AN: Hey everyone! Lucy, Schroeder and I are back with chapter two! Hopefully this one gives a bit more insight to the plot. It wasn't as easy to write as the first chapter, so bear with me here! Well, without further ado, I present chapter two!

xoxo ~ml

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Chapter Two: My Muse

"What're you gonna play now, Schroeder?" Lucy asked, leaning against that same, little piano he'd had for so many years. She was getting too big to sit atop of it now, but she could still sit on his floor and lean up against it as he played.

Schroeder glanced up from the keys, his hands unmoving; the piano remaining silent.

"Nothing very good, with this old thing," he grumbled in response, gesturing to the worn keys in front of him. For eight years he'd played on those keys. For eight years he'd made beautiful music emit from the belly of that toy, and now that he was nearly fifteen, he needed an upgrade.

"I really wish I had a grand piano, one that has foot pedals and everything," he mused. "Then I could play whatever I wanted and it'd sound great..."

"But you already do sound great," Lucy told him, flashing him her best award-winning smile. He simply scoffed and banged one fist on the keyboard. A straggled, evil sound escaped the keys and Lucy covered her ears in protest of the awful noise. "When we get married, you'll have a great grand piano, right in the center room!" Lucy assured him, taking her hands off of her ears as the ugly noise faded. "You'll sit and play it for all of our dinner party guests, and they'll all come to me and say what a wonderful party host I am! 'Lucy, we love you,'" she sighed. "Ahh, yes, I can hear them now!"

Schroeder banged his other fist on the keyboard. "Get out, Lucy," he muttered. "I'm not going to marry you. Even if it means I have to play on this same old toy until I'm a hundred and five."

Lucy was taken aback slightly but certainly not hurt by his comment. "Oh, Schroeder, you'll learn to love me sooner or later!" and with that, she skipped out the door...

Lucy Van Pelt couldn't stand it anymore. All day she'd gotten curious stares and judging glances from people she didn't even know. Her little fiasco this morning had cost her major popularity points. But for once, she didn't care. She was so sick of everyone just assuming that she was thrilled Schroeder was back. Nobody knew what happened two summers ago and she knew nobody truly even cared. All they wanted to know was the gossip. That's all anybody cared about these days. She needed to get away, to clear her head—but what chance was there of that happening in Chemistry class?

She sighed and picked up her pencil again to fill out a syllabus form she'd just received. She glanced up at the clock. 45 more painstaking minutes and school would be over. She'd managed to make it the entire day without even looking at Schroeder. She didn't have a single class with him, and for that she was grateful. She didn't think she could bear to even hear his voice after their last encounter.

The most depressing part about the situation was that she doubted Schroeder even knew what he did to her. He was a clueless idiot, that boy, and he'd left her for Germany without saying goodbye. What's worse was that the last words he'd said to her were "Can you believe it? A whole year away from you!" At first she'd blamed it on his excitement. He was so hyped up about his upcoming trip; he didn't even know what he was saying.

But that didn't make it hurt any less. Although Schroeder had never been the most avid of Lucy-lovers, he was always still kind enough to allow her into his home and to let her lean on his tiny piano as he played. He was never, in the sense, as rude to her as he had on been that day.

She desperately needed to get him out of her head.

She glanced up at the clock once more. A mere three minutes had passed since the class had started. She groaned and peered around the room, looking for some form of distraction.

She didn't talk to a single person in this class, which made it all the more unbearable as the time stretched on. You'd think in such a small school there would be more people she knew, but for some reason this was the one class which happened to have the most new faces. There was one familiar boy who sat in the back of the room, though. He had on a Hawaiian shirt and his hair was curled into several short, nappy dreadlocks. She knew him from somewhere, but she couldn't think of where.

Herself, she sat alone at a lab table for two, as after that crazy scene from this morning, her perfect image had been slaughtered and any new people were simply petrified at the sight of her.

She sighed again and rested her head in her arms as she tried her hardest not to think about Schroeder. She thought about the teacher of the class, Mr. Klott, and how his moustache was not very complimenting and how he really ought to shave it off. She thought about chemistry, in fact, as she read every single poster on the wall—twice. She stated at the clock and willed the time to go faster.

