Hey Arnold: I Promise You That

The Tryouts

It took a while before Sarah made a decision to tryout for the school team but with the support of Ms Space during her Learning Support session on the same day, Sarah thought she would tryout for the school scorer team.

That day was a Thursday and normally, Sarah was free on Thursday's and Friday's. Monday, she would have tuition with Ms Space on Maths and Science. Tuesday, she would have Mr Simmons teaching her English Literature. (Apparently, Ms Space had told him about Sarah's love for literature and considering that both teachers thought that Sarah was confident in History, they decided to give her extra help to boost her confidence.) And Wednesday's were with Arnold. It didn't matter if it was Geography or their History project with Helga, Wednesday's were special for the boarding house. They residents and Arnold's family were happy to see her. She brought joy into the house - and it was great to see her smile.

But sometimes on a Thursday or Friday, some of her friends were busy. On dates, hanging out with their family or their other circles of friends. These were boring for Sarah and staying inside the flat with her stepfamily were extremely depressing; especially now that Cassandra was ranting on about money. The family were struggling to pay the bills since Cassandra became broke from failing sales. Business wasn't good for her fashion company and it wasn't going improve anytime soon.

That does it, she thought, I'm going to the tryout.

—-

Sarah put her name down for the tryout on the school's noticeboard hours earlier during lunch. She wanted to be quick because 1) she knew the hall was going to be overcrowded and 2) she didn't want to be late; Sarah promised to sit with Helga, Phoebe and Gerald. Arnold was absent as he was sick with the flu. Sarah noticed that he was under the weather yesterday as he was coughing and sneezing every 60 seconds.

Helga was distraught that her love was sick but she didn't blame Sarah. It wasn't her fault that Arnold was sick - everybody gets the flu anyway.

"So, Britannia, I saw your name on the scorer sheet", said Helga.

"Yes", replied Sarah, "I thought about it for a while and I wanted to try something new. Besides, if you don't try, you never know".

"Good for you, Sar", Phoebe said excitingly. "You certainly have done the right thing".

"We always knew you could play scorer", Gerald said.

"I wouldn't say that", Sarah replied. "But, let's just say that it'll help me increase my confidence".

—-

The school bell rang, drawing another day to a close. Gerald and Phoebe were going on a date to the movie theatre (or the cinema - as Sarah said that was another name for it in the UK), while poor Helga had to go home as her older sister, Olga was coming home for a visit.

So, Sarah was on her own again. But, she had something to do.

Sarah entered on the pitch in her P.E kit, feeling nervous about the whole experience. She felt that she was going into a drama audition, expect there are no words, no script and no stage. Instead, it's just a ball, a field and a group of girls. Sarah lined sat down on the bench; her fingers were shaking and she was breathing heavily. Stage fright? More like game fright.

"What, are YOU doing here?" cried a voice.

Sarah's eyes gazed up from the ground to a familiar face that was above her.

"Rhonda..." Sarah said quietly. "I'm trying out for the team".

"FYI, no you are not!" Rhonda snapped. "Freaks are not allowed!"