His Return ~ HA! [BEING RE-WRITTEN]

F O U R

Updated: Thursday, July 7 2016
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Mar 27, 8:28am

Arnold's P.O.V

It's been a few days since the faire.
Helga's still been pretty nice to me and I'm hoping its permanent. Setting that aside, my parents were coming into town sometime tonight. I figured since its been a few weeks since I've seen them, we could go out for dinner or something.

My phone began to ring.

"Hello?"

"Is this the line of Arnold Shortman?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

"As a matter of fact, it is. Who is this?" I responded.

"It's Eduardo."

Realization hit me like a truck. "Oh hey Eduardo," I sat back and crossed my legs, "What did you call about?"

"It's about your parents."
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Mar 27, 9:02am

Helga's P.O.V

I shut my locker and gathered together my books and things, walking to first period. I noticed Arnold wasn't at his locker which meant he was really late. That worried me, because that wasn't like him at all. He was mister goodie-two-shoes who would literally die if he even accidentally stepped on a fly. Curious, I decided to skip class to see if he showed.

I stood by the water fountain and about twelve minutes later he showed up, so I pretended to walk to my locker.

I looked over at him and he had a sense of worry/disappointment/fear plastered on his face. He looked completely restless, not to mention terrible. (That was more of an overreaction because he always looks great, but meaning he didn't take much care of himself that morning.) He slugged himself around until he finally looked over at me.

"Hey, Helga." He said weakly. Even though he seemed upset he still bothered to speak to me.

"What's wrong..?" I asked after a few seconds, my expression obviously worried.He just shook his head- not meeting my eyes.

"Want to talk about it later..?" By now even I was acting hysterical. I've never seen Arnold look so unhappy before. Nor have I been so concerned. He nodded followed by a sigh.

"Feel better, Arnold.." I waved goodbye. He dragged himself to chemistry, his first period. Don't ask how I know that.

I had French, my only class with Phoebe. I decided to talk to her about this whole situation.

"Late again, Pataki?" Mrs. Vonto raised an eyebrow.

I gave her a hall pass I'd been saving (since I was too worried about Arnold to think up an excuse) and she told me to go to my seat. I sat next to Phoebe who was obviously already curious to why I was late.

The last ten minutes of class we were allowed to speak quietly since we had all finished our assignments. That was when Phoebe asked,

"Why were you late Helga?" She pushed her glasses back up on her nose.

"What does it matter Pheebs? It's not like it's the first time."I leaned back in my chair, crossed my arms and played dumb.

"I don't know Helga, I know you skip class and all a lot of the time, but you seem troubled. Come on, fess up. I know this wasn't one of your I-just-don't-feel-like-it skips." She raised her eyebrows and looked at me in all seriousness.

"Alright fine, but don't laugh alright?" I said quietly.

"I promise, Helga."

"I didn't see Arnold this morning so I got worried. I stood by his locker until he came and he looked -unhappy. Anyways, I asked him what was wrong but he didn't really say anything. It's just unlike him, you know?" I explained  all in one breath.

She nodded, as if slowly processing my words. She looked like she understood.

"I think it's great that you're concerned, Helga."

"Never mind that Phoebe, what do you think I should do? You always know what I should do in these types of situations." I said sternly.

"I think you should try to figure out what's wrong, but if he doesn't want to talk about it, give him some time for it to wear off. He'll share when he feels he needs to." She interpreted.

"You're right Phoebe. Thanks."

With that the bell rang, and the amazing Phoebe waved and headed to her locker. Honestly, what in the heck what I do without her?

Second period I had Theatre. Arnold wasn't in that class, but I had him third. If I didn't get it out of him then I could always try again at lunch.

Second flew by like a breeze, and I trudged to third hoping to catch Arnold there early, but to my surprise when the bell rang he wasn't there, nor was he for the rest of the period.
At lunch I decided that the only person who'd probably know what had happened was his best friend. I found Gerald in the lunchroom sitting next to Phoebe and tapped his shoulder.

"Huh?" He turned my direction.

"Oh, how's it going Helga?" He asked.

"Nothing, just wondering if you knew where Arnold was?" I asked, giving him a glare to not ask any questions, just answer. He seemed to understand.

"Well he told me he was leaving early passing period of second, but he really didn't give me any details as to why-" I was walking away before he could finish.

"Thanks Geraldo!" I trudged away, secretly frustrated at how I'm no closer to figuring out what was up with Arnold.

I was exiting the cafeteria when a sudden voice stopped me.

"Helga Pataki. You got a minute?"

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In case of any confusion over this chapter, Eduardo was an long-time friend of Arnold's parents, who lived up in San Lorenzo. He was the person who brought them back to San Lorenzo (when Arnold was one year old)  to help the people whom lived there, when they went missing until Arnold turned ten. I chose him for the devastating phone call that Arnold had received because he out of all people would know what had been happening with Arnold's parents.

Thank you for reading so far and keep reading because I'm not revealing anything here. :) In other news, I just did three chapters in one day! Wow! Stay cool my friends.

-DarkestUniverse