Hey!
So I'll make this short and sweet. This is an Alternate Universe fic, where Sheldon is a physics professor and Penny is a college student. It's sort of OOC, because Penny is smarter than she appears in the show, and Sheldon is a bit different as well. Sorry :(
But read on, if you wish! :)
Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. Just a writer who got bored on a rainy Tuesday, refusing to study for a quiz she has tomorrow. PROCRASTINATION FTW!
And it's just like the ocean under the moon
Well that's the same as the emotion that I get from you
You got the kind of lovin' that can be so smooth, yeah
Gimme your heart make it real
Or else forget about it
~Smooth, Santana
X
"Can any of you people who wrongly consider yourselves quote upon quote 'good students', perhaps tell me what the ancient Greek word for physics is?" Asked young professor.
He was strolling between the rows of the immense classroom, rolling up his sleeves on his navy blue dress shirt, under which, where if you knew where to look and looked hard enough, you might just catch a glimpse of some sort of superhero t-shirt bleeding though the thin material. Despite this 'secret' of his, if you couple this blue button up with a pair of black dress slacks, and you have the perfect ensemble for the tall, lanky man.
It surely hadn't been picked out by the professor himself, for he preferred the checkered plaid suits with crazy patterned dress shirts and brown leather shoes. Perhaps a female colleague or his close friend and roommate, Dr. Leonard Hofstader who had forced him to wear it, since after all, it was the first day of school; better not alert potential students to the true nature of the insanity that was Dr. Cooper. However, despite whatever the man held against normal, everyday suits it looked insanely good on his thin figure, and it also brought out the navy inside his brilliant blue irises.
"If sex wore crazy, it'd look like that." One of the female students had remarked, when she saw the physics professor enter the class room that morning. Several of the fellow girls had agreed.
He cleared his throat and surveyed his classroom, blue eyes scanning through rows of bored and slightly frightened looking students as he asked the question that would hopefully kick-start their physics discussion. When no one replied, he repeated the question. This repetition wasn't out of lack of ability to hear the asked inquiry, it was simply something the young, thirty-three year old physics professor did when his students failed to answer one of his questions. And it had a 50/50 chance of evoking a response from the fatigued, glassy eyed students in the humid classroom.
"Hello?" He drawled, beginning to become annoyed with the lack of reply. "I can hear you all converting oxygen and expelling it as carbon dioxide." He said, putting one hand on a slim hip as he turned to address the back of the classroom. "I know you're still there." He said, pointedly looking at a few cowering first-year freshman in the back corner.
Finally, one person placed a single, slightly tanned and elegant hand into the air. She cleared her throat to grab his attention. She straightened herself in her seat between two beefy looking idiots, who were simply in the class because she had suggested it to them. And possibly due to the added prospect of late night 'study dates' with the beautiful woman, where they might be able to convince the fun-loving blonde to participate in something more engaging than review.
He whipped around at the sound of the tiny noise. This ability to hear even the slightest of sounds earned him the nickname of 'Vulcan-eared' by some of the students who were hopelessly in love with the cult-favorite.
"Yes. Thank you, miss.." He said, meandering through the desks towards the young, blonde haired woman on the opposite side of the classroom. He came to stand before her, so that he could properly hear her response.
"Um, Jackson. Penelope Jackson." She said, caught off guard by his question. She was surprised that he had asked her what her name was. According to previous students who were giving her advice on how to survive the supposed 'insane son-of-a-bitch's' class before the lecture had begun, he had referred to the old students as 'you', or 'incompetent individual.' Never once had he bothered to learn any of their names.
"Thank you, Ms. Jackson, proceed with your response."
She seemed sort of flustered, yet he couldn't understand why. He hadn't asked her anything challenging, or even remotely inappropriate, as it wasn't on his list of phrases his colleague, Dr. Hofstader, had made of things the professor should not say or ask his students. He had had an unfortunate incident prior, involving a young woman who had told the dean that Dr. Cooper had 'inadvertently called her a whore,' and he didn't wish to get into trouble once more for offending another student.
"Physis." She said, staring straight at him.
"And it's meaning?" He prompted, crossing his arms over his chest and arching an eyebrow.
"Uhhh…." She faltered, looking downwards. She knotted her fingers on top of her desk, and her brows crinkled together in concentration.
Another gentleman's hand shot up into the air, and the professor made his way over to the student's desk.
"Wait, I wasn't finished!" The young lady called. The professor stopped his walking and turned back to the girl. She had boldly called him out on his abandonment of her while she was talking, and although he'd never admit it publicly, it slightly impressed him.
"You can't just walk away from me, I was talking to you!" She nearly shouted, irritated. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down defiantly. Her mouth quirked into a semi-frown semi-smile, as she was attempting to look angry, but was none-the-less pleased with herself for regaining his attention.
