Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story.
They all belong to their rightful owner: Craig Bartlett.
Title: "Blackmail toy"
In the last chapter of "Blackmail toy": Finding out that his own cousin truly did have feelings for Helga, made Arnold realize how much he didn't want to hurt him. That, and the fact that Gerald explained exactly that to him the following Monday. Gerald also told him that the reason for his fear at telling Helga about his feelings was due to his former bad fortune with other girls.
Despite Arnold's current restraint against telling Helga about his feelings, neither one of the love-struck teen could stay away from each other, even to the level where their peers started to notice the lovely atmosphere between them.
Lila revealed a bit about herself to Aaron, when she explained to him exactly why she wished to help Helga get together with Arnold: Apparently, they have something in common when it comes to their families. She also ordered Aaron to stay away from Helga and Arnold, threating with something unknown, which scared and yet… intrigued him a bit. Seeing Lila being aggressive gave him the same feeling when seeing Helga being sweet.
Author's 1st note: I am so happy to read the reviews! Like, seriously :3 I have to answer a small concern from two reviewers here: Don't worry! I won't stop writing Hey Arnold! Centered fanfics, I have like a million more ideas xD I just uploaded a new 'story' on my account. It's temporary though. It's more like a poll for you to vote on for my next HA! Story! Since I have so many ideas, then I don't know which one to choose for the next one, so you guys will have to help me… xD
Chapter 34: "I kinda ship you two"
"Hey, Helga, there you are!"
Helga, who had been in the middle of talking with Arnold while walking through the schoolyard, turned around towards the voice. "Oh, hi, Aaron. What's up?" she asked with a rather friendly smile, Aaron noted. So did Arnold, who had to frown just a tiny bit at it. He still felt a little insecure about those two. For a girl being blackmailed, she sure didn't seem to mind her blackmailer all that much.
"Can I talk with you for a second?" Aaron asked, when he reached the two blondes. Helga couldn't help but glance at Arnold. "Uh… well, I guess so, but I was just about to walk home with Arnold." She answered, hoping Aaron would let her go.
"Yeah, I know. Sorry, but it'll only take a second." Aaron answered. Helga sighed inaudibly and glanced at Arnold with pleading eyes. He just smiled at her and touched her shoulder, his primal instinct telling him to mark her as his in front of the rival. "I'll wait by the front gates." He answered to her unsaid question and walked away.
Helga glanced at Arnold over her shoulder and sighed dreamily. This is going so very, very well! It's so easy now. Oh, God, if Aaron ruins this for me now, I'll kill him… She thought a bit nervously and turned around to look at the boy in question. "Ok. What's up?"
"Simple: I have one last mission for you." Aaron answered with a regular smile. Helga's eyes went wide and she couldn't help but give a big smile. "Did you say… last?" she asked. He couldn't help but chuckle at her sudden enthusiasm. "Yes, Helga, this will be the last one. I swear." He answered with a nod. "I'm figuring ten missions would be enough."
Helga sighed happily and almost felt like bouncing, but then she realized that her last blackmail mission could be… anything. She started biting at her lower lip and gulped. "And what… is it?" she asked. Aaron smiled at her. "Don't worry; it's nothing bad. I just want you to have lunch with someone tomorrow."
"You want to take me out again?"
"I would've just said me, if it was me, Helga, but I'm glad to hear that you wouldn't be opposed to it." Aaron answered with a slight smile. Helga shrugged. "Meh, I don't hate you as much as I once did, so what would have been the harm?" she wondered aloud, gaining a couple of blinks in shock from Aaron. Her eyes also went wide, when she saw something she hadn't expected; him blushing just the slightest. It was almost invisible really, but it was definitely there.
Helga almost wanted to point it out, tease Aaron a bit, mostly because she suddenly felt embarrassed about that pretty innocent confession of hers, but she decided against it. After all, out of all of the things he could've asked her to do for that last blackmail, then having lunch with whoever was pretty doable. She could cut him a break.
