A/N: Just so you guys know, I've changed around a few facts about Leonard and Penny, including their age difference, just so everything was easier to write. Written for the BBBB 2011.

The sunshine glared through the window, heating the car up to an uncomfortable ninety-three degrees. Although the driver wanted to roll down the windows for the sake of conserving gas, the pleas from the three children in the back successfully got the air conditioner turned on.

The GPS in the front of the car chattered on, reporting directions to the entire car. The person sitting in the passenger seat pushed her glasses up and observed a map that was lying in her lap. She was calmly stating commands to the driver, who never retaliated to what she was saying. But he didn't hesitate to talk to the passenger behind him.

"How are you doing back there, Leonard?"

Leonard groaned. He was lying on his back, his glasses sitting on his stomach. He was wearing brown corduroy pants and a blue hoodie with sleeves far too long for him.

"When are we going to stop, Father?"

"It's been twenty minutes since we last stopped, Leonard," Leonard's mother replied for his father. "Stop complaining. Your carsickness isn't that bad."

"Don't be so hard on him, Mother," Leonard's sister, Allison, chimed in. She patted her younger brother's head, which was sitting in her lap. He gave her a quick smile. He felt a lot more loved when his sister was with him, which wasn't often. She was always at work, or at college, but for the first time in Leonard's life, Allison was home for two months during summer vacation. She was more like Leonard than their mother, but still smarter and still occasionally liked to flaunt her intelligence to their parents to gain acceptance.

Beverly sighed. "Fine. But you could at least keep quiet, like your brother."

Michael, Leonard's younger brother, was sitting in the row behind Leonard and Allison. He was completely silent, staring out the window and occasionally swinging his legs back and forth. He was a lot more like their parents, a lot less like Leonard, and still full of intelligence. He was also much more immersed in studying, and therefore a lot quieter and reserved.

After another two hours of driving and three pit stops for Leonard, they were at their destination. The car pulled up to a modern-looking house with white walls and a brown roof. It had two stories, with a white gate on one side, and a small garden on the other. The walkway to the front door was lined with stones and gravel.

"We're here. Get out of the car and help us bring everything inside," Leonard's mother announced.

The Hofstadter family had moved from a different city in New Jersey to a place that was closer to Mr. and Mrs. Hofstadter's workplaces. It also had a good distance to an elementary school, middle school, and a high school, ideal for Leonard and Michael.

Allison and Michael were upstairs gathering and organizing everything into their rooms, while Leonard was lying on the couch, trying to recover from the absurdly long car trip.

"Leonard, don't be lazy. Go upstairs and put your belongings into your room."

"But Mother, I feel sick."

Before she could respond back, their doorbell rang. She opened the door as Leonard's father came to the front to see who it was.

Leonard saw another family of five standing in their doorway. A mother, father, and three children, two girls and one boy. They introduced themselves as the Fisher family and as their new neighbors. He heard one of the three children loudly and enthusiastically introduce herself.

"Hi, I'm Penny!" The girl that looked to be a bit younger than Leonard's age held out her hand for Leonard's parents to shake. Beverly simply nodded out of courtesy, while Leonard's father gently shook her hand and smiled.

The parents talked to each other, the Hofstadters asking some general questions about the neighborhood and nearby stores. The girl named Penny walked into the house when she saw Leonard lying on their couch.

He had closed his eyes after seeing the parents converse with each other and didn't see Penny approaching. He nearly fell off the couch when she yelled, "Are you sleeping?"

Leonard put on his glasses and looked up at her with a why-on-earth-did-you-do-that look on his face.

When she saw he was awake, she grinned happily. "Hi, I'm Penny!" She held out her hand again. She was wearing a pink t-shirt and a blue-checkered skirt. Her blonde hair was tied up into a ponytail that sat on top of her head.

He sat up and shook her hand. "Uh, hi, Penny. I'm Leonard."

"Hi, Leonard. I'm your new neighbor!" Leonard nodded and smiled slightly. "We came to say hi to you guys! …How old are you?" she asked.

