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  “Ohhh, you like the Little Red-Haired Girl!” she realized.

  That’s when it hit Snoopy. His book would not be a spy story. It would be a love story! It was just the inspiration he needed.

  Chapter Eight

  Fifi

  Snoopy raced back to the typewriter on top of his doghouse. He ripped out the paper already in it and replaced it with a fresh sheet. He knew exactly what masterpiece he needed to write!

  He furiously began to type:

  Chapter One: It Was the Greatest Story Ever Told

  The Flying Ace emerged from the airport wearing his green cap, red scarf, and goggles. But when he saw his plane, he gasped. He couldn’t believe his eyes. This was a disaster!

  The plane was in a shambles! Parts were scattered everywhere. He approached Woodstock, the leader of his flight crew. Woodstock started chirping orders to his team of mechanics-- young birds loyal to the Flying Ace.

  There was a flurry of action as the crew quickly fixed the plane. The Flying Ace stood behind it, inspecting it, as Woodstock turned the propeller.

  POOF! A cloud of black smoke shot out, covering the Flying Ace. Woodstock glared at his team of mechanics.

  The sound of an airplane engine filled the air. It was coughing and sputtering. The Flying Ace looked up to see a white plane chugging across the sky. Black smoke trailed from the tail. The plane was in trouble, and was coming down for a landing.

  As it got closer, the Flying Ace saw that the plane was a White Albatross. A real beauty. The pilot flew her in for a safe, expert landing.

  The Flying Ace walked toward the plane. The pilot stepped out and removed her flying cap to reveal the lovely face of a French poodle. The Flying Ace’s mouth dropped.

  Her name was Fifi. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

  Fifi moved to the front of her plane and removed one of the panels. She pulled out a wrench and got to work fixing the engine. A smudge of grease appeared on her cheek, but the Flying Ace thought it only made her look more beautiful. She was gorgeous, and she could fix an engine!

  Suddenly the Flying Ace felt self-conscious. He rubbed most of the grease spots (but not all) from his own fur. Then he ran to the grass and picked some purple flowers. He turned to go back to the plane, but Fifi was already taking off again.

  The Flying Ace watched in awe as Fifi flew off toward the horizon-- right through a heart-shaped cloud.

  He was in love. But when would he ever see her again?

  Chapter Nine

  Advice. 5 Cents.

  Snoopy stopped typing and sniffed the bouquet of flowers in his hand. They smelled as fresh and sweet as new love.

  Woodstock took out a red pen and started marking up what Snoopy had written. Snoopy dropped the flowers on Woodstock, who chirped his objection.

  Snoopy picked up another blank sheet of paper and was about to feed the typewriter when he saw Charlie Brown moping on the back stoop.

  “Hmm. Maybe I should bring the Little Red-Haired Girl a housewarming gift,” he said. “Snoopy, what do you think she would like? What should I bring?”

  Snoopy jumped off his doghouse, holding a flower. He handed it to Charlie Brown.

  “Thanks, Snoopy,” Charlie Brown said. He took a deep breath and stood up. Then he began to slowly walk toward the Little Red-Haired Girl’s house. Snoopy marched faithfully by his side.

  “I can’t believe I am about to talk to the Little Red-Haired Girl,” Charlie Brown said, looking down at Snoopy. “It’s moments like this when you need your faithful friend.”

  Charlie Brown stopped at the front door. He reached out to ring the doorbell . . . and then turned and walked away.

  Snoopy pushed him back to the door.

  “Yup. If there is one person you want by your side at a moment like this, it’s your loyal dog,” Charlie Brown repeated.

  Charlie Brown reached for the doorbell . . . and then turned away again. This time Snoopy reached out and pushed the doorbell for him. Snoopy bolted!

  “Aaah!” Charlie Brown wailed.

  The Little Red-Haired Girl opened the door. She looked around, but she didn’t see anybody there.

  “Hello? Hello?” she called out.

  Nobody answered. She shrugged and closed the door.

  If she had looked more closely, she would have noticed that the plant on her front stoop had legs and feet. Charlie Brown took the plant off his head and breathed a sigh of relief. Snoopy looked at him and shook his head.

  Charlie Brown sighed. What was the matter with him? Why couldn’t he work up the courage to talk to the Little Red-Haired Girl?

