If Jim was being honest, he was surprised when the next person to bump into him wasn't Pam. He felt like he recognised the face, and raised a slight brow as the woman looked him up and down. 

"Sorry - Jim, right?"

"Umm... yeah."

"Marina," she extended her right hand, clutching a stack of paperwork to her chest with her left.

"Oh, um - Jim, obviously," Jim reciprocated and shook her hand, still looking slightly confused. 

"Pam dragged me along to your basketball game," Marina explained. 

"Ah okay, so that's where I've seen you before."

"Yep - good game, by the way."

"Oh, thanks."

"Think it's your turn," Marina pointed out, nodding her head towards the printer. 

Jim gave her a quick smile before stepping forward and entering his print code onto the screen, assuming their interaction had ended. As he collected his printing and hit the little green ‘logout' button on the printer screen, he turned and raised a hand in goodbye.

Before Jim could turn and leave, Marina quickly asked, "Hey, can I get this thing to staple the copy I'm making?"

"Umm... yeah, it's under the little ‘more options' button." 

Focusing on the little screen for a moment, Marina furrowed her brow as she located the staple options and worked out which option she needed, mumbling "how the fuck should I know if I've put it in landscape or portrait?!" under her breath. Once done, she jabbed at the ‘start' button and nodded approvingly when she heard the machine start its job, the pages coming out the right way round. "Ugh, so handy! Thanks, Jim." 

"No problem," Jim shrugged. He shifted his weight awkwardly, trying to work out if he was free to leave now. Just as he decided it had been a long enough pause to reasonably say goodbye, having stood for a while watching the copy tray feed each page in and out, Marina pointed at him. 

"You off to class?" 

"No, just... meeting my friend to go study," Jim shrugged. 

"Well if you want, I'm about to go meet Pam for a mid-study coffee break," Marina said, lifting a brow at Jim as she began removing the original papers from the tray, "and you're welcome to join us."

"Umm..." Jim looked at Marina for a moment - her emphasis on Pam's name and her slight smirk seemed suspicious, though he wasn't exactly sure why. Surely she wasn't that good a mind reader and the way he felt drawn to Pam wasn't that obvious? Even so, he was in no rush to decline such an invite. "Sure, sounds good." 

"Obviously, your friend is more than welcome to join us," Marina said as she moved away from the printer, awkwardly holding her originals in one hand and copies in the other. "Can I meet you back here in like two minutes? I just need to give the original copy back to my friend and log out the computer." 

"Sure, I'm just gonna grab my bag." 

Ten minutes later, Jim had discovered that Marina was a Psychology student (which slightly surprised him), Pam liked a sprinkle of cinnamon in her coffee, and Mark suddenly had more game than he'd ever known him to have. Two minutes after being introduced, Mark and Marina had gone to get pastries and had perched on a couple of seats at the end of the coffee bar.  

"I can't believe they've just abandoned us," Jim chuckled.  

"I know," Pam rolled her eyes in Marina's direction.  

"They'll have to come back here to get their stuff anyway," Jim pointed out before tipping back the final drops of his coffee. 

"Yeah," Pam nodded.

Jim smiled to himself as he put his napkin into his now empty coffee cup and put the lid back on. He'd realised that often when he spoke to Pam, there'd be a moment when she would go shy and awkward, and he found it adorable. Her cheeks would tinge pink and she'd either stumble over her words or go really quiet, like she had now. The still-basically-a-teenager part of his brain was giggling that it was because she liked him; the I'm-a-college-student-now part of his brain was saying she was just someone who got shy easily. It was very easy for both parts of his brain to ignore the fact that she had a boyfriend.

"So what kind of stuff does an art student do in a library?" Jim asked, not because he couldn't figure the basic answer out for himself, but to give Pam a prompt.

Instantly, Pam's eyes lit up. "Oh, well, usually it's stuff for art history, reading about artists, or to learn about the time period a work was completed in - that kinda stuff. At the moment I'm analysing the works of this artist and seeing what might have influenced them. Like... if I painted you in this coffee shop right now, I could decide to give the walls a funky design, or I could make it look like it's the apocalypse. So in fifty years they might think, why? What was going on in my life for me to make that artistic decision? Does it reflect the state of the world I'm in? Is it consistent with all my other paintings?" 

