The school bus had now arrived on the school grounds, and Charlie Brown and Linus were the first two off the bus. They took a few steps forward towards the building.
"Well, here we are," Linus said after taking a deep breath.
"Uh-huh," Charlie Brown said, already feeling the worry creeping up upon him.
A few seconds later, their attention was caught by two female voices calling out to him.
"Hiya, Chuck. Hiya, Linus," the first voice said enthusiastically.
"Good morning, Charles and Linus," a softer voice said immediately following.
The two boys turned to the source of the voices. Coming off of another bus were two somewhat close friends of theirs: Patricia Reichardt, otherwise known as Peppermint Patty, accompanied like always by her faithful companion, Marcie Carlin.
"Oh! Hi, Peppermint Patty. Hi, Marcie," Charlie Brown greeted as he and Linus waved to them both. "I see we're going to the same school now."
"You betcha, Chuck. Are you looking forward to this new school?" Peppermint Patty asked.
"As much as I could be, I guess," Charlie Brown said half-heartedly.
Peppermint Patty noticed the small frown on Charlie Brown's face and gave him a firm, but not too painful, pat on the back. "C'mon, Chuck. You gotta show a little more enthusiasm than that!"
Before Charlie Brown could respond though, he and the others were caught off guard as Schroeder rushed past them all.
"Hello, everyone. Sorry, can't stop right now. I gotta get this turned in," he said quickly, buzzing his way toward the school entrance. "I'll see you in homeroom, Charlie Brown!"
"Yikes, what's he in a such a hurry for?" Peppermint Patty inquired. "I don't think I've ever seen Schroeder this excited."
"He's about to turn in the application for the new club he wants to form. It's called the Beethoven Appreciation club," Linus told her.
"The Beethoven Appreciation club?" Peppermint Patty repeated.
"Yep," Charlie Brown confirmed with a nod.
"Interesting," Peppermint Patty mused. "Well, me and Marcie had better get going. I'll see you later, Chuck."
And so Peppermint Patty and Marcie began making their way together to their respective homerooms.
"Schroeder is really committed to his musical hero, isn't he, sir?" Marcie asked her friend, already knowing the answer.
"He sure is, Marcie. I guess I can appreciate that he'd really want more friends who shared his passion for Beethoven," Peppermint Patty said in acknowledgement.
"I bet that same commitment would really help you to stay on track with improving your grades, sir," Marcie added.
Peppermint Patty rolled her eyes. "I know that, Marcie. And I already promised you that I would resolve to get my grades up. I mean, how can I try out for the school's baseball team if I don't get better grades? Oh, and for goodness sake, Marcie, stop calling me sir."
Schroeder was eagerly making his way in the direction of the administration offices to turn in his club application. Or rather, he was anxiously trying to. As he traversed the halls, he was having difficulty finding the direction he needed to go.
"Come on, where is it?" he asked himself, beginning to sound panicky. "Oh, good grief!"
Fortunately though, he caught sight of a girl nearby. Maybe she could tell him where he needed to go.
"Hello, excuse me?" he called out to her.
The girl turned to the source of the voice. She instantly recognized him and gave him a friendly smile. "Oh, hi, Schroeder."
Schroeder looked surprised at who this was. "Oh... Heather, hi. I-I was just wondering if you could point me to the administration office. I need to turn this in."
"Oh. Sure thing," she said. She then pointed to a hallway down towards her left. "Just go down this hall, and continue on down almost all the way to the end. It'll be through the second to last door on the right."
"Thank you very much," Schroeder said gratefully.
"You're welcome," Heather said.
She gave him a nice smile before beginning to make her way to her homeroom. Schroeder stood there for a few seconds watching her go. His cheeks were tinged slightly red and he smiled (and Lucy, who was nearby enough to notice, scowled at him, and then at Heather).
A few seconds later though, Schroeder snapped back into reality and made a beeline down the designated hall to finish his task.
Charlie Brown was now about to enter the classroom that was his homeroom. He and Linus had now split up as Linus' homeroom was elsewhere.
Upon entering, he looked at who else was already in the room. There were only three others currently, leading Charlie Brown to believe that he had arrived slightly early. There were sixteen desks, all neatly arranged in a four-by-four square.
