It was now the first day of the third week of school. Today, Charlie Brown and Heather had their usual cooking class together, but this time, the class would finally be making their first actual dish. The instructor elected to keep what that dish would be a surprise, but assured his class that they would really enjoy what they were going to make.

Also happening today was the first club meeting of Schroeder's Classical Composer Appreciation Club. Schroeder had really been looking forward to this day. Of course, the meeting would be held in the music room. Heather and Mary had both told Schroeder before that they would support him and his club, and Schroeder was very appreciative of this. Deep down, he was actually rather nervous about the reception his club would get.

But back right now with Charlie Brown, he was now entering the culinary room. As he slowly made his way towards his seat at the big round table, he took a look at each of the cooking stations. They had all been set up with ingredients. There was currently, flour, sugar, baking soda, and various cooking utensils, including a cake pan, placed on each of the countertops. It looked to Charlie Brown like they were going to be baking something.

Heather Wold was already in class and in her seat. The two of them waved at each other as Charlie Brown took his seat, which was four seats away from hers. He then looked around at the other students as they speculated on what they would be making. It seemed that they had come to the same conclusion that they were going to be baking today. Likely, it sounded, it would be some kind of cake.

While all the others seemed excited about this prospect, Charlie Brown definitely felt somewhat nervous. Baking a cake, or anything else, meant that they would be using the oven. Charlie Brown was sure that whatever he made would come out as black as a hockey puck.

About two minutes later, the culinary instructor entered the room. Everyone immediately dropped any conversation, and with anticipations high, they all focused their attention on the instructor, who grinned, satisfied with the class' quick cooperation.

"Good morning, class," he greeted. "I don't want to keep all you eager young chefs waiting, so let's get right down to business."

This announcement was met by a cheerful chorus of "Yays".

"Now, before I tell you what you all are going to be making, I am going to be pairing you all into twos. You will be working together with your chosen partners on all recipes you make throughout the duration of the term," he said.

Upon hearing this, Charlie Brown glanced over at Heather. What if Heather and I get paired up? He smiled at the thought.

"Here, I have a jar of names," the instructor continued. "When I call a name, raise your hand and say 'I will' if you would like to be their partner."

Charlie Brown let out a small gasp as he immediately thought back to that day when students were picking partners for that summer's penpal assignment. Heather had chosen him when his name was called. Could lightning actually strike twice? He gripped the hem of his shirt anxiously as the instructor pulled out the first name.

"Jessica."

After about three seconds, a black-haired Asian boy, someone who Charlie Brown didn't know, but who was sitting to his right, responded.

"I will," he declared with a slight accent as he raised his hand.

The instructor pulled out the next name.

"Pig-Pen."

Like last time, Patty immediately raised her hand and said the magic two words, while also saying something about how a little dirt doesn't hurt anyone. Pig-Pen blushed and smiled at her in response.

The instructor then pulled out the third name.

"Charlie Brown."

Charlie Brown stiffened as he awaited the outcome. Each little fraction of a second felt like several whole seconds. But in reality, it only took two seconds before...

"I will."

Charlie Brown gripped his shirt tighter as he heard those two words being spoken. It happened. It was Heather who had said that as she raised her hand. The grin that appeared on his face spread from ear to ear. Meanwhile, a few other male students actually appeared as though they were disappointed that they didn't get to be paired with Heather. Another boy shot Charlie Brown a jealous glare, which Charlie Brown easily ignored.

A couple minutes later, everyone had decided on their term cooking partners. The instructor then got everyone's attention once more.

"Now that you all have your term partners..." he said, scanning across all his budding young chefs. "I can now tell you that today, you will be baking your very own chocolate cakes."

Another round of cheers erupted, the noise filling the entire room.

The instructor chuckled. "Alrighty then! Get together with your partners, and then be sure to grab a cooking apron from over there." He pointed to a clothing rack over in the back corner of the room. "And then finally, report to one of the cooking stations. Once you are all set up, I will begin providing instructions."

The scene was a bit chaotic as everyone was borderline pushing and shoving each other as they rushed over to where the aprons were. The only two who weren't in as big of a hurry were Charlie Brown and Heather. Despite his excitement regarding his partner, Charlie Brown was still nervous. And as for Heather, she was too well-mannered to act like the other kids.

Once all the other kids had grabbed their aprons, Charlie Brown and Heather were able to get theirs. They then began making their way to one of the stations.

