Schroeder woke up with his headache no better than the night before. In fact, it was worse; not to mention the nausea. It took him a few moments before he realized that this was due to jet lag. He'd been laid up for about four days because of it after they'd arrived in Europe last month, and now it was happening again. Schroeder groaned and tossed in his bed a few times before calling his mom up to tell her that he couldn't go to school today.

"Oh, poor dear," she said gently as she ruffled his hair. "I'll go down and make you some tea."

Once she had left, Schroeder pulled the sheets up over his head and let himself suffer over already having to miss school in the first week. Amid the awful headache, however, he suddenly remembered last night's resolution to apologize to Nancy.

"Rats," he groaned in frustration. "Now what?"

He thought for a moment what he should do to let her know that she'd gotten the part, and suddenly he had a rather good idea. He reached for his phone and called Frieda (who just happened to be that one girl in school who knew everyone). After having talked to her for a couple of minutes, Schroeder asked if by any chance she had Nancy's number. It was a stroke of luck that she did, and he asked if she could send it to him. Once she did, he hesitated for a moment before dialing, and went over what he planned to say in his mind. Finally he had worked up enough courage to call.

Here goes, he thought. And a few nervous deep breaths later, he heard Nancy pick up. "Hello? Who is this?"

"Um, hi, Nancy. This is Schroeder."

No answer.

"From school," he added.

"Mm-hmm," came an answer that sounded slightly pained.

Well, she's still mad.

"How did you get my number?" she added after a pause, to which he explained that Frieda had sent it to him.

"I see. And the purpose of this call is…?"

"To apologize for yesterday," he said to her. "I was awful to you, and I'm sorry."

"Oh?" Her voice was dripping with skepticism.

"Yeah. Look, it's just that I'm something of a…"

"Beethoven purist?" Schroeder could almost see Nancy raising an unamused eyebrow as she spoke these words.

"For want of a better expression," he answered, not wanting to make her angrier with corrections. "And I was just stressed yesterday, and you caught me off guard, and… I freaked out, and I shouldn't have. You're clearly very talented."

"Am I?"

"Yes. Very. And I looked for you afterwards to apologize, but I couldn't find you. Where'd you go?"

"Home. My mom was waiting in the parking lot."

Okay, she sounds slightly less angry now.

"Oh. Well, look, what I really wanted to say was, I think I have a way to make it up to you."

"And what is that?"

"To tell you," he answered, "that Mrs. Lowery and I are in agreement: you are the best fit for the position of principal piano player for the Schulz High band."

To this there were a couple of seconds of silence, followed by an excited squeal. "Oh thank you! That's wonderful news!"

Schroeder chuckled and allowed Nancy to vent her excitement. After a moment, she asked him, "So I guess I'll see you in Calc, then?"

"No, actually. I'm not feeling well this morning, so I'm gonna miss school. That's why I wanted to call you and let you know about the role."

"Oh. That's very kind of you," she said with a smile in her tone.

"Not at all," he answered. "I wanted to apologize, anyway."

This mostly put an end to the conversation, and after exchanging goodbyes, they hung up, and Schroeder was left in silence to brave the headache.

Patty ran a hand through her rusty hair, feeling highly stressed after her trigonometry class. She wished Marcie or even Charlie were in the class with her to help her out, but Marcie was in pre-AP calculus this year, and Charlie in Statistics. Her only friend in this class was Jack.

At least, that was what Patty thought. As she was heading toward the exit of the classroom, she heard a voice behind her: "Peppermint Patty, is that you?"

Patty froze. Nobody had called her "Peppermint Patty" since middle school. And that voice sounded so familiar…

Suddenly everything clicked. Patty practically felt her heart drop to the floor as she realized who was speaking to her. The girl from the cheerleading tryouts the day before, everything — it suddenly made sense. She turned around, hoping she was wrong — but knowing she wasn't.

Yep. It was her: Heather Wold. Better known as Charlie Brown's ex-crush. Patty might've been gaping, but she wasn't sure; and through the shock her mind had just received, all she could think of was to say, "It's just Patty now."

"Oh, okay," answered the redhead, twirling her long, lustrous hair between her fingers. "You do remember me, don't you?"

Patty was quite unable to say anything.

"It's Heather. Heather Wold. I moved away in seventh grade, remember?"

