Chapter Text
“Aaand good morning and welcome back, students of the new and improved Greendale! For any new faces here on this fine first day of school, the mysterious voice you’re hearing overhead is that of your gracious host, Craig Pelton. But please, call me Dean. Ahahaha.”
Group Study Room F – August 2013
Present day
The table was emptier than usual. Considering yesterday, Pierce’s seat was vacant, leaving barely half of the table’s seats taken. With only Troy, Abed, Shirley, and Annie here, and having taken their usual seats by habit, the seating sure was lopsided. Abed gestured to Troy to see if he wanted to shift to Britta’s old seat, but Troy shook his head.
“As you may know, after we closed down last year thanks to the timely discovery of a nasty little gas leak (and more than a little asbestos), everyone’s educations had to unfortunately be put on hold.”
Boos came from the PA system.
“Does he have a soundboard?” Annie asked. Shirley shrugged, bewildered.
“Oh, you guys, always busting my chops! Hahaha, no worries. We’ve since hired a new financial director to count the beans, and thanks to everyone’s efforts, Greendale is in better shape than ever! And what better way to celebrate our grand reopening—” the Dean’s voice lowered to a mumbled aside—“and to build morale due to our dwindling student population compared to the 2011 school year—” back to normal volume, “than to host an inaugural paintball game!”
Stock sound effects of cheering children came from the soundboard this time.
.
Cafeteria
Jeff’s fork stopped moving mid-stab of his hash browns. “You’re kidding me.”
Everyone else in the cafeteria had likewise frozen to their spots, eyes locked on the overhead speakers.
“Ahaha, now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Dean! What are YOU thinking!’”
Jeff shrugged. Spot on.
.
“Listen! I talked it over with our financial director, and we’ve put in a couple more rules to MAKE SURE this doesn’t get out of hand this year.”
“Tempting fate,” Abed said. “Classic blunder.”
.
“Rule number 1! The paintball game ends at sunset today! That’s 8 p.m. MDT. And if a bunch of people are STILL standing after that, then that’s no skin off my neck: there’s just no winner! I’m NOT letting this go past midnight AGAIN.”
Reassured ‘hmms’ and ‘ahhs’ came, which almost had Jeff wondering how people could be so easily pacified, until he realized it was just the soundboard again.
.
Outside the Library
“Rule number 2! If the winner is too close to call, then there won’t be any winner! This one’s mostly for me, OK? I don’t want any hard decisions on my conscience.”
It was a little harder to understand the PA when sitting outside on the steps, but not enough that Britta could have misheard. Some mixture of excitement and nervousness rushing through her, she immediately shut her book and jumped up to her feet.
Cupping her hands around her mouth: “I am Britta Perry! And I’m finally gonna WIN this one!”
A stranger called back, “Shut up!”
She pouted.
.
“Rule number 3! Students and faculty can both join! Because it’s just more fun that way.”
Jeff was nodding slowly, waiting for the Dean to get to rules that’d matter.
There was a long pause, a shuffling of papers. The Dean cleared his throat. “…Anyway! All classes past three today have been cancelled to make time for the game, so paintball will begin at three o’ clock sharp! Have fun and be safe, Greendale! And most of all… welcome back!”
Jeff blinked. “What the f—”
But Jeff’s disbelief was quickly interrupted by a deafening cacophony of explosions spewing from the PA, causing everyone in the cafeteria to hastily cover their ears. The incredible noise was immediately stopped, leaving Jeff’s ears ringing.
The Dean’s voice returned, much more somber. “On behalf of Greendale, I apologize. That was meant to be some celebratory fireworks off of the soundboard, and apparently the volume’s, well. I don’t know whose fault that was, but, um… Sorry.”
The announcement ended with a click.
Jeff dropped his fork, grabbed his books, and immediately stormed off.
.
He wasn’t the only one with the idea to head straight for the Dean’s office. A small crowd was bustling outside, actually giving Jeff pause to smile for a bit. He recognized Vicki and Garrett among the discontented crowd. Having been away for a year seemed to make everything nostalgic.
Jeff started elbowing through them to get to the office—sure was nice being so tall—and he found Leonard standing closest to the door.
