IMPORTANT NOTE: this is my fanfic, so I decided against including the main subplot of The Jungle Movie (or the movie that got canned, because one movie did poorly at the box office :p) because I'm sure hundreds of people do that already. So, in this fanfic, Arnold never comes to terms with his feelings for Helga or finds his parents.

Summary: After the class of P.S. 118 graduate from Elementary school, Helga's dad announces he's having a new business open in the southern part of Vermont, forcing them to leave Hillwood. Helga moves to her new town and starts going to her new school, where she is bullied for looking 'ugly' until Helga feels if she doesn't change her looks, she'll be beaten to where she has to go to the hospital, even killed. Five years later, Helga's parents get divorced and Helga decides to return to the one place she ever really felt at home.

Chapter 1

The class of P.S. 118 crowded in the elementary school gym for the graduating party of the elementary school graduates. There was loud music with a snack table along with a punch bowl.

Helga didn't really want to go to the party-but she knew she couldn't leave without at least saying goodbye to Phoebe.

Helga remembered how two weeks ago, her father announced they were moving to a small town in Vermont so they could be there for the opening of her dad's new store. Helga had been meaning to tell Phoebe, even everybody from her class-but whenever she wanted to bring it up, she couldn't find the words.

Helga wasn't sure how she felt about moving-part of her told her she should be happy to get away from a bunch of morons, especially Harold. But deep down, Helga knew she'd miss Hillwood, especially Phoebe. But then, Helga thought of the person she'd miss the most-

"Hang on a sec, Phoebs," Helga told Phoebe. "I gotta use the jon,"

"Okay, but you might want to hurry back-I hear they're going to play the Macarena in a few minutes,"

Which gave Helga an excuse to spend even more time in the jon; and sure enough, when Helga left the gym, she could hear the Macarena playing in the gym and kids laughing trying to keep up. Helga quickly jumped around the corner and pulled out her gold locket.

"Oh, Arnold," Helga began. "Whatever am I going to do without you? How could I possibly go a day without seeing your sunshine smiling face at least once? How could I go without the sweet water of your deep blue eyes? The wonderful essence you bring with you every day is like air to me-how does one live without air? How will my lungs survive without your air to breathe? Alas, my darling, I will have to live without these things, for I may never see you again. And unfortunately, I may never tell you how I actually feel about you, my darling Arnold. I must wonder if I will be able to hold the tears back when I bid adieu to you, my wonderful adoring Arnold," Helga's monologue ended with a small tear rolling down her cheek.

At this point, Helga wasn't surprised when she heard deep asthmatic breathing not too far behind her. Without even bothering to look, Helga raised her fist and whacked Brainy in the face, satisfying Helga with the sound of breaking glasses.

Helga couldn't hear the Macarena anymore and decided it was safe to return to the gym. Helga headed back, nearly running into Mr. Simmons.

"Oh, hey teach," Helga said.

"Helga, I'm so glad I caught you!"

"You're not gonna tell me I can't graduate, are you?"

"No, no…I heard from your mother that your family is moving to Vermont,"

Helga wasn't surprised that Mr. Simmons had heard-Mr. Simmons was probably the most caring teacher in the world, though Helga would be the last person to admit that.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay," Mr. Simmons said.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Helga sneered. "I'll be getting away from these losers,"

"I know it's not easy to move, Helga," Mr. Simmons said. "But if you want, you can come to me with anything-"

"What?"

Helga was a little shocked to see Phoebe in the hallway and had obviously heard everything Mr. Simmons said.

"Uh…I better go," Mr. Simmons quickly escaped and Helga was left alone with Phoebe.

"You're…you're moving?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah…some podunk town in Vermont. Guess I'll be starting middle school without you, huh?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Helga shrugged. "I dunno, I guess…I guess I just never got around to it…"

Helga didn't want to look at Phoebe but had to when she heard a sniffle-Phoebe was crying.

