A Brief History of Love and Literature
Chapter 1: First Day of School
Pens and Pencils: Check
Power Point: check
Syllabuses placed on each desk: Check
IPad fully charged: check
Can do attitude: double check
Annie beamed down at her checklist as the first bell rang and the first students started coming in. It was the first day of school and first official day as Ms. Edison, the brand new 11th grade English teacher. She had chosen to wear a floral skirt and her signature yellow cardigan and so far she hadn't regretted the decision.
She had always wanted to be a teacher and fresh out of college she had landed a job at Greendale High School. Her college roommate Abed Nadir had recommended her to the Dean, I mean technically he was the principal but he preferred to be called the Dean. Her passion was English and she was so excited to be following her dreams.
A few moments later she sat at her stool in front of the white board, she was glancing over her lecture notes again just to be safe. When the final bell rang and all of the students were seated, Annie smiled at them and stood up from her stool. But before she could get the slightest word out the door jarred opened and a man swiftly came in. He threw his bag on Annie's desk without giving her any attention. "First things first," he said, "I'm not going to learn names, secondly everything you need to know about this class is located in the syllabus."
"Um, excuse me…" Annie remarked.
The intruder turned to look at her, "Listen here Disney eyes,"
"I think you're in the wrong room." She interrupted.
The guy laughed, "and what makes you think that?"
"Because this is my classroom, this is where I teach." Almost immediately the intruder started laughing, "You're a teacher? I didn't now they were hiring the students to teach at this dump." He flashed a charming grin at her, "and I'm sorry but you're sorely mistaken, this has been my classroom for the last four years I've taught at this toilet of a school."
Annie was seriously getting annoyed at this point; she could feel herself erasing at least one of the check marks on her, 'can do attitude' box. "I'm sorry Mr.?"
"Winger, Jeff Winger as in the same Jeff Winger who has occupied this space for the past four years."
"Yes well Mr. Winger, the Dean told me that this was my classroom."
The trespasser, now known as Mr. Winger, raised his eyebrow, "Well I guess we'll have to take this issue up with him."
Annie turned to her class with a smile, "Just read over the syllabus that I've placed on your desk and make small talk." When she turned back to Mr. Winger she glared at him. Seriously, how dare he come in and ruin her first day of school?
Promptly and with utter annoyance at one another Ms. Edison and Mr. Winger marched down to the Dean's office, "Craig what the hell is this?" Jeff barked at the Dean.
"Oh," Craig exclaimed, "Jeffery I see you've met our new English teacher Ms. Edison."
"Yeah I have," Mr. Winger said sternly as if he was not talking to his boss. Annie could never imagine talking to the Dean that way. "What the hell is she doing in my classroom?"
Craig rolled his eyes, "I sent you over five emails telling you that your classroom had been reassigned and you were moved across the hall. You would know that if you had attended the summer workshops or the required teacher workdays this week,"
"What can I say, I had better things to do than spend my time here in this craphole."
"Dean," Annie began, "Could you just please tell Mr. Winger that the classroom is now mine. His arrogance is causing me to miss my class."
"My arrogance? You're the one stealing my classroom!"
"I am not stealing anything!"
"Uh I beg to differ."
"Everyone please CALM DOWN!" Craig shouted over them, "Jeff I'm sorry but you're just going to have to move across the hall." Jeff opened his mouth to counter but the Dean held his hand up, "Don't you have a class you should be teaching."
"Whatever," Jeff sighed as he left the room. Annie followed him a few paces behind with a triumphant grin plastered on her face. It was an awkward walk back to their respective classroom and they shared a glare before closing the doors behind them.
"Wow Ms. Edison," a girl named Vicki said, "You won an argument against Mr. Winger."
"What's the big deal about that?" Annie asked.
"He's never lost a case!" Vicki said as if that was common knowledge.
"Case?"
"He was once a lawyer up in Denver but something happened and now he teaches here. If you ever want to get him off topic you ask him about being a lawyer. Most of the time he gets on that tangent himself when he announces he's never lost a case."
"Oh," Annie nodded.
"Plus," another girl named Quendra said, "He's kinda cute."
"Gross!" Annie exclaimed, "Get back to your work girls." They were supposed to be reading the first Act of Hamlet but some of the girl's in Annie's class had gotten off topic.
In the other classroom Jeff was letting the class read over their own syllabus and then enjoy some quality free time. He was sitting with his feet propped up on the desk when Miss. Perry walked in. She immediately rolled her eyes, "You plan on teaching this year Winger?"