  He needed advice, and he knew just where to find it. He walked over to the Van Pelt house just as the winter sun began to set overhead.

  He found Lucy sitting behind a wooden booth on her lawn. The hand-painted sign in front of the roof read, PSYCHIATRIC ADVICE. 5 CENTS.

  “Charlie Brown! What brings you here so late in the day?” Lucy asked.

  “I need your advice on girls, Lucy,” Charlie Brown said. “You’re a girl, right?”

  Lucy glared at him.

  “Let’s just say there’s this girl I’d like to impress,” Charlie Brown continued, “but she’s something and I’m nothing. If I were something and she was nothing, I could talk to her, or if she was nothing and I was nothing, I could talk to her. But she’s something and I’m nothing, so I can’t just talk to her.”

  “That’s ridiculous, Charlie Brown!” Lucy said.

  “She has a pretty face, and pretty faces make me nervous,” Charlie Brown explained.

  “Pretty face? Pretty face?” Lucy asked, getting angrier each time she said it. “I HAVE A PRETTY FACE! HOW COME MY FACE DOESN’T MAKE YOU NERVOUS? HOW COME YOU CAN TALK TO ME, CHARLIE BROWN?”

  Lucy pulled out a hand mirror and looked at her reflection. She fluffed her hair and then smiled confidently.

  “I just need to know the secret to winning her heart,” Charlie Brown said.

  “Girls want someone with proven success,” Lucy said. “Have you won any awards? Like a Congressional Medal of Honor? Or a Nobel Peace Prize?”

  Charlie Brown frowned. “Uh . . .”

  “What are your real estate holdings? Do you have a diversified portfolio?” Lucy asked.

  Now Charlie Brown was really confused. “Huh?”

  Lucy leaned forward. “Let me let you in on a little secret, Charlie Brown,” she said. “If you really want to impress girls, you need to show them you’re a winner!”

  She pulled out a book, 10 Ways to Become a Winner!, and handed it to Charlie Brown.

  Now, this was something he could understand. “A winner? Me? Lucy, you may be on to something!”

  He started flipping through the book, not listening to her.

  “Of course, when I say ‘you,’ you know I don’t mean you personally,” she went on. “We all know you couldn’t possibly win anything, Charlie Brown!”

  Then she held out a metal cup. “That will be five cents, please!” she said, tapping loudly on the book to get his attention.

  Charlie Brown dropped a coin into the cup and walked away. Lucy smiled with satisfaction, shaking her can of nickels.

  “Ah! Nickels, nickels, nickels. What a beautiful sound!”

  Chapter Ten

  The Talent Show

  The next day, Charlie Brown paced around his room reading 10 Ways to Become a Winner!

  “ ‘Congratulations, you’re on your way to becoming a winner!’ ” he read out loud. “ ‘Step one: Forget everything you know about yourself.’ Hmm. Okay.”

  That was a confusing step. If he wasn’t himself, then who was he?

  “ ‘Step two. Project confidence!’ ” he read.

  Charlie Brown put his free hand on his hip, trying to strike a confident pose. Snoopy peeked in to see what he was up to.

  Charlie Brown read the next line. “ ‘Don’t slouch!’ ”

  He straightened his back and stood as tall as he could. Sn
oopy jumped into the room and copied him.

  “ ‘Maintain eye contact at all times.’ ”

  Charlie Brown looked at himself in the mirror on his dresser. Snoopy’s head slowly rose up. The boy and his dog looked at each other, staring into each other’s eyes.

  It was a staring contest! Charlie Brown and Snoopy stared at each other intensely. Their eyes began to water. Finally, Charlie Brown blinked, and Snoopy did a victory dance.

  Then they both heard a loud crashing noise from the living room and rushed to investigate it. There they found the room filled with cardboard boxes painted to look like rodeo barrels. Sally was dressed as a rodeo rider and held a lasso in her hand. She rode a horse made from a mop with a paper bag for a nose.

  “Giddyap, little pony! Yee-haw!” Sally cried.

  “What are you doing?” Charlie Brown asked.

  “I’m going to be a rodeo star in the school talent show!” she announced. She started twirling her lasso, and then she began to talk like a cowboy. “Why, when I win that first prize ribbon, there will be no one who hasn’t heard the name Sally Brown, and her trusted horse, Target!”

