Debora’s Intro To “The Patakis” Universe

Debora’s Intro to “The Patakis” Universe

Debora is in the front is situating herself with her locker on her first day of high school as a sophomore. She's groaning at Wolfgang and Edmund being their usual selves and bothering poor Eugene. Before this instance, Debora was only vaguely aware of how these boys were after years of viewing the outside world behind curtained windows. She knew enough that these boys were bad news. So she's now cursing the educational authority that placed her near the most obnoxious, despicable boys of PS118. To add insult to injury, she is forced to here Edmund's insultingly dopey laugh anytime Wolfgang breathes. Debora really wishes she can be home-schooled again, and she hasn't even had her first class yet.

So, a week or two has passed (I don’t really have the timespan set in stone) since Debora has first come to the PS118 high school for the sophomore class. Debora’s grows more tired of the school due to her fellow classmates giving little to no care for her presence, except maybe very few offering to Debora come seat with them at their lunch table. Debora always politely declined however by making excuses that she likes to draw during lunch period and her elbows would just get in the way of everybody else’s space. She never let anybody see her sketchbook when they asked because she was very self-conscious of her work and feared people would think her art is bad, boring, or weird and by extension, her. This, in turn, gave her fellow sophomores the impression that she is just some emo, loner snob that thinks that she’s too good for anybody. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Even with her little excuses, one of the true reasons she declines the offer is her fear of the masses of teens into small tables. Well, maybe the tables were perfectly averaged size for a school, but to a person like Debora that doesn’t like random strangers accidentally rubbing on their shoulders with hers, they were small. Debora wasn’t germaphobic, what she did have was a weird feeling, creepy-crawly feeling anytime anybody that she wasn’t close to gave her any minor, safe, physical contact. Even with distant family members, she would always be extremely awkward giving physical affection. It always felt awkward to her and she didn’t like it. For Debora, it was just one of the “joys” of having ASD. Secondly, the background noises in the lunchroom freaked her out. Everything was so loud and so many voices to focus on that Debora can’t focus on her own thoughts. That's she prefers to be in a table with farthest from people as possible. She can't stand loud, crowded areas, so the idea being closer to the loud clutter of voices is torture to her and she would just want to shrink down into nonexistence. Lastly, her biggest worry is that nobody would even pay much mind to her anyway and the only reason they invited is to just cure some guilty conscience. Debora is not good at her words and is always somehow blocked by somebody else stealing her time to speak. Even in her own family, someone is always cutting her off when she tries to talk because she’s either too slow or not loud enough. So what is the point of even talking if nobody is even going to acknowledge your desire to finally speak?

Debora had to face facts that these people were in groups of their own and no one was going to leave their own group just to seat with one, quiet girl. It will always be to join their group, but they never consider that maybe they should just seat with her instead. No, that would be too much to ask for. Those teens have their place in this school; she was but a bee in a nest of wasps. What made this experience more unbearable was her locker being close to the juniors’ lockers and not just any juniors, the most obnoxious two of the bunch, Wolfgang and Edmund. It drove her crazy to hear these jerks harass freshmen and sophomores. They acted like poorly developed antagonists from a bombed, high school comedy. Unfortunately, Debora wasn’t the one exception to their jerky ways. While Wolfgang never tripped her with his leg… yet, he has however made her drop a tower of school books onto the floor. She thought that it was only to be annoying at first until she overheard one of the juniors; she couldn't tell it was either Wolfgang’s, Edmund’s, or some other male junior voice chortled and rudely commented of how her back end was flat as a pancake. She was embarrassed and confused because she wore a blouse that specifically covered that part, so how could they possibly tell. Beyond book dropping and rude comments, the one time that Wolfgang caused her to physically hurt was when he “accidentally” pushed Debora out of his way and onto her locker. The good news, her reflexes saved her from it being a worse impact. The bad news is that her upper arm fell onto her locker combination and she was very sensitive there due to low muscle tone from being a social shut-in for most of her life.  She still has a tiny bruise from that moment. She tries to brush off that one moment because her younger sister always berated for being a baby when it came to receiving pain. She didn’t need that kind of mocking here too. She begins to wonder what even the point of coming here in the first place was. She remembers why she came here after seeing somebody carry a football. She needed closure with Arnold; it had been so long since she had seen the closest person that accepted her for who she is. She wanted to see him again one more time before her overprotective mother transfers her to a private school away from all the bad influences and secular lesson plans. The only reason she was even at this school in the first place because she begged her mother to go there at least until spring break to see Arnold for a while, then she can put her in the private, church school her mom did with her younger sister after the sibling complained about being homeschooled. Both her mother and Debora would much rather have had her homeschooled, but colleges around the area looked down on homeschooling. Debora had no choice but to go to a “real” school for her last three years. Arnold wasn’t even here, so she came to this school for nothing. All she can do now is wait until spring break for this Tartarus of school to be over. At least on the plus side, she can leave this school without care because she never formed a close friendship with anybody at the school. Nobody will miss her and she will miss nobody. She can leave knowing that she never made a difference in anybody's life at this school; to her, it is comforting as much as it is heartbreaking.