Charlie Brown frowned as he was holding his apron up. "Pink aprons? Really? I'm gonna look ridiculous."

"It'll be fine, Charlie Brown. Everyone has the same color apron, so it's not just you," Heather told him as she was putting hers on.

Charlie Brown still cringed at the thought of wearing this thing, but he still put it on. After he was finished, he looked back at Heather. He felt his voice catch in his throat.

The apron, to him anyway, somehow made her look even prettier than usual, if that was even possible. It somehow coordinated so well with the rest of her current outfit. Maybe it was the color of the apron?

He found himself staring for several seconds until the sound of the culinary instructor clearing his throat snapped him out of his thoughts. He quickly jerked his head in the instructor's direction, now blushing and hoping that Heather hadn't caught him staring.

"Now, the first thing you always want to do before you begin cooking anything is to wash your hands well. So, everyone please do that now," the instructor requested.

The students obliged as the instructor went and retrieved a small stack of papers, which were copies of the cake recipe. As soon as the students were done, he started handing out the copies to everyone. Each pair of students looked the recipe over as the instructor spoke again.

"As you can see, there are both wet ingredients and dry ingredients. My suggestion to you is to have one partner mix the dry ingredients while the other mixes the wet. While you are working, I will come around and evaluate your progress."

There was a few seconds of silence.

"Alright, you all may begin."

And so the pairs of students began getting ready to bake.

Charlie Brown turned to Heather. "So... which would you like to do? Wet or dry?"

"Which do you feel more comfortable doing?" Heather asked him as she began retrieving the remaining ingredients from their station's fridge.

Charlie Brown shrugged. "I'll do wet I guess." He didn't really care which he did as he was feeling that he would mess up somehow regardless of which ingredients he handled.

"Okay. Then it's dry for me," Heather said.

She passed the carton of eggs, the milk, the vegetable oil, and a small bowl over to Charlie Brown before placing a larger bowl in front of herself. The two of them then started to work.

Here we go, Charlie Brown thought as he opened the carton of eggs. He took one, gently cracked it on the side of the bowl, and allowed its contents to fall inside.

Unfortunately, he failed to keep from getting a bunch of pieces of egg shell from falling in. Of course. Good ol' Charlie Brown was already messing things up.

"Oh, good grief," he said dejectedly, causing Heather to glance over at him.

"What's wrong?" She asked. She then looked inside the small bowl. "Oh. Whoopsie."

She put her measuring cup, which she had filled with flour, down on the counter before proceeding to help out Charlie Brown. She used a spoon to gently scoop out the pieces of egg shell.

"Thanks," Charlie Brown said before sighing. "I'm hopeless."

Heather gave him a gentle look. "You're not hopeless at all. Many people make the same mistake on their first try. You're fine."

Charlie Brown felt a little better upon hearing this and he gave her a small smile.

"Thanks," he said.

Heather nodded before returning to her post.

With new resolve, Charlie Brown turned back to his bowl. This time he was going to do it right. He reached towards the carton again to grab the second egg, but then...

"Aah!"

Charlie Brown's head shot in Heather's direction. He found her now clinging to the countertop in a desperate attempt to keep herself from falling the rest of the way to the floor. To make matters worse, she had knocked the measuring cup she filled with flour onto the floor, spilling the white powder everywhere.

"Whoa! Hang on, Heather!" Charlie Brown cried out, rushing up to help her.

Luckily, Charlie Brown actually managed to avoid slipping himself, and as soon as he had Heather standing upright again, Heather clutched her chest, trying to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" Charlie Brown asked, shocked by this sudden turn of events.

"Yeah," Heather said after she could speak again. "It seems that I have just... slipped on a bit of flour that must have fallen onto the floor."

Charlie Brown found himself holding back a laugh. So now he wasn't the only one not off to a great start. Suddenly, he didn't really mind that his own failure thus far went no further than unwanted pieces of egg shell in his mixture.

"Remind me next time, Charlie Brown, to wear more slip-resistant shoes on the days we have cooking class," Heather said between laughs.

Heather's laugh was contagious and Charlie Brown soon found himself laughing alongside her. They then looked down at the fallen cup of flour.

"Oh, good grief," Heather said, facepalming. "I guess I'd better tell the teacher that we need a broom."

Feeling rather embarrassed now, Heather went and proceeded to contact the instructor for help cleaning up the mess she had made. But first, she glanced over at Charlie Brown.

