Helga sat at a round table across from a girl with blonde hair.

"Uh…" she looked around in confusion. Aside from the table and the chairs they were sitting in, the entire space they occupied was empty. Bubbles flew upward from the ground from an unknown source. Helga's guest seemed unperturbed by the arrangement.

An elephant in a suit and rollerskates approached the table and set a cup of tea on a saucer in front of both girls. Helga went to take a sip, when the cup suddenly vibrated and cracked, then transformed into several little yellow chicks which flew away chirping.

"Okay, this is really strange," said Helga. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?"

At last the other girl acknowledged Helga and nodded. She took a sip from her own cup (strangely, her cup remained the same) and smiled.

"Haven't I met you somewhere before?" asked Helga.

"Perhaps," replied the blonde girl. Indeed, she did look familiar. Helga recalled a time when she went to Phoebe's house and found that she had replaced by a girl very similar to the one in front of her. Only that was also a dream…

"Listen Helga," continued the girl. "We don't have a lot of time. I brought you hear to tell you something very important. If a white creature comes to you with promises of a wish, walk away. Can you do that for me?"

Helga didn't know what to say. She wasn't sure if she should tell this girl that, just the other night, she had seen a similar animal impaled to the street in front of her.

The blonde girl became impatient and stood up from her seat, looking visibly unnerved. "Helga, please. Promise me."

Helga woke up.


Arnold was getting ready for bed. He had just finished changing into his pajamas when he heard a sharp rapping on the glass from above. He looked up and saw a figure behind the window on the ceiling.

Arnold climbed the ladder on his wall and opened one of the panes of the window leading on to roof. The figure on the other side lost their balance and tumbled inside, onto Arnold, and the both wound up on a heap on the ground.

When Arnold got his bearings, he realized that he recognized the intruder. The girl had brown hair and went to the same school as him, P.S. 118. When she looked at him, she gave him a sheepish grin, revealing a full set of braces.

"Ruth?"

"Hey, thanks for letting me in," she said. She stood up and dusted herself off, not bothering to help Arnold off the ground. "Alfred, right?"

"Uh, Arnold, actually…" He couldn't believe it! Ruth P. McDougall was in his room! A few months prior when he still had an enormous crush on her, this would've been like a dream come true. But now, it was almost surreal, if not a little perplexing.

"Yeah, thanks. Hey, can you shut that window for me?"

Arnold got up and stared in confusion for a few seconds as Ruth made a beeline for the closet and shut herself inside. Not sure what else to do, he went to close the roof window, then approached the closet.

"Uh, Ruth…?" he knocked on the closet door. Ruth emerged from the closet and went to the center of the room, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Nice little room you've got here. Listen, I need to crash here for a little bit, Hope you don't mind. Thanks a bunch, Andrew."

"It's Arnold…" but Ruth had already jumped into his bed and had fallen asleep.

Arnold sighed. None of this made any sense to him, but it didn't look like he would be getting any answers until the morning. Arnold used his room remote to bring out the sofa from the wall and decided to bunk there for the night.