Written By Shaun Blankenship

________

________

If you made it this far, thank you. I really want to thank you for reading my entire story and sitting through it. I thank you even more if you actually enjoyed it. Those who read this without knowing my past work might want to check out my profile. Just click on the name above, 'MDT', and you'll see everything I've done. You won't understand the Michael Trenton references without reading… Michael Trenton.

I'd like to take some time and answer some stuff. One thing I was asked about was how every chapter begins with a song quote (except for the prologue and the epilogue). A lot of people wondered why. Many people didn't take the time that many of the chapters' titles (and the title to the story) came from song titles and song lyrics. Here's why: music is a key part of everyday life. Without music, my life would be dull and boring. When I'm listening to music, I'm thinking about listening to music. Music is the only real poetry that anyone cares to hear anymore, and you can quote that. Why am I listing things? Because it's Saturday, I woke up at midnight after falling asleep at ten, drank a 2-Liter of Vanilla Coke and now I can't get to sleep. I'm caffeinated. My brother had some friend's over and they kept me awake. Right now it's three in the morning.

Many sequences in this story nearly didn't happen. Last minute changes happened I switched things around. Examples:

+ Gerald and Arnold's conversation in chapter eleven was originally lengthier. They started talking so excessively (more than I shortened it down to) that it lost me.

+ At the end of that same chapter, I think Robert goes down to Slausen's and talks to Rhonda. I think that's the right chapter. Anyway, that whole period building up to that was originally different. I had Robert stumble on to her poetry and be shocked about it, but then I remembered that he already knew Helga's secret. When he went down to Slausen's, he originally spoke to Sheena instead of Rhonda. I didn't think Sheena would've held up that good of a convo.

+ In the 'Tis the Season chapter, Sid's dad starts wallowing in pity over the death of his mother. Where is Sid's mom in the cartoon? Have they ever shown her? Why I bring this up is because that wasn't supposed to be Sid. I originally wrote that for Harold, and I was going to say his mom's death was a heart attack. Nothing cruel; it just seemed fitting. It was then I remembered that Harold's Jewish, and I don't know much about Hanukah.

+ Also in the 'Tis the Season chapter, I almost revealed Brainy's stalker. I thought, Nah, I can wait with that.

+ The Helga and Arnold fight after detention was originally supposed to last until May. This story was going to be really short when I originally wrote it. It was going to be that they weren't going to reconcile until Graduation and before they threw their hats in the air, Helga was going to grab Arnold and kiss him. It would be then that she was going to confess, not in December. I decided to scrap that because that would've been too big of a jump to make. This story jumps like a frog. I spent no time in the story at all in November.

+ If you think the language these kids use in this story is bad, you should've read some of the stuff I scrapped. It was like watching a Jay and Silent Bob movie.

+ I had wanted Helga to commit suicide after being shut down in December, but I thought that would've been too abrupt of an ending. Suicide is never the answer.

+ Queen is the greatest rock group ever. I'm pretty sure they show up more than any other bands in my song quotes. Every time I hear them, I just punch myself in the knee at the fact that Freddie Mercury is gone and there won't be anyone else ever again like him. Many people know how he died (some have no idea what I'm talking about) and dismiss his music because of it, but being that closed minded is not the way to live. His lifestyle was his own business and I don't care; the man made some great music before he died. Go out and buy a Queen CD, you won't be disappointed. Buy 'Jazz' or something.

+ I spoof like no other, and if you look closely at some of the story you can find it. Mostly, I like taking the names of shows and changing the titles to similar equals. Craig Bartlett's new upcoming cartoon, Party Wagon, was spoofed as Shindig Buggy. I also said it was by the creator of Ross and Co., the cartoon Park was obsessed with in my other fan fiction 'Park' that was very much like Hey Arnold almost down to exact dialogue. South Park was spoofed as North Town. I pretty sure I also spoofed a couple products throughout the story (Orange Glo was the basis of the basis of the infomercial Grandpa was always watching. The cleaner with the power of grapefruit: I can't remember what I called it. Maybe it was Great Grapes or something).

