Some stories are meticulously plotted, with predetermined character arcs and clues revealed at the proper time to lead to a satisfying resolution. But real life is not so simple, nor are many television shows or ongoing comic series. They are messy, complicated things, where often the safest course of action is to just be a fly on the wall and observe. Still, some flies are too cool for the wall.

-Abed Nadir

"I think that shirt is working for you, actually. Goes well with the jeans. Are they Italian?"

Jeff poked his head around the door of his open locker to see who the vaguely familiar voice belonged to. A tiny Asian girl stared up at him with a perky smile that did not fit with his memories of her face. It was Annie. But not his Annie, err, Annie of the study group Annie. It was Annie Kim, of the Earth 2 and the crisis alerts, not the Annie who now made a habit of stopping by his locker on Mondays and Wednesdays. (Coincidentally always at the same time Jeff tended to debate the need for a midday wardrobe upgrade. Annie tended to vote in favor of the change, regardless of what he was actually wearing at the time)

"What?" he blurted out in response, before the compliment triggered his charm reflex, and he gave her a lopsided grin. "Oh, well yeah, I am really rocking the blue colors today. Thank you!"

Then the rest of his brain caught up. "Wait a second, why are you talking to me? I thought you said I was creepy! And you stole Annie's idea for the Model UN last year!"

Her response was to blush slightly and duck her head, breaking eye contact. Her voice was softer than he remembered as well. "Well, I didn't know you that well, and you were sort of overprotective. But after you helped save this place from Chang this summer, I decided to look you up and now I can see why she had a crush on you." She looked up at him with a coy smile. "But maybe first impressions were a mistake? Either way, you should really keep the shirt. Changing it now would probably mess up your hair. See you in class Monday!" With that, Annie Kim turned around and walked off down the hall before he could get some sort of response out. He did notice that she had the same determined but short legged stride that characterized the regular Annie when she was being formidable.

Jeff frowned in confusion. What the hell just happened? After the Model UN debate debacle, debat-acale?, Annie's Asian doppelganger had basically dropped of his radar. The two girls continued to butt heads in class, but once Annie moved into the Casa de Trobed, she evidently began to vent her annoyance to the duo at home rather than at the full study group. (Not that he missed it or anything) And now Annie Kim shows up in front of him and seems to be compli-flirting with him? And what was that about class? They didn't share any classes, and after last time, he was not going to show up in Annie's class like an overprotective paren...friend. That was kind of weird, he had to admit.

The sheer randomness of the event shook his thought processes the same way he associated with the Dean's uncomfortable appearances in the study room. Should he just ignore it and hope it blows over without someone getting all touchy-feely with his magnificent pecs? Wasn't there a girl named Kim he had ignored who then died, or something like that? And why were there so many people with similar names in this school? Kim. Annie Kim. Annie Edison. Either there was some coincidence, or maybe Abed had a point when he rambled about limits on people named Steve last year.

Jeff shook his head free of the annoying questions. Whatever. At least she made a good point. Changing his shirt would mess up his awesome hair, likely to the degree that the wardrobe swap would not make up for it. Maybe later he could nail writing a couple more pages in his most recent journal. Then he could keep it simple, focusing on writing something up to par with his usual brilliant Winger revelations. He wasn't going to over think things, and he definitely wasn't going to read anything into it. Nope. Jeffery Winger was not a teenaged (well, OK, 21 year old) girl who did things like that. He was just going to let it go and wait and see if he could make it through one week without Greendale or the study group bothering him with some disaster. It was a plan. A good plan. It would work.

"Jeffery Winger to the Dean's office, Jeffrey Winger to the Dean's office." The PA chose exactly that moment to interrupt. Well that plan lasted precisely three seconds. Still more evidence for the 'Pelton is an evil genie' theory. He was tempted to simply ignore it, but that would only make things worse. Odds were that if he didn't go, the rest of the day would be interrupted by ever more pleading messages for Jeff to come to the office, maybe with some fake promises of free styling products. He was still cranky at Annie for teaching the Dean that little trick. Plus, there was some curiosity. Just a tiny bit, mind you, but normally if the Dean wanted to talk to Jeff, he would just drop by the study room dressed in women's clothing. The sooner he got this over with, the sooner it would be over.

