hair is so blonde' and 'Oh Arnold, I never realized before either but your football head is so footbally'." He went into a small fit of chuckles and Phoebe couldn't help but joining him a tiny bit, bringing a hand to her mouth to try and cover it up.

Helga just let out a sigh and grinned at their new little audience. "Tall hair boy, you have gotten entirely too comfortable with teasing me lately…But I'll forgive you since you're my best friend's boyfriend and my best guy's best friend." She smirked at him. "And also, I guess, because you're a fellow chocolate turtle hater and know the pain and humiliation of trying to date someone when you have an older sibling butting in to make comments all the time." She winked.

"Whatever, Helga…" Gerald just replied back with his own friendly smile (trying not to chuckle so that he wouldn't encourage her since, well…he sort of wanted to get back to his own private date this afternoon, and as soon as possible). "Anyway, since you two are no longer attached at the wrist, can you maybe get back to your own strange 'in love' date and leave me and Phoebe to finish up our own afternoon together of acting like normal ten-year-olds who like like each other?" He crossed his arms over his chest.

Helga let out a sigh and just shook her head in amusement but stood up her cushion on the loveseat nonetheless. "Okay, okay…I get the picture—two's a date, four's just awkward when it's unannounced." She turned to Arnold as he was standing up as well and grinned. "Meanwhile, isn't it just precious that they're still using the 'like like you' thing, Arnold? Especially when you know they'll be throwing out 'the big L word' just like we do soon enough…"

Arnold raised an eyebrow at Helga's observation and then couldn't help but just chuckle a little. It really was kind of a cute idea when you thought about it after all.

Meanwhile, Gerald and Phoebe were both right now bright scarlet…standing there…jaws dropped.

"Aw, Arnold…" Helga glanced at the 'in shock' other couple before them with feigned pity. "I think we embarrassed them a little…" She chuckled a little more.

"Helga, leave them alone…We're the ones who interrupted their date in the first place. We shouldn't make things worse…" Arnold chided…though he was making no effort to hide his own continuing smile at this whole thing.

"Hey, I just call 'em like I see 'em, Football Head…And besides…" Helga smirked a little more and gestured in her best friend's direction with her head. "Didn't you notice how Phoebe's one sleeve's pulled up?" (it still was in that condition, by the way, Phoebe having forgotten to readjust it from earlier). "…Or how much Gerald was blushing when he answered the door? …And of course how long it took them in the first place…?" She smiled proudly, eyeing P.S. 118's future second most popular couple. "I think some, uh…love related things might have been going on before we got here…" She chuckled and swung her fist through the air playfully at the two (still in shock) kids. "Go get 'em, tigers!" She finished with a wink and then gave into a ton of laughter.

That did it.

"Alright, well, um, I do believe it's getting rather late, Helga…" And suddenly Phoebe was behind Helga and pushing her toward the front door. "Yes, indeed, rather late…I'm certain you and Arnold have to be getting along now." At this point Helga was right in front of the door with an eager Phoebe right behind her.

Helga just laughed a little more now. "Okay, okay, yikes, don't have a cow, Pheebs." She looked over her shoulder back across the living room to her love. "Come on, Arnold…I think I crossed some kind of line. Let's leave them to their blushing."

Arnold just sighed and rolled his eyes in amusement. He looked to his best friend. "Sorry, Gerald…" He then walked across the room to come beside Helga. "We'll get going now. Thanks again, guys." He waved back at Gerald and Phoebe.

"Yup, thanks a bunch you two." Helga gave them a little salute with her hand not holding her bouquet. "And hey, just make sure you both look in one piece before Phoebe's parents get home." She winked.

"Okay, that's enough Helga…" Arnold smiled as he opened the door.

Helga just shrugged as she stepped out onto the stoop. "Ah, you know you thought it was funny, Arnoldini…"

Arnold chuckled. "Maybe a little…" He closed the door behind them, cutting off their conversation from entering the Heyerdahl house.

Gerald and Phoebe were just left in the living room in silence.

'O-Okay…how to move past this moment…' Gerald gulped but his mind remained a blank. This really was awkward…especially since, considering how much Arnold and Helga's relationship kind of shoved the concept of it in their faces, it was kind of an 'elephant in the room' with him and Phoebe… The big L word, as Helga had just called it. Arnold and Helga were dating just like he and Phoebe were dating…but Arnold and Helga were in love. How would…Would he and Phoebe even…Did that mean that… Needless to say it had all been too much for the two of them to ever even begin to talk about openly with each other just yet. "Uh…" Gerald settled on just kind of standing there with his mouth agape saying this syllable until something better could come to mind.

