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Chapter Text

Ever since he was young, Schroeder’s biggest love in life was the piano, his father who liked to play too, gifted him a small toy one when he was very young. After that, for every birthday since he was three, he had asked for something related to the instrument, whether it was a book about classical music you can play on a piano or a bust of Beethoven’s head, he was obsessed. When his father passed away he’d play on his toy piano to cheer his mother up. His dream in life was to become the best pianist of his age and bring joy to more people, his idol: Ludwig Beethoven, whose biography his father left for him after his passing. Ludwig van Beethoven was also devoted to piano from a young age just like him, piano’s what got him through his difficult home life and boy could Schroeder relate to that. 

When Schroeder was young he was intimidated by a big, proper piano but at one point during his youth he was faced with the fact that he'd never progress to Beethoven level with a toy piano, especially not without black keys. Now he was playing on proper keyboards and grand pianos all the time, his school had really high hopes for him and he’d even been featured on a morning show once for his prodigious skill. 

That evening after school, Schroeder was as always practising piano in the music room, one of Beethoven’s pieces, he usually got privacy here besides one thing-“Hey Schroeder!” Lucy Van Pelt boisterously called as she damn near kicked the door open. Schroeder was a reserved boy and rarely attracted attention but this girl had bothered him ever since they were in Kindergarten. Back then she’d declared her love for him constantly but at one time, around the start of their teens they both talked it out and agreed that they were just really good friends, suppose Lucy’s interest was some childish infatuation that just faded away as they both grew up. The agreement didn't stop her from bothering him in a friendly way though, but that was just an aspect of her personality he had to put up with either way.

Lucy was as ambitious as him with her hopes for the future, though they were less... focused. One week she'd declare she wanted to be an actress then the next a journalist, then after that a newreporter and then it went on and on... But that meant she was involved with a lot of ciricullar and extracurricular activities and had a huge workload so he often saw her leaving late like they did and so since they lived very close to each other, he suggested they stick together when they stayed late after school. He didn't think they'd make it a daily thing but here they were...

They walked home together at around six when the music room would shut, Lucy usually sat there doing work or if there was something they both had to do for their theatre class they could practise simultaneously.

She swung her backpack onto the ground as she sat by his side. He glanced towards her momentarily, her dark hair was getting quite long these days, almost down to her hips. He wondered passingly whether she’d finally cut it, she always kept it at shoulder length when they were kids. She bent back and stretched before looking back at him. She should be going sit on the table behind him and get some actual work done. “Why’d you stop playing?” she asked. “I quite like- What’s it called? Beethoven’s Ode to Joy?”

He looked towards her for a moment, in shock. “Hold on, how did you know-” Lucy was confused for a moment as to why he looked so stunned until it finally hit herstunned. Ohh, Schroeder was so stupid he thought I just instinctively knew the name of the song. Of course it sounded familiar to Lucy from years of sitting next to Schroeder as he played, but she didn’t know its name like that, still she could use this opportunity to make herself look smart in front of him, therefore cementing herself as the superior friend!!!

Lucy shrugged casually, trying hard not to look at the music sheet, which was the real reason why she knew the name of the piece he was playing as it contained its name. “Why wouldn’t I know its name? It's one of Beethoven’s best,” she said, with her nose in the air. “And you’re always going on about that guy, aren’t you? Of course a good friend would know things about their friend’s interests.” However she made a lethal mistake when her eyes flickered back to the sheet music on the piano for a moment. He looked in that direction, suddenly catching her in her scheme.

“You liar! You just saw the name right there!!!” he exclaimed, pointing to his sheet music dramatically, she was secretly pleased to have riled him up.

She clutched her chest with offence. “How dare you accuse me of lying! You have no way of proving that!”

He sighed and looked back to the keys, there was practise to do, so much practise... “It's not that big of a deal Lucy, just let me focus now, you’re distracting me-” She was procrastinating on an essay she had for English class and decided to draw the whole situation out, Schroeder had already done his, not wanting anything to get in the way of his music which held priority. 

“N-n-n-no!,” she interrupted, he rolled his eyes, banging out the last notes in frustration. “I’ll show you, you play me some more classics and if I manage to name them all, you’ll have to admit I’m not lying.” She crossed her arms and  tried to appear confident, even though she knew she would probably fail if he said yes. 

He wanted to practise piano in solitude, but he supposed trying to play some of his favourites by heart was a good warm up and he was curious as to how many Lucy would get, to some extent. It was only her time that was technically getting wasted. “Alright,” he shrugged. “Let’s test your knowledge.” he drummed his fingers on the keys as he thought of what  to play. 

“This’ll be easy,” she lied. God, why do I put myself in these situations? And why did he agree anyway?! He started it off simple, with a classic that everyone knows. Lucy gasped.  “It's Fur Elise!” she called before he’d gotten past the first few notes. 

Schroeder stopped playing and shrugged relaxedly. “Well, that was an easy one, I would’ve considered you a lost cause if you didn’t get it.” Lucy seethed internally, but tried to keep her composure on the outside. 

“Next song please,” she requested through gritted teeth. Next, he played ‘Moonlight Sonata’, which she also surprisingly got. Jeez, maybe I was being too harsh. She does seem to know *some* things! Lucy was also surprised at herself, she didn’t think she’d even get one. 

Next song is where she lost her streak. What was this song? It sounds familiar but I can't put my finger on it. She scoured her brain for some faint recollection of it, but time was ticking and she stilll hadn't figured it out. He was coming to the end of the song and looked at her while waiting for the answer. “Well?” he asked, with a smirk, noticing her prolonged silence. She avoided his gaze. 

“Uh- I dunno-” She wracked her brain trying to think of a name, of course she didn’t know the name! She wasn’t some Beethoven geek was she? Well, she was screwed either way. “The nutcracker?” she suggested, knowing that she was completely wrong.

“Ahahahhaha!” he almost fell off the bench with his obnoxious laughter. “That’s not even Beethoven!” She rolled her eyes at his incredibly petty response. Geez, we’re not ten.

“I know that! I just couldn’t think of this piece’s name so I just named a random one!” she retorted, as he clutched his sides laughing. What a sad sense of humour! That wasn’t funny at all…

She crossed her arms and glared at him. “Well, give it to me, what piece was that?”

“Turkish march, so there, you were lying at the beginning-” said Schroeder, nodding his head. 

“Objection!” she called, raising her index finger. “I only-”

“Objection! You’re not a lawyer yet, not by a long shot!” He interrupted her, knowing her current goal of becoming a lawyer, one which she’ll probably change her mind about in a few weeks, in the Lucy fashion. She needed to stick to something… Or maybe not, Lucy just the way she was indecisive as all hell was endearing.

She ignored that obvious ad hominem. “I WAS ABOUT TO SAY I ONLY-” she began matching his volume. Suddenly, the door opened and Lucy went quiet and straightened up. 

“Oh, it’s you two again,” said Mrs Sweeney, the music teacher with a tired sigh. “Try to keep it down please, inside voices, next time you’ll both be banned from the music room.” She gave them both dissappointed looks from behind her thick,red glasses. 

“But-” began Schroeder, fearing her threats and upset at her disappointment. This was all Lucy’s fault, it’s her who was causing the trouble all the time and now even the teachers were lumping him in with her. Before he could defend himself, the woman had already left, shutting the door behind her. 

“Just because I didn’t know ONE of THREE song’s names doesn't mean I lied about knowing the name of the first one,” she continued, as if the teacher’s warning meant nothing. 

He shook his head. “I don’t care about that anymore, you were being too loud as always and you got us both in trouble,” he complained.“Now the music teacher probably thinks I’m some kind of troublemaker.”  Lucy had a stupid grin on her face, he knew exactly what she was about to bring up. 

“Oh I’m really sorry Schroeder, are you worried I ruined your chances with her?” she snickered, wiggling her eyebrows and bringing her face closer. Schroeder’s face went crimson red. Lucy was referring to the fact that Schroeder had a minor crush on the music teacher back in the day. When Freida discovered a Valentine’s card he had written to the fairly young teacher, the news spread like wildfire and everyone at school teased him about it for months. 

He pushed her smug face away. “Oh my God! This again! That was ages ago!” he groaned. 

“Inside voices,” she replied with relish, putting a finger to her lips. Arghhhh!

He sighed to compose himself. “Well it's not like that, obviously . It’s just she’s the head of the music department this year and I really don’t want all of your stupid antics to reflect badly on me, we have to apply to college soon y’know.”

“MY stupid antics?” she gasped with a hand dramatically held to his chest. “I believe we share custody of these antics.” He rolled his eyes and looked over to his sheet music rifling through it to decide what to play next. What a pain.

She went to the other table and brought out a stack of papers which she adjusted neatly, then she brought out a shiny pink pencil case, aligning it perfectly with the lined paper. “Well don’t disturb me any longer, I have a meeting with the student committee tomorrow and I need to prepare my notes.”

“You’re the one who started speaking again…” he mumbled. "And shouldn't your first priority be that essay?"

"Oh! I forgot about that!" exclaimed Lucy, rummaging through her bag again, he rolled his eyes. 

-///-                                                                                  

Chapter Text

She sat next to him at the piano, playing one note herself and disturbing his good rythm. Her red satchel hitting his foot as she took the seat besides him on the bench. She'd really had a bummer of a day.  

