--Scranton, PA, 1980---
Pam walked through the halls of Riverside High a foreigner in what used to be considered familiar territory. Her dad’s old army jacket was about five sizes too big and hung well past her hips and fingertips, but she shrugged it back in place anyways.
She remembered which hallways to carefully avoid, namely the ones she could have been found hanging in last year. This summer had changed things, however, and she wasn’t about to go back to what she used to be.
“Pam? Is that you?” a familiar voice sidled up beside her.
“Oh, hey Angela,” she sighed as she unlocked her locker.
“What’s with the… ensemble?” Angela raised an eyebrow, clutching her textbooks to her chest.
“Nothing, I’m just… trying something new I guess.”
“Hm,” Angela shrugged dismissively. “Well, anyway, are you thinking of coming back to the Math-letes this year? I know you dropped out last year when you fell in with that cheerleader/jock crowd, but I heard that you and Roy broke up this summer, so I was thinking…”
Well, she could say one thing for Angela, she sure knew how to cut to the chase.
“Probably not,” Pam cut her off.
“Oh,” Angela sighed. “Well, do you want to come eat with us?”
“I’m meeting someone, some people I mean,” Pam said quickly, her eyes darting around the hallway as she pulled out her brown paper lunch bag from her locker.
“Meeting who?”
She was about to tell Angela that it was none of her business when she heard her name. Pam turned around quickly, her eyes finding the source.
“Pam, you comin?”
Ryan was leaning against the far row of lockers, motioning for her to follow him.
“Yeah, one second,” she answered a little too enthusiastically.
“Is that Ryan Howard?” Angela said his name like she was saying a curse word. “Since when are you friends with him?”
“Since a couple days ago,” Pam said quickly.
Truthfully they weren’t actually friends, yet. He had bumped into her as she was sketching and had apparently liked what he saw. It wasn’t too often that people got an invitation to go eat lunch with Ryan Howard and his "group."
“Pam,” Angela whispered sternly. “He’s a drug addict. People call those guys freaks for a reason you know.”
“He is not, Angela,” she hissed back. “Besides, I think they’re cool.”
With that she walked away, without saying goodbye.
“I’m starting a Christian book club, it’s meeting after school!” She heard Angela call out as she walked away, but she didn’t turn back around.
“Hey.” Pam tried to keep her cool this time.
“Hey,” Ryan lifted his chin in her direction. “Come on, let’s got out on the patio.”
The patio. That’s where the “freaks” (as her old group of friends used to call them) hung out. She buried her hands further in the sleeves of the faded green jacket, hoping that Ryan didn’t notice that they were sweating.
“Hey, there he is.”
The freaks took notice of her immediately as she walked onto the patio.
“Hey, this is Pam,” Ryan tilted his head toward her. She figured that that was about as good an introduction as any she could have hoped for.
“Hey,” Jim, an awkwardly tall guy with hair to match smiled at her. His eyes were red and puffy which she was pretty sure meant that he was stoned. Not that she knew what that was like, but still.
“Hey, aren’t you like, one of those football player’s chicks?” Toby, a notorious wise-ass narrowed his eyes at her.
“Last time I checked I wasn’t owned by any football player,” she retorted, hoping to at least gain an ounce of respect from them.
“Ouch, she got you on that one man,” the tall guy snickered, but maybe just because he was high.
“So… what, are you and Kelly like broken up for real this time then?” Toby had turned his attention back to Ryan.
“Dude, she’s just hanging out with us, chill out,” Ryan rolled his eyes, sitting down at one of the two picnic tables.
“And Kelly will be cool with that, huh?” Toby raised his eyebrows at Ryan, baiting him.
“Shut up, man. Kelly doesn’t run my life, we broke up remember?”
“Yeah, right,” Toby rolled his eyes.
“Yeah shut up, Tobes,” Jim spoke up, watching her carefully. “You can sit down, Pam. Really.”
She slid onto the bench of one of the tables as the three guys began outlining their plans for the weekend.
