Christmas Miracle in the Cold

Chapter 3 The Party Game


"I'm telling you Phebes, it had to be the real thing. The real Big Man in Red." argued Helga in a hushed whisper.

"The evidence you present is compelling, I must admit, but I still have trouble accepting it," replied the petite Asian girl.

Helga shifted in her seat. The semi-plush armchair responded with gentle cushioning under her firm frame. If she had not been focused on the conversation, she would have remarked on how comfortable Rhonda's furniture was. She eyed the room full of other party guests in front of her, checking to make sure no one was paying attention to them. No one was.

"I know what you're sayin' Phebes, but accept it or not, I'm goin' for it," Helga whispered back.

"You mean, you plan to be extra special nice to... *him*?"

"You bet. Actually, I've been trying to be nice to you-know-who whenever I get a chance, but it's not working out yet."

Phoebe raised an eyebrow but did not comment. Though she seldom knew of her friend's exact adventures in her following, some might say stalking, of Arnold, Phoebe had been privy to some of her troubles. If things were not going well for Helga, this probably meant disasters had resulted in her attempts at kindness.

"Anything really bad?" her friend carefully asked.

Helga's cheeks blushed a little shade of crimson and the blond girl cast her gaze down to the floor as she answered, "No, thank God.... Mostly just, uh, unfortunate things really. Nothing that bothered him anyway."

The conversation lapsed into silence. Helga felt distinctly uneasy because she had not found an opportunity to be extra nice to Arnold yet and the time remaining before Christmas was running out. The deadline, Christmas day, was barely one day away now. At least now that she was at Rhonda's party, she might have a chance to mingle pleasantly with him for once.

As if on cue, Phoebe touched Helga's arm to get her attention and gestured towards the doorway. The party was only just beginning, with only a few guests having arrived so far, and now Gerald and Arnold had just walked in.

She watched him enter the room and look around. She stared longingly at his blond hair, wishing she could run her hands through its gold waves with her fingers, and inhale that oh-so pleasant smell his hair always had. Unconsciously her lips assumed a wanton smile and her pupils dilated, resulting in her expression becoming rather smitten in appearance. She kept right on smiling as he seemed to come closer, walking across the room towards her.

"Hey Phoebe," greeted Gerald in his semi-raspy voice.

"Hi Gerald," she replied smiling.

"You look nice," he added, looking at her party blue dress.

Phoebe merely giggled in response and covered her smile with one hand. Meanwhile, Helga's eyes had remained on Arnold, but somewhere after Gerald spoke, she realized that she was staring much too obviously. She swallowed thickly and then tore her eyes away from looking at her blond Adonis. She rolled her gaze around the room, trying not to look at Arnold now, feigning disinterest.

"Hi Helga," said Arnold.

Helga blinked and suppressed a smile. Arnold had greeted her. Of course he had. It would have been rude for Gerald to say hi to Phoebe and for them to completely ignore Helga. It did not mean anything really, but still, it was a greeting. She turned her eyes back to Arnold, standing right in front of her. Even through her efforts, her a thin smile spread on her lips as she beheld his face again.

Suddenly, Helga realized she was starting to look lovey again and abruptly snapped herself out of it. Her grin faded and was replaced with her standard scowl. She opened her mouth to spit out some retort, telling him that she did not want him to ask her to dance. But thankfully her mind caught up with her mouth and all her voice managed to say before it stopped was, "Lis--eep!" At this point her lips had clamped shut, preventing her insulting reply from escaping.

She HAD to be nice to Arnold. She just had to! And she needed to overcome her intolerable habit of rebuffing him to rudeness every time any opportunity came along. She clamped her jaw shut, trying to further suppress any more insults.

As Helga regained control on her too-quick-to-cut tongue, Arnold raised an eyebrow at Helga's odd peep. Gerald did not seem to have noticed, paying all his attention to making pleasant conversation with Phoebe.

"Helga?" asked Arnold cautiously.

Helga, realizing that she had acted very strangely in response to his hello, pretended to cough a few times. Arnold stepped a little closer in partial concern, reaching out a hand as if wanting to help somehow.

