October 22nd 3:45pm
Helga didn't know how she ended up talking with this social worker. Who had introduced herself as Melody. She should've been on a new bus heading out of state. Though she supposed she would have to go through this sooner or later. She couldn't live on the streets forever. Besides she was hours away from HillWood with a new name and as far as anyone would know, her parents are dead. They wouldn't find out who she really was. They couldn't.
"Well Hannah," the woman across the table finished writing whatever had written and looked up at Helga. "I'm going to do some digging to see if we can find any of your living relatives. But for now, I'll have to find temporary placement for you." Melody closed her folder. "I'll get all your information put into the system tonight or early tomorrow morning. Stay right here while I go talk to Summer, ok?"
Helga nodded. As Melody went to talk to Summer, Helga pulled out her book she had packed. She didn't want to see all the people starring at the strange new girl who looked very much out of place. Helga just got to chapter three when she heard a loud gasp.
"No way!" Helga peeked over her book to see a brunette girl her age starring wide eyed at her. "You have the new Nerdy Girls book?"
"Uh. Yeah."
The girl with wild curls and a white bow in her hair threw her backpack and dived into the seat across from from her. "What chapter are you on? Who's your favorite character? I only got to book 4, but I'm DYING to get my hands on the new one!"
Helga blinked surprised at this girl's apparent excitement. Instinctively she opened her mouth about to tell the girl to get lost, but then she quickly closed it remembering she was not supposed to be a bully anymore. She set the book down, her face began to heat up unsure what to say. "I uh."
"Don't bother the girl, Skylar!" The two girls turned their attention to a boy standing beside their table. The boy, like the girl had brown curly hair. "She doesn't wanna listen to you talk about some stupid book."
"Like you would know what girls want, River." Skylar crossed her arms.
"It-it's ok." Helga tried her best to smile and look Skylar in the eyes. "I'm on chapter three and Jayleen is my favorite character."
Skylar jumped in her seat with excitement. "Jayleen is my favorite character too!" She pointed at River "This is my older brother River, and I'm Skylar, what's your name?" The girl stuck out her hand for a shake, which Helga did meet.
"I'm Hannah."
"Hey guys, why is Summer talking with your social worker?" A boy with messy blonde hair and hazel eyes had walked up to the table with milkshakes in hand. The two siblings shrugged their shoulders as they took their drinks. Then the boy spotted Helga. "Who's this?"
Skylar smiled widely. "This is Hannah!" She pointed at the boy next to her brother. "That's Shane. He's River's friend."
"Hey." Shane gave a salute. Helga just gave a pathetic wave. "I haven't seen you around before, where are you from?"
"Oh uh." Helga needed to limit her lies. Too many and she'll have a hard time keeping track. "I'm originally from HillWood, but I've moved a around a lot."
"Hey! My great uncle and cousin are from HillWood!"
Before Helga could respond she spotted Melody and Summer walking over to their table.
"Perfect timing you guys! I see you all met." Summer smiled. "I got some good news." She turned to look at Helga with that same bright smile she gave the others. "Hannah, you're going to be staying with us for a while. Is that ok?"
Helga turned her head and saw Skylar, River, and Shane all staring at her surprised. To be honest, Helga probably looked equally as surprised. She turned back to Summer. "Us?"
"Skylar and River are my foster kids. I officially adopted them last year."
Helga looked back at the other kids. Skylar was wearing a hopeful smile. "You can share a room with me." She whispered.
Helga looked at Melody who gave a small nod. Then she locked eyes with Summer again. "Ok."
October 22nd 5:00pm
"No." Phoebe growled.
Phoebe was standing in the doorway of her front door looking back at the last two idiots she wanted to see right now.
"Babe, please." Gerald reached out for her hand. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry?!" Phoebe swatted his hand away. "Sorry doesn't bring her back home Gerald! I know what you said yesterday. You don't even know what you did!"
"Actually," Arnold spoke up. "I think we do." His face was bright red.
Gerald threw his hands up in surrender. "In my defense I didn't know until 30 minutes ago."
"You. Do?" Phoebe looked between both boys raising her brow.
"Helga admitted everything to me on the FTI building back in 4th grade." Arnold looked to the ground too embarrassed to make eye contact.
"So you knew," Phoebe crossed her arms. "and you STILL had the audacity to talk about her behind her back?!"
