SING IT GIRL
A Peanuts The Next Chapter Fan-Episode.
CHAPTER 1: LIVING LIKE CHRISTINE
Living in Sparkyville for Christine wasn't too out of the ordinary for an average girl around that area,ever since she was let out of the orphanage and given a real family and home on Fillmore Street,she was finally on the verge of living a normal life and putting her numerous failures with countless foster families behind her,and she was even properly acquainted with a few of the kids in town,them being Freida, Charlie Brown, Ashlynn and Ed,despite him being more of a country traveling hermit who just liked to spend a lot of his time in town. However despite being seen as one of the gang by her four friends and briefly seeing the kids at a night club,that didn't really change the fact that she didn't know everyone else and had grown very shy over the years,which resulted in her practically avoiding anyone she didn't already know whenever she was at school. It could be agreed upon by the other kids that they wanted to properly meet her and every time they had one of Violet or Rebecca's sleepovers they hoped she would show up,only for her to always do the exact opposite much to their disappointment,but that sentiment of their's would finally change one Friday in Spring.
There was a music show that was gonna be held one upcoming night at school and many of the kids were preparing for their performances,even to the point where a lot of them were now going out of their way to partake in music and singing classes. Christine however was not planning on partaking in the show,if it wasn't the fact that she was very shy around other kids and made that very apparent,the question she always asked herself was who knows what could happen if she ended up going on stage to face an entire auditorium of people? Well much to her surprise her plans would be cut short at the end of another school day when she took a look at her locker and saw that there was a letter taped to it,and it appeared that it was written by Charlie Brown due to the similar looking handwriting as the girl raised an eyebrow and cautiously grabbed the letter before she quietly read it to herself "Christine,meet me in the music room before you head home. It's for something important. Charles."
"Okay? What could Charlie Brown want with me in the music room?" A confused and slightly nervous Christine questioned to herself as she put the letter in her pocket and began to make her way to the music room,heading past numerous other kids who were leaving school for the day in the process before she eventually made it to the music room's door. Christine could clearly hear a few voices behind the door and merely expected to see about three or four people inside,but she was gonna be in for a huge surprise as she slowly opened the door and called out while she stepped in and closed it "Charlie Brown? You asked me to meet you here before I left? What's going-" only for the girl to stop dead in her tracks and tense up when she turned around and saw what looked like twenty four other kids in the room alongside Charlie Brown and what appeared to be five beagles too,the only one who appeared to be absent was Ashlynn.
Charlie Brown, Freida, Linus, Eudora, Lucy, Scheroder, Marcie, Franklin, Peppermint Patty, Franco, Shermy, Violet, Patty Swanson, Ox, Cobra, Dominick, Rattler, Thibault, Joslyn, Dolores, Jose, Claudia, Skylar, Rebecca, James, Snoopy, Woodstock, Andy, Olaf, Roger and Gracie were all in the music room and had diverted all of their attention over to a very confused and silent Christine as Marcie quietly whispered to Peppermint Patty "This is just as awkward as I thought it was gonna be sir." to which the tomboy lightly nodded her head and agreed "You said it Marcie,and stop calling me sir." before Christine meekly asked as she began to walk up ahead "Uh Ch-Ch-Charlie Brown….who are all these other kids? And why did you need to see m-me in h-here of all places?"
"Oof,I can tell that she's getting really hot from over here Claudia." Skylar cringed and sympathetically remarked when he saw how nervous Christine was looking as the auburn haired girl added in agreement "I can t-tell just f-from that s-stutter of her's. M-maybe this w-wasn't that good of an idea." before Charlie Brown cleared his throat and politely tried to explain himself "Christine,this is…..the gang. We just felt that since you've been here for a while,maybe you'd like to….properly meet everyone." to which Christine blinked a few times in bewilderment before she choked out a light chuckle and nervously tried to decline as she began to back away to the door "Ok,uh…..that sounds like a c-cool idea,b-but I really think the surprise factor has already put a toll on me. I'm just gonna go-WHOAHHHHH!" only for her rambling to be interrupted when she accidentally tripped on a drumstick and nearly fell on her back,only for something to suddenly catch her fall.
"Huh?" Christine softly gasped and questioned in confusion when she felt something push her back up before she turned around to see Snoopy, Andy, Olaf, Gracie and Roger standing in front of her as she raised an eyebrow at the sight yet politely thanked them for their supposed help "Oh….uh...thanks dogs." to which Freida lightly chuckled and introduced the beagles "Those are our dogs who oddly enough refuse to hunt rabbits,as you can see we have a thing for beagles,there's my Charlie's Snoopy, Ox's Olaf, Rattler's Andy, Claudia's Gracie and Rebecca's Roger." which resulted in the beagles individually kissing Christine's hand with the exception of Gracie who merely gave off a friendly little bark. It was at this point that Christine was suddenly starting to feel a little more comfortable since she could feel herself calming down while she politely tried to appear respectful "Oh,w-well it's nice to meet y'all then,I actually quite like beagles myself but my family just got a cat and I don't know how she and a dog would get along." before the girl glanced over at the kids and respectfully called out "So there's Ox, Rattler, Claudia and Rebecca?" followed up by the four kids stepping forth.
"Hi,I'm Oxford but everyone just calls me Ox." Ox politely introduced himself like the nice kid he was as Christine grew a little bit of a smirk and jokingly retorted with a handshake "Hey Ox,wow you're so tall I can see The Jolly Green Giant using you as a toothpick. No offense." to which the boy chuckled and playfully replied "None taken,I'm used to those kind of takes,and they don't really bother me." before Christine glanced over at Claudia and confidently guessed "So I take it you're Claudia?"
"H-how'd you guess?" Claudia raised an eyebrow and cautiously wondered in response as Christine shrugged her arms and nonchalantly explained herself "You just kinda looked like one to me. Not in bad terms by the way." before she looked over at the last two kids and asked "Alright so which one is Rebecca and which one is Rattler?" to which the latter pointed at herself and promptly answered "This girl right here,don't ask about the name for a while because there's a LOT to unpack here. You know I thought you would remember me, Andy and Thibault since it was us who found out you even lived here and got you to go over to that nightclub with us. Remember?"
"Oh yeah I DO remember that the more I think about it,sorry about the hazy memory." Christine perked up and frantically stated in response before she glanced over at Rebecca and happily introduced herself "And lastly you must be Rebecca then? I will say that Ed has told me a lot about you,and from the descriptions that I've heard,you seem quite okay in my book." and the blonde smiled and promptly showed her gratitude for the compliment "Thanks Christine,it's funny because Ed told me a lot about you in a story he told a long time ago. Nice job giving that Arin kid the good ole one two." which resulted in the two girls giving each other a friendly handshake,making Charlie Brown smile a little as he whispered to Freida out of relief "This seems to be going a lot better than I thought it would. I thought she was gonna crack for a second when she saw all of us." to which the curly haired girl nodded her head and happily agreed "I know,it seems like her shyness may be on it's way out. Good on her for that."
Afterwards the rest of the kids began introducing themselves to Christine and everything appeared to be going mostly smooth,even PigPen's dust cloud didn't phase her all that much and she had quite an easy time understanding Franco to an extent. It was mostly pretty safe to say that Christine was starting to open up to the rest of the kids,and even though it was kinda forced thanks to the setup by Charlie Brown and the kids,Christine was at least happy to have overcome some of her shyness issues.
NEXT CHAPTER: SINGING PRACTICE