A/N: This chapter is all about Annie's rarely looked at, but painful high school memories. Reviews are welcome as always!

"Annie? Annie, come on...can you at least give me a chance to explain?"

"I don't think she wants to speak to you right now, Troy. Maybe you should try once she's calmed down a little bit?"

Troy sighed, "You're right, man. I'll just hang out in the blanket fort for a bit. Or maybe we could resume our invasion of the blorgons' mothership in the Dreamatorium?" Abed shook his head, "No thanks, I'm a little tired. I think I'm probably just gonna make a bowl of buttered noodles and call it a night." Troy raised an eyebrow at his friend but chose not to comment on it. "Alright man, I'll meet you in there." Abed nodded and simply replied, "Cool". With that, Troy ventured into the blanket fort while Abed started towards the kitchen. As soon as the blankets were closed however, he made a U-turn and went back to Annie's door. Knocking very lightly, he whispered through the door.

"Annie, it's Abed. Can I come in?"

He didn't hear a response, but a few seconds later the door slowly opened, revealing a very despondent looking Annie with her pajamas on. She gestured for him to enter, and then slowly closed the door once he was inside. She then flopped back on her bed buried her face back in her pillow. Abed just stood there for a moment, watching her.

"Troy still thinks I'm a loser."

Abed walked up to her bed and sat down on the edge of it. Annie removed her face from her pillows to look at him. She looked a bit teary eyed.

"No he doesn't," Abed reassured her.

"Yes he does! I mean, we're friends, but I'm pretty sure he'll always see me that way deep down. Even though it's been three years, to Troy I still seem like I'm the same nerdy girl he never bothered to take notice of in high school. He probably still doesn't think I could ever be more than that, even if he does appreciate it more now that we're friends."

She was sitting up now, holding one of her stuffed animals close to her chest and looking down at her sheets. Abed moved to sit next to her. "Well isn't it okay then? I mean, Troy still sees you as a friend. Aren't you happy about that?" Annie looked up at Abed, her eyes glazed with sadness. "That's not the point, Abed. I want him to see me as the friend that isn't the loser of the group. I want him to see me as..." Abed raised an eyebrow at her, "More than a friend?" Annie shook her head quickly, "No no! That's not it at all. I mean, it may have used to be something along those lines, but now I just want to seem cool to him."

On some level, Abed sensed that there were unresolved feelings on Annie's end of her relationship with Troy, but he decided not to try and get that out of her now. What was important was making her feel better. "Annie, speaking as an observer I think Pierce fits the 'loser of the group' archetype way better than you do. You're pretty cool, but Troy just has some unresolved high school issues. If I had to guess, they probably revolve around that girl you saw today in the supermarket." Annie's face immediately scrunched up in disgust at the mention of the girl Abed was referring to.

"I hate her."

Abed noted the vileness in Annie's tone. He was surprised on a certain level; he had never heard her with such a distasteful tone in her voice before.

"Did something happen between you two?"

"You could say that."

"Want to talk about it?"

Annie seemed hesitant, but after seeing Abed's rather passive expression, she relaxed a little bit.

"Okay, but you can't mention this to anyone."

"Okay."

"You know how I was a cheerleader at my high school?"

"Troy mentioned it once or twice."

"He did?"

"Yeah. But I don't really know any details about it."

"Oh...well anyway, Trish was the head cheerleader on the squad. And she thought I was ugly and a terrible addition to the team, so she turned the rest of the girls against me."

"I see. Well that does suck. I know what that's like, having a bunch of people hate you. In high school, I was best friends with my locker. We spent a lot of time together."

"Oh, Abed..."

"Don't worry, I'm cool now. And I interrupted you, sorry."

"Oh, that's alright. Um...yeah so anyway, Trish and everyone else hated me on the cheerleading team. They did things like drop me during practice and purposely try and make me mess up our routines etc. But the amazing thing was that it always looked like it was my fault. Our coach thought I was completely helpless. Then one day..."

Abed simply stared at Annie, waiting for her to continue.

"Then one day they decided to humiliate me big time. We were doing a pyramid formation, which involves all of us holding up the other until one girl is at the top. Trish had convinced everyone else on the team that I should be the one at the top. I wasn't stupid; I knew something was up, but I just wanted to prove I could do it anyway. Plus it was our last football game of the season, and it was during halftime...Troy would be watching."

Annie went back to looking down at her sheets.

"So, everything was going well throughout the routine and I thought maybe the girls had just learned to accept me. I thought maybe this was their way of apologizing for the hell they put me through that year. Everything seemed perfect as I reached the top of the pyramid. Everybody was looking at me and smiling, and for the first time ever, Troy was noticing me. I remember feeling on top of the world for all of...5 seconds."

Abed raised an eyebrow again. "Then what happened?"

"They threw me."

Abed furrowed his brow in confusion. "Isn't that what's supposed to happen? I mean in all the teen comedies I've seen-"

"They're supposed to drop you into their arms. But they didn't. They threw me off the pyramid, and I landed in the wet, muddy football field. It hurt so much, but again, the cheerleading team looked like they had nothing to do with it. People thought I just lost my balance..."

Abed put his hand on Annie's shoulder, but she hadn't looked up at him. Her tone of voice had changed again, and now it sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"I looked up at the stands...everyone was laughing. Students, the cheerleading squad, Troy..."

Abed reached for her box of tissues on her end table and gave them to Annie. He wasn't super good at comforting people, but he at least knew how to handle crying.

"I remember Trish came to help me up, and whispered to me that I better not think of joining the team next year. After the whole incident happened, I spent all of my time at school doing the only thing I was good at – schoolwork. It wasn't long after this that I started taking Adderall. And it all came back to Trish. She's the reason I lost my scholarship and got kicked out of school, she's the reason I can't talk to my parents now, and she's the reason Troy still thinks I'm a loser. She stole a part of my life I can never get back, Abed!"

Annie unexpectedly flung her arms around Abed and started full on sobbing into his shirt. He held her while she cried for a couple minutes. He wanted to say something, but all he could say was "Annie, I'm sorry." It was funny...he'd been treated similarly in high school, and yet, he learned to change so that old memories wouldn't affect him. He assumed this was why he couldn't really connect with Annie right now. But someone who shared her painful memories might be able to. Someone who, even though they didn't know it at the time, contributed to how badly she screwed up. Someone who cared for Annie despite all this since he knew how many good qualities she still had once he finally got to know her. Annie needed Troy.

Abed felt a small grin form on his face as he held a still crying Annie. He never thought he'd actually see "the jock and the geek" relationship take off in real life.