An alternate take at the events of the episode Good Old Sheldon.
Death of a Friendship
A group of children walked down a lone sidewalk on their way to school. The one leading the group was a small child, completely in his own little world, while his older sibling did his best to keep up with his hyperactive brother. Lastly, the final being wasn't human at all but a robot that was designed as a teenaged female. The three friends continued on their way to school, while they casually talked and laughed amongst themselves. They failed to notice the pale-colored, skinny boy standing in front of them with his arms crossed over his chest. The group stopped as soon as they spotted him before getting closer and closer to him.
Once they reached the boy, the first to say anything was the robot known as XJ-9 or better known by her friends as Jenny. "Sheldon you're back," she said with a smile on her face. The other two simply smiled and patted Sheldon on the back, welcoming him back to the planet.
The boy, Sheldon, doesn't utter a word instead he simply stood motionlessly with a slight scowl on his face. His arms fell carelessly to his sides as he turned around and began his journey to school.
Jenny and her friends, Brad and Tuck, merely looked at each other wondering what was wrong with Sheldon. The girl turned her head towards a departing Sheldon before asking, "You don't suppose he's still mad about me sending him off into space do you?"
"And don't forget turning him into an old geezer," said the youngest of the bunch, "and then sending him to live with pirates."
His older brother leered down at Tuck before saying to Jenny, "Naw, you know Sheldon; he could never stay mad at you." He paused a bit before continuing, "Although he might be a little sore at you, but nothing too serious."
Jenny looked to her feet, feeling a little guilty over actually sending him into space by accident hence turning him into an old, frail man followed by transforming him back into a baby and then sending him to live with pirates for fifteen years. She looked up and saw her friend turned a corner and was no longer in her line of sight. "I hope you're right," she said aloud but mostly to herself.
After dropping Tuck off followed by a bit of walking, Jenny and Brad walked into Tremorton High. Jen waved goodbye to Brad as they parted ways to their classes. She soon stopped at an opened locker belonging to Sheldon. Jenny was about to say something but before she could, tiny shards of paper come flying out at her. The girl looked down at her friend and asked, "So what's with the confetti."
Sheldon immediately stopped shredding papers as he looked over his shoulder and saw her. "It's not confetti," he flatly stated, "I'm just getting rid of unless paper." He stood tall as he slammed his locker shut before merely walking away not even bothering to clean up his mess.
She looked down at the mess and asked, "Hey aren't you gonna clean this up," but by the time she looked up Sheldon had already turned a corner in the hall. Jenny's hand retracted into her arm as a vacuum nozzle replaced it. She began vacuuming up all the little pieces of trash left behind until something clogged the nozzle. She looked at her nozzle hand and saw a large piece of paper refusing to go down. Her other hand grabbed a hold of the paper as the vacuum's suction died down. Jenny's nozzle hand returned back to normal as she opened the folded piece of paper. She looked and saw a red-shaped heart in the middle with an arrow through it with a few words within it and at the end were 'To Jenny Love Sheldon.' 'So that's what he was ripping up,' she thought to herself. "I guess he still is mad at me." She had to make this right but how? Her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the warning bell and she hurried off to her first period class.
All throughout her classes her mind kept wondering how to get Sheldon to forgive her. The boy was unnaturally quiet, quieter than he normally was in history class. He just sat there with his head propped up with his arm as it leaned into the desk. His eyes looked at the board in front of him but looked through it clearly in deep thought. 'I wonder what he's thinking about?' Her thoughts are pushed to the side as her teacher stared down at her.
"Ms. Wakeman, I asked you a question."
The only word able to escape her metallic lips was, "uhh." A few of her fellow classmates laughed, but the thing that hurt her was that Sheldon was snickering with the group as well. Her teacher merely shook his head in disappointment as he continued on with the lecture. Sheldon was someone who would never laugh at her mistakes. It just wasn't him… 'Was it?'
As the bell rang, Jenny got up from her seat wanting to talk to her friend but soon noticed he had already left the classroom. She quickly exited the room and saw him turn a corner. She dashed towards the corner, ducking and jumping over people in the crowded halls. Jenny turned the corner and realized she lost him. 'After all this time, I don't know what his next class is,' she thought to herself. Some friend she was, he was one of her closest friends and she never took the time to learn his schedule. 'I'm pretty sure he knows mine, but then he is somewhat of a stalker,' she mused to herself as she let out a light giggle before the warning bell told her to go to her next class.
