Annie kept her tears from falling too hard until the second she got into her room. They fell off and on for two straight days, as they were mainly interrupted by sleep and bathroom visits. But other than the bathroom trips, she didn't leave her room at all.

She didn't even turn her cell on, on the off chance Jeff decided to yell at her after all. But it just made Annie guiltier, since she should have been yelled at for the scene she made. She knew all too well that there was a dark, irrational, selfish bitch in her, but she thought she finally had it subdued by now. Instead, it came back worse than ever.

The worst part remained that part of her still felt justified to be upset. None of this changed the fact that Jeff had found help and comfort in another woman, even though Annie was right there. It didn't change how Jeff so easily put aside any feelings he had for Annie, and found it so much easier to fall in love with some outsider. It didn't change how he just fell head over heels for this woman after three months, while he was still ashamed of feeling anything for Annie after three years.

And now Annie had made sure he would never not be ashamed of liking her…..once.

No matter how much legitimate cause Annie had to feel upset and jealous, she went about it the absolute wrong way. Just like she went about the aftermath of the Transfer kiss the absolute wrong way. Just like she went about the "Annie of it All," Annie Kim, sexy Santa and the end of high school the absolute wrong way. She knew so much better every time and yet she let the worst of her take control over and over again.

It was so stupid – what right did she really have to be that jealous, anyway? Annie liked the way things were now, anyway. She liked how their friendship had become stable and supportive again, regardless of their other connection. She liked being with Jeff as a friend and not having their romantic past make things weird anymore. She liked having Jeff as someone she could still come to for help and comfort, even after all that happened between them.

And she loved how Jeff still came to her and trusted her with his deepest problems more than anyone else.

At least anyone else in the group.

This had made it easier to believe that there would be a future for them down the road. But it's not like Jeff wanted it. And it wasn't like he could give her the common decency to stop stringing her along in the meantime – again. He wouldn't have even told her about Alison if she didn't barge in at the end of their last adventure this year! So who was really –

"No!" Annie yelled into her pillow before she could yell something far worse. "I'm not that person….I'm better than that…."

But all the evidence suggested that she really wasn't. At least a big part of her wasn't – a part that wanted to take full control of her again. "I don't want to be like that anymore….." she muffled into her pillow as she stopped most of her tears from getting out.

The last time Annie kept saying that was when she made herself go to rehab, in spite of what it cost her. Even when it looked impossible to get better, she wanted so badly to try. She wanted so badly to be the good, decent, selfless person she still so much aspired to be. And she made herself become that person – at least when Jeff and her desires for him didn't make her into something rotten again.

Annie still had every right to be jealous, but she had no right to vent it out like that. She had no right to belittle how Jeff was really making himself better. And no matter how she felt about his methods, she was still so, so proud of him for what he was doing.

And if this Alison was making Jeff into who Annie always knew he was, and did it without childish outbursts along the way…..then she must be an exceptional woman. And if she had really gone through as much as Jeff said she did, how could Annie not empathize with someone who beat her demons like that? Why couldn't she be happy that Jeff found someone like that to make him believe in himself?

Because Annie couldn't quite forget how she had been someone like that for Jeff this whole time. Or she would have been, if Jeff would have let her in as easy as he did with Alison, for some reason.

But Annie wanted to forget so badly. She wanted to support her friend so much, and maybe leave open the chance to make a new friend. And she wanted to prove to herself and them – herself most of all, hopefully – that she was a sincere, supportive and fundamentally decent friend instead of an irrational, selfish brat.

There was only one way to do that, however. And it would hurt very badly at first. But she deserved whatever hurt she got.

With that fueling her, Annie finally turned on her cell phone. After sighing in relief/slight frustration that there were no calls or texts from Jeff, she scrolled down and began to text him. She probably should talk to him and face the music in person, but she had to take baby steps first.

That entailed texting him, "Please invite Alison to our next group party."

After waiting a minute for a reply, Annie realized she should go a little deeper. So she typed, "If I don't feel good about it, I promise I'll stick it out, not say anything and take my medicine."

