Written By Shaun Blankenship

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Outside, the rain pounded against her window. The sound of every droplet banging violently against her window had started to get irritating. It was nights like these that reminded her of the old days. It was the worst storm the city of Hillwood had ever seen since she was in high school. Although the city wasn’t flooded now, this storm was still pretty bad.

In two weeks or so, there would be an addition to the family: Arnold Jr. Staring out of her bedroom window, she started to look at her dim reflection in the glass. She had changed drastically. The little nine-year-old of her childhood days was now gone and replaced by someone else she had met before a long time ago in a dream. She had become her own vision of how her adulthood would be… except for being the president.

She had always sworn that one day she would get away and run to someplace better than this, but after college her opinions had changed. Arnold and Helga had both finished their schooling and decided to get married. The boarding house was shut down when his grandparents died. It was bound to happen sooner or later, and when it did he took it very well. He didn't cry, and he didn't break down. He knew that they were in a better place and much happier than they were with all of their aches and pains. After that, he couldn't stand being around the boarding house at all though. He had to sell it to the highest bitter. Fortunately, that was a young couple who moved from Florida and has been doing quite a good job with running it. After they moved to a house of their own, Helga couldn't imagine raising a child anywhere else in the world. They still vacationed to all those places she had wanted to visit, but afterwards they'd come back here and be happier for home more than ever.

All of their high school friends seemed to have disappeared. The only ones who had kept in touch at all were Robert, Gerald, and Phoebe. Robert is currently living in Texas as a journalist for a statewide newspaper. The boy who wanted to become an art teacher ended up being somewhat of an author. It seemed fitting to his character, yet odd and offbeat for him. So far, things seemed good for him. Rhonda had moved out there with him in the beginning, but eventually she left him. Since then, he found Deborah, another journalist for The Texan Tribune. Nothing was serious at the moment, but they were making quite the couple. As for Gerald and Phoebe, they're still in England. They fell in love with the country and the people and decided to buy a home in the English countryside. Phoebe's letters seemed to always be more serious and happy for Helga. Gerald's letters seemed to be like it were him and Arnold just talking about unimportant crap again. Man, I saw all of those Harry Potter movies and there were only three black kids in each one! I know there's more color over here in England! I'm living here, and I see more black people than I ever saw in Hillwood! Where are the black kids in Harry Potter?

All of their former classmates went on to live interesting lives. Nadine broke up with Brainy and ran off with Sheena to start an organization interested in protecting flower-dwelling insects. Eugene's acne later cleared and had been the co-star of many critically-acclaimed Broadway musicals. Rhonda became the housewife of a football player for the Detroit Lions. Mike went on to become a prison security guard. Stinky used his previous commercial experience and ended up doing a long line of commercials for HiTek computers, only to lose the contract after being arrested for "undiscloseable charges". Sid joined the Navy and somehow became lost at sea; it's rumored that he eventually floated to Portugal and started a new life. Five days after High School, Curly vanished into nothingness; the search continues for his body. Gloria heard the news of Curly to be missing and her paranoia turned into insanity; she is now committed at the state mental hospital. Patty and Harold live in Massachusetts where Harold's living his lifelong dream of becoming a butcher. Park, ironically enough, works as a state park guide for tourists: what would be the qualifications for a job like that? The only other student Arnold and Helga had caught wind about was Peapod Kid; he had become an entrepreneur to his own business - he developed a new form of Styrofoam that was cheaper and biodegradable.

Loves had come and go with Helga in high school. If you would've told her in her sophomore year that she would've settled down with Arnold and was about to have his child, she would've broken your nose and many other anonymous body parts, yet afterwards written a diary entry fantasizing the issue more. She was living the dream and loving the life, If only Arnold would just come back home tonight.

He had just left to go to the store, but the minutes felt like Helga while she was alone. He was too good to her. In the middle of one of the worst storms ever and he had left to buy her some ice cream. That's devotion: to risk the chance of sliding off to the side of the slippery road on a mission to get his wife a carton of Hagen-Das. The thought of her without him seemed impossible to pronounce. Without him, she was nothing. With him, he was everything. Life and luck had finally smiled down on her, and it seemed to be the start of something bigger than she is.

The car pulled into the driveway, the same one he had in his senior year of high school. He rushed from the rain in his thin jacket and into the back door by the driveway, a beige plastic bag in his hand and a two-liter of Yahoo soda in the other. She stayed in the bedroom, waiting for him to bring the goods to her.

He finally did, removing his jacket when he got into the room. "Hey, I got you the chocolate covered cherry chaos like you asked for. Do you need anything else?"

"No, I'll be fine, sweetie." She reached her hands out, waiting for the small tub of ice cream and the spoon he had brought in. "I love you, Arnold."

He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. "I love you too, Helga."

Later on, the power would cut out. By morning, it would be back on, but Arnold and Helga would sleep right through morning. The streets would clear up, the sun would shine, and the day would be new. The world would have been washed clean again and ready for the start of something else. And it would be again for the next two children that she'd give birth to, Elizabeth and the comically named Jimmothy. It was still the same two children who had known each other since preschool just a tad bit further down the road, a little older and wiser but the same people altogether.

Shaun Blankenship

September 27, 2002 - May 3, 2003