Chapter 4:
Jeff had somehow survived his first day of school with only one other run in from the pesky dean and several more questions from his new friend(?) group. He was still a little uneasy about it, but his laziness overpowered any apprehension as he realized that six brains were better than one and it was going to be pretty easy to get a passing grade if they worked together. He was also eternally grateful that Annie was in his criminal psychology class, much for the same reasons (and for others that he was actively trying to suppress).
He made his way across campus from the faculty lot, unfortunately with Duncan who he had, more unfortunately, had to pick up and drive to Greendale due to his car being towed the previous day. Much as he tried to deny any part of it, Duncan had noticed Jeff parked in the faculty spaces with a parking pass, and there was no other professor with a clunker that didn't lock. Two and two added up in this case, and Duncan guilted Jeff into shuttling him both to Greendale and to the impound afterwards to pick up his car.
"Honestly, Jeff!" The Brit grumbled, slinging his coat over his arm. "The student lot isn't even very far."
"Yeah, but there are no other Lexus' over there, and I don't want her to get picked on."
"Her? Your… car?"
"Yes!" Jeff rolled his eyes and slipped into East Hall, not bothering to hold the door so that it closed on Duncan. "She's sensitive AND expensive."
"You're something else." His friend grumbled, passing Jeff and leading the way to their class (which happened to be Duncan's first of the day, much to Jeff's disappointment). They walked in together to find a smattering of students, Annie in the front again and Britta beside her, both of them giving him what he would now be considering their 'signature looks' (Annie: a dazzling smile; Britta: a scowl). He smiled at both of them and slipped into the seat behind Annie, "M'lady."
"M'lord." She giggled back.
Britta made a gagging noise and turned to them, "What is that?"
"What?"
She made a face and crossed her eyes, mocking them, "'M'lAdY, m'LoRdt.' Like, why?"
Jeff sneered at her before pulling out his phone and starting a new game of Bejeweled (he'd gotten a new best score three days ago, it was time to beat it), "Why not?"
"Seriously Britta, it's just a joke." Annie scoffed, rolling her eyes before handing the blonde a copy of the class syllabus with notes written all over it. "Here. I highlighted the partner projects."
Britta took the packet, none too excited about the concept, and slouched in her seat. She continued to look miserable until a tall, handsome, surfer-esque guy (which was strange, because the nearest body of water was over two hours away) walked in and gave her a blinding smile. "Hey Britta."
She shot up quickly and smiled, "Hey Trevor! Cool to see you!"
He laughed softly and nodded, making his way to the back of the class."
Jeff raised an eyebrow and said, "Very cool."
"Shut up, Winger."
"Relax, eight-shot."
"I swear to-"
"Alright!" Duncan loudly interrupted her while thudding his briefcase on his desk. "Welcome to Criminal Psychology, it seems that most of you are present. Some of you have taken my other courses and I assure you this one will be no different in that I will be mentally present about 60% of the time and still expect a minimum of 80% of effort from all of you. I know it's unfair, but so is life and so is the world of psychology. You also will have a partner for the course, and you will affect each other's grades, so do chose wisely. There are four exams, including our midterm and final, and three analytical essays. This is likely my most difficult class, so please strap in."
Jeff groaned slightly and Annie seemed to gain the energy that he was losing. He'd never seen someone so excited to learn, and he wasn't really sure how he felt about it other than intrigued.
"Before we do anything else, let's pick our partners. Feel free to go around the room and introduce yourselves, or not. I don't care. You have 10 minutes to complete this project while I run to the loo."
And with that, he smiled, nodded, and exited the classroom, leaving it silent and extremely uncomfortable. After what seemed like a millennium to Jeff, Britta was the first to break the silence.
"Annie, I know when we signed up for this class we said we'd be partners, but I didn't know Trevor was gonna be here… Would you be mad if I asked him to work with me?"
"Of course not!" Annie smiled, although her eyes betrayed her. Jeff assumed she wasn't one to adapt quickly to change, and this was probably warping her entire thought process on how the class was going to unfold.
"Ugh, thank you, I love you, you're my best friend, I owe-"
"We get it." Jeff and Annie sighed in unison, causing them to quickly give each other a look.
