It was truly amazing how quickly time would go by when one was very busy. Between working on school reports, practicing for the upcoming talent show, and making sure that between it all there was time left for play, the next two weeks had gone by at lightning pace for our beloved Peanuts characters.
It was now November the Eighth, and Charlie Brown and Heather were currently in the library. By this point, they had already felt that they had done enough research on their topic to begin writing the paper, but Heather had been enjoying the research aspect of the project. Between that, as well as some encouragement from Linus, Charlie Brown had agreed to this one final afternoon in the library. He didn't mind though, since it was an excuse to spend some more time with Heather.
After jotting down one final note, as well as of course listing the resource, Heather put down her pencil and closed the book they had been browsing.
"And I think that should be enough now," she declared.
"I must say, your efforts toward this project have been beyond reproach. That goes for both of you," Linus said, approaching the duo as they began to pack it up.
"Thank you," Heather said, smiling.
Charlie Brown also grinned at the praise. That day when he was in third grade, and he and Heather were assigned that book report, he was by far the most committed he had ever been regarding a school assignment. With this assignment, although without appearing as obsessive, he was indeed just as committed. One thing of course that made it better was that he and Heather had actually gotten to work together on it. Such wasn't the case with the third grade book report.
As the three of them were walking out of the library, they were approached by Schroeder.
"Hello, Charlie Brown, Linus, Heather," he greeted them.
"Hi, Schroeder," they all greeted back.
Schroeder then turned specifically to Heather. "Heather, I had been looking for you. Are we still on for practicing our skit at my house this evening?"
"You bet." Heather grinned.
Suddenly, Charlie Brown felt that same pit of jealousy that he had experienced when Heather had first told him that she couldn't do the talent show with him. Truth be told, he had pretty much forgotten that Heather and Schroeder were doing the show together... that was until Schroeder had just now brought it up again.
"How have your practices been going so far?" Linus asked them.
"Quite well actually," Schroeder answered.
"Yeah," Heather said before scratching her cheek, as if slightly embarrassed. "Though the dance I had come up with is more challenging than I expected."
"Oh, come on, Heather, it's been working out great," Schroeder reassured her.
"You give me too much credit," Heather said, slightly flattered. "I've lost count of how many times I've stumbled or tripped."
Charlie Brown frowned as he witnessed Heather and Schroeder's interactions. There were those feelings of jealousy bubbling inside of him again. But this time they were beginning to come on stronger. It seemed to him as though Schroeder and Heather had been spending a decent amount of time together since they agreed to do the talent show together. And it was clear that they had been enjoying working together.
Linus noticed Charlie Brown's expression and gave him a nudge.
"Gee, Charlie Brown, is something bugging you?" he asked.
By this point, Heather and Schroeder both also turned to face Charlie Brown.
Charlie Brown blinked and rapidly shook his head. "N-no, nothing wrong here!"
"Are you sure?" Heather asked him.
"I'm sure," Charlie Brown lied.
The look on Heather's face suggested that she didn't really believe him. However, she didn't press the matter. She had repeatedly assured him that he could talk to her about whatever was bugging him, but at the end of the day, whether he did want to talk about something or not was still his decision.
Charlie Brown then worked to push the unwanted feelings aside. He was being a blockhead right now. Even if Schroeder and Heather did enjoy working together, what was wrong with that? Especially since he and Heather also always enjoyed the time they spent together.
"So anyway, I've actually been meaning to ask you guys something," Schroeder said, motioning to Charlie Brown and Linus. "If you've got some time on Friday, since it's Veteran's Day, I was hoping you'd both stop by my house. We want to give you a sneak preview of our performance. A couple of others will be coming as well."
"Sure, Schroeder. I can be there," Linus answered.
"What about you, Charlie Brown," Heather asked, sounding hopeful.
Charlie Brown found Heather's hopeful smile softening him up and he smiled at her. "Of course I'll be there."
Later that evening, Schroeder and Heather were at Schroeder's house having their next practice session. They had just gotten through their most recent attempt at forming their routine.
"I think I'm finally getting the hang of it! I didn't stumble or trip once on that one," Heather said, actually sounding excited.
"That was very good Heather," Schroeder said, smiling at her. "Let's give it one more shot and then we'll call it a night."
And so they proceeded to take it from the top once more.
Meanwhile, Lucy was currently making her way to Schroeder's house. As she got close, she heard the familiar sound of Schroeder's piano being played to Moonlight Sonata. In fact, Lucy noticed that the tune had been unusually familiar to her lately and she had begun to wonder why. Schroeder had said that Moonlight Sonata was his favorite, but he could play a whole lot more different tunes than that.
Regardless, Lucy entered the house and proceeded to make her way into the living room. She was shocked though at what she found.
"What the?!" she cried out.
Schroeder and Heather instantly stopped their performance and their heads shot in the direction of Lucy.
Lucy shook off her shock and looked at Heather, narrowing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"I might ask you the same question," Heather retorted. "What do you think you're doing just barging into someone's house uninvited? Do you not have a single idea how inappropriate that is?"
