It had seemed like just a few days ago that Junior High had started. But it had actually now been over a month, and a lot had happened since the year had begun. It was now mid-October and the weather had gotten cooler, with the gorgeous colors of autumn being seen everywhere you looked.
Schroeder was still as committed as ever in his efforts to become a student that Juilliard would be proud to have. However, it had started to become a very long and hard road. Schroeder had to balance schoolwork, piano practice, his club, and more schoolwork, and it was beginning to seem that the stress had been starting to adversely affect him. Schroeder could sometimes be testy or irritable for no real reason, or he could be more quick to anger than usual.
Lucy was still having her weekly sessions with Dr. Bliss. Fortunately for her, Lucy was successful thus far with keeping all of this a secret. No one who did know what Lucy was doing could really tell as of yet whether her sessions were having any real influence on her. However, they did acknowledge that Lucy had been noticeably calmer lately, and not quite as crabby or bossy, so maybe that was a good sign?
As for Peppermint Patty, she and Charlie Brown had not made up yet. Though one thing that made Charlie Brown hold out a smidgen of hope for their friendship was that Peppermint Patty wasn't completely giving him the cold shoulder. She would still say hi to him whenever they passed by in the halls. However, that was pretty much as far as interactions between them went for the time being. But at least with this, Heather had assured Charlie Brown that she felt confident that he and Peppermint Patty would eventually be able to mend their friendship.
As it went for Heather and Charlie Brown, they were steadily continuing to grow closer. Charlie Brown was always reassured that he could talk to Heather about anything. She always would provide him with encouragement when he felt like he'd fail at something, and she'd be a source of comfort whenever Charlie Brown was feeling insecure or downtrodden.
And as for Heather herself, she never had a moment where she didn't enjoy hanging out with Charlie Brown. Of course he wasn't perfect, but in her sight, he never lost any of the qualities she liked about him. She even noticed that whenever they were working together, Charlie Brown was never quite "failing" at everything the way he used to. To the contrary, he had actually been performing quite well. He was getting better grades on his assignments, and in cooking class, recipes that they had made together had turned out very well. Heather felt very happy that her influence in Charlie Brown's life had been doing so much good for him, and she was committed to making sure that it didn't change.
It was now Monday, October the Seventeenth, and Charlie Brown and Linus were currently walking to lunch together. Charlie Brown was busy discussing with Linus about how tomorrow, their history teacher was going to be announcing a big project that would account for a big portion of their entire grade for the class. Linus of course was excited while Charlie Brown wasn't. Though in the latter's case, he wasn't as unenthusiastic about it as he might've been at the start of the year.
Just before they got to the cafeteria entrance, they noticed that a group of students was gathered near the school bulletin board. Curious as to what was going on, Charlie Brown and Linus joined up with the group.
"What's going on here?" Charlie Brown asked to no one in particular.
"Oh! Charlie Brown," Heather suddenly said, her bright red hair and pretty face popping into Charlie Brown's view. "There are flyers for a school talent show that's coming up. Take a look."
Heather handed Charlie Brown and Linus each a copy of the flyer. The three of them then together resumed making their way to their lunch table.
Linus began to read out the key details that were on it. "So apparently the Junior High talent show is a yearly thing here, and each year, there is one special requirement that they make up for these talent shows. Sign-ups for this year's show begin early next week."
"I wonder if this could be an opportunity for me to do that magic act that I had wanted to do in our third grade talent show?" Charlie Brown mused.
"I dunno, Charlie Brown," Linus said, sounding skeptical as he continued to read. "It says this year, the special requirement is that performers have to be a team of two. Meaning that you would not be able to participate by yourself. You'd need a partner."
"A partner?" Charlie Brown repeated. He then found himself glancing over at Heather.
Knowing what Charlie Brown was thinking, Linus leaned towards him and whispered in his ear: "Maybe you and Heather could perform a skit together. Hey, that rhymes."
Charlie Brown liked the sound of that. As he arrived in and waited in the lunch line, he began to think about him and Heather wowing the audience, easily taking first prize with an amazing unique act.
After school that day, there was another meeting of the Classical Composer Appreciation Club. Luckily, Schroeder didn't look as though he had endured a bad day, and he appeared fairly enthusiastic (though not as much as during the first meeting when he was discussing Beethoven) as he and his group performed their activities for the day.
During the meeting, a thought was going through Heather's mind. This talent show was coming up; sign-ups began next week and the actual show would be on the Monday before Thanksgiving break. She really wanted to participate in the show, but as Linus had said, she needed a partner.
