SCHULZ HIGH IS GOING BACK TO THE 80'S

by Jimmy Hennessy

AH, THE EIGHTIES. The "totally tubular" golden age of time travel movies, big hair, and Michael Jackson. If any of you Gladiators have ever wished to experience the thrill of this glittery decade, you're in for quite a treat.

The Homecoming Committee has informed yours truly that the theme for this year's Spirit Week will be "Through the Decades," with each day of the week featuring a different decade of the 20th century as its theme. The events of the week will culminate in Saturday's baseball game in the early afternoon and the Homecoming dance in the evening, at which point the guys will don the dad jeans and bomber jackets, and girls the permed hair and poof skirts, for a radical night on the dance floor.

"But I prefer the fifties to the eighties!" clamors a voice in the crowd. Don't despair, ye of little faith. What follows is the schedule for the particular themes of the days of Spirit Week: Monday, 1920's-30's (this means flappers and the Charleston); Tuesday, 40's ("The First Avenger," anyone?); Wednesday, 1950's (for anyone who ever wanted to be Danny Zuko); Thursday, 60's (a decade that encompassed everything from Jackie O to the Woodstock festival); and Friday, 70's (afros! Disco! The Jackson 5!).

Spirit Week truly promises to be a wild ride this year. And the dance and the costumes won't be the only exciting things happening during the week of September 28th — Tuesday, the 29th, will also be the school election day, where each of you will get the opportunity to vote for your new Senior Class President. The confirmed candidates for this position are, at the time of writing, Elizabeth Auerbach, captain of the Gladiator girls' basketball team; Jimmy Hennessey, National Honor Society member — and yours truly —; and Lucy Van Pelt.

Of course, we can't forget Saturday's baseball game, which will pitch our school's team against the Riders of Driver Forest High School. We'll all be rooting for our star pitchers, Charles Brown and the barrier-breaking Patricia Reichardt, as well as Schulz High's own revered hitter, José Peterson.

All these events promise to get this year at Schulz High School off to an excellent start. Welcome back, Gladiators, and have a great year!

Three years of attending Schulz High hadn't been enough for Charlie Brown to get tired of the excitement of the second week of school. It was, in some respects, an even bigger deal than the first day of class — the second week brought the first edition of the year of the school paper, the posters for the Homecoming dance, and the real beginning of the class president campaigns.

There was Lucy by the cafeteria door, handing out campaign buttons to anyone who walked by; there was a pair of overly enthusiastic 9th grade girls squealing as they opened their first-ever copy of the Gazette; there were Frieda and Violet, the former speaking of how convenient it was for the Homecoming theme that she already had naturally curly hair ("no need to fake a perm," she boasted with a hair flip).

So everything was hectic yet pleasant at Schulz High, and Charlie smiled to himself and opened his paper again to read the part that described him and Patty as the school's "star pitchers." He was just going over the line that mentioned "barrier-breaking Patricia" when he turned the corner of the hallway and smashed right into a girl who was equally distracted by something on her phone.

Books and papers immediately dispersed, and the girl's phone tumbled to the floor as well.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" exclaimed Charlie, immediately bending down to help pick the things up.

"No, I'm sorry," she countered, reaching for the Gazette he had dropped. "That was my clumsiness. I think this is yours."

"Thanks," he said with a smile, accepting the paper and offering her cell in return.

"Thank you." She straightened up and turned the phone on to make sure it still worked — it did — but suddenly she realized she had left him to gather what remained of her belongings all by himself.

It was too late now, anyway — he had piled up her books and journal and was extending them toward her.

"Thank you," she repeated as she took them, and tucked a loose strand of red hair behind her ear. "Hey, you look familiar. Have we met?"

"Um—" This was when Charlie finally got around to getting a proper look at the young woman, and correspondingly, this was when his eyes widened as he realized, like a bolt from the blue, who was standing in front of him.

"You're Heather Wold," he murmured, the only words he could extract from this mind of his which had just turned to mush.

She grinned and nodded. "So we do know each other! But I can't quite place you. Can you remind me of your name?"

"Uh— um, Barney Clown," he stammered, then furiously corrected himself: "I mean Charlie Brown!"

"Charlie Brown…" she repeated before simply thinking for a moment. "That definitely rings a bell, but I'm not… I knew you in grade school, right?"

