Hello, everyone. Yep, this is for real. I am here, and I have a new chapter for you all. If you all are wondering why this took so long, a simplified explanation will be posted at the bottom of the chapter. In the meantime, please enjoy the chapter!

It was now about three in the afternoon, and Heather and Lucy were both enduring another busy afternoon at Sparkyville Hospital.

Heather smiled down at the elderly female patient whom she was leading via wheelchair in the direction of the hospital's sun room.

"You'll love the sun room, Mrs. Grimsley. We'll get you all nice and comfy in there, and we can stay as long as you'd like," Heather said to her in her sweet, friendly voice.

Mrs. Grimsley smiled back at her appreciatively before leaning contentedly back in her chair. What a wonderful volunteer this Heather lassie was! Just as good as any professional.

Following behind the duo was Lucy and her patient, whom were following Heather and Mrs. Grimsley towards the sun room. Unlike with Heather, Lucy said nothing to her patient, and seemed like she really didn't want to be doing this, as the two of them carried on towards their destination.

A couple of minutes later, both Heather and Lucy, as well as their patients were inside the sun room. While Heather and Mrs. Grimsley were happily shooting the breeze, Lucy's patient was looking longingly between the first duo and Lucy, as Lucy merely leaned casually against the wall, not even looking at her. It clearly seemed as though Lucy's patient wanted Lucy to treat her similarly to the way Heather was treating Mrs. Grimsley.

They all were only in the room for a couple minutes before Lucy suddenly took hold of her patient's wheelchair again and began leading her out of the sun room.

"You know what they say about the sun and premature aging," Lucy said lightheartedly.

"B-But Miss, I wasn't ready to leave yet!" the middle-aged lady cried out.

"Lucy!" Heather called out to her fellow co-worker.

Lucy stopped and looked back at her. "What?"

"Did you not hear her? She said she wasn't ready to go yet," Heather told her.

"Ugh! How long am I expected to wait there with her?" Lucy asked irritably.

"For as long as she wants to," Heather answered plainly.

"And I wasn't gonna ask you to keep me in there that long. I just wanted to feel for a little bit like I was out in the fresh air," Lucy's patient told her, now getting quite upset with her.

Lucy sighed. "Fine."

And so Lucy returned to the sun room with her patient. Meanwhile, Heather looked down and was shaking her head, appearing both disappointed and mildly exasperated.

A little while later, Heather and Lucy had moved on to their final task of the day, which was delivering meals to patients. It was just minutes until five, and Lucy was in a hurry to finish up and go home because coming up on television at five-thirty was the season finale of a series she had really become invested in.

Lucy, wheeling her little table containing a plate of a burger and fries, as well as a smoothie of some sort, entered a room where two patients were waiting. One of which was a man who was in an all body cast.

However, due to Lucy being in such a hurry, she placed the tray of food on the table next to the patient in the cast, and handed the smoothie to the other guy. However, the smoothie was supposed to be for the patient in the cast, and the burger and fries was supposed to be for the other patient. Lucy then proceeded to leave the room.

Fortunately though, Heather arrived at the scene as Lucy was walking out. She gasped as she saw the more injured patient moaning and glancing longingly at the plate of a burger and fries, and rushed in to fix things.

Within seconds, she had swapped the items so that they went to the proper patients, and she was now assisting the more severely injured patient with drinking his smoothie.

By this point now, Heather was starting to get downright angry with Lucy. Clearly, between her poor behavior, as well as with all the mistakes she had been making, Lucy did not care about this program at all.

"Lucy!" Heather shouted out to her.

Seconds later, Lucy reappeared at the entrance to the room.

"What is it now?" she demanded.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Heather asked. "Actually, don't answer that. It's clear that you do not."

"What did I do wrong in your eyes now?" Lucy asked Heather flatly.

"There's no 'in my eyes' in regards to this matter," Heather told her. She waited until she and Lucy were out of the patients' earshot before continuing. "Did you see that the first patient in there literally cannot move? What were you were supposed to do was hold out the smoothie to him so he could drink it."

"Ah," was all Lucy said in response.

Heather then took a second to calm her emotions down a little. "Look, Lucy, I'm not here to try to pick on you for every little thing you do wrong. I'm just trying to help."