"Whoa," Helga said. "Geez, Phoebs, come on, it's not the end of the world,"

"Who am I going to start middle school with?" Phoebe said sniffling. "Who's gonna protect me when Harold starts bullying me?"

"Harold's just a big mush ball Phoebs, and you know it,"

That didn't help-in fact, Phoebe went from sniffling to plain crying. Helga hugged Phoebe awkwardly, not sure how to react.

"It's not like I won't write," Helga said. "I'll...I'll still write to you, and if anybody gives you a hard time, I'll come straight back to kick some butt,"

"Really, Helga?" Phoebe asked, still sniffling.

Helga wasn't sure if she really could, but she didn't want Phoebe to feel bad. "Of course,"

"When are you leaving?"

"…tomorrow,"

"So soon?"

"Yeah…"

"What time are you leaving?"

"Around eight in the morning, I think…at least, that's what Miriam said…"

"Okay, well, why don't we-"

"Helga!" Miriam was walking around the corner. "Come on, Helga, we have to leave,"

"Just give me a few more minutes, Miriam, crimeny…"

"Alright, your father and I will be waiting in the car, try not to be too long okay?"

"Sure, whatever," Helga mumbled.

Helga said goodbye to Phoebe and weaved her way through the gym to get to the parking lot. Helga opened the door to almost be knocked over by Rhonda.

"Watch it, will ya?" Helga snapped.

"Uh, sorry Helga," Rhonda ran inside and Helga headed to her dads car when she saw Arnold heading into the gym.

"Hey Helga," Arnold said.

"Whatever, football head," Helga mumbled. Helga thought about saying bye to Arnold, but she wasn't sure if she could muster up the words…or guts.

"I heard you're moving…"

"Word gets around fast, doesn't it? How'd you know? I just barely told Phoebe,"

"Phoebe told Rhonda and Sid-Rhonda just told me,"

So that was why Rhonda was in such a hurry-must be going to tell everyone she knew that the horrid Helga was leaving.

"Huh…well, yeah, I'm moving to some stupid town in Vermont…"

"Well…I hope everything goes okay at your new school,"

Helga wasn't shocked that Arnold was being nice-Arnold was a nice guy, almost annoyingly nice. "Yeah…hey, listen, Arnold,"

Arnold raised an eyebrow "Yeah?"

"Look…I've been needing to tell you something…for a long time…and I just wanted to say it before I left…"

"Okay…what is it?"

"Arnold…look, there's no easy way to say this, so I'm just gonna say it, okay?"

"Um…okay,"

"Arnold," Helga finally managed to look into Arnold's eyes. "I…I…I've-"

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! "HELGA, GET IN THE CAR ALREADY!"

Helga almost screamed in frustration-she was ready to tell him…why did her father have to honk his horn at THAT moment?

"Cool it pops!" Helga yelled. "I'm coming already!"

Helga turned back to Arnold. "I, uh, I guess I better go," she said and turned around.
"What was it you wanted to tell me?" Arnold asked.

"Uh…I forgot…guess it wasn't that important…"

"You sure?" Arnold asked.

"Course I'm sure, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well…if you say so,"

Helga began to head to her car. "See you later,"

"Helga?"

Helga turned to face Arnold one more time.

"I don't know if I'll ever see you again, so…goodbye," At goodbye, Arnold held out his hand.

Helga almost wanted to laugh, but she almost wanted to cry too. Taking a deep breath, Helga took Arnolds hand. "Goodbye, Arnold,"

They let go and Helga got in her dad's car and P.S. 118 was soon nothing but a distant light in the background.

"Goodbye Arnold," Helga mumbled. "I hope…one day…we can see each other again,"

3 months later…

"Mom?" Helga called. "MOOOOOOM!"

Naturally, there was no answer.

"MOOOOOM? MIRIAM?"

Helga's mom finally pulled her head out of the cabinet. "Oh, Helga…what is it?"

"Where's my lunch box, I'm late,"

"Oh, it's um….oh, gosh, where did I put that thing? It's um…it's…."

