A/N: I wasn't sure wether to put down Romance/Humor for genre or Romance/Drama...just so you know, there'll be a lot of all three :)

Grey.

Everything was grey.

Grey, grey, grey.

For Charlie Brown, there was never really any color in life. Everything was grey, from the cloudless sky to his own reflection. Especially his own reflection. It was just blah.

And blah equaled grey.

Everything was grey. Except her.

He sighed as he played moodily with his food, staring at the back of her head and that sleek, perfect, shiny mass of red hair that adorned it.

The little red haired girl was seated at a table with all her friends, laughing at a joke someone had said.

Charlie Brown was seated alone, waiting for Linus, who was still somewhere in the long queue waiting to be served his food.

He sighed. He would give anything to have just the tiniest bit of courage to go over to her table and start a conversation. Some people seemed to find that so easy, and Charlie Brown couldn't understand it. He couldn't understand how some people could just do things, say things, without worrying about them beforehand.

"Go and TALK to her, you blockhead!"

Charlie Brown jumped at the sudden voice. It was a harsh, no-nonsense female voice, a voice he had heard many many times throughout his life.

"Lucy," he groaned.

She plonked her tray down on the table and took the seat opposite him.

"Why don't you just go and TALK to her. It's not that hard, you know. You just open your mouth and words come out."

He looked at his friend (enemy? Frienemy? He never had been able to figure out what his relationship with Lucy was) in a mixture of despair and annoyance. She had been a crabby little girl when they had been younger, and now she had grown up to be a crabby teenage girl. She had always, as long as Charlie Brown had known her, had her good days and her bad days. Her good days were ok. Her bad days were TERRIBLE.

Today seemed to be one of her bad days.

Her dark eyebrows were knotted together in a permanent frown and beneath them, her bright blue eyes seemed brighter than usual – and not in a particularly good way. Her mouth was in a tight, thin line, and her firm chin seemed more protruding than ever. It was hard to see when she was in a crabby mood, but Lucy had grown into a pretty attractive eighteen year old, with long legs, creamy white skin and long black eyeleshes with bright blue eyes that were undoubtedly her most attractive feature. She was short, but that didn't stop her from intimidating people the way she always did.

"Seriously, Charlie Brown, you're such a loser. You've had the same crush on the same girl for ten thousand years and you don't even know her freaking name. It's pathetic."

Charlie Brown sighed. Lucy had a way of making you feel like an insignificant piece of dirt. Not that he never thought of himself as an insignificant piece of dirt. In fact, he thought of himself as an insignificant piece of dirt every single day of his life. Every single moment of his life, actually…

He shook his head and took a bite of his chicken leg.

"What are you doing here anyway? How come you're not sitting with the girls?" he asked, nodding towards the table where Frieda, Violet and Patty were seated, apparently engrossed in conversation. Lucy made a noise that sounded remarkably like a cat's hiss and rolled her eyes.

"Them? They're driving me crazy today. I swear, if Frieda keeps going on about her stupid fucking hair and how easy it is to get a boyfriend when you have stupid fucking hair like hers I'll single handedly rip it off her head," she replied seethingly, furiously squeezing her orange-juice box, imagining it was Frieda's neck.

She had been particularly annoying today, going on about how happy she and Shermy were and how it was such a SHAME Schroeder seemed so uninterested in Lucy. God, I could have strangled her there and then, thought Lucy, shoving mashed potatoes into her mouth and chewing furiously. She had snapped at Frieda, calling her a stupid antifeminist bimbo and many worse things, assuring her that she couldn't possibly care less about Schroeder. Then she had come over to torment Charlie Brown. Tormenting people was always a good anger outlet, and Charlie Brown was such a good target.

She was just thinking of her next cutting remark when Linus came over and sat down beside Charlie Brown. He was fifteen years old, but sometimes looked years younger, thanks to the fact that he still had a very childlike face, which looked rather awkward with his tall, skinny frame. He was now one of the tallest, if not the tallest, boy in the school. It had annoyed Lucy tremendously when he first surpassed her in height, and he had had an extremely clumsy phase were it seemed everything was too small and far away from him, which made him feel like a giraffe at times. He had gotten used to his height now, however. He was also extremely skinny, something that worried his mother, who tried to stuff as much food as possible down his throat at mealtimes. This also annoyed Lucy to no end, because while she was by no means fat, or even chubby, she had hips and thighs that were prone to getting rather large if she didn't work out and take care of herself.