"Um…Gerald?"

"Lo—Huh, what?" He blinked and jumped, coming out of his thoughts only to see now that Phoebe was standing before him, an eyebrow raised…and still blushing. And she still had her sweater sleeve pulled up revealing some of the skin of her arm…The arm he had been…

He gulped and shook his head, banishing those thoughts and the feelings they made happen inside of him for the moment. "Uh…y-yes?" he kind of squeaked out. 'Smooth, Gerald, very smooth.' He could have kicked himself.

Phoebe shrugged and glanced down…and then her eyes obviously went to her still wrinkled and out of place sweater sleeve and she quickly restraightened the garment and then looked back up at him (trying not to blush too much) and spoke. "Uh…" and then she smiled a little. "If you're game for it…would you care to get a little revenge on Arnold and Helga for interrupting our date…among other things…" She shrugged again. "I sort of have a plan."

At this unexpected information/suggestion, Gerald blinked and then raised an eyebrow. "Really?" was all he could say.

She nodded.

Gerald smiled. "Uh…sounds good to me, babe. Let's do it."

Her eyes lit up and she smiled back more. "Excellent. Oh but I'm afraid we have to wait ten minutes…"

"Why?" Gerald asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.

"Just trust me, Gerald." She winked. "Come on, I have to bring the snack plates from the fencing room into the kitchen anyway, and then I was thinking of making a pot of green tea. I always like some of that after I've fenced a little. Would you care for some, Gerald?" She walked past him to enter the hallway and then the fencing room.

Gerald turned in her direction, a very curious expression still on his face, though it was accompanied by a smile. "Uh…sounds good to me, babe. I've never tried green tea before but…new experiences, right?" He headed over to the entrance to the hallway to assist her with the dishes and soda bottles from their earlier snack.

"Yes Gerald, new experiences…" she agreed as the two of them exited the living room together.

---

"So…why have we had to wait ten minutes?" Gerald took the first sip of his tea (he and Phoebe were sitting on stools in Phoebe's kitchen with a teapot between them on the counter…and the phone receiver right there as well), looked at the cup kind of funny for a second, considered the flavor and then smiled. "Hey…this stuff's pretty good, by the way." He took a bigger sip and smiled more.

"I'm happy you like it, Gerald." Phoebe sipped some of her own tea and smiled. "And as for the waiting before commencing our revenge, well…" she then began to explain in answer to his question, picking up the phone as she did so. "I figured five minutes for Arnold and Helga to return to Arnold's house, one minute for them to get past Arnold's family and up to his room again, approximately two minutes of foreplay…and now two minutes for them to be really comfortable and involved in whatever they may be doing together..." She grinned to herself just a little more and now started to dial a certain number…a certain cell phone number. "So, now should be the ideal time to interrupt them…" she finished as the phone rang.

Gerald grinned and sipped his tea some more. "Babe…you're the greatest."

"Arigatoo gozaimasu, Gerald…" Phoebe upped the volume on the receiver as the phone rang so that both she and Gerald would be able to hear.

The other end of the line clicked. "Bob, I am in the middle of, uh…studying with Arnold. What is it?"

Phoebe's smile grew. "Oh, hello, Helga. Sorry, it's just me Phoebe…" She dramatically opened her eyes and feigned sincerity in her voice, "Oh you were returning to Arnold's house to continue your date when you left here, weren't you? How silly of me not to realize…I do hope I'm not interrupting, Helga…" She tried not to giggle and watched as Gerald tried not to chuckle.

"U-Uh…" Helga's voice could be heard to say shakily, "Phoebe, um…if the line's busy when I'm out… OUT out… you know, with Arnold…Bob tends to get a little peeved…like as in 'get home right now, little missy' peeved…And um, actually, I've got my mouth on a very tasty banana split right now, so…"

"Helga…" Arnold's voice could be faintly heard, "What are you talking about?"

"Oh…" It sounded like Helga leaned away from her phone a bit (though her voice could still be made out), "Uh, ice cream was a code name for you between me and Phoebe back in the day…and well, your head IS shaped like a banana split, so…" She giggled a little.

