CHAPTER 6: THE HOMECOMING DANCE (Part 2)
ONE WEEK AFTER THE LAST HOMECOMING GAME
The mysterious figure walked up to a house carrying a video. The person knocked at the door. Marcie answered the door.
"Do I know you?" she asked.
"Yes," the figure said. They pulled up their disguise to reveal their identity to Marcie.
"Good grief, it's you," Marcie said realizing who it was.
"I have something for you to view," the mystery person said. "This will clear Charlie Brown's name as the one who lost the Homecoming game last week. It reveals that Lucy Van Pelt was the one who cost the team the game by pulling the football away from Charlie. I know Peppermint Patty doesn't want to accept that she made a mistake blaming Charlie Brown, but this will make her face the facts. I'm counting on you, Marcie. I will be in touch. I got more footage before the game happened that proves that the ball trick was just the tip of the iceberg." And they left. Marcie went inside and popped the video in. She watched closely and saw Lucy pulling the ball away from Charlie Brown.
"I got to tell Peppermint Patty," Marcie said to herself. "She's going to have to listen to me now!" And she left for Patty's house, carrying the video with her. On the video it said "Charlie Brown's Redemption".
PRESENT DAY AT THE CURRENT HOMECOMING DANCE
"Lucy Van Pelt," the creepy voice said. "You have gotten away with a lot more than framing Charlie Brown for losing a Homecoming game. While by now everyone knows that you pulled the ball away from him just to make him look like he lost the game instead of you, no one knows the extent of your depravity. Well, except for a couple of folks; one of which is Violet Gray."
"Uh oh!" Violet said, knowing what was coming.
"While Violet was not directly involved in helping you with your sick plot, she knows what you've been up to. The only thing she's guilty of is not putting it to a stop when she could've saved Charlie Brown some added grief. You, on the other hand, have no excuse for your actions. Everyone knows how crabby and mean you are on the surface, but they don't know how deplorable you really are. That ends tonight! ROLL THE FOOTAGE!"
The lights went out and on a screen read "The REAL Lucy Van Pelt-An Anatomy of a Sinister Plot". Just then the footage the mysterious figure shot was shown. The first conversation with Violet about her plot was first shown. Everyone was shocked at what they were viewing. Charlie Brown was especially shocked, but not surprised that Lucy would do something like this. But what was shown next shook Charlie Brown to his core. It was the scene where Lucy threatened Snoopy.
"Now listen, you stupid beagle, because I'm only going to say this once. I know about you being the referee for the upcoming Homecoming game. And I will be playing on Peppermint Patty's team. Now when the game is going on, no matter what I do on the field, TURN THE OTHER WAY. You understand me? TURN THE OTHER WAY! You didn't see anything. If you report anything I do, or tell anyone about this deal, not only will I pound you, but after I'm done, I'll give what's left of you to the cat next door!" When Charlie Brown learned that Lucy forced his own dog into her ploy to ruin him, he was angry beyond belief. Lucy slumped in her seat to avoid giving anyone eye contact.
The next scene was her and Violet talking about what would happen if Peppermint Patty ever found out. "I'm not worried about that idiot. She's so stupid; she'll believe that Charlie Brown screwed up. This girl thinks Snoopy is a funny-looking kid with a big nose, for crying out loud. Stevie Wonder could see that Snoopy's a dog! So why wouldn't she think he screwed up? Plus on a field that big you wouldn't tell that I was pulling the ball away. So not only will that moron Peppermint Patty think he messed up; everyone else will, too. Because he's Charlie Brown!" Peppermint Patty grinded her teeth in furious anger when she saw that. Franco stood back knowing that space was good for her when she was mad.
The rest of the footage was of the game itself when Lucy pulled the ball away from Charlie Brown. Then the voice said "In spite of your treachery, Lucy Van Pelt, there was one part of your ploy that you could not influence!" Then the footage of Charlie Brown escorting the little red-haired girl to the dance floor played.
"I actually danced with the little red-haired girl?" Charlie Brown's memory of that night was still foggy at best. He remembered the game before, but not the actual dance because of his nervousness.
The voice continued, "And even though you succeeded with making folks think that Charlie Brown lost the football game, it wasn't enough for the queen to turn her back on him. In fact, she enjoyed the dance very much." By this time Lucy was trying to hide her face in shame.
