Lots of people reading this! I'm so grateful and especially for everyone who left a review. The first few chapters are a bit repetitive from the show (with my own touches added in), but I need to set it up, so please bear with me.

Chapter 2

I am aware of what modern society deems attractive. Although that is cyclical and I could present a history of society's standards of beauty, I will refrain at the moment to make a point here.

When I first encountered Penny, I knew that she fit society's view of beauty. I understood why Leonard, who always fell prey to cultural prejudices, would be entranced by her. That he thought he had a chance with a woman such as her was the ludicrous part of that equation.

But I digress. For my part, I knew that she was a "beautiful woman" or, to put it colloquially, "a fox". However, neither those terms, nor those standards meant anything to me. That sort of beauty is fine for the common man, but I believed myself to be more evolved than that. A woman must be more than just aesthetically pleasing. She must possess the higher functions that would raise her above the norm.

Despite what my friends thought, I assumed that at some point in the future, I would choose a woman with whom to mate. It is my duty to procreate and hopefully produce offspring that will possess my intelligence and help the world.

Bearing that in mind, I always assumed that when I mated, it would be with a woman of high intelligence. Although I hoped she might also be aesthetically pleasing, that would never be my first concern and would actually be inconsequential to the situation.

As that type of woman was my goal, I did not wish to waste my time with those that did not fit that model. One more reason to recuse myself from the mating game. And at the first meeting , and even subsequent meetings with our new neighbor, Penny, did not lead me to believe I had met that specimen.

Consider the facts:

She was a waitress at a chain restaurant.

She was virtually uneducated, having just barely graduated high school and dropped out of community college!

She was laboring under the supposition that she would be a success as an actress, despite over four years of failure.

Astrology – need I say more?

She had an entirely unhealthy interest in shoes.

She continued to date men that were below par and still expected to find one that would be worthy of her time and effort.

I could go on, but what would be the point? Suffice it to say that she did not seem to be worthy of my efforts. Still, for Leonard's sake, I agreed to be civil to her.

I had known beautiful (by society's standard) women. My own sister Missy is one, especially if I am to believe the actions of my friends when she came to visit. There were others in school or work with me. For the most part they ignored me. That was preferable to the alternative. Those that sought to humiliate the young genius and raise their own social status by lowering another's. But that is a tale for another day. Suffice it to say, I have never been favorably impressed by beautiful women. Nor, it seems, they by me.

So, building on that hypothesis, I did not anticipate that Penny would choose to spend any amount of time with Leonard and myself, let alone Howard and Raj.

I have discovered, through careful observation over the years that the amount of time women wish to spend with my friends and myself decreases exponentially as their beauty increases. Therefore, based on that hypothesis, Penny should have had little or no interest in spending time with us, free food and WIFI notwithstanding.

Since this theorem was proved wrong, as Penny began to spend an inordinate amount of time with us, I was forced to conclude that Penny was an anomaly among beautiful women.

She was nice.

Nice enough to accept four geeky scientists as her friends. And I am including Howard Wolowitz in that group. Nice enough to play video games with them, watch movies in which she has no interest and pretend she understands and isn't bored when they discuss science (or video games or sci fi movies).

That was most certainly an anomaly.

(from the personal journal of Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD)

Before she moved to 2311 Los Robles, Penny's life had consisted of late nights drinking with her friends or partying with Kurt. Four years with that man hadn't improved her life at all. Kurt's idea of a stimulating evening was a football game and beer. While she liked football, she would have liked the occasional romantic dinner or walk on the beach. Not with Kurt.

She knew that the only reason he was with her was that she was pretty. And she knew that if she lost her looks someday, he'd be gone. He didn't see her as anything more than that.

She didn't know why she invited Kurt to her Halloween party, but on the day after, he stopped by to talk to her and questioned her relationship with Leonard and Sheldon.

"What the hell are you doing with those weirdos?" he asked her.

"They're nice. And they're my friends."

"You don't even understand anything they're saying."

"Yes I do! Well, some of it anyway."

"Babe, you need to remember, no one is ever going to notice you for your brain. It's that hot body and hot mouth that gets you what you want. The blonde hair doesn't hurt either."

"That's all you ever thought of me, isn't it? Just a body for sex? Not anyone you had to respect and care about."

"Come on, babe, there's nothing wrong with being a dumb blonde. Guys take care of you that way."

Her eyes narrowed in anger. "I am not a dumb blonde. And the fact that you think I am shows just how right I was to leave you."

"You think that now, but when you're alone for awhile with only the nerds for company, you'll be running back to me. I might even throw you a bone, if you know what I mean." he leered.

"Get the hell out of here and don't ever come back!"

He shrugged. "No problem, babe. You know where I am when you want me."

He swaggered out of her apartment, leaving her shaking with rage.

She was angry and upset and wanted someone to talk to. She walked across the hall and knocked on the door of 4A. A few seconds later, Sheldon opened the door.

"Hello, Penny."

She wasn't sure what to do or why she was even there. "Hi, Sheldon. Is, um. Leonard here?"

"No, he is not at home."

"Oh." She didn't know Sheldon very well at that point. Was he the person she wanted to talk to about her love life?

"Are you busy?" she asked him.

"I am doing some work on my computer. Is there some assistance you require?"

She'd never known anyone who spoke as formally as he did. She knew she should probably just go home. It was doubtful that Sheldon could help her.

Then she had an idea.

"Sheldon, remember when we went grocery shopping and you noticed the new Putt-Putt?"

"Of course I remember it, Penny. I remember everything."

"Do you want to go?"

"To Putt-Putt?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun."

His blue eyes suddenly lit up in a way that was unbelievably adorable. "I would love to go to Putt Putt."

He ran into the apartment, turned off his computer and grabbed his jacket and was back in front of her in seconds.

That hadn't been her idea for the day, but how bad could it be? Maybe it would take her mind off her crappy love life. She laughed. "Okay, let me get a sweatshirt."

It was actually fun. Sheldon was so serious when he lined up his shot, you would have thought he was competing in the Masters instead of using an orange ball and shooting it through a windmill.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd laughed that much.