"Uh… yeah. I— I do," she stammered. "Sorry, I'm just a little distracted right now."

"Oh. Well, anyway, I'm back now," said Heather with a little smile. "It's cool that we're in the same class. I'll see you around, okay?"

"Sure," Patty managed to say as Heather walked off. She was completely stunned. What on earth was Heather doing back here? Who ever moved back from New York City to Minneapolis — which wasn't even Heather's hometown? It made no sense.

And yet it was true, it seemed. Chuck's old crush, who had conveniently moved away in middle school, allowing him to finally take notice of Patty, was back — grown up and more beautiful than ever.

Patty's head began to hurt. She just knew this couldn't end well.

Lucy walked slowly down the hallway, her eyes darting back and forth, scanning every face she came across. Where was Schroeder? He hadn't been in Calculus today, and Lucy was beginning to get irritated.

Was he purposefully avoiding her? It sure seemed like it. It had been so long since he'd last had a reason to avoid her that she'd forgotten how good he could be at it when he wanted to.

A thousand thoughts ran through Lucy's mind at once. That blockhead. How can he do this to me?

Oh, maybe he is still mad. Oh, dear.

But I've hardly even seen him since he got back! That's terribly unfair of him!

Good grief, what if something happened to him?

No, he'd have called me or something.

Why hasn't that blockhead called me?!

Oh, I hate myself.

No, I hate him.

… Oh. No, I don't. I just wish he'd talk to me. I wish he'd yell at me, even! Anything but the silent treatment.

I'll get you for this, Thomas Schroeder. You'd better have a good reason for not talking to me all this time. A darn good reason!

Her furious internal struggle was abruptly interrupted by a male voice. "Lucy?"

"Hmm?" She looked up with an absent minded look in her eye. "Oh. Hi, Charlie Brown. How's life?"

"Pretty good," he answered with a smile. "How's yours? I haven't seen you in a while."

"Oh, well… You know, I'm dealing with the elections and all, so that's probably why."

"Right. How's that going?"

"Okay," she replied, glad of the chance to make small talk. "Although I'm dreadfully behind schedule with my campaign buttons. My pin making machine doesn't arrive until tomorrow, so once it does, it's gonna be full speed ahead with that."

"Mmm." Charlie nodded.

"Say," Lucy suddenly said to him, "do you and Patty wanna come over after school tomorrow to help me with them? Marcie and Franklin already agreed to be there, and we can make a nice afternoon of it."

"Sounds good," he agreed. "What time?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know tomorrow."

"All right. I'll let Patty know." Charlie turned back to his locker and continued to put in it things he no longer needed from his backpack.

Lucy was about to walk away when Charlie added, "And we'll especially wanna help since Schroeder won't be able to make it."

Lucy froze. The conversation with Charlie Brown had helped her put Schroeder out of her mind for a few moments, but suddenly his words put her on alert again. "What do you mean, he won't? What has he told you?"

Charlie turned back around. "Nothing, personally. But he told Frieda that he was sick."

"He's sick?" shrieked Lucy. "I didn't know!"

"You mean he didn't tell you? That's strange."

Lucy sighed. "We've been having a…" She paused. Should she admit to Charlie Brown that she and Schroeder were having problems? Certainly not! We're not having problems, she assured herself. It's probably just a failure of communication. Yeah, that's it! "Well, we haven't really had a chance to talk this week."

"Oh."

"What's wrong with him?"

"Just jet lag. Nothing serious."

She sighed again, this time in relief. "Oh. I should call him and find out how he's doing."

"Yeah, you should," answered Charlie, smiling. He had a feeling that he'd just dodged something, though he wasn't sure what. With Lucy, it never did good to pry. She may have been nicer than before, but she could still be very intimidating when angry.

The awkward pause that followed was just getting to be too much when another voice entered the chat, so to speak. "Lucy! There you are!"

Lucy and Charlie both turned and saw Marcie heading their way with quick steps.

"Hey, Marcie," Lucy said to her. "What's up?"

"Well, we're all waiting for you at the student council meeting. We're supposed to be discussing the Homecoming theme, remember?"

"Oh, good grief!" Lucy exclaimed as she looked at her watch. "I didn't realize it was so late already!" She began to hurry off behind Marcie. "It was nice seeing you, Charlie Brown!" she called as she dashed up the hallway. "We'll talk!"