Leonard snorted. “Look who it is. Study group getting back together to steal another win?”
“Shut up, Leonard, you probably kept coming to classes during the gas leak.”
Leonard shrugged, unable to argue. Jeff pushed past him and banged on the Dean’s door with his fist.
From inside came a muffled “Jeffrey?” Hard to hear over the agitated crowd behind Jeff, but it sounded like the lock was turning. The door opened a half-inch and the bespectacled Dean Pelton peered through. His face lit like a child’s when he saw Jeff, who faked a half-smile back. “Oh, Jeffrey! I’d know that angry knock anywhere! Aw, and I was starting to worry that you wouldn’t be coming back this semester.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Jeff deadpanned. “Let me in, wouldja?”
There was another voice from inside, again hard to hear, but the Dean turned and shushed them. Back to Jeff, “Of courrrrrse! Come in! I’ll prepare some coffee, maybe a snack? Do you like pizza rolls? I don’t have any, but… Oh, just get in here already.” He opened the door just enough for Jeff to squeeze through, and was fortunate enough that the slow Leonard was the first to try to follow, making it easy for the Dean to slam the door behind Jeff and lock out the crowd once again.
Jeff was ready to launch into his “this is a terrible idea” speech he’d been planning the whole walk here, but he discovered that not only was he not the first one with this idea, but he wasn’t even the first one to be let in.
“Annie?”
From her seat on the couch, Annie wasn’t quite meeting his eye. She smoothed out her skirt and sat up straight and prim. “Jeff-rey.” The stilted delivery carried the punch of someone trying out a word for the first time.
“An-nie,” he answered in the exact same way, his brow furrowing. This was going to get awkward fast, so he turned back to the Dean. “I’m guessing she already gave you the speech I was just about to.”
The Dean shifted his weight from foot to foot, side-eyeing Jeff. “…If you wanted to say it again anyway, I’m sure everyone would be happy to hear a classic…” He took a trembling breath. “…W-Winger Speech.”
Annie rolled her eyes, and Jeff exhaled impatiently: “That’s not what a Winger Speech is—Wait, forget that. SURELY you know this paintball game is gonna turn out exactly like the other ones. You really want the school to get trashed right after it’s finally reopened?”
Annie stood up next to Jeff, crossing her arms at the Dean. “At least you could have the decency to start the game on Friday!” she scolded. “It’s a Monday, and it’s the first day of school! We’re going to have to go to class tomorrow!”
Jeff pondered that. “…Well, if the school’s in bad enough shape, I guess it’s possible for classes to be cancelled?”
Annie smacked him on the arm, “No! Bad!”
Jeff grinned. Wasn’t that nostalgic? She didn’t seem nearly as uncomfortable as she did yesterday, though there was always the possibility that the Dean being there helped a little.
She hadn’t noticed they were falling into their old routine again, and her ire returned to Pelton. “Look, Dean. You know these paintball games never turn out well for you. Why would you even want to do another one this year?”
The Dean put his hands on his hips. “Didn’t you listen to the broadcast? Honestly!”
He shook his head and tsked, and Annie and Jeff shared an exasperated glance. Jeff’s heart started to race with a mix of nostalgia and more, and he had to seal his lips shut to not draw attention to it, out of fear their solidarity would break the second she was aware of it.
“It’s for morale, people! And it won’t go too late, so you’ll all be able to go to classes tomorrow. We were able to rehire our old janitorial staff thanks to our new finance director, so it’ll be fine!”
Jeff threw his hands up. “People are going to go nuts over the prize and turn it into another pop-culture-reference hell again! Good luck getting that cleaned up overnight.”
The Dean frowned at him, confused. “You think people are going to go that crazy over two hundred dollars?”
Annie and Jeff stared at him.
“…Two hundred?” Annie murmured. There was a strangely disappointed note in her voice. “That’s all?”
“That’s barely enough for one textbook,” Jeff said, in a tone of voice that could fool someone into thinking he would actually buy textbooks at full price.
“Did I forget to mention the prize in the announcement or something?”
“Yes!” Annie and Jeff shouted together. Annie continued, “That changes everything, Dean! Compared to the prizes we’ve had before, that’s nothing! People aren’t going to take it seriously!”
