Hey Arnold Fanfic: Circles - Scene 15

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Scene 15: Cliques

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Finally…. Lunch.

12 frogs later, 3 insane classes, one pair of soggy shoes, and an obnoxious talking watch mom, it was finally time to relax and eat. (Arnold was starting to come up with his own special version of The Twelve Days of Highschool at this rate.)

“Moisture level increased by 33%. Remember that I am water-resistant, not waterproof!”
Ahh, speaking of “watch-mom”.
Arnold quickly wiped the face of his fancy watch with his sleeve, hoping she was happy now. Great, now the device even had a gender.
Well you have been referring to her as watch-mom. What did you expect?

“Hey, Arnold!”
Arnold looked up to see the latino kid with the beanie running up to him, one of Gerald’s buddies.
“Hey ah, Toni!” He pointed at him, glad to have remembered his name. There were a lot of new names to remember today after all.
“Yeah bro, you passed the quiz! I’ll show you where the guys are meeting up at, come on!”
Arnold didn’t know how to feel about being called a ‘bro’ by this guy yet, but he began to follow him towards the cafeteria.

“Hey who were you talking to? I thought I heard a woman’s voice.” Toni asked.
“Er, no one.” Arnold said.
Just my watch-mom.

---

“Ohhh Arnold! My stupid, goody-two-shoes, frog catching emancipator of the student body!” Helga wailed, pacing around outside the school furiously, her words echoing into the windy air as she vented.

“I can’t believe the ONE chance I get to actually have a moment with the guy, and I get hindered by Curly’s ribbeting revenge! Hmm. I guess I did lie about him bringing a goat into the school earlier. Is this some kind of sick and twisted karma? More like green and slimy. Augh!”

She threw her arms up in frustration, the air cutting through them as the sleeves of her jacket fell down. It was cold, but she didn’t care. She needed to blow off steam and the chilly wind felt nice. Maybe that’s why no one else was out here. Well, all but one other.

“But none of that even MATTERS because I’ve already royally screwed everything up with this!” She bent her knees and dramatically pointed squarely at her black eye.
“So now I need to avoid everyone again or they’ll think I’m just a big jerk who gets in fights and yells at everyone! And the worst part is-- it’s pretty much true!”

Helga finally stopped to catch her breath, and an audible breathing crept its way into her ears. She snapped her head back to see a familiar, braces-wearing, glasses-wearing, anomaly of a human being staring back at her as he sat on the bench before her. Just, breathing away.

Helga tilted her head, as if hearing something that no one else could, her eyes wide and her brow furrowed in reaction.
“NO, I cannot just go have lunch with Phoebe as planned! Sheesh!”
Brainy just kept sitting there with his crooked metallic smile and breathed away.
“Because!” Helga responded, “She’ll see my eye, and get all concerned, and start fussing over me in front of her smarty-pants little Asian friends and it’ll be super embarrassing and I just don’t wanna deal with it!” She crossed her arms stubbornly, letting the quiet breathing of Brainy fill the air again for a moment.



“Yeah, I know she’s my best friend….” Her voice a bit calmer now.
Breathing resumed.
“Yeah, I know she won’t ask if I tell her not to…” Helga’s eyes narrowed.
More breathing.
Helga’s eyebrow was practically twitching at this point, before she erupted with a, “FINE! I’ll go eat lunch with her if it’ll shut you up already! I don’t know why I even listen to you, but if this fails you’re gonna need a new pair of glasses like back in the olden days, bucko!” Helga waved her fist around his face threateningly, but Brainy’s smile never wavered. He merely muttered an incoherent, “uhhh.” as she stormed off.
“Yeah yeah, I know that threat is regressing behavior. Thanks for the reminder. Not!”

And with that very interesting consoling, Helga made her way back into the school and to the lunch room.

---

“Dude, no. I am not talking about an ape on our podcast next week.”
“But it reflects on today’s society and the progression of the past years!”
“I’d say that was more of a meme than a story.”
“In this day and age, Gerald, what’s the difference between a meme and trending news?”
Gerald, who was in a heated debate with Rhett at the table they were sitting at currently, stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“So now we’re talking about the difference between memes and news?”
“More like how the new generation takes in news AS memes in order to circulate it.”
“Hmm, I will admit, that is intriguing. Solid. Write that down.” Gerald nodded in approval and gave his friend a special handshake. It was somewhat similar to the handshake Arnold and him had, but with a little fist bump added on and a different hand symbol.

Arnold noticed this, because he and Toni had just approached the table while they had finished their debate. It was nice to see Gerald had such a tight knit posse of friends to hang out with, and seemed especially close to this Rhett guy. Somehow though, Arnold couldn’t help feel a bit forlorn at the sight, but quickly snapped out of it when Gerald stood up from the table and waved the two over.

“Hey, took you long enough! Don’t tell me… another catastrophe class?”
Arnold heaved a big sigh as Toni smiled and patted him hardily on the back. “Something like that.” He said vaguely, not really wanting to explain how insane his science class was. He wasn’t even sure he believed it himself quite yet.