"So you made the cheerleading squad! Congratulations!"

"How'd you know about that?" Sally asked her brother as she stopped outside his bedroom door.

"I saw Patty Swanson today. She mentioned it."

"Oh. Well, yep, I did! I don't suppose you wanna take me for a rootbeer float to celebrate?"

"Sure. In fact, I think I'll call up the whole gang. We haven't hung out all week."

Charlie reached for his phone and turned it on to send a message to the group chat which consisted of Linus, Lucy, Patty, Marcie, Franklin, and Jack — and of course, him and Sally.

Schroeder, however, needed to be messaged separately, as his relic of a flip phone didn't support group messages. It didn't seem likely that he'd feel well enough by now to accept, but Charlie felt he should let him know anyway.

Within a few minutes, everyone — except Lucy (who, already as the unofficial leader of the student council, was busy dealing with plans for Homecoming) and, unsurprisingly, Schroeder — had agreed to meet up at the 3rd street bar/café at 7:30.

It was 6:45 now, and Charlie rushed to finish his English homework before leaving. He finished at exactly 7:00, and after putting on his shoes and leather jacket (which he'd worn for the last three days thanks to Sally's reminding him of its existence), went downstairs, where Sally was waiting for him on the couch, holding her phone in one hand and stroking Snoopy's head with the other.

She was wearing a pink top, beige shorts, and wedged sandals. Charlie had no idea how Sally managed to change into what seemed like a new outfit at least twice a day, but he didn't bother to ask as they headed out.

"Goodbye, Snoop, old boy," he called over his shoulder.

"Take care of the house while we're gone!" added Sally.

The café was bustling when Charlie and Sally arrived, and everyone except Franklin was already there. They took a table for eight and crammed into their seats, busily talking and sharing the events of their first three days of school.

Charlie sat by Patty, who was noticeably fidgety.

"Patty? What's wrong?" he asked her.

"Hmm?" she looked up as she came out of her own thoughts. "Oh, nothing, Chuck. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Patty hesitated slightly as she thought back to that afternoon and her encounter with Heather. Should she tell Charlie about it? She wasn't sure. There was no telling what his reaction would be — and in all honesty, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She decided not to mention it, at least for now.

"Yeah, I'm sure." She nodded and smiled reassuringly at him, after which he turned back to his conversation with Jack.

But now Patty felt as if she'd dodged a bullet. True, she didn't want to tell Charlie about Heather, but she did want to talk to someone about it. She might've asked Lucy if only she had been there. Of course, there was Marcie, but she was sitting at the other end of the table with Franklin, who had just arrived.

All of a sudden Patty realized that Sally was sitting next to her. Of course! she thought. I can talk to Sally about it! They both auditioned for the cheerleading squad!

She waited until Sally was done telling a distracted Linus all about her tryout, then whispered to her, "Did any friends of yours also make the squad?"

Sally's expression darkened as she turned to Patty. "Oh, Patty. You reminded me. You'll never guess who just moved back here."

"Could it be Heather?" replied Patty with a raised eyebrow.

"You knew?"

"She's in my Trigonometry class. I just saw her today."

"What are we gonna do?" whispered Sally urgently. "What if she steals my brother's attention?"

Patty's mouth went dry as Sally put into words exactly what she'd been afraid to express all afternoon. What if Heather did steal away Chuck's attention — and affection?

"Why would she?" she managed to say.

"Well, because she— Oh, I'm sorry, Patty, I wasn't thinking. You're right. Why would she? My brother's with you now."

"Exactly."

"And there's no reason he should ditch you just because the girl who used to be the girl of his dreams is suddenly back, and he's now in a better position to impress her than ever before."

Patty frowned. "Well, that's certainly cheered me up, Sally. Thank you."

Completely oblivious to Patty's sarcastic tone of voice, Sally simply answered a smiley, "No worries," and turned back to Linus, who was now discussing video games with Charlie and Jack.

Patty sighed and turned to join the boys' conversation, but she decided around the same time as Sally that nothing very interesting was being said. In the end, they ended up talking to each other about other things — and throughout dinner Patty cheered herself up by stealing a few glances at Marcie and Franklin, who were holding a discussion of their own and seemingly the only ones here tonight who didn't have a care in the world.

Lucky them, she thought as her own mind reeled with unfortunate (and unlikely) scenarios.