Here it is! Another chapter delivered to you thanks to… well actually thanks to the internet itself, I could have a functional computer, a full new chapter finished in my memory stick, but without internet you wouldn't be able to read it… But that's not the point, there's a new chapter down there! A continuation from the one before, a transitional chapter again; the classes will be back in the next one, along with our "Evil Stalker" a new character and some group issues.
I think I'm finally getting the trick on 'the style', I'm editing the chapters, I don't know if you get any alert of that, but if you do (plants a big led advertisement on the floor) "Sorry for the inconvenience". You're such amazing readers, keeping up with me for so long (look only one chapter away from #15), thank you again for reading, as always you know I'm open to comments and suggestions. Enjoy it!
14.- News and discoveries (2)
"… and our friends." Sheldon finished the phrase for her. Penny looked at him raising her eyebrows.
"What do you mean our friends?" For a moment Penny feared that the gang had already found out about their magic powers and the classes…
Sheldon sighed, and walked towards the couch, sitting on the only spot on the couch that he always used when he was at her apartment. He looked at her expectantly and she took that as a cue to sit next to him.
"Penny, I've started to learn from years of interaction to know how Leonard is feeling, usually his behavior changes if he's upset, sad, happy or annoyed, it's something not only he does, but also at some degree Raj and Howard…"
"Are they acting weird?"
"Yes. They are not being mean or silent, but they had started to mention your name a lot in a way that its mostly emphasizing, for example, the other day I was telling them that I was going to send some theories to a group of scientist in Germany to know their opinion about something that's I want to propose as a new study and they looked at me and finished saying things like 'Maybe you and Penny can take care of working that out', or 'Why don't you ask Penny?' I think that our interactions are somehow making them suspicious and I wonder if Amy or Bernadette had said something like that to you…"
"No, but that's because I haven't talked to them since we went to the fair. Now that you mention it is a bit weird of Amy to not contact me at least once a day… Maybe they think we're dating! That would explain why Amy hasn't called, but Berny… I'm going to have to call them, what should we do?"
"That's the thing; we really can't stop your classes, especially if I'm going to take a trial student for a week, and with you starting to explore your new powers… weren't you scared Penny? It could have been dangerous! What if you hadn't made it back? How am I supposed to deal with that? I know nothing about divination!" Penny felt a bit moved by the way he expressed his worries. "What did you see there? How did it feel? Did you managed to see something from the past? Or the future? How is it that you didn't tell me about what you saw at the Dungeon? What kind of research did you make? Now I need to do my own research! ... It probably is not a good idea to have that student coming…"
Penny waved her hands in front of Sheldon to get his attention "Sheldon sweetie, I know you want to know everything about that, but I'm supposed to be the one making questions I'm your student, believe me I know less than you about that, I can just tell you what I experienced, no explanations, no guesses… Ok?"
Sheldon looked at her, blinked twice and sighed once again before turning his full attention to her.
"What happened before, it wasn't something planned. I was thinking, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to stare at the mirror while in deep thought, everything was silent, I was feeling calm, not at all scared, and then everything merged together, the silence, the calm, the mirror, my thoughts… I didn't even noticed when it happened, the only weird thing was what I could see in the mirror; there was no reflection at all, only fog and darkness beyond the surface, it waved, like when you touch the water. I had only started to get conscious about that when I felt panic. And then a presence… but once I came out of it I noticed that it had been you, you were the one in panic and you were the other presence… maybe being in that kind of 'trance' sharpens my emphatic powers. I didn't thought of divination at all, so couldn't make out a thing about past of future, the internet mentioned some very old ideas of different cultures about mirrors and things like that, talking about spirits and stuff, rituals…" Penny had started talking very excitedly about her experience; somehow the confused and a bit terrified look on Sheldon's face didn't stop her.
"And now I wonder is there a different world beyond the mirror? Worlds? Can we access different dimensions through them? Has someone tried to do that before? What kind of 'things', 'energy' or weird stuff could possibly be trapped in a mirror? How do you do that? At first I was just curious about the "Evil Stalker" and the way I saw him or her in the mirror at 'the Dungeon'. It was something like the mirror you gave me to stay in contact with me, remember? The one I have in my purse! The hour was wrong because we were there in the morning and there… it was getting dark. Can we see other parts of the world through them in real time? Is there any change in the time at all when you see into a mirror, things seemed a bit slower there, I mean I was there at least a few minutes, but my sense of time was… lost . I wasn't aware of how long I was there… isn't that weird?"
"Penny, Penny, Penny. Let me stop you right there, you're talking way to fast for me to be able to answer any of your questions…"
"Sorry"
"It's ok, I sometimes feel the need to talk like that about things that excite me, but then I remember than none of you are able to understand them, or have not real idea of the way I'm seeing those things, so I just don't." Penny smiled at him, there he was, Sheldon Cooper being his usual self.
She had to hide her amusement when he reached for a notebook on her coffee table and took a pen to start writing something; he was in his teaching mode.
