Hello everyone. Quick update here because the last chapter didn't do a whole lot. Enjoy!

Penny arrived at the university later that afternoon to pick up Sheldon. She texted him to come outside and he met her at the car. At first, Sheldon was unusually quiet.

"Hey sweetie. How was your day?" She asked.

"Fine."

"Anything new happen at work?"

"Nope."

She wrinkled her eyebrows. "Really? I'm basically giving you permission to jibber jabber about work and you're turning it down?"

Sheldon just sighed. "I suppose I am."

"What's wrong sweetie?"

"Nothing's wrong. Why should anything be wrong?" He twitched.

Despite the fact she was driving, Penny still noticed. "You're lying. Talk to me."

He looked down, a bit defeated. "Alright. You never answered my question the other day."

Penny suddenly slammed on the breaks. Sheldon grabbed onto the seat. "Good God woman, are you trying to have us killed?!"

"I'm sorry, you just caught me off guard." She took a deep breath and began driving normally again.

"I'm taking that sudden outburst of poor vehicular handling to mean that my suspicions are true."

"I don't want to have this conversation." Penny said.

"And why not?"

"Because I don't want to hear that we're in this awkward state of not knowing what could have been and you're content to leave things the way they are because you fear change."

Well that's the most honest you've been in a while.

Sheldon started fiddling with his fingers. "Penny, you asked me that night if I ever thought of you in a non-platonic way. And while I am not actively interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with you, I would be lying if I said I never considered such."

At this point, Penny's eyes got wide and her heartbeat quickened. "Really? When was this?"

"When we first met."

She pursed her lips together and smirked. "Oh really? Thought I was cute, huh?"

He looked over at her with a classic Sheldon look. "Your physical attributes played a very minor role in my contemplation."

"But you thought I was cute…" She repeated with a smug expression on her face.

"Your beauty is fairly indisputable by today's standards, so contradicting it for argument's sake would be rather ludicrous." He replied.

"Aw, how sweet. I think. But anyway, go on."

"Anyway, you didn't know Leonard nor myself, but you treated us like friends. You didn't judge us for our quirks, interests, career paths, etc. And I must say, my previous experience with women like yourself resulted in quite the opposite."

"You guys were really nice to me, and after living with my jerk of an ex-boyfriend, it was nice to feel appreciated." Penny explained.

"You were the first female I felt like I could trust, aside from my meemaw, and occasionally my mother and Missy."

Penny's eyes were now practically watering. "Oh Sheldon, that's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. But to be honest, I'm surprised. I kinda thought I was young, naïve and stupid when you met me. How did you find any of that appealing?"

"Well to be fair, your intelligence quotient stays the same for the duration of your life, so you aren't any more or less intelligent now than you were then. Yes, you were young, but there's no way to avoid aging. And furthermore, you're still rather naïve. Just the other day you thought you could entice me with your sexual prowess. If that's not naivety, I don't know what is."

And now we're back to regular old Sheldon.

"Gee, thanks." She replied.

The rest of the car ride was more relaxed. They talked, they laughed. They basically resumed their normal friendship. Now that Penny had all the answers she was looking for, she could make an educated decision as to where to go from here.

When they got back to the apartment, Penny walked up the stairs with him, right by his side. In front of their corresponding doors, she spoke up.

"Thanks for talking to me about this. I feel much better."

"You're welcome." He responded.

Before he had a chance to say anything else, Penny rushed up to him and wrapped her arms around him. He rolled his eyes and proceeded to loosely hug her back with his forearms. After a few seconds, Sheldon sighed.

"Okay, that's enough." He said.

She backed away and smiled. "See you later, sweetie." And with that, she disappeared into her apartment.

Penny was smiling and doting around her apartment. She really had no reason to be near the university this afternoon, but told Sheldon otherwise just to spend a little more time with him. But now she was home and had to prepare for her first real rehearsal. She flipped through the script and tried to remember everything she learned during her rehearsals across the hall.

Okay I can do this. It'll be fun practicing with the real cast. I love theater. There is nothing to be nervous about.

Six o'clock rolled around and Penny found herself walking into the Pasadena Theater. She saw a few actors sitting down while playing on their cell phones and a few others making small talk. Mikey proceeded to greet her at the door.

"My Sarah! Nice to see you again!" He said as he gave her a hug.

"Hey Mikey. I'm glad to be here."

A few minutes later, Mikey gathered the cast and had them sit at a long table in the back of the theater. They went around the table and introduced themselves. Penny finally got to see who would be playing whom. She recognized Cole from the auditions, although he seemed less attractive now than last time she saw him. The girl playing her roommate looked a little like Bernadette, but not quite as bubbly. And smaller boobs.

Eventually, Mikey directed them to open their scripts so they could do a collective read of Act I. Penny picked up her script and smiled.

Well, here it is. I finally get to be the Sarah that Mikey envisioned. And I get to practice my romantic interactions with the real Dr. Cooper. Dammit! Dr. Collingsworth. Collingsworth. Holy crap I thought I was past this.

Penny was fine until they got to a familiar scene.

"Oh my gosh, I envy your life. You make Europe sound incredibly romantic." She said.

"With the right person, it can be." Cole replied.

"Well, then I'll just have to go there with the right person sometime…"

She noticed that as she said that last line, she wasn't picturing herself looking at Cole. She pictured herself looking into the distance, daydreaming about touring France with Sheldon. Then she stifled a laugh.

Ha. The French don't like us as it is. I can imagine what they'd think of America after meeting Sheldon.

Mikey smiled and laughed a bit. "You okay over there, Penny?"

"Yeah, I'm totally sorry. I was thinking about something funny that happened with my friend while we were reading through this last week. So sorry, continue."

Well, that was sort of true. Except not really.

The cast just smiled and carried on. No one was taking this first read through too seriously since it was more of a 'getting used to everyone' session.

After the read through, they talked about the show and read over the schedule for the rest of the summer.

On her way out, Mikey stopped her.

"Hey Penny, I see you've been working on your performance skills already."

"How could you tell? We were just reading from out seats."

"You were giggling and smiling like I expected Sarah would. I mean, she's dating her cute professor. She should be approachable, yet smitten and engaging. And I feel like you'll master it in no time."

She smiled. "Aw, thanks Mikey. I have been working on it. My friend's been helping me big time."

"Well then tell your friend they should keep it up. It's working."

With that, Penny went back to her car.

Yeah, I'm smitten alright…