"Lucy, I'm trying to practice here." Boy, how many times has he said it throughout his whole life? If Beethoven had a Lucy he never would've anything done. The deal with staying late and walking home together was about getting work done, not messing around, it certainly didn’t involve Lucy poking at the keys while he played. "Go do your work over there."

"I'm taking a quick break," she replied, extracting a drink from her bag and taking a swig. "Go on then, practice away." He obliged, she interupted him again, his fingers twitched with frustration. "Y’know, I've been learning a thing or two on the piano too, just thought I'd let you know." What she meant was that Frieda and her had messed around on the keyboards a few days ago when they'd gone there to do 'work', her boyfriend let them, being the leader of the jazz band and all, they always practised on a Wednesday.

He looked towards her with mild amusement. "I didn't know I had a competition.” He started playing a random piece. He glanced over to see if Lucy was paying attention.

"Chopin?" she asked, for sure looking at his music sheet title again. 

He hummed in agreement, nodding. "Polonaise in A, it's a work in progress,"he shrugged. “So what have you learnt to play?”

She frowned. "Polo-what? I was just gonna say I'd learnt happy birthday."

He leant forwards. “Psshhhh-” Suddenly he got a karate chop to the back which knocked the wind out of him. 

“Hey! Happy birthday you can play loads because everyone has at least one birthday everyday! Who needs to play mayonnaise!” argued Lucy as he soothed his back. 

“POLONAISE,” he corrected, knowing she probably said it wrong on purpose. 

“SAME THING,” she replied. He waited for her to move off of the piano bench onto the desk nearby to do some work but she just stayed there. Come on, how are you going to become the first female president or whatever it is this week with that work ethic! He sort of enjoyed the company though… Suppose it was a case of familiarity, 

He started playing the first 30 seconds of the piece, William Tell by Rossini. It was flawless, obviously.

"You have to be such a braggart about the piano," she sighed, a hand resting on her cheek.

He smirked. “Well I am good at it,” he shrugged.

"What's the hardest thing you can play?" she challenged teasingly, ignoring the script she was supposed to be going over. 

He hummed in thought for a brief moment. Flight of the bumblebee seems to impress a lot of folks, so he started playing. He would never admit it, but he learnt it just to brag. As soon as he started she had to back away as his movements became more dramatic, his fingers moving over each key in a blur. Schroeder was glad Lucy was an amateur because he'd actually made a lot of mistakes as he played the difficult piece. She watched as he played, head bent down, lazer focused on the keys below him like nothing else existed. His tempo... or whatever. It was like a person possessed.

Her mouth dropped, slightly as the piece  ended, but she hoped he hadn't noticed. Maybe he was the next Beethoven... I better keep in touch. "That was good, but I can play a mean 'Mary had a little lamb'" she joked after a bit, before pressing each key to the nursery rhyme  with  her index finger slowly with stern concentration. He clapped after she was finished.

"Thank you, thank you," she got up and lifted her legs to move away from the bench, then bowed dramatically.

"Such skill... I'm truly astounded," he joked, sarcastically. 

"I know, I know,"she said, flicking her thick black hair. "I could be the next Beethoven."

He let out an "ehh" sound. "Nah. Mozart. He's more your speed,"

"You're right, I can be the next Mozart and you can be the next Beethoven, agreed?" She pointed at herself then at him.

Schroeder rolled his eyes and began to play again only to get interrupted minutes later as she put her script for the next school play down.

"Did Mozart and Beethoven ever meet? Do a feature together or something?" She seemed to remember them coming around the same time.

Schroeder shrugged, appreciating the genuine interest."They knew of each other, whether they met is a subject of debate amongst historians.”

She stared at his back for a bit before saying what was on her mind. “I’m not annoying am I?” she asked quietly, causing him to turn back to her as she sharpened her pencil as if she hadn’t asked such a serious question. He’d be annoyed by yet another interruption if he weren’t so concerned. 

“Where’s this coming from?”

“Just answer,” she snapped, he raised his eyebrows. 

He shrugged. “Don’t worry, you're tolerable.”

"Tolerable? That's about the nicest thing you've ever said to me," teased Lucy, fluttering her eyelashes stupidly. 

"Oh shut up, I'm nice to you plenty of times.."

His expression went from flustered, to mock indifference in a split second.

"Oh.. right.. of course. You're still insufferable, though," he added quietly. 

"And you're still a big fat nerd," she bit back.

"And proud of it. Being a big fat nerd gets results," he said, puffing out his chest proudly.

She rolled her eyes. "You heard about the auditions, you'll be there right?"

"Yeah, of course."

He grinned, but paused to think.

"Say.. what part are you trying out for?"

"I'd like to be the Princess Aurora... though I know they'll try to cast me as the wicked witch, those mean-spirited theatre kids." She tried not to think of what those people said...

He paused, smirking with a shrug of his shoulders."But I'm not so sure you're cut out to be the princess. You're more suited for the witch role."

She groaned. "Come on Schroeder, can't you of all people be on my side? We have history."

“Its ‘cause I know you so well that I know you’ll get the evil part."

She glared at him. “Come on, she’s a way bigger character anyway, it should be called Maleficent not Sleeping beauty." She didn't get why Lucy would want to play the passive, reserved princess role anyway, she'd be way cooler as Maleficient. 

“You don’t get it.” She sighed, a perhaps unreasonable frustration building towards Schroeder, she got up abruptly with a deep breath, her chair scraping across the wooden floor. "Well, I'll see you there, I wanna go home early, have fun practising." She left the music room. He got up and opened the door to call after her.

“Hey! Whose gonna walk you home!” 

“Its you who needed someone to walk you home- d-don’t drop the soap buddy." She'd watched a film about a prison recently with her brother and that's what came to mind. 

“THAT MAKES NO SENSE!" He grumbled to himself something about her being 'impossible to deal with' as he went back to his seat.

Chapter Text

Lucy tried to get to sleep that night but she was wracked with guilt over leaving Schroeder back there. Well, there's nothing that can be done about it now! She tried to reassure herself, but it wasn't effective. She sat up and opened her curtain, looking over at the house nearby, the lights were off and it was pitch black. She closed them and covered herself in her blanket again. One sheep, two sheep, three sheep... three thousand and forty three sheep- Alright! that's it. 

She got up, ignoring the cold sensation that hit her bare feet and approched her brothers' bedroom with a black blanket around her shoulders. There was a groan from the corner as the door creaked open. "Mmm Lucy, is that you? Why are you still awake?" said Linus rubbing his eyes.

"I could say the same to you!" she hissed quietly. Suddenly, his console made a sound, he quickly hid it under his pillow, but he had already been exposed. 

"Oh alright, just get what you need and go away." She rummaged through Rerun's things, keeping a close eye on her sibling to make sure he didn't wake up, he was a deep sleeper but still, if he woke up he'd throw a fit. "I don't think Rerun would appreciate that..." whispered Linus just as Lucy found what she was looking for. 

"Well too bad," she whispered back, still wary of Rerun's sleeping form. 

Linus yawned. "Well, if you go downstairs bring me a glass of water." She nodded, accidentally switching the torch on right in Rerun's face as she fidgeted with the buttons. Her heart nearly stopped as she quickly turned it off. He shuffled a bit... but thankfully didn't wake up. She quickly left, shutting the door carefully, leaving Linus wondering what in the world she was about to do with that torch in the middle of the night, he shrugged and destroyed another astroid. 

She turned on the torch to see in the dark, snuck downstairs and slowly unlocked the door tiptoing outside. As soon as the cool air hit her body she started to think this whole thing wasn't a good idea... Yet she soldiered on, foolishly, pulling the blanket close to her. 

Schroeder's bedroom was strangely placed, on the ground floor of his house, as it were. Actually, this was a stupid idea in retrospect, wouldn't he be more annoyed about me interrupting his sleep? Still, she was now in front of a large window, with Schroeder looking back at her from the dark from a small opening of the curtains. She ducked down as the boy, terrified, ran back and opened the lights. I could show myself and then apologise to him... no, this whole idea was just too weird! I just need to go without getting caught!

He grabbed open his curtains hastily. What the hell! There's someone outside my window! Panicked Schroeder. He looked around but didn't see anyone anymore, he ran upstairs to tell his parents. 

-///-

"There was just some kind of figure standing outside your window! Creepy!" shivered Franklin as Lucy stepped into class the next day, she tried to ignore the whole conversation. Why had she thought that was a good idea?! She wanted to apologise to him and then bailed anyway, making him think there was some kind of creep outside his window! 

"I don't know Schroeder, maybe you imagined it or something, everything looks like something else in the dark," dismissed Freida. Yes! That's why you're my friend Freida! She was inclined to agree with her red haired friend and basically gaslit Schroeder. 

Schroeder shook his  head, a look of horror on his face as he recounted the event from his perspective. "You should've seen the thing- it had this giant bush of hair and this weird cape-" Lucy tried not to look offended. Come on, her bed hair wasn't that bad...

"D'you think it was some kind of ghost?" questioned Franklin. "Or an alien?"

A yawn came from behind Lucy's head, she flinched and saw that Linus stood behind her. 

"Who saw an alien?" he said sleepily. 

Chapter Text

The production was written and planned out mostly amongst the drama club, they incorporated many of Tchaikovsky’s pieces into the production as well as getting some inspiration from the Walt Disney film of the same name and some illustrations from the Grimm’s books for costumes. It was a very ambitious project, Schroeder had to admit, but they were going all out since for most of the leaders, this was their last one and definitely the last of the year. 

