Missy walked into the house and saw Sheldon talking to their mother in the kitchen. She was holding the mail when she started waving a large envelope at Sheldon.
"Oooh, what could this be, Shelly?" She said.
Sheldon squinted his eyes a bit to see what Missy was holding. "What is it?"
"Looks like a letter from Stanford. That's one of the colleges you applied to, right?"
Sheldon sighed. "Yes well, I get letters from various universities daily. This is nothing new."
She smiled. "But this is one of those big packet envelopes. Maybe you got in."
He slowly stood up and took the envelope from Missy. "Alright, I'll open it."
Mary came over to watch, hoping that it was a letter of admission. "Isn't it a bit early for these?"
Sheldon scoffed. "I can't imagine it would take them long to review my impeccable application." As he pulled out the packet, he smiled in his usual condescending manner. "Ah yes, pleased to grant me admission…"
Mary and Missy immediate enveloped Sheldon in a group hug. Missy started jumping up and down a bit. "Aw, I'm so proud of you, Shelly. You're gonna be such a good little rocket scientist."
He broke out of the hug and shot her a dirty look. "A what?! I plan to be a theoretical physicist, not a rocket scientist."
"What's the difference?"
He didn't even humor her with a response. He just looked at his beaming mother.
"Well congratulations. I'm proud of you, Shelly."
"Thank you." He said gracefully.
Mary looked pensive. "I still think you should look into that to school you and Amy like to visit."
Sheldon looked expressionless. "CalTech."
"Yes, that way you could live at home…"
Missy looked back at the plethora of envelopes in her hand. "You got some other ones too. This one here must be foreign or something. You'll have to pronounce it for me."
He took the smaller envelope from her hands and read the address in the corner. His eyes widened. "It's from Switzerland…"
Mary folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Now you got some of those foreigners trying to recruit you? This is getting ridiculous."
"No, you don't understand. I applied to one of the top universities in Switzerland for a chance to work with leading researchers on the CERN supercollider…"
"Hold on…" Missy said. "I thought momma said you weren't allowed to leave the country."
"Now Shelly, I thought we talked about this." Mary said.
He ignored both of them and ripped open the envelope. He sighed. "Oh, just a letter indicating they received my application. Must be standardized since they failed to comment on my remarkable qualifications."
"Don't get your hopes up." His mother said. "I'm still not letting you run around Europe at 16 years old. Alone."
He folded his arms. "For your information, I will be 17 years of age and I will not be alone. The university admits thousands of students each year."
"You're not going." She reiterated.
"It's a moot issue for the time being. We'll revisit this topic when I am admitted." Sheldon said as he walked to his room.
Mary just looked at Missy. "You know, most kids would give their left arm to get into Stanford. But leave it to Sheldon to determine that one of the best schools in California isn't good enough for him."
Missy coyly looked at her mother. "You know, if you don't want Sheldon going to Europe alone…"
"No." His mother said.
She rolled her eyes and walked away.
When Leonard left, Penny changed into a short black dress and started to curl her hair. She told her parents she was going to a party with Bernadette, but left out the location details.
She received a text from Bernadette. "Can you drive? Raj is already here and we both intend on drinking."
Penny laughed to herself. "Wow, daddy approves of my boyfriend and I'm designated driver. Times have certainly changed."
She agreed and texted her back. When she was done primping, she left the house and headed over to Bernadette's. Penny was a bit floored by Bernadette's appearance. She was wearing a low cut red dress that barely covered her butt. Of course, this greatly distracted Raj who was still wearing his typical sweater vest.
"Damn Bernie, going all-out slutty tonight?" Penny asked.
"Howard thinks he can walk all over me? Well he needs to learn that I can do way better than him if I try. I'm a good girlfriend! And I'm freaking adorable!"
Raj politely waved. "Hi Penny. Thank you for picking us up."
"Hi Raj. Ready to go?"
They got into Penny's car and got situated. Penny took out her phone to set up the GPS.
"Okay, so where are we going? Do you have the frat address?" Penny asked.
Bernadette tugged on her dress. "Well I found out an hour ago that it's not realllly a frat party. CalTech is apparently one of the worst party schools ever, so it's more of a house party. After I got really upset at Howie, I started talking to Glen."
"Oh God, no you didn't…"
Raj looked confused. "Who's Glen?"
Penny shook her head. "This guy Bernadette used to go out with. He graduated last year."
"Does he go to CalTech?"
"No, but some of his friends do. Since they don't really have many parties there, they're having one at somebody's house tonight. It's like right off campus."
Penny started to get leery. "So, we're going to a stranger's house. Off campus. With some guys from a really nerdy school. And your ex-boyfriend." She may not have always made the best decisions, but she was starting to understand why Leonard was so confused about this outing. "Bernadette, this is crazy. You're just mad at Howard. I'm sure you two will get over it and be back together by Monday."
