Charlie Brown sat down at, what had become, his usual table and examined his tray of food.
"Charlie Brown! Charlie Brown! Hi!" Linus scurried across the floor, which was quickly becoming very crowded. Linus landed in the seat across from him, looking really excited.
"I was able to get my schedule switched around, so I'm in this lunch period now." Linus explained, beaming across the table at him.
"I thought that you couldn't do that after the first two weeks of school?" Charlie Brown asked.
"Well, they wanted to put me in a higher English class anyway, so it was easy to switch a couple of other things around." Linus explained. "You're in Mr. Harrison's 7th period study hall right?" He asked. Charlie Brown just nodded.
Linus was a gifted student and had skipped both 4th and 7th grade. He was kind of runty looking compared to the regular students and wore glasses now, and he'd finally managed to ditch his blanket. Charlie Brown knew for a fact that he still slept with it under his pillow, but was sworn to secrecy.
Charlie Brown had the sneaking suspicion that being seen hanging out with Linus would put a dent in his reputation. But he and Linus had been friends ever since he could remember, so he wasn't about to throw him over now. Especially for some as unattainable as being 'cool'.
"Augh. My little brother's here. Why are you here Linus, I thought you were in an earlier lunch period?" Lucy asked. Charlie twisted in his seat to get a look at Lucy and turned back around quickly. Heather and Frieda were with her. He blushed and stared at his lunch tray.
The girls sat down, Heather right next to him.
"Hi Charlie Brown." Heather greeted. Lucy leaned over the table and slid Charlie Brown's lunch tray across the table.
"Aww, what is this? Salisbury steak? You know they have pizza, right?" Lucy complained. She started eating it anyway. Frieda picked the vegetables off the tray as she say on the other side of the table.
There was a silence at the table as Lucy and Frieda ate Charlie Brown's lunch. Charlie Brown never moved his eyes off the table where his tray had been.
"They took your lunch Charlie Brown." Linus pointed out. Charlie Brown looked up at Linus, then down at the table again, where he let his eyes skirt over towards Heather. They never got any further than her hands before he gave out and went back to looking at the table in front of him.
Normally in a situation like this he'd bury his nose in a book and feign interest in getting his homework done before his next class. But it was still too early in the year for that to be an effective excuse.
Heather eventually slid over closer to Lucy and started chatting with her. Charlie Brown relaxed a little and dared just a small glance at her before taking a deep breath and turning his attention to Linus.
"Want half my sandwich?" Linus asked. Noting again that Lucy had taken Charlie Brown's lunch.
"Umm..." He watched as Linus removed a small kit from his backpack. From this he took out a pack of sanitary wipes and wiped down his hands before then constructing a sandwich on a napkin he'd placed on the table. This little production drew the attention of everyone at the table.
"What?" Linus asked. "It's got tomatoes. It'd get soggy if you put it together before school!" He justified. Charlie Brown just nodded.
"Hey, where's Schroeder?" Lucy asked, leaning back a little to get Charlie Brown's attention without Heather directly in between them as a distraction.
"Not sure. If he's not here then he probably has something going on in the band room." Charlie Brown answered.
"What?!" Lucy shouted. "Well that's just unacceptable!" Lucy got up and stomped off.
"Lucy! Where are you going?" Linus called after her.
"To the band room!" She shouted across the cafeteria before she left.
There was a silent pause as everyone absorbed that.
"So, Charlie Brown..." Heather started. Charlie Brown tensed and the blush that had been subsiding came back full force. He stared intently at the surface of the table, like the carvings on it were some interesting puzzle. He glanced up at her quickly and then back to the table to let her know he was paying attention. It was the best he could manage.
"I was wondering-" Heather started.
"Heather!" A girl called out. Everyone looked up and saw a brown-haired girl coming towards the table. "Heather! C'mon, Mr. Matthews says he's got a project for the art club to get started on and he wants everyone to know."
"It can't wait until after school?" Heather asked.
"Don't you have something going on for French Club after school?" The girl asked.
"Umm..." Heather looked back at Charlie Brown, who appeared to be steadfastly ignoring her. She sighed.
"Yeah. Okay." Heather agreed. She picked up her backpack. "I'll see you later Frieda." She said before following the girl out of the room.
Charlie Brown looked up to watch her go. Linus and Frieda locked eyes for just a moment to share an eye-roll. Linus and Frieda only knew each other nominally through Lucy, but Charlie Brown's patheticness was universally understood.
