Chapter 3:
Rudolph
Helga stared at the window at the corner of the gym. The sunlight was bright and drew her attention that way. That morning was tough. After hanging up on Arnold the night before, he was less than pleased in chemistry. They hardly said a word to each other. She had to keep her cool, she had no loyalty to Arnold, Lila was her friend first, he was basically starting over with Helga. She had to protect Lila, even from him. He couldn't very well expect her to just be a wing woman for him after everything they had been through, that wasn't fair to Lila either.
Lila had dated Bradley "The Machine" Pendanski from 8th grade to sophomore year. He was a year older than them and at the time, one of the most popular guys in school. He was on the varsity football team since he was a sophomore, which was unheard of before him. While he was sweet to her in 8th grade he slowly started becoming more and more of a douchebag. The popularity got to his head and soon enough he was treating Lila like shit and the rumors of him being caught in the supply closet with Abby Walker quickly spread. When Lila found out, she was heartbroken. When Helga found out, she punched Abby so hard her eye was purple for 3 weeks. The only reason she didn't get expelled was because she had enough witnesses to prove Abby threw hands too, and Abby was not going to ruin her reputation with the principal over a punch she clearly deserved.
She heard the smack before she felt the volleyball nearly crush her nose. Helga fell backwards but caught herself before hitting the floor. Her eyes adjusted and she saw from the other side of the net, Abby giving her a devilish grin. For once, she didn't even have the strength for a snide remark.
Mrs. Greene blew her whistle to pause the game. She ran over to her with a couple of other girls. "Come on Pataki, stop daydreaming. You ok?" Helga couldn't even think from the massive headache that hit gave her. Wow, she had to admit, Abby had quite the arm. "Never mind. Sawyer, Heyerdahl help her to the nurse's office."
Phoebe and Lila came to her rescue and slowly helped her out of the gym. If Helga wasn't in excruciating pain she was ready to rip Abby's nose off with her bare hands. Lila patted her back on their way out.
"What happened, Helga?" She asked.
Helga groaned. "I just have a lot on my mind."
Phoebe gave Helga a look, knowing that she knew Helga was talking about Arnold. Helga briefed her on the conversation in the morning when they were at Helga's locker. Phoebe was in agreement that Helga helping Arnold land a date with Lila was a bad idea. Even though Phoebe didn't say it to her face, she knew that Helga would lose her mind if her best friend started dating her former crush, especially when they had so many unfinished issues that neither of them could bring up. For Helga, it was easy to repress her feelings, but Phoebe knew that she was a ticking time bomb, if she had to watch Arnold fall for Lila again, she would surely crack.
Lila noticed the look right away and stopped walking before they made it to the office. "Since when do you two keep things from me?" She asked in her angry (while still somehow bubbly) voice.
To be honest, Helga was still not sure if she had a concussion so she wasn't 100% there in the conversation. Phoebe didn't want to say anything that might come back to bite them in the ass.
"It's not my secret to share," Helga admitted. "It's nothing bad, but it's something I promised to keep to myself."
"But you told Phoebe?" Lila seemed even more annoyed now. Lila had to live with the fact that Phoebe and Helga would always be the closer friends, she nearly always felt like a third wheel around them. She didn't have a special person like they did. She didn't talk about it often but it always made her feel like an outsider.
Helga sighed, she knew she would regret this, but she couldn't risk losing a friend for Arnold, not when he was still practically a stranger in her life. "Someone I know has a crush on you, and they want me to see if you're interested before they make a move."
Lila was caught by surprise, that surely was not what she was expecting. "Oh. Who is it?"
Helga wished the stupid volleyball had put her in a coma instead. Jesus, she just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. "It's Arnold Shortman."
Lila blinked. "Arnold? Does he still like me?"
Helga nodded.
"But Helga you…and you both…he's yours…" Helga confessed her feelings for Arnold years ago during their school play of Romeo and Juliet. Aside from Phoebe, she was one of the first people she ever told. She also knew about what happened between them in San Lorenzo. Lila had always made it clear to Arnold that her feelings for him were just platonic, but somehow Arnold was still hung up on her. After everything, even now, Lila would never date Arnold because he would always be Helga's first love.
