There's Only One Girl In the World For You (43b/?)
Title: There’s only one girl in the world for you (43b/?)
Author: lapacifidora
Spoilers: Season 1 and into an AU Season 2
Rating/ Warnings: R for language for this section only
Word Count: 774 (3,659 total)
Disclaimers: Not mine. Although I think Dan Harmon knows this friend of mine and based Troy on her… The title comes from a Wreckless Eric song.
Author’s note: This is for shan21non ’s Ficcy Friday prompt for Greendale’s inaugural study abroad program. Wow: Riot shields are cozier than I thought.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 a/ b | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 a/ b | Chapter 21 a/ b | Five Times… | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 a/ b | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 a/ b | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 a/ b | Chapter 35 | Chapter 36 a/ b | Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 a/ b | Chapter 40 | Chapter 41 | Chapter 42 a/ b | Chapter43a |
***
Annie’s words hit Jeff like a punch to the gut. His mouth worked silently for a minute, but he found he had no response. He slowly sat in a chair at the table and stared across at the top of Annie’s head.
“May I have my books, please?” Annie’s question drew him out of his thoughts, and Jeff’s eyes met hers, blinking when instead of her Disney princess face, he saw the face of someone he didn’t know: Annie’s eyes were expressionless and her mouth was drawn in a thin line. He opened his mouth to say something - he wasn’t sure what - when there was a knock at the door to the study room. Two pairs of eyes snapped to the door before exchanging confused looks. The knock came again, an intermittent series of raps. Annie began to stand, but Jeff waved her back into her seat and crossed to the door. He stared at the door for a moment before rapping out an answering knock.
When the response came swiftly, he pushed aside the chair and toed aside the cushion, opening the door to reveal Abed, with Britta, Shirley, Troy and Whitman behind him.
“Jeff.”
“Abed.” Jeff stepped aside to let their friends into the room. “Where’s Pierce?”
“We couldn’t find him.” Shirley said plaintively as she looked curiously between Jeff and Annie, noticing that they were avoiding each other’s eyes.
“Jeff Winger, you magnificent son of a bitch.” Troy stepped forward and wrapped Jeff in a brief hug before crossing to the table. “Annie. I’ve got a question for you: What do the French-Canadians call themselves?”
“French-Canadian?”
“Aha!” Troy turned to Whitman. “You were wrong. It’s not that weird word you said.”
“Quebecois?” Whitman said wearily. “No, Mr. Barnes, I said the residents of Quebec call themselves ‘Quebecois.’ I’d assume French-Canadians living in other parts of the country simply call themselves ‘French-Canadian.’”
“Oh.” Troy looked disappointed and dropped into a chair next to Annie, drumming his fingers against his notebook. He looked up at Jeff. “By the way: I found you. Again.”
“It’s true.” Abed said from where he’d settled into a chair opposite Troy. “Troy appears to have some innate talent for tracking, like Kate from ‘Lost’ or Woody from ‘Toy Story.’”
“Man, I love that movie!” Troy said, a huge grin on his face.
“What happened to you guys?” Jeff said as he sat down next to Abed, glancing at Annie from the corner of his eye and watching her doodle in her notebook.
“When Britta, Troy and Shirley were separated from the pack-”
“Pack? What are you saying?” Shirley made to stand from her seat on the couch. “Is it because I’m Black?”
“I was using the term ‘pack’ in the sense that we, like a group of social-hunters, are a family.” Abed said, and Jeff squinted and looked at the younger man askance: He wasn’t sure if Abed was being sarcastic or not.
“Oh.” Shirley thought for a moment. “That’s nice.”
“As I was saying, once they were separated, they made their way two klicks to the south and then proceeded in a southeasterly bearing toward the library while using due caution.”
“So, they hid in between running toward the library.” Jeff stated.
“It sounds cooler when he says it.” Britta said from where she had her head propped on one fist.
“What happened to you and the Professor?” Annie spoke for the first time, her voice sounding remarkably normal.
“I think Hannibal here tells it better.” Abed deferred to Whitman.
“Ah, yes.” Whitman nodded. “I suggested Mr. Nadir and I hide beneath the circulation desk.”
“But there were Seekers closing in on us from all sides, hungry for our blood, our flesh, our souls.” Abed added. Whitman looked at him in confusion.
“Ye-es. Quite. Well, we heard a noise and saw that Misses Bennett and Perry and Mr. Barnes had made their way to the library and were hiding in the periodicals section.”
“Timely choice.” Annie said.
“Tell me about it.” Britta added, a sly smile on her face.
“The seekers were trying to sneak up on our friends from behind, so-”
“He laid them out flat! Like, with a Vulcan death grip or something!” Troy interrupted, unable to contain his excitement. He turned to Whitman. “Dude. You are Bad. Ass.”
“Thank you, Mr. Barnes.” Whitman nodded and withdrew a box of Altoids from his briefcase, which he had somehow managed to keep track of since the start of the game. The group was silent for a moment. Abed looked from Annie to Jeff and back again and leaned over to Jeff.
“Something’s different.”
“Drop it.”
***