A/N: I know that UCLA does not offer an early childhood development program. However, it's conducive to this story that the school be UCLA. Thank you for understanding.

"Mia's in her room streaming a TV show if you want to join her," Sheldon Cooper encouraged as he welcomed his best friends and their nephew into his home.

The tall boy was about to chime in with his signature "uhh," but Penny - thankfully - came to his rescue. "Sheldon, sweetie, that's not a thing that's allowed to happen," she said as she sat on the arm of the chair.

"Oh," Sheldon gasped after the moment had already passed. "Well, I'll go get her then."

Luke sighed in relief as the scientist slipped into the hallway. His palms had been sweating almost profusely since she slammed her door shut last night.

He jumped when he felt his uncle's hand pat him on the shoulder. "Sorry about that, buddy. His understanding is magnificent, but limited."

"It's fine," he chuckled, starting to feel the tiniest bit of comfort return to his system.

Noting that there were no seats left, save for a seemingly reserved couch cushion, he decided to take a seat on the floor. Doing his best not to directly stare at any one individual, he took into account all the people in the room. There was his Uncle Leonard and Aunt Penny sharing a chair and its arm, respectively. On the occupied end of the couch sat a man in a short-sleeved collar shirt with an argyle sweater vest. That must have been Raj. His skin was dark in contrast to his teeth, which were all smiles as he chatted with the woman beside him. That must have been Amy, and Luke immediately knew she was Mia's mother. Her eyes were the same shade of green and her chin came to that same point.

"So, Luke," Amy spoke, disrupting his evaluation. "Mia tells me you're UCLA-bound?"

His heart rate sped up at the thought of Mia talking about him. God, he didn't know a single thing about her, but he was so intrigued. Oh right, she asked a question. Answer her, ballface. "Yes, ma'am."

She smiled down at him. It was the same smile that Mia had given him last night. Oh come on, ballface, it's not like you've never seen a pretty girl smile before.

"So what are you studying?" Penny inquired, taking a bite of her food as she talked. He secretly hated it.

"Early childhood development," he sighed, expecting the worst. "I'd like to be involved in special education for kids with cognitive impairment."

He held his breath. He should have just lied and said podiatry or something. And then the most magnificent thing happened.

"That's great, dude!"

Luke's head shot up. "Seriously?" he asked, clawing at the floor beneath him. "You don't want to invalidate it from an evolutionary viewpoint?"

Penny rolled her eyes and glared at Leonard. "It's great that your mom is out there spreading joy in so many people's lives," she quipped.

Leonard smiled sheepishly at his nephew. "Sorry you didn't get a cookie-baking grandmother," he apologized. "But if it helps, we think it's cool what you're doing."

Luke felt like his teeth were going to break from smiling so much, but he just couldn't stop. "No one's ever really said that to me before."

His smile faded as he felt four pairs of eyes looking down on him with pity.

Amy was the first to try to lighten the mood. "So what got you interested in special education?"

Luke was happy to take the bait. "Well, I've always known that I wanted to teach, but I have this strange level of patience for special needs kids," he rambled, becoming lost in his thoughts. "This obviously isn't true for all kids because everybody's different, but from what I've seen, these kids feel all of their emotions like... ten times stronger than people who are considered 'normal'."

Luke was so far gone he didn't even notice Sheldon return. He didn't even notice that Mia was sitting next to him on the floor. No one had ever asked him about his interest in special education. And he wasn't done yet. "So when they're sad, they're extremely sad, but when they're happy... it just radiates off of them, you know?" He was practically jumping. "And they're so happy when they learn, so I wanna be the one to teach them."

He didn't notice he was breathing so heavily until he caught not four, but five people now staring back at him, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. Sheldon was just staring at him with curiosity at most, perplexed by the newcomer who'd temporarily altered the paradigm of Thai food night.

"Oh my God, that was the cutest thing I've ever seen," Penny whispered. "Leonard, make him do it again."

Luke could feel every part of his body heating up. Even his calves were a bright cherry red. God, he needed a distraction. "So what are you studying, Mia?"

Sheldon answered for her. "Mia will be majoring in biophysics," he answered gleefully, picking at his food.

Well, of course she was a scientist. He had heard so much about Sheldon's work in theoretical physics and Amy's work in neurobiology. It was incredible that one family could have so much intelligence. Luke turned to Mia to ask her a question about the field, but caught her furrowing her brow at Leonard. Luke kept silent as he watched his uncle's eyes pop out of his head while the young girl mouthed back something that appeared to be "not now."

Luke was all too familiar with that exchange.

Mia was most certainly not studying biophysics.

