Chapter 5: More Practice

It was at last Monday morning, which meant everyone in Arnold's class would be turning in their eggs along with their journal entries. Arnold was not only anxious to show the class he and Helga had once again proven they could work together, but anxious to turn in their journal entries. Despite the arguing that went on between the two of them that weekend, he loved the idea of starting a family. Perhaps one day Helga would not only adjust to the idea of it, but hope for it to happen as well.

After getting dressed, and grabbing the egg safely from his desk drawer, he went downstairs to see waffles waiting on the table for him.

"Hey shortman! Today's your egg's big day huh?" Phil laughed.

"Yeah. Hopefully, Mr. Simmons will like everything we wrote about." Arnold replied.

"Does humor get ya extra points? If so, I'd say that tree climbing incident's got ya covered! Hehe." Phil laughed, while watching Arnold roll his eyes.

"Uhh right grandpa. I'll see you later." Arnold said, as he grabbed the egg and his backpack.

"See ya shortman!"

As Arnold was walking down the street, holding the egg in his hand, he thought to himself…

I wonder what everyone else did with their egg this weekend? I wonder how different their entries will be from mine and Helga's? I wonder...THUMP!

As Arnold fell to the ground, the egg went flying into a familiar set of hands.

"Sheesh Arnoldo! What kind of parent tosses their infant child around like some kind of frisbee?!" Helga scowled, as Arnold helped her to her feet with the egg.

"Sorry Helga. I was just thinking about what class would be like today." he blushed, knowing that didn't sound too exciting.

"Oh brother. You hear that Phoebe? Daddy cares more about daydreaming about school than keeping his eyes on the road." she scoffed, holding the egg in her hand.

"Whatever you say Helga."

After walking the rest of the way to school together, they saw their friends paired up, ready to turn in their eggs together.

"I see pink boy didn't eat his kid this time. It must have stayed at Princess' place the entire weekend." Helga smirked, as Arnold rolled his eyes.

The two of them took their seats in their desks, as Helga heard "Good morning Helga. How was your parental assignment with Arnold?"

"Morning Pheebs. I guess it could have been worse. For instance, football head here could have left it in the kite eating tree, or locked it in it's suffocating desk drawer bed, or given it brain damage by letting it hit the ground on the way to school this morning. It's too bad we didn't get to include that in the journal entry."

"Say what now?" Gerald asked, turning to listen to the conversation while Arnold rolled his eyes at Helga's answer.

"The point is, the egg is safe. How was you guys' weekend with your egg?" Arnold asked, hoping to take the pressure off him.

"Quite well. We decided to take our egg to the opera house. I thought perhaps it might enjoy seeing the play Carmen. I quite enjoyed it when our class went a few years ago." Phoebe smiled, while Gerald shook his head.

"Mm, mm, mmm! Man, I listened to some music again until that thing was over." Gerald admitted.

"Well aren't you just father of the year." Helga scoffed.

Before he could reply, Mr. Simmons walked in, anxious to see how everyone did on their assignment.

"Good morning class, today is going to be a very special day. I'm sure you all know why!" he began, before being interrupted.

"Because we're one day closer to summer vacation." Sid replied.

"Actually, I was referring to the fact that you all get to read about and hand in your eggs today." Mr. Simmons continued.

As the class rolled their eyes at the thought of having to listen to the boring entries, Stinky said "I reckon it won't be so bad, on account of I didn't sit on mine this time."

"And I didn't eat mine this time!" Harold said excitedly, while Rhonda buried her face in her hands.

"Okay everyone, let's get started. I'll call each pair up one by one to read their entry. After you've read, you can place the egg in the carton on my desk." Mr. Simmons explained.

Arnold sat there listening to Harold and Rhonda read about their special place and moment with the egg being getting ice cream from the Jolly Olly Man along with shopping for the latest fashion merchandise from Preteen Miss.

Helga sat in her desk, holding the egg thinking to herself what kind of stylish overweight kid would those two idiots end up having?

After Mr. Simmons clapped for their (what the class considered to be) boring presentation, Lila and Stinky came up. Arnold wasn't anymore surpised to hear Stinky say the egg's special activity was the arcade anymore than Helga was surprised to hear it's special place to visit was Chez Paris. A high class restaurant for a well mannered girl.

Mr. Simmons was once again impressed, while Helga did everything she could to stay awake. Normally she'd let herself pass out on top of her desk, not caring to pay her classmates any attention. She couldn't do that however, when she was the one in charge of their egg.

The class then watched Nadine and Sid approach the front of the room. Sid had chosen the roller rink to take their egg to visit. Helga sat their thinking to herself. What a safe place for an egg...idiot!

Nadine then informed them their special activity for it was collecting bugs in her backyard. After hearing this, Harold couldn't help but butt in…

"You let bugs near your egg? Don't we get to eat these when we're finished?!"

Rhonda rolled her eyes at his ignorance, as she replied "Harold, we just turned ours in. Not to mention we painted all over it. What makes you think we would be eating them?"

"Aww gee!" he whined, while Helga smacked her face at his stupidity.

Eugene and Sheena then approached the front. Eugene happily told the class the egg's fun place to visit was the aquarium, while Sheena mentioned it's special activity was dancing.

Rather than taking an interest in what they had to say, the class sat there in bewilderment that Eugene hadn't dropped the egg (or harmed it in any way).

The last group before Arnold and Helga was Gerald and Phoebe; their two best friends. While Gerald stood beside her with the egg, anxious to get rid of it, Phoebe happily told the class about their trip to the opera house. Just the thought of the visit brought a frown to Gerald's face. Their special activity they had chosen to do with it, was Gerald's old card game 'The King' (something Phoebe did not have the easiest time learning).

A frown then came to Arnold's face, hoping this wouldn't mean his addiction with the game was returning.

"Alright, that just leaves one group. Arnold and Helga, come on up!" Mr Simmons said excitedly.

Helga had noticed no one else had written their entries quite the way she and Arnold had. For instance, no one had written them in first person, with the egg speaking like a three year old.

Crimity! Is he actually going to speak that way in front of everybody?

"Hi everyone. This is our egg, Phoebe." Arnold introduced to the class, while a smile came to Helga's best friend's face.

"Here we've written for Phoebe a journal which includes everything she experienced with Helga and I this weekend." Arnold told the class.

Helga could feel her heart pounding as she listened to Arnold read the entries exactly as they had written them. She had nothing to fear however. Not only did the class cheer for them, Mr. Simmons had his usual giddy facial expression when their performance was over.

I should have known Mr. Sunshine over there would get a kick out of it. She thought to herself.

Once class was over and everyone handed in their eggs, the kids went to gather their things from their desks.

"I guess we did alright again Helga." Arnold smiled, as he watched her collect her things.

"I guess so football head. Maybe we do need more practice, like you said. You know, so you don't accidently drop it again." she smirked.

"Whatever you say Helga." he sighed, holding her hand out the classroom door.

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