She was in luck. For a brief moment, it seemed, the handsome blonde figure stayed out of her immediate thoughts and other things occupied her mind. For a moment, that is, until there was a light knock at the door in the classroom.

Every head swiveled around, including her own, to see who it was at the door so early in the class period. Mr. Klott swiftly marched to open it, slightly irritated to have his lesson interrupted.

"Yes, yes, what can it be," he muttered under his breath as he turned the door handle, allowing a tall, blonde-and-purple figure to step gingerly inside the classroom.

Lucy literally smacked herself in the forehead—earning her a few questioning looks from fellow students—and muttered, "Good grief."

"You must be Schroeder," Mr. Klott said observantly, eyeing the boy suspiciously. Schroeder nodded nervously and stepped fully into the classroom now, fully aware that every eye—save for Lucy's—was on him.

"Yes, sir," he said shakily, following Mr. Klott as he motioned for him to approach his desk. "I-I couldn't get my locker open."

Lucy buried her head deep in her arms again. His voice was just how she remembered it—soft and enticing. It made her heart leap. She mentally told her heart to stop g jumping jacks or she'd slug it. Mr. Klott clicked his tongue.

"Aren't you a junior, boy?" Mr. Klott asked Schroeder, who nodded. "Shouldn't you know how to open your locker by now?"

Schroeder said nothing. Mr. Klott was obviously not looking for a direct answer as he checked Schroeder off of his attendance clipboard. He then surveyed the classroom. Lucy gulped as she followed his gaze, realizing that the only empty seat happened to be the one directly next to her.

"Well, take a seat then, boy," Mr. Klott told Schroeder. "I can't hold off my lesson all day while you dawdle."

Lucy immediately buried her face in her elbows again. Maybe if I just stay hidden he won't realize it's me, she thought to herself.

Without a second glance, Schroeder plopped himself down in the seat next to her. He must not have recognized that it was her, because he did not even look at her as he slumped far down in his seat. Lucy felt the vibrations as he tapped his fingers nervously on the edge of the lab table and Mr. Klott began his lesson. It was as if Schroeder was playing that same imaginary keyboard again. Lucy fought the urge to jerk her head up and stare at him. But she remembered their final words together, and she shuddered. She couldn't let herself go back there again. She kept her head firmly held down for the rest of the class period.

Luckily, there wasn't much to learn and Mr. Klott didn't seem to mind her paying absolutely no attention to his lesson. As soon as the bell rang, Lucy slowly raised her head and her eyes adjusted to the light. She didn't even look to her left as she gathered her books and stood up out of her seat.

She whirled around—and smacked right into Schroeder's broad chest.

At that moment, she forgot who he was. She forgot who she was. She just knew that her Lucy 'charm' had kicked in, and once it caught flame, there was no stopping the raging fire that burned inside her chest.

"Watch it, blockhead!" She said forcibly, shoving him out of her way. All that rage and fear that'd been built up inside her all day came forth in a quick burst of energy. But she still kept her face down and she didn't look at him. A flash of purple and black, and a quick shove, and he was gone. She darted out of the classroom without a single glance behind her.

It sure feels great to be back in America. Although the scenery in Germany was beautiful, Beethoven's ancient hometown was one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my young life, and who doesn't love sitting on a bus for hours at a time as I went back and forth between tourist attractions? But I'm glad to be back at home with my family and my friends. I got really homesick while I was away. Most of all, though, I missed sitting at home, playing my little piano—no matter how small and worn it is—and just being able to let myself go on those keys. I had a chance to play while I was in Germany, if only a little. It wasn't the same, though. Something was missing. It felt too quiet, too distant; I couldn't concentrate. Now that I'm back, though, I can go back to school. I spent the entire plane ride home hoping my friends hadn't changed too much while I was gone. I know I've changed a lot. I hope it's for the better, though. I'm ready to start my career now, thanks to that enlightening trip. I'm more set on becoming a famous pianist than I've ever been in my life. Now that I'm 16, I can start performing in front of an actual audience, in an actual opera house!

