Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold! The events of "Hey Arnold! The Movie" never happened in this timeline.

The Picture

By Moonlight

Chatter filled the halls of PS 118. Gossip about what the day's lunch was, who was caught cheating on the latest math test, or what fights were going to happen in the playground after school. A group of 6th grade girls were gathered outside the girl's bathroom, giggling about who they thought was wearing the cutest outfit. Some second graders were running through the halls throwing paper airplanes while Principal Wartz chased them down, warning them about school rules and the consequences of running in the building. It was a typical day.

Arnold walked into the classroom and took his seat. Drowning out the sound of his classmates, he opened his textbook and began to read the passage, before he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Are you really just now starting to read last night's chapter?"

He turned to face the source of the voice that had spoken to him. Dark, curly hair and a friendly smile stood before him. "Good morning, Gerald." He said in a slightly tired voice. A yawn escaped his lips before he continued, "Nah. I was just reviewing some key points. You never know when there could be a pop quiz or something. Why don't we review together?"

Gerald took a seat next to his best friend, "You think of everything, my man. But I don't think I'll take the extra time to do that. I've got some other stuff to take care of." He laughed, pulling out a comic book, "I'm almost done with this chapter, and MAN it's getting good."

"Sounds good, Gerald." Arnold returns to his book before being interrupted once again by a familiar voice.

"Out of the way, Sid. You're blocking the path to my seat!"

He looked up to see exactly who he thought it was. Helga was pushing her way through the crowd of students as she made her way to the back of the room, as usual. He never understood why she had to be so ill tempered all the time. There was something about her that she wouldn't open up about herself. Arnold had always known she was hiding another side of her personality.

His thoughts were cut off by a spitball smacking into the back of his head. He turned to, once again, see Helga laughing at the shenanigan she just committed.

"Alright, class!"

The voices died down at the sound of Mr. Simmons' cheerfulness.

All eyes on the front of the classroom, the man happily threw his arms in the air, "I have a very special assignment for everyone! You're going to love this!" he exclaimed.

"I reckon this is going to really bite" Stinky groaned.

Simmons frowned for a split second before responding to the comment, "No. Stinky, it's going to be fun! Today you will all be checking out a camera from the school and you will be doing a photography assignment!"

The class groaned.

"Your assignment will be to take a picture of something you're passionate about" he said with his usual excited tone of voice, "You can, and are encouraged to take more than one photo until you find the perfect one! All of your pictures will be displayed in the hallway, outside our classroom. Isn't it exciting?!"

Rhonda pulled out her compact mirror and stared deeply at her reflection.

"Are you going to be taking a picture of yourself, Rhonda?"

"Precisely, Nadine!" she responds matter-of-factly, "Of course my beauty is my passion. I mean, I DO spend SO much time deciding how I want to look every single day."

"I'm going to take a picture of my Armadillidiidae collection! They're such amazing creatures. They curl into a little ball as a form of defense against predators!"

Helga couldn't help but overhear their conversation and chimed in with one of her typical comments, "Of COURSE Rhonda wouldn't think about anything being more important to her than herself. I mean look at her stare at that mirror! She's practically drooling." She laughed.

Rhonda closed her compact in slight agitation and turned to glare at the blonde girl in pink, "So WHAT? I don't see you being passionate about anything except your awful ego, Helga."

She scowled briefly before responding, "As a matter of fact, you're WRONG, Rhonda. I DO have something I'm passionate about and it's definitely NOT THAT." She scoffed.

"So what is it, then?"

Helga could feel her cheeks flush and a bead of sweat threatened to run down her forehead. "It's… u-uhh…" her eyes frantically darted around the room trying to find some random, mundane item she could lie about, "It's… a…"

"Well?" Rhonda said impatiently.

"A… W—why do YOU need to know, anyway?" she finally managed as she sat back in her chair and stared ahead of her at Arnold, who had been watching the whole thing happen. "What are YOU looking at, football-head?!"

The boy sighed in defeat and returned to his book.

"THAT'S what I THOUGHT."

Arnold wondered what it was she was referring to. It was interesting to him that Helga was so passionate about something she wouldn't mention. A part of him wanted to know what it was, but he guessed he would have to wait until all of the pictures were displayed at the end of the assignment.

Helga sighed dreamily as she stared at the back of the boy's head. She couldn't tell Rhonda or anyone in the class what her passion was. She thought about taking pictures of her hair bow instead of her real passion. It did mean a lot to her, as it was the first thing Arnold had commented on about her when they were kids.

"That's it", she quietly said to herself. "I'll take a picture of my bow."

Gerald leaned in towards Arnold, "Lemme guess. You're going to take a picture of… a baseball game. I'll have my man, Fuzzy Slippers, get us some good seats to the next game so you can get good shots." He said confidently.

"Actually, Gerald, I was thinking of going out to the park and getting some pictures of the scenery. I feel like I connect more with that. But thank you for the offer." He smiled and got up to follow the rest of the class to pick up his assigned camera.