He nodded. "Miss Othmar's class," he reminded her, and immediately regretted his (probably eerily) specific memory.

But Heather seemed unbothered by it, and answered with, "Oh, you mean Mrs. Hagemeyer? Okay, well, she was my first teacher in Sparkyville, so that must mean that—"

Here she stopped short. "Wait. You said your name was Charlie?"

"Yes," he said hesitantly.

"Oh, that's right!" she exclaimed. "You're Linus Van Pelt's best friend!"

Charlie let out the breath he hadn't even realized he was holding. "That's me."

"Oh, well, of course I remember you. You were the pitcher on Linus's baseball team, weren't you?"

Linus's team? thought Charlie Brown with disbelief. I was the manager.

But there was no point in splitting hairs now. He was too caught up in the surprise of… this. (Whatever "this" was.) So all he did was say yes and smile politely and do his best to hide his shock with a calm facade.

"Hey, wait a second," Heather suddenly said. "You were the pitcher, and… Can I borrow this?" she asked, taking the copy of the school paper from his hands.

"Uh, sure…"

"Are you this Charles Brown?" she inquired, pointing at a line in the Spirit Week article. "The school's 'star pitcher'?"

Charlie smiled sheepishly, stuck his hands in his pockets, shrugged. "Well, I'm not the star so much as Patty," he finally said.

"Ah, so it is you! Well, congratulations! You've come a long way!"

He opened his mouth to thank her, but the bell announcing first period rang at that moment, and Heather bobbed her head lightly and said, "Well, nice talking with you, Charlie. It's been pretty great getting to see all my old friends since school started." She was already halfway gone as she called, "I'll be seeing you!"

Charlie Brown gave the red-haired young woman a feeble wave as she sprinted away and the throng of students around him rapidly thinned. Before he knew it, he was standing all by himself in the middle of an empty hallway, and it took him long seconds to even be able to move his feet.

His mind reeled now as he scurried to class. He had just had an actual conversation with Heather Wold. For the first time. Ever. And it had been… normal! Ordinary. Down-to-earth and absolutely nothing like he'd always feared. She hadn't laughed in his face or run away or hit him with her book bag like he'd always supposed she might.

Well, of course she didn't, he told himself. Linus always said she was a very nice person. I was such a silly blockhead.

This general subject was what took up the chief of Charlie's thoughts as he reached his first class. He was already in the classroom and seated before another thought occurred to him:

Hey, wait a second. I thought Heather had moved away!

"Schroeder."

The blond boy looked up from his locker toward the source of the voice that had called him — Nancy.

"Hey, Nancy."

"Listen," she immediately began, "I just wanna say how sorry I am about Friday. The last thing I would've wanted was to cause trouble with your girlfriend — I honestly had no idea you had one."

He nodded understandingly. "I know. It was kind of my fault, I suppose. I certainly could've told you— That is, when I played that last song for you— Well, I wrote that song for her. I didn't think of it then, but I easily could've mentioned it when I played the song — or at any point during the afternoon, really —, and saved myself a lot of… grief, I suppose."

Nancy winced. "I'm sorry. I take it you guys haven't made up?"

"No," sighed Schroeder. "But it's not entirely due to that night either. There were already a few things — that is, a few issues — that we had to clear up, so it just…" He shrugged. "I don't know. It's complicated. But please don't feel like it's all your fault."

She smiled softly. "Thank you. I just didn't wanna turn into the enemy, you know?"

"You could never be that," he reassured her.

Nancy gave another tiny smile. "So you wrote it for her?" she asked in an attempt to switch to a lighter subject.

"I did," confirmed Schroeder. "It's called 'Linus and Lucy.' After her and her brother."

"Oh, that's sweet," she beamed. "Well, I didn't get to tell you on Friday, but it was a great tune. You should record it — make an audition tape or something."

"Yeah, I might," he said, then suddenly seemed to remember something as he turned toward his locker, took something out of it and told her, "Oh, by the way, I'm trying to distribute these today. So that's, um… that's for you."

She thanked him as she took the brightly colored "Vote Van Pelt" pin and looked it over. "Oh, is Linus Van Pelt running for class president?"

"No, Lucy is. She's the, uh, the Van Pelt," he explained with an awkward chuckle.

