Sheldon finished working on his tie and went to adjust his coat. He looked in the mirror and approved of the result - of course, geeks didn't have any sense of fashion, but they were great in lining their clothes up, which made them look, at least, a little more presentable.
He decided he was ready and went to the living room where his three friends were waiting for him.
"Hi, guys, I was thinking…" Penny stormed into the apartment without knocking, as usual. She hadn't finish her sentence before she realized there was something weird going on.
The four men looked at her at the same time and she raised her eyebrows. They were all wearing social clothes, well, theoretically social clothes; Penny didn't think anybody should wear those around other people.
"What's going on?" she asked, trying her best to control her laughter.
"Oh, we're heading to a restaurant for a special dinner," Leonard explained.
"Yeah, I can see you are all… dressed up for the occasion…" she looked at their clothes again. "What are you guys celebrating?" it had to be something really important for Sheldon to give up his usual superhero T-shirts.
"Today's the anniversary of the day we all first met," Leonard said.
"Yep, seven years of pure geek-love and a complete lack of lady-love," Howard nodded, "what a great time for being alive"
Rajesh nodded and smiled lopsidedly.
"Wow, really, guys? I had no idea!" she answered, excited. "There's a story I'd love to hear."
"Aw, good for you, but we can't spare you the time right now. It's already 07:45 and we have to be at the restaurant by 8 o'clock," Sheldon replied, showing her his watch.
She chuckled, imagining he was kidding. She should have remembered that Sheldon never kidded when it came to timing.
"Oh, c'mon... What if I go with you?" she suggested, putting on the puppy-eyed expression they couldn't resist.
The others looked at Sheldon; he agreed against all his will.
X
Leonard Hofstadter was one of the first to arrive in the classroom. He sat down in the first row and bounced excitedly in his seat: it was his first day as a college student. He had come from New Jersey and he was loving the fact that that he would never run into any of his awful classmates from High School, since none of them were smart enough or cared enough to get accepted by Caltech.
Not to mention it was the first time in years he would have a little time for himself since his parents wouldn't be around anymore. Massachusetts was too close for him to risk.
Almost all students had arrived in class now, and someone in the back row had just been slapped by a girl, causing everyone to stare at him, and some nervous laughter. The guy blushed and stared at his desk.
Someone rumbled, and all the students turned to the front again, a man of about Leonard's age was in front of them, he figured it was one of his classmates pretending to be a professor. He rolled his eyes not believing that even Caltech wasn't free of goofs.
"My name's Sheldon Cooper and I'll be your professor for this trimester. Before we start I want you all to know I have no desire whatsoever to be here and I won't tolerate stupid inquiries, any questions?"
The man looked at them with a serious expression.
Some students frowned, clearly not seeing any fun in the joke. One decided to play along.
"So, Tee, what are we learning about today?" the student scoffed.
"Well, I'll ramble about quantum mechanics and its interactions with other scientific theories, but of course, you won't learn anything, perhaps exercises using the formulae of constant acceleration would be more suitable for you," Cooper replied, raising his eyebrows. He was clearly not finding anything amusing about the situation. The classroom held its collective breath.
"Wait, you're really our teacher?" asked the girl beside Leonard. Sheldon Cooper nodded impatiently.
"But you're about our age…" Leonard said.
"Yes, that's true," he agreed, "but I'm way more accomplished than you will ever hope to be".
Leonard couldn't believe his brusque attitude to the class. That was just not a thing teachers were supposed to tell their students. The class continued in complete silence; they were all too scared to ask any questions or even make any sound, for that matter.
The other classes didn't have the same problem, which made Leonard feel a little better. He grabbed his tray in the cafeteria during the lunch break and looked around for a place to sit.
He saw the teachers table, he saw Professor Cooper eating alone in another one, and he saw a table with two students one of whom, he realized, was the guy who'd been slapped in Cooper's class. The other seemed to be an exchange student. He joined them; at least they would already start with a subject in common.
Clearly none of them had much practice in meeting new people. They all greeted each other shyly and talked about themselves as if they were in a support group.
Howard Wolowitz was the embarrassed boy from the back of Cooper's class. He was Jewish and had always lived in California. Rajesh Koothrappali was the interchange student from India, who hated Indian food and was the greatest investment of the University that year.
