A/N- THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS. You guys made my life. And all the guests that took the time, thank you as well. I am excited to hear people are enjoying it. I should have updated sooner but I have been out of town for my best friends wedding. This chapter was written and ready to go but I wasn't near a computer. As always thanks to my best beta ever. Oh- And next chapter You Know Who comes home. (Not Voldermort... he hasn't been to California that I know of).

Arlene had only been at the mall for ten minutes, and she already felt out of place, which was unusual, because she's never felt out of place surrounded by brand new shoes, skirts, and swimsuits before. Racks of clothes that smelled like department store perfumes were usually a welcome haven to her. No. It was the group dynamic that utterly confused her.

It more than confused her - it worried her. Amy worshipped Penny. That much was for certain. She looked to the blonde to everything. Whether it was what car they wanted to take, or what store they should go to, Amy turned to Penny for approval. And in some ways, Arlene could understand it.

From what she understood, Penny was her first friend. Her bestie, and that held a lot of weight. She was also the first girl Amy seemed to have a girl crush on. That part, Arlene really understood. Hell, she could still remember hers. It was Maven Hareweather, who lived in the same neighborhood as Arlene, and had been three years older. She could still remember her perfect brown ponytail, the way boys in the neighborhood slowed down pedaling past her house, the way parents at barbeques always talked about how mature she seemed for her age. Arlene had wanted to be her or if she couldn't, she'd settle for being her best friend. Being three years younger, she never said more than six words to the girl. But Maven's pedestal held an importance in her youth that could never be discredited. She had chosen many hair styles, clothes, and even boyfriends with the thought of it being Maven-approved. Seeing Amy fawn over her bestie, she got it. She understood perfectly. But the thing she didn't understand was why it had lasted this long.

Penny was nice enough. Granted, she had only said a couple of words to Arlene so far, but none of them were unwelcoming. She was pretty, the type of girl that used it to her advantage in getting things she wanted. She had been a queen bee her entire life. Arlene liked confidence, and couldn't fault her for it. But, as far as role models went, Arlene couldn't figure out why two accomplished, educated, smart women followed her lead. She was an actress in her thirties who had never landed any roles, didn't have a backup plan or a college education (whether or not she had a full high school one was questionable as well), was bordering on becoming an alcoholic, and dressed like she was going to dorm mixers every night.

"How about this, Ames?"

Penny was holding up a tight bandage dress. The type of dress that hugged every part of the body so tight it both acted as spandex, a bra, and a boa constrictor. She watched as Amy's eyes flashed in fear. And they were back to the problem that had been happening since the beginning.

The girls didn't understand Amy. They were trying to take Amy and mold her into a brand new person overnight, but kept forgetting the personal characteristics that made Amy dress the way she did.

Bernadette was trying. "Look at these cute jeans. These would keep your legs covered too!"

But Amy wouldn't wear jeans. She could see Amy's head spinning. And Arlene knew she was seconds away from losing her. They needed to get her back on the tracks- and fast.

"Hey, Farrah," Arlene whispered coming up to Amy. "Breathe. Remember: This isn't about drastic change. This is about finding you clothes that fit. What do you typically look for when shopping? Skirts and sweaters, right?"

Amy nodded, looking out of place surrounded by racks of clothes that had been made in the same decade as her.

"Okay. Let's get you some just plain skirts okay. Stuff you can use all the time, for work and every day. Sounds good?"

Amy nodded again, but the look of terror hadn't left her eyes. Arlene could see Penny and Bernadette coming closer, so she rushed to find something before they could further push the girl off the edge. Arlene quickly rushed to find a black skirt in Amy's size, and when she did, it was a pencil skirt. Not too tight that it would make her uncomfortable and went a few lengths beyond her knees, but different enough that it might spark something. She held it out to Amy and Amy nodded, before taking it.

"Ames, you should get a tight dress like the ones Bernie and I wore to the club. That way, Sheldon or your new boy won't be able to keep their hands off of you." Penny winked.

