Later in the afternoon, Schroeder had just finished cleaning up the kitchen table. For their time together, Mary and Schroeder were going to start by doing some studying and homework together. Then after that, Schroeder was going to offer Mary the opportunity to hear him play the original song he had written and had been practicing for a while now. He felt that it was finally ready to show off to his fellow club members, but decided he'd like to get some feedback first from a trusted friend of his.
A short while later, Schroeder heard the doorbell ring. He placed his work books on his side of the kitchen table before proceeding to answer it. He opened the door to find his expected guest standing there. He smiled.
"Hello, Schroeder," Mary greeted him, smiling back.
"Hello, Mary," Schroeder greeted back, stepping off to the side. "Please come in."
Mary entered the building and took off her coat. She hung it on one of the nearby hooks before Schroeder proceeded to lead her into the kitchen for their study time together. Mary placed her bookbag down next to her chair as she took a seat at the table on the opposite side from where Schroeder had set up his work space. Schroeder, meanwhile, now had the fridge open and was about to pour himself something to drink.
"Mary, would you care for something to eat or drink?" Schroeder offered his friend.
"Why, thank you," Mary replied. "I admit, I am a little bit thirsty."
"Well, we have ice water, fruit punch, and some diet cola," Schroeder told her. "What would you like?"
"Some ice water will be fine," Mary answered.
"Coming right up," Schroeder said as he removed a lemonade pitcher that had plain ice water in it. He poured glasses both for him and his friend before placing the pitcher back in the fridge. He then walked with the glasses back to the table, handing one to Mary on the way to his seat.
"Thank you, Schroeder. This was very nice of you," Mary said as Schroeder took his seat at his side of the table.
"You're very welcome," he said before taking a sip from his glass.
"So, where do you think we should begin? Flashcards or math problems?" Mary asked.
"I vote math problems," Schroeder answered. "Best in my opinion to save the flashcards for last."
"Math problems it is," Mary then said as she pulled her math book out of her bag. The two of them then proceeded to get to work.
After about an hour and a half of hard work, Mary and Schroeder were making their way towards Schroeder's piano. Mary placed her bookbag over near where her coat was as Schroeder was making himself comfortable on his piano bench. Mary then stood off to the side as Schroeder cracked his knuckles.
"Okay, Mary," Schroeder began. "You are about to experience exclusively for yourself... an original classical creation composed by none other than yours truly. The great Schroeder Klein."
Mary gave a soft giggle after Schroeder had said this. He then was about to begin playing the piece. But right before his fingers hit the keys, he glanced over towards Mary.
"If you'd like, Mary, you can sit next to me on the bench," he said to her.
"Oh? You really don't mind?" Mary asked, just to be sure.
"I don't mind at all," Schroeder assured her.
Mary graced him with a smile before slowly taking a seat on the bench next to Schroeder. Afterwards, Schroeder began to play his piece.
Mary clasped her hands together in her lap and closed her eyes as she let the sound of a baby grand belonging to her friend take her for a ride. For Schroeder's first piece ever composed (that she knew of), it was very pleasant to listen to. On a couple of occasions, he sounded like he had maybe gone slightly off key, but Mary could tell how much practice had already gone into this performance.
After about three minutes, Schroeder stopped playing. He slowly turned to Mary.
"So... what did you think?" he asked her, suddenly sounding shy.
"That was very pretty, Schroeder," Mary said truthfully.
"You really think so?" Schroeder said, just to be sure.
"I know so," Mary ensured him. "I'm obviously no expert, though perhaps maybe I could suggest just a weensy bit more practice on it? I do feel as though you may have gone slightly off-key on a couple of occasions. Otherwise, I think it's ready to show off to the rest of our club."
Schroeder smiled at Mary. He honestly appreciated her for the fact that although Mary said that the piece was good, she wasn't afraid to give her honest feedback and say that it maybe needed just a little bit more finetuning. Mary really was pretty good when it came to giving out advice and feedback.
"Thank you, Mary. I appreciate your insight," Schroeder said gratefully.
"You're welcome," Mary replied.
Suddenly, Schroeder was interrupted by a faint gurgling sound. What was worse was that the sound came from his stomach. Mary must of heard it too because she let out a chuckle, startling Schroeder.
"Everything okay, Schroeder?" she said jokingly.