"Can you see Professor Cooper?" Rajesh asked Howard, who nodded confirmation. "Great, now tell us what he's doing so we can make mean commentaries about it," he continued, with an evil smile playing on his lips.
The other two looked at him puzzled.
"What? Isn't it what Americans do to people they don't like?" he asked. They were forced to concede that, yes, it was usually the case.
"Alright, he's taking something from his suitcase…" Howard said.
"Maybe it's his copy of 'Terrorizing students for dummies'," Leonard suggested, and they all chuckled.
"Oh, my God," Howard said. He stopped laughing and let his jaw drop. The other two looked at him with curiosity. "Don't look now, but he's got the latest edition of The Flash and is reading it right now." He started to shake excitedly.
Rajesh and Leonard turned immediately to the professor. It was true, Leonard couldn't believe it.
"Perhaps he's not so bad after all… do you think we should go sit there with him?" Leonard asked shrugging.
"Oh, please, you're only saying this because you want to read that comic book," Rajesh replied.
"So…?" Leonard continued.
Howard and Rajesh looked at each other and agreed, they stood up and went in single file to talk to him, Leonard in the front, followed by Raj and Howard for last.
X
"Oh, so it's like a universal thing, having this first impression of Sheldon," Penny commented, when Leonard finished telling her how they had all met. The others agreed while Sheldon looked at with scorn.
Leonard pulled over the car and they got out. They had just arrived at the restaurant. Penny looked at the front of the shop, she had figured it would be Chinese, not even a special occasion could disrupt Sheldon's freakish food schedules. It was a lot fancier than the place they usually ordered from, though.
They entered the restaurant and a waitress attended them. Leonard told her his name and she started to walk them to their table.
"But this story starts a little earlier from my point of view, sweetheart," Howard said, trying to pass his arm through Penny's shoulders. He gave up on that idea when he saw her expression, and quickly got on with his story.
X
Howard Wolowitz entered the gates of the University, extremely animated; he couldn't help his smile every time a hot freshman girl crossed his path. All just as he liked them, fresh, innocent and vulnerable.
"I can also lead you to your dormitory and test your bed with you," he replied to a woman that came after him asking if he could direct her to her building.
Her response was pushing him and letting him hit someone passing by, when he recovered himself she was already out of sight, and he looked at the person he had stumbled into by accident.
"I'm sorry…" Howard said.
"These freshmen…" Dr. Cooper mumbled as a response and continued his way.
"I'm a sophomore!" he corrected him, although he was too far away already.
Howard grabbed his schedule, looked at it, and walked to Dr. Cooper's classroom. He went directly to the last row, since if there was any chance of finding hot girls in that class they would be on the back row.
He sat down on the side of a red headed girl. She looked at him smiled timidly, and blushed.
"Enchanted, milady, I'm Howard Wolowitz," he introduced himself, smiling back at her. "I see your pupils are dilated and your heartbeat is accelerated, which are signs of sexual attraction, would you prefer to- "
The answer was a slap on the face that made everybody else in the room look at him. He crossed his arms and sat quietly for the rest of the class.
When lunch time arrived, he chose an empty table to sit alone and stare at the ladies peacefully. He didn't even notice the foreign student coming towards him.
"Can I sit here?" the boy pointed to the empty seat in front of him. Howard shrugged and went back to looking at the female freshmen. "I'm Rajesh Koothrappali and I can't talk to women," he introduced himself smiling.
"I'm Howard Wolowitz and women don't want to talk to me," he replied.
"Huh, I think we'll get along," Koothrappali responded.
X
Penny took another sip of her drink and raised her arms in cheers. Penny put down her drink and clapped excitedly.
"This is so cool, guys. I'm learning a lot about you, and, like, you haven't changed at all in the past seven years," she laughed.
The guys looked at each other. She was probably getting drunk: there was no other reasonable explanation for why she was having such a great time with this.
"Oh, Penny, don't listen to them, it starts even earlier in Choco Daddy's version here," Rajesh said, pointing both of his thumbs to himself, the other person on the table who had drunk a little more than he should.
She straightened up in her seat and looked at him, ready to hear his version of the story. Sheldon made a sign to the waitress bring their desserts.
