Disclaimer: I just wish it was mine.
Aspiration Corroboration
Chapter 2
Sheldon, Raj, and Howard sat in apartment 4A, not-so-patiently waiting for Leonard to return and announce their plans for dinner. It had been over half an hour since Leonard had gone over to ask Penny to come with them. Sheldon alone was not staring at the door - he was on his laptop playing a certain online game. He vaguely noticed the discontent of his friends, and indeed heard Raj's stomach grumble.
"They're probably engaging in coitus." Sheldon commented after the aforementioned stomach-rumble distracted him from his mineral-farming.
Howard looked surprised, and turned to Sheldon.
"What, why? I thought they were finished?" Howard asked, sounding a little upset.
Raj shot him a glance, and sarcastically commented that Howard didn't have a chance with Penny no matter how single or how desperate she was. In response, Howard huffed, looking slightly put out.
"Regardless, they seem to often turn to each other whenever they feel extreme emotions." Sheldon continued, still mostly immersed in his game. He thought about turning up the volume on his headset, but decided against it - as annoying as Raj and Howard were at the present moment, they were only likely to annoy him - loud headphones could negatively affect his hearing ability.
"I just want food! And you guys have nothing!" Raj complained as he rifled through the contents of 4A's fridge and pantry.
"Why do you think they eat out every night? They don't have the ability to feed themselves unless it's cereal. And eating cereal all the time would disrupt Sheldon's schedule."
Sheldon looked up from his laptop screen to give Howard an annoyed glance.
"Aren't you still receiving all your meals from your mother, the university cafeteria, or from the restaurants with us?" Sheldon said, and at Howard's reluctant nod, gave his slightly-creepy smile. "Bazinga."
Raj sighed loudly, and walked over to Sheldon. He pulled his headphones back, causing Sheldon to jump and flail wildly.
"Let's just go by ourselves. There's a great Indian place I know of!" Raj said, and released the headphones.
"That was unnecessary. I could hear you perfectly. And it's not Indian day today. It never is." Sheldon grumbled, but followed Howard and Raj out of his apartment. He figured he could convince them by the time they got to the car to adhere to his schedule.
Penny had enjoyed the dinner with Leonard, despite the fact it was punctuated by an angry phone call from Raj about being abandoned, being hungry, and Sheldon refusing to go out for Indian.
Penny let out a giggle, actually that part had been a little funny. Sheldon had apparently stood behind Raj's car in protest of eating Indian (he had apparently failed in convincing them to stick to his schedule), and Raj and Howard just might have tapped him gently with the car's fender. Sheldon was fine, but that tap caused an even bigger problem - a slightly hysterical Sheldon. Leonard had ended up being forced to talk to Sheldon on the phone, and had hung up in frustration. When the phone continued to buzz, signaling a call, Leonard had finally turned it off. He and Penny had laughed about the event for a good five minutes.
But now it was a week later, and Penny was on her way to pick up her script for her new job. Rachel had called her the previous night to give her the schedule for shooting, and told her she could come pick it up anytime.
Penny pulled into the parking lot (very carefully, as she really didn't want to ding her potential boss/coworkers/some famous actor's car), and stepped out into the Californian heat. She was dressed in shorts and a tank top, and her blonde hair was swept up in a messy ponytail, but it was still stifling hot.
She walked across the parking lot and into the building. There was air conditioning and it was obviously cranked. Penny had goosebumps in seconds, and she tried hard to keep her teeth from chattering as she talked to a receptionist, the whole time thinking it probably wasn't healthy to go between such temperature extremes. It also probably wasn't necessary for the building to be the temperature of a freezer - not to mention how much energy was being wasted keeping it that way.
With a quick phone call and a few clicks of her computer, the receptionist handed Penny a schedule and her script with a smile. Penny thanked her and headed back outside, preferring the heat to the icebox.
Once in her car (with the windows rolled down), Penny read over the script quickly. It seemed interesting - not that Penny would complain anyways as after all, a job was a job. There were a few really funny lines that legitimately made Penny laugh out loud as she read. She was so excited to get started - she'd start practicing her lines right after work at the Cheesecake Factory.
Later that night, Penny walked into her apartment absolutely exhausted. She had ended up working four extra hours (on top of her eight hour shift) because of how busy the restaurant was - and one waitress never showed up, and no one else could make it in. That meant Penny had to cover half the restaurant herself - it was so bad she brought out her pad and pen - something she hadn't had to do in a while.
