A/N Hello everyone! People ask me "What's my inspiration for writing?" My answer is MUSIC! Although I have no talent in anything musical, I just love it and it inspires every moment of every scene. Well Act Two was inspired by the song 'Careless Whispers' by Seether. Enjoy~

Act Two

Sheldon plus Prom equals a Statement?

The embrace last only a few moments, a few sweet moments of silence. In fact the only sound was the thump of their beating heartbeats. Sheldon savored these moments before Shirley released him. He still kept his hold.

"Sheldon," Shirley called up to the tall nerd, "Sheldon, it's getting a little hard to breath down here."

Opening his dull blue orbs he tighten his grip around her slightly more, "I just want to know you're real and not just another hallucination. You know I have been working with some new chemicals that may have some…"

"Sheldon," Shirley interrupted him, "I can assure I am me in the flesh and blood."

With a quick squeeze Sheldon quickly let go, then looking around he noticed all the mirrors and when his eyes cast upon the silk bed he gave a soft shriek along with a low jump. He quickly looked by at the smiling brunette who sat down on the bed.

"W-what are we doing here?" he stuttered feeling an uneasy sensation growing inside his pants he quickly sat and crossed his legs.

Shirley giggled at him childishly, "Shelly, I'm not going to do anything, but talk. The back rooms are the other quiet places in the club. Relax."

She placed her hand upon his, and even though he felt a teenage excitement building inside her touch was somehow calming. They sat there, silently, motionlessly, shyly for a good while. They both acted as if they were lost for words, and for Sheldon losing his ability to speak was a blessing to some people. But for this moment it was not a blessing. Although the silence was not awkward nor uncomfortable, but instead it was simply nice. To even be in the same room with one another again was a gift of itself, because of how long they waited to see each other again.

But soon they both looked at the other and cracked their lips to speak at the same time. Then they stopped and waited for the other to speak, but again they spoke the same time. Sheldon and Shirley chuckled at their fail attempts.

"I'm sorry," sighed Shirley lowering her head to stare at the floor, "I'm sorry about everything. I'm sorry what I did to you, I'm sorry it took me so long to apologize, I'm sorry I'm such a screw-up as a person," she peered up at him and squeezed his hand, "and as a friend."

Sheldon's eyes grew wide with sorrow, "Shirley…"

Quickly stood up, and began to pace back and forth uttering under her breath, "It's just, you don't know how it was living in that damn house! The fighting, the yelling…," she turned to her friend with tearful eyes, "the nights were the worse. I rarely sleep because of the reoccurring nightmares." Turning to the corner where her weeping eyes blankly stared back at her Shirley punched her reflection, shattering the glass with shards piercing through the spaces between her tighten knuckles.

Placing her forearm against the broken glass and pressing her head against the fold of her arm she continued, "If, if I would have known you would be seriously hurt by my actions that not I would never have asked you." She turned to him, and in front of Sheldon she dropped to her knees placing her hands upon his knees, "Sheldon, I had loved you before that night and even more after. Can you ever forgive me?"

Sheldon did not know how to respond. He always felt something more for this lone woman than any other. It's been so long since the day she spoke of the sting of the day was numbed over the many years. And yet, the sting came back like a dagger through his beating heart.

"Shelly, give me your phone," Shirley said as he did as requested, "I'm going to give you my number. Let's have lunch tomorrow. Just you and I. So we can talk some more."

Sheldon nodded his head in agreement. Looking up at her dear old friend she placed the phone in his hand and stood up, even standing while he sat Shirley was only taller by a couple of inches. But she leaned down with a smile and kissed his cheek tenderly.

Back up toward the door, Shirley had a cheerful smile as she gazed over at Sheldon, "I got to clean up a bit, sorry about the mess Shelly. I'll see you later." With a wink she left with her sweet perfume still lingering in the room.

The next morning Leonard and Penny lied out in the living room sleeping. This occurred because early that morning they along with Sheldon came back, and the couple was too drunk to make their way to Leonard's room so they collapsed outside in the living room. Leonard did not even make it to the couch instead he laid by the front door.

The apartment phone rings waking Leonard from his drunken coma. It rings again causing him to struggle to his feet and over to the kitchen. There it rings the third time, this time Leonard pressed the speaker button and answers with a sleepy, "Hello?"

"Well good morning to ya Leonard," greeted the oddly loud Texan mother, "can you put my son on?"

"Um…I think he's taking a shower. Can I have him call you back?" suggested Leonard.

"No, that's all right darling. I'll just wait."

"Great…" uttered Leonard annoyed.

Noticing the booze-bound words, Mary could tell her son's roommate was hung over. "Honey, how long was you drinking till."

Surprised Leonard asked, "How did you know?"

"George would drink every second of every day if he could," Mary explained, "I know what a hangover sounds like. What exactly were ya'll doing?"

Rubbing his eyes Leonard tried to remember and slowly some memories came back, memories from before the club. Pouring himself a glass of Orange Juice he answered, "Um…Sheldon's friend Shirley invited us to the Lone Lounge."

"Shirley? You mean Shirley Stonehill?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Oh my sweet Jesus! Little old Shirley Temple," Mary exclaimed excitedly, "well that's what the town called her 'cause she looked like that little actress Shirley Temple. Yes, she had the same curly blonde hair. Good Lord how is she? I haven't seen her since she took Sheldon to her senior prom."