At least the music coming from the band room as he walked by was a cheerful tune that sort of sounded like whistling. Abed was convinced that any music not personally selected by one of them was in fact part of a grand soundtrack, and to pay attention to cues from it. At first the group had dismissed it as Abed being Abed, but he persisted and now it was as much a habit as nose-goes and counting greetings and farewells. The secretary simply waved Jeff on into the office when he arrived. A quick flash of light caught the moment and he saw one of the newspaper geeks scurry off. The study group, and Jeff as their de-facto leader, were by now essentially known by everyone on campus. The celebrity was fun, he had to admit, and the cover stories in the Greendale Gazette Journal Mirror were flattering, but the newspaper staff was also discovering the concept of paparazzi. So far it was harmless, but he didn't like where it was going and vowed to use his position as ex-editor in chief to try to squash that little idea.

"Jeffrey, come on in. And close the door behind you." The room was more dimly lit than usual, the overhead light off and lighting provided by a pair of the green Law and Order lamps that had sprouted around the campus last year. Evidently there had been a sale.

"What is it, Dean. I have class in like..." he glanced at his watch, "three hours." Pelton waved at a chair, but Jeff crossed his arms and remained standing.

"OK, well, Jeff, first I have something for you." Well, that wasn't good. Jeff cringed at the potential outcomes of that statement. Thus, he was surprised when the Dean handed him a bottle.

"What is this? Is this a bottle of Glenlivet?" He personally chose Macallan, but this was a very nice bottle of scotch.

"Why, yes it is, Jeffrey! Think of it as a gift before you hear the favor I am about to ask you."

Jeff took another look at the bottle and back at the dean. "I think by gift, you mean bribe. And I've told you before, I'm not interested. Ever. Ever."

Pelton shrugged nervously. "OK, it's a bribe. You got me. And I've come to accept that all I will have are fond memories of times at the mall and my Dean Dangerous stories."

"What?"

"Anyways, I was hoping you would do me a teensy tiny favor. You remember the problem with Ben Chang a few years back?"

Jeff took a seat and winced. "Which problem with Chang? The man is a lunatic!"

"The problem where he happened to have no actual teaching credentials."

Of course he remembered. That little incident was sparked by a certain obsessive student who was afraid the group would break up during the summer ratted out Chang. It was also the same incident where he had learned that said student was both able and willing to use her cuteness to manipulate others out of blaming her. Finally, it was the same incident that necessitated some rather costly repairs to his Lexus, including a new windshield and driver side window and repair of some keytar shaped dents in the roof. Outwardly, he kept his expression bland and simply nodded.

"Well, it turns out that a couple few other instructors here may also have been, shall we say, less than honest about their qualifications."

"Really? What sort of qualifications do you need to teach classes like Ladders, or Advanced Breath Holding, or Introduction to Learning? And how many teachers are you talking about? I know at least a few are real instructors. Whitman, Duncan, Cornwallis, Garrity/Professorson. They may be nuts, but they are real professors."

"Low blow, Jeff, low blow. You know that last one was not a real class. We had to cancel the night school shenanigans. Well, someone semi-anonymously alerted the teacher's union to Professor Speakensai, if that really his name, and they decided to look into it. They found six more fake professors. Can you believe that! Seven fake instructors in my school! Can you imagine the damage if word of this spreads and we have to cancel those classes?"

"Well, Dean, no one even noticed that this place had a fake dean for a while. I can see some professors coasting under the radar for a while. But what does this have to do with me? You know that unless it affects my course schedule or one of the others, I could give a crap. And really? Speakensai? The name didn't give it away that he was a fake?"

"In my defense, he said the name was Greek. And I know you don't like this school. You made that clear when you called it a Falujah, whatever that means, as part of kicking off that little summer vacation riot of yours."

"Don't try to guilt me, Dean. I have a tolerance now, thanks to some masters of the art. And besides, I never turned you in for hacking my e-mail. And we rescued you from captivity."

Pelton pouted at that. "You're never going to let either of those go, are you?" Jeff shook his head no. "Well, the favor I need is this: I want you to teach the Public Speaking class as a substitute until I can arrange a real replacement for Speakensai." The dean leaned forward with a pout and his best attempt at a Disney face. Why was Annie teaching the dean all her tricks to manipulate him? Even if it didn't work at all when the dean did it, (in fact it was rather creepy) it was still not cool. He stood up and turned towards the door.

"Nope, not going to do it."

"Why not?"

"Because it is bad enough that I am a student here. Being a teacher here is much worse. And I don't need anything from you." He started ticking off fingers. "Parking space, access to the faculty lounge, advanced registration. You've used up all your bargaining chips."

Pelton pointed at the bottle. "What about that?"

"Well, it is a very nice bottle of scotch, I'll give you credit for that. But you did give it to me as a gift, and I choose to think of it as an apology for the crap you put me through with your "Dean-ger Games" just to register for a class."
He took another step towards the door.

