(AN: Remember that challenge I mentioned in my last drabble (Illness)? Here it is…my friend giggled manically the entire time I was writing this and beta'd it. Might finish the pilot…ok correction was told I *will* finish the pilot before next weekend. Enjoy)
(AN2: Finally finished it with a *LOT* of help from the friend who giggled all throughout the writing. She helped a lot. Hope you liked and more posts may be added as I get inspiration for them. This chapter was also edited from it's original version.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Big Bang Theory at all.
Two young females sat, looking very out of place in the hallways of the clinic. The shorter one had long black hair pulled back in a ponytail and a pair of black framed glasses that nearly hid her eyes. She was dressed in a pair or corduroy jeans with a red T-shirt worn underneath a green hoodie with purple trim. The other had short brown hair that hung around her shoulders, the front held back by a bright red headband that had bright yellow lightning bolts on either side. She wore brown and white plaid skirt that went just past her knees, she wore a red shirt with the Flash's symbol on it over top of a long sleeved yellow shirt. A tan messenger bag hung over one shoulder despite protests from her friend to leave it at home.
It was obvious to anyone looking that they weren't the type of people that usually frequented this hall, but then Lennie Hofstadter and Shelby Cooper were the last two people anyone would expect in the psychology department at all. If Shelby hadn't found the flyer on the bulletin board at the college, and hadn't dragged her roommate along, they wouldn't have been there, but she did, and they were. Lennie absently listened as her roommate babbled on as they walked, used to the other woman's chatter.
"So if a photon is directed through a plane with two slits in it and either slit is observed it will not go through both slits. If it's unobserved it will, however, if it's observed after it's left the plane but before it hits its target, it will not have gone through both slits." Shelby said looking over at Lennie.
Lennie sighed and turned to look at her roommate as they arrived at the address on the flyer. "Agreed, what's your point?" she said as she started to open the door.
"There's no point, I just think it's a good idea for a t-shirt." Shelby said simply, as she followed Lennie into the room. They both looked around the empty waiting room nervously as they both tried to figure out if this was the right place.
Seeing a receptionist at the desk, reading a newspaper, the two walked forward. "Excuse Me?" Lennie asked nervously.
"Hang on." The receptionist said not looking up from her paper.
The two women shared a look then Lennie looked confidently at the paper and began to speak "One across is Ulysses, eight down is lightning , twenty-six across is Gold, fourteen down is" Lennie looked closer then gently pushed the woman's finger away "…diabolical which makes fourteen across Denver." Lennie smiled sweetly at the older woman at the desk, trying to impress her and speed up their conversation.
The receptionist glared at the two younger women, "Can I help you?"
The two looked nervous again then Lennie spoke "Yes. Um, is this where we're supposed to sign in for the mental study?"
The receptionist rolled her eyes and spoke condescendingly to the two younger women "If you can't read a flyer properly how do you expect to participate in a study of this magnitude?"
"I think this is the place." Shelby said looking at her best friend with confidence.
"Fill these out." The receptionist said shoving two clipboards into Lennie's hand.
Lennie took them and handed one to Shelby. "Thank-you." She said grabbing her roommates arm and leading them both to a seat.
"Oh, take your time. I'll just finish my crossword puzzle. Or not." The receptionist replied, giving a glare to the two women.
Lennie and Shelby sat staring at the forms for a few minutes before starting to fill out the information. A few minutes later Lenny felt Shelby tap her on the shoulder and turned to look, "Lennie, I don't think I can do this." She said her voice gaining a whining tone.
Lennie stared at her for a moment. "Are you kidding. You're a semi-pro, you've been to enough psychiatrists you could probably write any examines they want to give.."
Shelby glared at her "No. I don't think I want to do this anymore. We don't even know what they're studying us for." she paused then looked sulky. "And those visits were my mother's idea. Apparently not liking Church is a psychosis."
Lennie sighed and shook her head slightly. "Shelby, this was your idea. A little extra money to get fractional T1 bandwidth in the apartment, remember? You'd even have enough left over for a new comic."