"Ice cream, huh?" Arnold. "Hmm…I feel like there's some kind of 'a la mode' joke I should make right now…."

There were SEVERAL seconds of 'silence.'

"ARNOLD!" Helga finally squeaked in amusement. "Not now, Phoebe's still on the…O-Oh…." giggles… "U-Uh, Ph-Phoebe, I really REALLY have to go…I've got to open up the line just in case with Bob and also the…the ice cream's melting" a ton more giggles, "…a-and it's melting me a little too…"

Phoebe let out a casual sigh. "Oh, I don't know…maybe I'll just stay connected. Helga. I can wait until you're done…Of course, you could always hang up I suppose but then I guess I'll just call back and call back…which would also block the line, if I'm not mistaken."

"Ph-Phoebe, come on…I'm not kidding—if Bob tries to get through and it's busy my date with Arnold is OVER the second he does get through and it's…getting to be a REALLY good date…."

Phoebe smiled. "Oh, fine, Helga. I SUPPOSE I'll let you go…But of course I'm not promising that I won't, oh, I don't know…" she spoke very deliberately, still smiling, "Show up at Arnold's bedroom door right in the middle of this very good date you're having…you know, Helga…similar to something that happened only about ten minutes ago at my house…"

"Mmm…" Helga moaned a little from whatever was going on in that room. "Phoebe…I…Oh!" And indeed it now sounded like something had finally clicked in Helga G. Pataki's brain. She let out an 'I get it now' sigh. "I get it…We interrupted you and Gerald, and…Okay, Arnold and I won't do that anymore…p-promise…Now PLEASE let me go! No not you, Arnold…You keep going…" more giggles…" And please tell me more cute little flirtatious things about how irresistible I am, my love…"

Phoebe just sighed and shook her head, but couldn't help giggling a little as well at how romantic and charming the whole little Helga/Arnold thing really was. "Bye Helga…Enjoy your date."

"Bye, Pheebs…You too." Another bout of giggles as it sounded like the phone was being removed from near Helga's head as she prepared to hang it up. "I think I like being 'a la mode'…."

CLICK

Phoebe put down the phone on the counter and smiled at Gerald. "Well, that was fun…and I do believe the message got through." She chuckled and picked up her cup of tea again.

Gerald laughed along with her, taking another swig of his own tea. "Yeah, they deserved that and you gave it to them good, Phoebe." He winked.

"Thank you, Gerald…" Phoebe blushed just a tiny bit at the compliment…then she smirked and offered the phone in his direction. "And do you…think they might also deserve you calling the boarding house in another two minutes after they've had a chance to get cozy again and asking Arnold's grandpa to call him downstairs because you 'really, really' need to talk to him?"

Gerald instantly burst into laughter at the suggestion, putting down his tea mug. "Absolutely! I'll pour us some more tea and then we'll do it." He winked, and then picked up the teapot and poured refills for Phoebe's mug and his own…and then went for the phone, looked at the clock until two full minutes at passed, and then dialed his best friend's number.

"Oh, hey Phil!" he suddenly announced brightly into the receiver as it was picked up on the other end. "It's Gerald…Listen, I know Arnold's, uh…doing homework with Helga but could you call up to him and ask him to come down and talk to me. It's really important…Oh but, uh…don't tell him it's me calling, please." He winked at Phoebe who giggled. "I want to surprise him about something…Thanks, Phil."

Gerald and Phoebe tried to control their laughter as they could just hear Arnold's grandpa now indeed moving his own phone receiver away from his face and calling Arnold to come downstairs 'right away, please' for 'something very important'. Gerald turned up the volume on the phone again so that both he and his girlfriend could enjoy yet another good laugh together today.

---

It was a little while later and now Gerald and Phoebe were just finishing off their second pot of tea and laughing a little at their small (and totally successful) first AND second revenge against Arnold and Helga.

"Phoebe, that was great. We need to start doing stuff like that to them more often just to keep them on their toes or something." Gerald smiled and took another swig of tea.

Phoebe nodded, refilling her own tea mug yet again. "I concur, Gerald. They could use at least a small challenge every now and then like that."