It was time for auditions to start, in a surprising turn of events, Charlie Brown was auditioning for the prince, a pretty bold move, but I suppose he was making the most of the opportunities of his last year. Peppermint Patty was auditioning as the prince too which was a little bizarre but also somehow made sense. Franklin really wanted to be King Stepan. Freida, Patty and a few other girls  were Lucy's competition for Princess Aurora. She saw Schroeder on the piano as she got on stage for her own audition, their eyes locked for a moment she remembered guiltily her own outburst at him… He probably doesn’t remember. 

She began to sing 'once upon a dream', but her voice wasn't the soft sort. Oh she'll definitely be Maleficent. He watched as she moved with her usual confidence. The song sounded demanding rather than dreamy when she sang it- not that it didn’t sound good but it almost made him want to play it in a different key…

The next audition she had to do was with Charlie Brown, acting all romantic with him as the prince and of course as they tried to do the ballroom dance scene she snapped as he stepped on her foot and some of the girls who’d mocked her earlier laughed. "YOU BLOCKHEAD!" she burst out when he got his line wrong for the dozenth time.  “I-I meant, its ok-” This was no remedy, she'd made a right mess of it. “My prince?”

She saw those girls from before laughing and Freida trying to get them to stop… They were right, she was nothing but a crabby, bossy, unlikeable wreck, auditioning for this part? Ridiculous. 

Boy I’d feel sorry for her future husband- 

Oh no, but she’ll probably die alone.

She's so loud and obnoxious 

Schroeder tried not to join in on the laughter but it was no use. As soon as Lucy's voice came to a stop, he broke into a fit of quiet snickers.

"Schroeder!" She yelled, seeing his laughter get louder. She knew it was unfair to put all her frustrations on him in particular, and even Charlie, it wasn't either of their faults but she was so angry she stormed off with no explanation. 

“I think you should go see her."

“Yeah, it was your fault she’s crying," another added. He heard one of them say something along the lines of Lucy being 'so dramatic' and he wanted to pick a fight but thought the best of it and decided to go after her.

“Its not ALL my fault, but fine," he huffed, he jumped off the piano stool and dashed through the doors, quickly glancing around to figure out where she'd went. It didn't take long to trace her steps, he was her friend of ten plus years, it wasn't going to be difficult. 

She was hidden in the cloakroom, looking miserable.

He went to lean against the wall next to her.

"Hey.." he said quietly, she didn't bother to look up. 

"Leave me alone," she mumbled back. "I completely messed up back there."

 "It's not the end of the world," he said, looking down at her. He doesn't get anything... "What's up with you? Come on."

"I wanted to prove I'm not just some crabby, bossy person, that I could be… feminine or whatever," she pulled her hair with her hands. "Argh I’m being pathetic "

 He was surprised to hearing this from someone like Lucy, who always seemed so sure of herself, ,he remembered their earlier conversation in the music room... Perhaps he should've known something was amiss this sooner. "Nothing wrong with the way you are Lucy. It’s what makes you you," he tried to reassure. There was a brief silence, perhaps Lucy was just going to ignore him. 

"I don't think it's what people like, its not what I ought to be."

He tilted his head, watching her, her head on her knees. "Who cares? So what if people don't like it? You don't have to be something you're not to please people. If they don't like it, then they don't like it. That's their problem, not yours, right?"

“I want to be liked!" she burst out. "You wouldn’t understand! All you care about is your piano!"

He huffed. "Is that what you think?"

"I didn't mean it like that... You're likeable whatever you do and however blunt you are... But people just find me obnoxious and annoying! And maybe they're right, I do lash out a lot! I do get annoyed easily! You said it yourself even you barely tolerate me..."

"We've been friends for years, do you think I'd let you bother me everyday if all I cared about was my piano!" he argued, she didn't say anything so he continued, feeling his cheeks grow warmer by the second. “You’re not that bad… More than that- y-you’re- amazing Lucy!" She felt her heart skip a beat as he spoke... Calm down, the guy's just trying to make you feel better and probably just feels pity after your stupid display... He'd certainly cheered her up again though. 

"D-don't give me that look, I'm not gonna say it again," he mumbled, standing back up and averting eye contact.

"Too late, it's all saved up here," she replied, tapping her head with a grin, trying to keep things strictly unawkward.

After wiping her face she inhaled and exhaled with determination. She got up quickly. "Well, I suppose they're missing their mistress of evil, I've got to get back. And you too, musician." She glanced towards him teasingly and his stomach did a somersault which he tried to ignore.

He coughed nervously, unable to look her in the face.“Oh, so you’ve decided you’re going for Maleficent?" he asked as they walked.

She fidgeted with her hands down below. “Well I’m not sure… I’ll see how things go, but first I think I should apologise to Charlie Brown…"

He felt weirdly annoyed she'd brought him up at a time like this. “Yeah, probably," he replied awkwardly. 

"Let's get back before I get labeled 'missing, presumed dead', or something. Lead the way."

She patted his back, there had to be some way to combat the growing awkwardness! “I’d never murder you-"

“AWW."

“Maybe only maim you-"

Chapter Text

The cast was revealled a few days later on the notice board near the gym, all the students eagerly crowded around it, awaiting the decision of their drama teacher Mrs Smith. "Lucy! You got Maleficient!" read Frieda off the casting sheet  as Lucy struggled to get past the big crowd. She felt slightly dissappointed to not get cast as Aurora but she remembered her friend's words. It's not so bad, right?

"They made me the prince, godammit! I wanted to be king!" complained Franklin. 

"Don't  mention lord's name in vain," said Linus. 

-///-

As the red velvet curtains opened, Schroeder played a menacing tune. 

"WHAT DID YOU SAY! YOU IMBECILES? YOU SAID YOU WERE LOOKING IN CRADLES, FOR SIXTEEN YEARS!!!" exclaimed Lucy, beginning the production. Schroeder spared her a brief glance, his cheeks going a bit red as he watched her strut around in the elegant, simple black cape that one of the art students kindly offered to make and the smoky make up that enhanced her features, he ignored it and went back to his piano. 

In the end, she was defeated by the prince played by Franklin, before his romantic ball dance with the princess, her shrieks of anguish were pretty impressive. Schroeder went to the music room again after the production. "Gosh even more piano... you'd think he'd be sick and tired of it by now," commented Franklin upon his departure. He opened the music room's door to find a dark head already resting on the table. 

"Tired after your acting gig?"

She looked up at him from half-lidded eyes, she was back to her normal, civillian attire. "Yep, cackling menacingly is definitely tiring work."

He came close, wondering what she was working on, math homework. Well she's always doing something- “I don’t know, don’t you do that everyday anyway- ow!"

She looked away from him for a moment, looking at the snow falling behind the window. "The guy on the piano wasn't too bad either-"

"Oh please, I was the best thing in the whole play," he said with a smirk, his tone dripping with arrogance. "The music was everything."

She rolled her eyes. "Your ego is astounding." She removed some kind of cyclindrical tin from her bag, he looked at it curiously. When she opened it he say a cake covered in white icing with delicate flowers, she cut him a slice and took out a napkin to put it on. 

"Here, I brought everyone cake but you left early for some reason-" He had actually been overwhelmed with all the chatter and clicking cameras and went away with Franklin. 

He took it carefully. "That was nice of you..." he said, taking it away from the piano, he wasn't going to get crumbs on it. 

She hummed, scratching out an answer. "I'm in a good mood, I got to yell at people and not get into trouble, remember?"

He chuckled. "Right, I almost forgot about that. I'm surprised you didn't yell at me during the play."

“Might save that for the closing night," she teased as he finished his slice, it was a really soft vanilla sponge with buttery icing and tart jam, no doubt she made it herself.

He shook his head as he cleaned his fingers, smiling. “I can’t even tell if you’re being serious or not."

-///-

it was the closing night, audience was smaller but everyone was still determined to give it their best. Unfortunately, Lucy's voice went away by the last act and so her understudy Marcie had to replace her.  He found himself missing that stupid cackling of hers.  

He still found himself amused by Marcie trying to replace Lucy on short notice, as she was so different in the role, more of a crazy scientist sort of thing going on. 

They met in the cafeteria the next day, Lucy's voice still hoarse. "Hey Schroeder," she managed to choke out.

 "Finally lose your voice screaming at everyone?" he said with a raised eyebrow, as he took a seat next to her. 

"Sort of..." she shrugged. "How was closing night?"

He shrugged as well. "Pretty chaotic, considering you suddenly lost your voice and Marcie had to step in. She did well though, but less screaming,"

She looked down at her tray with melancholy. "Its a shame I never got to fulfill my promise of yelling at you."

"Hmph, a blessing more like," he said, eating a mouthful of mashed potatoes before continuing. “Though I suppose I’m used to it, after more than a decade-"

Lucy looked up at him with surprise. “Wow we’ve known eachother for more than ten years…" she muttered. 

“Unfortunately-" he added. "Finally gone quiet?"

She didn't say anything, but looked annoyed. Franklin and Charlie joined them at the table. "Lover's quarrel?" Teased Franklin.

"Lover's quarrel—" he sputtered, his face turning red as he gripped his spoon, which he'd nearly dropped, what kind of nonsense was that?

"In your dreams-and hell. I was just telling her how annoying she is."

