MIDDLE SCHOOL

Life was so different in Lexington. It had a noticeable effect on the Patakis within just a few months. The people here were more laid back and chill, but were still able to function in a big city. Well, as big of a city that Kentucky could have.

The city itself had a suburb area that was separated from downtown. There were no fast highways that could quickly take you from home to work. At first, Bob freaked out over this and thought speeding and weaving was a better choice. Then he got into a wreck.

It was like he got hit in the head or something. After that wreck, Bob chilled. He learned to accept the people that were living there and they began to rub off of him. It wasn't immediate, but over the course of the first year, Bob didn't yell as much and was less of a dictator. Sure he still couldn't get Helga's name right and he was still a blowhard during that sixth grade year but he was much more relaxed.

And that definitely began to rub off onto the family.

Because Bob was chill, Miriam was able to talk to him: to communicate. Which meant she was laying off the booze. When Helga started the eighth grade, Bob even hired Miriam to work in the store as a salesperson. She had been able to convince him that she needed to contribute more to the family. And if he needed more salespeople, why would he pay someone else to do it when it could come right back into their own bank accounts?

Helga still had a lot of emotions bottled up inside, but with her deepest desire of her family actually acting like a family, it began to chip at that anger, revealing fresh, raw feelings that she had never let out before. She was still young enough to not want to give up on her parents. But she was still Hegla G. Pataki with an image to uphold. Whenever they talked about "family nights", where Bob wasn't glued to the TV and Miriam wasn't latched onto her smoothies, she laughed at them. Really, the Patakis sitting at the table without fighting, playing a board game? Yeah right!

But she eventually gave in. And Tuesday nights were always family nights. These nights became important to the Patakis. Bob said Helga's name right for the first time in three consecutive tries during a game of Risk. And when she beat him at Poker for the first time, taking the twenty-dollar pot, he told her he was proud of her. It still shook Helga.

During her first year at Beaumont Middle School, Helga took it upon herself to keep up her reputation there as she did at PS 118. The only difference was that she didn't have a reputation here. No one knew to be afraid of Ol' Betsy and the Five Avengers. No one knew that she was the meanest, baddest girl that they'd ever, or would ever, meet.

For the first few months, she worked on rebuilding who she was, establishing herself as the school bully. Or, at least, she tried. Kids here just weren't as intimated by her. Maybe it was because she was a girl or maybe because the kids had better things to do than worry about staying after school to get beaten up.

It was actually Angela, a girl in a few of her classes, who actually helped Helga turn over a new leaf. In English class, they had been assigned to writing an essay on their elementary school life and what they expected Beaumont Middle School to be like. It was one of the hardest things Helga had ever written. She opened herself up as if it was one of her personal diaries. Words flowed freely and for the first time, she was able to let go of so many things.

Helga had liked this English teacher. She was different from Mr. Simmons and fifth grade's Ms. Walker from PS 118. She was your typical English and Drama geek. Animated and dramatic. It annoyed Helga at first, but she came around. She reminded Helga of herself. Only more exasperatingly perky and peppy and happy-go-lucky. Actually, the only thing she saw of herself in the teacher was her love of poetry and theatrics.

Until this one particular day when stupid Ms. Black read an excerpt of Helga's soul-revealing essay, baring her feelings of love and fear and anger out to her entire English class. Helga had been horrified when Ms. Black announced she was going to read from Helga's paper and was absolutely mortified when she read almost an entire page of it.

The day had already started badly enough and, for the first time in her young life, Helga was not able to retaliate in anger. She wanted to tell her off, but she couldn't move. She just sat there as the words slammed into her like needles in a pincushion, over and over. How could she do this to her?

Then her face felt wet. With humiliation and in shame, Helga had raced out of the room and into the nearest girl's bathroom, not caring that she didn't have a pass. How dare that foul, rotten, incompetent, miserable, putrid excuse of a woman do this to her? How dare she bare out Helga like that to everyone? Those were supposed to be for only her eyes and for Helga's! No one else's. No one was supposed to know that side of her.

The doors to the bathroom opened as Helga kicked and screamed at the trashcan. If only it was Ms. Black's face.