Charlie Brown saw a girl in the back row, second desk from the left that he recognized as Frieda. She didn't wave or smile or say hi when she saw him, but instead, she acknowledged his presence with a gentle pat of her "naturally curly hair".
Charlie Brown knew that desks were assigned in his homeroom class and proceeded to look for the desk with his name tag on it. He was slightly disappointed to find that he was in the front row, second desk from the left. He would've preferred to be in the back row where he wouldn't be as noticeable by the other students.
Though one thing that was kind of nice was that in the desk behind him, Marcie was sitting there. She smiled at him.
"Hello again, Charles," she greeted.
"Hey again, Marcie," Charlie Brown greeted back. He then noticed the absence of Peppermint Patty. "No Peppermint Patty in our homeroom?"
Marcie shook her head. "No. She's in the homeroom next classroom over with Lucy and Franklin."
Just then, someone came into the room that Charlie Brown was not hoping to see. It was a tall girl with black hair that was tied up into a bun. This girl was one of those who were heavily involved in progressively ruining the little bit of confidence Charlie Brown had gained since talking to Heather for the first time.
The girl, named Violet, was obviously not about to pass by Charlie Brown without taking a jab at him.
"Well, well, if it isn't little failure-face, Charlie Brown," she sneered. "I'm surprised to see you coming here. I figured that by now, you'd decide to be homeschooled. Bummer that you didn't; it'd save everyone the displeasure of having to continue to see your sorry hide."
Charlie Brown slumped down in his seat as a satisfied Violet continued on walking to her own, which was in the last row, farthest to the right. She laughed loudly as Marcie, and even Frieda shot glares at her.
"Don't listen to her, Charles," Marcie said, attempting to console Charlie Brown.
Suddenly, a male voice interrupted her. "Awww, isn't that cute? Marcie Carlin is standing up for her little boyfriend."
Charlie Brown and Marcie's heads (the latter's with cheeks tinging red) shot in the direction of the voice. It belonged to a short, but vicious kid who Charlie Brown recognized as Thibault. He was looking at Marcie with a devilish grin on his face. Clearly, he still held it out for her big time.
"So I heard that your schedule is full of more advanced classes. What, are you trying to get into an Ivy league school or something? You shouldn't bother. Someone as naive as you has no business in those kinds of classes," he taunted her.
"Really? So those looking to gain careers as janitors are better suited for these classes?" she retorted.
Thibault frowned and got alarmingly close to her. "Yo, why don't you watch the way you're talking to me, geek," he said threateningly. Apparently, Thibault had become an even more vicious bully over the past few years.
Charlie Brown felt nervous, but he had to do something to stand up for her. Especially when he had failed to defend Marcie from her and Thibault's last encounter.
"Leave her alone," he ordered of Thibault, trying to sound brave.
The bully turned his attention to the boy and was silent for a moment as he tried to remember who this kids was. He looked very familiar. Finally, after about ten seconds, he remembered.
"Charlie Brown," he said, to which Charlie Brown responded with a nod. "I remember you all right. You're that friend of Peppermint Patty who thinks he's better than everyone else. Yeah, I know your type. And I'm gonna give you one warning. You stay out of my way, and maybe I'll let you get through junior high without any broken bones."
And with that, he made his way to his seat, which was in the third row, second desk from the right.
Charlie Brown gave a sigh of relief as he thought for sure that he was going to get clobbered by Thibault right here and now. Perhaps it was the fact that class was going to start any minute that prevented him from going any further with his tormenting.
Charlie Brown gazed towards the classroom door as the remaining students began filing in. Welp, a great start to the morning, he thought sarcastically. Already two instances where he was bullied by others as they entered the classroom. Wouldn't it be nice if something good would follow?
Charlie Brown was in for a treat though. First, Schroeder entered the classroom and Charlie Brown was pleased to find out that his desk was the one just to the left of his.
With something of a smile, he turned to his Beethoven-loving friend.
"All set?" he asked.
"Yep! I'll find out on Friday if my club is approved," Schroeder told him. "I really hope it is. There isn't enough appreciation for Beethoven these days. It's about time someone changed that."
"Same old Schroeder," Charlie Brown mused as he looked back towards the door. His heart leapt.
Heather Wold was now coming into the room. Both Charlie Brown and Schroeder watched to see where she would be sitting. To Charlie Brown's pleasant surprise, her desk was just to the right of his. She greeted him with a kind smile as she took her seat.
