TheDarkestShinobi: I could tell you why chapters haven't been posted, or I could use my time to write the chapter.

I've decided I don't really know where I'm going with this plot wise yet. I'll find out eventually so stick around for the ride if you're interested!

Start:

She knew Sheldon would not open the door until he wanted her back so she leaned against the wall and huffed crossing her arms. The moments seemed to drag on. She looked at the clock to see that no measurable amount of time had passed. Eventually she slumped down. The clock seemed to move forward at the slowest possible pace. Soon afterward she found herself siting on the floor with her head in her lap. Her bag had slumped to the side and she looked up to the clock.

Only fifteen minutes had passed. She stood glaring at the door and considered banging on it but, knowing Sheldon; it would do more harm than good. She couldn't see any of the guys without having to explain the situation to them so she was left to wander.

She started down a long winding hallway figuring at least this way she would only have to go straight when she came back. After a minute she stopped; her path blocked by two big brown doors. Shrugging she pushed one open only to 'eep' as it caused a huge lecture hall's full of people to look at her as if a spotlight was shone on her.

"Hello, would you care to join the rest of this chemistry class?" the professor said mockingly. Penny almost backed out, but she really had nothing better to do, and so she sat in the closest seat to her. She sunk in her seat embarrassed but no one looked her way, all eyes were on the professor as he continued.

"And when we look at cloud densities we get an s-shell." The screen behind him turned into a sphere. Penny leaned forward "the p-shell" It changed into somewhat of an hourglass "and finally d and f but we will not cover that in this class. That will be your next semester." She could see nods and the professor pressed a button and the sphere came back under it was a caption ns2.

Penny was already bored. Why hadn't she just backed out? She sighed loudly and rested her head on her hand.

"You shouldn't have bothered coming if you were not going to pay attention. It distracts other students."

Holy crap on a cracker! She turned slightly to see a boy sitting next to her with thick glasses scribbling away in his notebook. She mumbled a sorry and sat up straighter looking at what he wrote.

Suddenly something clicked.

"We're talking about electrons." She whispered to herself and he looked at her like she was crazy.

"What else would have cloud densities in shells?"

She blushed; feeling incredibly embarrassed and shook her hand dismissively.

"Nothing, nothing at all."

She took out her notebook and a pen then, maybe this had something to do with Sheldon's work. She had started copying down the notes when the slide switched and she cursed under her breath.

"Once again we will use a Noble gas to identify the full shells so Neon is the next element we will examine."

Penny tuned him out. She knew very well that she could not listen and write at the same time from her years in high school. She finished writing in time to look up and see him holding some metal balls.

"Now, I have been working with a few other professors and we have used cloud densities to figure this out, as second year chemistry students you should appreciate this."

He let go of one and it floated in the middle of the air. Penny's mouth dropped open as she watched. Magnets, she told herself, they had to be magnets. The other students seemed unfazed. Next he released two yellow small ones and they whipped around the first in the shell. The two balls went in opposite directions.

"This, all you should all know, is a Helium atom."

"Beautiful." The boy next to her whispered. She nodded in response. He picked up two more yellow ones from the table behind him and with a mutter of 'Lithium' and 'Beryllium' released them. They split from each other before they rotated around in a bigger sphere. The professor mentioned positive and negative spins. Next he released a bunch of purple ones and they looped around the mini structure, splitting once again so that three went one way and three, the other. They weren't in a sphere like the others and Penny tilted her head.

"And this, Neon."

"Why are they different?" she asked lowly so the boy next to her could hear.

"They're the p shell." He tapped her notes with his pen and she looked down at it.

She looked up again.

That was an electron.

No, she mused, each little ball was an electron; the whole thing was an atom. A Neon atom.

The professor reached in and took a purple one out and held it to the class as if offering it to them.

"Now as you pick a specialty you will hear different theories pertaining to what an electron is, or is made of. Is it a quantum loop? Is it a string in thirty dimensions? I don't know. You might never know. Your children may never find the answer."

He brought it closer to his face as if to inspect it.

"It is a great mystery and when we find what it is the whole idea of science will change. First year chemistry students might learn different ways to compute electron densities and new ways to assign numbers. Old crazy professors like me will only be outdated."

Some students laughed; the boy next to her chuckled.

"It would take another Einstein, no dare I say, a man even smarter and bolder than all the scientists we idolize to crack this."