He's so kind, thought Helga to herself. After putting up a little fake show to cover herself, Helga cleared her throat, stood up straight and looked Arnold in the eye.

She paused for a second to stare into his deep green pupils, eyes which her dreams had become lost in, then she spoke in an unusually subdued voice, "Hi."

Helga praised herself inwardly for not being rude. She could do this. She just had to think before she spoke and try to keep her answers short.

Arnold leaned back a bit, seeing that there was nothing wrong with Helga. After a second, he asked, "So, how's the party so far?"

"Not bad." replied Helga, and then carefully added, "It's just starting."

"I heard Rhonda's got some big thing planned this time. Looks like she's only invited our class and a few others."

"Yeah. I heard that too."

There was a pause where neither of them said anything. Arnold turned to look around the room. A few more people arrived, this time Harold followed by Patty. Both students watched them enter, walking together, as Rhonda showed them in.

"I guess she invited Patty too," Arnold noted as he watched Harold help the large girl remove her coat.

"Yeah, I guess," answered Helga, finding it less difficult to speak civilly as the minutes passed by. "She must know Harold and her are good friends."

"Yeah," agreed Arnold. He waved to Harold and Patty from across the room and they waved back. Helga managed a surreptitious wave to Patty, which the big girl noticed.

Arnold watched the pair move across the room and he found himself noticing that Patty looked rather pretty in her party dress. It was strapless, and low cut in the front, showing off a bit of her juvenile cleavage, which was more noticeable because of her size. A second later Arnold turned back to Helga, and without thinking he looked her up and down, appraising her outfit.

"You look nice Helga," he commented suddenly. She did really. She wore a bright pink spaghetti strap dress. It was not low cut enough to show much of her chest, but it seemed to cling to her in all the right places, accentuating her overall slim form.

Helga gulped and blushed. She fought the urge to deny his compliment with harsh words and a few second later she managed to stammer back, "Th-thank you. You too."

***

"You seem to be getting along nicely with Arnold tonight." declared Phoebe.

"Yeah, so far so good anyway," agreed Helga. "Let's just hope things keep going that way."

The two girls were sitting again on chairs, but this time against a wall. The boys had gone off to get some refreshments, suggested by Gerald of course. Helga half listened to Phoebe recount a little of the talks she had been having with Gerald. She did not care really, as long as Phoebe was having a good time and did not need her help, Helga had bigger things to occupy her. The party had been going on for over an hour now and nothing bad had happened yet.

She had managed to hold some small conversations with Arnold without being rude and even managed to sit by him without feigning any signs of discontent. Most people had arrived now and some couples were dancing. The party was not really a dating affair, but the recognizable pairings of classmates seemed to show up together casually on the dance floor. Sheena and Eugene were practicing some bizarre form dance together. Something like a cross between Broadway ballet and break-dancing, the latter being largely lead by the accident prone Eugene. Helga doubted that all of his bold and wild moves were intentional. Without tall Sheena to help keep him in place, he probably would have broken something by now.

After a moment, Gerald came back bearing two cups of punch. He offered one to Phoebe which she gladly accepted and then leaned against the wall to drink the other himself. Helga looked around but Arnold was nowhere to be seen. She wondered where he was. She wanted to ask, but... she shouldn't. She couldn't. It would arouse suspicion.

"Oh, sorry Helga," Gerald interrupted her thoughts. "Arnold was bringing you back some but he got distracted."

Distracted? How? Helga turned and was about to ask, when Phoebe spoke first. "By what Gerald?"

Gerald smiled and then chuckled to himself before answering, "By the resident redhead herself, Lila."

Before she knew what she was doing, Helga was on her feet and heading towards the refreshment stand. Quickly she excused herself as she walked away. "I just have go get something for myself then."

Her feet carried her in the direction of the refreshments, but she never made it all the way. Helga only got half way there however, before the hostess herself Rhonda waylaid her. "Oh Helga, would you be a dear and head to the sitting room? We're getting ready to start the next game. Thanks, bye."