"I'm ten?" Leonard wasn't sure how to speak to someone so hyper and chatty. And young and female.

"How come you don't sound sure? Don't you know how old you are?"

"Well, yes—I—"

"You're short for someone who's ten."

He blinked a few times, unsure of how to respond. He knew he was shorter than his peers, but no one had ever told him that directly to his face. "Uh, I—uh…"

"I'm nine! I'm gonna turn ten in…" she started counting on her fingers and mouthing what was probably the months of the year. "Eight months."

Though he was initially put off by her incessant rambling, Leonard wasn't surprised that she was so different in maturity. He was used to it at his old elementary school. His parents told him it was because he was special, so he was different from everyone else. He didn't really understand, but his mother and father wouldn't speak to him about it, so he let it go.

Penny tilted her head to the side. "You don't talk much."

He snapped out of his train of thought. "Oh, um. I just—I'm not feeling good right now."

"Why not? Are you sick?"

"Yeah, I got carsick on the drive over."

"Oh." She pointed behind her, to where the rest of her family was standing. "That's my brother and sister. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

He looked at her siblings and back at her. "Yes, I do. I have a younger brother and an older sister."

"What are their names?"

"Michael and Allison."

"Where are they?"

"Upstairs. They're putting their stuff in their rooms." He was slightly surprised at how curious she was. She asked him about ten questions since she woke him up two minutes ago.

But she obviously wasn't done yet, as she asked yet another question. "How come you're not putting your stuff in your room?"

"Because I'm sick."

"So if you're ten, then maybe you'll go to the same school as me!" Leonard stared at her, slightly wide-eyed. This girl's train of thought seemed to leap from one train to another every second.

"Uh, yeah. Maybe."

"That would be lots of fun. Then I can tell my friends that my neighbor goes to the same school!" She grinned.

He nodded awkwardly. Leonard really didn't know what to say to her.

"We just wanted to say hello and welcome to the neighborhood," Leonard heard Penny's father say. "Come on, Penny, let's not bother them too much."

Penny frowned. "Aww! I wanted to stay and talk!"

"You can talk later, we should go home and eat dinner. And let the Hofstadters have some time to settle down."

She looked back at her new companion, who raised his eyebrows and gave an awkward, yet reassuring smile. "Okay…Bye Leonard!" She smiled, waved, and ran out of the house.

Leonard sighed in relief and lay back down on the couch. But he was interrupted about five seconds later with his mother saying, "Leonard, for the last time, off the couch and upstairs!"

He didn't dare protest, but he didn't really have the strength to either. He trudged upstairs, still thinking about how much he wasn't really looking forward to hyperactive Penny talking to him in the near future.

Leonard sat in the living room, on the couch, with a notepad in his lap. He was solving various equations that his mother gave to him to complete before he could watch TV. While he was in the middle of his ninth equation, he heard someone scream, "Ow!" just outside the window. He got up, and as he looked outside to see who it was, he started to hear that same person cry.

He wasn't able to see anyone through the window, so he walked outside and looked around until something caught his eye. He saw Penny sitting on the sidewalk, a bicycle on its side next to her. She was clutching her knee, which was bleeding, and crying out for someone to help.

Leonard ran out to her. He kneeled next to Penny and instinctively put his arm around her to comfort her.

"Hey, what happened? Did you fall?"

Penny wiped some tears away and nodded. She looked up at him. "Leonard, it hurts."

"All right, just stay here for a sec. I'll be right back."

"No!" She grabbed onto his jacket. "Don't leave me!"

He looked back at her. "I'm not going to leave you. I'll come right back." She started to cry again, and she tried to pull him closer to her. "Okay, okay. Don't cry…um…"

Leonard wasn't sure what the right thing to do was, so he decided to put his arms under her and pick her up. She clung to him as tight as she could and laid her head on his shoulder as he brought her back into his house. He gently put her down on the couch, all the while thinking her grip was surprisingly strong for a little nine-year-old girl.