Several students turned to look at her in surprise and awe. No one ever spoke aloud, much less contradicted the professor in Dr. Cooper's physics course, unless prompted. Hell, no one ever really wanted to, for fear of a lecture involving phrases like 'your incompetence amuses me,' or simply something along the lines of 'don't speak aloud, you'll lower the IQ of the entire campus.' .
However, this young woman's boldness intrigued him. He cleared his throat, preparing to excuse himself for his blunder, and reprimand her for not simply telling him the answer. "Well, by means of your long and drawn out 'uhhhh,' I'd assumed that you had ceased answering my question. Therefore, I had departed to find someone who could find the companion answer to the question I had asked. Excuse my interruption, Ms. Jackson, proceed." He said, simply, walking back towards her, his arms behind his back.
"It means nature." She said, this time with confidence. "Which is why physics is the science of nature involving the study of matter." She finished her response with a broad smirk.
"Also correct, Ms. Jackson. Satisfactory work." He said, with a short incline of his head. He moved to get back to the front of the class room to click to the next slide.
Penny counted this as a personal victory. Dr. Cooper hardly doled out compliments to anyone. Ever.
The gentleman to her left, Kurt, held up his hand to give her a high-five. She slapped it heartily, ignoring the glare of several onlooking students; they were simply jealous that Dr. Cooper had given her a compliment.
"As Ms. Jackson pointed out, Physics is, in fact, the science of nature involving the study of matter." He said, grabbing a red marker and beginning to write neatly on the empty white reflective board. He wrote Physics, and underneath it, wrote the point Penny had brought up. She found herself fighting back a stupid grin.
"Physics is divided into different sub-categories of sciences one can choose to study. Although some are rather complicated, perhaps too far advance for some of us in here." He said, bluntly. He wasn't afraid to call attention to those bullshitting their intelligence, and he also refused to 'sugarcoat' things, preferring to outwardly tell his students his opinions. He said things just as they were perceived.
He wrote a few more things on the board. Then he sprung, full spiel mode, into a new lecture about these items he had written.
"I will begin with a brief history of how physics came to be. Now..." His voice slowly fell out of tune. Her mind took over.
While her hand darted across the page at the pace of a marathon runner, her brain sprinted a hundred million miles an hour elsewhere. She was watching him, observing the man, the brilliant man before him, with the accuracy of a criminal profiler. She was harmlessly checking out the young teacher. Just for fun, no worries. People do this stuff all the time. She'd assured herself.
He spoke with a bit of a drawl, perhaps he was from down south somewhere, like Texas or Louisiana. While his face remained as impassive as a stone, his navy blue eyes widened and danced a bit before he said something he believed to be very important, giving him a more childish and human aura. His hands flew through the air, and only stopped once to pick up a huge volume of some sort of science-y literature. His muscles in his forearm tightened and loosened as he did this, proving that although he seemed thin as a twig, he had a bit of muscle definition about him. He possessed the fingers of a piano player; thin, pale, and long, which skimmed the pages before finding the passage he wished to share with the class, an important task written in Latin, which he read flawlessly.
He always spoke with an air of superiority, which Penny could understand why some might find him irritating. He often made brash and borderline (no scratch that definitely) insulting comments when students answered his questions with a response that was incorrect. And he was just sometimes outwardly rude. Not to mention that he was somewhat socially awkward, what one may refer to as a 'nerd' in high school. He had made two references to the British show Doctor Who, and three two various superheros whom he could talk about rather animatedly. Penny made a mental note to research these things so that she would know what in God's name he was talking about.
At one point during the lecture, he caught her staring. He held her gaze for a fraction of a minute before turning his back to walk to the board once more. She couldn't help but drop her stare to check out his ass. Hey! It might be the last time I get to see him in normal people clothes! I've seen those plaid suits and they are hideous! She reasoned with herself internally.
Sure the guy was a loon who probably belonged locked away in a mental institution, but there was something about this beautifully minded man that she found intriguing. She'd go almost as far as saying that he was somewhat...captivating.
Someone nudged her out of her daydreaming. It was Kurt, he huge muscled idiotic fellow she'd agreed to go out with at some low point in her life. She glanced at him, but seeing as it wasn't him who need her attention, she directed her gaze back to the front of the room Dr. Cooper stood with his hands on his hips, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Ms. Jackson? I believe I asked you a question which you have failed to give me a response to." He said, his voice colored with annoyance.
"Huh?" She said. Oh good one Penny.
Several of the students around her snickered, including the other well muscled jock to her right, Chris. She elbowed him deftly in the gut, doubtedly doing any real damage. But he still grunted and frowned at her.
"I'm sorry. Do you mind repeating the question, Professor?" She said, catching herself. Oh good, finally a full, intelligent sentence out of ya!
He gave her a roll of his eyes. "Perhaps you should pay closer attention, Ms. Jackson. You might be missing important information for the questionnaire on the lecture notes tomorrow morning." He said. Several of the students groaned; 'questionnaire' was Cooper Code for 'quiz'. Fan-freaking-tastic.
