Disclaimer: The Peanuts characters belong to Peanuts Worldwide and remain the hallowed creations of Charles Monroe Schulz, even in the wake of his passing.

ICYMI: A rare victory in baseball leaves a sour aftertaste for Charlie Brown.

And with that, dear reader, I hope you enjoy the second chapter.

2. Noise Reduction

Try as he did, Charlie Brown couldn't allow himself to feel joy of any sort over his team's victory. The team constantly reminded him about how the victory was achieved within the rules and wouldn't hear otherwise. Shroeder couldn't praise him enough for his "innovative distraction tactic" that secured the win.

"If anything, Charlie Brown," Linus reminded him, "no one deserves that victory more than you."

Sally was decidedly less understanding. "There's just no satisfying you, Big Brother! You get gifted a victory, and now you mope around as if your world is coming to an end!"

Lucy proved a bit more clinical in her assessment, though no less pointed. "What difference does it make how we won the game, you blockhead? Or are you so used to losing that you don't know how to deal with winning?"

She had this zinger when he tried protesting to the contrary: "Do you think Patty would lose any sleep if it was the other way round?"

Ah yes, Patty Reichardt.

She was the only one who hadn't offered an opinion since the game. Come to think of it, she seemed to be avoiding him entirely. She hadn't called him, she hadn't barged into his personal space for what invariably would be a one-sided conversation. Even Marcie didn't relay much from her best friend; instead, she encouraged Charlie to wait for Patty to come to him.

"She'll talk to you when she's ready, Charles," the bespectacled girl reassured.

Three days after the game, Peppermint Patty was ready.

Ol' Chuck was nothing if not predictable. Patty knew him well enough, down to his preferred hangout on any given day. Today it was the mighty tree she'd occasionally share with him in the park. She found him resting against the tree, eyes closed, mind probably a million miles away.

"Wake up, Chuck!" she brusquely startled him awake. He jolted from whatever zone he was in and saw standing before him an unusually serious-looking Patty Reichardt. "We've got some business to settle!"

He couldn't quite place her expression. It was one of neither anger nor sadness, but purpose. Clearly, she had a reason for bringing the football she was holding by her side.

"Look, if this is about our game the other day," Charlie Brown pre-empted.

At least, he hoped that his statement would be pre-emptive, but Patty was Patty and she cut him off. "Damn right it is!" she interjected.

"I told you already!" Charlie Brown snapped back, to his surprise and Patty's. "I didn't mean for it to happen that way!"

"You mean you didn't mean to win, Chuck?" derided Patty. "Was it your plan all along to lose to me?"

She had him cornered. Of course he planned on winning, no matter how remote the possibility. But he'd been up against Patty's team, so he had to be realistic about his chances while giving it his all.

He could only give one answer, knowing the Pandora's Box that it would open.

"I would never insult you like that" he averred. "I respect you too much for that!"

"And yet here we are…" Patty trailed off to let her reminder sink in.

"If you're so sore about it, take it up with Schroeder!" Charlie Brown countered, more testily than intended. "He's the one who stole home and won the game."

But Patty wasn't having it. "He didn't let me make a fool of myself by saying I like him out in the open!"

Now it was Charlie Brown's turn to recoil. "Yeah, I know," he said with a note of resignation. "You'd have to be out of your mind to make that sort of confession."

"Why?" asked the hoyden in her brown shorts, green shirt, and flip-flops. "Is it important to you if I was out of my mind? Would you prefer it if I wasn't out of my mind?"

That last question left the hard-luck kid reeling, but it was only the setup for the main question.

"Do you even like me, Chuck?"

Oh, Patty. Always direct and to the point. Always leaving him stammering for an answer. "I…well, I-I-I…" he struggled for coherence.

Not good enough for Patty, not good enough at all. And this time she went for the jugular.

"Or would you only like me if I acted more like a girl, all pretty and gussied up?"

What happened next had the potential to be remembered as a miracle on par with raising the dead and turning water into wine. Patty's words must have profoundly altered Charlie Brown's neural mapping. How else could he plausibly have said what he next said, and so vehemently at that?

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" he blurted out. "I LIKE YOU PLENTY JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!"

Time froze briefly the instant those words left Charles Brown's mouth. He had accomplished what many thought impossible: he had rendered Peppermint Patty speechless. And as she stood before him, slack-jawed and trying her best to process what she'd just heard, he reckoned what the hell. In for a penny, in for the entire bank vault.

"YOU'RE SO INFURIATING. YOU'RE HEADSTRONG! YOU'RE DOMINEERING! HALF THE TIME I DON'T KNOW WHERE I STAND WITH YOU! AND I LIKE YOU FOR THAT, PATTY! I LIKE YOU FOR ALL THAT AND MORE! YOUR BIG NOSE! YOUR FRECKLES! YOUR MOUSY-BLAH HAIR! ALL OF IT!"

Such was Patty's surprise that she felt the sides of her mouth drying up and her throat turning to gravel with each spoken word.

"YOU KEEP ME ON MY TOES LIKE NO OTHER GIRL I KNOW! YOU EXCITE ME LIKE NO OTHER GIRL! BUT I GUESS I'M JUST TOO BORING FOR YOU!"

With that, he'd said his say. Immediately, he regressed into a state of regret as he realized whom he'd just put in an awkward situation. While Patty wasn't as volatile as Lucy, she was no less formidable or dangerous.

"Chuck, I don't know what to…" she began, sounding sincere in her response. Next, she stopped and shook some sense back into her, as if getting back on track with what she originally intended to do in this field.

