Chapter Text
If you were to ask Missy Cooper ten years from now, then she would say that she had known from the start. And if it wasn’t for her, none of this would’ve happened. They wouldn’t even have met each other.
Who knew that a girl… this particular, mighty, little girl… could forever change fundamentally everything? Who would have known that she would be able to change him?
And look where they are now…
If Missy had to pinpoint the moment where it all started, she would say it was when she and her twin brother Sheldon were about ten years old. Sheldon, being the genius child prodigy that he was, was now starting his second year in the same high school as their older brother, Georgie. While she just plain and boringly stumbled her way into fourth grade… barely successful.
Missy didn’t much care that she wasn’t as smart as her brother; at least she had lots of friends and there was nothing more important to her than that. Her brother, however, was so socially inept and just so… different from her, despite them being twins. He hardly had any social contacts at all besides family.
But when her new school year started, it brought an interesting, new addition into Missy’s simple, non-genius life:
There was a new girl in her class.
Her name was Amy Fowler; she also had a weird sounding middle name, but Missy chose to ignore it because she couldn’t pronounce it correctly. Anyway, Amy reminded her very much of her twin.
Amy was incredibly shy and never spoke a word to anyone in class, which easily made her a victim of cruel pranks and ridicule. Normally, Missy wouldn’t shy away from initiating such pranks herself, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to tease Amy.
Teasing Sheldon, on the other hand, was a different story. He was her brother after all and Missy loved to get him worked up about the smallest things; it was just too easy to do. But she also knew when to stop with him. Either because their mother told her so or because, deep down, Missy knew exactly how much her brother struggled to function in this world.
With questions about social cues Sheldon often turned to Missy, especially when it was about interacting with the other kids at his school. Sheldon’s brilliance only applied to the technical things in life, like math, trains and something Missy heard him call ‘physics’.
The same apparently applied to Amy, too… And boy, that girl is one smart cookie.
Amy always aced her tests, no matter which class – excluding sports of course – and she didn’t even have to pay attention to the teacher. Whenever she got reprimanded for not following along in class, Amy bluntly declared that she already knew all of this and that she would prefer to quietly read on in her big old book without any pictures in it. Missy was almost certain that Amy was not even reading in the English language.
The teachers never seemed to know what to do with Amy’s blunt answers and usually let her continue to read, which made her really badass in Missy’s mind. Sure, Amy was an awkwardly dressed, shy bookworm, but she got to do what she wanted and there wasn’t anything cooler to Missy than that.
So, almost two months into the new school year, Missy decided to talk to that girl and find out more about her. She was curious if Amy would turn out to be lame and old-fashioned like her brother or secretly cool on the inside.
Missy spotted Amy during recess one day, sitting completely alone in one isolated, quiet corner of the schoolyard, reading her picture-less book while munching on her sandwich.
“Hello!” Missy announced in the bold and loud way of her.
The poor girl flinched so badly that she let both, her book and her sandwich, fall to the ground. She met Missy’s gaze with a frightened, paralyzed stare, much like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Oh, sorry.” Missy said, and when the startled girl still didn’t move a muscle, she bent down to retrieve the book for her. “Let me get that.” She picked it up and frowned in confusion as she tried to read the author's name. “Who’s… ‘Kauzer’?”
The bespectacled, dark-haired girl knitted her brows. “Y-You mean Chaucer.” she stuttered shyly. “He’s a British poet and writer. But his name is French, that’s probably why it’s hard f-for you… to pronounce.”
“See, I knew you weren’t reading English!” Missy exclaimed.
“Uhm… his writing is mostly medieval English, but t-that still counts as English, I guess.” Amy shrunk further back on the bench she was sitting on, hands clasped tightly at her sides. “Please, don’t throw away my book.” she pleaded weakly.
Missy cocked her head to the side and frowned. “I didn’t plan to throw away your book.” she said and handed it back to Amy who immediately cradled it tightly to her chest. As if she wanted to disappear behind it.
“Are you okay?” Missy asked. “You’re acting like you’re afraid of me.”
Amy raised her head defiantly, clearly forcing herself to loosen up a bit. “Of course not, I’m just… not used to someone talking so… nicely to me.” she muttered under her breath.