He sighed. "I inquired if you could, if it pleases you, inform the class one of the 'father's, if you will, of physics." He asked.
If it pleases you? "Um, that would be Sir Issac Newton." She responded, as intelligently as she could muster. Her dignity was still on the floor somewhere with that dazzling response of 'huh'.
If anyone knew Penelope Jackson at all, it wouldn't be for her brilliance. At least, that what she thought. Her newfound intelligence could all be credited to her 'tutor.' Another physicist, like Dr. Cooper.
She had secretly dated a fellow professor of Dr. Cooper's, another physics teacher, Dr. Leonard Hofstader. When she had learned that she had received Dr. Cooper as her physics professor, she had gone to Leonard and had asked him for advice as to how to go about passing this class. They had agreed to meet on a weekly basis to discuss the material Dr. Cooper had lectured about during the class period. He had given her an amazingly helpful list of the do's and dont's of the Cooper Class. He'd told her ways to impress the professor, and to efficiently stay afloat while other students were drowning. He'd proved to be a very valuable asset to her, and she had much to thank him for.
"Correct." He said, bowing his head once more. "Thank you, Ms. Jackson."
His lecture continued for another miserable hour and a half. During that time period, half the class had dozed off behind their laptops, a fourth were playing Words With Friends on their iPhones, and the last fourth were updating their twitter statuses to OMG Dr. Crazy Cooper's class is straight from hell..#killmenow. But not Penny. She'd more than a fair share of questions, some more difficult than the previous ones, secretly impressing her new professor. He'd found himself suppressing a smile when she had blatantly contradicted another student's (wrong) answer, (he'd been napping on a pile of textbooks, and had only awakened to give a half-assed answer before succumbing to sweet slumber once again) and replaced it her own correct one.
He'd never admit to anyone other than himself that he had perhaps, found the first student that showed actual signs of intelligence in the field of physics. He had been slightly surprised that he had found it in a young, beautiful, blonde haired woman sitting in the third row of his classroom.
That, even he had trouble admitting to himself.
X
At the end of the class, he had dismissed the students with a simple 'Thank you, you are free to depart.' Half of them were out the door before he'd even completed his sentence. That didn't seem to faze him. Nor did the fact that one of the male students flipped Dr. Cooper the bird when his back was turned to erase the board clean of his hand-written notes. He began to gather up his papers and notebooks from around the classroom facility.
The other half lingered, and among that crowed was Penelope Jackson, surrounded by several leering gentleman. She was laughing, and engaging in conversation with one of the taller, bulkier men. He found himself staring at her as she giggled, and couldn't pull himself away, even as she caught him in the act with a smile. They maintained eye contact for a few heartbeats before he dropped his gaze to the large volume on the left hand corner of his desk. She'd excused herself from the guys, and slowly sauntered down the steps towards Dr. Cooper's desk area. The men watched her go with blatant appreciation for her backside. He was no longer looking at her, nor paying her any attention, instead gathering up his laptop and various cords to deposit into his beige and brown shoulder strap bag.
He didn't look up as she approached. "Is there something that you were in need of, Ms. Jackson?" He said, looking only as far as her hip-level, as she was clad in denim pants, accompanied by a top of a peachy shade, which ended just below her bellybutton and revealed a strip of neatly toned skin. As he glanced up to meet her gaze, he found that it also provided any ogling gentleman with a nice view of the tops of her breasts. He carefully avoided his gaze from that point and swallowed thickly.
"Yeah. About that Ms. Jackson thing." She said, putting her palms on the edge of his desk and leaning forwards slightly, intruding on his personal space. He leaned back slightly, and she didn't notice. "It's just Penny. Ms. Jackson's my sister, she's a lawyer. A damn good one at that. But I'm not her, so don't call me that." She said, simply.
He looked at her, deciding if she was serious or not. He went with the former. "I normally do not call my students by their first name, however, seeing as though you took the time to persuade me, I will consider referring to you as Penny." He said, looking away again. He zipped up his bag and snapped it over his shoulder in one swift motion. He grabbed the black suit jacket from the back of his chair and draped it across one arm. He took a key from his pocket and locked the desk drawers one by one, checking to make sure they were secure each time. Noticing that the student was still there, he looked up once more.
"Was there something further?" He inquired, wondering what more she could possibly ask him.
She giggled. "Have a good rest of the day, Dr. Cooper." She called, and walked out the door.
He watched her go.
X
So there you go, first chapter. If it sucks, I'm sorry. Just let me know, and I'll stop writing. But if it's decent, tell me that too, and I'll continue :)
Thanks so much, have a lovely day people of Fanfiction!
PS, anyone else besides me catch that new TNT show Perception? If not, it was epic, you should check it out :)!
MISTAKES ALL BELONG TO ME! Yay!
Drop me a review :)