"Exactly!" He winked. "And then of course there's also the fact that they have got to learn and understand that they can't just walk in on our dates. They should be thankful we just did the phone call this time—they know darn well that if we really did just walk in on one of their dates, they'd be mortified." He rolled his eyes and then cringed. "Ugh, I hope I never do that though…What was she saying about ice cream and 'a la mode'?" He looked at Phoebe curiously, feigning total gross out.

Phoebe chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Oh…well, before Helga told Arnold her feelings, whenever she and I used to talk about him together, Helga never really liked to say his name directly even though we were both aware she was referring to Arnold…I suppose she was shy about it…"

Gerald let out a sigh and shook his head. "I'll never get over the idea of the existence of a 'shy' Helga Pataki."

Phoebe laughed a little in agreement and went on. "Anyway, since she was shy, over the last few months we've started referring to him as ice cream…" Phoebe glanced down with a bit of a blush now... "And since 'a la mode' refers to a style of eating in which something is topped with ice cream…" She sighed and cleared her throat, letting the obvious end to the sentence hang.

Gerald cut her off, waving a hand and cringing. "Say no more. I just got a REALLY bad mental picture and it might scar me for life if we keep talking about it."

"I concur Gerald." Phoebe smiled. "The two of them are cute together but…they can be a little intense sometimes…." She blushed a little more…After all, it really was rather difficult sometimes to keep her relationship with Gerald casual when…well, when their 'in love' beset friends were constantly kind of throwing make out sessions and passionate dates and practically being ready to marry one another into their faces, whether they meant to or not. It was just…so much sometimes…and then Helga talking about her and Gerald… 'L wording' each other one day… Phoebe blushed all the more…a brief flash of her and Gerald behaving like Arnold and Helga entering her mind before she quickly dismissed it like she usually did…though little flashes like that had been happening more frequently lately, she had to admit to herself.

"Yeah…them and their 'love' stuff…"

The comment made Phoebe blink and brought her out of her thoughts. Her eyes fell to Gerald who was just sitting there beside her on his stool, facing away from the counter with his elbows resting back upon it, sipping from his mug...blushing a little…

Phoebe cleared her throat and sat similarly now beside him, blushing as well as she sipped her own tea. "Yes…Love…A very powerful thing…I-I suppose…"

"Hey, um…Ph-Phoebe?" Gerald raised an eyebrow, glancing over at her.

She nodded and glanced over at him. "Um, yes, Gerald?"

"U-Um…just out of curiosity…" He rubbed the back of his neck, obviously trying to sound more casual than he was feeling. "How did Helga know she was…in love…with Arnold?"

Phoebe blinked at the question and glanced down with a blush. "Oh…um…love at first sight." She sipped her tea again.

Gerald swallowed. "Oh, um…okay."

Phoebe glanced at him. "Gerald…how did Arnold know that he, um…was in love with Helga?"

Gerald swallowed. "Oh, um…he figured out that's he's been falling for her all along that deep. Kind of like a 'slow acting' love at first sight, I guess."

"Oh…" Phoebe took another sip of her tea.

"Um…Phoebe?"

"Mmm hmm…"

Gerald turned to her so that his body was fully facing her now...still trying to sound casual…still doing poorly at it and blushing. "Um…since you're smart I was just wondering…I mean, putting Arnold and Helga aside for a sec because they're kind of weird, heh…" He chuckled a little nervously and then went on. "How old are people usually when they…fall in love with other people?"

Phoebe's eyes went rather wide. "Oh! Well, um…" She spoke the truest thing she could come up with, too stunned to try and find something vague and safe to say. "I-I only know what I've seen in fictional novels and television shows and movies…but usually people are depicted as falling in love in their late teens at earliest…But, um…in real life there are…many exceptions, I suppose…It just depends on the situation…" She swallowed and awaited his reply.

Gerald looked pensive for a moment…and then he nodded. "Uh, yeah…that makes sense…Usually when you're closer to being a grown up but also…exceptions…" He blushed a lot and glanced down. "Um, Phoebe, listen…about what happened before, um…before Arnold and Helga showed up…" He took a rather large swig of his tea now and then went on, blushing more than Phoebe had ever seen him do in their entire lives. "U-U-Um, we just got, um…I mean, we were alone and then things…I mean..." He didn't know what he wanted to say or even really why he was bringing this up when he'd actually gotten the miracle of Arnold and Helga's arrival and this whole revenge prank thing to distract from it, but…he just felt like he had to say something! 'I mean, what if she's secretly upset with me about it or what if I shouldn't have done that or what if we were both wrong or…I…'

"We got a little…carried away?" Phoebe suggested then, her light voice suddenly meeting his ears and causing him to snap from his thoughts and his eyes to snap to hers. She was glancing down and blushing and…smiling to herself…

Gerald smiled at that little smile of hers…and at the fact that she seemed to be kind of…not angry and maybe even giving them both a bit of a free pass on the whole thing for now as just something random that had happened. "Uh yeah…heh…c-carried away…" was all he could come up with in TOTAL relief.

