OK, First things first...MY B-DAY'S ON FRIDAYYYYY! YIPPPIE! :D :D :D YES, FINALLY! WAITING ALL YEAR!
I was going to post this yesterday, but my mom got in the way. SO anyway, this is my birthday gift to you all. Enjoy ;)
(Psssst...I tried to use 'criminy and 'what the heck' less, 'k?)
Helga's POV
Not much has changed the past few minutes. Everyone's still gushing over the new self-proclaimed celebrity. Criminy, this just makes it even better I didn't tag along as Cecelia, because some people might have gotten carried away on stretchers if they tried coming too close to me...
Helga groaned, checking her watch as she sat on the stoop of the school. Phoebe and Gerald had gone inside the building a few minutes ago, leaving her by herself. Yawning from the absence of sleep, she pulled out her phone to play Angry Ducks to keep herself from dosing off. Before she was even slightly aware, Arnold had snuck up behind her unintentionally.
"Hey Helga."
She was startled to say the least, nearly falling off. "Criminy, Arnold, are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
Yup, that was a smooth entrance. "Heh, sorry, Helga."
"You should be." Losing interest in the game now that Arnold had arrived, she put her phone away, tapping her hands on the disintegrating concrete stair-rail. "Why are you here so early?"
He sat down next to her. "I had my parents drop me off."
"And they didn't run over any crazy girls?" She gestured to the screaming fangirls surrounding Cody.
"Who is that?" A minuscule surge of envy coursed through his veins at the sight of the so-called celebrity. "And why is he here?"
Helga waved it off, "I don't know, some celebrity here for 'real life experience' for his new film coming up."
"Oh."
A gust of late September air flew past the teens, a calm and peaceful silence (or, as much as there could be with fan crazed girls screaming) hovering over them. Arnold took this as an opportunity to tell her his new found emotions.
"Helga?"
"Yeah, Arnold?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"Remember when-"
The crescendo of yelling interrupted the peaceful moment between the two, causing them to inwardly groan in annoyance. Cody climbed up the stairs and his posse followed behind, nearly walking all over them. Luckily, they jumped over the stair-rail onto the ground, narrowly avoiding being trampled on.
"Hey, watch where your going!" Helga called out ill-temperedly, dusting off her now filthy jeans.
Cody turned back to look at her, a dimpled smile on his face, "I'm sorry." He winked at her, dissipating into the crowd.
Helga raised an eyebrow, a look of disbelief on her face and Arnold could feel the increase of blood rushing to his features.
How dare he wink at her? "Let's go, Helga," He pulled her along into the building, "We'll be late for class."
**TSLOHP**
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Cody Nickelson!"
Crazed screams, yells and cheers came from the entire class as Cody sat down in his specially made custom enhanced desk, waving to his audience. Helga had cringed in shock from the burst of noise to his eardrums, and Arnold, for the first time remembered, scowled over the incident that had happened a few minutes ago. His pencil was reaching the breaking point as his anger reached a crescendo, and only a confused stare from Gerald spared the life of the writing utensil, leaving a abashed Arnold in aftereffect.
"OK, OK." Mr. Turk said, settling down the students and paparazzi, minimizing the noise level. "Time to start class. But one more thing-" he paused, turning to Cody- "Say that line you always say. Your catch phase."
Cody smiled, rolling his eyes, "Sure." He then faced one of the paparazzi with pure seriousness, making sure they were recording his million dollar look, "'Let's get me some pizza.'"
After another round of cheers, the lesson (eventually) started. Helga very much attempted to pay attention to the instruction, but it was nearly impossible with all the giggling, note-passing and sequels that went on behind her. She clenched her fists, her knuckles turning paler and paler at the gradually increasing noise level.
At the desk parallel to her, Arnold also had trouble controlling his inconsiderable rage over the incident that had happened earlier.
It probably didn't mean anything, he assumed, carelessly doodling pictures of Cody falling off a cliff on one side of his notebook, while Helga's name repeatedly on another. There's no way she could ever like him...
**TSLOHP**
"Hey." Cody said, standing next to Arnold and Helga in the lunch line. Oddly enough, his entourage was not with him, "I saw you this morning."