The lunch bell rang as students approached the cafeteria. Jenny looked around the lunchroom in search of her friends. She quickly spotted Brad; sitting at their usually table but unfortunately Sheldon was nowhere to be seen. She pulled out a chair and soon took a seat next to Brad. She looked down at his tray of food, the main dish was a patty of some kind of meat while his side dishes are a rather large corn on the cob, a Popsicle stick with some type of liquid on it, and a load of peas and finally for dessert green gelatin with a noodle in the middle of it. 'Yuck,' she thought to herself, 'something that looks like it could walk away any minute with a melted Popsicle and goop with a surprise inside. The only normal thing there would be the vegetables.' She shook her head, erasing the inedible food from her mind as she pulled out her lunch, a can of oil. Jenny opened it up like it was a can of soda before taking a swig of liquid.
"So did Sheldon forgive you yet?" he asked as he tried to rip a piece of meat off with his teeth. The mere mention of his name nearly caused her to cough up her oil, but luckily she doesn't. Brad put the piece of meat back on his tray, not being able to get a piece of it. "So I guess that means a no," he said as he began inspecting what the heck the liquid on the Popsicle stick was.
"Yeah," was all she could say before turning her head to look at Brad, who was now poking at the green gelatin, "he doesn't even want to make small talk and every time I try to tell him he's gone before I have the chance to." She looked back to her beverage before saying, "I think I've really done it this time."
Brad stopped his inspection of the goop before looking back at his friend. "You know that's not true," he comforted her, "Sheldon will forgive you, after all he's obsessed with you and-" before he could finish his sentence a loud banging can be heard.
The two turned over to the ruckus and saw who else but Sheldon banging on a soda machine. "Stupid thing took my money," he said in pure annoyance before throwing his arms in the air and walked away.
"Well now's your chance," Brad said, "before he disappears on ya again." He moved over so Jenny was able to get out easier of her chair and watched as she raced off towards Sheldon. Brad looked back down at his meal and scooped up a spoonful of peas. He took a bite, instantly regretting it as he spit them out in a napkin. "Why do I buy lunch?" he mumbled to himself.
"Hey Sheldon," Jenny called out only to get ignored by the boy, "wait up." This call actually managed to stop the teen in a lone hallway while she came to a stop next to herfriend. Jenny looked down at Sheldon's face, whose eyes were looking at something other than her. "Listen, I just wanted to tell you," she paused as she saw the boy's body tense up.
She watched as Sheldon crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head away from her. "Save it," Sheldon snapped at her, "I know you're just going to say 'I'm sorry' so just save it," he paused as his eyes watered a bit, "save it… for someone who cares." With that said he walked around the teenaged robot and continued towards another section of the school.
Jenny was shocked and stunned; she never knew Sheldon would be that angry with her. After what seemed like hours, she looked at a fading image of Sheldon as he turned a corner. She held out her arm, wanting to stop him but only mumbled, "I'm sorry." Her arm slowly fell to her side while her eyes looked down to the ground. 'I've finally done it… I've lost one of my closest friends… I've lost the only one who never lost faith in me when others did… I've lost him.' She fell to her knees before liquid started to form in her eyes. She would have started to sob if it weren't for the ringing of the bell indicating lunch was over. Jenny got to her feet and quickly wiped away the tears from her eyes before walking to her next class.
There they were on opposite sides of the gym. Jenny on one side while Sheldon was on the opposing team, in physical education today the children were playing a fun game of dodge ball. Jenny was in the front lines, dodging balls left and right while Sheldon was in the back letting others take the heat. The game went on for a while until there were only two people left one on each side, Jenny and Sheldon.
Jenny looked at the only opposing opponent and didn't know what to do. Her teammates know she could easily win the match with a simple throw while Sheldon's teammates all groaned in despair that the game was lost. She looked down at the ball within her grasp, she already messed up their relationship did she now need to injury him as well. 'What should I do?' she mentally asked herself, but unfortunately her question was answered by a red sphere to the face. The force from the throw actually knocked her off her feet. As she landed hard on the ground she asked, "What just happened?" Jenny looked to the side and saw the shocked expressions on all her classmates' faces plus the faculties, but they soon faded into obscurity as Sheldon slowly approached her.
Sheldon looked down at the defeated Jenny before smirking. "You should really keep your optics on the ball, XJ-9," he said putting emphasize on her robotic name. He slowly walked away from her, ignoring the questions and cheering from his teammates. The boy left the gym just as the bell began ringing, indicating school was over.
The children quickly vacated the gym, leaving just Jenny alone. She sat there going over what just happened. 'He called me XJ-9… He never calls me that,' her eyes slowly started to tear up. "He's never going to forgive me, is he?" she said aloud, pausing half expecting someone to answer her. "He's really not my friend anymore," she mumbled as tears slowly started flooding out.
Well there it was. How'd I do? This is my first and probably only attempt at writing a My Life As A Teenage Robot story.
Man, I started this in 2011 as an AU fic but I knew I wasn't going to finish it so I ended up just submitting it as a one-shot.
If anyone is interest in how the rest of the story would've gone just ask.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed.
