***********Serious redo!!!**************

I realized (while being bored tonight and just going through and re-reading my fics.) That this is VERY hard to read close to the point of torture. I couldn't even get through the first sentence before my eyes started hurting. I made the paragraphs a lot shorter and I separated it whole they would talk to each other so now it should be easier to read. I didn't change the story just fixed the paragraphs and made changes to errors that I found. When I get the chance I'm going to do it to Egg Rolls and Chocolate too and I'm probably going to change it a little b/c I REALLY neglected Gerald and Phoebe. But I'm not sure when that's going to be.

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ok i would like to thank acosta perez jose ramiro for giving me the term chocolate. he has a REALLY good story call when blondes collide so if you havent read it yet, you should. alright, ths came to me a few days ago and i decided to post it up. at 1st i was going to leave it a oneshot, but being the hopeless romantic that i am, i love happy endings so theres gonna b about 3 or 4 more chapters.

summary: while doing homework, helga and phoebe talk about their favorite foods, chocolate and ice cream.

Seventeen year old Helga Pataki stared off into space as her best friend, Phoebe Hyerdahl, finished writing out the last math problem for their homework that night. Realizing that her friend wasn't doing her work, Phoebe sighed. "You know Helga, you should really apply yourself more. There are only twenty-five problems, and it took less than an hour to do them. So mathematically speaking, it would only take-"

Rolling her eyes, Helga said, "I know, but can we skip the eye-crossing fractions and decimals?"

Blushing slightly, Phoebe replied "Sorry."

Smiling, Helga shook her head as she looked at her friend. It was only two weeks until the end of their junior year in high school, and Helga was sure that her best friend was the only one still worried about homework. Thinking about the little time they had left to be juniors, Helga thought about all that happened in her life since she'd known Phoebe.

The first thing that came to her mind was of course, Arnold. It was sad to say that she'd been in love with him since pre-k. Helga knew it, and she also knew that the fact that she had gotten no where with Arnold was even worse. After the she had confessed to him, then took it back afterward, she stopped teasing him. It had taken some getting used to for everyone, but barely anyone remembered how much she tormented him.

Sighing, she tried of get back to her work. "Is something wrong Helga?" She heard her friend ask concerned. "If you want to take a break we can."

Shaking her head, she said, "It's not that Pheebs. I was just thinking about how after this year, it's just one more then we're out in the real world."

Nodding her head in agreement, Phoebe said, "I concur Helga. But, as you have just stated, there is one more year left. A lot can happen in a year, even the impossible."

"Yeah, right." Helga grumbled. "What can happen that hasn't already? Think back to when we were at P.S. 118. Curly was obsessed with Rhonda, who didn't want anything to do with him. Now they're the school's cutest couple. Eugene was the most accident prone nerd in school. He's the star basketball player now. Brainy lost his hunched-back, glasses, finally got a tan, and stopped that creepy breathing." Helga said the last with a shudder.

Smiling, Phoebe said, "Brainy has become a very big ladies man since then. I don't believe anyone remembers what he was like when we were younger."

Crossing her arms and leaning against the footboard of the bed, Helga made a sound of disgust. "Well I do. And not too fondly either. Brainy is a great friend…now. But all those years ago, I can't remember how many times I punched him for sneaking up behind me and just breathing."

Giggling, Phoebe said, "You should have been flattered. He was crazy about you."

"Yeah, emphasis on crazy." Helga shot back. "You know he tried to give me a fake diamond ring once. It was after one of the first times I started to see my shrink. I didn't hit him then, I was in a good mood." She didn't tell her friend that she was in a good mood because she had just confessed to the psychiatrist that she was crazy about Arnold. Helga was never sure if Phoebe knew or not if she was in love with Arnold or not, but she knew she wasn't going to ask her.

"Are you sure that you weren't leading him on?" Phoebe asked jokingly.

Helga gasped and threw a pillow at her laughing friend's face. "I did not! I hit him almost every time I saw him. I can only remember on two occasions where I didn't hit him. One was with the ring situation I just told you about, and the other was when-"

Helga stopped mid-sentence when she remembered what she did do instead of hit him.