"Help how exactly?" Lucy questioned.

"I'm trying to help you earn your stripes," Heather said. "Admittedly, I find it quite surprising that you were even remotely interested in participating in this program. Especially given your actions here these last couple of days."

"I was never 'interested' in any of this," Lucy admitted, a hint of venom in her voice. "If you must know, my parents made me go through with this stupid program after it was suggested to me by Dr. Bliss."

"Oh! I see..." Heather said, realization washing over her like water. It all made sense now. Of course someone like Lucy would never even think about participating in something like this on her own, and is only here by force.

"Now that that's out of the way, if you'll excuse me..." Lucy began.

But as she turned around to begin walking away, another volunteer was quickly coming in her direction. She was wheeling a small table like Lucy's, but it still had numerous undelivered plates of food on it. Apparently, this volunteer had fallen behind schedule on her duties and was now rushing to finish her job.

Unfortunately for this volunteer, she was not aware that her shoelace had come untied, and she tripped on it, falling forward. This resulted in her losing her grip on the table, and the table was now speeding towards Lucy like a torpedo on wheels.

"Ack! Lucy, watch out!" Heather instantly warned her.

The two of them then attempted to dart out of the way. Heather got away safely, but for Lucy, she was just a split second too late. The table collided with her leg at full speed, and both she and the table came crashing down in a heap. Everyone who was nearby, now in shock, had their eyes on Lucy, who had begun to grimace and moan loudly from the pain she was now in.

It was now late in the afternoon on Tuesday, and one of the hospital nurses was now entering a certain room. This was the room of one of the hospital's newest patients, Lucy Van Pelt.

The table incident turned out to not be as bad as it could've been, but as a result of it, Lucy had suffered a hairline fracture in her lower leg. Also, when she had fallen, she had landed on her face, fracturing her nose in the process. As a result, she now had a cast on it. And she absolutely hated it and would not at all like if everyone at school saw it. To Lucy though, it wasn't all bad. All this meant now was that she could be here, being the one nurses were tending to instead of having to be the one tending to others. And she was taking full advantage of that, despite her leg injury being minor, and therefore being in a position where her set of crutches was all she needed to be out of this place.

"What is it now, Lucy?" the nurse said, progressively growing annoyed by Lucy's constant requests, one right after the other.

"I need a refill please," Lucy said with a grin. "And don't be so stingy with the ice this time."

The nurse gave Lucy a look that seemed to say, "Really, Lucy?"

"Hey, I'm the injured patient here," Lucy said to her. "As you said to me on my first day as a Candy Striper, everything I do, my time, duty, and love, is for the patients."

The nurse had to fight back her retort as she collected Lucy's cup (for the third time in the last hour). Before she was out of the room though, she glanced back at Lucy.

"Oh, by the way, you have a visitor coming," she told her. She then proceeded onward.

Hearing this news, Lucy grew rather surprised. Who could want to be visiting her right now? Linus? Heather, perhaps? Yeah, it was probably just the Little Red-Haired Miss Perfect.

But who the visitor turned out to be was likely the last person she would have suspected.

"Hi, Lucy," a male voice said as he entered the room, carrying a stack of school materials.

Lucy's eyes went wide at who it was.

"Schroeder?"

"Yeah, it's me. Go crazy," he said, looking down at the papers and stuff in his hands.

"What brings you here?" Lucy asked him. But then a sly smile appeared on her face. "Wait, I know! You came because you were so mortified by everything, and you wanted to shower this injured, but still pretty girl with a-plenty of precious gifts!"

"I'll be going now," Schroeder responded, about to turn and walk away.

"Kidding, kidding!" Lucy defended. "Good grief, why do you musicians never have a sense of humor."

Schroeder said nothing, but did not actually walk away.

"So then, why are you here?" Lucy asked him.

"Well, in fact, I do have some stuff I want to give to you," Schroeder replied, a grin of sorts appearing on his face.

Lucy gave a light gasp in surprise and her eyes lit up. "You do?"

"Yep!" Schroeder replied cheerfully as he placed the pile of school-related materials in Lucy's lap. "Have fun!"