Missy caught it anyway. “I’m nice.” She shrugged and sat down beside her. Instantly, Amy started to clam up again and scooted away a bit. Missy chose to ignore it. “And I’m used to weird people. You should meet my brother; he’s the king of weird.”
Amy looked up, a hint of slight hurt on her face. “You think I’m weird?”
“Of course, you are.” Missy grinned. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t be nice and cool, too.”
The two girls looked at each other for a moment. Then Amy started to smile timidly. “It’s refreshing to talk to someone who seems to be as blunt and honest as me.”
“Yeah, I got that from my Meemaw.” Missy drawled. “Plus, I’m Texan, so… that’s a given.” She smiled, then tilted her head. “But you don’t sound Texan at all. Where are you from?”
“I moved here from California this summer because of my daddy’s work. Momma is not too pleased about it, because it’s way too hot for her liking. And I agree with her for once.” Amy explained.
“Ugh, this year was nothing. The summers here are the worst!” Missy groaned. “But it’s your own fault, wearing all of these long-sleeved clothes.” she said with a curl of her lip, pointing at Amy’s woolen tights and two-layered combination of thick, cotton long-sleeve tops. “Not even my Meemaw would wear stuff like that.”
“My mom says a girl is always supposed to dress modestly.”
Missy raised her brows with a cocky grin. “Your mom is weird, too.”
Amy couldn’t suppress a laugh, while simultaneously seeming to be amazed where that chuckle came from all of a sudden. “Yes… she is.” she said quietly.
Missy and Amy talked during the whole break. Well… Missy talked for most of the time and Amy smiled and listened attentively, seemingly still in awe that someone decided to take the time to get to know her.
“Now that we’re friends, we should totally sit together again tomorrow at recess.” Missy said as they walked side-by-side back to the classroom.
Amy stood rooted to the spot for a moment and then quickly hurried to catch up with Missy again. “Y-You want to be my friend?” Amy asked with a little high-pitched squeak.
Missy rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Duh.” she said.
“But… but you already have a lot of friends and they don’t really like me that much.” Amy stuttered.
“So what if they don’t like you? I’m not asking you to be friends with them, but with me. Also, they’re not really my best friends, they’re my social circle.” Missy said and grinned proudly for knowing a big word she heard Sheldon once use when he described his social circle, which only consisted of one nerdy Asian guy named Tam.
Amy’s timid, straight face lit up like a Christmas tree. “So, I would be your best friend… your bestie?”
Missy chuckled about Amy’s silly word. “Sure, why not? I like you.”
Amy’s radiant smile didn’t leave her face the rest of the day. She kept turning around and waving to her new friend from her first row place in class. Missy smiled back and left school that day with the rewarding feeling of having done a good deed.
The next day, however, Amy already seemed to be back to her introverted, sullen self. She didn’t really met Missy’s gaze when she waved at her in the morning and hurried out alone during break instead of waiting for her.
Missy, being blessed – or cursed; depends on who you ask – with the Cooper-stubbornness, didn’t let that bother her and found Amy again, sitting in the same corner on the bench with her nose buried in that thick book again. “Hey, Amy.” Missy greeted her. “Why didn’t you wait for me? I thought besties were supposed to eat their lunches together.”
Amy was startled again by her sudden appearance and she nervously fiddled on the edge of her book instead of looking at her. “I’m sorry that I… uhm, that I disappointed you. I get it if you don’t want to… hang out with me anymore…”
Missy frowned. “Who said that? I’m just confused. Yesterday you seemed so happy that you found a friend. What happened?”
Amy sighed. “You’re very perceptive.”
Missy wrinkled her nose. “I’m what?”
“I didn’t think you’d notice that something else happened yesterday, causing my contradicting reaction today.” Amy explained.
“Oh…” Missy said, not sure if that helped to clear up her confusion at all. “So… what happened then?”
Amy started to chew on her lower lip and shyly looked into her lap where she had closed her book and now clenched her fists. “It’s just… my mom said something… about false friends and not getting my hopes up too quickly.”
Missy vehemently shook her head in irritation. “Geez, and I thought my mom can be annoying at times. No offense, Amy, but… I don’t really like your mom.”