"Helga." Helga looked up, momentarily startled. She hadn't heard anyone come in and was alarmed to see Angela. Angela was one of the ones Helga picked on the most and she was no doubt here to make fun of her. "That was really horrible of Ms. Black do that to you."

Helga could only stare at the brunette who reminded her so much of Rhonda, with her fancy clothes and manicured nails.

Angela hugged her then, not really expecting much, but happy to feel Helga relax. She didn't hug her back, but Angela wasn't holding her breath that she would.

After that day, Helga had found her first friend at Beaumont Middle School.

Of course, she was no Phoebe. It always amazed Helga how the two of them were able to stay in touch as much as they did. At one point, the every-other-day calls dwindled to once or twice every two weeks. But, it was seventh grade when Phoebe's parents got her a cell phone. Until then, Helga had zero interest. But, because Bob's Beepers had evolved into Bob's Electronics shortly after they settled in Lexington, all she had to do was pick out the one she wanted. It was the latest Nokia model, the kind that had a flip cover to hide the keys. She was the only one at the school who had one like it. Even Angela was a bit jealous and a few weeks later she came to school with the same one. Full of stickers, though, of course. To express her individuality.

After that, she and Phoebe were always texting. Back then, when no one had a phone except very few of your friends, it was the coolest thing in the world. Especially when your best friend was over 2,000 miles away.

But even with the distance, and the sometimes too-long break between their heart-to-heart chats, Helga loved Phoebe more every day. Angela may have been her best friend in Lexington, but Phoebe was her best friend for life.

The Hyderahl's visited Lexington during the summer before eighth grade. Although Phoebe's family lived in Louisville and further south, Lexington was just a short drive away. There were able to hang out for three whole days. They were the best three days of that summer.

Helga had initially been hesitant to introduce Phoebe and Angela, since Angela saw green in the most random of times when it came to other friends, but they had really hit it off. It only made it harder to say goodbye to Phoebe when it was time to go.

So when her father announced that they were done here in Lexington and moving back to Hillwood to further expand the market there (or probably because he gave up on horse breeding), Helga was ecstatic. She would miss Lexington, all the green and horses and friendly people, and her friends, but she was a city girl at heart. Which meant she yearned for the hustle and bustle of life. She missed the Pacific Ocean, the boardwalk, the food; choices. Here, there were only one or two places you could go to get what you needed. In Hillwood City, you had malls, tons of stores, options.

Because Lexington was starting to become a warehouse-central location, Bob had decided to take a risk and open an online store. It was before the bubble burst so it was the latest business leap. If anyone was anyone they had an online store. Bob's Electronics had gone viral.

Business was going great in Lexington, and she only let herself absently wonder if her family would go to the way they were before once they returned to Hillwood, but she didn't want to think about that. Surely not. Not after, for the last two years, things were finally how they should have been all of her life.

Miriam would stay in Lexington for six months and she and Bob would get re-settled in Hillwood. Helga had been surprised to hear that Bob would play housekeeper for six months but she didn't complain. They were moving just before SummerSlam and, coincidentally, it would be held in Hillwood. She and her dad had bonded over wrestling and watched it together as often as they could. If Bob had to work late, Helga taped it for him and she would wait to watch it. They were looking forward to SumerSlam and, unbeknownst to her, Bob had purchased the tickets months ago when they first went on sale.

Apparently he had been planning on moving back to Hillwood for almost a year now.

She was sitting next to him on the plane, looking out through the window as they made their descent into Hillwood City. Phoebe was the only one she kept in touch with and while she did talk about some of their old friends, Phoebe had moved on to other friends. And next year, when they started high school, it would be an even bigger separation.

Would they still be friends? Would Phoebe ditch her to hang out with the Math Club and Chess Club? Meh, even if she did, it wasn't like Helga wasn't planning on joining her own extra circular activities. She was going to try out for the baseball team and join dance. She loved both so why not? And really, their friendship had survived over three years and 2,000 miles apart. Surely a couple of different interests wouldn't be their break.

As the plane landed on Washington soil, Helga smiled. She couldn't wait to get home.