This was it... Amy was certain of it. This trip, between her and her boyfriend, was going to be the opportunity she had been waiting for to get some attention from Sheldon. Sure, she loved where it was now, and she supposed the pace was tolerable...it was tolerable if it made Sheldon comfortable. As long as he was happy, happy to be with her and declare himself the boyfriend and her, the girlfriend, then she was happy too. But how she craved for intimacy, more romance, and most of all, some comfort and stability. Yes, they were definitely a stable couple- there was no doubt about that- but sometimes, she simply couldn't read Sheldon at all. Was he enjoying himself? Did he hate this relationship; was he doing it out of pity? Does he like it more than he puts on? Perhaps... maybe...if they were to spend some more time together and become close enough to the point of accepting intimacy into the relationship, then maybe Sheldon would feel more comfortable with himself. Of course she had said yes to the tickets...maybe a little too enthusiastically, she had to admit.
The night before, Amy had spent a good two hours helping Sheldon pack. That included attaching RFID stickers to each item, loading it to his laptop, choosing which science papers that he had written to take to Texas for his mom to read, choosing which science papers that he HADN'T written to take to Texas for his mom to read, putting them each individually in sheet protectors and putting RFID stickers on THOSE, scanning them to his computer, and then...deciding what needs to be put in his suitcase.
Yes, he literally put RFID stickers on virtually everything he could possibly need when travelling, and then used his computer to decide which ones were best suited for Texas climate as if the computer could do a better job than a Texan himself.
This morning, it took another hour for the two to decide and compromise on what Amy should bring- cut short an hour by Amy's insistence on keeping her personal belongings free of RFID stickers- and then another hour to decide on literally everything else, including whether or not Amy should get vaccinations for the sake of defending her immune system against the foreign, mostly exotic microorganisms found in Texas, yet not found in California.
They had both decided that sitting in any seat that wasn't located near the wings of the plane meant that they might as well write their wills and pick out their gravestones now, since the seats closest to the wings are the safest in the event of a crash. They were all occupied upon arrival and, despite fervent arguing and insisting that the other passengers relocate themselves to the back, all had been met with failure and they eventually had to take their seats towards the tail of the plane. There were no seatbelts, and Amy's chair was missing that little pamphlet telling you how to use the oxygen masks should they be necessary.
Suffice to say, getting from Pasadena, California to Houston, Texas proved itself to be a task meant for daredevils with a chaotic lust for a near death experience. In spite of this, Amy found herself filled with hype regardless of the journey once they'd finally landed and gotten off of that deathtrap waiting to happen.
"Oh, this looks nice," Amy thought aloud, causing Sheldon to redirect his attention toward what she was looking at. They had stopped just short of Mary's home to look at a quaint little store on the side of the road, upon Amy's request. The place was littered with mostly unusual, unneeded things that people would only really buy on a whim, such as hand-me-down clothes, key chains, shell necklaces, and some things Amy couldn't even name (they looked out of country.) What had caught Amy's eye, however, was not a bag of cheap rings or a Scooby doo baseball cap, but a very extravagant-looking gemstone necklace.
"That looks expensive," Sheldon sighed ominously. The shop, being small and mostly deserted, left the two being the only costumers in the shop. A man standing behind the purchase desk, who Amy assumed was the manager, was staring at them as if psychically willing them to buy something.
"Excuse me, how much would you say this necklace costs?" Sheldon asked while looking expectantly toward the awaiting salesman. He didn't quite answer, just squinted his eyes and scratched the stubble on his chin. "Hmmmm, uhh, well..." he mumbled as he did so, "It's not new. I'm not sure what the original price was either. How does $750 sound?"
It sounded like the scream of pain our empty wallets would be making after the decision to purchase.
"Sorry, we didn't bring enough money for that," Amy laughed nervously while Sheldon just looked pissed. "That's outrageous," he grumbled half as a private side comment to Amy, half as a loud complaint to the business man. "In hundreds of years, when artificial intelligence finally bites back on us and robots take over the human race, they'll look back on us and say "we took over a race that would lay down hundreds of dollars to buy pretty polished rocks on a string... was it really such an accomplishment to take out these numbskulls?" Amy laughed at the pure absurdity, but she secretly wondered if the necklace had actually cost thousands to begin with.
