First Kiss Revisited

CHAPTER 1: "INSTEAD OF THE GOAT, YOU WERE THE HERO, CHARLIE BROWN!"

The previous night had been a blur for poor Charlie Brown. He barely remembered the game from yesterday, and he didn't have any memory about the dance afterwards. But many kids did remember yesterday. Seemingly he had lost his team the football game, but managed to charm the homecoming queen, who was his crush Heather Wold, the Little Red-Haired Girl. But what all of the kids failed to realize was, Charlie Brown didn't actually cost them the game.

Lucy Van Pelt, his, you could say, frenemy, was the actual culprit. It was common knowledge that she always pulled the football away from Charlie Brown whenever he came running up to kick it. But, for some reason or other, folks could not put two and two together when it came to Lucy holding the ball during the game. And no one more so than Peppermint Patty, who blamed Charlie Brown even more than the other kids. But there was at least a couple of kids who KNEW the truth.

"Lucille held the ball for Charles, sir!" argued Marcie. "She has always pulled it away when he came running up to kick it! Everyone knows that she does that to him when it's just them at leisure. Why WOULDN'T she do it during the game, other than to make him look like a fool?!"

"She said she wouldn't pull it away, Marcie," Peppermint Patty argued back. "She gave me her word that she would cooperate."

"And you BELIEVED her?!" asked a bewildered Marcie. "This is Lucy Van Pelt we're talking about! The biggest Charlie Brown teaser around! She makes Violet Gray look like an amateur by comparison! Of course she would pull the ball away to humiliate Charles; even during an important game!"

"No one has proof that Lucille pulled it away, Marcie," Patty said. "Everyone said that Chuck lost the game. How the queen was able to look past it is beyond me. I guess she has a thing for blockheads."

"So do you, sir," muttered Marcie.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. At least review the tapes and see. If she doesn't pull it away from Charles, I'll leave it alone and admit that he truly did lose us the game. But if it shows that she DID pull it away, you need to make things right with Charles."

"IF anything turns up, Marcie, I will be the first to apologize to Chuck. Don't hold your breath, though."

Elsewhere, a mysterious figure was looking over the tapes with Woodstock. He was the cameraman, or bird, during the game. The figure played some footage of Lucy talking to Violet about a scheme she concocted against Charlie Brown*, and even footage of the game where Charlie Brown was about to kick the ball, only for Lucy to pull it away at the last second.

"Why won't anyone believe that Charlie Brown didn't lose the game, Woodstock?" asked the figure, who was revealed to be Heather Wold, the little red-haired girl and Homecoming Queen herself. "Any blind man could see the sabotage Lucy did to him. This is worse than what happened to that wrestler in Montreal." Woodstock chirped in agreement.

"Another thing is, why did Snoopy fail to do anything? Not even draw a flag on the plays, or something? Woodstock, maybe you can see why Snoopy didn't act, seeing how he's your friend. I'll edit this footage for a special tape, in case Lucy decides to pull this again in a future game." And Woodstock flew out to meet up with Snoopy. Heather continued to work on the footage.

NEXT CHAPTER: OTHER KIDS REACTIONS

(*) See the PEANUTS: The Next Chapter episode "Homecoming Redemption" to read about Lucy's scheme