Christmas Miracle in the Cold

Chapter 4 In the Dark

"Fun?" thought Helga in the darkness, "Yeah right. This is going to be a really boring seven minutes. Just sitting here in the darkness with nothing to do."

Suddenly, Helga heard movement in front of her and a second later felt something touch her knee. The touch got bigger and she recognized a hand. The boy, whoever it was, was touching her. Indifferently Helga, reached down to push his hand off of herself.

"Sorry bucko," she thought, "You're in for some disappointment."

As her fingers brushed against the hand, she felt his other hand touch her, this time groping along her shoulder. The feel of fingertips on her bare skin sent small chills down her spin. Her heart thumped a few times in her chest, as Helga suddenly become aware of the mood of the situation. She was alone, in a closet, with some boy who wanted to kiss her. She felt adrenaline flicker inside herself and her body warming a little. She was mildy weary.

She reached out to try to push the overanxious boy away. Her hand brushed against something soft. His hair. She moved down to get a firm grip on his shoulder. As her fingers wrapped around his flesh, she noticed the boys approximate height. He was shorter than her. His build was thin too, so it was definitely not Harold (beyond the fact that he was certain to be Patty's partner). That narrowed it to either Sid, Gerald or Arnold.

Helga suddenly froze at that thought. Her fingers tightened on the boy's shoulder. The boy felt the pressure and his hands stopped where they were, one on her knee and one on her arm. The boy was definitely too thin for Harold, too tall for Curly or Eugene, and too short for Stinky, so it had to be one of other three. In the blindfolded darkness of the closet, she cautiously reached out her other hand towards the unknown boy.

Her groping fingers brushed against his hair again. Delicately, she let her fingers run over it, exploring it with her sensitive fingertips. There was far too much hair for the thin wisps of Sid's hair, and it was too soft and long for Gerald's hair. That could only mean one thing... one boy... could it be?

Helga's heart suddenly started beatting very hard and fast. She felt sweat break out down her back. She gulped loudly. Could it be true? Could she have gotten that lucky? She *had* to know... and there was one way to find out.

She ran her fingers through the long soft hair and quickly worked her way to the middle of his head. A large, wide, head. In the middle, her fingers touched something firm and made of cloth. They explored it, feeling out its shape. Then Helga gasped aloud as she felt the bill of that tiny familiar blue hat between her fingers.

She was in a closet with Arnold! With ARNOLD! This was... this was a dream come true! A miracle! And... she could *make out* with him for seven minutes without anyone caring!

All this time, Arnold's hand had remained motionless while Helga had explored his hair. He was probably being a gentlemen about letting her become used to the situation. He was completely unprepared for what happened next.

Helga literally pounced on Arnold, wrapping her arms around his back and falling on top of him. Their bodies pressed together and in the darkness she rubbed her cheek against his. Then she found his lips and locked her own onto them in a deep and passionate kiss. Without thinking she ran one hand through Arnold's golden waves of hair, threading it through her fingers as she had always wanted to do.

***

The boy, now discovered to be Arnold, was shocked by the girl's sudden aggressive response. He had thought he would have to be the one to pursue kissing, but this was completely unexpected. Gerald had said he would talk to Rhonda to make sure he was paired with Lila. If this was Lila, he had never seen this side of her before. She was all over him!

Her hands roamed over his body and she pressed into his lips firmly. He suddenly felt her grab one of hands and slap his palm down onto her butt. Well, if she wanted to get physical, he would oblige.

He kissed her back, their lips doing push-ups on each other. He could taste her mouth, feel her hot breath on his face. He ran his hand up her back, caressing it, while his other hand casually played with her bum cheeks. Touching her body so intimately was extremely exciting, and apparently he was not the only one enjoying it. He suddenly felt the girl wriggle a hand underneath his shirt and her warm bare palm touched his naked chest.

They were rolling around on the floor now. Arnold, not used to kissing, had to yank his head away after a few minutes to take some deep breaths. When he broke the kiss, this brought a whine of protest from the girl and she pressed forward trying to re-establish lip contact. When Arnold turned back, she moaned in pleasure as she sealed their lips tightly together again.

After a while Arnold felt the girl's tongue pressing between his lips. It surprised him, but he quickly relented to the pressure and allowed it inside his mouth. Their tongues joined in a wet and hot French kiss, wrestling back and forth between their lips.

Arnold was wondering how far this was going to go. He suddenly realized the girl's free hand had moved down from his head and was groping at his waist. Her fingers were running over the front of his pants and stomach. He felt those fingers close around the button on his pants and begin fumbling to open them.

Suddenly there came a sound from outside.

"Time's up!"

There was a small creaking noise as the door to the closet opened, followed by cheering from outside. The cheering however, turned to gasps and shocked exclamations at whatever the audience saw. The noise had reached the girl as well it seemed, and she had stopped squirming on top of him. Thank God she had not gotten his pants open yet.

"Wow," Arnold thought to himself, still unable to see the girl on top of him through the blindfold. "Whoever this is, she sure is wild."

At that thought, since the time was up, he was now allowed see who it was he was kissing. If Gerald had done his part right, it should be his beloved redheaded Lila on top of him. He never would have guessed she would be such an aggressive kisser.

Even though the door was open, the girl still had him locked in a mouth to mouth kiss. She obviously did not want the time to be over. Perhaps, if he was lucky, she might want to make out more later during the party. Disengaging his hand from around her thighs, he reached up and removed his blindfold. As his eyes blinked while they adjusted to light again, the first thing that met his vision was the brilliant color of pink.

