The surroundings bustled with scents and sounds- loud and energetic enough to encourage people to invite themselves into the atmosphere. It was a festival, though a small one, with three familiar figures walking down the dirt roads.
"I do love festivals!" Amy commented, looking up at Sheldon, who only looked forward. "I always wanted to go to one with a suave, handsome man at my side. We would kiss at the top of the Ferris wheel, and maybe it would get stuck…" Amy mused to herself dreamily. "I don't really like them in particular, but they're kind of like comic book conventions… accept not nearly as cool or entertaining," Sheldon replied, now looking straight at her. "Why is it that a man can only wear his star trek uniform in peace if it's at a comic book convention? Some people have no taste for fine literature!" He continued on in a slight rant.
"It might not be a comic book convention, but there's still fun things to do," Penny offered, walking besides Amy. "We could toss rings and win prizes- ooh, Sheldon; you should totally win Amy a stuffed bear!" Penny smiled to herself. She searched around at the books, her eyes landing mischievously on one particular booth that had a giant stuffed bear hanging as the number one prize.
"That sounds extremely tedious…" Sheldon groaned. "You don't have to do it if you don't want to," Amy offered. "Unless you really want too, you should do it if you really want too!" she added quickly with a dreamy smile. Sheldon was beginning to slow his pace, and look nervously at the two gals. This wasn't really the type of thing he would do willingly, unless he was being outnumbered and peer pressured into it. "Well in that case, I'd rather not-" Sheldon began, making haste to end this annoying confrontation, but Penny cut him off. "Oh come, party pooper, it'll be fun!" She argued, and with that began walking toward the booth.
Shamy followed more slowly behind, with Amy taking the lead with Sheldon. This game was a classic- it was the ever popular attraction of shooting water through a small hole, filling up a balloon until it burst. All three sat down while Penny slapped some money down for the operators' benefit. "When was the last time these were washed?" Sheldon grudgingly asked the owners. The guy gave him a nervous shrug, and surprisingly, Sheldon seemed to just ignore it. "Not very competent at our booth, now are we?" he muttered under his breath, although the owner didn't hear it- or perhaps, he just pretended he didn't hear it.
Penny gripped the machine with obvious competitive enthusiasm, Amy looked aiming to win although not as serious as Penny, and Sheldon hesitantly gripped the machine as if he wasn't sure if he had quite agreed to this yet or not. A loud beep sounded and the three did their best to aim the pointers towards the hole. Three pops later, and Penny ended up winning. "Ha! I've got the Nebraska genes!" She cheered, eyes glittering on the prizes. "Genes don't work like that, Penny," Sheldon snapped at her. Penny held back an eye roll and looked at Amy for support, but she agreed with Sheldon. "He's right," she added after a moment. She gave a slight exasperated sigh, her annoyance made slightly more intense when she received a small plush kitten as a prize instead of the giant bear she wanted. "Okay, fine, whatever- how do you win the giant bears anyway?" she snapped, looking up at the bigger prizes.
"Maybe they're just there as display- you know, to get people to play their games?" Amy offered. "Deceptive advertising AND they can't clean the handles after each player, like they should be. How have they not gotten sued yet?" Sheldon added on.
The three walked slowly down the road in silence for a moment, and then Penny stopped with an idea. "Here," she smiled, handing Sheldon the stuffed kitten. He stopped, observing it for a second. "Uh, okay," he muttered while reaching for it awkwardly. He rolled it around in his hands for just a moment, and then mumbled "I-I don't really WANT this." Penny nodded, and lifted her eyes onto Amy, who was looking at Sheldon in jealously- as if she wished Penny had given her the stuffed kitten instead of Sheldon, or maybe she just admired the kitten. "No, no, I mean, give it to Amy!" Penny smirked.
Amy lit up immediately, and looked up at Sheldon expectantly, and even inhaled a deep breath in her staggered preparation for receiving the kitten. Penny had expected Sheldon to perhaps look a bit alarmed, or unsettled, but he only looked bored. "Okay," he agreed casually. He turned, looked at Amy, and handed it forward. "Here," he added with the same bored monotone in his voice. Amy took it enthusiastically, and although she looked like a child on Christmas day, her eyes visually hinted slight disappointment.
"Oh, Sheldon… that's so sweet!" She breathed with love. Sheldon gave a slight shrug. "It's no big deal; I just didn't want to carry it around all day. And Penny told me to," he replied, recapturing the obvious. Penny felt frustration prick at her. How could Sheldon claim to be so smart, yet act so oblivious sometimes? "You're supposed to do it romantically!" She corrected him with strain in her voice. "Why?" Sheldon asked, simply.