Lucy's smile instantly faltered. "Homework?! That's what you came to visit me for? Just to give me homework?"

"Hey, schooling is important. And since we're in four classes together, I feel I'm doing you a favor," Schroeder retorted. "You know, I never used to care more than I needed to about school, but now with this whole Juilliard thing..."

There was silence for the next several seconds before Schroeder spoke again.

"Anyway, I better get going home. Beethoven and my baby grand piano need me," he said before beginning to walk away. "Feel better!"

Lucy gave a sigh as she stuffed her school stuff under her bed. "Even when hospitalized, you just can't seem to win the heart of a musician."

The next day during the afternoon, Lucy was on her crutches, heading in the direction of the sun room. Being able to lie in bed and do (mostly) nothing was nice, but even when in her position, plenty of sunshine was always necessary.

On her way there, she proceeded to pass by the children's play room. As she was doing so, she was spotted by a six-year-old boy with short brown hair. This boy was the kid she had read a story to right before completing her first day as a Candy Striper. Though in reality, she had read him just two pages before making up a quick ending. Naturally, the boy was disappointed that Lucy did not actually finish the story.

Despite that though, the boy stood up and began to follow after her.

"Hey, you're that girl who was supposed to read that book to me," he said to her.

Lucy stopped and turned around to address the source of the voice.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" he asked her. "On Saturday, you looked mean and in a hurry, but today, you look mean... and kinda crazy."

Lucy rolled her eyes, but nonetheless gave her answer. "I broke my nose, and also got a small fracture in my leg. What's it to you?" Lucy then turned away from the boy.

"I dunno. It just looked to me like you might have wanted some company," the boy responded a little bit shyly.

"I don't need any company. I need some sunshine," Lucy said as she continued on.

"Oh. Okay," the boy said. Despite that though, he continued to follow her.

This continued on for the next several seconds until they passed by a corner. By this point, Lucy finally suspected that she was still being followed.

"Is that boy still following me?" she asked herself.

"No," the boy fibbed as he quickly hid around the corner.

Lucy then approached the boy with a very annoyed look on her face. The boy started to feel a wee bit nervous, but despite that, he smiled up at her.

Then all of a sudden, something very unexpected happened. Lucy began to find her demeanor slowly start to relax. She wasn't sure how, but she found herself actually becoming less annoyed at the boy and even wound up giving him something of a smile.

"I'm Lucy," she then said to him.

"Pleased to meet you. My name is Matthew," the boy said as the two of them began walking together back the other way.

"So what are you in for?" Lucy asked Matthew.

"My kidney. I had to get a new one," Matthew answered, placing a hand on where the apparent kidney-replacement surgery was done.

"Wow. What happened to the old one?" Lucy inquired.

"It had stopped working," Matthew said, looking down at the ground.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lucy told him, actually sounding like she meant it. "Are you okay right now?"

"It's getting better," Matthew said. "I was real sick for a while, but I'm beginning to get better. However..."

Matthew looked down at the ground again, this time beginning to appear sad.

"I'm not gonna be able to be home with my family for Christmas," he finished solemnly.

"Good grief," Lucy said, her sympathy for the boy growing. "I'm really sorry."

Matthew looked back up at Lucy before smiling and shaking his head. "I am sad that I won't be able to spend Christmas with my family, but all the nice doctors and nurses help to make me feel better while I have to stay here."

As Lucy learned more about Matthew's story, she felt inside something that she wasn't sure she had ever felt before. All of a sudden, she felt a strong desire to be another one of those nice people who helped this kid better enjoy his stay here.

"Thank you for talking to me, Lucy," Matthew said, smiling at her.

"Actually, do you still have that book? I'll read it to you if you'd like," Lucy said to him with a warm grin.

This caught Matthew by surprise. But at the same time, there was a hint of doubt in his mind given what had happened the first time Lucy had "read" to him.

"The whole story?" he asked her, just to be sure.

"The whole enchilada," Lucy replied, gently rubbing Matthew's head.

Matthew giggled as the two of them made their way to the play room to go and fetch that book.

"Are you trying to make me look at bad as you?" Matthew said jokingly.

"Nah. That wouldn't be possible in my opinion," Lucy said, not taking any offense.