And with that Rhonda put her arms on Helga and began practically pushing her into the next room.

"But, but, I--" protested Helga.

"Oh don't worry about those drinks. The good drinks aren't even here yet, but they're coming," said Rhonda as she continued to push Helga, then her voice suddenly became a little less enthusiastic as she added. "Those caterers better get here soon. Even if they are the best in town, if they're much later it won't matter. Oh, haha. Never mind about that. You'll love what they bring when they get here."

"But I--" began Helga again.

Moments later Helga silently ground her teeth as she looked over at Lila, where she sat amongst the rest of the party goers crowded into the sitting room. How dare that little upstart take Arnold's attention when everything was going to nicely before? And to make matters worse, she has the nerve to spurn her beloved's feelings so thoughtlessly? Oh, if her dress wasn't so thin and the weather so cool already, she would be getting hot under the collar from anger. As it was, the room was just slightly cool, very comfortable actually, especially if she got the chance to do some dancing later.

Her eyes moved away from the devil woman Lila and onto her heavenly angel Arnold, sitting a few spots behind the redheaded girl. She let out a sigh and allowed her smile to momentarily blossom across her face as she watched him. But her distracted bliss was interrupted by Rhonda almost immediately.

"Thank you all for coming." began Rhonda, smiling and beaming as the attention of every student there focused on her. "Since certain... uh,... preparations are running behind schedule, I think we should start on the main party game I have planned for this evening."

She paused for a moment while whispers circulated among those seated in front of her.

Helga smirked derisively at the thought of party games. "What's she gonna do? Have us play pin the tail on the donkey? Or bob for apples? Ha!"

"Well," began Rhonda again, "I'm sure that some of you have heard of this game. There are just enough of us to play it." She paused again for emphasis, loving the focused attention. "We will be drawing boy and girl names for partners, and we're going to play '7 minutes in the Heaven!'" Rhonda practically cheered on the last word.

***

"There goes Sheena. I wonder who she'll get?" remarked Helga as the tallest girl in their class was blindfolded.

"Ssh!" hissed Lila next to her. "We mustn't talk about it until they're inside."

Helga scowled at the country girl and grumbled something back, but said nothing else. Sheena was lead by one of the girls out of the room, down the hall and towards the closet. The rest of the girls followed, whispers and giggles flowing in their wake. It was only a short distance to the closet and in no time at all, the chosen girl and boy were shut up inside. The boys and the girls crowded into the room, watching the door intently.

"I couldn't tell which boy was lead in. Who was it this time?" whispered Helga to Phoebe next to her.

"Sid, I think."

Helga inwardly let out a sigh of relief. Thank God it was not Arnold. She did not know what she was going to do when he was chosen for the closet. She was vaguely considering blurting out his name or something, which would cause a new boy to be chosen. She was certainly going to do that if Lila or Rhonda got chosen for the closet with her love as partner.

Time passed and the minutes ticked by. Though there was some whispering among the children gathered, mostly there was silence. They were listening for sounds of movement or better yet, action from within the dark confines of the closet. Both the boys and the girls bubbled about what was going on inside and what was going to happen with their turn.

"I bet Sheena would have preferred Eugene," came a voice in Helga's ear.

The blond girl turned to see Patty sitting right next to her. She blinked in surprise, having not noticed the large girl.

"Hi Patty," she whispered back. "Yeah, I bet your right. She probably would've like that."

The big girl nodded almost solemnly. She turned and smiled at Helga. Without thinking, Helga smiled back. She actually liked Patty, in an odd way. The big girl had once spared Helga a much-deserved colossal beating, and she was really very nice when you got to know her.

Patty looked slightly left, and then right, checking around to see if anyone was listening to them. Then she leaned in close to Helga again and whispered very quietly in her ear, "I told Rhonda I had better only go in there with Harold."

Helga turned to face Patty, and the big girl blushed a little at the confession, smiling awkwardly. Helga was not sure how to feel about this private confidence that she had been let into. She smiled back, feeling a tiny kinship with the big girl. Patty was one of the few girls who knew, albeit vaguely, about Helga's true love for Arnold.