"Are you sure, Penny? We could talk about anything…" Leonard asked her, trying to get her drink out of her reach.
She frowned at him, and he gave it back to her, defeated. She thanked him, took another sip and looked back to Rajesh, who was ready to talk.
X
Mrs. Koothrappali gave her son another kiss on the cheek.
"Baby, are you sure you don't want me to go in with you?" she asked, hugging him and giving one more kiss.
"Stop spoiling the kid, do you want him to depend on us for the rest of his life?" Dr. Koothrappali moaned at his wife from his car.
"Yeah, mama, I'll be okay. It's my first day at college, I should be doing this by myself," Rajesh said.
She shook her head in disagreement, but still held him tighter, gave him a final kiss on the cheek and handed him a bag with his lunch in it.
He waved them goodbye and looked inside the bag. All Indian food. He grumbled, and threw it in the closet garbage can.
As he looked at the University and the people passing through its gates, one guy caught his attention; the guy was talking to a girl and apparently doing it very well. Raj envied him for being able to talk to a woman that wasn't his own mother, even though she eventually pushed him away. From this moment on, he decided he would follow that guy and try to take tips from him, no matter what it took.
X
"Is this why I saw you in all the classes I took in the first two weeks and never more?" Howard asked, slightly surprised. Rajesh nodded, embarrassed.
Once Koothrappali learned that his mentor Howard was actually the one who needed help, he decided he would have a more promising future focusing on the college matters.
"So I didn't scare a student away from my class?" Sheldon asked, equally surprised. Rajesh nodded again, even more embarrassed.
"But he missed your first class, and you got softer the week after…" Leonard pointed out, "I always wondered what happened".
"Wow, you guys must be feeling pretty proud of yourselves right now," Penny commented.
They looked at her questioningly. "Oh, c'mon, he admired you," she pointed to Howard, "and you got a student that wasn't even supposed to be in your class," she pointed to Sheldon.
"Maybe true, but I'm not done yet," Rajesh said raising his eyebrows suggestively. Sheldon seemed particularly disturbed with this.
X
"Mr. Koothrappali?" one of the Deans of the University called. Rajesh responded. "Would you follow me, please? I'd like to introduce you to someone…" he started to walk.
Rajesh glanced at the student he was stalking, unsure. The Dean called him again and he decided he would try to find his future mentor later.
They stopped in front of an office. The Dean knocked and opened the door.
"Excuse me, Dr. Cooper," he started. The professor stood up, "here's Rajesh Koothrappali; he's an exchange student from India and our biggest investment of this year". They both shook hands.
"We would really appreciate it if he decided to join the University permanently, encourage him to stay," the Dean continued, with a smile that was supposed to be encouraging but was really just creepy and left them alone.
"Do you have any other college you want to go to?" Professor Cooper asked him.
"No, Dr. Cooper," Rajesh responded.
"Welcome to the California Institute of Technology. Goodbye," Sheldon said, leaving the office to go to his class.
X
"Hey, speaking of Sheldon, where is he?" Penny asked, looking around. The boys shrugged, uninterested, and continued their talk about the past.
She decided to go find him. He was in the restaurant's backyard, taking some fresh air. She hugged her coat closer to her body to keep herself warm and joined him.
She greeted him and he replied, distracted, looking at the movement on the street.
"I guess this is the part where you expect me to apologize for making you change your plans for supper…" she said, to break the silence between them. He looked at her. "Well, I'm not apologizing. I had a great night getting to know you all better. Now, when am I going to hear Dr. Sheldon Cooper's version of the history of the Fantastic Four?" She smiled sympathetically.
He let out a sigh, knowing he had no other escape, even though he was completely hurt by her comparison of them with the Fantastic Four. Who would be Invisible Woman in this particular scenario? And none of them were dating each other or were any kind of relative.
X
Sheldon Cooper looked at the time in his watch and hurried up, he not only had to take the schedule for the new semester; he still had to be presented to the new "investment of the year" student.
He hated that party, a bunch of brainless teenagers receiving better treatment than the other, equally brainless teenagers only because they had come from the other side of the world. And having to teach these brainless teenagers wasn't very satisfying either.
