Sixth Grade Beginnings

Chapter 35

Arnold laid awake in his bed, as he watched the sky above him. The moon was high and bright, and a few wisps of thin clouds would sometimes happen by but for the most part, it was clear out. He was filled with so much emotion that he really didn't know how to sort it all. The worry of the talk he would have to inevitably have with Helga, the when and where he would let her know of his for-sure feelings for her, as well as his upcoming birthday, and the party that was happening at the end of the month. He wanted so badly to talk to Helga about all these things, yet just couldn't seem to find a time to do it, despite her sleeping in a room just below him.

During dinner, he was excited to see her sit down and eat, however that's all that really happened. She didn't engage in any sort of conversation and when he would try and speak, someone or something would interrupt him, making him feel more and more discouraged. He had decided on talking to her after dinner as well, but before he could get himself up those stairs to her bedroom door, he noticed she had already closed it and seemed to be in no mood to talk. Not wanting to bother her with whatever was going on, Arnold dragged his feet up to his bedroom in order to plan how to proceed.

First, the talk of exposing their relationship. Arnold wanted to wait until after he sorted out his own feelings before engaging her with such a topic. He knew she would no doubt start the conversation off hostile, throwing in how she felt and why, before ultimately agreeing to his terms in order to make him happy. Helga's way about doing things usually were the same, so they were easy to predict at this point. Once he was sure how he was going to go about the talk, and so long as she wasn't already in a bad mood, he would bring it up privately in a safe environment.

Second, the confessions of his feelings. He considered using this to follow up the first talk, but decided that it would seem more like a tactic to calm her down, rather than outwardly just telling her his true feelings. Instead, he considered using whatever birthday money he might get, to take her out on a date and confess there. He imagined it being a fine, romantic sort of night and smiled. Things like this needed to be said in a proper setting and if he was unable to take her out anywhere, he would settle to doing something nice on his rooftop, like he did for Oskar and Suzie. Either way, he was excited for this to happen.

Third, his upcoming birthday. Gerald had been making such a big deal out of it, yet Arnold couldn't find himself in the spirit. Of course, he was looking forward to it, however everything that had been going on really overshadowed this potential joyous event. Knowing it wasn't very great to feel so apathetic about something everyone else was clearly excited about, Arnold decided that now would be a good time to start getting in the spirit. He considered the events his parents might be planning as well as the funky decorations that his grandparents usually used. He considered the few presents he might get, even though he had no idea what they would be. Most importantly though, he considered how it would feel to be spending it with the parents he hadn't seen since he was a baby, and his first girlfriend. Anticipation began to fill his body at this thought. Even though he never really saw his birthday to be a big deal, he knew that his parents definitely were going to feel different and that they were probably planning something big to remember.

Lastly, Halloween as well as Rhonda's party. It wasn't something completely alien to him, as she had thrown them in the past, however with certain people like Curly hyping it up, Arnold wondered if it was going to be all that grand. He considered all the party games that his classmates had mentioned, and how the whole feel of this party would be more grown up than ever before. The thought of this was stressful as Arnold wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to his youthful years, as well as they weren't even teens yet, so why would she go through all this trouble? Rhonda always made her parties as extravagant as possible, but was there a more underlying reason for this party in particular to be so big? And the fact she was having another party before that, just the girls, seemed a little weird as well. Neither party alone would have even struck the boy as unusual, but placing them back to back just seemed extreme, even for Rhonda. He grew a little concerned that maybe she had something going on, and was just covering it all up by throwing the most lavish parties possible, as this would absolutely be something she might do. Was she moving? Were her parents having a divorce? Or was there something else that might be bothering her, causing her to want to unwind in such a fashion.