"I know, and I do yearn for faster downloads and a new Flash would never be a loss," Shelby replied, "but I don't want my mental faculties winning anyone other than myself a Nobel Prize."
Lennie sighed again then stared at Shelby trying hard not to ask HOW they'd usurp a Nobel Prize with psychology, "Well, what do you want to do then?" she said, used to her friends antics.
Shelby looked plaintively at her "I want to leave."
Lennie watched her friend, fighting internal struggle of giving up or smacking her before settling on the former. "Okay, fine lets go then. We'll find something else." she said putting the clipboard down.
"What's the protocol for leaving?" Shelby asked following Lennie's lead.
"I don't know, I've never bowed out of a promise to commit my brain to a psychological study before." Lennie frowned. "Let's try just walking out."
"Okay." Shelby said standing up and heading towards the door, they'd nearly made it when they heard the receptionist.
"Bye" The woman said, looking far too cheerful.
Both gulped then quickly said bye and walked out the door as quickly as they could. Shelby waved, or started to, but Lennie smacked her hand back down again and tugged her out of the door.
"Are you still mad about the psychological study?" Shelby asked trudging up the stairs to their apartment.
"No." Lennie said sharply holding their bag of dinner in her hands, as they approached another flight.
Shelby looked at her a moment, concluded it couldn't be a lie and decided to change the subject. "You want to hear an interesting thing about stairs?" she started ignoring Lenny's reply as she continued, "If the height of a single step is off by as little as two millimeters, most people will trip." She said matter of factly as she walked beside her roommate.
"I don't care." Lennie snapped then turned to look at her roommate curiously. "Two millimeters? That doesn't seem right somehow." She said disbelieving.
"No, it's true, I did a series of experiments when I was twelve, my father broke his clavicle. My mother was not pleased." Shelby said in her normal know-it-all tone.
"You broke your father's clavicle? Is that why they sent you to boarding school?" Lennie asked smirking.
"No... that was due to the incident with the lasers." Shelby corrected, beginning to elaborate when they reached their floor and music accosted their ears. Looking across the two saw a man, around their age or slightly younger, unpacking in the apartment next door.
He was medium height, not much taller than them, tanned and obviously muscular. His sandy blond hair was short and stuck up in several directions from either gel or sweat. He wore an light blue short sleeved button up shirt untucked with the first few buttons undone exposing a white tank top under it and a pair of tight blue jeans. The two woman stopped and stared for a moment.
"New neighbor?" Lennie asked, staring at the newcomer openly in shock and awe.
"Apparently." Shelby said sharply, annoyed at the question that shouldn't actually BE a question. She would refuse if asked to admit to staring at the young man herself.
"A uh bi-big step up to the last neighbor we had.." Lenny stated, her eyes never leaving the man as she gulped. "Big improvement."
"Since he's not a two hundred pound female attempting to be a male and appears to lack psoriasis, yes, he is." Shelby looked over at her friend, and wondered ,not for the first time, why she had chosen such a ditzy roommate.
The sound of their voices must have penetrated the music from the apartment, as they saw their new neighbor lift his head and look at them "Oh, hi!" he said smiling at the women.
"Hi." Lennie said shyly, elbowing Shelby to get a response.
"Hi." Shelby said glaring at her roommate's elbow.
"Hi" Lennie said again.
"Hi." Shelby said confusion entering her voice as she wondered why they were repeating the same word inanely.
"Hi?" The young man said bemusedly, looking at the two women.
"We don't mean to interrupt, we live across the hall." Lennie said, her mind finally restarting.
"That's nice." The man said with a smile.
Lennie looked for a moment then thought about what she had said started talking quickly. "Oh… uh… no… we don't live together… um… we just live together. You know, like in separate, heterosexual bedrooms." She said babbling as she stared.
"Oh, okay, well, guess I'm your new neighbor. My name's Perry." The man said smiling at the two awkward females in front of him. He wiped his hand on his jeans to rid it of any sweat or dirt and offered it to the girls.
