Summary: This AU takes place while Jess is in her third year of college. She's studying law at UCLA, but all she's ever wanted is to be a teacher, and law school is killing her. Her best friend is breaking out as a model and her boyfriend is a sexy med student, but she still feels like something is wrong. She's trying to figure out what to do when she meets Nick Miller, a fellow third year law student. He seems just as unsettled as her, and despite their very different outlooks, they start to become friends. He's encouraging her to throw off her responsibilities and chase her passions, but she isn't sure she's ready...or if what to do about the feelings she has for him.

Title: Definitely borrowed from the Taylor Swift song "22," because I love the scene from 2.16 when Nick dances to it...but also because it fits what Jess is going through in this story.

Pairings: Ness & Schmece

Twenty-Two.
Chapter One.

Jessica Day was twenty-one, about to start her third year of law school at UCLA, and miserable.

She wasn't miserable as a regular rule. In fact, she'd been voted Person Most Likely To Cheer You Up all four years of high school, a title she was still proud of (Cece thought they should leave high school behind them, but Jess couldn't help it). It was just…law school. It was killing her. It wasn't that she wasn't smart enough, or driven enough – she was one of the best 2Ls last year. She was clever, organized, and outgoing. She had everything she needed to be a successful lawyer. She also had the greatest, most beautiful best friend in the world in Cece, and she was living in glamorous, beautiful Los Angeles.

She was miserable because she did not want to become a lawyer. At all.

At this point, it was probably too late to switch majors without setting herself way back, and of course she couldn't afford the extra semesters she'd need to graduate with anything other than a law degree…but she just couldn't imagine herself working at some firm, spending all of her time digging through people's worst baggage or else helping companies get out of being sued for insane amounts of money.

Her whole life, she'd wanted to work with kids. Or have kids. Or both. It didn't really matter, so long as kids were in the picture. She'd just assumed that she'd be a teacher or run a day care. But when it had come time to apply to college, her father had been very firm: his little girl was far too smart to slave away for terrible pay and sub-par healthcare. Nothing she'd said had swayed him, and weeks of tears hadn't changed his mind either. So in the end, desperate for his help to pay for college, she'd accepted his terms: pre-law or medical school.

Which left her in her present predicament.

It wasn't all bad, of course. She lived with Cece in an apartment not far from campus. Cece had already been a model for three years and was doing pretty well for herself. Her model friends often crashed too, and while Jess didn't exactly fit in with that crowd, she had to admit that she was learning a lot about fake eyelashes and fashionable footwear from them. Plus her boyfriend Sam was tall, gorgeous and in his last year of UCLA's medical school.

She took a deep breath and shoved her misgivings aside. Nothing in her life was that bad, she just needed to find a different way to look at it. She wasn't sure how she was going to do that yet, but it would come to her. Jessica Day was never down for long, no ma'am.

She hummed to herself, trying to perk up as she entered her lecture hall and found a seat. She just had to make it through this class and then she could hang out with Cece or, even better, make out with Sam.

The lecture hall wasn't anywhere near full by the time the professor strode in. At this point, many of the students she'd started with had disappeared, just as her teachers had predicted they would. And others had moved on into different specialties. Jess had decided to focus on General law, but Business law was a particularly popular choice, at least for the other 3Ls this year.

The professor had been talking to them for about ten minutes when the door behind Jess opened. Someone was late, and while the professor didn't seem to be bothered, several of the other students glanced up curiously. A young man strode in without a shred of apology for his tardiness. He'd managed to look slightly disheveled even though his clothes were simple and neat. He had stubble and sleepy eyes, and he looked about as bored with this whole law-school routine as Jess felt. She recognized him, although they'd never spoken. He was Nick Miller, kind of the bad-boy of their year, and she knew a few of the girls in class had die-hard crushes on him.

He slid into a seat in her aisle, leaving a couple of empty chairs between them, and settled in for the lecture without even bothering to pull out his notes. Jess thought about offering him hers so he could catch up, but decided against it. He didn't look like he was too concerned about it. She pulled her eyes away from him, straightened her shoulders, and tried to focus on the professor. Focus didn't last too long, however. She'd never been this close to Nick Miller before, and she peeked at him again. She could see now why the girls in her class liked him. He had that kind of sexy-without-trying thing going on, and he gave off this vibe, like he had everything figured out already and he was just going through the motions.

He glanced at her, caught her staring, and gave her a quick smirk. A blush immediately flooded her cheeks and she whipped her head forward again. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she focus today? And what would Sam say if he could see her ogling some unimpressed law student?

