�Mommmmyyyyyy!!� yelled Harold, quivering in his pajamas while clutching his
Wally doll. With the rain outside it was as dark as midnight, though it
wasn�t even 2:00 yet. Everyone got quiet all of a sudden. What was that
noise? There were heavy footsteps and hallow breathing sounds. They heard
Eugene in another room shriek. There was a booming crash and a thud. This
was followed by an eerie, rolling sound. Phoebe ran to Gerald. Everyone
could her Harold whispering, �Easy squeezy lemon peasy,� over and over.
Two points of light floated toward them. One went ahead of the other. As
it came closer it revealed the horrible silhouette of�.Brainy?! Mr. Simmons
came forward, holding a candle. Eugene came from another direction, limping in pain from his
fall. The rolling sound had been his candle when he dropped it.
�I�m sorry! Did we scare anyone? Eugene! In the name of specialness, are
you hurt?�
�I�m okay.� Mr. Simmons started passing out candles to the recovering
students. Phoebe blushed at Gerald and walked back to Helga.
�Lightning struck the power lines. We found candles and Trevor is searching
for flashlights. Everything will be fine. I think everyone should go to
their rooms.� Everyone had separate rooms though some people went to others
so they wouldn�t be scared. Phoebe, Arnold, Gerald, and Helga all went to
their own rooms. After a while, Gerald heard a knock on his door. He
opened it to find a very badly frightened Phoebe.
�Gerald?! I thought this was Helga�s room, I�m sorry.� She started to walk
away.
�Phoebe, wait! I�m not gonna let you wander around here in the dark alone.
You stay in my room till this is over. We can be scared together.�
�Thank you, Gerald.�
*****
Helga was nervous and she was worried about Phoebe. Phoebe should have come
to her room by now.
�What if she�s lost in the halls!� she said to herself. She took a candle
and went to look for her. After she�d thoroughly searched the halls she
figured that either Phoebe was in her room toughing it out or she was with
someone else. She started heading back to her room when she realized that
in searching for Phoebe, she had gotten herself lost. She headed for the
nearest door, intending to ask where she was. She knocked and the door was
answered by�.Arnold?!
�Arnold, I was searching for Phoebe and I lost where my room is. Can you
tell me where I am?�
�Why not, instead of you going to your room alone and me staying in my room
alone, you just stay here? I know it�s childish, but, I�m kinda scared.�
Helga went into Arnold�s room to stay for the storm.
*****
The loud, sudden roll of thunder forced a surprised squeak out of Phoebe.
�I know I shouldn�t be frightened. The lightning is only the negative
discharge of energy between the sky and the clouds and the thunder is only
the gasses in the atmosphere reacting to being quickly heated by the
lightning, but I AM scared!� Phoebe started crying.
�Phoebe, don�t cry, come on!� Gerald sat down on the bed next to her, he
held her in his arms. She cried into his shirt. He lifted her chin to
speak to her more, but before he had a chance to say anything, their eyes
locked. Then, because it felt natural, he kissed the tears away from her
eyes. Following it, he gave her a long, full kiss on the mouth. Before he
knew what he was doing, he said,
�De-licious.� She giggled. She caught a glimpse of the bouquet of flowers
on the table behind Gerald. She hadn�t seen them before.
�Who are those flowers for?�
�They were picked for you, my de-licious Phoebe. Because they looked as
de-licious as you!� Phoebe giggled, then gave Gerald a long kiss. He
started showering her with small, swift kisses on her face and neck as she
giggled. She stopped his roving lips with her finger, than replaced her
finger with her own lips, giving him another long kiss. When she finally
pulled away, he whispered in her ear,
�De-licious!� Meanwhile, Arnold was sitting on his bed watching the storm. Helga tried to turn on the television..
"Crimeny!, even the television is busted! there's nothing to do here
football-head!"
"Well, Helga," said Arnold as he turned his back to the storm and sat to face her,
"I brought some travel games for the bus, but I never got around to playing them with
Gerald as planned... I've got travel Cluedo, Connect Five, Guess Whom, and I've also
got a deck of cards."
"How about we play some Guess Whom then?" asked Helga.
"Fine by me," said Arnold.
They got their Guess Whom boards all set up.
"You can go first, Helga." said Arnold.
"OK, does your person have a football-shaped head?" asked Helga, smiling.
Arnold had a dopey grin on his face. "Sorry, No, Does your person have a head
shaped like Gerald or Harold's?"
"Yes," said Helga.
They continued playing Arnold's Travel games for about an hour.