“Why are you saying it like it’s a bad thing?” Dean countered, defensive. “I thought you were just about to scold me for making it serious.”
Annie deflated. “I…”
She glanced uncertainly at Jeff, not expecting to meet his eye, but meet it she did. She had to quickly turn away from him and take a deep breath. “Alright! Good.” She smiled confidently. “Glad this is all cleared up.”
She turned on her heel, skirt spinning, and she marched over to the door. After unlocking it, she flung it open, and the crowd outside fell silent in expectation.
With that same smile, Annie proclaimed to the mob, “It’s just two hundred bucks.”
She was answered with an amalgam of relieved sighs, disappointed grumbles, and feelings in between. Regardless, the crowd began to disband, pacified for better or worse. Not sparing a glance at Jeff or Pelton, Annie hugged her books to her chest and hurried away. Off to her locker, Jeff guessed.
The Dean leaned back against his desk. “It really is nice to see you again, Jeffrey.”
Jeff glanced at the Dean, whose head was tilted, eyes were glazed, and smile was fond. “Yeah,” Jeff grumbled. “Back at Greendale, where dreams go to die.”
“Oho, classic Winger!” The Dean leaned a little closer. “Not gonna lie, that looked just like old times! Jeff-and-Annie, back at it, ahaha. Are you two friends again?”
Jeff looked at the door. “…No, not really. We just saw each other yesterday, that’s all.”
“Oh really! Think the, haha, the ol’ study group will see a big comeback this year?”
Jeff grinned at him. “Wouldn’t count on it, Dean.”
“Aw. You sure?” Pelton sat on the edge of his desk and began kicking his feet. “You know, you never even told me what happened. I walk into the study room one morning and POOF, you aren’t there!”
“I know. You tracked me down later that day by stalking my schedule.”
“I worry about you, Jeffrey!”
“I’m well aware.” Jeff gave a casual wave goodbye and went for the door. “Later, Dean.”
…
Troy and Abed’s New Apaaaartment – September 2011
Two years ago
Abed waggled the hot pizza slice in his hand. Partially a thoughtful gesture, partially to cool it off. “I wonder what happened in those other timelines.”
He paused to give Jeff a chance to chime in and correct him, but it never came. Oh well.
“I gotta say, I hope this is the real one because I just found a nickel in the hallway.” A grin and a flash of said nickel, and Abed was back to eating pizza.
Munch, munch, munch. Why was everyone just standing around? “If you guys don’t want pizza then I’m fine with shoving the rest of it in the fridge.” He gestured with his slice. At Annie, “Pizza?” At Jeff, “Pizza?” At Shirley, “Pizza?”
Grumbles along the lines of “fine” and “we get it” came from the rest of the group, who reluctantly shuffled to their seats around the table. Abed separated the three pizza boxes and opened them, while Troy went to the kitchen for paper plates and everyone else moved their untouched Yahtzee sheets out of the way.
Troy came back with six paper plates, notably reaching over Pierce to hand Shirley hers. The seventh plate for Pierce never came. Pierce rolled his eyes and pulled a box closer to him so he could use the top as his plate.
Then, it was eating in silence—relative silence, since The Police was still going strong—for about thirty seconds. A long time, for this group.
Abed eventually tilted his head, curious. “Something’s not right.”
“You think?” Britta spat.
“Yep.” Abed pointed around the table. “I thought we’d have cut away to another timeline by now. All the interesting stuff probably happened while I was gone, not to mention half a minute of silence would pretty much only happen off-camera in modern media.”
“Abed,” Britta groaned.
“There are no cameras, and no other timelines,” Jeff said, exasperated.
There was the Winger quip that Abed had been looking for! “Sure there are. Right over there.” Abed grinned and gave a double thumbs-up at some invisible audience behind Troy, but surprisingly, Troy gave him a small ‘cut it out’ gesture.
“Oh.” Abed’s expression reset to neutral and he sat up straight, taking his pizza slice in both hands. “Social cue. Got it.” He nibbled at it and joined the others in silence.
