Chapter Text
Lucy considered herself undeniably talented. She was unstoppable in school debates, always talking until the other person got tired of listening and gave up. One way or another, Lucy always found a way to use her loud personality to prove she was right, no matter the situation. Of course, her temperamental and bossy behavior gave her a bit of a bad reputation, but she hardly cared about that, right?
"Oh, this isn't fair! It's impossible to beat Lucy in a debate without our ears falling off from all the chatter!" A debate club member complained from the other side of the room while Lucy packed her bag to go home victorious once again. Another teammate scoffed.
"But it's better to lose to her than to see her lose. Who knows what she'll do if she doesn't win? Maybe she'll throw all the chairs up in the air and start shouting at the heavens!" He laughed. Lucy sighed, closing her bag and throwing it over her shoulder. Okay, maybe she did care a little about what others thought. She honestly tried to be a calmer person, less loud and less competitive, but when she realized it, it was too late, and she'd already yelled at ten different people. She had been like this since she was young, and now it had become an unfortunate part of her personality that she couldn't fix. Maybe this time she could just ignore what others were saying...
"Yeah, she's so dramatic that I bet if they put her in the theater club, she'd put everyone to shame!" Another classmate interrupted, causing Lucy to turn her head toward them. Since she was a little girl, Lucy had always loved theater, performing plays with the other kids in the neighborhood for the adults to see. But as she grew older, her friends started to look at theater with a side-eye.
"What’s so interesting about those theater kids? They're always walking around with their faces stuck in scripts and blocking the hallway with their vocal warm-ups or whatever..." Violet rolled her eyes while adjusting her hair in front of her locker mirror, referring to the theater club members who met in the hallway. "Bunch of weirdos, right, girls?" She looked at Patty and Lucy. Patty immediately agreed with Violet, but Lucy glanced at the group before responding. That very afternoon, she was planning to sign up for the theater club to participate in the spring play and was extremely confident in her decision. But now, she was beginning to doubt herself.
She loved the idea of being bathed in the spotlight on a stage, but disagreeing with Violet was like a death sentence. Violet, Patty, and Lucy made up a trio of popular girls at school, and although Lucy had been considered the "leader" for years because of her strong personality and ability to make everyone’s life miserable, Violet had recently claimed that title for herself, becoming the most popular, beautiful, and feared girl at school. If Lucy disagreed with Violet, she wouldn't hesitate to crush Lucy's reputation like an annoying bug under her designer shoe, and even though Patty was less cruel than Violet, she also knew what would happen if she opposed Violet.
"Yeah, they're a bunch of freaks." Lucy turned back to them, a malicious smile forming on her face, and soon the three girls were laughing together. For Lucy, forcing that smile hurt every muscle in her face, and forcing that laugh felt like a fake cough scratching her throat. But she knew it was much better to pretend.
It was better to give up a dream than to lose any chance of making it through high school without dying.
But that was in fifth grade! Lucy still depended on Violet to decide what to do, what to say, and what to wear because, according to her, if Lucy merely stepped out of line, her social life would go downhill. She was already in high school and knew how to live independently and breathe without worrying about what Violet would think of the situation. She could be insecure, but not like she used to be. She wasn’t as afraid of Violet anymore. She wasn’t a seven-headed monster anymore.
So, that joke felt like an invitation to her ears.
A challenge.
And unfortunately for them, Lucy was the most competitive person in the whole town.
So she didn't waste a second to leave that room and run straight to the theater room to talk to the teacher and sign up immediately.
‧₊˚♪ 𝄞₊˚⊹
"You’re impulsive," Schroeder said, not taking his eyes off the piano, speaking to the girl lying on his bed with her legs resting against the wall. Lucy briefly lifted her head to look at the blonde pianist but quickly rested it back on the bed.
"Maybe, but I think it was a great impulse." She retorted, staring at the cracked white ceiling. Every Thursday, Lucy would go to Schroeder’s house to simply talk or listen to his melodies. This tradition started because of Lucy’s almost daily visits to the boy’s house, and as time passed, due to school life, they became less frequent, so they created this new custom. Still harboring feelings for the boy, Lucy considered Schroeder one of her best friends, alongside her brothers, always able to complain about her day to him without worrying too much about being judged.
