The next morning, Charlie Brown, Heather, and Linus were walking to their world history class together. Charlie Brown was busy telling Heather and Linus about how everything went with Peppermint Patty. Heather couldn't help but giggle upon hearing that Marcie had been there.

"I guess then it would've been pointless now for me to have been there," she said, amused.

Charlie Brown nodded. "But everything worked out. Peppermint Patty and I are good friends again, perhaps moreso than ever before."

"Well, that's wonderful to hear," Heather said, smiling. "I knew everything would be okay, and it sounds like you handled yourself very well. I'm very proud of you."

Charlie Brown went red in the face as he stammered out his next words. "T-thank you, Heather. That means a lot."

The three of them then arrived at class. As required, the students all informed the instructor of their choices of topic, as well as whether they would work alone, or with a partner. Charlie Brown and Heather of course were a pair while Linus had opted to go independent. He had even chosen to do his report on what, in the instructor's opinion, was probably the most challenging available topic.

A little while later, class was over. Linus had to go use the bathroom, so Heather and Charlie Brown continued on alone. Charlie Brown glanced at his friend and longtime crush. His nerves made him a bit hesitant at first, but he found the courage to ask.

"Heather, could I ask you something?" he said.

"Sure, Charlie Brown. What is it?" Heather replied.

Charlie Brown began twiddling his fingers. "I... well, you know that there's the talent show coming up, a-and it said that entrants had to be in pairs."

Heather was sure that she knew what he was about to ask and a small frown appeared on her face, remembering that she had already arranged to perform in the show with Schroeder.

"I was wondering... do you want to do something together... like, you and I?" Charlie Brown managed to ask.

"Oh..." Heather said before giving him an apologetic look. "Charlie Brown, I'm sorry."

Charlie Brown's hopeful smile instantly faltered. She was actually going to say no to his offer. That, or she was going to tell him that for some reason, she couldn't...

"I've already agreed to do the show with someone," she told him. "Schroeder and I are going to be performing a routine together. He's going to play something on the piano and I'm going to perform a dance routine to it that I myself am making up."

"Oh... okay," Charlie Brown said. "Yeah, that would make sense. Schroeder's so good with the piano and you're so good at dancing." Charlie Brown's face tinged slightly pink upon having just made that last remark.

"I hope you're not too disappointed. We do still have our cooking class partnership. And we're going to be working on our world history report together," Heather gently reminded him.

Charlie Brown nodded, feeling a bit better upon remembering this. He was disappointed, but he knew that Heather was right. They were active partners in multiple other things, so it shouldn't bug him that she'd be wanting to be doing this particular activity with Schroeder instead. Especially when her and Schroeder's conributions would blend so well together.

But for some reason, Charlie Brown couldn't completely suppress the feelings of jealousy that had begun bubbling up inside of him.

Later on in the afternoon, Lucy was once again aboard the public bus, on her way to her next appointment with Dr. Bliss. Like always, she was donning her patented black hooded trench coat. In fact, today she had been really keeping the coat close to her. Why?

Because Violet and Patty were currently aboard the bus as well. The last two people Lucy would ever want to see finding out what she had been doing the past few weeks. Why did they have to be here today? Fortunately, they didn't appear to know that Lucy was here; the trench coat really was helping to hide her identity.

As usual, the bus came to a stop at the building that contained Dr. Bliss' office. Lucy, clutching her hood tightly, stood up and attempted to make her way off the bus.

Unfortunately though, in a moment of reflex, Violet stuck out her leg and Lucy found herself accidentally tripping over it. She didn't fall over, but the momentum from the stumble caused the hood of her coat to fall from her head. At the same time, a piece of paper fell out of her pocket, though Lucy didn't see that.

"Oops, sorry about that," Violet said, not really sounding all that sorry. Her eyes then went wide. "Lucy?!"

Lucy stood rooted on the spot. No, this could not be happening. It just couldn't!

Violet and Patty both looked out the window at the big building, and then back to Lucy.

"You're getting off here? At this medical center?" Patty inquired. "And isn't this where..."

Lucy frantically shook her head. "N-no! Of course not! Haha! Why would I ever need to be here?" she said, trying not to freak out on the spot.

"Sparkyville Medical Center," the bus driver then said, looking up at Lucy through his upper mirror. "You're getting off here, right, miss? You usually do."

Lucy, now beginning to panic, began looking between the bus driver, and Violet and Patty, with the latter two looking back at Lucy in shock. Not really sure what else she could do, she simply fled the bus.

Violet and Patty watched on, trying to piece everything together. Once Lucy was off the bus, and the bus began moving, they looked at each other. Violet then looked down and saw the piece of folded-up paper that was on the floor. Curious, she picked it up. She then unfolded it and read its contents.

Patty craned her head so that she could see. Once Violet was finished reading, her hand was over her mouth, and she was trying hard not to laugh.

"Patty, get a load of this. You are not going to believe it," she said to her sidekick, handing her the note.

After Patty was done reading it, she looked back at the grinning face of Violet. "This can't be for real...?"

"It's right there on paper, Patty," Violet said. "Lucy had been meeting up with Dr. Bliss on a weekly basis. You know, that child psychologist whom was introduced to us on the first day of the school year?"