Okay, maybe this morning isn't off to the worst start after all, he thought. He now had his good friend Schroeder sitting to his left, another friend Marcie sitting behind him, and best of all, his longtime crush sitting at the desk to his right.
Seconds later, after the last kids had shown up and taken their seats, the school bell rang and their homeroom teacher walked into the classroom.
The teacher to walk into the room was a dark-skinned woman with long brown hair. She did a roll call before beginning to pass out to the students their class schedules for the semester.
As Charlie Brown and his nearby friends received theirs, Charlie Brown first exchanged schedules with Schroeder to see if they had any classes together.
"Well, it looks like we only have one class together, which is math," Schroeder acknowledged. "We don't even have gym on the same days."
"Bummer," Charlie Brown said, slightly disappointed.
"How about us?" Heather suddenly said. "Do you and I have any classes together?"
Charlie Brown then got slightly fidgety as he turned to Heather, who was offering him her schedule.
"I-I don't know. Let's see," Charlie Brown still managed to say.
He and Heather then swapped schedules and Charlie Brown began reading Heather's over, really hoping that they had some classes together. A smile appeared on his face as he saw that he shared four classes with her. They were English, world history, a cooking class, and they both had their gym class on the same days.
"Oh, we have quite a few classes together, Charlie Brown," Heather said delightedly. "I see that you decided to take cooking. If I may ask, what made you decide to choose that as an elective?"
Charlie Brown suddenly blushed in embarrassment and twiddled his fingers. "Oh, well um..." He gave a small sigh. "I barely know how to cook anything besides toast. I sorta really want to learn to make other foods because my parents are never around very much," he admitted. "I think it would be nice for me and my sister, Sally."
"You too?" Heather asked in surprise.
"Yeah," Charlie Brown said. He then matched Heather's surprise. "Wait, 'You too'? Are you saying your parents aren't home much either?"
Heather shook her head. "Well, my mom is home quite a bit, and also I don't have any siblings, but my mom's cooking tastes terrible most of the time, and so, you know..." She then said in a whisper, "Promise me though that you won't tell her I told you this; she'd kill me."
"I promise," Charlie Brown said, raising his hand as if he was taking an oath.
He even chuckled and Heather followed up with a giggle of her own. Charlie Brown felt his nervousness starting to dwindle and he began to feel a little bit more comfortable talking to Heather.
"Anyway, I must say that I find your reasoning for wanting to learn to cook to be quite admirable," Heather told him with a smile.
Charlie Brown's cheeks tinged pink and he began to stutter on his speech again. "Uh... t-thank you." Besides those other things she's said before, she admires me for wanting to be able to cook for myself and Sally.
Unfortunately, the homeroom teacher was now done passing out the schedules and was proceeding to address the students, so Charlie Brown and Heather couldn't chat any longer. The two of them quickly swapped back their schedules before beginning to pay attention to the teacher.
Meanwhile, over in Lucy's homeroom, aside from the homeroom teacher, there was another adult currently in the room. She was a fairly young woman with short bobbed black hair, and she was outfitted in mostly purple. She had an aura of both professionalism and caring around her. The homeroom teacher began to introduce the woman.
"Attention class, before I proceed to pass out the class schedules, I would like to introduce you to a very special guest," the homeroom teacher said. "This is Dr. Bliss, our new school district child psychologist."
From the third row farthest to the right, Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Child psychologist?"
"Dr. Bliss is out in the field today, and has randomly chosen our school for some general observation of its students throughout the week," the homeroom teacher continued.
Lucy scoffed. "Please. I still manage a drop-in psychology booth and my advice has always been helpful. I'd be the last person who would ever need to see a 'real' shrink," she muttered to herself.
"I ask everyone in the class that despite her presence, you all go on about your daily business like you normally do. As if nothing out of the ordinary is happening," the homeroom teacher instructed.
"That'll be easy," Lucy remarked. "I'm perfectly fine just as I am thank you very much."
After Dr. Bliss' introduction was over, said psychologist left the room to go for her introduction in the other homerooms while the homeroom teacher in this room proceeded to pass out the student schedules to everyone.
According to Charlie Brown's schedule, he had gym class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which meant that he would be having his first gym class today, the first overall day of the year. This was never a class that he looked forward to.