  She tossed the lasso at Charlie Brown. It landed on his head and shoulders and then loosely fell to the floor. Then Sally jumped on Snoopy’s back and rode out of the living room with a triumphant “Yee-haw!”

  Charlie Brown’s eyes lit up. “Win the talent show. Now, that’s a great idea! That’s just the sort of thing Lucy was talking about!”

  Charlie Brown didn’t have much time to get an act together, but Snoopy helped him. Over the next few nights, they worked on some homemade magic tricks. Charlie Brown had seen lots of magicians on TV. It couldn’t be that hard, could it?

  Things didn’t start out so smoothly. He began by putting a pile of fruit on the kitchen table. Then he pulled out the tablecloth. In a perfect trick, the fruit would stay exactly where it was.

  “Ta-da!” Charlie Brown said.

  But when Charlie Brown tried it, all the fruit rolled to the floor.

  But the failed trick didn’t discourage him. He and Snoopy worked hard on their act. They made a disappearing box, a levitation box, and even a body-switching box—all out of cardboard.

  When the night of the talent show arrived, Charlie Brown was nervous and excited at the same time. Backstage, he got his tricks ready as the house lights went down and the stage lights went up. Everyone in the audience hushed—including the Little Red-Haired Girl.

  The show opened with Schroeder, who played a piece by Beethoven on his piano.

  Backstage, Charlie Brown’s friends saw him pushing in a cart carrying his homemade tricks. They looked pretty impressive—and so did Charlie Brown. He wore a spiffy tuxedo and a tall top hat.

  “Whoa, look at that,” said Frieda.

  “That can’t be Charlie Brown, can it?” asked Patty.

  “Wow!” said Shermy.

  Charlie Brown took off his hat and handed it to Snoopy. Then he walked to the curtain and peeked out at the crowd. There, in the third row, sat the Little Red-Haired Girl.

  “She’s here,” Charlie Brown said. “I have a really good feeling that tonight she will see the new Charlie Brown.”

  “Charlie Brown,” a voice repeated, and a spotlight clicked on backstage, illuminating Lucy.

  “Charlie Brown,” she said. “I’m surprised to see you here. After a lifetime of failure, I—”

  Lucy looked to her right and saw a shadow imitating her. It was Snoopy!

  “Ugh, I ought to slug you!” Lucy cried.

  She swung at Snoopy, who ducked. Then he licked Lucy’s face. Lucy shrieked and started to run in circles.

  “Ugh! I’ve been kissed by a dog! I have dog germs! Get hot water! Get some disinfectant! Get some iodine!”

  One by one the acts took the stage. Franklin rushed around, organizing the performers.

  “Let’s keep this thing moving, time’s a-wasting!” he urged.

  The audience applauded for each act. A nervous Marcie held wooden boards while Peppermint Patty karate chopped them. Then it was Sally’s turn. She was all dressed up in her rodeo costume, holding her homemade mop horse. The stage crew worked quickly to set up her boxes painted to look like rodeo barrels.

  “Okay, Sally, you’re up,” Franklin told her. “We’re running behind, so get a move on.”

  Sally nodded and galloped forward as the curtain opened.

  “Giddyap, little pony!” she cried. “Yee-haw!”

  Sally leaped onto the stage as Western music played in the background. “Ride ’em cowgirl!” she cheered, twirling her lasso.

  Some people in the crowd laughed nervously at her silly excuse for a horse. That made Sally nervous. She tossed the lasso over a cardboard cow, and it fell over with a thud.

  The crowd laughed again, and then they went silent. Poor Sally was so embarrassed! She stopped galloping, and the paper bag nose of her horse slid off.

  Sally froze, mortified. She stared out at the crowd. The music stopped. An uncomfortable silence filled the auditorium.

  Charlie Brown was busy setting up his magic boxes when Franklin pulled him aside.

  “Your sister is really dying out there,” Franklin informed him.

  The boys peeked onstage, and Charlie Brown frowned. His sister wasn’t even moving.

  “Sorry, Charlie Brown, this has gone on long enough,” Franklin said. He called to the stage crew. “Drop the curtain!”

  Charlie Brown held up his hand. “Don’t do that! She hasn’t finished her act yet.”

  “Well, it’s either her act or yours,” Franklin said. “We can’t let this go on forever.”