"So, uh, who do you want me to have lunch with?" Helga asked, doing her best to pretend not to have noticed Aaron's slightly red cheeks. "Oh, uh," he started and then coughed a little awkwardly into his hand, making the blush go away in the process. "I want you to have lunch with Lila."
Helga's arms, which had been crossed beneath her chest a moment ago, now went straight down, hanging lazily from her shoulders. The name had shocked her so much that her whole body almost went limp, but she managed to stand up. "Excuse me… Lila? Lila Sawyer?" she repeated.
"You know anyone else named Lila?" Aaron asked with an eyebrow quirked. Helga chuckled for a second, though it seemed rather awkward. "How about no?" she both answered and asked to his request for her to have lunch with Lila of all people! "Knowing one Lila is one too many!"
"Helga - - "
"No! Why would I want to eat with Little Miss Perfect? In case you haven't noticed, then I'm not exactly one of her biggest fans!"
"That doesn't really matter, does it? I'm asking you to have lunch with Lila, whether you like it or not." Aaron pointed out. Helga's mouth went into a circular shape. Then she started growling and even stomped annoyed in the ground, resembling a child not getting what she wanted. "But… I don't get it! Why her? Why Lila? Why would you want to torture me like that?"
"Because… Oh, just do it!" Aaron answered in annoyance and turned around to walk past Helga. "Oh, no, you don't!" she answered while grabbing his shoulder. She turned him around and glared at him. "I think the least you could do is give me an explanation. That seems fair, don't you think? Don't forget what you've done to me through this! My request is really simple: Why Lila?"
Aaron felt some guilt run through him, as he remembered the poem in particular. He sighed and then shook his shoulder out of Helga's grasp. She crossed her arms again and waited for him to answer her. "You won't believe me." He declared with a hint of annoyance.
Helga's eyes narrowed. "Try me, bucko." She challenged Aaron, who simply rolled his eyes at her. "I want you to have lunch with Lila, because I think you and her could be friends." He then answered, crossing his arms to mirror her position.
Helga's eyes went a little wide, her smile picking up on each side of her cheeks. Then she started spluttering with laughter. "W-What?! Me and Mary Sunshine?! Yeah, good one. What's the real reason?" she asked, finally calm after laughing too much.
Aaron just cocked an eyebrow at Helga, trying to tell her that he was deadly serious. When she realized that, her face turned into one of disgust. "You're kidding… Why? What could possibly make you think that Lila and I would ever get along?" she asked in incredulity.
Aaron shrugged. "It's a feeling." He answered with a sarcastic shrug. Helga's eyes narrowed again. "Try again, bucko." She said. He sighed. "Let's just say that I know something about her that you two have in common, ok?"
"… And what's that?" Helga asked. "I'm not gonna tell on her." Aaron answered, making her frown at him. "Oh, look who's Mr. Moral all of a sudden! You'll blackmail me, but you won't tell on Lila?" she asked. "Have lunch with her tomorrow, and then you'll find out what you have in common." He answered in annoyance.
"And how am I supposed to do that anyway? Just stroll up to her, all casual and say: 'Hey, Lila. I know we don't get along at all, but how about eating together today'?" Helga asked in disbelief. "I'd leave out the middle bit, but yeah!" Aaron answered, making her growl at the back of her throat.
"I can't do that! That's just… way too random! And kinda embarrassing too." Helga answered, starting to imagine the very image of her and Lila having lunch together. It'd make more sense for a nun to work as a prostitute.
"After everything I've made you do, you're gonna complain about this?" Aaron asked with his eyebrows raised. "Hey," Helga said and lifted her arms. "it's what we do. You blackmail me about my feelings for your cousin, I complain about it and eventually you win. What you gotta do?"
"So you'll do it?" Aaron asked with a satisfied smirk. "Yeah…" Helga answered and let arms smack down against her waist and legs. He kept smiling at her and she just sighed as she smiled back a bit. "Man, when did I become such a puppet?"