The conversation around him slowly turned to talk of the apparently missing Howard and Bernadette. Luke watched inquisitively as Mia silently excused herself to the kitchen. He had to talk to that girl more, he just had to. After thirty seconds, he wordlessly followed her into the secluded area.

"You're not studying biophysics," he said, placing both of his hands on the wooden counter top.

She didn't even look up at him as she poured water from a pitcher into a crystal glass. "Keep your voice down," she said nonchalantly. "He has Vulcan hearing."

He leaned in closer. "Who?" he whispered.

"Take a look around you," she replied, returning the pitcher to the refrigerator.

He raised his head and immediately locked eyes with one Dr. Sheldon Cooper. He was staring at them from across the room. Well, he was staring at Luke. But whatever the case, he was definitely looking their way.

"That's... um..." he started.

"Yeah," she finished, lightly squeezing his forearm and returning to the living room.

Luke stood frozen to his spot as electricity bolted through the entire area where she touched him. All his life, Luke had been told that he was an open book. But Mia just didn't seem like she wanted to read him. So now, not only was she a mystery to him. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was a mystery to someone else. And he wanted to know more about this girl. And he wanted to tell her about himself all the same.

He returned to the living room to see her sitting on the arm of the couch by her dad. Luke sat back down on the floor and wished that she would look his way.

"So, Luke?" Raj asked as the young boy made himself comfortable. "You're much taller than your uncle."

Luke smiled. "Yeah, I've gotten that a lot lately."

Leonard huffed in annoyance. "His dad is eight inches taller than me!"

Penny leaned into him and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "Oh, honey, eight inches is not all it's cracked up to be."

Luke desperately wanted to laugh, but stifled it when he caught Sheldon shooting daggers at the blonde. "Well in Uncle Leonard's defense, my mom is pretty tall, too."

"Mia's height is all from her father," Amy said, adjusting the glasses on her face. "If I didn't push her out of me, I would honestly think she was a clone he created in a lab."

"What can I say?" Mia retorted, flipping her long chestnut hair over her shoulder. "These limbs were made for ballin'."

Leonard snorted. "Is that what they call being president of the national honor society these days?"

"Oh shut up!" Mia shouted through her laughter, almost falling off the arm of the couch.

Luke was absolutely awestruck by this group of people. He watched Sheldon wrap his arms around his daughter's waist to keep her from falling and realized he couldn't remember the last time his dad showed any affection towards him. He watched his uncle kiss his aunt on the cheek and thought back to the time where he told his girlfriend of five years that he loved her, and she dumped him right on the spot. He watched Raj whisper something in Amy's hear and he watched her laugh in response. They were all laughing. And they all... cared about each other.

Why weren't there any Thai food nights in New Jersey?

His chest tightened. Was this what he'd been missing out on for eighteen years? Was this how real families acted? Was this how real friends acted? He needed air. Taking one last look around, he slipped out of 4A and into the hallway. He leaned his back against the wall and ran a hand through his hair. Get it together, ballface. You're a grown man.

"Are you okay?"

Luke snapped back to reality when he heard her voice. When had she entered the hallway? She was like a cat. A lanky, mysterious cat. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine."

She nodded her head as a smile slowly spread across her face. "Good." He gulped as she leaned in closer to him. "History," she whispered in his ear.

"W-what's history?" he stuttered as she pulled away.

"My major," she replied.

Luke couldn't stop himself from grinning like the Cheshire cat. He had uncovered the first mystery of Mia Cooper. He felt the blood rush to his head as she let out one of those wonderful giggles like she did on the stairwell last night.

"Do you wanna come back in?" she asked, pointing to the door. "We always play Jenga on Thai food night... But of course it's a severely outdated game and you don't have to join us if you don't want to," pulling at the hem of her pale yellow sweatshirt jacket.

Luke wanted to say yes, he really did. He desperately did. But he also felt like he was going to throw up. "Oh, I'd love to, but... but I think I'm just gonna... um. I'm just gonna lie down early."

Mia looked down at her sock-clad feet and played with her ear. "All right, well. Goodnight, then," she said, turning to the door.

Come on. Step up, ballface. "Wait. Mia?" He felt like he got the wind kicked out of him when her forest green eyes met his again. "Um. C-could I maybe text you later?"

She flashed all her teeth in a brilliant smile and all his anxiety melted away. She reached into her pocket, closed the distance between them, and pressed a small slip of paper into his palm.

"It's a receipt," she explained. "My number's on it."

And then she was gone. All right. Time to evaluate the situation. He knew three more things about Mia Cooper than he did last night. She liked history. She purchased a throw blanket from Target on January 4, 2014. And her phone number was his new favorite number.

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Next chapter: Texting