"NOW WAIT A MINUTE, CHUCK!" she returned to form. "I CAME HERE TO PUT YOU ON THE SPOT, NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND!"

"What, me?" a shocked Charlie Brown responded.

"Yes, you!" she answered before going silent. Typical Chuck! She had every intention of calling him out on his wishy-washiness and his habit of always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Especially when it came to matters of the heart – her heart especially.

He was guilty of the first act when he didn't give her an immediate response at the game, and just now he'd said what she wanted to hear exactly when she didn't want to hear it. Still, she was on a mission and at least had to try to see it to completion.

"So…you don't know where you stand with me, do you?"

To which he could only nod feebly. "I don't know…was it just gamesmanship like you said back then?"

Seeing and hearing that, Patty smirked with renewed purpose. She raised the football with one hand and began twirling it menacingly with her fingers. "I don't suppose you want to find out, do you, Chuck?"

Against his better judgment, he did.

So there he was, on the field and facing Patty about sixty feet away from him. She was cradling the ball. Her posture and demeanor suggested that she'd give it up if and only if it was pried from her cold, dead hand.

"You got it, Chuck?" the girl reminded him. "Three passes, three chances to bring me down or get me to fumble the ball. If you succeed, I tell you everything. If not, it's back to being on your toes!"

Charlie Brown didn't have time to acknowledge the terms, for Patty next issued her battle cry – "FREIGHT TRAIN!" – and started barreling towards him. He'd hardly braced for impact, let alone adopt a defensive posture when he felt Patty careen into him. She led with her shoulder for a crunching check against his chest. The impact left him severely winded and flat on his back while his adversary traipsed blithely past him to her goal.

"That's one, Chuck!" she announced triumphantly. "Ready for number two?"

When she saw him still gasping for air while barely on his feet and trying to maintain his footing, she had more to say. "Take your time, Chuck! I've got all afternoon! Say, why don't you come to me instead?"

She held the ball out with an outstretched arm as if teasing him – daring him – to make a move. He approached cautiously. His trepidation caught her eye, as did his fierce determination. Both qualities only provided more ammo for her to taunt him.

"That's right, be cautious!" she egged him on as he approached. "Watch how I keep you on your toes!"

She faked left: "Will I jink left."

Then right: "Or right? You don't know, Chuck! Oh, how fascinated you must be!"

Charlie Brown was doing his best to ignore Patty's "gamesmanship" and opted for the full-frontal approach. So predictable, thought Patty. She waited for him to be fully committed to the tackle, then at the last possible moment, she spun out of his way. As he flew past her, she continued her spin into a full 360 before sprinting off to the opposite designated endzone.

"That's two!" she announced. "Last chance, Chuck! Don't want it to go to waste now, do you?"

She gave him a moment to settle before – "FREIGHT TRAIN!" – starting her third pass. This time she planned on thoroughly bulldozing Charlie Brown, which is why she was briefly taken aback to see him charging directly toward her. His eyes were glints of tenacity, his expression the very model of singular focus. He too was roaring as he stormed headlong toward her. In that one moment, he looked as if no opponent, no tackle, no adversary, was beyond him.

Let him come, thought Patty as she prepared for a stiff-arm hand-off that would send him to the ground. Or at least, it would have had he not decided to come in low. Which he did, attempting a wraparound on her legs. Unfortunately, he could only secure one leg around the ankle. Patty still had enough momentum to continue on her forward trajectory. But with Charlie Brown clinging doggedly to her leg, she was reduced to a gait that looked like a cross between a hop and a shuffle.

"Let go, Chuck!" she demanded. "Quit it!"

But he ignored her. With the endzone approaching, Charlie Brown managed to get to his feet while not relinquishing Patty's leg. This would prove important, for as soon as he had a vertical base, he jerked the leg upward, above hip level. Coupled with her attempt at forward momentum, Charlie Brown's action left Patricia Reichardt with no direction other than to the ground. She didn't go quietly.

"CHUCK!" she yelled as she was upended.

Then..."OOF!"

She hit the ground hard enough for the ball to slip out of her grasp. He'd done it! To his abject disbelief, Charlie Brown had brought down the fearsome Peppermint Patty! He let go of her and slowly rose back to his feet. He was about to help her up but thought better of it when he saw her pound the ground.

"Dammit, Chuck!" she grumbled aloud before she too stood up. She was now frustration personified as she looked Charlie Brown in the eye. "Don't you ever read the script?"

And for far from the first time, Charlie Brown was left wondering how he'd managed to upset Peppermint Patty.

And so ends the second chapter. Thank you, one and all, for reading. Your thoughts will never go unappreciated, so please review. I need to know where I stand with you just as much as Charlie Brown needs to know where he and Peppermint Patty stand. See what I did there?

A quick Author's Note. Those of you familiar with (American) football may be questioning my use of the term, "hand-off". I wish to point out that I used it in the context of the game of rugby, where it means "the act of warding off an opposing player with the open hand".

Speaking of which, to those who left reviews for Chapter 1:

HPDrummerman and Guest1: Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

Guest 2: I hope then to do them proper justice.

The J.A.M. a.k.a. Numbuh I: Do you believe she has a legitimate stake in this matter, given that she hardly acknowledges Charlie Brown in the strip?

And with that, the Tidal List for this chapter.

Higher Power – Coldplay

Proud – Heather Small

Love of Strings – Moby

Be Still My Beating Heart – Sting

And that will be it. Thank you for reading the story and my ramblings thereafter. Until next time, stay safe and take nothing for granted