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Chapter 3: opportunities
Sheldon entered King Kong comics, the one place in town where he could be among people who understood quality entertainment; well ever since he got banned from the train museum. They were almost closed but Sheldon had a good idea what comics he was looking for. He entered just as Missy was getting ready to lock the cash register "hold on I'll be in and out"
"You are the worst" Missy insulted
Sheldon picked out The Boys number 14 and checked out. "Anyway this new continuity coming out next year probably won't reach the heights of X-men but hopefully will have a bigger audience than Thunderbolts" Sheldon went on as the twins walked home
"I don't care" Missy said
'BANG'
Missy heard the sound echo across the street before Sheldon yelled in pain. She instantly tried to cover him but quickly realized he was only shot with a green paintball.
They looked around and noticed the 11 year old girl next door, Bobbie Sue, holding a paintball gun "check out what I got for my birthday loser" she said before running back to her house
"Is it wrong to call a child the b word" Sheldon asked
"It takes one to know one buddy" Missy said
They finally made it home and had to walk around an ugly car parked in front, a dark blue Acura, and covered their ears to avoid the cries of Pastor Jeff's baby next door. "Anyway I'll join you guys for dinner soon I have to work on-" Sheldon stopped all momentum and sniffed the air "that's weird" he said as he entered the house
Missy followed him as he investigated the new smell. Once he got in the house he sniffed the air to, there was a really great smell coming from the kitchen. Missy sniffed as well "something smells good" Missy said
Sheldon slowly moved towards the kitchen as a small and spooky sound grew as he got closer "Da dada dada"
Sheldon turned into the kitchen to find a strange woman cooking on the stove "who are you?"
"OH! You must be Sheldon, your mother has told me so much about you" she said fluttering her bright blue eyes at him
"..." Sheldon started to look around as to why there was a stranger in his house "mom" he called out
"Right here Shelly" his mom called out from a different room "get ready for dinner we have a guest"
Sheldon was weary but he sat down out of respect towards his mother, Missy sat in her usual seat. The woman set the table with perfect organization and handling. Sheldon looked toward Stephanie as she got something out of the oven "Since you're new here, I should inform you that Wednesday night-"
"Is always steak with ketchup on top night, don't worry I studied," she said, laying it down in the center of the table.
Sheldon analyzed the dinner, let's see the steak looks same but smells different "There's something is different about it"
"I added some Delmonico spices straight from New York," Stephanie explained before taking the seat next to him.
"I don't know, spices can change the entire taste of a steak. What if it makes it sweeter, that will be too similar to the taste of my punch and-"
"Shhh" Stephanie shushed as she gave him and Missy plates "think of it like meerkats evolving to find food in a harsher environment, after years repetition the taste of steak becomes stale and unnerving thus you'll want to see what improves or degrades it" she explained in an impressive matter. "I'm Stephanie by the way, but you can call me Steph if you want"
"No" Sheldon said "and yeah mom's been mentioning you the last couple weeks"
Mom came into the room a little more dressed up than usual "I see you guys met"
"Oh yeah, your sons a riot" Stephanie said confusing Missy
"While we all already know I'm a riot, I'm still not sure about the added spices" Sheldon added
"Well I have a normal steak on the counter waiting, so if you don't like it then I'll happily swap it for you"
"Oh you didn't have to go through the trouble" Mary proclaimed
"It wasn't any trouble, really" Stephanie insisted "but you should still try it, if science can gradually evolve then we should too" Stephanie said with pure charisma
"That only applies when the change is positive" Sheldon said before taking a bite, taking in the strange new tastes and monitoring for anything bad "you got lucky, this is actually pretty good"
"See, smarter than you'd think" Stephanie said building herself up as she put a piece of steak in her mouth
"How come Georgie isn't eating with us?" Missy asked
"Him and Mandy are taking little Cece out to Outback steakhouse" Mary explained "would have preferred something a little healthier but at least they're spending time together"
"So what do you kids like to do for fun" Stephanie asked, facing Sheldon
"Oh where do I begin, I've been doing research into discovering exoplanets capable of sustaining life, I also successfully used my train sets to test the Newton's second law-" Sheldon rambled on
"Sheldon I'm sure she also wants to hear about Missy" Mary said trying to maintain balance
"...yeah" Stephanie said hesitantly
"Oh well recently I stole my dad's truck and-"
"SHELDON! Why don't you tell her more about your trains" Mary exploded trying to avoid a problematic story
"Well I recently assembled an antique Ho-scale Model set" Sheldon shared
"No way I actually had one when I was a kid"
"Really" Shedon said, tried to avoid looking surprised
"Oh yeah used to play with it every monday night after I finished my homework"
"That's my strategy too, I'm always desperate for any form of enjoyment once homeworks gone" Sheldon confessed
"It must be pretty worn, they discontinued it in 84" Stephanie pointed out
"Oh you haven't met me, I haven't let a single chip of paint peel off since the day I got it" Sheldon said praising himself
"I'll be the judge of that" Stephanie challenged "I've judged parents work passed off as their childrens for a long time so I've got a pretty high bar"
"Oh you're on, I'll be so far above the bar I'll break the mesosphere" Sheldon confidently stated
They both finished their steak quickly and went out to the garage. Mary watched them leave "it's really nice that they're bonding, Missy why don't you show her your… 'Blue year' cassettes I think"
"Green Day" Missy corrected
Meanwhile Sheldon showed Stephanie into the garage as she shut the door behind her. The only lamp on gave the garage a grim and gloomy look to it.