(Cut to next scene)
"What is it about women and jewelry?" Sheldon sighed as they walked together, hand in hand, down Sheldon's old neighborhood. His old home and Mary's current home was just down the street. Around Amy's neck was a very befitting necklace, black string coupled with a set of irregularly-shaped rosy jewels. It wasn't the necklace they were originally looking at, but one of the many hand-me-down necklaces the shop owner had on display. This one was actually fairly attractive, and it even looked handmade.
"Now, now, all the cool popular girls used to wear jewelry when I was in high school," Amy defended herself with a giant smile plastered on her face. She was so happy she bought the necklace that there was no way of ridding her smile from her face.
" 'high school,' " Sheldon snorted in a 'oh, that's cute, you actually had to go to high school' sort of way. "You know, you really missed out not going to high school. It's filled with so many new memories! I mean, you never got to experience the thrill of acceptance when the cool kids talked to you, or got to hang out with friends your own age when they invited you for a sleepover, or experience with alcohol for the first time." Amy's voice was dreamy and filled with wonder, her line of vision off and distant as if peering into the past rather than seeing the present.
But Amy had trouble admitting it to herself let alone to Sheldon- her childhood was cruelly deprived of such things. She had spent many an hour dreaming about the popular girls hanging out with her and inviting her into their posse when she was supposed to be taking notes on a lecture. She was never invited over to a sleepover though she yearned to be, although that one may be a blessing in disguise. She spent many late nights fascinated by the functions of the brain, and how it worked. She would read every book she could get her hands on about it, or articles, or even sections on the newspaper mentioning the field of science. She eventually stumbled upon the concept of neurobiology, something she liked the sound of.
Her first experience with alcohol had been during her teenage years, but not with friends as she had envisioned it. Not sneaking into a bar and making fake ID cards, and then hanging out in the street parking lots were they would drink and make fun of each other's drunkenness.
"Why would I want too?" Sheldon spoke with the same sort of disgust as he did when describing geologists. "I assure you any REAL physicist would much rather concern himself with the professional business of science, not that socializing malarkey."
They cut through a portion of the land that seemed hard-pressed to house any plant life, supporting only a few patches of misguided grass here and there until it slowly filled out into a grassy field. There were only a few trees within eyesight, one of them which they passed under the much-welcomed shade in order to make their way to Sheldon's mother's house.
"You might have thought differently had you actually gone through it," Amy put in weakly as she went over the events of her depressing childhood through her head. There was one girl that stuck out to her- Serena McKenzie, the queen bee and mastermind behind the most popular of girls at her high school. Tall, attractive, thin, perfect hourglass figure, perfect eyes, perfect nose, perfect face, perfect life... Her long, excessively poofy thick black hair was what every girl wished they had, along her hazel dough-eyes, button nose, and defined cheek bones, and she was the one who introduced wearing a hundred panda hairclips as a mainstream trend.
She imagined the day she could be 'one of them'- the cool type. Instead, they never even seemed to notice she existed. Oh well, she had come a long way since then, hadn't she? It was time she made herself known!
"I even keep up with some of my old high school peers over Facebook sometimes. In fact, I know one of them has since moved and doesn't live far from here. I think we should meet her," Amy offered. She was a bit shaky, but firm in her decision. Would Serena remember her?
"Here in Texas?" Sheldon asked, and Amy nodded. "Alright, if you're sure you-" he replied in confirmation, but before he could finish, the doors to Mary's home flew open causing them both to jump.
"Shelly!" She called from a distance, her voice making quite the impact for such a small lady. "I've been waiting for you to knock on the door! Quit with your chattering you two and come here!"
Sheldon and Amy, who had been standing around and talking just outside Mary's house, walked quietly to the door and entered her humble home. In the process, Sheldon stopped holding hands with her just before they entered. As soon as Amy had set foot into the home, she was welcomed with a blast of delicious aromas that had been accumulating in the living room for what she imagined was some time now. Nestled in the kitchen were stronger smells yet, mostly consisting of what smelt like tomato sauce, a faint smell of rough dough, and smoke rising from the stove.