He was just thinking about that when a student - apparently being dumped by another student - stumbled into him. His day had just gotten worse.
The day started with a freshman class, he moaned when he read it on the schedule pinned to the board in his office. He opened his suitcase on the table and organized his papers while waiting for the Dean to arrive with the interchange student.
Rajesh Koothrappali, surprisingly, ended up being a little more interesting than the previous geniuses he had met over the years. He didn't seem to be threatened by Sheldon's attitude, which already earned him some points, although not enough for Sheldon to treat him with respect, but enough to, for instance, allow them to sit together at lunch and not get overly bothered by their attempts to purloin his new Flash Comic Book.
After lunch, Sheldon Cooper went back to his office to continue his String Theory research for his second PhD, which was, lately, the only thing he honestly enjoyed doing in the University.
"Dr. Cooper, do you have a moment?" the head of the department asked, entering his office. Sheldon rolled his eyes, already imagining what it was about, saved his work on the computer and looked at the man in front of him.
"I'm coming from a reunion with some of your students and there was a topic that really concerned them…" he continued, carefully, "they said you were a little… unnecessarily rough with all of them".
Sheldon raised his eyebrows.
"I bed to differ, Dr. Wright, I only told them what they needed to hear, if anything, I was completely upfront and honest with them," Sheldon replied.
"Dr. Cooper, it's not the first time this has happened and I see a pattern emerging, first when your mother was sick and now with your father's recent death," Dr. Wright said and Sheldon mentally scoffed him, "but we can't mix our personal life with our work, do you understand?"
"Yes, Dr. Wright," Sheldon agreed, like he had the first time they had this conversation and absolutely nothing changed. It wouldn't be any different this time.
"I know what you're thinking, but you're wrong. This is your last warning, one more and we'll have to suspend your classes or even fire you," Dr. Wright finished, with a serious tone of voice.
Sheldon knew he meant it this time, or he just didn't want to risk it. He reluctantly agreed and went back to his work.
X
"So this is why you got softer…" Penny thought out loud, Sheldon shrugged by her side, uncomfortable, "you got yelled at," she mocked, knowing this would drive him crazy. He opened his mouth to correct her. "Thanks for telling me. I guess this is it, right?" she said smiling, before he could start talking. He confirmed and they decided to go back inside and go home.
The trip was quiet; the effects of the alcohol were out of Rajesh's system, and he was back to normal already, even Sheldon and Howard weren't talking, but this was because their bedtime was a few hours ago and Leonard was too nervous being effectively alone with Penny to try to start a conversation.
"We've arrived, kids," Leonard announced, pulling over the car and waking up the three grown man on the back seat. They all yawned and rubbed their eyes.
Penny couldn't help her smile from ear to ear.
"Goodnight, guys," she said when they reached their floor. She grabbed her keys and opened the door to her apartment. "Happy anniversary!"
They said farewell back to her and as she closed the door behind them Leonard, Rajesh and Howard looked at Sheldon.
"No, she's not joining us every year," he frowned and finished the subject.
They moaned, but eventually decided it was better this way. They could have a special dinner just for the anniversary of when they met her, only if they could remember it.
Sheldon put on his day pajamas, got into bed and, before finally falling asleep, he thought about the last memory he had of the day he met his friends, a moment he hadn't shared with Penny.
X
"Hey, Professor Cooper," Leonard called when the first day was over and they were all going home. Sheldon looked around, "where are you going, Professor Cooper?" Leonard called again, now getting closer to him, followed by Rajesh and Howard.
He was too surprised to formulate an answer for Leonard's inquiry.
"Well, we're heading to the Comic Book store now, would you like to join us?" Leonard asked, starting to feel insecure about the professor's lack of response.
Sheldon pondered about it for a moment. He didn't get why they were being so… nice to him, especially how he had treated them when they first met, it was almost like they wanted to be his friend, and no one ever wanted to be his friend, unless it was for some personal interest or they were part of his family. It felt oddly comforting, and he nodded without thinking.
That day, he realized he preferred having friends to being alone, and deep inside he didn't think it would be too bad if Howard, Rajesh and Leonard remembered Penny had moved next door on September 24th.
Thanks stackcats for the amazing beta! Hope you all enjoyed and don't forget: reviews are love! :)