"Ohh…" Nancy nodded slowly as the information sunk in. "Oh, that's right, she's Lucy Van— Linus and Lu— They're siblings?"

Schroeder gave a single nod. "Yes."

"That explains a lot."

"You know Linus?" he inquired.

"We have Chem together. He's my lab partner."

"Oh, I see."

The bell rang just then, and having successfully managed to clear the air, the two smiled and went their separate ways.

"You okay, Chuck?"

"Hmm?" The boy looked up suddenly and realized all at once that Patty, Linus, and Schroeder had been quiet for a while now. He now saw that this was because they'd been observing him picking absentmindedly at his lunch.

"Oh, um, yeah." He shook his head with a dismissive smile. "I just, uhh… Well, did you guys know that Heather Wold is back in town?"

The other three began to wriggle uncomfortably, emitting stutters of "well…" and "I kind of suspected, um…"

Charlie's eyes crinkled in amusement. "So you did know."

"Yeahhhh, I've known since Wednesday," admitted Patty with a blush.

"Friday," put in Schroeder matter-of-factly. "Violet's party."

Charlie nodded. "How about you, Linus?"

"Friday, also. Lucy saw her at the party and told me."

The round-headed boy chuckled. "And you thought I'd freak out if you told me?"

They nodded.

"Well, maybe I would've," he recognized. "But I ran into her today — literally — and things went pretty okay. We talked. She didn't remember me at first, but then —" And here he playfully elbowed Linus in the ribs — "she remembered that I had been the pitcher on Linus Van Pelt's baseball team."

Patty and Schroeder responded to this information with a taunting little chorus of "Oooooooo," making Linus squirm and blush a bit. After they'd all finished laughing about it, Patricia finally asked, "So, Chuck, you're okay about Heather being back?"

"Of course. I mean, it was a surprise, but in the end, I don't think it's anything to flip over. I mean, it's not going to change anything, right?"

"Right," she agreed, her ponytail bobbing as she nodded enthusiastically, and the other boys murmured their agreement, as well.

It's not going to change anything. Patty smiled to herself. It would seem Sally Brown's twisted little pep talk had been correct for once. There was no reason for that red-haired girl's reappearance to mess anything up.

"What are you two laughing at?" inquired Frieda as she approached her two best friends.

"Oh, this item in Jimmy's article," answered Violet, trying to keep her giggling under control.

"What, the Spirit Week thing? What about it?"

"Right here," said Patty as she took Violet's copy of the paper and handed it to Frieda. "Where he lists the candidates for class president and sings Elizabeth's praises, and his own, and then at the end just, 'and Lucy Van Pelt.'"

"Just like a little P.S.," laughed Violet, fanning herself furiously with her hands as her eyes started to water. "Oh, I don't know how he managed to sneak that past the editor."

Frieda's features quirked into an amused smile as well. "Who knows? Mr. Mendelson is usually pretty on top of things like that."

"Hey, speaking of getting things past the editor," said Patty, "what about the gossip column? I didn't see the thing about Schroeder and Lucy in the paper."

Here the curly-haired girl frowned. "Well, apparently, this year they've decided to stop including the gossip column in the Monday edition of the Gazette. It's gonna have to be a Friday paper exclusive."

"Oh," sighed the other two in disappointment.

"So in the meantime, I'm gonna ask you two not to tell it around," Frieda said. "We don't want it all over school before Friday."

Another "oh," and they nodded soberly.

The three girls were quiet for a moment before Violet's face twisted into a smile, and she burst into giggles again. "'And Lucy Van Pelt!'"

"Hey, Martha! Here, this is for you. Vote Van Pelt."

The girl took the offered pin from Schroeder and mouthed a thank you before moving on. The young man smiled. His part of the publicity project wasn't going too badly — he had been handing out the campaign buttons in the drama wing on the north end of the school building before heading off to baseball practice, and he had only two left now.

Yet he still hadn't seen Lucy, nor she him, and he caught himself wondering if that aspect of his plan would give any results.

Schroeder had just stopped Wes Reid to hand him another pin when he heard his name sharply called from behind him in that unmistakable voice. He turned slowly around. "Hey, Lucy."

"Where did you get these?" she asked, walking up to him and snatching the last pin from his hands.

"I took them," he blurted, and remembered just in time not to say where from.

But Lucy seemed to be thinking the same thing as she asked, "Took them from where?"

