Hey Arnold: The teenage Years

You can hang up now!

Stepping into her closet, Helga pushed back the hanging clothes to reveling a miniature dark room. There she worked on a roll of film she had been trying to save from her mother's "smoothie" mishap for the last few days.

A gentle knock could faintly be heard at her bedroom door, "Workin on photos!" Helga then heard the door opening behind her. The light in her bedroom had been turned off, letting Helga know who it was. "What do you think, Football Head? Can ya make this one out?" She held up a freshly developed photo.

Leaning in closer, Arnold tried his best, "Is it...Abner riding a roller coaster?"

Tilting her head to look up at Arnold, Helga didn't hold back in her sarcastic tone, "Oh, yeah! Thought I'd take him on a trip to Dinoland and had to take some pictures to savor the memory." She then let out a loud groan. "Dammit! Not a single one of these has come out right!"

Arnold frowned, "I'm sorry, Helga. Was there anything special on the roll?"

"Mainly just some photo's from the beach. Was hoping to add the photo of this years sand castle to our collect, but oh well! No biggy. Just gotta wait till we whoop everyone's butts again next year." She grinned as she stood on her toes to give Arnold a peck on the cheek.

Helga then cleaned up her work space before leaving the closet, shutting off the red light behind her. She then watched Arnold wondered around her room, looking over old photos and pages of poems taped to her walls. Pausing at a group photo of the couple, their two best friends, and Olga. He chuckled at the look on an eleven year old Helga as her sister tightly squeezed her. He remembered Helga wanting to take this photo as their first together as a couple. She had been so nervous to ask that the second the question left her lips, she covered it up by claiming that Phoebe really just wanted a photo with Gerald. As they all stood together, Arnold had grabbed hold of Helga's hand, happy to have her accept it. Just as the timer almost ran out though, Olga jumped into the photo and pulled Helga in for a hug. Arnold placed a finger on their still clasped hands. Thankful that it had made it into the shot.

"Just came over to reminisce?"

Arnold jumped a little as he was pulled back to the present. "Oh, uh, no." He let out a small laugh.

Something about his demeanor felt off. Helga crossed her arms. "What's up then?" Arnold shifted on his heels. "Is something wrong?" Helga felt slightly worried.

Holding up his hands, he shook his head. "No, no! Everything fine." His girlfriend raised an eyebrow at him, making him rub his upper arm and look away. "Okay...maybe not everything." Going on to explain his nightmares, Arnold felt a bit of a weight lifted off him again, like when he had spoken to Gerald. "So, do you think Dr. Bliss would be willing to help me find a doctor?"

"Doy, Arnoldo. The lady lives and breathes to help every one."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

Helga nudged Arnold. "We both know I have a soft spot for dorks like you guys." She then crossed her arms. "I'm just a bit ticked off that you've been keeping these dreams to yourself for, what? Like a month! Come on, Arnold! You can't be doing this sort of thing all the time! You gotta stop acting like you're all hunky dory, meanwhile being totally cool helping everyone else out. Take it from an expert, it's okay to be a bit selfish sometimes and take time to just worry about yourself."

Arnold rolled his eyes with a smile. "Yeah, yeah. I know." He then placed his arms around her neck and pulled Helga in for a hug.

----

After leaving Arnold outside the large office building of Dr. Willburg, Helga moved on to next task of the day...following up with an old friend.

"Listen here, Lloyd. We aren't pals, okay? I'm not doing anymore snooping for you unless you pay up first."

With a dramatic moan, Rhonda dug into her purse for her wallet. "Will this do?"

Holy shit that's a lot of dough! Who gives a fifteen year old this much cash! "Guess it'll have to do for now." Helga snatched the money and shoved it into her pocket.

"Remember! No one can know about this! Do not tell a soul!"

"My lips are sealed, princess."

Rhonda pointed a finger, "I mean it! Not even Arnold can know. I can't imagine how Harold would react..."

Helga let out a snort. "Oh, yeah. Like I'm gonna tell Football Head that I'm snooping on your boyfriend for the tenth time because, once again, you're worried he's cheating."

"I can not believe you still call him that." Rhonda shook her head, "I mean really, Helga, isn't it strange? He's your boyfriend."

"Yeah? And your point?"

"I just couldn't image calling Harold something like that." Smirking she added, "Can't image he gets too turned on hearing you call out 'oh, Football Head!'"

Helga simply shrugged, "Well, hey, bet it's beats worrying someone will call out the wrong name." And with that, Helga left.

------

"Guess you're really gonna come in handy now, huh?" The girl slipped the strap of her camera over her head and spent the rest of her afternoon eating pork rinds on Herald's fire escape. "Jesus. Does this guy ever move? It's been hours and all he's done is watch corny football movies while crying into that stupid stuffed animal." She whispered to herself.

Eventually Helga grew tired. Feeling that the few pictures she had gotten would be enough to hopefully ease Rhonda's worries.

-----

Now at home, she pulled her phone into the back of her closet before dialing Sunset Arms. Only ringing a couple of times before a women's voice answered, "Sunset Arms boarding house, how can I help you?"

With a snort, Helga replied, "Just need to get a hold of teen boy. Got any of those runin around?"

"Oh, just one. You like blondies?" Stella waved over to her son, who had just finished washing up his dinner plate.

"Eh...that depends. Is he easy on the eyes?"

Looking her son up and down, Stella answered, "As long as you don't mind tiny blue hats or flannels."

"Sounds like my kind of guy. Go ahead and put him on, would ya?"

"Sure thing, miss. Gotta let you know though, I charge $20 bucks an hour for phone calls with this one."

Helga let out a breath. "Kind of steep, don't ya think?"

"You think that's bad? Guess how much I charge if you try to scre..."

"Mom!" Arnold yanked the phone from his now hysterical mother. "Helga? You two have to stop doing this!"

"Doing what? I'm just trying to have a nice conversation with your mom."

Arnold rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Just give me a second to run upstairs." He handed the phone back to his mom, but not before giving her another warning. Once he had finally made it up the stairs, he catch them at it again. "Okay, Mom! You can hang up now!"