Linus glanced uneasily at the empty desk behind him. Any second now, the bell was going to ring, signaling the start of the school day. Normally he was excited about the opportunity to learn. But school just didn't feel like school without Charlie Brown.
It would be easy to assume that his best friend was simply under the weather and was at home in bed reading comic books and drinking lots of fluids. But Linus knew better. And when the bell finally rang, a feeling of unease settled in his stomach. Charlie Brown wasn't there and it wasn't because of illness. It was something entirely different.
Miss Othmar began to call the role, and when she reached Charlie Brown's name, she made mention of their "Star Speller".
"He's not here today, Miss Othmar." Linus answered. "No, I don't know why he's not here again today. I saw him yesterday and he seemed better but I guess not." He waited for Miss Othmar's answer before nodding. "Yes ma'am. I'll tell him."
His classmates giggled and whispered and Linus was grateful for Miss Othmar's ability to call the class to order. But as she began the Geography lesson, he found that he couldn't concentrate. He could have cared less about the capitols of Washington State, California or Texas and when Miss Othmar called his name, he gave the wrong answer for Minnesota, making him feel even worse.
At lunch, he missed having Charlie Brown there to share his peanut butter sandwich and cookies with, but mostly he missed having someone to talk with. Meanwhile he overheard Lucy and Violet laughing about "That blockhead Charlie Brown" and how he'd ruined the National Spelling Bee."
Linus tried to ignore the comments and only Sally was kind enough not to join in on the teasing. Charlie Brown wasn't even there to defend himself, which made it even worse.
After school, they met at the ball field to practice for the big game. Lucy filled in as pitcher. Linus had to admit that his sister had a good pitching arm, but it wasn't quite the same. And when practice was over, Linus called a meeting.
They stood around the pitcher's mound, complaining about Charlie Brown's not being there until Linus called the meeting to order.
"Listen to yourselves! What's wrong with you, tormenting Charlie Brown when he's not even here to defend himself?" Linus shouted. "You should be ashamed! Charlie Brown worked hard, studying for the spelling bee. In fact-." He froze, remembering something that he'd hoped he'd long forgotten. "Oh no…"
"What's wrong, my Sweet Baboo?" Sally asked.
Linus was so preoccupied; he didn't even bother to correct her. "Oh no…"
"Oh no what? What's wrong with you?" Lucy demanded.
"Don't you see? It's all my fault that he didn't win!"
"You? What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about this!" He held up his most prized possession.
"What's your stupid blanket got to do with Charlie Brown's being a blockhead?"
"He's not a blockhead!" Linus countered. "In fact, he's smarter than all of us! He was up against the best spellers in the country and he only missed one word!"
"Yeah, and that one word got him kicked out."
"But don't you see? He went further than anyone did. And he's still the best speller in the class and in our whole school! He deserves something special!"
"Linus is right! Let's throw him a surprise party!"
Everyone cheered at Schroeder's suggestion and began making plans; their baseball practice all but forgotten.
On Saturday, they all met at Linus' house. Linus instructed Sally to bring Charlie Brown over at 2pm with a promise not to breathe a word of the party to him. Linus knew that if he asked her not to tell, she wouldn't. After all, he was her Sweet Baboo. Whatever that was. At that moment, he didn't really care.
Meanwhile everyone else arrived early and began decorating for the party. By a few minutes till two, everything was ready; the cake, the ice cream and the big painted banner that read:
Charlie Brown, Our H-E-R-O
The doorbell rang and Linus instructed everyone to hide. He ran to get the door. "Hello Charlie Brown. Hello, Sally."
"I did what you asked, Linus." Sally said.
"Um… Good. I-I mean thank you." Linus replied, grateful that Charlie Brown didn't seem to suspect a thing.
"Why are we having baseball practice here?" Charlie Brown asked. "I told Sally that I really didn't want to come, but I don't want to let the team down; well, at least not by not showing up for practice."
"But we already-."
"Um, never mind about that." Linus said, frowning at Lucy. Leave it to his sister to try and spoil the surprise! He waved her back to her hiding place.
"So what's going on? Are we going to have practice or what?"
"Actually I had something different in mind, Charlie Brown."
"Different? What do you mean? Hey, what's going on here?" Charlie Brown looked around the room. He was definitely surprised. "What's all this? What's going on here? And why is Snoopy here?"
"I invited him." Sally said.
"Invited Snoopy to Linus' house?"
"For your party, big brother!" Sally explained.
"My… party?"
"Ready? One, two, three…"
Everyone jumped out of his or her hiding places.
"SURPRISE!"
Colorful balloons and confetti fell from the ceiling and everyone sang "For he's a jolly good fellow".
Charlie Brown had a smile bigger than Texas and tears in his eyes. "A party for me? But-."
"Sure, Charlie Brown. You deserve it!"
"But I don't understand."
"You blockhead! You won the spelling bee!" Lucy said.
"No I didn't. I lost. And all because of a beagle."
Snoopy whined.
"Not you, Snoopy. The word beagle. B-E-A G-L-E. Beagle. If I had spelled it correctly, I'd be a big hero now. Instead I'm nothing."
"That's not true, Charlie Brown. You came within one word of winning the national spelling bee. You might not have won that one but you won our classroom and our school's spelling bee. Imagine, being the best speller in the whole school!"
Everyone cheered. "Hooray!"
Charlie Brown wiped his eyes. "I-I don't know what to say!"
"Say thank you, you blockhead!"
Even Lucy's crabbiness couldn't get Linus out of his good mood. "I'm sorry you missed that word, Charlie Brown. But you sure did study hard. And if I hadn't given you my blanket as a good luck charm, I wouldn't have been there to see it. I'm sorry if I bothered you while you were trying to study."
"Not at all. In fact, I appreciate it. I liked having you and Snoopy there to cheer me on."
"Hey! What about us?" Lucy demanded. "We were there too!"
"You were?"
"Well, we were watching on television."
"Really? You were watching me?"
"Oh Charlie Brown, when are you going to realize what a great person you are?" Schroeder asked. "We're sorry if we made you feel bad. You're a great speller and you should be proud!"
Charlie Brown's face was pink. "Gee, this means a lot to me. Thanks so much, everyone!"
"Thank you, Charlie Brown; for representing our city in the National Spelling Bee." Linus beamed. "Now let's celebrate! Who wants cake and ice cream?"
"Me! Me! Me!"
The music, dancing, eating laughing and celebration began. It was a party that Charlie Brown would never forget.
~Fin~