Pam awoke early on her first day of school, and spent a luxurious few moments in bed with the delights of anticipation running through her mind. She had promised Kelly that she would be her deskmate, Kelly had made her a bookmark for her schoolbooks, and Phyllis had made raspberry tarts as a treat for her lunch. Kelly had told her that the girls always pooled their lunches, and so Phyllis was sending her to school with extra tarts.

Daydreaming was lovely, but soon the reality of school permeated her mind, she decided she'd better dress and go down to the kitchen. She buttoned herself into her freshly starched and ironed school dress that Phyllis had made. It was striped pale pink, white and light brown, which made her look even paler, though on this exciting morning, her cheeks flushed pink obligingly.  As she fairly hopped down the stairs, she buttoned her new crisp white apron over her dress.  

Both Bob and Phyllis were seated at the kitchen table, and they bade Pam good morning. 'It is a good morning, isn't it?" she said as she slid into her seat, "Most people have their first day of real school when they're quite small, but I get to have mine when I can actually remember it. I had to watch the younger children when I lived with the Thomases and the Hammonds, and then at the orphanage, one of the matrons taught us."

Bob stood up from the table. "I need to be getting back out to the barn, but here's a little something for your first day of school," he said to Pam, handing her a small package wrapped in brown paper. She opened it and found a brown hair ribbon.

"Oh, thank you!" she exclaimed, and Bob blushed and waved her off. "It's nothing big, I just thought you'd like it," he said.

After breakfast, Phyllis helped her tie it in her hair and handed her the lunch basket with its calico napkin. Kelly waved from the gate, and Pam ran out to join her. Holding hands, the two girls skipped merrily off towards the Avonlea school house. Kelly led Pam down the road, past the glade of small purple flowers that Pam had named Violet Vale, and through the path of birch trees that Kelly had rather prosaically named Birch Path.

At the edge of Birch Path, Kelly put out her hand to stop Pam. "All right, when we get to here, we've got to run as fast as we can," she said solemnly.

"Why? Is it haunted?" asked Pam, half hoping it to be true.

"No, this is the Schrude farm, and if we're not careful, we'll have to walk the rest of the way to school with Dwighde, and he always smells of beets," explained Kelly, and the two girls ran, giggling, the rest of the way to school, stopping before they reached the yard to straighten their skirts and smooth their hair. The wind had made Pam's hair even bushier, and she tried her best to tame it, to no avail.

Two girls stood at the school gate and hailed them joyfully as they approached. "Who are those girls?" asked Pam, already smiling in anticipation, for it was lovely to feel welcomed.

"The smaller, blonde one is Angela Andrews. She likes rules, but she's a nice girl. The other one is Meredith Gillis, and she likes boys as much as I do!" answered Kelly, swinging her lunch basket.

"Girls, this is Pam Shirley," said Kelly as they approached Angela and Meredith, who beamed at her. Pam smiled back. The girls ushered her into the schoolhouse as Mr. Scott stood in the doorway and rang a bell.

Kelly left her standing next to Mr. Scott's desk as the students took their seats in the rows of neat wooden desks, inscribed with the mementos of several Avonlea generations.

"Ah, our new student, half of the winning three-legged race team," said Mr. Scott, as Pam watched Dwighde make an ashamed grimace. "Name, please?"

"Pam Shirley," answered Pam. She could feel the eyes of all the children on her.

"Pam. Pamela. Pam-el-a Shirley. Surely your name is Pamela?" said Mr. Scott, smiling widely as though having made a humorous joke. Pam felt she should probably laugh, so she managed a giggle and answered, "Just Pam is fine."

Mr. Scott smiled even more widely. "Madamooselle, you may take a seat with Kelly Barry," he said grandly, and Pam turned to smile at Kelly, who gave a silent squeal and clapped her hands.

Pam moved down the aisle to sit with Kelly, directly behind Angela and Meredith, and in front of a girl with long, smooth red curls. Pam set her slate and books on the desk and smoothed her apron, trying very hard not to notice the hazel eyes watching her from across the aisle.

Mr. Scott set their lessons, and Pam was gratified to learn that she wasn't extremely behind in her schooling. She had had visions of having to sit with the primer class, towering over six and seven year olds. She knew she'd have to work hard to catch up, but the thought of a challenge rather excited her, and she made up her mind that she'd move to the head of the class. Her day was made even better at lunch time by a lovely picnic with her new friends, down by the brook, where Phyllis's raspberry tarts were devoured and enjoyed.  

