Chapter Text
Everyone knows about Lucy’s crush on Schroeder when they were little kids. Especially Schroeder. He always acted like he hated her and absolutely despised whenever she came over, but he never actually did. Everyone else only saw how he pushed her off him whenever she tried to tackle him in a hug at school or around their other friends, everyone else only saw how bossy (and sometimes downright mean) she was. The end of what everyone else saw was always Lucy and Schroeder sitting together on the bus home.
What everyone else never saw was how Schroeder and Lucy walked together to hang out at Schroeder’s house every day after school. They would get to his door, Schroeder would hold it open so Lucy could go in first, they took off their shoes and left them by the door, then before sitting together in Schroeder’s living room, they would always say Hello to Schroeder’s mom. And this next part was the part that Schroeder loved about his everyday schedule. Schroeder sat down at his toy piano, Lucy sat down on the floor leaning against it, he would ask if she had any requests, and every time without fail she’d just say “You know the one I like.” Schroeder would play Beethovan’s Moonlight Sonata, and for that song they wouldn’t talk, it was never an uncomfortable silence though. Lucy would close her eyes and just relax, she never got to do that very often. For the rest of the afternoon, that was all they did. Sometimes Schroeder’s mom would bring them a snack, and Lucy would make Schroeder stop playing and eat. Then he’d jump right back into practicing, and Lucy would talk to him about literally anything, homework, baseball, her little brothers, sometimes they’d talk about Charlie Brown.
It stayed like that for years. When Schroeder started 6th grade, his parents got him a real piano to play, he even got to have it set up in his bedroom- and he was so excited to show it to Lucy the day he got it that he begged her to come over on a saturday and hang out with him instead of running her psychiatric booth. (Charlie Brown could go without her help for one day)
In middle school, their routine changed just a little bit, Lucy couldn’t come over every day after school. So they settled for hanging out at Schroeder’s two or three times a week, and on the days they didn’t hang out, Schroeder walked Lucy home from the bus stop. On the days she didn’t come over to his house, Schroeder stopped playing piano as seriously. He’d run through scales and the beginning of whatever song he was working on, but gave up about halfway through and just got up to listen to records and do his homework. He couldn’t help but miss Lucy just a little. He never read too much into why he missed her, they never really even did anything. And there was one night in 7th grade when he was just thinking about it before bed. About how he always felt comfortable whenever Lucy would just sit down next to him on the bench, sometimes she even fell asleep. He liked seeing her like that, she never got to relax at home. That was something that made him a little sad, she started having to take care of Linus and Rerun once she was about 13, her dad was picking up more and more work, and her mom was in a million committees. It’s like they stopped having time to let her just chill out; she never really talked about her home life and when she did, it was very stressful for her. Schroeder was an only child, he didn’t have any siblings to take care of, so he just did his best to make her smile- and it made his day hearing her laugh. She had a beautiful laugh, and smile, and hair, and face- “ WHAT .” He thinks to himself, “ Schroeder what the hell. That’s not- she’s not- NO. Absolutely not. Go to sleep. stop thinking about Lucy’s hair.”
He did not, in fact, stop thinking about Lucy’s hair.