After that, she further explained, "If I cause a scene, feel free to yell at me and kick me out. I'll deserve whatever I get. But I only want to meet her, I promise."

She only had to wait 30 more seconds before Jeff finally sent a response. "Ok."

There was nothing deeper about it. No bitterness or concern about their last talk, or anything about their last talk. Even though this was a new Jeff, Annie was still certain that he just wanted to brush this aside and pretend it never happened –just like the old days. And still current days, really.

For the first time, it made Annie feel relieved.

She knew that after another week of celebrating their freedom from school – as repellent as that was to Annie – the group would get bored enough to hang out again. Indeed, about a week after Annie's text to Jeff, she got the word that they would all head to Pierce's mansion that Saturday to kick off the summer.

Annie and Jeff hadn't talked or texted all week, which wasn't that unusual on the surface – especially compared to past summers. At the least, no one would suspect anything had happened with them if they didn't give out any signals. And Annie trained herself the whole week to be calm, collected and peaceful when she saw Jeff, and Alison as well.

Therefore, she was tentatively hopeful when she, Troy and Abed arrived at the mansion that day. Since Jeff was even the last one here at these get togethers, Annie knew she still had time to prepare. But she knew the hot topic in the group would be Jeff's new girlfriend and any theories about her. She just hoped Britta would exhaust her way off base theories, and Pierce would exhaust his variety of gay beard ones, before they asked for her take.

But in the first break of the day, Jeff actually arrived before Britta was halfway finished. She pouted that she hadn't got to her theory/non-religious prayer that Alison was a corporate whistleblower. She'd only be here temporary if that were true, so Annie forced that thought right out of her head.

Finally Jeff came by with the woman they all briefly met on the last day of school. The woman whose picture Annie almost ripped to pieces – but that part could stay secret from the others.

"Well, you remember her cameo appearance to end the school year. But now she's here to help us kick off our summer arc. Is that the right word?" Abed nodded yes, leaving Annie to avoid reading anything into Jeff addressing him first.

"Anyway, let me finish the rest of this in English. Study group, this is Alison Jacobs….my girlfriend." Although the rest of the group knew who she was by now, hearing Jeff refer to her as his girlfriend was still a shock to hear. For Annie's part, she put on pretend shock to avoid suspicion, while still containing her real shock.

"Alison, this is Britta Perry," Jeff started as he moved toward one on one intros. His new blonde girlfriend went up to his ex blonde sleeping buddy and gave a fairly big smile. "It's a real pleasure, Britta," Alison began as she shook her hand. "I mean, the way you pick yourself up, even when everyone trashes you for screwing up so much….you'd inspire 15 therapy groups!"

She honestly sounded in awe of Britta without being sarcastic and snarky. Well, maybe there was a little snark layered in. But if she was Jeff's girlfriend, there had to be some of that in her. "Thank you…..wait, thank you?" Britta said, a little more offended at the end. But Jeff moved Alison along towards Shirley before Britta thought more about it.

"Next up, we have Shirley Bennett," Jeff explained as Alison shook Shirley's hand. Yet Shirley was more focused on the cross hanging off her necklace. "Oh my God, you've got God!" Shirley cheered, moving on to an immediate hug. "Oh, thank you for getting Jeffrey into Heaven with us! Maybe Jesus and I won't hang out alone on St Peter's summer cloud after all!"

"Uh….glad I could help," Alison concluded. So it seemed she was a more moderate religious person than Shirley, although it wasn't that hard to do. But if she was somewhere in between Shirley's extreme faith and Jeff's lack of it – well, that wasn't Annie's concern. None of it. "Okay, my apologies for that. And a whole bunch of apologies for letting you meet Pierce Hawthorne," Jeff offered.

