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Long December	By : Estromale Category: +G through L > Hey, Arnold! Views: 4025 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold!, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Long December
- 2-Under your Spell
- 1
- 2
She walked out to the edge of the pond in the park on a winter day, like she was used to doing. No one was there, of course, and she liked it that way. It was just cold enough to keep the majority of hateful teenagers out and enough to keep cold blooded ones like her in a peaceful haven. To ensure this was kept a secret, however, she had made doubly sure to wrap herself in a long brown duster and a big enough fedora to wrap her up and firmly keep in the hat. It was nippy, which she expected on days like these, but she found a sort of new appreciation for it as well as an angsty foreshadowing.
No one had bothered speaking to her about it, of course. They were all still so angry with her for what she did. If Phoebe had been in any kind of sanity, she would have helped, but Phoebe was even more of a basket case now than she was. Losing Helga had hurt the girl in a place she wasn’t willing to show ever again…not to anyone these days, it seemed. Oh, when it came down to it, no way would she measure her pain against Phoebe’s…but still. She needed council.
It had been a year since Lila had left, and if had been a quiet parting, maybe things would have been ok. There wasn’t though…Arnold’s clearly present pain was too hard for her, and even Lila’s pained eyes told her all she needed to know: TELL HIM. There was so much at stake, of course…the teasing, the angry silence to follow, and the shame brought on her parents. In the end, she knew she’s taken a page from Arnold’s book: it was the only way. So Patty told Arnold the truth: she and Lila had been seeing each other for a long time, and it was she, not just Lila’s own stubbornness, that was the chief cause of her not “liking him, liking him.”
She had expected his reaction…pain, of course, and disbelief, and a little anger. In the end, though, he accepted it, and more or less didn’t hate Patty for it. After all, Arnold had told Patty, who says who it is we love? Those words would haunt Arnold later, of course…him and Eugene’s relationship was notorious for the hot topic of the school looked upon with scorn, and even with Arnold’s perfect 4.0 average, the guys wouldn’t leave him or poor Eugene alone. Patty would have been eager to stick up for him if she, too, was not a victim of teasing. Patty may have told Arnold in confidence the truth, but the kids found out too. Harold had the worst reaction: he had, after all, liked Patty, even though he was dating Rhonda at the time. He was full of rage, threatened to find Lila and beat her to a pulp, and even faced off with Patty then and there. It had been embarrassing: Patty had beaten him easily. They’d both had bulk and strength on their side, but Patty had also taken Tae Kwon Do, something that Harold would find out the hard way. Not that it mattered…the temporary triumph Patty had in defending herself evaporated the next day at school. Flyers proclaiming her as a “dyke,” snide remarks in the girl’s bathroom and girls edging away from her was only the tip of the iceberg. It had been easier to tolerate when she was under Helga and Phoebe’s throng…she could stand people being cold to her so long as she had friends. The day the Pataki’s moved, however, would be when all of that would come to an abrupt end…even Patty hadn’t predicted Phoebe isolating herself from everyone, including her. She wasn’t even in high school anymore…she’d was already taking college classes out of the neighborhood, and she didn’t bother telling people where. Somehow, Patty supposed, she’d make peace with herself without them.
She could still see the way Helga was flippant about the stares and muttered remarks she and Phoebe got as they walked past, and was just as quick to defend Patty, who was still soft-spoken, no matter how tough she looked.
“You don’t letse ase assholes get away with anything, Smith!” Helga had barked to Patty one day after knocking one of the sneering cheerleaders on her ass. She had dyed her hair pink that day and had it loose, her right eye being covered by her bangs. Phoebe, who could not be expected to share in Helga’s outright defiance, wore a modest plaid skirt and a matching blouse, her glasses now wire rimmed instead of its former hulking plastic blue. Helga, of course, didn’t know Phoebe would adopt Helga’s hairstyle when the Pataki’s forced Helga to leave her girlfriend and the neighborhood itself.
“You don’t understand,” Patty had said, exasperated. “Now that they know, what am I supposed to do? I’m not going to get another girlfriend anytime soon…not that I’d want one, anyway. High school is already more of a pain than P.S.118 ever was. I mean, look at Arnold! He must be miserable.
