━━ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄!
❪ cheating laws ❫

⋆        "𝗘𝗫𝗖𝗨𝗦𝗘 𝗠𝗘, 𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗢, por favour," Señor Chang said as he cleared his throat, trying to gain the attention of the Spanish classroom. His eyes scanned the room, watching the students all hush as they glanced at their professor. "Star━burns, that means you."

"My name's Alex, dude."

"Well, maybe you should spend five hours sculpting that into your face! Now, Last━" Señor Chang started to speak as he glared over at Star━burns, as he was about to keep talking before the door burst open, and Brooke ran in, panting as he wiped his forehead. Brooke looked up, smacking the guitar case in the doorway, as he whispered a quick apology as he looked to Señor Chang, who slowly placed his hands on his hip. "Any day now," Señor Chang said as Brooke exclaimed, nodding as he walked towards his desk.

"A bit late, are you?" Britta said as she leaned in, whispering as she grinned at Brooke, who sighed as he shook his head, embarrassed as he placed his face in his hands.

"I lost my guitar, and then I forgot I left it in the instrument room━ it was hectic this morning, and now I regret even getting to class because now I look like I'm crazy," Brooke whispered back as he pointed to his frazzled hair, attempting to soothe down his curls, only for them to bounce back up. Britta covered her mouth, stifling her laughter as Brooke raised his eyebrow before scrambling into his bag to find a beanie.

"Now, last night, I graded your tests. I'm sure you wanna know how you did, right? Well, surprise! I won't tell you until I find out who did this...." Señor Chang said as he held out a tiny piece of paper from his shirt pocket. Brooke leaned in, squinting his eyes as he tried to glimpse it.

"It's a tiny piece of paper, okay? That's all it is! A tiny piece of paper containing all the information covered on the test. Otherwise, it is known as a crib sheet. Who did it, huh? Mary Ann? Grandpa? Jackée? Kumar? Mariachi?" Señor Chang glanced around the room, making eye contact with the study group members. Brooke sunk in his seat as he tried to draw attention elsewhere, still attempting to find something to hide his hair before realising what he had said.

"Wait, did he just call me Mariachi, as in the Mariachi band━"

"There's one Asian stereotype that does apply to me. Whoever did this insulted my honour. And they've got 24 hours to come forward, or Mr Miyagi here will wax off everyone's score, and the whole class gets a zero! Except you, Toby."

"What!" Brooke said as he exclaimed before covering his mouth to prevent accidentally yelling out. He placed his head into his hands, complementing whether he should have come to class today.

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⋆        "𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 between Señor Chang and Stalin is that I know who Señor Chang is!" Troy said as he looked at the study group. They were back in the study room after Señor Chang had dismissed the class, and Brooke had been twirling his pen around his fingers, trying to figure out who had been cheating ━ and who was causing the risk to everyone's scores. Brooke had been doing well recently, and this score hung in the balance of his academics. Brooke was not risking it all.

"You hear him call me Jackée like I'm some black female caricature? If the good lord hadn't been watching, I'd have slapped him upside down!" Shirley said as she clasped her hands on her study books, trying to understand the events.

"Mariachi? Really? He chose any stereotype, and he went with━"

"Who do you guys think cheated?" Pierce said as he interrupted Brooke and sighed, leaning back in his chair. Immediately, all eyes from each study group, including Brooke's side eye, were towards Jeff. He cocked his head to the side as he glanced at all the study members.

"Flattering, but if I'm gonna cheat, I'm not gonna write information from a book onto paper. That's practically learning, for god's sake," Jeff said as Brooke sighed, realising that he made a good point, even if he didn't intentionally believe that Jeff would cheat. "Now, I know Brooke wouldn't cheat, so whoever made that crib sheet wasn't a real cheater, just insecure and naïve━" Jeff said as he turned his head to face Annie, who immediately became defensive as the study group looked over to her.

"I may be naïve, but I'm not stupid," Annie said as she looked over to Troy, everyone's eyes following Annie's.

"Well, I may be stupid, but I'm not trying to look like I'm not," Troy said as he snapped his head towards Pierce.

"Well, I may be a genius, but I'm not a lesbian━" Pierce said as he pursed his lips together, looking towards Britta, who immediately scoffed.

"Who cares who made the crib sheet? The only real cheater is the guy threatening everyone with a zero!" Britta said as she looked around, trying to bring the conversation back on track from deriding. Annie nodded in agreement as she raised her arms from a tiny bit of frustration.