"I think Amy is just looking for some new skirts and sweaters." Arlene said, looking at Amy to make sure she wasn't wrong. But for her part, Amy's face was blank.

"I thought the whole point of this shopping trip was to get a new sexy wardrobe?" Bernadette pouted.

"Yeah. I thought Amy wanted to change up her frumpy wardrobe to vixen."

Amy looked between the girls desperately as if waiting for someone to give her a clear answer on what exactly she was doing.

"Amy needs new clothes. She has lost a lot of weight. Our goal of today is to buy her clothes that make her feel pretty, but also comfortable. If she doesn't feel comfortable, she won't wear them. So how about this, Amy you choose clothes you like and we will help guide you with our opinions?"

Without answering, Amy wandered over to the rack and found a skirt with some odd floral and flannel print on it that looked like a picnic table cover mixed with her grandmothers drapes.

"Hm, how about we instead stick with non patterned skirts?"

"Isn't that boring?" It was the first words Amy had spoken since they arrived. But it was something.

"How about this, we can find some bright-colored skirts to spice it up. Or some patterned sweaters or shirts to go with the plain skirts?"

Amy looked to Penny, who was already on board with Arlene's idea and holding up a bright red skirt with a tan belt. It wasn't tight, and it went past the knees. Amy's eyes took in the skirt, and from the judgmental look in them it was clear the red was too scandalous for Amy. Arlene could only imagine what saying of Amy's mother was running through her mind. But when Amy looked at the three girls staring at her, she took it in her hands to try on.

And so it went, the girls holding up things, and negotiating. If all three, except Amy, agreed, then she had to try it on. But they were to pick nothing outside of Amy's comfort zone. They stopped trying to dress Amy like a doll, or worse, like they would themselves. Little by little, Amy was willing to try anything they handed her as long as it stayed around the knees in length, had sleeves, and didn't show too much cleavage.

Amy started smiling more with each reveal out of the dressing room. Even playing with her hair on certain picks they all found to be more agreeable. There were a couple of items Arlene had to sneak out of the dressing room and hide before Amy could try to talk the group into them. Like a bright orange sweater and a pair of neon green tights. There were other items Amy even refused to leave the dressing room wearing. But Arlene did have to raise her eyebrows when, as they were leaving Forever 21 with bags of things they had gotten Amy to agree to, she saw her fingers trail along a very short and tight black dress that did not fit into "Amy approved clothing" in the least. When Amy looked up and caught Arlene's eyebrow raise, Amy pulled away from the fabric like it had burned her, and followed Penny to their next location.

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"Which bra are you going to wear?" Arlene finished her mascara, perfecting a smoky eye on the first try. "I personally like the whimsical cheetah print you picked out."

"Oooh! Wear the black lace one! It seriously pushes those babies up." Penny said.

"Do you want to be an animal or a seductress?" Bernadette asked, pushing her bangs to the side like Arlene had suggested.

Arlene caught Amy's eye in the mirror and made a cat meowing gesture. The other three girls all sat in front of Arlene's giant vanity, dabbing, adding, and smudging away with the makeup spread before them. The curling and flat irons were all plugged in behind it, right next to the stack of magazines Penny kept picking up and browsing every couple of minutes or so.

"I don't know why it matters what bra I wear underneath. No one is going to see it."

"You never know." Penny flipped a couple pages of Cosmo, looking for the quizzes.

"If you want to feel sexy, you have to start at the very foundation," Arlene smiled and Bernadette turned to her handing her the flat iron. She started straightening the back of Bernadette's hair while Amy studied her friend in the mirror. Bernadette looked different with her hair straight and her bangs parted. It made her seem mature and sophisticated.

"Besides, it's makeover night." Arlene exclaimed. Penny grunted while flopping down on Arlene's bed, but everyone ignored her.

Penny had done Amy's makeup before, but it had never been a big event. That had just been some extra blush and eyeliner. Her job had been to just sit on the couch and hand her Kleenex and try not to cry when the mascara wand got close to her eye.

