Leonard came into the apartment, slamming the door behind him.
"Penny's got a new roommate." He declared.
"Really?" Howard asked, in the middle of finding a fork in the take-out bag. "How do you know?"
"Well…" Leonard sat down in his armchair floor and reached for some Thai take-out. "I met her on the way up here, asked her how she was doing and she said she got a new roommate."
"Oh dear Lord…" Sheldon moaned suddenly.
"What's the problem now? You've got twenty two pieces of chicken in your Orange Chicken instead of twenty three?" Howard suggested sarcastically.
"You just realized that the soy sauce is regular and not low-sodium?" Raj joined in.
"Neither," Sheldon drawled. "I just can't bear the idea of Penny having a roommate."
"Really, why is that?" Leonard inquired, looking up from his food.
"Well, there are two reasons. I will start with the most probable of them both. Let's assume that Penny's roommate is exactly like her-" Sheldon started, but was cut off by Howard.
"What's the problem with that? Penny is crazy hot."
Sheldon shot him a look.
"That is one of the reasons no one will ever love you, Howard." He said grimly. "Anyway, beginning with the assumption that said roommate is exactly like Penny, who lacks nothing in the field of attractiveness to most men, but is, to be blunt, severely lacking in intelligence." Sheldon finishes.
"Sheldon, that's mean." Leonard interjected, a little angrily.
"But it's true, Leonard!" Sheldon said. "Let's say we get acquainted with Penny's new roommate and we have him or her over for dinner, I then need to put up with double the amount of Penny. Do you see my point?"
"Fine- what's your other reason?" Leonard said wearily.
"My other reason is that her roommate could be a perfectly intelligent person, but Penny dumbs them down, so to speak, and makes shoes a focal point of their life." Sheldon shrugs.
"Don't you think you're being kind of harsh, Sheldon?" Howard said. "I mean, she could be neither of those two things."
"I highly doubt that, Howard, as Penny finds Leonard's intelligence scary. I doubt she'd have someone intelligent live with her." Sheldon said tactlessly, starting to eat again.
There was a knock at the door and Howard scrambled to get it, ruffling a hand through his hair and adjusting his shirt.
It was Penny.
"Oh, hi Howard!" She said "Can I come in? I brought my new roommate for you all to meet."
"Yeah, sure, come in." Howard said, breathlessly. Penny came in and sat down in an armchair, followed by her roommate.
"Hey, I'm Ivy." She said, smiling. "I'm very pleased to meet you."
Howard was taken aback.
Ivy was about his height, a little shorter, with jet black hair, pale skin, and big green eyes, outlined with black eyeliner. She also had large black glasses, a septum and a lip piercing. She was wearing black skinny jeans, a band t-shirt and a distressed denim jacket with lots of band badges and patches on it.
She was incredibly pretty.
Howard just stood with his mouth open, like a fish.
"Should I be cautious of Howard?" Ivy said, laughing and walking past him.
"Before I can accept you as one of my friends," Sheldon said, standing up and walking towards Ivy. "What is a neutrino?"
Ivy looked at him for a brief moment and said:
"A neutrino is an electrically neutral, elementary subatomic particle." She stated.
"Welcome to my home." Sheldon said, extending a hand for Ivy to shake and smiling at her.