Chapter Two: A Message in the Mug

Annie had managed to go two weeks without so much as a glance from Mr. Winger. And even though she didn't hear from him, she certainly heard how loud his class was. It also didn't mean that she didn't hear about him all the time. "Vicki! Did you see he wore that navy blue button down today!" Quendra squealed.

"I know it really brings out his eyes!"

"And yesterday he wore that grey sweater, I almost died Vicki… I almost DIED!"

Annie watched the two girls extol endlessly about Mr. Winger, she didn't know whether she wanted to puke or roll her eyes. Subconsciously Annie looked at the door and through their respective windows she watched Mr. Winger lecturing. She didn't know how old he was but the soft crinkles forming around his eyes gave her the indication that he was older than thirty.

Now that Annie thought about it, he was kind of handsome. And Quendra was right, that blue shirt did bring out his blue eyes. For a split second he caught her eye and smirked. Annie felt her stomach flip before she quickly reverted her eyes back to her computer screen. She was obviously extremely flustered and she didn't want to know if any of her students saw how red her cheeks had become.

"Hey Ski Cap," Jeff said in the room across the hall, a smirk still plastered on his face. He took a yellow sticky note and wrote a quick message on it.

"Yeah what about it?"

Jeff dropped the sticky note inside a spider man mug, "Because I want you to take this mug across the hall to Ms. Edison."

"Why?" Ski Cap asked.

"Because," Jeff grinned, "It will really piss her off."

"I don't understand," a girl in the back of the classroom said, "Why would you want to irritate Ms. Edison?"

Jeff handed the mug to Ski Cap and turned to the girl, "Because Striped Sweater, it's fun." The rest of the class looked at him as if he was crazy or stupid, maybe both.

"Ms. Edison doesn't seem like the person you want to mess with…" Dave said.

"Which is exactly why I am." Jeff turned back to Ski Cap, "Go, and don't come back unless she replies." Hesitantly Ski Cap left Mr. Winger's room and walked to the other side of the hall. He tapped lightly on Ms. Edison's door.

"Quendra could you open the door?" Annie asked from her desk. Quendra got up and opened the door for Ski Cap, "Jeremy," Annie smiled, "What do you need?"

Ski Cap slid the mug over to Annie, "Mr. Winger told me to give this to you." Ms. Edison cautiously looked inside the mug and saw the yellow sticky note. Without a second thought she unfolded it and saw the message that Mr. Winger had sent her.

You know if you're going to keep gawking at me like that the least you could do is make light conversation with me when we're both in the teacher's lounge.

Annie's jaw dropped and she turned to look outside her window where she saw Jeff, sitting at his desk, shrugging his shoulders and smirking at her. "He says I can't come back without a reply… So?"

"Oh I'll give him a reply alright." Annie's hand reached for her sparkly purple pen and sticky note pile. She rapidly wrote down her message and stuffed it inside the mug and sent Jeremy on his way. Steadily Jeff opened the message and read it with his smirk only growing.

I was NOT gawking at you; I just got distracted because your class is so loud!

A few moments later Jeremy returned to Ms. Edison's classroom and rather annoyed she ripped the note out of the mug.

Sure, she could hear the sarcasm in his voice; you were obviously more distracted by my dashing good looks.

"Jeremy!" Annie raised her voice, still flustered, "Go back to class!" Ski Cap reached for the mug, "No! You can tell him I'm keeping this." She snatched it away and looked back at the class, "What? It's a cool mug?" For about five seconds the class was completely silent before Jeremy returned, this time with a storm trooper mug, "What do you want Jeremy?"

"He said this was the last one! I swear!"

Annie licked her teeth furiously when she ripped the note open and read its content.

Wow, I'm so good looking that you scared Ski Cap off. I thought he was going to cry when he came back in here.

She took out her last sticky note and only wrote, His name is Jeremy.

While Annie initially brushed the whole ordeal off her shoulder her students didn't. Particularly Vicki and Quendra who were the gossip queens of Greendale High. They were in their Psychology class later that afternoon when Annie Kim overheard them giggling. "What are you two laughing at?" she pushed the rim of her glasses up.

"Just Ms. Edison and Mr. Winger." Quendra giggled again.

"What about them?"

"Well!" Quendra squeaked, "In the middle of class he started sending her notes."

"Notes?" Annie Kim asked, "That's what you idiots are giggling at?"