Gerald actually started laughing. Arnold and Toni looked confused for a moment, before Rhett chimed in. “Zander told us all about it. Man, what I would have given to see that! Did the teacher really scream bloody murder when the frogs got out?”

Arnold looked towards the boy Rhett had gestured to, and noticed the familiar bald kid from before who was climbing the walls. He was looking at Arnold with a big toothy grin and nodding, but not saying a word.
“Oh, hey! You’re one of Gerald’s friends?” Arnold asked.
Zander only responded with a goofy flexed arm and a bigger smile. The black boy rippling with muscles was wearing a jersey underneath his sports jacket and sported some tattoo initials on his arms. He definitely had a tough-guy look, so the goofy grin was kind of funny.

“Zander is currently doing a challenge for our podcast and documenting what it’s like to communicate as a mute for a month.” Gerald explained. “So he can’t make a peep until then, or he also loses our bet.”
“Oh, that’s, really interesting! You’re just doing it for a… pod... cast?” Arnold asked.

Everyone looked at Arnold like he was insane.
Gerald just chuckled. “Arnold come on. I told you about this over the phone a few times, remember? A podcast is like a radio show, only it’s a recording you access over the internet.”
“Oh right! Your show! Sorry, I knew that.” Arnold laughed nervously, feeling even more technologically ignorant than his grandparents at this point.

“Anyways, Zander’s doing it for our podcast, sure, but it’s also because his brother is a mute and has struggled his whole life communicating. So big bro Z here is committed to spreading the word about mutism and is hoping the HSHA will recognize his brother’s story and help build awareness.”
“Wow, that’s really admirable.” Arnold smiled at Zander, who bowed humbly in appreciation.

“Heh YEAH, especially since Z is the biggest gossip that ever lived and none of us believe he can do it.” Toni chuckled with Gerald, who was looking down at his phone seeing as he had just received a message.
“Oh snap T, check it!” Gerald pointed to his phone, and Toni instinctively reached for his own to see what the buzz was about. Arnold saw him read the message and scream into Zander’s face, “OH it’s ONNN!!” before puffing up at him in a joking matter.

As they all laughed, (Well, Zander just sort of whisper laughed) Arnold leaned over to Gerald to asked what was going on.
“Zander just messaged us in our group chat about raising the bet,” Gerald explained between laughs, “this is how he’s been chatting with us since the whole challenge started.” he waved his phone at Arnold.

Suddenly he felt a poke at his arm, and saw Zander pointing to his phone and then back to Arnold, grinning wildly, as if to try and tell him something.
“Naaa Z, I don’t think Arnold even has a cellphone yet.” Gerald explained for him, and Zander raised his arms dramatically as if to say ‘whaaaat?’.
“Heh yeah, oh which reminds me!” Arnold pulled out a notebook and passed it over onto the table in front of everyone. “Could you guys write down your names and phone numbers for me until I get one?”

“Now that is old fashioned. Just like Gerald said you’d be.” Rhett chuckled, pulling out a pen and scribbling down his info.
“Maybe we should do a podcast about Arnold and how one adapts to the technology of the future after spending a decade in the rainforest.” Toni suggested, writing down his name next.
“T, I’ve told you a million times that he was not in the goddamn rainforest, and it was two years bro.” Gerald punched Toni on the shoulder.
“Yeah he’s not Tarzen, you dumbass.” laughed Rhett, “swinging around with monkeys and wearing a loincloth.”
“Oh my god can we please not put that image in my head? You fools are terrible.” Gerald just shook his head disapprovingly, but they were all holding back laughter at this point.

Arnold was just feeling like the butt of a joke at this point as he watched Zander smirk in response while he jotted down his number. They all seemed to have their pile of inside jokes to pull from as they conversed, and Arnold wasn’t super sure how to mesh with it all. He laughed with them anyway, albeit a bit forced.

“You bring a lunch, Arnold?” Rhett nudged him as the rest of them began unpacking their lunches. Toni seemed to have his in a strange lunch box labeled ‘human organs for transplant’.
“Oh- no I was sort of in a hurry this morning and didn’t pack one.” Arnold said.
“You need some money for the lunch line?” Gerald offered, but Arnold just waved him off as he stood up.
“S’okay, I’ve got enough.” he smiled, waving a few bills from his pocket that he received from that morning. “I’ll be right back.”

---

When Helga finally approached the table where Phoebe was, she was already there with her other friends. She couldn’t understand a word of what was going on or how to enter a conversation spoken entirely in japanese. Great.

There was Phoebe, giggling away at whatever they were talking about. Probably math or something.
The girl to her right was Nora, her second BBF, and Helga’s arch rival. (Not really. The girl was a philosophical Phoebe clone, but very sweet. Helga just didn’t like anyone competing with her for BFF rights) Nora wore tufty pigtails that stuck out from the top of her head and always had some new hair clips. She wore glasses like Phoebe (see earlier note about ‘Phoebe clone’) although she had a much sharper face.
Helga always thought Nora was a mess to be honest. She overworked herself to death and was always killing herself to keep up with Phoebe.