It was getting late, Helga noticed, as the sun started to set before her. She made her way to the park where she felt she could be alone and not have to bear with her dysfunctional family's commotion. The previous night, like EVERY night, it was the same thing. Miriam was passed out drunk on the couch only waking up for moments at a time whenever Big Bob whined loudly enough about what they were going to have for dinner that she was too lazy to cook for him. All Helga could do was search the kitchen cupboards to find some random snack and hide in her room for the rest of the evening.

So of course she didn't want to head home. Instead, she admired the scenery before her. The soft breeze blowing through her pigtails and the gorgeous colors of the setting sun soothed her.

"Well, I guess I need to get a picture of my bow." She said to herself as she pulled out her camera and turned it around and up to point the lens at the top of her head.

Click.

She looked at the display and groaned slightly at the picture. She had aimed terribly.

Click.

Click.

Click.

"Criminy! I don't think I can get a proper picture of this thing unless I take it off or have someone else take the picture for me." She set the camera down on the bench next to her and reached into her dress to pull out her locket. "Oh Arnold. If I were getting a picture of you, it would be perfect!" She spoke to the photo as if it could hear her, "I mean, you're so photogenic with that odd-shaped head of yours."

A swoon escaped her lips.

From across the park, Arnold walked slowly, looking through the pictures he had already taken this afternoon. He hadn't really liked the pictures he took enough to use them for the assignment.

"I need something better" he said as he lifted the camera to take another picture. He scanned the park for a moment, before he spotted Helga on the bench across the way. She had an expression on her face that Arnold had only seen on rare occasions. A soft smile and a dreamy look in her eyes.

Click.

He paused to look at the picture, happy that he was able to capture such a rare sight of his classmate.

Click.

Again, he took a glance at the photo and admired the shot. "Wow. That actually looks really nice." He said. The colors of the sunset painted the background complimented the expression Helga dawned. "It flows so well. I'll use this one."

He decided to walk up and ask her for permission to use the photo, but was greeted the usual Helga way.

"CRIMINY! Don't sneak up on me like that, football-head! You're going to give me a heart attack!" She exclaimed, stumbling out of the bench and shoving the locket back into her dress.

Arnold frowned and, as usual, apologized for startling her. "Sorry, Helga. I was just coming over to-"

"To WHAT? KILL me?" She scoffed and dusted herself off before picking up her camera.

"-to ask you if it's okay to-" cut off once again, he resigned himself to forget asking her about it.

Helga practically threw her camera his way, "Speaking of asking for favors, take a picture of my bow, will yah? I'm having a hard time getting a good angle on the darned thing and it's driving me NUTS."

The boy juggled the cameras in his hands briefly before setting his on the bench behind Helga and pointing hers at her face. "Sure. So your bow is special to you?" He asked.

"What's it to you, hairboy?" She scowled.

"Nothing." He said and smiled faintly, "I just think it's pretty cute."

Helga felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment, and before she could compose herself, Arnold snapped the picture, checked the image quickly, and handed her the camera back. "It looks pretty good!" He said happily as he collected his device and turned in the direction of the boarding house, "Want me to walk you home?"

"W-wa..." She shook her head furiously before collecting her thoughts, "Fine. But don't expect me to do you any favors in return."

"Whatever you say, Helga."

They both headed out of the park and to their respective homes as the sun completely set behind them.

Arnold made his way through the hall, passing a very lively grandma who was dancing around the living space in a red Spanish dress and a somewhat ridiculous fruit hat.

"Welcome home, Kimba!" She announced as an apple rolled off of her head onto the floor in front of Arnold.

He picked it up and returned her smile, "Hi grandma."

With that, he walked up to his room and closed the door behind him. It was unusually quiet this evening in the boarding house, but he payed no mind and instead hopped onto his computer and plugged in the camera to review the pictures. As it loaded, he took a few bites out of the apple in his hand.

The familiar sound of a successfully connected device chimed through the speakers and he excitedly opened the folder of photos he collected earlier.

He sifted through many shots of trees, the sky, and a few pedestrians that he had spotted at the park and then came to the last two pictures.

Admiring the color balance and placement of the bench Helga was sitting on, he noticed she was embracing something. "Hmm?" He hummed as he zoomed in to the picture.

It was some sort of jewelry.

"That must be very special to her," he said to himself as he analyzed her content expression, "I wonder why she didn't just take a picture of that for her assignment?" Her half-open eyes seemed to twinkle and her mouth was curled into a dazzling smile. "This is it. The colors and the expression are amazing."

He dragged the image into his desktop and then remembered there was one last photo on the camera.

Returning to the previous window, he opened up the last file. He scanned the image quickly and noticed the jewelry she has holding was more visible in this shot.

Feeling like it was a slight violation of her privacy, he hesitated before zooming into the image.

"It's a locket!" He chimed, "There's a picture in there..."

He zoomed in further until the image became slightly pixelated and finally recognized the figure in the locket.

His eyes grew wide and the apple slipped out of his hand into his lap.

"It's...me?"

Moonlight: Whooo. That was longer than I expected this to be. This is my first Hey Arnold! Story, so please review and let me know what you think so far! :)