With a sigh, Schroeder walked into his house and headed straight for his toy piano. Almost instantly the strands of Beethoven's 9th Symphony filled the room, making him forget all about Lucy.
Well, almost.
In bed that night, he tossed and turned, unable to get any sleep at all. And then at school the next day he could barely keep his eyes open, even during music class! And he loved music more than anything!
At lunch time he ate his lunch as fast as possible and then, doing his best to avoid Charlie Brown and Linus, found a large shady tree. It was the perfect place for a short nap. Of course he made sure that his watch was timed to wake him up. He couldn't risk being late for class. What would he say?
He couldn't tell Miss Othmar that he was late because he was taking a nap! She would ask him why he was sleeping instead of playing and he'd have to tell her that he stayed up all night trying to decide what to buy Lucy. He'd be the laughing stock of the school!
Good grief, this was becoming more and more complicated. But at least his short nap had refreshed him a little. He rose to his feet and hurried to catch up with his class.
"Hey Schroeder, where were ya?" asked Franklin. "We were looking all over for you!"
Schroeder grinned sheepishly. "Oh… I was... Um…" He stopped when he caught sight of Lucy who was holding her baseball glove in her hand. There was no doubt about it. She was definitely pretty.
"Schroeder?"
He turned his head to find Linus, Charlie Brown and Franklin staring at him.
"What's wrong with you?" Linus demanded.
"Who, me?" Schroeder squeaked.
"Yeah you!" Charlie Brown said. "What's going on with you? You seem like you're on another planet!"
"Oh… I was just… thinking about baseball." Schroeder said. It wasn't' a lie. He really was thinking about baseball. He couldn't help noticing the way Lucy was tightening the laces on her baseball glove. It looked like it had definitely seen better days.
Suddenly he had an idea.