The next day, on her way back from work, Helga's car breaks down. This means for her that she would have to ask her father for rides to and from work for a couple of days. It was Day 1 and she was dressed and ready to go. She jumps into the passenger seat of the car and waits for her dad to start it up. She would have just driven his truck but he needed to do things for himself. Besides, he never really trusted her enough with it. They rode silently for a minute just enjoying the view of the many houses. Finally Big Bob says, "It's such a nice day out today."
Not wanting to start a fight, Helga just agrees slightly miserably and keeps staring out the window. It is of course, a beautifully warm, fall day and Helga gets to spend it flipping burgers for about 8 hours and by the time she is able to leave, the sun will have already set. She was originally going to spend the day with Arnold as he would teach her to relax a bit more. As much as she hated spending more time with him, she knew it was inevitable to her recovery from being a bitch. She was actually extremely excited when they had made the plans. Then she found out about work, and she was sorry that she couldn't hide her extreme distaste.
Her father questioned her tone. Deciding to take an honest approach, Helga responds by telling her dad exactly what she thinks. "I hate that it's such a beautiful day and I have to spend it behind a counter. And what's worse is that next week I have to work 8 hours a day, three days in a row."
It was Helga's first job and she was not quite used to long schedules quite yet. Besides, her father wanted her opinion...so she gave it to him. He was not very pleased with what she had said. "listen up little lady. Don't you think there are days when I wanna just sit in front of the tv all day?"
"You mean like yesterday?" Helga replies. Luckily for her, her father was not really listening to her.
Instead he goes on a rant about how much of a spoiled brat she is. "I mean look at Olga. She has millions ofextracurriculars. She has jobs with twice the amount of hours as you and is she complaining. Of course not. You need a job. Me and Miriam sure as hell aren't gonna support you for the rest of your life."
"I never said I didn't want a job. Remember I was the one who applied for the job in the first place."
All of a sudden Big Bob's large hand come crashing down on the arm rest near Helga's own arm. She jumps and opens the door, running into work as he starts screaming about her. She gets dressed in the bathroom and walks over to a table. She plays with her phone trying to decide if she should call Arnold. After all, she is early so she can't start yet. After about a minute, Blythe joins her.
He sits down and for some reason she can't help but to smile a bit. She holds her Ipod in front of her face, hoping that it would help shelter her from him. He says Hi, forcing her to then put her Ipod down. She doesn't care how mad she is at her father or how angry she is that she didn't say the things that she really wanted to say, because there was absolutely no way that she was going to let Blythe see her upset. She cannot think of any reason, however, to smile, but for some reason she does. She suspects that she is smiling because she is away from Big Bob, but that is not how Blythe sees it from the other side.
"So." Blythe starts. "How is this 'Arnold' doing?"
Helga blatantly groans.
Blythe laughs and says, "That bad?"
"He knows that I like him, of course. But it's like, as soon as he knew, he almost started showing interest. Almost. Well no, technically he practically ignored me. Since then he either likes me or he still ignores me. Sources say that he likes me now but I don't know. I understand that I am not the best person to be around, but why should that make it okay for him to treat me like I have no feelings."
"That's not okay." Blythe says nonchalant. "Everyone has feelings. I mean, take me for example. People look at me and they see a stuck up rich boy, but I'm really not. I am probably the most chill person you will ever meet."
Helga chuckles softly. She gets mad for allowing herself to almost cry in front of him, but forces a smile to show that nothing is wrong.
"Now, I have a feeling that this Arnold guy may not be the reason that you seemed upset before I sat down."
"Yeah, as if I am really going to tell you about it, geekbait." Helga says angrily, remembering a word that she had not used in a long time. She remembers that she needs to be less angry and she adds, with a certain haste in her voice, "Besides you wouldn't want to hear the story anyway."
"Why not, I have time. My shift doesn't start for about half an hour." Blythe smiles.
"Cool." Helga shrugs with her anger clearly shining through. "Fortunately, my shift starts now."
Helga smirks and walks to the front counter where she punches in. She looks to the side where she can see Blythe looking down at his phone. She rolls her eyes and gets to work. They don't make eye contact for the rest of the night.