Chapter Six
Charlie Brown gathered his books and notes up to take to Peppermint Patty's house. They were supposed to be there around four, Peppermint Patty's dad got pizza, all they needed was the root beer, which fortunately Snoopy had a whole designated refrigerator for root beer.
Charlie Brown slung his backpack over his shoulder and went outside to find his dog perched on top of his doghouse in a full World War One Ace cosplay, flying somewhere in France.
Here's the world famous flying ace flying into the battle of Saint-Mihiel. Snoopy placed his paws on the invisible loading handle of his invisible .303 Vickers machine gun, with a total count of 25 ½ planes, the young lad was ready for the battle. If he can shoot down one more plane, preferably the Red Baron but he was shot and killed back in April, then he'll be tied with Eddie Rickenbacker.
"Out hunting the Red Baron again?" Charlie Brown asked Snoopy.
No, someone already beat me to it. We're not sure who exactly, but we think it was a Canadian. Snoopy moved his feet pretending to move the rudder of his plane, I know for certain it wasn't me.
"Did you know that the Red Baron had a dog?" Charlie Brown stuffed his hands in his pocket, "He owned a Great Dane named Moritz who would often fly on missions with him in the cockpit, he even flew with his owner during his many victories. How do you feel about potentially shooting down, and killing your own kind?"
Snoopy lifted his goggles up with a confused look, well it's definitely something that will make you question your morality… but this is a war after all and he is on their side… He slipped his goggles back on and went back to piloting his aircraft, But I try not to think about it.
"I have another question for you." Charlie Brown asked, "Are you flying a Sopwith Camel F.1, or a Sopwith Camel 2F.1?"
Now that is something to question about. Snoopy sat on top of his doghouse pondering over this.
Charlie Brown cleared his throat, "I have to go to a study date tonight, we're having pizza and root beer tonight, I was wondering if you had any root beer you don't mind sharing?"
Let me see. Snoopy pretended to switch off the engine of his plane, it sputtered before the engine died. The Germans have cut off all of our supply routes, we're having problems receiving supplies, our last shipment of supplies came two weeks ago, we might have a few bottles of root beer left. We're having a bit of a shortage right now on root beer. Snoopy went downstairs in his doghouse and came back up emptied handed. I'm sorry chap, my ground crew and I must've quaffed the last of the root beer. But you can have the bottle. Snoopy handed Charlie Brown the empty bottle. If you inhale it, you could still smell the root beer.
Charlie Brown rolled his eyes and started walking down the street, maybe he'll stop at the drug store and buy some root beer there. After a quick stop at the store to buy a bottle of root beer, Charlie Brown headed over to Peppermint Patty's house. When he got there, he was instantly greeted by Peppermint Patty and Marcie.
"Hiya Chuck! I'm so glad you can make it!" Peppermint Patty punched Charlie Brown on the shoulder.
"Hi Peppermint Patty, I brought the root beer." He rubbed his sore arm.
"Set it in the kitchen. The pizza is ready, we'll eat and then we'll get to studying." Peppermint Patty led Charlie Brown into the kitchen, Marcie and Linus were already there, Linus was helping himself to a slice of pizza while Marcie was busy organizing her assignments, pencils, and books.
"I thought we were going to eat while we study, sir." Marcie said, clicking her pen.
"Naw, I thought we'd wait until after we eat before we get to studying." Peppermint Patty took two slices of pizza, "Our brains can't retain all that information if it's not properly nourished, we need to nourish our brains first."
"But sir, we have a lot of homework to do! I think it would be efficient for us to study while we eat." Marcie took out her AP French homework and placed her AP biology homework beside it.
"Naw, what's the point of studying when our brains don't have the ability to retain that information." Peppermint Patty took a bite from her pizza, "Right Chuck?"
Charlie Brown started to pull his French II textbook out, "well, uh-"
"See? Even good ol' Chuck agrees with me!" Peppermint Patty kicked her feet up. Charlie Brown sighed and slid his textbook back in his backpack. He grabbed a plate and took a slice of pizza. Marcie huffed and continued to do her French homework.