“I thought we were going to that party at Karen’s,” Toby was saying. “Her brother’s gettin’ a keg.”
“I dunno, Karen’s been so weird lately,” Jim said quickly. “I don’t know if I wanna deal with her crap.”
“Jesus, Jim, you guys have been broken up for like months now, get over it, man,” Ryan sighed loudly. “Pam, you wanna go to a party this weekend with us?”
“You do realize that Kelly will be there?” Toby added yet again, looking at Ryan.
“Seriously, lay off,” Ryan waved him away with one of his hands. “’Sides, its not like we’re goin on a date. We’re all goin. Am I right?”
“Yeah, fine, whatever,” Jim sighed and then turned his attention back to her. “Pam?”
“Uh, yeah, sure, I guess,” she said quickly.
“Kelly is gonna lose her shit,” Toby chuckled to himself before Jim smacked him on the shoulder.
“Why’s that, Toby?” Kelly Kapoor asked as she strolled onto the patio. “Who’s this?”
“This is Pam,” Jim said quickly before she had a chance to introduce herself.
“Right,” Kelly said the word slowly, looking her over. “Aren’t you Roy Anderson’s, like, girlfriend or something? What’s with the make-under?”
“Who’s Roy Anderson?” Jim asked.
“The football player you big stoner,” Toby rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, we used to date. We broke up… I broke up with him over the summer,” Pam spoke up.
“Interesting,” Kelly sat down next to Toby, suddenly somewhat interested in what she had to say. “Details? You find out his jock couldn’t quite fill out the strap or somethin?”
“Don’t be a bitch, Kelly,” Ryan rolled his eyes at her. “Don’t worry about her, Pam. Kelly just PMS’s twenty-four seven. You’ll get used to it.”
“Whatever, Ryan. Screw you,” Kelly stood up and walked quickly back into the school as the bell rang.
“Yeah, this’ll be interesting,” Toby chuckled as Ryan threw him a death glare.
“Come on, chuckle-heads,” Mr. Malone stuck his head out, waving them inside. “Get to class.”
“Yes sir,” Jim saluted mockingly.
“See ya later,” Ryan winked at her. She felt a little jolt when he grazed her shoulder as he walked past.
“Where you headed?” Jim asked beside her.
“Uh, history, I think,” she glanced at her schedule.
“Oh yeah? Me too. Wow,” he nodded a few too many times. “We should totally sit together. Is that cool?”
“Sure, okay,” she smiled. This whole assimilating into the freaks was turning out to be easier than she thought.
“So, Pam,” Jim asked as they made their way through the halls. “What’s your last name anyways?”
“Beesley,” she said quickly, noticing Roy down at the other end of the hall.
“Wow, that’s like, a really interesting name.”
“Yeah, it was my mom’s. She died when I was real young. My dad’s last name is Scott.” She didn’t usually give out such personal information to total strangers, but she was distracted trying to avoid Roy’s stare.
“Wow, okay, I get that,” Jim nodded as someone bumped into him going the opposite direction.
“Watch where you’re going,” Dwight groaned as he bent to pick up his textbook. “Oh, hey Pam.”
“You know this guy?” Jim asked.
“Oh yeah, this is my stepbrother,” Pam rolled her eyes.
“Dwight K. Shrute,” he formally extended his hand to Jim.
“Hey man,” Jim took it enthusiastically. “Wow, so your family has like three different last names in it, huh?”
“Four actually,” Dwight corrected. “My mother goes by her maiden name, Levinson.”
“Get to class!” Mr. Nuñez herded them down the hall.
Pam walked quickly into the history classroom and Jim took the seat behind hers as Mrs. Lapin started handing out the syllabus.
“Psst.” Pam heard from behind her and she turned her head only slightly to the side so that Mrs. Lapin didn’t notice. “What?”
“Just, don’t worry about Kelly and Karen, you know?” Jim whispered. “They’ll probably give you a hard time at first.”
She nodded and turned her head back to the board wondering if maybe this wouldn’t be quite as easy as she had hoped.
