Like any other day at Greendale, students loitered in the hallways, skipped classes, wandered from building to building, and all was relatively calm. It was nearly time for the study group to meet up, and as each member made their way to the library's study room, none of them thought much of it. It was just a regular day, after all.

Troy rushed into the study room a couple minutes before the hour, immediately capturing the attention of Annie, Britta, and Shirley, who had gathered there early to gossip a bit. They had their books out like they were pretending to study just in case, but Troy didn't seem to notice either way.

"Annie, do you have your laptop with you?" Troy asked breathlessly.

"Um, yeah, of course I do," Annie replied, carefully taking it out of her bag. "What's up?"

"I need to show you guys something…" Troy quickly found what he was looking for and stepped back when a picture of a dress appeared on the screen. "I have been staring at this picture ever since it showed up on the internet a few hours ago… and it changes colors! I mean, please tell me it changes colors and I'm not crazy…"

"What colors are you seeing?" Annie asked. Britta looked on, intrigued, while Shirley turned away to straighten her stack of books, laughing to herself at how silly this all seemed.

"It mostly looks white and gold, but—"

"Wait, what?" Annie scrunched up her nose as she took a harder look at the picture. "It looks blue and black to me."

"Hey guys, what's—" Jeff walked into the study room and stopped abruptly as soon as he saw everyone huddled together. They looked up at Jeff stiffly for a second before looking back down at Annie's laptop screen. "What are you doing?" He asked, walking to the table and dropping his books down at his usual spot. "Is Annie finally sharing her practice test answers with you? If so, why exclude me? That's harsh…"

Annie scoffed at Jeff's pretending to sound hurt and she opened her mouth to speak, but Troy interrupted, "No, it's more important than that! You gotta see this!"

Pierce walked in just as Jeff was leaning over to look at the laptop screen. He scrutinized it for a minute, wondering why everyone was so tense about the image he found himself staring at, unless there was something more to it.

"You're looking at a picture… of a dress…" Jeff stated. At this point in their friendship, he wasn't surprised with anything the other study group members did; he was more dumbfounded than anything else. "It's an ugly dress by the way."

"That's not the point, Jeff!" Annie exclaimed. "Troy says it's white and gold and I—"

"Well it is. Isn't it?"

"A dress? Let me see that," Pierce said, slowly making his way over to where he could finally get a glimpse at what had the group so fired up. He pushed his glasses up, then took them off, then put them back on again and smiled knowingly. "Oh I know all about that dress. You know, I once had sex with a woman wearing a dress exactly like that one. Nice white and gold number… I think…"

"Ew, Pierce!" Annie stood up and backed away from the table and the rest of the group, aware that she was up against a wall. "That's disgusting, and that's not a white and gold dress!"

Jeff looked at Annie in confusion and the rest of the group followed suit. "Well, what do you think it looks like, Annie?"

"It's clearly blue and black," Annie said, crossing her arms. Jeff stood up and backed away dramatically, narrowing his eyes in disbelief.

"No way… Annie, out of everyone here I would've thought you… it's… it's white and gold…!"

"No it isn't! Look!" Annie lifted up the laptop and pointed the screen in his direction.

"It's white and gold," he said again, more confidently this time.

"I'm with you, Jeff," Pierce said, grabbing him by the shoulder as Jeff crept to the other side of the room with him in tow.

"Gee, thanks, Pierce."

Britta stood up next, watching as the rest of the group started to take sides, standing on either end of the room. She was indecisive about it because she had snuck a peek at bothvariations of the picture in question before Troy showed up and didn't have the heart to tell anyone the truth. This gave her the perfect opportunity to oppose Jeff, however, and with that she made her decision, standing firmly beside Annie.

"I'm with Annie on this one. Blue and black. It's so obvious! And you can't single her out just because she's speaking up against you. Actually, you know what? This is ridiculous, there are people dying in the Middle East and you want us to pick sides over the color of a dress?"