"Puppet? Are you kidding me? A puppet wouldn't fight back this much. Don't you worry; you're still filled with spunk." Aaron corrected with a smile. Helga couldn't help but smile back a little bit at that. "Thanks… I swear, when you're back in New York, I have to beat up a few kids to make up for this month."
"We both know that you won't hit anyone." Aaron said with an amused shake of his head. "Oh, and what makes you say that?" Helga asked with a hint of annoyance. "Because, according to your classmates at least, then you're not as bad as you used to be." He answered. "That's also why they've started to care for you, unless you haven't noticed that?"
Helga felt shy all of a sudden. "Uh… yeah, I noticed that last week… with the fake aphrodisiac thing." She answered and gave Aaron a bit of a judgmental look at the mentioning of aphrodisiac. Aaron just rolled his eyes though. "See?" he asked with a smile.
Helga sighed and then nodded her head in reluctance. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, The Ice Queen is melting. I get the picture; I'll have lunch with Little Miss Sunshine tomorrow. See ya." She answered, gave a halfhearted wave and turned around to walk towards Arnold again.
Aaron just shook his head in amusement as he watched Helga run over to his cousin. He kept watching them, as Arnold smiled at her and they started walking through the sidewalk. He smiled at the sight and then turned around to walk in the other direction with no real goal of where to go.
"What did Aaron want?" Arnold asked with a bit of concern in his voice. Helga sighed a bit and then smiled awkwardly at him. "Uh… another blackmail, so to speak." She answered. His eyes went wide. "He's still doing that?!" he asked in disbelief. "When did I ever say that he had stopped, Arnoldo?" she asked with an eyebrow cocked. "Well, no, but…" he started, but then faded out in a sigh. "Never mind. What did he… ask you to do?"
"Ugh… having lunch with Lila tomorrow." Helga replied with a cringe. Arnold blinked in surprise. "Huh? Why?" he asked in wonder, which made her shrug. "He said something along the lines of: 'I think you could become good friends.' Yeah, something like that." she answered and turned to look at Arnold. "Isn't that the stupidest thing you've ever heard?"
Arnold chuckled. "Perhaps not the stupidest, but at least the unlikeliest… You've always hated her." He answered. Helga snorted. "Whose fault do you think that is?" she asked in a whisper. "What did you say?" he asked, having not heard her. "Nothing important." She answered with an innocent smile. "I just don't get what would make Aaron blackmail me into doing that. I mean, out of all of the other horrendous things he's made… me…"
Helga shut her mouth as soon as she realized what she was saying. She dared to glance in Arnold's direction, noticing that he was scowling; not at her though, but at the ground. Whoops… I don't wanna come between him and Aaron or anything, but… I guess that's kinda inevitable by now. She thought with a sigh.
"Helga… what did my cousin ask you to do through this?" Arnold asked, glancing up at her. Helga stopped dead in her tracks at his question, her eyes going wide and her mouth shutting like an oyster. "Uh… d-does it really matter? I mean… e-even if you do know, then would that change anything? Besides your opinion about him?"
"Why do you care what I think about him?" Arnold asked with a confused frown, as he stopped too. "Oh, come on, Arnold, you already dislike Arnie for whatever reason." Helga answered. His frown got deeper at the mentioning of Arnie and why she didn't know, though he guessed that was his own fault. "See! You scowl at his name! I don't want your relationship to be like that with Aaron too." She admitted and started walking again.
"So…" Arnold started walking next to Helga. "So what you're saying is that… you won't tell me what he's done to you, because you don't want our relationship to get bad? You're worried about me hating my cousin?" he asked. She could feel her heartbeat quicken a bit. "Uh… well, doi!" she answered and stopped walking yet again to glare a little at him. "I'm not evil or anything!"