Penny continued to whimper from the pain while Leonard ran off to get a first-aid kit. He bent down next to her and as gently as he could, cleaned up the blood and dirt and applied a bandage onto her knee. She grimaced from the pain and gripped his jacket in her hands, but didn't want to complain because she knew Leonard was going to take care of her.

"There. All done." He gave her a smile when she smiled back at him.

"Thank you, Leonard. You're really nice."

"Uh, we should get you back to your house. Are your parents home?"

She nodded and took Leonard's hand. He looked down at their hands hesitantly. He felt uncomfortable, but didn't have a chance to be uncomfortable for very long, as Penny tugged him forward and outside.

He walked Penny back to her house and told her parents what happened. They thanked him several times and offered him a snack. He politely refused, telling them that he had to go back home because he had some things to do.

"Bye, Leonard!" Penny chirped.

"Bye, Penny. I'll see you later."

Maybe hanging out with Penny wasn't going to be so bad after all, he thought.

It was about ten in the morning, and Leonard was walking down the stairs after having just woken up. He rubbed his eyes and entered the kitchen, where some of his family sat eating breakfast.

Leonard's mother had gone to work, but his father was still in the kitchen, placing pancakes on a plate for Leonard.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Allison said to Leonard as she stuffed another piece of pancake into her mouth.

"Meehhh," he groaned in response. "Morning, Father." He took the plate of pancakes from him and sat down next to Michael.

"All right, I'm off to work. Allison, look over your brothers, okay?"

"I will, Father," she nodded.

He grabbed his briefcase and coat and left for work.

"So, Leonard, I heard that you patched up the little girl next door after she fell off her bike." Allison smiled sweetly at him.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Dad told me. The neighbors called to thank them, and they told him about what happened."

"Oh. Well, I couldn't just leave her out there. She was crying."

Michael spoke up after gulping down his orange juice. "Is that the girl named Penny?"

"Yeah."

"She talks a lot," Michael responded.

"I guess she kinda does." Leonard nodded.

"It's annoying."

Leonard shrugged. "She's not that bad."

After breakfast, Michael retreated to his room to work on the math book he was reading through. Leonard and his sister went to the living room to do their own work.

Allison was in college, and working on something much too complex for ten-year-old Leonard to understand. But he could understand bits and pieces of it, proving to his parents how complex his little mind was.

Leonard wrote on his notepad, reading through various numbers and variables and scratching out his work with a pencil.

A few minutes later, they heard a small knock at their door. Allison stood up and opened it, only to find Penny looking up at her.

"Oh. Hi there, Penny."

"Hello. Is Leonard here?" She asked politely, her hands behind her back.

She smiled. "Yeah, he's right here. Come on in."

"Hi, Leonard!" Penny yelped.

"Hello, Penny." Allison closed the door behind her and gave Leonard a look, grinning at him. He looked back at his sister, confused, wondering why she was smiling like that. "Um, what are you doing here, Penny?"

"I came to talk to you."

"Uh, why me?"

Allison continued to grin at him as she walked back to the couch to watch the two of them.

"Because I don't have anyone else to talk to. And because you saved my life the other day."

Penny's response got an "aww" out of Leonard's sister, but neither of them heard it.

"Well, I didn't really save your life. You just scraped your knee." Leonard shrugged. He awkwardly played with the pencil in his hand, twisting it back and forth.

"But I think you saved my life." She looked at Leonard's notepad. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm working on some equations."

"That looks hard," she squinted at the page.

He shrugged again. "It's not that bad. It's only integrals."

Penny looked back up at Leonard. "How long have you been wearing glasses?"

He stared at her for a few seconds. Her train of thought was jumping again. "Um, I've had them since I was four. So six years, I guess."

"None of my friends wear glasses. So you're my first glasses-wearing friend!"

Leonard raised his eyebrows. "Oh, okay. That's cool."

Allison giggled silently as she tried to look busy writing in her notebook. She didn't want Leonard to think she was listening to their whole conversation.

But during an awkward pause of silence, as Penny was waiting for Leonard to say something, Allison came to her brother's rescue and asked if they wanted some cookies.

"Okay! I love cookies!" Penny chirped.

