All right, here we go with the final chapter! It's been a long time coming, but I'm glad to finally get this out of the way! Let's see how this cute Arnda story concludes! Anyway, enjoy!

It was a beautiful evening outside as Arnold and Rhonda, holding hands, made it back to the duplex after a long day of film shooting. The two of them were having a good time, laughing as they were looking up at each other.

"I can't believe that the director had me as a star for an episode!" Rhonda giggled.

"It is very unbelievable." Arnold smiled. "Glad to see the director saw a lot of potential in you for a good actress!"

Rhonda giggled a bit as she put a hand over her head dramatically. "Well, I HAVE been known to be a little dramatic, as Helga so often puts it…"

"Oh, you're not that dramatic." Arnold laughed. "If anything, you did great for your scenes, and even though they were quick scenes to shoot, you rocked it."

"That director was pretty firm in keeping this little subplot, especially after everything that Curly did to you…" Rhonda gave a small sigh.

"I… I honestly didn't expect him to do something like that… I mean, I know he has his moments, but I didn't think he'd go this far… first the whole toy gun incident, now trying to drown me… sometimes, I wonder if Curly really LISTENS to my advice…" Arnold said with a sigh.

"Don't worry about him, Arnold. I know you're always so eager to help, and you see the best in everyone, but Curly… well, sometimes, crazy people like him just think… differently." Rhonda sighed. "God, I can't believe he'd go through all this trouble just because he's obsessed over me…"

"Yeah… I don't think he's going to get lucky with a girl anytime soon, especially after THAT." Arnold said with a frown, before giving a smile towards Rhonda. "Still, despite everything with Curly, I actually had a great time this week."

"Oh yeah… I guess our spring break week is about to end soon, ain't it?" Rhonda said as she looked over towards the setting sun. She sat down near the beach as she gave a sigh. "One more night and in the morning, my parents and I will be back in Hillwood."

"Same with me, my grandparents and the boarders." Arnold said, sitting alongside her. "Still, at least we had a lot of fun out there…"

"Yeah, I took a lot of vacations with my family before, but I'll admit, this is the most fun I ever had…" Rhonda smiled towards Arnold.

Arnold smiled right back at Rhonda as he looked right back at her. "Rhonda, I just want to say, I'm glad you had fun, as… well, before you came along, I just thought I'd go through a normal week, having some time in the sun and having fun… but when you came along, I think you just made my week even better."

"You did too, Arnold. Because, when I learned about what a duplex was, I was fearing the worst in that I would get some bad neighbors… well, bad as in party goers or mid-class family or something, and I'd have to isolate myself alone while my parents were off doing more of their 'fun' stuff." Rhonda said with a sad sigh, before perking up. "I had no idea that you would be my neighbor, but I'm glad you were… and I'm also happy we spent a lot of time with each other, despite everything that happened with Curly."

"That's good…" Arnold smiled as he gave pause as he turned to Rhonda. "Rhonda, can I tell you something?"

"Anything, doll." Rhonda giggled.

"I know we had a lot of fun out there on the beach, and sometimes, it's a shame when the week has to come to an end and we have to go back to school…" Arnold said.

"Yeah, it's going to be an interesting thing to talk about with my friends, how you and I had the most wonderful time out there…" Rhonda giggled. "Knowing all of them, they'll probably think we're dating or something…"

"Well… would you like to?" Arnold asked as he looked up.

Rhonda blinked in confusion. "Would I like to what?"

"Date, date… would you like to go out with me?" Arnold asked, almost realizing what he was doing was bold, even for him, and yet… it felt right.

Rhonda's eyes widened in surprise as she stared at her friend. Going out… with Arnold Shortman? She couldn't believe her ears, and yet, the idea of her and Arnold dating… It strangely felt right.

Arnold chuckled a bit as he blushed. "I-I mean, I had a lot of fun with you, Rhonda, and during that week we spent with each other, the sandcastles, the beach activities, the film shooting… and now this? I think I've built like, a bit of a deeper connection with you than I ever had before. Like, there was something there that wasn't even there before."

"I… I actually felt that way too, when we were spending time together." Rhonda smiled as she leaned closer to him.

The young football-headed kid smiled as he put his hand on Rhonda's, both kid's hearts starting to beat faster as they looked into each other's eyes.

Rhonda continued. "It's just… what we have is… very strong… in fact, deep, you could say."

"So… you're saying…" Arnold smiled.

"Arnold Philip Shortman… I would love to go out with you." Rhonda smiled. "Because I think I… no, I KNOW I'm in love with you."

