A/N: I hope you guys actually like my writing, because there is no chance that I am leaving. Here we go again with my 5th project in the works, which is going to be another Cougar Town fanfic because there are basically none already created and it makes me sad. It is set as a prequel before all of the seasons on DVD, spanning 24 years, and centres around Bobby Cobb, Jules Cobb, and Ellie and Andy Torres going from when they are in their early twenties right up until the early 40s as we see in the DVDs. I might do a sequel with a rewrite of all the seasons, but that's me being ambitious for right now. Travis and Stan will feature, but not Grayson. Laurie will feature, but she won't be added until further in because of the timeline of events. Please bear with me as updates may be slow for this story, but I really will try along with the four others I am trying to write and I will always welcome suggestions for improvements and reviews. I will be alternating the perspectives that the chapters are written from between characters. The story is written in two halves, College and Post College.

Sorry for the ridiculously long author note, but let's continue on to the first chapter:

COLLEGE

Chapter 1 – Jules

"Why are you always just sitting around?" Ellie said to me, sitting on her bed.

"Because I can and it's relaxing," I reply. "Why? Where do you want to go?"

Ellie paused to think. "Go get coffee," she said.

We were in our college dorm. I had met her in my first year being at college, a year ago, as she had been assigned as my roommate. She had got considerably easier to get along with, but even I was still learning her habits because that was how you had to approach any kind of friendship with Ellie. We were best friends at this point, though so I was proud to say that I had clearly been successful.

{A/N: Sorry guys, I forgot to mention this but imagine that Bobby Cobb is played by Brian Van Holt, Jules Cobb as Courteney Cox, Ellie Torres as Christa Miller etc.}

"Sure," I said, even though I knew that I was only really agreeing because I could've done with a coffee myself, and because it was drastically better than staying and being reminded of how selfish of me it was every five seconds.

I grabbed my coat and started walking towards the door, closely followed by Ellie.

"Do you have money with you?" I asked Ellie, whilst looking for my purse in my coat pockets.

"No," she says, as nonchalant as ever. "I just assumed that you did."

I sighed. Typical Ellie. Luckily, I did had a spare $10 note which would be enough for us to get coffee. We walked down the stairs to the entrance to the college accommodation, and outside towards the Starbucks.

When we get to the Starbucks, I am relieved to see that there is no queue. Ellie and I walk through the doors, and walk straight up to counter. The barista at the till gestured towards us to place our order with her.

"Can I have a Tall flat white and," I looked at Ellie.

"And a Grande cappuccino with two expresso shots," Ellie said.

The barista looked a little shocked at the level of caffeine. I was used to it, however, because Ellie seems completely unaffected by caffeine so she needs like buckets of it to be able to function as a slightly less sarcastic and bearable person.

We step back after I pay the bill and order the drinks under my name, Jules, and wait for the coffees.

"Do you have any plans for studying or whatever?" I asked Ellie.

"Do you?" Ellie asked back.

I supressed a groan over how unhelpful that comment was. "Seriously?" I ask Ellie, hoping that my look that I am shooting at her is disapproving. "Is it really the best time to be pissy?"

"In the world of Ellie," she says, "yes, it is." She returns my look with the most insufferably proud look that even I can appreciate the level of talent that it takes to come up of these comments.

"Oh hi! Sorry but your coffees are ready!" the barista says, and I walk towards the serving station at the end of the counter.

I took my coffee cup, and Ellie grabbed hers. We walked out together, and I turned to talk to Ellie.

"Do you now know what you want to do?" I asked Ellie.

"Well, I don't have a social life," Ellie says, "mainly because most people are idiots, so consider me all yours!"

I roll my eyes, and start to walk straight towards the library that was on the college campus. Since the fall midterms were coming up, I was trying to cram in all the revision I could. Ellie was just tagging along because I was the only friend that would bother putting up with her, even though she was majoring in law and had much more work to do than I did.

{A/N: Sorry again to break up the story, however I am sure that you have realised the story is AU, I just wanted to let you know that the story is written in an alternative universe in the form of a prequel to the actual scripted show}

We sat down on a table, and I realised that I had left all my books back in the dorm. I blame Ellie for this, because if I had stopped to pack my bag, she would have definitely moaned at me that I was taking too long and I would have lost the will to live.

"I've gotta go get my textbooks," I tell Ellie.

"Okay then," Ellie replies. "I'll save the seats so no one random will end up bugging us."

"You do that," I say, deciding to take my coffee with me just in case Ellie decides that she needs more caffeine, or it gets unbearably cold. When you are around Ellie Torres, both are equally as likely.

I manage to sprint all the way to the dorm and back in less than ten minutes which I was pretty proud of, but, whilst trying to desperately get my breath back, I was reminded of how painfully unattractive the result looks in the reflection of the nearby glass walls of the library.

"I'm back," I say to Ellie, cringing at how out of breath I still sound.

"I can see that," Ellie said, looking me up and down. "You look like you just ran a marathon!" she added.

"I can't tell whether that's a compliment in admiration of me," I say, "or a comment on my appearance."

Ellie shrugged. "You know that you are one of the only people that I have respect for, so I hope that answers your question."

Oddly, I was relieved by this statement. It was true that it was virtually impossible to be friends with Ellie, and even harder to receive any kind of sentimental comment from her.

"Do you have any plans of actual work to do?" I asked Ellie, as I was setting out my textbooks and notebooks ready to work.