"Yeah, you're right," Matthew agreed before the two of them shared a laugh.

A short while later, Heather, having just gotten out of school for the day, decided that she would pay Lucy a visit before heading home for the day. As she arrived at Lucy's room, she saw that Lucy was not in there.

"Hm, she's not here," Heather mused to herself. "I highly doubt she's not in the hospital anymore."

"If you're looking for Lucy, she went off in the direction of the sun room," the other patient in the room, from behind her side of the curtain, told Heather.

"Oh! Thank you for telling me," Heather responded with a smile. "By the way, have you been feeling better lately."

"I sure have. I'll be going home tomorrow," the other patient said, sounding excited about the prospect of no longer being here.

"That's great news! I'm happy to hear it," Heather said delightedly.

Heather then proceeded out of the room and in the direction of the sun room. About halfway though, she stopped short upon seeing something she never would have expected. Lucy and some little kid were sitting together side-by-side with Lucy seemingly reading to the kid. If it wasn't too much a surprise to Heather that Lucy was doing this off-schedule, then what was a real surprise was the fact that the kid was all smiles, clearly indicating that he was enjoying what Lucy was currently doing for him.

"And they lived happily ever after. The end," Lucy finished reading before closing the book and looking at Matthew, who giggled.

"You know, I was totally wrong about you. You actually can be really nice for a crazy-looking girl," he said jokingly.

"And you can be a lot of fun for a smart-looking kid," Lucy replied, gently rustling Matthew's hair.

"Thanks for reading to me Lucy," Matthew said gratefully.

"Anytime, Matt," Lucy responded.

She was then caught by surprise when she found herself engulfed in a tight hug from little Matthew. After a couple of seconds, she regained her composure and hugged Matthew back.

Heather fondly watched the scene unfolding in front of her. Lucy had really pleasantly surprised her just now. She couldn't help but wonder what had gotten into Lucy that resulted in such a change in her demeanor. Whatever it was though, Heather hoped that it would never wear off. Seeing this side of her was absolutely both refreshing and wonderful.

After Matthew and Lucy broke from their hug, the two of them stood up. They flashed each other one more smile before parting ways. As Lucy was beginning to make her way back to her hospital bed, she was surprised to see Heather approaching her.

"Oh! Heather!" she said, clearly not expected to see her here.

"I saw what you were doing, Lucy," Heather said, in a soft-sounding voice that was reminiscent of the day she was telling Charlie Brown about how she viewed him as a person. "That was one of the nicest things I've seen someone do."

Lucy opened her mouth to speak, but was having a bit of trouble finding the words. So... Heather saw all of that. She wasn't exactly sure how to feel about that. A part of her was kind of embarrassed because this wasn't the Lucy everyone knew her as. But at the same time, another part of her felt very proud of herself, and she felt the urge to flaunt it to Heather. Ultimately, she decide to settle for the latter.

"Well, of course! I can be as nice as I want to be. I don't have to be crabby and bossy all the time; it can get boring," she finally said, puffing up her chest.

Heather responded first with an amused smirk and an eye roll. "I guess you're right," she then said.

Clearly, the odds were that it was still going to be some time before Lucy really fully changed for the better, but at this point, it seemed that there just may be some hope for her now. How she had dealt with the Matthew kid was definitely a good starting point. One could only speculate a few months from now where Lucy would be on her journey towards a much needed personality change.

Author's note: And that's it for this chapter. Now without going into much detail, the reason this story is taking so long to work on right now is twofold. One, I've been going through some bouts of depression throughout much of July and parts of August, and resultingly have just not really felt the will to work on this story. With the reputation I've built up with this story, I only want to be working on it when I feel I can put forth my best work. If that means going on hiatuses, so be it.

Second, I've recently been very busy. I'm in the process of going into online entrepreneurship, so I've been making that my top priority.

Rest assured that this story will never be abandoned and I'm committed to finishing it, even if that final chapter is posted years from now. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one. It's gonna be a biggie. I hope to have it posted by the end of the month, but do please bear with me if it takes longer than that. Remember that I'm quite busy right now. Thanks for your patience and I'll see you guys again with the next chapter!