A/N: I said "around July", so June 23rd it is :) Here we go again!

As said in the summary this could be read without reading "Celebration Aberration", which is like an exposition to this story. It is possible to figure things out, although I recommend reading at least chapters 1-4, 8 and 10 of Celebration.

For those who hadn't read Celebration, here's a little explanation (sorry, a 'splanation): This story follows the gang throug the years from 2029 on. It is written from characters' POVs, so there will be differences in language and details mentioned/ommited according to what fits the character. Though it's written the language is mostly spoken language (meaning some "mistakes" are intentional). Tenses are chosen as if the story is told at the end of the day. As his takes place in the future there are technological differences from present time but characters won't always go into detail about them as they may be usual for them.

And two reminders to all: 1) As this is written from characters' POVs there is not "voice of truth", the character's thoughts and actions are not supposed to represent "right"/"wrong". 2) Stephen here has ASD but one should not infer from him to people with ASD. It is a very heterogenous condition ("If you've met one person with autism you've met one person with autism") and people who have it also have various other characteristics making them their own unique people.

I will try to update this every 2-3 weeks as my time for fiction writing as limited, in part due to my RL academic writing. As with Celebration focus will shift although it won't be evenely spread. While there will be arcs many chapters are stand-alone-ish, meaning you could skip or skim through some.

Special thanks to my dear beta reader joyteach and to all Celebration readers.

High time to wrap up this A/N!

I still do not own not even a tinie-tiny bit of The Big Bang Theory, that belongs to Lorre and Prady. I only have my dear 7 OCs and to some extent (this story's) Halley and Michael. As I said I may be open to lending characters, PM me.

Chapter 1: Different

September, 2029.

[Riley.]

I was glad the house was quiet. No one was home, as I expected. Mom was at an event Caltech held to promote its new Arctic Biochemistry MSc program. She works in the university's promotion team. Daddy usually gets home later. Sophie went to her best friend Mia's and Maxi was at the Cooper-Fowlers'.

No one was home, so no one would see me. No one would see my eyes or my nose, which were still a little red and puffy. No one would see me pursing my lips tightly, trying to hold everything in. The bus-line supervisor hadn't noticed, neither had the kids on the bus. But my parents would. Mom would notice without even looking at me, it's like she has a sixth sense for that. She says it's her Mommy sense and that it never fails. Denying I've been crying never works on her.

My parents would notice and would worry about me. They would leave everything to comfort and help me. I didn't want that, I should handle this on my own. Sophie would come too and if she found out what it was about it would make her even more wary with other kids. I'm her big sister, I'm supposed to protect her not make her scared. Maxi would probably just make adorable suggestions and try to cheer me up, but he's only three, he should focus on little kids' stuff, like building with blocks.

I was glad no one was home, as I thought I would have enough time to settle before they got back.

I climbed the stairs and went to my room, leaving my backpack in its place. My closet has the 3.0 Fetch-tech, the one that has a contents list and brings you anything without having to navigate by joystick and camera, so I set it to bring me what I wanted: my pink TV blanket.

This blanket used to be Mommy's, but she gave it to me when I was five. It was the day I found out my friend Vale was leaving the country to move to Spain, where her mom used to live. I was very sad and felt like doing nothing. Mommy then brought her favorite TV blanket and told me it helped her feel better. I didn't understand how, it was only a blanket, but she wrapped me in it and it did feel better. However, in that and other cases, there was also the factor of her taking me onto her lap and hugging and kissing and caressing me, that would be an artifact - something that contributed to the difference made and thus makes it hard to attribute the difference to the independent variable, i.e., the blanket. Still, I thought I should give it a try.

I took off my shoes, sat on my bed and wrapped myself in the blanket. I thought this one wouldn't be such a good experiment to test the blanket effect either, because I imagined Mommy hugging and kissing and caressing me. I wish I could stick to this imagery, but it was soon replaced by voices and images from earlier.

Last week, when the principal said that the fifth grade was going to be in charge of the autumn school fair, I thought it was awesome. I was excited about all these cool activities we could prepare and had been waiting eagerly to start planning them.

Today, when Ms. Weismann, my teacher, said that we were going to start the planning during our last class, I had all these ideas running in my mind. Mom says my mind is sometimes like racing trains with mega strong engines (only she doesn't say that anymore when Uncle Sheldon is around because he would start questioning her on the kinds of trains and kinds of engines these were).

I talked to Michael about it and he offered some tips from when his grade organized the autumn fair last year, although it was hard for him to check on the end result because once at the fair his dad kept him busy trying to show him "neat ways to win stuffed animals and girls' hearts" (which was hilarious, because Uncle Howard's most "neat" throw was when the ball went backwards and hit the principal, who put Uncle Howard in the fair's pretend jail and let Aunt Bernie decide on his sentence).

