A/N: This will be a Sheldon/OC fic. I apologize in advance to all of you Shenny and Shamy fans. I love both of those ships too, so please don't bash. I think I could probably ship Sheldon/anyone and be happy. I hope you will enjoy this anyway.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Big Bang Theory or its characters.

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The Attraction Anomaly

Part 1: The Overdue Monograph Paradox

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Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj sat at a table in the Caltech cafeteria. Howard was talking about his upcoming trip to the International Space Station.

"Only a few more months and I will literally be out of this world," he said.

Raj looked sad. After all, he'd be losing his best friend for the better part of the summer. This would be the longest they'd been apart since Raj moved to Pasadena and met Howard.

"Yes. We know. You've told us the same thing every day for the past 33 days," Sheldon said exasperatedly. "I don't see why you're so excited about it. A Payload Specialist is not a real astronaut. You're just a glorified optical technician. A poor man's Galileo, if you will."

"Well, excuse me for getting excited about a once in a lifetime opportunity!" exclaimed Howard.

"I can't fault your logic there. The chance of you making a second trip into Earth's orbit is infinitesimal. Saying it is a 'once in a lifetime opportunity' is an accurate assumption."

"Yeah. Thanks, Sheldon." Howard grimaced and went back to eating his lunch.

Sheldon gave a satisfied grin. "You're welcome."

The boys began a discussion on the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Menseries, and had been talking for a few minutes about their theories on the potential plot, when Leonard realized that Sheldon was not contributing to the conversation. He found it odd, so he asked, "What's wrong, buddy?"

Sheldon stared off into the distance. "Nothing's wrong," he managed to reply dreamily. It was a voice they'd rarely heard from him. It was very much like the voice he used when talking lovingly to his Flash#123 (that is, before he lost it to Howard in that ill-fated bet over a cricket's species). After his reply in such a strange voice, the others stopped their conversation and turned in the direction of Sheldon's stare. To their surprise, they saw a girl sitting at the back of the cafeteria. She was alone at a table.

"Dude, I think he's talking about that girl over there hiding behind Pride and Prejudice," Raj squeaked out. "Good book." He bobbed his head in agreement with his own statement. The others stared at the girl.

"It's a good thing she's not looking over here. We look like a bunch of weirdoes, guys," Leonard observed. "Maybe we should stop staring." He turned back toward Sheldon, but Howard's eyes lingered a little longer.

"I could go for a piece of that." Howard waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Don't let Bernadette hear you say that. Besides, I think our friend here already has his sights set on her." Leonard motioned his head toward Sheldon who was still staring at the girl.

Howard protested, "But Sheldon's already part of The Shamy!"

"Yeah, like that's ever going anywhere," Raj said quietly.

The three friends silently agreed. Sheldon watched as the girl put a bookmark in her book, got up from the table, and walked toward the door. As she passed by their table, she gave a small smile to the still staring Sheldon. He blushed.

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When she was gone, Sheldon turned back to his food and continued eating as if nothing had happened. The rest of the guys just watched him, perplexed by the event they had just witnessed.

Penny walked into the comic book store and all heads turned toward her. She always felt so humiliated when she walked into the den of nerds at Stuart's shop. The head nerd himself, Stuart Bloom, looked up from his sketchbook and sent an eager smile her way.

"Hiya, Penny! What brings you here?" he asked.

"Hi, Stuart. I just dropped by to grab a present for Howard. His birthday's next week and I thought I might find something for him here. You know, since he likes comics and stuff." She looked around casually to see if there was anything interesting nearby. The plan was to grab the closest thing she could find, buy it, and run out before she was accosted by any of the other customers.

"Oh," Stuart said, sounding slightly disappointed. "Well, we just got a new shipment of belt buckles in. They're in the back. I'll go grab them and you can choose one of those, if you want. He seems to like those."

"That would be great. Thanks." So, it would take a little longer than she'd expected, but that was fine by her. She glanced around the store while Stuart perused his inventory in the back. There weren't very many people there. Maybe this was a slow time of the day? Most of the usual customers probably had jobs during the day. Not everyone was as lucky as she was to sleep late and work in the afternoons. That was probably the only perk of working at The Cheesecake Factory. Well, that and the occasional free cheesecake at the end of the night. After a while, though, free desserts got old.

Her gaze landed on a guy across the room. He wasn't the usual type of guy she imagined would spend an early afternoon at a comic book store. He was tall and muscular with dirty blonde hair. He looks a little bit like that guy who plays Captain America, she thought. She couldn't remember the actor's name, but he was hot. So was the guy standing at the other side of the shop, looking at a zombie display. Penny wasn't fond of zombies, especially after listening to Sheldon wax poetic about his zombie survival plans. She rolled her eyes just thinking about it. Then, she slowly made her way over to the guy.

"So, you like Spider-Man?" she asked. He looked up and locked eyes with her.

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"I saw it on your shirt." She glanced down at his Spider-Man shirt and then looked up again. He was still looking at her eyes.

"Do you like Spider-Man?" He asked her.

