Annie knew she shouldn't feel this mesmerized. After all, it was just a traveling carnival. It wasn't like she was at Disney world. But she couldn't help it. Something about all the lights and the rides and the weird fragrance of various food smells made her smile. It reminded her of a movie she once saw where a bunch of friends were hanging out on a boardwalk at night. After she saw that she had always wanted to go to a boardwalk before she died. While this wasn't exactly the same, it was fairly close to how she imagined it might be.

She tried to keep her suspicions at bay as she walked beside Jeff. Yes, she knew he rarely did things without a reason behind it (he wasn't one for just doing things on a whim.) But she wanted to give him some benefit of the doubt, and believe that at least part of the reason they were here was because he wanted to hang out with her.

"So, which one is Blade anyway?"

He held out his arm to stop her as he pointed over to the duck shooting booth. "That's him over there."

"Hu. I thought he'd look like Vince Vaughn for some reason." She started walking over when Jeff grabbed hold of her wrist. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I wanted to meet him."

"Annie, trust me. It's better if you just stay away from him. Do you really want to chance becoming like Britta?"

Annie frowned as she thought about that one. "I guess not." She bounced on her toes as she looked around. "So what do you want to do first? We can go on the ferries wheel. Or the cyclone."

"We'll get to that. But first I want to win you a prize."

"Is that why we're here? So you can win me something and impress me?"

"I'd like to think I can do better than that to impress you." He led her over to the games, steering her away from Blade's booth. They walked until they ended up at a ring toss booth. "Here we are. This looks promising."

"Step up here ladies and gents!" The Carney stand worker yelled (a woman with long pink hair and sleeve tattoos of colorful birds on both arms). "It's not that hard. Just toss a ring on the peg and win a prize. Anyone can do it." She pointed at Jeff and Annie. "You sir, step right up. Win a prize for your girlfriend there."

Annie's face flushed at being thought of as Jeff's girlfriend, but Jeff just laughed it off. "Sure, I think I can handle it." He smiled as he turned to Annie. "What would you like Sweetie?"

Annie's eyes widened, since she wasn't sure if Jeff was making fun of her or not. But he didn't seem like he was mocking her. So she simply smiled and leaned in close to Jeff. "I'd like that one, Honey." She said as she pointed to the large red dog.

"Ok folks, here's how it goes." The Carney explained. "For two bucks you get four rings, five you get ten. There's five rows of pegs there, with each row getting you a different level of prize. The farther back the row you hit, the better prize you get. Simple enough."

Jeff opened his wallet and took out five bucks. "Ten rings please." He took the rings and handed five of them to Annie. He narrowed his eyes at the furthest back row, which he would have to hit if he wanted to win that giant dog for Annie. He owed it to her to get her a stuffed animal.

After all, he already lost her one carnival prize.

"Britta, you know it's just a movie right?"

"It just doesn't make any sense. If vampires can give birth, then why would they bother turning humans also?"

Jeff pushed open the lobby door, remembering at the last second to hold it open for Britta. He shook his head as they walked through the parking lot together. "I don't know. I'd suggest asking Abed tomorrow. I'm sure he'll have some theories." He stopped as he got to his lexes and unlocked it. "Ok, I'll see you on Monday."

"Jeff." He turned around as Britta looked at him seriously. "Thanks, for finding out that stuff about Blade. And for what you said to me before."

"No problem. Just try to remember that the next time you find yourself falling for a loser." He started to sit down before he pulled out a purple stuffed bear that was on the driver's seat. "What the…"

"What have you got there Jeff?"

Jeff didn't answer as he looked at the stuffed bear. After finding out about Blade's 'power' he found Shirley and claimed one of her prizes, choosing the purple bear. He had intended to give it to Annie when he came over, since she liked purple. But he forgot to take it up with him when he arrived.

Jeff looked up as Britta looked at him apprehensively "Is that…did you get that for me?"

"Um…"

Before he could correct her she pulled the bear out of his hands. "You did didn't you? Thanks. I'm usually not one for stuffed animals, but after tonight I could make a exception."

"Yea, sure. It's yours. The result of several rounds of shooting cardboard ducks with BBs." Jeff said, not able to correct her now that she was holding the thing.

"You ready Annie?"

"Ready Jeff."

Jeff concentrated as he flung the first ring, silently cursing when it bounced between the pegs. He threw the second one, but it also didn't connect. He did the same with the third, fourth, and finally the fifth one. But none of them flew onto a peg.

He was so busy trying to hit a peg that he didn't even notice Annie until she grabbed hold of his arm. "Jeff Jeff look! I got one!" Jeff looked up in surprise and saw that there was a ring on one of the pegs on the third level. His scowl quickly disappeared as he saw her face light up in accomplishment. "Good job Annie." He said as he hugged her.

"Good job miss." The Carney said. "Pick a prize from the middle row."

"I'll take the Black horse." Annie smiled as the Carney got it down and put it in her hands. "Jeff, look. Isn't it cute? I think I'll name him Sir. Reginald. Ok, let's go to the ferries wheel."