+ Arnold's Creative Writing teacher is Miss Apollyon. I was thinking of names, so I pulled up my trusty Thesaurus and looked up 'demon'. 'See DEVIL'. 'Syn.: Apollyon…' Enough said. It's just a little ode to my Creative Writing teacher, Michael Crichton loving… I can't believe she hates Stephen King. She calls all of my stories sarcastic and off-topic of what she assigns (which they are not). She called one sardonic: scornfully mocking. How can such a narrow-minded person be a Creative Writing teacher? I have more to say about her, but I'm not going to. Everything she does in the story has happened to me. One day I brought a pop to class and she poured out of the window. I had only taken two sips.

+ All of the teachers in my story are all based off of my teachers. Mister "Cleredon" in my school even brought in Apricot Nectar one day. That guy is awesome.

+ There's a part right before Helga's confession where I describe her uneasiness as being amongst a secret society. I used that there because I really wanted to use it somewhere and I felt right there I could relate. I recently auditioned for the school play, and every time I went to the auditions I felt like I didn't belong. I stood there so nervous and shaking and… it felt like any minute Misses Walls was going to say, "Shaun, what are you doing here? You weren't invited." It's one of those moments where you feel like the outcast, and I think that's how Helga felt when she tried to tell Arnold. I also feel that because I am the holder of a several year crush myself. I don't think I could ever tell the girl, although she heard it because of my stupid brother. Talk is cheap though, and nothing comes better in the open than person-to-person realness. Then again, I fall in love everyday with people so I really can't think about telling one girl something like that. I'll just change my mind tomorrow.

+ The fanfiction.net author Chief has written such great stories as My Name Is Robert, Robert Revisited, and Robert's Search. In my story, Helga keeps calling Robert by the nickname "Chief". A coincidence? I think not.

+ In the beginning of the story, Gerald mentions a rapper named MC Fool. MC Fool is an alter ego I created one day. I would wear a baseball pendant, a pair of cheap sunglasses, and a Red Wings winter hat left so that the top of it sticks up. I'd then do my best impression of DMX. "Uh-HUH! WHERE… MY… DOGS… AT? Oh… they… right there. Ruff Rydas…"

+ Arnold once harbored a girl named Autumn Swanwick in his home. Autumn Swanwick is a combination of two girls I know's names: Autumn Pollock and Victoria Swanwick. I don't know if they'll get mad for me saying their names, but I had to. The girl in the story was almost exactly like the real Autumn. Victoria is a lighter, fluffier person.

+ High Fidelity is a good book, unlike Ordinary People. If you ever have a day to kill, read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. The language is kind of weird since the author's British, but it's a really good book. It's my life story almost, except for owning the record store and having a top five list of my worst relationship. I do top five sometimes. You need to read it to understand. The only good thing about the movie was Jack Black.

+ As I said earlier, there were many different paths that this story almost went down. Helga was originally supposed to go back to Arnold's house and confess on the night they went to High Stakes. In fact, High Stakes wasn't even going to be in the story. Many scenes were written and deleted right after I was done. I got rid of a whole chapter once. Before the party, I was going to make Rhonda going out with Robert. I decided later not to; yet I hadn't read Chief's Robert Revisited. I was also about to bring back Mike Trenton back in the second chapter. Helga also had confessed at Rhonda's party on Halloween. Gerald and Arnold in Chapter Seven were freakin' harsh on Harold too. They were rude and stuff, but I cut it out because it didn't seem in character.

+ Iggy had been part of the hockey game, but I took him out because he never said anything. It seemed a little pointless… and also that I never heard of Arnold forgiving Iggy.

***

January 1, 2003

I'm updating this log just to just to keep up on some stuff. Plus, Helga's journal entry that I've just written in Chapter 19 has left me wanting to do this. Four hours ago at one o'clock, I journeyed up to my local Meijers and purchased… hold on, wait for it… HEY ARNOLD THE MOVIE! Yes! YES! My mom bought my brothers and me a DVD player for Christmas, so this has been my first DVD that I bought only for myself. Nobody else here likes Hey Arnold. To anybody else who has this DVD, what's with all the freakin' Charlotte's Web 2 plugs? I saw that crap and I just wanted to smack the Paramount executives.