"So what kind of background would you do for such a painting?" Jim asked with a grin.

"Probably something kinda simple and realistic, but with big pops of color and abstract shapes here and there," Pam answered easily as she played with her napkin.

Where's Marina's psychology thoughts when you need them? Jim thought to himself. "I still haven't seen that painting you told me about before." 

"Oh - yeah," Pam blushed again as her head shot up to look at him properly. He could tell she was surprised he'd brought it up again, and hoped he wasn't asking her to share the original art if she wasn't comfortable with it. "I keep forgetting about that." 

"I'm just gonna put these in the trash," Jim picked up their empty coffee cups and stood, figuring it would give Pam a few seconds to herself to think and change the subject if she wanted to. She gave him a small smile as he left the table, and he walked slowly to the station that housed the bins. He emptied the napkins and lids into the regular bin before putting the cups into the recycling container. Jim paused and watched Mark and Marina laugh about something, their pastries only half eaten, before making his way back to where Pam was sitting. 

"I can show you the sketch and the painting now, if you want," Pam said the moment he arrived at the table, fiddling with the sleeves of her gray knitted cardigan. 

"Wh- really?" Jim's brows raised in surprise. 

"Yeah, if you still want to?" Pam bit her lip, and Jim could see the shyness trying to sneak back in and take over.

"Of course!"

"My folder is in one of the art studios though, if you don't mind going all the way over there?" 

"Not at all - I've actually never been to the art block." 

"Smells like paint," Pam shrugged. "I'm just gonna let Marina know we're going." 

As Pam went and told Marina that she was off to the art block with Jim so wouldn't be going to study in her dorm as they'd planned (receiving a wide grin from Marina in response, which Pam rolled her eyes at and whispered a sharp "shut up!"), Jim told Mark he wasn't going to be heading back to the library and received a smirk and slap on the back. 

On their walk to the art block Jim told Pam about the paper he was writing and that he was very much behind on it but would write it at 9pm on Sunday evening, ready to submit for the 11am Monday deadline. Pam told Jim about the research she was doing for her required Art History course, and that there was a weird balance between boring and interesting when it came to world art before 1400. 

"So... this is where I spend most of my time," Pam gestured at the building in front of them with both hands as they walked. "My stuff is upstairs so... I can do a kinda mini tour along the way if you want?"

"Yeah," Jim grinned. If it meant spending more time with Pam, he was all for it. "Sounds good."

Pam smiled to herself as she opened the main doors. Sometimes it was easy to forget that she was trying to focus more on her relationship with Roy, and less on Jim - and this was one of those times. She felt giddy at the prospect of showing Jim into her artistic world; not just show him some of her work but this big part of her life where she spent so much of her time. A part of her life that mattered to her in ways that she could only express through her artwork. 

Pam showed Jim around a few of the rooms on the ground floor, explaining what class went on in each space. Through this Jim found out that Pam had just signed up to take a class called ‘Intro to Clay' next semester and she was excited to try something new. She showed Jim a piece of her work which was displayed on one of the boards that she had worked on for her Contemporary Art class and found herself blushing intensely when he refused to continue the tour because he wanted to spend more time looking at it. He looked entirely enthralled and for a moment Pam's world consisted of only her, Jim, and the way his amazement at her art made her feel. 

That was until someone came up to Pam, pulling them out of their moment. 

"Pam, hey - I've just been to the dark room, I think your photos are ready. They look awesome, by the way."

"Oh, umm, thanks Anna," Pam smiled. It had been on her list of things to do after her study session with Marina, though admittedly since Jim had come along for coffee it had slipped her mind. And who could blame her when his hair looked all cute and messy from study boredom? "I'll check them before I go."

Jim grinned and waited for Pam to exchange a quick goodbye with Anna before turning to her. "Is the dark room part of the tour?" 

"Yes, since I need to sort my photos, it is part of the tour," Pam smiled. "Ready?"

Taking a final glance at the display with Pam's art, Jim nodded. "Okay." 

Jim particularly enjoyed the photography studio, fascinated by the variety of equipment available. He shared that his dad had a camera he always brought with him on trips and holidays, joking that he fancied himself an amateur landscape photographer. He showed Pam a couple of photos his dad had taken on his phone, and Pam had to admit they were very good, even with the quality lowered from being on Jim's phone. 

