Everyone changes with time. A day, a week, a month, a year... they all count. So how much can a group of rag tag 4th graders from P.S. 118 change with junior high, high school, and a whole bunch of history between those seven years? A whole lot.
Years Later
Playing Catch Up
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
"Turn off that damn alarm!" Bob Pataki yelled from his favorite couch, downstairs in the family room.
Helga Geraldine Pataki wiggled underneath the warmth of her pink blanket before cautiously slipping one hand out from beneath its warm haven to slam the 'off' button on her alarm clock. Groggily, the teen rolled her legs off of her bed, letting her feet land on the cool wooden floor before she actually got out of her bed. She slipped on her Pink Panther slippers and shuffled to her closet only to haphazardly pull out an outfit for the beginning of the school year.
It was the same old thing, the same old way, but a different school year, although that did not mean that the same old routine did not apply.
She was making her way to the door leading to hallway when she passed her mirror and caught a glimpse of her reflection. She was sixteen and Helga could now see that she was taking a strong resemblance to a mixture between Olga and her mother when she was her age, the pre-Big Bob era. The Olga part irritated her, but something about looking like her mother when she was strong-willed flower child had its appeal… especially when it was combined with Helga's bubblegum pink streaks in her blonde hair.
With her customary smirk set in its usual place, Helga and headed to Hilda's room. Helga knew she had to go and get the first grader ready for school to drop her off at the early school club; after all, Big Bob would never raise a hand to help either of his two younger daughters. If Helga did not get Hilda ready for school, the girl would sleep in all day while Bob sat on the couch drinking alcohol in his potato like state or sat at a bar drinking alcohol in a potato like state. Either way it didn't matter, he simply wasn't apart of their lives, at least not in a positive factor.
It was almost a sad sight to see a man who once was believed to be invincible in such a wrecked state… almost.
He was all smiles when he found out that Miriam was pregnant with their third child, but when she died merely an hour after the delivery, Bob was in a constant state of brooding, occasionally turning to alcohol for comfort.
Olga moved in for a while to help with the baby, but when it came down to it, Helga was like Hilda's mother. A few years later, Olga moved out and got married to some young entrepreneur from a rich family, dropping the name Pataki and all ties with the name when she moved to Manhattan and began her career on Broadway. When Bob's business began to plummet due to the competition of Crazy Ced's Cell Phone's, drinking became his best friend and primary function.
The primary source of money coming into 1422 L Street was from Helga's job down at Patty's Diner, the short stories Helga managed to get published in small time magazines, and some money Helga had due to certain savings and investments she had made in junior high.
Helga opened the door of the room that used to be hers and smiled, Hilda slept in her bed, blissfully unaware of the world around her. Still innocent and wide eyed to the world, unlike her cynical and sarcastic older sister.
Same old thing, the same old day, basically, the same old way.
(Y/L)
Crinshaw High School was the center of Hillwood. It was a large high school made out of a mixture of tan and white bricks with three floors and a bell tower looming over the school, covered by what appeared to be a white glass dome. With its large and lush lawn surrounding the school and the school's perfect structure, Crinshaw High School was a picturesque image of what an All-American high school could and should be. Crinshaw High School was synonymous with Hillwood, even though Hillwood held three other high schools in its borders.
No, it wasn't because of the beautiful charming picture the school made.
And no, it definitely wasn't because academic achievements of Crinshaw, that was nearly off the charts compared to other high schools in the area.
No, the reasons above were certainly not the reasons why Hillwood along with Crinshaw was so well known, although, to many Crinshawnians, they were valid reasons why they should be. Oh no, the real reason why Crinshawnians were worshipped, as well as hated, by many was because of the Crinshaw High School Spartans, the Crinshawnian High School football team.
In every shop window around Hillwood, there was a red football schedule with bold black and white letters, as if the customers and the townsfolk actually needed help in remembering that their beloved Spartans played every Friday night.
The Crinshaw High Spartans Football team was worshiped and the players were officially gods among men in Hillwood.
No other sport was revered as much as football was in Hillwood, no expense was spared to make sure that all the boys were comfortable, none of them ever failed a class and maintained a 'B' average, even if they never showed up to class at all.
If someone was involved with a club that was tied to the football team, like the cheerleading squad, the spirit club, or even the school news paper, then they would be fortunate enough to receive some funding and help. All other activities were pushed into the background.