She pictured her boyfriend's handsome face, especially that big smile of his, and didn't look at Nick again throughout the rest of the lecture.

-22-

By the time class was over, Jess thought she was ready to scale the walls of the lecture hall using her fingernails. She burst out of the room into the bright sunlight, breathing in deeply. She wouldn't exactly call the air in Los Angeles fresh, but it was nice to be outside again. It was another perfect day, and she tilted her head back to feel the sun on her face.

A hand came down on her shoulder, causing her to jump. Her eyes flew open and she turned to see Nick Miller standing just behind her. She blushed again, wondering what he must think of her after catching her staring and then sunning herself like a cat.

"You left this in there." He was holding out one of her books. She scooped it out of his hands.

"Oh, uh, thanks—"

"Don't blame you for wanting to get the hell out of there," he said, studying her face without shame. He had a slight accent she couldn't quite place.

"Yeah. Boring, right? Mr Peters is soooooo dullllllll," she sang, and then clamped her mouth shut when he stared at her in confusion. She reminded herself that not everyone burst into song at the slightest provocation, and if there was anyone less likely to join in a musical refrain than Nick Miller, she couldn't think of them.

"Right." He shook his head, and he must have hit his weird limit because he fell silent after that. "Well, uh. Glad I caught you. See you around."

"Definitely. Because we're both in this class. So I'll see you soon. I have a boyfriend named Sam." Why couldn't she stop rambling? She could feel how wide her eyes had gotten and she somehow managed to shut up.

Nick surprised her by laughing. "Yeah, okay. See you soon, Sam's girlfriend," he said, and then he turned and strode away.

"I'm…Jess," she murmured as he walked away, thinking she probably should have led with that instead of the singing. With a big sigh, she tucked her book into her bag and headed for the parking lot. She was definitely ready for some drinks and hopefully some hot make-out action with Sam.

-22-

Cece was already home when Jessica walked through the door, dumping all of her bags onto the ground and then rushing to throw herself onto the couch. Cece was completely unfazed by her dramatics. She strode over to the couch and perched herself on the edge of one of the cushions, rubbing Jess's back in soothing circles.

"Okay, what happened?" she asked, addressing the back of her friend's head.

"I'm so embarrassing!" Jess cried, her voice extremely muffled by the couch cushions. "Nick Miller talked to me and I sang about how boring class was!"

Cece didn't have the slightest idea who 'Nick Miller' was, but she made sympathetic noises and kept rubbing Jess's back. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

"No, it was. He looked at me like I'm crazy."

"I might have just the thing to cheer you up," Cece said, and Jess emerged at last from the depths of the couch.

"What?" she asked, pushing long strands of hair out of her face.

"A frat party!" Cece beamed at her. "Tonight at nine. I already texted Sam and he said he'd meet us there. Our first frat party this year, Jess! It'll be fun!"

"How is it that you don't even go to school here and you still get invited to more parties than me?" Jess complained, but Cece knew she wasn't really upset.

"Perks of being a model," she said, waving a hand. "Let's pick out something to wear!"

Jess allowed herself to be pulled into Cece's room. She didn't really feel like going to a frat party, but Cece thrived in that environment and she thought she could probably use a distraction. School had really been getting her down and her antics today were still heavy on her mind. Getting drunk and dancing to pop songs she didn't recognize sounded like just what she needed.

"Okay, so I think for you we should go with something like…slutty off-duty nurse," Cece said, rummaging through her closet. Jess burst out laughing.

"With an extra side of slutty," she insisted, and then paused. "What exactly does an off-duty nurse look like?"

Cece shrugged and held up a tiny bundle of red fabric that Jess supposed was a dress. "I thought we'd go for a medical thing for Sam. I'm sure he's into the hot nurse thing."

"I mean, who isn't? 'I hope you're ready for your sponge bath, Sir…'" Jess mussed her hair up, going for sexy bed-head, and she pouted at her friend in what she no doubt thought was a seductive manner. Cece patted her shoulder and told her to stop it.

"Save it for your boyfriend," she said, tweaking the end of one of Jess's curls. "Go put this on and I'll pick out some makeup. And Jess? No flats!"

"Got it!" Jess bounced off in the direction of her room, feeling much better. She was going to get a little drunk and a little weird and hopefully she and Sam would fool around and she could forget about embarrassing herself in front of the popular kid. No one cared how weird you got at a frat party – getting weird was the whole point. Or at least drunk.

