See Gregory’s Full-Time Teaching Style In This Abbott Elementary Exclusive Clip

In case you missed this year’s Emmys, Abbott Elementary did very well — or, to borrow a back-to-school term, they passed with flying colors. After the show brought home the award for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series at the Creative Arts Emmys, the main ceremony on Sept. 12 saw Sheryl Lee Ralph win Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series — resulting in what many viewers described as the best acceptance speech they’d ever seen. (Yes, you should rewatch it.)

Series creator and star Quinta Brunson also took home the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and later opened up to Variety about her plans for Season 2 — including following the characters outside of school more, and letting the show breathe a bit. “Every single episode [in Season 1], the goal was to show people what we can do, what a banger the show can be,” she said. “But now we’ve got episodes that are just chill. They have no real stakes. And I hope that audiences are OK with that.”

Following the Emmys hype, it seems that they will be. Fortunately, Season 2 premieres on Sept. 21 at 9 p.m. ET — so you don’t need to wait too much longer to see Janine, Gregory, Barbara, and co. head back to school. Bustle has an exclusive sneak peek at the first episode, “Development Day,” which sees the teachers preparing for the school year before classes officially start.

According to ABC, the Season 2 premiere will see a newly single Janine throw herself into school activities (is anyone surprised?), while opting to “leave her problems at home.” As you can see in the sneak peek clip, Gregory is preparing for his first school year as a full-time teacher — but finds himself “in over his head with the curriculum.”

Shipping these two hard? Expect more moments between Gregory and Janine in Season 2 — even if they don’t get together just yet. “They actually get to be work colleagues who do the exact same thing and want to do it well,” Brunson told Variety. “We get excited writing little situations for them that have nothing to do with love. We all know the attraction is there… and you get to have moments that mean nothing to our characters but everything to our audience. I’m just pumped about them.”

If you’ve been meaning to catch up and stream Abbott Elementary before Season 2, you can still do that on Hulu or HBO Max — though during the season itself, new episodes will only be on Hulu the day after airing on ABC.