The bell for fourth hour rang just as Pam scooted into her classroom for her communications class. Her arms were full, and her backpack nearly slid off her back as she deposited her container of brownies onto the table in the front of the room.  It was technically the last day of midterms, but since this was Communications, her teacher didn't give them a midterm. Technically, since this was only a half- year class, it would have been a final, which made it doubly satisfying that Mrs. Barnett was letting them have a party.  

Pam opened her Tupperware box and began arranging the brownies, using the lid as a platter. She had put sprinkles on top in the school colors, so she made concentric circles of red and white-topped brownies. It looked pretty neat, actually. 

"Wow,” someone said next to her, and she turned her head to see Roy Anderson slinging two bottles of Mountain Dew and Pepsi onto the table. "That looks really cool, " he said, "It looks like the bullseye we ran through at Homecoming when we came out onto the field."

Pam smiled. "I hadn't even thought of that," she said. Frankly, she barely remembered any of the football game at Homecoming. She and her friends had spent most of the time talking and eating hot dogs.   She didn't tell Roy that- he was so proud of the team and had played so well. She stashed the Tupperware under the table and helped Sue Mitchell pull paper cups out of a cupboard.

While she and Sue were setting the cups out, Mrs. Barnett came into the room with a box. Pam could see it was filled with their Me Books- homemade books about themselves that were a large part of their grade. Pam was excited to get hers back- she had spent a Saturday afternoon painting a cover for hers and stitching it together with big, bright yarn. It looked very Pam.  

Mrs. Barnett set the box on her desk, and everyone slid into seats. It was always a very casual class, and they had no assigned seats. It was Pam's favorite class, tied with art. Mrs. Barnett was so easygoing, and Pam loved all the fun things they did. Supposedly, communications was a blow-off class, but Pam enjoyed all of her assignments, so it wasn't even like she had homework. She was sad that the class would be over after today; she'd miss all the fun team-building things and introspective activities and assignments.  

"All right now, folks, we can have our party, but we must do it quietly, since everyone else is in the midst of midterms,” Mrs. Barnett announced, and Pam grinned. It was always fun to get away with something.

Mrs. Barnett continued, “So, we'll take a little while to eat and you can get some chatting out of your system. Then we'll get to open our "I Like" boxes, I'll do the slideshow, and you'll get your Me Books back. That's the plan, so go ahead and get some food, but don't be too loud, or we'll never get to do anything fun like this again, you know."

When Mrs. Barnett took a step back, Pam got up with the rest of her classmates to get some food. She was pleased to see that her brownies went fast- some people, Roy included, took two. Luckily, she had made a double batch. She filled her paper plate with brownies, cookies, chips, pizza, and grabbed a cup of Coke.  

She sat down next to Sue, and began to eat her food, mostly listening to the conversation around her. Several people were talking about hockey and their favorite hockey fights, and Josh mentioned Claude Lemieux, and Pam recognized the name. "Isn't he the one that got his butt kicked by one of the Red Wings?" she asked. Josh grinned at the memory, and Roy looked impressed. "You know who Lemieux is?" he asked, and Pam felt shy. "Yeah, my brother's a hockey fan, so it's on at home a lot,” she answered, hoping she didn't sound too dumb. "Cool,” said Roy, and smiled. Pam looked down at her food. She tried to think of something witty to say, but she felt silly. She lost her chance, anyway, because Josh asked Rachel something and the conversation veered away from hockey.

She had just taken a huge bite of pizza when Mrs. Barnett started passing out their "I Like" boxes. "Here's some reading material while you eat,” she said as she walked around the room. Pam accepted hers with a grin.  It was an empty cereal box that she had covered with wrapping paper and written her name on in swirly letters.

The din of the room melted away as she reached in and pulled out a handful of papers. They were required to fill out an "I like" slip of paper for each person in the class, so Pam knew she was holding 23 compliments about herself. She set her food aside as she pulled the rest of her slips out of the box. This was just like Valentine's Day when she was younger; the anticipation bubbled inside of her and she couldn't help smiling as she began to read. 

Most were generic niceties- "I like Pam because she's such a nice girl."