Arnold couldn't help but smile at Helga's sudden defensiveness. "I know that, Helga, I've always known that. Thank you… for caring about me so much." He answered, not censoring his own words whatsoever, which made her eyes go big and her blush obvious. He could hear her say a small, stuttering sound, almost as if she was breaking from embarrassment.
Helga turned around, her eyes shut tight as if she could somehow squeeze her shyness out like that. "St-Stupid football head…" she muttered in a childish way and started walking again. Arnold chuckled to himself at the mentioning of that old nickname and started walking next to her again, enjoying the calm stillness between them.
The next day, Tuesday afternoon around lunch time, Helga couldn't help but growl at the back of her throat, as she walked into the cafeteria. I can't believe I'm doing this… She thought once again inside her head, as she scanned the room. It didn't take her long, before she noticed the natural redhead standing in line to get food.
Helga quickly jogged to the line, making sure to get in front of the freshman who had been just about to stand behind Lila. The freshman was obviously about to start a discussion with Helga, until she scowled at her and she stepped back graciously, obviously realizing that discussing with the angry blonde would've been like poking a stick at a bear.
"H-Hi, Lila." Helga said, mentally smacking herself for the small stutter. Lila turned around with a curious face, which got even more curious when she noticed who was greeting her. "Good afternoon, Helga! How are you?" she asked.
Helga already felt like groaning at the sugary attitude, but decided to ignore it. She had been able to be around Lila back in 4th grade 24/7 once; she could damn well stand to be around her for one lunch period too!
"I'm doing fine, Lila. How about you?" Helga asked with as much politeness as she could muster. Lila practically beamed at the interest from Helga. "Well, I'm doing ever so fine as well, Helga, thank you so much. Was there something that you wanted?"
"Oh, nothing much. I was just… wondering if you'd mind talking a bit?" Helga asked with an innocent shrug. Please mind, please mind, please mind! She begged in her mind, but the smile appearing Lila's face said otherwise. "Why of course! I'd be ever so delighted to speak with you, Helga. You want to have lunch together then?"
"Yeah, that sounds… ever so swell." Helga answered with a fake giggle, earning an honest giggle from Lila before she turned around to grab a food tray. Great, Helga thought as she grabbed a food tray herself. Not only did I say 'ever so', I even said 'swell'! Criminy, this is going to be one fucking long lunch period!
As soon as Helga and Lila had grabbed their lunch, they went for a table at the far end of the cafeteria, Helga deliberately trying to get out of hearing range and eye sight from their peers. Lila didn't notice that intention though, as she simply sat down next to her, waiting for Helga to start talking.
Helga struggled to try to start a subject… any subject. "Uh… you looking forward to the game this Thursday?" she asked, hoping for something school related to somehow start a connection between them. Lila seemed a little surprised at the question, but her sweet smile didn't waver for a second. "Oh, yes, definitely. I think it'll be ever so much fun to have a baseball match against the seniors, and with you on our team, I'm sure we can beat them too."
Helga smiled at the compliment. "Thanks, Lila; I hope we can beat the living hell out of them too." She answered, noticing Lila's eyebrows lift for one tiny seconds at the word 'hell', though it only lasted for literally less than a second. Ugh, she can't even handle the word 'hell'…? Helga thought with an internal sigh.
Lila and Helga kept looking at each other, both of them waiting for the other one to talk. At least until Helga lost her patience and just rolled her whole head around. "I can't do this!" she declared a little loudly. "Excuse me?" Lila asked in surprise. Helga glanced at her. "I have to be honest with you; I'm not here out of my own free will."
"… I'm ever so certain I don't understand." Lila simply admitted and intertwined her fingers. Helga sighed heavily. "Ok, toots, I guess I just have to be completely honest… Yesterday, Aaron came over to me and told me, that he thought it was a good idea for me to talk with you, so here I am. You have any idea why he'd say something like that?"