For the rest, “godless hippie skank,” “sick, sad, twisted old man,” and “little makeout 101” were lingering storm clouds. And, ironically, it wasn’t until ‘Roxanne’ ended and actual silence arrived that somebody finally spoke.
“You couldn’t’ve just let Britta sing the damn song?” Pierce demanded, and it took Jeff a moment to realize he was suddenly a target.
“What are you getting mad at me for?!” Jeff yelled. “You’ve heard Britta try something resembling singing, Pierce.”
Britta’s jaw dropped. “Excuse you!”
“Somebody tell me I’m wrong, then,” Jeff said, looking around.
Annie shrugged, not looking at him. “A little friendship 101, Jeff: insulting people out of nowhere can really kill the mood.”
“I think the mood was already pretty dead,” Jeff snarked. “And yeah, I caught your code, and the mood was dead then, too.”
Annie gasped, offended.
“Pierce is right, Roxanne’s a great song,” Troy admitted. “Even Britta’s singing couldn’t ruin it. I’d be dancin’ right now instead of wishing Pierce was dead.”
Pierce rolled his eyes. “Oh, brother.”
“Hold on. What did I miss?” Jeff leaned forward and started meeting people’s eyes. “What happened while Annie and I were—uh, in the kitchen?”
“Britta was smoking the devil’s lettuce in your bathroom,” Shirley declared, pointing at Troy and Abed in turn.
“Yeah, I know. I could smell it when she walked past me a minute ago,” Troy said.
“Wha, Troy!” Britta exclaimed.
“I wasn’t gonna say anything!” Troy said defensively. “It doesn’t bother me.”
“Aw, Troy,” Britta said warmly.
Abed sighed. “I should go take care of the smell in there. BRB.”
Britta sent a weak “Sorry” after Abed, while Shirley rolled her eyes and set her jaw.
Jeff glanced sideways at Britta. “All of that sure sounds like Britta, but what Troy said sure didn’t sound like Troy.”
“Hey, I really wasn’t gonna say anything about her weed,” Troy said.
“I meant what you said about Pierce.”
“Oh yeah. He’s dead to me.” Troy pointed at the TV stand. “Look what he thought would make a good housewarming present, right when I thought we were having a friendship moment!”
Jeff’s brow furrowed. “…He got you a dusty TV?”
“The thing that landed in FRONT of the TV! The horrifying thing that makes you want to cry but you know you won’t because it’s not like an inanimate object can—”
Troy was talking himself into tears, so Jeff spared him the embarrassment. “Normally that’d be hilarious, but c’mon, Pierce. Read the room.”
“I tried to take it back!” Pierce exclaimed.
“Sure, you have a change of heart at the very last second,” Troy said. “Could’ve been ANNNYtime between having the idea, packaging it up, driving over here, or handing it to me, but nooo.”
Pierce threw his hands up, and he was almost allowed to try (and probably fail, honestly) to defend himself. Instead,
“COME ON!”
That was Shirley. The others were shocked into silence.
“Enough about the stupid toy! I’m mad at all of you! Britta told me about your little scheme. How all of you made a little ‘agreement’ to not eat my baking!”
Jeff rolled his eyes. “Oh my god. Shirley, you have a baking problem! Now, I didn’t want to be the bad guy, but come on. We’ve tried talking to you about it, but you just keep on doing it.”
“EXCUSE me for being the only married woman in a group full of—of horny toads just sitting around all night making googly eyes at each other!”
Troy gasped. “Googly eyes?” He looked to his right at Jeff, but Jeff just shook his head.
“Shirley, come on.” He reached all the way across the table—having to get out of his seat a little bit—to reach Shirley’s hand, which he put his hand over.
Abed entered the room, saw the tears in Shirley’s eyes and the group’s rapt attention on Jeff, and grinned. “Bring it home, Winger.”
“You don’t need to have a gimmick to be a great addition to the group,” Jeff said, with a smile. “Do you really think we’d only keep you around until you’re not ‘useful’ to us? Shirley, we have Pierce in this group. Now, I know that’s a really, really—really low bar, but bear with me. We like you, Shirley, and we like having you around. So cut it out with the baking, and be a normal friend, okay?”
