It's crazy (that someone could change me)
A/N: Another chapter! We are getting somewhere. Things will start to take off from here.
I'll probably cool it with the updates until I finish it fully. Thanks for all your support and kindness. Also, don't kill me but I realize looking over the genre that this story while does have some romance is primary a hurt/comfort and drama. I wish I could add on other genres here but those are the predominant ones. So sorry for the confusion I caused (if any).
Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold.
"Geez Football head. You really are bold. Criminy!" Arnold blushed but continued to kiss and suck her neck. He just couldn't get enough. He pulled the girl close to his chest and continued to kiss her, both of their lips swollen from making out.
"I don't see you complaining Helga. You're just as eager."
"Eager? Wouldn't that be you? I'm just fine over here."
"Shh." Arnold kissed her lips again "Just enjoy it."
"And here everyone thinks Mr. Goody Two Shoes has morals and values. Pfft, you're having your way with me in this house while my mother's passed out." Helga smirked kissing the boy's neck. "You really are so much more interesting with me in your life."
"You're really kissable. What can I say?"
Helga rolled her eyes and pressed down against Arnold, determined to feel the other's heartbeat against her own. Arnold's essence was so intoxicating and his kisses just so mind-melting.
Here they were making out in her room like animals for the last 30 minutes while her mother was passed out downtown. Her stomach was churning again, but Arnold's lips against her skin felt so good she didn't want him to stop anytime soon. She pressed her hands against the boy's shoulders, desperately wanting to merge with him.
Sometimes she wished she could just drink him. Drink him and spill no drops. It was at times like this her precociousness got the best of her and she'd sink deeper into this passionate headspace wanting desperately nothing but affection.
It scared her sometimes.
She began sucking on her beloved's neck, loving his salty skin against her tongue. Two years ago she would have died if she knew she'd finally be here today doing this. Arnold returning her affections still made her feel like she was floating but to find him slowly return the passion as well just made her elated. She loved everything about how he made her feel.
She moaned. She moved her hands up Arnold's shoulders to his hair. Gently petting the soft hair she swooped down and kissed Arnold again.
And again.
She was in a soft cloud of love and affection and she wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon. The hunger pains became dull aches and she felt her body preen a little at the feel of Arnold's soft hands against her waist. Her mind and body both loved this boy.
"Would it really be so bad if we stayed just like this?"
She looked at the boy with half lidden eyes and smiled. "Oh, Arnold." She kissed the boy's forehead and then both cheeks. "Come on, we have homework. And I prefer to get back to kissing you as soon as we're finished so consider yourself lucky for now."
Helga closed the door behind Arnold as he had left for the night. Her lips were still swollen (and his were too) from their makeout sessions.
She didn't know where Bob was, he must not have come back home yet. Normally he was back before dinner started. Looking at the clock, it was 5:30, Helga rolled her eyes. Miriam was still asleep by the counter.
"Hey. Miriam, wake up." Helga tried waking up her mom. The woman was asleep long enough.
Silently she wished she left to go with her boyfriend to his house.
"Mmm, what? Helga?" Miriam yawned and looked around blearily. "What time
is it?"
"It's 5:30, Miriam. What are we having for dinner?"
"Oh, there's some food in the cabinets. I went grocery shopping. I'm so t-t-tired.. I'm going to take a nap..." Helga's irritation was growing by the minute but it wasn't as bad as it would have been with Big Bob here. He was always yelling. It gave her a headache. Distantly she thought that was the reason Miriam was always drunk.
"You just took one," Helga uttered, completely unimpressed. Before it even began she lost her appetite at the site of her mother.
Bob was on his own tonight.
"Mmm, goodnight honey." Miriam slumped over, out cold again.
"Criminy! I have to do everything around here." Helga grabbed her Mom's shoulders, wrapping her arm around her shoulder. She lifted the woman up a little as she dragged her to her bedroom.
The last thing she needed was to hear Bob walk in the house screaming at Miriam about not having dinner ready and slouched over at the kitchen counter. She might as well be on the couch, instead of on the kitchen floor, completely asleep.
"C'mon Miriam, we're going to the couch." There was no way they would have made it up the stairs. Helga may have been strong but she wasn't strong enough to get Miriam up the stairs. Miriam was on her own for that one.
She grunted as they rounded the living room. Helga sat Miriam over on the couch. Lifting her legs once the woman was seated. She found a pillow and put it under Miriam's head.
"I would say sleep tight, but you've been asleep all day." Helga walked up the stairs. She was going to finish some things up in her room before turning in for the night.
She walked into her closet ready to change for the night when she heard Bob walk through the door. She mentally prepared herself for Bob's tongue lashing to Miriam.
"CRIMINY MIRIAM. It's not even 7 o'clock and you're already out. Where's dinner?"
Helga sighed, dressing for bed as she walked out of the closet and to her dresser. She untied her pigtails and removed her bow. As she heard Bob rip Miriam a new one, she brushed out her hair.