At her locker, Debora finally takes her head out of the clouds and notices something different about one of the banes of her existence. It appears Edmund has got himself a new haircut. It seems Edmund is also trying to not so subtly get Wolfgang to acknowledge this change. Even though Debora doesn’t like Edmund, she can admit to herself that the hairdo looks good on him. It definitely is an improvement compared to his bowl-cut hair. In her opinion, his original hairstyle made him look like a blonde chili pepper thanks to his centered cowlicks. Wolfgang finally acknowledges Edmund’s hair change, but of course, he had to be a jerk about it and ask Edmund if he wanted him to compliment about his makeup and the shoes he’s wearing now. Debora’s rolls her eyes at this. She’ll never understand why Edmund seeks this guy’s approval. Edmund doesn’t back down and makes his own snarky remark. This only makes Wolfgang angry and threatens to smack Edmund upside the head. Debora was used to hearing Wolfgang treating Edmund more like a dog than an actual friend. It made her sick. It made her think of terrible childhood memories she wishes she could forget. However, even after Wolfgang’s terrible display of friendship, nothing could prepare for what is about to happen to Edmund. Debora notices a female brunette with a blue bow on top of her head. Debora didn’t know the girl's name, but she knew that the girl usually walks with three other girls to class. One is a Hispanic with a pink bow in her hair, another is a blonde with a barrette in her hair, and the last one is an African American that likes to chew gum. For whatever reason, the brunette was walking alone and Edmund took that opportunity to try to talk to her. Debora doesn’t watch as the conversation happens, but she does hear Edmund for the first time sounding a little shy and vulnerable. Debora checks it off as him just being insecure around pretty girls because he’s usually cheerful and carefree around everybody else for the most part. Debora has seen a lot of shows and reads a lot of stories, so she was very much aware of what Edmund was trying to talk to the brunette about. Apparently, so did the brunette because before he could even ask “the question” she stopped Edmund him mid-sentence. The brunette’s tone sounded angry, but Debora looked in her locker pretending not to notice because it was none of her business. The brunette wants to make to it perfectly clear to Edmund that she is sick of those idiotic juniors making a pass at her, but he takes the cake. It seems that Edmund already attempted to talk to this brunette before got his new haircut. Now that she thinks about it, Debora does remember that Edmund did ask Wolfgang why he thought girls didn’t like him. Wolfgang being Wolfgang, he gave him the suggestion of changing his because he had his mom cut it for far too long instead of pointing out the real issues. For example, his assumption that he’s entitled to have a pretty girl like him just because he’s nice to her. At least, Debora assumes that’s what Edmund thinks likes that because she feels Wolfgang would think like that and Edmund has a tendency to mimic Wolfgang.  So for a few seconds, she was on the brunette’s side because all women should be treated right without expecting compensation, not just the pretty ones you want to date. Unfortunately, the brunette girl decides to take all her frustrations out on Edmund and takes it too far. The now apparent, mean girl tells Edmund that no haircut in the world would get her to notice him. He could be lying face-first on the sidewalk and she still wouldn’t notice him. She ends her hate speech to Edmund telling him no matter what change you try to make about yourself you will still be the same dumb, annoying, ugly dog he has always been. The mean brunette leaves but not before the telling Edmund to get lost and calling him and elephant boy. Debora assumes that the girl called him that last name because of his ears, but she knew some of the contexts of who the real elephant man was, so to her that was needlessly cruel for the brunette to add on to her already cruel speech. Even Debora overhears Wolfgang tries to muster some sympathy after that mess Edmund went through. It clearly wasn’t helpful, but Wolfgang still tries to convince Edmund that watching him harass some sophomores would make him feel better. Debora felt really bad after overhearing all of that, so she decided to go to the bathroom to wash the awkward off of her.