"Sometime today, Miriam…" Helga growled.

"Oh, now I remember," Miriam went over to the microwave and pulled out her lunch box. "I was heating it up for you,"

"I don't eat it until noon, Miriam, and you gotta take the beans out of the can before you heat them,"

"Oh, no wonder it wasn't heating up…silly me…"

Helga went to the door and didn't even bother to let her parents know she was leaving-they didn't care anyway. Miriam was too busy being brain dead about something and Bob was too busy on the phone yelling at someone. Helga knew this would happen, so last night, she got out her new schools address. After asking a few people, she managed to find it.

Helga entered the school and the smell of lemon cleaner nearly choked her. The porcelain white hallways gleamed with a shine that made Helga's head hurt. Not to Helga's surprise, kids were shuffling through the doors and were making their ways to class. Almost all of the kids were staring at her, making Helga even more uncomfortable.

Helga approached the front desk. "Hey," she said. The woman behind the front desk ignored her.

"HEY!" Helga yelled.

"Yes, sir, what can I help you with?" the secretary at the front desk scrutinized at Helga.

"I'm a girl," Helga snapped-Helga knew she was boyish and knew the unibrow tended to throw people off, but crimeny, wasn't her pink bow a statement that she was a girl? And she had traded her pink dress in for a pair of loose jeans and a pink shirt-hello? PINK!

"Yes, what can I do for you?" The secretary said.

"I'm new here and I need my schedule-name's Helga G. Pataki,"

"Oh, yes, Pataki," she picked up the paper with Helga's schedule and handed it to her. "Maybe you'd like to go to the bathroom…freshen up a bit?"

"Freshen up a bit?" Helga repeated. "What am I, a fruit salad? Buzz off," Helga didn't wait for the secretary to say anything and left. Looking at her schedule, she saw she was locker 118; after maneuvering around a little, she finally found her locker, entered her locker combination and put her book bag into her locker. After seeing what classes she had in the morning, she grabbed what textbooks she needed and headed to her first class, Social Studies.

She walked into the classroom and discovered it was as white as the hallways-only instead of smelling like lemon cleaner, it smelled of a gazillion perfumes, obviously worn by the girls in the classroom. The minute Helga entered the room, the room fell dead silent.

It took Helga a few minutes to discover what the problem was-she stuck out like a sore thumb. While she had a pink shirt and jeans, all of the girls were wearing pretty dresses and tight jeans with sequined shoes and the tops were either sequined or had fabric flowers on the shoulders and the guys wore polo t-shirts and jeans without one hole in sight. Helga's hair still stuck up in two straight pigtails that had always done that since she had grown hair while the other girls hair had obviously taken hours to do-even some of the guys had gel in their hair. These people could only be described as one word-perfect. And non perfect Helga knew she wasn't going to make one friend here.

Helga ignored the stares and made her way to a desk-just as she was about to sit down, someone threw their books on the chair.

"This is my seat," a girl with flowing blonde hair stood in Helga's way.

Helga did what she would do if this were in the middle school in Hillwood-she picked up the books and threw them across the room. "Not anymore," she said and sat down.

The girl glared and left without another word-which kind of unnerved Helga-she somehow felt she was going to regret doing that.

"Everyone, please take your seats," the teacher of the class stood at the edge-even the teachers were perfect. This teacher had glasses, but somehow made them look cool. She wore a lilac purple blouse ironed to perfection and a floral skirt with high heels. "We have a new student-will Helga please stand up?"

Helga stood up and none of the kids bothered to turn their heads-probably because they already knew who the new kid was.

"Oh my," the teacher said, looking at Helga.

"Take a picture," Helga snapped. "It'll last longer,"

The teacher glared at Helga. "Now, class, why don't we all start by saying our name and one thing about ourselves?"

The teacher would call on a name and the person would say their name and what they liked. Helga dreaded having her name called, but soon the teacher said "Now, why don't we start with a worksheet? Please pass this back," The teacher had skipped Helga! And Helga had a feeling it was on purpose.