"That was in the past, I don't want you to not go out with him just because of me. I'm over him." She didn't know if it was the bruised face talking, but for once it sounded pretty convincing.
"I would have to think about it, I'm not sure if dating is something I'm particularly interested in at the moment."
Helga groaned again, this time in pain. "Not to be any more of a cunt than I usually am, but can we maybe get me to the nurse now before the pain turns into rage?"
She felt the fatigue rush down her body and her head felt like it was 50 pounds heavier. Lila and Phoebe couldn't keep her up on their own, and Helga was going down. Before her body hit the cold hard ground, a third pair of arms hoisted her up. Her vision was blurry but she could make out Arnold's bright blond hair in front of her. He was cradling her in his chest.
"What happened to her!?" She heard him ask the girls.
"She was struck by a volleyball in PE, we were taking her to the nurse," Phoebe explained.
"I'll take her, I was just going back to class from the restroom." Helga felt them moving quicker down the hallway. Her eyes were closed but she wasn't sleeping, the fluorescent lights of the school were just not helping her migraine.
"I got you, Helga," Arnold whispered in her ear.
Helga spent the rest of second and third period being monitored by the school nurse to make sure she didn't have a concussion. Arnold wanted to stay with her but the nurse sent him back to class. The ice pack was doing nothing to keep her nose from bruising. As soon as she returned to class she glanced at herself in the mirror and saw the purplish reddish coloring to her nose. The nurse said she was lucky it wasn't broken.
She sat in the dugout at practice watching the rest of the team finish their drills. Coach didn't let her participate today but wanted her to be there observing anyway. Their first big game was coming up and she couldn't afford her starting pitcher to miss out on anything. Helga insisted on practicing too but was denied every time she asked. She sat there still in her street clothes and yet another ice pack to the nose. Abby only gave her triumphant glares but said nothing. Helga had no way of proving it was on purpose, she'd just have to get her back later.
"Hi." Helga was startled to see Arnold making his way down the dugout and sitting next to her on the bench.
"You're not supposed to be here," she warned him. "Don't you have practice too?"
Arnold nodded. "Yeah but I snuck out for a second. They won't miss me too much. How are you feeling?"
She crossed her arms over her chest, which prompted Arnold to scoot even closer to her. "I'm fine, why is everyone making a big deal? This was nothing."
Arnold wasn't looking at her, he was staring off at the field. Maybe it was a bad idea to be friends with Arnold, things were surely easier when they weren't. There was no way to avoid him, Phoebe and Gerald were like 2 peas in a pod. He would always be around.
"I'm sorry for asking you to talk to Lila for me, I realize that's not very attractive or cool to do. If I was Lila I would be turned off by it too."
She sighed, she knew she would regret this later. Maybe it was the savior complex she had developed as she grew up, but she wanted Arnold to be happy. "Lila isn't really looking to date anyone right now, but you should talk to her. Don't come off too strong about it, but get to know her."
"Are you sure?"
That question didn't sound like it was referring to him talking to Lila, the tone was more so asking Helga if she was fine with it. Maybe that was a big assumption to make, She didn't want to feed into her delusion. If Arnold cared at all about what had happened between them, he would have mentioned it when he got there. Clearly, he was over it too.
"I'm not Lila's keeper," Helga said. "Please keep me out of it. If you're going to be pursuing my best friend, then don't bring that up in conversation with me."
She heard the whistle blow front the distance. They looked up and saw Coach Mai with an ugly frown on her face and her hands on her hips. "Arnold Shortman, get out of my field and back to your own side!"
Arnold's face turned red and stood up to leave. The girls were giggling and making stupid remarks as he walked away, directed at both of them. She scoffed. As if they've never seen a guy before. This was so stupid.
The girls came rushing over to take a water break. The side eyes and whispers made her want to pounce like a hungry lioness. Abby pranced down there too and went to grab her water bottle from the floor. She sat down next to it and took a long drink.
"Wow Pataki, you and the new guy? I mean it makes sense, no one that actually knows your reputation in Hillwood would ever want to face those social repercussions." Abby tried her best to belittle Helga, when the truth was Helga was relatively well liked. Her bad rep came from the softball girls. None of them were too happy to see her get a varsity spot as a first year softball player. Even though she should have understood that she was doing nearly the same work on the baseball team, she still took a spot from someone else that was now stuck on JV as a junior.