"You were saying Helga?" Phoebe said.

Sighing, Helga decided just to say it. It was years ago, it shouldn't matter now right? "I kissed him on his cheek. But just once."

She could tell that her friend wanted to laugh and tease her, but instead she said, "May I inquire as to why?"

Sighing again, Helga said, "It was after I found out that that potion I had drink really didn't work when I tried to get over Arn-I mean ice cream." Helga would have figured that after all these years of hiding it, not announcing that she had feelings for Arnold would be easier, but obviously it wasn't, at least it wasn't when it came to her best friend.

"Oh." Was all Phoebe said, but Helga could tell that she wanted to say more. They were quiet for awhile and Helga was about to tell her friend to spit it out, when Phoebe suddenly said, "You decided that having your obsession for ice cream was for the best, correct?"

Helga hadn't thought about that conversation she had with Phoebe about 'ice cream' in years. She wondered where this was going. "Yeah. Ice cream was my muse. I realized that it was better to have the obsession with ice cream, than not to have it." "

Oh." Phoebe said once again, more quietly this time.

Helga could see that a lot was on her friend's mind. Concerned, she asked her, "Pheebs, if you want to talk about something, you know you can with me right?" Phoebe started to shuffle the papers from her notebook around, and Helga knew that her friend was nervous. If Phoebe was nervous, then something was really wrong. The only time she ever got nervous was when she was around-

"You still have an obsession with ice cream, right?" Phoebe asked her nervously.

Arching a brow, Helga said, "Yeah. Since I've grown up, I don't handle it the same as I did when we were little, but it's still there. What about it?"

Where was Phoebe going with this? Helga wondered. It was true that a lot had changed since they were nine, like Helga finally getting along with her parents. Bob and Miriam didn't call her Olga any more, and Miriam stopped drinking 'smoothies.' She even liked to spend time with Olga. She had put Old Betsy and the Five Avengers away shortly after her little rooftop confession, so by the time that she was in middle school, she had made friends with everyone, even Gerald, who she was never close to.

But they never spoke about 'ice cream' as an unspoken mutual agreement. Before she could ask her friend anything, Phoebe said, "I have an obsession also, and I would like your advice on it."

Seeing that this was important to her friend, Helga said, "Go ahead."

Taking a deep breathe, Phoebe started, "I have an obsession with…chocolate. I have for a long time. And I'm not sure if it's worth the time or should I just let it go."

Even though Helga face didn't change, she saw where this was going now. Gerald. She had half wondered, half knew, that Phoebe had some kind of feeling towards the boy, but never asked. If she did, then Phoebe would ask questions that Helga would rather leave unanswered.

"Well, if you want to have this obsession with chocolate, then it isn't a waste of time. It all comes down to if obsessing over chocolate makes you happy or not."

Sighing, Phoebe picked up a pillow from her bed and hugged it. "But chocolate is such a popular candy. Everyone wants it. Someone different has chocolate every month. Why does it matter if I like chocolate too?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Helga said, "Plenty of people are crazy over ice cream too. That doesn't stop me. Just as long as you're doing it because you actually like chocolate. Not because everyone else does."

"I know that some people like chocolate just because it's a popular…treat, or because it looks nice. But that's not why I like it. It's nice, and good to be around. But with everyone trying to get to it, why bother." Phoebe said glumly.

"Hey." Helga said trying to cheer her friend up. "You're the optimist here, remember? Look at it this way; everyone loves a sundae, right? Some people like it because of how it looks, some people like it because of the way other people would envy them if they had one. Not too many people realize that there are different parts to a sundae. Ice cream and chocolate go really good together, but they are different. I personally wouldn't want chocolate. I wouldn't want the banana, the cherry, or the nuts either. But if you actually like chocolate as an individual topping, for itself, then you have a better chance at chocolate than most people."

"Chocolate goes better with whipped cream than it ever would with egg rolls." Phoebe said to herself more than she did to her friend.

Knowing how it felt to compare herself to every girl that Arnold would date she said, "Says who? I think that egg rolls are great. They give chocolate a calming taste, and chocolate gives egg rolls a taste of excitement that it needs sometimes."