As the video was winding down, the last scene was a continuation of Lucy's conversation with Violet. "Wow, that's deplorable, Lucy," said Violet. "While I'm not one to defend Charlie Brown, what has he done to deserve this kind of abuse?"
"Nothing," said Lucy. "Just his being born is enough for his suffering." And then the movie ended. All of the kids in the dance hall were livid, but no one more so than Charlie Brown or Peppermint Patty. Lucy had played both of them and even worse, at least for Charlie Brown, she forced Snoopy into helping her. Charlie Brown noticed Snoopy bawling. He was sad because Lucy forced him into turning the other way during that game.
"Snoopy," Charlie Brown began, "I'm not mad at you, ol' pal. It wasn't your fault what Lucy did to me. You were just as much a victim of hers as I was. And I'm going to rectify that now!"
Charlie Brown angrily walked over to where Lucy was sitting. Violet, Shermy, Patty, and Ox left the table, leaving Lucy by herself with her angry round-headed foe. Peppermint Patty wasn't that far behind as she was headed that way herself.
"H-H-Hello, Charlie Brown," greeted a nervous Lucy.
"Lucy," he started, "over the years I put up with a lot of your shenanigans and teasing. Whether it was you pulling the ball away from me, not counting this of course, being the worst baseball player in the history of the game, calling me 'Failure Face', 'Blockhead', and other hurtful names, and belittling me in front of everybody. And as upsetting as all of that was, I let it slide. Some would say I let it slide way too much than deserved. But as angry as I am over this revelation that you planned to ruin my chances with the little red-haired girl, not even that can match my fury over the fact you FORCED MY DOG INTO HELPING WITH YOUR LOUSY SCHEME! Linus will still be my best friend; Rerun will always be welcome to play with Snoopy; but as for you, Lucille Van Pelt, YOU ARE DEAD TO ME! STAY OUT OF MY LIFE, AND STAY AWAY FROM MY DOG!" And a fuming Charlie Brown stormed back to his table. Frieda comforted him. And Snoopy hugged him with gratitude. But the confrontation with Lucy wasn't over, because it was Peppermint Patty's turn.
"Lucille," she began, "I'll start where Chuck left off. I can forgive the hurtful things you said about me, but the fact that you lied to me about your intentions, that's unforgivable. While you pulling the ball away during the game is now common knowledge, NO ONE could imagine the complete and total deplorable plan you really had for poor Chuck! Even worse, as Chuck pointed out a moment ago, was that you got Snoop involved. And you forced him into turning the other way when you pulled the ball away."
"And you threatened an official, Lucy Van Pelt," the voice chimed in. "You should've been kicked off the team right then and there for that alone!"
"Well not only are you off the team," Patty continued, "but I will personally see to it that you NEVER play in any Pee-Wee football league team in the tri-county region AGAIN! Now I'm going to give you the same advice you gave Chuck that night at the dance. If you were smart, Lucille, you get out of here fast. And that's not a suggestion, if you get my drift!" Patty punched a fist into her palm. Lucy immediately got up and started heading for the door.
As she was leaving, Lucy heard a lot of comments toward her. "I tried to warn you about the consequences," said Violet.
"How the mighty have fallen," Shermy quipped.
"And I thought I was the dirty one," Pig Pen chimed in.
Patty and Ox just shook their heads. Schroeder simply said, "And THIS is why I will never marry you."
"Das Hexe*," said an angry Franco under his breath.
"Karma will always get you in the end," said a stoic Franklin.
"Hey Frankie, who's Karma?" asked a confused Melanie.
"I don't blame Charlie Brown for doing what he did," Linus said to his sister as she headed out the door. "You always do stuff like this, Lucy. When are you going to act like a decent human being?! I'll see you at home, unfortunately." And he walked back to the table where Charlie Brown and Frieda were. Lucy hung her head and walked out. She was at her lowest point. She now realized the ramifications of her actions, but it was too late. It costed Lucy her friendship with Charlie Brown and possibly Peppermint Patty. She headed for home.
Meanwhile, back in the dance hall, the voice spoke again. "You may be wondering who I am and why I did this. Well I will reveal myself to you now." Just then that mysterious figure who taped all of those conversations and setups Lucy was doing stepped out of the shadows. Then they took off their trench coat, hat, and scarf to reveal their identity.
