"It turns out though that The government just deemed City College too big to fail. They weren't ready to make it a state college, though, since Colorado State has some influential schools in the area. Long story short, an arbitrator had some talks with our board of directors, blah blah blah blah boring business stuff, and City College is now an official Greendale Annex school!"

"Um, did you say 'blah blah blah', or was I just zoning out?"

"Oh, no, I did say... actual business terms. Like synergy. And market capital. And hole... punchers. That's not the point, though. Here's the important part: City College had much better facilities than we have here. No surprise. So we have been in the process of transferring all of your classes to the brand new Greendale Community College Law Enforcement Annex! And Cooking Annex. And Information Technology Annex. They are seriously equipped.

"The computer system isn't up to date yet, though, so you should try next week when we have an idea where all the classes are.

"Seriously, the campus over there? Huge."

"Wow," said Annie. "That makes sense. But why didn't you just tell me that thirty minutes ago? You could've save yourself a lot of time."

The Dean started to sob. "I don't know!" He cried. "Maybe it's because you never come up to the office anymore. It was just... so nice to talk to one of you again. It's just been ... so hard on me since everyone graduated! Troy, and Jeffrey, and Shirley, and Britta, and Abed, and Pierce, and Jeffrey. They all moved on and left me behind! It's just not fair! You're all I have left!"

He put his face in his palms and wept openly. Annie tentatively walked to his side to the desk.

"And Jeffrey sold his apartment," he added. He bit his lower lip, fighting back his tears. "It's like he's avoiding me!"

Annie stop

Awkwardly, Annie cradled the sobbing Dean's head and caressed his cheek. "Shhhh," she whispered, trying to calm him down. "Shhhhh." She felt that she should sing him a lullabye. The only song that came to mind, though, was something from the Smashing Pumpkins, whose title excaped her at the moment:

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in it's pain

It did the trick. After choking down one last sob, Dean Pelton dried his eyes. "Thank you, Annie," he said, regaining his composure. "Sometimes all you need is a good cry. Back to the business at hand. You of all people shouldn't worry about graduating on time, Ms. Edison. You'll just be taking your last two semesters at a new building is all."

Annie smiled sympathetically. "I'll miss you too, Dean."

Dean Pelton nodded. "It's been a rough month," he said apologetically. "But rest assured, Annie Edison, that no one wants to see you graduate more than I do."

Annie cocked her head. Not true.

"In fact," said Dean Pelton, picking up the receiver from the phone on his desk, "I will do you one better. I'll give a heads up to Vice Dean Chang that you're coming."

"That's not really necessar-... WAIT, WHAT?!"

Annie stirred the spaghetti with a wooden spoon until the noodles were nice and soft. She'd heard that if you fling a noodle to the wall and it stuck, that's when you know it was done. She never tried it. Not that these walls weren't already in bad shape already; a few noodles stuck to it would've actually improved the ambiance. But she couldn't ever commit to something so unsanitary. She'd stick to the eggtimer app on her phone instead. Next to the cooking pot, she browned some ground turkey, adding some rosemary and pepper. In a smaller pot simmered a thick tomato sauce with garlic and black olives.

When it was all done, she poured everything into a plastic bowl and mixed things up. She plopped herself in front of the couch, popped on Netflix, and settled down for some Korean soap operas.

It was an awful lot of work, but it distracted her from how empty the apartment was.

Troy and Abed had taken off to Austin some weeks ago. Troy had actually left earlier when he moved in with Britta for a short period of time. Abed stayed around, but he kept mostly to himself. Trying to keep up with his thought process was a Herculean task. She could never understand how Troy could do it. Of course, she was something of a control freak, and Troy was far more easy-going. It was actually a bit of relief when Britta would should up for her counseling sessions. Out of everyone in the group, she was the one who would give Abed no quarter on his more rigid tendencies.

Speaking of Britta... Annie gazed at the clock. Half past nine. She only listened to Britta's show on and off, but she really needed someone to talk to right now. She tapped her fingers. Well, there was a first time for everything. She dialed the call-in number on her phone.

Britta picked up. "Britta Perry in the Evvvveeenning!" she chimed. She had written permission (on an index card with magic marker) from Troy and Abed to use that jingle. "Good evening, caller! And who am I talking to?"

Annie nervously pursed her lips.

"Hello?"

"Uh, yeah," said Annie, in a deep, gruff voice. "My name is Carl." She looked around. "Spaghetti. Carl Spaghetti. I'm Italian. Long time lis'ner, foist time calla."

"OK, Carl," Britta said. "Nice to hear from long time fans, as always. I'm listening."

"I'm having relationship problems," Annie said, trying to maintain the voice. "I'm seeing this guy... or girl... no, let's stick with guy..."

"Uh huh."

"... who's got a tough time sticking around. I love this guy, and I'm sure he loves me, but it's tough to build a relationship of trust when he's gone for long stretches."

"I see."

"Everything's telling me I should break up with him. He's telling me I should break up with him. And I'm sorta seeing his point. It's ... lonely when he's not around. But I can't."

"Because some men you just can't get over, am I right?"

"Yeah!" said Annie, breaking her gruff facade. "Uh, yeah," she said, returning to the voice.

"Well," said Britta, "in this case, usually I have a pretty stock litany of things to say. Let him go, and he doesn't come back, then the problem is him, not you! Let him fly, and if he doesn't come back then that's his problem."

"Yeah," said Annie, a little crestfallen. "I thought so."

"But," said Britta, "I'm going to give you some different advice. It sounds like this thing between you and this guy, it's pretty special right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"You've known him for a while, haven't you?"

"Pretty... pretty long, yeah."

"It's just a tough stretch you're going through. If he loves you, and you love him, it would be a shame to throw that all away to settle for a situation where neither of you are happy. I think what you really need is to meet up with old friends. When was the last time you met some friends at a bar, or watched a movie?"

"I just don't have time, with all the study-... I mean, long hours at the construction site."

"Then make some time! I would. Maybe you've gotten withdrawn because everyone's leaving you, but you don't need no make it worse by abandoning them, too. Relationships take hard work, you know what I'm saying?"

"I think I do," said Annie, relieved. "Thanks, Britta."

"Well, good luck, Annie. Uh, I mean Carl. Spaghetti. Ohh-kay. Next caller!"