"Oh, I loved Old White Man Says on Twitter!" Alison exclaimed. "Well, well, so I do appeal to the young boob demographic!" Pierce gloated. "Almost makes me forgive you for real, Troy! Not quite yet, but-"

"Oh my God, Troy and Abed!" Alison cheered, immediately turning away from Pierce to meet the famed duo. "I've tried for years to get in the 'Troy and Abed in the Morning' audience, but classes kept getting in the way! And I swear it took me forever to choose between pillows and blankets in the war….so I guess we should leave it at that," she trailed off.

"Spoken like a true citizen of Blanketsburg," Troy bragged before giving Alison a weird salute. So before she could spark Pillow Civil War II: The Reblanketing, Jeff took her over to an even more dangerous hot spot. "And last but not least….this is Annie Edison."

Jeff looked at Annie normally, as if nothing was troubling him. Yet he'd been good at that for years, so it meant little. Annie just focused on looking normal herself, as she got her first up close look at Jeff's girlfriend. Alison didn't jump up and down in excitement like with the others, but she did beam out an increasingly wide, warm smile, nonetheless.

"It's really good to meet you, Annie," Alison exclaimed as she shook her hand. "Jeff's told me nothing but impressive things about you. But your grades speak for themselves. I've backed off more than a few classes where you threw off the grade curve."

"Really?" Annie replied, trying so hard to keep her ego in check. But she did manage to succeed, saying, "Well, if there's a class we really like next year, let me know before you drop out on my account, okay?" She did well to ignore the possibility that she'd be around that long, all things considered.

Yet Annie endured her sticking around throughout the day, which was a good first step. In fact, it was even a little fun when she could forget the awkward stuff. Jeff eventually told the rest of the group that he met Alison in group therapy – which inspired Britta's predictable rant about group think. This in turn made Alison lay into her about all the Britta psychiatrist stories she heard from Jeff. And considering her years of dealing with serious therapists, she had…..more than a few words about how Britta approached the field.

This was the group's first clue that Alison had a bit of a temper during an argument. Annie was somewhat relieved that she wasn't Ms. Perfect, yet considering her own temper, she had no right to judge her. She had no right to do a lot of things. Yet in lue of not doing those things, Annie instead listened to Alison's Greendale horror stories, found out how nearby she was to the group in some epic Greendale ordeals, and even grew impressed with her work ethic.

Alison also impressed Shirley with how she found God during her rough patches. Yet she was less impressed that she disagreed about prayer in school, on the grounds that Greendale was deranged enough without debating that issue. She won over Pierce by wowing over his mansion, but she lost a few points when she was too shocked at the difference between him and his pictures from 1975.

She loved hearing behind-the-scenes filming stories from Troy and Abed, although she was left a bit too confused about the Dreamatorium. And Jeff was reluctant to share too much about their therapy and how they started dating – yet Alison did get him to reveal some objectively sweet details.

Annie tried to look at this as if she wasn't invested in Jeff and his dating life so much. And by taking that out of the picture, it was much easier to like what she saw and heard. Alison wasn't an uncaring douche, yet she still had her obnoxious moments. She was sweet, yet she could get easily offended and quite defensive. She had a wall built up around her really private stuff, but she could still have spirited give and takes with everyone.

She wasn't a duplicate or an opposite of Jeff or Britta, or a new Annie, or anyone else. She just went back and forth between being funny, messed up, good hearted, oblivious, compassionate, accidentally hurtful, and everything in between. In short, she was the target study group demographic – imperfect while still having something to draw people in anyway.

She could even draw in people who tried to ruin their picture and yelled that her boyfriend was hers a week ago. That made Annie both more relieved and more frustrated than she'd ever felt.

And that was before she finally found herself alone with Jeff, while everyone else told her the group horror stories she hadn't heard on the gossip mill.

"She is something," Annie dared to start off. "You two must be the life of your therapy sessions. Not that you need to confirm it or anything," she corrected.

"I should have told you about her right away, shouldn't I?" Jeff actually shocked Annie by saying. "I mean, I didn't want to sic the group on her too soon. But she's fitting in pretty well anyway, so joke's on me." So he was referring to how she'd fit in with the group, not with…..never mind.