"Why should I? So I can be his new mother?!" She said angrily as she fastened her seatbelt.
Penny started the car and drove off. Raj looked around from the backseat, nervously. "Um, you never programmed your phone, Penny. Do you know where you're going?"
"Oh yeah. I know exactly where I'm going."
Bernadette took out her phone. "I have the address in my phone. Here." She started to activate her own GPS application.
"No need. I got this."
Bernadette looked out the window and didn't like what she saw. "Where are you taking me? Penny, turn this car around! We have a party to go to! Don't you dare bring me to Howard's house."
"I'm not driving across town so you can go drink with strangers and hook up with Glen. You're going to march right inside Howard's house and work this out with him."
"It's totally his fault. Why do I have to apologize?!" She yelled.
Penny remained stoic. "I'm not telling you to apologize. I'm telling you to work this out. I'm not letting you do something you'll regret when you two make up in a few days."
"Who says I'm going to make up with him?"
As Penny pulled into Howard's driveway, she took a deep breath. "Because, he's a good guy that screwed up because he's afraid of his mother. I mean, I totally think you can do better, but I rather you come to that conclusion when you're not pissed off at something stupid."
Raj smiled. "That was very mature of you Penny."
Bernadette looked huffy. "Oh boo hoo. You're no fun anymore."
She slowly got out of the car and made her way to the front door. She tentatively knocked and waited for Howard. Penny and Raj were captively watching from the car.
"I bet they'll be hugging in no time." Raj said.
Penny smirked. "I bet they'll disappear into the house and we'll be awkwardly stuck in the driveway for the next 30 minutes."
When Howard answered the door, his jaw dropped at the sight of a sexified Bernadette.
"Wow, Bernie, you look, amazing…" He said.
She still had a puss on her face. "I know that! I dressed myself! Penny drove me over here so you could apologize to my face."
Suddenly, a loud and familiar voice came from the house. "Howard! Who's at the door?!" Mrs. Wolowitz yelled.
He leaned back. "It's Bernadette, ma!"
"I thought you kids broke up? I'd hate to think she's gonna give the milk away for free if you're not even dating."
Howard cringed. "She's just hear to talk."
"Oh sure, like I'm going to believe that. Just don't get her pregnant! I don't want my baby having a baby just yet."
He started to get pissed off. "How can we when you won't stop RUNNING YOUR MOUTH LONG ENOUGH FOR HER TO SAY ANYTHING?!" Howard stopped yelling and looked at Bernadette. "Maybe we should talk outside." He closed the door behind him.
Bernadette sighed. "Maybe we should go out back. Penny and Raj are sitting the car watching."
He looked over to see their eager faces staring at them. "Fair enough."
They disappeared behind his house for only a few minutes when Penny started to get agitated. "I'm bored. Want to get out and see if we can hear them from the side of the house?"
Raj shook his head. "Penny, that's horrible. That's a complete invasion of privacy."
"So you're in?"
"Totally. Do you mind if I bring my Twizzlers?"
Raj and Penny were quite unsuccessful in their attempt to snoop. After being tangled in Mrs. Wolowitz's rose bushes, Raj gave up and went back to the car. Penny soon followed.
"Do you think they're making up?" Raj asked.
"Well, I didn't hear any yelling. That's a good sign."
Raj nodded. "You're a good friend, Penny. If Howard happened to break up with Bernadette, do you think I'd have a shot?"
Penny's eyes widened. "Shut up, you do NOT have a crush on Bernadette."
"I was just wondering."
Her expression softened. "You so wouldn't date your best friend's ex-girlfriend. Besides, you're a nice guy, I'm sure a ton of girls would love to go out with you."
Raj didn't agree. "Well if you happen to meet any of them, send them my way. I haven't had a date since Bernadette tried to set me up with her friend."
This triggered the memory of Priya's text to Leonard. "Speaking of that, did you guys ever talk again?"
"No. I spent the whole date yelling at Leonard about my sister. I never even got her phone number. Doesn't matter now anyway, none of you are talking to her."
Penny leaned toward Raj. "It wouldn't have worked out anyway."
"How do you know?" He asked.
"Well, you didn't hear this from me, but we found out that Trisha was seeing Eddie behind my back for a while. And now, your sister told Leonard that she thinks Trisha's pregnant."
Raj looked angry. "What do you mean Priya's still talking to Leonard?!"
Penny dropped her arms. "Oh you're kidding me, right? Don't you think if Priya and Leonard we're still 'talking' that I'd be the first one to stop it?"
He smiled. "And that's why I like you, Penny."
"Anyway, I pretended I really didn't care, but now I'm totally curious. I mean, she has been acting weird, and if she's sleeping with Eddie she never told me about it. Obviously. Do you think we could get Bernadette or Amy to ask her?"
Raj shrugged. Penny turned around to see Bernadette walking back to the car holding Howard's hand. "Well that figures. Remember, I didn't tell you anything. So shhhhh!"