Schroeder could've played the piece with his eyes closed.

The tune of Für Elise came flowing out from beneath his fingers, which seemed to dance over the glossy white keys. But amid his piece, he suddenly saw two slim hands in front of him, folded neatly on the top of the piano.

Schroeder didn't even have to look up — he knew it was Lucy. He was used to the way her presence felt when she lounged near his piano, listening to his music and thinking out loud about their "eventual marriage." Since they'd started dating, Schroeder had, naturally, gotten more used to her presence, but of course, the circumstances were different today.

He wondered what to do now. He couldn't very well walk away; they were in the school auditorium, and today were the auditions for the position of piano player in the school band. Mrs. Lowery, the band director, had asked Schroeder to be present and help her make the decision, seeing as how his piano playing had made him the most well-known musician at SHS.

He took a deep breath and tried to keep his cool. Maybe she's here to apologize, he thought. Maybe the plan worked. Maybe she was even going to apologize all along!

I just wish it wasn't happening here — now.

When he finished the song, Schroeder took a deep breath to calm himself, and looked up at Lucy — but he was a bit taken aback, and in all honesty, relieved, to see that the girl standing before him was not Lucy.

"Oh," he said in surprise. "Hi. It's Nancy, right?"

"And you're Schroeder," she replied with a nod. "Of course, when we met yesterday, I didn't realize I was talking to the Thomas Schroeder, Schulz High's own piano prodigy."

"Ah. Well, there's a reason I didn't tell you my first name then."

"And what might that be?"

"I don't like it. I'd much prefer it if you just called me Schroeder like everyone else does."

"Alrighty," agreed Nancy, smiling.

"So," continued Schroeder, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm here for the audition."

"The audition for principal piano player in the band?" he asked with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

"Yes. Does it surprise you?"

"No, I just… think it's quite a coincidence that my locker neighbor also plays piano."

"Okay, students," interrupted Mrs. Lowery, clapping her hands to command attention. "It looks like you four are here because you would each like to be the new pianist for the Schulz High band. Firstly, welcome. Most of you, I assume, knew our last piano player, Nick Spencer?"

The three other candidates — the ones that weren't new to the school — murmured in agreement.

"Well, now that he's graduated, it's your chance to take on his position as one of the two best known musicians in this school. We're looking for talent, versatility, and most of all, enthusiasm. And by 'we', of course, I mean myself and our orchestra's piano player, Schroeder."

Schroeder smiled and raised a hand in greeting.

"So, up first is Miss Nancy O'Donnell," said Mrs. Lowery. "Go ahead, Nancy. Dazzle us."

Nancy walked up to the piano with her music folder in hand, smiling confidently. When she'd heard Schroeder playing Für Elise, she'd known exactly what song to play for her audition. It was sure to impress him… and the band director, of course.

She opened her folder to the correct page and began playing the first few chords: a fairly simple, low-key jazzy intro. Then came the real beginning of the song. Nancy took a deep breath and skillfully played through it.

Schroeder couldn't believe his ears. What was this thing Nancy was playing? It sounded remarkably like Für Elise… But jazzy. Fast and unnecessarily complicated.

She was scarcely thirty seconds into her song when Schroeder couldn't stand it anymore. "Wait a second! Stop!" he interrupted, earning funny looks from everyone else in the room.

Biting her lip, Nancy looked at Schroeder. "What is it?"

"What on Earth are you playing?" he asked, horrified.

"It's Marcus Schinkel's arrangement of 'Elise'," she replied.

"Well, please stop! If Beethoven heard this, he'd— Mrs. Lowery, please tell her not to disrespect Beethoven in this matter."

Mrs. Lowery sighed in exasperation. "Mister Schroeder, might I remind you, we are holding auditions for a band? I don't need her to be a Beethoven purist, I need her to be talented. And she is. So if you'd please stop your fuming and sit down and let Miss O'Donnell finish her audition!"

Schroeder's eyes widened at this, and he sank into his chair, his cheeks turning red and his ears burning up.

Mrs. Lowery turned to Nancy. "I'm sorry about that. Do play on."

Nancy did, although not with the same excitement as she had begun with. Still, she managed to finish the song and earn applause from the others that were there (even Schroeder), albeit a slightly uncomfortable applause.

"Thank you, Miss O'Donnell," Mrs. Lowery said to her. "That was lovely." Schroeder easily sensed that that last part had been aimed at him, especially when she added, "Wasn't it, Mister Schroeder?"

"Oh, uh— yes. Very nice. I'm terribly sorry about before."

"No problem," answered Nancy quietly as she gathered her music and went to sit with the other prospects.

Clearly there is a problem, thought Schroeder, guilt pooling in his stomach. Good grief, I really need to get it together.

