Ich Liebe Dich, Charlie Brown

I'm your secret admirer, Charlie Brown

A groan left the lips of a fourteen year old boy named Charlie Brown, using every strength in his body to keep walking himself to school on the worst day of the year: Valentines' Day. 

Okay, maybe Valentines' Day  isn't that bad for him. At least probably slightly more tolerable, even after both he and Heather broke up together on a mutual agreement over feelings and chemistry between them working better as best friends, she still hands him a nice platonic yellow card with his name on it every year on Valentines' Day and he does the same thing in return. Because after all, she's his best friend in the whole world.

Except other than that, it was still the same old cycle for Charlie Brown. Same faces, same old class party and still no valentines from anyone, not even a used one like Violet gave him a long time ago when he was a kid.

"Good grief..." Charlie Brown sighed to himself again. With a heavy heart and struggling steps, the early teenager forced himself to enter the school building and head for his homeroom, ignoring passing students who exchanged their valentines and excited chatter with each other on this so-called special day.

-(⚾️)-

"Good morning, Charlie Brown." A little red-haired girl greeted her best friend and ex-boyfriend, who just entered their shared homeroom, full of their friends and classmates chatting among themselves, putting their valentines into the box where Schroeder, the student in charge of passing them out, is standing next to or lying down on their desks, trying to get as much sleep as possible before the school day begins.

Charlie Brown looked up, he still felt miserable over the more than certain events on what's going to happen today; but was always able to spare a smile for his best friend. 

"Good morning, Heather." He greeted back in response, putting his bag on the floor to take his own card out for her.

Heather walked up to her former boyfriend with a yellow valentine card in her hand. She didn't care if the kind-hearted boy was her ex or not. All she wants to do is remind him of how much of a good and worthy man he is, who deserves to be reminded that he's loved.

"Happy Valentine's day." They both said to each other, exchanging their platonic Valentines with a smile on their faces.

Charlie Brown looked at his ex-girlfriend with gratefulness before turning to look at his other friends, who like him had also grown up into early adolescence. He felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him.

Things have changed over the past few years, along with his friends too. Linus and he have more or less drifted apart from each other since the start of their freshman year, being put into different home rooms. But they still talk and hang out with each other from time to time during or after school when they can. Schroeder has replaced his old toy piano with a keyboard that he carries and takes with him everywhere on his back. He still idolizes Beethoven but a little more less to the point he no longer wants to emulate the composer and can tolerate popular music a little bit better except for remixes and loud rock songs. He still plays Beethoven's music, celebrates the composer's birthday every year and still continues keeping busts of him in his house. Recently, Peppermint Patty and Marcie both upgraded their relationship from best friends to still recent girlfriends when the sweet, spectacled Korean asked her sporty friend out a month ago, to which the freckled football player said yes. Patty and Violet on the other hand, had some kind of bad falling out over Pig Pen, leading to the former actually standing up to the ponytailed girl and cutting all ties with her before going out with the dirty boy. His little sister, Sally is surprisingly no longer in love with her "Sweet Baboo" and now only considers him her best friend, after he was reassured by that fact over and over again. Lucy Van Pelt on the other hand...