Coming back to school today was great. I was so happy I got to reconnect with all my friends as soon as they saw I was back. I'm glad I came back before the start of the school year, too. Everyone was excited about the new classes and teachers, so I wasn't that out of place in the crowd, being excited and all. It was great that all my friends were so happy to see me. It really made me feel loved. I was surprised to see that my good friend Charlie Brown was now dating Peppermint Patty, a girl from our baseball team. I was really happy for them! Aside from that, I didn't see anything that had changed among my immediate friend circle. Well, there was the fact that all these girls kept staring at me all day. I mean, most of them knew who I was—I was still the same old Schroeder. Why did they stare at me like that? But it wasn't like those girls' opinions mattered much to me, anyways.

I managed to make it through most of my classes just fine—I hadn't gone to that school in a year, so it was kind of tough making my way around and remembering where everything was. I was on a roll, until my last class came around and I couldn't open my locker. I felt sheepish knocking on the closed door almost five minutes into class. The teacher, Mr. Klott, acted annoyed with me and bluntly told me to take a seat. I glanced once around the room and immediately could tell this was not going to be a fun class. I didn't know anyone in the room at all, not a single face was recognizable. No faces, but I did see a familiar head. I smiled and sat myself down next to Lucy Van Pelt, thankful that I knew at least one person, even if it was her. I was never very fond of Lucy, ever since the first day she realized she was obsessed with me and wanted everything to do with me. It got really annoying, and most of the time I ended up kicking her off of my piano and out of my house, but there was no kicking Lucy Van Pelt out of my thoughts. Every time she left, I found myself lost and I couldn't play properly. I had to picture her in my head saying something about the two of us getting married before I could play again, if you can believe it. She often crossed my mind while I was gone, too. I kind of felt bad for the way I'd treated her on the day before I left. We'd been talking, and sort of I told her I was happy I was going to be away from her for a whole year. She didn't seem to mind it—she never seemed to mind when I said something rude to her—she just looked slightly taken aback and told me she had to go. It was very unlike Lucy to leave on her own—usually I had to force her out before she'd move a muscle. She didn't even come to see me off the next day. I was a little hurt, but what was I going to do, force her? I was better off without her, anyways; she was getting in the way of my talent.

I was happy to finally have a chance to speak to her now, though, in biology class, so I could apologize for sounding rude. She must not have been feeling well though, because she kept her dark head down the entire class period, keeping as still as stone. I decided to wait until the end of the class period to say anything to her. When the final bell rang, she leapt out of her seat at the same time I did. I turned around to face her and she ran straight into me. It wasn't my fault—I was just standing there and she hit me, head-on, but I started to apologize for that, too, anyways. Seemed like I had a lot of apologizing to do.

Before I could say a word, she snapped, "Watch it, blockhead!" and shoved me to the side, darting out of the classroom, leaving me totally and utterly speechless.

She didn't even look at me. That whole time in class, what if she was trying to avoid me? She couldn't still be angry about that whole thing that happened a year ago, could she? It didn't seem very unlikely—she was Lucy, after all.

I didn't think too much of it as I rushed home to try out my parents' welcome home present to myself—a grand piano! It was just my size—and not a moment too soon, either! I'd just begun to notice a few of my keys were falling off on that old toy piano. I figured Lucy would come barging in any second, so I started to play my favorite piece: Beethoven's fifth.

I finished the piece—and five more after that—and still, no sign of Lucy. I was actually kind of shocked. I thought for sure she'd be breaking down my door now that she knew I was back. I couldn't help but feel a little sad inside. Something about playing my new grand piano without Lucy here felt wrong. It just felt…empty. I sighed and glanced at the clock. It was already ten-thirty. Lucy isn't going to come, I told myself. I stood up and stretched. I got ready for bed, taking as long as I could to do so, just in case my muse came running through the door. I kept telling myself, she might! She might! But she never did.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I didn't really like writing this one, myself, but I thought I'd take things in a different direction by using Schroeder's perspective for that last part! It was a pretty boring chapter but I had to make sure things were all established to thank you for being patient with me! Also, thanks all for the reviews and I hope to get chapter three coming at you really soon! So stay tuned, and KEEP REVIEWING! :)

xoxo ~ml