The moment she turns her head however, her eyes meet an expression she was all too familiar with and yet it seems so foreign on Edmund. Debora moves her hand quickly to her mouth to cancel out the audio of her gasp as she views the sad look of rejection on Edmund’s face. She immediately looks back at her locker so Edmund wouldn’t notice that she was looking at him. No, this couldn’t be happening! Oh no, she couldn’t believe that she was feeling sympathy for Edmund! This is the same guy that she had to suffer through with that stupid laugh. He enjoyed causing problems just as much as Wolfgang; she has no reason in this forsaken school to feel bad for him! Even so, here she is comparing Edmund’s expression to a wounded puppy. Curse his stupid underbite for making a surprisingly convincing, puppy dog pout! So against her better judgment and all the cons outweighing the pros, she decides to follow her heart and try to cheer Edmund back up. Not in person, however, heavens no! She uses a page from her sketchbook and writes Edmund a letter, complimenting of his change in hairstyle. More than that, the letter is also to let Edmund know that appearance was never the problem. The problem was that he spends so much time in the shadow of somebody else that he lost his sense of individuality and self-worth. Before he could start a serious relationship with somebody he must first learn to love himself. Of course, Debora was aware that was easier said than done. So to start him off she listed some important, good qualities about him. Unfortunately, she didn’t know Edmund personally, so she had to guess his good qualities by finding the positive side of the things she couldn’t stand about Edmund. For example, even if she hated hearing his dopey laugh all the time, she could find that at least it shows that he has a cheerful personality. Secondly, even though she hated seeing him stick around a guy so abusive, at least it shows he is loyal to his friends. Lastly, even though she thought it was idiotic of Edmund to retort with snarky remarks when he should know by now it will only make Wolfgang want to hurt him, she finds that at least it shows that Edmund at least is willing to call people out on their bull, even if it gets him hurt. She ends the letter by saying to never forget he does have value and he shouldn’t listen to people that won’t even take the time to see beyond his outer appearance or persona.

She almost signs the letter with an anagram name she did for fun for the word, anonymous. The name is Sonya Muno, however, she realizes how terrible of an idea that is too late for she already signed it on the paper. To make matters worse, the school bell rings to tell all the students to get in their respective classrooms. In a rush, Debora scribbles on the anagram name as fast as possible, writes down the word, anonymous, shoves the letter into the little lines on top of the locker doors in order to get paper inside Edmund’s locker, and gets to class. Later on in the day, before Debora goes to her next class, she notices Edmund opening his locker and soon finds the letter she wrote. She goes to a corner of a room to hide from his view as he reads the note. Despite still not thinking Edmund is a good person and some small part of her still feeling he may not even deserve her letter of encouragement; She couldn’t help but feel warm, fuzzy, and accomplished when she saw that her stupid, little letter put a smile on that dopey face. It feels so satisfying to hear that she finally did something significant in somebody else’s life. Her being alive finally meant something to someone outside her immediate family, even if the person didn’t know it was her. She was okay with him never knowing, for she would be going to a religious, private school anyway after spring break and she didn’t want to form any close friendships at the school anyway. She was just happy she made someone else happy.

Unfortunately, that happiness died the next day after Debora overhears Edmund talk to Wolfgang with something about a “Sonya”. After she heard that name, she felt like her spirit escaped from her body. She must have not covered that stupid anagram well enough. Now he thinks some girl named Sonya that doesn’t even exist wrote him that note! So with that new knowledge being granted to her, she proceeds to bang her head on her locker door feeling like the biggest moron in the world. She should have never made that letter. She is in so much trouble!

This is just something I did before I went back to my fall semester. I wanted to expand upon my Hey Arnold fan character before time was up. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything for the main show at the moment. I hope to do so someday. I’ve been more focused on her teen version lately because she has more of a role in this spin-off series while she’s a one-off character in the main series. Anyway, I hope you like what I have to offer.

Credit:

Simone, Edmund, Eugene, and Wolfgang - Craig Bartlett

Debora and the art - Mine!