Jeff sat back, feeling the tension fading and smiles coming from most of the rest of the group. Shirley smiled too, wiping away a tear. Though Annie’s smile never came.
“We’ve been through a lot together, guys,” Jeff continued. “Remember the pen? Remember the City College stormtroopers? Is a pizza party really gonna make much difference in the long run? We have our fun arguing, but c’mon. We all know we’re gonna look back on this night and remember these:” He lifted a slice of pizza in one hand, and his Yahtzee score sheet in the other. “Food and fun with our closest friends. Now, bring it in.”
Troy tried to take him up on that hug. However, when he got a little closer, he hesitated, grinning confusedly. “Haha, uh, Jeff, are you wearing lip gloss?”
The table went silent.
Britta seized Jeff by the chin and turned his head in her direction. “Bubblegum—? Oh my GOD, that’s Annie’s!”
Jeff pushed her hand away. “Look, I can ex—”
“He kissed me while we were in the kitchen,” Annie stated coldly, crossing her arms.
“Whoas” and “seriouslys” and “dudes” came from the rest of the group, and they all waited for Jeff’s defense.
Jeff scoffed. “I kissed you? Don’t pretend it wasn’t mutual.”
Now, the surprise mostly descended into judgment and disbelief.
Surveying the situation, Abed tapped his chin. “Uh-oh.”
Troy didn’t seem to know what kind of frustrated gesture his hands wanted to make. “Bro, at my housewarming party?”
“Are we really going to go through this whole Jeff-and-Annie thing again?” Britta groaned.
“No, we aren’t,” Annie muttered. “Jeff made his feelings on that pretty clear.”
“You know, I thought you were being kinda frosty,” Pierce said, with an approving chuckle.
“Clear?” Jeff said. “You compared me to your DAD. Call me crazy, but that’s a turnoff.”
Britta gagged, while Pierce laughed harder.
“Weird, Annie,” Troy said.
Annie gasped. “I did NOT mean it like that!”
“And yet,” Jeff said with a confident smile and a shrug.
“I thought we were having a moment, Jeff!” Annie shouted. She was giving him Disney eyes, tears included. “I was just—just trying to tell you how much I appreciate when you say you care about me. When you show something resembling vulnerability. And—then you go and insult me for it!”
Dread settled in Jeff’s gut as he felt the room turning against him.
“Not cool, Jeff,” Abed said.
Jeff needed time to compose. “Look—let’s all just take a deep breath. Okay? In…” He took in a deep breath, and the others followed suit, including Annie. “…Out.” Big exhale. “Yes, that happened. Yes, it’s another reason for the tension at this table. Troy and Pierce, Britta and Shirley, and now me and Annie. Okay. Great. We’ve aired everything out. But again, this isn’t going to be a big deal in the long run.”
Annie scoffed, but he ignored her.
“We’ve known each other for over two years! Remember…” Due to these specific circumstances, his mind went to a particular hurdle their friendship had had to overcome in the past. He had to laugh a little at the memory. “Yeah. We’ll be fine. I know this can’t be worse than the time Annie punched me in the face for kissing her after sleeping with Britta.”
Oho, that was not the right choice of words in this situation.
Troy had to stand up and begin pacing, hiding his face in his hands. “Why. Why would you bring that up.”
Jeff laughed nervously as he realized how much worse it sounded out of his head. “Okay, bad example—”
“No,” Annie said, “no, that’s a GREAT example! In fact, that’s a classic! Classic Winger, playing with my heart!”
“Don’t be so melodramatic.”
“I’M NOT!” Annie stood up too. “Are you really that horny, Jeff? Do you really just kiss me when you feel like it and not care at all about what happens afterward?” She put her hand over her heart. “I wasn’t just thinking about that moment when we were kissing earlier. I was thinking about the next moments, too. I was thinking, ‘What’s after this?’ ‘Does this mean something this time?’ ‘This won’t be—won’t be like the Transfer Dance, right?’” She put her hands on her hips, disdain in her eyes. “…I don’t know why I expected anything from Jeff Winger.”
Britta giggled. Her eyes weren’t quite focusing, but she was clearly enjoying this. “Classic Winger, playing with hearts. Y’know, you were the one to tell us not to enable Shirley’s baking. Actually, weren’t you the one who told us it was a problem in the first place? Do you just not like her food?”
