LILA

"From cans of beans to a decent steak dinner, I think we're doing well at this point." daddy said with a smile as both of us enjoying our dinner on our new kitchen table he bought with his paycheck bonus. He decided to treat us with a steak dinner with buttery asparagus and crispy potatoes. Our dinner chat for tonight has been various topics of our past farm life, our struggles, and how we've been able to upgrade from simple pantry items to more satisfying dishes.

I do sometimes miss my childhood of living in the countryside of Pleasantville. I was surrounded by nature, animals, and cleaner fresh air. I always went out to explore and play outside with my old neighbors. I guess it explains my spiritual side. Everything changed when my mother passed away. Her final words to me were to always treat the world with kindness and since then, I live by her final wishes as much as possible. The world can be a bad place, but a bad world can never destroy a good heart. Mother's passing had led to me and daddy making the big decision to move to Hillwood for a new life.

The transition from the countryside to an urban area was a major change for me. Hillwood is a bustling town filled with more people, traffic, and noise compared to the quiet countryside. It took me and daddy a long time to adjust to the new surroundings, and now since we moved to a better area, I'm still finding new opportunities and experiences in Hillwood.

"So, how's everything going between you and Arnold?" daddy inquired with his voice filled with curiosity. "Have you two had any disagreements, fights, anything? The reason I'm asking is because I overheard a couple having an argument while I was buying the new table."

"We rarely have disagreements and I think we never really had fights." I have seen couples often find themselves in heated arguments and passionate debates. The closest argument we've ever had was when I told him that I felt that he doesn't spend enough time with me as he's always hanging out with his friends.

"We don't have any secrets from each other or anything."

"Everyone has secrets, Lila."

"I guess you're not wrong."

I guess a 'secret' that I do have is sometimes I think about Arnold's cousin, Arnie. I was drawn to Arnie's countryside upbringing but I guess I grew out of it. Hearing about ingredients of plain flavored gum and collecting lint eventually lost its charm. Although sometimes when I kiss Arnold, it feels like I'm kissing Arnie all over again. It's a strange mix of emotions that I can't quite explain even to myself.

"I've been meaning to ask you this. I know you and Arnold make out and everything, but have you and him…you know…gotten further?"

"We haven't." We did had a talk about…going further but I explained to him that I'm just not ready yet."

His question did catch me off guard for a second. We haven't crossed a certain line unlike most couples we know. I'm not sure if Gerald and Phoebe crossed that line. I couldn't never tell but honestly, it's none of my business.

"It's great that Arnold respects your boundaries. Arnold's one of the greatest person I ever met. I see a bright and promising future ahead for you too." daddy said with his eyes sparkling with hope and excitement. "Next thing you know, you both will be seniors in Hillwood High. And college is just around the corner."

"So when are you and your friend going to start practicing ballet together?"

"Next week. I'm going to text her later tonight to discuss our plans and routines." The thought of discussing the upcoming ballet sessions with Helga had filled me with joy. I'm very happy that my tutor is Helga as I have known her since fourth grade. Despite a few silly pranks and minor disagreements in the past, I know that me and Helga will have a good bond.

With each steak bite, I couldn't help but feel grateful for these small moments spent with daddy. We spent the rest of dinner with inside jokes, talked about our past vacations, making small plans for my upcoming college journey, and him making plans with his fulfilling career in substance use recovery.

Although in the back of my mind, I'm wondering what secrets Arnold might be keeping from me. Is there something he hasn't told me? Is there a side of him that I don't know about? Maybe Arnold's secrets are harmless, or maybe there's something that could change everything I thought I knew about him. This only fuels my curiosity further.

I'm finding myself to look into any secrets that Arnold has.

A/N: Appreciate all of the review comments so far! I was going to add this A/N after chapter 6, but since it's been a while, let's get into some behind the scenes about this whole thing :D

So, I was going to start rewriting and publishing this story in the beginning of 2023, but I decided to wait and give myself a full year of researching and learning on how to become a better writer, while living a life. Clearly, the wait was worth it but I still have a lot to learn.

This fanfic is a re-written of my first ever story, Arnold's Secret that was published back in Spring 2019 on this same fanfiction site. Then I wrote a sequel in summer 2019 called Rebirth and re-wrote the sequel in the fall called Resurrection. Resurrection was…let's say…extremely different. Could you imagine Helga joining a gang and Arnold doing cocaine? That was a part of Resurrection. I just wanted to make a different HA fanfic but oh boy, did I.

In early 2019, I got into watching HA again because it was one of my favorite shows from Nickelodeon being a 90s kid. Then I started to read HA fanfics when I was bored at work or at home. One day off, I was playing this video game called Catherine and switching to reading HA fanfics all day. Catherine is about playing this character who may, or may not, cheated on his girlfriend. It depends on how you played the character throughout the game.

It got me wondering if there were any fanfics about Arnold being a cheater. There are some fanfics of Arnold being bad, but nothing too serious. I didn't find any fanfics about Arnold, Helga, nobody having an affair at the time.

Later that evening, something in the back of my mind came into me when I was smoking (I'm a pothead btw) "…why don't I write MY OWN STORY about Arnold being a cheater? He can date Lila and be sneaky with Helga! I have no writing experience, but this needs to happen!" Then I just went from there.

If you are wondering, this story takes place well, "modern times" as there will be references of social media, modern music, cell phone/text messages, etc. This story will be in Arnold's, Helga's, and Lila's POVs. I do have an idea for a bonus Gerald/Phoebe POV chapter.

If anyone here has read Resurrection back then, nothing from that story WILL NOT be in this re-written. There will be a couple of weed references but that's it. If you're into anime and/or puzzle games, Catherine is a great game to play. Personally, I'm not into anime, I just enjoyed the game.

I finally moved into my new apartment, came back from vacation and officially settled into my new life routine, so I can finalllllllly focus more with the story so there will definitely be a chapter every 2-3 weeks on the weekends at this point.

And fyi, I DO NOT support relationship cheating in any way, shape, or form.

Stay tuned for more!

-SHF420 (05/29/24)