This was like something from a movie - the smell of perfumes lingering in the air, makeup on every counter, girls asking each other for tips. If Amy didn't know any better she would have said their next step would have been Prom, or some type of awards. This was the very scene she imagined in high school when she was snuggled up by herself watching "Pretty in Pink".

Arlene came to the side of the bed, where Amy was. "If you don't like something, tell me."

"Oh she will," Penny said, tossing the magazine to the side. "She will ask you to take the fresh nail polish off her fingers."

"Perfect." She held out her hand to help Amy off the bed and Amy let herself be led over to a chair. Her glasses were removed. She felt the cold makeup on her skin, being dabbed and spread across, watching in the mirror as it covered the red marks from her eyebrows recent wax. Arlene curled her eyelashes, as Amy squirmed. She carefully lined Amy's eyes with dark brown, holding her in place with one hand. After a couple of minutes she started putting hot rollers in her hair.

"Um, I don't know about this." Amy said, recalling the last time her mom had put hot rollers in her hair - she had come out looking like a mix between Shirley Temple and a poodle. The kids at the science fair kept pulling her curls and woofing at her. She had a feeling men at a bar wouldn't do the same. Nevertheless, she wasn't eager to relive the hair style.

"I do. Besides, it's just one night." Arlene continued fussing with the hot rollers. Penny rolled her eyes, and got up to go to the bathroom and change into her dress. Bernadette bounced after her. Arlene finished putting Amy's hair up and handed her a mascara wand.

"It would be best if you did it yourself." She looked in the mirror, smiling at Amy before she ran her fingers through the roots of her own hair, and pushed the blonde hair up towards the part. Amy took a couple of moments experimenting with the mascara. Her eyes watered less when she did it herself, but she also made a couple of smudges, unable to clearly see without her glasses. Arlene took a paper towel and fixed the smudges for her after she was done.

Bernadette poked out her head from behind the bathroom door. "Arlene?"

"Yes, Bernie?" Arlene asked. Amy wondered that she was using a nickname so fast into meeting Bernadette, but was also herself getting used to being called Farrah, and Boo on a normal basis by her. If Bernadette thought it was too soon into their friendship, she didn't show it.

"You said I should wear my dress without a sweater for tonight right?" Arlene nodded.

"Hey grab Amy the blue bodycon dress she bought today. And her matching white lace bra and panties." Bernadette nodded and Amy felt the temperature in the room rising.

Soon enough, Bernadette came out in a red dress, pulling off the price tag. It was a tube dress, designed to hug every curve of the small blonde's body, but hid them at the same time with a sheer red neckline rising around her neck. Even without Amy's glasses, she could tell Bernadette looked beautiful. And seeing the girl Amy considered to be the least beautiful out of three, looking like she could be in a Vogue pages, made Amy's stomach churn. This was a bad idea.

"Now Bernie, come help me decide what to wear. Amy, put that on."

They left the room, and Amy put on the underwear and the dress. The dress was soft on her hands. It came low to the knee, had sleeves on it, and wasn't very low cut. But still, with all of the fuss, it was still the most sensual piece of clothing Amy had ever owned. It was tighter than she was used to, and the sweetheart neck line just invited boys to look. When the dress was on, she looked at the mirror, but all she could see was a fuzzy shape. Amy looked away quickly, afraid to face what a complete sham she was.

She wasn't a pretty girl. She was a smart girl.

You should be proud of that. Do you think Madam Curie spent her days worrying about whether or not her stomach was 'flat as a board.'

But that didn't mean she didn't want to be a pretty girl.

You would give up your superior intelligence to merely fall prey to society's need to be aesthetically pleasing? Where would we be if Einstein had worried more about his hair and less about the general theory of relativity?

Not that the point mattered, but even though she could play pretend all she wanted, it wouldn't magically change her. No, instead of going out tonight Amy should spend her night playing upon her strengths.

Going out tonight will only lead to increased feelings of inadequacy from girls that don't even know the difference between mitochondria and mittens. Might I suggest forgetting this silly makeover and doing something academically fulfilling?