Lila's eyes went wide, and Helga could have sworn she could see a slight blush on those freckled cheeks. "Oh, goodness, I didn't think he'd be as mean as to tell you that!" she said with some sadness in her eyes. "Huh?" Helga muttered in confusion.
"Oh, Helga!" Lila suddenly exclaimed and went to grab Helga's hands, making the blonde squirm a bit in discomfort. "I'm ever so sorry! Perhaps I overstepped my boundaries, but I just didn't want him to ruin anything for you. Please forgive me!"
"H-Hold on!" Helga said and noticed how Lila had started to pout. "Uh… j-just relax, please. I'm not mad at you; Hell, I don't even know what you're talking about!" Helga declared and snuck her hands out of Lila's grip.
"You don't?" Lila answered with big eyes, which Helga simply shook her head to as an answer. "No! Aaron just told me that he thought you and I could become friends, so… yeah, but… you have any idea why he'd tell me that?" she asked.
"Oh, I guess I misjudged him ever too much then…" Lila muttered with slight guilt in her voice, but then she shook her head to get it back into the subject at hand. "Well… that is perhaps my fault."
"Your fault? Please elaborate." Helga requested and laid her cheek in the palm of her hand, the elbow belonging to that arm placed on the table. Lila gulped in nervousness. "A-All right… well, firstly… Helga, do you know that the gang has started to notice you and Arnold having become… ever so friendly lately?"
Helga yelped a bit, her eyes going big. "Uh… w-what? We're not extra friendly or anything…" she attempted to lie, but a look from Lila told her that she wasn't successful in doing so. "Ugh, ok, but so what? What are they saying?"
Lila shrugged. "Not all that much. Except they're starting to bet on when you'll start dating, how long you'll last and who will be the first one to make a move." She answered with slight amusement in her voice.
"What?!" Helga shouted with a groan. "You're kidding me! Those… bastards! How dare they bet on my love life? I outta - - "
"Helga, please calm down. They are, after all, all cheering for you two." Lila pointed out with a smile. Helga blinked at her a couple of times in surprise. "Eh? R… Really?" she asked, starting to feel a little embarrassed, but mostly warm inside.
Lila smiled as she nodded to Helga's question. "Yes! Granted, some of them does think it's ever so surprising, but are nevertheless cheering for you!" she answered with a cheerful voice. "… Huh." Was all Helga could muster at that revelation. She felt embarrassed within an inch of her life, and yet… it was kinda nice to know that they were cheering for them… in their own strange, self-rewarding way.
"Well… what about them? What does that have to do with Aaron?" Helga asked, wishing to get out of the awkwardly heartwarming moment. "Oh! Well, we spoke about it all of us just yesterday, and Aaron joined us." Lila answered. "While we talked about it, I couldn't help but notice something… off about the way he talked and looked through it."
"… Oh…" Helga muttered, knowing exactly how Aaron may have looked. "Helga…" Lila said carefully and moved a little closer to her to speak in a lower voice. "Are you aware of… how Aaron feels about you?"
Helga sighed a bit and then nodded. "Yeah, I'm aware. He told me once." She answered. Lila was a little surprised to see the calm way of Helga handling such a thing. As long as she could remember, whenever Helga was forced to speak about whatever guy, who had a crush on her through the years, she always seemed disgusted to booth. "You seem ever so ok with that?"
"Oh, don't misunderstand, there's no way we would ever work out. I'm still in love with…" Helga stopped talking, when she noticed that very smug smile on Lila's face. "Oh, don't look at me like that, you knew it already."
"Yes, I did. I'm just happy to hear that you still feel that way about him. I think it's ever so romantic that you never stopped loving him." Lila answered as she folded her hands. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, enough mushiness! Anyway, again; what does that have to do with anything?" Helga asked.
"Oh, yes. Well… and this is the part, I'm not all that proud of… but I kinda asked him if I could speak with him in private, and I… snapped ever so slightly." Lila admitted with the eyes of a deer caught in the headlights. Helga frowned at the odd confession. "Snapped? You? Little Miss Perfect? Please elaborate." She inquired again with a slight smirk, wondering how much snapped could mean to Lila of all people.
