Thanks to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed my story!

Just a little note: I'm going to explain English grammar somewhere below and even though I have the most awesomest beta (thank you cosette141!) I'm asking you to bear with me should anything be incorrect, hahaha. English isn't my first language ;)

Happy reading...


-Chapter 3-

Three weeks have passed since Sheldon and Amy first met and their 'relationship' could only be called icy at best.

Amy proved to be rebellious and still visited Missy regularly despite her mother's concern. But just as Sheldon said, there hadn't been any more altercations between himself and the two girls. Either he was studying and the girls were out in the yard or Amy and Missy were claiming the twins' room and Sheldon was in the garden shed, playing with his trains.

After a few successful, calm afternoons, the kids were able to be in the same room again without giving the other party the evil eye.

Mary Cooper was the only one who still thought it was a pity that Sheldon and Amy didn't seem to get along.

"And this is the first prize for last year's best Halloween costume." Missy said proudly as she was showing Amy the little, golden pumpkin medal that hung on her wall amongst some other things. "I went as Cyndi Lauper." She grinned. "I knew our teacher was a fan so I figured the first prize would go to me."

"Clever." Amy said with a smile. "Although, I'm not sure what a Cyndi Lauper is."

Missy's eyes went wide. "What? How can you be so smart and not know about Cyndi Lauper? She's a famous singer."

"Oh, like Neil Diamond?" Amy asked, but Missy only creased her nose in confusion. "My mom only lets me listen to old country music. She says those dirty, dancing girls in the music videos are not the right role model for me." Amy shrugged.

"Wait 'til you listen to some of her songs." Missy said. "She's great; I've got to show you!"

She already hurried over to a small drawer where she stored her music tapes when there was a sound of Sheldon intentionally clearing his throat. He didn't even bother to look up from his desk where he was currently sitting over his homework.

Missy rolled her eyes. "Wait here. I see if I can get Georgie to lend me his headphones so no one will be disturbed." She spoke up for the last part, but Sheldon didn't react again.

Amy giggled softly. "Yes, I think that's very sensible."

"This could take a while. Georgie always blames me for breaking his stuff." Missy said over her shoulder as she was leaving the room.

Silence fell over the remaining two kids. Sheldon's impeccable hearing picked up the sound of footsteps carefully shuffling about in the room and coming closer to him. Sheldon suddenly realized he hasn't been alone with Amy until now and he thought it would be customary to start light conversation. "She really is very clumsy." he said to her.

"I've noticed." Amy spoke up shyly and then fell silent again.

Sheldon was glad. Apparently, this girl respected his need for quietness while he was working. Something he couldn't say about his sister. But soon he noticed that Amy was getting closer again. As Sheldon abruptly turned around he caught her rising on her tiptoes so she could take a peek at his homework. "What are you doing?"

Quickly, Amy came down to her feet, blushing furiously. "I, uhm… I-I…" she stuttered. "I just wanted to see what you were doing for homework. Missy told me that you're in high school despite your young age."

Sheldon puffed his chest a bit. "Age doesn't matter when you're a genius. But I doubt that you would understand what I'm doing. This is tenth grade math."

Amy stood a bit straighter, her green eyes glinting. "Let's see about that." she said challengingly and swiftly stepped over to stand directly next to Sheldon, studying his textbook.

Sheldon leaned away from her, too startled to tell her that he was uncomfortable with people standing so close to him. He watched as her eyes quickly scanned the page. "Really, I don't think this will make sense to you." he spoke up nervously. "It's still very basic stuff, I guess, but you couldn't possibly know about—"

"You made a blunder there." Amy stated abruptly.

"What?" Sheldon exclaimed disbelievingly, leaning back over his book.

Amy pointed to the homework instructions. "It clearly says here that you're supposed to use a different method. And even though your way of getting to the solutions is very elaborate and impressive it's also not very elegant. Maybe if you're doing it like this instead…" Amy proceeded to take a pencil out of his case and quickly scribbled a few equations at the corner of his textbook page.

Sheldon could only look on with his mouth hung open. How dare she touch my property? Who gave her the right to altermy perfect math? And how on earth can she understand this well enough to find a better way of calculating it?

Amy looked at him with a proud grin, but upon his scandalized expression she frowned. "I-I'm sorry, did I cross a line by interfering with your work?"

Sheldon's mouth open and closed a few times of its own accord. He pointed at Amy's math and managed to utter, "This is correct." Sheldon turned to look directly at Amy. "Who taught you this? You are in fourth grade… like Missy."

Amy shrugged her shoulders. "I've never said I enjoyed what they teach us there. I'm extremely underwhelmed by the low standard curriculum, but my mother doesn't allow me to visit a higher learning facility."

"Oh… that's unfortunate for you." Sheldon considered with a rare sense of compassion.

