Hello there. So I was reading through the Peanuts strips and watching the cartoon and rewatched the movie, and I remembered how much I enjoyed the strip. But one thing that I always loved most about Peanuts was the character of Sally.
I think she's such an underrated character and definitely one of the most unique in the comic strip, which is hard to be amongst the Peanuts characters. Out of all of them though she was the one that made me laugh the most and I just loved her personality. She can be intelligent when she wants to be but she has a lot of ditzy moments. And I'll probably get flack for this, but in my opinion, I think she's the best Peanuts character. Sally definitely sees the world in her own unique way and can also be a bit of a trouble-maker, though not intentionally mostly.
She's mainly just lazy and doesn't have a lot of motivation, so I had a story idea for her coming to terms with this and wanting to better herself due to interactions with the others. And although she's going to be the main character in this fic, the others of the Peanuts gang are obviously and inevitably going to be in this too, and you'll see more of them as the fic goes on.
Basically most of the comics, the cartoons, and the movie will be canon in this fic, and continue from all of that. All characters don't belong to me but to of course Charles .M. Schulz.
Sunrise was slowly lifting over a sleepy neighbourhood. No doubt everyone would soon be up in a matter of thirty minutes once the sun had fully come up. Alarm clocks were going off all over the houses, though some were set to snooze. But in the room of the neighbourhood's 'favourite' child, good ol' Charlie Brown, it's inhabitant obeyed the ringing of the clock and accepted the fact it was time to get up.
The bald headed boy sat up, wiped his eyes, and with a slow rising feeling of dread, slid from the covers and began changing into his usual attire. He packed his bag and brushed his teeth, ready for the day ahead. However, good ol' Charlie Brown started to hear something from across the hall, something that sounded like the complete opposite to the dreary morning mood he was currently in. Glancing at the bathroom door, he had a thought of: 'Good grief, what could that possibly be?'
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A wardrobe opened and a hand slid through a number of blue and pink polkadot dresses. A blue one was picked, along with a small hair bow to accompany it. Little white shoes were laced up and the curtains were drawn letting in the morning sunlight. The door burst open and a little six year-old girl leapt and slid down the banister of the stairs toward the kitchen.
The fridge opened and was quickly relieved of several jars of peanut butter, jam and a tub of butter, whilst the pantry was too with bread and the cutlery drawer butter knives, all dumped upon the table.
First came a slice of bread, then the butter, the peanut butter, the jam, another slice of bread, and repeat. In the end it was four stacks high, though only a few bites were taken out of it as the girl realised she couldn't eat the whole thing she had created. Luckily for her, there was someone out asleep in the garden who would.
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The red Baron was so close in sight. He was right on his tail. This was probably the closest he'd ever come. There was no possible way the Baron could get out of his grasp now. He was about to fire, he would do it! He would actually do it! This was it! He would beat the red Baron! He would-, wait, what was that smell? No, the Baron was trying to distract him, he was using something against the flying Ace. He was slipping away, he was-
Snoopy woke on top his kennel, a look of frustration on his face and making a 'drat!' expression with his arm. But that smell from his dream was still there, what was that smell-, he looked down and by the side of his kennel to see a peanut butter and jam sandwich right beside it. A few bites out of it but still, good enough. What a pleasant surprise to wake up to. He rubbed his hands together, but then a familiar yellow face landed on his nose, who too eyed up the sandwich. It and snoopy eyed each other, ready for a battle over the prize.
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The cheerful young Sally Brown practically skipped through her house, something she could rarely do with rope. Taking a number of all sorts of play objects, including said rope, she rushed towards the front door, skimming past ol' Charlie Brown leaving him very confused.
"Are you ready for another spectacular day of summer big brother?" she asked in her joyful high pitched tone.
"Uh, Sally?" her brother tried to say.
"Isn't it just wonderful! A whole 'nother day of fun and no work! Another day of endless days to do absolutely nothing!" she proclaimed opening the front door stepping straight outside. "And to figure out how half of this stuff works of course" she referred to the things in her hands.
"But Sally-" Charlie Brown attempted again.
"Now, what to do first? Hmm," Sally picked up a frisbee, before quickly throwing it behind her perfectly, clearly disinterested in it. Then she picked up a paddle-ball, something she was beginning to like because it was easy, but not this time, she put it down and grabbed-, ah ha, the skipping rope. She smiled intently as she gripped it. "I'm finally gonna conquer you, you futile piece of junk!"