The highlight, Pam first thought, was when they got to the drawing studios. She automatically lit up showing him around. She showed Jim her favorite space to sit in one of the studios, and talked through the current course content as they walked around. Jim sat at Pam's favorite spot as she went to rifle through a storage area at the back where students kept their portfolios when they weren't working on them outside the studios. 

When Pam returned into the main studio area, her portfolio tucked under her arm, she couldn't help the grin on her face. Jim looked so comfortable, so relaxed, sitting in her favorite spot; the afternoon light coming through the large windows highlighting his profile perfectly. He had his chin in his left hand as his right hand drummed lazily on the table, one foot resting on the lower bar of the stool he was sat on, the other on the floor. Pam let the mental image sink in, trying to memorise it to draw later. 

She knew she couldn't stare at him like this forever, tempting as it was. 

"Well, here it is," Pam announced as she walked over to Jim, sitting down next to him and putting her black A3 portfolio case on the table. "The moment you've been waiting for."

"It's so cool that you have one of these," Jim gestured to the portfolio case that Pam was now unzipping. "So cool and artsy." 

"Oh... thanks," Pam smiled shyly as she flipped the portfolio cover open. Roy always said it made her look all ‘artsy fartsy' which was funny once when she was seventeen, but not so much after that when his intention was teasing her about it. 

"I always thought you'd have a clear portfolio though. I dunno why," Jim shrugged, watching as Pam ran her fingers back and forth over the front of the large sketchbook at the top of her portfolio case. 

"Oh, I have one of those too, it's in my dorm. These black case ones are a bit sturdier for keeping stuff safe though," Pam explained, blushing a little at the knowledge that at some point since meeting her - even if it was just today - Jim had imagined her with an art portfolio - even the specifics of the portfolio. "So... do you wanna see the original drawing-drawing' first-" she put air quotes around ‘drawing-drawing', a slight smirk on her face at her use of his words from their first proper conversation at Diners, "or the watercolor?"  

"Hmm," Jim drummed his fingers on his chin thoughtfully. "Drawing-drawing first, please."

"Mm'kay," Pam grinned. She had thought she'd be nervous, but now she was just excited to share her drawing with Jim. It was her favorite piece she'd worked on; it was a little window into her soul and she'd really spent a lot of time on all the details. She angled the sketchbook toward herself so Jim couldn't fully see the works she flipped through, biting her lip once she got to the page she was searching for. She looked up at Jim, eyes sparkling and brows raised, before flipping the sketchbook open fully and turning it towards him. 

"Oh my God, Beesly!" Jim exclaimed in awe. He gaped at the drawing for a while, eyes taking in all the details. The woman in the picture was clearly Pam, though she was facing away - he could tell from the hair; Pam had clearly spent time getting the curls and waves just right to match her own hair. He took in all the details of the terrace - the grain in the wooden panels, the flowers in the windowsill planters, the mismatched cushions on the bench against the wall. "The detail is amazing. You can tell from how you've drawn her dress that there's a little breeze - and I love that there's even a book on the bench."

"That was my little nod to the book that inspired the whole terrace dream," Pam smiled. She flipped carefully to the plastic sleeve that held the watercolor version of the drawing and slid it over to Jim so he could see them both side-by-side. "That's the painted version."

"Wow," Jim leaned in closer to take in the details of the watercolor. "Look at that. I knew those cushions were yellow and pink!"

"Shut up, you did not," Pam nudged Jim with her elbow. 

"I did! The pattern just felt... yellow and pink," Jim shrugged. "Pam, these are awesome. The iPad one is cool... but I feel like with these you really feel a connection with what you felt when you drew them." 

Pam put her chin in her hands, mainly to use her fingers to hide the blush she felt creeping onto her cheeks. It was a very new experience for someone to really appreciate her art and take the time to understand it. Her family and close friends had a very different relationship with her art; not only did they generally like her art unconditionally but they knew Pam in their own ways and often understood her process. Roy's understanding of Pam's art - any art, really - was appreciative but superficial. Pam could only utter out a quiet "thank you," and throw Jim a sideways glance, glad he was still looking at the pieces in front of him. 

Finally, Jim looked up from the drawing and painting in front of him to look at Pam. "I think my favorite thing is that you've included the book, but only you know what book it actually is." 