Lennie stared at him and shook his hand shyly."I…I'm Lennie, and this is Shelby."
"Hi." Perry said wanting to make a good impression on his neighbors.
"Hi." Lennie replied smiling at Perry.
"Hi." Shelby parroted, still not sure why they were doing this. She looked questionably at Perry's hand and kept her's at her side.
"Hi." Perry repeated, trying hard not to laugh as he lowered his hand.
Lennie cleared her throat and tried to talk "H…hi. Well, uh, oh, welcome to the building." She stuttered.
"Thanks." Perry smiled feeling amusement and sympathy for the two women. Last time he'd seen a girl so tongue tied it had been when his sister got an autograph from her favorite singer. "Maybe we could have coffee sometime after I'm all moved in.
"Oh, great." Lennie said smiling back.
"Great." Perry said
"Great." Shelby repeated with the enthusiasm of someone who just scheduled a root canal.
"Great. Well, bye." Lennie said turning to leave, her mind still on her new neighbor.
"Bye." Perry said with a wave.
"Bye." Shelby repeated, glad the banal chit chat was over.
"Bye." Lennie said wistfully. As she watched Perry enter his apartment and close the door, before turning back to her own apartment.
"Should we have invited him to eat with us?" Lennie asked Shelby as Shelby opened the door.
"No!" Shelby said frantically "We're going to start Season Two of Battlestar Galactica today. Plus we don't let strange men into the apartment!" She continued.
"We already watched the Season Two DVDs." Lennie said pleadingly, looking back towards Perry's door.
"Not with the commentary on." Shelby continued, ignoring her friends lingering looks at the neighbors door.
"I think we should be good neighbors, invite him over, make him feel welcome to the building. Oh, we could bake him cookies." Lennie continued.
Shelby looked concerned at her roommate for a moment, "We never invited Louise-slash-Louis over, and I promised mother I would not have male company over! Besides, do you even know how to bake cookies?"
Lennie ignored her, "Well, then that was wrong of us. We need to widen our circle. And we did just meet him which means he's not strange. You know what, I'm going to go invite him over. We'll have a nice meal and chat. You won't break any rules to you mother because it'll be me having the company."
Shelby looked quizzically at her roommate "Chat? We don't chat. At least not offline and certainly not with strange men."
Lennie shook her head, "It's not that difficult, you just listen to what he says and then you say something appropriate in response. I know you can do it, I've heard you on the phone before."
Shelby frowned again, "I am against this," she was about to continue when Leonard left the apartment, ending their conversation. She froze thinking about what to do then quickly followed, finding Lennie next door at their neighbor's apartment.
"Hi. Again." Lennie said trying to sound perky as their neighbor answered the door.
Perry smiled at her. "Hi" he replied wanting to see if the girls would respond like earlier.
He almost smiled as first Shelby then Lenny responded like earlier with shy 'hi's'.
"Hi." He responded again after them trying his hardest not to laugh.
Lennie stared up at him, and shook herself to remember why she was there, "Anyway, um. We brought home Indian food for lunch. And, um. I know that moving can be stressful, and I find that when I'm undergoing stress, that good food and company can have a comforting effect on me. Also, curry is a natural laxative, and I don't have to tell you that, uh, a clean colon is just one less thing to worry about."She rambled wincing at how stupid she sounded.
"Lennie," Shelby whispered, "I'm not an expert on social invitations by any means but I believe in the context of invitations involving food, you might want to skip any reference to bowel movements." She continued, trying not to look at their neighbor.
"Oh, you're inviting me over to eat?" He asked, "Well, I have to say I've never quite had an invitation like this before," he said smirking.
"Uh, yes." Lennie said shyly, fully expecting him to say no, after all what cute guy would want to have lunch with her and Shelby of all people.
"You two are so sweet, Sure, I'd love to." Perry said feeling just a bit sorry for them.
"Great!" Lenny said enthusiastically.
"So, what do you gals do for fun around here?" Perry said, slinging an arm around both their shoulders.
"Well, today we nearly signed up for a psychological exam in exchange for money." Shelby said nervously.