A little while after school was over, Charlie Brown was waiting just outside the kitchen while Heather and Mary were in there, discussing with Mrs. Brown what they wanted to do with Sally. Talks went on for several minutes until Charlie Brown heard both of the girls say "Yaaaaay!".

After about another minute or two, Mary, Heather, and Mrs. Brown came out of the kitchen.

"Is it happening?" Charlie Brown asked.

Heather smiled and nodded. "Yes, it is! We are on our way to Sally's room to fetch her now."

And so the two girls and Mrs. Brown made their way up to Sally's room. Once they arrived, Mrs. Brown stood in front of the two girls before knocking on the bedroom door.

"Sally, are you in there?" Mrs. Brown asked. "You've got a couple of visitors who want to see you."

"Who are they?" Sally responded with a hint of apprehension in her voice.

"It's me, Heather," said the friendly red-haired girl. "And I've brought my friend, Mary with me."

"Oh? Why do you two want to see me?" Sally inquired.

"We have something to tell you that I know you would love to hear," Heather said, grinning slightly. "May we come in?"

"Meh..." Sally responded after a couple of seconds. "I guess so."

"Thank you," Heather said before Mrs. Brown opened the door, letting the girls in.

Sally's room, despite usually being kept in relatively decent order, had become quite messy. Several outfits worth of clothes were sloppily scattered around, as well as hanging off the edge of the laundry hamper. And the desk had become completely disorganized. Overall, it wasn't a complete disaster, but it was evident that Sally, in her bout of depression, didn't care at all right now about how her room looked.

"So, what is it that you want to tell me," Sally asked, sounding as though she had already become bored and uninterested.

"What we want to tell you is to put your shoes back on. We got to get going," Mary answered, smiling.

Sally furrowed her brows. "Uh... what?"

"You heard Mary," Heather said, matching Mary's cheeky grin. "We've got important business to take care of."

"Sally, I know that you've been feeling depressed these past couple of days," Mrs. Brown interjected. "And as of just minutes ago, I have come to understand why."

Sally was silent at hearing this, keeping her gaze on her mother.

"I'm sorry that this all happened to you. It always hurts me to see my little girl so unhappy," Mrs. Brown continued. "But dear, lying up here in your bed moping all day does no good for you. It is very unhealthy, both physically and mentally for you. You've got to at least try to get outside a little more."

"And so that's why Heather and I are here," Mary said. "Sally, I was sort of in your shoes once. When I was ten years old, I also experienced a hardship that left me moping about for days. You see, my mom was going to have a baby, and I was finally about to become a big sister, something that I've desperately wanted since I was little. But then, near the end of her first trimester, she wound up having a miscarriage." Mary looked down at the ground, remembering that day. "I became quite sad and depressed as a result, and I spent most of my time hiding out in my room like you are now."

Sally continued to be silent, but she seemed to be listening to everything that Mary was telling her.

Mary looked back up at Sally. "But my mom told me that staying in my room, dwelling on the matter day in and day out wasn't going to help me move on from it. And so you know what we did?"

Sally shook her head. "What did you do?"

"My mom took me out for a day of fun activities. And Heather was a part of that too," Mary continued. "It was a good way to help get everything off of my mind. Not only that, but we did some really cool stuff: Mom bought me some new clothes, and she took me to get my hair straightened, like how you see it now." Mary very briefly turned around to show Sally her platinum-blonde hair, sleek and perfectly straight. "And by the end of the day, I actually felt as though I was starting to become a whole new person. And best of all, I began to feel like it wasn't the end of the world anymore."

Although she didn't outright say it, Sally had to admit that she was rather intrigued by all this. Was Mary really able to move on from such a sad and unfair event happening to her in her life by doing these things?

Mrs. Brown then spoke again. "So you see, Sally, that's why these girls are here. Since what Mary did with Heather and her mom helped her to begin to heal, they feel by taking you out for some fun of your own, that maybe you will be able to start to move on from Linus. So, what do you say?"

Sally was currently silent as she looked down at her feet.

"Come on, Sally, please? It's going to be awesome. You will not regret it, I promise," Heather told her.