To Phoebe’s left was London, a larger Asian girl with chubby cheeks and a huge perverted sense of humor. (Which Helga could appreciate) She was downright hilarious and a big science nerd as well. She mostly loved to faun over hot guys and talk about tacos.

The last girl, a very petite Asian with a silly little ‘kawaii’ frog hat, Helga didn’t recognize at all, but she looked like she was having a fun conversation with the rest of them.

After three hundred decades, Phoebe finally noticed Helga standing there behind them and smiled widely when she saw Helga, calling her name and giving her a hug.

“Oh my--” Phoebe clearly was gasping at Helga’s revealed eye, which was indeed swollen and still hurting like hell, but Helga made a swipe of the throat gesture to Phoebe. Taking the hint, she gulped, made a crooked smile, and then turned to the rest of the girls, ignoring the issue for now.

“You remember Nora, and London.” Phoebe gestured to the two girls, who smiled and waved politely. Helga waved back with a bit of an awkward smile herself.
“And this is Nishi! She’s a friend of Nora’s, who recently moved here last month.”

Nishi smiled her perfectly adorable doll-like face and uttered out a “Hajimemashite!” to Helga in the cutest anime voice she’d ever heard in her life. Seriously, the girl was like a humanized version of a pikachu.

“Er… konnichiwa.” Helga responded back, and Nishi sputtered into a series of giggles and japanese that Helga did not understand.
The other two laughed as well as Helga stared at Phoebe for clarification on what was so dang funny.
“She really likes your accent,” Phoebe chuckled.
“What accent?”

She was soon seated down with the rest of them and prayed that this would go well. Helga didn’t do so well with groups of people unless she was bossing them around.
“So Nora and I were just discussing which kind of clubs we’re thinking of joining for afterschool programs and stuff,” Phoebe explained excitedly.
“Pfftt, regular school ain’t enough for you gluttons for punishment, eh?” Helga remarked.
Nishi was now looking around confused, tugging at Nora’s shoulder sleeve.

“Psstt, Phoebe,” Nora leaned in, “remember we promised Nishi about the first day being in nihongo? Just to help her out today?”
“Oh! Right, I forgot, um…” Phoebe thought for a second, as Helga looked between them.

“That’s okay, I’ll just translate! Helga’s been working on her japanese too, right Helga?” Phoebe and the rest of the girls turned to look at her.

Crimidy Phoebe way to put me on the spot. Jeeze.
She knew Phoebe was just trying to brag about her and make her look good, but she also probably didn’t realize that Helga preferred to binge watch stand up comedy and trashy action movies all summer instead of study the beginners book to japanese that Phoebe had given her.

Helga racked her brain for a word that would be appropriate for this situation. Something… ahhh.. What was that phrase for claiming she could do it. Daki or deki or something. Wait wait she knew this.
“Ahhh.. itadakimasu!” She nervously sputtered out, giving a thumbs up.

The girls stared at her for a second before they started giggling and Helga instantly knew she had gotten the phrase wrong. Crap.
Nishi said something in Japanese to Nora, who nodded her head and began to shuffle her lunch box out of her backpack. The rest did the same.

“I think you meant to shorten that?” Phoebe whispered to Helga, who just shrugged.
“Yeah, sure. What did I say?”
“Basically being thankful for the meal, so, close enough I suppose. They just thought you were sick of waiting to eat, hehe.”
“...Right.”

The four of them said a few more words in japanese as Helga sat there blinking patiently.
Phoebe finally leaned over to explain that Nishi was mentioning how different this school looked than her last one, and how cool it was to see all the different outfits kids could wear. Then they went back to their native tongue, and Phoebe finally asked Helga if she had a lunch with her.

“Would you like some of mine?” Phoebe asked, assuming Helga was lacking a lunch.
Helga’s eyes snapped back between her best friend, the three other girls who were chatting happily, and her own backpack. There was a hesitation, before she finally just heavily shrugged and shook her head.

“Naaa, Big Bob gave me some money so I’m gonna go blow it on some unhealthy stuff and go rate this school’s grub.” She stood up, throwing a thumb back towards the lunch line.
The others were unsheathing some lovely looking bento boxes filled with handmade goodies, and Phoebe nodded at her.

“Sure Helga, I’ll catch you up when you get back!” She reassured, and went back to japanese mode as soon as Helga started walking away.
Oh who was she kidding. She couldn’t keep up a conversation with those girls if she tried. The whole thing was awkward as hell, and she and Nora never really meshed well. Helga quickly realized that getting up to go visit the lunch line was her excuse to ditch.
The worst part about it was that she didn’t even have enough money for lunch, because like an idiot, she’d given it to the charity case named-- and she stopped in line once she saw who was turning around with a tray of food.

Oh, speak of the devil.