"Well… I, uh… I told him to stay away from you and Arnold! Please don't hate me!" Lila said as quickly as she could, as Helga had also spoken as fast as she could, back when she had confessed her feelings for Arnold to Lila.
"… What?!" Helga shrieked, when Lila's words had repeated themselves in her head. "I'm ever so sorry!" Lila said in a fragile, squeaky voice as she put her hands together in an apologetic way. "I-I know I should have kept my nose out of it, but I just got ever so worried! If Aaron did anything to come between you and Arnold, I would just be ever so sad on your behalf, Helga! Please, don't strangle me!"
A few seconds of awkward, terrifying silence passed. "… Kudos!" Helga said in a cheerful way and punched Lila's upper arm in a friendly way. "Ow…" Lila muttered as she started rubbing the slightly sore spot. "Huh? Kudos?" she repeated, when she realized what Helga had said to her.
"Oh, my God! I had no idea you could do something like that, Lila! How… oddly ballsy of you. Man, I wish I could have seen that! Seriously; tell me exactly what you said to him!" Helga inquired with a big smile. Lila felt a little confused at Helga's enthusiasm, but also couldn't help but smile a little bit, since it seemed she was out of danger from getting strangled… she hoped.
"W-Well, I… I told him that if he did anything to ruin this for you, then… then with what I'd do to him, he'd start thinking of you as the saint." Lila admitted, looking a little guilty. Helga's smile just got bigger though. "Oh… my… God! Lila, I could kiss you!"
Lila giggled a bit in embarrassment, though she was happy to see that she had done something good. "Man, I would've loved to see his face!" Helga said, still laughing gleefully. "Finally, someone said something to him. Thank you, Lila! But… Wait… why did you do that… for me?"
Lila felt slightly embarrassed yet again. She took a deep breath, steadying it so she could speak the words she had longed to tell Helga for a long time. "Well… it's true that you and I don't get along so much… b-but, Helga, I… I have something to confess. I feel an ever so little connection with you somehow."
"Connection? What do you mean?" Helga asked with a bit of confusion in her voice. Lila took a deep breath again. "Well… have you ever wondered where my… mom is?" she asked gently. Helga shifted a bit in her seat to turn around to face Lila completely. "Well… yes, but I… I didn't want to question it or anything."
"Thank you for being considerate." Lila said with a smile. "The truth is… my mom committed suicide, just before my dad and I moved to Hillwood. That was one of the main reasons we had to move away from Pleasantville. It was an ever so small farming community after all. Everywhere we turned someone was looking at us in a funny way…"
At a point through Lila's confession, Helga had moved her hand up to cover her mouth in shock. "Oh, God, Lila, I…" she said with a muffled sound, but then moved her hand to hold it in front of her throat instead to talk properly. "I had no idea…"
"I didn't want anyone to know, Helga, so that's ever so understandable." Lila answered with a sad smile. "But… then why are you telling me?" Helga asked in wonder. "Well… because I wanted you to know… that I'm putting on a mask… as well." She answered.
Helga's eyes went wide at that statement. "A… mask?" she repeated. Lila bit at her lower lip nervously. "I don't want to sound… assumptious or accusing or anything like that… since I'm doing the same thing… but the reason for me to feel a connection with you is exactly because of that… I don't want anyone to know about my mother! I don't want people to feel sorry for me or treat me differently because of my parents…"
Helga gulped a bit, starting to feel as if she had heard those words inside her own head before. "I… know what you mean." She then admitted, taking a deep breath to calm her beating heart. "Everyone knows that my parents sucks, but… they don't know how much, you know?"
Lila nodded. "And that's ever so understandable. Like me, you don't want to be treated differently because of it, and you act like you do to hide it, right?" she asked. Helga didn't feel all to comfortable having to play shrink with Lila, but she nodded anyhow.
