She could feel her heartbeat quiver and shake against her throat as she made her way across the campus to her morning class. She said that she would ask him today, and she intended to, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't make a complete fool of herself doing it. She had a very strong certainty that she would end up sounding like a broken record of a nervous little girl asking the boy in school that every other girl had a crush on. She still hadn't even thought of where they would go or what they would do if she had somehow managed to get the words out where he would agree in the first place. But a part of her was grasping for the hope that he would think of something before she had to say the first corny thing that popped into her mind.

She was briskly walking down the path through the courtyard, one arm crossed over her stomach with her other hand crossed underneath it, her thumbnail being nibbled on out of nervous habit. She should be preparing herself to feel the heavy punch of rejection, but she was still trying to work up the nerve to make the request in the first place. After all, they had just agreed on friendship, with both of them mutually agreeing that they wouldn't make out with each other. So maybe it was a little fast to simply jump right into going out on a date.

But despite all of these crippling fears of his judgement pushing her back, feeling like she was fighting against high tide, she wanted so badly to see that softer side to him again. He hadn't shown her since that day three days ago. That brief glimpse inside him, whether he intended her to see it or not, she felt as if she fell pretty hard for that side of him in the short amount of time that it was out there. And the thought that no one else could get him to open up like that, it made it feel as if only she had a shot with him. She never did very well with competition, so having to race for him while other girls threw themselves at him didn't sound at all appealing.

Lost in her nervous and racking mind, she nearly yelped when she heard her name being said to her from not too far away. "Helga?"

She looked up, the voice alone startling her. Jumping back a step, she let out the breath that had caught from her gasp, and smiled heavily. "Hey."

Arnold raised one side of his brow slightly over to her, giving her a subtle wondering look, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I-I mean yes, everything's fine." She said nervously, brightening her smile a bit too much.

He gave her a slow nod, but didn't move to head up the steps into the building.

"So, um..." She trialed off, nervously wringing her hands just before she quickly skimmed her fingers over her outer ear to replace a few strains of hair that had fallen out of her haphazardly done pony tail, not even knowing the right words to say to pull this off, "If you're not too busy tomorrow, I was wondering if... you wanted to... r-read the next chapter of the book we were assigned for philosophy, go over it together?"

There was a thick pause between them, feeling her heart freeze inside her throat, but still trying to come off as just asking him as if it was a normal request between friends, which is what they were supposed to be to each other. And after a drawn out moment, when he didn't offer a response, she started to feel the heavy pull in her stomach of rejection, letting her heart sink with it. "Actually, I've already read it." Even though she let a small half smile push its way onto her lips, she felt her heart fall into her stomach, "But..." With that one word, it shot back up, mostly out of anxiety more than anything else, "It's one of my favorite books, and it did take me a few times reading it through before I could fully grasp what he was trying to convey, so... if you're asking for help, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to lend a hand that was willing to."

Biting back hard on the ecstatic feeling electrifying its way into her system, she simply pushed her half smile all the way into a soft smile, giving him a few sharp nods.

"If it's agreeable, you could drop by the frat house tomorrow after noon, maybe around four thirty?"

"Oh, Y-yeah, that's... that's fine."

With another barely seen smirk, unnoticeable to anyone else but her, her pulled one hand out of his pocket, motioning her to go ahead of him up the steps.

With the day going by in a hazy, dream like state, still not fully grasping that she had actually managed to talk herself into a studying together with Arnold, she stepped off the bus to go walk Mary home from kindergarten and babysit her until Grace got home. After the text message barrage from Rhonda had died down a while ago, after telling her that she had what she was referring to as a study date, Rhonda had bombarded her with messages that didn't help her at all, most of them childishly mocking her use of the term study date.

After Mary had been released, Helga grabbed her hand and led her home. "Helga, I want my braid back." Mary said, tugging on her hand as they made their way up the stairs.

Helga smiled and agreed, unlocking the door and ushering her inside. "Alright, I'll make you a snack, then I'll give you your braid back."

Mary scampered off down the hall and into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her while Helga sliced up an apple and pulled out the peanut butter, arranging it neatly onto a saucer for her, setting it down onto the small dining table in the corner of the apartment. After Mary had eaten, Helga had combed her hair out and was working Mary's hair into her desired style, while Mary sat on the floor in front of the couch, her eyes glued to the after school special that was showing on the television. After an hour, just as Helga was putting a band at the bottom of her handy work, the door was opening. "Hi Mommy!" Mary cooed, waving at her from her place on the floor.

"Hey sweetheart." Grace said with her usual soft smile.

Helga patted Mary's head a couple times before standing up and making her way over to Grace just as she was setting her purse down onto the table, seeing an almost frustrated furrow in her brow. Setting a hand down onto the table top, while placing the other against her forehead, Grace groaned. "Something wrong, Grace?"