"Yea, just one sec." Jeff pulled out his wallet and slapped five bucks on the stand. "Ten more rings please." He took his rings and narrowed his eyes as he aimed his arm.

"Can I have some Jeff?"

Barely paying attention Jeff handed her a couple of rings. He concentrated as he tossed his rings, growing more frustrated when they didn't hit a single mark. Eight times he threw a ring, and eight times he missed hitting a peg. "Son of a-."

"I GOT IT! Jeff look, I hit one again." Jeff looked over and saw that Annie had hit a peg on the fourth row. "Yaa, good job Annie." He said, a bit less enthusiastically then he had when she won the first time. He waited while she picked out her prize (a green skinned witch in a black dress.) "I'm going to name her Elphaba."

"What?" Jeff said in frustration.

"That's the witch in the play Wicked. Elphaba. Come on, lets go on some rides."

"In a minute." Jeff said as he put another five on the booth."

"Jeff, you really don't have to-."

"Just one more time." He took nine rings (giving Annie only one this time) and threw all of them at the booth in quick succession. He let out a loud yell when not one hit a peg. As he looked over he saw a peg on the fifth row. For a second he thought he had actually gotten it. But then he groaned in anger when Annie started jumping up and down. He took a deep breath to try and calm down as Annie picked out another prize (the big red dog that had originally caught her eye).

"Jeff, here." She held out the dog for him. "I've already won two prizes. I want you to have this one."

Jeff's eyes widened as he looked at the stuffed dog. HE was supposed to have won a prize for Annie, not the other way around. He shook his head as pulled his wallet out and took out twenty bucks. "Annie, I said I was going to win you a prize and that's what I'm going to do."

The smile left her face as Jeff was given a large stack of rings. "Jeff, I really don't want to spend all my time at the game booths."

"Just give me one more minute."

"Ok, I'm going to go get something to eat. Do you want anything?" She waited but Jeff ignored her as he started throwing his rings. She rolled her eyes as she left her prizes with Jeff and set off on her own.

After going on the Tilt-A-Whirl and then eating a hot dog and some pop corn she went back to the booth. When she got there she saw Jeff still there, holding a large stack of rings. "You're still doing this?"

"Sir, you've already spent one hundred dollars. Maybe you should quit while you're ahead." The Carney said.

"You've spent one hundred dollars on this game!" Annie said.

"I'm getting better."

"Jeff, this is insane. Please stop."

"I said I'd win you a prize."

"I already have two prizes. Three if you count the one I gave you. I'm good."

"I'm not stopping until I get you something."

"Jeff! JEFF!" She stepped in front of him, stamping her foot on the ground. "If this is your idea of a good date then I'm telling you it's not working!"

She wasn't sure what exactly made her say it (maybe it had to do with the carnival worker thinking they were together), but her face reddened as soon as the words left her mouth. Furthermore they seemed to temporarily break Jeff's obsession with winning the game. His ring arm dropped as he looked at her in shock. "What?"

"I, I um…" she stuttered for a few moments before finally finding her voice again. "Jeff, I know you want to win me something. But it's fine. You don't have to keep spending all your money to get me something."

He looked into her pleading eyes before shaking his head. "I can't. I can't go until I've won at least once."

Annie started to groan before she stopped and stood next to Jeff. "Spread your legs out a little more."

"What?"

"Spread your legs out a little more. That might help. When you throw you're throwing it too hard. Tossing the rings lightly works better. Also try aiming for the stripe on the top of the peg. If you aim for something on the peg instead of the whole peg itself you have a better chance of hitting it.

Jeff smiled as he looked over at Annie and readjusted his legs. "Thanks."

"No problem." She watched as he started throwing his remaining rings. She watched as they sailed in the air before one finally landed on the fourth row. "JEFF, YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT!" She jumped up and hugged him, hanging onto his neck as her legs dangled above the ground.

He hugged her right back before gently lowering her to the ground. "Yup. And it only took me a trillion tries to do it."

"Jeff, at least you finally got it. Focus on the good."

Jeff smiled as he gestured towards the prize wall. "Your choice, take your pick."

"Jeff, after all that you really should-."

"Annie, I said I'd win you a prize and I did. So choose something."

"Ok." She carefully looked before deciding on a large penguin. "But you're naming him." She said as the stuffed animal was handed to her.

"Fine." He thought about it as he looked at the toy bird. "How about Milton."

"Milton?"

"When I was growing up my next door neighbor had a bird named Milton. It was a Parrot, but they're both birds."

"Milton the penguin. I like it." She smiled as she gathered Sir. Reginald and Elphaba and Jeff took hold of the big red dog. "Well now that that's over, can we go on the Ferris wheel?"

"Sure." Jeff smiled as he held out his arm. "Milady."

"Milord." She said as she took his arm. As they started walking she thought about asking him why he had been so obsessed with winning that game. But instead she decided to just let it go. It was probably just his competitive nature coming out. Nothing more, nothing less.