"You're right! It's unfair, and I can't handle this stress right now. I'm already overwhelmed by my duties on the school song committee. I asked Brooke, but he denied it because of the upcoming performance assignments━which, may I add, I'm so excited to see you perform!" Annie said as she smiled, looking at Brooke, who sat in his seat. He let out a breathless chuckle and a smile, crossing his arms as he looked at the desk shyly.

"You'll see us in the front row, for sure," Jeff said as he nudged his elbow into Brooke's.

"I'm glad to know y'all are coming; it means a lot," Brooke said, his voice becoming soft. He hadn't had supportive people come to witness his dreams come true ━ and he was glad to know that it was happening so soon during his time at Greendale Community College. He couldn't help but wonder if it was all meant to be, for him to be a student at Greendale, to ensure his dreams came true. At least he was glad to know that one of his three goals was being achieved.

"Well, Annie, are you a musician?" Pierce said, trying to get Annie's attention.

"No, I hired a local composer, but he's quite a handful."

"Well, I guess that's your fault, right?"

"It is?"

"You've got an accomplished pianist and songwriter sitting three feet away! I wrote the jingle for Hawthorne Wipe's most towelettes. I would have done your song for free. Smooth move, Metamucil," Pierce said as he shook his head while Brooke covered his mouth, trying to hide his chuckle.

"I find it hard to believe that you would do it for free, Patricia━"

"Are you calling me Patricia?" Pierce questioned, and Brooke sighed as he cocked his head to the side.

"Well, you called me Bianca this morning; two can play at this game," Brooke said as he smirked, and the expression on Pierce's face drained as he scowled. Before he could respond with a comeback to his comment, Abed turned to the group, gesturing towards Troy.

"Troy could do the school song. Troy invented rap music and is related to Danny Glover and President Obama."

"Abed, have you been racist this whole time while I'm telling everyone at church what a sweet little caramel angel you are?" Shirley said, speaking in a high━pitched voice, looking over to Abed, shocked, while Troy chuckled nervously.

"Hey man, that stuff I said this morning wasn't true. I was messing with you."

"You were lying?"

"Yeah, as a joke. You... You never had somebody mess with you before?"

"Yes━ just kidding, no. Like that? This isn't a table, haha! That's funny!" Abed said as he giggled, twirling his pencil around his hands. Brooke blinked slowly, processing the strange conversation as Jeff cleared his throat, attempting to move on from the strange conversation between Troy and Abed.

"Remember when we used to study Spanish?"

━━━━━━

⋆        "𝗦𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗦 the last chance for the cheater to be an adult and face la música or everyone fails!" Señor Chang spoke as he looked at everyone. The entire Spanish classroom erupted in groans and murmurs amongst each other, but Señor Chang didn't give the class another chance to talk as he continued to speak. "You've got ten seconds starting now." The classroom started to radiate suspense as each of the study group members looked at each other, waiting to see the reveal of the cheater. Brooke tapped his pencil against the palm of his hand, breathing slowly ━ was he the one who cheated? Of course, he didn't; he studied for the test and felt like he aced it... Did he? Or maybe━

"Noo!" Annie screamed, which stopped Brooke's overthinking as he cringed in his seat. He stared momentarily at Annie, who was quiet, before turning his head. "I have never gotten a zero before..."

"I did it," Britta said as she stood up from her desk, and Brooke's eyes widened.

"Britta!" Shirley exclaimed as she turned her head to Britta. Brooke and Jeff looked up to Britta, trying to understand what had happened. Brooke was confused about why Britta cheated, but some of him didn't believe she had done it.

"Wow. You really took your sweet time with that one."

"How dare you terrorise a class by threatening their grades? It's not easy to get human beings to turn on each other," Britta said as she argued towards Señor Chang, who didn't seem bothered.

"Turn on her!" Señor Chang said as he pointed towards Britta, and if it was on cue, many screwed━up paper balls were thrown towards Britta. Brooke had to dodge some thrown balls from the back row as he covered the back of his head with his hand.

"Okay! Okay, stop throwing it at me!" Brooke said as he dodged two more balls, attempting to hit Britta but hitting Brooke. Britta grabbed her bag and started to head out, discussing the classroom's maturity as she exited, while Señor Chang chuckled as he yelled out some remarks, trying to get the last word in.

"That's right; we are mature. Too mature to sit in a class with a cheating, lying, poop face! Anyways... Time to learn some formal greetings!"

