Author's note: Hello everyone and welcome to this story. Before we begin, I have a couple of disclaimers and notes that I need to go over first.
First, as it's unfeasible in my view to try to pull together all the comic strips, I'm relying more on the animated media and the Peanuts Movie as my source material for basing my story off of. And in the latter's case, such is the motivation for, and inspiration behind this story's A-plot.
Second, I'll say up front that some characters may get more focus than others because I haven't been able to create as much of a storyline for these other characters. Charlie Brown, Heather Wold (aka, the Little Red-Haired Girl), Schroeder, and Lucy are the characters I know will get a lot of focus. Linus will probably be more of a supporting character, but with a decent amount of appearances.
Third, the setting may feel a little bit more modern than normal by Peanuts standards (it's been decades since Peanuts' time to be fair), but don't worry, you won't see anyone pulling out a smartphone or using Facebook or YouTube. I'm even confident that I can avoid the use of computers.
Finally, pairings. Charlie Brown x Heather is confirmed as an eventual pairing (side note: I'll be basing her off of the portrayal of her from the Peanuts Movie). Schroeder and Lucy is also a possibility but no promises. At the very least, Schroeder, who is an important support character in this story, is going to be playing a role in Lucy's storyline. Finally, there will be a character appearing later in the story that had appeared in a certain TV special, and she will eventually get paired off with Linus (sorry, Sally!) However, due to age, they won't actually get together until sometime during the sequel story. There will be some innocent moments though between the two of them in the meantime.
Oh, and I don't own Peanuts. Now, please enjoy the story!
The bright morning sun was now rising up over the horizon in Sparkyville. At the same time, alarm clocks all around the neighborhood began going off. All of our characters had their own ways of dealing with their alarms jolting them out of their sleep.
Marcie was quiet about everything, but was very happy to be starting her first year of Junior High. She had been top of the class throughout elementary school and she was confident in her ability to do even better while navigating Junior High. But she wasn't the only advanced student in school, and even she hadn't achieved what Linus Van Pelt had.
Speaking of Linus, he had already awoken to his alarm and had shut it off, but he wanted to allow a few additional moments to cuddle with his trademark security blanket. While doing so, his older sister, Lucy, walked in the room, already dressed and ready to go. She couldn't tell if Linus was still asleep or not, but that didn't matter to her.
"Linus, wake up," Lucy said in a soft singsong voice, tiptoeing towards him and stretching her arm out towards his blanket. Finally, in one swift maneuver, she yanked Linus' blanket from him, shouting "Get out of bed!" and running off.
"My blanket! Give me back my blanket!" Linus cried out, beginning to give chase.
A couple of minutes later, Linus had retrieved his stolen blanket and was walking back towards his room to get ready, muttering something about crabby, annoying older sisters. As he was passing by the phone though, it began to ring.
"Hello?" he said after picking it up.
"Linus? It's me, Sally!" came a bubbly female voice from the other end. "I just wanted to wish my sweet babboo good luck at his first year of Junior High!"
Linus grit his teeth. "I am not your sweet babboo!"
From the other end, Sally ignored this and simply smiled dreamily. Linus had managed to skip not one but two grades, and that only made Sally admire him that much more. He was such a smart kid, and the cutest thing to boot.
Meanwhile, Peppermint Patty was beginning to wake up. Well, she was trying at least. Once again, she had gone to bed really late and the effect of not getting enough sleep was being felt. Marcie had told her that she needed to start going to bed at a normal hour despite her dad coming home so late, especially now that she was going to Junior High. But of course, even to this day, she couldn't quite get the hint.
Marcie was worried about this happening. A couple weeks before the gang had completed elementary school, there was an orientation day at the building where they would be spending their Junior High years. One of the things everyone learned was that students were required to maintain at least a C average in order to be able to participate in any extracurricular activities. Or to be able to try out for a sports team. This meant that if Peppermint Patty could not get her grades up, she would have no shot at being able to try out for the school baseball team in early spring.
Schroeder's morning routine was pretty regular, if you count out the fact that his alarm always played some Beethoven music piece whenever it went off.
Schroeder was still just as much into Beethoven as he ever was, and he was still committed to living his life in a way that honored his musical idol. But at the same time, he had begun to appreciate more music from other composers, so long as the music was always in the same genre as Beethoven. Schroeder also had recently made a resolution to try writing his own pieces. He knew he couldn't rely solely on playing Beethoven if he wanted to get into Juilliard. However, he still had a ways to go on the original music part.
For now though, it was still pretty much all about Beethoven. He had even just completed an application that he would submit to whom was in charge of managing the school clubs. Schroeder wanted to create a club of his own: the Beethoven Appreciation Club. His friends for some reason doubted that the club would get approved, but he brushed off anyone who doubted him.
Finally, there was Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown, after his alarm went off, contemplated getting up, but inevitably just shifted onto his side, away from the clock. His attempt to get back to sleep was unsuccessful though as Sally barged into his room and made sure he couldn't escape the start of the new school year. Sally sure seemed excited, though maybe that was just because her big brother was finally going to Junior high, since she herself was never a first-day-of-school kind of kid.
Charlie Brown wasn't looking forward to the new year, even if he would no longer be attending that dreaded elementary school of his. How would being in Junior High be any different than being in elementary school? Most of those whom he knew in elementary school would also be going and there would also be new people who would come to see Charlie Brown for the loser and the failure that he was. Why would the world allow him a fresh start?
Okay, he had to admit that the last couple of years hadn't been quite as bad as they could've been. This was all due to him being told by the love of his life that he had the qualities that she admired. Ever since she had told him this, he was never quite as self-defeating as he had been in the past.
At least that had been the case for a while. A certain couple of girls seemed to think that a confident and happy Charlie Brown was an uncomfortable thought for them and they had gone into overdrive in their attempts to bully Charlie Brown and make him look like a fool. And now as of today, he was just barely above the confidence level he had been at when he was just nine years old. He couldn't even work up the courage anymore to talk to his dream girl beyond little things like "Hi" and "how are you".
Charlie Brown eventually rolled out of bed and proceeded to get ready for the day.