"Not!" Exclaimed Lucy in an overly dramatic fashion. She could mention what he'd said to her back in auditions, he certainly didn't have that attitude back then, but then she thought it would make things weird and didn't. He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and sighing in annoyance. "Me annoying? I'm not annoying, isn't that right Charlie Brown?"

Charlie chuckled nervously, seeing Schroeder's irritation and Lucy's dramatic mood. "A-annoying isn't the word I would use," replied Charlie carefully, Lucy smiled towards him appreciatively.

Schroeder rolled his eyes. “Such a blockhead…"

"Hey! Only I'm allowed to call him that!" says Lucy. 

Schroeder grimaced at her. "What? Only you can give out and use nicknames?"

“Well, how about you come up with your own," she retorted, she scowled back. 

"How about 'Bossy Boots'?" suggested Franklin with a snicker. 

Her face went red, the rest of them wouldn't have been surprised if smoke came out of her ears, it was nice to see her get a taste of her own medicine for once. “For him! Not me!" 

"Yeah, maybe we should stop," mumbled Charlie Brown. 

“Wicked witch of the west?"

“Bossy?"

Schroeder remembered her whole wanting to be Princess in the play as he thought up the next one."Princess?

That one seemed to bother her the most as she responded with a loud outburst. “NO!"

Sounds weird... I can't use that thought Franklin, thinking a nickname should be personal. 

"Then we can settle on princess?" he teased, something about that made her cheeks go red, coming from Schroeder.

"Forget nicknames!" she exclaims at last.

"Aw, giving up so soon, bossy!"

"Not another word from you-" she tried to think of an insult. "You-"

She got all flushed when he called her that again and stormed out, vowing to find the vilest nickname she could for him

He watched her storm away, a look of mild confusion on his face.

He had no idea why she was reacting like that to the nickname, but he would tease her with it more often if it got her that riled up.

"What's her deal?" he murmurs to the group.

They all shrugged. "I suppose she just really hates being called princess or something," shrugged Charlie Brown, clueless or not wanting to say the truth outright? Franklin could take a guess at why Lucy had reacted that way, but he decided not to get involved.

“Must’ve struck a nerve… this might get her to be more quiet during my piano practise."

Charlie shook his head. “I don’t know, she doesn’t like it Schroeder."

“She calls you names you don’t like Charlie Brown, she's getting her just desserts."

“She’s getting better, she only does it when she’s really angry," responded Charlie Brown. 

Schroeder only groaned at his friend's overforgiving attitude. “Well I’ll only call her it when I’m really angry then." He finished off his lunch and they went to their seperate classes. 

“He really doesn’t see how that sounds?" sighed Frankiin.

“How what sounds?"

“Nevermind Charlie Brown…"

Chapter Text

Lucy was so embarassed, especially because it was only when Schroeder called her that word that she had gotten flustered. How stupid. She sighed as she prepared her notes for the model UN conference she was planning to attend. She had become quite a good delegate from doing it for a few years now and was going to participate in a competitive college-run conference out of town, but she'd taken on so many other extracuricullars this year that she didn't have as much time to dedicate to it and so her skills were a little rusty. She had no time to think of other silly, inconsequential things like boys calling her names. 

It was just some silly nickname, based on recent events, it meant completely nothing.

"You're doing model UN this year?" Asked Freida, coming behind her back and surprising her.

After she recovered from the shock, she turned to her friend. "Obviously, I'm trying to get into a good college," said Lucy.

"You think you'll go somewhere really far away? It'd be horrible if we never saw each other again," said Frieda, with a pout. "I suppose if I become a famous fashion designer I'll probably have to move all over anyway." Schroeder walked into the classroom and when he noticed Lucy he supposed he should leave but her friend had already seen him.

"You're thinking of going to college too Schroeder, right?"

He nodded in response, "Yeah, I'm planning on it. Still not sure where, but yeah," he said.

He sort of only entertained the conversation to gauge how mad Lucy was at him. "What do you think you'll do Frieda?" 

The girl sighed. "I want to do fashion, but my mother says it'll be better to go into teaching-elementary or something-"

"Lucy?" he turned, trying to act as indifferent as possible. 

"I don't know, I suppose political science degree might look good if I decide to become a lawyer-"

Her friend grinned and poked her in the ribs, causing her to slap her hand away. "Yesterday you said you were thinking of changing to pre-med." That's only because its the only way to become a psychiatrist... But I don't want to go through that much math and science...

"A music college?" grunted Lucy, barely looking at Schroeder. That idiot, acting all cool headed all the time. 

"Of course, Princess, why do you think I spend most my time at the piano practicing," he said back, seeing if she'd get all annoyed like last time. 

“Don’t call me that!" She flushed slightly. 

“Princess?” muttered Freida, confused, had they started dating without Lucy telling her or something? Should she tell her about sleeping with him?

He smirked. "Really? Why shouldn't I princess?"

"I'll kill you, I really will," she answered. 

He laughed and got what he wanted out of his bag before saying goodbye and going away. Good Riddance, thought a crimson red Lucy. 

Her friend scraped her chair closer to hers. “So, what was that about?"

Lucy tightened her grip on her pen. “What?" she snapped, trying to forget the whole incident. 

“He called you princess, something you haven’t told me?"

She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I was sat next to the guys during lunch a few days ago and they started trying to find me a nickname cause I kept calling Charlie Brown a blockhead… It’s stupid."

Frieda knew her friend could be socially unaware but this seemed unbelievable, even for her.“What? No, but do you hear how that sounds? Some guy calling you princess?"

Well she's obviously not talking about romantic stuff because the idea of Schroeder even accidentally doing something like that is unbelievable, and definitely not something either of us would even want. “Its a stupid nickname I know- so what if I didn’t get the role in that stupid play-"

“You can’t be serious? No, you're kidding me right Lucy? This is some kind of joke, it's gotta be!"

"What joke!" she groaned. "I'm trying to get work done here!

Frieda had quite a loose mouth, the incident of Schroeder calling Lucy that word was just too tantalising of a topic not to spread! Sorry Lucy! 

Later, Linus approached Schroeder about the rumours, getting straight to the point. “Are you and my sister in a romantic relationship?" he said after suddenly walking up to Schroeder.

Schroeder was astounded once again, what was up with people asking that? “HUH? What!"

“I was just wondering, do not worry, I’m not into that bizarre trend of male family member overprotectiveness.  I only ask that you do not engage in any risky behaviours-"

“We’re not dating!" he interupted the other boy. 

Chapter Text

He had a lot on his mind right now, Lucy's odd reactions to the nickname and the whole "college" conversation that had gotten him thinking, especially about the future. People are stupid, they'll think anyone's two people are all r romantic just because they spend a lot of time together, but we're both busy people and we're not bothered with all of that stuff. He remembered Lucy looking all vulnerable instead cloakroom and him saying things that he might usually not express, then he shook his head and tried to forget about it. He began playing a gentle tune to try and clear his thoughts.

Around ten minutes later, he spotted a pair of eyes looking at him from behind the door, from a small glance he could see from the neat black hair and familiar dress that it was Lucy, but he wondered why she wasn't coming in as he continued to play. In fact, she didn't come in at all and he couldn't hide his disappointment. Was the nickname too harsh or something?

Meanwhile, Lucy ducked pathetically away from the door, hoping Schrorder hadn't seen her. Does he  like me? That’d ruin our whole friendship! Do I want it ruined...? Oh what am I thinking! Besides, he obviously doesn't, ever since we were kids he’s said it. She went home that day early, getting briefly questioned by Linus on the shift in her routine and then Rerun, which made her threaten not to help him with homework. Perhaps not seeing Schroeder that day made her seem even more suspicious? She thought worriedly, looking out of the window at the house nearby.

The next day at school they had a brief talk from the school counsellor which reminded her of that 'psychiatry business' she had back in the day. Boy do I need somethinh like that right now... I feel like I'm going insane... There was a set of swings on the field by their school and she went to use one during break, despite it being pretty chilly outside and the field being pretty empty. Perhaps it would help her clear her head and think. She wiped the snow off the swing before sitting on it, the friction of the metal made a screeching sound everytime she swung forwards. After a few minutes, she heard footsteps coming closer.

"Hey Lucy," said Charlie Brown, an old client of hers, his cheeks red like hers because of the cold.

"Heyy," she replied, then a small pause of silence. "Wanna join?" She asked pointing to the swing next to her which he happily sat on, he began to swing himself up in rythm with her.

"You look a little down, everything ok?" asked Charlie looking her way, sensing Lucy's melancholy mood.

"S'nothing." Lucy sighed, Charlie was as good of a person as ever to explain this to. Especially 'cause Frieda wouldn't be any use at all and only tease me.“Well-I have this friend whose been bothering met lately, people keep telling me its all romantic and its annoying, for some reason it's getting difficult to face them- I don't exactly know why- "

"Well, its only romantic if you both agree it is, relationships change and develop but not every relationship has to be a romance, you’ve just gotta set some clear boundaries, it doesn't mean you have to avoid the person." Charlie Brown's advice was sensible she supposed, but what if she couldn't help but feel flustered around Schroeder? God it was so stupid, especially 'cause it was about some stupid behaviour that was inconsequential... Charlie was right, she was overthinking.

She swung a little higher. "Thank you Charlie Brown," she said, watching white smoke leave her mouth because of the cold.

"Glad I could help, Lucy," he smiled. After a few more swings, she decided on something and came to a halt.

