Aww, I'm positively overwhelmed by so many nice reviews to my last chapter! Thanks, you guys, you're the best readers a writer can ask for!
Here is the next chapter which I hope you will enjoy just as much... ;)
-Chapter 7-
Although she remained highly suspicious of her daughter's frequent visits to the Cooper family, Karen Fowler indulged Amy's pleas and allowed her to see… ehem… Missy.
Sheldon was somewhat impressed by Amy's ability to blatantly lie to her mother about her afternoon activities at the Cooper house. Amy explained to him that while her mother usually thought the worst about other kids their age, she could never believe that her Amy would do such frivolous shenanigans. After all, she raised her little girl right.
Mrs. Fowler also remained oblivious to the books, Sheldon and Amy hid in the closet. Amy was still afraid of going into the narrow, dark space, but secretly reading in the wan light of a lamp made her feel much better about it. Aside from that, reading her biology books also reminded her of Sheldon. Amy once admitted to him that thinking back to what he did for her, while she was sitting in the dusty closet, made her feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.
Sheldon couldn't understand why this statement caused his stomach to flutter and his cheeks to glow.
The two exceptional children both ignored Missy's teasing and the ridiculous kissy-faces she threw at them whenever they were alone in a room and continued their innocent, young friendship without a care in the world.
That was until a whole year later, when that embarrassing topic of pair-bonding glaringly came forward again.
This time Missy swore she had nothing to do with it; although Sheldon later blamed her for infesting Amy with her juvenile thoughts.
It all started while Sheldon was working on his college studies. His hearing picked up his sister's voice, telling someone that now probably wasn't a good time to come into his room. The other person obviously didn't listen to her, because soon enough the door handle was pushed down and the door opened, revealing Amy standing behind it.
"Oh, hello Amy." Sheldon said cheerfully. "I didn't know you were coming by today."
Amy's curious glance was only focused on him for a split second before finding another target. She noticeably narrowed her eyes without even saying 'hello'.
"That's Amy?" another girl's voice spoke up from behind Sheldon. She stood up from Sheldon's desk chair, completely ignored Amy's scowl and greeted her sweetly. "Hi, so good to meet you. I heard so much about you." she said, grinning overly enthusiastic and stroking her bleach-blond hair behind her ear before extending her hand towards Amy. "I'm Paige."
For some strange reason, Sheldon gulped uncomfortably as the two girls stood across from each other and Amy eyed Paige up and down with that unusual dark frown on her face.
"I don't shake hands." Amy finally muttered.
"Oh." Paige said, not one bit less enthusiastic. "So, you're like him." She nudged Sheldon's shoulder.
Amy clenched her jaw. "Yes. Exactly like him." she stated defiantly.
"I told you, you wouldn't like it." Missy singsonged from the doorway.
Ignoring his twin sister, Sheldon cleared his dry throat to speak up. "Uhm… let me introduce you to each other." he said. "Amy… Paige goes to the same college class as me. Paige, this is my friend Amy."
"Yeah, obviously I picked that up, silly." Paige chuckled. "I always wanted to meet you, Amy."
"Is that so?" Amy inquired icily. "And since when exactly do you know Sheldon?"
"Oh, we met in Dr. Sturgis' class about quantum chromodynamics when we were about ten. Remember that Sheldon, we were the youngest students… well, I was the youngest student, being born a month after you." she giggled.
"Yes, I remember." Sheldon sighed, rolling his eyes. "I can remember everything, which, ironically, you always seem to forget."
"Anyway," Paige continued unimpressed. "It turned out that Sheldon applied for the same college as I did, only I did get accepted first. And before we knew it, we ran into each other again in most of the classes." Paige laughed. "Isn't that amazing."
Amy smiled thinly. "Yeah… amazing that Sheldon never even mentioned you."
Sheldon's cheeks reddened even more when both girls turned their eyes on him. He swallowed.
"You never mentioned me? Oh, Shelly, I'm hurt." Paige lamented good-naturedly.
"Shelly?" Amy exclaimed with raised eyebrows. "I thought you hated nicknames?"
"I do!" Sheldon quickly sputtered. "No one except Mom is allowed to call me that. I told you that repeatedly, Paige!"
"Aw, but it's such a cute name." Paige stressed gleefully and laid an arm around Sheldon, who hurriedly skittered away from her.