Shirley’s expression turned to ice. “What.”
Pierce laughed heartily. “Ohoho, and you were just saying you don’t like being the bad guy, Jeff. Maybe you bring it on yourself.”
Jeff tensed. “No. No, I’m not the bad guy again.”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot this is the same dude that ran screaming into the study room with a fire axe in his hands a couple weeks ago,” Troy said.
“You godless, smarmy creep,” Shirley snarled. She grabbed her purse and stood up, intending to leave.
“No, hold on,” Annie said, halting Shirley with a gesture. “If someone’s going to leave, why would it be you, Shirley?”
Annie crossed her arms. Everyone stared at Jeff, eyes boring holes.
Hold on…
Jeff was at a loss for words, his eyes turning down.
…Am I actually the bad guy?
He stared at his hands.
‘I’m going to have to ask that you stop being my friend.’
“…Yeah,” Jeff murmured. “Yeah, I should go.”
While Jeff pushed his chair away from the table, then stood, then grabbed his coat, then went to the door, and then finally walked out, not a sound came from the rest of the study group.
Until, when the door clicked behind Jeff, Annie rubbed her hands together and said, “Alright, Britta. It’s party time. Hit it!”
“You got it!” Britta went to her iPod and started ‘Roxanne’ from the top.
The group was dancing in no time, merriment despite Britta’s truly atrocious singing. As if the whole incident was forgotten.
Sure enough.
Soon, while the others were still enjoying themselves, Troy tugged at Annie’s sleeve and pulled her aside into the kitchen. In a low voice, “I feel kinda bad.”
“About Jeff?” Annie said, with a smile. “He’ll be fine, Troy. Sometimes his ego just really needs to be taken down a peg. But, if…” She took a breath. “If this doesn’t just roll off his back like it always does, then we’ll make up when we see him on Monday. I mean, we determined last year that we’re some kind of unbreakable supergroup, right?”
Troy stared her in the eye. “…And you’re really alright? I mean… Y’all kissed.”
Annie waved it away, her smile getting a little more forced. “Y-Yeah. It’s really no big deal.” She looked away from him. “With Jeff, it never is.”
“Okay. I’m trusting you on this one.”
“Thanks, Troy.” She clapped once, smile returning. How forced it was was a question Annie probably couldn’t have answered herself. “Now! Let’s get back to the party!”
.
Cafeteria – Next Tuesday
“What the hell…? We all assumed you were sick.” When Jeff didn’t immediately look up from what was left of his lunch, Britta kicked him in the foot, which did the trick. “Well? Explain yourself, Winger.”
“What’s there to explain?” he said. “I dropped Biology.”
“Wow, even after all that trouble you went through to get into it?”
“Especially after that.” Jeff shrugged. “I don’t have any classes in common with you guys anymore, so no need to study together.”
He flashed her a cheeky Jeff smirk, which really dug under Britta’s skin. “I swear, if this ends with you coming at the table with an axe again…”
“Hey, don’t give me any ideas.” He stood up with his empty food tray in hand.
Britta rolled her eyes. “Hold up, Jeff.” She stopped him with a palm on his chest. “Is this about the Annie thing this weekend?”
“I’m surprised you even remember it. You were still stoned by the time I left.”
Britta absently twirled a curl of hair around her finger. “…I mayyy have a slightly foggier recollection than most, but I still remember the high points, probably.” She shook her head. “Annie feels like she made you mad.”
“Hahah, mad? No, definitely not. No worries there.”
Jeff tried to walk off again, and Britta’s hand stopped him again. “Jeff.”
“What?”
She looked him in the eye. “Why’d you drop Bio, man. For real.”
“Because I thought it’d be best if I left the study group.” He tilted his head, kind of teasingly. “For real.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Because. A few weeks ago I get kicked out, and this weekend it happens again. And a couple weeks from now, I bet it’ll happen a third time. And…” He finally broke eye contact. “And I’d rather get ahead of the ball, this time.”
He gently pushed her hand down, and this time she didn’t stop him from walking away.
