Wolfgang and Nadine [COMPLETED] | a Hey Arnold! Fanfic

Chapter 5

Poor, poor inquisitive Nadine. Curiosity had gotten the best of her.

One minute she was vacuuming the living room while Wolfgang was using the washroom.  The next minute, there she was, standing on her tiptoes, reaching for the very book Wolfgang had forbade her to touch on the first day in his household.

Every day since the Monday, Wolfgang would leave in the afternoon to some undisclosed location. He was so secretive about where he was going, and yet every time Nadine chanced to ask about his whereabouts, he would either flat out ignore the question or remind her that she was a fourth grader, and therefore not privy to such valuable information. But today Nadine was determined to uncover the mystery, with or without Wolfgang's approval.

Nadine could only stretch so tall; at last, just as the chair she was standing on threatened to topple underneath her, she got hold of the book and leapt back to solid ground.

She opened the book and was surprised to see that it was actually a photo album. In it, there were a lot of photos of Wolfgang and his father, and some of his fifth grade friends. But towards the end of the album, Nadine spotted a single photograph of a very young girl with messy, curly hair, the same blonde colour as Wolfgang's.

Nadine heard the sound of a toilet flushing. Quickly, she jumped back and the chair and put the photo album in the same place that she had found it. In her haste, however, she hadn't realized the picture of the little girl had fallen out and now lay on the floor. Nadine hurried to scoop up the picture and hide it behind her back just as Wolfgang entered the living room.

"Well, I guess it looks alright in here, fourth grader," he said, inspecting the cleanliness of the living room. "I guess you can go early today. I've got some errands to run anyway."

"Great! Then I guess I'll just...get going then...going on home...to my house...right now...bye!" As she said this, Nadine purposely sidestepped away from Wolfgang so he couldn't see what she was hiding behind her back, but when she got to the front door she literally bolted outside.

After about 20 minutes, Wolfgang also left the house. He then waited at the usual bus stop and was driven away. This time, however, Nadine had been spying on him from across the street, behind a row of trash cans. Just as the bus was out of sight, she hopped on her bike and followed it along its route.

Nadine's travels took her to the other side of the city. She was exhausted from trailing the bus and was contemplating giving up her mission, when she saw Wolfgang finally disembark and walk toward a large hospital. Nadine locked up her bike and followed him inside, but at a distance. Peering from the entranceway, Nadine saw Wolfgang say a few words to a woman behind the reception desk, and then make his way to an open elevator to the left of the reception area. Once the elevator doors were closed, Nadine approached the woman behind the desk.

"Excuse me, miss," she said, fishing the photograph out of her pocket and presenting it to the woman. "I think the boy you were just talking to dropped this."

"Oh dear," said the woman. "Well, I suppose you can give it to me, and I'll give it back to him when he leaves."

"I can give it to him," replied Nadine. "I'm on my way up anyway to visit my great-uncle Geoffrey."

"Aren't you sweet?" the woman wrote the floor and room number on a slip of paper and handed it to Nadine.

"Thanks," said Nadine as she made her way to the same elevator Wolfgang had used.

She got off at the fifth floor. As soon as she walked into the hallway, Nadine was forced to duck behind a potted plant; Wolfgang was only a few feet away, and talking to another woman, this time a tired but pleasant-looking older lady with the same Wolfgang-blond hair, cut into a bob. Eventually they both entered one of the rooms along the corridor.

Now Nadine's curiosity was piqued; she simply had to know who Wolfgang was visiting in that room. But how to get a closer look without getting noticed? Nadine looked to her right; on the opposite end of the hall from Wolfgang, she spotted a room labeled "Laundry", with the door ajar. Five minutes later, she emerged from the same room wearing oversized white scrubs and a surgical mask to conceal her identity.

Keeping as inconspicuous as possible, Nadine peeked into the room that Wolfgang and the woman had entered. The two of them were standing around a hospital bed; sitting in the bed was the same young girl that was in the photograph. She looked a lot paler here, but she was all smiles couldn't be happier to have her two guests. What was even more startling was how Wolfgang in particular regarded the girl. He returned her smiles (though his eyes looked a little bit sadder), and he even placed his hand on her head and rustled her thick, blond, unruly curls. This was a side to Wolfgang no fourth-grader had ever seen before, but Nadine was glad to bear witness to it.

"There you are!"

Nadine's heart stopped. She turned around and was face to face with a stern-looking plump nurse with short red curly hair staring her down. "And just what do you think you're doing?"

"I-I...uh...I mean..."

"Don't you know what time it is?"

"Huh?"

The nurse took Nadine firmly by the hand and practically dragged her down the hall into another room. "Mr. Thompson is due for his sponge bath."

"Sponge bath?! Wait...you don't understand, I think there's been a mistake...!"

"Don't try to talk your way out of this one! Your name is on the roster, clear as day, and it says it's your turn to give Thompson his sponge bath. So get to it!"

The nurse placed a large sponge in her hand and exited the room, leaving Nadine alone with a scruffy-looking elderly man fast asleep in a tub.

Hands shaking, Nadine slowly approached the tub and dipped the sponge in the water. As she thought about fleeing, the nurse returned and folded her arms, blocking her only means of escape.

Trapped, Nadine had no other choice than to attempt to clean Thompson. But as soon as the damp sponge made contact with his back, the old man snapped wide awake.

"Krauts! Dangnabbit! The Krauts got us surrounded, we're under attack!"

Thompson threw his hands up in the air and started making siren noises, at which point Nadine lost all her resolve and accidentally sent the sponge flying across the room, hitting the nurse square in the face. Momentarily blinded and disoriented from the soapy water assault, the nurse failed to see that the sponge had then dropped right in front of her feet, and when she stepped on it, she pratfalled onto the ground.

Nadine took her window of opportunity and ran out of the room. Just when she thought she was home free, however, Nadine bumped into something solid and fell to the floor, losing her mask in the process. She looked up and there, standing before her, practically towering over her, was a not-at-all pleased Wolfgang.

There were no two ways about it. She was BUSTED.