Finally after a few more seconds, Sally slowly slid off her bed and proceeded to put her shoes back on. The others in the room smiled in delight, and Mrs. Brown felt a wave of relief wash over her. It seemed that her daughter might have a chance to rise up from this mess with Linus after all.

About an hour later, Sally, Mary, and Heather were beginning to walk about Sparkyville Mall. Sally kept on a neutral expression and was pretty quiet as she casually glanced at all the different attractions. Once they arrived at the center circle, Mary turned to Sally.

"I'd like to thank you for agreeing to come along," she said to her. "I hope Heather and I are able to show you a great time."

Sally shrugged. "I guess, thank you for being willing to take me here. I do have one question though."

"Oh? What's that?"

"You said in your story that your mom had a miscarriage. What's a miscarriage?" Sally questioned.

"Oh, um..." Mary began, appearing somewhat uncomfortable at the question. "Well, the way my mom explained it to me was..."

Mary went on to give the watered-down and somewhat safe-for-kids version of the issue that her mother gave to her. Fortunately for Mary, after she was finished, the expression left on Sally's face indicated that she wasn't interested in learning any more about this topic, to which Mary was grateful.

"Now, back to the original topic, where do you two think we should stop by first?" Mary then asked. "Any ideas, Sally?"

"I dunno," Sally replied, looking at the ground in front of her.

Heather began to think. After a moment, she concluded that the way to go here was to probably bring out one of the big guns right away.

"I know what we're gonna do first," she said, sounding determined. She then began to whisper in Mary's ear.

Mary smiled. "Brilliant idea, Heather. Let's do it!" The two of them then faced Sally. "Okay, Sally, follow us."

Sally said nothing, but complied as the three of them began making their way to their desired location.

"Oh, uh, Heather? Do you remember if this place takes walk-in customers?" Mary asked her friend as they were walking.

"Usually, yes. It's only if they're really busy that they might say to make an appointment," Heather answered. She then took a scan of the area. "Fortunately, it's fairly quiet here at the mall today."

"Appointment for what? What is it that we're doing?" Sally finally asked.

"You'll see," Mary replied, smiling at Sally.

After about two more minutes, the three girls were standing just outside the entrance to their desired attraction: Lady Sparky's Hair Salon.

Mary turned to face Sally. "So what do you think?"

"A new hairdo?" Sally asked. "You're taking me to get a new hairdo?"

"You bet!" Mary said. "Like I said earlier, one of the big things my mom and I did that day was to give me a complete makeover. And the way we started was by getting myself a new 'do."

"If you really like your current hairstyle though, Sally, we don't have to do this," Heather interjected. "I know that you've had that 'flower' hairstyle of yours for a looooong time now."

"Actually..." Sally said, shuffling her feet. "To tell you the truth, I have sort of been thinking lately that maybe it was time I changed it up a little..."

"So you'll do it?" Mary asked hopefully.

Sally was silent for several seconds. But then, she nodded.

"Yay! Let's go then," Mary said, delighted as took Sally's hand, leading her into the salon.

After waiting for a couple minutes at the front desk, a woman with long curly orange-brown hair greeted them. Fortunately, this stylist had just gotten done with her previous client and was not booked for any other appointments today, so she was able to take Sally.

A couple of minutes later, while Mary and Heather decided to do a little casual browsing while they waited, Sally was being set up nice and comfortably in one of the clients' chairs so that the stylist could get to work.

"I think I know who you are by the way. You're Charlie Brown's little sister, right?" the stylist said.

"Why, yes. I am. How do you know that?" Sally responded.

"You know Frieda Rich, right?" she asked Sally. "She's... somewhat one of Charlie Brown's friends."

"I do," Sally answered.

"Well, I'm Frieda's aunt. You may call me Francesca," the stylist told Sally before taking on a more proud tone. "I'm also, of course, Frieda's hair stylist. I'm the one who always makes sure Frieda's 'naturally' curly hair is always looking its best."

Sally couldn't help but chuckle. Yep, she could already tell that this lady really was related to Frieda.

"So, on to business. What kind of look are we going for today?" Francesca asked.

Sally began to think hard. "I... really don't know, honestly. Mary and Heather took me out here today because they thought it could help me..." but Sally stopped herself. She didn't really want to give all the details of what was going on to some random woman, even if that woman did know Sally. "...get out of a bit of a funk."

