This work of fiction was inspired by fan art and The Jungle Movie with references to real things/people.

I do not own Hey Arnold! (Craig Bartlett) or The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Weber)

Enjoy!

Prologue

They found it.

La Corazon.

And they were running.

Running from him, La Sombra.

And suddenly, they fell.

Fell through a trap.

They hit the bottom of a pit that led to a secret cave.

Arnold was terrified. "Helga! Are you okay?"

No response

He pulled Helga over into the cave where they would be unseen. He felt a huge lump the back of her head. He was freaked out. He didn't know what to do. All he could do was just scream her name.

"HELGA! IT'S NOT FUNNY! I KNOW YOU HATE ME AND I KNOW YOU LOVE PRANKING ME BUT THIS ISN'T A JOKE!"

No response

He grabbed her shoulders with fear, "HELGA PLEASE! I KNOW YOU LOVE ME! IF YOU REALLY DID LOVE ME YOU WOULD WAKE UP!"

No response

Arnold broke down to tears. He shouldn't have let Helga follow him. He shouldn't have let her come find his parents with him. What if she never woke up?

He was overcome by what had happened and desperately needed an answer from Helga. So all he could do was wait for her to move or do something. They were stuck no doubt, and he needed to get Helga to safety.

But then he realized "Why should I care about Helga? I mean she's always been mean to me, rude, and has never done anything for me."

But then he thought some more. "Then there was that whole FTI thing. What was that about? I mean, really? She loves me? There is no way on earth." His good-boy conscious was doing the thinking now. "Well, she wouldn't have admitted anything that's not true. I mean, I know Helga, and that's not like her. Maybe she did mean all that stuff on top of FTI. Maybe she really did. And here I was thinking that she didn't mean any of that stuff, that she was caught up in the heat of the moment. That she got carried away. If she did get carried away then why did she follow me when I left the class to find my parents?"

He glanced over at Helga, whom was still unconscious. "Why would she have followed me? Maybe she really does love me."

His inner pessimist came out then, "NO WAY. She has always bullied me, made fun of me, calling me a wet blanket and stuff." The little angel on his left shoulder started arguing back, "Maybe that was just because she really wanted to cover up her feelings. Maybe…"

His light bulb went on, "Even though she's done some really mean things to me, it never bothered me, I never could ignore her. She can be ok sometimes. She can be really nice, like that one time Phoebe broke her leg…and when she found my hat, she helped fund my float for the parade, and the time she let me win the spelling bee, and the time she stopped her own dad from cutting down the old tree! And then there was that one time when Rhonda told me I was going to get married to Helga… Maybe she has been there for me all along. How could I have not noticed it?"

The more he thought about it, the more he realized Helga has been there for Arnold when he's down. The more he realized that Helga was trying to comfort him, and maybe he just forgot.

Helga shifted a little and moaned "Arnold, yo-ou okay?"

Her eyes were still closed and it looked like she was half-conscious. "Helga, I'm fine, just go to sleep."

"Okay Football head."

The devil on Arnold's right shoulder still had his argument, "Why is she so mean then?" And the Angel had a counterstatement. "Maybe it's because she doesn't feel very loved. Have you ever noticed her parents? They never give her a second thought. Maybe Helga just feels…desolate. She feels desolate from the world."

Arnold grasped on to Helga's ways of thinking. He knew that she loved him. After all of her spit balls and humiliating jokes, none of that mattered to Arnold anymore.

He glanced over at Helga once more.

It started to become darker and colder. Arnold took a hold onto Helga's cataleptic body and rested her head on his lap. He noticed underneath her bangs, her forehead was bleeding. He ripped part of his shirt off to make a headband for the wound. Arnold started studying her face. She looked so calm. Her blonde hair was falling out of its gravity-defying pigtails, so Arnold let her hair down.

She looked so serene. Why did she scowl all the time? She looked so pretty when she was…well…unconscious. He couldn't help himself to run his fingers through her blonde hair.

As the moonlight came up over the trapped partners-in-crime, Arnold saw something shinning next to Helga's body. At first he thought he was going insane. He reached out to touch the reflecting light, and grasped on to something with a heart shape. He positioned the heart in way so he could see what it was. A locket. With Arnold's picture in it. Blushing, he thought to himself, "She must be really crazy over me, carrying this locket around. It's kinda cool. Creepy and stalkerish, but cool."

