Title: Seven Deadly Sins (1/7) - Wrath
Author: Carly
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Study group, J/A
Spoilers: Up to 2.24
Rating/Warnings: PG
Word Count: Part 1: 2,610
Disclaimer: I don't own Community.
Summary: Annie and Jeff can't keep their arguing to themselves.
Notes: These can also be seen as standalone fics, but I wanted to play around with something different and the seven deadly sins theme sprang to mind! This chapter takes place at the beginning of season three.

01. Wrath

"Since we've segregated into a boys group and a girls group we should really take the opportunity to put on a performance of Summer Nights," said Abed, sipping his diet soda. "Jeff, you'll be Danny of course. Troy, we can arm wrestle to see who's Kenickie."

Troy shoved another cookie in his mouth. "No way, man," he said, spraying crumbs everywhere. "Last time we arm wrestled you nearly broke me. We need a fair fight – like wrestling a bear."

"I've got a good idea," said Jeff, pushing his lunch tray aside. "How about we rewind this conversation fifteen seconds, hide it in a box, maybe add a nice bow, and label it 'things that are ridiculous and should never be mentioned again'?"

"What's the bow for?" said Abed. "If something's that ridiculous it doesn't really deserve to be decorated does it?"

"What if we just put stickers on it or something?" said Troy. "That's how I used to wrap presents for my mom when I was little. It looked fancy but, like, crap fancy."

Jeff glared at them over his cup of coffee. "I'm going to need a bigger box."

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud crash across the cafeteria. They turned their heads to see that Pierce had dropped half his lunch on the ground after tripping over Starburns' cape (top hats were deemed too 'second year'). Annie leapt up from where she was sitting with Shirley and Britta to help him, but he just gave her a forced smile and motioned that he could handle things fine without her. Jeff noticed the way Annie's face fell when Pierce sat by himself in the corner and started to eat what was left of his mac and cheese.

"Is her 'someone just stabbed a baby penguin' look affecting you yet?" said Abed, causing Jeff to turn around.

"No," he scoffed. "And it's not going to either."

"History begs to differ."

Troy swept some stray crumbs off the table. "Maybe we should just ask Pierce to re-join the group like Annie said. It'd make things a lot less weird at home for me."

"At least he didn't kick you out on the street," said Jeff.

"Yeah but he doesn't even talk to me anymore," said Troy, downcast. "I never thought I'd miss hearing about how many diseases his penis has caught. They were good times."

Abed nodded, taking another sip of his drink. "The group balance needs to be restored."

"Guys, you're missing one vital point here," said Jeff. "Pierce doesn't want to be back in the group. He made it very clear last semester that he's done with us so I don't see why we should waste our energy."

"But Annie said the exact opposite of that."

"I know what Annie said, Troy, or did you miss the never-ending argument she and I had this morning over it?"

"Actually, I kind of just started to daydream when you both wouldn't shut up and Annie kept saying 'hence' to make herself sound important," he shrugged. "I did think up some pretty kickass names, though, if I ever started a band."

"Ooh, lay one on me," said Abed.

"Fang Assassin," grinned Troy. "That's if we played metal. And if we rapped it'd be Sergeant Slick and the Dope Crew."

"I'm in. Jeff, wanna arm wrestle to see who gets to beatbox?"

Jeff grabbed his things and stood up. "I'd love to but I'm late for something that will get me away from this conversation. See ya."

He passed the girls on his way out of the cafeteria, rolling his eyes when Annie deliberately turned away from him.

"How long are you two going to keep this up for?" sighed Shirley. "Do I need to put both of you in a time out?"

"I'll be civil with Jeff when he accepts the fact that he's being an insensitive jerk," stated Annie, nibbling at one of the brownies Shirley had brought in.

Britta rested her arm on the back of the booth. "You might be waiting a while."

"Well I'm not about to cave in and admit defeat," frowned Annie.

"No one said you had to," said Shirley. "But you might be battling a lost cause. What Pierce lacks in sensitivity and manners, he makes up for in pure stubbornness. That man is not going to change his mind about coming back to the group."

"Shirley's right, Annie," said Britta. "I feel bad for the guy, I do. And who knows, maybe I'll even miss having someone call me a lesbian on a daily basis. But we have to move on."

Annie shook her head. "I refuse to accept that. We have a broken family and I'm going to make sure it gets fixed – hence, I'm going to start work on Plan B." She hoisted her backpack on and strode away with a determined glint in her eyes.

"Plan B?" said Shirley. "What's with Plan B?"