"And, uh…" Phoebe then went on, bringing her eyes back up to his a little. "Who really knows where we were going with all of that, right?" She shrugged a little and smiled more.

"Uh…right!" Gerald's smile grew and he felt like he could breathe easy again!

"A-After all, many things can happen in the heat of the moment…right?" she added, seeming almost relieved herself right now.

"Right!" Gerald could have just hugged her, he felt so good. She wasn't ignoring things or saying she hadn't liked things or putting him too much on the spot about getting carried away with her like that—she was just accepting it and letting him know (with the most minimal amount of humiliation possible) that it was okay. It was…fantastic!

"You had every good intention of just kissing my hand and then I went a bit further and then you went a bit further and before we knew it…heh…But you actually had only the simplest intentions of course." She summed up the situation so neatly and perfectly.

"Exactly!" His smile was ear to ear. "Babe, couldn't have put it better myself!" Gerald chugged down the last of his mug of tea and then the clock in the kitchen chimed five. Gerald looked over at it. "Oh, uh…I guess I better get home. I've gotta help my mom with dinner tonight." He turned back to his girlfriend. "And I'll have to start planning a menu with her for this weekend when you come over, Babe." He winked.

Phoebe giggled and stood up, putting down her mug on the counter. "Of course Gerald. I'll show you to the door. And maybe after we're through with dinner at your house I can stay for a little while and listen to some more of your blues records with you like the last time I was over."

Gerald smiled as he and Phoebe now walked across the kitchen to head for the door. "Sounds good to me, Phoebe."

The two of them now headed through the hall to the foyer (feeling a LOAD more relieved about all of this awkward…love…and kissing…stuff…by the way) and in a few seconds they were at the Heyerdahl front door.

Gerald turned to Phoebe. "Well, you have a good evening, Phoebe. Um…" he blushed and looked down with a shy little smile, "Before dinner at your place this weekend, do you maybe wanna get together another time too? Maybe we could do something Friday or something after school…?"

Phoebe smiled and blushed and nodded. "I'd enjoy that very much, Gerald. They've got a limited time exhibit of narwhals down at the city aquarium that I've been wanting to see."

Gerald grinned. "Sounds cool, Babe."

There was a tiny awkward pause (as there usually was during their goodbyes) and then (also as usual, although sometimes it was Phoebe who took the initiative) Gerald went forward and gave her a small peck on the lips.

He pulled back with a blush, and she was blushing too.

They were close and looking into each other's eyes, smiling.

And…no one was opening the door to have Gerald leave.

Gerald's arm went forward to pick up Phoebe's hand then. He brought it to his lips, as he'd done earlier, and gave it a little kiss (though this time he was exceptionally gentle as he usually was, instead of a tiny bit…passionate…as he'd been before.)

Phoebe gulped and tried not to tremble, unable to help recalling his more passionate kiss to her hand before despite his gentle kiss now…and he was still holding said hand, by the way…not letting it go.

She went forward, on an impulse, and gave a little kiss to Gerald's cheek all of a sudden, pulling back shyly (though not so very far back…which meant their faces still remained pretty close…both of their blushing faces…and Gerald still held up Phoebe's soft little hand).

There was a lot of tension right now.

They looked into each other's eyes.

They smiled.

"It's a…It's a good thing we're not nuts like Arnold and Helga, huh…" Gerald.

"Yeah…a good thing we're much more…normal…" Phoebe.

"Yeah…could you imagine how messy all that love stuff probably is…All that touching and slobbering over each other and stuff…"

"Yeah…a lot of deep, complicated things…probably rather difficult to keep up with."

Silence.

Gerald moved forward, his eyes…going a little half lidded.