"Oh, nobody cares, Britta," Jeff rolled his eyes and both Pierce and Troy agreed, talking over each other. Jeff sighed and looked down at Shirley, who was still in her seat, trying to mind her own business. "Shirley, we haven't heard what you think yet. Is it white and gold or blue and black?"

"Oh goodness, thank you for being interested in my opinion but I don't think I want to be involved in this particular argument," Shirley said in her too-nice, high pitched voice.

"Come on, just look at it. If you don't feel strongly about it, you can sit this one out."

"Okay, okay, I guess I'll take a look. I'm sure it's just…" Shirley turned the laptop in her direction and stared at the screen for a good five seconds before she spoke again. "Hmm, that dress is most definitely blue and black."

That caused everyone in the group to begin bickering louder, with Jeff, Pierce, and Troy defending the white/gold combination while Annie, Britta, and Shirley argued for blue/black.

"This looks like a battle of the sexes," Abed said, entering the room. "What's going on?"

"Really, Abed?" Pierce asked, stressing the "a" sound like usual. "Out of everyone in this room you'd think the guy who makes movie references all the time would know about this."

Abed tilted his head in response and Shirley spoke up. "Well, Abed, you see… a few hours ago someone on the… internet posted a picture of a dress and…" Her voice lowered in pitch as she finished, "the dress is blue and black."

"Come on, Shirley, it is not!" Jeff shouted. Abed looked at the guys of the group and studied each of their expressions.

"What colors do you see, Jeff?"

"White and gold."

"Abed, c'mere!" Annie said, waving her free hand. Abed turned around and walked towards her. She had the laptop balanced in her other hand and when he stood next to her, she tilted it towards him so that he could see what was on the screen. "This is the dress. What color combination do you think it is?"

Abed didn't speak. He could feel the tension in the air and he could feel everyone's eyes on him, as if his choice would decide the fate of the world. It was like the climax of a film and he was the hero. Well, he would've been the hero if he could pick a side. Abed continued to stare, not blinking as he tried to come to a decision, but it was futile.

He saw light blue and dark green.

"I don't think I should say…" Abed said, walking away from Annie and her laptop. "It looks like my vote would be the deciding factor, and I'm not sure I'm ready to take on that responsibility."

"But Abed, we need you to pick a side—!"

"Goooood afternoon! How's my favorite study group?" Dean Pelton sauntered into the room, wearing a dress that looked very similar to the one the group was fighting over. This dress, however, was red and green. Everyone fell silent as they stared in disbelief at the Dean's oddly coincidental fashion choice.

"What. The hell. Are you wearing," Jeff said through his teeth, stressing every syllable as if it took every amount of control he had to keep himself from exploding.

"It's a new dress, Jeffrey! Do you like it? Well, I guess it's more like a prop… for this year's Christmas festivities! I have to plan these things early, you know." Dean Pelton paused for a moment, finally noticing the divide between the study group. "Is everything okay in here?"

"You mean… you don't know?" Shirley asked timidly. Dean Pelton narrowed his eyes as he processed Shirley's question, racking his brain for an answer.

"Aha, I get it! This a new type of studying thing you're doing, isn't it? Like… role playing? Or debating…?"

"We're not role playing!" Jeff cut in and Dean Pelton was taken aback. "This is serious, and if you don't know about what's going on then you shouldn't be here!"

"Ouch, Jeffrey, that was harsh. Okay then." Dean Pelton looked at each member of the study group, shrugging. They must be sleep deprived or something, he thought."Well… enjoy the rest of your day! As for me, I have some wigs to try on."

Dean Pelton turned and left the room, leaving the members of the study group to stare at each other in disbelief.

"So he really doesn't know?" Annie ventured to ask, looking at Britta.

"Maybe he's better off that way," Britta suggested. The group stood still for a few seconds longer before slowly moving back to their seats, still stupefied by the whole ordeal. Collectively they began to wonder if perhaps they were losing their minds.

"I think we would be better off pretending that this never happened," Jeff said, opening his textbook. "No dress is worth losing friendships over." The rest of the group hummed in agreement and Annie closed her laptop, removing the picture of the dress from their sight.