'Life couldn't get any better than this.' She thought to herself. She got up after finishing her hair to get her book bag. Taking out her locket, she stared at Arnold's photo, completely transfixed by the green-eyed boy.
"Where's that girl?" She heard Bob ask downstairs. She heard him make his way upstairs to Helga's room.
Helga rolled her eyes. She got up from her chair again, opening her bedroom door. "Hello to you too, Bob." She greeted him sarcastically.
"Hey Hey Hey. Watch the attitude." 'Big Bob' Pataki chastised, walking up to her door. At least he wasn't dressed in his sale outfit. That would have just made her laugh. The man didn't even ask her how she was doing or what her day was like.
No one did. She almost missed Olga. Her older sister was back in college getting her Master's.
"Please. What do you want?" She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the door.
"I need help sorting through old merchandise. It's not like you're doing anything."
"Isn't that a job for your employees and not your daughter?"
"Just get downstairs." Bob turned to walk down the hallway, not waiting for Helga's reply.
Helga rolled her eyes again. "No. I have homework to finish Bob. Y'know that thing that helps you learn what you're taught in school?"
"How much homework do they give you? Aren't you in the third grade?"
"Bob, I'm twelve. I'm in sixth grade, remember?" She scowled. Criminy.
"Even better. Just finish it later. School doesn't start until tomorrow and there's still time in the day, Olga."
"Helga. H-E-L-G-A, Dad."
"Yeah, yeah."
"I'm not staying up late to sort through beepers for you because you don't have enough staff to do it. That's not my job."
"Get downstairs, girl."
"You don't even know my name. I'm not doing it."
"HEY! Get downstairs. I'm not asking you again. That's what's wrong with kids today. They don't listen." Bob's voice was like a fork against a chalkboard. Helga gritted her teeth and walked down the stairs into the living room.
"This bites," Helga mumbled under her breath. The whole situation was beyond ridiculous. Bob should have the workers he hired doing this stuff, not his family. His family were not staff and he wasn't even going to pay them for it.
She spent the rest of the night sorting through beepers. At least the activity took her mind off the dizziness that was beginning to set in and the headache that building up from the last few hours of being near her family.
Helga yawned, waking up at 6 am sharp. She still had leftover homework she didn't have a chance to finish last night. Arnold and she did get done all their necessary assignments that were due today, but it didn't leave her much time to get a head start on a bigger project coming up next week.
The only bright spot in her life seemed to be Arnold.
And she could barely be honest with him about how she was feeling. She worked so hard for so long to get him and now that she had him, she couldn't even express herself fully.
She would have to live with her inability to express herself emotionally for the rest of her life. It was something she was working on, her absolute hardest, with Dr. Bliss but it didn't bring anything positive up. She had wanted to change for a while. Not just for Arnold but for herself. She wanted more out of her life and more out of her existence and she wasn't going to get anywhere with how she had been acting. At least that's what she had told herself.
She told herself a lot of things. Some of it was true and the others.. gross exaggerations, it felt like.
Maybe if she continued to try and do self-work she could work to getting to a place where she finally felt comfortable with eating again.
She began to feel dizzy again with all of the movements as she got ready for school. She sat on the bathroom floor for a few minutes. She felt her head pound and she thought to herself momentarily how it would play out if she stayed home today.
Part of her wanted to stay home with how poor she was feeling. The other part didn't even want to look at Miriam or Bob, much less deal with Bob's yelling. Distantly, she wondered how mornings went at Arnold's boarding house. Did Stella and Miles make breakfast? And did Arnold help with cleaning up before leaving for school? Wasn't that how normal families worked?
She got up again and finished dressing. After throwing on her usual outfit, she walked downstairs with her backpack. She looked over and saw Miriam still on the couch, completely asleep. Rolling her eyes, she walked out of the door.
She felt her stomach burn out of hunger, but she ignored it. She walked down the street to Phoebe's. The Heyerdahls always were so pleasant to her. As she neared the mousy girl's house, she felt guilt creep up at how she had been treating her best friend.
All Phoebe had done since she's known the girl was supportive. And every time she voiced even a fraction of concern about Helga, she treated her terribly.
Phoebe had never done anything to her and yet she treated the girl like she was less than human at least for the last week and a half. She owed the girl an apology. But then the girl would probably want to know about Helga's "problem". And Helga barely got Arnold off her back about it. She had to concede and eat a few spoonfuls (Okay, more than a few spoonfuls) of pudding.
Imagine what Phoebe could do at this point. She'd be singing like a canary by noon. And Helga G. Pataki was not going to sing like some stinking canary! Not happening.
Maybe she could-
"Helga?" Helga blinked and realized she was already at the front door of the Heyerdahl household.
"I- Hi Phoebe."
"Hi, Helga. You seemed to have been lost in thought. May I ask what you were thinking about?"
"I was thinking about apologizing to you, actually. I realized Pheebs, that I've not been the easiest person to be around lately. I'm sorry. I'm also sorry for how I've treated you the last few days. You're my friend and I should be treating you better than I have."
"It is all water under the bridge, Helga. What matters is that you are okay."