Schroeder's face went red from embarrassment. He then shook his head.
"Eh-heh. Well, I did just had a snack not long before you came over," he replied sheepishly as he stood up. "Pardon me, but I think I need to use the bathroom."
"Okey dokey," Mary responded.
Schroeder then proceeded to make his way to the bathroom. About halfway though, he stopped, craning his head to look back at Mary.
"In the meantime, if you'd like..." Schroeder said. "You're free poke around with the piano a little bit."
Mary was quite surprised to hear this, as she once heard a rumor or two that Schroeder typically didn't like other people touching his piano. "Are you sure?" she asked him.
Schroeder nodded.
"Oh! Well... thank you," Mary said, not quite sure what else she could say.
She then slowly slid over into the correct position for playing as Schroeder disappeared around a corner and in the direction of the bathroom.
As Schroeder was getting himself comfortable on the porcelain throne, he couldn't help but acknowledge to himself the fact that he had gotten so embarrassed by Mary hearing his stomach growl. He mentally had to agree that he got more embarrassed by this than he ever thought he would have, though he wasn't sure why.
A few minutes later, Schroeder was making his way back towards the living room. As he got to the corner, he peeked around and saw Mary experimentally poking at random keys, almost appearing nervous as she did so. Obviously, her playing sounded treacherous, and Schroeder would wince at whatever it was she was attempting to play. But despite that, Schroeder couldn't help but remain rooted on the spot, keeping his eyes on Mary. With her long, platinum-blonde hair that came down straight behind her back, to the way her vibrant yellow dress shined brightly like the sun on her small body.
Schroeder had never come to realize it before, but the truth was... this girl was actually very pretty.
During the evening, Charlie Brown was coming into his house. It has been a tough workout session with Peppermint Patty and her posse, but it was followed up with some tasty fast food at his favorite burger joint. Needless to say, although Charlie Brown was feeling stiff as a board right now, he'd be lying if he didn't say that he had a pretty good time.
As Charlie Brown came into the living room, he was surprised to see that Sally was not in the family beanbag chair watching television like she usually did at this hour. He looked over at the nearest clock, which said that it was two minutes after seven. Sally's favorite show had just started and she was currently not out here to watch it. It was not like her to purposefully miss out on any of her favorite programs, so Charlie Brown decided to go and check up on her.
He went upstairs and made his way to Sally's bedroom. He saw that the door was open, so he peeked inside. Sally was currently pacing around the area and muttering to herself, as though she was trying really hard to figure something out.
Strange, Charlie Brown thought. It's not like her at all to be acting this way.
Seconds later, Sally saw that her brother was at the door looking strangely as her. "Oh! Um... hi, big brother."
"Hi, Sally," Charlie Brown said tentatively. "Is everything alright?"
"Oh, yes. Absolutely," Sally said, giving a bright smile that seemed all too forced.
"What are you up to?" Charlie Brown asked her.
"It's nothing," Sally lied. "Just trying to remember what I still needed to do for homework."
Charlie Brown gave her a blank look. "Really, Sally? I know that you're not the best fibber, but that was bad even for you."
"Well, what do you know?!" Sally retorted. "Maybe with the new year, it's possible that I've finally decided that it was time for me to take my schooling more seriously."
Charlie Brown merely rolled his eyes. "Well, anyway, I just came by to tell you that you're missing your favorite show. It started a couple of minutes ago."
"It has?!" Sally then said, suddenly remembering. She looked at her alarm clock and saw that Charlie Brown was indeed right. "Oh, good grief! Thanks for letting me know!"
And with that, Sally sped past her big brother and in the direction of the living room.
As Charlie Brown watched her go, he tried to think of what could have possibly been on Sally's mind that she would be so deeply in thought about it, as if it were some kind of an emergency situation.
"I can't believe I almost let myself miss my program!" Sally said to herself as she grabbed the TV remote and launched herself into the family beanbag chair.
She turned the TV on and changed the channel to the desired one. Currently on this show, the main heroine had just shut her locker door and was surprised to see another person standing there. Judging by this other character's expression, one could tell right away that this other character really had it in for the main heroine.
"Interesting," the other character said. She then let out a fake gasp. "Did you hear that?"
"What?" the main character asked.
"The sound of the world as you know it coming to a screeching halt," the second character said.