"Oh yeah," she lied, "of course! Who doesn't?"

He smiled at her. She hoped he couldn't tell that she was lying. The only thing she knew about the superhero was that Kirsten Dunst was in the movies. And also that there were lots of comic books about him. Stuart walked out at that moment with a box full of belt buckles.

"Here they are. You can look through them if you want."

"Thanks, Stuart," she said as she walked back to the counter and started to look through the box. She found one she thought Howard might like and handed it to Stuart. "I'll take this one."

"Nice choice. And, just for you, I'll make sure he doesn't buy that one before his birthday."

"Great," she said. Stuart can be really sweet sometimes. Weird, but sweet.

She paid for the buckle and Stuart dropped it in a bag for her. Before she left, she walked back to the hot guy and said, "By the way, I'm Penny."

He shook her offered hand and said, "Brian."

"It's nice to meet you, Brian. I was wondering if you'd like to go out sometime. Grab some coffee or something?" She tilted her head and gave him her best smile.

"Sure. Sounds great! Actually, there's a Spider-Man marathon tomorrow night. Since we're both such big fans, I thought you might like to go with me. They're showing all three movies. How about it?"

The thought of watching three movies in a row about some superhero she cared nothing about was not her idea of a good time. But, spending hours in a dark theater with a hot guy? That was a different story. She could always use a good make out session. "Sure," she said. "That sounds like fun."

They exchanged numbers and she grabbed her bag and headed out the door with a wave to Stuart. Who knew I'd meet someone at the comic book store?She was pleasantly surprised and happily drove to work.

An hour later, she got a text from Brian. "Can't wait to discuss the changes they made from comic book to film with another true fan. See ya tomorrow!" What had she gotten herself into now?

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Later that night, the boys showed up at The Cheesecake Factory for their usual Tuesday night meal. Penny greeted them, took their orders, and went to the kitchen.

As they were sitting there, Sheldon's phone buzzed. He checked it and found an email.

"Well, this is ridiculous. I know I turned in that book last week," he said. He looked up to see the others staring at him, curious. "The university says I have an overdue book. No matter, I'll take care of it tomorrow." He replaced his phone in his pocket.

"So, that girl at lunch was pretty cute, huh, Sheldon?" Leonard asked.

"She displayed the ideal waist to hip ratio considered by our culture to be aesthetically pleasing, so, yes, I suppose you could say she was 'pretty cute,'" Sheldon replied.

"Plus, her hair was shiny," added Raj.

"Whose hair was shiny?" asked Penny as she set their drinks on the table.

"Some girl we saw at lunch today," Howard answered. "Sheldon was giving her the eye."

"Oh, really?" Penny looked at Sheldon.

Sheldon confusedly looked at Howard. "I'm not sure what you mean by that. Why would I physically remove my eye and give it to someone? Your comment makes no sense."

"Not your actual eye, Sweetie. He means that you were looking at her like you thought she was hot," said Penny. "I'm sure that must have been interesting to see," she commented to the others.

"Oh yeah," said Leonard. "I'm sure Amy would be jealous if she had seen it."

"Why would Amy be jealous? How many times do I have to tell you? Amy is a girl and she is my friend, but she is not my girlfriend. There is no reason for her to get jealous over my looking at an attractive woman."

"Dude, you just admitted it! You think she's hot!" quipped Raj.

"Well, yes, I said that earlier. Were you not listening? Good Lord! It's like I'm hanging out with Neanderthals." Sheldon shook his head and took a drink of his lemonade.

"Well, I met someone today too," Penny announced. "There was this cute guy at the comic book store and -"

"You went to the comic book store?" Leonard asked in awe. "Alone?"

"Yeah. I needed something. Anyway, I met this guy there and he asked me out. We're going to see some Spider-Man marathon tomorrow night."

"That's cool," said Leonard, trying his best to not sound jealous.

"Yeah," Penny said. "The only problem is that I kinda told him that I'm a big Spider-Man fan and now he wants to talk about the comic books and stuff and I don't know what to do. Any ideas?"

"You could always read the comic books," Sheldon suggested. "But, you can't borrow mine. Leonard would probably lend you his, as he's always trying to find new ways to get you to once again engage in coitus with him."

"How many of them are there?" Penny asked, ignoring Sheldon's comment.

"Over 1,000," Leonard said.

Penny looked at Sheldon like he was insane. "You expect me to read 1,000 comic books in one night? Um, no."

Sheldon just shrugged his shoulders.

Raj took a sip of his beer and said, "Wikipedia?"

"That's a little more my style, but how will I remember all of it? I want to sound like I know what I'm talking about."

They thought about Penny's problems while she went to check on their food in the kitchen and refill drinks at another table. When she returned with their food, Howard said, "We've been brainstorming, and I think I have an idea."

A/N – This takes place in the fall of 2011, after the episode "The Ornithophobia Diffusion," so Avengers vs. X-Men had not come out yet. Also, I don't read many comic books, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit vague on details.

This is only my second fic and my first chapter fic. Part 1 will continue in the next chapter. Thanks for reading.