━━━━━━

⋆        𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗘𝗟𝗧𝗢𝗡 asked Brooke to partake in a jury session; he didn't think it would be about Britta's cheating case. Brooke approached the judge's table, where Dean Pelton stood alongside Señor Chang and Professor Duncan, waiting for Britta. Brooke awkwardly waved, getting Dean Pelton's attention, who exclaimed as he went down to meet Brooke.

"Hello! Thank you so much for coming in for this during your lunch. I had to ask someone from the Spanish class to be a witness during this court case━" Dean Pelton started to explain, and Brooke nodded slowly, raising his eyebrow. He wasn't sure what he was meant to do; he supposed that he was to bear witness to the situation, hoping that he didn't need to decide on Britta's final status. "━so you can take a seat here, and we need to wait for her and━"

"Brooke, what are you doing here?" Jeff said as Brooke turned around, surprised to see Jeff standing next to Britta, who took a seat in front of the judge's table.

"I'm... bearing witness? What are you doing here?" Brooke said slowly, unsure of what he was saying, and Jeff chuckled softly.

"I'm Britta's consul. Even if I'm not a practising lawyer, I still got to rep the charismatic skills I have," Jeff said as he placed his hands in his pockets before looking at Brooke, confused. "Did Pelton really ask you to be a jury member for a 'cheating on a test' case?" Jeff said as he cocked his head to the side, and Brooke shrugged his shoulders as he gestured confusedly, even unsure of what he was doing.

"Well, the more, the merrier. Also, what's with... the beanie today?" Jeff said as Brooke's eyes widened, remembering the wild curls tucked underneath. Brooke's face flushed as he chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. Jeff smirked as he reached to reveal the messy locks, only for Brooke to smack his hand away lightly.

"Absolutely not. You are not allowed to see this bird's nest━"

"Why, I'm your best friend! I feel like there are some things that I'm allowed."

"I'm taking your custody away from Carlos if you continue to talk about my hair," Brooke said as he crossed his arms, biting a smile. Before Jeff proceeded with banter, Dean Pelton cleared his throat in the microphone, which gained everyone's attention, including Brooke's, who took the cue to head towards his seat.

"All right, I am convening this disciplinary tribunal at our state━of━the━art judge's table. Which has its own built━in sound system, so take that, Yale! Heh, well, our judges include me, Dean Craig Pelton," Dean Pelton said as he spoke into the microphone, which echoed throughout the pool's room.

"Professor Ian Duncan."

"Professor Ben Chang━"

"Uh, no, you're a teacher, not a professor."

"Well, maybe because I don't look like Ron Weasley."

"What... what's going on?" Brooke whispered to himself as Professor Duncan and Señor Chang started to bicker with each other; even Dean Pelton couldn't intervene between the two, so Jeff had to bring the attention back to the matter at hand.

"Gentlemen, point of order. How can Señor Chang be one of the judges? He's the one accusing my client."

"You got Prince Charles over here as your drinking buddy━"

"Oh, got me!"

"Well, there are two biases, one on each side. And I go both ways━ Oh, let's strike that. LaShonda, can we please strike that? I am impartial, so it should all work out! Okay, let's begin," Dean Pelton said as he cleared his throat, looking to Professor Duncan to begin the trial. Brooke sat in his chair, straightening his back as he prepared to... Bear witness? Brooke still wasn't sure what he was supposed to do here, but he was promised a free lunch voucher afterwards, so he stuck around.

"Fine, uh, the tribunal calls teacher Chang━"

"Okay, just keep it up, Frost/Nixon. I was planning on doing that, cleared my whole day."

"Uh, Mr Chang, could you remind us of yesterday's events?"

"Oh, with great pleasure. It was a Tuesday, uh, crack of dawn, 5:58 am. I got up; I took my morning deuce. I made breakfast of━" Señor Chang started to speak, and Brooke began to tune out the background noise of the pool. Brooke sighed as his posture started to loosen, and he slumped in his chair, listening to the recaps of Chang's morning. Safe to say, Brooke was about to become even more confused than he already was.

━━━━━━

⋆        𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗘 𝗗𝗢𝗘𝗦𝗡'𝗧 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗪 how long it's been since Señor Chang began speaking. He scanned the room, looking at each of their faces, checking to see if they were just as confused as he was. He looked over to Jeff, who had changed from sitting to leaning against the room, listening to Señor Chang continue to drone on. He turned to face Brooke, making eye contact and sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. Brooke let out a breathless chuckle as he closed his eyes, wanting to rest them for a moment. He assumed the pool's chlorine made his eyes strain and reached up to rub them slowly.

