Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold!

Time Goes On Without You

By Moonlight

Catch Me As I Fall Into You

Class was boring, as usual. Curly would constantly interrupt the lesson with absolutely dumb questions with no relevance whatsoever to the topic being discussed, Eugene would sing songs about any piece of information thrown at the class, in order to memorize it, and Harold could be heard munching on whatever snack he had snuck into the class that day. It was a typical Friday.

Arnold gathered his things and headed down the hallway towards the entryway, all the while pondering to himself about the promise he had made to Gerald. He would have to ask Liana to the Redwater Ball…

As he exited the building, he pulled the note out of his pocket and sighed. He didn't want to lead Liana on by taking her to the dance. He stared at the folder piece of tan paper, the pink ink bleeding through. A moment went by before he tucked it back into his pocket and began to walk towards the hill on which Redwater Academy proudly stood.

Helga walked through the crowded halls of the girl's dormitory wing. The sound of giggles and gossip filling the elegantly decorated space. Catching bits and pieces of the chatter, she could make out the main topic being discussed: the Redwater Academy Ball. Yes, that event that had all of the girls swooning over wearing beautiful dresses and dancing with the guy of their dreams on the ballroom floor of the ever gorgeous school they attended. The end result being a night out of one of those classical romance movies that Olga had always tried to force her to watch.

She could remember the tears streaming down her sisters face as the credits began to roll. "Oh, baby sister! This is what every girl DREAMS of!" she would say, "I hope that you, one day, get to experience a love JUST like the one in this movie, baby sister."

Helga could feel herself choking in the back of her throat as she recalled the negative response she would give Olga, knowing full well that she had wanted to experience a feeling like that with one particular person.

As she finally turned the handle to her room, she could feel a pain in her chest. A pain which would only be described as heartache in response to knowing she wouldn't be able to attend such a beautiful event.

Closing the door behind her, she threw her bag down on the flood and let herself collapse onto her bed.

Turning to look towards her desk, she spotted her journal, carelessly left open to an empty page.

As she tried to shift to a sitting position in order to reach it, a knock on the door startled her.

"Who is it?" she called out.

But instead of getting a response, a red envelope slid under the door.

"Huh?"

Helga got up to retrieve the envelope and inspected it briefly before opening the door to see who had left it.

No one was there.

Returning her attention to the envelope, she noticed the paper was soft and was decorated with gold sparkles that twinkled as she inspected it.

Hesitating at first, she finally decided to open the thing and pull out a neatly folded piece of parchment with her name written on it with what seemed like a calligraphy pen. Confused, she continued to unfold the page and began to read it.

"Miss Helga Pataki,

As the stars glisten among the moonlight
The violins will be playing a soft melody
A sea of beauties will be dancing through the night
But I would want none other than you to enjoy it with me

Will you let me take you to the ball?

-Harvey Caldwell"

She sighed deeply as she read the formally written poem. Of course he would ask her… But through these long months that they had been together, Helga hadn't really felt very strongly about him. It was at if she were trying too hard to love him, when she knew she didn't feel anything at all.

A part of her hated herself for it.

But another felt relieved. Relieved that she couldn't just FORCE love with someone just because she couldn't have Arnold. It was a curse and a blessing all in the same.

As she returned to her bed, she continued to eye the letter. Her mind swimming in a world of thoughts. About how much she truly wanted to go to the ball, but about how she needed to accept that if she couldn't go with the one she really, truly loved… she shouldn't go at all.

Helga set the letter down on her desk, next to her journal. "I can't…" she said to herself, tears welling up in her eyes. "I can't, because…you're not him."

As Arnold approached the school gate, he spotted Liana sitting with Phoebe in the garden. They had been looking through magazines, trying to pick out their ideal dresses to wear to the ball the next night.

"It's a little late to be picking a dress out, isn't it?" Arnold said as he approached the two girls. "The ball is tomorrow, right?"

Phoebe giggled and nodded, "Yes. Of course. We were just looking at what we would have wanted, had we acquired the money to attain a dress like one of these."

"Exactly!" Liana chimed in with a smile. Her usually braided, red hair hung loose in a wavy flow which caught the light of the afternoon sun and reflected it brilliantly. "Speaking of which…" she started, her eyes looking Arnold up and down.