Rummaging through her pocket, she took out a red chocolate bar. "Here," she said, she unwrapped her kitkat and broke him half. "A symbol of my gratitude."

Charlie's smile grew wider as she handed him half of her kitkat bar. He accepted it 

"Thanks Lucy," he said, taking a bite of the chocolate. Little did the pair know that they were being watched from afar...

"Hey Schroeder, what're you looking at?" asked Mark.

The boy stopped looking in the direction of the swings and quickly turned back down at his book on the history of classical music, he was on exactly page four hundred and hadn't turned it for a while. "Nothing, I just zoned out," he replied unconvincingly.

Chapter Text

Today, Schroeder was there as early as he usually was, sitting at the piano, practicing.His mind lingered on the events of the last few days -and on Lucy- however stupid that seemed to be.

The door opened abruptly, which it hadn't done in a few days. "Heyy," said Lucy, coming into the music room and taking a seat to begin her work. He tries not to look back. She just going to act like nothing happened? Well haven't gone home together for about two weeks. After half an hour of painful, silent work he spoke up, breaking the tension that surrounded them like a thick fog. 

“Sorry Lucy, I won’t call you that name anymore, it was stupid and hurtful-probably-" 

“Oh,"she said, head lowered so he couldn't see it. "A-and is there anything else you’d like to say perhaps?" 

“Uh no, not really," he answered bluntly, she felt something akin to disappointment for a moment before shaking the feeling off, looking more directly at the boy now.

Lucy was nervous at the silence .“WHOO HOO!" she celebrated, he jumped away in surprise. At least it's nothing complicated.

“QUIETEN DOWN!!” He shouted, in utter puzzlement.

The door opened, a cranky middle aged woman tapped her foot. "You two! Inside voices!" Schoeder shook his head as she slammed the door.

"Once again tarnishing my reputation," he muttered, a slight annoyance in his voice. "What is it with you and your strange behaviour?"

"Says you," she muttered back and then sighed, knowing that bickering like this was not the solution. "Hey, don't act so cranky, I also brought cake this time too." 

He arched an eyebrow in surprise when she mentioned bringing cake, his irritation quickly replaced with curiosity."Hmm, again? What kind?" he asked, still a bit suspicious. Was it poisoned?

"Chocolate, you like Chocolate right?" she said unenthusiastically.

Can't go wrong with that," he said, shrugging. Cake? That was random. Hmm... What was she playing at?

"I just thought how it was Beethoven's birthday and all..." she said quietly. 

His was touched by the thought, but also disturbed at himself for forgetting. I'M SO SORRY BEETHOVEN!!!! I was occupied with... thoughts.

"You remembered it was Beethoven's birthday? How nice of you-" he began. "Princess," he added, not being able to stop himself. 

It had almost gone well until he said the last part.

She had another case of raging red cheeks, making a large banging sound when she slammed the cake tin onto the table.  “Hey! You said you’d stop! Stop it you idiot!" 

He shook his head, backing away as she saw her hands twitching. “AHH! That’s the last time I promise, sorry sorry. Why does it bother you so much anyway? Seems like you’re overreacting-" 

She could feel the heat on her face. “You don’t know how it sounds!" She said, repeating the sentiment if the people she'd spoken to. receiving a shrug and a blank expression. "I-its what a guy would say to a girl he likes!"

He gasped, his cheeks going red. “Well I obviously didn’t mean it like that!" He exclaimed, realising he'd raised his voice like the music teacher said not to do. "Didn't mean it like that," he said more quietly. "If it apparently can be meant like that-" It can!

“Obviously! What do you mean obviously!" she repeated, offended.

“Pick a side woman!" 

“Don’t call me woman either! You know that’s disrespectful!" 

“HOW! You’re a woman aren’t you?" He retorted angrily. 

“What if I called you a man?" she asked, it sounded better it in her head. Of course calling someone a man was different in current society than saying woman...

“I’d be glad," he huffed, getting a raised eyebrow, suddenly thinking of how it could be interpreted weirdly. God, now I'm thinking anything might be misconstrued as flirting! "NOT LIKE THAT!" Even Lucy didn't know what he meant, this whole conversation made no sense.

“Well it’s different when you call me woman!" 

He furiously banged the keys on his piano. “I’ve had it with you! Can’t I play in peace!" 

“You can do WHATEVER you want!" She said, storming out. She came back in to grab the cake tin. "AND I'M TAKING THE CAKE WITH ME!" He was the one who apologised to me and then called me that stupid name again, I'm leaving! And I'm never coming back again!!!! She vowed. 

Chapter Text

It was new years soon and the peanut's gang was going to see the fireworks, that meant Lucy couldn't avoid Schroeder at all, she couldn't believe he could be so insensitive and stupid. It was a dark night year's night and she tried to keep as big as a distance between her and that boy as possible as they traversed the slippery, dark pavements around their neighbourhood to get to the park. Meanwhile, Schroeder also noticed this phenomenon, but dismissed it.

"Where's snoopy?" Asked Linus, as they walked up the hill, where they'd get the best view of the fireworks.

"Oh he's not here, he said he's scared of fireworks," said Charlie Brown. "Well not actually said but you know how he is-" The others nodded silently.

As they walked up the icy hill where they'd sit to watch the fireworks Lucy tried to avoid Schroeder by sticking to her brothers' sides. Why had he been invited anyway?!  Lucy and her brothers had come with Charlie and his sister Sally, Schroeder was sort of an add-on at the last minute since he'd lived close and said he hadn't planned on going out this year. He was originally going to stay at home and play Aud lang syne on the piano, provide company for his mother to an extent but someone, probably Charlie, said he had to come with them and watch this year's firework display. That blockhead.

“Why don’t you train him not to be scared?" suggested Rerun, kicking a rock as he lagged behind the others. "Have you seen those people that pop balloons around their dogs?" 

“I never really thought of it, sounds a little- I don't know-" began Charlie, thinking it was better to keep the dog's life as peaceful as possible as he reached the end- the idea of that upset him a little, so he brought it out of his mind. Just before they reached the top Linus stumbled and fell cutting his leg on some jagged ground. Everyone rushed towards him as he hissed and then crouched on the floor nursing his wound and groaning in pain.

"Linus! Are you alright? Your leg- its bleeding a lot-" said Sally, touching his shoulder, her couldn't answer for a moment as he felt the adrenaline pumping away. Not only was he bleeding but his leg was also caked in wet, icy mud. 

Rerun's eyes widened as he looked at the ground and noticed blood, he tapped his sister on the shoulder and pointed downwards. "Gross."

Charlie Brown fidgeted with his coat buttons in distress, looking down the steep hill. "Should we go back?" It was the best course of action- but apparently the fireworks this year would be the best they ever had in town.

"No! Its fine," said Linus nervously, trying to cover it with his trouser leg which was futile as blood just seeped into his jeans. "I-I don't want to be a bother, and we might miss the fireworks if we do." He winced again in pain as he tried to move.

"It looks like it hurts-" said Sally, with a look of concern down at where he crouched. 

"Pull it up, let's see," demanded Lucy grabbing the leg of his jeans, the rest of them looked away from the bloody mess as she revealled the wound but Lucy didn't flinch as she inspected the wound and thought of what to do. It was quite a deep cut- he might need stitches, but for now the main priority was cleaning it up. 

"I'll go- you can all-" began Linus, wincing again as he tried to get back up.

"Oh don't be ridiculous Linus!" exclaimed Schroeder, who'd been silently watching the scene unfold until then, he held the boy down. "You're in no condition to walk."

Lucy grabbed his shoulder too, shaking her head. "Like he said, you're being ridiculous, sit down." Schroeder noticed she did not refer to him by name, not did she even look at him. 

"I'm NOT missing the fireworks 'cause he tripped," whined Rerun unhelpfully, Lucy rolled her eyes. This is why I stay indoors and pracise, thought Schroeder gloomily, wondering what to do now. 

"I'll go- I'm sure I'll find bandaids somewhere at home-" suggested Charlie, feeling bad for his friend and guilty that he wasn't sure of what to do. "You guys enjoy the fireworks." He waved and tried to walk away before being stopped by his sister's voice.

"No I'll go!" said Sally, blocking Charlie's way. "I'm sure there's a corner shop that sells band aids for Linus-" 

Lucy sighed and supposed this would be up to her. "I'm going," announced Lucy. "We have a proper first aid kit at home, and I'm sure I'll be fast enough to get back before the fireworks, there'll be no looking around." Nobody seemed to protest.

Linus grabbed his leg and tried to look back down but couldn't bear it,  they used a water bottle to wash off some of the gravel inside the gaping wound. "If she has the first aid kit I suppose we can't argue with that- But I'll go with her, it's nearly midnight after all." Deciding that without even asking her?! The audacity! I don't know why I volunteered but I suppose we always walk home together when it's dark.

There was a short silence, Lucy debated saying no to Schroeder but thought that would make her seem even more suspicious- plus, he had a point about walking around by herself at this time of night and her brother probably needed the kit soon, the longer the wound was exposed the worse. "Come on then," she sighed, speeding ahead. "Don't be a slow poke." He rushed to catch up to her, she was rushing down the hill at a ridiculous speed, in order to increase her distance from him, possibly at a speed that was a little unsafe considered someone just got injured. He grabbed her hand to her utter surprise and bewilderment. She pulled away with a small gasped, silently noting how warm it was compared to hers. She glared back at him. 