"Leonard, come help me," she nodded her head toward the kitchen.

Allison reached for the cookie jar while Leonard grabbed some juice from the refrigerator.

"Why aren't you talking to her?"

He looked at her, confused. "I am talking to her."

"I meant, talk to her some more. You're so shy around her."

"But I don't know what to say to her."

"Say what you feel like saying or whatever moves the conversation along."

"Well, okay." He paused and looked back up at her. "Why do you keep smiling at me?" Leonard asked.

She shrugged and smiled again. "No reason."

"Good night, Leonard." The light flicked off, bathing the room in darkness.

"Good night, Mother." She closed his door when she saw Leonard close his eyes.

The clock read 9:00 PM. Leonard's glasses sat next to his clock, on his nightstand next to the bed. He turned over and hugged a corner of his blanket. His blanket had a Superman print on it, and his bed sheets were Star Wars. He had them for a few years, after he begged his parents to buy it for him. His mother refused, and would not budge. She said it was pointless, and bad for his growing intelligence. His father understood, but was forced to agree with his wife's decision. It was Leonard's sister that bought them, making up some intelligent excuse as to why she bought them for him.

He was half asleep when he heard a knocking at his window. He opened his eyes, unsure of what he just heard. When there was another knock, and he sat up and squinted, trying to see who or what was at his window. After no success, he grabbed his glasses off the nightstand and walked across his room. He initially didn't see anyone in his window, until a few seconds later, when Penny popped up. He jumped back and yelped, immediately clapping his hand over his mouth, hoping that no one heard him.

"Hi, Leonard," he heard her whisper.

Leonard opened his window halfway. "Penny? What are you doing here?" he whispered back. Before she could respond, he noticed that she was standing on a very unsteady looking pipe, and holding onto the side of his window, which was on the second story of the house. He panicked and grabbed her hand. "How did you get up here?" he asked as he quickly pulled her into his room.

"I climbed up."

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?" he whispered loudly.

She frowned at his tone. "Are you mad?"

He lowered his voice. "…No. I'm just—worried about you. Um, what are you doing here?" he asked again.

"I saw something really cool in the sky. And I wanted to show you."

"What did you see?"

Penny tugged Leonard toward the window and pointed up. "There's a really bright star up there."

He squinted and eyed the stars in the sky. "Oh. Well, that's Sirius."

"Huh?"

"Sirius. It's the brightest star in the night sky. It's actually part of the constellation, Canis Major."

Penny blinked at him. "What does that mean?"

"Canis Major is Latin for 'greater dog,'"

"There's a dog in the sky?" her mouth dropped.

"Not an actual dog," he replied. "It's just a pattern that looks like a dog. You probably can't see it right now, but I can show you sometime."

"Yeah, I wanna see the dog! Promise you'll show it to me one day?"

"Uh, sure."

"Say you promise!" Penny whispered loudly.

"I promise," Leonard quickly replied.

He looked at Penny, who was scooting closer to him. "You wanna see something else that's pretty cool?"

She nodded excitedly. "Show me!"

Leonard took her hand and pointed to a specific part in the sky. "You see those three stars in a row?"

"Uh huh."

"That's Orion's Belt."

"Ahh," she sighed.

He drew out the Big Dipper with her finger. "And you see that square-looking spoon?"

"Yeah."

He let go of her hand, which dropped to her side. "That's the Big Dipper. It's an asterism that makes up a constellation. The constellation it makes up is Ursa Major, which is a big bear in the sky." Penny smiled at him again. "There's also a little bear in the sky, also known as Ursa Minor. But it's kinda hard to see right now."

"That's so cool!" He grinned at her. "Leonard?"

"Yeah?"

"What's an aftertism?"

"An asterism. It's a pattern of stars. Orion's Belt is also an asterism. It makes up Orion, which is a constellation of a person in the sky."

"Ohhh," she nodded. "You know a lot of stuff. All of my other friends don't know as much as you. You're really awesome."

"Um, well. Y-you should probably go back home. It's pretty late. And you wouldn't want your parents to know you were out in the middle of the night."

