Gingerbread and Snowmen

Disclaimer: I do not own "Hey Arnold!" or any of the characters represented in this story. I also do not own gingerbread cookies, snowmen, or hugs…but I enjoy them all! :D

Summary: (As requested by a reviewer, here's a follow-up to my original story "Touched By Love.") Three-year-old Arnold decides to have some fun in the snow, and, hoping to cheer up Helga, he invites her to play.

"Hi, Helga!" Arnold greeted happily as he waved at the little blonde girl he'd gotten to know over the last few months. Sure, she was kind of mean sometimes, but for some reason she hadn't reflected any of that onto him yet. He was hoping that she continued to be nice to him, because he really liked spending time with her. She was interesting. She only talked to him when they were by themselves, though, and luckily everyone else in their class was in another location on the playground for the time being.

Helga, startled at his call, simply blushed and waved back shyly. "H-Hi, Arnold," she managed as she walked up to her classmate, who was situated in the snow. "What are you doing?"

"I'm building a snowman. You wanna help me?"

"What is a snowman?" she asked, confused.

Arnold blinked in surprise. "You have never built a snowman before?" Seeing her shake her head, he smiled and took her hand gently, encouraging her to sit beside him. Of course, she did without hesitancy, but it wasn't without a little more blushing at being so close to him. "Here, watch me." He gathered a large handful of snow and rolled it into a ball. "My snowmen always have three parts. This is the bottom."

Helga watched as he gathered another handful of snow and place it on the center, and then one last section on top. "I don't get it," she said truthfully. "Where is the man?"

Arnold laughed and shook his head. "You have to make him, silly." He pulled a few pennies from his pocket and situated them into the top portion of snow, creating 'eyes' for the creature. He then used the other coins to make a 'smile.' "See? He now has a face."

"Oh!" She giggled, watching the boy pick up a few sticks before he added them to his creation as 'arms.'

"Can I ask you something?" Arnold wondered as he sat into the snow next to his classmate again.

"I guess," she said quietly, observing the snowman.

"Are we friends?"

She blinked and looked back at him. "I don't have any friends," she told him gently. "Everyone is scared of me."

"I'm not."

"You're not?" she asked, surprised, and sighed when he shook his head. "Well, all the other kids just make me mad. They like to pick on me, so I get even. No one messes with me."

"I know," Arnold told her, smiling. "But maybe you could be a little nicer… You're really nice when you're, uh…nice." He laughed sheepishly.

Helga giggled at his attempt to make her feel better and smiled at him. "I will try, Arnold. But…it's hard. Sometimes they just do things that make me so mad."

"Yeah… But that doesn't mean we can't be friends." He took her hand and looked at her sincerely.

She blushed a little more and nodded. "O-Okay, Arnold… We can be f-friends…"

"Great! Because I gave Gerald something a while ago since he's my friend. I have one more and wanted to give it to someone special. Now I can give it to you!" He grinned and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a plastic bag with a few cookies inside. "Do you like gingerbread?"

"Yes!" she said, excitedly. She smiled when he handed her the bag. "Thanks, Arnold…"

Once they finished their treat, the bell rang. The children stood and dusted the snow from their clothes.

"Hey, Helga?" Arnold asked, tucking his hands behind his back shyly.

Helga blinked at the boy's actions. Shy, him? That was a first… "Yeah?"

"Can I give you a hug?" He held his hands up defensively when she blinked in surprise. "I know last time I kind of freaked you out a little bit—you didn't even hug me back. So I figured I'd ask this time."

If hearts could grow wings, hers would have sprouted them and flown away already. "Wh-Why do you want to hug me, Arnold?"

"Because you seem like you need it," he answered honestly, blinking innocently at her. He looked away shyly. "And you're soft and you smell like cookies."

Helga blushed but couldn't help giggling at his tacked-on response. "Um, okay… But no funny stuff, mister!" she added both playfully and to cover herself in case any of the other kids were watching.

Arnold lit up and reached forward, hugging the little girl. He whispered to her, "You gotta hug me back this time or I'm not letting go."

'Would that really be such a bad thing?' Helga's subconscious asked her with a swoon. "Okay, fine…" She reached up and returned the hug, getting more used to the emotional and sentimental action than she previously had been. "How's this?"

Arnold giggled when they parted. "You're getting better! I'll make a hugger out of you yet." He looked back at the door, where the teacher was waving for them to hurry. "We better go."

"Yeah…"

The children ran to make it into the building before a new snowfall began, covering the playground in a new layer of fresh white powder.

The end

(Okay, clearly I've seen "Frozen" too many times… Who doesn't love "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" I mean, seriously! Awesome song… Haha! I apologize for the lateness of this story. School just ended, and that means this teacher finally gets a break to work on something outside the realm of lesson plans… Thank goodness! Hope you all enjoyed this, and who knows? Maybe I'll find some spark of enthusiasm to write another story before summer's end. Until later!)