While they ate, Linus went through his agenda, "since we have that test in history, I think we should go over that first, then we'll go over whatever other assignments we have left. I have a math assignment to do."
"Why don't we plan it so we can take ten minute breaks in between each question?" Peppermint Patty suggested, "That way we'll have time to process what information we read. In fact, I say we should take a fifteen minute break right after we eat to give our stomachs some time to digest, so we don't feel so bloated while we study. We should get up, stretch, do twenty jumping jacks, thirty pushups, and forty sit ups. Studies have shown that you are more likely to retain information if you take breaks to go and exercise."
"Sir, that will take us all night!" Marcie argued not looking up from her textbook, "You're only making it worse by putting it off, let's just sit down, and do it." She growled as she continued to jot down answers on her assignment.
"You're underestimating the power of exercise Marcie."
Needless to say, Peppermint Patty did whatever she could to put off doing her school work. Charlie Brown and Linus finished their pizza and got to work studying, right when Charlie Brown opened his textbook, Peppermint Patty sat down next to him.
"I think we should call Schroeder, see if he still wants to come, eh Chuck?"
Charlie Brown closed his textbook, "I don't think Schroeder could make it-"
"Oh come on Chuck! He's probably just sitting in his house all by himself playing on his piano, sounds kind of lonely if you ask me. I think we should just call him to give him some company." Peppermint Patty urged Charlie Brown, "I think since he's your friend, you should be the one to call him."
Charlie Brown sighed, he pulled his phone out and dialed Schroeder's number, the phone rang a couple of times before Schroeder picked up.
"Hello?" Schroeder answered, you could hear the sound of clumsy piano playing in the background.
"Hello Schroeder, Peppermint Patty asked me to call you." Charlie Brown explained.
"What for?" The sound of the clumsy piano playing ceased.
"Well, I'm not entirely sure, I think we're calling to see if you changed your mind or-"
"Hold that thought," Schroeder hollered to someone in the other room, "If you're taking the lid off my piano, please kindly close it, and sit back down and continue to practice your fingering." An audible dull thump could be heard over the phone, "Thank you!"
Schroeder turned his attention back to Charlie Brown, "What were you saying?"
"I was saying that we wanted to check in and see if you changed your mind."
"I think I'm good, I'm getting paid to teach these kids after all." Schroeder replied. The piano music in the background ceased, "If you're thinking of lifting the lid off my piano again, don't!" The piano music continued, Schroeder turned back to Charlie Brown, "I should probably put a lock on that piano lid… anyways, thanks for calling."
"Bye Schroeder." Charlie Brown hung up and turned to Peppermint Patty, "Well, back to studying I guess." He turned back to his textbook.
"You know what's a fun game?" Peppermint Patty interrupted Charlie Brown, "tabletop football, have you ever played that game before?"
Charlie Brown let out a small huff of annoyance closing his textbook, "No, but I know I can't even kick a football."
"I'll show you, first, we take a sheet of paper and fold it to make a football." Peppermint Patty looked over at Marcie who was deep into her studies, "Hey Marcie, can you lend me a piece of your notebook paper?"
"Do you need it for homework?" Marcie asked not even looking up from her AP biology homework.
"Yeah, I need it for homework."
"What class?" Marcie added scribbling down the answers while cross referencing with her textbook.
"Gym class."
Marcie stopped writing and looked over at Peppermint Patty with the "Really sir?" Look.
"Never mind, I'll just use some of Chuck's, he wouldn't mind." Peppermint Patty tore a sheet of paper from Charlie Brown's notebook. Almost instantly Charlie Brown panicked.
"Hey wait a minute! That has my French notes on the back of it!" Charlie Brown exclaimed.
"Oh I'm sure they aren't that important. You're smart, I bet you have all your notes memorized in that big ol' round head of yours." Peppermint Patty tore strips off of the sheet of paper and started folding it to make a football, much to Charlie Brown's horror.
"Good grief! I need those notes for my homework!" Charlie Brown protested, "those are the only notes I have for the assignment."
"What's your assignment over?" Marcie asked, peering over her glasses.
Charlie Brown looked down at his worksheet, "it's over comparatives and superlatives."
