In a way that only a true outsider could understand, Dean Pelton spent his Sunday watching as Ben Chang tried and failed yet again to work his way into the elusive study group. The Dean could put on a good act, but he knew the life he lived in his head was nothing close to his much lonelier reality. While the group did its best to occasionally show they cared, he was far from a critical component to its existence. Rather, like Chang, he was just a bystander to the magic they had created together.
There were times when they both managed to work their way into the inner circle. Chang had done it a few years ago when he had temporarily lived with Jeff and then again when he had become Pierce's best friend for that night at the carnival. For his part, he had shared a very special day with Jeffrey when he was really supposed to be helping Annie move. Of course, between their romantic Mexican excursion and time reenacting one of the most romantic Seals song ever created, his supposed best friend had spent most of their day together checking Annie's Twitter timeline. He had felt mostly okay being second to her.
But now, it was all just really a little bit sad. The seven of them were sitting on the grassy knoll in the center of the quad in their final days of their final year at Greendale, enjoying an unseasonably warm April afternoon studying together for a history final rather than crammed in the study room. Chang kept trying to throw his frisbee in the middle of their circle, but Abed and Troy had both stopped his advances by just tossing the plastic disc over by the science building. Neither noticed the crestfallen face on the older man's face as he scampered off in search of the toy. The group wasn't really known for paying attention to anyone but themselves.
"It's no use," the Dean finally told Chang as he abandoned his place of observation beneath a shady oak tree. It had been a long road back to acknowledging his adversary's existence after the debacle of last spring, but an inspiring Winger speech during the holidays had encouraged him to mend fences. "Britta is obsessed with this volunteer project that Shirley is helping her with, and Pierce just hired Abed and Troy to do this series of mock interviews for a viral web campaign Hawthorn Wipes wants to do. And Jeff and Annie are always in their own world, so good luck on getting his attention...I mean, their attention."
Chang arched an eyebrow at the bald man before dropping his frisbee to the ground in defeat. "It's not fair!" he grumbled as he sat down on the bench next to the Dean. "I just wanted to be included. Yeah, so I kind of gave them a hard time that first year and might have taken on Abed's darkest timeline or whatever last year, but the past is the past! They forgive each other ALL the time for way worse stuff. You'd think they could let this go."
"They probably have but only because they don't care enough about anyone else to remember that it happened in the first place," the Dean shrugged. "They're not going to change, Ben. It's been four years like this, and it's only gotten worse. They'll leave Greendale and forget that we ever existed. Abed and Troy will finally come out of the not-so-secret closet, Shirley will eventually convince Britta that she'd make a perfect Christian housewife, Jeff and Annie will finally start dating and they'll all go to visit Pierce on Sunday afternoons when he inevitably gets put in a retirement home."
The usually optimistic educator didn't sound particularly sad about his assessment of the future. Instead, he sounded as if he had numbly accepted that the one thing he had wanted most since the first time he laid eyes on Jeff Winger just would never be. He would never look to him for wisdom like he did Shirley or for a challenge like he did Britta or for manly competition like he did Troy or for love like he would Annie. There was only so much room in the man's self-centered life, and other than his mom, it was all taken up by a vivacious mother of three boys, a frustrating heir to a wet wipe dynasty, a strangely creative aspiring filmmaker, an unsuspecting home repair prodigy, a free-spirited society challenger and a beautiful little breath of fresh air in a cardigan and a skirt. Those six, that group, had become the center of Jeff's universe, and there wasn't room for a lover of mannequin legs or a Moby lookalike of a dean.
"And us, Craig? What happens after they graduate?"
"I'll still be the dean," he said simply. "It's not my job to be their friend. It's my job to be their dean. I know that now. I've accepted it, it's done."
"What about me?"
"You'll find a study group of your own," the Dean told him. "You'll get enrolled in classes again and meet your own best friends. Three years from now, you'll be just like them and won't remember this conversation."
"Maybe it will be different..."
The Dean shook his head knowingly before pushing up his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "It won't be," he assured him, almost affectionately. This really was his role, and finally, he was okay with it. "This is my school. I promise it won't be any different with you."