Sally watched and listened intently as the rest of the episode played out. She learned that this antagonist character was going to use blackmail as a means of getting the main character to cease all contact from her best friend, as well as to do all of her schoolwork for her. This antagonist had made plenty of appearances throughout the series' run, and Sally was rather impressed by how well this character was able to make the life of the main heroine so much more difficult.
It was then that a lightbulb went on in Sally's head.
"Of course! That's what I can do! Why didn't I think of this before?" she mentally facepalmed herself.
It was perfect! Good old-fashioned blackmail had always been a classic tried-and-true way to get someone to do one's bidding. If Sally could find out something about Janice that she would never want anyone else to know, then perhaps this was how she could finally get her away from Linus. Obviously, all she would have to do is threaten to reveal her "secret" if she didn't give into Sally's demands.
Feeling now that she might have discovered a way where she could to put a stop to Linus and Janice becoming a thing, Sally rubbed her hands together and a wicked expression appeared on her face.
Meanwhile, over at Linus' house, he and Janice were currently also having a little study date of sorts. For Linus, everything seemed just fine, but Janice, despite her best efforts, was having a hard time concentrating. The words Sally had uttered to her moments before lunch ended kept replaying over and over in her mind. Finally, with a sigh, Janice put down her notebook and pencil. This caused Linus to look up at her.
"Is everything alright, Janice?" he asked her in concern.
"I guess," Janice replied. "I'm just a little concerned about something that happened today."
"Is it an assignment that your teacher is making you guys do? Or perhaps there's a big test coming up and you're nervous about it?" Linus asked.
Janice shook her head. "No, nothing like that. It's about something that somebody said to me during lunch. It's honestly making me a little nervous."
Linus' jaw became firm. "Is somebody bothering you? If so, please don't be afraid to let me know. You know that he or she will be in for some real trouble if I find out that they've been being mean to you."
Janice's cheeks tinged pink and she gave a soft little chuckle. "Well... yes and no. You see..."
Janice then proceeded to explain to Linus her interactions with Sally today at lunch, up to and including the "deal" that Sally had tried to make with her. As Linus learned about what Sally was trying to do, his face darkened, and he could also feel the anger beginning to well up inside him.
"And so, yeah. Evidently, Sally does not like me spending time with you," Janice finished.
Linus massaged his temples as he tried to calm himself down. This whole thing with Sally was just getting worse and worse, and it seemed at this point that there was just no end in sight. Despite years of trying to get the message through to that blockheaded sister of Charlie Brown's that they were not a thing, Sally continued to this day to act like they were, and she was upset and angry whenever Linus spent time with other girls.
"Yeah, Janice, honestly, I don't know what we can really do about Sally. I'm probably gonna wind up having to take some action on my own at this point," Linus said. "But what I do know is that you cannot let her get to you like this. She has no right whatsoever to tell you who you can or can't hang out with."
"I know, Linus," Janice said. Her expression then became firm and she sounded resolute. "And I'm not about to let this whole mess bring me down. You're my best friend, and I'm always happy when you and I are together."
Linus smiled at her, thinking back to that day years ago when he and Charlie Brown had visited Janice at the hospital. She was so determined and confident that she was going to recover from her illness. This was just one of the many things Linus liked about Janice. She was the strongest and bravest girl his age that he had ever known. He knew that with that attitude of hers, as well as his support, that the two of them could get through anything together, including the shenanigans of a semi-deluded love rival.
The next morning, Mary boarded the bus and took her usual seat close to the back of the bus. As the bus began moving, she gently leaned against the window and began to let her mind wander. She found herself thinking back to her and Schroeder's time together yesterday.
Moments later, Heather had boarded the bus and took her seat next to her bestie. "Morning, Mary," she greeted.
"Good morning, Heather," Mary said, keeping her gaze out the window.
As soon as Heather had made herself comfortable, she turned to her friend.
"How are you this morning?" she asked. "Did you have a good time at Schroeder's yesterday?"
"It was pretty fun. Schroeder and I got a lot of work done. And then we spent a little time at his piano," Mary replied. "He even let me try his piano out."
"Oh!" Heather said, a bit surprised. "I didn't think he'd do something like that. That was nice of him."
"Yeah, it was," Mary said.
Mary then let out a soft sigh. It wasn't a sad sigh either, nor was it one that signaled that she was stressed out or something. It actually sounded... almost dreamy. Regardless, Heather noticed it.