"Then she yelled, 'screw you' or, 'screw education', or something like that. Then she stormed out of the room in her high━heel boots like it was tampon time, if you know what I mean━"

"Objection, I don't know what he means."

"Please... Please don't encourage him. Do you have any more questions?" Professor Duncan questioned as he looked at Jeff, who nodded softly and faced the Judge's table.

"The defence calls the witness, Brooke Flores," Jeff spoke, as Brooke stifled a cough, unexpected to hear his name. He looked over to the table, who sighed, and Brooke slowly stood up, placing his bag on the seat he was previously at as he made his way to the witness stand. He clasped his hands together on his lap as Brooke cleared his throat, waiting for Jeff to continue. "You are Britta Perry's classmate, correct?"

"Uh, yes, I am... Britta's classmate," Brooke said as he leaned into the microphone.

"Would you classify Britta as someone who would cheat?" Jeff said as he tilted his head to the side, and Brooke cleared his throat as he glanced at Britta, who was sitting opposite Jeff. Brooke bit his lip softly as if to process the question in his head, and he wasn't sure.

"No, I don't think Britta would have cheated," Brooke said as he finally thought about it, and he looked over to Britta, seeing a soft smile appear before disappearing as Señor Chang started to interrupt Brooke's sentence. However, Brooke was quick to give a response. "Yes, I may also be one of Britta's friends, but from my perspective, she's been studying with us, and I don't see any mean intent to cheat in a class!"

"Thank you, Brooke━" Dean Pelton started to say, but Brooke continued to speak.

"Also, it just seems weird that one cheater would bring down the entire classroom's grades, and I don't see Britta being that type of person━" Brooke stammered, trying to get the point across, not realising that he was rambling for a while until he caught both Jeff and Britta's eye contact, making him stop. He cleared his throat and stood up, nearly bumping the microphone off the stage. Brooke caught it at the last minute, creating some microphone feedback, and he cringed as he apologised quietly and returned to his seat, clearing his throat to clear some of the awkwardness away.

"The defence now calls Britta Perry," Jeff said as Britta rolled her eyes and attempted to approach the stand ━ scrambling and hopping up onto the judge's podiums.

"Now, are those the high━heel boots he was talking about? Are they comfortable? I'm just curious; they're cute!"

"Miss Perry, did you make that crib sheet?" Jeff said as Britta's eyes fluttered slowly, and Brooke immediately could tell that she had never done it in the first place. He smirked slightly, knowing that her tale had been revealed, as he sat back in his seat, waiting to see the reveal begin. When Britta quietly spoke 'no' into the microphone, Señor Chang immediately went to protest against the statement.

"She confessed!"

"She confessed to protecting her classmates because you threatened to flunk everyone!" Jeff said as he paced towards the side where Britta was standing. After Jeff spoke, Professor Duncan scoffed as he turned his head towards Señor Chang, who shrugged his shoulder, not caring about what he had said.

"You did what━"

"Oh, shut your pompous vortex of overlapping fangs!"

"Hey, British dentistry is not on trial!"

"Dean Pelton, I move this case to be thrown out of the pool area."

"Well, it certainly━", Dean Pelton started to speak before immediately pausing as a student swimming in the pool walked past the judge's table. "Well, it certainly sounds to me that this young lady's only crime is being a hero and wanting to be taller. This tribunal is adjourned━" Dean Pelton said as he lifted the judge's gavel, but as he could bang it, Britta interrupted.

"Wait, I cheated!"

"And we're back━"

"Objection. My client did not cheat," Jeff said as he glared at Britta, but Britta wasn't letting him down that easy.

"Yes, I did."

"Yes... She did, but why? That's the real question. The world wasn't the only thing that changed on September 11th━" Jeff said as the rest of the judge's table all groaned, talking over each other while leaning against his chair. Brooke face━palmed himself, witnessing Jeff's attempts to defend Britta ━ which he was puzzled by: why did Britta instantly retract her innocence? Brooke noticed the micro━expression on Jeff's face, sensing the rising panic. "Five━minute recess?"

"No, no. There's nothing in the bylaws about recesses, all right? The wheels of justice here don't stop just because━ oh!" Dean Pelton yelled out an exclaim of surprise as a diver splashed water all over the judge's table, most of it going onto the judges themselves. "I know, everyone, time out, time out! Save the table, save the table!"

"Britta, come with me. Brooke, I need a consult."