"What's with hence?" said Britta. "I feel like I need to curtsy around her."

"She's lost her damn mind."

The next morning during study group Annie slid a neatly typed six-page document titled 'Operation Pierce: Plan B' across the table towards Jeff.

"No," he said, not even glancing up from his phone.

"But—"

"Nuh-uh."

"Jeff! Can you at least read it?" huffed Annie. "I spent most of the night putting that together."

He casually started up another game of Solitaire. "I don't need to read it because I'm not buying what you're selling."

"But I made pie charts."

"And I made my bed this morning. Both of those sentences are equally as boring as each other."

Annie pouted and gave the others an imploring look. "Guys, help me out here would you?"

Shirley and Britta glanced at one another in defeat while Troy stared off into space, chuckling to himself. "Sergeant Slick collaborating with MC Hammer – genius!" Receiving a whack on the arm from Britta, Troy shook himself from his daydream and attempted to focus. "Um... my answer to whatever you're talking about is yes... or Doritos."

"What Troy meant to say," said Shirley, patting Annie on the arm, "is that we understand where you're coming from, but we can also see Jeff's point of view too."

"We do miss having Pierce around in a weird kind of way," added Britta. "Like yesterday when he dropped his crap everywhere, I wanted to tell him off about not having any vegetables for lunch but I knew he wouldn't care."

Shirley nodded. "And I had one extra brownie left over in my bag because I forgot we were down to six people now."

"It is strange not having someone to sit next to," said Troy, eyeing off Pierce's empty seat. "I miss trying to convince him that he could get Twitter on his calculator."

"What's everyone talking about?" said Abed, entering the room.

"You're just in time for the Pierce Hawthorne memorial service," replied Jeff. "Apparently we're going to speak about him now like he's dead and not just wandering around campus by himself because he wants to."

"He's not wandering; I saw him sitting at one of the study corrals outside." Abed rested his book satchel on the table and glanced at Annie's paper. "What's Plan B all about?"

"It's the world's first A4-sized sleeping pill."

Annie clucked at Jeff in annoyance and snatched back her work. "Ignore Mr 'I play Solitaire as a metaphor for my sad little life' over there."

"For your information," drawled Jeff, "I've moved onto Words With Friends."

"Oh cool, so it's like another version of Solitaire for you then?" Annie smirked. "You know, because you're allergic to having friends?"

"Yeah, I got that, Captain Obvious."

Britta buried her face in her hands. "Shirley can you please grab the sleeping pill papers from Annie so we can all knock ourselves out?"

"Never mind that," said Annie. "Abed, what was Pierce like when you saw him? Was he sad? Did it look like he needed a hug?"

Abed cast his mind back. "He looked... gassy."

"Classic Pierce," Troy quietly murmured.

"OK, waxing nostalgic about someone's flatulence problem is where I draw the line," said Jeff, shoving his phone in his pocket and collecting his folder. "I'll see all you weirdos later."

"Yeah, you just run away, Jeff," said Annie. "May as well stick to what you know."

"Don't start with the feelings crap, Annie," he warned. "I've given enough speeches by now to show that I'm with this group for better or worse till death do us part. If you really want to shun someone for taking the easy way out, then you should be talking to Grandpa Gassy."

"He didn't take the easy way out, Jeff, we practically pushed him out!"

"Because that's what he wanted!" Jeff gazed around the room. "You heard the guy last semester; he wanted to keep testing us until we broke. As far as I can see we've all got trust issues we need to work on, and it's going to take a lot more than pie charts to fix it."

The group fell silent as Jeff stormed out the doorway... then awkwardly stormed back in a few moments later to retrieve his forgotten jacket.

"I'll give the pie chart speech a nine and the majestic exit a five."

"Shut up, Abed."

The group made their way down the busy corridor after finishing lunch, the air still uneasy between Jeff and Annie.

"I'm telling you," said Troy, patting his stomach. "Tater tots are the new chicken fingers. They're like the Kickpuncher of food."

"So what you're saying is they're horrible and outdated?" said Jeff

"Um, no, smart guy, I mean they're awesome and inspirational."

"They're tiny bits of potato."

Troy folded his arms. "I'm not about to be judged by someone who thinks a hard boiled egg is a filling meal. It's like you're training for a Miss Universe pageant."

"Hey, did anybody see this?" Abed took a flier from a nearby noticeboard. "Greendale's going to try and set a new world record in a few weeks – the most Monopoly games being played at the same time in the same room." He handed the flier to Troy. "It's no 'world's largest pancake' but it'll do."