Marcie flipped through her notes before unclipping them from her binder, "here," she handed them to Charlie Brown. "I think these might cover most of the questions."
"Thank you Marcie. I'll give them back to you when I'm done." Charlie Brown took the notes and turned back to his assignments. Meanwhile, Peppermint Patty was busy taking an empty styrofoam cup and making a goal post with a straw. She set up a field on the table and tapped Charlie Brown's shoulder.
"Now what?"
"I got everything set up to play tabletop football." Peppermint Patty held up the folded up piece of paper that was once part of Charlie Brown's French notes.
Charlie Brown threw his head back, "Good grief! It's been half an hour and I haven't been able to complete a single question! Can we wait until after I get my assignments done please?"
"Aw come on Chuck! Don't you know how to make learning fun?" Peppermint Patty pestered twirling the football between her fingers.
"Look, I'll play tabletop football with you after I finish my homework, ok? It's due tomorrow and I still have to study for tomorrow's history test. I didn't do so well on the last test and I would like to get at least a 85% on this one." Charlie Brown explained, he turned back to his assignment, "this assignment has only twenty questions on it, just be patient."
Peppermint Patty sat down next to Charlie Brown watching over his shoulder while he continued his assignment, which got annoying real quickly.
Charlie Brown glanced at Peppermint Patty and sighed, "Now what?"
"Did you sleep well last night?" Peppermint Patty asked, leaning on Charlie Brown's shoulder, "I worry about you sometimes, sometimes I worry about you not being able to sleep at night."
"I slept fine, thank you." Charlie Brown turned back to his homework.
"What about you Linus? Did you sleep well last night? Does anyone have any interesting dreams that they want to talk about?" Peppermint Patty nudged Linus.
Linus rolled his eyes and continued to work on studying for his history test.
Peppermint Patty kicked her feet back, "I did not sleep last night, my dad had to work late again last night, and I was up worrying about robbers breaking in our house again and stealing our stuff." She nudged Charlie Brown, "do you ever worry about getting robbed Chuck?"
Charlie Brown set his pencil down, "Well we were almost robbed once, the burglars were trying to break in through the front living room window when Snoopy scared them off."
Peppermint Patty leaned on her elbow, "I bet Snoopy put up a fight! I bet as soon as he showed his teeth and growled at them, the burglars took off hightailing it off in the opposite direction!"
"Well not exactly…"
"What do you mean Chuck?"
"See, Snoopy and his squadron had to go shoot down a zeppelin that was carrying out a bombing raid that night. The burglars heard the sound of the Vickers machine guns from the backyard and took off running." Charlie Brown recalled.
"You know, sometimes I worry about you Chuck."
The evening dragged on, Peppermint Patty spent a good chunk of her time either playing tabletop football by herself, or bugging the three people who were actually trying to get stuff done. Around five, they decided to call it a night and head for home.
"Well that was a great study date." Peppermint Patty shook everyone's hands, "Thanks for coming over, we got a lot done tonight."
"I only got half my French homework done." Charlie Brown remarked, shaking Peppermint Patty's hand.
"We should definitely do this more often, this was really fun! Oh! And Chuck," she handed Charlie Brown the folded up strip of paper, "Here's your French notes."
"Thanks…" Charlie Brown held the triangle shaped piece of paper between his fingers.
"Well everyone have a good night and make sure to get plenty of sleep." Peppermint Patty waved to the trio as they walked home, "Bye!"
On the way home, Charlie Brown looked over what he had done, he barely got anything done during that study date, now when he goes home, he'll have to do it all tonight before bed, he sighed and pulled out Marcie's notes.
"Here's your notes back."
"You can keep them Charles," Marcie pushed the notes back to Charlie Brown, "You can use them for tonight and give them back to me tomorrow, I'm sorry that your notes got destroyed."
"It's fine, I'll make do with these." He slid the notes back into his bag.
"I barely got anything done tonight." Linus commented looking over his notes.
"Me too, I'm going to hurry home and see if I can complete the rest of my assignments." Charlie Brown adjusted his backpack and hurried home, "Bye Linus! Bye Marcie!"
"See you tomorrow!"
"Bye Charles!"
That was the worst study date he ever went to.