"It's okay. My parents like you, so they don't mind."

"Oh." Leonard wasn't sure how to respond. "Well, regardless, you should get your rest."

"Mmm…okay." She stood up and started to climb out the window.

"Wait, Penny! Don't—"

"It's okay, Leonard," she giggled.

Before he could stop her, she was already sliding down the pipe on the side of the house. He looked down at her, frightened that she was going to fall. He let out a breath of relief once he saw she was on the ground safely. She waved at Leonard and mouthed what looked like "Good night, Leonard!"

He waved back at her, smiling, and crawled back into bed. Leonard stared out the window once last time, eyeing the constellation he showed Penny. He couldn't stop hearing her voice in his head. You're really awesome. No one had ever told him that before.

"Leonard! Come downstairs!" Beverly called out.

He abandoned his work to run downstairs at his mother's command. Once he got there, he found his mother, sister, and a dog.

"Hey, whose dog is that?" He approached the dog and patted its head. The puppy had soft, golden fur and floppy ears. And she couldn't seem to stop wagging her tail once she saw Leonard. She panted rapidly, licking Leonard's hand as he scratched her chin.

"It's yours!" Allison said cheerfully.

He looked up at his mother and sister incredulously. "It is?"

"Yes. Your father and sister convinced me to satisfy your never-ending plead for a puppy, so we went out and got you a rescue. You can thank your father when he gets back from work."

"Thanks Mother, thanks Allison!"

His mother walked off to another room in the house to work on one of her many papers as Leonard knelt down to get a good look at his new dog's face.

"So what are you going to name her?" Allison asked.

Leonard continued scratching the back of his puppy's ear and responded, "I think I'm going to name her…Mitzy."

"Penny, can you go see who that is?" Penny's mom yelled after the doorbell rang.

"Okay!" Penny ran to the door and peeked through the window. "It's Leonard!" She yelled back to her mother and opened the door. "Hi, Leonard!" Before Leonard could say hi back, she saw the puppy Leonard was holding and shrieked, "A puppy! Is it yours?"

"Yeah, it is! I just got her today!" He grinned.

Penny's mother approached from behind Penny and smiled at Leonard. "Hi there, Leonard."

"Hi, Mrs. Fisher. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, thank you. Is that your puppy?"

He nodded. "I just got her today."

"Well, isn't she the cutest thing?" She bent down to Leonard's height and scratched the puppy's head. "What's her name?"

"Mitzy."

"Oh, that's a cute name."

"Mommy, can I go play with her and Leonard?" Penny bounced up and down, tugging her mother's shirt.

"Sure. Just don't go too far, okay?"

"Okay!" She ran out of the house, Leonard following her from behind.

Leonard pulled out a leash from his pocket and latched it onto Mitzy's collar. Penny sat down on the sidewalk and kissed the top of Mitzy's head.

"I love dogs," Penny said. "We have three dogs, but they don't live with us anymore."

"Why not?" Leonard asked.

"Our house got too full. We gave them to my grandma to take care of them. But we go to Grandma's all the time, so I can still see them." She tilted her head and looked into the puppy's eyes. "Mitzy looks a lot like Booboo." She smiled happily.

"But Mother—" Leonard attempted to get a word in, but as always, had no success.

"Why are you protesting? There's no question about it. You don't deserve it."

"Why?"

"Do you really want the truth, Leonard?"

"I think I deserve at least that much."

"Very well. You're not good enough." She crossed her arms as her son ran off outside.

Leonard dejectedly sat on the grass, leaning against the side of the house. He was out of sight for the most part, which he liked. But he still closed his eyes, telling himself over and over to not cry.

Mitzy ran up to Leonard and snuggled her head under his hand. He looked down at her, her big brown eyes looking up at Leonard, silently asking him what was wrong.

He didn't care that he was crying now. Mitzy whined in response to his tears and licked his face.

"Why does she keep doing that?" He absentmindedly ran his hand over Mitzy's fur. "Actually, a better question would be, why does it still affect me?"