"Jeff, I get it. Like you said, it isn't easy for new people to fit in here. She's beating the odds so far, but how could you have known that going in?" Annie tried to lighten up, to limited success.

"I had a feeling she might. But telling you guys about therapy stuff didn't work out before. So bringing up a girlfriend…." Jeff trailed off right after saying that word.

"I get that too," Annie tried to assure. "You have really private, really personal things to deal with in there. I know I butt in your business a lot sometimes, but I understand that those things are….hard to get into in public. That's why I didn't want to say anything when you had your pill problem."

"Even when someone who knew a lot less about pill problems tried to help me," Jeff recollected.

"Yeah, even then," Annie sighed again at how she let Britta deal with Jeff then. "But that's not all she doesn't know about, according to Alison."

"Trust me, she gave her the very abridged version of that rant. At least compared to the uncensored cut," Jeff recalled. After they shared a relieving chuckle over that, Annie tried to put a positive bow on this.

"Jeff, you have every right to find stuff that makes you feel better. No matter if you want us to know or not, for whatever reason. You deserve to feel so much better than you used to, and if that's what she does for you….what we think doesn't mean a thing compared to that." Annie kept herself from rambling further, one way or another.

She then remembered how Jeff once told her he cared about what she thought of him. It was one of those moments that she thought could have meant something deeper….but clearly didn't. It may have meant something, yet it wasn't the something she thought, or wanted. But that could not mean anything now.

All that mattered was that the person who meant…..a great deal to her was in good shape. And like she said, no one deserved that more than him, no matter who was responsible. Everything else didn't mean as much – couldn't mean as much.

Therefore, she turned to Jeff and asked "Resolved?" before the conversation went any further. They hadn't actually talked about her outburst, her feelings, his feelings, or anything that had to do with them. But they never did anyway. They were somehow friends through all that anyway, so they could do it through all this as well.

After another second, Jeff nodded and assured, "Resolved" before pulling her in for a hug. Yet Annie immediately felt the difference between this "resolved" hug and the one after student elections. But it was clear that both of them were holding back on this hug.

Although they had resolved their problem on the surface, the really big stuff was still buried there – and both of them were in no position to take it on here. That was usually the case all the time, albeit more for Jeff in most cases. Yet both of them were content to go through the motions here. Or they were just too afraid to do anything else.

So while nothing had truly been resolved, they still knew how to dance around it anyway. They knew to talk to each other regularly when the opportunity came up, as if nothing was really wrong. But they knew there was only so much they could talk about, regarding each other and Alison.

As such, they settled for enjoying each other's company while talking about everything else. And over the next two months, it got just a little bit easier – although rarely having one on one talks helped as well.

In the meantime, Annie adjusted to the rest of the new group dynamic. Like one night when she was called to pick Britta, Jeff and Alison up while they were drunk. Alison's efforts to get past her rough start with Britta had paid off, to the tune of a long night of bonding through drinks.

It was Britta who knew well enough to call Annie to get them – and Annie knew well enough to drop Jeff off first while Britta and Alison were still with her. For good measure, she made sure to drop Alison off next so they wouldn't be alone, although her apartment was more out of the way. Luckily, Britta was rambling too much about gender stereotypes in beer bottles to notice.

But things were interesting when they were sober as well. Like one movie night at the Trobed apartment, where Alison commented that the first "Star Wars" movies she watched were the prequel trilogy, and she actually liked them the best. This touched off one of the most memorable and heated debates in study group history – where even Abed raised his voice a decimal level or two.

Annie wanted to argue against Alison on more than a few principles. Yet she made the best case imaginable, in spite of how truly awful her argument was. Debating made Annie too focused to read into Jeff's reactions, so that was a victory right there. Along with the one they got against Alison.

Yet there was also that one week where neither Jeff nor Alison talked to the group much. From what Shirley eventually got from Alison, she and Jeff had been through a particularly intense group session. It ended with the usual Jeff anger toward his father, and anger at being forced to deal with him. Eventually, Alison came to the Trobed apartment – and to Annie – explaining she needed to recharge and relax before trying to help Jeff again.