She placed the rope behind her, and readied to jump, however, before she did something stopped her. Was it her, or did the air seem, cooler? She glanced up at the tree, and the leaves didn't seem all that green. Maybe the tree was sick? Could trees get sick? Some leaves were turning yellow and brown and red and-, wait. Oh no.
Sally suddenly felt a clenching feeling rising from the pit of her stomach. Her legs turned to jelly and for a minute she couldn't see straight. It wasn't, was it?
Hurriedly she rushed back inside, straight past her big brother again and climbed up onto a stool in the kitchen. Breathing heavily her eyes scanned over the kitchen calendar as her worst fear came true. She pleaded with herself that she was just seeing things but no, there it was clear as day. It was a school day. The first school day of the year.
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"Sally? Sally? Are you alright? You have to get up."
The blonde girl opened her blurry eyes to see her brother standing over her looking concerned. A backpack on his shoulders.
"Huh? What-, where am I? What happened?"
"You fell off the stool and passed out for ten minutes" he told her. "C'mon we have to hurry up, we'll be late for the first day of school."
Sally could've almost passed out again when he said that. "The first day of school. The first day of school!" she repeated, the second time being a bit more louder. "Is judgement day upon me at last? It can't be that time already? I'm too young for this kind of fate big brother!" she whined grabbing his shirt.
"Actually Sally, you're exactly the right age to start first grade. It's no big deal, I had to go through it, look how I turned out." Charlie Brown turned and walked away, leaving Sally with a bewildered stare.
"That was an attempt at encouragement was it?" she questioned him.
"Look Sally, it's only first grade on the first day. All you ever learn about are each other's names and how a regular day usually goes. Here, I packed your bag for you. Though, you might wanna brush your teeth first" advised her brother after she had just tried to eat a four-stacked peanut butter and jam sandwich.
"They should've arranged the whole gregorian calendar to a better structure" complained the girl getting up and walking to the stairs. A real unhappy look on her face. "If anything, by inconveniencing me with the wrong date, they should give me this one off. Sort of as a, composition" Sally declared heading up the stairs.
"You mean compensation" Charlie Brown tried to say as his dog came up to him, a frisbee wedged in his forehead.
"She'll be alright boy, she just needs some getting used to. I have a feeling this'll be a really great changing year for her."
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The Brown siblings stepped outside their house and began their journey for the bus stop, with Sally still wearing the same expression as she did before. Her brother more or less had an indifferent one. The only remark Sally ever made on this journey was that she stated she was only going because of the lunches mom had made them. The rest of the journey she was oddly quiet. In fact in some quick glances, Charlie Brown could swear he saw that she was actually very scared. Ah but that was normal. Of course anyone would be nervous on their first day of anything. But with Sally she tended to let her nerves about school go to the extreme. She was clutching her books in her hands so tight that her knuckles turned white.
At last they reached the bus stop, where two other siblings, the Van-pelts, were already waiting, not looking too pleased themselves, but still better than how Sally was portraying herself right now. These were Linus and Lucy Van-Pelt. Schoolmates and close friends to the Brown children.
"Hello Linus. Hello Lucy" greeted Sally's brother.
"Hello Charlie Brown" replied Linus in a less than cheerful tone. He was still clutching his blue blanket like always, as it had only been a year and was still not quite ready to grow out of it yet.
Sally didn't even acknowledge the other two, more or less just stood by the side of Lucy as still as a board with a thousand yard stare.
Lucy Van-Pelt, being the tormentor she was, noticed the demeanor in the blonde girl and remembering from last time, could not help but lean over and whisper: "First grade." And almost immediately the girl shot up like a rocket only for the other three stand and witness. "Hm, twenty feat this time" observed the raven-head.
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The bus arrived and Sally reluctantly stepped aboard sitting in the first available seat. There would've been a time when she would've sat next to Eudora, but ever since she moved away she had to make do with sitting on her own most of the time. Sometimes she would sit with her brother and her sweet Baboo, but today Charlie Brown sat with Linus on a two seater. Lucy, who inevitably tried to sit next to Schroeder, wasn't able to because luckily for him Franklin got there first, much to her displeasure, and in the end she was forced to keep Sally company for the bus ride. It wasn't long 'til the two began talking.
"I don't get it. You just forgot about fall like that?" Lucy asked.
"It all just goes in a blur. One big blur. One minute you're relaxing watching TV, playing paddle-ball, eating at a barbeque, chasing Linus, the next, they send you for life behind those fence bars until the next summer" Sally made a gesture with both her arms.