At the last second though, rather than doing what he was thinking of doing (and what Phoebe was obviously aware he was thinking of doing…and what she was thinking of doing herself as well)…Gerald instead brought up Phoebe's knuckles of the hand he was holding and placed the deep, lingering, rather passionate and arguably heated kiss his lips had been dying to give upon it instead of upon…well…another certain set of lips.

When it was over (several SEVERAL seconds later) he let out a sigh and then finally dropped her hand. "W-Well, um… bye!" He smiled sheepishly, gave a small wave and then opened the door.

"Uh…." Phoebe blinked a bunch of times, "Bye, Gerald!" She gave him a little wave as well.

The door quickly closed behind him.

---

Out on the stoop Gerald let out a very deep breath and almost slid down the length of the outside of Phoebe's door, his back to it and the temple of his head in one of his hands. "Okay…I need to go to Slausens right now and get a rootbeer float. A double…a TRIPLE…" He shook his head as he managed to stand better, and then headed down Phoebe's stoop and began to walk down the street…trying to ignore the pounding of his heart. 'This is so stupid…And it's just the result of too much Arnold and Helga exposure…Ten-year-olds in love.' He rolled his eyes. "Insane…Absolutely insane…"

Needless to say, his tone was more than a little shaky and unsure as he said these last few words to himself, heading around the corner away from Phoebe's house while he went to cool himself off with some ice cream and soda.

---

Back inside the Heyerdahl house Phoebe let out a very deep breath and almost slid down the length of the inside of her door herself. "I…I should practice some more fencing…a-a lot more fencing…" The idea of the physical activity to look forward to in order to distract herself gave her the strength to stand up.

She rubbed her temples as she walked down the hall…trying to ignore that electric feeling still going through her body, making it feel all sparky. "I…am ten-years-old…and I like like Gerald, like I always have…a-and nothing has to change…." She nodded. "I'm just letting Arnold and Helga get to me again. It's fine. It's all perfectly fine."

Phoebe really did know better though and she wasn't about to deny it as she headed down her hall to work out some things with a little fencing…She knew how easy it would be to…and how inevitable Arnold and Helga's situation was for a couple, especially a long term one…

But she did her best to put that aside for now and just let the chips fall where they may…

Though a little piece of her couldn't help but recall that last, deep kiss her boyfriend had given her just now upon her hand…and how it might have felt if it had been on her…on her…

She made it to the fencing room and managed to put the idea away for the time being.

---

Meanwhile, at the boarding house…in a certain attic room…

As usual, Arnold was flirting away with Helga and Helga was getting all giggly…he was stealing little kisses, she was stealing little kisses…they were laughing and playing together. There were even some ice cream bowls (they'd really been quite taken by all of that 'a la mode' stuff and had decided to have themselves a little treat at this point in their date—especially since a very sheepish feeling Arnold had already been downstairs near the kitchen anyway thanks to that revenge call from Gerald).

In short, they were ten and in love.

It was possible to be ten and in love.

So maybe the overall situation here for these four children was not that it was 'strange' to be ten and in love or 'insane' to be ten and in love or 'a fluke or an exception' to be ten and in love…but rather that it was just as perfectly good and reasonable and possible as anything else in the world to be ten and in love…even if only one couple in this little piece of the world had found and accepted and then embraced that fact…

…For now, at least.

---

A/N:

YAY :D Half way through the courtship chapters, lol! Oh okay and to explain some stuff, the Arnold/Helga stuff in the last mini story came from that ep of Doug when Doug tried to do that magic show for Patty and got them stuck and then he dropped the key and he REFUSED to go to the magic shop because he was all shy and then by the time he caved it was closed XDXDXD Aw they were such a cute couple, lol ^w^ Oh and with Phoebe's middle name, I just did the female form of her Dad's name (Kyo) :) And 'Kawaii' just means like cute (Gerald wa kawaii shonen desu=Gerald is a cute boy (unless anyone wants to correct me because, seriously, I'm going on my love of anime and a couple of semesters of intro Japanese XD)) and 'Kireina' means like 'clean, pretty, neat' and is used often for girls ( Dai kireina desu=Very pretty).

Anyway, I really hope you guys liked this and here's the list of the stories for the next chapter ;)

SICK DAYS

HARD TO GET

OLDER WOMEN/USED GUM

BRAINY'S GIRL WHO'S A FRIEND

Love you guys! Please review! 3

AXH FOREVER!

HAPPY READING!

~Azure129 aka Jenna