And Schroeder hated admitting it, but he felt the same way.
"The last time you acted was in the Little Red Riding Hood play, which, by the way, traumatized poor old Charlie Brown! He never saw a basket of candy the same way after that day, did you know?" Schroeder laughed at the memory of little Lucy tormenting the poor hunter after he had saved her, complaining about how long he had taken and stuff like that. Lucy rolled her eyes but couldn’t help laughing at the pianist’s laugh, which, to others, might have sounded like just another laugh, but to her, his low, brief laugh was almost like the crackling of firewood in a fireplace.
"I just did a realistic interpretation of how Little Red Riding Hood should have reacted after being swallowed by a wolf!" Lucy exclaimed, throwing her head out of the edge of the bed and seeing Schroeder’s room upside down. "Don’t tell me you wouldn’t be mad if some ugly, hairy animal pretended to be your grandmother just to eat you and your precious candies!" she concluded, crossing her arms. Schroeder sighed, too tired to refute Lucy’s arguments, and silence reigned between them for a few moments. "It’s going to be good to act again. I’ve missed it." Lucy broke the silence, as she was used to doing.
"I’m sure you’ll do great." Schroeder finally turned to look at her, leaving his piano for an instant to pay attention to the girl, which made her heart flutter slightly. "Just try not to fly into Chandler’s face during the fight scene at the party if you’re Veronica."
"Hey! I’d never do that, I’m extremely calm, Schroeder Felton!" She looked at him accusingly. "Besides, this school is too miserable to put on a decent musical. It’ll probably be some old people’s play." She rolled on the bed, getting closer to Schroeder as she sat on the edge, resting her elbows on her knees and holding her face with her hands while batting her lashes. "But no matter the play, you’ll watch from the first row, right? And you’ll wait for me at the exit with a huge bouquet and tell me how talented and amazing I am and..."
"Uh-huh, I’ll buy the red carpet and hire paparazzi for the new Broadway star," Schroeder responded sarcastically and received a playful elbow from Lucy.
"I really hope so! You could also invite that cute actor guy from the movie we watched last week to give me an autograph or take me to that fancy restaurant that opened near the candy shop..." She said with a huge smile sliding through her face, resting her hand on her chin and moving her legs back and forth, making the pianist roll his eyes.
"Good grief" He sighed but couldn’t contain the smile that formed on his face as he returned his attention to his piano.
‧₊˚♪ 𝄞₊˚⊹
On her first day in the theater club, Lucy quickly realized that the star of the show didn’t like her style, her face, or her presence in general.
As she introduced herself to the rest of the club, the suspicious eyes of that guy nearly pierced holes in her neck.
"Arthur! Come say hi to Lucy!" A teammate called him, and he sighed before dragging himself over to Lucy.
Arthur was a prodigy in acting, according to his peers; they could barely tell when he was telling the truth or acting. Every role he took seemed tailor-made for him. He was sarcastic, handsome, charming, and the dream of every girl in the theater club.
At least, that’s what his teammates thought, because Lucy didn’t see all that in the guy at first.
"This guy, Arthur… I think he’s kind of arrogant." A week later, by tradition, Lucy listened to Schroeder at the piano while spinning in his chair.
"Arthur? From your theater club." Schroeder questioned.
"Yeah. He’s super popular and everyone loves him… but he looks at me like I’m covered in mud." Lucy stared at the ceiling. "Since I walked through that door, he’s been looking at me sideways and hasn’t spoken to me at all!"
"Maybe he’s jealous of your unmatched acting talent." Schroeder shrugged, silently humming the melody he was playing on his beloved instrument.
"Yeah, maybe..." Lucy rolled her eyes. She had a rehearsal the next day along with the spring play announcement, and Lucy never hoped so much that the guy would miss the next day.
But, since Arthur was the golden boy of theater, he didn’t miss the next day.
‧₊˚♪ 𝄞₊˚⊹
Romeo and Juliet had always been a story that interested Lucy.