He sat quietly for the other three auditions. It wasn't until the last student finished his piece that Schroeder felt he could breathe easy as he realized that Nancy was the obvious choice for the position. Now at least he had a way of making things up to her.

Once the others had left, Schroeder said so to Mrs. Lowery, who agreed with him. "And since you're the one who so generously gave her your opinion earlier, now you can tell her that she got the job."

Cowering slightly, Schroeder nodded and began to walk away. "Yes, ma'am."

He awkwardly ran-walked up the aisle, hoping to catch Nancy before she went home. After not finding her at her locker, he checked the parking lot — with no luck.

"Rats," he grumbled, kicking at a pencil that was on the ground. He walked soberly to baseball practice, beating himself up over today's events the whole time. "First you make a mess of things with Lucy, now Nancy. Why do you screw everything up, Schroeder?!"

Suddenly Schroeder felt something beneath his shoe. He winced and looked down to see that he had stepped on a piece of gum.

That was the last straw — he finally lost his calm completely.

"Aaugh!" he yelled out, and aggressively tore his foot away from the gum and stomped off. The only thing he could think of as he walked was a Beethoven quote that was alarmingly relevant just then: "Everything I do apart from music is badly done and stupid."

"Where's Schroeder, Chuck?"

"He said he was staying back half an hour for a band thing," Charlie answered Patty.

"Well, it's been a while now," she replied, getting up from her forward lunge. "He's late."

Charlie switched legs on his quad stretch. "Yeah. I guess it ended later than he thought."

"There he is now," Linus called, pointing toward Schroeder, who was storming toward the ball field.

"Geez, it doesn't look like things went well," Patty muttered to Charlie Brown, then yelled out, "Hey, Schroeder! Where's your shirt?"

"Oh, I forgot," he groaned. "But it's in my bag." He put his backpack down on the bleachers, took out his baseball shirt, and took off the one he was wearing, triggering a few flirty whistles from the cheerleaders.

"Ooh, Schroeder, have you been working out?" called out Violet.

Turning bright red, he looked down and yanked on the baseball shirt.

Patty rolled her eyes. "Can't we petition to have those airheads moved to the gym?" she whispered to Charlie.

"We tried that last year, remember?"

She sighed. "Sadly, I do."

"Anyway, Sally's trying out for the squad this year, and I'd feel better if I could keep an eye on her from here."

"Oh, really? I didn't know."

"Yeah… and there she is now, actually." He pointed at Sally, who just then was scrambling for the line of cheerleader hopefuls. She was late, as usual.

Patty briefly scanned the line of prospects, trying to see what other girls were lining up to be brainwashed by Violet. It was mostly freshmen and sophomores she didn't know, but one girl looked remarkably familiar, even from afar. She was talking to Frieda Rich, and they looked very friendly.

Patty was just reaching into the last corner of her mind trying to remember where she'd seen that redhead before when Coach Davis interrupted her thoughts: "All right, guys, time to practice our fielding!"

Sally couldn't believe her eyes. She just couldn't. Out of all the cheerleading squads in all the high schools in all the world, she suddenly found herself auditioning for the same one as… her.

"Thank you," said the cheer coach, Mrs. West, to the girl with the tomato-red hair and dazzling green eyes. "Your qualifications are certainly impressive. And next, we have Sally Brown."

Having been dragged out of her contemplation, Sally stood and went to stand before the table where Mrs. West and Violet and Patty were sitting. She sensed by Vi's expression that she was somewhat amused at the prospect of Sally Brown auditioning for her squad, but she didn't care.

By golly, I'll give them the best audition they'll see today! Sally promised herself. But then she looked briefly over her shoulder and added, At least, the best besides Heather's.

After she'd been interviewed and had done a few demonstrations, a couple of other girls were examined, after which all of them were directed to stand in formation and follow Vi and Patty's directions for a basic cheer and some dance moves.

Throughout the whole thing, Sally kept an eye on that red-haired girl, although she was trying to appear focused and enthusiastic, so she couldn't watch for very many seconds at a time.

But she could think about her. She could ask herself questions she didn't expect answers to. Her mind was reeling with those. Just what…? Why…? How?!

How was Heather — as in, the girl Charlie Brown would've basically died for back in middle school — here? She had moved away years ago! Sally wasn't even sure where Heather had moved, but she knew it had been quite far. She'd gotten away from the humdrum life of their Minneapolis suburb, headed to L.A. or New York or someplace like that, and left them all well alone. And now all of a sudden, she was here.

Ohh, my brother is going to have a heart attack when he finds out, she suddenly realized with fear.

She glanced toward the baseball team, who were busy with practice only a few hundred yards away, and saw her brother getting ready to pitch. He was clearly too taken up just now to look over at the cheerleaders — he'd never liked them, anyway —, but someday he would, wouldn't he? And he'd see Heather.

