Title: Five Times Amy and Sheldon Didn't Meet...And One Time They Did
Summary: Self-explanatory. Five early near-misses between the Shamy, and the time they finally came face to face. Spoilers for Seasons 1 – 3.
Chapter summary: The Peanut Reaction. While debating whether or not to cancel her yearly date with a man who thought eight extra seconds of footage made for a whole new movie, Amy Farrah Fowler finds herself eavesdropping on a conversation between two people who cannot agree on a present for a mutual friend.
Characters:Amy Farrah Fowler, Sheldon Cooper, Penny
Word Count:1091
Author's Note: This fic is part a collaboration between fanfic writers FoxPhile, Lionne6, LostInTheSun, Musickat18, WeBuiltThePyramids, and XMarisolX. Each author has written a fic that, together, make up the collection. It was inspired by a fantastic idea Lio came up with during a discussion in the Shamy thread at FanForum.
Disclaimer: The Big Bang Theory is an American sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, and is produced by them along with Steve Molaro. It is a Warner Brothers production and airs on CBS. All characters, plots and creative elements derived from the source material belong exclusively to their respective owners. The authors of this fan fiction, do not, in any way, profit monetarily from the story.

This is chapter two in the series. For chapter one, please see XMarisolX's page for "The Hamburger Postulate." This fanfic can be read on it's own, but why would you want to when you could have five other chapters as well?

Amy Farrah Fowler found herself in the electronics store simply because she was putting off going to the theater for her yearly date. The revised definitive cut of Blade Runner wasn't exactly her cup of tea, but the guy had insisted that that's what he wanted to do. Amy was seriously considering blowing him off – something that she'd never been on this end of before – and finding someone else to appease her mother with. It certainly wouldn't be something she'd look back on as a missed opportunity – it's not like she was going to end up with anyone who thought that eight seconds of previously unseen footage would really change anything.

She lingered in the DVD section anyway, figuring that this way she'd be able to tell her mother that she did in fact see a movie tonight. A couple DVDs were sitting in the wrong place, and she reached over to place them in their proper spots on the shelves. Taking a few steps to place Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium in the correct place, she felt her right foot come down on something soft. Glancing down, she saw she'd stepped on a child's white and blue sock, and she shuddered, wondering what sort of parent allowed their child to remove their hosiery in the middle of a store. At least it wasn't dirty.

She moved down the aisle, farther away from the sock, and began looking at the DVD burners on the shelf in front of her. She didn't need one, but according to her watch, it was too early in the night to be able to text her date and claim that traffic would prevent her from making the movie. So she waited, letting her mind tune into the conversations around her.

"Isn't the gas mileage not great on that type of vehicle?" "I always buy the American company cars, you see, my family's been in this country for…"

"I just can't believe how uncreative we can be. All the other planets have moons with these powerful names, and then we just have 'the moon.' And then there's the genius-ly named 'big red spot' on Jupiter, like wow, wonder what that looks like, I didn't get a good enough description from the name."

Amy's interest in that conversation was piqued, but unfortunately, they were moving out of earshot.

"I don't give a damn if she started crying, when you tell her that she needs to finish her spinach before she can leave the dinner table, then she needs to finish her spinach before she can leave the dinner table!"

"…and as Chandler Bing would say, could this BE any more random?"

"So, what do you think?" "Um, that one."

This fifth conversation was one that Amy could see the people involved, so she glanced over – a tall, skinny, dark haired man, and a shorter blonde woman who looked just like the sort of girl who picked on Amy in high school. The sight of her brought back some unpleasant memories, and Amy swallowed uncomfortably. The pretty ones are always the cruelest. And the flakiest.

The pretty ones are always the cruelest and flakiest. Amy silently chided herself for falling into stereotyping. Stereotyping does not always reflect the reality we live in, she told herself. That is a mass assumption. You're smarter than to fall into that, Amy Farrah Fowler, no matter what the evidence has suggested. Humans are not an exact science. But neither is stereotyping; if that article she'd read the other day on the very subject hadn't been so sparsely sourced…

Amy shook her head to clear her mind as the man was asking the woman about the reason she had for her selection of the two routers – something Amy did know something about a la Ryan, her 2007 date – that he held in his hands. "Because of the two additional Ethernet ports?"

"Sure," she responded, and Amy gave a small nod. I don't think my initial impression of her was much off the mark.

"He doesn't need them, he's already got a 640 connect switch."

Amy headed toward them, figuring off their conversation that they were on some sort of forced outing. It appeared obvious that the man was looking to make a purchase of a gift, and for some reason had asked the woman to accompany him. They clearly were on different pages in terms of their knowledge of what the future recipient would want or need, which seemed odd, as they didn't appear to be two people who would go out gift shopping together because of a shared enjoyment of the company. Amy guessed that they both knew the person for whom the gift was intended, but the man hadn't had as much experience with gift buying as the woman, though he could very well know the recipient better, so she had come along with him to help. She was clearly out of her element, though, and Amy thought that an objective third party might help – both in gift selection and allowing the man to escape the company of the blonde. She was unsure of if she'd be able to provide aide for the woman; stereotype or not, she seemed far too beneath Amy's intellect to be worth her time, but certain she could make some sort of progress in conversation with the man, who was clearly the one who needed help.

"Okay, then this one," the woman was saying, pointing to the other router.

Amy stopped. If they were going to make a decision and leave, she didn't need to get involved.

"Why?" the man asked.

The woman shrugged, taking the box into her hands. "I don't know, the man on the box looks so happy!"

If Amy had her own television show, the camera would have been sure to show her sharp pivot on her heel as she turned and headed back toward the exit.

Even if she'd been able to help the guy make a decision, interacting with that woman was not worth her time.

Okay. This woman is definitely not the exception when it comes to blonde stereotypes. It was definitely working out in terms of the impersonal cognitive effects that stereotyping had.

As Amy reached the exit, her phone began to ring. She ignored it. It was probably her date, wondering where she was. She didn't need to answer, deciding that someone who got that excited about an extra eight seconds of footage wasn't worth all that much of her time either.

Don't forget to check out the next chapter, written by the wonderful MusicKat18! Thanks to Lio for the beta!