"Careful," he said, his voice soft. "We don't want another person injured." His eyes were intense. She couldn't find a retort and so turned away as they continued their journey to the house. She went inside as Schroeder waited leaning, back to the wall of the entrance, the first aid kit was in the cupboard closest to the window kitchen. She rushed outside, knowing how urgent it was to take it to her brother.

"I got it," she says as she returns, keys in hand to lock the door. Schroeder checks the time on his watch, an uneasy look on his face. "What?" questioned Lucy.

He breathed. "Well- its 11:55- we might miss the fireworks-" 

"LETS HURRY THEN, WHY'D YOU TAKE YOUR TIME TELLING ME!" she complained unreasonably, he groaned. 

"Yeah, yeah, now the passage of time is my fault too! Come on!" He dragged her by the hand, deaf to her protests and eventually insults. 

Lucy quietly panted as they climbed back up the hill after returning to the park, midway through the climb the fireworks display began. A loud booming sound filled the air, bright colours lit up the pitch black sky.

He stopped for a moment, looking up. "They're beautiful," He whispered, her hand was still in his much to Lucy's annoyance. /p>

"They are.. really beautiful," she replied quietly,  not looking at the fireworks at all... 

One hour later

Linus was fine, being helped by his friends to get back down the hill after they bandaged him up, he did end up needing some small stitches when the doctor looked at it later, but it wasn't too bad. Lucy had made another new years resolution because of the events of that night: do NOT at any cost, think of your childhood friend weirdly again!

Chapter Text

Lucy and Schroeder's friends noticed the continued tension and lack of communication between them, often rolling their eyes and facepalming when witnessing their stupidity. They both were as stubborn as mules and twice as proud, if one were to ask the other about their counterpart they'd either respond by saying 'oh which Lucy' or 'oh which Schroeder' as if there were any other the individual could be asked about or simply act as if they held little or no siginficance to them. It was excrucuating to watch.

"Oh God, those two are so dense," groaned Franklin, right after hearing a prolonged rant Schroeder had about Lucy distracting his practise which had concluded like  this: 

Franklin: Well, why don't you just tell her not to 

Schroeder: Not to what?

Franklin: You know, join you in the music room in the evenings, you could just end the arrangement and then you'd have no distractions

Schroeder: ...That's- Well, it's just more convienient the way it is now- Franklin raised an eyebrow, Schroeder coughed. Alright then, I need to go now- He gets up and clears his things in a hurry, Franklin has to call after him. 

Franklin: To Lucy? 

He didn't get an answer

“To a ridiculous extent!" agreed Marvin, a boy who was still invested, despite not knowing all the lore since he'd met them in high-school and the rest had known each other since- seemingly diapers, it being a small town and all."If only there was a way to bring them together," he carried on. The group nodded in agreement, naive to the cunning look on Marcie's face.

"I do have something in mind..." she began cryptically, they turned to her, each recalling her surprisingly good performance as Maleficient back during the school production. 

"Huh? What? Really?" The group was all ears. She took out a notebook dramatically and a surprisingly detailed mindmap featuring some secret photos taken on polaroids (without consent, which was very questionable), a snippet from the local newspaper's interview after his help with last year's ballet performance at the local theatre and a few of Lucy's notes from school council meetings, in the middle was one date. 

"Febuary the fourteenth, aka valentines day, if they don't realise it then, with all that corporate messaging for romance and love then they're a lost cause," Marcie informed them, adjusting her thick rimmed glasses dramatically.

"That does seem to make sense," nodded Franklin. Don't know why the stalking was neccesary to figure that out. 

However, everyone knew regardless of that, the pair did not seem to want to admit anything at all to each other, Marcie of course made some preparations for this probability. "Of course- they may need a little push."

"A push?" repeated Peppermint Patty. "I don't know Marcie, should we really get so involved-" She looked at the mindmap in more detail, more concerned by the moment, she looked over to Franklin and the others to verify her feelings. 

"I've seen Lucy speaking to Charlie Brown a lot lately sir-" Marcie said seemingly nonchalantly. 

Peppermint Patty suddenly became all enthusiastic. "Of course we should help them find each other!" she announced, with a raised finger. "Would we be good friends if we didnt?" Marcie smirked, praising herself in her head. She's good, thought Franklin, both frightened and impressed. 

So that's when the group forged two letters to each individual, a Valentine for Lucy and one for Schroeder. It was a tad bit unethical, but desperate times called for desperate measures. They'd both think the other confessed and it would be the perfect way to get rid of that 'suppressing emotions' thing the two of them had going on. 

On that fateful Febuary the fourteenth, Lucy was the first to recieve her letter from Marcie. Lucy was not an unpopular girl and so she wasn't all too surprised to recieve a valentines that early in the morning, except that in opening the letter and reading the contents she was very perplexed... Of course the letter said it was from Schroeder and some nonsense about him liking her but of course, she spotted right away it wasn't from him. "Huh? This is clearly not his handwriting!" The tone as well, was nothing like how Schroeder did things at all, she was convinced someone was playing some cruel trick on her. She looked over at Schroeder when he arrived that morning, he did his usual friendly, strictly friend-ly half wave and slumped into his chair,  complaining about the cold weather and how dark it was in the mornings these days. He doesn't even seem to know it was *that* day, nevermind that he'd confessed to me. 

She thought it might've been one of those girls from the school production, who'd laughed so much at her audition to the school play, but after threatening them over the ordeal they sincerly didn't seem to know anything either... "Nice morning isn't it?" says Marcie, with a smug air about her as she entered the classroom, Lucy was becoming increasingly suspicious by the second. Taking her advanced calculus book hostage, the bespectacled girl confessed to the whole scheme.

It was awkward to realise that close friends still hadn't forgotten a silly little infatuation she had as a kid. "So you weren't trying to make fun of me at all- but you thought that doing all this would make us get together?" She shook her head dissappointedly. "You shouldn't have meddled in something you have no idea about!" 

Marcie did not look Lucy in the eyes, her head downcast. "I may have gotten a bit overexcited- I just want you as my friends to be happy-"

"We're happy as we are!" she burst out, causing the other girl to jump backwards, Lucy saw that Marcie was trembling and tried to calm down, taking a deep breath. "Was anyone else involved with this?" demanded Lucy. 

Marcie thought about hiding the involvment of the others, it was her plan after all not theirs. "I did it myself."

"Well stop. Don't involve yourself anymore. I don't think of him like that anyway!"

"That's not true at all..." mumbled Marcie, which would have led to a reaction in Lucy if it were not that she was thinking of something else now. 

"You said there were two... Schroeder's letter, it says- it probably says things like this," she pointed in horror at her own card full of love declarations. OH NO. "He's not here yet, just don't give it to him, the letter that is," she tells Marcie. 

The dark haired girl scratched her head much to Lucy's annoyance. "Well, I gave Franklin the other one to give to Schroeder," she says anxiously. 

Her stomach dropped, Lucy had to remove that card from  Schroeder's bag before he saw it asap, he might not recognise it as fake the way she did. Her heart was pounding with anxiety as she headed down the hallway. What if he's already read it?

She rushed into the classroom. "Oh hey Lucy," he greeted her, he didn't seem to have seen the card yet, perhaps...

"Hey, Schroeder," she replied, hardly able to choke out the words, she tried to act all casual but her heart was racing. She desperately wanted to reach into his bag as fast as possible and grab the letter before he could see it, but she had to act natural. She looked over at Franklin who had an expression of sheer delight on his face, looking down aat Schroeder's bag. Marcie said before it was only her involved, but Lucy was starting to suspect the girl lied. 

"OK everyone get your math books out and turn to page ten," said the teacher, much to Lucy's horror

"Oh no, this can't be happening," she muttered under her breathe, hoping that Schroeder wouldn't notice the letter. Perhaps she'd do it afterwards, but it would be risky... She watched as he leaned over to get it, a flashy pink envelope just like the one that was delivered to her indeed peeked from his bag, her dread only grew. At the last moment as Schroeder reached for his bag, Lucy grabbed it off him, removing the letter and passing him his math textbook.

He took it off her with surprise and incredullity. "Lucy what the hell!" He exclaimed as she passed him back his bag too, the letter was now safely stashed away with her.

"What? Just getting your book out for you," she replied innocently, trying to act indifferent, as if this was a normal behaviour of hers.

"I can do it myself," he sneered, turning to the right page and then looking at her confused again. What in the world?

Chapter Text

Day days later, Lucy joins him in the music room. "Hey Schroeder." 

Schroeder looked up from his music as Lucy walked into the music room, she puts down her satchel and sits next to him as usual, her hair was tied up this time, he noticed. Why am I thinking about that anyway? Hair? Who cares? "Hey Luce, what's up?" he replied, a small smile on his face, he is reluctant that strange behaviour of hers from before where she'd taken out his textbook of his. 

"I've been fine, just busy," she sighed, she had indeed booked herself up with extra-curiculars this year. "What about you?" There's some kind of tension she feels, like every movement she made was very important, she didn't really know what to do, it's probably just her who feels this ridiculous way. It was all her friends' faults for bringing up romance and all that non-existant mush that did not exist between them.

As she sat down, she played 'mary had a little lamb' with  one finger, interupting what he already planned to practise, she thought the boy next to her just be annoyed and he was... but there was something else. "Is that the only song you can play?" he laughed mockingly. It wasn't exactly out of character for him to insult her, it was because she bothered him so much that he did. But maybe it was because his eyes were strangely focused on her, a crystaline blue pair seemed to track her movements like a point and shoot camera that she felt it was a bit different this time. 

