Sheldon was surprised by the knock at the door. Everyone was there. Lenard, Raj, Howard, Bernadette, Penny, Amy and even Stuart were crowding the apartment. They had joked at one point that they needed a bigger apartment or fewer friends. Sheldon had started making a list to decide who should go. That still didn't change the fact that they were all here, and he hoped it wasn't someone trying to sell them something they obviously could get on line if the needed it. "Lenard, get the door please".
The Applied physicist complied, not worrying about his roommates desire to avoid interaction with whomever was at the door. As the door opened he saw Jade holding a pile of 4 extra-large pizza boxes from a place called "Sergio's".
"Jade, how nice of you to join us." Lenard said. Turning to the room "Sheldon, Doctor West might be coming by tonight."
As Jade walked in, Sheldon said "Lenard please remember to tell me in advance when we have extra guests. I mean really, I'm mentoring the young lady so of course I'd welcome her into our home, just let me know when she's coming so I can balance the room.. I hope she brought a friend." Looking at Jade. "Welcome to our home and our weekly breaking of the pizza bread. How are you... Wait, what are those." he pointed.
"Boobs" Jade replied absentmindedly.
"I think he means the pizza." Penny said.
"Indeed. I'm well aware of the naming nomenclature for a woman's breasts. Wait, that was sarcasm, wasn't it." Sheldon added. Penny nodded.
"I have friends coming so I brought extra pizza. According to the campus help sight, Sergio's is the best local pizza." Jade smiled as she talked.
"But it's not our normal pizza. We eat at Giacomo's, maybe Luigi's but they are not authentic since they don't speak Italian. We don't just choose a pizza place all willy-nilly." Sheldon explained.
"Try it. Maybe you'll like it. It's stone fired pizza at takeout prices." A thought passed through Jades mind. "Besides it's made by an authentic Italian man named Sergio using an old family recipe." She smiled 'more like a Spanish kid using whatever posted recipe they have'.
"Did you get one with sausage, mushrooms and light olives?" He asked.
"No. Who eats that." Jade replied.
"I do." Sheldon whined.
"Well I got one with everything. You can pick off what you don't want. I also got one with ham and pineapple, one with just peperoni, and a veggie delight for those freaks who think they are not eating animal products." Jade said.
"So who's coming?" Penny asked, futilely hoping to change the subject.
"Beck, my boyfriend, and Tori Vega, a friend." Jade replied.
"I'd appreciate it in the future if you avoid giving my address to strangers." Sheldon stated.
"Why does that name sound familiar?" Bernadette asked.
"Becks my Boyfriend. You met him today so he's not a stranger." Jade shot back
"We could look it up" Howard offered.
"He seemed a little strange to me." Sheldon shot back, weekly.
"You know you're right, there is something familiar about that name." Penny said.
"You must be thinking of Sinjin. He in not my boyfriend! He's just the freak I owed a favor to." jade was a little peeved.
During the conversation Howard was looking up Tori on his phone while Jade was making sure her fiends knew where they were.
Jade:(To Beck): We're on the 4th floor, and the elevator doesn't work. First door on your right after you reach the top of the stares.
"No, I liked that boy. You should consider dating him." Sheldon's statement was met with a death glare, and he decided to see what was happening somewhere else.
Howard spoke to the room. "And here we are. Tori Vega was the opening act at this years Platinum Music awards. Here's a picture from the news blitz leading up to it." He showed a picture of Tori in some ridiculous dress.
Beck: We've just parked and are entering the building. Be there in a minute.
"Oh my god, she was on the Chris Burm show, wasn't she?" Penny exclaimed. "We're going to have a celebrity at this party." she practically sang. Taking a good look at the picture "Wait, wasn't she with you Tuesday evening?"
"Yep. She's head of the Prome committee." Jade said sounding annoyed. "The stupid name was her idea. I can't believe they made me Prome king."
Just then the door bell sounded. Penny practically knocked Lenard and Howard over in her race towards the door. She yanked it open to see Beck and Tori.
