Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Office. NBC does, and I am not affiliated with them in any way.
CHAPTER ONE
As Pam sat next to Roy, tensely perched on the passenger seat of his truck, she wondered: is it supposed to feel like this? Am I supposed to feel this dread, like today is the beginning of a life sentence, like I’ll never feel young and happy again, like I just want to jump out of this moving vehicle and scream?
She took a deep breath. They had talked about this. In the months after her graduation from Marywood, it had become apparent that no schools in the Scranton area were hiring art teachers. She had briefly entertained hopes of moving somewhere completely different...she had fantasized about living in New York, teaching art to private school kids, taking art classes at a big university, seeing if she could ever hack it in the art community there. But Roy didn’t want to have to live in some crappy studio apartment, which would be all they could afford. He also didn’t want to leave his friends, family, softball league, and truck behind just to hang out with a bunch of “caviar-eating snobs who just read and go to museums all the time.”
Fine, Pam had thought. Roy didn’t want to live in a big city. She thought she could be happy in a small town, too. Somewhere like Scranton, maybe just a little farther south, where the weather was a little warmer, where she could paint outside in the mornings before going to teach. She could see herself in a house near the beach, drinking tea in the morning sunlight, sitting in front of a fresh canvas, listening to the sounds of Roy getting the kids ready for school, in a house with a terrace….
But why leave Scranton? They already had their whole lives here. Their families and everyone they had known since kindergarten were all close by, Roy had said. Whenever they wanted to get away they could go up to Roy’s parents’ cabin on the lake (where they had first gone on their prom night, and where they had returned a few times a year ever since). When Pam said that she maybe just wanted to try living in a new place and meeting new people, Roy had just said she was being silly. They had everything they could ever need here. Their whole lives were set. She didn’t mention to him that that was exactly what bothered her.
Roy’s final argument had been that they needed to get married in Scranton so that all their friends and family could come. Pam had asked why they couldn’t just get married here now and then move, but then Roy had changed the subject. He had said, “Well, whatever, it doesn’t matter if there aren’t any art teacher jobs around, because they just started looking for a receptionist over at Dunder-Mifflin.”
She was sure the job would be fine; Roy had been working in Dunder-Mifflin’s warehouse ever since he had quit college and moved to Scranton so that he and Pam could live together while she finished school, and he seemed happy enough there. Pam just worried that taking a 9-to-5 office job would make her life seem even more routine, and would crush her already waning energy for drawing. But what else could she do? She and Roy were set in their apartment in Scranton. They had to pay the rent, and she had to start paying back her student loans. Roy kept reminding her that, if she really thought about it, she should consider herself lucky to have found a job close to home, working in the same building as “her man,” as he liked to refer to himself. And Pam would always ultimately admit that Roy was right.
And so here she was. Riding with Roy to her first day of work in the Scranton business park. Finding herself unable to pinpoint the exact source of her intense anxiety. Fortunately, Pam had gotten very good over the years at suppressing her feelings and putting on a happy face. That’s exactly what she did as Roy pulled into the parking lot saying, “See Pammy? I got you here 15 minutes early, just like you asked.” She gave him her best smile of approval as he parked the truck next to a maroon Corolla.