"GOOD GRIEF!" exclaimed Linus. "IT'S HEATHER!"
"THE LITTLE RED-HAIRED GIRL?!" shouted a shocked Charlie Brown.
It was in fact Heather Wold, the little red-haired girl herself in the flesh. She was back in town, but for how long? She said, "I know what you're all thinking. What is Heather doing back? Didn't she move away last year? Yes I did, and I'm still living in my new house. I just came back to visit my grandmother for the week. But when I found out Homecoming was this week, I wanted to see if Lucy ever changed her ways. Unbeknownst to her, this game was her test. During the majority of the game she was all right, until she shoved Schroeder out of the way to try to pull the ball away from Charlie Brown again.
"To say the least, she failed big time. But luckily Molly Volley put a stop to that before Lucy could humiliate him again. So that's when I put this plan into action. Back before the last Homecoming, when I was nominated as Homecoming Queen, I found out Lucy nominated Charlie Brown and her brother Linus. Why she inserted her brother's name in there I don't know, but I knew her nomination of Charlie was filled with bad intentions. So I started following her and found out that she was plotting to set up Charlie Brown to lose the game by 'suggesting' he join the football team to Peppermint Patty. So I kept following her and documenting her evil scheme. I had already produced the footage that proved that she pulled the ball away; but I held on to the rest in case she never learned her lesson, which she didn't."
"So you did all of this?" asked Peppermint Patty.
"Well, I can't take all the credit," Heather said. "I did have some help from some of your friends. Well, one is more Snoopy's friend." And then, Woodstock flew in, to the surprise of everyone.
"HEY!" shouted Snoopy when he saw his friend. Woodstock immediately flew over and Snoopy hugged him.
"And he's not the only one who helped," Heather continued. That's when Marcie walked in.
"MARCIE?!" said Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty, in unison.
"That's right," said Marcie. "Heather was the one who gave me that first tape of Charles being tricked by Lucille. But when she tried the same trick at today's game, that's when we decided that she needed to be taught a lesson."
"Woodstock taped the other footage at the game," said Heather. "And that's pretty much it."
"Charles," Marcie began, "even though we're both now dating someone, I'm still very fond of you. And what Lucille did to you at that game was beyond horrific. I felt that it was my duty to rectify the damage she's done. And with Heather's help, I was able to."
"Marcie," Charlie Brown said, "thank you so much. Words cannot describe what this means to me. And thank you, Heather. While what Lucy did was horrible, I'm lucky to have friends who have my back."
"Not a problem, Charlie Brown," said Heather. "And Frieda, you got a good guy there. You are one lucky girl."
"I know, Heather," Frieda said, holding Charlie Brown's hand. "He's one in a million."
"Well, I need to get going," Heather said. "And Charlie Brown, you got a friend for life."
"Take care, Heather," Charlie Brown said. "And thanks again." As Heather walked out the door, Charlie Brown remembered his conversation with Linus the day after the dance from last time:
"Instead of the goat," Linus said, "you were the hero, Charlie Brown!"
"What good is it to do anything, Linus," said Charlie Brown, "if you can't remember what you did?!"
"Well, at least it was your first kiss, Charlie Brown."
"Well Chuck," Peppermint Patty said, "you finally managed to talk to the little red-haired girl."
"Yeah I did, Patty," said Charlie Brown. "But as far as I'm concerned, I got the better little red-haired girl right here."
"Aww thank you, sweetie," said Frieda, who then gave Charlie Brown a kiss.
"You know, Chuck, in spite of what you or others may think you are NOT a loser. You are a winner, Chuck!" And everyone cheered.
Pig Pen then stood up and said, "Hit it, Maestro!"
Cha Cha Cha
When you're feelin' that you're movin' up
Always someone tries to make you stop
When you're filling up your cup
Someone comes around to spill every drop
When everything's going strong
And someone doesn't like what you do
They'll try to make you feel that you're wrong
Pull the rug from your feet before you're through
And if you follow carefully
The flow of your energy
You will start to see
That you are a winner
You are a winner
When you're filling up your cup
Someone comes around to spill every drop
There is no time for wondering
You're a winner as every day begins
And if you follow carefully
The flow of your energy
You will start to see
That you are a winner
You are a winner
NEXT CHAPTER: UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN…
"You Are A Winner" written by Beloyd Taylor
*"Hexe" is "Witch" in German