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Author's Chapter Notes:

Again, I have to hand it to my son for some of the antics – and again hoping he knows enough to stay out of trouble at parties (now that he’s older I’ve got worse things to worry about than paper towel bombs)

 

After Pam disappeared with her friend, Jim scooped a bunch more of the jelly beans into his bag. Pam was right, they were really good.

Jim returned to the ballroom. He too, had to find the buddies he came with and see when their ride would be coming to pick them up. But now he had another mission; actually, he had two.

One, to avoid Marcy. She was pretty and fun but he wasn’t really into her and he knew if he saw her, he would wind up taking her phone number and agreeing to call her. Pre-teen boys, Jim included, were not good at avoiding conflict. It would be easier to take her number and then not call, than it would be to explain to her he wasn’t that interested. But he didn’t really want to do that, better just to avoid her altogether.

Two, he wanted to find Pam again and get her phone number since it was with Pam that he did feel he made a connection. They’d only talked for a few minutes while they danced and then again at the candy bar but each time, he enjoyed the interaction and wanted to see what could happen if they weren’t cut short.

He reentered the ballroom just as Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes were having the time of their lives and the crowd on the dance floor had dwindled down to a few older couples. He looked over to the corner where the kid's table was set up. The remaining teenagers were huddled in small groups forming an archipelago between the dance floor and the long dais where gossiping girls and hyperactive boys ran back and forth among the clusters.

He immediately spotted Marcy, so he quickly ducked into the men’s room, where a few of his buddies were having a wet paper towel fight. Jim, not sure if he was more afraid about looking like a wimp in front of his friends or getting caught by one of Robyn’s relatives, pulled out a paper towel from the dispenser, wet it, smashed it into a ball and hurled it at Adam. Having Adam among the paper towel warriors was the thing that shifted his attitude from concern about being caught to reckless abandon. Nailing him right in the cheek was payback for making him miss the candy bar, even if he did get to hang out with the girl, Pam a bit more. Of course, just as the wet blob escaped from his hand, one of the older party guests came in and when he saw what the boys were doing, he gave them a bit of a talking to.

By the time they were done getting lectured and came out from the bathroom, Last Dance was playing and the dance floor was full once again. Kids and adults alike, wearing their party hats and cheap sunglasses jumped around belting out Donna Summer’s lyrics at the top of their lungs, the kids’ sugar rush and adrenaline hitting maximum potency.

Jim joined in on the dance for a bit hoping to see Pam out there too but when he spotted her up by the coat check he left the dance floor, checking in with Jason about when they were getting picked up and then made his way to the exit where he saw her go out.

He opened the doors, working up the courage to approach her as she stood with her friends, when he suddenly noticed who she was with.  Among the girls she stood with was Marcy. He stood frozen in the doorway, trying to decide on his next move. Did he casually go up and ask for all their phone numbers?  No, he couldn’t do that he had barely even met the other two girls, that would be weird. Could he just ask Pam, without hurting Marcy’s feelings? He’d only just met both of them and didn’t even know either one of them enough for this much trouble. Still, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Before he could make up his mind and make his feet move, a car pulled up into the circular driveway and the four girls loaded into it.

 

Oh well he thought to himself. I guess that’s that. Maybe he’d meet her again at another event, maybe one where Marcy wasn’t or maybe he wouldn’t ever see her again.

He popped another Jelly Belly into his mouth and headed back inside.

 

---

Pam and Jim were almost to their shared home. They had spent the whole car ride comparing their memories of the Bat Mitzvah. The one with the mishap with the centerpiece, the salted soda, the Snowball dance, and the jelly beans. Hazy recollections slowly came into full focus as they each shared what they remembered from the night.

They soon recognized there was no other explanation than they were each other’s crush for a half a minute after having met at a party when they were teens.

“I can’t believe it was you who got me hooked on jelly beans.”

“Not jelly beans, Jelly Bellys,” Pam corrected him once again, 18 years later while silently fingering the Tiffany Bean bracelet he gave her for her birthday a year ago. The bracelet already had a special meaning for them. With this new knowledge, it’s significance became even more extraordinary, a symbol of the magical force that led them to one another and bound them together like the chain the bean floated on.

Jim pulled the car into the driveway and set the car into park.

“See Pam, this just proves my point. Just as I told you last week, we were meant to be. No matter what life threw at us to keep us apart, fate still brought us back together. It may have taken years, and now we know it took more years than we even realized. But hey, we just have one more story to tell our kids someday.”


“Not to mention a shared love of Jelly Bellys. Speaking of which....”

Pam reached behind her seat to grab a tin heart. Written across the tins’ top, script letters spelled out the words, You’re Sweet. Be my Valentine. Inside the tin was an assortment of Jelly Bellys, in all the flavors she knew he loved. There wasn’t a black one in sight.

He was just about to turn off the engine and lean in to share a sweet kiss with his Valentine, when the musical interlude signaling a major news story interrupted the DJ’s chatter on the radio. Their meeting of their lips caused a small stirring in their bodies but it was their ears that were shaken by the news report. 


This Just In.

Local Authorities In The Scranton Area Are On The Lookout For The Person Responsible For The Strangling And Murders Of Two Local Women. Police Are Asking Residents Of Scranton And Nearby Areas To Be Vigilant And Extra Cautious As They Go About Their Activities. Previously Thought To Be Unrelated, These Two Incidents Are Now Looking Like The Work Of A Serial Killer Thought To Be Operating In Our Area. We Now Go To Lindsey Arnold Live At The Scene Of What Is Believed To Be The Most Recent Site Of A Fatal Struggle.

Chapter End Notes:


I hope this visit to the past was a fun trip. I had a lot of fun collaborating with my teenagers to bring it to life and writing it was a joy for me and stretched me to branch beyond what I normally write. Maybe a true AU will follow.

Thanks to those in the forum who gave me the gentle nudge that became the itch that just had to be scratched. I’d really love to know what you think so please review if you have the time.

Now I know most of you will get the ending and my husband always says I need to resist to urge to explain further.

BUT I can't help it - if you missed the meaning of the ending – rewatch Season 7 – Episode 11 for a hint and if you still don't get it you can ask in a review or slide into my Discord DM.

 


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