Penny blinked. Sheldon was doing that. Would that mean Sheldon was smarter than all the people she was taught to admire in school? Would Sheldon be written about in textbooks? Would his face be put on a poster next to a quote of his?

This was all so crazy to think about.

The professor walked back over to the still moving Neon atom and put the electron back in. She watched the little purple ball make its rotation as the professor began to speak again. She paid him no mind.

That was one of the smallest things ever, and no one knew what it was made of. No one but Sheldon. She suddenly felt honored to know him. Sure he was crazy, but, shoot, if he knew this, if he was smarter than Einstein she could certainly understand why he didn't care what people thought of him.

"And on that note, I will see you all on Wednesday. Don't be late."

Penny grabbed her book and stood looking at the boy who sat next to her. He packed up his books and she leaned over the desk careful not to get in the way of people leaving.

"What's your name?"

"Thomas." He said sticking a hand out. "And yours?"

"Penny." She shook his hand and he stood.

"Ah, I'll see you next class Penelope."

She took a few steps before turning and correcting him. The name is Penny, not Penelope when she noticed something. He was way shorter than she expected him to be. Kid genius she thought, like Sheldon. She shook her head and mingled with the crowd as she left.

Not a bad way to kill forty minutes.

.

She walked to Sheldon's room with no difficulty at all and paused looking at a nearby clock. It wasn't time yet, but it was damn near close enough. Twisting the doorknob she opened it slowly and peeked inside.

Sheldon was super focused on his work, so he hadn't heard her come in. She slid the door closed as he stared at his bored. His fingers stroked his chin and his other hand supported his elbow and held an expo marker between his fingers. His hair was tousled; he most likely had run his hands through a few times while doing his work and his sleeves were pushed up to his elbows.

She leaned against the wall quietly; she knew she would feel terrible if she broke some realm altering thought process of his. Instead she got lost in her own thoughts. Her wacky neighbor could be the next Nobel Prize winner. His thoughts most likely wouldn't change life as she knew it, but still, the fact that only he could think of these things was amazing to think about. It was certainly more accomplishment than she could ever have. She shook her head.

"Penny, you're back."

"Hey, Sheldon."

He glanced at the clock and put the expo marker down. He ran his hand through his hair again and Penny almost laughed at how un-Sheldony it was. She took out her notebook, smiling at his appreciative look.

"So Moonpie, where do we start?" His face twitched

"Only Meemaw calls me moonpie, and that depends on you, I have no idea what you know and therefore what you are ready to learn."

He turned to his laptop and gestured for her to sit down. She did and he pressed a button that caused a couple of questions to appear, but based on the size of the scroll bar she could say there were at least 50 of them.

"No, Sheldon, not a test! I haven't even learned anything yet." She turned to him in the seat, her voice starting to rise.

"It's hardly a test; it is more of an assessment, how am I supposed to know where to begin if I don't know what you know? Am I to assume you know about shells-"

"Like the s and p?" He paused and glared at being interrupted before he realized that she interrupted him with a knowledgeable question. He didn't think she knew that much. He nodded.

"Yes, like the s and p shells. Regardless Penny, don't interrupt me when I am speaking, it's rude. Any-"

"Sorry." He paused again; looking poised to scold her again but simply gestured to the laptop again

"Fill this out."

She turned with a mutter of 'fine'

He excused himself for a few minutes and Penny began. She considered guessing them all just to finish but she recognized the picture in front of her.

"P-shell…" she whispered as she read the question. How many electrons? She tapped her chin, there were six purple balls doing the loop thingy, so six. She typed it in and hit submit. She smiled and feeling confident scrolled down to the next few.

Sheldon had come back shortly thereafter, his hair was combed back the way it always was and his sleeves were pushed back down. He sat down in the chair opposite Penny and started writing things down in his notebook.

They sat in silence for about half an hour before Penny stood. Sheldon followed her motion with his eyes and seeing his gaze she smiled "Done."

"With all sixty questions?"

"Yep."

"And you didn't guess your way through?"

"Nope."

"Very well." He stood as well "Let us go home now. You're lessons start tomorrow."

"Alright." Penny agreed stretching, she felt she had learned enough today, even though Sheldon taught her nothing. "Let's go moopie, its Thai night."

She walked out the door, Sheldon followed soon after with a 'no one calls me Moonpie but Meemaw!'