"I see," Francesca said, doing a little thinking of her own.

"Do you have any ideas?" Sally asked.

Francesca grinned and glanced down at her client. "You know, I think I know of the perfect look for ya!"

And so the stylist got to work on completely redoing Sally's hair. Meanwhile, Sally closed her eyes and began to zone out, only being brought back to reality whenever Francesca tried engaging in casual small talk with her. Sally didn't say much though, and Francesca got the impression that Sally was in the early stages of trying to move on from something... or more likely, someone. That said though, it made Francesca feel even more confident of what she was going for in regards to Sally's imminent new look. In total, it took her approximately thirty minutes before Francesca decided that she was just about done. Once she was just about satisfied with her work, she asked Sally for her opinion.

"If you want, you can stand up and walk over to that mirror over there so you can get a closer look," she told her.

Sally obliged and stood up before walking to the mirror that Francesca pointed her to. Once in front of the mirror, her eyes widened at the girl she saw staring back at her. With her new hair, which was now in a flip style, and even slightly wavy, she no longer looked like a young child, but more like a stylish preteen who would soon enough blossom into a full-fledged young lady. If it wasn't for her height, she would've easily passed now for looking the same age as Heather or Mary.

Francesca soon appeared behind Sally. "So, how do you like it, Sally? Cleans up pretty good, doesn't it? You look a couple of years older now in my opinion," she said.

"Wowwwww," was all Sally could say.

Francesca chuckled at Sally's reaction. There was no mistaking it; Sally did in fact like her new look.

Minutes later, Heather and Mary arrived back on the scene. Sally was again sitting in the clients' chair, though she was currently not visible as Francesca stood in front of the chair, hiding her from view.

"Happy to see that you girls are back," Francesca greeted the two of them. "Sally has just been given her new 'do; are you ready to be amazed?"

"We sure are," Heather replied as she and Mary waited in anticipation.

Francesca smiled and stepped out of the way. "Ta-da!" she said as she then rotated the chair so that Sally was now facing them.

"Oh my gosh!" Mary exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hands. "Sally, is that really you?"

Both Heather and Mary also noticed that for the first time since the incident with Linus had happened, that Sally was smiling.

Sally nodded shyly. "W-what do you think?"

"You look beautiful, Sally," Heather said in admiration.

"You really think so?" Sally asked, twirling a few strands of her new hair around her fingers.

Heather nodded. "Absolutely. Not only beautiful, you look more mature as well." The two girls then turned to Francesca. "We can't thank you enough for being willing to take her."

"No, no, thank you," Francesca said as she led the three girls to the cash register to pay.

Mary paid the fee for Sally's new hairdo, plus a generous tip. With the added tip, the total cost came up to be slightly higher than was expected, but there was still plenty of money left over for doing the rest of the activities that Heather and Mary wanted to do. When the transaction was completed, the three girls stepped out of the salon and resumed walking about once more.

"Well, that was a wonderful start to the journey, wouldn't you agree, Mary?" Heather asked her bestie.

"Yes, it was," Mary agreed. "Did you enjoy that experience, Sally?"

"Yes, I did. Very much so," Sally admitted.

"You feeling up for what we are about to do next?" Mary then asked.

At first, Sally was feeling pretty meh about coming here, given how she was still feeling about the whole Linus fiasco, but after her experience at the salon, she was feeling a lot lighter, and even felt somewhat happy right now. So far, this trip with the big girls really was helping her to feel a bit better, and she responded to Mary that she was in fact game for continuing onward.

"That's wonderful!" Mary said delightedly.

"But um," Sally then said. "Would it be alright if I went to the bathroom first?"

"Oh, of course," Mary replied. She then pointed to Sally's southeast. "There are bathrooms just down that hallway there."

"Thank you. I'll be right back," Sally said.

And so Sally began making her way to go pay a visit to the great white throne. But as she proceeded to turn the corner into the hallway, she accidently bumped into someone.

"Ah!"

"Whoa!"

"What the heck?!" Sally exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I should've watched where I was going," the other voice said.

"It's alright, I guess," Sally said.

