Chapter 14
It had been a couple days since Sheldon's visit to Pris's office. He had stewed over his idea to tell Leonard about Pris's secrets until he had, what he considered, a full proof plan.
Leonard stayed at Penny's place most nights. It was just easier to avoid Sheldon that way.
After figuring out his plan to the last detail, Sheldon walked across the hall to Penny's door.
Knock, knock, knock. "Leonard and Penny?" he did his little knocking ritual.
"Ignore it." Leonard said loudly for Sheldon to hear through the door. He huffed and decided to speak through the door.
"I have important information, that you should know about." He said loudly.
And after getting no response, he added: "It's about Pris."
It took a few seconds, but eventually Leonard opened the door.
"What about Pris?" Leonard asked. He knew it wouldn't be anything drastic. But after quick evaluation, he realized that if something happened to her, Leonard wouldn't know, because no one would really know to inform him.
Sheldon looked down at the floor and then sighed.
"She's going to be on TV tomorrow." Sheldon eventually said.
"What?"
"Yes. She's appearing on 'Good morning Seattle'. It streams live on the Internet at five AM."
"Thanks Sheldon." Leonard started closing the door. "We'll have a look."
"Don't you want to watch it at our apartment? I rigged the TV so that the Internet streams to the screen." Sheldon whined.
Leonard looked at Sheldon for a long time and then at Penny. "Sure. We'll be there at 5am." And then he shut the door.
Early the next morning, Leonard and Penny sat on the couch, waiting for Good Morning Seattle to start. Penny was already down a few cups of coffee and Sheldon sat in his spot, high on alert and genuinely happy that his friends were with him again.
The show started with its jolly morning tune and the host sat alone around the high table.
"Good morning Seattle." The lady in the blue suit stated. "And everyone watching online. Welcome to today's show. I'm Margot Darling."
"Why didn't she tell me about this?" Leonard asked as he sat forward in his seat.
"Today on the show we have one of our old favorites, Prissy Reid. Remember our little kid genius? Well, she features in a newly published book, explaining how her entire life was a science experiment, and she is here tonight to talk about it. Let's welcome, Persephone."
It took a few seconds before Pris appeared on the stage.
"She looks ill." Leonard commented at the very sight of her.
Pris walked across the stage and sat in the empty chair next to Margot.
"Hello Prissy." Margot greeted the green looking Pris. "Are you nervous again?" It seemed to be a regular occurrence.
Pris nodded slowly.
"Why?" Margot found it funny.
"I don't do good with crowds, Margot. Still." Pris said softly.
"It's just me. You know me. You can relax."
"You have an average of a million viewers per show, and that doesn't include Internet streaming. That's a crowd." Pris looked really uncomfortable.
"They're not all here." Margot said.
"They're all here." Pris pointed at her head.
"Oh man." Leonard felt overly protective of Pris and wished he could make her feel better.
"Sweetheart, you have a doctorate in Phycology. What's that technique to calm yourself?" Margot started looking worried.
"I would usually kick my heels and repeat: There's no place like home. But that isn't working."
"What else is there?"
Pris closed her eyes and held her face. "My name is Persephone Prior. I live in Magnolia, Seattle. I'm an installation artist. My husband is Embry Prior, my mother is Sephone Ryan…" She started faltering and then added. "My brother is Leonard Hofstadter."
Pris opened her eyes and she smiled. With a deep sigh, she looked ready for anything.
"Are you okay?" Margot asked.
"Yes thank you. Sorry about that. Go ahead, Margot."
"You have a brother?" Margot asked suddenly. "I didn't know that."
"Neither did I. But yes, I do. Two actually, and a sister. Only one that I've met." Pris started getting color back in her face. "I like him."
"You're mom got married?"
"No. Well, yes. But no. My siblings actually come from my father's side. He had this whole other family that I didn't know about."
"Wow."
"Yeah." Pris smiled.
"Okay, so about the book…" Margot launched into details about the book, things that Leonard already knew but he kept watching and listened intently. Margot was a very good host and asked several intense questions.
"And after the book?" Margot asked coming to a slow end.
"I got another doctorate. And I got married. Now I'm moving to LA. I have an art exhibition in a couple of weeks there and a few job offers."
"That's amazing." Margot picked up her iPad and tapped the screen. "So a new feature of the show, is that once an interview starts, people start tweeting comments and questions and then we spend a few minutes reading them. That okay with you?"
"Sure." Pris gulped. "One million viewers. Should be interesting."
Margo started scrolling through the comments and questions.
"What does it feel like to have your life read by the entire world?" Margot read a question.
"It's not exactly a best seller, the whole world isn't reading it. But it's actually so clinical. Most of my life was mine. And it can't really be chronicled in a single book."
"Do you hate your father for never being there for you?"
"Not at all." Pris found the question a little strange. "My life is the way it is. I wouldn't change anything about it. My mom did a great job raising me and I am very happy."
"You seem very perfect: Pretty, Smart and rich."
"Oh, I'm hardly perfect." Pris shook her head. "Perfect wouldn't get panic attacks each time she has to talk to other people. Perfect doesn't burn the cooking. And Perfect most certainly doesn't forget her own birthday."
Margot smiled. "Okay, one last one." She scrolled down. "No not that one."
"What?" Pris was curious and stared at the iPad. Her manner instantly changed as she read the tweet. She was slightly pissed off. And then she smiled. "Ask away."
Margot stared at Pris for a second before she read the tweet. "Do you have a criminal record?"
"Someone actually asked that?" Leonard was shocked as he stared at the screen.
"Yes I do." Pris answered, nearly knocking Leonard off his seat. Sheldon was not surprised.
"What did you do?" Margot asked, also shocked.
Pris laughed and shook her head. "Okay. Okay." She sat up and started telling the story.
"When I was busy with my doctorate in Mathematics, I got suspended because a professor accused me of stealing his test. I couldn't possibly have been smarter than him, and granted, telling your math professor that he made a mistake, isn't the best way to start your final year, but the accusations stuck and I got kicked out. So I returned the next semester in a different course, hacked his computer, actually stole the test and wrote the answers for all his students to see. I know that breaking into his class and vandalizing the entire wall with the answers was bad enough, but I just had to sit in his chair and wait for him to see it. And I corrected his mistake."
"You got arrested for that?" Margot laughed.
"Yes. I got community service hours and a huge fine to pay. But it was worth it."
"Oh my word. She is so cute." Leonard grinned.
"This means war." Sheldon breathed and sauntered off to his room, leaving Penny and Leonard staring after him.