At lunch I talked to my friends Randi, Thomas, Irene and Hiroshi and we thought of some ideas. We did try not to discuss comic-book related ideas thoroughly, since we knew the others would probably not like them as much, but that was too hard. How can one stop talking about Spider-Man wall climbing?!

When I entered the school's sports hall, where the planning was going to take place, I was pumped. Ms. Weismann and the other class' teacher Mr. Jameel explained to us what kinds of activities we could prepare, how many, what kinds and how many prizes we could have and what to think of when we made plans. We then discussed and wrote ideas in groups, but just when the teachers stopped us and were about to start asking for suggestions, a fight started. It was a violent fight among four boys, Josh C. and Nathaniel from my class and Trent and Greg S. from the other. It was quite scary, like the time my Aunt Candice's ex-husband fought with her then boyfriend when we went to the tractor exposition in Nebraska. The teachers ran to stop the fighting boys but Nat and Trent were still very mad and were trying to keep fighting. Mr. Jameel then asked us to discuss our ideas by ourselves and put Pamela in charge of typing the ideas on the board. The teachers then left the hall with the four boys.

Miles from the other class was the first one to suggest an idea as a representative of his group. They suggested having a color shooting stall, where people would throw balloons full of dye at volunteers. Everybody thought it would be funny, but then when Pamela got to the cleaning team line no one wanted to volunteer, as we all realized it would make a big mess.

I then got an idea, "We could make it a booth! We would surround the area with big white cardboards so all the color would go on the cardboards. Then maybe we could keep it as a reminder of the fair." My parents once did something similar, they made a painting by playing paintball with a canvas behind them. They then gave it to Uncle Sheldon, telling him it was made by William Shatner. I don't know why they didn't keep it, but they think Uncle Sheldon having it is funny.

I noticed many kids staring at me or exchanging looks between them, but I didn't have any idea why. Pam wrote down my suggestion, but she appeared to be doing it reluctantly, after getting a nod from Miles after he consulted with his group.

There were five other groups making suggestions before ours, each presenting one or two ideas. Some had more but they were similar to prior suggestions. There were four times when there was a problem with an idea that needed solving. I came up with possible solutions three of those times, and each time I did I noticed these stares and looks and also some whispering. Things got even more puzzling when Karen made an offer and got none of that. Instead, she got cheering and applause. And as I cheered for her great idea I got stares again.

Then it was our turn. I was hesitant to represent our group, the other kids' behavior toward me made me uncomfortable, but my friends wanted me to do it, saying I was the only one who could explain all of the details of the workings of our ideas. So I stood up and started presenting our ideas. I couldn't help but notice the silence in the hall when I did. I tried telling myself that I was exaggerating but I knew every other group got at least some cheers when presenting. Something was really off, but I didn't have any idea what it was.

Then, when I started with our fourth idea, Miles groaned, "Why don't you just make it The Riley Fair and we all go home?"

I heard multiple "Yeah"s and chuckles.

"What?" I asked, feeling confused and under attack.

"Why don't you ask yourself what, given that you're such a genius and know better than all of us!" Miles retorted.

Again, most kids seemed to agree. Why would they say that? "Being a genius doesn't mean you know it all or know better than everyone, it- it just represents some-" I tried to explain, my voice shaking.

"Oh shut up!" Melanie cut me off, with many supporting and repeating that.

"I'm just saying IQ is not all and-"

"So poor stupid us have other good qualities which we could comfort ourselves with? What, good hearts? Good sense of humor? Are we funny little monkeys?" Oliver asked, standing up and looking right at me with anger and bitterness in his voice and his eyes.

I wanted to shout that it wasn't true at all but I felt like I was choking and everything happened so fast.

"Yeah why don't you go have a fair in the middle school with the seventh or eighth or ninth graders, whatever grade whose books her highness is learning in her special reserved place at the back of the class?!" McKenzie got up and shouted.

I wanted to tell her that I only sit in the back because the teachers think it would be less distracting, I really have no problem sitting wherever I'm told, I would sit on the floor if that would make the others feel better!

"Yeah! Get out!" Oliver shouted.

Then, a chorus of endless "Out! Out! Out! Out!" started.

I looked around and saw a hall full of kids who hated me, some pointing at the door and some watching, and my friends being concerned and afraid.

So with my eyes filling with tears I ran as fast as I could. I didn't know where I was going, I just knew I had to get out of there. So I ran and ran and ran until I found myself in the Anthropology section of the library. It is one of the places Michael and I meet at school, because it's a place nobody visits. Michael says his classmates would tease him if they saw him hanging out with someone from a lower grade. I just sat there at the corner and cried until school was over, thinking about everything that had happened.

'Know better than us', 'Little monkeys', 'Her highness', 'Out!', all of these now sounded in my mind repeatedly, with images of angry kids pointing at the door. I wanted to settle down before anybody got home but I couldn't help but burst out crying all over again.