"Yeah, so… whenever I get bored, which is pretty much all the time, I read a lot."

"You taught yourself?"

Amy nodded. "Granted, math is not my favorite subject – nothing beats biology – but I've certainly outgrown questions like 'what equals ten times ten' and started looking for more challenging alternatives."

"That's amazing." Sheldon found himself admitting before he could stop himself. "All my life I have believed I'm the only one of my kind, but as it turns out… you could be a Homo Novus, too."

Amy creased her forehead. "A Homo Novus? That term doesn't exist."

"I've invented it." Sheldon stated.

Amy's frown deepened which made her nose crinkle. "That's silly." she said.

"It is not." Sheldon held vehemently. "Just think about it… did you sometimes feel like an alien on this planet because other children that are your age and should be at the same mental level as you, more or less, couldn't even seem to outsmart a zoo monkey?"

Amy crossed her arms and pouted. "Hey, monkeys are smart, too. I love monkeys."

"They're rather adorable, I admit." Sheldon acknowledged. "But that's beside the point here."

Amy curled her lip in thought. "Hmm, okay… I think I do sometimes feel like I don't belong anywhere because of my unique intellectual abilities."

"See… that's why a new terminology of species is required. We're standing above them." Sheldon explained.

Amy frowned again. "I don't like to stand above anyone."

"Why?" Sheldon asked.

"Because it's very lonely…" Amy sunk her head to look at her feet. "I don't like feeling lonely… yet, I've truly been alone since I can think."

"But you aren't alone anymore." Sheldon noticed. "You have inexplicably befriended my sister, although she must bore you with her undeveloped mind."

"She's actually pretty smart, too. But a different kind of smart." Amy defended Missy.

"Regardless…" Sheldon waved her off. "You also found another like-minded Homo Novus in me." A radiant smile started to grow on Amy's face, which made Sheldon feel funny.

"You mean… y-you want to be friends with me, too?"

Sheldon was baffled by his own answer. "I-I guess… I do. Despite previous experiences, you seem to be a sensible, kind person who prefers calmness over loud chaos, unlike so many other people I know. Also, your conservative appearance leads me to believe that you're orderly and have high hygienic standards. Like me." Sheldon added. "I think we could get along if we tried."

Amy's smile merged to a happy, toothy grin. "Oh, in that case, I think a formal introduction is in order." She stretched out her hand. "Hello, I'm Amy Farrah Fowler."

Sheldon continued to look at her. "I don't shake hands."

"Seems reasonable." Amy answered without missing a beat and put her hands behind her back, waiting.

Sheldon smirked, pleased that she didn't make fun of him for his aversion to human skin contact. "Hello, Amy Farrah Fowler. I'm Sheldon Lee Cooper. Welcome to Medford."

Amy grinned. "Oh, and also… I'm sorry for calling you weird. That wasn't very nice of me."

"Apology accepted." Sheldon said. Amy leaned forward, raising her brows as if she was waiting for something else. "What?" he asked.

"And…?" she required.

Sheldon chewed on his lip and then sighed. "Sorry for calling you dumb. That's evidently not the case." he mumbled quietly.

The door slammed shut. "Wow!" Missy exclaimed, startling her twin and her friend. "Amy, what have you done with my brother? He never ever apologized for anything!"


Sheldon was as astounded as Missy about the new turn of events. Never before he had wished to befriend anyone out of his own desire. Even his friendship with Tam from high school originated from wanting to ease his mother's worries. After all he was only a ten-year-old boy completely alone in a school full of teenagers. Tam was a nice guy who introduced Sheldon to comic books, but he wasn't nearly as smart as Sheldon.

However, that couldn't be said about Amy Farrah Fowler.

Intrigued by her bright mind and her shy and polite demeanor, Sheldon found himself purposely being around her and Missy whenever Amy came over to their house. He couldn't really comprehend why. It was almost like he wanted to feel less… excluded.

"This is soo confusing." Missy whined. She and Amy were currently in the twin's room studying. There was an English test coming up, but Missy wasn't very motivated to learn.

"Don't worry, you can do this." Amy said calmly and started to explain again. "In order to find out when you have to use 'who' and when you have to use 'which' in a sentence you have to check if you're referring to a subject or object first."

"But how should I know what is what?" Missy lamented. "I keep confusing them."

"It's simple. Just look at the part of the sentence before the comma and ask yourself if there is a person mentioned. For example, Missy, Amy or the teacher. If there is, then it's a subject and you must use 'who'. Anything else that isn't a human being is an object and you must use 'which'. For example, a table or a pen."

"It sounds so easy the way you're talking about it." Missy groaned.

There was a sigh and an eye roll from the other side of the room, but the girls ignored Sheldon.