Soon enough, she had come up with an idea. She knew that she was a great dancer. And she knew that Schroeder was a piano prodigy, mainly with classical music. She figured, what if they together created some kind of a routine where Schroeder played a tune on the piano (probably a Beethoven one), and she performed some kind of a dance routine to it? Perhaps it could be one that she made up entirely on her own. Yeah, that would be brilliant! She just hoped that Schroeder would be up for it, given that he had been so busy lately.
After the club meeting was over, Heather and Schroeder walked out of the music room together. Heather decided that now was a good time to ask.
"So, Schroeder, did you see the flyers for the annual Junior High talent show?" Heather asked Schroeder.
"I sure did," Schroeder answered. "I really want to participate, but I can't by myself, given this year's special requirement."
"Well... I might be able to help with that," Heather told him.
Schroeder looked at her curiously. "How?"
"Well, assuming you were going to participate, what would you want to be doing?" Heather asked.
"That's easy," Schroeder said. "I would perform my favorite Beethoven music on the piano. I would say by this point I could play almost as good as Beethoven himself."
Heather grinned. "I thought that's what you'd say."
Schroeder raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I would consider myself to be a pretty good dancer," Heather told him.
"I can agree with that. I saw you that day in third grade when you won that trophy," Schroeder said, remembering that day.
"Yeah. I still feel bad for what happened to Charlie Brown though," Heather said with a small frown. "Only he would get so unlucky that he would not only slip and fall, but accidentally set off the school's sprinkler system in the process."
"Yeah," Schroeder agreed, also remembering that incident.
"Anyway, this is my idea. Listen carefully," Heather began. "Put simply, what if you played something nice on the piano and I performed some kind of a dance routine to it that I made up on my own?"
Schroeder appeared rather surprised by this proposal. "Huh? So, you're saying then that you'd want to partner up with me for the talent show?" he asked.
Heather raised an eyebrow. "Is that so surprising? Think about it. Your piano-playing skills and my dancing skills working together in harmony. Your kind of music is of the same genre that I perform most of my dance routines to. Plus, if we won, this would probably look good on your application for Juilliard, since it is a performing arts school."
In truth, the real reason Schroeder was surprised by Heather's proposal wasn't because he thought him and Heather performing a skit together was a weird idea, but rather because he thought that if she had been wanting to participate, she'd have considered pairing up with Charlie Brown since they had been doing a lot of stuff together.
He of course wasn't going to admit that publicly though.
"Actually, no, you're right. That all makes sense. I dunno what I was thinking," Schroeder said.
"So, what do you think? Would you like to partner up with me for the talent show?" Heather asked hopefully.
A few seconds later, Schroeder smiled. "Sure!"
The next morning, at the start of second period, the students were filing into their world history class. After everyone was seated, the instructor came in and took roll call. After that was completed, she clasped her hands together and beamed at her pupils.
"Good morning class," she said cheerfully. "As you may know, I had mentioned last class that today, I will be announcing a big project for you all."
Clearly, the instructor was a lot more enthusiastic about this than most of her students. Most of them didn't appear to be looking forward to what was about to come. There were only a few exceptions, with Linus being one of them. She retrieved a stack of papers, which were written syllabi detailing the project guidelines, and began passing them out to the students. Once she was done, she returned to the front of the class.
"As you can see, this will be a research project, meaning the library is going to be your best friend in this assignment," the instructor began. "At its core, your task is to do independent research on one of the topics listed on your syllabus. There are many topics to choose from, and you may choose whichever one you'd like. The only rule is that no two students may do their report on the same topic."
The students scanned the long list of available subjects to research on. Each listing was pretty specific in nature, as though it was made so that the size of the workload wasn't overly significant, and more appropriate for someone only in Junior High.
"You will be turning in a paper that is between seven hundred and one thousand words, and that which you will also present to the class," the instructor continued. "This project may be done on your own, or you may pair up with someone. If you do decide to work in partnership with someone, please let me know by the end of next class, along with your choice of topic."
For about the next fifteen minutes, the class finished going over the assignment guidelines. The paper would be due on November the Twenty-second, the day after the talent show.
After class was over, Charlie Brown and Linus walked out together.
"This project sounds like it will be tough," Charlie Brown said. "And with it accounting for twenty percent of the grade..."
"Oh, I don't think so, Charlie Brown. It's not like we're in college," Linus argued. "I have been looking forward to a project like this."
"Of course you have," Charlie Brown said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
After everyone's next class, it was lunchtime once again. As usual, the fantastic five (Heather, Mary, Schroeder, Linus, and Charlie Brown), were all sitting together.
