DISCLAIMER: I do not own or pretend to own the brand Doritos.
Throughout the next hour or so, Charlie Brown's friends came, one at a time, and apologized for going along with Lucy and laughing at him. First came Marcie and Peppermint Patty, then Rerun. Later, Sally said sorry to her big brother, and Pig-Pen followed suit. Finally Schroeder apologized, and shared with Charlie a bag of popcorn as a peace offering.
"I should know better than to go along with the things Lucy does," stated Schroeder as he stuffed a handful of popcorn into his mouth.
"Oh, I don't blame you," answered Charlie. "I know she's really tough to argue with."
"Don't I know it," Schroeder chuckled, but suddenly the laugh turned into a cough.
Charlie's eyes widened. "Are you okay?" he asked, lightly patting his friend on the back.
"I'll be — ahem! — fine, let me just…" He handed Charlie the entire popcorn bag and reached for the water bottle he was carrying on the outside of his backpack.
Once he had chugged down about half the bottle, Schroeder slowly lowered it and cleared his throat once more. "Popcorn kernel," he explained hoarsely.
"I figured," laughed Charlie, extending the bag back in his direction. "Do you want more, or…?"
Schroeder looked at the popcorn for a moment, then shrugged dismissively. "Eh, why not? Life's too short."
The two boys laughed and followed the group, who were now done buying snacks, to the game area.
"Although," Schroeder suddenly said, "I'm noticing that I'm just choking on everything today."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, this morning I almost drowned in my chocolate milk, and then on the ride here, it was some Doritos, and just now, the popcorn."
"Hmm."
"I guess my throat isn't happy today," he concluded.
"I guess not," replied Charlie with another small laugh.