━━━━━━

⋆        "𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗟 are you doing out there?" Jeff said as he placed both hands on his hips, his suit jacket resting on Brooke's lap. Britta sighed as she became flustered, avoiding eye contact. Brooke sat across from Britta, watching Jeff's reactions as he placed a hand underneath his chin. The trio gathered in one of the pool's locker rooms while having their five━minute break to discuss.

"You know I have a problem with dishonesty!" Britta said as Jeff scoffed softly, looking to Brooke to see if he heard the same thing. Brooke furrowed his eyebrows towards Britta, mouth slightly opened as he appeared to put the pieces of evidence together.

"You're on trial for cheating!"

"A trial in which I genuinely cannot tell if you did cheat or not━ which I'm not saying you did! I want some things cleared up and making sure I follow along correctly because I'm pretty sure I'm like... five information behind everyone," Brooke said as he tilted his head towards Britta, and before she could say something, Jeff sighed as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Look, we'll be fine. I have to go back out here and make the case that you're a good person. We are already off to a great start because of Brooke's... Testimonial? Witness statement? Whatever he did to provide your innocence━" Jeff explained as he started to figure out another plan before Britta interjected the conversation.

"You don't know that! You're just doing all this because you wanna sleep with me; I mean, you said it yourself━ you don't even wanna be my friend," Britta blurted out, and Brooke's eyes widened as he became quiet, sensing that this may be a personal conversation between the two.

"Wait a minute, wait. Is that━ is that what you thought I meant?" Jeff said softly as he looked at Britta, who turned away from Jeff and Brooke's eye contact. Jeff glanced at Brooke, who inhaled softly as he tried to figure out how to resolve this problem. It was clear that Britta was dealing with conflicts within herself because of cheating (which Brooke was sure she did not cheat), and Brooke wasn't sure what to do. But what Britta had just said was the only thing swirling around Brooke's mind.

"Britta, look at me. Look at me━"

"I am!"

"No, look how handsome my face is. If all I wanted was sex, I could get it from plenty of women without going through all this crap," Jeff spoke as Britta's shoulders slumped while Brooke's shoulders tensed. The polar opposite of reactions from Brooke and Britta had different meanings that no one will ever really understand. "I'm here because I like you. And I'd━ I'd be psyched to be your friend. I didn't wanna take sex off the table without doing my due diligence. And I'm sure Brooke is here because he likes you too, he's your friend. We both want to help you."

"I actually believe you."

"Well, why wouldn't you?"

"I don't know. I guess it's the same reason that I cheated. I have more experience being worthless. I left that crib sheet on the floor because I wanted to get caught at it. I'm so used to screwing everything up; I just wanted to get it over with," Britta confessed, and Brooke immediately got up to sit next to her, placing Jeff's jacket carefully on his lap again. He grabbed Britta's hand and held it as Brooke sighed.

"Listen, Britta, I completely understand the sense of worthlessness. It's a sense of dread that is a plague, and I feel it every day, but I try to forget about it and put a smile on my face. Do you know why? Because of you, because of Jeff, because of the study group," Brooke said as he tilted his head, looking at Britta and watching her facial expression flutter with nervousness and then feeling a sense of understanding of Brooke's words. "You aren't alone here, Britta; everyone goes crazy every once in a while."

"Wait... I think we have our defence," Jeff said as Brooke and Britta looked at him. Brooke let go of Britta's hand and softly touched Jeff's suit jacket on his lap. He stood up, taking out the jacket for Jeff to put his arms through. Jeff thanked him softly, turning around as Brooke placed his jacket on. As Jeff turned around, Brooke smoothed out Jeff's shoulders before looking towards Britta.

"Let's go defend you."

━━━━━━

⋆        "𝗚𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗟𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡, 𝗠𝗬 𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗧 is insane."

"Oh my god━" Brooke said as he muttered to himself, covering his face with one hand as he peeked through his fingers. Of every defence Jeff could have used, he decided to use the one that made no sense. Brooke said as he watched everyone's face immediately turn to confusion, even Britta, who was taken aback by Jeff's approach. The judges all turned to whisper to each other as Jeff stood there with a hand in his pocket.

"Gentlemen, I'm sure you suspected Miss Perry was pretty odd before the recess. But if you could've heard all the stuff she just told me and my witness, Brooke, in the shower, you would realize she is all the way out of her entire damn mind. She doesn't want to succeed because she doesn't think she can. So, she goes out of her way to fail. That's crazy! But do we really wanna make it a crime to be crazy at Greendale?" Jeff said as he started to explain his reasoning. Brooke couldn't help but feel intrigued as he continued to listen. "I mean, you two are arguing about status at a college that correspondence schools make fun of. Dean, you want so bad for this place to be Ivy League that you are putting us at risk of electrocution. Even our Brooke here is wearing a beanie in the summer because he's having a bad hair day; that's crazy!"