"In the meantime, see if you can't finish with mixing the wet ingredients," she told him. Upon seeing Charlie Brown's hesitation though, she smiled reassuringly at him. "I know you can do it, Charlie Brown!"

On rare occasion, one of Charlie Brown's friends had actually tried to encourage him that he could do something instead of cashing in on his insecurity, and Heather was doing so just now. But Heather showing faith in him felt different somehow. He then, for real, actually felt that he really could do it.

He grinned back at Heather and nodded before turning back to his ingredients.

"Heather is right. I can do it. If she of all people believes in me, then I will believe in myself," Charlie Brown told himself determinedly before getting to work.

What neither Heather nor Charlie Brown were aware of was that from the next station over, Violet Gray had seen the whole show. And with Heather having gone to get a broom and Charlie Brown now having his back turned, this was the perfect opportunity to pull a serious prank on the both of them without being noticed.

With an evil grin on her face, the black-haired girl began to creep her way towards Charlie Brown and Heather's station.

Violet crept around the counter and slowly made her way into Charlie Brown and Heather's station. This was going to be great! Even Heather would never know what the heck happened! Salt and sugar looked exactly the same, and Heather already had a cup of sugar ready to go on their counter.

Doing her best to be as quiet as possible, she took the measuring cup full of sugar and replaced it with an equal-sized measuring cup that she had filled with salt. She made sure to position the cup just right, so as that it did not appear as though Heather's cup had been moved.

Violet had to work hard to suppress her laughter as she then began making her way back to her own station. Fortunately for her, she was able to make it back just before Heather had reappeared and could catch her.

"Where have you been?" Violet's partner, a random girl with chin-length black hair, asked her.

"None of your business. Just finish what you're doing," Violet snapped to her.

"Yeesh, I was just asking," the other girl retorted. I don't know what was going through my head when I had volunteered to be her partner.

Before Heather proceeded to sweep up the spilt flour, she craned her head towards Charlie Brown to see how he was doing with the wet ingredients. By this point, the culinary instructor had arrived at their station and did the same. Charlie Brown turned towards them.

"What do you think? Did I use the right amount of everything?" he asked.

"That looks good," the instructor told him, to which he smiled. "Now use the whisk to mix everything together."

Charlie Brown did as instructed and proceeded forth with blending his mixture. Everything was blended together nicely.

"Good job, Charlie Brown," Heather said to him.

Charlie Brown's cheeks tinged slightly pink. "Thanks."

"Do you want to try handling the dry ingredients while I finish cleaning up?" Heather then asked. "I'll also handle the boiling water."

Charlie Brown's instinctual reaction would've been to be hesitant, but after having handled the wet ingredients so well, he felt confident.

"Sure, Heather," he replied before striding over to where the dry ingredients were.

With the dry ingredients, it was actually easier to complete the task. Heather had already taken the liberty of measuring most of the needed ingredients first before putting anything into the large bowl. Charlie Brown needed only to measure out a cup of flour (to replace the one Heather had knocked over), the baking powder and soda, and the salt. Everything was easy and things were going so seemingly well (if only he and Heather were aware of what Violet had done with their cup of sugar).

After Heather had finished cleaning up, and had set up a small pot to boil the water, she came back to check up on Charlie Brown, who by this point had added all dry ingredients and was in the process of mixing them together.

Charlie Brown glanced at her expectantly as Heather examined his progress. She smiled.

"You're doing great, Charlie Brown! It really looks like you've got the hang of things," Heather said with a bright smile.

Charlie Brown grinned back, feeling borderline elated now.

Seconds later, the instructor cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"By this point, you all should have both your wet and dry mixtures ready. Do any of you still need a little more time?" Upon seeing no one say they needed more time, the instructor continued. "Very well then. Now, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. After you do that, you will use your electric mixer on medium speed to beat the batter for two minutes. Perhaps since you all are in twos, you can each beat the batter for one minute apiece so that both of you can experience what it's like using the electric mixer."

And so the students proceeded to follow their given instructions.

Charlie Brown plugged in their electric mixer as Heather readied herself. "Here we go," she said, turning it on.

Charlie Brown watched as she was at work with handling the mixer. He thought for sure that even Heather would have a tricky time with it, but she seemed to be having no trouble whatsoever. After one of the two minutes had passed, she stopped and looked at her partner.

"Do you want to try?" she asked him.

Charlie Brown looked down. "Um, I don't know."