Mary had her hair up in a bun, which definitely complimented her, along with an apron tied around her waist that sported a stitched apple pie on the front. "I saw you walking here but then you stopped and just stood there on my porch," Mary grumbled while Sheldon looked unphased. "We said we'd be here at 1:00 pm," Sheldon defended himself, and then checked his watch. "It's only 12:43 now."
Mary raised an eyebrow. "So you were going to stand there and just wait for 25 minutes?" Mary accused. Sheldon replied "yes" as a more formal substitution for the word "duh" while Amy tried to fend off a smile from crossing her face. Mary just sighed in exasperation for a response and then turned toward Amy. "Why, hello, Amy! I didn't know you were coming over as well, what a pleasant surprise! Would you like something to drink?" Mary chirped. Amy didn't know where to put her jacket, so she followed Sheldon's example with just tossing it on the arm support of the couch. She placed hers on top of his.
"A glass of water would be nice," Amy replied. After trudging through the Texan heat, a glass of water actually sounded really good. "And don't get it from the tap," Sheldon lectured his mother for her. He walked into the kitchen like a cub walking outside of its den for the first time- tentatively and suspiciously, that is- and made his way toward the pan of tomato sauce. "Are you making spaghetti with little hot dogs cut up in it?" Sheldon gasped, a crooked smile coming across his face.
"Just spaghetti, I'm afraid. I didn't have any hotdogs in the fridge, although if I did have any, I would have made it for you Shellybean. I know it's your favorite," Mary replied affectionately, as she was clearly proud of her work despite the lack of hotdogs.
"Not as good without the hotdogs...but okay," Sheldon responded somberly, although his half smile never disappeared. Amy couldn't help but be amused at Sheldon's eagerness- the majority of his meals were takeout. She knew Mary strongly believed that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, so she figured eating Mary's home cooking must be a real treat.
While the two discussed dinner plans, Amy took the opportunity to quickly whip out her cellphone, hoping no one would notice in order to dub the action as rude. She quickly typed the name- Serena McKenzie- into the Facebook search bar and found the young women she was looking for. She peaked at Sheldon and Mary, the former whipping out a textbook-sized block of research papers for the latter to read, and then she typed her message.
"Hi Serena, its Amy Farrah Fowler. We used to be classmates in high school. I know you've since moved to Texas, but I'm messaging to inform you that my boyfriend is actually from Texas and we're visiting now. Since we're actually close by, I thought it would be cool to see each other again? Where do you think would be a good place to meet? Message me as soon as you can! –Amy"
She typed in her cell phone number as well and sent the text message.
After a few minutes of chatting, stirring tomato sauce, and waiting for her water to be given to her though never actually getting it in between all the activity, Amy got a returning message on her phone.
"Amy Farrah Fowler, I think I remember you. You were that girl who was into that science stuff, right? That is so cool, how we're like close together and stuff. Yeah, I think it'd be cool if we hung out and stuff! I know a cool place to go to. Talk to you later."
Amy nearly felt her breath catch in her throat. Meeting one of her former popular schoolmates to hang out with was one of her biggest dreams- she'd been wanting to accomplish that for so long... and now she was in Texas with her boyfriend, just the two and them and...well, and his mother, but there were no distractions. No friends, no work, no sci-fi doohickeys or whatever could possibly stunt any forward progress. Yes, they were going to be so much closer by the end of this trip if it killed her, and things were already so good! There was nothing better to do but keep going along for the ride.
AUTHOR'S COMMENT:
Wow guys, I'm so stunned/amazed/psyched about getting so many followers/favorites/reviews! I know there actually wasn't a lot, but it feels like a lot to me. This took me a couple days because I was so happy about all the love that I wanted to make it PERFECT. I rewrote it a few times and I think it's finally ready... I hope it's satisfactory, so please enjoy! The story is about to really get moving!