"Alright so this is the set, a rare edition with up to sixty passenger cars instead of the typical fifty" Sheldon explained as Stepahnie stood above him "it's also extremely stable, with a very small margin of destabilization and crashes."
Sheldon looked up as Stephanie approached, glancing back and forth at the train set and him. She was taking a while to answer, obviously pondering what to say. She spoke "you've set a new high, I'm impressed"
"Another high standard set by me, I really should create a list" Sheldon said egotistically praising himself
"You know you really should" She said leaning on him
"I'm sorry could you not do that" Sheldon said "it's unsanitary"
Stephanie didn't respond immediately but took her hand off and took a step away "of course, really sorry, I should've thought about that"
Sheldon continued telling her about his trains and told her a little bit about comic book heroes, but after a while he looked at the time and couldn't go on "I shouldn't be doing this, I'm so sorry but I should be working to rebuild my reputation… not playing with my trains"
"Yeah your mom said you've been having some trouble at college" Stephanie said with what Sheldon would assume was sympathy
"It's a little more than that" Sheldon said knowing that the entire world would know eventually and there was no point in hiding it "I actually got expelled, have you ever been expelled"
"No"
"I know right, I have a black mark that most average people don't have"
"Yes you do"
"So I have to get working hard, answer important questions, solve important issues, something to show everyone that Sheldon Lee Cooper is…is everything he's supposed to be" Sheldon ranted
"Well said Sheldon, sorry if I've used up too much of your time" she said
"Oh don't be, it's very rare that I meet someone so non-patrenizing" Shedon complemented
"Actually I think I can help you out" Stephanie said taking a seat at his desk to get at his level "I do have quite a few friends who work at some decently well known universities, and some other connections; I could get some kind of demonstration or interview or something if you want, at least get people talking about Sheldon Lee Cooper again"
"That would be great!" Sheldon cheered "I've gotta get working on what to present"
"I have total confidence in you" Stephanie said almost patting his shoulder "oh right, unsanitary" she said not noticing Missy approach the garage door
Sheldon shook his head "normally I'd agree but this is a nice moment I guess a pat on the back is warranted"
Stephanie obliged and gave Sheldon a pat on the back, before hovering her hand around his back and gently feeling his bicep. Neither of them noticed Missy getting more and more confused, and disturbed.
"But" Stephanie added "remember if I do this for you, you're gonna owe me big time" she said smiling
"Yeah that is fair-"
KNOCK KNOCK, Missy banged on the door as Stephanie brought her arm back to herself. There was a moment of awkward silence "everything ok in here?"
"Better than ok, I might be able to fix my reputation" Sheldon said completely unaware of how weird and wrong that just was.
Missy was extremely suspicious of this whole thing "Mom… 'told' me to tell you to come inside, so I can show some cassette tapes" Missy stated geturing for them to come in now
After Missy showed Stephanie her Cassette tapes in the living room in view of the adults, Sheldon told his parents about the opportunity.
"That's amazing, I… I can't thank you enough" Mary said hugging her
"Hey if I can help in any way It's not much of a choice" Stephanie kindly said. Stephanie walked back toward the table only for Missy to take her old seat next to Sheldon, they exchanged glances before Stephanie sat in Missy's seat.
They finished the night talking about more fun stories until Stephanie finally left and Missy locked the door behind her
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