  Charlie Brown looked onstage again. Sally had tears in her eyes now. He knew what he had to do. He looked down at Snoopy.

  “Come on, Snoopy. We’ve got to help Sally,” he said.

  Charlie Brown moved to the table he had set up with a tablecloth and a tower of fruit. Without even thinking, he pulled off the tablecloth. Not a single piece of fruit moved!

  Charlie Brown walked off. A minute later, he appeared onstage.

  “Moo!” he said.

  Charlie Brown had worked quickly to make a cow costume. He had cut holes in his tux to look like the patterns of a cow. He’d used the tablecloth to make horns and a tail.

  The crowd started to laugh. Everyone craned his or her neck to get a better look. The Little Red-Hair Girl eyed him curiously.

  “Big brother? What are you doing?” Sally whispered frantically.

  “Rope me!” Charlie Brown hissed back. “Moo!”

  Snoopy bounded onstage wearing a bridle and saddle. Sally jumped onto his back. In her excitement, she grabbed Snoopy’s ears like they were reins and pulled back hard. He let out a wild shriek.

  Then Sally galloped across the stage, riding Snoopy and chasing Charlie Brown!

  “I’m gonna get you!” she cried.

  Sally chased Charlie Brown all over the stage. The crowd loved it! Sally got caught up in the excitement. She rode Snoopy like a crazed cowgirl on a wild stallion.

  Charlie Brown ran backstage to escape her, but Sally followed him. Franklin dove out of the way, grabbing the rope to the backstage curtain as he fell. The curtain pulled up, revealing all of the backstage performers.

  Sally and Charlie Brown crashed through them all, knocking over microphone stands and props. The performers fled, screaming. They almost trampled Peppermint Patty, but Marcie quickly grabbed her by the arm and judo flipped her out of the way.

  “Sorry, sir,” Marcie said.

  But Peppermint Patty was impressed. “Good one!”

  Lucy was too busy leaning on Schroeder’s piano and gazing into his eyes to notice the commotion. But Schroder saw the cow and cowgirl coming and swiftly yanked his piano out of harm’s way, knocking over Lucy.

  “You can run, little doggie, but you can’t hide!” Sally called to Charlie Brown.

  Franklin leaped out of her way, pulling the backstage curtain back down with him. Now Charl
ie Brown was back onstage, with Sally still chasing him on Snoopy.

  She tossed the lasso and it landed around his chest. He flew up, then crashed down to the stage. Sally got off Snoopy and ran to Charlie Brown. She picked him up like a rodeo rider holding a calf, tossed him onto his side, and wrapped the rope around him.

  “My name is Calamity Sally, the best bronco-busting, lasso-roping cowgirl in this here town!” she announced.

  The crowd went wild! Sally leaned over to Charlie Brown and whispered in his ear.

  “Thanks, big brother,” she said.

  Lightbulbs flashed as everyone took pictures of Charlie Brown, all tied up in his silly cow costume.

  Charlie Brown groaned. This was not the way he wanted to get famous!

  Chapter Eleven

  She Likes to Dance!

  The next day at school Charlie Brown’s photo was plastered on the front of the school newspaper. The headline read, Moo!

  “Good grief,” Charlie Brown said with a sigh as he saw the stack of newspapers by the lunchroom entrance. “It’s not really that bad, is it? Nobody reads the school paper anyhow.”

  Charlie Brown walked into the cafeteria. Every single student was reading a newspaper! They all looked up at him.

  “Moo!” they said loudly.

  Embarrassed, Charlie Brown walked over to Linus.

  “Look on the bright side, Charlie Brown,” Linus said. “At least you made the front page.”

  “Is there any chance that the Little Red-Haired Girl doesn’t read the school paper?” Charlie Brown wondered hopefully.

  The boys sat at their usual table and took out their lunches.

  “Peanut butter again,” Charlie Brown reported as he unwrapped his sandwich. Then he spied the Little Red-Haired Girl across the room. He stared at her.

  “You know, Charlie Brown, if you like her so much, why not just walk up to her and introduce yourself?” Linus asked.

  “After the complete fool I made out of myself last night?” Charlie Brown replied. “Yeah, and why don’t I just fly to the moon!”

  Linus bit into his sandwich while Charlie Brown continued to stare at the Little Red-Haired Girl. He watched as Violet, Patty, and Lucy joined her at the table and they began talking.