Unfortunately, Schroeder appeared right now as though he was a little stressed out as he poked at his spaghetti. The group looked at him in concern.
"Is everything alright, Schroeder?" Mary asked him.
"Yeah, I guess," Schroeder mumbled, not looking at her. "I'm really beginning to wish though that I didn't always have so much I needed to do. And now with this big history project, I'm really starting to get fed up with it all."
"You're in the American history class, right?" Linus asked.
Schroeder nodded.
"I'm in that class too," Mary told everyone. Then suddenly, she had an idea. "Schroeder, you remember that the teacher said we could work in pairs if we wanted to, right? Well, I'd be happy to work with you on it if you'd like."
For the first time, Schroeder looked up at her, surprised evident on his face. "You would?"
Mary nodded. "It would probably help ease the burden on you a little bit since I'd be helping you out."
A few seconds later, Schroeder smiled. "I'd like that. Thank you, Mary."
"Anytime," Mary said, smiling back.
Heather smiled at her friend before turning to Charlie Brown. Now felt like a good time to ask him about a certain something.
"So, Charlie Brown, you know that our teacher also said that we could pair up for our own reports, right?" she said to him.
Charlie Brown blinked. Was she about to ask him if he wanted to partner up with her for their world history report? And despite being partnered up with someone not even being a requirement?
As if reading his mind, Heather posed the question. "Well, do you want to partner up with me for the assignment?"
It just kept happening. First, there was the pen-pal assignment from third grade, then there was the cooking class, and now Heather was volunteering to partner up with them for their world history report.
Not sure what else to say, Charlie Brown smiled and nodded.
Linus smiled at the two of them. He wanted to wait and see first if Heather would ask Charlie Brown, but if she hadn't, he would've offered to partner up with him. He had a funny feeling that she would though, and he was kind of glad she did. In truth, he personally hoped for the challenge of attempting to complete this project on his own. Linus was happy for Charlie Brown. The guy was truly lucky to have a friend like Heather.
For the next several minutes, everyone kept to their own musings while they finished up eating. Then, Charlie Brown felt someone gently tapping him on the shoulder. Curious, he looked up to see who it was. It was definitely not someone he had expected.
"Hi, Chuck," Peppermint Patty greeted, a neutral expression on her face.
"Peppermint Patty?" Charlie Brown said after quickly shaking his head.
"And me, Charles," Marcie then said, giving Charlie Brown a small smile.
For a brief moment, Peppermint Patty had her eyes on Heather before she looked back down at Charlie Brown.
"Yup, it's me," Peppermint Patty said.
She then began swaying slightly, as though trying to find the words for what she wanted to say next. She glanced at Marcie.
"Go on. Just come right out and say it," Marcie encouraged her.
"Chuck, I've been thinking a lot lately about our little spat over the phone last month," she said to him. She then hesitated a bit, as though she found this next part difficult for her to say. "And... if you'd like, I'm willing to sit down with you and talk everything over."
Marcie smiled at her friend. It had taken much effort, much like with getting her to take her studies more seriously, but she had successfully managed to persuade Peppermint Patty to swallow her pride and go through with this.
"I'm sure you didn't really mean what I initially thought when you said that you didn't want anything to do with 'me and my domineering self' anymore," Peppermint Patty continued.
Charlie Brown was pleasantly shocked to hear this, to say the least. Peppermint Patty was speaking to him again it seemed, and was now even willing to talk things over and try to make up with him.
Instinctively, he found himself looking at Heather (which both Peppermint Patty and Marcie took notice of), who smiled back at him as if to say "I told you things would work out".
He then looked back at Peppermint Patty and grinned at her. "I'd like that very much. Thank you."
"Great! Are you free this evening?" Peppermint Patty asked him.
"I believe so," Charlie Brown replied. "I don't have that much homework."
"Awesome. I'll meet you at your house at about seven if that's fine," Peppermint Patty said.
"That would be great," Charlie Brown said, happy with the arrangements.
"Welp, then I'll meetcha there," Peppermint Patty said.
"I'll see you then," Charlie Brown said. He then glanced at Marcie and gave her a grateful look.
Marcie and Peppermint Patty then began to walk away. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown turned back towards his crew, feeling truly hopeful now that he could patch things up between himself and his brown-haired, baseball-loving, tomboyish pal.
Author's note: And so another chapter is in the books. Next chapter of course will feature Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty talking things through to try and find some common ground. I'm now going to take a little break to gather up more of my remaining ideas for the story. And work a bit on some other projects.
Please review and tell me what you thought of the chapter. Or any of the other ones. It'll be a bit easier to complete the story if I could get a little more feedback.