Later in the day, Sally had noticed the tent in the front garden and was peering around, curious. Within a few moments, she saw her brother arriving back home, and walked up to him to talk.
"Big brother?"
"Yes Sally" he responded.
Sally still had a lot of inquiries, and she'd figured it was a good time to bring them up, "Look…I think we need to talk about…things".
She could feel this may not have been the best way to bring this up, but at this stage Sally wanted to address the problems she had as soon as possible.
Linus had been lying in his tent, and was reading a book from his house when he overheard the Brown siblings in their conversation nearby.
"Hey…what's the tent doing set up?" Sally asked from the garden.
"The tent?" Charlie Brown looked at her, "have you not paid attention?. Linus is staying there".
Linus started listening once he was mentioned.
"Why?" Sally asked
"Because Lucy decided to kick him out of the house".
"She did?" she looked dumbstruck for a moment.
"Yes, I'm afraid so" Charlie Brown confessed.
Sally stared silently at the tent, and then turned back to her brother.
"That must be a tough deal" she acknowledged, "though…maybe…"
"Maybe what?"
"…maybe" Sally hesitated, knowing this was a poor way to start this discussion, "you know…..I'd try kicking you out of the house…given the chance"
When he heard her, Linus' face fell, feeling unhappy about what Sally'd said. Though he didn't return her romanticism, at the same time, he didn't prefer this from his friend.
"You'd do that" Charlie Brown responded, frowning.
Sally frowned also, "It's because you're incompetent Big Brother. You showed it at tryouts…"
"I've moved on from those tryouts Sally"
"…of course. But then, odds are it's going to be the same deal next time", she now was trying the pessimistic approach.
Charlie Brown didn't take this kindly, "So Sally, if I decided to kick you out, I doubt you'd like it".
"You won't. And I'd wager on that" his sister replied.
Linus peeked out of the tent's door, though he remained unnoticed.
"I need a glass of water" a frustrated Charlie Brown groaned, and he walked away into his house.
"Cocoa, I need a cup of hot cocoa" Lucy put a jar of brown powder on her house's kitchen table and spooned two teaspoons into a cup, before splashing milk into it.
She paused as she realised there was little milk, but went ahead with splashing the hot water into the cup, leaving water droplets stinging her arms. Her hot cocoa now looked messy.
"Was it more milk instead?" Lucy questioned, "Linus makes some of the best hot cocoa, I'll ask him…".
She then remembered and frowned, "Oh…..Right".
And now, a sinking feeling was accumulated in her chest, "…maybe I just ought to have the hot cocoa as is".
Lucy added two spoonfuls of sugar to fix it up, and sat down. Then went and grabbed the cup, muttering she didn't need her brother as her carer.
She swallowed half the drink, and immediately realised she had used the wrong ingredients, adding two spoonfuls of salt to a drink made with coffee powder.
Lucy spluttered it back out in disgust.