Her elation was rather short lived, though, when the girl with smooth curls said, "You're the orphan that the Vances adopted, aren't you? It's a pity you couldn't have a new dress for school."

Anger shot through Pam, for not only was that a sly dig at her, but also at Phyllis, who had worked so hard to make her this dress, plain or not. She opened her mouth to say something, but Angela spoke first. "I do like your new dress, Pam," she said, turning to face Pam primly, "and I think that pale pink is so becoming. I'm so glad it's not green, because Mother says that green is for rather immoral women. Isn't that right, Katy?"

Katy, whose dress and hair ribbon were unfortunately a very becoming green, flushed and looked down at her schoolbooks. "That ought to shut her up for awhile," whispered Kelly.

Pam bent over her own books, cheeks still burning, determined not to let Katy's remarks sour her perfect first day of school.  

It was unfortunate that Pam was still in the heat of anger, because what happened next would irrevocably stain the first day memories. Jim Blythe leaned across the aisle and whispered, 'Hey!" Pam ignored him, not trusting herself to speak, and not wanting this boy to see her ready to cry. Jim tried again, "Hey, mop top!"

Something welled up in Pam and she stood up angrily. "How dare you?!" she cried, and without thinking, grabbed her slate and smashed it clean across Jim's disheveled hair.

Everyone gasped, and Pam dropped the broken wooden frame, horrified at what she had done. "What is going on?" asked Mr. Scott, moving across the room toward Jim and Pam. Pam could not speak, and Jim answered, "It was my fault, sir, I teased her."

Mr. Scott pointed toward the front of the room. "Miss Shirley, I don't think I need to tell you that that behavior will not be tolerated. I'm going to have to punish you severely," he said sternly, and Pam winced at the thought of being whipped.

Mr. Scott moved to the blackboard and wrote 'Pamela Shirley has a very bad temper.' He turned to face the class. "You will write this one hundred times," he said, as though handing out a death sentence.

Pam felt relieved, though still horribly embarrassed. She strode to the blackboard, picked up the chalk and a rag, and carefully wiped out the 'ela' from 'Pamela'. She wouldn't let Jim see how much his words had affected her.

She spoke not a word the rest of the school day, and when school was let out, she linked arms with Kelly and marched out of the school house. She waved goodbye to Angela and Meredith and led Kelly toward the road.
"Pam, wait up!" called Jim, running to catch up, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, please don't be mad for keeps."

Pam couldn't speak for embarrassment, so she continued walking. To Kelly's consternation, Dwighde Schrude caught up to them and walked beside them. "Pam, a distant relative of mine used to iron her hair flat," he said, "You might try that, and then maybe your hair won't be so bushy. It might be good to keep it the way it is, though, because in the animal world, a bushy tail is a sign of readiness to mate. That might be good if you're looking for a beau."

"Thanks, Dwighde," she said as they approached the beet farm gate.

Kelly left her at the Green Gables gate with a sympathetic hug, and Pam was left alone with the feelings inside her. She couldn't quite put into words how it had felt to have a handsome boy like Jim tease her about her looks. She decided to do something about it.

*

When Phyllis came home from Lawson's, she immediately noticed the acrid smell that hung in the air inside the house. "Pam?" she called, moving quickly up the stairs. She found a sobbing Pam under the covers in her bedroom.

"What on earth happened?" she asked. Pam sat up, and Phyllis was horrified to see a large chunk of her hair was missing. Pam pointed to a bundle of singed hair on the desk.

"Dwighde Shrude told me his relative ironed her hair flat, and I tried it and it burnt right off," sobbed Pam, by way of explanation.

"Oh dear," said Phyllis, "I heard what happened at school."

With this, Pam's tears erupted anew. "I know it was wicked of me to lose my temper, but I couldn't help it," she cried.

Phyllis nearly smiled. "I'll get the scissors, and we can fix it. I do think that you'd better not have that picnic with Kelly this Saturday. I think it would be best spent inside, thinking about how you mustn't act in haste," she said.

Pam nodded. "And I'll force myself to admire Katy Pye's curls from afar every day, as penance for wishing mine were like that," she said.

Phyllis located the aforementioned scissors and cut Pam's hair below her ears. The pile of hair grew larger, and Pam said mournfully, "I look like a sheared sheep again, I expect." 

As she went to bed, Pam reflected that this day had not been one speck of what she had envisioned, for who could have envisioned breaking a slate over the head of a most interesting, infuriating boy, and taking the advice of a beet farmer?