Feeling Empty (A Hey Arnold Story)

Only Human

It had been a little over three weeks since it had all started. Her parents had called her over to their scale and had her weigh herself. She had seen their faces when they looked at the results, it looked like they had just been told that their stocks crashed again.

Ever since then they had gradually started giving her less and less food. First only letting her have one serving, then getting rid of evert0hen they stopped giving her an allowance so she couldn't buy any food anywhere else. They weighed her every day and wrote it down in a notebook. If they noticed she had gained even a pound, they had her excercise for hours to burn it off.

They also had her call up her friends to play sports every day. Her friends had been a little weirded out by this because Helga was usually the one organizing the sports.

"What's with the recent rush of sports? I didn't know Hillwood was in Olympic season." Helga said in her sneering voice over the phone.

"Yeah Rhonda, why have you been so eager to play lately?" Nadine asked.

"Boy howdy! Again?! My arm is still sore from yesterday!" Sid whined.

"I just want to take advantage of the good weather, is that such a bad thing?"

"I reckon not bein' able to feel yer legs is a bad thang"

"Can you guys just suck it up and meet me at Gerald Field in ten?"

"This really bites!"

"Fine princess, but you better make sure Nancy Spumoni shows up at my funeral."

-

"I'm worried about her," Nadine said watching Rhonda run home for an 'appointment,' "She's been acting weird this past week."

"I'm with Nadine on this one, the princess is off. And is it just me, or did she look skinnier or something?" Helga added.

"Should we tell someone?" Arnold wondered aloud.

"Who is there to tell? We don't even know what's going on." Gerald replied sadly.

----------

Rhonda scanned the lunchroom for an open table. Usually she'd just sit with Nadine and the other girls, but she was afraid they'd notice that she didn't have her lunch bag today.

Her parents had made her a lunch that she could pretend to eat so no one would get suspicious, although Nadine always seemed to notice something was off. They were sitting with their boyfriends today anyway.

After their adventure in the jungle Helga and Arnold and Gerald and Phoebe had started going out (the latter of which had shocked her when she had first found out).

After they had started sixth grade, Sid and Nadine started going out as well and Stinky and Lila had started getting flirty. They had never officially started dating, but they basically were at this point.

She had initially thought she would be the first one of her friends to get a boyfriend, but she somehow ended up being one of the last ones left single. This didn't really bother her, but she had always thought it would be kind of nice to have someone to love you unconditionally at your disposal.

Just then she noticed an open table only occupied by one person, but of course. Of course that occupant was Harold Berman.

She didn't have anything against sitting with Harold, she actually kind of wanted to, it's just that she had just gotten him off her mind.

Rhonda wouldn't admit it, but she'd been harboring a crush on Harold for a few years now and she wasn't exactly sure why. She did her best to hide it from everyone, even herself, because she knew no one would approve.

With everything going on at home she had been thinking about him a lot less. She could even lie to herself and say she didn't like him at all. But she knew in the back of her mind that if she could pick out of all the guys in school to be her boyfriend, she'd still pick Harold.

-

Rhonda sat down at Harold's table much to his surprise.

"Oh hi Rhonda."

"Hey Harold."

Rhonda rested her head on her left hand and stared off into space. Usually sitting across from her crush would make her giddy and nervous, but she didn't have the energy today. She was exhausted and especially hungry.

Harold looked inside his lunch bag skeptically before pulling out an apple. He looked over at Rhonda, surprised at how.. distant she seemed.

"Are you okay?" Harold asked looking genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine." Rhonda replied, not even looking at him.

"You sure? You don't have any food."

"Yeah, I..forgot it at home."

"Oh...well.. you can have mine if you want. My dad has been trying to get me to eat healthier so he's been packing me all this weird stuff. It doesn't taste as bad as it looks though." He said pushing his lunch toward her.

"Wow, thanks Harold. That's really sweet." She smiled at him, the first time she had in the past week.

"Don't mention it." He smiled back.

---

A/N: When you see ten dashes
(like ---------) this indicates a change in setting. I realized that the chapters I wrote are much shorter than I had originally thought so I kind of just mashed three chapters into one on here. I hope it's not too confusing!

I see "Human" by Christina Perri fitting this chapter because of the theme of having breaking points. Rhonda's parents are putting a lot on her but neither them nor Rhonda realize how much it is weighing (no pun intended) down on her.

I see Rhonda in a position where she knows something is wrong but she doesn't realize just how wrong it is. She has been raised to believe her parents are always right, so she doesn't question them. Sadly, this is taking a toll on her because as a human you can only take so much.

"Words in my head, knives in my heart"

"You build me up and then I fall apart"

"I can take so much, 'till I've had enough"