Missy, on the other hand, has the opposite problem. She craves social connection but treats it like a high-stakes poker game where everyone else knows the rules except her. In this episode, she tried to reinvent herself — new hairstyle, new laugh, new opinions — to fit in with a group of girls who change their loyalty as often as I change my socks (daily, by the way, sometimes twice if I’ve been near a chalkboard).
Log entry. Supplemental to Episode 5, Season 6. young sheldon s06e05 satrip
[Long pause. Then, quietly:] I miss Dr. Sturgis. Missy, on the other hand, has the opposite problem
You would think this would please me. It did not. Log entry
The peanut — a single, unsalted, unremarkable legume — became the focal point of my lunch period. I hypothesized that if I placed it on the corner of my tray, it would act as a social deterrent, preventing anyone from sitting next to me. And it worked. Flawlessly. For forty-seven minutes, no human being approached within a two-meter radius.
Her failure was instructive. She succeeded at first. Then she made the fatal error of being genuine for eleven seconds. She laughed at her own joke — a genuine laugh, not the rehearsed one — and the group froze. Authenticity, I’ve learned, is a social death sentence among adolescents.