He hugged his puppy, holding her close to his chest.

"…Leonard?"

Leonard looked up in surprise. Penny was standing in front of him looking extremely worried. He quickly brushed away the remaining tears on his face, hoping that she hadn't seen him crying. But it was rather unlikely.

"H-hi Penny."

"Are you okay?"

"Um…I've been better." He looked down, so as to not show her the grief in his eyes.

Penny walked a little closer to Leonard and looked at him. "Why are you crying?"

Leonard was embarrassed for a second, but replied with, "Something my mother said to me. It's nothing."

"It doesn't seem like nothing." Her voice was almost at a whisper. "Something's wrong."

"No, nothing's wrong," he tried to reassure her.

She shook her head. "No, you're sad. That means something's wrong. Do you want to tell me?"

"Not really."

There was a pause between the two of them as Penny fell to her knees and leaned into Leonard, squeezing him into a hug. He was caught off-guard by her actions, but ended up awkwardly patting her on the back.

"Do you want to do something? Maybe we can make today a special day."

He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, today is my birthday."

Penny audibly gasped. "Today's your birthday?" He nodded. "Then it is a special day! You shouldn't be sad on your birthday! Are you having a party? Didya get presents yet?"

He looked down again. "Um, my parents don't celebrate my birthday. So, no. No party or presents."

"What?" Penny's mouth dropped. "That's not fair! It's your birthday!"

Leonard smiled at her, and was about to say something, but was cut off with his mother calling out, "Leonard! You haven't finished your work yet!"

He frowned, and Penny's smile went away. "I, uh, I have to go." Leonard went back into his house as Mitzy followed him. He stopped for a second to give Penny a small wave before disappearing.

She stood up and ran into her house when she got an idea. She ran through the house screaming, "Mommy, mommy, where are you?"

"I'm in the kitchen, sweetie," her mother called back.

"Mommy, today's Leonard's birthday!"

"It is? Oh, that's nice."

Penny crawled into a chair. "Yeah, but…he doesn't get a party or gifts or anything." She frowned.

Penny's mother looked at her daughter sympathetically and said, "Well, why don't we give him something?"

She perked up. "Can we? Can we?"

"Sure. We can bake a small cake for him and I'll take you out to buy him something."

"Yay!" She jumped off the chair and started gathering ingredients.

By five o'clock that evening, Leonard was left alone with his brother and sister again as his parents left for work. He sat alone on the couch, drawing circles and shapes on a scratch piece of paper. He was still thinking about what his mother said to him earlier that day.

He'd gotten used to not getting anything on his birthday, so he understood when all Allison gave him was a small hug and a "happy birthday, big guy." He knew that if she got him anything, their mother would probably yell at them both, and lecture them on the pointlessness of gift giving.

When there was a knock at the door, Leonard got up from his seat. He pulled the chair sitting next to the door right under the peephole and stood on it so he could see through it. When he saw Penny, he opened the door. She was smiling and holding a box and a wrapped present.

"Happy Birthday, Leonard!"

He blinked, unsure of how to respond. "Thank you?" came out of his mouth, and he stepped to the side to let her in.

"These are for you," she said as she handed him the things in her hands.

"Thank you," he said again.

He went over to the couch and opened the box. Inside sat a small chocolate cake with the words, "Happy Birthday" messily written on the top. He assumed that Penny was the one who wrote it.

"My mommy and me made it. I hope you like it!"

"Thank you, Penny. That's really nice of you to do. But you really didn't have to."

"I wanted to." She smiled at him. "Everyone deserves some cake on their birthday." Penny pushed his arm slightly. "Open the other one, open the other one!"

He put the cake to the side and held the wrapped present in his hand. It looked and felt like a book. Leonard carefully unwrapped the ribbon and the paper and sure enough, it was a book. He read the cover out loud.

"All About Constellations." He looked over at Penny, who was grinning wider than ever.

"Because you know so much about stars, I thought you would want to learn more."

"Thank you," he said for the fourth time.

He felt an unusual burst of happiness. He wasn't used to this.