Sheldon was getting more uncomfortable by the minute and he didn't even understand why. He was used to Paige being disturbingly quick with showing affection, so it shouldn't surprise him or make him jump like that. But that stormy, wild glance that seemed to burn right through him and was coming from Amy was brand new. He couldn't fathom what made her look at him like that; it completely threw him off.
"Sheldon…" Amy said, fighting to keep a nonchalant tone. "Why did you never mention her when you seemingly knew her just as long as you know me?"
"Actually, I know him a bit longer." Paige remarked. "Apparently, we missed each other by just a few weeks."
"Save it!" Amy snapped.
"Amy…" Sheldon said, shocked by her untypical impatience. "Did you get that sort of tone from Missy?"
"You didn't answer my question." Amy hissed, crossing her arms.
Sheldon figured that there was no point in mentioning that she hasn't answered his question, either and instead rushed to explain before Amy could look any more intimidating. "I-I never saw reason to. Paige is just a fellow college student and because we're the only ones at the age of thirteen in the whole university, the professor obviously thinks it's a good idea to constantly put us together for reports and projects. That's what we were doing here. Research. It's not t-that I even enjoy working with her."
"Yeah, you do a bit." Paige cut in, grinning slyly. "You always say how refreshing it is that you don't have to dumb down science for the ordinary people."
"No." Sheldon emphasized when the green fire in Amy's eyes seemed to flare up dangerously. "I said I enjoyed that I don't have to dumb anything down in my conversations with Amy."
"Well, yeah, but she only aspires to be a biologist one day, not a physicist or mathematician like us." said Paige. "Didn't you agree that ours is the far more prestigious field?"
Amy's face suddenly lost all its rigor. Her crossed arms dropped to her sides. "You… you really think that?" she asked Sheldon quietly. The look she gave him made him feel even worse than before.
"Uh… I-I did, but—" Sheldon had wanted to say more, but Amy's face instantly darkened so much that he was perplexed for only one second too long.
"I see." Amy said. "Well, if that's the case t-then I better go leave you to your… prestigious research" she spat. "And I'll go and play with Missy… like that's all I can do."
"I think that'll be best." Paige said with a smile.
Amy gave her a chilling, murderous glare. Then she quickly strode out of the room, past an equally glaring Missy, and slammed the door a bit louder than necessary.
Sheldon gulped. What just happened? Something was telling him that he should go and talk to Amy even though he didn't know what to say. He could point out to her that she didn't let him finish his sentence, but Sheldon wasn't sure if that would calm her. Why did she seem so upset anyway? I did nothing wrong, didn't I? Sheldon wondered.
"Can we get back to work now?" Paige asked with a hopeful grin.
Sheldon blinked distractedly. "Yes… yes, I guess we can."
But Sheldon couldn't really focus anymore. Amy may be gone, but the uncomfortable feeling she brought with her when she entered the room, stayed.
Much later, Paige already went home and Mary Cooper would soon call everyone to dinner, Sheldon found himself in the backyard, just a few feet away from the shed.
He had searched the whole house for Missy and Amy until his mom indicated to him that they were opening a girl's club in the shed. She found it rather adorable. Sheldon rolled his eyes, thinking about his mother. Sometimes, he thought, she's just too pure and innocent for this world.
Sheldon stared at the wooden door ahead. He didn't know what made him so nervous. He was done with his work and now it was time for some light fun. If Amy was around, he always turned to her and Missy for that. This time was no difference.
At least, that's what he was trying to tell himself.
Sheldon realized that maybe there was some unfinished business left to deal with, but he hoped that he was able to sort it out in the calm and rational manner he was used to from Amy.
He knocked. "Amy and Missy. Amy and Missy. Amy and Missy." It only started as a joke to knock three times while repeating the name of the person he expected to find on the other side of the door. But recently he began liking this ritual so much that he found himself unable to skip it whenever he was faced with a closed door.
Missy opened with an annoyed scowl, immediately closing the door behind her and standing in front of it with her arms crossed. "What do you want?" she challenged.
Sheldon stood a bit straighter. The twins were starting to outgrow Amy slowly but surely. "I'd like to speak with Amy." he said.
"Well, that's too bad. Girl's club; clueless boys and annoying brothers are not allowed."
Sheldon crossed his own arms, narrowing his eyes. "And there is your flaw. I'm neither clueless nor annoying; now let me in."
Missy unhurriedly raised an eyebrow. "But you are a boy, aren't ya?"
Sheldon paused. "Well… yeah, but—"
"Ciao!" Missy waved with a fake smile and turned around.
"Wait!" Sheldon called out. "My trains are in there. You can't claim exclusive reign over the shed while I still got property inside."