"Oh, I love Monopoly!" smiled Annie.

"I hate Monopoly," said Britta.

"Shocker," muttered Troy.

"It's capitalism at its worst," she continued. "And you know what else it represents?"

"Oh, sweetie," cooed Shirley, "no one cares."

Jeff was the first to reach the study room but he ground to a complete halt at the entryway causing everyone to crash into him. Their murmurs of discontent turned into surprise when they saw the reason for his abruptness. Pierce was sitting in his old spot, hands clasped together, calmly waiting for them.

"Pierce," said Jeff, evenly.

"Winger," Pierce replied, just as coolly.

Everyone slowly made their way to their seats, Troy staring at Pierce as if he were a mirage.

Annie couldn't help a warm smile spreading across her face. "It's really nice to see you, Pierce. Are they new glasses?"

He nodded. "I accidentally dropped my old ones in the toilet last week after I dropped the kids off at the pool, if you know what I mean." They groaned in disgust. "But enough with the pleasantries; that's not what I'm here for."

"Why are you here?" said Jeff, leaning back in his chair.

"Not that we aren't happy to see you," Annie interrupted, shooting a warning glance at Jeff. "We're just surprised that you took the first step."

"In my few days back at Greendale I came to realize two things," said Pierce. "One, spending more than half an hour in the company of Garrett is like spending time with a lame horse – you just want to shoot them to end their misery. And two..." He cleared his throat. "I may or may not need to work on my trust issues with the people that deserve my trust the most."

Shirley and Annie quietly "aww'ed" together while the others admired his honesty.

Britta's eyebrows knitted together, though, as something struck her. "Hang on a minute; we were just talking about that exact thing this morning. How did you—"

Pierce pulled something out of his pocket. "New and improved Mini-Earnoculars."

"The group's umbilical cord," Abed mused. "Pierce made the grand gesture of leaving the nest but couldn't completely let go. He still needed to feel like he was part of the group."

"Actually, I just wanted to make sure you weren't talking crap about me," said Pierce, but a faint smile ghosted his lips.

"Does this mean you're coming back to the group?" asked Annie, unable to mask the hope in her voice.

"Last semester was a pretty hectic time for me; for all of us. And that's not going to be easy to forget. Pills, babies, forays into lesbianism," Pierce peered over his glasses at Britta before continuing. "But I've been thinking... what if we had a trial run of being a study group again? See if we can resist the urge to want to kill one another. What do you all say?"

Everyone appeared to favorably consider the idea, except for Jeff whose face remained unreadable.

"You've been quiet, Winger," noted Pierce. "Cat got your weiner?"

Troy sighed contentedly. "It's already like old times."

"Look, Jeff, we all know the buck stops with you, let's not kid ourselves." Pierce gestured his arm out in a questioning fashion. "So what's your verdict?"

Six pairs of eyes turned to Jeff expectantly. "I say..." a small smile spread across his face, "it'll be good to have the overwhelming stench of your aftershave and arthritis cream back in the room again."

"Gay," Pierce replied, but shared a smile and a nod of understanding with him.

The group wound up their meeting a while later and started to filter out, Troy and Abed excitedly informed Pierce about the tater tots while Shirley placed a brownie in his hand before linking arms with Britta to gush about baby Ben.

Jeff and Annie were the last ones left, taking their time to pack up their things.

"So..." said Annie.

"So..." echoed Jeff, before breaking out into a grin and high-fiving her.

"Operation Pierce was a complete success!" she beamed.

"I knew his ego wouldn't be able to resist hearing everyone go on about him. You're lucky you spotted him wearing those earnoculars the first day back."

Annie adjusted her backpack. "He just needed to realize we genuinely missed him." She saw Jeff screw up his nose. "Yes, even you. I knew if you and I argued enough about Pierce we'd get everyone else talking and the rest would fall into place."

"Speaking of," said Jeff, falling into step beside her as they walked out, "those insults seemed to come a little too naturally there."

She caught the teasing tone and played along. "You know me, I always try to sound convincing. It's not like you held back either!"

"Fair point."

"At least with this charade we didn't have to fake shoot anyone."

"Or hear about time desks."

Annie nudged Jeff's arm. "You do realize that you'll have to go easy on Pierce don't you? Even if he insults you, try not to be too mean. Just give him time to adjust." She glanced up at him through her eyelashes. "Think you can do that?"

Jeff looked pained but nodded at her, clutching his folder to his chest. "If only this folder were a time folder," he muttered, "and I could go back and change my mind..."

Next chapter - Greed