"I can play all sorts of songs!" she defended, trying to keep her tone light. Suddenly she saw him get his two long legs over the piano bench, he stood up stopping just behind her for some unknown reason. She felt paralysed for a moment, unable to look back. 

"I'll teach you another song," he said, voice casual. 

She tries to think of some witty remark but her head is empty and in the end she is unable to hide her surprise. "You always say you won't," she said, a little too quietly. She wondered what in the world he was thinking. 

He shrugged. "I've got some time to kill."

"Really? You're actually going to teach me?" she asked, a mix of curiosity and skepticism in her voice. Was he kidding with her? She's finally able to look back at his face and as she does she notices a slight reddening at the ears that she swiftly ignores. Her mind is so muddled for no reason at all that suddenly, middle C, which should be a piece of cake for her to find is somwhow alluding her and she can feel the impatience and expectation on her friend's face. There's a small tut from behind and then something completely unexpected happens.  As his hands moved to cover hers over the piano keys, Lucy felt a small jolt of nervousness course through her.

"There it is, you know the letters right?" he says, moving her hands, eyes focusing on the keys. His voice is so close to her ear she feels a shiver go down her spine. 

Lucy nodded, trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach.

"Yeah, yeah, I know the letters, just a brain fart," she replied, her voice slightly shaky. “We’ve got a thingie for each hand?" She forgot what those symbols were called... But there was no time to flex her now seemingly forgotten knowledge. 

He brought her hands further apart. "This is where each hand usually goes," he explained, putting them on C's on different sides of the piano.

She looked over at him, trying to read his expression, he had a slight look of concentration on his face, his eyes going back and forth between her hands and the keys.

But then he looked up and noticed her staring at him, their eyes locking for a brief moment.

He let go of her and coughed. "Well, i think we'll start with the right hand first and then we can add the lefthand."

Lucy looked back at him with confusion. "Hold on, you haven't even told me what we're playing."

He snapped back to reality, realizing he hadn't even told her the song he would teach her. "Oh, right... I was thinking of a very simple one.. 'Fur Elise'"

“Oh yeah, that one,” she nodded, lightly tapping the keys. "...you know I heard Elise was a real person Beethoven proposed to." She'd probably told him that 'fact' before when they were kids. 

"Well, historians are a bit unsure about who the 'Elise' individual was referring to in this piece (if it was referring to a real person), but that's irrelevant right now," he said, flipping through his sheet music. 

"I'm just giving you an interesting fact, I'm not allowed?" Asked Lucy

"Yes, yes you're allowed," he groaned. "But for now, focus, we're here to learn a song." Except I don't even know why we're doing that. 

He was treating this all seriously for no reason. “Thought you liked talking about Beethoven," she retorted teasingly, she saw him roll his eyes in annoyance which gave her a strange feeling of delight. He ignored her comment. 

"So, we start with the right hand, e d#, e d# e b c d a-"

"Stop! You're going too fast!" Yelled Lucy. Schroeder's head whipped to the door to make sure nobody came in to chastise them. Seriously, keep your voice down. 

Schroeder huffed. "I'll get out the sheet music for it to help. Just focus on the notes for now, ignore the other symbols."

“The bottom stave is for the left hand notes," she says, looking proud of herself. 

He nods. “Yep."

"They have different symbols at the start, isn't that one a base cleft and the other one... I was about to say it before..." she tries to recall it again but it's no use...

He raised an eyebrow, impressed by her knowledge. "Yeah, that's right," he said, a hint of surprise in his voice. "You're thinking of a G-clef or a treble clef. The bass clef is the one at the beginning of the bottom staff."

She played the right hand quite well after a few tries, Schroeder nodded. "Soon you'll be able to combine in with the left."

"Together?!" She exclaimed stupidly. 

He sighed. “Yep, sort of the point." She did and then soon she was playing the two bits together, it was satsying to be able to hit all the right notes and make a good sound. 

"I think I can now be considered an expert pianist," She said smugly, right before accidentally hitting the wrong notes and making an ugly sound.

"And play it a bit slower, it's supposed to be that time," he pointed to the sheet, pointing out the time signature written on the sheet music. "See this? 3/4.. that's the time signature, so it should be played at this speed," he explained, he explained what 3/4 meant before tapping his finger in time with the rhythm and encouraging her to try playing it again, this time in rythm. 

"Alright, alright," she huffed, the tapping sort of stressed her out but she managed. 

"That was actually pretty decent, Lucy," he said.

"Oh thanks," she said, her cheeks going a little pink. 

Chapter Text

A few days later, Lucy was preparing for her youngest brother's birthday party.

"Whatd you think rerun wants for his birthday?" Lucy asked Linus, as they walked home

Linus pondered the question for a moment, considering the possibilities.

"Well, he's quite the imaginative little fellow," he began. "Perhaps he'd be interested in a book of stories or a mechano set Children often enjoy interactive toys that allow them to use their imagination and problem-solving skills."

"A train set! That's an excellent idea, which is rare for you."

"Hey!" Said Linus.

"Just teasing, Linus," she replied with a smirk. "But seriously, a toy train would be a great present for Rerun. He absolutely adores trains."

Schroeder was just getting home too, he waved to the siblings

She felt a slight blush creep up her cheeks, but she quickly tried to hide it. Calm down, it's just Schroeder… WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO HER!

"Say Lucy," said Linus as they went inside. "Do you like Schroeder?"

Lucy froze, caught off guard by Linus' question. She tried to play it cool, though she could feel her heartbeat quicken.

"What? L-Like Schroeder? Pfft, that's absurd. He's just...a friend, you know. Nothing more." She said, trying to sound indifferent. Of course, I was infatuated with him as a kid, but that was ages ago and I moved on, it would be ridiculous to feel anything now…

"I don’t ask to embarrass you or anything, I just ask out of genuine curiosity, 

"Lucy loves Schroeder! Lucy loves Schroeder!" teased Rerun as he caught a drift of the conversation.

"Oh be quiet or we won't get you anything for your birthday!" She retorted, face going even redder.

"Its perfectly normal at this age to start to develop more complex feelings and relationships with others-" started Linus. "After all, we are in our late adolescence-"

Lucy felt a mix of embarrassment and irritation as Rerun joined in the teasing. She shot him a stern look, trying to silence his silly chant.

Then Linus chimed in with his philosophical wisdom, further adding to her flustered state. She put a hand up to stop him.

"Okay, okay, I get it! I don't need a lesson on complex emotions, Linus, thank you very much!" she retorted, feeling even more flustered.

"If you feel anything towards him, maybe you should just go right ahead and say it. Charlie asked that red haired girl Heather out and she just politely declined. He was upset for a few days but he got back on his feet after a while."

“NOPE, 

Its not like the  red haired girl was  friends with Charlie or anything, it's different with me and Schroeder, we're friends first and foremost, if i confess it might ruin everything, not that I am going to confess to or anything or there is anything, but theoretically if I did. I’m just embarrassed cause people are implying things that aren’t true! Obviously!

Lucy really didn't know. getting so desperate she was getting dating advice from Linus of all people? Not that desperate. She huffed and tried to distract herself with planning Rerun's birthday

They went out with Charlie Brown's family to buy everything for Rerun's birthday party.

"You'll be there won't you?" Linus asked Charlie.

"Of course," he said, his little sister nodded too.

Sally is always doting on Linus, it's very common knowledge that she likes him, but Linus doesn't like her back, that doesn't stop her from always trying. She remembered doing that with Schroeder when they were young, how embarrassing . 

"That's the perfect train set!" Pointed Linus.

"Oh God, and it comes with a conductor hat!" Added Lucy, getting out of her thoughts.

"You're always full of bright ideas," gushed Sally.

"Now decorations, I don't want anyone else’s input on this!" Said Lucy with confidence. "I'm thinking of a blue and red theme and what goes with those colours?”

“Silver?”

“Gold!” she corrected

"What's the point in asking if you'd already made up your mind and asserted we wouldn't have any input?" Groaned Linus. 

"Trust me, it's better this way," she replied, ignoring his question. "I know what I'm doing, and Rerun will absolutely love the decorations. 

She spent considerable time at the store, carefully selecting colorful decorations, balloons, and other party supplies that matched her blue and red theme, for the rest of the party this was excruciating.  

"I guess I'm the one who chose the gift," sighed Linus.

They walked back home after ice cream, which Sally had insisted on. "Rerun will love his birthday," said Charlie Brown. "You really are good siblings."

Lucy puffed up her chest. "Obviously."

"And you Charlie Brown should put more effort into MY birthday!" Chipped in Sally.

"Hey! Who got you that album last year!" argued Charlie.

"Linus, would you like to share some of my ice cream?" Said Sally, coming close to him.

Linus looked slightly uncomfortable as Sally offered him some of her ice cream. He tried his best to politely decline without offending her.

"Oh, no thank you, Sally. I'm alright," he replied, forcing a smile.

"Its grapefruit flavoured," she insisted.

"Don't, I'll have some," said Lucy, grabbing it and taking a big lick with a smirk. "Thanks Sally!"

Sally grimaced. "Your pleasure."

Linus felt relieved as Lucy stepped in and took the ice cream from Sally, preventing him from feeling pressured. Maybe she wasn’t so annoying all the time. 

