So I'm trying to write something that doesn't promote any of the possible pairings on this show. Oh, I'm still a hard-core Leonard/Penny fan, but I thought I'd write something showing the fivesome as friends. I'm working on another, Christmas-themed friendship fic, but this one is easier to organize so I thought I'd start to publish it first.
DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely NADA!
When Penny finished explaining what she'd signed herself and the guys up for, there was a silence for a long moment. She'd expected that; she knew they hadn't expected this when she said she had been looking for something for them to do together.
"On actual horses?" Sheldon asked in surprise, breaking the silence.
"Have you ever actually ridden one of those things before?" Leonard asked Penny, who'd suggested the whole thing.
"I grew up on a farm," Penny responded. "I owned one of those things before. Actually, my dad's still got him at the ranch. His name is Buster."
"Not relevant to the situation, but noted," said Sheldon from his desk chair.
"Anyways, what's the big deal? We'd just be walking. It's not like I've planned a gung-ho cattle drive with us riding horses like the Black."
"Who?" Howard asked.
"From the children's books about…never mind." Penny shook her head. "I read into the place; it's a two hour ride in the country at a walk, on well-trained trail horses."
"Explain again why you want us to do this?" Leonard requested.
Penny sighed. "Come on, guys. I've spent years living in your world, and I want to us to do something from mine. Come on, it's just a few hours on Thursday, which is, as you've told me, Anything Can Happen Thursday."
"Well, count me in then," Leonard said. "It'll be exciting."
"Good. Raj, Howard, Sheldon?" Penny looked at them. "How about it?"
Raj leaned over, and Howard listened patiently. "You think it'd be exciting?" He questioned. "Are you crazy?"
"Come on, Howard," Penny said. "It'll be like in the Star Wars movie, when they were in the execution ring and started to ride the Reek around the arena?"
Four heads turned abruptly to look at her. "What?" she asked after a moment.
"Nothing," Leonard, Sheldon, and Howard said at the same time that Raj shrugged.
At her words, Howard had put on a thoughtful expression. "That part was cool, I'm in!"
"I'm not."
Four head turned abruptly again. "Okay," Penny said. "Why not?"
Sheldon looked at her like she was crazy. "I do not even like to pilot a car, an object with no means of thinking or reason. What makes you think I'm going to clamber aboard the back of an animal with a mentality of its own, primitive as it may be?"
"They don't have horses in Texas or something?" She asked.
"They do. I had enough of them by the time I was four."
"Sheldon," Leonard said with a hint of exasperation, "what if we-"
"May I also mention how unpredictable those creatures are? My brother rode those things and they just about broke his back!"
"These are trail horses," Penny said. "They're the sweetest things ever. They aren't wild or the type to buck you off."
"As I've mentioned many times, no one ever thinks it'll happen until it does, and this is no cannibalism theory, Penny. This is an animal that is generally accepted to be dangerous, prone to biting, kicking, and making attempts to remove it's rider from its back."
"Ugh." Penny rolled her eyes. "If you go on this ride I've arranged, I promise I'll drive you to work, pottery barn, the comic book store…anywhere you want, when Leonard begins working nights again next week." Although Sheldon could drive, and had proven this on occasion, he hated every second he was behind the wheel, and Penny was relying on his aversion to piloting motorized vehicles in making her bargain.
Sheldon thought for a second. "Fair enough."
"Great." Penny couldn't help grinning. For months she'd been searching for something that they could all do together, and when Bernadette had mentioned a trail riding place she'd gone to with their friend Rachel, Penny's old horseback riding memories surfaced and she called the place up, eager to introduce the guys to something new. She was pleasantly surprised that they-even Sheldon-had agreed so easily. She looked over at the theoretical physicist, not surprised at what she saw.
The wackadoodle was already online, trying to learn horseback riding.
I was thinking about how Penny's going to their physics bowl things, and playing their games like Mystic Warlords of Ka-a, and how they don't do stuff she does. Now, I don't know if she rides horses, but I thought about the stuff that I do, (since I'll know about it enough to write for!) and I tried to make a story out of one of those things. Let me know what you think, I really do pay attention to reviews.
Oh, and for those of you waiting for more of The Third Party Accumulation, it's coming, but I need to spend more time proofing the next chapter before it goes up.