"The Fair Collaboration"

11. The Bully Sedation

Their evaluations had been handed in, the judging complete. Now they only had to wait for the announcement. As they all stood about, there came Brittany, tapping Howard and Raj's shoulders. They turned and she smiled at them and the rest.

"Thanks," she told them.

"It was fun," Leonard nodded, looking around. "Being a judge…"

"No, not that," Brittany shook her head. "I mean thank you for your help, with the project," she explained. Some looked down, some looked aside.

"What help, we didn't…" Howard was not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Yeah, because that would be… bad," Amy's gaze flickered to Sheldon for a moment. He wasn't looking down, but she knew that look on his face. He was hiding something, and he thought he was doing a good job of it when he really wasn't.

"It's okay, I won't tell anyone," Brittany just kept smiling. "It'll be our secret. Well, ours, and my secret helper. I never found out who he was… or she was."

"Well whoever he is, I can imagine he chose to stay anonymous for a reason, so long as he could still help," Sheldon posited, with that same face.

"Or whoever she is," Brittany added with a nod, while the others evaded her eyes again, choosing to let her believe what she wanted to.

"They'll announce the winners soon, are you nervous? Excited?" Penny asked her, to change the subject.

"I guess," she shrugged. "I know I'm not going to win."

"Why do you say that?" Sheldon asked. "If you go in with that kind of defeatist attitude, you're never going to get anywhere."

"I never win, not in these things," she explained plainly. "It's fine."

"Brittany, do you want to win?" Sheldon asked.

"I…" she started, hesitated.

"Do you want to win?" he repeated.

"Why, can you make it happen?"

"No. But you can." She thought about it, nodded to herself. "Wait, but you know how this ends, you were the judges," she looked around at them.

"Not the final result, they're tallying it up now," Leonard explained.

"We'll find out soon," Bernadette promised.

"You know after this is over, no matter what, we're going out to celebrate, got it?" Penny told her.

"Can we go to Breadstix?" she beamed.

"Oh can we?" Raj sounded excited at the thought.

"Well, well, look who it is…" a new voice broke in, and by the yelp that Sheldon gave out before he ducked behind Penny, they had a pretty good idea what was about to happen. The others turned, and when they saw Azimio the boys startled.

"Man, you weren't kidding…" Howard breathed. "Someone's been eating his cereal in the morning."

"I think he ate someone else's cereal, too," Leonard blinked.

"Oh, come on," Penny rolled her eyes, moving to the head of the group as Azimio came up to them.

"Move aside, blondie, I need to have a chat with that one there," he pointed to Sheldon, who was trying to make himself small even as he towered over most of them. "But once I'm done, I'd be happy to get to know you," he gave her a look from head to toe and back.

"Hey!" Leonard's first instinct was to intervene, although as soon as Azimio looked to him, his knees buckled. "Just… be nice, alright?"

"Be real nice," Azimio promised with a smirk, turning to Sheldon now. "Hey, Stretch," he nodded. "Figured I'd find you here in Nerdville. You and me, we've got some business to take care of," he gave the cup he was holding a quick swish, the iced drink inside sloshing about.

"Oh, is that for me?" Penny cheerily swooped in, snatching the cup from him and tipping it in the process so it would splash down the jock's front. "Oops…" she breathed, laughing at the shocked, sort of frozen face he gave. "You should go and wash up. Wouldn't want that to get in your…" Azimio groaned and stalked off without a word. Penny turned back to the others with pride. Sheldon looked this close to wanting to hug her, a rare event on its own, but then he resisted, remembering himself. "And that's how it's done. Now will you relax already? Remember, having fun, the science fair, that's… fun…" she tried to sound more convinced; she wouldn't exactly associate this place with amusement, but for their sake she pretended like she did.

"I think they're going to announce the winners now," Brittany pointed to the stage. "I should get back to my table."

"And we should get on stage," Howard looked to the others.

"And I…" Penny started, then paused with a frown: she had nowhere to go.

"Come with me," Brittany took her hand and dragged her back to the table where Santana was waiting.

TO BE CONCLUDED (NEXT FRIDAY)