"So did everyone else, bucko." Helga sneered. He chuckled heartily at her choice of words, further angering Arnold. "I mean, we're mearly two in the presence of a thousand."
"Ha, ha, 'bucko'. Where do you get your material?"
"Uh, Cody?" Arnold asked, desperately trying to keep his anger in check, "Wouldn't you like to go out to eat? You know, outside of school?"
"Oh, that." He waved it off as if it was no big deal, fighting every urge to cringe as he picked up a cardboard pizza slice. "Part of the experience is not to go to expensive places to eat. You know, since I'm supposed to be a normal kid."
Huh, you could have fooled me. Helga jeered, "Yeah right."
"Why are you two so angry?" He asked, picking an apple out of the nearby fruit bowl, "Are you guys fighting or something?"
"No, why would we?" Arnold bemused.
Cody beamed, taking out a professional card and placing it on Arnold's lunch tray. "Look, if you two are having relationship issues," he started, earning stupefied and reddening faces from the two blondes, now refusing to even glance at each other- "Don't take it out on me. My association doctor can help. I'll tell her that I recommended you."
Helga was the first to shake out of her stupor, almost sealing his fate as a bloody pulp when his posse of girls whisked him away. With a, 'We'll talk later' and a wink, he was out of sight. Finding no point in further pursuing him since his crew would most likely protect him from any threats, insults or beatings that she could give him, she returned her attention to a still befuddled Arnold.
"Uh...what just happened?" he managed to choke out, heading to his table. The air was thick with uneasiness as Helga walked after him, silently taking everything in.
"For once, football head, I don't know," she finally responded, "I mean, Criminy, could you imagine-"
Arnold nervously gulped, cutting in, "Heh heh, I know, right? You and I-"
"Dating?" They stated in unison, looking at one another at the same time.
Helga looked down at her suddenly interesting tray, her face red with nerves and humiliation. T'would be my greatest dream, my football headed love...
Arnold cleared his throat, his features also flushed. "Yeah..." He dawdled, internally hurting himself and his companion.
Helga cleared her throat, covering up the slight ache she felt from his subtle rejection. Steering away from potentially awkward conversation, she asked, "So...what are you doing Friday night?"
"No plans yet, why?"
"Just a thought," She asked as they reached their destination.
"Man, what took you guys so long?" Gerald asked, twiddling thumbs with Arnold as he sat down, "Lunch is over in 15 minutes!"
"Well, Geraldo, let's just say that we had an unexpected encounter with the school, quote-unquote, 'celebrity'."
"Did you manage to acquire a personal incribement and image of him?"
Helga rolled her eyes, examining her so-called 'sandwich' before responding, "No, Phoebe, we didn't get an autograph. I don't even want one of his stupid signed sheets of paper."
"That's too bad. Apparently his autographs are now selling for $25 each 'round the market."
"What's your point?"
"The point is, Helga, getting a few of those for free here could be marked up to $35 and sold to other middle schools. We could make big bucks!" He schemed, rubbing his hands together.
Big bucks for you, maybe, but I think getting a grand for singing one song at Princess' is more than enough. "Sure."
**TSLOHP**
"So you still haven't told her yet?" Gerald asked as they boarded the bus.
"I was going to before school, but then Cody showed up." He explained the entire incident to him.
"You still could have told her later. Why did you let him stop you?"
Arnold elucidated the complete lunch scenario to him, leaving him to gasp and frown at appropriate spots.
"Mmm, mmm, mmm! That boy is trouble. So what are you gonna do know?"
"Well," he started as the bus reached his stop, "I'm still gonna tell her, on my own time, not because he made me or forced me. Helga is worth way more than a rushed confession." Especially since she's probably been waiting 10 years for it... he mentally added.
That is one bold kid, Gerald thought as his football-headed friend jumped off the bus, one bold kid.
Arnold lamented, sitting down on his stoop as he opened up his backpack to see the flowers and poem that he had planned to give to her that morning, unaware of the intrusion that occurred. Looking up to the clouds, he saw a cloud the shape of the hair ribbon that he had complemented so long ago.
