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It was still dark when a trumpet sounded around the base, alerting everyone to the early morning wake-up call. The Dunder-Mifflin troops grumbled as they forced their eyes open to the black that still surrounded them.

“Okay campers,” Michael said in between a large yawn. “Time to get up. Ryan, how ‘bout you go get started on some coffee.”

“I make it a rule not to get up before—oh jeeze,” Ryan averted his eyes in disgust. “Could you maybe talk to me after you have pants on?”

The rest of the men’s cabin groaned at the sight of Michael wearing only his hat and a pair of briefs.

“What? Come on, if the goods are going to be cooped up all day, gotta give them some time to breathe in the morning. Sheesh,” Michael rolled his eyes.

It’s hard being the mature one all the time. I mean, as the boss, I have to be. But you know, sometimes—sometimes it would just be nice to see some others step up. And show the same kind of maturity that I do. Is that really so hard? A playful snicker and a snort escaping from his nose interrupted Michael’s serious expression.

That’s what she said.

xxx

The group stood at attention in a single file line outside their cabins, Sergeant Miller pacing in front of them, inspecting each person with a look of contempt.

“Never in my career have I seen such despicable behavior than last night. You are here to become responsible, respectable, strong individuals. And you proved to me last night than you are not any of those things. So,” he said pulling a brown paper bag from behind his back. “Today you will clean up the mess you made using these and only these.”

He passed around the bag and each person’s jaw dropped when they saw the tools they would be using.

“A toothbrush?” Kevin asked.

“No, a squeegee. Yes, a toothbrush! You will scrub every inch of your cabins with this and at the end of the day I will be making a very thorough inspection of them. You all would be wise to make sure they look better than when you first got here. Now move!” And with a blow of his whistle, Sergeant Miller dismissed everyone to begin working on their deep cleaning. Jim and Pam began to move before the sergeant stepped in front of them.

“Uh-uh. You two, come with me.”
Jim and Pam exchanged confused looks as they obediently followed the sergeant into his office.

“Please, have a seat,” he gestured to the two leather chairs facing his desk. The two sat hesitantly, looking incredibly nervous as they racked their brains for what they might have done to cause this meeting.

“I’ll get right to the point: I understand that you two are young, in love, and in that ‘can’t keep my hands off of you’ phase of your relationship, but on my base, you keep your hands to yourself. Now I don’t know what you two were planning on doing last night behind the cabin—“

“No!” Pam yelled a little too loudly, holding a hand out in front of her to silence Sergeant Miller. “No, sir, I don’t know what…I mean, we’re not…nothing is going on. Between us. Me and Jim. No.” Pam’s face was a deep shade of red and she literally bit her tongue to keep herself from rambling. She refused to look at Jim, but could see his hands nervously drumming on his legs.

“Yeah, sir, last night…she attacked me with socks. So I was just chasing her, and we fell and…it was just socks.” Jim wasn’t being much more articulate than Pam and he too quieted himself from saying anything further.

Sergeant Miller looked between the two with one suspicious eyebrow raised. He scoffed and shook his head.

“Well, regardless, save the ‘sock attacks’ for when you guys go back home...finally,” he muttered under his breath, rubbing a hand over his face in exasperation. The three sat there in silence for a while, awkwardly avoiding eye contact. Finally, Sergeant Miller dismissed them to their cleaning duties, and both Jim and Pam darted from their seats, eager to leave the office as quickly as possible.

Though the distance from the main headquarters to the cabins was fairly short, the tension between the two made it seem miles away. Neither said anything for a few moments, before Jim, uneasy in the silence, finally spoke.

“This is all your fault.”

Pam let out a surprised laugh. “Excuse me?”

Jim shrugged. “You were the one who attacked me.”

“You were the one that pinned me to the ground.”

“It’s called ‘retaliation.’ I can’t help it that you’re no match for my wrestling skills.” He smiled and at her, and just as Pam’s heart began to flutter, it sunk at the thought of that smile moving to New York.
“Right…wrestling skills. You should see if New York has a professional team or something.” She quickened her pace, knowing that she opened up a whole conversation she wasn’t sure she was ready to have.

“What was that?” Jim jogged up next to her, his face fraught with confusion.

“You know, when you move there. Congratulations on that, by the way,” Pam said, with a voice that was much more bitter than she intended.

“Pam!” he called out as she ran ahead of him to begin work on the trashed cabin. He spotted Karen, scrubbing around the doorframe with her assigned toothbrush and her eyes watching Pam run into the cabin, then looking back at Jim. Her expression held some guilt that was dwarfed by the look of satisfaction radiating from her wide eyes and tight smile.

xxx

“I didn’t think they actually did this.”

Jim continued to scrub the floor, ignoring her words.

“I thought that was just in ‘Forrest Gump’ or something,” Karen laughed, attempting to make him crack a smile. It wasn’t working.

“I suppose we could talk about shrimp to pass the time…”

He began scrubbing with more vigor, taking his anger with her out on the now-frayed toothbrush.

“Come on, are you seriously ignoring me right now? What the hell did I do wrong?” Karen sat on the back of her legs, throwing down her cleaning tool in annoyance.

“You had no right to say that I took that job. I had one interview, Karen, that’s it. And I already told you I wasn’t sure I wanted to take it.” He had thrown down his toothbrush as well, standing up in order to pace while he talked.

“Yeah, but I figured it was just you being you. You’re stubborn and don’t want to do something unless you think it’s your idea. I know once you convince yourself that you thought of the job—“

“No, that’s not…that’s not how I am, okay? Don’t act like you have me figured out,” Jim snapped and by the stunned expression on Karen’s face, he knew he had hit a nerve.

Karen scoffed and shook her head. “That’s right, I keep forgetting…there’s only one person who seems to have done that.”

Jim opened his mouth to protest but Karen quickly interjected.

“Tell me something: what is it your angrier about? The fact that I lied or the fact that I lied to her?”