"And this is the same girl who for years had been running a drop-in 'psychology' booth of her own," Patty said, knowing what Violet was thinking.

Violet nodded, the smirk never leaving her face. "Wait until the rest of the school gets word about this!"

For some reason, Patty felt a little bit unsure that blabbing to everyone about this was a good idea. "Are you sure that we should be telling the whole school about this, Violet?"

"Are you kidding? It's our duty!" Violet insisted. "Come on, Patty. This piece of gossip is too hot to keep cold!"

As soon as Lucy was off the bus, instead of going inside, she rushed over to the side of the building.

It had happened. It was now known by unwanted witnesses that Lucy was seeing a child psychologist. Not only that, these witnesses were the last two people Lucy would ever want to have found out: Violet and Patty. Arguable the two biggest gossipers in the entire school. There was no doubt in Lucy's mind now that by the end of the week, there wouldn't be a soul in the school who didn't know what Lucy had been going through.

Lucy gave off a loud scream, ripped off her trench coat, forcefully threw it down onto the ground, and then kicked it hard.

It was now evening on the following Monday. After well over a week of not having found any sufficient time to practice his piano, Schroeder was finally allowing himself some time to play.

Currently, he was playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Signups for the talent show had now begun, and he and Heather had agreed that Moonlight Sonata First Movement would be the music that they did their skit with. Both Schroeder and Heather shared a love for this piece, and Heather felt that while she likely could invent a dance routine for it, doing so would require her to be creative. Hence, she felt that this would be a good challenge for her.

A couple of minutes into his playing though, Lucy came up into his living room and walked up beside his piano before leaning against it. She at first was quiet as she listened to the music. Schroeder really was now beginning to sound like an actual professional piano player.

Finally, she spoke for the first time.

"Hi, Schroeder," she greeted.

Schroeder was silent at first as he concentrated on his playing. A few seconds later though, he responded.

"I noticed you weren't at the club meeting today," he said, keeping his eyes on the piano keys. Deep down though, he was fairly surprised that Lucy didn't show up. It wasn't like her to pass up such an opportunity to hang around Schroeder.

"I've been busy," Lucy said simply.

Silence resumed as Schroeder continued playing while Lucy continued listening. About a moment later, Lucy spoke again.

"Life is really unfair sometimes, isn't it?" she asked.

For the first time, Schroeder stopped playing and looked up at Lucy. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you know. You think you have something that you've been able to keep all to yourself, a secret more specifically, but then life makes sure that everyone in the world knows about it."

Yes, as Lucy had expected, the very next day after the bus incident, Violet and Patty had been running around, spreading the word of Lucy's Dr. Bliss business to anyone who would listen to them.

Lucy wasn't really sure why she was saying all of this right now, but for some reason, she didn't seem to care. Maybe that was because she was alone right now talking to only Schroeder?

"You're talking about your weekly appointments with Dr. Bliss, aren't you?" Schroeder said knowingly.

Lucy nodded. "And then after the world knows about it, everyone ridicules you and makes fun of you for it!"

"Lucy, I don't mean to rain on your tangent parade here, but can you actually name a time thus far when someone actually has ridiculed you or made fun of you over this?" Schroeder asked her.

"Of course! There was... uh..." Lucy tried to think. "Well, Violet made sure to belittle me over it."

"But she's Violet, Lucy," Schroeder reasoned. "You know that's just the way she is."

"Well, there was also..."

But Lucy actually could not think of any other real instances so far where people had been berating her or humiliating her over this. To the contrary, some people had actually been behaving in ways that suggested that they were concerned for her. Or perhaps as though they were hoping that she could get something good out of all of this.

"Lucy, I have to admit that I do have a little skepticism regarding this whole Dr. Bliss thing. I'm not sure how seriously you've been taking it all since you've started," Schroeder said. "But whatever the case may be, I'm hoping that you will stick with these appointments. I'm hoping that you won't give up on talking to Dr. Bliss."

Lucy blinked. She wasn't really expecting Schroeder to say something like that. Had... had he actually just now showed a bit of concern for her? Was he actually thinking about Lucy's well-being?

"Now, I don't want to sound rude, but could you please let me be for right now? I really haven't gotten much time at all lately to practice and I've got a talent show to get ready for," Schroeder said, though not harshly or sounding irritated.

To Schroeder's surprise, Lucy nodded and began to walk away. Wow, that was actually easy this time around. And she at no point got too much on his nerves.

As Lucy was making her way back home, she thought back to what Schroeder had just now said to her. He had told her that he hoped she would continue to go through with her weekly Dr. Bliss visits. It was as though he was expressing concern for her. Like, at least to some degree, that he cared about her! And Schroeder technically didn't even really like her!

After the school had found out everything, Lucy was going to try to wheedle her way out of continuing these appointments, but Schroeder's words were somehow having an effect on her. She somehow no longer felt as though she wanted to end things with Dr. Bliss just yet.

Author's note: And so despite Violet and the school now knowing that Lucy is seeing Dr. Bliss, Lucy has been persuaded to not give on her just yet. And her support came from an unexpected source too. I said in the beginning that I was NOT going to do a Schroeder x Lucy romance. But I was going to have Schroeder to some extent play a part in her storyline, and he is now officially done something.

Just a side note: this story now has over 5,000 views!