Leonard and Penny ended up attending the same elementary school, middle school, and high school, albeit they were in different grades. Penny struggled noticeably more than Leonard did with academics, and Leonard struggled noticeably more than Penny did with athletics. Throughout their educational careers, they stayed best friends, one going over to the other person's house a few times a day. They would also sit together during lunch, when Leonard didn't have a debate to go to, or a meeting to attend. He was always busier than her, pursuing as many extracurricular activities as he could. The time that they didn't spend with each other during school hours, they would spend together when they walked home, or afterschool, when Penny, currently a freshman, would go over to the Hofstadter household to get tutoring from Leonard, who was a sophomore.

"So all you do is plug this number and this variable into your calculator, and you get your answer. And then simplify, if you need to."

"Is that all?" Leonard nodded. "Well that's not hard. I don't know why I can't get it when the teacher explains it." She smiled at him. "Thanks, Leonard."

"Sure, no problem."

Penny looked at Leonard, who had gone back to working on his own homework. She was hesitant to speak, because the topic she was going to bring up wasn't something that Leonard wanted to talk about. But she knew she had to.

She took a deep breath. "Hey, Leonard?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"Um, I know you probably don't want to talk about this, but—" Leonard looked up at her. "That school bully…"

"Penny."

"Just hear me out. I-I think you should tell the principal about him."

"Penny, I appreciate your concern, but he'd probably kill me if I did."

"Well, it's not like you're the only person he pushes around," she tried to reason with him.

"Okay then, he'd probably kill me and ten other people."

"Leonard…"

"Seriously, Penny, you don't have to worry about it. I'm fine. I can deal with it. It's not the first time I've been beat up or picked on by the school bully."

"But I can't just look and watch him push you around!" Penny protested.

"Well then, don't look," he shrugged and continued writing.

"Leonard!" She slapped his arm, causing him to drop his pen.

"Ow! What?" Leonard rubbed his arm. She glared at him and crossed her arms. He could tell that she was dead serious, so he sighed. "Okay look, I would love nothing more than to tell someone about him so the bullying can stop. But I'm not a coward. And I sure hope you don't think I'm a cowardly tattle-tale."

Penny knew she was defeated after he said that. She sighed, "All right, fine. But don't think I'm going to stop worrying about you."

"I won't. I know you'd probably kill me if I did." He grinned at her teasingly.

Leonard tried to avoid eye contact as he walked quickly toward the cafeteria. Nevertheless, he still heard, "Give me your money, punk," behind him.

He knew it probably wasn't the best thing to do, but he continued walking, acting as if he didn't hear him. It only resulted in him being shoved around and louder yelling.

"I said, give me your money, nerd."

"Sorry, I was planning on using it."

"Don't get smart with me, four-eyes." He grabbed Leonard by his hood and tossed him to the ground.

Penny had just walked into the cafeteria when she saw what was happening. She opened her chocolate milk carton and quickly walked over to Leonard. She stood on the bench behind the bully and poured milk over his head.

"Hey! What the hell?" His yelling caught everyone's attention, and the entire room erupted in laughter.

"Oops! Sorry about that." Penny said.

He sneered at her and ran out of the room. Penny jumped off the bench and held out her hand to help Leonard up.

"Thanks, Penny. You didn't have to do that, though."

She shrugged. "I wanted to. It was kinda fun, anyway."

Penny sighed in exhaustion and flopped down onto her bed. She didn't feel like sitting up and taking off her shoes, so she kicked them off and they flew to the opposite side of the room. She turned her head to the side to check the time. Her eye caught a picture frame that sat to the right of her alarm clock.

It was a picture of her and Leonard. Leonard had given it to her on her birthday one year. The frame had flowers and butterflies, and the top of the frame read, "Best Friends." It still made her smile every time she looked it. Leonard was holding Penny so close, their cheeks were touching. Penny could see Leonard was blushing slightly. She'd learned very quickly that he was extremely shy around girls, even Penny, who he'd been friends with for years. Whenever he told her about some girl at school that he found, to use his words, "sort of nice," he was far too shy to talk to her. Penny had tried to "train" him by making him practice on her, but he was still hopelessly shy and awkward.

She had just gotten up and flipped off the light when she heard a tapping at her window. She walked over and opened it when she saw Leonard waving at her.

"Hey, Leonard." She grabbed his hand and helped him inside. "What are you doing here?"

"Look." He pointed out her window.

"What?"

"The night sky's perfect tonight. There are no clouds in sight. Come here." He brought her to the window and took her hand. He put her finger on Sirius and drew out a constellation.