“Arnold has Gerald,” Phoebe remarked darkly, still a little sore at her former love interest. “And Eugene still has Sheena as a friend, as well as mostly everyone in the theatre department. We are not offering our support to Arnold because we are in a different class of relationship…it is simply a matter of convenience to the high school status quo as a whole. We are, often, known as the “odd ones,” I suppose, while Arnold and Eugene will assimilate into drama club.” The girl shrugged. “It’s simply a matter of convenience.”
Helga grinned and snuggled up to her shorter girlfriend, getting dirty looks from several people in the lunchroom. “That’s my girl…always thinking!”
“Fucking dykes!” Someone yelled, and it was only a matter of a few seconds before Helga had cleared several people in her path and dragged Sid to the floor, kicking him violently in the ribs. “Ow! Get the hell off me Helga!”
“You should mind your manners in the presence of ladies,” Phoebe said matter of factly, adjusting her glasses and gathering her books.
“Ha! Ladies, you?!” Sid said through a bloody mouth. “I’d rather have the snot kicked out of me than call you that!”
Helga backed up, and Patty came into view, her form imposing, big, and angry. “That can be arranged, Sid,” she said in a low growl.
-
I can remember so much, but what good is it?
Patty was shivering a little under her mittens. There was chemistry homework to be done, she had to feed some of her mother’s cats, and there were some groceries she still had to get for her mother. She got up from the frosty park bench, dusting herself off and smoothing out her Wranglers.
“Patty?”
She turned around and was met with an oval headed shaped form in a blue parka. She smiled and walked up to him. Arnold had a sort of look about him that Patty had to call a “glow:”er aer all, she remembered, Phoebe and Helga had the same glow when they were together, and even Olga, Helga’s sister, had commented that the two of them together had a way of lighting up the room. Arnold pointed to the park bench and shrugged his shoulderefulefully.
“Always the gentleman, Arnold,” Patty said, managing a small smile. “I’ll bet Eugene always asks himself what he did to deserve a guy like you.”
Arnold turned a little red, and then shook his head sheepishly. “Don’t flatter me needlessly, Patty, I’m just…”
“You just deserve it, you dork!” Patty shot back, catching Arnold in a headlock and giving him a noggie. “Do you deny it?”
“No…no! Stop!” Arnold shrieked, writhing on the bench. “You win, ok? OK!”
Patty grinned. “You can’t beat me, Arnold, no matter how you try…I’m good at the little things I’m happy about.” At this, Patty cleared her throat, and Arnold saw the sad look in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Patty, I...”
“It’s all right Arnold,” Patty said, wiping away a stray tear. “I get moody sometimes…I’m not proud of when they come and go, but they’re still there, I guess. So…what’d you want to talk about on a cold December like this?”
Arnold shrugged, but Patty knew that was a conditioned reflex of a sort…after all, awkwardness was the start of any serious conversation once and awhile. “I’m happy with Eugene, Patty. You know it and the other kids know it, whether they like it or not. That doesn’t mean I still wonder, you know. Not about if we had anything, of course…I don’t think I can imagine life without Eugene right now. He helps grandpa around the house, even though he does hurt himself a bit, and he and grandma get along well, and he even…”
“You’re babbling, Arnold.”
“Right…” Arnold trailed off. “I guess what I’m trying to say is…even though I’m with Eugene, I’m still curious about…Lila. No one, not even Olga or me, really got close to her like you did, whatever that might mean. I never got to see how she was when she wasn’t smiling or when she wasn’t trying to be sweet and perfect.”
“I see,” Patty said, and there was a tone of ambiguity there…Arnold had no idea what it was that Patty saw, nor if it was entirely true about him. As a response, Patty reached into her pocket and pulled out a Marlboro Light, planting it between her lips carefully.
“Care for a smoke, Arnold?”
Arnold wrinkled his nose in distaste. “No. You shouldn’t either, you know. It crystallizes your lungs.”
Patty shook her head, her left hand holding the think cigarette, the right producing the lighter and lighting it with ease. “That’s what Lila used to say, only a little more vigorously…that’s why I haven’t lit one of these in three years. Believe it or not, she had that lasting effect, and we weren’t even dating back then! She did quite a number on me, Arnold…and she knew, I think, before I did. If there was one thing you knew for certain about Lila…it was that she had secrets. Helga and the girls found out one…she was poor, did you know? I bet you didn’t…her father was able to fix the apartment by the time you were able to visit her. They used to hate Lila…except me, of course. I knew what it was like to be hated.”
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Long December