A fictional story about fictional characters.
*****
Penny had been about ten minutes from begging to return to her former waitressing job at the Cheesecake Factory when her nerdy boyfriend, Dr. (of physics) Leonard Hofstadter, had surprised her with the gift of a pre-owned car so that she could continue attending her actress auditions. Tears had formed in her beautiful green eyes as he placed the keys in her hand, and she was reminded once again just how incredibly thoughtful he was. Most of her friends would shake their heads when they thought of beautiful blond former-cheerleader Penny hooking up with a short, nearsighted nerd. Truth be known, a few years earlier, Penny herself would have thought it impossible. That was before she had gotten to know her neighbors, and especially Leonard, as people. In fact she had matured as a person because of them, and knew she was better off because of it.
Since high school she had always been attracted to the jock-type, the type who would use her for her models' body and then leave when they found a better situation. It was true that Leonard loved her fantastic body, but he worshipped her as a person. She tried to explain this to her friends (most of them now "former" friends) but all they could see was Leonard's less than impressive physical stature. Leonard always put her needs before his own and she loved him for that...yes, loved him. He was the first man she ever imagined spending the rest of her life with. And he didn't need to be a jock to please her in bed because he tried harder than any man she had ever been with.
The problem was, in the two months since Leonard had given her the car, she had very little success in her acting career. She had filmed one TV commercial where only the back of her head was visible and done one print ad for a shoe company where only her feet were shown, wearing sandals. Penny was becoming very discouraged again and contemplating giving up acting and looking for a "regular" job. She had just returned from another open audition for a sci-fi movie about space exploration and was sipping an iced tea on her sofa when the phone rang. Contented to let the answering machine pick-up, because she was not really in the mood to talk to another creditor, she nearly fell rushing for the phone when she heard the voice of a casting director.
Brushing her spilled ice tea off the front of her blouse, Penny hurriedly picked up the phone to speak. The casting director wanted to make an appointment for a call-back for a part in the movie. He told Penny she would be meeting with the director and the producer, who had personally requested her after watching a video of her audition. She would be auditioning for the part of a crew-member of a deep space probe. The casting director would email her a couple pages of the script so she could study it before the interview. A meeting was set-up for the day after tomorrow and Penny hung up, with a grin from ear to ear. She very seldom even got called back...and the producer, the money-man, had requested her!
She was so excited that she discarded her wet blouse, threw on a t-shirt, and ran across the hall to tell Leonard. Not even bothering to knock, she burst into the apartment rented by Leonard and his roommate Dr. (also of physics) Sheldon Cooper. Both were present as were the other two members of "The Nerd Four" as she affectionately called them: Dr. Rajesh Koothrappali, and Howard Wolowitz. Raj was a astrophysicist and Howard an aerospace engineer. The first three worked at CalTech, and Howard had actually done work for NASA. Sheldon, a certified genius, seemed to spend most of his free time belittling Penny for her lack of education, but she found it difficult to dislike him. "I guess in your dimension, knocking is not a custom," he sarcastically said glancing in her direction.
Sticking up for her as always, Leonard retorted, "Penny doesn't have to knock, she has a standing invitation; naner, naner, naner."
"Thank you sweetie," Penny blew Leonard a kiss and burst out, "you'll never guess what just happened."
"You were informed that you have won a Nobel Prize," Sheldon offered in his usual droll manner..."bazinga."
"Ha, Ha, Mr. Smarty Pants," Penny answered, sticking out her tongue, "no, I just got a call-back for the day after tomorrow."
"Oh Penny...that's so great," Leonard gushed, "what is the part?"
"Here's where you guys might be interested," she began before being interrupted by Sheldon.
"Not likely," he snorted.
Ignoring him as she usually tried to do, Penny continued, "I'm auditioning for a part in a movie about deep space travel."
Suddenly they were all in her face, even Sheldon, demanding to know the plot, the director, what exactly the space mission was to accomplish, what type of spacecraft; every detail that sci-fi obsessed nerds would ask.