Don't worry, Helga, He gave a lovesick sigh, smiling up at the clouds, I will tell you...
Helga bounced on her bed, trying to focus on her English essay. For once, the words weren't flowing like they used to. It was like her river of words, speeches and thoughts were tapped bone dry.
She sighed, opting to put away her school stuff and look at the suddenly intriguing ceiling. The events from that day were still circling her mind, refusing to evaporate or settle in her brain. Cody seemed like he (attempted?) to flirt with her, and Arnold seemed...jealous? Why would he be jealous of her? Maybe a bit overprotective. Who in their right mind would be envious of her? Then again, it would explain why he blushed about the relationship comment...but it could just mean he was still aware of her undying love for him and it was a little awkward for anyone to make a jab about anything more than strictly platonic about him and her... but could it also mean that he loved, or at least liked her more than friends? He would have told her if he did, wouldn't he?
Criminy, I'm such a basketcase... She concluded, pulling out her laptop and checking Cecelia's Fmail account. The inbox was flooded with over 2,000 new pieces of mail just from fans alone. As much as she would have loved to sit down and respond to each and everyone of them, today was just not the day. She had a life, unlike Cody...
Speaking of which, guess who was calling on Cecelia's cell phone?
"Hello?"
"Oh, hey Cece."
"Hi Cody." She responded politely. Just because he and Helga weren't friends didn't mean that he and Cecelia couldn't be. "How's it going?"
"Great, except a couple of my 'classmates' hates me and I don't even know what I did wrong."
Are you kidding me? 'I don't even know...' "What exactly did you say to them...?" She managed to say without contempt.
"I just winked at her and her friend...speaking of which, you sound a LOT like her, actually..."
Helga cleared her throat feeling the microscopic beads of sweat form, "Ah, well, you know, God only gives a certain amount of voices in the world. Some of them are bound to be similar, Cody."
"I guess..." he responded, still uncertain.
"Exactly." Watching an hour of Generational Dude actually paid off. "So what did you do again?" She said, resuming the former topic. "You winked at her friend and..."
"Right, right. So yeah, I winked at her, then her friend got, I don't know, annoyed, I think."
"What else did you do...?" She asked suspiciously, waiting for him to talk about the lunch line incident. "There's got to be something else..."
"Well, I might have made just a little relationship comment, but-"
"You made a relationship comment? Why the heck- I mean, why?"
Cody raised an eyebrow in confusion at her sudden behavior change, "I thought it would be funny."
"So it's funny to make fun of a friendship?"
He gulped nervously, "Does it help that I left a relationship referral card for them?"
"You are such an idiot!"
"Weelll, it seemed like it was true!"
"Hmmm..." Arnoldo cares more than I thought he did, becoming apprehensive at the slight comment...Oh, my flaxen-haired love...
"Hey Cece, you still there?"
Helga shook out of her love-filled thoughts. "Oh, yeah. So what are you gonna do?"
"Well, I guess I'd have to apologize to her and her friend. Make sure everything's cool between us."
She shrugged. "That's a start."
"Then you know, try to make friends with them."
"Nice plan, Cody." Helga nodded, secretly detesting the plan. "You're not as dumb as the sombrero shaped haircut would lead people to believe."
He chuckled, "I try." Cody paused, the words sinking in, "Hey!"
"You just realized that now?"
"Bye."
"OK then, see you later, lamebrain."
Cody hung up the phone, nodding to his supervisor that was also in the room with him.
"It's all going according to plan," She cackled, rubbing her hands together, "Time to show the world that Cecelia NightGale isn't who they think she is."
Cody gulped, knowing that whatever methods she was going to use to draw out Cece's secret weren't going to be commendable...
Family Guy and Kim Possible were subtly referenced in here. Can you guess?
*Plays organ chords like a intelligently mad person* duh duh duh...! Yup, a cliffhanger and a twist! You wanna know more, stay tuned for the next installment. Might be the best all-round chapter that I've written so far.
*yawns* Tired now.
Oh, and don't forget to REVIEW! :D