“That makes two of us.” Amy whispered quietly as if she was ashamed to even consider this. “I guess she just tries to protect me.”
“From what? I’m not a monster!” Missy exclaimed in offense. “And I’m not a ‘false friend’. I like that you don’t have to listen to what the teacher says and you still get good grades. I wish I could do that. You remind me of my brother, because he’s super-smart, too. But, unlike him, you’re cool.”
Amy dared to let a small smile play on her lips again. “Really? You think I’m cool? No one has ever called me cool.”
“Well, I do.” Missy declared and hugged Amy from the side. She flinched at first, but then relaxed a bit even though she seemed to have no idea how to reciprocate the hug. When Missy let her friend go again, the smile was back on Amy’s face and Missy thought it fitted her way better than the sullen scowl.
“Thanks.” Amy said quietly.
”Pff…” Missy waved with her hand. “Don’t mention it. Now, let me tell you what my mom said when I told her about you. She was thrilled. Totally thrilled. But not because I made a new friend, noo, she was happy because I told her how smart you are and now she thinks that you would make a great friend for her Shelly-baby. Because everything is always about him.” Missy frowned in annoyance. Mostly, she was fine with her mother’s overprotectiveness, but it wasn’t easy being left out.
It seemed that Amy wasn’t able to follow Missy’s train of thought, however. Creasing her forehead in puzzlement at Missy’s little outburst, she asked, “Who is her Shelly-baby?”
“My brother, Sheldon.” Missy clarified. “He’s my twin-brother, actually.”
“Wow, you have a twin? That’s interesting.” Amy said.
“Yeah, we get along okay most of the times, but he’s so different than me that I sometimes wonder if we’re even related at all.” Missy mused.
“Wait a minute…” Amy frowned. “There isn’t another Cooper in our class. If he’s your twin wouldn’t he be in the same grade as you?”
Missy shrugged her shoulders. “Like I said, he’s smart. Sheldon went to High School last year, because he was bored in third grade and threw temper tantrums. You see…” Missy emphasized. “Not cool.”
Amy’s mouth dropped open. “He gets to be in High School at his age? Wow, my mom would never allow that, no matter how bored I am.”
“I’m glad that you’re in my class.” Missy said. “And I’m thrilled that Sheldon isn’t anymore. It was so embarrassing.” She snickered suddenly. “You can’t imagine how bad it was for my other brother, Georgie. He’s four years older than Sheldon and he’s in the same class as him.”
Amy smiled at Missy’s unabashed gloating, but still seemed to be fascinated by Sheldon. “It’s very impressive that he’s that far ahead.”
Missy rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re on my mother’s side. She wants you to come over sometime to meet him.”
Amy actually shuttered at the idea. “Of course, I’m on your side.” she said quickly. “And I’m not interested in meeting some boy. No matter how smart he is. Mother says, all that those teenage boys want is get under your skirt.”
Now it was Missy who shuttered. “Gross!” she squealed. “My brother is only ten and he doesn’t like girls… or boys… or people.” The girls giggled a bit, then Missy spoke up again. “But maybe you could still come over and visit me. We could play together.”
“Really?” Amy perked up. “I don’t know. When Momma used to set up playdates for me when I was younger, the other kid was always bored with me. I don’t like to engage in things other kids normally do.”
“Oh, I’m sure we could make something up. Or we just talk trash about other kids in school.”
Amy grinned giddily. “I’ve never done that before.”
“I’ll show you.” Missy smiled. “And if we’re having a good time, your mom can see that I really want to be your friend.”
“Hmm, clever.” said Amy. “But I have to come straight home after school. I’m only allowed to meet friends that my mother approves of and only when I’ve finished my homework, chores and harp lessons… not that someone ever wanted to come over to our house anyway.” Amy added quietly.
Missy was unimpressed. “Then we’ll meet on the weekend. I’ll ask my mom if she can call your mom. Believe me; she can be very convincing when she thinks it’s somehow good for my brother, too. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Okay.” Amy smiled. “Oh, how exciting! I feel like I’m turning into a rebel.”
Missy grinned upon her good influence on her new friend. “Yeah.." she said, arms crossed and head held high. "I have that effect on people.”