baby daddy | troy barnes

102 - mother hen

Aileen walked into Greendale a few days later, holding her head and cursing the sun out for being too bright. She made her way to the study table, where the rest of the group, minus Jeff, were already seated. She groaned as she caught the tail-end of an announcement on the PA. She pulled up a chair and sat quickly, a hand going to her stomach as she did so.

"Are you sick?" Abed asked blankly, surprising Aileen.

"Huh?" She responded, confusion clear on her face since she didn't think anyone noticed her behaviour yet.

"I asked if you're sick. You're holding your stomach, and yesterday, you left the room multiple times to go to the bathroom, but you walked out holding your mouth each time, meaning you went to vomit." He answered her confusion. 

"Uh, yeah, I haven't been feeling great lately. Must be some stomach bug, I don't think it's contagious, though." She said, rubbing her stomach as she felt a flutter, like butterflies in her stomach.

"Okay, hope you feel better." He returned to his prior conversation whilst Troy glanced at Aileen suspiciously. 

Jeff arrived shortly after, Aileen noted thankfully, it took the attention away from her. He went around the table, greeting everyone specifically, calling Aileen his lassie and she returned it by calling him a lad. She'd let it slip that she was Scottish sometime during the many hours of studying the group had done for the Spanish test. Since then, Jeff had taken it upon himself to call her lassie, which she couldn't deny, definitely made her swoon. She wasn't about to jump in bed with him, but she could admire the man from afar without any harm. 

The group dispersed to walk to Spanish class, where Aileen sat in the back, covering her head as the professor droned on about something extremely racist. Luckily, he practically ignored her this class, instead, focusing on her new friends of sorts. She was glad, albeit feeling a little pity towards the group of friends that had been targeted by the man. 

Chang gestured for everyone to look under their desks, everyone finding a card with either a picture or a word in Spanish. Aileen felt suddenly extremely warm as she opened up her card to find a picture of a baby on it. She glanced around the class, paranoid as she looked for her partner. Finally, she met Shirley's gaze, and they both held up their cards to find they were partners. Aileen smiled and lowered her head, telling Shirley they could discuss the project at lunch.

She walked along the crowded corridor, breathing deeply as she mustered the strength to push herself to her next class. It was a long walk from Spanish to English Lit. 

Troy fell into step with her, greeting her with a smile. "What class you got?" He asked, clutching the strap of his backpack as they walked.

"English Lit, you?" She returned, pulling the books further to her middle, hoping her t-shirt wasn't giving away the tiny bump that had grown just slightly. She now knew where Pierce had gotten his remark the first time he'd acknowledged her.

"Me too, actually. One of the classes I picked was full, so they just put me in the next timeslot. I'll walk with you." He offered, posing the last sentence as more of a question, giving her room to decline, should she want to.

Aileen smiled and nodded, "yeah, that'd be great. I hate walking across campus on my own. I get tired easily." 

It wasn't a lie; she did get tired easily. She hoped he hadn't been close with her ex, Mason, at least not enough for the beans to be spilled to him. She knew that Mason had gotten extremely drunk just a few hours after she'd told him, and went to a party one of the other football boys was hosting. It wasn't the most impossible thing to come up with.