The person teaching gym was a large and muscular man who looked actually quite intimidating. Based on what he had been told during orientation, which had occurred just two weeks before the previous school year had ended, this guy had been introduced as one of the new teachers who were just starting out.
"Welcome to seventh grade gym," he began as he walked back and forth, as if doing a military check. "As the new gym teacher on the block, I'm implementing a few changes." He then went on to explain how his class would run.
After introductions were done, the gym teacher then brought out a bunch of different kind of balls, including footballs, basketballs, and others, telling everyone to "go nuts". He then stepped off to the side, presumably to monitor everything that went on.
Charlie Brown sighed. A free period. He believed that this day of gym wouldn't be as bad as he expected future days to be, but he still didn't look forward to the prospect of being left out while everyone else was socializing and doing stuff.
As things got active and busy, Charlie Brown took a look around. He saw Violet and Patty hardly even trying to get a workout in and seemed more interested in gossiping with each other (though Patty was trying to balance chatting with Violet with chatting with Pig-Pen). Franklin, Shermy, and a couple other boys were clearly deeply engrossed in the activities they were doing. And other students were all doing anything that didn't involve acknowledging that Charlie Brown was even on the court.
Well, almost everyone. From a distance away, Heather, outfitted in cute workout attire and her bright red hair in a ponytail, saw Charlie Brown all by himself and was about to go over to him. Before she could though, Lucy jumped in front of him, blocking him from Heather's view.
"Hi, Charlie Brown!" she said enthusiastically. She was carrying a football. "I have an idea: I'll hold the ball, and you come running up and kick it."
Charlie Brown scoffed and scowled. "Yeah, right Lucy. I know what's going to happen. I'm not that stupid. You'll just pull the ball away at the last second, and I'll land flat on my back and kill myself."
"Come on, Charlie Brown, don't be like that. We're in junior high now, and thus a lot older. Pulling the ball away is something only littler kids would do," Lucy argued. "Besides, it's gym class. We all got to be doing something to get some exercise."
"Hm... you do have a point. It would be quite immature of you to pull the ball away at our age," Charlie Brown.
Lucy then grinned, thinking the conversation was going her way. Charlie Brown smiled back, but it was for a different reason.
"Okay, let's do it!" Charlie agreed, as he walked a distance away from Lucy, who set up the ball neatly in place. Once Charlie Brown was a satisfactory distance away from Lucy, he began sprinting back towards the ball. "This time, I'm gonna kick that football all the way to the moon!"
He came closer, and closer, and then...
"HAHAHA!" Charlie Brown laughed as he looked back at Lucy. She had pulled the ball away (which did not go unnoticed by a certain someone), but Charlie Brown didn't go flying. Nor did he land on his back. Nope, he actually just kept on running without even trying to kick the ball. "I knew you were going to do it, Lucy! I... OOMPH!"
Unfortunately, since Charlie Brown had not been paying attention to where he was running, he had accidentally sprinted into someone. They both came crashing down into a heap with everyone watching on in shock.
Charlie Brown was briefly dazed, but once he came back to reality, he stood up and looked at who it was that he had run into. His face paled. It was Thibault.
"Hey, punk, what the heck do you think you're doing running into me like that?!" he demanded, looking angrier and meaner than Charlie Brown had ever seen him.
"I, uh," Charlie Brown stammered as Thibault advanced on him.
"I told you to stay out of my way if you wanted any chance at getting through junior high in one piece. But now, you are going to be taught a lesson," he threatened. "3:30 today, behind the school. Be there. And if you're not there, I will hunt you down, and then it'll be even worse."
Thibault then walked away, leaving Charlie Brown shaking and sweating.
Meanwhile, a certain red-haired someone, having overheard these threats, proceeded to sneak out of the class.
Author's note: And another chapter done. Please review and tell me what you thought! I'm surprised that I have written this much of the story this quickly. Expect the next chapter soon! And don't forget to maybe visit the various Peanuts forums on the site! I admit that I've decided to include a little one-sided Schroeder/Heather here. Don't worry though, Schroeder will quickly push aside any feelings he may have for her as he learns that she is clearly meant for Charlie Brown. Besides, Schroeder is gonna be with someone else (eventually). I'm only doing this because Schroeder was initially entranced by her in the Peanuts Movie and said she was pretty. Anyway, please review/add to favs/alerts and I'll see you again soon with the next chapter!