It didn't matter that the Multi-Cultural Club could not go to Manhattan last year because the money they needed was used to give the football team an advanced weight room, it didn't matter that the football team traveled by chartered buses, while every academic club car pooled or chauffeured by parents, and it definitely did not matter that the baseball team needed its field fix while the football team had it two fields and surroundings fixed up every month, even during the off season.
No, it definitely didn't matter.
Football was King and the other sports were lesser monarchs, if they even could even be considered monarchs compared to the all powerful Football. The King of the Crinshawnian crown was why every September 5th, when the football players came in on the first day of school, they all received their much deserved heroes' welcoming.
Gerald sped into the school parking lot not paying attention to the stares of admiration or the waves from people as he passed them by. He didn't even notice as people called out his name, no, he simply continued to drive until he spotted a group of familiar people. He drove up to were he could see Arnold, Lila, and Kamelia standing together on the sidewalk, obviously waiting for Gerald to walk up to them, only to be surprised that Mr. Johanssen arrived on wheels— four to be exact.
"Like my new ride?" He asked them when they finally noticed him.
Arnold looked at the dark blue Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder in shock. "How the hell did you get that? Did you steal it off the streets Johanssen?"
"My dad decided to buy it for me after my heroic, game-winning touchdown during the Grater Tournament. He gave it to me yesterday as an early birthday." Gerald said with a large smile on his face. "Do you think that if I play that well the winter and tournament season he'll buy me some rims to go with the car for senior year?"
Arnold only smiled at him as he ran a hand through his blonde hair. "Maybe, of maybe he'll just buy you a new car with new rims. I'll take yours if you don't need it."
Kamelia walked over to Gerald's car and playfully shoved Arnold out of her way before leaning into the car window. "Hey, enough with the car talk boys." The brunette pouted her dark caramel colored lips. "Gerald is forgetting to greet his girlfriend that he hasn't seen in seven whole hours."
"Hey Kammie," He smiled and tugged on one of her long wavy locks.
Kamelia swatted Gerald's hand from their hold on her hair. "What did I tell you about tugging on my hair, Mr. Joh—?"
Gerald pecked Kamelia on her lips. "I've missed you, Smurfette."
Smiling, Kamelia returned Gerald's kiss, "That's more like it, Mr. Football- Star-Running-Back. However I do remember telling you not to call me Smurfette."
Meanwhile, Lila walked over to where Arnold was standing, snuggling close to him as he put and arm around her waist. "You know Kammie, your boyfriend isn't the only football star." Lila said with a jokingly condescending voice, "My Arnold so happens to be the Spartans' all-American quarterback, who so happens to throw the football to Gerald so he can make those spectacular touchdowns."
Kamelia smiled at Lila, Lila smile at Kamelia as Arnold and Gerald traded a pair of grins.
It was the same old thing, the same old talk, the same old way. It was simply the same.
Arnold unintentionally tugged on his black, red, and white varsity Spartans football jacket. In fourth grade the Spartans never seemed important to any of the boys of P.S. 118. Once they had their junior high school orientation in 6th grade and learned about both the junior high and the high school, the only two words in the boys' vocabulary were football and Spartans.
In junior high, Arnold, Sid, Iggy, Park, Harold, Stinky, and Gerald made it onto the junior varsity football team. The team was great, the games were grueling, and the practices were damn near impossible to live through. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, that was only a training ground for the varsity football team of Crinshaw High School. In high school, only Arnold, Sid, Harold, and Gerald made it onto the football team. They were not surprised to find that Wolfgang was already on the team, but the real shock was that the group was able to get past their differences to become a close knitted group of friends.
Arnold Linshaw was known as the all-American quarterback with a golden arm and fast feet. Number twenty of the Spartans. He now stood a six foot and one inch and was very proud of the muscles he gained from all of the football training. Fortunately, his blonde hair no longer resembled an upside broom. He still had the signature had droopy blue eyes, but he now had a stud in his right ear just like Gerald, Wolfgang, Harold, and Sid did- it was a stupid spur of the moment thing they did while they were in another town in the summer. And Mr. Linshaw was the proud boyfriend of the girlfriend of his dreams, Lila Sawyer, one of the co-captains of the Spartans' cheerleaders.
