It was pretty easy for Lucy to shake off the surprise of seeing someone like Heather here. By no means though could the same be said about Heather seeing Lucy here.

"It's... quite a surprise to see you here," Heather said, unsure really how to respond to this event. She looked down at the apron Lucy was carrying in her hand. "So, you're now a part of the Candy Stripes program too?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Lucy replied.

"There's no need to act irritable, Lucy, it was just a question," Heather told her.

Lucy sighed. "Sorry. Anyway, you are a part of this too?"

"Yep. I've been doing this for three weeks now," Heather said.

Lucy looked at Heather's apron. She was already wearing one that had four stripes on it.

"How did you get all those stripes so fast?" Lucy asked her.

"Simply by being a good volunteer," Heather answered. "If you just prove to the program manager that you are a dependable and hard worker, and that you are gentle and caring toward any patients you assist, you'll earn your stripes."

"That doesn't sound hard," Lucy said, beginning to grin. "I'm as hard and dependable of a worker as they come."

"And you can be someone who works well with hospital patients?" Heather asked.

Lucy's confident grin faltered a bit and she hesitated slightly in giving out her response.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" she said.

Heather smiled in response, but deep down she couldn't help but feel a little worried. She knew full well that Lucy didn't exactly have the personality that would make hospital patients feel the most comfortable. And she couldn't help but wonder why Lucy was in this program in the first place. It definitely wasn't the kind of thing she suspected Lucy would decide on her own to participate in.

A short while later, both Heather and the new recruit, Lucy, as well as the other volunteers who were scheduled today, were gathered in a room where the nurse who acted as the program's manager was there. Everyone was in uniform, and were carrying clipboards as the manager began listing today's task list.

"Today's duties include: delivering meals, collecting bedpans, and above all else, interacting compassionately with patients, being sure to help them feel comfortable wherever and whenever you can," she said. "On your clipboards list numerous ways you can help a patient better enjoy their stay here."

Lucy scanned through the list of things she could do, with each option hardly any more appealing to her than the other. This was in stark contrast to Heather, who while browsing her list, had a look on her face that suggested that she was determined to could complete as many of these tasks as she could.

"Does everyone understand their duties?" the program manager asked everyone.

Everyone in the group affirmed to her that they understood.

The manager nodded and smiled. "Excellent. You may all now get to work."

With that, the program manager began to walk away. Heather placed her pen in the pen holder on her clipboard before turning to face Lucy.

"Well, are you ready?" she asked her with a friendly smile. "Since this is your first day, I would love to be able to help you get settled in and show you the ropes."

"No, thank you. I think you'll find I'm fully capable of handling this all on my own," Lucy said confidently as she began to stride away. Seconds later though, she stopped short and turned back to Heather. "Where did the manager say the kitchen was again?"

Heather couldn't help but sigh. "Good grief."

The next day for Heather would prove to be a very long and busy one for her. First, it was off to Sparkyville Mall, where she would be going shopping for Christmas gifts, among which she would also be buying something to give to Charlie Brown for the Secret Santa assignment. Then, she was meeting some of her friends at Nelson's for lunch, and finally, it was another four hours improving people's days at Sparkyville Hospital.

Heather, sadly, wasn't quite as enthusiastic about today's day on the job as she might've been. And she had Lucy to thank for that. Heather's worries about Lucy had so far been justified. Besides not always being able to even properly complete her tasks, only a small minority of the patients Lucy had interacted with on day one had ever appeared that they quite enjoyed the way she had been treating them. The prospect of trying to continue to help and guide Lucy on the job definitely didn't appeal to Heather. But she would continue to try to do it anyway because that was just the kind of person Heather was.

At about eleven in the morning, Heather and Mary were coming out of a shop, where the two of them had just purchased gifts for their mothers. With this done, the only thing left that was needed was for Heather to purchase something for Charlie Brown. She already knew what she truly wanted to get him, but she'd have to be really lucky if she could find it being sold within the assignment's five-dollar spending limit.

Fortunately though, Lady Luck was going to be paying her a visit today.

Heather and Mary made their way into what would be their last shop of the day: the sporting goods store.

"Heather, are you sure that this gift for Charlie Brown would be, well... appropriate, for lack of a better word?" Mary asked her friend, feeling uncertain as the two of them began searching for the correct department. "You've long since known that Charlie Brown hasn't been wanting to play baseball anymore."

