Hey Arnold!

The Dance - Part Two

Disclaimer: I own the plot of this story, but not the characters. I do not work on the show.

Now Helga needed to set Eugene and Lila up. Doing good turns was not Helga's strong point, especially for Lila, who Helga hated. But, at least there was something in it for her. She could end up dancing with Arnold at the dance!

At the end of school, Arnold plucked up his courage and approached Lila. "Hey Lila!" he said.

"Oh, hi Arnold," she replied.

"I was wondering if you have anybody to go to the dance with?" he asked.

"Are you asking me if I want to go with you?" Lila asked.

"Well... yes," he said. "Will you?"

Lila wanted to say "I'm ever so sorry, Arnold, but I'm afraid that I don't like you - like you. I just like you and so I think that it would be a bad idea for us to go together." But she couldn't say that. She had to do what Helga had said for her to do. "Well, at the moment I am waiting for somebody to get back to me," she said.

"Oh... well forget about it then," said an upset Arnold.

"But, if that person doesn't want to go with me, I will go with you!" said Lila.

"Really?" asked Arnold. "Really?"

"Yeah, but if that person asks me, you will have to find somebody else to go with," said Lila.

"Okay," said Arnold. "I won't ask anybody else until you get back to me!"

Arnold was very excited. He had a chance of going with Lila! Well, he thought that. Lila felt guilty about lying to Arnold, but she was helping out Helga, so that made her feel a little better.

Meanwhile, Helga saw Eugene and went over to talk to him. "Hey! Eugene!" she said. "I want to speak to you about something!"

"What, Helga?" he asked.

"I know somebody who wants to go to the dance with you." she told him.

"Really? Who is it?" he asked.

"It's Lila. But she's too shy to tell you. She wanted me to ask you for her." she said.

"Wow! I can't believe she likes me! After I had a crush on her for all that time!"

"You had a crush on Lila?"

"Yes! Please, Helga! Tell Lila that I will go with her!"

"I will," said Helga. "But this is a secret between you, me and Lila. Don't tell anybody else that you are going with Lila. Especially not Arnold."

"Okay!" said Eugene. "Why?"

"Lila wants it to be a surprise for everybody! Don't let anybody know until the night of the dance!"

"I won't."

Eugene walked away. "Easy as pie!" said Helga.

When Helga got home that night, she phoned Lila and told her everything that she had said to Eugene and that Eugene wanted to go with her. Helga made it clear for Lila not to tell anybody that she was going with Eugene and that they would all find out on the night.

The next day at school, Mr. Simmons made the class be quiet while he announced something about the dance. "I have a message from Principal Wartz about the dance," he said. "Principal Wartz has decided to have the dance in school hours. This will make sure that everybody can go to the dance if they couldn't make it in the nighttime. He says that the hall will still look the same and you will not even be able to tell that it daytime. The dance will be tomorrow."

"A dance in the daytime?" moaned Rhonda. "That is so uncool!"

"No!" said Nadine. "It will be different! That makes it kind of cool!"

"Okay, it's a little cool," said Rhonda.

"Yes!" said Helga. Now her plan was even easier! Arnold could have decided not to go to the dance after Lila had said that she was going with somebody else, but now that the dance was in the daytime - Arnold would have to go!

Will Helga end up with Arnold? Part Three is coming soon!