If you haven't seen the movie, or you downloaded that version where the beginning is missing off of the internet where someone spliced the cartoon's main title sequence to make up for a lost fifteen minutes, go out and buy it. Don't rent; BUY!

I hope to finish up this story sometime soon, but keeping that attitude will only result in the ending being choppy and thrown together. I hate that. That's the only flaw I find with the movie. The beginning takes ten minutes through the span of almost twenty-eight days. The movie is also too short. Seventy-five minutes! Usually, movies are at least an hour and a half! If they had put an extra half-hour of supporting scenes in there, the movie would have been so much better. That movie just whipped by until they met that one girl… ugh, what's her name? You know, Jennifer Jason Leigh's character… I can't think of her name.

Well, here's some other stuff that had been typed out:

+ The chapter, 'Lugubrious': I couldn't decide what to call that little intermission of the real story. If you take that whole chapter out, everything will still make sense. I flipped around through my thesaurus and found the word. I'm not even sure what it means anymore.

+ Throughout the story I have mentioned how Arnold has a job but it never seems like he ever has to work. The 'Lugubrious' chapter gave a little inside onto all of that. I actually had to track back a little to remember where I said he was working. I don't blame you if you forgot either.

+ The Ruth thing had been planned to happen earlier. After I cut out Helga's confession at Halloween, I thought Ruth and him should go out. If you dive in deep, it's kind of set up in that chapter for it to happen. I brought it back after looking at my plotted outline and thinking, "Eh, I should throw that in. It'd add more interesting filler."

+ 'Magic in the Hand' - this has been a joke with me for a while. There's an Everclear song called The Good Witch of the North where he says, "My good friend is like magic in my hand. / When I lose my sparkle, she's the only one that understands. / I know I'm gonna marry you someday." For some reason, the lyric book that comes with the CD says "Magic in the hand," which to me makes no sense. Listening to the song, it clearly says "Magic in my hand." Man, that's a great song.

+ Helga searching for the old dress was just one of those little self-searching things I put in there. She was trying to get that old feeling back.

+ I almost didn't pair up Arnold and Helga. Helga would've ended up with Brainy and finding the identity of his stalker.

+ The Cure, The White Stripes, and Everclear - almost everything they do is at least decent if not great. The White Stripes' cover of "Your Southern Can Is Mine" is just funny if you listen to the lyrics. "Well, if I see you, momma, down in the heart of town, I'm gonna grab me a brick and tear your can on down…" I try using these three bands whenever I can. "Southern Can" and The Cure's "The Love Cats" have been stuck in my head for weeks.

+ Another song quote: Billy Joel - She's Always A Woman. Man, I had heard this song a few times when I was really young and my mom was into him, but I never listened to the words. I was with my mom and the song came on the radio. I just started bursting out laughing. If you haven't heard it, the song is terribly pretty. I mean, this sounds like the sweetest love song ever made. The lyrics, though, are just great. "She can lead you to live / She can take you or leave you / She can ask for the truth / But she'll never believe you / And she'll take what you give her as long as it's free / She steals like a thief / But she's always a woman to me." I mean, come on! This is, almost, the best love song ever… because it's so freakin' true! It is sweet, though. I mean, the whole song is she may make you mad with the thing she does, but she's always a woman. She takes care of herself and that's what's important, even though she may be selfish. Still, you have to love her: you don't have a choice. This song reminds me of Helga; this sounds like her description completely… especially the free stuff thing.

+ Late night TV is the funniest stuff. This has nothing to do with the story, except for the fact that I'd have the TV on while I typed during the late nights. One night, Jerry Springer was on. As much as I hate the show, I kept it on while I worked. On it was a "lady" who came on to tell her best friend that she was going out with her man… and that the "lady" was really a guy… named Bacon… and Bacon really hated her friend. She kept going on saying in this really funny voice, "I hate you! I hate you!" She didn't really give any good reasons, but that seemed to be the answer for everything. "I hate you! I - HATE - YOU!" … … … Well, I thought it was kind of funny.