"Heather, wait a second," Schroeder said calmly.
"But Schroeder, it's true. You wouldn't ever walk into someone's house when they haven't invited you over, would you?" Heather asserted.
"No, I wouldn't, and you're absolutely right," Schroeder said. "But I'm going to need to ask that you let me deal with it. Just trust me on this one."
"Well, okay..." Heather said hesitantly. Regardless, she turned back to Lucy and frowned at her.
"I can see that you both are rather busy right now," Lucy said, not taking her glare off of Heather.
Heather couldn't help but find herself glaring back at her. Lucy had some nerve to be shamelessly barging into someone else's house unwelcomed, and then to be behaving the way she was now.
"Yes, we kinda are. We're busy practicing our routine for the upcoming talent show," Schroeder said to Lucy.
"Well, don't let me be a bother," Lucy said, her voice laced with venom. She then turned and proceeded to leave.
As soon as she was gone, Heather looked at Schroeder, confused.
"What... was that all about?" she asked.
"Pay her no mind, that's just how she is," Schroeder replied. "Pretty much every other day, she likes to come and visit me while I'm playing the piano. She's actually obsessed with me, and has this deluded idea that someday we're going to be married."
Heather blinked, not really sure how to react to all of this.
"Yeah, it's pretty crazy," Schroeder said, noticing Heather's expression. "In fact, a lot of the time when she does visit, she talks about something related to marriage. Like what she'd do as my wife, or she'd talk about something like "What if someday, we had no money, and you had to sell your piano to buy me saucepans".
Despite Heather's still shocked expression, she was now beginning to hold in her laughter. Lucy was certainly quite the character, that was for sure.
After a couple minutes to let the dust settle, the subject had turned back to the task at hand. Schroeder and Heather had made one more attempt at performing their routine, and this time, it was executed almost perfectly.
"Yes, that was great!" Schroeder yelled in excitement.
"It certainly was," Heather agreed. "We're definitely going to be ready by the day of the show."
"I think that's enough for tonight though. I've got a lot of homework still left to finish," Schroeder said after yawning.
"Yeah, same here. Oh, but real quick, I thought of a very good idea for our routine," Heather said.
"Oh? What's that?" Schroeder asked.
"Actually, to be more to the point, I have an idea as to how we can look really nice while performing our routine," Heather said, giving him a wink. "I hope you have something very nice-looking in your wardrobe to wear."
The next morning, Linus and Lucy were boarding the bus. As Lucy was passing by Linus and Charlie Brown's row, Charlie Brown noticed that Lucy didn't look too happy. Her current expression was reminiscent of the crabby Lucy he had known up until Lucy had begun having weekly sessions with Dr. Bliss. Charlie Brown then looked at Linus, who appeared to be looking rather exasperated.
"What's the trouble, Linus?" he asked his blanket-loving friend. He noticed that Linus had decided to carry his blanket today even though he had made a resolution to try to not carry it with him during school hours. Evidently, he was a little stressed right now.
"Ever since Lucy came back from Schroeder's last night, she has been much like her usual crabby self again," Linus said. "And she was easily upset by even the slightest thing that went wrong."
"Gee, I hope that her sessions with Dr. Bliss are having an effect," Charlie Brown said, a finger to his chin.
"I'm not going to say that she's relapsing or anything yet though. I think I know why she was upset that night," Linus said.
"Why is that?" Charlie Brown asked.
"It was because she had found Heather there, and she saw what the two of them were doing," Linus guessed. "Clearly, Lucy is quite jealous."
"Oh, that," Charlie said, a small frown appearing on his face.
He didn't know why, but just now, he actually felt a hint of sympathy for Lucy. He remembered that she was still just as much into Schroeder as Charlie Brown was interested in Heather. So to stop by Schroeder's house only to see him and Heather hanging out and having fun together...
"Gee, Charlie Brown, I can't help but notice that every time it's what Heather and Schroeder are doing, your mood starts to go south," Linus said suspiciously. "What's up? You're not jealous too, are you?"
Hearing this, Charlie Brown quickly shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts. Why did Charlie Brown keep caring so much about this one thing where Schroeder and Heather were partners? He had to stop with it all, there was no reason for it. He was being so selfish right now. Heather and Schroeder were two of his best friends, and they didn't deserve to see Charlie Brown acting this way.
"Sorry. I guess I'm just still wishing that Heather and I could've done the show together," Charlie Brown said. It was partially true.
Linus knew that this wasn't the whole story, but decided not to press further on the matter. He just went back to zoning out with his blanket.
Charlie Brown meanwhile made a firm resolve that from now on he would work extra hard to suppress any further hard feelings that came up regarding Heather and Schroeder. He had to remember that the two of them had decided to partner up strictly due to how their special skills would go well together in creating a great performance.
Despite this resolve, he still had a nagging thought in his head: just what did Schroeder and Heather think of each other?
Author's note: Oooh, looks like a little drama is beginning to take place. Of course, you as readers already know that there is zero chance of Schroeder and Heather actually having a fling, but Charlie Brown isn't assured of that yet though. What will happen next? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out!