A light breeze ruffled her blonde hair as snow flurried around her while she sat on the front stoop of her home with her head resting on the palms of her hands. Even though it was Christmas morning, Helga was feeling incredibly glum. Last year's Christmas had been incredible, what with her receiving the amazing gift of Nancy Spumoni snow boots from Miriam only to turn around and give them up in order to reunite Mr. Hyunh with his daughter, Mai. All of that to preserve her beloved Arnold's optimism and belief in miracles. She inhaled deeply as she recalled how peaceful and happy she felt, and how she had finally realized that loving someone means sometimes putting them before yourself.

However this Christmas was very different. Miriam had stumbled down the stairs early in the morning and proceeded to get intoxicated with an eggnog cocktail of some sort while her father had taken off to go spend Christmas with her older sister, Olga, and her new fiancé, Tristan. She snorted in amusement at the recollection of her soon to be brother-in-law's ridiculous sounding name. After realizing that her family would not be together for the first time for Christmas, Helga had opened her few Christmas presents by herself. A new journal from Olga, some socks from her parents, and a fancy pen from Phoebe. Now she simply sat on the front porch of her home as she watched the snow fall and waited for the day to end.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she shivered and contemplated whether it was worth it to retreat back into the warmth of her home, even though it meant dealing with the reality of how lonely she was this Christmas. "Helga?" The sound of his voice made her head snap up and her body sit stark upright in shock. There just a few feet away from her front stoop was the boy whom she had written many a poem and soliloquy about. He was wearing a dark blue coat and a red knitted cap and his green eyes shone brightly as he smiled in her direction. In his hands was a large green wrapped package topped with a fancy looking red bow. "Merry Christmas," he said sheepishly as he made his way towards her while holding the gift out.

"Nothing merry about it, football head," grumbled Helga as she shifted in her spot. Arnold sat down next to her and peered over at her face.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but maybe this will cheer you up. I brought you a present!" He placed the gift on her lap as Helga looked over at him in surprise.

"For me?" she asked hesitantly. "Why?"

"Because I felt like it, and besides, it is Christmas," he responded as he grinned over at her. "Come on, open it!" Without waiting a single second, Helga proceeded to rip off the wrapping paper unceremoniously as Arnold watched excitedly. Underneath the festive paper was a plain white box which Helga lifted the lid off of to find something wrapped in sparkly tissue paper. Once she got the tissue paper unwrapped, she let out a surprised gasp and whipped her head around to look at Arnold in astonishment.

"Nancy Spumoni snow boots?"

"Nancy Spumoni snow boots," Arnold echoed in a confirmatory tone. In awe she lifted the boots out of the box and excitedly pulled them on her feet once she had kicked off her old snow boots. She then let out a high pitched squeal and kicked up her legs to admire the beauty of the red and gold snow boots that she had longed for for so long.

"These are so BOSS!" she exclaimed. Her face fell however once something dawned on her. These were the same style of boots that she had given up a year ago. Upon this realization, she lowered her feet and wrung her hands together. "So, uh, why these?" she asked him curiously.

Arnold smiled kindly as he looked over at her and placed a hand on her's. "Because I know what you did for me last Christmas, and I wanted to do something in return for you. I know it's not as amazing as what you did for Mr. Hyunh and myself, but I hope that it helped turn your Christmas around."

"They're perfect," she softly mumbled in a dumbstruck voice. "Wait a second, bucko! Who the heck told you?" Helga's complexion had become quite stern as she waited for Arnold to answer.

A small laugh escaped from him before he replied, "Mr. Bailey. I went over to his office the next day and asked him, and he told me that some crazed pigtailed girl showed up at his office right as he was leaving and convinced him to work with her to find Mai." Helga's mouth formed an "o" as she remembered how she had forgotten to swear Mr. Bailey to secrecy like she had with Mai.

"Well, cat's out of the bag then, isn't it?"

"Sure is," Arnold responded as he squeezed her hand. "I just wanted you to know that what you did last year was seriously the most amazing thing anyone has done for me and I'll never forget it. Thank you."

"You're not going to ask why I did it?" Arnold shook his head as he leaned over and wrapped her in a hug that took her off guard.

"I think I already know," he whispered in her ear, causing Helga to melt a little inside. As they broke apart, Arnold softly kissed her cheek which went a deep shade of red as Helga meekly smiled. The two children remained seated on the stoop hand in hand as snow fell around them. Slowly, Helga rested her head on Arnold's shoulder and he wrapped his left arm around her while grasping her right hand in his. "Merry Christmas, Helga," he murmured as a small smile spread on his face.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Arnold," Helga replied as she too smiled peacefully.