A/N: Um, I'm really sorry that it's taken me this long to update. It was very lame of me. But here you go, new chapter! And there's more coming tonight or tomorrow, when the suspensefulness actually kicks in. So, please enjoy and review! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the show or the characters. But believe me, if I did...

Jeff was greeted at the door by Annie's mother, who looked like a slightly taller, slightly older version of Annie.

"Hello, Jeff," she said, once he'd introduced himself. "Come on in. Did you have any trouble finding the place?"

"Uh, no, I was fine," said Jeff, following her into the house. He felt it best not to mention that he'd actually been to the house several times before Annie got her own apartment, dropping her off or picking her up.

"That's good," she said. "Everyone's in the living room, so just make yourself comfortable."

Jeff walked into the living room, and saw everyone from the study group, and a few others- Pavlo, Chang, and Starburns joined the rest of them. Jeff had known that they were all coming, because Annie had walked up to him the other day, frantic. "I was trying to invite Pavlo, because, you know, he's nice and sweet and everything, and then Chang and Starburns overheard as they were walking by, and I couldn't not invite them, because they both looked so sad, so I just said I hadn't told them yet, but they were invited, and I didn't know what else to do." She had said it all in one breath.

They hung out for a while, listening to Pierce's stories of what he was planning on doing during his Winter Break, none of which any of them particularly wanted to know about, and hearing Abed and Troy's plan of touring community colleges in the state, teaching them how to make a proper blanket fort.

Then it was time for presents. Among the better presents were Abed and Troy's DVD collection, which included Kickpuncher, The Breakfast Club, and Indiana Jones ("but not the fourth one, because the fourth one blows") and Britta's book on how to save the environment through fundraising and petitions.

Jeff nervously waited for her to open the present he'd gotten her. It had sounded like a great idea when he'd thought of it, but now he wasn't sure.

"Jeff, I can't believe you remembered!" she exclaimed when she opened it.

It was a necklace that they had seen one day as they were walking through the mall together, looking for a present for Britta a couple months ago. "Look at that, Jeff!" she had said. "Isn't it gorgeous?"

"Um, I guess," he had said. He was never really much for jewelry. "But it's not very Britta, I don't think."

She had looked at it for a second longer, but had nodded and walked away.

They had gone back another time, when they were trying to find something non-birthday related for Troy's birthday a couple weeks ago, and, when he had gone to get her a drink from the food stand, he had come back to find her staring at the necklace again.

"Do you like it?" he asked, scared that a necklace was a weird gift to get a girl that wasn't your girlfriend, especially if you kind of wished she was, but didn't want anyone else to know it.

"I love it!" she said.

He had to admit, it felt pretty good to see her eyes light up like that, asking Shirley to help her put it on right there.

Britta nudged him. "See, I told you that you could find a good present all on your own." She smiled at him.