Her hand dropped to her lap, and she tilted her head as she tried to figure out what he was showing her. "What's that?"

"It's Canis Major. The dog in the sky. I know it took a while, but I promised I would show it to you one day."

Penny looked at Leonard, the moon illuminating both their faces in the dark environment. "You remembered?" She smiled. "That was like six years ago."

"Well, I don't have any kind of photographic memory, but I can remember a few special things."

Penny wrapped her hand around his arm. "You're really awesome."

Penny stood at the corner of the sidewalk, leaning on the pole of the streetlight. She was waiting for Leonard to meet her so they could walk home together, like they did everyday. The routine had started when they were quite young, when Penny told Leonard that she was kind of afraid to walk home by herself. He'd told her then that he would walk with her and protect her.

Leonard walked toward the sidewalk, his backpack slung over his left shoulder, and his right hand carrying books. Penny smiled when she saw him approaching.

"Leonard! Guess what?"

"What?"

She pulled out a small bouquet of red roses from her backpack and showed them to Leonard. He raised his eyebrows at her in confusion and pointed at the roses. "These aren't for me, are they?"

She giggled and punched his arm. "No, silly." They began to walk away from the school. "I got asked to winter formal!"

Leonard was caught slightly off-guard, even though he should have expected something like this to happen eventually.

"Oh, that—that's nice. By who?"

"By Jeremy Morgan." She smiled and held the flowers up to her nose to smell them.

Leonard nodded slowly. "He's a nice guy."

"He is. Are you going to ask anyone?"

"Huh? Oh, uh…no. I have a tournament that night."

"Oh, that's right. I forgot." She frowned slightly. "Aw, I wish you could come too! It'd be so much fun! And I'd probably feel more comfortable if you were there."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," he reassured her.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm not big on this whole independence thing. You know that." There was a silent pause between the two of them as they arrived home. "So, you wanna hang out a little?"

"Uh, actually, my sister was supposed to drop by today, so I was planning on spending some time with her."

"Oh, okay. We can hang out another time, then. See you later! Tell your sister hi for me!"

"Will do."

Leonard walked into his room and found his sister sitting on his bed, waiting for him.

"Hey, Leonard."

"Hi, Ally." Leonard gave his sister a quick hug. He sat down next to her.

"So, what's new with Leonard and Penny?" She winked at him.

"Stop saying it like that. And stop winking at me!"

"Fine. Spoilsport." She squeezed his shoulder teasingly. "Anyway, last time we talked, you said she stood up for you against that school bully. So anything new happen since then?"

"Well, she just told me today that she got asked to the winter formal dance." Allison tilted her head and concentrated on Leonard's face. "It shouldn't bother me, but…I don't know. It kinda does. Maybe I've become that overprotective friend type." He shrugged. "I guess it'll pass."

Allison didn't bother being subtle. "Or maybe you have a crush on her."

"What?" Leonard scoffed. "On Penny? Uh, ha, yeah. I don't think so. I mean, we've been friends for over six years."

She nudged his arm. "Oh come on, you can't deny that she's pretty attractive."

"I-I'm not denying that. I'm just denying the possibility that I might have a…crush on her. That's all." Allison raised her eyebrows at him. He glared at her. "Can we stop talking about this now? Weren't you going to take me to dinner or something?"

"It's three o'clock, Leonard."

"Well, fine, how about a snack?"

"Leonard…"

"I'm not gonna talk about Penny anymore. So either you take me out somewhere, or we sit here in silence until dinner." Leonard crossed his arms.

"O-kay," Allison replied in a singsong voice. "Let's go get some take-out, then." When she pinched Leonard's cheek, he slapped her hand away in protest.

Penny felt nervous for Leonard, but she had no idea why. Leonard had gone off to take his driving test, and she wished him good luck about fifteen times before he left. She sat in her room, twiddling her thumbs and staring out the window, waiting for him to come back. She absentmindedly stared at the sky, estimating where certain constellations were. She'd lay awake most nights, staring out of the window, picturing the dog and bear and person in the sky.

The sound of a car pulling up snapped her out of her daydream and she rushed downstairs when she saw it was Leonard's car.

She excitedly ran up to him, asking, "Did ya pass? Did ya pass?" But she stopped when he walked up to her, a dejected look on his face. "Aww, Leonard." She leaned in to hug him, when he suddenly broke out in a smile.

"I passed!"

"Wha—Leonard!" Penny slapped his arm.

"I had you going, didn't I?" Leonard smiled.

"You suck," she responded teasingly.