"Me too. I put on a happy face, because it makes me feel better, but even I have my bad days, Helga, and my flaws. People seem to not know that, though." Lila said with a sad smile. Helga couldn't help but smile at that. "Yeah… me being one of them. I'm… sorry, Lila. The girls and I even found out that your family life wasn't perfect back when you were the new girl, but we all just… forget, I guess, because you seem so cheerful despite it."
"And people forget the good things you've done for them, because you seem so rude despite it." Lila added with a cheeky smile, hoping Helga would see she meant it as kindly as she could. Helga blew a raspberry at her, showing that she knew it wasn't meant in a bad way. "Yeah… but I have gotten better, right?"
"Yes, ever so much actually!" Lila answered with a big smile and straightened her back to sit properly again, since she and Helga had almost made a small huddle behind the table at this point. Helga chuckled at Lila's sudden cheerfulness. "And you've got balls all of a sudden! Ovaries or whatever. I still can't believe you'd say something like that to Aaron!"
Lila giggled a little shyly. "It did feel kinda good to take a little bit of my anger out on him… He deserved it, right?" she asked, hoping for some justification. "Are you kidding me? Definitely! Hell, he deserves for you to actually do whatever you'd do if he came between me and Arnold." Helga answered with an amused frown.
"Really? Does he know about your feelings for Arnold?"
"More like I accidentally told him."
"Ooh… that sounds ever so ugly."
"It's been hideous!"
"Oh, dear…" Lila said, followed by a small giggle, but then started frowning a bit. "What do you mean it's been hideous, Helga? Has Aaron…" she noticed the slight alarming look on Helga's face and her eyes went wide. "Helga… has Aaron been… using it against you or something?"
Helga turned to gawk at Lila in shock. "Whoa, you're way too observant for your own good, missy!" she said in an astonished voice. Lila gasped in terror. "Helga!" she shrieked, but then kept her voice low. "That's ever so awful! Why would you let him do that to you?"
"I'm not letting him, Lila!"
"But… But wouldn't it have been easier to have just told Arnold how you feel instead?"
"Let me answer that with another question. Lila, if I told you right now to go and tell everyone about your mother, what would you do?"
"N… No way! I'd… I'd like to tell people… at some point, you know, but not because someone else was… forcing… me… Oh." Lila said, as she realized how Helga felt. "Oh, Helga… that must have been a pure nightmare to feel like that! Wanting to confess your love, but you want to do it the right way, so you've been having to wait for the evil cousin to be defeated by your knight in ever so shining armor and - - "
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, Little Miss Sunshine; don't make my life into a mushy fairytale!" Helga interrupted, starting to feel really embarrassed at hearing Lila's view of her situation. Lila giggled in an embarrassed way. "Sorry… it's just… Can I confess another thing, Helga?" she asked and leaned a little closer, as Helga did too. "I kinda ship you two."
"What?!" Helga shrieked with a big smile and leaned back. "That's really embarrassing! Sh-Shipping us… You're… embarrassing, Lila. What in the… I-I don't even know what to say to that!"
"So I hear." Lila observed and tried to cover her giggle behind her mouth, but to vain. Helga observed Lila as she giggled, herself starting to snicker a bit. As Lila kept giggling, Helga started to chuckle and then started to downright laugh along with this very unexpected new friend.
Author's 2nd note: Well! I wasn't sure whether I'd actually make this chapter, since I was a little iffy on Lila and Helga becoming 'friends' or something along those lines, but after thinking about it, I figured: 'Hey, why the hell not? Helga needs another accomplice!' And, yeah, I always figured that in whichever fanfiction story, if Lila wasn't used as a villain - so to speak, then she should be used as an Arnold and Helga shipper! xD I seriously think she adores them in the actual series too! :3
And please don't forget to go to my profile here on FanFiction to look at my story called 'Vote for my next story!' Where you can... well, vote for my next story xD