March 22, 2005
Jim walked through the door to the principal’s office, shaking off the feelings of déjà vu that this walk gave him, and immediately his eyebrows hit the ceiling. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.
“Dwight?” he creaked out.
“Hello, Jim,” Dwight said, in almost a cackle.
“What are you doing here?” Jim asked.
Dwight answered, from his stance behind the desk, which looked really creepy, “I’m the new Assistant Principal here.”
“Assistant to the principal,” answered the man sitting at the desk, with a slightly irritated tone.
“Same thing,” Dwight said.
“No, it’s not, it’s lower,” said the principal. “Michael Scott,” the man said, rising and extending his hand.
“Jim Halpert,” Jim answered, shaking his hand.
“Dwight here has been telling me all about the times that you two shared together back here at old West Scranton High School.”
“Really?” Jim asked. He thought he might as well leave now. No one would hire someone to be a teacher that had his past.
“Yes, I have,” Dwight said seriously, with a smug smile on his face.
“Yeah,” said Mr. Scott. “What you did back then with Mr. Truck’s car…” Mr. Scott finished, beginning to trail off…
Jim started to stand up to leave…
“Was awesome,” finished Mr. Scott, as a huge grin started to take over his face.
“What???” Dwight yelled out.
“Awesome. Mr. Truck was a total lamewad. I met him right before I took over. Jim, you remind of myself back in my high school days. Which weren’t that long ago,” said Mr. Scott.
Jim was positive that Mr. Scott’s high school days were at least 25 years behind him, but he began to realize that maybe this interview wasn’t a lost cause. “Really?” asked Jim.
“Oh, yeah,” answered Mr. Scott. “I ruled my school; me and my best friend, Todd Packer. We were always playing jokes on people, picking up ladies, just being utter badasses.”
Wow, Jim thought, no one has ever said badass to me in an interview before. “What kind of stuff did you do?”
“Well,” said Michael, leaning back, “this one time I was in the cafeteria, and I thought it would be hilarious to pull the fire alarm and freak everybody out. So I waited until the lunch line was empty, so no one else would be near me, and I pulled the alarm and ran out screaming ‘Fire! Fire!’ and pushing everyone out of the way. It was…” Michael stated through his laughter, “hilarious,” Michael stopped laughing. “Except that this one girl I pushed actually broke her arm when she fell. It kind of ruined the girl’s basketball season. And her boyfriend, well…he was pretty unreasonable about the whole thing. I mean, he really didn’t need to act that way…” Michael said quietly.
What??? Jim thought. What a disaster. “That sounds pretty funny, actually,” Jim said. Ugh. I really hate sucking up to get ahead, but…
“Yes! Thank you, Jim. It really was! I wish you would have been around when I was in school. We would have been best buds!”
“Weren’t you friends with that Todd guy, though?” Jim asked.
“Yeah, we were. But sometimes he didn’t… anyhoo, Jimbo, from your resume and what we’ve done here, I think you would make a fine English teacher. Grades pretty good; you’re a funny guy; you get my jokes. Yup, we’re ready to make you an offer.”
“Michael,” Dwight finally spoke up, “Hiring Jim Halpert would be a terrible mistake. He is a slacker and will never take his job seriously. I told you what his reputation around this school is…”
“Shut it, Dwight. Jim seems fine to me, and this place is WAY too uptight, anyway. I want this place to be somewhere people look forward to coming to and hate leaving. These teachers and the administration are like family to these kids. We are all like their moms and dads. I want to have teachers that the kids can look up to, not people that have their panties in a wad all the time.”
“Michael…” Dwight pleaded.
“Enough!” Michael yelled. “If Jim wants this job, it’s his.”
Wow. “Mr. Scott, I accept your offer. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be joining this team.”
“That’s the kind of attitude we need! All right, talk to the secretary on your way out. She’ll give you some paperwork and stuff you have to fill out. I actually don’t know anything about that end of things, really, because I’m too important to worry about those kinds of formalities, but she’ll set you up. See you when the school year starts.”
“Thanks a lot,” Jim said, shaking Michael’s hand, “Looking forward to it.” Jim turned to leave and walk out the door, when he suddenly turned back around. “Bye, Dwight,” Jim smiled at him.
Dwight narrowed his eyes at Jim as he walked out the door.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Same disclaimer.
Chapter End Notes:
Next up: Jim makes a phone call.