"I know, I do." He held up a piece of paper from the driving test. "The judge said that I was one of the safest drivers she's ever tested!"

"That's awesome! You need to teach me how to drive, then." Penny smiled and gave his hand a squeeze.

A couple weeks had passed by, as winter formal approached closer and closer. Penny had picked out a dress with her mother, immediately trying it on and showing Leonard as soon as she got home.

"What do you think?" She spun around in front of him.

A suddenly breathless Leonard replied, "You look amazing."

The night before winter formal, Leonard was scheduled to attend a pre-tournament meeting down in another city. His mother let him drive himself, as she trusted that he would drive safely and carefully, which he did end up doing. Leonard wished that Penny would come with him, because it was an hour-long drive, but it was much too late at night, and he didn't want to bother her.

Penny in her dress and the upcoming dance stayed on his mind throughout the meeting, and Leonard's teammates had to constantly snap him out of his reveries. After the third time they told him to concentrate, he figured he'd better let it go, or he's not going to do so well the following night. So he did, as difficult as it was.

Penny woke up the day of the dance with a big smile on her face, ecstatic about the upcoming night. She walked to school alone that morning, because Leonard told her that he was supposed to leave for school earlier than they usually did to attend one last meeting with his tournament buddies. She was slightly gloomy about it, since they always walk together, but figured she could make up that lost time with him at school.

She walked into her first period and sat down in the front row, saving a seat next to her for Leonard. She was surprised she'd come before him, since he usually comes to class before her. But when the bell rang, and he still wasn't in his seat, she looked around the class, to see if he was sitting somewhere else. When the teacher called attendance, and passed by Leonard's name with no response from him, she assumed that he was running late for some reason.

The class started, and Penny couldn't stop glancing over at Leonard's seat. As more and more time passed by, and she went to her second, third, fourth period, she got increasingly worried. Leonard never missed a school day, even if he was physically ill.

Afterschool, she waited at the sidewalk, by the pole, until there was almost no one left at school. He never came. Penny ended up walking home alone, now feeling sick to her stomach. Halfway to her destination, she ran home, as fast as she could, to see where Leonard was.

She went into her house with a fast, "Hi mom, hi dad," dropped off her backpack, and was about to run next door, until her parents stopped her.

"Penny, hang on a second!"

"What is it? I have to go next door, Leonard wasn't at school today."

"Yeah, that's what we want to talk to you about." Penny's heart pounded as she assumed the worst. "Leonard got into a car accident last night. His parents called us to let you know."

Penny wanted to scream What? Is he okay? But nothing came out of her mouth. Her parents saw the fear in her eyes, and immediately tried to reassure her.

"But they said he's doing okay. He's not badly injured or anything—" her father quickly added.

"Where is he?" Penny practically screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Still in the hospital. I'll take you there." Her mother grabbed her car keys and led Penny out the door.

Penny felt that the ten-minute drive to the hospital was the longest drive of her life. Even though her mother next to her kept telling her that he was fine, she was still worried sick. She tried to hold back her tears, but a lump soon formed in her throat and her stomach, and she felt worse than before. Defeated, she let a few tears fall, but wiped them away quickly with the back of her sleeve. She wanted to be strong, for Leonard, but it wasn't working out too well.

"Penny…"

"I'm fine, mom. Just get me to the hospital," she unintentionally snapped.

"But Penny, I just want to make you feel better. Trust me, he's fine."

She sniffled. "I'll know that when I see him."

Penny leaped out of the car when they arrived and ran into the hospital. When the nurse directed her to Leonard's room, she ran toward it, wanting to scream his name. But she stayed quiet, because she didn't want to scare him.

Penny stood outside his door and knocked gently. She heard Leonard say, "Come in?" And she entered.

"Oh. Penny. Hi."

"Hi Leonard." Her voice was shaky, and she tried to blink away tears.

He was sitting up in bed, his left arm in a cast, and a few scratches on his face. He didn't talk very loudly, he didn't move very much, and his face appeared beyond tired.

In reality, he wasn't that badly injured. But to Penny, seeing her best friend lie helplessly in a hospital bed was like the end of the world.

"Uh, sorry I wasn't at school today." Penny let a few tears fall, which made Leonard worried. "Wh—why are you crying? Don't cry. Please don't cry. Look, I'm fine!" He smiled at her, which only made her cry harder. "Penny…please, I don't like it when you cry."

She sniffled and wiped away tears. "I know. I was just so scared."

"I'm sorry I scared you…but really, I'm fine. Heck, I could probably get out of this place by today!" Penny shook her head and smiled. "Okay, not really. But I feel like I could!"

