Hello, again this chapter will be mostly the same as the episode but I tried to modify it just enough to make them grow closer
Chapter 2: Parental divorce therapy
It was a warm and pleasant day at the Cooper household, Connie was enjoying the last and somewhat cold coffee.
George walked in rubbing his eyes "no more coffee?"
"This is the last cup"
"Well could you make more?"
"I just sat down"
"But you finished the pot"
"George, if I wanted to make a pot I would've stayed at my house!" she said taking another swig of coffee
"(sighs) one day I'm gonna put you in a home and I'm gonna smile just like that"
"That's fine, by then I won't know who you are" she said with a malicious smile
Mary walked in with distressing news weighing her down "guess who is getting a divorce?"
"About time, congrats" Connie said as a joke
"Linda and Barry Swanson"
"Don't remember them" George admitted "could you remind me while you make coffee"
"They're Paige's parents"
"Who?"
"Sheldon's friend, the little smart girl" Mary described "apparently she's taking the divorce really hard, she's been having trouble in school"
"Aww poor thing" Connie sighed
"Linda thinks Sheldon might be a good influence, maybe help her get back on track"
"They want their kid to be more like Sheldon, and expect Sheldon to help somebody" George summarized "not sure what to say to that"
Mary walked into the twins room to deliver some news "good news, Paige is gonna spend the weekend with us"
Sheldon raised his eyebrows, he was torn. On the one hand she challenged him, violated him, and enraged him. However, in his other hand, she did represent a possible intellectual equal that he could engage with, and she always made even the most unruly of events somewhat enjoyable.
"Yay!" Missy cheered
Sheldon had his shirt pressed and a list of do's and don'ts from his mother. Mom stopped them as they were pulling in the driveway.
"Alright, remember to be sensitive about the situation with Paige and her family" she enforced
"She's talking to you dingus" Missy snapped
"BOTH of you" Mary said right before she let Paige and in
Paige approached the two of them. She had changed so much; she dyed part of her hair pink, was wearing more gothic clothing, and worst of all she was taller than him.
"Hey Missy, hey Sheldon"
"Why did you do that to your hair? Is this because your parents got divorced?"
"(cough) Dingus! (cough)"
"Well she asked and you know with everything going on I was thinking 'Why not'" Paige's mom explained, from her facial expression she was either constipated or dying inside, Sheldon couldn't tell.
"Well I think it looks very pretty" Mom complemented
Missy peaked up "So can I-?"
"NO! Why don't you kids go play"
The three of them walked towards Sheldon and Missy's room "I'd rather have pink hair than together parents" Missy insulted
"I don't blame you" Paige said before she closed the door
Mary sighed "you look great by the way"
"Oh thanks, I started smoking again"
Sheldon tampered with his professor proton science kit (premium edition) while Paige and Missy were playing with their hair.
"Paige I thought you were here to do science with me"
"That's boring, I want to do something dangerous"
"This is dangerous, I handling nitrocellulose without an apron or an eyewash station" Sheldon explained
Missy rolled her eyes "Bor-"
"Wait" Paige interrupted her as she got an idea "isn't that like really explosive?" she asked as Sheldon nodded
"Woah, Sheldon's building a bomb?" Missy said both nervous and a little intrigued
"Don't worry I can neutralize it easily and-"
"What if you didn't?" Paige questioned as the gears in her head started turning "what if you stabilized it…so we can put it in a model rocket"
Sheldon pondered this "I suppose I could, should only take a couple minutes, but that seems dangerous we should ask our parents permission"
"I'll take care of that" Paige said stopping him from ratting them out "I promise if you can do that for us we'll do whatever you want later"
"WE WILL?" Missy scowled, Paige sighed and gestured toward him "fine" Missy said
"Alright then" Sheldon said with more pep in his step "you can grab some safety goggles over there and-"
"Oh uh, I'd…I'd rather not if that's ok" Paige said losing her bad girl image for a split second
Sheldon sighed "well I'm not gonna make you" he said fidgeting with his science equipment "well we still need mom to drive us to the park"
"Leave that to me" Paige said quickly regaining her confident attitude. She walked back out to Mary getting herself into character and thought up the perfect story "Mrs. Cooper, can you drop us off at the park"
"Don't know it's already kinda late"
"Oh, I asked my mom a few times to take me so I could play soccer with my friends, but she says it's too close to my dad's new place, she never wants to risk seeing him"
They left for the park 10 minutes later
After a while of Sheldon doing all the work, getting the nitrocellulose fuel ready, doing all the work to build the body of the rocket, and doing all the work get and print out a permit from the fire department to launch at the park, everything was finished and he could enjoy the one activity Paige and Missy would do so far that involved that was intellectually stimulating.
"This isn't the permitted spot," Sheldon said, pointing out that Paige was setting up the model rocket near someone's volleyball game. Missy had already dragged mom away to feed the duck so they could launch the rocket
"I said we'd launch, didn't say where" Paige said with a mischievous grin as she set it up the rocket "do you have the stink bombs?"
"Yes but considering your malicious intentions I shall refrain from telling you where they are" Sheldon stated
"..are they in your backpack?"
"This isn't a backpack, this is my park safety kit including; bug spray, sanitizer, a star map, an alfa steel revolver, and a compass in case I get lost" he said showing them his organized system
"Oh there are the stink bombs" Paige noticed them in his kit and grabbed them
"Oh man" Sheldon groaned "well then I must warn you, if you attempt this heinous act I have no choice but to tell on you"
"You're not innocent in all this, you made dangerous rocket fuel"
"You asked me to"
"Tell it to the fire department" Paige said loading the stink bombs in the rocket
"I shall give you one more chance to-"
ROAR
The model rocket launched into the air and exploded right over the volleyball game. After everyone got over the shock everyone started gagging at the horrible smell, and running away. Even Paige and Sheldon needed to move to get away from the smell. It didn't take long before Mary and Missy noticed the commotion and ran over "what hap-" she quickly gagged and covered her mouth with the smell still spreading
"That was not very nice" Mary asserted "I'm gonna be telling your mother about that"
"Pfft go ahead" Paige said rolling her eyes and looking out the car window
They got back to their house and instead of thinking about their actions Paige and Missy started braiding each other's hair.
"I'm sorry professor proton, you creation was used for a villainous task" Sheldon said putting his professor proton kit away
"You do hear yourself when you say stuff like that, do you?" Paige said half sarcastically and half curious
"You're so smart, why are you acting like this?" Sheldon finally broke
That clearly struck a nerve with Paige "maybe I don't want to be smart" she confessed
"I have to sit down" Sheldon said feeling light headed "being smart is the best"
"Being smart sucks, everyone expect a lot out of you" Paige complained giving Sheldon a possible stroke
"Tylenols in the bathroom" Missy pointed out
"Thank you" Sheldon said sprinting out of the room
Missy smirked "it's in in the kitchen" she whispered getting Paige to chuckle
Sheldon was feeling much better having not had a stroke, just a fifth class headache. He still couldn't wrap his head around what Paige said, this was the same girl who said 'I love being smarter than everyone else' a long time ago. What changed? The divorce? It couldn't have done too much, if anything she's spoken of it positively.
He needed advice, advice from a man who had a great deal of experience with feminine behavior to where he would be able to tell what was bothering them through the most subtle details.
Knock Knock
"Georgie can you give me some advice"
"Go away"
After that setback he settled for wisdom in all other fields except the feminine mind
"Hello Sheldon how are you today" Dr. Sturgis said from the other end of the phone
"Confused, concerned, and no longer allowed to issue a model rocket permit from the fire department" Sheldon vented
"Oh I'm sorry to hear that" he said "what are you confused about"
"Do you ever wish you weren't smart?"
"So I would be short, bald, and stupid. No that sounds worse"
"Paige is going through some kind of crisis, how do I convince her that being smart is the best"
Dr. Sturgis pondered this "maybe she doesn't need to be convinced" he advised "when I was in the psych clinic I learned that to get better some people just need to be listened too" was a wise man, even though his advice seemed like a long shot it was worth trying
Sheldon entered the room to see Paige plucking Missy's eyebrows "this hurts"
"Beauty is pain" Paige justified
"Missy I need a minute with Paige"
"Ok make it quick I'm only half beautiful" she said as she left holding her eyebrow in pain
Sheldon sat down and waited. "Yeah?" Paige asked
"I'm listening"
"To what?"
"To you"
"..but I'm not saying anything"
"Well if you wanted to say anything I would listen to it, are you feeling better yet?"
"You're acting weird, and not in the normal way" Paige said visibly confused "but I guess that's my life now"
"What do you mean?"
"...everyone's acting weird, my mom is going on dates.. and my dad is acting like a child, my sister's crying all the time.. when she's not she's yelling at me" she started sniffling a little "I just..wish that everything could go back to the way it was…but it's not going to"
Sheldon started to feel bad for her, he didn't expect it to get so personal but maybe that's what she needed.
Her eyes started to welt and tears started to drip "..I have to live in two separate houses, and my grandma says the meanest things about my dad. I know that everyone is upset that I'm not doing well in school, it's just… hard to care" she took a deep breath "I guess..I just feel alone"
"I'm sorry, that sounds hard" Sheldon admitted
She nodded "it is"
Sheldon couldn't think of anything he could do to fix it, all he could was try to help
"...I'm really sorry I got you in trouble" Paige added
"It's fine," Sheldon forgave since she was crying. "Can I offer you a hot beverage?" Sheldon awkwardly offered
"..that would be nice" Paige hesitantly accepted
"Be right back," Sheldon said, going to make her hot cocoa. After a few minutes of preparing it he gave it to her and stayed with her as she drank it, she shed some more tears every few moments but nothing more
"Thanks Sheldon" Paige said
"Your very welcome" unsure if she meant for the drink or for listening
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