…
Group Study Room F – August 2013
Present day
Shirley blinked. “Two hundred dollars? My goodness, that’s so… realistic, for once.”
“Suspiciously realistic,” Abed said. “A prize that is desirable, but not worth us going Mad Max on each other. Strangely disappointing.” He glanced around the study room, still littered with hordes of unpacked boxes laying in stacks. “Maybe it’s all that’s left of the school’s budget, now.”
Annie had been beaming from ear to ear ever since she walked in. “Frankly, I’m happy this paintball game will be so low stakes,” she chirped. “I’m looking forward to some friendly competition for a change.” She cheerfully tapped Shirley’s arm with her fist. “Should be a great teambuilding exercise, guys!”
“I dunno if I wanna participate,” Troy said, frowning. “I know if me or Abed wins, you’ll just have us put the prize towards rent instead of something fun.”
Annie gasped, offended. “And knocking two hundred bucks off of that doesn’t excite you?! We still get to save two hundred dollars that would’ve gone to rent!”
“It’s just not the same as blowing it all on something dumb!” Troy cried, and he pouted and buried his head in his arms.
“Okay, what about this?” Annie said, eagerness returning. “If we win, we split the prize four ways. Fifty bucks each, that we can all spend however we want. Mine will go to rent, but yours is allowed to be dumb.”
Shirley smiled and nodded, but Abed and Troy still seemed unenthusiastic.
“Come on, guys! Even if we don’t win, aren’t these paintball games always a lot of fun?”
“Could there be another reason you’re trying to push us so hard to enter?” Abed asked.
Annie scoffed. “L-Like what?”
Abed showed his phone to the group. “Jeff asked me if I’m entering.”
“Oh,” Annie said in an unnaturally high-pitched voice, “he’s back this semester?”
“Yes, he said so yesterday at the hospital, you compared schedules and saw you were both taking Criminology together, you said “Oh, that’s—that’s nice!”, then he had to leave.”
Annie played with her hair. His a-little-too-excited impression of her wasn’t inaccurate. Even nailed the stutter.
Grinning widely, Troy leaned over to get a look at Abed’s phone. “Is Jeff entering?!”
“Yep.” Abed angled his phone so Troy could see the text.
playing paintball later. u?
“Did you text him back yes?!”
“No. You can see the whole text history.”
“Iiiiit was rhetorical.”
“I don’t think it was.”
“Well we’re definitely entering!” Then, suddenly pokerfaced, Troy looked up at Annie. “It’s still cool if we do, right Annie?”
“Um, yeah! Sure.” Annie shrugged with forced nonchalance. “I guess it’s still okay.”
Shirley eyed her suspiciously. “Just okay, huh.”
Annie turned to her nearest friend. “What about you, Shirley?” Annie bubbled. “Are you going to enter?”
“I wasn’t sure, but now I feel like it’s my responsibility to,” Shirley muttered.
Shirley’s gaze was too sharp for Annie to meet without feeling like her very soul was being pierced, so she had to break eye contact. “W-Well, great! We should meet up here at three o’ clock.” She gathered her books and stood up. “See you soon!”
.
First class of the day was Criminology, because it just had to be. Annie was more distracted than usual for a first day—albeit not enough to stop her from pestering her professor about the syllabus; eventually he started groaning whenever she’d raise her hand, at one point imitating her delivery of “Professor Hickey! Professor Hickey!” to laughter from the rest of the class—as she couldn’t help but sneak furtive glances across the room. Jeff sat by the far window, texting God knows who and leaving his notebook closed. Honestly, how was he supposed to keep track of exam dates and grade percentages if he wasn’t even writing any of this down? She knew he wouldn’t look at the online syllabus until the final was coming up and he needed to calculate what he had to do in order to pass. Sheesh, Criminology wasn’t some blowoff class, even if it seemed like the professor didn’t really want to be here either. If Jeff didn’t get his act straight, by midterms he’d—
Annie took an impatient breath. Some things never change.
Yeah, this year was going to be normal. She was going to have some fun with her friends at a (for once) normal paintball game, and then the year was going to go on as normal. For better or worse.
…And all of that would’ve been an admirable assessment of the situation, if the prize hadn’t changed.