"Don't let yourself be intimidated by anything." Amy comforted her friend. "Maybe it's easier for you to understand if we treat our conversation like a game. We make up sentences, which must be relative clauses and the one of us coming up with the funniest sentence is the winner."

"Hey, you used 'which' in your sentence." Missy noticed.

Amy smiled. "Correct. Do you know why?"

Missy kept thinking hard. "Because… you were referring to the sentences and sentences aren't people?"

"You're right again." Amy praised and Missy gleefully pumped her fist in the air.

Sheldon, who was sitting at his own desk, shook his head incomprehensibly. "I truly admire your patience, Amy." he said.

Missy glared at him and spoke before Amy could answer. "What are you saying?"

"Just the obvious." Sheldon shrugged. "I wouldn't be able to stay this calm if I tried to explain simple grammar to you."

"I told you Amy is cooler than you." Missy scoffed.

"Apparently so." He should have left it at that. The girls turned around again, intending to start their silly grammar game, but there was this thought again that didn't leave Sheldon alone this whole time.

Why am I being around them?

It's ridiculous to believe that I would suddenly care about companionship. I was alone amongst those human monkeys from the beginning and I always liked it that way. I'm superior. I should pity them; they can't keep up with me.

But what if Amy can? I should keep an eye on the competition.

Filling the arising pause, Sheldon absentmindedly voiced his last thought. "Amy's intelligence is earnestly lost on you."

The chair screeched over the floor as Missy jumped up and stomped over to her twin brother with balled fists. "What?!" she hissed.

Sheldon shrunk back. "I'm just saying that her mind could be occupied by far more intelligent questions and you're stopping her from it. I-I'm being compassionate, isn't that what everyone always wants me to be?" he tried to reason.

"You're showing compassion by thinking of me, but you're also being extremely rude towards your sister." Amy explained with the same patient calmness as before.

"Well, I can't think of everyone all the time!" Sheldon defended himself.

"You're just realizing that Amy is a great friend and now you're jealous that she is only my friend and you're stuck with your weird Asian guy." Missy shot back, her bright blue eyes glowing dangerously.

"That is wrong on so many levels." Sheldon raised his voice. "First of all, Sheldon Cooper doesn't get jealous of anyone or anything. Why should I be jealous of lesser minds? Second, Tam isn't weird at all and you promised Mom you would refrain from any name calling. And third, Amy and I stated a few weeks ago that we could be friends, too."

"No, you can't!" Missy yelled. "You can't take her away from me, too. Do you always have to be the center of attention?"

"It's not my fault that I'm far more interesting than—"

"No, stop fighting!" Amy yelled louder than anyone ever heard her.

The twins stared at her, flabbergasted, both instantly shutting their mouths.

"I refuse to stand between your constant sibling brawls." Amy told them fiercely. "I will never stop being your best friend, Missy. You're very important to me and I won't ever be bored by our games or make fun of you for not understanding something. I'm always happy to help you out, bestie."

Missy blushed. "Thanks." she mumbled quietly.

"But I also can't help but feel intrigued by your brother's persona." Amy continued. "It's nice to know that I'm not the only outcast when it comes to intelligence and I don't want to hide that anymore." she sighed. "Can't I… can't I be friends with both of you?"

The twins looked at each other with a strained smile whilst rolling their eyes… something as good as an actual apology for a Cooper.

"I suppose you can." said Sheldon.

"Yeah… we can work this out." added Missy.

Amy smiled in relief. "Great. Then I have a proposal for you..."

The proposal determined that from now on, Amy would take turns in visiting the Cooper kids. One time she would solely play with Missy and learn 'important things' about social bonding and one time she would spend her time with Sheldon.

Their activities varied from studying in silent togetherness and conducting science experiments in the garage to Sheldon showing Amy everything that he owns. Sometimes, they played with his trains and he tried to excite her for comic books. However, Amy found Sheldon's fondness for them rather amusing. She preferred to read at a far more advanced level than pictured books full of onomatopoeia.

Sheldon grumbled about that, but strangely he couldn't seem to stay mad at Amy for long. She was the equal-minded companion that Sheldon always dreamt of having; although unbeknownst to himself. Finally, there was someone with whom he could bounce off ideas that were above anyone else's understanding.

Sheldon felt very productive and he and Amy enjoyed and looked forward to their meetings.

Though, there was the disapproving look of Karen Fowler whenever she picked her daughter up in the afternoon and she witnessed Sheldon and Amy sharing a smile as they waved goodbye. But that didn't discourage them.

Also, in contrary to Amy's mother, a very pleased Mary Cooper firmly stayed on the children's side. She assured Karen that the kids will always be chaperoned by someone, so she didn't have to worry.

Not that their respective opinions of them changed anything in the long run.


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