Mental Sheldon was right. Amy started pulling the hot rollers out of her hair one by one. She tried to locate all of her clothes, but all she had gathered was her sweater when Arlene walked in.

"Wow, Farrah. You're right." Her eyes were big.

"I just think I am going to,"

She walked over, putting Amy's new glasses on her face and played with Amy's hair.

"I was going to leave them in longer, but I think the whole messy, loose wavy thing works way better with this dress."

As Amy's world came more into focus, Arlene turned her to face her reflection. Amy braced herself for the disappointment, but the girl staring back at didn't look like a fraud. She looked pretty. The dress pulled, tight enough to show a general outline of a body, but not so tight that it looked painted on. The blue made Amy's pale skin pop, and accentuated the dark blue in her new ray ban glasses. Her face didn't look harsh with the blush and eye makeup, but instead her eyes looked wider, and her face looked more alert. Her hair looked messy and perfectly crafted at the same time. But the thing she was most surprised by was that she still looked like her own self.

She could still see her own eyes staring back at her. How could she look the same but different at the same time? For the first time in her life, she didn't curse her nose for being a little larger than she would like, her chin for being more pronounced than other girls', or her brown hair for being a drab color.

Somehow all those things worked together. No she wasn't Arlene with her Bambi blue eyes or Penny with her gold streaked hair. But she was Amy. And for the first time in her life, she was proud of that.

"Damn." Amy looked up at Bernadette and Penny who were standing in the doorway looking at her. She watched as the girl in the mirror smiled as she did.

Bernadette wolf-whistled. "Sheldon is an idiot."

Penny nodded in agreement.

"Wait!" Arlene scrambled unto the bed. "You never told us about your second date!"

Penny and Bernadette both gravitated towards the bed and looked at Amy expectantly as well.

"It was good."

Penny shook her head. "Oh hell no. You are going to have to give us more than that."

"Yeah. We don't even know anything about him at all. Just that you've been out with him twice." Bernadette agreed.

Amy looked at Arlene. In the past week, they had become closer. They had eaten lunch together almost every day, and she had spent every night she wasn't with Raj with her. Because of it she now knew Arlene took singing lessons, was an angry drunk, and had a crush on her boss.

Arlene, in turn, knew every detail of every date with Regen. She half-expected her new friend to plunge ahead and give them all the details but she instead just looked at her like she hadn't heard any of it the first time around. Amy actually wished she would barge in and start answering the questions for her.

"Oh. He's nice." Amy said, folding her clothes beside her.

"That's it?" Penny asked.

"Well, he's tall."

"How tall?" Bernadette raised an eyebrow.

"A little taller than Sheldon."

"What does he do?"

"He's a pediatrician."

"Aww. So he loves kids." Penny smiled.

"Yeah, yeah. Great for him. Now get back to the physical description." Bernadette growled.

"He's handsome," Amy offered, but she hated that the end of her sentence her voice went up. Like it was a question, or she wasn't sure. "Didn't Raj tell you already what he looks like?"

"Yes, but Raj once told me my mailman looked like Ryan Gosling. Do you have a picture?" Penny looked at her expectantly.

Amy got out her phone, pulling up her newest Facebook friend. His profile picture was of him on stage with his band mates. His sandy blonde hair was messy and unkempt, but his smile was wide.

"Wow."

"So?" Amy was surprised by how eager she was to hear their opinions.

"Well, Raj was right. He does kind of look like that guy from that show."

"Could you vague that up for me?" Arlene laughed, but Penny was pulling out her own phone.

"That show about space cowboys the boys are always going on about. He kinda looks like one of the voice actors on Frozen?" Penny pulled up a picture of a young Alan Tudyk.

"You're right." Bernadette agreed looking at both pictures. "But with Michael Cera hair."

"Is that a good thing?" Amy asked.

Penny's lips jutted out, and she raised and lowered her shoulder. "He's dorky cute. I can see it." She continued flipping through photos on her phone. "Wait. He was in the peace corps?"