"Something on your mind, bestie?" she asked.
"Not really," Mary fibbed.
Heather though didn't appear that she completely believed Mary, and not once had Mary even turned to look at Heather. Curious, Heather studied the expression that was currently on Mary's face. It honestly reminded her of how someone might have looked if they were staring at someone, appearing at though they maybe... found them attractive!
"Mary?" Heather then said, raising her voice.
The sudden change in tone and volume made Mary jump slightly and she quickly turned to her friend. "What?"
A sly smirk slowly began to appear on Heather's face. She chuckled. "It does indeed sound like you two might have had a good time."
Mary raised an eyebrow. "Uh... what do you mean?"
Heather continued to grin at Mary for several seconds. But then, her grin disappeared and she tried to appear indifferent. "Oh, nothing," she said casually.
Heather determined that maybe it was a little early still, and decided not put Mary through this just yet. She was going to wait and see for a little while where things went with this. But if this were what she was beginning to suspect, Mary was about to be paid back for teasing Heather that day when they were shopping for Heather's talent show outfit.
"O...kay," Mary said, clearly confused by what had just happened now.
Mary turned her gaze back towards the window. Heather, meanwhile, inwardly chuckled. Okay, perhaps Mary was slightly less aware than Heather originally thought. But Heather could tell right away though what was going on. Mary was showing the signs of beginning to take a shine to the teenage maestro.
During lunch at the elementary school, Sally had taken her usual spot at the corner table with her one best friend, Eudora. Eudora grew curious as Sally then placed a sheet of paper on the seat next to her that said "Reserved".
"What's that for, Sally?" she asked her.
"Oh. I'm going to be inviting a friend to sit with us today," Sally replied.
"Really?" Eudora said. "Does this friend of yours know that you want them to sit with us?"
"Not yet," Sally said, "but she will in a moment."
Sally then sat and waited as one by one, the other kids began taking their own places at the various tables. There was one particular kid that Sally was waiting for though, and her name was Janice Emmons.
During the previous evening, right after her show was over, Sally had gone back to her room to ponder how she was going to execute her blackmail plans. She realized that it was actually going to be hard to pull this off. The reason for this was that since Sally and Janice have never really spent any time together, and hence were not friends, Sally didn't know all that much about Janice. Consequentially, Sally could not immediately think of anything that she could use against Janice to blackmail her.
That was about to change though. Although Sally cringed at the prospect of suddenly being all friendly towards Janice, she knew that "befriending" her was ultimately going to be her best shot at taking that first step towards her goal. If in the end this all meant that she could succeed in eliminating Janice from the Linus scene, then she would be able to force herself through all of this.
Finally, Sally saw the silky blonde hair belonging to her target as she proceeded to go find a seat and she stood up.
"Janice! Hey, Janice!" she called out.
"Hm?" Janice turned towards the sound of the voice calling out to her.
It was the voice of the last person she suspected wanted anything to do with her. And with the previous day's events still fresh on her mind, she was hesitant to approach the source of the voice. After a few seconds though, she cautiously made her way over to her.
"Hi, Janice!" Sally greeted, trying to sound friendly.
"Um... hi, Sally," she said, already feeling the awkwardness in the air. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
As Sally proceeded to speak again, she was trying hard to not appear as though there was something really gross in her mouth.
"I... I was just wondering... if you'd like to... sit with us?" she finally uttered out.
These were quite possibly the number one combination of words that Janice never would've guessed she'd hear coming from Sally's mouth. Was she being serious? Literally just yesterday Sally had tried to bribe Janice into ending her friendship with Linus. This was then followed up by Sally basically threatening her when she had refused. Now all of a sudden, the next day Sally was asking Janice to join her for lunch? Something didn't add up here.
"Sally," Janice began. "While I appreciate the offer and all, just where is this coming from all of a sudden? I mean yesterday, you seemed to want my head on a platter for not being willing to give Linus the silent treatment."
The task of not appearing like she was in the process of downing a whole bottle of cough syrup suddenly got even harder for Sally. It almost made her feel like all this wasn't really worth it after all. Nonetheless, she just managed to find the strength to continue.