"Well, hello, sister. How come you're not sitting with your female confidantes today?"

"Mind your own business. And stop talking in that mightier than thou tone or I'll clobber you," she snapped, taking another bite of mashed potato.

"Ah. Bright and cheerful as always, I see. Glad to know I have a sister who's always so willing to brighten one's day."

Lucy snorted derisively and pretended to stare nonchalantly into space as she spotted Schroeder walk by with 5 and Pig-pen. Maybe she'd go round to his house again this afternoon. He wouldn't pay attention to her, she knew that. He was always too engrossed in his stupid music. He had certainly upgraded from his toy piano; he now played a variety of instruments ranging from piano to guitar to harp, but the piano was what he excelled at. He wanted to get into the most prestigious music university in America, and he would talk about nothing else. But Lucy was nothing if not persistent, and she would still go round to his house practically every day, ignoring the raised eyebrows of Patty and Violet, and the knowing sighs of Frieda. Those stupid knowing sighs. GOD, she was annoying. Ever since she had begun dating Shermy she thought herself the freaking sex and dating expert of the whole town. Stupid, idiotic, dumb little…

"…Hey, Luce? You're breaking your fork…"

She looked down at her hand and saw her brother was right. The plastic fork was broken in half. She threw it furiously across the cafeteria, landing on Peppermint Patty's tray.

"Hey!" the tomboy protested mildly. Lucy ignored her, rage taking over her whole being.

"THIS STUPID SCHOOL, CAN'T EVEN HAVE PROPER FORKS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, IT'S PATHETIC, IF ROOSEVELT WAS STILL ALIVE HE WOULDN'T LET THIS HAPPEN…"

Charlie Brown sighed as Lucy's shouting went on and on. Nobody was taking much notice; they had become immune to Lucy's loud angry shouting rants which usually ended up making no sense whatsoever. Roosevelt? He shook his head bemusedly. As for Linus, he seemed to be oblivious to anything around him. He was now talking and laughing with Sally, who had just joined them.

"Thank god you came," he grinned. "Between his depressive I-love-the-red-haired-girl-but-I-am-a-coward state of mind and her angry mad rants, I was about to go crazy."

Charlie Brown frowned.

"Hey! I heard that!"

Sally sighed, pushing her blonde curls out of her face. Puberty was being good to her, and she was turning out to be a very pretty young woman. She had lost most of her baby fat and she was beginning to get defined curves, but her face still had that sweetness that was so imprinted in her, and her baby-blue eyes were still wide and innocent looking, with that unique and sometimes naïve way of seeing the world. She sighed, looking at her older brother with a mixture of sympathy and amusement.

"Again?"

Linus nodded, rolling his eyes.

"You should talk to her. I talked to her once, in the grocer's. She's quite nice."

"I know I should talk to her! I just don't…know how…" he trailed off pathetically, staring sadly at his plate.

Sally sighed. Who was she to say anything, anyway? She was as scared of rejection as he was. She looked at Linus out of the corner of her eye, biting her fingernails. Maybe it ran in the family. Fear of rejection. Then she looked at Lucy, who had stopped shouting and was now moodily finishing her lunch. Lucy wasn't scared. She was rejected over and over again and yet she kept persisting over and over again. Sally admired her for that. She looked back at Linus, thinking how she would never be able to do what Lucy did, for fear of breaking of their friendship. She really, really valued Linus' friendship.

Still. At least she knew his name. Charlie Brown never even plucked up the courage to ask her her name, for crying out loud.

He suddenly looked up at his younger sister.

"Hang on. You talked to her?!"

Oh no.

Linus groaned. "Classic mistake, Sally".

"Well, I –" Sally began hastily.

"You must know her name then! Tell me, please!" he begged desperately.

"No."

"Oh, come on! Why not?"

"For the same reason no one else will tell you! I want you to do it, Charles!"

The thing was, most people technically could tell him her name, as most people knew…but nobody wanted to tell him because they wanted him to find it out. They wanted him to be braver and ask her.

"Oh, for pity's sakes…" began Charlie Brown angrily.

"She's right, Charlie Brown. It wouldn't be fair if we told you. You have to stand on your own two feet!" said Linus sternly.

"But - "

"No."

"Please – I –!"

"Nope".

Charlie Brown groaned in despair and buried his head in his arms.

"You doing anything this afternoon, Sally?" asked Linus, ignoring Charlie Brown's wails of despair.