"I was hoping that since I'm teaching the 11th grade this year instead of 10th grader that they would be smart enough to teach themselves."
"Well here's the academic calendar for the whole semester," Ms. Perry slammed a binder on his desk, "Good news you're the head of the history department this year so you get to document and plan all of the faculty meetings for the year." She smiled when Jeff glared at her, "I did not sign up for this." Jeff said.
"I know, we all voted for you to do it."
"Without even taking my word in!?"
"Well we kept emailing you all summer and you never responded so we just decided since you were being such a douche bag that we could just dump all of the busy work on you."
"This is anarchy." Jeff proclaimed. "I'm talking to the Dean about this."
"You've already lost one argument with him today, do you really want to lose another one? Could really tarnish that so called perfect record you boast about."
Jeff shut the binder, "How do you know about that," That new girl wouldn't rat him out to everyone, would she?
"Leonard from the health department overheard the whole thing and sent out an email to everyone."
"Damnit Leonard." Jeff said slamming the calendar down in front of him. When he looked back up Britta was grinning. "What the hell are you so happy about?"
"I don't know I'm pretty excited to meet this new chick if she gets you riled up this much."
Jeff stood up, "She is not getting me riled up. She is an annoying little girl who whines when she doesn't get her way."
"Ummm…. Aren't you whining right now for not getting your way?"
"Get out!" Jeff barked. Britta shrugged and rolled her cart out of his classroom. Jeff sat at his desk and came to the conclusion that the only way to get his way again was to show newbie the Jeff Winger charm.
Annie was making copies in the teachers lounge with Shirley when she asked, "So Annie, how has your first day been so far?"
"It's been great!" Annie exclaimed, "But there was this jerk who interrupted my first period this morning." Just then Britta Perry came bursting in the lounge with her over loaded cart.
"Hey! You must be the new chick that bested Winger this morning." She laughed.
"What?" Shirley asked.
Britta laughed, "Winger's got his panties in a wad because the Dean gave away his classroom."
"I don't get it… What's so special about it?"
Britta shrugged, "I don't know, he's weird about it though. Hey but don't let that jerk Jeff Winger boss you around."
"Brit-ta!" Shirley scolded, "Don't talk about Jeffery like that, sure he might be hard to get along with sometimes but deep down he's a real gentleman."
"Shirley there is no deep down with that guy."
"That sounds like him, he accused me of stealing his classroom. He made me go all the way down to the Dean's office in order to sort everything out."
"And how did that end?" Shirley asked. "You know the Dean has a soft spot for Jeffery."
"And by soft spot you mean big fat crush."
"He kind of just told Jeff to… deal with it." Shirley raised her eyebrows, "What? Is it that unusual for Mr. Winger to not get his way?"
"Uh lets just say that it's not unusual for Jeff to get his way around here." Shirley put delicately.
"and by that she means he gets his way all the fuckin time."
"Oh," Annie said pulling her last stack of paper out of the copier. "Yeah Winger charms everyone around here to do his bidding." Britta snarled.
"Now hold on Britta, I remember not too long ago he seemed pretty good at charming you all around Greendale."
"That was YEARS ago, I've learned better." Both Shirley and Annie backed off once Britta had firmly defended her self. "Well hello ladies," the three women turned to the door and saw Jeff Winger leaning against the doorframe.
Britta and Annie simultaneously rolled their eyes and pretended to be productive, "Oh hello Jeffery, we were just talking about you." Shirley chirped.
"Were you?" Jeff smirked as he leaned off of the doorframe and walked over to where Annie was standing. He stood behind her, his chest practically touching her back, "Annie," he said, "I'm sorry for that horrible first impression I made earlier this morning. My grand return to this dump is always a stress headache waiting to happen."
She knew he was trying to charm her so she chose not to look him in the eye, "It's perfectly fine Mr. Winger, I completely understand. Not all of us are able to ignore our childish side," She turned around and saw Jeff's eyes gawking wide open at her, "Sometimes we just need to release some steam, isn't that right Mr. Winger?"
Jeff re-examined his strategy and gave her one of his classic Winger smiles, "You know Ms. Edison… I do have a name."
"I'll stick with Mr. Winger for now," She smiled and pushed him away from her, leaving the teacher's lounge with the copies she had made. "Yeah," Britta said, "She doesn't get you riled up at all." That's ok, he thought to himself, he would just have to find a new way to get what he wanted out of Ms. Annie Edison.