Vicki shook her head, "He was obviously flirting with her," As soon as the word 'flirt' flew out of Vicki's mouth, their teacher Ms. Slater's ears perked up.

"Ms. Edison? Flirting with Mr. Winger?" Annie Kim said, "That's ridiculous."

Michelle Slater pursed her lips, "Hey you three, get back to your readings." As soon as the bell rang she marched down to the English/History hallway, "So what's this I hear about you passing love notes with Ms. Edison?"

Jeff raised his eyebrows, "Wow, gossip travels fast around here."

"So it's true?" Slater asked.

Jeff placed his hands behind his head and relaxed into his arm chair, "They're not love notes and it's nothing," he brushed her off, "She's just easy to annoy."

"I hope that's all it is." She snarled.

"Look Michelle," Jeff said sitting up from his chair, "we haven't been dating that long and you shouldn't feel intimidated when I communicate with another coworker. Trust me, if there is anyone at this stupid school I can't stand, it's goody two-shoes Annie Edison." But even he knew he was kind of lying.

Michelle patted her pockets awkwardly, "Alright, if that's all it is then… ok." Jeff nodded at her and Michelle leaned down and kissed him, "I'll see you tonight?"

"I'll try, the Dean has really been on my ass lately about you know, actually doing my job. Only problem is I don't know a damn thing about Alexander Hamilton."

"That guy on the ten dollar bill?"

"Yeah the dean has made his life a requirement for this class. Apparently the hottest and most forgotten founding father of our country is someone everyone in Greendale should know about."

"Ok," She smiled, "I'll see you later then." Jeff watched her as she walked out of his classroom. He needed a different scene, so for fifteen minutes he tried to play solitaire on his computer before walking towards the teachers lounge.

Annie spent her off period sitting at her desk inside her classroom. She didn't want to run into Jeff and become flustered by his witty remarks again. So quietly she sat at her desk and made her lesson plans for the month of December. She had two more classes for the day and then she planned on going home and taking a warm bubble bath.

Since graduating she moved back in with Abed who had gained another roommate named Troy. They lived in a really nice, completely furnished apartment that was about half an hour away from the school and about twenty minutes away from all the fun nightlife. Annie was still in her twenties and while in college she didn't necessarily take up the various party opportunities she had…. And well… now she wanted to have a 'go' at it.

Her bathroom smelled completely of Lavender when she sunk down in the bubbles. She brought her copy of Little Women and read the first three chapters before deciding it was time to get out. She wrapped the Wonder Woman robe that Abed had gotten for her last Christmas around her waist. When she left the bathroom she was drying her hair with her towel, "Cute robe." The sound of his voice made her jump and scream. When she turned around and saw Jeff Winger sitting on her couch softly chuckling at her. "So you're Troy and Abed's new roommate?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" she practically yelled.

"Troy and Abed invited me over to try out their new video game. I don't live far from here so I come over whenever I have some free time." Annie scanned the apartment, "Where are they?" she asked.

"They went to get some takeout," he turned back to the television, "If you hurry up you might be able to squeeze in a round with me before they get back."

Annie looked at Jeff and then at the television screen, "Alright let me go change," He smirked at her, "Not because I like you but Abed and Troy literally haven't been able to stop talking about it for weeks."

Quickly she changed into a simple tank and shorts and returned to the living room where she and Jeff engaged in some friendly competition. "It's going down Mr. Winger." She declared.

"Ok you have got to stop calling me Mr. Winger, it's seriously getting to that level of creepy." The game started and the two were battling each other to the imaginary death. "Fine, Jeff." Moments later when Annie's health got dangerously low she jabbed at his side causing him to drop her remote, that's when she completely obliterated his avatar.

"That's cheating." He said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said innocently. The two shared a glance and then awkwardly laughed before Jeff's phone went off. "Shit," he mumbled.

"What?" she asked.

"It's my girlfriend." He said.

Annie nodded, "Oh," she didn't know he had a girlfriend so slowly she stood up from the couch and moved over to the kitchen and just as she thought about opening that bottle of wine she got for graduation Troy and Abed got home. Jeff walked up to them, "Sorry guys, that was Michelle… Duty calls," was all he said to them before he ducked out of their apartment.

AN: I know it's not my best work. But I hope you guys are enjoying it so far. Favs, Follows and Comments are always appreciated ^_^

Love,

Tay