"Hi, is Jade, um Doctor West here?" The handsome actor asked.
"Yes. Come in. Come in. Come in." Penny beckoned. As soon as the two entered she immediately pulled Tori towards Lenard. "Quick, take out picture." She was beaming.
Tori smiled politely, finding herself very patient with these types of people despite how nervous they made her. She pulled away as soon as the picture was taken and made a bee line for Jade. Conversation was once again taking over the room and Jade was talking to Sheldon again as Beck held onto her. "Just try the chizzing pizza." Jade said in a whisper-yell sounding frustrated. Beck was making sure this was a request and kept his girlfriend from enforcing it by keeping partially between the two.
"What is wrong with her." Tori asked, quickly pointing back at Penny.
"I don't like change. If you had the right pizza, maybe I would try, but you got the wrong type and so I'm not." Sheldon gave a nod like a six year old asserting his power.
"They looked you up. SHE thinks you're famous." Jade replied to Tori while rolling her eyes at Sheldon.
"She is acting crazy just because I was on TV a couple of times?" Tori asked. Jade nodded and Tori stayed close to her friends as they continued to talk.
"So what's it like, being interviewed on a national talk show?" Penny asked
Tori looked to Jade, who addressed them all in turn, starting with her friend. "Price of fame, Tori. I hear she wants to be an actress. Why don't you tell her about your career as a stunt girl?" Jade gave a big smile. "Penny, get over it. I go to a school for actors. Dale squire was a letdown, Most famous people are, and I'm gonna be an actress, director, writer and maybe producer. You didn't go gaga over me."
"You're one of them" Penny said pointing around the room at all her friends. "Nerds and brainiacs I can deal with. She's famous."
"Whatever." Jade turned back to Sheldon. "Just try the pizza. I can't afford to spend this kind of money often so just do it."
"Why not. You make more than Howard." He responded.
"What?" Howard said, turning for a moment away from Raj.
"She has a PhD, thus a higher pay grade. Also her title of Assistant Professor is a higher pay grade than yours. She should be making at least eighty thousand per year. Eighty bucks for pizza should not break the bank." Sheldon explained.
Jade looked miffed and a little embarrassed. "I have a lot of expenses. I help with my family's rent, I put some away for my brother to go to college, and I gotta pay my student loans." she said to Beck. Turning to Sheldon "Now try the pizza!" It didn't sound like a request.
"That can't be right. Howard if you will." Sheldon looked confused. He did, however, take a bite from the pizza. "My, this is good pizza. Whats that strange flavoring?"
"Whole wheat dough" Jade said, feeling proud. Sheldon dropped the slice.
"Authentic pizza is not whole wheat." he stated.
Beck had walked away to talk to Penny, distracting her from Tori. The singer had also started mingling, finding it easy to talk to the doctorates as long as she remembered that they were quirky (Nerdy) and liked weird things. Stuart was the easiest to talk to, and Raj was drinking so he was okay to talk to. He talked a lot about his dog.
"Okay, according to the UCLA records Jade West was covered by a combination of scholarships, the Moe Howard grant, and funding from a government research project that's classified." Howard said. "She owes UCLA nothing more than whatever she donates to their alumni fund."
"So two years at community collage costs about thirty dollars per unit, fifteen units per... semester? "Jade shakes her head no "Quarter plus associated fees over lets say two years comes to Four thousand and four hundred dollars, assuming you took classes during both summers. And that would be between you and your parents."
Jade looked stunned. She had no idea that her college costs were taken care of. Even with the money she would be setting aside to help her family, she would have cash. Deciding to talk to her father later, she started planning on what to do with her income. While she would save some, she could now put on a play towards the end of the summer. She started planning, a smile on her face.
"Just to sooth me, She can't build a death ray, can she?" Tori asked the room in general.
"Maybe, but she did say she thought she found the flaws in my design" Sheldon said.
"That doesn't make me feel better" Tori said.
"Apparently it had to do with sonic frequency and the amount of power I was using. She believes that a focused sonic burst could rip the flesh from a man at over twenty feet." Sheldon paused. "Should I be worried about how happy that makes her?"