"Rhonda Wellington Lloyd…" Arnold's eyes lit up in delight as the two moved closer to each other…

About a few moments before this, Curly was carrying a large bucket of water balloons with a slight chuckle as he held one up, while at the same time, eying his target. "All right, just one lob of this vinegar-filled balloon, and BOOM! Romance done, out of the way, and Rhonda comes crying, fainting right into my arms!"

Curly chuckled to himself as he looked over and noted Arnold and Rhonda getting close… a little too close. Giving a frown, Curly armed the water/vinegar balloon in hand, intending to throw it… but, unfortunately for him, before he could make the first throw, he found himself getting choked on the neck, causing him to drop the balloon on his feet.

"GACK!"

Curly quickly found himself being dragged over by an irate Helga, who narrowed her eyes towards him. Curly tried to flash an innocent smile, as she shook her head.

"All right, Curly, I tried to give you a warning, but apparently, it meant nothing to you…" Helga frowned. "Looks like I'll have to use force…"

"Force?" Curly asked in confusion. "What type of force?"

Helga smirked as Curly's eyes began to shrink from under his glasses.

…and made lip contact with the young girl, giving Rhonda the surprise of her life.

Arnold couldn't believe his eyes as he realized that he was getting bold… he knew Gerald told him Arnold was a bold kid, but Arnold didn't think he'd be this bold to attempt kissing Rhonda. But Rhonda… she didn't mind the kiss… in fact, she closed her eyes and put her arms around the young boy, deepening the kiss further as the sun gave the perfect setting light on this beautiful moment.

The kiss lasted a good ten, maybe twenty seconds before they separated as the two of them looked at each other, their eyes now filled with love.

"Rhonda, I love you too." Arnold said with a smile.

The young girl giggled as she continued staring. "I can tell…"

The two could only smile as they laid there in the sand, just looking at each other as the hours ticked themselves away. Well, minutes, actually. They didn't know how long they were looking at each other happily, but Rhonda and Arnold did attempt another kiss as they deepened it further than before. As they separated a second time, though, they heard a loud squeal of pain for a brief moment, before a muffled sound was heard.

"Did you hear something?" Arnold asked.

"Yeah…" Rhonda blinked twice as they listened for anything more. After a moment, Rhonda gave a nervous chuckle. "Must have been somebody having a surfing accident."

"I guess it was." Arnold nodded, although for some reason, he felt that it was something a little more than that.

After a moment, Rhonda smiled as she looked over to Arnold. "You know, Arnold, if we still had that beach ball, I'd have asked you for one more game of catch…"

"Yeah, but what can you do? Our beach ball got busted…" Arnold sighed.

At that moment, the two heard a cough as they turned to see Helga approaching, holding up a beach ball that seemed to be patched up and put it down. "Here you go. I wanted to patch this up as an apology for how I acted the first couple of days…"

"Oh, wow…" Rhonda gasped as she looked over at the ball. "Did you really patch this up, Helga?"

"In my spare time." Helga chuckled. "You'd be surprised what a good roll of duct tape would do… plus, you're not the only one with strong lungs, princess…"

"Well, we appreciate what you've done for us, Helga." Arnold smiled as he picked up the beach ball.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Helga rolled her eyes before taking a deep breath. "So… I guess it's true then. You two are dating now?"

Arnold noted the slight disappointed tone in Helga's voice as he gave a frown. "Yes, Helga. Rhonda and I are dating now. Is that going to be a problem?"

Helga held up a finger as she took a deep breath, before shaking her head. "No, not at all. It's your life, football head. Who am I to tell you about who to date or not? Although, I will admit… out of any potential girl that could tickle your fancy, I suppose Rhonda isn't a bad choice…"

She then turned to Rhonda as she gave a nod, "And Rhonda, if you really think you and football head could make a good dating pair, then I'll give my support… half-heartedly. Just make sure to take good care of him, all right?"

Rhonda looked a bit confused at the blonde's odd request, but gave a shrug. "Well… sure, Helga. That won't be a problem…"

"And hey, if it helps, I'll just pretend to be surprised when you two come in and declare your dating status." Helga chuckled.

"You don't have to do that, Helga." Arnold said. "But thanks for appreciating and understanding our relationship… and thanks for fixing our ball… and for helping in saving me and Rhonda from Curly's antics…"

"Hey, I did what I had to do." Helga gave a groan as she held her head. "Although this doesn't exactly change anything between you and me at school, okay?"

Rhonda gave a small eye roll. "Typical Pataki behavior… but thanks, Helga. I really appreciate what you could in keeping Curly away from me… where is he, anyway?"