"Yes?" he questioned, giving her the okay to continue, although he was fairly certain of what she was going to say.

Standing up and taking a step closer to him, Liana played with a strand of hair that had fallen carelessly in front of her face, "…I was wondering if you would like to go with me to the ball." She finished.

'I knew it…' Arnold thought to himself as he sighed, "Liana, although I am very, very flattered that you would be asking me this, I… I'm going to have to reject your invitation." Trying his very best to be gentle about his response, he backed away from the girl.

"W-wha…?" Liana stammered in disbelief, "Why…?"

Taking a long breath, Arnold thought about his reason carefully before picking his response, "Because there is someone that I feel strongly for. And it wouldn't feel right to take you to the ball when I don't feel for you, what you do for me…"

Liana's face appeared to be turning a bright red as he said this, and it became difficult to mask her embarrassment and rage.

"I'm sorry."

"It's HER, isn't it?"

"Huh?"

Her eyes began to well up with tears, "You want to take Helga to the ball, don't you?"

Arnold felt his cheeks start to heat up, "…to be quite honest… yes."

Phoebe watched as this occurred. A small smile curling up on the corners of her lips. Liana trembled in anger, but before she could say anything that would potentially hurt anyone, Phoebe handed her the open magazine. "I have a dress very similar to this one, Liana. Let's go back to the room so you can try it on."

Relaxing herself, Liana looked over at Phoebe, who was smiling from ear to ear. "Okay…" she resigned herself to follow the small girl back into the building.

Looking over her shoulder, Phoebe shot Arnold a knowing wink and mouthed the words "good luck" which cause him to, in return, smile just a wide and his cheeks to dawn a brighter shade of pink.

Following behind them, Arnold made his way into the building to spot Gerald through the window of the main office. Waving towards him, Gerald hurried out to see Arnold. And following closely behind him, Harvey smiled politely.

"Hey." Arnold greeted the two. "What's going on?" he gestured towards the office.

Gerald held up a garment bag that he had been holding, "Renting out tuxes from Melanie."

"You can rent your suits from your school…?"

Harvey laughed, "Yes. I know, it's odd, isn't it?"

"You seem awfully cheerful."

"Of course he is!" Gerald chimed in, "He JUST NOW sent Helga his super fancy invitation to the ball. Talk about LAST SECOND."

"Helga…?" Arnold repeated, more as confirmation for himself.

"Who else?" Gerald responded, flinging the garment bag over his shoulder and starting down the hallway towards his room, with the other two following behind him. "So, did you ask Liana, yet?"

Snapping back into reality, Arnold shook his head. "No. In fact, she asked ME and I turned her down."

"What?!" Gerald quickly turned around to glare at his friend behind him. "Why?!"

"I have my reasons." The response was flat and uninviting of further questions, which caused Gerald to, sadly, drop the subject.

A tiny beeping could be heard from Harvey's jacket pocket, and he excitedly pulled out his phone. "It's from Helga!"

Gerald shot Harvey a smirk, "Good job, lover boy. You got yourself a date."

But the congratulations had been premature, as Harvey's smile quickly faded to s blank expression.

"What is it, Harvey?" Arnold asked, somewhat concerned.

Putting the phone back into his pocket, Harvey sighed. "I can't believe it. She said no."

Gerald frowned, but Arnold's eyes lit up.

"She said 'I don't think it's right to go with you, when I'm in love with someone else. Sorry.'…"

"Someone else?" Gerald questioned, "She's been dating you for HOW long? Who could she POSSSIBLY be in love with, if not you?"

Instantly, Arnold turned to running in the direction of Helga's room.

Gerald called after him, "Where are you going?!"

But Arnold was long gone, down the hallways.

Sighing once again, in defeat, Harvey placed a hand on Gerald's shoulder. "Arnold." He said simply. Harvey had known about Helga's feelings for the boy since their first kiss. I mean, who would say someone else's name during a kiss that intense if they weren't in love? It had been pretty obvious.

"Him?!" Gerald exclaimed.

Harvey nodded and smiled in the direction Arnold had taken off in. "You win, Arnold."

Moonlight: Almost there!