"I am aware of everything that had happened between us yesterday," she said, sounding almost robotic. "And I wanted to apologize. I see now how stupid I was being. It was totally unfair of me to try and break you and Linus up just because I wanted him all to myself. Me offering you to sit with us is my way of hoping we could maybe... have a fresh start."
Sally then let out the gasp she didn't know she had been holding. Janice, meanwhile, was dead silent as she processed everything Sally had said to her. These past twenty-four hours between her and Sally had really been something.
"So... again I ask, would you like to sit with me and Eudora here?" Sally asked again.
Janice didn't immediately answer as she pondered the thought. She was still cautious, but at the same time, Sally did actually apologize. Was it really possible that they could put this behind them after all? Although she was still a bit hesitant, Janice decided that she would give Sally the benefit of the doubt.
"Sure," she said. She then slowly sat down in the empty seat next to Sally.
As the now group of three began eating their lunch, Sally actually heard a small still voice inside of her speak to her mind.
"This better be worth it, Sally."
The remainder of lunchtime went by as good as it could have given the awkwardness that was still in the air at first. Fortunately though, things began to feel a little more natural by the end of the period, and Sally was happy once Janice had actually invited her over to her house for some fun girl activities. Sally accepted, and she would be going over to Janice's house the next night.
Once lunch was over, Sally was making her way back to class with a confident grin on her face. Tomorrow night would her chance to find her weapon of choice for blackmailing Janice, and hopefully separating her and Linus for good.
During the next evening, Sally was over at Janice's house. The two of them had just finished dinner and now were partaking in their planned activities. At first glance, one would've never suspected that anything bad was about to happen; Janice and Sally actually appeared like they were having fun together.
After a little while, they heard someone knocking on Janice's bedroom door. The door then opened, revealing Janette.
"Hey, Janice?" she called, getting their attention. "Sorry to bug you, but could you please help me out with something important for a few minutes?"
"Sure, I'll be right there," Janice replied before standing up. "Sorry about that, Sally, I'll be back in a few minutes."
"That's alright," Sally said, grinning.
After Janice and Janette had left the room, leaving Sally by herself, Sally's grin grew... and she chuckled mischievously. This was her chance. And it came at such a convenient time too! See? Even fate herself knew that it was Linus and Sally who were meant to be together, and fate was actively helping Sally out right now with her plans.
"Alright, Sally, let's do this thing," she said to herself excitedly.
And so for the next several minutes, Sally proceeded to search throughout Janice's room in search of something, such as a diary or journal, that may contain something Sally could use to blackmail her with. She looked under the bed, under Janice's pillow, in her dresser, and in other places. Unfortunately though, Sally was not finding anything that would help get the job done.
"Come on. There's gotta be something here that I can find," she muttered to herself, growing frustrated.
It was then that she noticed the shelf up above Janice's desk and she went over to it. There wasn't too much stuff there. A few pictures of Janice and her family. There was one picture of her and Linus playing on the swings together, which made Sally shudder in disgust upon seeing it. But what managed to stoke Sally's curiosity was the small velvet box located to the left. Before doing anything though, Sally rushed to the bedroom entrance to make sure that Janice wasn't on her way back yet. She wasn't.
With the coast still clear, Sally proceeded to remove the box from the shelf and she opened it, revealing that cross pendant that her father had gifted her for Christmas. Sally then immediately remembered.
I remember this! I overheard Linus talking to Big Brother once about how Janice and her sisters got these and how Janice really treasured hers.
Suddenly, a light bulb turned on in Sally's head. She knew exactly what she could do now to blackmail Janice! What she would do is that she would steal the pendant and hold it ransom, refusing to give it back to Janice unless she agreed to end all contact with Linus! Yeah, that was brilliant! Surely Janice would agree to do as such if the pendant really mattered that much to her, right?
And so Sally now had her plan. She took the pendant out of the box before closing the box and putting it exactly where she had found it. Just after Sally had finished stowing the pendant away in her backpack, she heard Janice coming back into the room.
"Hi, Sally. I'm back," she said. "Shall we continue?"
"Yep!" Sally said cheerfully.
The two of them then carried on with their evening activities, Janice not yet knowing that Sally had just stolen something very precious to her.
Author's note: And it's plan set for Sally. What will become of things? Will Sally succeed in her goal of making Janice cease contact with Linus? Or will something happen that causes everything to blow up in Sally's face? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out! Thank you all for 30,000 views to this story!