+ Space Ghost Coast-To-Coast reference - In chapter 26, Gerald says to Arnold "You're bringin' me down, man" after being lectured about his love life. There was an episode where for some reason (I don't remember why) Space Ghost kept yelling out; "You're bringin' me down, man! Zorak! Zorak! (What?) You're bringin' me down, man! Psst! Moltar. Hey, Moltar. (What?!) YOU'RE BRINGIN' ME DOWN, MA- (Static to commercial brake)." It's just a small little "homage" to the show in a ver small, unnoticeable way.

+ Chapter 27 was almost cut. I was skeptical and kept it on a disk with me just in case I changed my mind. I knew that if I was going to keep it, I couldn't post it by itself. So before I posted Chapter 27, I wanted to write Chapter 28. Between that time, I took a long break from writing and collecting my thoughts of my own life… that I may or may not publish on fanfiction.net. Right now, I'm not sure. When I finally came back to start up 28, I reread Chapter 27 and decided it had some real character. It wasn't the most cheerful of chapters, but it held its ground and kept the story moving. It was expressing exactly what I wanted. I love carnivals, yet I hate going to them. For some reason, I find it embarrassing to be seen as a teen there for no other reason but for a date. That stuff worked in elementary, it's not gonna work now.

+ I don't remember if the show ever covered why Harold is bald, but I do remember that during the Arnold Whodunit Marathon, they said he lost it to stress from being held back two grades. This would all work out, but in "Helga on the Couch" it shows Harold in the same kindergarten or preschool (I stuck with preschool, I couldn't remember) class as Helga and Arnold. Therefore, he must've been held back in preschool if he was still in Arnold's class in fourth grade. I didn't want to hold him back anymore, so Harold did graduate with all of his other classmates. Poor, poor Harold - always slumped with his downtrodden luck. I shall play a sad song for him as soon as I learn how to play an instrument.

+ Many references of my own life are in this story. I'm not gonna be graduating on time. I'm smart and all, but I'm a slacker. Then again, I haven't had much time to turn this in because I've been busy with schoolwork. You'd think I'd turn my work in and get my grades up. I am staying another year in school though… for a few reasons… mostly because I'm whipped… they want to spend next year with me in choir… Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Tootsie Pop show. Might as well nickname me Lolli 'cause I'm such a sucker I guess.

+ Chapter 29 was a compensation chapter. I don't think I had talked about Brainy for a while. Well, I did. Are you happy? ARE YA? ARE YOU REALLY FREAKIN' HAPPY?

+ Jimmothy was my creation a little while ago. I just love the sound of it. I wanna have a kid and name him Jimmothy. I also like replacing part of the lyrics to Missy Eliott's "The Rain." "It's just me, me, me; I'm Jimmothy."

+ Chapter 30 - Chapter 32: The titles - The Ceiling, The Roof, and In The Air. Think about that one. Where do you go from there? Now think about the metaphor used to connect the titles with the chapters' contents. I love that. Even if nobody else understands it, I love it.

+ Who is Vanessa? Well, I'm pretty sure out of all these people I know, I haven't incorporated her yet. I've made mention of all these girls I know: Victoria, Megan (I know she's in there somewhere), and Autumn. The only one I hadn't talked about at all was Vanessa. I thought it'd be a quick little joke to quip in there. Maybe I'll write a story later explaining Arnold and Vanessa. That'd be funny if you knew her… if only you people knew… I think my hands are scarred from when we were fighting. She claws, man. She scratches like dandruff. She bites too, man. She left bite-mark scabs (which meant it drew blood) on my freakin' arm. I can't remember what we were fighting about, but the incident itself was funnier than anything else ever has been. She takes everything way too seriously.

