HIDING
Linus pulled on a hood as he stepped across the street. Rerun was back inside, asleep since his bedtime, and he assumed Lucy was too.
His poster plan was already discarded once Linus had memorised it's contents. Besides, somehow it wasn't on the same place as he'd left it. But it was doubtful to him that anyone had seen it.
"This is for us, Lucy" he whispered to himself.
Two boys were waiting for him as he got to the other end of the street. One was slightly older than the other.
"Thanks for stopping by" Linus said, trying to sound stoic.
"No problem. So…what's this all about?" the elder boy asked.
Linus liked how he got to the point straight away, "Well, Violet, for one"
"About Violet. Are you thinking we had something to do with her?" the younger boy accused,
That earned a frown from the older boy, before he replied himself.
"Hmm, Linus we don't know the full story, but I have something"
"Will you tell me" Linus asked, taking off the hood.
"No, not happening" the younger pouted, taking an aggressive step forward, "you're gonna rope us in with her, are you?"
"Leave him alone kid"
All three boys turned to see someone else come across the street, from the same direction as Linus. They weren't easily recognised. A decent hood was over their head, as well as a mask covering the lower half of thier face. Thier eyes were just visible, and even then goggles sat above them.
"Are they with you Linus" the younger said.
"N…no" he responded, "do you know them".
"And you think instead we know them", the younger accused again.
"If you touch the young Van Pelt here, you'll be knowing me better" the unrecognised figure had a growling sounding tone. One that sounded not like a natural voice.
"Touch him" the older questioned, "relax, my younger friend here is just a little too cautious"
"And this is Roy", Linus gestured to him, "He's a friend from summer camp"
"He's your friend!"
The unrecognised person then peered closer, and realised that Roy matched one of Linus's descriptions.
Roy and his younger friend exchanged glances with each other, then he addressed Linus.
"I need to get home in time, but before I go" he put a hand on his shoulder, "Violet spread the news about what you and Schroeder were up to. She probably exaggerated things, and didn't lose sleep about driving a wedge in your family".
Linus nodded, knowing he'd have to think about this later, "Nice job Roy"
"Great. Now, I'll leave you two to talk" Roy finished. He and his younger friend ran off behind the building. Leaving the unrecognised person and Linus to begin looking at each other.
"So, you're meant to be who?" Linus asked.
The unrecognised person looked across the street, "I guess I'd rather keep that to myself, mister Van Pelt".
"Yes" Linus shrugged, "Okay. Also, Linus is fine"
They were silent, and then he walked around, "How's you day been, mister…miss…errr"
"Miserable", she said, "and it's the latter".
"Well even if there wasn't much need for it" Linus put a hand behind his head, "Thanks for the backup"
"It certainly seems that you'll accept any regardless" she said.
He walked over to her, "How did you find out about this?"
"Word of mouth" she quickly told him.
"Hmm" Linus put a hand to his chin, "I wasn't doing any advertisement"
He was wondering where was the Word of Mouth, and stammered.
"But it's okay to get someone for help. It makes me kinda wish..". He trailed off
"Makes you kinda wish what" she asked.
"…that someone else was here also"
She paused, and thought.
"Is it that best friend of yours?"
"Charlie Brown?" Linus asked, "No, it's…"
"It doesn't matter. Hopefully, they'd be tougher than me" she noted. Linus picked up on that, realising she felt weakened, and maybe…insecure.
"I could try to retrain you, toughen you up" Linus piped.
"You could"
"If you'd like to meet me tomorrow" he stuck out his hand, "You in"
She thought for a moment, and clasped his hand. With that done, Linus began walking home.
Behind him, his companion looked around, until there was no one in sight, no one looking.
She took off her headgear, and Lucy stared out at where her brother had been.