Gerald Johanssen, number ten of the team, could always be counted on to convert the passes that Arnold threw him into points for the Spartans. Arnold usually threw the ball to him or Sid, they were the go to receivers on the team. Back in seventh grade he traded in his high top for a simple crew cut, and maybe that's why he was able to snag Kamelia Alba, the second Spartan cheerleader co-captain, as his girlfriend after going on a few isolated dates during ninth grade, before making it official in towards the end of tenth grade.
Sid Gifaldi, number nineteen, was Arnold's other go to football receiver. He was tall with dark eyes, his dark brown hair touched his shoulder, and he still sported a leather jacket—which seemed to make even more appealing. Girls always talked about how drop dead gorgeous he was whenever he walked down a hallway and it seemed that many girls in Crinshaw had a crush on him. It was too bad he never noticed. While Arnold and Gerald tended to surround themselves with the popular crowd, Sid was seen everywhere talking to everyone, not bothering to care what their "status" was in the high school. To put it simply, Mr. Gifaldi was a social butterfly at its height.
Harold Berman and Wolfgang Caldwell, respectively numbers twenty-five and fifty-four, were two maniacal defensive linemen. They were absolutely crazy and unstoppable on the field, once they had their eyes on their prey. The only way the poor guy could get off the field was on a stretcher. Harold's girlfriend was Rhonda, the third and last co-captain of the Spartans' cheerleaders.
These five men-boys made up the highest echelon of the Spartan team, therefore, the gods of the gods, and were rightly dubbed The Golden Ones… after all, how could anyone see it any other way?
(Y/L)
Rhonda Wellington Lloyd picked the same locker she had last year in the Popular section of lockers on the second floor of Crinshaw. As thorough as ever, Rhonda matched from her red halter top to her low slung white jeans to the perfectly colored red and white sneakers, to the a red Gucci barrel shaped bag hanging off her shoulder. After all, she was a Wellington, and that was simply what a Wellington did. She took out her mirror from her custom made book bag and hung it in her locker to inspect her impeccable layered hair.
Each year, each student was assigned a specific locker and each year, each student took the locker of their choice. It was simply the way Crinshaw operated.
Once Rhonda decided that her shoulder length layered hair was perfect, she started to put up her pictures in the locker.
"Hey." Rhonda looked up to see Nadine Robinson, a girl who no one back in the days of P.S. 118 would ever dare to think would actually wear a mini skirt and a tight top to school, opening a locker next to hers.
In junior high, Rhonda gave Nadine an ultimatum. Either she had to stop hanging around with geeks, playing with spiders and bugs, and became a popular cheerleader, or stop being friends with Rhonda and stay a geek. Needless to say, Nadine chose the former of the two options. Immediately, she threw out her bug collection, took her curly hair out of its customary style to rest in the middle of her back, and let Rhonda take her shopping.
"Look, there's Lila, Kammie, and Kay." Nadine said, pointing to the two figures heading their way.
Lila's father struck it rich when she was in eighth grade with some weird investments which people thought would fail in two months. But it seemed that either Mr. Sawyer was either very lucky or some type of financial genius, because the money in the investments started to double, then triple, then quadruple... in other words Mr. Sawyer became rich.
Filthy stinking rich.
He took some of his money and put in other successful investments, before he began to pour money into more investments in Hillwood. Before anyone could guess it Mr. Sawyer was richer than rich and moved his daughter and himself to the rich side of Hillwood, adeptly nicknamed "Hillywood".
Lila was instantly popular and became friends with The Fabulous Four—Kamelia, Rhonda, Kaylia, and Nadine. Afterwards, the group became known as The Fabulous Five, of course.
Kamelia and Kaylia Alba, identical twins down the beauty mark found on their pinkies, were introduced to the kids, or rather pre-teens, of P.S. 118 during the days of junior high school. Kamelia and Kaylia were from another part in Hillwood, so instead of going to P.S. 118, they attended Eugene K. Eriksson Elementary (Triple E for short). Even back then the two short Dominican girls were flirts— always flipping their shoulder length dark mahogany hair and batting their large hazel almond shaped eyes. Somehow, even though they were both identical and basically had the same personality, Kamelia had always been more popular than Kaylia, but, it seemed that Kaylia was definitely smarter than Kamelia. Kamelia and Kaylia, who were called Kammie and Kay-Kay by close friends, came from a very rich family; the Alba's had been in the jewelry business since the mid 1900s… so it came as no shock to the kids of P.S. 118 that Rhonda immediately befriended the two girls.
