Arnold and Gerald are cast as a banana and a strawberry in their school play, "The Four Food Groups", written and directed by Helga. Humiliated by Helga's treatment during rehearsals and dressed in their costumes for the evening performance, Arnold and Gerald decide to miss their stop and the opening of the play. Instead of the bus turning around at the end of the line as Gerald predicts, Arnold and Gerald find themselves stranded downtown dressed in their fruit suits. Arnold inadvertently wrecks Eugene's brand new bike. Guilt ridden, Arnold rebuilds the bike but forgets to install the brake cable and Eugene crashes - wrecking the bike again. Things go from bad to worse as Arnold tries again and again to make it up to Eugene.

The Little Pink Book: When Helga loses her pink book, full of love poems about Arnold on the bus, it ends up in Arnold's hands. Now Helga must get it back before Arnold figures out who wrote the poems. Field Trip: The kids are really looking forward to their field trip to the aquarium - especially when they remember the scary Lock Jaw from their last trip. But, when they get there, they see that Lock Jaw isn't really that scary. Arnold notices how neglected the old turtle looks, and returns later with Grandma to set it free.

Helga has been secretly building a shrine in her closet to Arnold.  She has been collecting his combs, old school photos, used band-aids and chewing gum, but only one thing will make the shrine complete: Arnold's hat.  After several failed attempts to get it, the wind literally blows it into her lap.  Arnold is deeply affected by the loss of his hat since it is the last gift he received from his parents before they left him with his grandparents.  Helga starts to feel sorry for him and attemptst to return the hat to him. Meanwhile, Grandpa teaches Arnold that it's not how you look that's important, but who you are inside. Arnold has to retrieve the football from the lair of the legendary Stoop Kid - a bully who, according to neighborhood legend, pounds anyone who sets foot upon his domain.  Arnold learns the Stoop Kid can't leave his stoop and the rest of the neighborhood bully the Stoop Kid in return.  Arnold secretly helps the Stoop Kid overcome his fears and come down off his stoop.

Helga tries to hide her disappointment at not being invited to Rhonda's makeover party. She gives herself her own makeover and crashes the party with the neighborhood boys in tow, trying to out girlie-girl everyone else at the party. Arnold gets caught between his loyalty to Grandma and a promise to help his pal Ernie demolish his 500th building when the demolition of an old theater brings Grandma and Ernie into conflict with one another.

Arnold and Gerald are invited to a school dance by Connie and Maria; a pair of 6th grade "older women" who are trying to make their boyfriends jealous. The jilted boyfriends confront Arnold and Gerald at the dance. Arnold and Gerald manage to scrape up enough money for cheap seats at the last baseball game of Mickey Kaline - Arnold's idol. After making a dash for the expensive seats, Arnold snags a home run ball Kaline belts over the left field fence. Arnold has every intention of holding on to his prized possession until he learns the home run ball would mean even more to somebody else.

A record heatwave strikes the city, setting everyone on edge. Arnold and Gerald look everywhere for relief from the soaring temperature, but finally snap when they learn the Jolly Olly ice cream man is price-gouging kids for his product. Arnold wakes to find the city covered in snow and hears that school is closed for the day. He wants to go out and join the rest of the neighborhood kids with their plans for snowball fights, sledding, building snowmen, and a big hockey game, but sees that Grandpa is saddled with extra work due to the storm. He volunteers to stay in and help out Grandpa with the chores.