The person that Sally had bumped into was a nicely dressed boy her age with short orange-red hair, though most of it was covered by the red plaid beret he was wearing. After having regained his composure, his eyes were on Sally, though he was not aware that he had begun staring at her.

"S-Sally?" he then uttered out.

"Yes, that's me," Sally responded. She then recognized who this boy was. "Harold Angel?"

"Uh-huh," he said awkwardly. The two of them were then silent for several seconds. "Oh, um. Well, I'd better be going. Nice to see you again, Sally."

"Yeah... you too," Sally replied.

The two of them then continued on their own way. At one point though, the boy looked back at Sally, taking in her new appearance. He had thought before that Sally was a nice-looking girl, but with her new, more ladylike hairstyle, she looked to him as... absolutely gorgeous. That only made it feel more disappointing to him that Sally didn't really seem to be too interested in him, thanks to the existence of her so-called "sweet babboo".

Harold Angel inadvertently let out a wistful sigh as he continued on towards where he was going.

A short time later, the small group had entered their next location. Actually, it was the first of a couple of places they were going to visit (provided that they had the time), but these visits served a singular purpose: to get Sally some nice new clothes. This first place they were at now was the dress shop that Heather and Mary had shopped at during the weeks leading up to that talent show.

Sally had a fairly decent time shopping for cute new dresses, though this was moreso because, for the first time, she had relatively free reign to pick out her own outfits.

"And finally," Sally began as she removed a bright knee-length red dress from the rack before examining it. "I think I'd like to give this one a try."

"Sounds good, Sally," Heather said. "Let's go and find the fitting room."

With a total of five different dresses and a couple of skirts now in her hands, Sally followed Mary and Heather as they led her to where the fitting rooms were. The two older girls had also found for themselves a few pieces of their own to try on, though this was just to keep busy because they knew it would take Sally a while to try on all of her stuff.

After just over a half an hour, Sally was finally finished and she came out of one of the fitting rooms. She approached Mary and Heather, who had been waiting on a bench just outside the fitting rooms.

"Sorry I took so long," Sally said sheepishly. "It was just so hard to decide which ones were best."

"That's quite alright, Sally," Mary said. "Heather can certainly relate. You should've been here when Heather was shopping for her talent show dress."

"Ha, ha," Heather retorted sarcastically. "Anyway, do you know which ones you want now?"

Sally nodded. "Yep! I want these two and this skirt," she answered, lifting up the clothing items in her left hand.

"Sounds good. I'm sure that they will look amazing on you," Mary said.

And so after returning the unwanted items to the clerk managing the fitting rooms, the three of them made their way to checkout to purchase the desired attire. After they were finished, they emerged from the shop.

"Hey, Mary, what time is it now?" Heather asked her bestie.

"It is..." Mary replied, looking at a large clock that was hanging on a nearby wall. "Oh dear, it's almost seven already!"

"Looks like we don't have much time left," Heather determined. "We haven't even gone to get dinner yet. We were going to do that before we brought Sally back home."

"Yeah. And I'm getting a little hungry myself," Mary added.

"So that's about it for today then?" Sally asked, sounding mildly disappointed.

"Aside from hitting the food court, I think so," Heather said. "Your mom did say that she wanted you back home by eight."

"Gee, if I didn't know better, it would sound to me like you really are having a good time after all, Sally," Mary said with a smirk. "Now, aren't you glad that you decided to come along?"

Sally shrugged. "I will admit it, I am having a good time with you girls. This does beat moping around back at home."

"Well, we're happy to hear it, Sally. We'll be sure to take you out again someday," Heather said, smiling at her. "Now come on, let's go get some good food before it gets too late."

And so for the last stop of the day, Heather, Sally, and Mary paid a visit to the food court. Also, currently at the food court and already eating, were Harold Angel and his mother, Harriet. The arrival of Sally and her two "chaperones" did not go unnoticed by him, and he snuck in a few glances at Sally as she and her crew were ordering their dinner.

"Harold, dear, what is it that you keep looking at?" Harold's mother asked him curiously after noticing what he was doing.

"Oh. It's nothing important," Harold answered, turning his attention back to his food. "It's just a blonde-haired girl who I go to school with. It looks like she got a new hairstyle, and perhaps also some new clothes."