"Watch me." Missy said, crossing her arms again.
Behind her the door was opening slowly and Amy stuck her head out. "It's okay, Missy. You can let him in."
Missy sighed, narrowing her eyes at her brother and poking a finger against his chest. "You're not going to hurt her again. Or else."
"Again?" Sheldon frowned. "I haven't done such a thing."
Missy rolled her eyes. "Clueless, like I said." she told Amy. "I leave you alone now. Just tell me when I need to punch him."
Finally, Missy stepped aside and let Sheldon pass while she was marching towards the house.
"The nerve of her calling me clueless." Sheldon muttered, walking into the shed. He froze for a moment. Now that he had overcome the first boundary, he wasn't sure what he was actually supposed to do. Settling for something familiar, Sheldon went over to set up his trains. "What was Missy even talking about?" he asked Amy, who closed the door.
"Uhm, I'm not so sure." Amy answered, nervously rubbing her hands together and stepping closer to watch Sheldon, fiddling with the train models. "She was ranting a lot about… uhm, about things. I'm not quite sure I followed."
Sheldon nodded and went back to setting the locomotive on the track. Silence stretched on; a rather different silence than the comfortable one they were used to. Sheldon was relieved when the little train engine finally made a sound and happily chugged away on the tracks.
But, regardless, the silence lingered.
"Did I…" Sheldon eventually started shyly. "D-Did I really hurt you somehow?"
Amy swallowed, wringing her hands. "That's just it. I… I don't know. Missy said you did a-and… and somewhere inside of me…" she vaguely circled her stomach region. "There is a strange, undefinable feeling, agreeing with her, but I can't quite… understand it." Amy sighed. "It's very frustrating."
Sheldon briefly looked up at her. "I think I can imagine why that must be frustrating for you. Recently, I, too, get overwhelmed by new, unpleasant feelings I can't even begin to describe. I presume that must be one of the horrors that puberty holds in store for us."
"I guess so." Amy slumped down on a folding chair. "Oh, teenage brain, you work in mysterious ways."
Sheldon nodded in agreement. "In times like these I prefer to practice the Vulcan art of Kolinahr to suppress those feelings."
"That was a reference to your beloved Star Trek show, right?" Amy assumed. "Yeah, I'm not sure this will work for me."
Suddenly struck by a fascinating idea, Sheldon stopped the trains and turned around to face Amy. "We also could approach the subject scientifically and draw up a chart to pinpoint the feeling you get afflicted by with the process of elimination."
Amy perked up. "Color me intrigued."
Sheldon smiled and rushed towards the other side of the shed to pull out an old chalkboard Missy used for drawing as a child. He set it up in front of Amy and then looked for a piece of chalk. "Well then…" he said when he found one. "Describe the feeling to me. When did it start to appear?"
Amy didn't have to think long. "Actually, the moment I entered your room and saw that girl… Paige." She growled… then realized what she just did and straightened up in her chair. "Hey, I just got the same feeling again when I thought about her."
Sheldon wrote 'trigger' on the chalkboard, drew an arrow and wrote down Paige's name. "Interesting. So… what did you feel? Would you say it was a positive or negative feeling?"
"Oh, definitely negative." Amy stated. "I was angry, but also sad at the same time. Somehow, I felt… disappointed for some reason… but, however, anger was the strongest feeling."
Sheldon scribbled on the board. "Were you angry at me or Paige?"
Amy tilted her head in thought. "Paige for most of the time, but at the end I was angry at you, too, when she indicated that you view biology as a subpar field in science."
"Oh, that one I can clear up right away." Sheldon said and stopped writing. "It's true that I said that, but it was a long time ago when you and I weren't even friends yet. I had been angry at you and Missy for teasing me and then I randomly met Paige again at a lecture. That's when I first told her about you. But you can rest assure that I think differently about biology now."
"Okay." Amy said, looking pensively at Sheldon. "I think that makes me feel better about you… but I'm still angry at Paige."
Lifting the chalk to the board again, Sheldon asked, "But what did she do exactly to anger you? I still find that very confusing."
"Me, too." Amy sighed. "I know that from a logical standpoint she did nothing to upset me. She seemed nice and polite and she didn't intentionally made fun of me… but… when I think back to the way she was casually touching you and smiling at you… oh, that made me want to punch her." Amy growled.
Sheldon raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Wow… that must have been Missy's influence. You were never one looking for physical altercations."
"No, but this time I really wanted to." Amy affirmed.