Leonard spat out his Orange Juice in disbelief while Penny heard the words Sheldon and prom, and quickly woke from her own drunken coma.

"I'm sorry did you say Sheldon went to prom?" asked Leonard.

"Yes, I did," Mary answered, "now we all know my boy is a little on the strange side, but Shirley seem to have the effect of keeping him somewhat normal. I remember she called him up and asked him to her senior prom. He dropped everything and hurried back home to take her. But the night did not turn out so well, in fact in our little town what happened there was the one of the biggest events that ever happened."

"What happened?" asked Leonard now fully awake and intrigued.

"It's a long story dear."

"Well Sheldon is in the shower." Leonard said.

"Then I guess we have time for the full version," Mary begun revealing the story of Sheldon's prom night.

Flashback

It was finally the day Sheldon had been waiting for since his crush Shirley had asked him a month and a half ago. His mother, Mary, was fixing his black bow-tie until it was perfectly straight. His grandma put his powder blue jacket on the young man, and dusted it off to make it look almost brand new. Mary turned her son to the face the full mirror, and as they both looked at him they both could not believe this day was finally here.

"Moon-pie you look so handsome." Sheldon's grandma cheered.

"Thank you Mema," Sheldon smiled turning to his grandma, "I'm so excited!"

Mary came around to his front of do some finishing touches, "I still can't believe she asked ya. You already graduated college and then some. She probably could have asked any boy in her class."

"Hush up Mary," snapped Grandma, "obviously she picked the only one who's worth her time. Isn't that right?" Grandma than proceeded to kiss his nose leaving a kiss covered lipstick on her grandson's pointed nose.

"Mema, what if Shirley walks in?" Sheldon asked worriedly while Mary wiped the lipstick from his nose.

As he was being tended too, Shirley walked to his front door. She was wearing a matching powder blue dress with a darker blue sash around her waist. Her hair was long, curled and golden blonde. She wore long dark blue gloves, a pearl necklace and blue heels. Her smiling face caught Sheldon's stare and kept his attention. Soon both Grandma and Mary looked over at the door to see beautiful Shirley.

"Well don't just stand there, come on in darling," Mary said as the young girl came inside and stopped at the threshold, "well don't you look like Cinderella?"

"Thanks Mrs. Cooper," Shirley smiled at her date, "hi Shelly."

Sheldon walked over awkwardly, "Y-you have nice ankles." Referring to the small gap between the bottom of her lace dress and feet in which her ankles were shown.

She laughed softly, "Thank you."

"Oh, let me get a picture of you too," Mary begged pushing her tall son next to his short date and snapped a picture, "there we go! Now, no sex, drugs or alcohol. Have a great time kiddos!"

The night was becoming late and normally Sheldon would be tired by this hour, but with Shirley in his arms he was wide awake. They danced, they laughed, they were having a fun-full time and it was all because of her. But as the evening grew late the announcement of prom King and Queen was about to be held.

The King was already announced, but with only moments of hoping of every girl in the place was the announcement of who would be the Queen. And then it came, "Shirley Stonehill."

Shirley seemed unaffected by this, her expression changed, but not happy or excited, but it was a bitter expression. She slowly walked up on stage and received her crown. But it was there she tapped the microphone to make an announcement of her own.

"Hello everybody," she started out, "I know some of you are surprised by this, and all of you have been hearing rumors about me. But before I confess my soul, I just want to say one thing." She took off the crown and stared deep into the crowd of her white, christen classmates, "You all have two things in common with this crown. They first this stupid thing and you all are a bunch of plastics, and the second," she broke the crown in pieces and threw it at the crowd, "you are both weak. Too weak to come out of your parents shadows, too weak to fight what's worth fighting for. Equality. I am my own woman, with my own values and ideas. I'm nothing like you, and I'm everything like my mother." She stripped her arms from the gloves revealing needle marks from drug abuse.

The crowd gasped at her honesty, the Principal tried to nudge her off, but she shoved him away. Tears of anger and frustration ran down her oddly round cheeks.

Shirley looked deeper in the back, right at her Grandfather, and she bit out, "I rather be an honest junkie like my mother than a fucking Nazi just like that man over! Do you hear me?" Pulling off her wing she revealed her freshly shaven head before the Principal quickly snatched her and dragged her off stage, "Am I still your little girl now? Huh, Howard?"

Somehow escaping the Principal's grip she ran to Sheldon with a sad smile, "I had a wonderful night, Shelly." She kissed his cheek before being taken hold again, and dragged out of the room.

End of Flashback

"And a few days later she ran away," Mary ended her story, "but now I suppose she's back. I wondering if Howard knows, maybe I should give him a call."

"Wait, Howard was the name of Shirley's grandfather?" asked Leonard.

"Yes, it is."

"That can explain some things," Leonard said before hearing a knock on the door, "All right Mrs. Cooper I'll have him call you, bye!" After hurrying her off the phone he headed towards the door saying, "I can't believe that. Shirley seems like such a nice person."

"Well she can be a nice person now, maybe she was a wild child in her past." Penny responded knowing full well a 'wild child' can change.

"I think she's still a wild child," Leonard said before opening up the door to Shirley, "hey Shirley…" he greeted awkwardly.