Annie smoothed her hair and ran her hands down her costume. Admittedly, she was a bit nervous to see the reactions of her study group, but it was set in her mind and she was already here and already dressed.
Walking was a little more difficult than she had hoped, these were Britta's shoes after all, and the highest ones she'd ever walked in. She saw Troy and Abed looking jungle-esc draped in vines, jumping around the table and Annie's Boobs sitting on the table, tied to the leg. Jeff was lounging in his chair in a suit, Shirley was stuffed into her chair with what appeared to be a sheep attached to her and Pierce was dressed as a hippie in strangely, the most clear and understandable costume of the bunch.
"Woah."
"Oh, Annie!" Shirley's high pitched exclamation turned judgemental voice trailed off.
She felt all eyes on her for a moment too long but she took a deep breath and gave a cheery smile.
"Am I late?" She smiled, heading over to her spot.
"What are you wearing?" Jeff asked, looking gravely concerned.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm Sour Patch Kids … I thought it was pretty obvious," She motioned to her skin tight strapless green dress that looked exactly like a packet of the delicious candy. It was as short as her regular skirts but with heels on, even she thought it looked shorter. "What are you supposed to be?"
"I'm David Beckham," He spluttered, "Troy, where's my ball?"
"Annie's Boobs is playing with it," He said innocently and they looked over at the monkey who was now rolling around on the floor with a soccer ball. Jeff rolled his eyes, Annie saw, and looked very taken off guard.
"Weren't you David Beckham two years ago?" Annie asked, sitting down slowly and on an angle.
"Yeah, for the Halloween nobody can remember. This is my last Halloween here, I can't deprive everyone of this," He lazily gestured to his upper body. Annie had to admit, he looked really good in a suit.
"What are you, Shirley? A … sheep?"
"A shepherd." Shirley corrected with a strained smile. "An-nie, isn't that "costume" a bit revealing?"
Jeff said nothing, and raised his eyebrows at her.
But Annie was prepared, she forced a smile even though she was herself beginning to wonder why this had seemed like such a good idea.
"You look great, Annie, you really do. With your face ... and stuff," Troy said, sitting down with the monkey on his knee, trying to get it to sit on his shoulder. "But what will Britta say?" He whispered.
"Oh, I don't think she'll mind." Annie smiled. "What are you two?"
"Mowgli, from the 1967 film version of The Jungle Book and I'm Lara Croft." Abed answered immediately. "We were going to be Thing One and Thing Two from Dr. Seuss' classic Cat and the Hat, but turns out Garrett is already Thing Two and we haven't spotted a Thing One anywhere yet."
"Can't have the same pair costume as another pair. It's just tacky." Troy explained and Abed nodded firmly. "So this is last minute 'jungle theme'," Troy explained. "Not bad for ten minutes at the drama department."
"And you'll get you a lot more girls by being shirtless with a monkey, than in a red onsie, Troy." Pierce nodded approvingly. "You and Annie have the right idea, this is what Halloween is all about. Aren't you going to ask what I am, Annie?"
"A hippy?"
Pierce wrinkled his face, "I'm a younger version of myself."
"So, a hippy." Jeff snapped.
"Annie, I'm sure Britta will mind." Shirley turned to her, "She does have an excellent point about strong women, even if her own clothing doesn't always make that clear. She has a point of view, at least, she hates when girls use Halloween as an excuse to dress all skimpy."
"I'm sure she won't mind." Britta said and everyone turned to the door behind Jeff where she stood wearing an identical costume to Annie's, only instead of a bright green strapless, skin tight dress, she was wearing a bright pink one with a Swedish Berries logo. Looking mighty proud of herself for the entrance, she stood with one hand on her hip.
"Oh my god," Jeff rolled his eyes, "Did you talk her into this?" He asked, annoyed.
"No!" Britta walked to her seat but didn't sit. "Annie talked me into it." All eyes were on Annie once again, but Britta did the talking. "What's more empowering than a woman taking control of her own sexuality?" – Shirley winced – "Nothing. Why shouldn't we be able to show as much or as little of our bodies as we like? Men are stupid enough to let themselves be controlled and manipulated by a little skin."
"A little?" Jeff chortled.
"Men are gross and yes, if we let them, they would buy us drinks—"
"It's free punch,"
"—and do whatever we asked them to. But we won't. We are going to enjoy ourselves and pay no attention to the skeezy guys who will try and make moves on us. They need to learn that we have all the power—"
"We already know that," Jeff sighed. "I fail to see how becoming the wet dream slash right hand of every guy who looks at you is empowering."
Annie gulped. She hadn't considered that. She hadn't realized … surely guys wouldn't think about her when they did that. It was a little to real and private for her to be comfortable thinking about.
"Who cares? We can't control other peoples' thoughts—"
"I do it all the time," said Jeff. "Didn't you see Inception?"
Troy's eyes widened and he became attentive, like his brain was working via his fingers which were moving and his eyes which were darting around lost in thought.
"Oh my gosh."Annie said quietly. "Jeff's right. The only thing we control is our thoughts!"
"Annie, he just doesn't want you to wear it because he doesn't want any other guy looking at you." Britta said dismissively.
Jeff glared at Britta, "Not true." Then he turned to Annie, "Guys look at you all the time."
She rolled her eyes. Lost in thought, she wondered if this was really such a good idea. She liked the idea of being a little more comfortable with herself, which she was. She was wearing this dress in public, after all. She was more confident all around lately, and more secure. But she didn't need to prove that to anyone. She bit her lip, trying to remember why she thought this was 'empowering' … because she was choosing to do it. She was allowed to. If she wanted to wear it, she had every right to. She just wasn't sure she wanted to anymore.
Britta and Jeff continued to argue while Troy was silently thinking hard, Abed watched intensely, Shirley clutched her necklace and scrunched her face and Pierce sat with a dopey grin.
Troy sighed sadly, "I still don't get Inception. Something to do with thinking ..."
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"All I'm saying, is that if you're both comfortable inviting all sorts of dirty fantasies about yourself into the minds and hands of every guy on campus—"
"Every guy?" Annie interrupted.
Jeff looked caught for just a moment, but coolly passed it over. "Well not me. Or any of us here. Because we're you're friends—"
"Oh please! Like you don't already," Britta said loudly. "Annie told me how she turned you to the dark side last Christmas."
"Britta!" Annie stood up, blushing and not looking at Jeff's equally embarrassed face. "This was a bad idea. I'm going to find a costume from the drama department, I'll be back in a few minutes."
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"Jeff! People have the right to think whatever they want about me. I really don't care. If they think of me while doing that, then they're thinking of a strong, woman and that is fine with me." Britta said finally, crossing her arms and sitting down.
Jeff rolled his eyes. He couldn't deny Britta was strong, or that women had all the power, or that the only reason he was arguing was because he didn't want perverts looking at Annie in next to nothing. He counted himself as one of those perverts. He didn't want to see her like that. Well … he did, but - 'Ugh,' he thought, 'Britta's the worst.'
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Not sure how I feel about the last bit. Please tell me what you think, it would make my day :)
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I DO like Britta! She's not the worst! (I actually think there is a conspiracy to make a character who cares about the environment/humanity/is against big corporations (i.e. NBC) seem annoying and like it's great to gang up on her... but anyway)