As his thoughts drew to a close, he fell asleep with the locket of his lover in his hands.

He woke up the next morning to someone playing with his arm.

Helga, her face, full of concern and fear as she wrapped her pink girly bow around his arm, which must have been bleeding. Arnold did some quick thinking and pretended to be asleep. What harm could be done? He wanted to see what she would do while he was "sleeping". After she finished casing his arm, she just started at him for a good minute.

"Oh Arnold," she started speaking to herself.

"This will be good," Arnold thought to himself.

"My football-headed love-god…"

Arnold bit his lip to hold back laughter, just so he could hear more…

"Let me pray that no harm has been done to you, and let me pray that today may be the day that you see me with love's eyes, as I see you, my flaxen-haired hero."

Arnold tried to keep himself together, and in result snorted.

"He snores! Snore again bright angel!"

This was too much, he snorted again, and Helga thought he snored, again.

"huhag…" she made some weird sigh.

Arnold peered inconspicuously while pretending to sleep. He saw Helga's face change from adoring to panic in a split second. She saw her locket in his hand. Instinctively, she pried it out of his hands and put it in her shirt, and started speaking again.

"Oh, it's no use. He knows. He's known for a year now. He knows I'm head-over-heals, over-the-moon crazy for him! And NOW he finds my locket? This is too embarrassing. What am I even doing? I know he hates me. He can't stand me. He doesn't like me, and he will never like me like me."

She put her head in her hands and started crying.

"Ok," Arnold thought, "Show's over." He put on his half lidded smile and said "I never said I hate you Helga."

She lifted her head up to reveal her puffy eyes.

"I never said I couldn't stand you. And I never said I don't like you like you, Helga."

"Huh?"

"Look, I should have talked with you about this after we saved the neighborhood, and I'm sorry I put it off for so long. I might have given you the wrong impression for a year, and I know it was wrong to ignore it, Helga, but…"

"But what?"

"Well, Helga, I mean…you are…always…there for me…"

"I am?"

"Helga, you are! I mean… remember the spelling bee? And the parade? Remember the time you found my hat? And saved the old tree from your DAD?"

"Well…haha…funny story…um…I don't like my dad…"

"Helga, stop trying to hide it from me! Stop trying to cover it up! Remember the time you helped me save the neighborhood?"

"L-let's not talk a-about that, heh, heh…"

"Deep Voice? Are you still in there? Because I know one thing, Helga, that you aren't as bad as you want me to believe. I know who you really are. I can see through you now. I know that you are really a caring, loving, and emotional person…"he slowed down at the last few words made his heart and stomach drop through what seemed a never ending hole.

"Well…I-I…um…"

"Helga please! Stop! I know you, and I-I…um…care about you- a lot." He choked, but forced himself to continue.

"Care?"

"Maybe I kinda…ummm…like you too…" His stomach hit the bottom of the hole it fell into, as he felt a jittery sensation in his abdomen.

"Huh?" Helga spoke with fear.
"I think…I um…like you like you too. Like maybe even l-love you." After the words left his mouth, a weight that pressed on him seemed to disintegrate away.

She fainted after making some weird sign again.

"Aaugh…what do I do now?" Arnold rested his head in his hands, and rubbed his football headed forehead. I tell a girl I love her and she faints. Perfect. He thought.

Helga returned to her consciousness and still lying down, she stuttered, "So F-football head, haha, if you…um…love me…crazy idea… then uh…prove it."

"Fine." He said, his face making that half-lidded smile that made Helga melt.

He leaned over and kissed her, right on the lips.

Helga nearly died of happiness, Who's red lips to I want a taste of? Three guesses stupid, Arnold, Arnold, Arnold!

He kissed her until she was out of breath and she fainted again.

"HEY ARNOLD! HEY ARNOLD! HEY ARNOLD!"

The fifteen-year-old awoke and turned his alarm off.

Today's the day they're moving back.

So...what do ya think? Please follow, favorite, or review! As I start this story, I need lots of feedback, thanks :)