"Oh, don't worry. After he tried to separate you two again, I figured I'd give him a good punishment… don't worry, I'll let him out eventually… when you two are safe in the duplex." Helga nodded. "Okay, I guess I'll be on my way…"

Arnold paused briefly as he quickly whispered to Rhonda, her eyes widening at Arnold's request. The young girl then thought about it as Helga was about to head on her way, before giving a smile and nod. "Hey, Helga?"

The blonde turned in curiosity to see Arnold and Rhonda smiling, with Rhonda saying, "You don't have to join us if you want, but we could use a third catcher for a… Monkey in the Middle game?"

Helga blinked in surprise, before giving a smirk. "Well, well, then just watch me as I make you the monkey!"

"Oh, dream on, Pataki." Rhonda laughed as Arnold gave a small smile.

"Okay, just remember, we're all having fun here, okay?" Arnold asked as the three of them went over to the clearing as Helga set herself up in the middle.

"Don't worry, football head. I'm just going to show you just how much of a good catcher I am!" Helga laughed. "I mean, Rhonda's good, but she's not great."

"Hey, I'll have you know I caught footballs before!" Rhonda argued.

"Sure, when you're down to dirty yourself in your best clothes, you want to play football, but heaven forbid you want to ruin your favorite bikini." Helga taunted playfully.

"Okay, Helga, let's see you try and catch THIS ball!" Rhonda laughed as she threw the ball over Helga's head. Helga tried to jump at it, but she missed as Arnold caught it.

And so, Arnold, Rhonda and Helga spent their time playing their little game of Monkey in the Middle, just as Arnold's grandparents and Rhonda's parents, back from their trip down to the 'special' beach, were coming back and watching over the three as Buckley gave a smile.

"Look at them, having a lot of fun together." Buckley said.

"Just goes to show you, kids can have just as much fun." Phil laughed. "Oh, I remember my days as a kid playing with a large rubber ball like that, right Pookie?"

"Just like the old days of the War!" Gertrude smirked, falling back on her usual 'crazy' persona.

"Well, whatever the case is, I'm just happy our little pride and joy managed to find herself a nice, young man." Brooke smiled happily. "I think those two are going to last for a very, VERY long time…"

As the parents and grandparents continued to watch this game of Monkey in the Middle, it would seem things were leading to a last good night… and a beautiful ending to boot…

Not too far away, back on the other beach, Curly's head was trying to struggle out of the predicament he was in, as at that moment, he was squealing in pain thanks to a lobster that was pinching his nose, AND he was buried up to his neck in sand.

"This is an outrage, you can't do this to me! I demand to know who SUGGESTED this karmic treatment!" Curly shouted in anger.

Not too far away from them, another duplex was seen, as two figures were watching over the trapped Curly. The first figure was a twelve year old blonde haired girl in a Chinese outfit and red shoes, and the other figure was a black and white furred Siamese cat with a lone buck tooth.

"Should we tell him?" The second figure, known as Bucky Katt, asked.

"Hmmm… we could… but…" Pudding Fong, the first figure, gave a giggle as she crossed her arms. "I still remember what he did to me in Monkey Mania… so… let's let him suffer…"

The cat paused before giving a shrug as he stretched a bit, with the girl just shaking her head and watching.

From the looks of things, Curly was going to be stuck in this position for QUITE a while.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TAILSFAN2022 ON DEVIANTART! HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS STORY!

Orange Ratchet Story

"That's All, Folks!"

An Orange-Ratchet Fanfiction

And with that, the final chapter is done! Now, my final thoughts!

It had been quite a while since I did an Arnda story, especially a multi-chaptered one, but when someone wanted to see this specific Arnda scenario for their birthday, I wasn't one to turn it down. Of course, I realized I had to make it multi-chaptered rather than a one-shot request, since, well, the scenario TailsFan2022 gave me was more multi-chaptered request than one-shot. But for what it's worth, I'm glad I managed to do it, and I'm sorry I took a little longer to complete the request (taking me almost the whole summer to do it), but I'm glad I was able to do it, and glad to turn in a good Arnda story in the process! I had a lot of fun writing this, and it does inspire me to go back to my other Arnda stories that I have on hold for a while...

But I'm not going to do that... not yet. First, I want to focus on doing the next section results AND the next section of the Tournament of Kikai 2 on Archive Of Our Own, THEN I'll try and focus on the other requests and Arnda materials... so, until then, be patient, more will be coming on the way!

Anyway, what did you guys think of this story? For all you Arnda fans out there, did you enjoy it? I'd like to hear your feedback! Anyway, thank you all for reading, and have a very wonderful day!