Tori looked for someone else to talk to and escaped into the relative normalcy of talking to Lenard. Jade had found a place to sit down (Just not in Sheldon's spot) to listen to the conversations and plan out her next play.
"So acting is really about letting the emotions of the moment come bubbling up and carrying you through whatever scene you are doing. It's about stepping outside of your normal comfort zone and just taking a chance showing people sides of yourself you probably never knew you had." Beck had a captive audience, since both Penny and Bernadette were listening to his every word. This was normal for the handsome young actor.
"That's so deep" Penny said. Lost in his words. He was used to it. He valued his friends because they seemed immune to his vast charms.
"Maybe. Can I ask you something?" Beck looked straight at Penny.
"Sure. What?" Penny said, meeting his eyes.
"How do you get along so well with all these doctorates? I mean, you and that Stuart guy are the only two here without an advanced degree, right?" Ha sounded confident, but Jade thought she could hear something in his voice.
"Well, I don't try and participate in all their activities, since on line gaming is addictive and I'm not into the Dungeons and Dragons or comics stuff they do. Still, I did pick up some science. Also, they need me as much as I need them. I need to feel like I'm around intelligent people and they need someone who has interacted with the real world. It's a give and take." Penny said with some pride.
"Oh my chiz, you are a groupie." Beck said, smiling. "But I see. You complete them."
"Look at them. They're just big kids. Howard got married and so he's grown a bit, and Lenard is better because of years of work on my part. But Sheldon and Raj both need me to be there and help them understand whats happening when they have to step out of their comfort zones. Which is frequently. Also, I'm friends with Amy and Bernadette. We bonded on issues outside of their studies." Penny explained.
Beck was smiling for a few seconds, then his face fell. Penny noticed the moment of doubt and reacted. "Whats wrong?" she asked in a soothing voice.
Beck glanced at Jade and saw she was engaged in a conversation about comics and movies with Stuart. "I'm losing her." he said. "She's so much more than I ever thought she was, and her accepting that is going to push her away from me. How can we stay together when I don't have... I'm not as talented as she is. We've always been close, talent wise. Now she's got this whole new world about her. It's just too much to compete with. How do you do it?"
"You don't." Penny replied. "You hold onto the idea that your beliefs, you life is just as valuable. Yes, I know I'm about as hot a girlfriend as Lenard was ever going to get. Thanks to dating me, He's dated some other hotties as well. But our relationship works because Lenard is willing to make the effort to meet me half way." She looked around to make sure Lenard was in conversation, seeing him talking with Tori. "He want's to marry me. I'm know we will get married one day, it's just I'm so scared of screwing up like my parents did. Jade loves you. You'll be okay." Penny smiled, feeling a little surprised at her openness. The boy drew it out of people. Jade had to just trust him.
"No, she's in love with the idea of me. She needs to be in love, to be supported emotionally. I'm doing all I can, but she just doesn't trust me like she needs to. She needs someone she can be herself with and feel like she is loved. I know who she needs." He said with a sigh.
"Don't sell yourself short. You seem very understanding. She'd be crazy to want anyone else." Penny tried to comfort him.
"That's just it, Jade can be a little...Very crazy at times. She's been through so much, she's so hurt. I'll try, but it may be the thing to do is get her with someone else. Someone who's love will help her heal. That's what someone who loved her would do, right." He said with a sad smile.
Jade listens and understood. He was spending time with Vega because he needed a shoulder to cry on. Comforting people had never been her strong suit, but Jade knew that to keep beck she would have to open up to him about her fears, and let him open up to her about his. She knew it would be a struggle, but she was determined to close the distance.
:}
I have had the strangest writing patterns. I write two chapters at once and then post them a day or so apart.
This story is starting to take shape. Lets see where it goes.
I like Beck. I just think the relationship isn't based on anything that could last. He loves the struggle, but hates it when she fights. He likes her crazy, but cannot handle how crazy she is. They need help.