Penny pulled a chair next to the bed and held Leonard's uninjured arm. "Th-the doctor told me that you were hit by someone who ran a red light." Leonard nodded. "And that you broke your arm and a couple ribs, a-and you went into shock."

"Oh. He told you all of that?" Leonard wished she hadn't known so much, since it meant that Penny would be even more worried than he wanted her to be.

She nodded. "And then I asked him what shock meant, and he said that all I really needed to know is that it was caused by the accident and that you'd be in a lot of pain and kinda out of it." Leonard nodded slowly in response. "So you're not really as fine as you say you are…are you?"

"Well, sort of. Shock only lasts for a few days in most cases, and I'm already feeling better than I was when I got here…so there's no need to worry."

Penny stroked his arm and stared into his eyes as they talked for the next few hours. When Leonard finally glanced at the clock, it was seven o'clock in the evening.

"Wait, Penny, isn't tonight winter formal?"

"Oh, yeah…it is."

There was a short silence before Leonard spoke again. He blinked at her. "…Aren't you supposed to be there?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"Then what are you still sitting here for?"

"I'd rather stay with you."

Another day passed by, and Leonard was still sitting in the same hospital bed. We just need to monitor you for a bit, the doctor said. He was getting bored flipping through channels to the television that was sitting in front of him, which he'd been doing for the past three hours. Penny was still at school, and wouldn't be back for another hour. She'd told him about how Jeremy responded when she didn't show up at winter formal.

"He was pretty pissed when he first saw me, but when I told him about what happened, he seemed okay with it." Penny nodded. "I mean, he still wasn't happy that I kinda stood him up, but he wasn't furious or anything."

The rest of his family was busy doing their own thing as well, work and school. Leonard wished he were sitting in sixth period chemistry instead of watching nurses walk in and out of his room, constantly asking him how he felt and adjusting his bandages and giving him food and water.

Leonard clicked the channel changer on the remote a few more times before settling on a show that was talking about computers. He'd just dozed off when Penny swooped into the room with a, "Hello there, Leonard!"

It startled him awake, and his movements caused him to clutch his stomach painfully. He tried to blow off the pain as nothing, but wasn't very successful.

"H-hii-ii, Penny."

She rushed over to his side. "Oh god, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. I thought you were awake."

"No, no. It's fine. I'm fine." He smiled. "So what's up?"

"Um, well, I got your homework."

"Oh, thanks! Finally I have something productive to do in here. I was getting sick of TV."

Penny sat her backpack on the bed and opened it. "And I got you this." She pulled out a white teddy bear that was holding a heart and sat it next to Leonard.

"Oh, th-that's really sweet of you." He held the bear in his right hand and squeezed it slightly. Sewed into the heart were the words Get Well Soon. "Thanks, Penny."

Once he was finally out of the hospital, Penny was over at the Hofstadter house almost 24/7, taking care of Leonard while his parents were too busy to even look at him.

"Here you go, Leonard." She handed him a glass of water.

"Thanks, Penny." He took a sip of water. "And thanks for staying with me and helping me with…" He lifted his cast. "You know."

"It's no problem." Penny sat in a more comfortable position on Leonard's bed. "Hey, Leonard…have you ever broken a bone before? Or got really injured?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Um, yeah. I broke my collarbone once when I was pretty young. Why do you ask?"

"Did your parents help you out when you did?" Leonard realized where this was going and bit his lip and looked down at his cup of water. "I mean, did they take care of you?"

"Well, to be completely honest, no." Penny's eyes got sadder. "But it's never really been a big deal to me. They're not the most caring parents in the world, if you haven't noticed," he chuckled.

Penny had a million more questions to ask Leonard, like, what is their problem? Or how did someone so sweet like you end up with them? But she tried to avoid the topic in fear of possibly offending him, and instead sat closer to Leonard and hugged him.

Leonard continued to excel in his studies while Penny was only grasping onto "slightly above average," thanks to Leonard's tutoring. Much to Leonard's surprise, but much to Penny's expectations, he had a chance to graduate early.

Penny congratulated him, excitedly bouncing up and down when he told her that he could skip a year and a half of high school. When he was accepted to one of the most prestigious universities in the nation, Penny continued to shower him with excitement and hugs.

"I never expected less of you," she told him one day. He could only blush modestly.

His first year in college, he stayed at home, because he wasn't ready to leave Penny yet, and Penny told him she wasn't ready to live without him. But once his schedule got busier and busier, he was forced to live in a dorm at school, which meant that he would always be at least an hour away from Penny. Two years after Leonard graduated, Penny was finally a senior at her high school, and Leonard was a junior in college.