Phoebe seemed to think about that. Going back to her unfinished homework, Helga stopped when she heard Phoebe say, "What about ice cream and…pop rocks?"

"What about it?" Helga asked cautiously. She had more or less revealed that she had feelings for Arnold with this conversation, but that didn't mean that she wanted to talk about it.

"I think that ice cream and pop rocks go good together." Phoebe told her, giving her a look.

"Nope." Helga said quickly. "The moment pop rocks get around ice cream, the start to pop and crackle. It wouldn't work. Ice cream would prefer strawberry syrup. Soft and sweet. The opposite from pop rocks, hard, tart, and unpredictable. And sometimes, the popping can hurt someone. It would melt the ice cream until it was just liquid."

"Not true, Helga." Her friend said to her. "Yes, initially pop rocks are hard, tart, and unpredictable. But after awhile with them, you realize that they are actually sweet and they don't pop anymore. I also believe that if ice cream would melt when in contact with pop rocks, then it would do so immediately, not a long period afterward."

"I don't think so Phoebe." Helga told her as she shook her head. "I've seen of ice cream go well with a lot of other stuff, but never pop rocks."

Phoebe couldn't be right, Helga thought. She and Gerald would make a cute couple, but not her and Arnold. It was true that Arnold had always been nicer to her than she deserved, especially considering the fact that she made his life a living hell until they were almost in middle school. But that was just because Arnold was a nice person. Helga couldn't remember a time since they started high school that she saw Arnold without some girl chasing after him. She knew that she couldn't compete with those girls.

"If you don't believe that they would go good together, then I will be forced to reevaluate what you have just told me about chocolate and egg rolls." Phoebe told her bluntly. Helga saw that Phoebe had trapped her, so she kept her mouth closed.

Both girls were quiet, lost in their own thinking. Phoebe had known for a long time how Helga felt about Arnold, but she also knew that unless she brought up the subject, she wouldn't talk about it. Mentioning 'ice cream' had made Phoebe think of Arnold, which had her thinking of Gerald. She had a crush on him since the fourth grade and when he and Helga had started to get along with the two boys on a friend level, she talked to him more.

All the while her crush was growing and growing, but she never had the courage to do anything about it. Then high school had come, and Phoebe, unknown to Helga, felt the same way Helga did; Gerald was out of her league. She couldn't compete with all those outgoing girls. She was just Phoebe. Quiet, smart Phoebe. Luckily, no one had gotten a big head from whatever popularity they had gotten once high school started, so the all still talked to each other.

Unluckily, Phoebe had gotten more and more nervous as they had gotten older, so now at seventeen years old, she could barely talk to Gerald without making some excuse to end the conversation in fear that she would do something to humiliate herself. She supposed that was why Helga had teased Arnold so much when they were younger.

"Hey Helga," Phoebe said drawing her friend out of her thinking. "Yeah Pheebs?" Helga answered. "This conversation, never happened." Phoebe repeated the same words that her friend did all those years ago.

Remembering, Helga smiled. "Right, forgetting"

ok the egg rolls thing wasnt rascist was it? i didnt think that it would b but sum ppl might think that it is. if that is, then so is chocolate, and i'm not racist towards my own race so yea. i no that i give alot of food so i'll name em

ice cream-arnold of course
chocolate-gerald
pop rocks-helga
egg rolls-phoebe
banana-stinky
cherry-harold (I got that from red its almost pink and its round)
nuts-sid (honestly I couldn't think of ne thing else 4 him)
whipped cream-any girl that phoebe thinks is popular and has a better chance at Gerald
strawberry syrup-lila

if there was one that i missed, and you cant tell which one it is, just tel mel. u dont have 2 review b/c i dont all of the time, but i would like to no if u like it or not so it would be apperciated. i'll try to post the next chapter n the next few days, but with work, sleep, and my mom hogging the computer, i can't make ne promises. OH! before i 4get. i go 2 this website 2 download hey arnold episodes. its they have all the episodes except the halloween one and the movie i think. but sum of em dont work. ne way its a good site. and if ne one nos where i can get the hey arnold! movie plz tell me. ok im leaving now.