"It's just a romantic gesture," Penny answered. She thought quickly, and then added, "It's what boyfriends do for their girlfriends." Sheldon blinked, and for a second, Penny thought she actually reached through to him. But he turned the tables around and noted, "But you gave ME the kitten."
Penny hesitated. "So?" she argued. "SO," Sheldon restated, "giving people stuffed kittens is apparently what girlfriends and boyfriends do."
"Yeah?" Penny repeated with added annoyance. "We're not girlfriend and boyfriend!" Sheldon concluded. Penny groaned. "Friends give things to other friends, too," she sighed. "Wait- you mean there's exceptions to this social convention?" Sheldon demanded.
"Well yeah! Well…not exactly. Look, when you give things to friends, it's to show your friendship- you know, to show that you love and care for them. When you give it to someone you're in a relationship with, it's like a romantic thing," she explained.
"But that makes no sense!" Sheldon seemed to be panicking now- a dominating trait of his. "If you're going to establish a rule, it needs to be structured in a solid way so as not to cause confusion-"
"It doesn't matter! I was just giving it to you so you could give it to Amy, alright?" Penny cut him off. "Uh, maybe we should do something else? Like try another game?" Amy put in somewhat shyly. Both Sheldon and Penny looked at her curiously, and Amy straightened up with the attention firmly on her. "Let's walk over to that side over there, and see if we can find something else to do?" she offered. Both turned to look forward the direction she was pointing, without actually walking toward that destination, so she took the lead. Sheldon and Penny followed behind her, forgetting their previous scuffle, and so Amy found herself easily attracted to the Farris wheel.
She looked behind her back nervously, checking for any signs of annoyance at where she was headed, and finding nothing of the sort from neither of her friends, she launched a hurried stride towards the Farris Wheel. She felt a slight warmness in her heart standing in line with her closest friends, and perhaps a bit tingly, looking hopefully at Sheldon. The ride was for two, and although she treasured Penny's company, she couldn't help but admit to herself that she would rather take this one with Sheldon. She had always wanted to try this!
Penny was standing around somewhat absentmindedly until she picked up on what the ride was and how many could actually ride it at one time. "I'm going to go buy something to eat," she mentioned casually, hiding a smile from her lips. "I'll be back by the time the ride ends," she put in quickly before departing the line. She started heading toward a popcorn booth, and Amy looked up at Sheldon to test his reaction. He seemed very casual about it, most likely not picking up on the romantic elements again, so Amy quietly excused herself for a moment while the line was still in progress and quickly joined Penny.
"I know what you're doing," she growled, her eyes darting back and forth from Penny to where Sheldon would be waiting in line. She turned around, obviously startled by what she felt was an accusation. "What am I doing? I thought you would want to spend some alone time with Sheldon," she defended herself quickly. Amy lowered her voice, as if Sheldon could hear all the way from the line to her. "I know, it's wonderful!" she blurted with unsuppressed enthusiasm, but then regained her composure. "I mean, I…I just don't to scare him off. I don't want to force him out of his comfort zone," she confessed.
Penny turned toward her, now fully invested in their conversation. "I just thought I should try being a match maker. I got Bernadette and Howard together, remember? So I just wanted to help you along, since you know, I know you wish things were going faster." Her voice had lowered to a more understanding voice rather than a slightly defensive one, and Amy lowered her guard as well.
"I know. I just wish I knew how to make him happy. How to make him want me… how to make him happy doing things with me," she muttered. Penny smiled at her. "I'm sorry if it feels like I'm messing with your relationship. Look, I'll stop if you want to- we can just be a group of friends at a festival having fun!" She smiled charmingly, and then turned around to order her popcorn- extra butter.
"No, no, I like what you're doing!" Amy corrected, and then suddenly lowered her voice again. "Just don't push him too hard, I don't know if I can find another boyfriend as intellectually similar to me as Sheldon. Or you know, another boyfriend at all…" she cautioned rather sorrowfully. Penny stuffed a few pieces of popcorn in her mouth and gave her friend a small wink. "Alright, I'll give it my best shot!" she declared confidently. Amy shared a mischievous smile with her, and then hightailed it back in line with Sheldon.
Penny watched for a moment as the two boarded one of the lifting chairs, and then she turned toward another mode of entertainment. She scrolled down some of the near-by booths, looking at the different opportunities in front of her. She was only just looking, until her eyes fell upon one booth that stood out to her. Fun-loving and ruled by her own unique principals- and certainly no one else's preconceived principals! - Penny had thought up a plan.
((The rest of the story will be written in a Script-type format. I found that, since the characters are written via script, it's much easier to follow the same trend when trying to make the characters shine as best as possible (at least for me.) I kind of find this chapter to be lacking, and would have even deleted it if it wasn't later significant in the story. Anyway, I hope you guys like it!))