"Hey! He was defending her!" Gerald put a protective arm in front of Arnold. "I was the one doing all that talking. I didn't know but now I do, and trust me babe, all we want to do is find her."
Phoebe rolled her eyes and looked up at the tree in her yard trying her best to hold back tears.
"Please Phoebe." His voice was small, almost a whisper. Phoebe always known Gerald to be a confident speaker. His voice was always strong and bright. This time he sounded weary, and unsure. She sighed.
"You guys have 10 minutes."
October 22nd 6:33pm Pataki household
Olga Pataki opened the front door of her parents house and stepped inside. She just got off the plane two hours ago. It took everything in her not to sob the whole plane ride.
"Mom?!" She dropped her bag by the door. "Dad?!"
Miriam was the first to run down stairs. "Olga! You're here!" The mother and daughter ran into each others arms and Olga immediately started crying.
"Have you heard anything?"
"They found surveillance videos of her walking to the bus stop," Miriam pulled away. "but they couldn't find what bus she went on."
"Oh my baby sister!" Olga wiped tears away from her face but it was pointless because there were only more tears coming. "What if she's hurt? What if she's hungry?"
"Baby we can't think like that. We have to hope she's ok." Miriam rubbed her daughter's hair.
"Where's daddy?"
"He's out searching for Helga. He made flyers and has been out there for hours. I stayed here Incase she came back or the police called."
Olga nodded. Still rubbing away tears. "That's good." She looked at her mom. "You said she left a note? Miriam nodded and pulled from the hallway table then handed it to her. Olga just stared at the note in her hands not wanting to open it.
"Why don't I go make you some dinner? I'm sure you're tired and hungry after your flight." Miriam kissed Olga's head before walking into the kitchen.
Olga walked up stairs and slowly made her way to her sister's bedroom. She opened the door as if her sister was in there and would yell at her to get out. But she wasn't there. The room felt empty without its owner. She looked around. The room seemed unchanged since she last been home.
Olga walked over to the bed and sat down. The comforter was a sold soft pink. It matched most of the things in Helga's room. Pink is her favorite color. Olga grabbed one of the small pink heart shaped pillows laying on the bed, and hugged it to her chest. This was a pillow she had bought Helga for Valentine's Day one year.
Taking a deep breath, Olga opened the note she sister had left in her disappearance. Silently reading, she remembered a conversation they had when Helga was in the 4th grade.
--
"Ok, so here's the deal." Helga put her hands on her hips. "You didn't get a B"
Olga looked up at her sister standing next to her bed. Olga sniffled as she moved the blanket off her head. "What? What are you talking about?"
Helga rolled her eyes. "You got straight As." She crossed her arms. "As usual, and I was jealous so I changed the grade. Get it?"
At this Olga lifted her head. "You mean, I really did get all As?"
"That's right. So you can get out of bed and prance around the house like Mary Sunshine again." Helga took a seat on the bed and crossed her arms again. "You can go can go back to being the golden child, and go ahead and tell Mom and Dad what I did, so they'll reward you and punish me like they always do. Everything's back to normal, bucko."
Olga wiped her mascara off her face with a tissue without taking her eyes off her baby sister. "That was a pretty terrible thing to do."
"Yeah, yeah. What's new? Get on with it. Tell mom and dad."
"Well, I could do that. I should do that. But I'm not going to tell them."
Helga looked back at her sister confused. "Uh. What's your angle?"
Olga shook her head. "There's no angle Helga. They don't have to know everything that goes on between us. You must think I'm pretty lucky, all the attention I get from them. I have to perform all the time like some kind of wind-up doll, I get really sick of it. You're lucky they hardly even notice you."
Helga gave her a slight smile. "Really?"
Olga gave her a smile on return. "Really."
--
Now sitting here, in her missing sister's room, Olga was wondering who really was the lucky one out of the two. Helga didn't even believe her parents would notice she was missing. How invisible must she have felt? No wonder Helga held such resentment towards her. Olga had their parents love all to herself. She never felt unloved or unwanted. That's all Helga ever felt.
This is what broke Olga. She laid down on the bed and just sobbed. All she wanted to do right now was hug her sister and tell her how much she loves her. She wanted to give her anything and everything she wanted. She wanted her to be safe. She was terrified that she wasn't.