"The events that you lived while you were in that trance are not unheard of; many other Seers have described something like that in regards with their specialty in the divination field. In this case "crystallomancy" or the ability to predict the future through a crystal object such as a mirror, a crystal ball or a water source" Sheldon improvised a tiny picture of what he had mentioned on the notebook "…has always got the same description, the one you just told me. As you already said it was believed that you could access or see different worlds through them, but up until now nobody has ever done that, people are afraid of what they could find there, either good or bad, and mostly because they don't know if they'll be able to come back."
"I don't need to remind you that some current theories in the physics field are inclined to believe in the existence of different dimensions – worlds as you said- that hold many similarities to ours, which has not been proved either… yet. The thing is that there really are different energies, some good and bad that seem to find it easy to move beyond a crystal surface, I'm sure none of them are in your apartment because of the precautions I have implemented here to keep you safe…" Penny raised her eyebrows; Sheldon had been making diagrams on the notebook while explaining, he was still in the middle of some tangled picture, but that was not really what had caught her attention, not even the comment about keeping her safe, she had been present when he had surrounded the place with safety spells and drawing some special symbols here and there; no, it had been the shifting of him in the couch, and the subtle blush that had tinted his cheeks and turned his ears red… She smiled again: he was so cute!
"Anyway, the current use of the mirror, the one that wizards and witches all over the world use to communicate are all in real time, you could talk to a wizard while he takes dinner in… let's say Japan, while you here are enjoying lunch or maybe working, the distance and the time in that specific spell are not an issue. As to the assumption of the possibility of seeing a different world through them, … I don't know… I think it could be done, but you'll need to do some serious calculations to know exactly where you're aiming your spell to work and try to be optimistic about the possibility of finding nothing…"
"Wait, wait, wait Sheldon! Calculations? Isn't magic just understanding and willing things to happen?"
"Penny I'm seriously considering failing you for what you just said…"
They eyed each other for a moment, probably waiting for the other to start their favorite interaction and have a face to face match of arguments… But then Penny's cel rang. Sheldon's frown deepened, but Penny ignored him and pick it up.
"Hello?"
* "Hey bestie!"* Penny stood up and started pacing in front of the coffee table.
"Hey Ames! How comes you haven't called me these past week? I miss you!" From the corner of her eyes she saw Sheldon lean back and sigh uncomfortably on his spot on her couch.
* "Aww, thank you Penny. Look, I was going to call you earlier and everything but my new project working with specific drugs to treat neuropathies is taking a lot of my time because the lab is actually testing it over different kinds of animals and we've been working non stop! Anyway, Bernadette sent me a message and told me that the guys are going to their robot competition next week and we thought it could be the perfect opportunity to have some girls' time!"*
"Cool! That sounds great…" she said looking at Sheldon. He was not going to like her changing their scheduled classes just like that.
* "… oh no…"* Said Amy's disappointed voice on the other side.
"'Oh no' what?"
* "There's a but isn't it? You are going to 'but' us and give us some excuse…"*
"No, no, no! I promise you I don't have a but… I just need to check my free time at work and that's all" Darn… Now she was in trouble! If Sheldon crossing his arms in front of him wasn't a bad sign, then she didn't knew what it was…
* "Are you sure? With all the time you're spending with your good friend Sheldon I thought you were going to say 'sorry but I have to ask him first'… But that's ok, I understand you're friends and like to spend time together… is just…"* Amy's voice broke a bit on the other side… Well, Sheldon deserved to be disappointed once in a while, he had hurt Amy badly by ending their relationship, and surely he could handle a shifting week for a change…
"Oh Amy, please don't! You know how Sheldon is and the way we treat each other… But I can assure you that not even he can keep me from spending time with you girls. I've been actually missing you both since Sheldon is usually asking me to do something or the other… Not funny or entertaining at all" She said knowing very well that that part was half a lie…
*"Yeah, he's like that. Bernadette's lab company is actually in charge of developing the drug for my experiments, maybe that's why she's also busy. I can't wait to have a crazy night out to stress out!"* Well at least she sounded a bit more cheerful now.
"Me too! I'll call you back tomorrow to settle things up and make plans, good luck with your experiments!"
* "Thanks bestie! Bye!"*
When the phone call ended she and Sheldon looked at each other once again, the tension growing between them… Sheldon sighed and shook his head.
"There's no use in arguing about this… But I would have appreciated it if you had at least considered that I'm going to be teaching another student next week." He stood up and made his way towards her door. "I'll keep you informed about your classes for the upcoming week."
Somehow, that made Penny feel a bit hurt and disappointed, her previous excitement forgotten… It was not her fault! He had been monopolizing (oh, he would be so proud of her using that word) her time during the last weeks, if they were pretending to act normal then he couldn't stop her from going out with her friends (one of which he had broken her heart), and whether or not he accepted that student it was not going to interfere with her social life!
But for a brief moment, later when she was getting ready to sleep, she wondered what kind of emotion she hadn't been able to identify, it had been coming from him, a happy, warm and bright emotion… all the time they were spending together due to her classes… maybe it wasn't the best circumstances. Whatever it was she has to solve first the current problem between Sheldon and Amy, they had to at least settle back as good friends, then…
She wasn't sure what she was expecting to happen then…
What I have planned for the next chapters is going to be a little bit more adventurous than before, the new story I uploaded is standing on shaky legs right now but that's not going to delay this one, so no worries! Until next week!