The Snow White Initialisation
"Sheldon? All Snow White needs is one little kiss to wake up…" Amy called dreamily from the couch.
"Heard you the first time!" replied Sheldon, not taking his eyes off the computer screen.
Amy sighed a little, but shuffled more comfortably anyway. She had a pretty good idea what was going on, and as Sheldon frantically tried to find something to take his mind off his attractively costumed girlfriend, she smiled to herself. The trouble was, as far as Sheldon was concerned, that she was right. Otherwise he wouldn't be reading Raj's Facebook status updates as if they were the most interesting breakthroughs in new research in a vain attempt not to think of the line of her cleavage just peaking over that lovely lace up bodice…and it wasn't working. Funny how she should have picked that very outfit that day – it was as if she knew…
Galveston, May 1988
"All I'm saying is I got three kids to buy shoes for today!" said George Cooper, exasperated. "Why've we always got to go to the most expensive store in town?"
"And I'm telling you I ain't having my kids going round in cheap shoes!" Mary answered sharply. "I'm sorry if that takes a chunk out of your beer money!"
Sheldon hung back, trying not to listen as his parents got into another argument, and also trying to ignore George Jr and Missy giggling about something – probably him. His mind had wandered back to the Lego train kit he'd seen earlier, the one his father had said they didn't have the money for and hoped he'd get it for his upcoming seventh birthday instead, when they passed by the Mall's cinema.
"Look Momma!" Missy called out excitedly. "Snow White's on for my birthday!"
"Oh, that's the original!" Mary replied, glad for the distraction from the argument with her husband. "I saw that, and even your Meemaw saw it!"
"Really? Hey, it's on for my birthday! Can we go see it, Momma, please? It's my turn this year!" pleaded Missy, reminding her mother of the system they had in place regarding her and Sheldon's birthday. Sheldon, listening now, was not impressed. Last year his birthday had been great – they'd gone to a train museum and actually been on a steam train – was she saying that this year they'd have to watch some stupid movie?
"Ha ha, you're gonna watch a girl's movie!" George Jr laughed, seeming to confirm it. "And you know what I'm gonna do when you're watching it? I'm gonna watch my Superman video at Meemaw's!"
"That is not your video, she got it for both of us!" Sheldon shot back, all the while thinking, "But it's mine really…" when their mother spoke again.
"Sure honey! Would you like to bring one of your friends?" Not even George Sr offered any objection. He wouldn't, Sheldon thought sulkily, not for his little princess. She got everything just for being a girl!
"Yeah, can I bring Tania?" Missy continued, skipping along now. That was even worse. Sheldon couldn't stand Tania McGuire. She followed him round at school sometimes, and tried to get him to play with her and Missy…as if. Not to mention the mortifying experience of Tania standing up to bullies for him one time – confirming to everyone that Smelly Pooper needed a girl to fight his battles…and that was all that was said on the matter. Their seventh birthday would be spent watching a stupid girly movie, with no superheroes, spaceships or aliens, and it would be spent with Tania. Sheldon hated Missy right now.
A week later, Mary, Missy, Sheldon and Tania were back at the cinema, and Mary suddenly noticed her son trying to hide something under his jacket.
"Shelly bean, what you got there?"
"My Walkman," the little boy said, half sulky and half guilty. "I taped a couple episodes of Science Friday so I don't have to listen to this stupid movie!"
Mary sighed in exasperation. Her children were gifts from God, no doubt about it, but what was going on with that boy? She looked over at the girls giggling in their seats and decided some battles weren't worth fighting, and merely nodded.
"OK honey, you listen to your show."
The lights went down, and as Sheldon predicted, it looked to be every bit as boring as he expected, but at some point, while listening to an interesting update on the Voyager mission, he noticed something. Snow White was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Maybe one day, when he won that prize he'd heard about, he'd marry a girl like that. He watched with a bit more interest for the rest of the movie, but thought no more of it until later that evening, when Missy and Tania were wittering on about which Disney Princesses they liked.
"I wanna grow up looking like Cinderella!" announced Missy.
"Well that's not gonna happen," Sheldon told her scornfully. "Cinderella has blonde hair. Yours is brown."
"So? Ladies can change their hair colour if they want!" Missy replied, and Tania nodded.
"But what's the point? You could look like Snow White – she's got dark hair and she's prettier…"
He realised his mistake as soon as he said it, and both Missy and Tania fell into shrieks and giggles.
"Ha ha, Sheldon likes a girl!" screeched Missy, and ran upstairs to tell George, who rushed down to laugh at him too.
"And I thought Tania was your little girlfriend!" George sneered, which got him a smack from Tania, but Sheldon didn't notice.
"I'm gonna tell everyone at school!" Missy was giggling uncontrollably now, and in that moment, Sheldon knew – never admit to liking a girl. If possible, try not to take any interest in the first place. It only caused trouble. Of course, back then, he couldn't have imagined the trouble liking this girl, the one in that very costume lying on his couch, would cause him, and the worst of it was, it was getting harder and harder not to admit it.
Darn – he was back to thinking about that bodice again…