She collapsed into her couch, and pulled out her script. She had so been looking forward to running through her lines, but now she could barely read it - her vision was that blurry. Glancing at the clock confirmed to Penny that it was two in the morning. Groaning, Penny dropped her script and stumbled to bed.
The next morning (well it was noon by the time Penny had eaten breakfast and gotten herself ready for the day), Penny sat down and finally read through the script a few times. She had until next Tuesday to learn her lines - exactly a week.
The pilot episode was basically an introduction - a family is turned upside down after the stay-at-home-mom decides to return to work. Penny's character Bridget was the typical blonde, boy-crazy, clothes-loving teenager - something that made Penny smile because she could definitely relate.
Penny read through the script a few more times, this time reading all her lines out loud, trying out different tones and attitudes for her character. It was easy - it was just like she was talking to her own dad. Minus the desperate attempt at trying to win his approval, of course.
The blonde ran lines with herself for about an hour or two, then finally sat back on her couch, immensely pleased. This was so cool. Her first actual role in something. The first time she would have to actually work to remember a line. It was awesome.
Glancing at the clock, Penny realized she had better get ready for work, and hoped that this afternoon/evening wasn't as busy. She brushed her hair again, changed into her absolutely lovely uniform, grabbed her bag and keys, and shut off the lights before leaving her apartment.
Tonight was Cheeseburger Tuesday for Sheldon, so predictably the guys were in their regular table by 6:00pm. Penny cheerfully went over to say hi and take their order. She rolled her eyes at Sheldon's exact instructions for his burger, and reassured him she would make sure the cook gave him the ratio of toppings to burger and bun that he liked. The cook never did get it to Sheldon's satisfaction, even when Sheldon himself had once gone back there to instruct him (and to tell the cook of his apparent many deficiencies; including but not limited to his inability to follow simple instructions).
After ringing their orders and checking on her other table, Penny went back over to the guy's table to chat. They were debating about the possible storyline for the announced (but untitled) Star Trek 2 movie.
"Didn't you guys say they had changed everything with the whole time traveling Nero guy?" Penny interjected, causing the guys to all stop and look at her.
"Exactly." Sheldon replied, looking surprised, but kind of pleasantly so. "We are debating what path they are going to take it - somewhere completely new, or with a similar storyline with obvious alterations?"
"And if they do stick to a general storyline, which one?" Leonard added, leaning forward and taking a sip from his drink.
"I hope we get to see Spock bang Uhura!" Howard exclaimed. "It wouldn't be Spock's conception, but... it'd be even better! Uhura is hot!"
"As long as Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are starring, I don't care." Penny said, rolling her eyes at Howard, just as Sheldon gave her a look that showed his disproval and annoyance. She left the conversation as they started talking about original Star Trek story-lines once again, and headed back to the kitchen to see if any of her orders had come up.
She took the food to her other table, and once assured they didn't need anything else, went back to to the kitchen to get the guy's meals. As she was carrying the second round of plates, she had an idea.
"Hey, you guys wanna help me run my lines?" Penny asked, setting down Sheldon's burger. He inspected it carefully, tsk-ing once as he carefully redistributed his burger to his liking, and counted out his number of fries.
"What kind of lines?" Howard asked, leering at her over his plate.
"You are so not reading for the love interest." Penny pointed and glared at Howard, then went on, "I thought it'd be fun, and you guys would totally be helping me out. Please?"
"I suppose if you want us to help you with this dismal thing you call a career we can allow it." Sheldon agreed, having finished his arrangement of his food, depositing his excess fries on an extra plate Penny had brought.
"Of course we'll run lines with you Penny." Leonard said, smiling, then listened as Raj whispered into his ear. "What about Raj though?"
"I've got alcohol, if he wants to come." Penny smiled. "Thanks guys! I get off at seven, so how about eight at my place?"
With the guys all nodding, Penny left them with a bounce in her step.
AN: I have absolutely no idea how anything about acting/sitcoms works. Or very, very, very little idea, anyhow, so if I've got it wrong, I apologize. Yes, there is the whole 8 Simple Rules reference again. I was just a casual viewer of the show, so I had to look stuff up, so I hope it's right - or at least tolerable. Thanks for reading! There will be another chapter - at least one. I kinda want to use this to show a progression into another Penny/Leonard relationship (since there isn't tons on this site, and I love the pair of them!) but let me know how you feel about that. It can just as easily stay friendship.