"Uhh… From, um… From Patricia! Yes, I saw that Patricia had some, and I took a few to hand out."

Lucy arched an eyebrow. "Without her knowing?"

Schroeder nodded quickly. He couldn't risk saying she had given them to him and later have Lucy hear the opposite from Patricia herself.

"Then you are a thief."

His eyes widened. "What? No! No, I only— I just wanted to help with your campaign!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. I— I even gave one to Nancy."

"Well, good for you," said his girlfriend, her tone rich with anger.

Schroeder bit his lip nervously and said, "Look, Lucy, I just want to talk to you. I mean, about Friday. I mean… well, there was nothing there! And I've been trying to explain it all weekend, so—"

"Oh, you've been trying, have you?" Lucy crossed her arms. "Well, Schroeder, I find it so interesting that you've been, quote, 'trying to explain all weekend' why you were giving that woman undue attention, and yet, I see the two of you this morning bantering and giggling by your locker!"

He winced. She saw that? Is that what we looked like?

"So it doesn't look as if you wanted to talk to me all that much, does it? It doesn't look as if you're very sorry, does it?"

The young man gave a frustrated groan. "Lucy, come on. We're just friends. And she needed help with a book report, so she asked for my help that day, and I invited her over to—"

"No, stop," interrupted Lucy. "Stop talking. Whatever you tell me right now isn't gonna do anything but make me angrier, so just… don't bother, okay?"

"Wha— What do you mean, don't bother? But then when will I get to explain?"

"I don't know," she snapped impatiently. "I don't know, maybe in a couple of weeks or… I don't know, I'll see how I feel, but just… not now, okay? I need time to think about it — to process everything."

Schroeder's face fell as he listened to her, but he managed to nod in understanding once Lucy had finished and, as she walked away, to call after her: "But I am sorry. You know that, right?"

Lucy didn't answer, but Schroeder thought he heard her giving a hushed, angry, "ugh" as she walked past the drinking fountains and returned to the main hallway — and from somewhere within him came a voice that told him just how stupid he had been to take her for granted — to try to "teach her a lesson."

And now the one learning the lesson was him.

He sighed sadly and, hitching his bag up on his shoulder, began walking toward the baseball field.

"Linus, come on! I've been waiting for twenty minutes!"

"Sorry!" called out the middle Van Pelt to his sister as he ran toward the car. "Bye, guys! Good practice!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Great pitching, Charlie Brown!"

"Come on," Lucy indicated with a gruff motion to get in the car.

"Jeez, why are you so crabby?"

She exhaled sharply. "It's one of my 'really down' days, okay?"

Linus clucked his tongue thoughtfully. "Hmm, what does that make, the fourth one this year? Better be careful what you spend your last one on. I'd save it for the post-Christmas letdown if I were you."

"Oh, zip it, Linus," she groaned as she pulled out of the nearly empty parking lot. "I'm serious this time."

"Wow, you weren't even this bad when you fought with Schroeder on Friday," he pointed out. "I take it things haven't improved?"

"No, they haven't, and mind your own business."

The 16-year-old sighed softly and was dejectedly silent for a couple of minutes — before an "I've got an idea gleam" appeared in his eye, and he turned to Lucy excitedly.

"I bet I can get your mind off your troubles."

"I doubt that," answered Lucy coolly.

"No, I mean it, sis. What you need is a project."

She scoffed lightly. "Such as?"

"Well, you know how you love butting into other people's business?"

A menacing look appeared in Lucy's eyes. "Watch it, mister, or I'll pull this car over and slug you."

Linus pursed his lips. "Okay," he began slowly, "I'll rephrase it. You know how you love giving unsolicited advice?"

"Hey—"

"No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" yelled Linus, recoiling before Lucy's suddenly balled fist. "I retract the 'unsolicited' part!"

She growled softly and dropped her hand back onto the steering wheel. "Okay, fine. Continue."

"How would you like to go on a special 'Dear Lucy' assignment?"

"Meaning?"

"Well, I have a plan. Sort of. No, actually, I need a plan. You see— Well, it was Sally's idea, kind of. You see, there's this… Well, there's this girl. Who's um, well, kind of great. And Sally, um, she suggested I ask this girl to Homecoming."

Lucy turned to look at her brother. "Oh… And you want my help with a strategy?"