"Come on, Charlie Brown. You did so well with mixing both the wet and the dry ingredients. I'm fully confident you'll do just fine," Heather told him reassuringly. "And I'll be right here to help guide you along."

Charlie Brown looked up at his red-haired partner as she smiled encouragingly at him. She really thought he could handle this and it made him feel pretty good. Finally, after a few seconds, he nodded.

"Alright," Charlie Brown said as Heather handed him the mixer.

He then powered the mixer back on and slowly lowered the two silver parts until they were at work again inside the batter. Heather kept a close eye on his progress as she guided him on the task.

"Am I doing it right? Is the batter supposed to be this thick?" Charlie Brown asked, keeping his eyes on the mixer.

Heather nodded. "Yeah. It will thin out quite a bit once we add the boiling water."

Charlie Brown nodded in understanding. After thirty more seconds, Charlie Brown turned the mixture off. The batter looked precisely how it was supposed to.

"Wow, you're really good at this, Charlie Brown! Are you sure you've never baked a cake before?" Heather asked him, impressed.

Charlie Brown chuckled in response and appeared rather flattered. Heather's warm grin was infectious and he found himself grinning back at her.

"I've only succeeded because I had such a great partner helping me," he replied warmly.

At hearing this, Heather's cheeks flushed, and as she was about to reply, their gazes met. Any words she was about to say seemed to get caught in her throat. For a moment, Charlie Brown seemed to forget that he was at work with preparing to bake a cake. All he could see was Heather.

But then, someone called out to them.

"Hey, you two, your water is boiling," said a certain old acquaintance of Charlie Brown named Shermy.

Charlie Brown and Heather gasped and look away from each other. What had just happened here?

"Um... here, I'll get the water," Heather said, suddenly sounding shy as she began walking towards the stove.

The next minute or two consisted of stirring the boiling water into the batter. Once that was complete, the students poured their batters into the provided cake pans before carefully placing the pans into the ovens and setting the timers. Once all that was done, the instructor got their attention once more.

"Up until now, you all have worked very hard," he said. "But the work isn't over yet. Now you all need to wash and dry your dishes."

This news was met with a loud round of "Awww's".

The instructor chuckled. "Well, get to it, guys and gals."

And so while the pairs were waiting for their cakes to finish baking, they proceeded to get to work next on the dishes.

"That was quite the experience, wasn't it, Charlie Brown?" Heather asked her partner as she began to do the washing (Charlie Brown would be doing the drying).

"Yeah," Charlie Brown said in agreement. He then smiled shyly at her. "Oh, and um... thanks for all the encouragement you gave me. It really helped me out."

Heather smiled back, feeling her cheeks go slightly pink again. "You're welcome, Charlie Brown. I had no doubt that you'd do just fine."

The students all spent roughly the next fifteen minutes finishing up the dishes. Once they were done, they reconvened at the round table while they waited for their ovens' timers to ding.

Charlie Brown was feeling pretty doggone hopeful right now. It had seemed that everything had gone beautifully. Sure, he (and even Heather) had both each made an oopsie at the start, but in the end, things were pulling together quite well for the both of them. He held out hope that he and Heather had just aced this assignment.

If only they knew though what had been done behind their backs early on in the process...

It was now minutes before cooking class was to end. Everyone's cakes had now come out of the ovens and the cooking instructor was busy going around the big table, taste-testing everyone's cakes.

Charlie Brown and Heather waited with baited breath as the instructor finally had come to check out their cake. At first glance, it looked like it had cooked perfectly. Not a burn spot to be found and the cake was shaped beautifully. He smiled.

"This is a beautiful-looking cake!" he praised. "I can't wait to see how it tastes."

Hopeful smiles appeared on this duo's faces as the instructor cut off a small piece from their cake onto his place. He then took a bite as Charlie Brown and Heather anxiously awaited his response.

The instructor paused, trying hard to keep his face calm, before gulping heavily.

"How is it?" Heather asked hopefully.

The instructor's words came out hoarse as he choked out his answer.

"Practice makes perfect."

Instantly, it felt as though a stone had just sunk down to the bottom of Charlie Brown and Heather's stomachs.

"W-what?" Heather said, her voice now sounding strained. "What's wrong with it?"

The instructor paused for a few seconds as he decided on how he should phrase his reply. He decided that he needed to just be straight with this one.