"Okay, okay, GOD, thanks." And with that she had bolted from her seat, slinking over to Trevor to hassle him into working with her.
"Uh…" Jeff saved his game and leaned forward aa he cleared his throat, "I'm sure it wasn't in your best laid plans, but would you want to be my partner?"
Annie turned in her seat, smiling through her sullen look, and nodded at him. "As long as you'll do as much work as Britta would have, I'll be okay."
"How much does that look like?"
"Maybe ten percent?"
He smiled, "I'll even give fifteen."
"Wow." She gasped sarcastically. "You'd do that for little ol' me?"
"Psh, for you? I'd definitely break a light sweat."
They both smiled at each other softly, gazing into each other's eyes for what was probably an unacceptable length of time. They were pulled out of their miniature daydream by Duncan, who had returned from his bathroom adventures.
"Alright, students. Did we all pair up?" He smiled as he was met with a few unenthusiastic 'yes's and pulled out his class roster. "Excellent. Let me write down the pairs so I don't lose track. Neil? Who are you working with?"
"Garret."
"Excellent, excellent, and Amanda?"
"With Todd."
"Very good, Annie?"
She smiled brightly and folded her hands in front of her, "Jeff."
Duncan paused to look up at her and Jeff, meeting his friend's eye and giving him a slight scowl. "Alright, I suppose."
Jeff glared at him as a few of the students snickered.
"Trevor?"
"I'll be working with Britta."
Duncan sighed again but did not look up, "Alright, Stacy?"
"Vicky."
Jeff leaned forward as Duncan continued notating the pairs and whispered softly to Annie, "What the hell was that?"
"Well," she whispered back, "I'm tied to be valedictorian, and since Duncan is your friend, he probably knows you're lazy and will be looking to take advantage of me and ride my coattails through this class."
Jeff sat back, eyes wide in shock at her honesty, but she just giggled and gave him a smile over her shoulder, "Don't worry, I won't let you ride that easily."
He raised an eyebrow and gave her a flirtatious smirk, "We'll see how easily you let me ride."
"Don't be gross."
"Get your mind out of the gutter."
She scoffed and turned back to face the front, a soft smile lingering on her face for the rest of class.
Jeff tagged behind the girls after class, trying his best to ignore Duncan reminding him to meet him at his office no later than 4 on the dot (he wanted to get to the impound before it closed). Annie and Britta were chatting away about something he wasn't interested in, either Trevor or the class they just left, when Annie turned to look at him. "Are you going to have lunch with us again today?"
"Uh, what time?" He scratched the back of his head before looking at his watch. "I have somewhere to be at four."
"What time do you think lunch time is, dingbat." Britta scoffed, rolling her eyes. Annie shushed her and told him they always have lunch at 12:30 or one (today, the later), so he'd have about an hour to do nothing beforehand. "Sure. That sounds good. Hopefully they have something edible today."
"Doubt it." The girls said in unison. Britta stopped in front of a door and turned to them, "Well, this is my next class. I'll see you guys in the cafeteria."
She gave Annie what might have been a poignant look if someone hadn't chosen that moment to open the classroom door directly into her face, spewing out a mouthful of apologies as Annie gasped. "Are you okay?"
"My face is fine."
"Well, no worse for the wear." Jeff shrugged.
"But my pride will need a minute." Britta finished, ignoring his rude remark. "I'll be fine, you need to get to your class."
She smiled at her friend and slinked into class, looking sheepish and lonely.
Annie frowned and turned to Jeff, "I know she's a lot, but you don't have to be so mean to her."
"I was just trying to distract her from the pain by drawing on her inner rage." He smiled sweetly. She wasn't having it and continued to glare at him. "Okay, okay, I'll be nicer. It's in my nature to be sarcastic, but I'll do my best to control the beast."
"Good. Time to break that light sweat for me."
He smiled numbly, ignoring the fact that he was sweating almost every time she looked at him. "Of course, m'lady. Where's your next class?"
"Oh, it's in North Hall. Want to walk with me? We can discuss our group work routine."
"I'll walk with you, but only on the condition we absolutely do not discuss our group work routine."
