A/N: Sooo. Yeah. My first try at an AU. Not sure how many chapters this story will be considering I don't really plan in advance, I kinda just go with the flow. Anyhoo, Sheldon and Amy are both 18 and in high school, with above average IQs but not nearly high enough to have had them skip so many grades. Amy is constantly bullied by everyone, and Sheldon has just moved in from Texas. *cof cof* So, that's about it. R&R people ^-^ Rating may get changed in the future, depending on how far I want to take their new found friendship.
Disclaimer: The Big Bang Theory and it's characters do not belong to me.
Word Count: 947
Rating: T
Summary: Amy Farrah Fowler, one of the smartest women in Maranatha High, has always found any sort of relationship with another person hopeless. It was all she could do to ignore the constant teasing of her peers. But her views change once she meets Sheldon Lee Cooper, who seems to have no worries about how his classmates would treat him if they saw him hanging out with her.

Amy pushed her mashed potatoes around her tray with her spork, sighing glumly. She propped her elbow on the table, letting her head rest against her fist as she looked around her empty table. With a sigh, she turned back to the gooey white substance that was now smeared across the plastic. I should conduct an experiment to see what ingredients are actually in school food she thought to herself as she forced a spoonful of the chunky food into her mouth. She made a face, idly considering spitting it back out, before swallowing quickly. She reached for her bottled water, gulping down a large sip to wash the taste out of her mouth. "This is disgusting." she grumbled to no one in particular.

"That's why I prefer to pack," she heard a soft voice speak next to her. She felt the bench creak as the stranger sat beside her. Her head shot up at the man who had sat next to her so willingly, so carefree, as though he had no worries about what anyone else would say. He extended a hand for her to shake, a lopsided smile on his face. "Sheldon Cooper." she took a moment to study him, his baby powder scent, his tall lean frame, the Texan lilt that gave his words a soft push. She gazed at him dumbly, accepting his hand and lightly shaking it before retracting hers.

"I'm.. Uh.. I'm A-"

"Amy Farrah Fowler," he cut her off, cocking his head to the side. "Straight A's since middle school, IQ of 157, no doubt graduating Valedictorian." he raised an eyebrow as though impressed by her accomplishments.

"You.. You know me?" she looked at him in wonder. This.. This has to be a prank. "I've made it a point to learn all my new classmates. I've just transferred here from Texas." he explained.

"Oh," she turned back to her food, her hopes falling. "Of course. You don't know how things work here yet. It's more or less a sin to talk to me. You're not even allowed to look at me. You should go before people start-"

"I know how they treat you here," once again she was taken by surprise, her eyes widening as she looked over to him again. "It's not right. I'm not going to treat you like everyone else, Amy. I know I'm probably far too late, but let me be here for you now." there was a look of sincerity in his crystal blue eyes and she swallowed thickly, overrun by the emotions coursing through her.

"You.. Want to.. Be here for me?" her voice sounded strange to her own ears, feeling tears well up in her eyes as he nodded curtly at her.

"Amy, would you like to be my friend?" the smile on his face was nothing if not reassuring, and it only widened as she nodded a tad too enthusiastically. He let out an airy chuckle, opening up the brown paper bag that contained his lunch and letting the contents spill out onto the table.

All throughout her life, Amy had known nothing but fear, hate, and cruelty. She grew up in a foster home, never knowing her parents as her mother had given her up at birth. The foster mom seemed to only care that she was paid by the government to run her facility, and all Amy was to her was another paycheck. She only spent enough money to keep the children of the foster home fed and clothed, one outfit for each day of the week. It didn't take long for the kids at school to realize her clothes were in a cycle, and it was just another thing added to the list. The teasing had started in elementary, but the teasing turned into bullying, and the bullying quickly turned into physical violence. No one even looked twice at her. She was an outcast. A loner. And no one was there by her side. Until Sheldon. She had known him for only a day, and he was already like a breath of fresh air. A breath of fresh air in her polluted world.

He had shared his lunch with her and they had talked for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a class period. They talked about life, about the future, about their pasts. And for the first time in what felt like forever, Amy was happy. Truly, genuinely happy. They had exchanged cellphone numbers and he had promised her he'd call or text sometime after school. The rest of her day was more or less uneventful.

As the dismissal bell rang, so did her phone, alerting she had an incoming text message. She pulled it out of her pocket, opening up her SMS, smiling to herself as she saw Sheldon's name brightly flashing at her.

S: I hope you had a wonderful day.

A: I did. So, after school, huh?

S: The dismissal bell rang, ergo it is after school.

A: Who am I to argue such sound logic?

She waited a moment for his reply, and a moment became two and two became three. With a sigh, she slipped her phone back in her pocket, making her way out of the school building. She turned down the sidewalk, her feet on autopilot as they directed her straight to her apartment. She was a block away from home when her phone chimed again. She looked down at the screen, almost dropping it to the concrete as the message shone brightly back at her.

S: Would you like to come over?