"Well, in all honesty, it tastes as though... perhaps you got the amounts of salt and sugar needed mixed up. It tastes as though a cup of salt was put in this rather than a cup of sugar," he explained to them.

Charlie Brown and Heather had no idea what to say about this occurrence. Meanwhile, Violet, who was sitting the farthest away from them, was trying hard not to outright guffaw. Bam! This prank went perfectly!

"But... I know we used the right amount of those ingredients. I measured everything myself," Heather said, now sounding rather upset.

"Well, if that's true... then I'm honestly not sure what went wrong," the instructor said. "I'm sure you did your best though, so good job."

With that said, the instructor then proceeded to evaluate the next cake.

Heather sighed dejectedly as she looked at her and Charlie Brown's rejected cake. Charlie Brown felt as defeated as he could be and he began to sulk.

"Baking a cake is surprisingly challenging, isn't it?" Heather asked as she turned towards her partner.

Her heart clenched.

Charlie Brown nodded slowly in response to her statement, not saying anything. The look that was now on his face reminded her too much of how he looked on the day in third grade when that model Red Baron plane of Linus' had flown through their book report, destroying it. It pained Heather's heart greatly to see Charlie Brown look that devastated. She had said that maybe it could be fixed, but she knew from the get go that it was silly to even think that. She just couldn't take seeing Charlie Brown appearing so sad.

"I knew that I had to have done something wrong," Charlie Brown said, sounding as discouraged as he looked.

Heather shook her head and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I think you did fine," she told him softly. "If the issue is really like what he had described, then the error had to have been on my end. I was the one who measured the dry ingredients."

Charlie Brown looked marginally less upset as Heather told him this, but Heather could sense that he still felt as though their failed cake was somehow his fault. The degree of self-defeating Charlie Brown would exhibit sometimes truly saddened her. The kid really needed some victories in his life to build up some self-esteem.

At last, class was over. Most of the students had already left, but a few remained for a little longer (since it was now lunchtime) to enjoy the cakes they had baked. As Heather was beginning to leave the classroom, she stopped dead in her tracks upon hearing a certain something being said.

"That Charlie Brown is really quite stupid, isn't he?" Violet Grey said, laughing.

"I know, right?" Patty agreed. "I mean, how the F do you add a cup of salt to a cake batter? Do you know how long filling a whole cup with salt even takes, given that tiny opening on the salt container?"

Heather quickly found herself leaning up against the wall just outside the classroom. It wasn't like her to eavesdrop on someone, but she really couldn't help it this time. She fumed at the accusation that Charlie Brown had put a cup of salt in the batter. He wasn't even the one measuring the dry ingredients!

The group of girls laughed before Violet spoke again.

"Girls, if I tell you a secret, will you promise not to tell anyone? Especially not Charlie Brown or Heather?"

The others nodded.

"Your secrets are my secrets," Patty said.

"The truth is... I'm the one who caused the incident to happen," Violet admitted to them.

The other girls' (and Heather's) mouths fell open in shock.

"That's right. I poured that cup of salt, and while Heather was off getting a broom, and Charlie Brown had his back turned, I snuck into their station and replaced the cup of sugar that Heather had filled with the cup of salt," Violet explained.

"No kidding!?" one of the other girls said in shock. "That's wonderfully diabolical!"

"And they don't even know it," Patty said before laughing again.

"I know! It was a good thing that the flour incident of Heather's had happened," that other girl said. "What a dumb klutz."

"It's all because she's been frequently hanging out lately with little failure-face. That's just what being near Charlie Brown for too long does to you," Violet said matter-of-factly.

The girls then began laughing again. Meanwhile, Heather's delicate hands were actually balled tightly into fists and she was literally shaking. She had never felt this angry before in her entire life.

So it was Violet all along! Charlie Brown didn't do anything wrong, and neither did she! She had to let Charlie Brown know this right away!

Author's note: And this concludes the very long, but hopefully very enjoyable episode of Charlie Brown and Heather baking a cake together for cooking class. Next chapter, we'll be taking our first dive into Schroeder's new club. A familiar characters that hasn't really gotten any appearances will appear in the chapter. I've gotten this chapter done quick, hadn't I? In truth, I was really eager about this one as thus far, I haven't really shown enough one-on-one interaction between Charlie Brown and Heather. Most of the chapter had already been written and edited by the time the last chapter was posted.

Thank you all for making this the most followed story featuring the Little Red-Haired Girl as a main character since 2018! I hope this story continues to live up to the hype it's getting.