"Please, Jeffrey, I'm begging you. You are a lawyer, and good at the public speechy stuff. It would be a breeze for you to do, and they would get something out of it! It would only be fore a few weeks, a month tops. Are you sure there is nothing I can do to convince you? Anything you want, I can have arranged! Well, not anything but there are quite a few potential things I can have arranged."

Jeff considered for a moment. On one hand, it would be terrible for his reputation if people found out he chose to be a teacher at Greendale, even temporarily. On the other, his quiet search for his father now involved several private investigators, and he had been out of work after Alan blacklisted him when Pierce decided to turn to Jeff for his legal needs. Turns out that trying to find someone who couldn't leave a trail if he tried was not the cheapest venture in the world. Jeff was rapidly reaching the point where he would have to debate the merits of continuing his search versus having the money for decent food, rent, and skin care. It was worth a try. "Fine, Dean. I'll do it, but it will cost you two grand a week."

Pelton sputtered in shock. "You will? You will! Wait, two grand? I can't pay a substitute teacher that much! The other teachers would be furious!"

Jeff shrugged and leaned in close to Pelton's ear. "Take it or leave it, Dean. Though a word of advice, the others won't get angry if you don't tell them." The last was delivered in a conspiratorial whisper which made Pelton shiver.
Then he shook himself out of it.

"It wouldn't work, Jeffrey. The teachers union has spies everywhere. They would find out and call me a bad dean!"

"Actually, they'd be more likely to try to get you fired."

"That's not helping Jeffrey!" Jeff thought about it for a minute, tapping into his legal wizardry to circumvent the rules.

"How about this. You hire me as a legal consultant for two grand a week, and during that time I will volunteer my time to teach a class that is clearly in need. You aren't paying for a substitute, but a lawyer." As he saw Pelton considering it, the reactions of his friends if they found out about this little deal ran through his head.

That's not a nice thing to do, Jeffrey. Lie and cheat to get more money at the expense of the other poor teachers? I'm disappointed in you, and pray that you see how wring this is.

You jag! Figures you'd try to extort more money out of the school than you deserve. Taking advantage of the poor dean to do it, too! What do you need for anyways? More hair product to restock your safe?

I expected better than this from you, Jeff. It seems more like something Season one Jeff would do. It doesn't fit with your character development.

Every man has his price, Winger. I can sympathize. Back in '77 I was out in Kentucky...

Is that a lot of money for teaching? I guess that means teacher markets are what they are referring to when they say 'market value' food.

Annie would not say anything, just give him a huff and look of disappointment before turning her back on him and walking away, leaving him frustratedly wracked with guilt.

"Oh, and could we keep this quiet? No-one needs to know about the pay, and I'd rather not make a big deal about me doing this class teaching. Or a little deal. Or any deal at all. OK?"

Pelton smiled in agreement, immensely perky now that Jeff had agreed to the proposal and solved the riddle of how to pull it all off. "All righty. I think that will work. The board told me that they would overlook any sort of legal fees required to deal with the little Chang issue last semester, so I can just hide this away in that area." He stuck out his hand for Jeff to shake. He did, but then had to fight to free it from the Dean's grip. "As soon as I get Speakensai's lesson plans and other course material out of the evidence locker, I'll drop it off at your apartment. You said you want to be discreet after all."

Wait. Lesson plans? For a speech class? How involved was this course? What did he get himself into? Jeff let himself out of the office quickly, purposefully ignoring the fact that the Dean seemed to know where he lived as well.

Author's commentary:

I have a good reason for George Lucas-ing the first (and soon second) chapter of this story before I even get chapter 3 up. It's all Chapter 4's fault. Working on it, the character's took on a life of their own, and proceeded to act like they were much further along in the season than they should have been. I had figured out the rough course I want to go with this story, but Annie especially wanted to jump ahead a couple of dozen chapters.

Between that little issue and refining my plan for the story arc, I had to effectively write off chapter four. The plot points, though, needed to happen, and seeing how the first two chapters are so much shorter than chapter 3 is turning out to be, I decided to go back and edit them to include the plot points. In the future, I'll try to keep a lid on my urge to refine and reedit my existing work though. As for the feedback, thanks to everyone who spoke up. Glad you liked it so far.

Some background notes:

This story takes place about a month into the new semester, and about two months after Introduction to Finality.

I have read spoilers for season 4, and will be referring to a few of them loosely, but once Community comes back on the air (not soon enough) this will become an AU season 4.

I will probably break the overall story into episodes. We will see how long each episode turns out, as unlike TV, I do not have to fit everything into 22 minutes.