"Well, I've got band practice right after school," she replied, rolling her eyes in mock despair. It wasn't that she didn't like being in the marching band; it was fun, in fact, and the kids in it were nice. In fact, the other kids were probably the main reason she was in it. Most of them were the friendly, shy and kind of dorky sort, much like she was. But she liked hanging out with Linus after school, and lately she hadn't been able to do that much, what with her band hysterically trying to organize everything for tomorrow's football game and Linus' advanced maths. She couldn't say she was particularly passionate about the clarinet, either, but she was good at it, and there weren't many things Sally was even decent at, let alone good at.

"Oh, right, it's the football game tomorrow, isn't it?" said Linus, taking a sip of his coke.

"Yeah. Are you going?"

"I think I will. Rerun likes going, so I might come with him. Personally I prefer baseball."

"It's this stupid school. They seem to love watching stupid muscled boys wrestling each other to the ground. It just shows what kind of sick culture we live in," snapped Lucy.

It was a well-known fact that the school valued football above all other sports. Above all other extra-curricular activities, in fact. The basketball team had next to no members, and the baseball team was an absolute failure. All the good sports students chose to go into football, since it was the biggest sport in the school, and the baseball team consisted of a small group of kids who were continuously dropping out. Charlie Brown was in the team, which just went to show how low the playing standards were, while Schroeder, Linus, Pig-pen, 5 and Shermy were only in it out of loyalty towards Charlie Brown. The other kids in the team were not much better than any of the gang. There were two other kids called Peter and Scott who weren't too bad; Schroeder was a decent catcher and Linus was a good pitcher, but that was about it.

The matter in question was in deep debate over at the table were Lucy's fork had landed.

"It's too bad that the school doesn't have a proper baseball team, really it is. And the fact there are no girl teams is just sad. I asked the baseball coach to make a girls' team and you know what he said?! There are cheerleaders, you know, miss Harris. Why not join them?" Peppermint Patty exclaimed indignantly. "How sexist is that?!"

"Sucks", Franklin replied, shaking his head.

"I mean," Peppermint Patty went on. "Football's ok and all, but it's not fair that one team is so much more favourited than the other."

"I think you mean 'favoured', Sir" spoke up Marcie, a small smile on her lips.

"Whatever, stop calling me Sir" replied Peppermint Patty, merely out of custom and not because of actual annoyance. Marcie calling her Sir had stopped seeming weird, and had just become a common nickname. "Seriously, though, we should start a petition or something."

"Who'd back it up? Most of the girls here hate sports, anyway. It's practically impossible to get them to have a small game," pointed out Franklin, biting into his sandwich.

"Oh, never underestimate my persuasive powers, Franklin," she replied teasingly. She looked at her watch and groaned.

"Oh, great. Back to Geography in half an hour."

"Actually, I think it's history now, Sir" replied Marcie, turning over the page of her book. Peppermint Patty blinked.

"We have history today?"

Marcie rolled her eyes. "Yes. We have a test today."

Peppermint Patty blinked again.

"We have a test?"

"Sir!" Marcie exclaimed in despair. "I told you last night! I suppose you did the maths exercises, at least."

Silence.

"SIR!"

"I forgot!" wailed Peppermint Patty.

"Well, you're not copying my answers this time. You're on your own,".said the dark-haired girl firmly, keeping her eyes on the book. When would she ever learn? Peppermint Patty had changed practically nothing since Marcie had met her. She was still the same old freckle-faced, loud, outspoken tomboy who was great at sport and extremely stupid when it came to school. Practically the opposite of Marcie herself. Marcie hadn't changed much either. She was still the quiet school nerd. If anything she had become even more reserved, for reasons only she knew and kept to herself. She sighed and looked up from her book.

Big mistake.

Oh, lord, not the puppy dog eyes.

"Stop it," she snapped warningly.

"Pleaaase…" whined Peppermint Patty, her brown eyes widening.

"You know she'll win in the end, Marcie," said Franklin, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "Why not make it easy on yourself and just give her the answers?"

"Because she'll never learn! She never learns!" exclaimed Marcie exasperatedly.

"I will, I promise you! This is the very last time I'll ever ask you for anything! I swear!"

"Yeah, right," muttered Franklin.

"Franklin! Not helping!" snapped Peppermint Patty. She turned to Marcie with the same beseeching look in her eyes. Marcie hesitated, and then threw up her arms in despair.