Harriet grinned knowingly. "You mean Sally Brown?"

Harold nodded and took a sip of his drink. "Yeah."

Harriet mother nodded back at her son, knowing what was going on in his mind. "You still have a crush on her, don't you?"

"I guess so," Harold replied. "Despite how much time has passed, I can't seem to let this crush go. And now after seeing Sally with her new look, I think that quest has just become even harder."

"Well, you never know, Harold, my angel. You both are still really young, so it's not impossible that Sally could one day reciprocate your feelings," Harriet told him. "Alternatively, maybe you could at least try and be friends with Sally. Even if she were to never show any romantic interest in you, nothing's stopping you from becoming good pals or something."

Harold began to think about his mother's words as he finished up the last couple bites of his meal. Once he was finished, he stood up and proceeded to carry his tray to the trash. While on his way, he passed by the table that the three girls were now sitting at and glanced at Sally once more. This time though, she noticed him and gave him a small smile.

Harold smiled back. Maybe his mother was right. It wasn't like Sally hated the boy or anything (or else he'd have gotten a totally different reaction from her just now), so perhaps he should at least try to become her friend. That is, provided that Sally didn't quip about how her "Sweet Babboo" might be unhappy about Harold talking to her. Harold still would truly love though if they could one day become something more, but if not, then he would eventually get over it. Ultimately, only time would tell what would happen between him and Sally.

Finally, at approximately eight o' clock, Sally, Heather, and Mary had arrived back at the Brown household, and Heather was busy escorting Sally and her bags of new clothes up to her room.

"I know that Mary had already told you this, but thank you for letting us take you out for this fun little adventure," Heather said to Sally.

"Thank you for making me come," Sally responded as she placed her bags next to her bed. "I really did have a good time hanging out with the big girls and I hope we really can do it again soon."

Heather smiled, happy that her and Mary's plan had at least some effect. While it would take some time for Sally to completely heal from her wounded heart, it was clear that the healing process had successfully begun.

"Well, Sally, I suppose I'd better be going," Heather said. "But before I go..." Heather approached Sally and took her hands into her own." Allow me to let you know that... if you ever needed somebody to confide in, someone to talk to about anything, anything whatsoever, you are always welcome to talk to me or Mary. I've told this before to your big brother, but this is also true for you: I care about you, and I'm here for you if you ever need anything. Okay?"

Sally couldn't keep the look downright awe off her face. Not really knowing what else to say, she nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Heather."

Heather smiled at Sally once more before letting go of her hands. Heather then turned and began making her way back down into the living room.

On her way to the front door, she passed by Charlie Brown.

"So, how was your trip?" he asked.

"Everything went very well, Charlie Brown," Heather replied as she put her coat back on. "Sally was very appreciative of everything we did with, and for her. She seems to be in a much better state of mind now."

"That's great, Heather," Charlie Brown said gratefully. "You really are always able to help out those when they really need it, no matter how hard it may seem."

"Well, as you are well aware by now, I take great pride in being there for my friends," Heather said. "That, of course, means both you and your sister."

Charlie Brown smiled. Heather just never ceased to be an amazing person. With how emotionally wounded his favorite little sister had become as a result of the fallout with Linus, he had really become quite concerned for her. But despite that, it still wasn't too much for the amazing Heather and her bestie to be able to handle. After hearing the outcome of Sally's time spent with Mary and Heather, Charlie Brown felt more optimistic that perhaps Sally would be able to move on from this whole ordeal after all.

AN: And done! Sally has now begun her simultaneous healing and transformation process, and we now stand just one chapter away from being done with this Sally arc. In this chapter, we also finally had the debut of Harold Angel. Those of you who follow me on Deviantart already know that I've decided to make Sally x Harold Angel a thing in my story. And if you don't know, well, now you do.

If you don't remember who Harold Angel was, he was the character who appeared in the strips and the two TV specials where Sally was taking part in the annual Christmas play as an angel. She had one line, "Hark", and soon after her part, Harold Angel would start to sing.

Anyway, I've got an excellent subplot in the works for these two and I'm excited to start working on it. That said, I will see you guys in the near future with the next chapter. Bye!

Up Next: Chapter 28: You're A Big Girl Now, Sally!