Amy nodded.

"You mean to tell me he's a doctor, runs marathons, was in the peace corps, in a band, and the best you can tell us about him is that he is tall and nice?" She looked down at the pictures her eyebrows raised. "And that body? Not bad Amy. Not bad."

Bernadette took the phone from Amy and whistled. She scrolled to the next picture. "Oh. He's religious. Did you know that?"

"Yes he said he used to be Mormon."

"Interesting." Bernadette said, handing the phone back to Amy.

The screen was flashing a picture of Regen in a suit with a name tag on, surrounded by other men. Unlike the time Amy shoved her picture of Sheldon in their faces, she was quick to switch her phone back to its neutral purple background.

"What?"

"Well I have an Aunt that is Mormon. Did he tell you how affiliated with the church he was?"

"No it didn't come up."

Penny tilted her head. "Well did he drink on the dates?"

"No. But he was a designated driver."

"Did he curse at all?" Arlene perked up hearing information that was new to her.

"Not that I remember."

"Was he wearing garments?" Penny asked and everyone looked at her, surprised. "What? I have seen Big Love. I know things." She looked at Amy weird, and Amy knew what she was really asking.

"Big Love is based on the Fundamentalist LDS church, not the one he was affiliated with. So no, he doesn't practice polygamy as far as I know. And I don't remember about the garments. Not that I noticed. Why?"

"Did he try to kiss you? Or do other things with you?"

"To the kissing, I don't know," That was a crummy lie. "But the other things? I'm not following."

"Well, sweetie, the thing is, you might be going from one sexless relationship to another." Penny looked at her carefully to gauge her reaction.

"And you think that is a problem?"

Penny's eyes got wide. "Well wasn't that a major problem in your relationship with Sheldon?"

"I seem to recall many nights where you came over bitching about how Sheldon wasn't fulfilling your needs," Bernadette agreed. "Are you sure you want to entertain the idea of dating someone who won't help you with your urges?"

Amy thought about Sheldon, the way he always held her at arm's length. She remembered his clenched jaw every time he kissed her, and the way he rolled his eyes every time she extended her hand to him.

"It's different."

"How?"

"Well with Sheldon, he was celibate because he didn't want to touch me, not because he couldn't. Also, there was no guarantee he would ever have sex with me. At least with religion as a factor there would have been a timeline. Marriage would have been the goal instead."

"So you are saying that if Sheldon was abstinent because of religion you wouldn't have pushed him?" Penny asked.

"I would have stayed quiet on the physical part and let the relationship develop more emotionally." Amy agreed, wondering if that's maybe what she should have done the entire time.

"But Amy's right. There is a difference between religious abstinence and one based on withholding. Regen will be keeping from deflowering Amy because he thinks it is right, not because he just simply doesn't want to." Arlene looked at Amy.

"But that's not to say he won't make her feel just as bad about her urges."

"You're right. But somewhere deep inside, I know Regen wants to touch me eventually. He has made it clear he finds me desirable. He wants to hold my hand, and as far as I can tell, he wouldn't object to kissing me. If Sheldon had a reason for not having sex, besides simply not desiring me, my body, or intimacy with me, I would have waited forever."

Forever. She would have waited forever.

The room went silent. And Amy felt like she could see what they were thinking. Bernadette was pitying her. Penny was trying to find a way to defend Sheldon. Arlene's face showed no sympathy, only determination, and Amy appreciated that.

"Well no boy is going to look at you and think of abstinence tonight. Sheldon missed out on a sexbomb. It's his loss. This night is about drinking some drinks with little umbrellas in them, dancing until we can't feel our toes, and celebrating what foxes we are."

"Preach, sister." Bernadette piped up before running to grab some shoes, Penny went to the bathroom, and Arlene went to grab some lipstick. Amy remained looking at the reflection of herself, still surprised by the girl staring back at her.

Amy, Amy, Amy. What is happening to you?

Amy didn't know. But she liked it, whatever it was.