+ Doug is based on this guy I know named… Doug. He's not really that sarcastic and rude, but he would be that lazy. I hate that guy, but I thought throwing that in the story might brightened the mood. It seemed like something out of Family Guy.

+ Jonathan is based on a guy I used to know as a kid named… Jonathan. Once again, at the moment I don't believe he's like this, but I could see him looking and acting like this when he's forty-eight or so. He has the look of a squinty-eyed rough guy who's working way to soft of a job.

+ There's an old movie (from 1976 to be exact) titled Logan's Run. This movie is a semi-impressing sci-fi flick that my mother is simply in love with. She loved it when it first came out. Being that way, she bought it on DVD and forced me to watch it. My mom is not a fan of sci-fi movies, but this one is the cheesiest out of any I've ever seen in my life… and I've seen a lot… yet she loves it. It stars Michael York - best known now for his role as Basil Expedition in the Austin Powers movies. Why do I mention this? The name of the band that plays at the Prom is called Logan 6. Logan's Run is about a man named Logan 5 in the future who is sent undercover to expose runners from a ritual called Carrousel. In the beginning, he's tapping at the glass of a nursery where the baby Logan 6 is laying. Logan 6, man. Logan 6.

+ Curly ran into a bear, a Japanese ninja motorcycle gang, and four Inuit fishermen with Arabian swords. Was anybody else really struck funny by this? I thought this was the best ever when I was writing it, but my little brother didn't laugh at all. Well, he did at the " I will destroy you in less than twenty-seven seconds. This much is promised" line. If you say it right, it is pretty hilarious. This part I thought would be a funny gag to throw in. If you didn't like, well, I'm sorry. I couldn't pass that up. I might use it for a school paper.

+ DELETED SCENE - CHAPTER 31: I cut this tiny little bit out of the story because it didn't feel right. I now accompany it with the surrounding sentences to show exactly where it was. This was cut out in the process of writing the chapter.

Without any expression, he opened the door next to him and stepped out, followed by everybody else in the Limousine. He walked to the driver-side window and gave the Limo driver a ten-dollar bill. "I feel it's at least my contribution for the evening."

Rudy took the money and held it in his hand outside the window. "Has anybody ever told you that you're head is shaped like a…"

"Yes," Arnold frowned. "Yes, they have."

The driver smiled and started to lightly giggle. "I'm sorry, but it's kind of funny looking. You must've always been picked first in gym class… to be the ball, that is!"

While Rudy broke into hysterical laughter, Arnold snatched the ten dollars out of Rudy's drooping hand. "You have a nice evening there too, buddy." As he walked into the building, Arnold softly whispered to himself, What an idiot.

+ Okay, you have to follow me on this one: a few days before writing Chapter 31, I had written a map for a girl to a kid's house. He's going to be having a bonfire pretty soon and she had no idea of how to get there. This served as some unimportant inspiration for this chapter and Chapter 32. On a long stretch of road, I drew little pictures on the side describing all the places she'd pass on the way… but none of them existed. "Drive past the three-eyed monster destroying the Native American reservation, and past the smoking clinic for Inuit fishermen, and past the Atheist church." For each item, I had a small picture drawn. For the church, I drew a small chapel with a sign outside that read: "Today's Service: What's the deal with Luxembourg?" Now piece that all together.

+ Chapter 33 - This is what I actually visualize when I think of all these kids graduating. The conversations and everything: especially Arnold and Helga and the squabbling. Of course, everything in this story is my vision, but even if this story had been the completely Bizarro way around, it would be like that. That's just me… I have no idea of what I'm saying, but maybe somebody else did.

+ Every year, the juniors in High School in Michigan have to take what is called the Michigan Educational Assessment Program, or MEAP, test. Last year was my official junior year but they wouldn't let me take it… so I took it this year. The Isaac Asimov quoting comes from the last part of the English/Language Arts section. Just in case anybody wanted to know…

+ Well, I finished the story! PARTY! (Loud music and noisemakers sound) Man! What do I do now? Any suggestions? Any… any at all?

Seriously, I don't know where to go from here.