Disclaimer: I don't own the Big Bang Theory or anything else.

Sorry guys, I made a mistake last chapter, which I fixed. Penny's dad's name is Wyatt.

To the Guest-who-didn't-bother-signing-in-so-that-this-could-be-a-private-conversation, who called everyone who ships Shenny dumb, desperate, and pathetic: get over yourself. This story was clearly marked as Shenny in the summary. It's pretty pathetic to click on a story just to leave hate comments, too. I am well aware that Shenny is not canon. I don't care. That's what fanfiction is for. And you've decided that I'm fake and annoying based on what, exactly? My having written a short chapter with content that for the most part just gave information about some of the things people should consider if they want to go to college out of state? Honestly.

(I'm guessing that they're never going to come back to this story to see that, but on the off chance they do...)

And, to the guest who responded to the troll up there, thank you! Your sarcasm was lovely, and I loved the rhyme you put there at the end. I'm tempted to ask if I can borrow that so I can have Howard say it at some point…

Enjoy!

Penny took a slow, deep breath as she set her cell phone down.

A minute and a half.

That had been all it took for Kurt to destroy any future they might have had together.

Well, then. Good thing she hadn't actually gone with him.

It would have been the biggest mistake of her life so far.

Still, he had been her boyfriend for the past few months. She had spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years with him. She had wondered if she was in love with him.

Only to find out that, in the end, she was nothing but another notch on his bed post. One that he had been intending to 'keep' for a while, but a conquest nonetheless.

That hurt. A lot.

After hearing the words he had just uttered to her, there was no way in hell Penny could bring herself to shed a single tear over him, but the fact of the matter was that she had gotten used to his presence, and he had been the center of her life.

She had lost touch with her friends from high school which, while admittedly not a big deal considering they'd been the typical popular group, caring more about appearances than each other, meant that she didn't really have any friends to fall back on.

Geez, she'd been shallow.

'Well,' Penny mused with a slight frown. 'There's something I can work on, at least.'

Now to figure out how.

Later that day, Penny sat back in her computer chair with a sigh, wearily taking a sip of coffee as she mentally ran through everything that she had done in the past few hours.

For one thing, she had signed up for acting and dancing lessons at the recreation center. A bit pricey, but a valuable thing for an aspiring actress to have under her belt, and hopefully she'd make a few friends.

Then she had gone over her financial aid. She still had a fair bit of money left over, and though she would receive a check containing the difference a few weeks after she bought her supplies for the new term, she noticed something that she had overlooked before.

There was a total next to the words 'work study,' and she'd been wondering why she hadn't gotten that as well with her financial aid disbursement, before looking it up and realizing why.

Work study was when a student accepted a job at their college, and their pay was taken out of the money designated in their financial aid.

She felt more than a little dumb for not having known about it, but shook her head, realizing that at least she knew about it now, and applied for a few positions.

Within the hour she had received a call from her college's visual arts department, which included theater, for a sort of personal assistant position.

It was odd, but she found herself excited about the possibility.

She would be around people like her, those who appreciated the arts, people who, in her experience, were usually quirky and unique and accepting…

For a former head cheerleader and prom queen who had despaired during her high school years because she had wanted to actually be able to connect people without being judged and having to worry about sabotage or backstabbing…well, the prospect of having friends who she shared interests with her was a very appealing one.

Anyway.

After taking care of that and even applying for a few non-college affiliated jobs in the area, Penny checked her savings account, which contained all of her birthday and Christmas money for the past ten years, as well as all of her allowance for that time. And the money she had made working at the Cheesecake Factory in high school.

God, that job had...not been fun.

She didn't appreciate being groped, and had been fired for snarling at a man that she was underage and would have her daddy sue him for sexual harassment and pedophilia.

Wait, was pedophilia something you could sue for? No, he'd probably have gone to jail.

Maybe she should look that up at some point.

Anyway, the point is that Penny had some money saved up for her dream wedding, or more accurately, she had been saving for a wedding on the off chance that she ever did end up fantasizing about a dream wedding like her friends had. As odd as it was coming from someone who dreamed of being on the big screen, a big production for a wedding just wasn't something she liked the idea of.

But she was eighteen. She had no plans to get married anytime soon.

And so she would use that money to get an apartment.

She would be okay for a while, but she should probably find another source of income.

Hm…this required some thought.

Penny did end up moving into her own apartment, a tiny one-bedroom place with a shower instead of a tub, no washer and dryer units, and no dishwasher.

She quickly learned to conserve water and electricity, and pile on blankets and layers instead of turning on the heater too high, because those bills got really expensive, though her dad assured her that the prices for the heating would drop once it started getting warmer.

'Of course they will,' she had thought with a huff. 'No one needs a heater during late spring and summer!'

She dreaded what her air conditioning was going to end up costing her.

Anyway, being independent was more work than she had expected.

She had to pay all of the bills. Not that that surprised her, but sorting it all out was a pain.

She did her laundry at her parents' house for a while, until her dad hesitantly mentioned that she wouldn't be able to rely on them forever, and she went to a laundromat from then on.

She had to keep her car in good condition, otherwise it would fail her when she needed it the most. Tires, breaks, steering fluid, change the oil…ugh.

And gas was more expensive than she remembered.

Or was that because back when she started driving she'd only had to pay for gas, and her parents had taken care of almost everything else?

Either way, she ended up going to places on foot more and more often, at least as it started getting warmer. If nothing else, combined with her workouts it was helping her keep in shape, and she had a feeling she wouldn't need to sunbathe during the summer if she kept going outside so often.

Then there was the food.

She didn't want to live on takeaway, but she didn't have much choice. Most of the cheap things she could get at the market were frozen foods, which while she had no problem with the taste, weren't exactly a healthy choice, and she knew that she needed to keep healthy if she wanted to be a successful actress.

No using meth like her idiot older brother.

Anyway, the point is that she needed to learn how to cook. So she did, asking her family members for advice, buying a few cookbooks, and even taking a cooking class at the recreation center.

She could've taken a similar class at her school, but that would've been more expensive, and she didn't need the credits.

So she learned a few dozen meals that weren't beyond her abilities, but another problem that came up was that many of them required this spice or some sauce, and not only did that add up quickly, but some of them were ingredients that she would never even use again if she didn't like the dish.

A kitchen stocked with what her teacher had called 'the essentials' was expensive to anyone, much less a college student.

But she managed.

Buying things shortly before the sell-by date, when they'd still be good for a while longer but the price had been lowered, asking friends and family if they had any ingredients (or recipes, while they were at it) that they weren't going to be using again, etcetera.

And a positive side-effect of eating healthy was that her skin was starting to clear up.

Awesome.

Please review! :)