After their ice cream they all hauled the bags back to their house.

"How are we supposed to go into the house with all this stuff without Rerun noticing?"

"That's a good point," she said, scratching her head. "We need to find a way to bring in everything discreetly, or Rerun will see his gifts."

Charlie Brown nodded in agreement.

They snuck back to their house. Schroeder had just come back from a piano recital and saw the group with bags in their hands, looking into the window of the living room. Rerun was there, watching some space documentaries. "Hey guys, uh... what're you doing?"

The group turned around as they heard Schroeder's voice.  Lucy quickly tried to cover up their actions with a sly smile.

"Oh, hey Schroeder," she said casually. "We're just, uh, back from doing some shopping."

The others nodded in agreement, trying to act natural. Linus fidgeted nervously, while Charlie Brown avoided eye contact.

"Is this stuff for Rerun's birthday?" He guessed, the kid mentioned it a while back

They all exchanged nervous glances, realizing they hadn't been very subtle.

"Uh, yeah, it's for Rerun's birthday," Lucy admitted. "We were just trying to bring in the birthday gifts and decorations without him seeing them and spoiling the surprise."

He leaned on the wall casually. "Hey, I could uh, distract him for ya, if you want."

"That...could actually be really helpful," Lucy admitted. "If you can keep Rerun preoccupied, we can bring the gifts and decorations in without him seeing."

He knocked on the door as the other four watched, hidden away.

They watched anxiously as Schroeder knocked on the door, hoping Rerun wouldn't notice anything suspicious.

From inside the house, Rerun heard the knock and paused the space documentary.

"Coming!" He called out, getting up to answer the door.

"Schroeder! Why are you here, if you're here for Lucy she's not home."

Lucy almost facepalmed from embarrassment

Schroeder tried to come up with a quick excuse. "Oh uh, I was actually looking for you, Rerun."

Inside, Rerun tilted his head, puzzled. "Looking for me? Why?"

Schroeder mentally searched for a reason that would make sense to a little kid.

"Well, I was wondering if you could, uh, help me with something." He said, trying to sound casual.

Rerun's eyes widened with curiosity. "Help you? Sure, what do you need help with?" he asked, stepping away from the television.

"Well, I uh-" he looked at the television, seeing the space channel on. "I think I found part of a space rocket in my backyard and I wanted you to check it out for me. You know, since you're an expert and everything-"

It's such a stupid excuse it might actually work.

The group outside watched, holding their breaths, trying to ignore how ridiculous the excuse sounded.

Inside, Rerun's eyes lit up, his curiosity piqued.

"Part of a space rocket? In your backyard? Really?" He asked, clearly intrigued.

"Yeah, come on, let's go check it out!"

Rerun quickly agreed and followed Schroeder outside, his interest in the "space relic" outweighing any suspicion about the strange explanation.

The group outside breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that Rerun had taken the bait.

With Rerun distracted, the group quickly hustled around and hid all the birthday gifts and decorations.

Lucy whispered as she carefully put away the balloons and streamers. "This is going smoothly so far..."

"I can't believe you were just messing with me!" Said Rerun, storming back towards the house, Schroeder panickedly going after him. 

"Everyone quick! He's getting back!" She yelled. Everyone worked twice as quick to hide 

everything and then went downstairs to act like nothing had happened as Rerun stormed back in with Schroeder in tow.

The group scrambled to finish hiding the last few decorations just in time to act nonchalant as Rerun entered the house, clearly annoyed.

Charlie Brown and Linus sat innocently on the couch, feigning ignorance. Lucy stood near the staircase, trying to look relaxed.

"Rerun! Where were you? We just got home to find you gone!"

Rerun huffed, still clearly annoyed. "I was with Schroeder," he said, his arms crossed. "He said he found part of a space rocket in his backyard and wanted me to check it out!"

"Really! Part of a space rocket!"

Rerun nodded, still a bit huffy but clearly intrigued by the idea.

"That's what he said! But when we got there, there was nothing!" He emphasized the last bit, crossing his arms.

"Schroeder! Why would you trick Rerun like that! How could you be so cruel!"

Schroeder put his hands up in mock surrender, a mix of guilt and amusement on his face.

"Hey!" he defended. "It's not my fault the rocket disappeared!"

"It disappeared huh?" She said, with a smirk on her face, she was just teasing.

"Perhaps little green men abducted it."

"I'm never ever going to trust your word again," said Rerun, going away to watch TV.

"Thanks," mouthed Lucy with a small smile.

Schroeder nodded, a relieved smile on his face as Rerun stormed off to watch TV.

He mouthed 'you owe me one' before walking back to his house.

Lucy chuckled as she watched him leave.

"Hey wait-" Linus said, stopping Schroeder. "You're coming to his party aren't you?"

"Well, I have broken Rerun’s trust- but I'll try," Schroeder joked.

Linus chuckled. “Come on, you’re right next door. 

Schroeder chuckled as well, but feigned reluctance. "Well, I suppose I could show up to redeem myself."

"You better," smirked Lucy.

In a few days time, his birthday finally came, the two siblings decorated the house before Rerun awoke.

As Rerun slowly woke up, he looked around his room, blinking his eyes groggily. Then he remembered, and a wide smile spread across his face as he jumped out of bed.

"Today's my birthday!"

“He’s awoken,” said Lucy, dramatically

As they finished setting up the last balloons, Charlie Brown called out from the living room. "Is Rerun up yet?"

"Yep."

"Thanks for coming early to help with the decorations," said Linus.

Charlie Brown nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"Of course, no problem." He replied with a smile. "I wouldn't miss Rerun's birthday for anything."

As they talked, Rerun bounded down the stairs, his face lit up with excitement.

"Let me guess, a trainset?" He smirked, before even opening the thing.

"How did you-" started Linus.

"I've been implanting the idea in your heads for months," said Rerun.

"Wow, our brother's a sociopath," said Linus wryly.

Lucy laughed and lightly ruffled Rerun's hair. “Our little master manipulator.”

"Hey! Don't touch my hair!"

“Oh, sorry Rerun

Later, Rerun's friends were invited around as well as some of Lucy's and Linus', Lucy wondered if Schroeder would come as promised as he still hadn't showed up yet. She watched as Sally bothered Linus, trying to feed him cake. 

Meanwhile, Linus managed a small smile of gratitude at his sister's attempt to save him from Sally's overeager

"Don't push him too much," she whispered to Sally.

There was a knock at the door. Maybe it was... oh who cared who it was?

Lucy's heart rate picked up as she heard the knock. Could it be...?

"I'll get it," she said, quickly walking towards the door and trying to seem casual.

She opened the door, revealing Schroeder standing on the porch, a small gift in his hands.

"I thought I'd have to go over there and drag you."

Schroeder chuckled and stepped inside, trying to ignore the slight blush forming on his cheeks.

"Hey, I said I'd be here," he replied, holding up the present. "And I don't break promises."

"Let's hope your gift is up to Rerun's standards, you've got some tough competition. His friend Micheal got him a telescope"

“I don’t know if I can match up to that, I’ll be happy with it just being satisfactory

"You," says Rerun ominously , narrowing his eyes at Schroeder.

Schroeder laughed nervously, knowing Rerun was still a bit put out over the "space relic" incident.

"Yep, here I am," he replied, holding out the gift. "Sorry again for the, uh, misunderstanding the other day. I hope this makes up for it."

"It better," the tween said menacingly. He opened it up.

After opening the gift, Rerun's eyes widened as he looked at what was inside - a detailed model of the solar system.

"It's... wow," he breathed out, clearly impressed. "How did you know I've been wanting this?"

"Don't act all innocent Rerun," says Lucy.

Rerun grinned sheepishly. 

"Alright, alright, I might have mentioned it before..." he admitted, looking at the model in awe.

"So, is this enough for you to forgive me?" Teased Schroeder.

"I've been thinking," says Rerun. "You did that little stunt back there to hide my birthday stuff, didn't you?"

"God, nothing gets past you, does it?" said Lucy with shock

"Nope, I figured it out pretty quick," 

"But I forgive you Schroeder, I suppose people do stupid things for Lo-" Lucy muffled her younger brother's mouth before he could say anything stupid. Rerun elbowed her in the ribs

"I'll get you some cake," she offered Schroeder nervously.

"You're a good sister, Lucy," he says instead.

"Gee, you're the fourth person to say that this week," she replied. "Though sometimes I think I'm too strict on Rerun."

Rerun rolled his eyes. "You're not strict, you're a tyrant."

The day ended with some party games and a game of soccer which Schroeder was doing pretty well at until Franklin and Peppermint patty interjected. The dream team, there was no chance of winning then. 

"AND GOALLLL!" Cheered Franklin, high fiving patty. Charlie, the goalie, lowered his head with a sigh.

"That was good sir!" Said Marcie to peppermint patty from the sidelines.

“Godamn- we almost had it!” muttered Schroeder. 

"Schroeder, I didn't take you for a sore loser."

"WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD AND WEEEEE-" They began to sing, as Charlie patted his shoulder as the winning team spun around them, their arms held out like airplanes. Now they were just taking the piss…

"Its fine Schroeder, we came second anyway."

Charlie's kind words managed to sooth Schroeder a bit.

He scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess second place isn't so bad," he said, a hint of disappointment still in his voice. "Still , I really thought we had that win."