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1. Rec 16

   A Poet's Return by HorrorMovieFan99

   Fandoms: Hey Arnold!  

   • Mature
   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • F/M
   • Complete Work

   17 Jul 2025

   Tags

   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • Helga Pataki/Arnold Shortman
   • Phoebe Heyerdahl/Gerald Johanssen
   • Helga Pataki
   • Arnold Shortman
   • Rhonda Wellington Lloyd
   • Gerald Johanssen
   • Sid (Hey Arnold!)
   • Lila Sawyer
   • Phoebe Heyerdahl
   • Harold Berman
   • Thaddeus "Curly" Gammelthorpe
   • Second Chances
   • Slow Build
   • Emotional Baggage
   • Angst with a Happy Ending
   • Adult relaionships
   • Romantic Tension
   • Friendship
   • Mild Sexual Content
   • Sexual Tension
   • Trauma
   • Abandonment Issues
   • flight or fight

   Summary

   Characters: ages roughly Mid to late 20's
   Helga Pataki is a successful writer and poet who impulsively returns to her hometown of Hillwood after her engagement implodes in Philadelphia. She specializes in running from failed relationships, but coming home means facing the one person she's been running from since age 3: Arnold Shortman.

   Five years away hasn't dulled her feelings for the boy with the football-shaped head, but timing and emotional baggage have a way of complicating second chances. As Helga navigates work at a literary magazine, well-meaning but messy friends, and her self-destructive tendencies, she discovers that sometimes the hardest person to be honest with is yourself.

   Language:

   English

   Words:

   55,849

   Chapters:

   29/29

   Comments:

   54

   Kudos:

   106

   Bookmarks:

   16

   Hits:

   3,428

   Bookmarked by Dae2Guk

   30 Sep 2025