The joyful theater teacher bounced into the club room and announced the spring play with excitement. All the members seemed thrilled with the choice, except for Arthur, who rolled his eyes and scoffed, as if he had done that play a million times. Lucy watched him out of the corner of her eye before turning to the side to chat with her friends.
For her, Romeo and Juliet had always been a story that she repeated and repeated in her mind everywhere she went. She thought about the story while walking on the sidewalk and looking out her window, especially when she went to Schroeder’s house, thinking about how their love was "Forbidden" because of Lucy’s father’s skepticism of the boy. She only found out they died at the end because Schroeder told her one day when she was bugging him. Of course, that broke Lucy’s heart, but the story remained tucked away in a special corner of her mind. And the thought of being on stage, acting out her favorite love story while bathed in blinding lights, was the definition of a dream coming true.
So when the teacher announced that auditions were open, Lucy was the quickest to sign her name at the top of the list for Juliet. Her heart skipped a beat every time she thought about the role, and when she was called for the audition, her heart started to spin around her chest.
She stepped onto the stage, with her lines in hand and her heart in her throat. She looked at the teacher with her colorful earrings, patiently waiting to begin, and something inside her seemed to fail—her voice, her ability to move, or even her ability to think straight. Her nervousness inundated her mind, taking up every bit of space it could, almost reaching her heart. She had prepared so much for this audition, but why weren’t the words coming out of her mouth?
She looked around the auditorium and, at the end of all the chairs, saw Arthur, his lips pressed together as if he were trying not to laugh at Lucy's situation, and his furrowed brow as if he were trying to figure out why Lucy was even trying to audition when she couldn’t even speak. Lucy tightened her fingers around the sheet containing her lines and swallowed hard, questioning whether she should stay quiet like a fool on stage or do a Charlie Brown and run away. But then, a thought popped into her head.
Her mind went back to the day her classmates "challenged" her to join the theater club, the day she had to give up her theater dream for Violet, the day she first acted. She had gotten into the club, earned the trust of most of the members, and still had her dream play in the spring. Why would she stop now?
Why let them win?
"Miss Van Pelt?" The teacher asked, snapping Lucy out of her reverie. "Are you okay? Want to start?"
"Oh, yes, teacher." She grinned confidently.
The words rolled off her tongue naturally, almost as if the thoughts were her own. The levity in her body, and the emotions in her words, were all expressed in such a way that anyone who saw her would think she was born for the role. When Lucy finished and left the room, she felt renewed, as if a wish had just come true, and she couldn’t stop smiling the whole way home, which worried her younger brother.
"What happened for you to be so happy?" Linus asked, hands in his pockets, but his sister just sighed.
"Romeo and Juliet, Linus... Romeo and Juliet happened! Romeo and Juliet, la-di-da-di-daa..." she exclaimed, humming along the sidewalk. Linus shook his head disapprovingly, adjusting his glasses.
"I still can’t believe how you had your psychiatric booth when you were crazier than your patients sometimes..." He said, but as soon as he heard Lucy cracking her knuckles, his mood immediately changed. "I mean, wow, dear sister, what great news, I totally get what you’re saying!"
"Hump, yeah, good." She said as they reached the door of their house. Lucy quickly opened the door, messed up Rerun’s hair as she passed him sitting in the living room in front of the TV, and ran to her room with anticipation, hoping the day the results would be revealed would come soon.
The results came two weeks later, on a Monday, and when Lucy saw her name next to Juliet’s, her eyes immediately welled up. It was real, she had made it, and she didn’t know whether to run and shout down the hall or stand there, awestruck.
She wanted to tell everyone. Linus, Rerun, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie, who had recently become good friends with her, the whole world, and especially Schroeder. Lucy was dying of curiosity to see the surprised look on the boy’s face when she told him her impulsive act had led to extreme success, but she would have to wait until Wednesday to see him in class since he had gone out with the boys to "do boy things," and Tuesday they had no classes together. Besides, she had her first official rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet, and she wanted to see the boy’s reaction in person, so she had to contain her excitement until Wednesday.
At least that’s what she thought, because the next day she would find the light-blonde boy in the theater room, sitting behind the piano, being introduced by the teacher as the person responsible for the music of the play that spring.