She managed to pull the dress on, although it fought her every step of the way. It was short and tight and she was pretty sure that she'd have to wear a thong underneath…even though she was going for slutty off-duty nurse, she wasn't brave enough to forgo panties entirely. By the time she'd dug out some heels to go with it and returned to Cece's room, her friend had also changed and was working on her makeup. She was wearing something strapless and pink and she looked gorgeous. Jess whistled when she saw her.

"Watch out, frat boys," she said, and then howled like a cartoon wolf. Cece threw a pillow at her. No matter what, Jess knew she was lucky to have such a great best friend.

-22-

The party was in full swing by the time Jess and Cece arrived. It had spilled out into the front yard, where a bunch of guys were trying to surf a mattress down the hill that sloped down to the main road. The mattress didn't slide very well and every time someone wiped out a huge cheer went up. Jess winced as a guy face planted hard in the grass. Everyone else was chanting, "Winnie! Winnie!" which she guessed must be his nickname. He was slowly getting up when Cece pulled her into the house.

It was packed and they slid their way through the crowd toward the kitchen to get some drinks. There was a dark haired guy standing on the counter, setting some shots on fire. He downed several of them in rapid succession, then leapt down and yelled, "Parkour!" He was a bigger guy, but she could tell by his clothes that he used to be really heavy and had made a lot of progress losing weight. It made Jess proud of him even though he was a total stranger.

"Stop yelling 'parkour,' Schmidt! That's not parkour!" came a familiar voice, and Jess whirled around to see Nick Miller standing on the other side of the kitchen counter, shaking his head.

Of course he was at this frat party, of course. And of course she hadn't even had a drink yet to fortify herself. She spun away, hoping he hadn't spotted her, and crashed right into Cece.

"He's here!" she hissed.

"Who's here?" Cece asked, glancing around the room.

"Nick Miller!" Jess grabbed Cece's wrist because she was holding drinks, trying to tug her out of the room before Nick realized that the weird girl from class was here, but before they could make their escape, the dark haired guy from the counter appeared and blocked the door.

"Hello, I'm Schmidt and you are a caramel goddess, would you like a shot?" he said to Cece.

"Oh God." Jess pulled her hair in front of her face to disguise herself as Schmidt took the drinks out of Cece's hand and passed her a shot glass.

"Okay, I'll do a shot," Cece said, and Schmidt cheered her on as she poured liquor down her throat. Jess peered around anxiously for another exit, but before she spotted one, she felt a hand close on her shoulder. She knew who it was without turning around.

"Hey, Sam's girlfriend." She turned to see Nick smirking at her.

"Hey, Nick Miller." She wouldn't meet his gaze.

"You're not some kind of crazy stalker, are you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes. "How do you know my name?"

"When we were 1Ls, Professor Walsh chewed you out for being a smartass. It made an impression," she said. Nick rubbed the back of his neck and nodded.

"Sounds like me." He shrugged. "Walsh is a dumbass."

"Succinctly put. I'm Jess. I mean, I am Sam's girlfriend, but I'm also Jess." She stuck her hand out, and he stared at it with an eyebrow raised. Clearly handshakes weren't frat-party protocol, but a moment later he gave her a firm shake.

"Well, hi Jess. Good to meet you."

"You too. Hey, I'm sorry about earlier. I like to sing, so sometimes when I'm nervous it just kind of happens and—"

Before she could finish, a pair of warm arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back against a familiar chest.

"Hey sexy," Sam murmured in her ear. She turned to put her arms around Sam and kiss him. Nick averted his eyes, looking a little awkward as they greeted each other with their tongues.

"Sam, this is Nick. Nick, this is Sam."

"The infamous Sam." Though Nick said it with a smile, he managed to make it sound kind of like an insult, and cocked her head in confusion at the coolness of his tone. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, you too," Sam said, nodding to him but also clearly dismissing him. "Come on, Jess. I like your dress…let's go back to my place so I can take it off of you."

"Oh, okay…" Jess glanced back at Nick. "Good to see you again."

"You too, Jess," he said, staring at her. There was something in his gaze, something a little predatory, but that was silly. They'd barely ever spoken to each other, so there was no way he was jealous…right?

She had to work very hard not to think about him as Sam drove her back to his dorm.

AN: Who doesn't love a jealous Nick? I hope you'll let me know what you think by leaving a review, and I'll see you in Chapter 2!