"Call it an instinct, Mary," Heather said. "But I have this funny feeling that Charlie Brown may be on the eve of changing his mind on that decision."

"What makes you think that?" Mary asked.

"He's been talking a lot about baseball lately. And he has been doing so more enthusiastically," Heather replied. "Based on my observations, it's evident to me that he really misses playing it. He even outright said right before Thanksgiving that he hopes he can regain the confidence to get back into it. All that being said... let's just say that this is one of those times where my instinct is telling me something here."

"I see," Mary said. "Well, I'll trust that you know what you're doing."

Mary then began to think a bit regarding the situation. After a couple of minutes, she suddenly came to feel as though she might know now what exactly Heather's intentions were here. And the truth was, the whole thing would actually be very clever if Mary's theory was correct, and she smirked to herself as she thought of the outcome that could result from it all.

"Here we go," Heather said as the two girls arrived in the area selling baseball gear.

Heather then began browsing the different styles of baseball gloves that were available. There were markdown prices displayed for many of them, apparently because this was still the Christmas shopping season, but she had yet to find something that fit the needed price range. She was steady beginning to lose hope, until...

"Heather! Heather! I found one!" Mary suddenly called out to her.

Heather came up to Mary, who pointed to a fairly simply-designed, but still nice-looking brown glove. She then briefly examined the glove before looking at its price: Exactly five dollars!

"What luck!" Heather exclaimed, clearly delighted to have found something. "I honestly never really anticipated though that I would find something like this for this cheap."

"I never expected we'd find any glove this cheap as some of them go for more than fifty dollars at regular. I can't help but wonder if the maker behind this glove is going out of business or something," Mary mused. "I mean, this is definitely a clearance price; the original price for this glove was thirty dollars."

"Either way, this is just what we're looking for," Heather said delightedly as she removed it from the shelf.

The two of them then proceeded to go and check out. After the transaction was complete, the two girls came out of the shop. By this point, the both of them had their hands full with bulging bags of gifts.

Mary placed one hand's worth of bags on the ground beside her for just a second so that she could wipe the beads of sweat off of her forehead. "Ugh, what a morning."

"I feel you. It's a shame we don't have any nice gentlemen accompanying us who could've carried our bags for us," Heather said before giggling.

"And it isn't even over for you yet," Mary reminded her as she took her bags back into her hand. "Now it's time for you to go and meet up with the others at Nelson's for lunch."

"And you're sure you can't come with us today?" Heather asked her gal pal.

"Sorry, Heather, but duty calls," Mary replied with a shake of her head.

"Oh well. I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow then," Heather said.

"Yep. I'll see you tomorrow," Mary said before turning away from Heather.

"Bye, Mary," Heather said. The two of them then parted ways and Heather proceeded to make her way... first back home to drop off her gift bags. Then it was off to Nelson's for a quick repose with her other pals.

A little while later, Heather was enjoying a nice lunch with most of her other pals. On one side of their table was Charlie Brown, Sally, and Heather, and on the other side was Schroeder, Linus, and Janice.

Everyone was seemingly having a good time... except perhaps for Sally. Sally was sitting closest to the window, and she had been unusually quiet the whole time. For the most part, she kept her gaze focused on the world outside, but occasionally, her eyes would wander across the table to Linus and Janice. Linus and Janice looked looked quite happy to be sitting next to each other, and Sally didn't like it one bit. Just why did Janice have to be a part of the group today? If Janice had just stayed home with her sisters, then Sally would've been the one sitting next to Linus. He was her Sweet Babboo after all, darn it!

"So, Heather, how has working alongside Lucy been turning out for you?" Schroeder asked the redhead, unable to completely keep the smirk off his face.

"Oh, heh," Heather said, the look on her face clearly giving away her thoughts. "It's been going."

Schroeder nodded in understanding. "Would you say you're beginning to notice any change in the way Lucy is?" he asked, though he was already suspecting what the answer was.

Heather sighed and looked down at her plate. "Sadly, I would have to say not yet."

Linus smiled sympathetically at Heather. Having spent his whole life living with the oftentimes crabby fussbudget, he knew how hard dealing with Lucy could sometimes be.