"Why else would I have left the dorm with my bag?" Ellie says.

I roll my eyes. I chose not to say anything, but again I had been too busy trying to please the queen to notice what she was taking with her.

"I'm going to work now," I say. "So I am going to wear headphones," I lean down to grab my headphones from my bag, "to make sure that you don't distract me."

"Oi!"

Ellie hit me on the head, and I looked up from my writing notes.

"What?" I said, annoyed that I had been disturbed.

"Name a time that I have distracted you before," Ellie said, "then I'll let you wear the headphones."

"Well…" I start to think, and try not to make eye contact with Ellie. I can see that she is revelling in my discomfort, especially because she knows how annoyed it makes her. "There was that time…"

"Yes?" Ellie grins at me. "When was it?"

"Ellie…" I start to say, watching her grin become wider.

"Can't think of one?" she says, looking absolutely ecstatic.

"I hate you," I say. "Do you want me to pass my midterms?"

"Yes," Ellie says, "but I want to have as much fun as possible as well."

I sigh. "Not surprised." I lean to try and continue to write my notes.

"You don't look too happy about that," Ellie goads, not even trying to hide her amusement. "Not at all."

I make eye contact with Ellie, and start to talk. "Get out," I say, earning a look from the old woman who happens to be the librarian. I start talking again, this time quieter, and say, "Seriously. I mean it."

"Really?" Ellie says, looking bothered. She turns away from me, and I heard sniffs.

"Ellie…"

I start to feel like I've actually said something that has hurt Ellie. I called her name, and she didn't look up. "You know, I didn't meant that," I started to say, "I actually really love you and you can feel free to stay here because I guess I don't have to start studying quite yet."

"Oh yeah!" Ellie turned back around, triumphantly. "Thank you very much!"

I roll my eyes. "I am not as gullible as you think," I say. "Despite what you may think."

Ellie looked at me again, hard.

I stood up, grabbed all my work and shoved it in my bag. My coffee cup was still marking my place, and so I picked it up. It was empty, and so I walked over to the bin and chucked it away. As I walked away, I made sure to maintain eye contact with Ellie until I was out of sight.

I started to make my way back to the dorms, and thunder up the stairs to the rooms. I took the key from my handbag, and started turning the key in the lock. For some reason the key wouldn't turn in the lock properly because it would get three-quarters of the way around before locking in position. My first instinct was to panic, so I rattled the door and shouted.

"Let me in!"

There was no response. I stopped and thought for a moment. No one else but the woman that the college employs to occasionally change the beds and do some other housework things has access to the room. That leaves one person…

"Son of a bitch!" I yell, and watch as a note emerges from under the door.

I read the note, and attempted to stifle the rapidly building up urge to scream. I looked back through my pockets, and found a random bobby pin. I started to work the end of the bobby pin into the keyhole, and sure enough the door handle relaxed.

I pushed open the door, and walked in. Ellie was sitting triumphantly on her bed. As I was walking to sit on my own bed, I accidentally made eye contact with Ellie and she smiled even harder to the point where I could've sworn she was starting to laugh.

"Did you like it?" She asked me.

"Are you happy now?" I said, starting to actually lose it. "Did you like proving your point about me being gullible and predictable? Did it make your day?" I put emphasis on the last few syllables.

"Oh yeah," Ellie says, smugly. "What?" she looks at me, feeling hurt. "You don't feel the same way?"

I had to look away because I was so angry with Ellie that I was actually laughing at her, and Ellie couldn't see. I was really trying to keep my composure, when Ellie piped up again.

"Jules Kiki Cobb, you're laughing at me," Ellie said. "Admit it, come on."

I turned back round to look directly at Ellie. "You win," I said.

Ellie smiled. "Do you want to know how I did it?"

"Whatever," I said.

"Come over here," Ellie said, and she offered me in a hug.

"I wish someone was here to film this," I said, "because you actually showing some kind of affection is a one-in-a-million occurrence and should be captured."

"Don't push your luck," Ellie said, trying to sound serious whilst still hugging me.

We break apart, and I move back to sit on the bed. I looked over at my bedside table, and noticed that I had a stack of novels that I didn't remember taking out of the library. I picked off the top one, and turned around the book to read the blurb.

I read it, and looked at the blurb. It was some romantic comedy novel. I was going to put it back on the pile, when I had a better idea.

"Hey, Ellie," I said, with the book in my hand. "You should read this."

She grabbed the book from me, and read the blurb. "This is a rom-com. I hate those books because they're too happy and make me feel sick with the levels of romance."

She gives me a second quizzical look, which only lasts about three seconds. "I see what you did there," she said.

"Yeah buddy," I said, triumphantly. "I got mine!"

Ellie rolled her eyes, but I could see that she wasn't actually annoyed. I smiled at her because all the arguments we had were so worth it as she was actually a good friend, and hilarious.

A/N: First of all, I wanted to apologise for the complete lack of updates for about a week. I was having a difficult time with motivation, but now I am back. I am so proud of how this chapter has come along because when I started I honestly had no idea what I wanted from it. Secondly, I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter, and I would recommend watching the show Cougar Town if you don't know what the show is, because it is seriously underrated and you are missing out. I'll welcome any suggestions for plot ideas, and I also want to encourage you guys to check out the three books in the trilogy I am writing and leave your thoughts. I will be updating them, and the last book that I am in the process of writing which is a Cougar Town/Friends crossover.