"Hey, don't include me in this statement━"

"Because everyone on this campus is nuts."

"Not me!"

"Oh, come on, Leonard! If you're gonna argue with me, wear a bathing suit."

"Busted!" Leonard yelled around, and Brooke became flustered as he covered his face again, waiting for this to happen.

"If you wanna rehabilitate your fellow inmate, you must sentence her to stay with us. Because if crazy people can't be at Greendale, where should we go?" Jeff said as he finished speaking, and Brooke raised his eyebrow, looking towards the judges' table to see whether they would take his defence approach. However, he wasn't expecting Jeff to have successfully convinced them.

"Wow. Under the circumstances, I recommend that the accused be fully exonerated. On the condition she receives psychological counselling every week from a trained mental health professional━ I'm thinking maybe Fridays, 9━ish, something like that, all in favour, say 'aye'."

"What━"

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⋆        "𝗢𝗡𝗘, 𝗧𝗪𝗢, 𝗟𝗨𝗜𝗦 Guzman! Oh! All right, Luis! You know, Greendale may never be Harvard━" Dean Pelton said as he revealed the Luis Guzman statue. Brooke chuckled softly, running his hand through his hair ━ which had been out of his beanie for a while. He didn't care about it anymore, realising it didn't matter anymore. Brooke watched from a distance as he noticed Jeff sitting next to Britta. For a moment, he thought it wouldn't be wise, but then his legs were already making their way towards the bench.

"Hey, you two. How's everyone feeling?" Brooke said as he stood next to the bench, where Britta looked up, making eye contact. He gave a soft smile, and Britta responded, giving the same one back as she moved slightly to allow Brooke to sit next to her. Jeff sat on the other side and watched Brooke sit on the bench.

"Gotta say, can't believe Jeff managed to find a loophole to keep you here, Britta," Brooke spoke as he placed a leg over his knee, watching the students gather around for a performance. Jeff clasped his hands on the study books on his lap as he smirked.

"I always find a way to cheat laws; it's what a lawyer does," Jeff said as he sighed, and Brooke gave a breathless chuckle. Before the pair could continue their banter, Dean Pelton gained everyone's attention again.

"With that, I'd like to introduce our student, Pierce Hawthorne, who's written Greendale its school song! Pierce, okay!" Dean Pelton said as he started to clap, signalling for him to begin.

"Thank you, Dean, thank you. This song goes out to Annie for believing in me!" Pierce said as he started to play a few piano notes. Brooke raised his eyebrow, waiting to see how this Greendale community song ended as he crossed his arms across his chest. He scooted to the left to give some more space at the other end of the bench for Abed to sit.

"Standing in the bookstore line, waiting for the bell to chime so you can go to class. Dancing in your underwear, taking air conditioner repair━"

"Wait... Isn't this━"

"Is this Bruce Hornsby's?"

"Yup," Jeff said, confirming Brooke and Abed's suspicions. Brooke sighed, but he couldn't help his giggles as he covered his mouth, stifling his laughter. Brooke could feel a light elbow tap him on the side of his ribcage from Britta, but he could also feel her smiling slightly.

"Does he know he stole it?"

"I don't think so. Let him enjoy it."

"Could we get sued?" Abed questioned, and Jeff shrugged his shoulders, unsure what would happen. Brooke faced the performance again, watching Pierce play the piano and continue to sing.

"Greendale's the way it goes..." Pierce sang out, and Brooke looked at the others, biting his bottom lip to stop smirking, hearing the familiar tune.

"Yeah, they got us."

"Some things are still the same, slop pails and pantyhose. Oh, Annie believes in me!"

"This... This is our school's song now━"

"It's best not to question it... It gives us evidence regardless," Jeff said as he smirked, and Brooke couldn't help but give another breathless chuckle. Sitting━between them, Britta elbowed both to be quiet during the performance, but it wasn't enough to wipe the smiles off their faces.

𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒!
✶ i finally have this chapter out!! i have just been trying to figure out some storylines that i am wanting to incorporate into this, especially since i have reworked some of brooke's character as a whole! but however, i really hope you enjoyed this chapter!! make sure to give it lots of love <3

𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞𝗦 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚!