The Game The Started the Change

Chapter 3: Reactions and Confessions

"So, you are all invited!" Penny exclaimed to Howard, Raj, and Leonard as they sat around the table on Sunday night. The boys were playing Mario Kart on the N64 instead of Rock Band.

"Awesome!" Howard responded right away.

"How is this awesome, Howard? We know nothing about football." Leonard questioned as he looked away from the screen.

"Think about it! Hot cheerleaders, Texas babes, and no Sheldon. What is not awesome about that?" Howard gave his signature creepy smile.

"I beg your pardon?" Sheldon piped up offendedly. He shot Howard's kart off the track while he was distracted.

"Well, it's true, it must be," Howard said, clinging to a straw of Sheldon not going with them.

"And who said I will not be going?" Sheldon finished the race before setting his controller down. He looked at Howard, affronted.

"Oh come on, Sheldon!" Leonard spoke up. "There is no way you are going."

"But I am going!" Sheldon stood as his pitch of voice rose a notch.

The guys all started laughing. "Good one, Sheldon." Howard managed between laughter.

"Hey!" Penny yelled at the boys but they didn't seem to hear her. Or just chose to ignore her.

"Can you imagine" Leonard started. "Sheldon sitting in a stadium with hundreds of thousands of other people. Eating, screaming, and spraying drinks and spit everywhere! Not to mention the plane trip out!"

"He'd never make it." Howard continued. "They'd kick him out before the game even began!" Raj nodding his agreement.

Penny shook her head in disgust. She looked up to find Sheldon only he was gone. Penny noticed the front door was open slightly. She knew exactly where he went.

Penny looked back at the laughing trio before heading out the door, closing it behind her. She quickly took the stairs, two at a time, to get up to the roof.

Penny stepped out quietly and looked around. She found Sheldon leaning against the railing on the side of the building.

"Hey" she said softly as she ran a hand up his back. "Don't let them get to you. You will do fine."

"But they are right, Penny." Sheldon's voice was hoarse. Almost as if he was crying.

"No, they aren't." Penny continued to rub his back. She had switched to a counterclockwise motion automatically. She even began humming soft kitty very quietly.

Sheldon let her comfort him and contemplated on just how attuned she was to his needs. She automatically did all the things she knew would help him. And came up to the roof just for him. He glanced over to see her in just a skimpy tank top and a pair of shorts.

"Penny" Sheldon began only for her to gently place a finger over his lips.

"Sheldon. You are a scientist. You are a physicist, even. You were gifted with this beautiful genius mind that can do amazing things I could never even dream of." Penny ran her hand along his temple gently. Brushing his bangs back just a little.

"Pen-" Sheldon again tried to speak.

"Let me finish, moonpie." Sheldon glared and began his normal reprimand but quickly stopped at the stern look on her face. He figured he'd let her say her piece and then reprimand her. So Sheldon nodded.

"Sheldon. You let other people's beliefs of who you are and how you act to rule you." Penny turned to lean on the railing as she looked up at the stars as she talked. "You started High School at nine years old. College at eleven. Graduated at fourteen from Caltech, of all places. You went on to working on your Doctorate in Germany. And were the youngest person to receive the Stevenson Award. You've gotten published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry and lived on your own during most, if not all of that. What part of that man can't do anything he sets his mind to? Besides who confronts the germs of a bunch of strangers without having contingency plans?"