Chapter 31: Touching — Texas Student of the Year
Galveston County High School
Adam followed Sheldon down the hallway with a camcorder, knocked on the principal's office door, and waited.
"What is it now, Sheldon?"
The principal looked up, registered Sheldon's presence, and the familiar expression of a man suppressing a headache moved across his face. Then he noticed Adam and the camera. "What's going on?"
"Good afternoon, Principal Walsh," Sheldon said with complete seriousness. "We're filming a video to persuade my mother to approve my early college enrollment. We're requesting your participation and the participation of the faculty."
The principal's expression transformed before Sheldon had finished the sentence. "Absolutely. No problem at all." He was already straightening his tie. "We'll all say on camera that we fully support you going to college right now. Correct?"
Sheldon nodded.
"Wonderful. Let's begin."
Sheldon turned to Adam with a slightly puzzled look — the principal's enthusiasm was unusual — but filed it away as irrelevant and gave Adam the signal.
Adam hit record.
"Sheldon Cooper is a once-in-a-generation talent," the principal said, with the smooth delivery of a man who had been waiting years for exactly this opportunity. "When he leaves, our school will never quite be the same. But I know he's going to do extraordinary things, and I'm honored to have played even a small part in his journey."
He finished with a warm, practiced smile.
"Excellent," Sheldon said, raising his chin slightly with reserved satisfaction. "Mr. Givens is next."
They left the office. The principal leaned out the door behind them.
"Should I call ahead and let the teachers know to cooperate?"
"I think they'll manage," Adam said, stopping the recording. He looked back at the principal. "I'm sure they all feel the same way you do about Sheldon."
The principal smiled in a way that suggested he appreciated Adam's particular brand of tact.
As it turned out, every single teacher cooperated without hesitation.
The science teacher's first take had to be stopped.
"He's ready for college — he was ready last year — honestly he can leave right now, today, this afternoon—"
"Cut," Sheldon said, looking at Adam uncertainly. "Is he being sarcastic?"
"Completely sincere," Adam said, with a straight face.
Sheldon accepted this and nodded.
Adam caught the science teacher's eye and made a very small gesture suggesting he dial it back by about forty percent.
Second take:
"Sheldon is my most remarkable student," the science teacher said, in the controlled tone of a man carefully managing his own emotions. "I am genuinely proud that he's moving on to college so young. To support his transition, I would personally help him move into his dorm room, contribute to his travel expenses, whatever he needs—" he took a breath "—I just want to make absolutely sure he gets there."
He finished with two thumbs up that contained several layers of meaning Sheldon entirely missed.
"Very good," Sheldon said.
They moved down the hallway.
The homeroom teacher was already waiting at her classroom door.
"I genuinely have nothing left to teach Sheldon," she said to the camera. "I'm fairly confident he surpassed me academically sometime last semester."
"That's accurate," Sheldon said, leaning toward the camera to confirm this with a thumbs-up.
The homeroom teacher's smile went slightly rigid.
Adam ended the recording and moved them along before anything else happened.
The math teacher — warm, experienced, the one person on the faculty who had consistently found something genuine to appreciate about Sheldon's presence in her classroom — spoke with real feeling.
"Teaching Sheldon has been the most challenging thing I've done in twenty years in this building," she said. "Not because he's difficult as a person—" she paused "—it's because he's so far ahead that keeping up with him required me to study every single night. He genuinely made me better at my job. I'll miss him."
Adam gave her a look suggesting she let the camera linger on her face for the close-up.
She closed her eyes, thought of something peaceful, and held a genuinely warm expression.
"Perfect," Sheldon said.
The math teacher exhaled slowly when they moved away.
The final piece was Dr. Campbell.
The principal and teachers were supporting evidence. Dr. Campbell was the actual argument. Mary Cooper had been listening to those teachers urge Sheldon toward early college for years, which had somewhat diluted their credibility on the subject. Dr. Campbell was different — he was Sheldon's academic mentor, he'd been working with Sheldon directly for over a year, and he was based at UT Austin, which was still in Texas, which meant Mary could still get in her car and drive to her son if she needed to.
Adam filmed Dr. Campbell in his office at the university, then declined Sheldon's invitation to come along for the viewing with Mary. He had a healthy respect for Mary Cooper's eyes when she was feeling conflicted, and he preferred to experience this particular outcome from a distance.
The Cooper Family Home
Sheldon sat his mother down and played the video.
When Dr. Campbell appeared on screen, Mary's expression shifted.
"Mary." Dr. Campbell looked directly into the camera with the straightforward sincerity of someone who had been coached to skip his usual social awkwardness and get to the point. "I know this is an incredibly hard decision. I can't tell you how to raise your son — I don't have children of my own. But I can tell you that in everything I've seen in my career, I have never encountered a mind like Sheldon's. He is genuinely extraordinary. If you send him to Austin, I give you my word that we will look after him."
He meant every syllable, and it showed.
Mary's eyes were wet.
The video ended with a title card Sheldon had insisted on: Sheldon Cooper — Ready for College, Ready to Change the World.
Followed immediately by Sheldon's voice, which he had also insisted on including: "If this video doesn't convince her, I genuinely don't know what the problem is."
Mary looked at her son.
This is definitely my child, she thought.
She wiped her eyes and didn't say no.
End of Chapter 31
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