"Fine!" she snapped, taking her maths book out of her bag and plunking it down in front of Peppermint Patty. "But if you ever make fun of me again for always carrying my books around and never leaving them in the locker…"

"I won't, I won't! You're wonderful!" grinned Peppermint Patty, throwing her arms around her and giving her a very clumsy, rough hug.

"…after all, if I didn't carry my books with me, who would you copy from at break?" continued Marcie, blushing at the sudden contact and straightening her glasses. She felt Franklin stare at her curiously and she buried her face behind her book once more, her face flushing even more. Great. Now he would figure out what she was trying so hard to hide all the time and her life would be a complete misery.

"I will never make fun of you again for as long as I live" replied Peppermint Patty solemnly.

"Yeah, right," muttered Franklin again, shaking his head in amusement. Marcie could still feel him staring at her with curiosity as she tried to concentrate on the book she had to read for her English class. It was The Picture Of Dorian Grey, by Oscar Wilde. She had already read it about a thousand times before, so she didn't really need to read it, but she didn't mind re-reading it. It was one of her favourite books. Marcie loved reading; it took her to different places, different people. She didn't have to think about her own issues; all her attention was focused on the characters and their own story.

Moments later, the bell rang. Franklin got up. "Well, I should be off quickly. I want to ask Rory about that essay for English." He walked away and Peppermint Patty sighed.

"I'm not even halfway through yet. Never mind, I'll finish copying it in History class."

Marcie looked at her incredulously.

"We have a TEST."

"Fine, after the test then! I'll have a few minutes. Geez, Marcie, calm down. You stress too much" she yawned, stretching out.

"Well, someone has to do the stressing for you, Sir" smiled Marcie, shaking her head at her friend's laziness.

"Stop calling me Sir. True. Thank god we're in most classes together. What would I do without you, Marcie?" she replied, smiling her rather lazy, lop-sided smile.

Marcie loved that smile.

"I don't know. What do you do without me in the classes we're not together?"

"Well, I'm always with either you or Franklin, so…"

"…so you always manage to rip off one of us."

Pepermint Patty laughed.

"Come on, we'll be late. And I've still got to get my stuff from my locker. I know you don't" she remarked pointedly nodding towards Marcie's pile of books lying on the table.

"Might I remind you, Sir, you just said…"

"I know, I know, I'd never make fun of you again for as long as I live. Come on."

Laughing, Marcie got her pile of books and began following Peppermint Patty out of the cafeteria. She heard her name being called and turned around. It was Sally, rushing towards her. She smiled at her fellow band mate. Marcie had gotten to know Sally better over the last year, playing the clarinet next to her in the marching band. She liked Sally. Besides Peppermint Patty, Marcie had never been particularly close with any of the girls in the small town, such as Violet or Patty or that lot, but lately she had distanced herself from them even more. It wasn't only that their conversation, which consisted mainly of clothes, boys and more boys, bored her to tears…it was mainly because they always tried to pry into her private life and ask countless questions about her feelings, and Marcie just didn't feel comfortable talking about those things. Sally wasn't the prying sort, and though she wasn't exactly bright academically, she had a special kind of intelligence that Marcie never possessed; she was people-smart. She could tell, somehow, what people were feeling, and when they needed comfort and when they just needed to be left alone.

"You going to band practice this evening, Marcie?" asked Sally, catching up with her and Peppermint Patty.

Marcie stopped in her tracks.

"Band practice? I thought you were coming round to my house to watch that movie for drama class" intervened Peppermint Patty.

"Band practice. I forgot" replied Marcie, sighing.

"You forgot, Marcie? I can't believe you actually forgot something!"

"I just –"

"HEY, EVERYONE! MARCIE'S HUMAN! SHE FORGOT SOMETHING!" shouted Peppermint Patty in mock horror/shock/surprise. Sally laughed.

"Oh, shut up, Sir."

"Stop calling me Sir. Oh well, we'll just have to get together some other day this week. Unless you're too busy with the book club or something."

Marcie swatted her on the arm and Sally shook her head, giggling. "You two. Always bickering like an old married couple. See you later then, Marcie!"

Peppermint Patty flushed slightly at Sally's remark. The girl had no idea how much she'd almost hit home.

Putting on her best nonchalant smile on her face, she pulled her small bespectacled friend into the History classroom, where all the kids were already sitting at their desks.

A/N: Please review and let me know what you think so far! Next chapter will probably focus more on Violet, Patty & Frieda, or maybe Shroeder...anyway, hope you enjoyed this first chapter! :) There's cookies!