Pink? Lila never wore pink. Arnold blinked as things came into focus. A pink bow? He looked down and saw, not red hair, but bright blond hair. Blond?

Arnold gentled jerked back in surprise, breaking lip contact with the girl as he gasped, "Helga?"

He was at a loss for words as he stared down at the girl with her arms still wrapped around him. Helga's cheeks, still very close to him, blushed a deep crimson as she heard her name.

"Heh heh," she laughed quietly as she pushed herself off of him at last. "Hey Arnold."

Finally letting go of him, she reached up and removed her own blindfold. The boy and girl were both vaguely aware of the sounds from the others outside the closet. The audience could not decide which they were surprised over more, the fact that a boy and a girl had got that heavy into making out in the closet in under seven minutes, or that it had been Helga and Arnold.

There were some sneering from Stinky and Sid, as usual. Harold was snickering, but trying not to show it. Patty really was a good influence on him. Gerald was cheering, though it looked a little forced. None of the girls were sneering. A few were a little indignant over Helga getting Arnold first, but most were cheering, especially Phoebe and Patty.

Arnold stared into Helga's face in near disbelief. He could not believe he had just heavily made out with Helga Pataki. What was more amazing is that he had liked it. A lot. She had been... well, she had been great!

"Wow Helga, you were amazing," breathed Arnold, still a little short of breath after so much kissing.

At these words, Helga let out a happy cooing, and a lovestruck smile spread across those lips he had so recently kissed. She looked straight at him with an expression of absolutely delight and joy on her face. After a few seconds of blissful staring, she replied dreamily, "Thank you Arnold."

Arnold smiled back at her, then shifted his legs and stood kneeling on one leg. He reached out a hand to offer to help Helga up. He went on smiling as he added, "You were almost as good as Lila."

He had been expecting Lila, but that had been just... fantastic, totally unexpected. If Helga kissed like that all the time, then maybe he should ask if he could kiss her again. As Arnold's focus returned to Helga, he only just had time to see the smile wipe from her lips to be replaced with a look he had never seen on her before. Her unibrow lowered in anger and he saw her eyes narrow as well, but that was the last thing he saw.

He felt a sudden stinging pain hit the side of his face hard. So hard that it knocked him backwards and all he saw was stars. He felt Helga push him away and heard her rush past him out of the closet. He heard everyone outside the closet gasp in shock.

Arnold tried to blink away the stars to clear his vision. He was dumbfounded. What had happened? What hit him?

"Geez Arnold, that Helga is a strange girl," he heard Gerald say somewhere nearby. "One minute she's kissin' you, and the next she's slappin' you silly."

Arnold stood up and stepped out of the closet. He blinked in surprise at his friend's words. Helga slapped him? She never slapped him. She pushed him, tripped him, even shot spit balls at him, but she had never slapped him before.

Everyone was talking at once when suddenly there came a ring at the doorbell.

"Oh finally. They're here," said Rhonda sounding both relieved and annoyed. "We'll finish the rest of the game in a bit. I'll be right back."

The young hostess headed off to answer the front door while everyone else chattered about what had just happened. Most seemed to think it was just Helga being strange about Arnold. This view was especially held by all the boys. After a few moments, the incident lost its interest and people began to moving away from the closet area.

Arnold managed to snag Gerald's attention before he went off to find Phoebe. "What happened Gerald? I thought you were going to get me matched with Lila?"

His friend just shrugged. "Sorry man, I got distracted."

At this, his black friend winked, and though Arnold wondered what he meant by that, he left it alone. Gerald smiled and winked again, casting a glance at Phoebe before heading out of the room with her, along with everyone else. Within a moment, Arnold found himself sitting on a chair, rubbing his sore cheek and wondering why on earth Helga had slapped him so hard.

"Arnold, what ever did you say to her?" came a sweet feminine voice next to him.

Arnold looked up and saw Lila standing next to him, looking concerned.

"Nothing," he replied immediately. "I just said she was a great kisser. That's all."

"Really?" asked Lila, looking thoughtful. "That's ever-so strange. Even Helga doesn't just slap people for no good reason. Are you sure that's all you did? You didn't try to... take advantage of her in the darkness?"

"What? No!" exclaimed Arnold, "I'd never do that. And she was the one trying to take advantage of me! We just kissed, and kissed. Then I said she was great and almost as good as you are, Lila."

Lila's eyes widened at his last comments. A second later she shook her head at him. "Oh Arnold. You didn't, did you? Oh say you really didn't say that did you?"

"Say what? What's the problem? All I said was kissing her was almost as good as well as kissing you would have been," answered the boy, his voice suddenly becoming quieter. Arnold's cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

"Oh Arnold. You just don't get it, do you? I'm sure you have ever-so much to learn about girls."

"Huh? What do you mean Lila?"

In answer, the red haired girl stepped close to Arnold and gently pulled him up from the chair into a standing position.

"Oh Arnold, you hurt her feelings," Lila explained. "I'm oh-so certain that she really enjoyed kissing you. She certainly looked like she did, and you were ever-so cruel to mention another girl after you just kissed her."

Arnold looked down at his hands, immediately realize the truth in her words and feeling the sting of embarrassment. Even if he did not quite understand Helga's feelings, he could definitely see how what his actions could seem really rude. He glanced up at Lila and asked, "I should probably go try to apologize." The country girl nodded in approval.

Arnold almost sighed. Girls could be so complicated and Helga was one of the worst.