"Not that it's any of your fucking business, but Arnold isn't entirely new, and him and I are not a thing. He's just my friend," Helga clarified.
"Yeah that makes more sense. A guy like him interested in you? Let's be serious." Abby giggled along with a couple of other girls listening in on the conversation. Helga didn't care to learn their names.
"Aw, you sad you don't have your next victim? You know you don't have to resort to the antiquated crime of adultery, I'm sure Arnold would be interested in not sneaking around and being caught in closets. I mean he usually prefers his girlfriends to be human, but egotistical, obnoxious, conniving trolls might be his type."
Abby smiled begrudgingly. "Careful Pataki, you already have a shiny red nose, wouldn't want it anywhere else, Rudolph."
His teammates continued to poke fun at him for ditching practice to hang out with Helga and getting the yelling of his life from Coach Wilson. Everyone on the team knew Helga, and they were surprised she would even give him the time of day. She didn't really, she was being colder than usual. He thought they were past the bickering but for some reason Lila was a sore subject for Helga. At first, he suspected that maybe it was due to their history, but Helga wouldn't say that was it. In fact, she seemed more than fine with Arnold having feelings for Lila.
Arnold gathered his stuff and headed for the locker room after practice. The other guys were already jogging along, but Arnold wasn't in the mood to get there any faster. Maybe he should just hold his horses. He was still the new kid and adjusting to life in Hillwood again, he shouldn't be rushing into a relationship anyway. It was also totally possible that Lila had no interest in him, which in that case made him sulking totally pointless.
The girls softball teams were being let out of practice then too. Some of the varsity girls walked by giggling at the sight of him. Hopefully he would be old news tomorrow. Before he made it to the boy's locker room door, he noticed Lila walk in front of him drinking from her water bottle. She noticed him and nearly choked on the water.
Arnold walked up to her as she started coughing and handed her a clean tissue he had in his pocket. "Hey, Lila are you alright?"
Lila composed herself and wiped her face with the napkin. "Excuse me, Arnold, that is so embarrassing. Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking."
Lila was smiling a shy smile. It almost looked like she was nervous around him. Arnold didn't know if this was the best moment to ask that haunting question, but he did know that if he didn't do it now, he wouldn't do it at all. There were a lot of uncertainties in doing this, but he had to give it a shot. He couldn't live with the idea of not knowing what would have happened if he never tried. The worst thing she could say was no, and that wasn't going to kill him.
"Lila, I was wondering, if you maybe wanted to hang out sometime, just you and me?" He asked.
Lila stared at him for what felt like hours. Her eyes were shifting to him and to something behind him. She looked unsure but she finally said, "yeah- yes Arnold, I would like that."
As much as this was eating her up inside, Helga couldn't help but watch. She was far enough away that Arnold wouldn't hear her, she was about to go home when she saw Arnold stop Lila to talk. She knew it was a yes when Arnold pulled out his phone and Lila took it from him and started typing.
She was happy for them, sure her and Arnold had history, but that didn't mean he was hers to keep. Lila was one of her best friends, and if Arnold could make her happy then she had to support that. But then why did this feel like a stab in the back?
Helga made her way to the parking lot to wait for her ride. She had to shake this feeling away. Sure, Arnold would spend more of his time with Lila, but that didn't mean their friendship was entirely over. Plus she could hang out with Phoebe some more. This wasn't the end of the world.
Helga sat on the curb by herself. She hugged her knees and rested her cheek on them. She nearly forgot that Arnold was her ride today. Fuck. Ok she had other options. She pulled out her phone and was about to text Gerald when she was startled by a car horn. She looked up and saw a blue sedan slowly approaching her.
She stood up and saw Sam Roth, the captain of the baseball team, roll his window down. "Hey Pataki, do you need a ride?"
Helga and Sam were friendly but not exactly friends. He was a senior and they didn't talk outside of baseball, so they hadn't talked at all that school year, aside from the occasional wave in the hallway. She would have given him a sarcastic response but just then she turned back and saw Arnold walking toward the parking lot. "Yes, please, I would like that."