Should I say something? Helga thought.

The stack of papers was soon waved in front of Helga's nose. Helga reached to grab it when the boy in front of her let go of the papers and they drifted onto the floor. "Oops," the boy said and the whole class snickered.

Helga glared at the boy before picking up the papers, grabbed one for herself and passed the rest back before sitting down.

SQUISH!

Helga stood up to see what was on her seat and found gum on the butt of her jeans.

"Oh, my, what a bubblegum butt the ugly girl has," The girl who sat behind Helga had put her used gum on her seat!

Helga looked at the teacher-Mr. Simmons would have definitely said something on how wrong that behavior was. But the teacher wasn't saying anything.

She was laughing with the rest of the class.

. . .

Helga went to the bathroom, thanking everything that was Holy that school was finally over. Helga had a gazillion fries thrown at her during lunch and Helga finally got pissed, found the boy who was doing it and socked him in the jaw and ran out before anybody would say anything. At her last class, someone drew a crude drawing of Helga's face with a pig snout and the word UGLY written next to it.

Helga hid in the stall and pulled out her locket of Arnold. "Oh, Arnold," she said softly. "If only you were here-you would never let such beasts do this to me…" Helga felt a strong wave of missing her friends crash over her body; at her old school, she was the tough kid and no one messed with her; yeah, sometimes Harold did, but one threaten of Old Betsy and The Five Avengers and Harold shut up.

Helga sighed and stood up and tried to leave the stall-but the door was stuck.

"What the…" Helga tried a few more times, but couldn't get it open.

"Did the ugly girl enjoy her piss?" someone was outside of the stall and obviously blocked Helga in.

"Listen to me, whoever you are-you let me out of this stupid stall right now, or I will yank your intestines out and use it as a noose for your hanging!"

"Oh, I'm so scared," another voice said and the room burst with monkey laughing.

"I'll show you scared when-" Helga's tirade was interrupted by a splash of cold water on her head.

"What the heck?" Helga screeched.

"You reek of ugly," one girl said. "We have to clean you!"

With that, another bucket of ice cold water was dumped on Helga. "You rotten little prissy pants, when I get out of here-"

"Someone needs to wash their potty mouth out!" With that, another bucket of cold water was dumped on Helga.

Helga threw herself at the door. "LET ME OUT OF HERE, YOU-"

"We can't until you stop smelling so bad!" Another bucket of water was dumped on Helga. "Just wait, we're filling up the fifth right now!"

"You rotten little brats, LET ME OUT!" Helga screamed.

"Here it comes!"

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

They ignored Helga and another bucket of water was dumped on Helga. "LET ME OUT OF HERE BEFORE I KILL YOU ALL!"

"Filling up the sixth one!"

"STOP IT!" Helga yelled.

"Here it is-wanna beg for it?"

"You'll be begging for your life when I get out of here!"

"Eh, good enough for me! Ready, and-" another bucket of water soaked Helga and the cold water was beginning to feel numb.

"Filling up the seventh!"

That was enough-Helga finally slid out of the gape under the stall and wormed her way out. The girls screamed and ran out and Helga was chasing them.

"Ms. Pataki!" Helga's science teacher was in the hallway and the girls hid behind her.

"Get out of my way; I'm going to kill them!"

"You will do no such thing!" the teacher said.

"Then at least give them detention or something-I had six buckets of water dumped on me!"

"It's obvious to me they were provoked! You socked Amber's boyfriend in the jaw at lunch today!"

"I wouldn't have if he hadn't thrown French fries at me!" Helga yelled.

"Maybe instead of hurting other students, you should get a makeover instead," the teacher said that. That was the teacher who said those words-

Helga gaped at them; what was wrong with these people? They made fun of her for being 'ugly'? They put gum on her seats, threw French fries at her and dumped buckets of water on her and no one bats an eye?

Helga ran out of the school with the decision that she was never going back.