They were all cheerleaders—with Kamelia, Lila, and Rhonda as co-captains—and they were all popular, of course the fact that they all either knew or were dating The Golden Ones, didn't help boast their popularity at all.
The girls were all catching up on the latest gossip, as if they hadn't spent hours doing this the night before, when Kaylia caught sight of someone with blonde hair and pink streaks she elbowed Nadine who looked up and snickered then elbowed Rhonda, who elbowed Kamelia, who elbowed Lila.
"Freak alert." Nadine whispered to the other four girls. They all watched with arched eyebrows as Helga walked past them ignoring their whispers and comments. Helga G. Pataki was very much so unlike The Fabulous Five. Her two ears held at least twelve piercing holes combined, a silver necklace hanged from her neck, she had a tattoo on her right arm, and her bellybutton was pierced. She wore a pink wife beater with the Pink Panther smirking on it and had on slightly loose jeans with a worn pair of black sneakers. Her hair had two different lengths, one touched her shoulders, the other settled in the middle of her back. Two silver dangled from her pale neck, one, a semi-circle, the other was an insignia of some kind.
In lemans terms, she was different.
"Why doesn't that girl gain a fashion sense?" Lila said as she flipped her long auburn hair out of her face.
Rhonda snorted, "As if she could."
Kamelia laughed, "Oh please, Ronnie, she couldn't even afford to buy a fashion sense if wanted to."
Kaylia turned and gave her friends a stern glare," Now, now all, we shouldn't be mean to those who are less fortunate than us," Smirking, she added. "After all, she is too far gone for even the fashion gods to save her."
Nadine giggled. "Well, at least now she has two eyebrows."
The Fabulous Five laughed in the same old way they had been laughing for the same old years of their high school career, but Helga kept walking ignoring the laughs that were definitely being thrown at. She stopped when she caught sight of a small Asian girl opening a locker in the same old place her locker had been since she entered to Crinshaw three years ago. Helga walked up to the girl, who did not turn around, but knew Helga was there. "I took the liberty of saving you your locker."
"In other word Vega, you stood here and glared at anyone who dared to touch my locker."
The smaller girl shrugged her shoulders delicately and fixed the rimless glasses that were slowly making their way down her nose, "And what if I did Blondie?" She said smirking at her best friend, "Are you going to relinquish your locker… let me know because I need to know what trade in I'm gonna be spending my year next to."
After seventh grade, Phoebe Heyerdahl did not grow a millimeter and she was stuck at her four foot and eleven and half inches height. This made one Phoebe G. Heyerdahl very pissed, after all she was a half an inch away from being five feet, and there was no one in their right minds that would not be pissed. She had four pierces in each of her ears, coincidentally they appeared at the same time Helga got some of her ear piercings. Her hair stretched to reach a few inches below her waist, and it was her crowning glory, no pun intended. For the last seven years she had let her hair grow and come high hell, she made sure her hair was okay, even if it meant freezing her own butt in the cold during a winter snow storm—notoriously known as the Operation No-Snow-On- Prettiful-Hair-Incident by Phoebe and Helga.
Helga and Phoebe were leaning against their customary lockers of the Nobody Wing of Crinshaw when Nadine, Kamelia, Rhonda, Lila, and Kaylia walked past them. The group of five threw dirty looks at Phoebe and Helga, making their faces look as if they had just gotten a whiff of the boys' locker room after a summer day practice. It just wasn't pretty. Of course, not to be out done, Helga and Phoebe returned the glares… with sunshine smiles and large over exaggerated waves.
"I hope we have just as much fun as we did last year!" Phoebe said with sugary sweet grin on her face, not bothering to acknowledge the fact The Fabulous Five's glares only seemed to darken.
Once they turned the corner to go down to the Language Arts Wing, Phoebe turned and looked at Helga, "I guess they didn't know who should have the single brain that they share between them today so they decided it was best to just leave it at home."
Helga laughed, "It's the same old thing,"
"The same old way."
"Yea, I guess some things just don't change."
(Y/L)
Nope, I don't own Hey Arnold! If I did, I would be in Japan living in a penthouse and would have a personal airplane. Unfortunately, I don't.
Published: 7 04
Edited: 7 05
Re-edited: 12 05