"There's a potential client, and it's a huge potential sale, but it's down in Portland. And Olga needs her assistant manager to drive down there for the sales call."

"Oh, that sounds great, is there a problem?" Helga asked, honestly not knowing why Grace seemed so frustrated.

"The meeting is tomorrow afternoon. I wouldn't be back until Saturday, around noon at the latest. Helga, I know it's asking a lot, but-"

"Say no more," She stopped her, lifting a heavy hand up, "I'd be happy to stay with Mary."

"Really? Because I can ask someone else." Even though she was very tempted to accept the offer of having someone else watch over Mary, Helga knew that it would ease both her mother and Mary if she was the one to stay with her.

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't want you worrying about Mary being alone so long with someone she isn't comfortable around." She could feel her heart sink with every passing second, but she was putting on a heavy smile nonetheless, for Grace's sake, so she didn't feel as if she was forcing Helga into anything, even though she only agreed to this out of the feeling of obligation. She was really looking forward to getting to spend time with Arnold, perhaps even alone, and she wasn't even shaking off the hope that they would end up kissing again, even accepting it gladly as a very real possibility. But now, all that was gone, and she couldn't help but feel a little resentment for the happy little four year old that had just received the news that her favorite baby sitter would be staying the night tomorrow.

She looked over her shoulder to Mary, who was still sitting on the floor in front of the couch, smiling brightly over to her, and Helga could already tell that the gears inside her mind spinning wildly at all the plans and ideas that were quickly shooting into her imaginative mind. But as Mary's imagination went wild with ideas for their night together, Helga's was running down the dark path of what she would have to tell Arnold.

She really didn't want to let him down, and she didn't even want to think of Grace's reaction if she were to ask if the boy she's practically chasing after could come over to a place that he's never been, and be with her daughter, unsupervised except for Helga, who would have her own plans for the two of them. And besides, even if Grace would agree, Helga wouldn't be able to get them where she wanted to with Mary present in the room.

After agreeing to pay Helga another eighty for her trouble, she made her way down to the bus stop and caught the bus back to school. Once she stepped off, she forewent heading straight to her dorm and turned toward the frat house. With many different conversations playing out in her head, she stepped heavily up the steps to the porch of the large colonial and rang the door bell. A couple moments later, a tall, rather muscular guy with brown hair was opening the door, throwing her a devilish smirk. "May I help you?" He said, trying to be suave.

Pushing down the urge to roll her eyes and push past him with a scoff, she put on a fake smile, "I'm looking for Arnold, is he here?"

His face fell, obviously being brought down by the news that she was looking for someone other than him, slumped his shoulders and stepped aside, "Yeah, upstairs, second door on the right." He said, slight annoyance crawling in his voice as he walked out of the foyer into the back room, leaving her alone to head upstairs.

Shaking her head, she made her way slowly upstairs and stepped up to his door, knocking lightly. After hearing the bed creak behind the door, followed by a short set of footsteps approaching it, the door opened, revealing Arnold, his expression hardened, but softening a bit a second later when he met her eyes. She smiled softly and prepared herself to feel terrible for having to let him down. "Hey," He said, a slightly uplifting inflection in his still low voice.

"Hey," She said just above a whisper, looking down at her feet, feeling his eyes on her.

After a pause, while she was still working out the right words that sounded all wrong in her head, he continued, "I know that I told you to knock, regardless of how the person reacts, but it might help if you have a reason to knock in the first place."

"Yeah, um... I just stopped by because I uh... I was wondering if we could reschedule our date tomorrow."

"Our what?" He asked, sounding honestly astonished at her use of the word 'date'.

"Oh, well I-I..." She let her sentence fall, not willing to tell him that she had her heart set on it being a date, and not willing to let him know how much embarrassment was sinking it's way into her system.

"Listen, Helga," Her breath caught slightly, it still always got to her when he called her by name, "I didn't mean to make you think that I had agreed to a date, but I honestly thought that you just wanted help with the text."

Futility trying to push back her heartbreak, and utter embarrassment, she forced another smile and nodded, "No, I didn't really think of this as a date either, it's just... the word slipped out a guess." She lied.

He paused and averted his eyes down to the floor, "Well, if you still need help, you know where to find me, quite obviously." He said, and even though she could still feel that he was genuine, and even seeing that his softened exterior was still showing, she couldn't help but feel the need to get as far away from his as possible. The only response she offered him was a brief nod, not trusting her voice to come out unsoiled as she turned down the hall way without another word.

As she slowly made her way down the hall, she heard the hinges of his door creak as he slowly pushed the door closed, hearing a moment of silence before she heard the door shut. She had just stepped down a few steps when she heard a very faint sound of a very muffled groan, but she paid it no mind and continued down the stairs a little quicker, very eager to crawl under her covers, hoping to get lost in another dream of the two of them where he would let go of his inhibitions.

But as she let herself out into the cooling humidity of the January evening, she knew it would never really happen.