Helga had woken up the next day after a lovesick dream, she got ready for school and thought of nothing but the raffle.

"Oh Arnold, how I hope fate draws our names simultaneously, what I would do to enjoy the night with you, even if not by your choice," Helga said as she walked into her closet, where a carefully-built shrine to Arnold lay to be worshiped to, "my, light, my love, my purpose." ~sigh~

"Helga, who are you talking to dear?" Came a voice from outside the door.

"Ugh, I'm talking on the phone, Miriam." An obvious lie, but it got her alcoholic mother to leave her alone.

And then off she was, on her route to school, normally she would be walking with her best friend Phoebe, but she was walking with her boyfriend Gerald, neither had signed up for the raffle, they would be taking each-other to the dance.

Helga was left to walk alone with her thoughts, eager to see if she would get to go to the dance with the boy of her fantasies.

"I swoon over the very thought of you, Arnold, my football-headed beauty, how I wish I could hold you and-" Her thought was interrupted when the very one she was daydreaming off collided with her at the intersection.

"Arnold! I mean-why do you gotta keep crashing into me all the time Hair-boy, yeesh!"

"Oh, sorry Helga" The blond boy said as he helped her up. "You're not walking with Phoebe today?"

"Well you're not completely blind, Phoebe's walking to school with Geraldo and they're all mushy and stuff, blegh" She said as she pointed her finger into her mouth to simulate vommiting.

Arnold let out a small chuckle, "Heh, yea, that's why I was walking alone too."

Helga blushed at the fact that he said 'was', although they were obviously going to walk on the same path, she felt as though he wanted to walk with her.

The two walked for a few minutes in awkward silence, Helga already daydreaming about them getting picked together.

…

"So did you enter your name in that raffle?" Arnold said to escape the awkwardness of the silence.

Taken aback by this question Helga just spat out, "Why do you care, Football-head?!"

"I dunno I was just wondering, well, did you."

"If you must know, as a matter of fact, I did."

"Huh, cool."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"What, nothing."

"Hmmph, whatever, Arnoldo."

By now, the blonde pair had reached the steps of P.S 118. and had made their way to their class, where Mr. Simmons was about to do the long-awaited raffle.

"Alright everyone, are you ready for this very 'special' drawing!?"

The preteens just sat nervous and impatiently, waiting for the man to draw the names already,

The teacher cleared his throat, "Ok, first off we have Eugene and Lila, next is Sid and Nadine, following them is Harold and Patty, then..." Helga had dosed off waiting for him to call her, or the name of her beloved. "...Stinky and Rhonda, then Arnold and Helga, and last but not least, Brainy and Sheena. Ok, now that the drawing is complete, you all can pull out your history books and open to page 420 where we will talk..."

Helga had completely zoned out at this point, she couldn't believe, by some miracle, she wound up with Arnold. She held back tears of joy and the urge to scream with zeal. However Arnold had some other ideas, he couldn't believe it either, but not in a good way, he held back the urge to cry, and yell with frustration, him, stuck with the girl who tormented him since preschool.

The lunch bell rang, and the children, all got up to leave the classroom and talk to their newly assigned dates.