And we're gonna have an absolute nightmare on our hands, she thought as the dance came to an end.

"Okay, thank you all for trying out today," announced Violet to the cheerleading candidates. "Mrs. West and I will discuss it and let you know our decisions tomorrow."

As the candidates began to scatter, Vi turned to her best friend, Patty Swanson. "What are your thoughts?"

"Well…" She looked down at her clipboard with the list of the girls' names. "We have to get Heather, for sure."

"Oh, yes. Gotta get her."

"Yes, Miss Wold did very well," agreed Mrs. West. "But I would like you to diversify as well, ladies. Recruit more freshmen and sophomores. If you only get seniors, where will the squad be next year when you all graduate?"

"Of course, Mrs. West," answered Violet in her good-girl voice. "Was there anyone in particular you liked?"

"That blonde girl with the little buns on her head did quite well, too… Sally Brown, was it?"

"Sally?" Vi raised a neatly trimmed eyebrow. "Do you really think so?"

"Yes. She wasn't particularly experienced, but she did seem eager. I think she would do well on the squad."

Vi cocked her head as she considered Mrs. West's words. "Well…"

"Now, Vi, you can't write her off just because of who her brother is," admonished Patty.

"No, I know, it's just… Are you sure, Mrs. West? I don't mean to be snobbish —" She did, of course — "But I know Sally, and I just don't think she'd be such a great fit for the team, socially speaking."

Mrs. West saw right through Violet, however. "Look, Miss Gray. If you don't want to hang out with Sally in your free time, that's your business. But I saw her audition, and I liked what I saw, and I'm telling you to recruit her for the squad."

"Yeah, Vi," added Patty quietly. "Besides, Sally's friends with Lucy, and if you make Lucy mad… you know."

Violet sighed and turned back toward Mrs. West, her goody-goody face back on. "All right, ma'am. I'm sorry. I'll let Sally know personally."

"See that you do."

After about half an hour of discussing candidates, the list of new members was finalized: one ninth-grade girl; Sally Brown and two other sophomores; and from twelfth grade, Heather Wold.

Violet sighed in relief as she and Patty headed back into the school building. "Well, that was fun."

"Hmm," chuckled Patty. "Mrs. West was looking daggers when you didn't want to let Sally in."

"I know." Vi nodded with her eyes wide. "I must admit, it isn't that Sally wasn't good or anything, it's just… you know. I have to think of the squad's credibility."

"Right. But besides the fact that she's Charlie Brown's sister, you don't really object to her, do you?"

"No, I guess not."

"Well, then, look on the bright side: at least Charlie Brown isn't as much of a blockhead now as he was before."

"Um, might I remind you," pointed out Violet, "that that is thanks to us? If it hadn't been for our good deed back in middle school, they'd all have dropped him like a hot potato after a month."

"Yeah," answered Patty, "that's exactly why I'm saying it. I mean, I know that your plan had been to help out Charlie Brown so you could gain some points with Schroeder, but—"

"But that failed miserably," Vi huffed.

"Right, but at least it makes Sally just a slightly better fit for the team now, so it all works out anyway."

"I guess."

"Plus, if you're nice to Sally, you keep in with Lucy, and you know you need her to get the student council on your side if you want to be homecoming queen."

Violet sighed a long sigh. "I suppose you're right."

"Of course I'm right," Patty replied casually. "I'm a practical person. And besides, if there's anything I've learned from almost 15 years of knowing the Browns, it's that somehow, in the end, it pays to be nice to them."

Violet paused and raised her eyebrows as she considered Patty's words. "That's true, actually."

By now the girls had reached their lockers and were gathering their things to go home. As she pulled her laptop out of her locker, Violet spoke again: "You know what? We can start on Friday. Let's invite all the new cheerleaders to the party at my place, even Sally. That way Lucy can see firsthand that we're being nice to her."

"Sounds like a solid plan."

As he finished the last of his homework, Schroeder flopped onto his bed, out of energy and relieved beyond words that the day was over. He buried his head in his pillow and breathed in the clean smell of the fabric softener.

He couldn't stop thinking about how he'd hurt Nancy's feelings. She may have said everything was fine, but Schroeder knew very well it wasn't. He resolved to smooth things over the next day.

I'll apologize and tell her she got the role, he told himself. And if that doesn't work, then I'll see what else I can do.

Perhaps it wasn't a very thorough plan, but it was a start. Schroeder tried to think of more he could say, but his head was splitting and he couldn't concentrate. All he really wanted right now was to sleep… and sleep he did.

A/N: The song Nancy played — Marcus Schinkel's arrangement of 'Elise' — exists. You can find it on Spotify and I assume YouTube as well. :)

Today I am uploading the first chapter of my prequel to this story, You're A Hero, Charlie Brown! Be sure to check it out!