"I am."
"Did you have breakfast already? My mother has some still out if you'd like some." 'Please take some,' Phoebe thought to herself.
"No thanks, Pheebs. I already had some toast earlier," Helga lied.
Phoebe nodded. She was doing her best to not to butt into Helga's life and ask her a ton of questions. She wisely overlooked the lie and pushed on. She looked over at Helga and noticed the dark circles under her eyes. Her clothes did look a little baggy on her as well.
There wasn't anyone that Phoebe can go and tell besides Arnold and her boyfriend Gerald. Helga was such a private person that it hardly left her with anyone she could really talk about her concerns with in full. Arnold was Helga's boyfriend and he was already invested in getting the blonde girl to eat more.
Phoebe feared she wasn't going to be able to do anything alone but yesterday Arnold was able to get Helga to eat something. And that was miraculous within itself.
Gerald took a different approach and just told Phoebe that Helga would simply start eating lunch (he wasn't convinced she wasn't eating at all) whenever she was ready. He also didn't see the huge deal but admittedly he also didn't get Helga G. Pataki.
"Okay, let me get my backpack and we can start walking."
"Sounds good," Helga said amenably.
The two started their walk after Phoebe had come back. The brunette quietly followed her friend as she let Helga rant about her night.
"I mean criminy, you'd think a grown man could handle running his own business but no, he makes his daughter handle employee-related tasks because he's too cheap to hire extra help. It's his fault for buying all of those freaking beepers."
"How many beepers does he have left?"
"Too many, Pheebs, way too many. I stayed up until midnight to sort through them all."
"I'm sorry to hear that Helga. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been."
"Mhm," Helga grumbled. She was in a terrible mood from having stayed up late and then waking up early. She barely got any sleep on top of dealing with her burning stomach.
"Sorry. I don't mean to be grouchy. I just don't feel too good today."
"Oh, Helga. Why don't you stay home?"
"You've seen my home life, would that really be wise?" She replied to her smart best friend. "Geez Phoebe, I thought you were smarter than that."
"Perhaps you can use this time to take a step back and relax some," Phoebe suggested.
"Relax? Sorry Pheebs but relaxing is just a no-can-do at this point. Anyway, I'll be fine. I just need to focus on school and then maybe if it gets worse I'll camp out at the nurse's office."
Phoebe sighed. "If you insist, Helga."
The two turned the corner and met with their respective boyfriends.
"Good Morning Helga."
"Hey Football head." Helga smiled faintly as Arnold held her hand. Her scowl had mostly dropped at the sight of the other blonde which did not go unnoticed by Phoebe.
"How was last night?" Arnold asked attentively. Mrs. Pataki didn't look, well, the greatest to put it bluntly last night. He also knew how ..difficult…Mr. Pataki could be.
Helga groaned. "Bob had me up until midnight counting out his beepers because he's too cheap to hire enough staff to handle that." Arnold frowned.
"I'm sorry Helga. Maybe this is the last time? At least it's all done for now, right?"
"Yeah, I guess," Helga mumbled. She perked up some at the kiss Arnold gave her.
"Hey babe." Gerald greeted his girlfriend.
"Good morning Gerald." Phoebe blushed, gratefully taking the boy's hand in hers.
The foursome started their walk to the school. Helga was lost in her own thoughts still and didn't even notice when they got to the school. She turned around quickly and fell to her knees, dizzy.
"Helga!" She heard Arnold react. He held his hands around her waist steadying her as she got up. Everything sounded like it was underwater. She ignored it.
"Woah. I'm fine. Relax. Geez." And she was (at least that's what she told herself).
"Did you eat today?" Of course, Arnold's worry was related to food. 'Criminy,' Helga thought to herself.
"Yes, Arnoldo, I had toast. Relax. I am fine." Arnold didn't look convinced.
"Man, relax, she said she was fine. C'mon Arnold." Gerald stepped over, putting a hand on his best friend's shoulder. Arnold sighed and dropped his hands to his waist.
"If you're sure, Helga. Why don't I walk you down to the nurse?"
"Football head. I'm fine. I don't need to go to the nurse."
"Well, actually Helga you said you weren't feeling well earlier. It wouldn't be a bad idea to lie down for a little bit. It may help you feel better." Phoebe chimed in, a bit worried for her friend.
"You didn't tell me you were feeling bad. I'll take you to the nurse," Arnold looked over at their two friends, "We'll see you guys later." He guided the blonde girl to the nurse's office.
"You really don't have to do this, football head. I'm capable of walking down there myself." She looked around at the hallways filled with kids going to their lockers.
"You and I both know you wouldn't go to the nurse unless we pushed you."
Helga rolled her eyes but stayed silent. She let the Football headed boy be a hero and walk her down to the nurse's office. Arnold intertwined their fingers and the girl focused on the weight of his hand in hers.
It was hard to ignore the burning in her stomach as she made her way to the nurse's office. She briefly wondered if the toast she lied about eating so effortlessly, would have been enough to stop the burning.