"Hey, Penny," one of her friends called out.

"Hey, Sara."

Penny sat alone, in a corner of the school, playing with her lunch instead of eating it. She'd been much more gloomy ever since Leonard left, and it showed. Her persistent misery was reflected in her studies and social interactions. She tried to distract herself with whatever she could find, but it never worked. She would always call him to chat, but it wasn't the same as seeing him.

"You okay?" Sara sat down next to Penny.

Penny shrugged. "I don't know why I miss him so much. I mean, I still talk to him all the time. I can visit him over the weekends. But it's just not the same. It's like I need to see his face all the time. …Is that weird?"

"Not really. Not if you're really into the guy."

Penny looked up at her friend. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. Maybe you're…attracted to him."

She laughed uncomfortably and shook her head. "No. Really? No…I mean he's my best friend, but he's not really my type. Is he?"

Sara raised an eyebrow at her and smiled. "Oh come on, Penny. Do you really have a type?"

She shook her head. "I guess not. But…we've been friends since forever. I've never thought of him as a possible…boyfriend."

Leonard sat on his bed, pen in mouth, book open on his lap, one hand tapping the page. He sighed in exhaustion, he'd already overworked his brain and it was only seven in the evening.

He closed his eyes, took the pen out of his mouth, and mumbled, "Stupid particles refusing to cooperate with me."

He unintentionally fell asleep in the same position, his head leaning against the wall behind him, his legs crossed underneath his books. Leonard was so exhausted, he didn't hear the knock at his door.

The unlocked door slowly opened, and Penny poked her head in the doorway. "Leonard?" she whispered. "Are you in here?"

She surveyed the room and found Leonard asleep on his bed. She nearly laughed out loud when she saw him dozed off, his mouth open. Penny tiptoed into the room and gently closed the door behind her.

She didn't want to scare him, but she couldn't resist sitting directly in front of him on his bed and calling out, "Hey, Leonard!" He opened his eyes slowly, and saw her staring at him. He screamed and threw his pen in the air, which flew to another part of his room. Penny doubled over in laughter as an out-of-breath Leonard tried to recover from her scare.

"What did you do that for?" He was initially irritated, but started laughing after seeing Penny in her fit of laughter.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. You looked so cute sleeping like that." She grinned, and only became aware of what she said a few seconds later. As for Leonard, everything went right over his head.

"Well, you're gonna kill me one day if you keep scaring me like that." Penny giggled. "What are you doing here? You usually don't come on the weekdays."

"I know, but I wanted to see you." She twisted her sleeve in her hand. "I miss you."

"Yeah, I miss you too, Penny."

Her eyes and smile brightened as they stared at each other for a good thirty seconds. Leonard was the first to break the silence.

"Uh, so—hey." He checked his watch. "It's seven o'clock, have you had anything to eat yet?" She shook her head. "All right then, let's go and grab some dinner."

They went to the campus restaurant and ordered the same meal. They sat down across from each other at a table in the corner of the restaurant. There weren't many people around, so they didn't have to worry about not having a peaceful dinner.

"So, what's been going on at school? Anything exciting?" Leonard asked as he munched on a carrot from his salad.

"Mm, well, not really. It's been pretty boring at school, especially without you."

"I'm sure it hasn't been that boring."

Penny looked up to the ceiling, thinking. "No, it's been pretty boring." He laughed and smiled at her. "I wish you didn't have to leave."

"Me too."

Penny looked into Leonard's eyes. They were kind, and welcoming, and could probably melt your heart if you stared into them long enough. She noticed that her own heart seemed to beat just a couple steps faster than it usually did when she was around him, and it scared her, because she didn't know why. But she wasn't sure if she wanted to know why, either.

When Penny got back home, she lay in bed, in complete darkness, staring at the ceiling. She turned her head, picked up the picture of her and Leonard off her nightstand, and began staring at that instead. As the moonlight shined through her window, she could see the photo clearly. It was taken a few years ago, but neither of them had changed very much. Leonard still had his big, carefree grin, and Penny had her sweet, content smile.

She sighed as she laid the picture against her chest. A crush? Really? It can't be. At least, I don't think so.

When she started to think about all that they had gone through together, Penny began to see how different Leonard was from all the other guys that she knew. He really stood out, and not in a good or bad way. Just in a different way. He was genuinely sweeter and kinder. But also more stoic, in the way that he never seemed to show his pain or suffering, and therefore never seemed to complain about anything, even though she knew he went through so much.