She laughed and started away from him, looking over her shoulder. "Fine. I'm okay with walking in silence."
"Well, I never said that." He quickly followed her, smiling down at her. "I feel like I know you so well, but really we just talk a lot about nothing. I don't even know… anything about you really."
"Well… Isn't that what most friends do? Talk about nothing? Figure it out as they go?"
"Oh, we're friends? I didn't get the memo."
"We invited you into our study group. You now have six friends."
"Seems excessive, but I'll take it if it means we get to hang out."
She blushed furiously, looking anywhere but at him. "Well if you'd let us discuss our group work-"
"Nope. Not happening."
"You'd know how often we could hang out."
"Or-" He countered, "We could just hang out and perhaps group work will happen organically."
"I'm sure that's what you want to happen organically." She mumbled under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing." She smiled, stopping at a stairwell. "My class is upstairs. I'll see you at lunch?"
"Absolutely." He grinned, leaning against the railing, "Hey do you work tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah, why? What's up?"
"I just wanted to make sure I'd get a good drink before showing up for our atrocious class together."
She laughed, "You think that's atrocious? Be thankful you've never had a class with Professor Hickey."
"Well, good luck. Knock 'em dead."
She laughed and headed up the stairs, "Apt choice of words of words to send me off to my forensic pathology class."
Jeff grimaced as she turned the corner and as she left his sight he sighed, wondering what the hell had gotten into him. He shook his head and wandered away, thinking he could catch a nap in his car before meeting his new friends for lunch.
Jeff had hoped that the drive to the impound would be a silent one, but he was, of course, wrong. He had shown up to Duncan's office at 3:58, much to the dismay and anxiety of Duncan. He had simply grinned at him as his friend huffed and followed him out to the car. Jeff had asked him if he wanted to grab coffee on the way, and Duncan shot him a glare, "Perhaps if you had arrived a little sooner, but you really got down to the wire, so we won't have time."
"Hey, I'm just trying to make it up to you that your car was towed."
"Oh, so you acknowledge it being your fault?"
"I acknowledge you attributing the predicament you find yourself into me, however it's absolutely not my fault that you haven't had your locks repaired."
Duncan scoffed and stared out the window, and Jeff smiled, assuming that was to be the end of the chatter. He groaned internally when Duncan turned back to him, "Annie Edison is the Annie from the coffee shop that purchased your coffee for you, no?"
"Hmm?"
"You heard me, Winger, they are one in the same, correct?"
"Yeah. So?"
"So you've gotten her to give you free drinks and now she's your ticket to a passing grade. Is she getting anything in return out of your relationship?"
"First of all, the two things are unrelated. Secondly, she was going to be Britta's partner before she bailed to partner up with skater boy."
"Ah yes," He said, looking glum. "Trevor."
Jeff raised an eyebrow, picking up on something that he definitely wasn't interested in knowing. Before Duncan could open his mouth to elaborate Jeff quickly added, "Also, I'm here to pass two classes, not make friends. If I happen to find some people that help me get to my goal, then that's fine too."
"Just don't take advantage of what a hard worker she is."
"Well don't single me out in your class because I got the smartest partner."
He grumbled at Jeff and adjusted in his seat. "She will do anything for the people she cares about. Make sure to at least give a little back."
Jeff rolled his eyes and said nothing, as he was annoyed that Duncan could see right through him. He wasn't JUST a leech. And he also genuinely didn't want to just freeload off of Annie, and he was offended that people continued to assume that. Would he have done it to anyone else? Absolutely. But she was his friend, sort of, now. And those were few and far between for him.
They arrived at the impound and Duncan turned to Jeff, sighing heavily, "Thanks for the ride."
"Least I could do. Literally." He smiled softly and glanced over his shoulder out the window. "Want me to hang out, in case shit goes awry?"
"Ah, offering to help someone with no strings attached? Perhaps hanging out with Annie Edison isn't going to be a terrible thing." Duncan smiled at him and opened the door, "I appreciate it. I'll text you once everything is done."
Jeff nodded and leaned his seat back, "Cool. I'll take a nap."
A/N: Thank you to those who have followed and reviewed! I will take your advice and post on Ao3 :)