It was nice that Patty was big enough to essentially tell Rhonda whom her partner was going to be. It was too bad Helga herself could not do that, but that would be reveal her dark secret of love for Arnold. Worse yet, that would reveal her secret to one of the biggest gossips in school, Rhonda. No, though Patty could muscle her way to what she wanted here, she had no such luxury.

Rhonda suddenly stood up, reached for the doorknob and flung the closet open wide. She proclaimed "Time's up!" an instant later.

The scene was not as interesting as could be pictured. Sheena and Sid were sitting on the carpet covered closet floor, holding hands and were obviously very red in the face. There was nothing to be seen, but Helga was certain by the looks on their faces they had at least tried kissing a few times in the darkness.

There were some cheers from both the girls and the boys as the students removed their blindfolds to behold their partner.

Moments later the girls and boys dispersed into separate rooms to draw names again. Rhonda, of course, was doing the name choosing but no one seemed to mind. Helga herself was on the outside of the circle of girls, standing close to the hallway door. She had her ear cocked to try to hear which boy was being chosen next. It was a fairly useless effort, since the distance was too great and the noise between too much.

As she looked down the hall, still trying to listen without being obvious about it, someone touched her arm. Feeling slightly annoyed, Helga turned around to see what they wanted. She blinked in surprise to see not one, but all the girls near her and looking expectantly at her. They were all watching her face intently, and some were whispering and giggling to themselves.

"What?" demanded Helga irritably. Were they playing a joke on her or something?

Rhonda stepped forward, with a big smile on her lips and held out her hand. "Here," she simply said.

Helga looked down and blinked at what she saw: Rhonda handing her the blindfold. "What's that for?" asked Helga almost crossly. Why would she need the blindfold anyway?

"To put on silly," answered Rhonda, pushing her arm forward a little towards Helga.

"I know that! Why do I--" began Helga, but Phoebe cut her off.

"Helga, you're next," explained her short friend.

At these words, Helga blinked and her eyes went wide. It was her turn? But, she hadn't heard which boy had been chosen. She didn't want to go in there with just anyone. She needed to figure out who the boy was first so she could--

"Come on Helga," said Sheena.

"Yeah," added Lila, which made Helga want to scowl again.

Before she had more time to think about it, the girls took hold of her arms. Rhonda wrapped the blindfold over her eyes and Helga felt herself being pushed down the hall. She would have protested except that the girls were already hushing her as they lead her, as if anticipating her resistance.

Now totally unable to see, Helga heard the rustling of clothing and the shuffling of many footsteps as she was guided towards the closet. As she heard the approaching whispers of the boys, she half opened her mouth to speak, but someone put a finger over her lips and uttered "Ssh" at her. The whole process took less than a moment and soon Helga felt herself being helped into the closet and sat down upon the plush carpet floor.

The door was still open. Helga sat still as she heard more movement through the open passage. The male voices came closer for a second and she heard someone else enter the closet. This person was sat down in front of her. The whispering rose to a peak as Helga heard the boy getting settled. She strained to hear anything that was being said, even though she knew no one was going to mention their names. It was against the rules.

She thought she caught something like "Oh drat, I wanted to be with him" and "He's kinda cute isn't he?" but it was hard to tell.

"Oh well," she thought to herself resignedly. "It could be worse, and I don't have to worry about Lila being in here."

Helga knew that she did not have to actually do anything in the closet. The rules for the game were pretty simple. No one mentions names until the boy and girl are inside the closet and can't hear them. The boy and girl inside the closet are not allowed to speak to each other. They are *supposed* to make out while they are inside, or go even further if they feel like. Of course, Helga wasn't planning on making out with any of the boys. None of them, save Arnold, interested her even slightly, so this was going to be a long and quiet seven minutes.

There came the sound of the door creaking slightly, signaling someone was holding it.

"Have fun you too," came Rhonda's voice from nearby, and the door suddenly closed, shutting Helga and her boy partner into confined quiet darkness.