Cake and Star Trek Movie Night

Five weeks had passed since the guys had left for to Greenland. The university had not increased the funding for the expedition. As far as Penn understood it the personnel costs were not even of the calculation. Therefore not a single outside expert could be hired and everything had to be done with university employees. This led to Mary Cooper forbidding her daughter from leaving the country. Shelly had made a weak attempt at rebellion but had folded instantly when her meemaw had asked her to listen to her mother.

Knowing that he was the culprit for this made Penn feel glum. On one level, he was sorry for his next-door neighbor. But he was also unbelievably relieved. Shelly was not insane but her issues were so obvious it wasn't funny.

He could come up with more serious problems in under a minute than he had fingers! Would Shelly be able to get the small base clean enough to function? How were the guys supposed to give her the personal space she required? There were so many whats and hows... Was she going to starve herself to death? What clothes would she wear once she had no fresh ones? Penn had witnessed Shelly throwing shrimps away because they were all the same size! He had seen her have a meltdown over the brand of her soy sauce.

Now that he was alone with Shelly his days were completely dominated by doing chores for her. But that was a small price to pay. They had agreed that she would forgive him for his betrayal in exchange for taking over Leonard's chores. He had accepted this proposal because he knew that he'd end up doing most the stuff anyway. And also because he still felt guilty. And he wanted that to stop.

Most days he would eat breakfast with Shelly before driving her to the university. In the afternoon, he would pick her up. They did all their shopping together and ate dinner together. Their evenings were filled with watching TV and playing video games.

In short, Penn had not spent this much time with one person since the very relationship crashed which had led him to move into his current apartment.

On the upside, Shelly had unofficially already forgiven him. She had not said so. But she was no longer giving him the cold shoulder. And last time, she wrote instructions for her three friends at the end of the world, she had not sent a single glare in his direction.

It was a bit of bad timing when the new Star Trek movie had its premiere on Penn's birthday. "Shelly, it's alright. You don't have to bake the cake today."

"You're wrong, it has to be baked today. Today is your birthday after all."

"Yes, it is. But if you bake me a cake on the weekend that will be alright too."

"We had a deal." Shelly did not look at him. She was too busy weighing ingredients on a micro-scale. "You'll uphold your part of it and I'll uphold mine. No exceptions."

Penn gave up in frustration. He sat down on the couch and pretended to read a sports magazine. In reality, he was watching the theoretical physicist. He had not seen her work in the kitchen since they left Texas. It was oddly endearing.

Shelly was wearing an apron. Leonard had definitely never seen it. The scientist had been gone for five minutes when she had retrieved it from her room. This could only mean it had literally been buried. It looked exactly like the one she had worn during the preparations for her brother's wedding. Maybe, it was indeed the same?

A knock made Shelly look up from her task. It was not a knock on her door though. Due to the silence in her apartment, they had heard it from across the hallway.

"Someone is at your door," Shelly announced. She made the statement sound like a command to go and check.

Penn smirked. "Well, it's too bad. I'm not home."

"Social conventions dictate that you answer the door," Shelly scolded him.

Penn flipped a page of his magazine to uphold the illusion before he answered, "Only your own door."

"But it is your door which is being knocked on."

Penn sighed dramatically, "Alas, I'm not home," He gestured at her apartment. "I'm out."

Before Shelly could argue him on his bold statement his phone rang. He answered the call hurriedly in hopes the ringing would not be heard by whoever was beyond the front door. Said person was audibly confused, "… ? … ?"

"I told you, I would not be home. I told you I would be with a girl who promised to bake me a cake. Does that ring a bell?"

"… . … ?"

Penn frowned, "And what gave you the idea she'd be baking the cake at my place?"

"… ."

"My bike?" That caught Penn flat-footed. But he'd always been rather good at improvising in theater classes, "She's living within walking distance. She would think I was an idiot if I used the bike to get over to her."

"… ? … ."

"Dude, once we're done with the cake, we'll be going to see a movie. And you're not invited for that." It was one thing to swing by but this was becoming bothersome. "We're having a party for two. Me and her."

This time, Penn's friend got it. "… . … ."

"Sure. See you." He hung up.

"I guess," Shelly mused. "It would have been mean to rub in that we got premiere tickets for the new Star Trek movie."

"Yeah," Penn nodded his head hypocritically. He was totally fine with Shelly not realizing that he had no intention of sharing his birthday cake.

A waft of fresh bakery was still surrounding Shelly like an aura when they arrived at the theater. Between the smell, her giddiness, and the Star Trek Uniform, Penn was hardly surprised when he noticed some jealous looks. It probably helped that Shelly was for once too preoccupied with being excited to rant about something. At least for tonight, she was a dream girl.

They got to their seats. It was the acoustic sweet spot. After a certain incident, Penn had opted to bribe the guy who was in charge of seat reservations with ten bucks after he learned the seats had been taken.

The movie was kind of good. Better than many others. But it wasn't the movie Penn was primarily interested in.

He mostly watched Shelly. She was engrossed by the flickering pictures. She was observing the new Spock and Kirk in utmost concentration.

In a way, the movie was perfect. A lot of stuff was happening to Spock. And if there was one character Shelly identified herself with it was the iconic Vulcan. A very small but very pleased smile slipped onto her face when child-Spock beat up his bully. She beamed with joy when Leonard Nimoy appeared for the first time.

When Spock's mom died Penn was worried for a moment. He remembered very vividly how Shelly and he had read out her old fanfiction. It was about her eleven-year-old self leaving her mother behind to travel through space and help an alien with a sciency problem. Shelly had dissolved into tears. The intense reaction had been so out of character for her, Penn had feared he had triggered some sort of mental trauma.

The word 'shocked' was a serious understatement about how he had felt. He had been frightened out of his wits. Luckily, he already had had her mother's number back then. Shelly had weaved back and forth on his couch for minutes. In between sobs, she had told her mom how much she loved her. And it felt like an eternity until she slowly regained a semblance of control. Her meemaw had something to do with that as well.

Whatever the three other guys thought. Shelly had emotions. Penn had seen them. They were strong and they ran deep. She suppressed them and hid them away under indifference and apathy. Exactly like a Vulcan. He had no idea why she did so. Maybe she was scared of or confused about them?

It was not his place to question her. Neither was he an expert nor could he hope to comprehend what was going on in her genius mind.

Penn was glad Nimoy was not only as a cameo in the movie but had a small plot arch of his own. When he closed the movie by speaking the legendary words even Penn could almost quote, Shelly bounced on her seat with excitement.

Upon leaving the theater, Shelly was oddly quiet. Penn assumed that she was processing the film. Maybe she was even using her magical memory to rewind and rewatch certain scenes.

"What do you think of Zachary Quinto's Spock?"

"He was facing an ambitious task."

"Yes, I think so too. But what do you think of his Spock in general?"

"It was different from Spock Prime."

"Is different bad?" Penn asked cautiously.

"Leonard Nimoy is the better Spock," Shelly stated categorically. She even looked Penn straight into the eye as if she wanted to warn him about contesting her opinion. "It was especially obvious because they were in the same movie."

"So, Quinto did a bad job?"

"No. He was okay." After a moment of contemplation, Shelly declared, "I would not call him the worst Spock of the movie but the second best."