I have had kids keep their distance from me. I have had kids stare at me or glance at me and then whisper to one another. I have had kids tell me to go back to my books and leave them alone. I have had kids call me 'Smartass', 'Know-it-all' or 'Nerd'. (And I have Halley, but that's a whole other thing.) But I've never had kids expel me and never had kids (other than Halley) say I think I'm better than them and think of them as inferior! Was I really that bad? Did I hurt them? How did this happen? I swear I do not think that way! I know that there are other skills equally or more important than those assessed by intelligence tests, Daddy said so!

"Cub?" I suddenly heard Daddy's voice. He must have gotten back early. He has been early a few times the last couple of weeks, now that he's started with the preparations for the vice president of Caltech job he will be starting in a few months (I knew he would get it!).

I stopped my sobbing and covered my face with the blanket.

"Cub, what happened?!" I could hear shock and worry in his voice as he entered my room.

I felt my bed sink a little beside me and Daddy's right hand settling gently on my back while his left one took the blanket off my head.

"Nothing, I'm fine," I said as I quickly turned my head the other way.

"Don't give me that, I have years of experience with both you and your mom, I'm not buying that."

I sighed and slowly turned my head back, to look at him. His face was full of concern, just like I thought, and this concern seemed to grow bigger when he saw my face.

"Cub…" he said softly, and wiped some of my tears with his thumb.

Then, as I felt new tears coming up and my lips trembling, he hugged me tight from my side, caressing my hair with his right hand. We stayed this way, with me sobbing again, for what felt like a really long time, until I managed to speak, kind of.

"The- they said I think I'm better than them.." I said in a shaky voice and took a breath to continue, "I don't, Daddy, I really don't!"

"Oh baby I know you don't" he said as he squeezed me for a little. He sighed after about a minute, "It is hard, being different is really really hard."

He didn't have to say more, as we'd already had this conversation various times, the first one being when I was four. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was crying in Daddy's car (most people had cars those days) all the way from preschool because some kids said I wasn't allowed to help them with their block castle because I 'blabber sciency blabs all the time' and was a 'Weirdo from Weirdwood town'. They repeated that all day long, laughing at me.

When we got home that day Daddy sat me on his lap and said, "You know Cub, there's a funny thing about people."

"What's that?" I asked, looking up at him and rubbing my eyes.

"Every one of us is different. There are no two people who are exactly the same, even identical twins! They have different names and different experiences." I nodded. "But, it is sometimes hard for people to deal with someone who is different, especially when they're very different, like when they have extraordinary cognitive skills, like skills to learn much faster and better and think about things others have trouble figuring out. People are usually more comfortable with those who are more similar to them and they may feel unease with those who are more different. They may think wrong things about those who are more different and not check if that's true, and even be mean to them. That is not okay, and it is not because there is anything wrong about the more different, but because of some tendencies people have. Not all of people's tendencies are good for every situation, like Daddy's tendency for saving energy gets him in trouble when Mommy wants him to work out." We laughed. "In the case of having trouble with difference, the problem is not only that people always meet different people because everybody is different, but also that difference is important. Similarity is important because it brings us comfort, understanding, and a sense of belonging. But difference helps us grow and evolve, it opens our eyes to new things we would have never seen without it. Do you know many people believe that the universe was created due to different particles meeting each other?" I didn't know it then, but he was referring to the Big Bang theory.

What he said next he repeated at those various other times, with slightly different phrasing, "Cub, you are an extraordinary little girl. You are truly amazing, Mommy and I want you to always know that. But that means you are also very different from most people, and that will be a challenge for you. Being different is hard, it really is. You will find your place, I know that. You will find that constellation of people and places that will give you this blend of similar and different that will be right for you. You will find the people who will accept you as you are, you will also be part of their blend. Until then you will encounter challenges, but know that we will always be there to support and help you through them."

From that day on I knew it, I mean I've already known it, but that day I knew it. I knew that Daddy will always be there for me. I may be very different from most people, but I'm not a weirdo, I am like Daddy. Daddy understands.

I may not yet have this right blend of similar and different, but I do have similar. That's gotta count for something. I have my family and I have the gang, my family of heart, so I think I'm good to go find my place. They will probably need me to find theirs too, at least the kids, so maybe we could find it together.

After Mom came home and settled down she and Daddy called my school's principal, Ms. Perzzi. She was shocked to hear what had happened and wanted to berate all the kids in my grade. Mommy was very mad and wanted them to be punished and for their parents to be called to school. But I didn't want that, I was afraid they would hate me even more. So it was decided that there would be a lecture at school on social violence and how it hurts victims.

Baby Bro's suggestion for my school problem, by the way, was that I get the other kids to let me help with the fair by letting them use the golden duck-tape, since other kids 'seem to be fascinated by that'.

A/N: Yes, there were "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and "Friends" nods there ;)