"Lucy, if I die, can you make sure my headstone reads: Here lies Sally Brown, and she's real cheesed off!" Sally folded her arms again.
"If I die" Lucy finally said "I'd like to be buried at sea."
"Well you're alright then, there's a reservoir not far from here."
A few seats back, Charlie Brown and Linus were engaged in a conversation of their own. "So how's the ol' pen pal doing Charlie Brown?" Linus winked at him.
"Oh Heather's getting on very well at summer camp. She comes back this week, I almost can't wait! She told me all the things she did at summer camp, and her grandmother's doing well. And speaking of doing well, how's Janice?"
"Oh much better Charlie Brown! Much better! She told me about her sisters, and how they're much more forgiving of her once they understood the full situation" Linus beamed at the thought of his old brave friend. "And do you know what? She said in a letter that she could visit again in a couple of weeks! Around about the same time the baseball final happens."
Janice and her family had to move away too. The reason being her parents could no longer afford for her to go to their school because of the payments for her treatment, all that while ago back when she was diagnosed with leukemia. But very fortunately and very thankfully she recovered from it. She was now at a slightly cheaper school along with her sisters, which she told Linus about in her letters to him, and how although she did prefer it at her old school, this current one was still okay. She was quite upset about having to move. Just before she left she hugged Linus and kissed him on the cheek, telling him she would've never gotten through her illness if not for him. That he just had a way about him of helping people see something through to the end.
"Perhaps if our team makes it to the final, I could score a home run for her to see. I could be a hero to her Charlie Brown! Just imagine, her coming home to see our team win!"
Charlie Brown's attitude then became the opposite of Linus's cheerful optimistic one. "The baseball team, how am I going to train and lead the team that far?" he slanted forward resting his head in his palm.
"Don't worry Charlie Brown, we've gone quite far before, and this isn't a major tournament or anything. Not like in the summer, or that time Sally was born and you had to push her around in her stroller" encouraged Linus punching his friend on the shoulder.
This did actually make his paranoid friend smile a bit. "Hm, I can see what Janice meant now by what she said."
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There was a different smell to this classroom than her old one. The smell of the chalkboard was still present, as was in any classroom. But the pictures on the walls were vastly different, and so much more complicated. All these shapes and diagrams and punctuation symbols. Sally sat at the desk with her name on it. Placed her books inside of it and tapped her fingers nervously.
She had no idea what to expect. What would this new teacher be like? Will they be nice? Will they be mean? She hoped they wouldn't be mean. Would she have to do scientific equations now that she was in first grade? Would there be more homework? Will there be endless streams of lines they would have to write every lesson? She began to shake in her seat and look around. The worst thing of all, definitely the worst thing of all, was that she didn't know anybody. She was all alone. Not since Eudora moved away. Other kids then started to enter and take their seats as well, ready to begin the lesson.
'Okay. Big Brother said all you do on the first day is learn each other's names and what an average day will be like. What you do now sets the course of what the rest of the year will be like.'
A noise sounded, directly at Sally, snapping her out of it. "Huh? What?"
The noise sounded again asking Sally of her name. Panicked, Sally thought of the first name that came to her head. "Uh, Willem Dafoe."
The class started laughing, making Sally bury her head in her desk. 'Great, this is definitely a warning of things to come.'
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It was home time, much to everyone's, but mainly youngest Brown's, relief. The school bus dropped the siblings as well as the Van-pelts off, and after parting ways with them, Charlie Brown and his sister entered their house.
"So how was it?" asked the thoughtful brother, though her slouched posture and facial expression explained it all.
"Big brother is it possible to reframe and rearrange the entire American education system and curriculum?" she started with.
"Well maybe but that would take a lot of time money and legal action" replied Charlie Brown setting down his bag.
"The things that you want so badly never happen and if they do they take forever. And things you want to never end feel like they didn't even happen at all! Summer had ended today, how was I to know?" she whined in typical Sally fashion.
"Didn't you suspect anything when we bought all that back-to-school equipment last week?" asked Charlie Brown sitting on the beanbag chair.
"I wasn't there remember, I was too busy at home trying to figure out how to get the wallpaper of my room back up before mom or dad saw it" she flopped down the opposite side of the beanbag. "Today was horrible. I couldn't grasp anyone's names, not even my own. By the end of today I ended up being half of A-list hollywood."
"Are you going to stick it out this time? Or are you just going to give up on everything like last year?" Charlie Brown questioned one final time.
"I don't know big brother, whichever is easiest. And so what if I give up now? Who cares? What I don't worry about, can't hurt me."