ATONE
Linus waved to Rerun as he and Charlie Brown left for the baseball field. Rerun was walking outside to follow his brother, when he stopped, seeing someone out of the corner of his eye.
Lucy, who he had not seen since she had left unannounced with Violet, sat beneath the window sill, frowning and motionless, her eyes staring off into space.
"Lucy, are you okay there" he asked, as her lip now trembled. She didn't even face him as he stood in front of her.
"You sided with them…against me" she said, "Rerun"
"I…I couldn't help myself" he hurried to defend himself, his eyes looking down.
"Why didn't you come to me" she asked, "he…I didn't dislike our brother, you know".
Rerun stayed on the walkway while stepping back, sounding sad.
"I'm not sure you even got to know him" he explained, "I've often thought that in fact, the two of you had a lot in common".
They went seperate ways back inside, Rerun still watching his sister one more time, before he found a toy of his.
But in her case, she went on a beeline down to an open door, and then quickly realised that she'd gone into Linus's room by mistake.
"Rats" she cursed to herself, and was backing out. And that was when she saw something out of place. There was a poster laid by the wall, and it looked recent.
Lucy's curiosity got the better of her. She put it up against the table while reading the contents, and found out how concerning they were.
"Oh, Linus" she lamented "Oh no, he can't do this"
When she had turned up at her house suddenly, Frieda had been unsure whether to let Lucy in. Patty Swanson was with her for a while, not expecting to be faced with her former conspirator.
"So Lucy, what brings you here" she asked, having noticed that this time, Lucy was distressed, rather than angry or smug.
"Patty, Frieda, I found this that my brother's drafted up. Someone needed to see it…". She laid out the poster for them.
"…he's thinking of standing against the brats from yesterday. Here are his plans and ideas".
"That bad huh. But why are you coming to us" Frieda asked, "If you gave it to his closest friends, at least he won't be trying this by himself".
"Closest Friends?" she noted, "I can't imagine the Browns or Rerun tagging along. And I'm not on talking terms with them".
Lucy nodded her head dejectedly, "The only person who I can imagine…is me"
The two girls now changed thier expressions, looking between themselves multiple times, and wondering whether they should go into another room. Patty frowned to herself.
"That'd be testing it" she moved between them, "Isn't there's something against you, …you can't approach Linus"
"I…I have to try to atone for the mistakes I did" she blurted. Patty and Frieda stared at Lucy, "…you think I don't know how badly I messed up with Linus. It's all I've known about since months ago. All the manipulation and harshness. Our relationship is gone and it's because of me"
"And?"
"And, I need to hide myself".
The two girls looked at each other, thinking what to say next.
"Don't let them even get one look" Frieda advised, "Pretend to be someone else entirely".
"Mix up your voice" Patty mentioned, "such as a new sounding voice".
Lucy picked every option they gave, thought some of them were unexpected from the girls. But she didn't know what to expect anymore.