"You've really had your hands full lately, haven't you, Heather?" he then said to her. "Between school, the holidays, and this volunteer program."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Heather said in agreement. "I think I'm starting to truly understand now how Schroeder must have been feeling over the past couple of months. Now, don't get me wrong, I fully enjoy everything that I've been doing, but I'd be lying if I said that it hasn't gotten hard for me at times."

Schroeder nodded at her, also appearing sympathetic now.

"You are a really hard worker, Heather, and you're able to handle everything you're involved in so well," Linus said to her.

Charlie Brown and the others nodded in agreement.

"Thank you for the compliments, Linus," Heather said appreciatively. "And as far as Lucy goes, I get that she is a challenge to deal with, but despite that, I'm going to hold onto hope that this program will help to offer her a new perspective on things. I for one do not regret joining the Candy Stripers. Caring for others when they needed it has always been one of my favorite things to do."

Upon hearing this, Charlie Brown smiled admirably at his crush.

Janice now also had to admit that she was quite impressed with Heather now as well. Having become well accustomed to the life of a hospital patient, she much understood how appreciable having soft and caring people around when needed was. She felt it was quite likely that Heather would make an excellent nurse someday.

"You go, Heather. It's clear that you're not the kind to become discouraged when the going gets rough," Janice then said with a grin. "I really admire that."

"It kinda reminds me of Charlie Brown... in a manner of speaking," Linus added. "In almost all cases, when things weren't going his way, despite sometimes showing a rather... self-defeating attitude, he would continue to truck on regardless, and would never give up."

Heather looked to Charlie Brown with a warm grin, causing him to smile shyly and looked down at his plate.

"The same goes for you too, Janice. Remember when you had leukemia, and had to go through everything that came with that?" Linus continued, his eyes now on his yellow-haired pal. "You were really strong and determined to push through it, so that you could continue to be able to do the things you loved to do. You weren't the one to give up either."

"Awww," Janice said, feeling quite flattered. Her face tinged red and she smiled at Linus, who smiled fondly back at her.

Sally watched this exchange unfolding and felt herself growing both envious and angry. "And I am absolutely not the kind of person to give up either!" she then suddenly exclaimed, getting the attention of everyone. "I too never give up, no matter how hard things get!"

The rest of the group was now completely silent, nobody saying a single word. But the silence quickly began to feel uncomfortable as nobody could think of an easy response to Sally that was in agreement with what she had said. The truth was, Sally actually was someone who would likely try to give up on something once it got tough for her. Especially when that thing was school-related. The only real exception to this was in regards to her pursuit of having Linus as her "Sweet Babboo".

Sally noticed the silence and began to look even more upset.

"Why aren't any of you immediately saying something in agreement? You know it's true!" she demanded. "Well, isn't it?! Hmmm? You guys are not answering right away!"

At that instant, Charlie Brown was immediately reminded of a certain couple of interactions he had with Lucy. Also, Sally's yelling was now causing their table to begin attracting unwanted attention from some of the other patrons.

Heather started to become embarrassed by this, and she smiled apologetically at these people before turning back to Sally.

"Sally, maybe this discussion would be better continued at another time. Like when we're not inside a crowded restaurant," she tried to reason.

Sally at first ignored Heather's plea and continued to ramble on. It took everyone in the group giving her hard stares before she finally went quiet. With an aggravated huff, she crossed her arms and turned her gaze back to outside the window.

By this point, Charlie Brown and Heather were both starting to grow concerned for Sally. Ever since Janice had moved back, and whenever she would spend time together with Linus, Sally would essentially go Lucy on everyone and would constantly act crabby or irritated. Heather had already theorized that Sally was likely jealous of Linus' and Janice's relationship, but this was all starting to become a little bit too much now. She sincerely hoped that the situation would diffuse itself before anything really bad happened.

Author's note: And done! So far, things regarding Lucy and this program aren't off to the best start. But Heather ain't gonna give up! Heather has also purchased a Secret Santa gift for our favorite blockhead. Oh, but wait! As Mary had told her, Charlie Brown was currently still out for the count in the baseball world. So, what could Heather be aiming for here by gifting him with a new baseball glove? There are pretty solid clues in this and certain other chapter as to what Heather is trying to do here, so maybe you can figure it out. ;) If not though, then you'll see soon enough.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!