Greendale's Oddest Human Beings

Ruth... Smiles?

The STD Fair was much brighter than the issue it was addressing. When Ruth was learning about STDs in middle school and high school, there was much less pageantry. Of course, Greendale wasn't a normal school, and every event orchestrated by the Dean was as eccentric as he was.
Ruth arrived at 7:30 and wasn't sure where to go first. She wanted to be early, but she didn't realize how overwhelming the event was going to be; waiting for half an hour surrounded by what was basically a carnival without the rides did not seem fun. Luckily, she was able to spot Troy and Abed. Troy appeared to be even more frustrated than he was that morning. Ruth assumed it was because Abed had beat him in even more games. It was an accurate assumption.
"Hey, Abed," Ruth said, catching her friend's attention. "What's wrong with Troy?,"she inquired. Abed shrugged. "We've been playing games. It's been fun," he replied. He was holding a large stuffed bear that he had likely won from one of the many games around them.
Troy huffed. "Do you want my stuffed animal?," he offered Troy. "Gah!," Troy shouted. "We're arm wrestling!," he said, going over to a table and sweeping everything off of it swiftly. Both Abed and Ruth were excited about their friend's idea. "Like Stallone in Over the Top!," Abed said. "But aren't the rules that you have to have a semi-truck and a son?," Ruth added. Troy rolled his eyes. "The rules are 'you two suck,' let's go!," he demanded. "I want to wait for a more inspiring song," Abed said. "The score isn't right," Ruth agreed. Just then, exciting rock music started to play and the match began.
It was short, but quite exciting. At the beginning, they seemed to be evenly matched, but them Troy began to take lead; however, right before he was about to win, Abed had a fantastic comeback and won. Ruth and Abed high-fived victoriously while Troy sat in defeat and pain. "You broke my hand, you bastard," he said.
"That was some Stallone-level stuff," Ruth complimented Abed. "Thanks," he said, "I think so too." Ruth chuckled at Abed's confidence; it made her happy. She wished she had that.
    "Hey, Ruth!," someone shouted. Ruth turned to find that it was Sam. He made his way towards her and Abed. "Hi, Abed," he said when he arrived in front of them. "Hello," Abed replied. Sam was smiling a lot for some reason. Well, he always smiled a lot—almost too much for Ruth's liking—, but he seemed more happy than usual. This made Ruth suspicious. She was thinking about saying something, but decided against it.
    "Ready to explore?," Sam asked. "Explore the STD Fair? I'm thrilled," Ruth said jokingly. Sam laughed. "You made a joke," he said excitedly. Ruth shrugged and tried to hide a smile; for some reason, his excited reaction was kind of... cute?
Ruth and Sam spent the rest of the evening having... dare I say it?... fun. Ruth would never admit that, of course, but she couldn't hide her unusual cheeriness as they played the stupid STD-themed games and joked around with Sam. Seeing this made Sam ecstatic; he believed that everyone had the ability to be happy and open, but he found himself in disbelief of how happy and open Ruth was being. To be fair though, it was a big change from her usual pessimistic and closed-off demeanor.
Eventually, the two decided to sit down and take a break from all the fun. Sam looked at Ruth, studying her face. "You're smiling," he said gleefully. Ruth quickly looked down nervously when she realized that he was right. 'How long have I been smiling?," she thought. 'This is so embarrassing. I can't let myself be vulnerable. I can't let him think that he has any affect over my emotions.'
    Sam noticed how quickly Ruth had dropped her smile and felt bad. He stopped for a moment to calculate what to say and if he should say it. "Ruth... it's okay to smile," he said kindly, "I know this might be hard to believe, but no one will think you're weak just because you let yourself smile." He waited anxiously for Ruth's response. He mostly expected her to get mad or walk away and never talk to her again, but part of him had hope that maybe his words would get through to her... and, to his surprise, they did.
    Ruth didn't look up at Sam, but she wasn't mad at him and she didn't run away. "I know that logically," Ruth said softly, "but I just can't seem to truly believe it." Sam wasn't sure what to say; Ruth was actually being kind of vulnerable and he didn't want to risk saying the wrong thing. After a moment, Ruth finally looked at Sam, actually making eye contact with him for the first time. "You're not as dumb as I thought and I'm sorry for being so harsh," she said. That was as genuine as she could get and Sam recognized this. He smiled and chuckled softly. "Thanks," he replied with a nod, "and I accept your apology." Ruth smiled back.
    At that moment, for just a few seconds, they connected for the first time... Sadly, they were at a Greendale event, which, of course, meant something ridiculous had to happen at that very moment. "Attention, Greendale students," Abed said through the PA system. "Don't use the condoms. If you're going to have sex tonight, don't use condoms."
    Sam and Ruth looked at each other, confused by the announcement, before bursting out into laughter. Sometimes, when you're in a place like Greendale, things are so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh.

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A/N
I know it's been about a million years since I last updated this and I apologize for that. I really hope you enjoy this though.

Also, Sam is right: don't be afraid to let yourself be happy.