Well, it appeared everything was back to normal between Jimmy and me. We never brought up last year’s Valentine’s day cards or discussed our feelings ever again. I stopped looking at him like a boy I had a crush on and started seeing him as my best friend, and it appeared he was doing the same thing with me.

Roy, on the other hand, was becoming crueler and crueler. He always picked on me and called me all sorts of names. Jimmy usually quips in with some reply to Roy, throwing him off his game. We’d laugh over it, but I’d still cry sometimes at home, remembering the hurtful words.

My mom had told me that sometimes a boy would pick on the girls he likes the most, but I didn’t believe her in this case. She, of course, was right, but what did I know?

We finished the school year learning a lot more than we had in Mr. Scott’s class, and I was excited for the break when the last day of school came.

I had all sorts of plans for the summer. I would stay with my grandmother for a week and play games with her and her friends. Then I would go back to art camp for another week and then come back and spend some well-deserved time in front of the television.

 During one of those many days in front of the tv, the telephone rang. I wasn’t allowed to answer it unless I knew it was my mom. She would call, let it ring twice, then hang up and call right back. This time it just kept ringing until it went to the answering machine, so I stood by the phone and listened.

“Uh, hi, this is Jimmy. I was just wondering if Pammy..” I grabbed the phone off the hook quickly.

“Jimmy?”

“Oh, hi! I thought you weren’t home.”

“Oh no, I’m just not allowed to answer the phone unless my mom’s home.”

“Are you going to get in trouble if you talk to me?” 

“No, she just doesn’t want me talking to strangers.”

“Oh ok, I just wanted to know if you wanted to come over and play tomorrow afternoon. My mom said we could have grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and do whatever we wanted. Maybe you could bring your new markers over, and we could draw some pictures of Dwight.” 

I laughed at the idea. “Ok, I’ll call my mom and ask her if it’s ok. I’ll call you back in a couple of minutes, ok?” 

“Ok, bye, Pammy.” 

“Bye, Jimmy.” I hung up the phone and smiled at it. I waited a few seconds before picking it back up and dialing my mom at work.

I called my mom and explained that Jimmy had called and invited me over to color and draw tomorrow afternoon and that his mom would make us lunch. I asked her if it was ok if I went over. She, of course, said yes, and I quickly hung up the phone almost without saying goodbye.

“Hello”

“Hey! My mom said yes!”

“Oh good! That’s cool. My mom said she’ll pick you up at your house at around 11. Is that a good time?”

“Yea, that’s perfect!” I was so thrilled my feet bounced on my legs as I sat at the edge of the couch.

“Ok, well then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Ok, bye.”

“Bye”

*****

My mom helped me pick out something I could wear the night before. It had to be something that could eventually get dirty but was still cute. I had it all laid out and ready to go when I woke up.

I got ready and pulled my hair back into a ponytail tying a little white ribbon around the rubber band. I slipped on my favorite white tennis shoes and sat on the couch with cartoons. I wasn’t watching them but watching the clock above the television. I sat there for about an hour when I heard the doorbell. It scared me at first. Then my stomach leaped into my throat.

I ran to the door and looked out the side window to make sure it was him. He was standing with his hands in his pockets and swaying back and forth. I unlocked the door and swung it open.

“Hi”

“Hi, are you ready?”

“Yep!” I reached down to the backpack I had filled with every art accessory I owned and flung it over my shoulder. I locked the door behind me, making sure I heard it click. We skipped down the driveway to his mom’s van.

 “Hi, Pammy. How are you today?” His mom was always so lovely to me, which always calmed my nerves down.

“I’m good, thank you.”

“I’m so glad you could come over, Jimmy’s been practically begging me for months asking if you could come over. We just haven’t had any free time.” I turned and looked at his face. He was blushing; it was cute.

“Mom.”

“Oh yes, dear, I’m sorry. So what are you two going to be doing this afternoon?” She looked back at us through her rearview mirror.

“I told you, mom, we were going to draw some pictures. Don’t forget you said you would make us grilled cheese sandwiches.”

“I know hon, you could help me make them too, just as I showed you.”

We pulled into his driveway, and his mom carefully pulled into the garage. I followed his lead as we walked into his house. When I first walked into his kitchen I was surprised at all the neat knickknacks on the walls and shelves.

I was soaking in every ounce of atmosphere and eyeing a wooden chicken on the kitchen counter when I felt his hand slide into mine. His fingers wrapped around me, gripping tightly while pulling me out of the room. We ran to his bedroom, together literally hand in hand, and I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face. When we got to his room I noticed a sign hung on the outside of his door, it was his initials that he had drawn, signifying this was his domain. This made me feel nervous for the first time all day.

He pushed open the door, and we walked in, he let go of my hand, and I slowly took it back, linking it with my other hand. I remember looking around the small room trying to savor every second of it. This was a moment I’d remember forever.

It was small and not messy as I’d imagined it. He had a small twin bed that wasn’t entirely made but wasn’t wholly unkempt. To the left of the bed was a small table and two chairs. He had blank drawing papers on it and a couple of toy trucks. There was a desk lamp in the corner of the table that he had turned on when we walked in. Across from the bed was a dresser, and I could see a t-shirt sticking out of one of the drawers. He had a couple of books sitting on it between some bookends, and I could see a small hairbrush that was probably never used. A basketball was on the floor next to the dresser, and a trashcan with one of those paper basketball rims above it.

“You can put your stuff down right there if you want.” He pointed over to the table with the papers.

“Ok”

“My mom said she would make those sandwiches now. Are you hungry?”

“A little bit. I think I could eat something.”

“Ok, do you want to sit at the counter and watch me help her?” His eyes were wide as he asked.

“Sure, I’d love to.”

“Ok, come on.”

We left his room and headed to the kitchen. His mom was already behind the counter, pulling out the ingredients for the sandwiches.

“Ok, mom, what do you want me to do?”

I crawled onto a big bar stool behind the kitchen counter while Jimmy and his mom were pulling slices of bread out of the bag, this was nice.

Soon we were seated around the dining room table eating our famous Halpert grilled cheese sandwiches. I had had his mom cut mine diagonally while he cut his straight down the middle. I liked biting the corners off first.

“Mmmm, these are good.”

“Thanks, they’re my favorite. I just can’t take grilled cheese to school. That's why I have my ham and cheese.”

“But I bet you could, you know Mr. Scott has that weird flat grill thing he keeps under his desk. You could probably ask him to use it.”

“No, I think I’ve seen him use it as a footrest. I bet he puts his smelly feet all over that thing.”

I laughed, imagining his bare feet resting on the metal heating panels.

“Yea, that does sound gross.”

We finished up our sandwiches and headed back to his room. We played for hours and hours. I think I drew 30 pictures of Dwight that afternoon, each one different. And he probably drew 100 other images of Dwight, each taking approximately 11 seconds. I was a little more involved with my drawings, trying to capture the essence of Dwight K. Schrute. It was just fun adding a little more detail to the background of each picture.

He kept a couple of the drawings and said he would hang them on his wall. Now my art would be in Kelly's house and Jimmy's house. How exciting.

My face was sore from laughing and smiling so much once they had dropped me off at home. My mom had just changed out of her work clothes when I came through the door.

“Did you have a nice time?”

“Yea, he makes the best-grilled cheese.”

She grabbed my backpack out of my hand, and I saw her smiling as she put it down by the kitchen table.

“Maybe he can come over next weekend before you go off to grandma’s.”

“Really?!”

“Sure”

I had to start getting my room ready now, it wasn’t as clean as his was and I didn’t want him to see that I lived in a pig sty, as my mom lovingly put it. Everything had to be perfect.