As she read them, she folded them carefully and dropped them back in her mailbox.  About halfway through the pile, she unfolded one and read, 'I like Pam because she's got the prettiest smile and makes everyone feel special." Her cheeks grew warm as she reread the note. No one had ever called her pretty, besides her family, but they had to. She was called sweet and nice by people at school, but never pretty.  She turned the paper over, and saw that the name on the back was Roy's.

Her stomach wobbled a little bit as she furtively glanced at him sideways through her hair. He was reading his notes and smiling, and she racked her brain, trying to remember what she had written on his note. She had tried to make everyone's note as specific to the person as she could, and so had written "I like Roy because he has more school spirit than anyone!"Now that sounded dorkier to her than anything else. School spirit? Surely she could have said something about how nice he was to nerdy girls or how his dimples popped out when he smiled or something besides the fact that he liked his school. She read the rest of her notes; all seemed to pale in comparison.

As Mrs. Barnett turned the lights off for the slideshow, Pam slipped the rest of her notes back into her mailbox, except for one, which she folded carefully and slid into her pocket.  Mrs. Barnett had gone to town with her camera, and so had lots of pictures documenting their semester.

Pam laughed aloud with her classmates as each picture bloomed on the screen. There she was, decorating her "I Like" box with Rachel and Sue, and smiling shyly on the first day of class. There was Roy on Homecoming day, wearing his uniform and grinning widely, cheeks painted red and white. Here was Pam again, on Crazy Hair day during Spirit week- she had borrowed her friend Sarah's hair straightener and flattened her mass of frizz.  Pam blushed again when a picture popped up of her holding up a sign she had painted for the canned food drive. She had accidentally written 'can' instead of 'canned', and so had added a question mark to the end of her poster, making it read "Can Food Drive?" Laughter rippled through the class, and the loudest was Roy's. Pam grinned, and couldn't help but think that the Pam of a few months, or even a few weeks ago might have felt hurt, felt that they were laughing at her, but somehow, she felt good. They were laughing with her. She liked making people laugh, and if some of them thought you had the prettiest smile and made people feel special, well, so much the better. 

A whole slew of pictures appeared from their field trip to team-building outdoor camp. Pam laughed again at the memories of that day, triggered by the photos of her and her classmates looking so silly. She fell silent at one picture as she looked at the screen. In it, Roy and Josh were holding her, the smallest girl in the class, above their heads to pass her through a rope spider web, in one of those team-building bonding games. The Pam in the picture was shrieking with laughter, and the Roy in the picture was grinning up at her. Pam's stomach wobbled again at the naked display of admiration. She felt like he must be staring at her now, too, but a sideways glance showed him looking at the screen, still smiling.

She hardly noticed when the light came back on. "All right, clean up your trash while I pass out your Me Books," called Mrs. Barnett, closing her Power Point program. Pam crumpled up her paper plate and threw it in the garbage can that was near her, thankfully not having to get up.

She looked up as Mrs. Barnett paused in front of her and smiled, handing Pam her Me Book. "This was beautiful, Pam" she said, and Pam managed a smile. She eagerly opened the book to read her teacher's comments. Tucked inside the front cover was a note. "Pam- this was an absolute treat to read. You have a very happy life and you obviously care about everyone around you. You are a talented young lady and have so much potential. I’ve enjoyed watching you come out of your shell this semester, and I can't wait to see what you will do in the world. “It was signed by Mrs. Barnett, and Pam had gotten an A.

Pam stood as everyone moved toward the door. She shouldered her backpack and cradled her Tupperware container and her book and her mailbox to her chest, acutely aware that Roy was only two people away from her. As the bell rang, there was a scrum at the door, and she waited, not wanting to get squished.

As she finally moved out the door, she felt a hand on her arm. She turned and looked up to see Roy, star of the football team, looking apprehensive. "Hey Pam," he said, and smiled nervously. Pam's stomach did a flip, and she didn't even say anything. "Do you want to go out with me this weekend?" he finished. Pam closed her mouth, feeling awkward and hoping he wasn't joking. Her mind spun, and then she realized he was still watching her. "Oh, yeah," she said, "Yeah, I'd like that." Roy grinned and Pam felt herself smile widely, too. "Great, well, I'll catch up with you after school and we can make plans," he said. "Sure," Pam nodded, and they turned to go their separate ways.