"Yes," he confirmed with a hesitant nod.

A slow smile began to spread across Lucy's face. "Okay, fine," she finally said through a full-on beam, "I will help you. If only because I think the juicy details will be a good distraction from my problems."

Linus rolled his eyes and muttered, "Of course," but he was smiling, too, and felt a strange sense of satisfaction from drawing a smile out of his sister, especially on a "really down" day.

"But I will need to know who the girl is," continued Lucy as she turned onto the street from which the cul-de-sac they lived on branched. "Wait, it's not Sally, is it?" she asked, suddenly alarmed.

He chuckled. "No."

"Whoa, so you're saying you actually told Sally Brown you were interested in another girl? That was brave."

"Well, she didn't hear it from me so much as draw it out of me, so…"

"Yikes," she winced. "How'd she take it?"

"Really well, actually," said Linus. "Like, way better than I would've thought. And like I said, she's the one who suggested I ask Nancy to Homecoming, so that's a really good sign."

Lucy's heart skipped a beat. "Nancy? Is that your girlfriend's name?"

"She's not my girlfriend," he replied, flushing. "But yes, she's the girl I like. Nancy O'Donnell. I think you and Schroeder have Pre-AP Calculus with her."

This time Lucy was sure her heart had stopped ticking altogether. "What— How do you know?"

"Well, it's third period with Mr. Benson. That's your Calc class, right?"

She nodded slowly. "Uh-huh."

"Well, it's hers, too."

"Oh." By now they had reached their own house, and Lucy had parked in the driveway. Now she took the keys out of the ignition and simply sat a moment, trying to process what she thought she had just heard her brother say. Some part of her was shouting that this was all part of some setup to get her to confess what had happened on Friday night, but the part of her that wasn't certain — and that was pretty sure Linus had no way of knowing what the substance of her and Schroeder's argument had been — told her to calm down and gently probe further. "Um, she… Nancy, uh…"

And suddenly she found herself letting out a short blast of disbelieving laughter. "Really, little brother? Skinny Nancy with the freckles and the braid and the button-up shirts? That's your crush?"

He looked at her curiously. "You make her sound ugly with that description. She's really very pretty, you know. And very smart."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, she's in advanced Chemistry — that's the class I have with her — and Pre-AP Calc, and she plays the piano in the band, and—"

"She plays piano?" questioned Lucy.

"Yeah, how about that?" laughed her brother. "I guess liking piano players must run in the family."

"Good grief," she groaned before she could stop herself.

"What? Oh, I'm sorry," Linus suddenly realized. "I forgot you were, um, having issues with… Yeah. Well, anyway, she's super smart, and kind, and pretty, and… I think I'm in love."

Lucy snorted. "And what makes this different from the twenty other times you've fallen in love this year?"

He glared at her. "If you're talking about Aurora from the ice cream shop, that was not a… Well, it lasted a week, and she didn't even know I existed."

"Oh, and what about Joanne from the senior center?"

"You mean Leanne, Mrs. Howard's granddaughter? We talked exactly once, and she lives in Des Moines— Besides, what does that have to do with Nancy?"

The girl only gave Linus a knowing look.

"Okay, fine, you want me to say it? I'll say it — this is different. I mean, she's way more than just a pretty face — although, that is one pretty face."

"Ugh," groaned Lucy, rolling her eyes, "stop being such a guy."

He frowned. "All right, I'll cool it, but are you gonna help me or not?"

Lucy drew a sharp breath. She had to admit that Linus seemed genuine about his — ugh — feelings for Nancy. And besides, she thought, looking on the bright side, if that girl goes on a few dates with Linus, maybe she'll stop bothering Schroeder.

She bit her lip and looked at her expectant brother. "Fine, I'll help."

"Oh, thank you, sis!" he exclaimed, surprising them both by pulling her into a hug.

"Okay, no need to get mushy," Lucy groaned again, gently pushing him an arm's length away. "Now come on, we'd better get inside or Mom will think we're plotting something."

He chuckled as the two opened their respective car doors. "We are."

"Yes, but we don't want her to think it."

A/N: I recently discovered a wonderful one-shot fic by user EstellaB titled "Erstwhile Sweet Baboo," which I completely recommend for literally any Peanuts fan who needs a decent laugh. You can find it in my Favorite Stories, so be sure to check it out!