To her relief, Annie didn't analyze whether Jeff and Alison were having deeper problems. Or whether Jeff knew that she came here to where Annie lived. She just genuinely worried for Jeff and saw how much Alison was worried for him as well. Yet before long, it was Annie who assured her that Jeff had been through these spells before, and would come out of it before long. Alison was ultimately pacified, realizing that since Pierce and the Hawthornes weren't around to aggravate him further, he would be easy to reach eventually.

Although Alison hoped to have fun with Troy and Abed to get in a calmer mood again, she wound up talking more seriously with Annie. They couldn't well ignore the major thing they had in common – their history with rehab and therapy.

Of course, Alison was never technically in rehab and had been in therapy for years, whereas Annie left after a few brief but life-changing months. In fact, Alison even confessed she was a little jealous of what a quick fix Annie had been, while she still needed therapy as a crutch to keep her level headed.

But once Annie shared examples of what a mess she still was – leaving out the Jeff of it all, of course – Alison felt a bit better. And after fighting with Jeff for days, talking to someone about serious stuff on a calmer, more reassuring level was a relief for Alison.

It was even a relief to Annie as well, as although she had been to Hell and back with the group, they couldn't all understand the kind of Hell she went through before Greendale. Not in the way that another therapy veteran could.

Eventually, Alison left and helped Jeff back to normal, as evident by how they both came to group gatherings with a smile the next week. Before they knew it, it was the beginning of August and Greendale was a legitimate topic of discussion again.

Somehow, the group talking about their final year led to a discussion about paintball, and whether there'd be one last war to cap the trilogy. Alison hoped not, since she was eliminated very quickly the first two times. But Abed then blathered out that Annie wasn't good the first time, then became "kind of awesome" the next.

And that was how Annie wound up giving Alison the paintball tips she learned between the first and second war. Of course, part of her still insisted on hoping that Alison failed in front of Jeff, or that Jeff would be way more impressed with Annie's skills regardless. However, Alison turned out to be an adept learner – and tutoring real learners was not something Annie was used to. In fact, helping someone who actually wanted to learn, instead of just copying notes off her, was quite thrilling.

It culminated when Annie and Alison held a paintball duel one day at the park. Annie figured that she would gun Alison down on the first draw, but she didn't expect to be gunned down by Alison on the second one. Or even the third or fourth times. But Annie won on the fifth and sixth to make them even – yet on the decisive seventh duel, it was Alison who dived out of the way and got Annie right on the leg.

Despite losing, Annie actually felt a sense of pride that she taught Alison that well. She really was a good student. But when she went over for a high five, Annie was the one who learned something. Or at least she stopped denying that she knew this already.

Annie really liked her. She actually liked Jeff's girlfriend. She actually understood why Jeff liked her so much. And she understood how what she and Jeff had could actually be real.

This wasn't just some TV placeholder relationship to delay Jeff and Annie getting together. Jeff could actually spend a long time with this woman. If not forever, then at least it might be long enough to set too high of a bar for Annie to follow.

This was made even clearer when Jeff came over to Alison, hugged her in congratulations and gave her a brief peck on the lips. Although this wasn't intense PDA, it was the first time he had been affectionate with her like this in front of the group. Annie assumed/hoped he was holding back with Alison in public to make things less awkward for her. But that wasn't a concern anymore.

Because Alison was the only one he had feelings for now. Because they were real and he and Annie weren't. Because he was over her and had every reason to be – even if Annie still couldn't move on from Jeff that effectively.

And after Annie saw him kiss Alison and further realized that he and Jeff might never be, she knew she wasn't getting over him anytime soon. And as long as that was the case, the part of her that wanted to yell how Jeff was hers, dammit wouldn't be dead anytime soon either.

And even now – especially now that Alison was a real threat—one false move could bring that raging psycho back worse than ever.

Though there was still a month left in summer, Annie knew then that playtime was already over for her.