"So, you experienced great emotional feelings caused by interactions between me and Paige." Sheldon muttered while writing. "To be honest, I don't care for Paige's touching, either. I try to avoid her contact as much as possible, but she simply won't listen. Her smiles seem wrong to me, too. In contrary to me, she's exorbitantly arrogant and always needs to have the last word in everything. She really annoys me most of the time."
Sheldon paused writing on the board. "I'm sorry." he said, turning around to Amy. "I didn't mean to rant about Paige. That's fairly off topic in this analysis."
"No, it made me realize something." Amy remarked excitedly, pausing to verbalize her thoughts and emotions. "You, stating that you don't like her, makes me… happy." Sheldon wrinkled his forehead. "It's amazing," Amy continued. "All of that anger I felt before is now… gone. It just vanished into thin air."
"That's peculiar." Sheldon said. "If I have to add any more feelings to this chart, I think I'm going to need a bigger board."
Amy chuckled. "I believe that'll be all. We can start drawing conclusions and eliminate the improbable ones. Then we'll see what's left."
Sheldon and Amy studied the board, trying to make sense of it. Amy voted for a sudden burst of teenage hormones, but simultaneously stated that this normally happens more subtle than immediately wanting to punch someone she'd never met before. Sheldon was still trying to place the blame on Missy for that. He was also believing in an alien parasite as a cause, but Amy shut that down cold.
"The only other thing that comes to my mind," Sheldon said eventually. "Is that you could have been intimidated by another person in my immediate environment, because you didn't want to share the enlightening thoughts my brain constantly emits."
Amy frowned, clenching her hands in her lap. "Hmm, that actually sounds vaguely like something Missy had mentioned earlier." Nervously, Amy looked at the floor.
"I doubt that it's valid coming from Missy." said Sheldon.
"But need I remind you that this deals with a social situation and that Missy is exceedingly more adept at those than you or me?" Amy noted.
"Hm, maybe." Sheldon grumbled. "What did she suggest?"
"Well, she… uhm… she stated the possibility that rather than not wanting to share your undoubtedly genius thoughts, I… I maybe don't want to share… you."
Sheldon made a face of utter confusion. "What do you mean by you don't want to share me?"
"Just the fact that I… I really like you." Amy whispered.
"I like you, too." Sheldon replied immediately, still not seeing where this was leading. "So, what is your point?"
Amy's face instantly lit up at his statement, but the answer she was giving still seemed to make her even more nervous. "Maybe… I-I don't want anyone else to like you." she stuttered.
Sheldon cocked his head to the side. "But a lot of people like me."
"Not like that." Amy said.
"Like what?"
"Well…" Amy started to blush furiously and couldn't look Sheldon in the eyes. "More than just… like." she mumbled.
For a moment, Sheldon stared at her helplessly, trying to understand what she was saying. More than like? What's more? Suddenly, his eyes grew big and a blush started to creep up his own neck. "Y-You mean…" he stopped, searching for an answer in her eyes.
Amy nodded shyly.
Sheldon gulped. His brows started sweating and his palms trembled. "That notion seems to induce panic for me." he mumbled with a very raspy throat.
"It's scaring me, too." Amy admitted.
"I'm not ready to… t-to even think about that sort of things."
"Me, neither." Amy said. "I was sure I'll never be."
Sheldon wanted to agree to that, but in that exact moment, the cause of all trouble, Missy, threw open the door.
"Quick, get out of there, Amy! I saw your mother pulling up in her car." she called out.
Amy and Sheldon looked at each other, feeling caught. Both were undoubtedly thinking about what Mrs. Fowler would do, if she found out about their conversation.
"I should go." Amy spoke and hurried out the door, leaving an utterly puzzled Sheldon behind.
He continued to look after her, hearing his heart pumping in his ears. Lifting a hand to his chest, he could feel it beating away rapidly.
Somehow, Sheldon got the feeling that something just fundamentally changed between him and Amy Farrah Fowler.
Just a quick note to all of you who also watch the TV show "Young Sheldon":
Obviously, 'my' Cooper family is based on the one we see on the show. As are the characters of Dr. Sturgis and Paige. So, in case you were wondering, I wrote this story previously to Dr. Sturgis' mental problems in the season 2 finale and therefore this also didn't happen in my story. ;) And can I also just say that I absolutely can't stand Paige's character (you may have noticed in my writing, haha). Am I the only one thinking that? :D
As always don't forget to review! Thanks in advance! :)
