All Aboard, Charlie Brown

Chapter 1: A New Change

It was Thursday at the Brown House, and Charlie Brown was in the living room with three of his good friends: Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, and Barney of course. Well, the Barney doll actually. They were reading the newspapers on the floor in the living room when Peppermint Patty spotted something new. "Hey Chuck, Snoop, look at what this says!" Peppermint Patty pointed.

"What?" Charlie Brown asked as he and Snoopy turned their heads.

"It says that's school's gonna be closed tomorrow for the opening of a new park." Peppermint Patty smiled. Charlie Brown and Snoopy smiled at the mention of that.

"A new park?! That sounds great!" Charlie Brown exclaimed happily.

"I know! Look at it! There's a playground, gazebo, pond, and benches. It's kid friendly, pet friendly..." Peppermint Patty said, with Snoopy smiling at the fact that there's actually a park that was built not only for his friends, but him and Woodstock as well. With no 'NO DOGS ALLOWED' signs. "Whoa! There's even an actual caboose that's also an activity center for kids to play in!"

"Neat!" Charlie Brown smiled. "That's almost like our treehouse at school. We gotta go there!"

"It opens at 9 am. I'm gonna tell Marcie about this! See you tomorrow Chuck!" Peppermint Patty smiled, heading out the door.

Charlie Brown then picked up his Barney doll, and ran to find his little sister Sally. "You're gonna come with us to the new park tomorrow, Barney! It'll be fun for you! Sally! Guess what?!" Charlie Brown yelled.

"WHAT'S WITH ALL THE YELLING?!" Sally yelled back as she came into the living room, knocking her big brother down. "It's 3:30 pm on Thursday! I want to beat the school blues before I go to sleep tonight!"

"Sorry Sally." Charlie Brown said as he got back up. "But guess what? We don't have to go to school tomorrow." Sally smiled at that prospect. "It's closed for the opening of a new park! It had all kinds of things, even a red caboose for us to play in!"

"That sounds like fun! Can Barney come too?" Sally smiled.

"Of course he's coming! Even Snoopy and Woodstock will be joining us." Charlie Brown smiled, pointing to the beagle and bird doing a happy dance. "I better call Heather! She's gonna love this news!" Charlie Brown ran to the telephone to call his girlfriend.

"This is gonna be fun, Barney!" Sally squealed with delight.

"Heather! Guess what!" Charli Brown exclaimed.

"What?" Heather asked as her boyfriend told her everything. "Amazing!"

"Just…one question." Realized Charlie Brown

"What is it?" Heather asked.

"How are we gonna convince the gang to come to the park with us?" Charlie Brown asked.

"I got an idea." Heather smiled.

Later that evening, the gang, even Snoopy and Woodstock, gathered at the round table in the treehouse for a meeting. Charlie Brown and Heather both hoped that by telling their friends that change can be good and the park can be as fun as school and the treehouse, that they'll go with them. "Thank you everyone for coming to this very important meeting." Charlie Brown smiled before sitting down with Heather. "Ever since our parents built this treehouse six years ago, we all had fun playing up in here."

"We all made great music, made great things, made great friends." Heather happily added.

"But we must bring this chapter of our young lives to a close." Charlie Brown said, making most of his friends worried.

"What do you mean by that, Charlie Brown?" Linus asked.

"Are they tearing down the treehouse?!" Franklin asked worried.

"NO! They can't do this!" Sally screamed. "Let's sue the PTA!" Everyone except Charlie Brown and Heather got into a frenzy. Heather then whistled, gaining their friends attention.

"Guys, listen! The treehouse is not getting torn down!" Heather yelled. Everyone sighed with relief. "We just thought that maybe now would be a good time to move our fun and games to a different place."

"Any questions?" asked Charlie Brown as Linus raised his hand.

"Yes, Linus?" Heather replied.

"Will we still see Miss Etta and Scooter?" Linus asked.

"We will, just not as often." Heather said.

"And what about the hammock-" Peppermint Patty quivered in realization.

"We'll take the hammock, but maybe there'll be a better hammock in the caboose." Charlie Brown added.

"I like that idea, Chuck." the tomboy sighed in relief.

Marcie raised her hand. "Yes?" asked Lucy.

"Why can't we just stay at the treehouse?" Marcie asked, spinning in her seat.

"This might be fun." Linus said timidly.

"What could?" Scooter asked, popping out of the hole in the table.

"Who's gonna tell them?" whispered Lucy to Charlie Brown.

"Not I." Charlie Brown explained. "Sally should tell him. she and Eudora met them first."

"Why me?" Sally asked. "It should be Linus!"

"Not I!" Linus exclaimed.

"I'm NOT doing this." Marcie sighed, still spinning in the chair. "I mean, we'll still see Booker T, but Scooter and Miss Etta…not so much."

"WHAT?! WHY?!" gasped Scooter as the kids groaned.

"She told him…" the rest of the kids sighed.

"Are you moving away?" Scooter gasped.

"No…" Linus soothed as Miss Etta flew by.

"Oh child, what's wrong?" she asked.

"They're going away." Scooter sniffled.

"No; we're going to the grand opening of the park." Sally said.

"Sounds like fun, child." Miss Etta said.

"And we'll visit whenever we can, and bring LOTS of acorns and birdseed." Heather said.

"It's gonna be fine, Scoots McNutty. We won't be abandoning you and Miss Etta. We're just gonna be checking out the new park." Peppermint patty promised. "Now give your ol' pal Peppermint a big hug!"

"Okay." Scooter sniffled.

"We'll still see the gang, just not as much as before." Miss Etta added, teary eyed. "And do drop by when you can."

"We will. You can count on that." Promised Charlie Brown. "So, who wants to go to the new park tomorrow?" almost everyone's hands shot up-except for Lucy, Violet, Patty Swanson and Frieda. "All appose?" their hands shot up. "Why?"

"What if the new park sucks?" complained Violet.

"What about our friends? Hannah, Jeff, Jill, Linda, Emily, Robert, Kristen, Keesha, Kim, Chip-" Patty Swanson stated.

"We'll still hang out here time-to-time." Charlie Brown said.

"And all the memories here!" whined Frieda. "There're too many tokens in here that remind us of here."

"And what if the treehouse is cut down!" Lucy exclaimed.

"We won't let that happen." Schroeder said, putting his hands in hers. "We'll still come up here to play with the others, but remember what happened with Tina and Derek after they changed schools? We still saw each other. Everything will be okay."

"In that case, meeting adjourned." Sally said.

Marcie sighed. "I think I'll look through the treehouse telescope one last time, Sir." She explained. "I'll miss it a lot."

"I know you will. I'll miss playing games here." Peppermint Patty smiled. "And those times I carried you here on my back. And all those adventures we had with Big Purple."

"It's all gonna be okay, gang. And we'll all have new adventures with Barney, Baby Bop and BJ." Charlie brown said as Eudora entered.

"Well, are you ready for the grand opening tomorrow?" she asked.

"Will you be there?" Sally asked.

"Of course!" cheered Eudora. "As long as you're gonna be there too."

"We ALL will." Lucy said, ironically. She then told Violet, Patty Swanson and Frieda. "Let's see if we like it before having adventures."

"And do visit often." Scooter said.

"When one of us isn't at the park, the other will be here with you two." Linus told Scooter and Miss Etta.

"Have fun at the park for us." Miss Etta said.

"And tell Barney we say hi." Scooter smiled. "BJ and Baby Bop too."

"We will." Charlie Brown said happily.