"Yeah," Pam grinned as she flipped to the front of the portfolio, gesturing for Jim to close the sketchbook and hand it to her, "I like that people get that from both pieces. I don't think it's as obvious in the digital one."

"I don't think I noticed the book in that one," Jim said, watching as Pam zipped her portfolio closed.

"Kind of like when they do movie remakes. You lose a bit of the original," Pam shrugged and stood up, pulling the portfolio with her.

Once Pam put her portfolio away, they headed to the dark room. Photography - especially light boxes and the developing process - was new to Pam, so she was a little nervous about showing Jim these. She explained that she'd called her concept ‘360', using a central point in her garden to capture multiple photographs in a circle. She'd had her sister Penny and Isabel enjoying sodas on a picnic blanket, her mom and Aunt Camilla reading in sun loungers, and her dad and Uncle Thomas teaching her cousin Joe to swing a baseball bat.

"The negatives looked kinda cool, and now they're dry it'll be fun to see properly how natural light from different angles affected the exposure," Pam said as she opened the first door to the dark room.

"Who knew in the age of having cameras on our phones, negatives would still be a thing," Jim chuckled. 

Pam let them into the dark room, and Jim took a second to let his senses adjust. There was a lingering smell from the developer, and aside from the red light it was - as the name of the room implied - dark. He followed Pam, catching glimpses of developed photos hanging to dry. 

Stopping at her section, Pam reached up to gently check each of her developed photos, taking down the ones that were ready to use and handing them to Jim. He could identify the people in them from what Pam had explained. "It's so trippy knowing these are taken as a 360... but we don't see them like that?" 

"So when I show them, they'll be hanging in a circle to be at my eye level, and you have to stand in the middle. I dunno, I might enlarge them I think." 

As Jim looked back through the photos, leaning against the table in the middle of the room, Pam simply stood and watched him. It was a small room so they were in close proximity, and her eyes were drawn to the small smile on his lips. She was grateful for the dark as she suddenly felt herself blushing again and her heart rate speed up. Pulling up the sleeves of her cardigan, Pam allowed her eyes to wander over Jim's form. His grey sweatshirt was loose on him, but the way his arms were positioned as he held the photos close to his face reminded her of the biceps she'd seen at his basketball game. She shoved her hands behind her back, linking her fingers, worried she would act on her sudden temptation to run her hands up his arms. His jeans were definitely too baggy for him (stop staring at his pants, that's so creepy, Pam had to remind herself), and his black Adidas sneakers were scuffed, but somehow it worked. Pam had to admit to herself in that moment that she was most definitely attracted to Jim Halpert. 

"It'll look cool in a circle," Jim held the photos out to Pam. "A Beesly 360." 

"What - yeah, umm, okay," Pam took the photos from Jim a little too quickly, "thanks." 

* 

@ordinarydoodles

College is a time we start to see ourselves and others in a new light. It can be so exciting... but also kinda terrifying. 

Pam found herself scrolling through the comments of her latest post at 3am, having woken ten minutes ago from a dream that both ended too soon and not soon enough. Her dream self had been back in the dark room with Jim, only with a significantly more romantic element where they had almost, almost kissed. Her body craved more, but a quick reminder that she shared a room with Angela had prompted her to take a deep, calming breath.

@princesskelly_k omg totally!!!! <3 xxx

@mariamj42 its totally scary!! where is that view tho - gorgeous!!

@_sheridan_sheffield yea that's how ended up dating my high school bestie :) @cameronnn01johnson

         @cameronnn01johnson :)

@averagej03 kinda nice to no not just me

@eva_carlsson_98 where on campus is this?! totally feel this tho, they don't tell u about this kinda stuff before you start college! 

Smiling to herself, Pam scrolled back up to the doodle she had uploaded. She had wanted to include Jim's side profile, but it would give far too much away. Instead, she had simply drawn the view out the window from her favorite spot in the art studio and the way the light had illuminated the space around Jim. She didn't include any features of the art room to keep the location unassuming enough for anyone who didn't use the art studio. Pam figured people would probably assume the owner of the account was an art student of some sort anyway, but she liked to leave as few clues as possible.

Liking each of the comments, Pam switched back to her personal account and exited the app. It was good to know she wasn't alone in this feeling, though it was still scary. Part of her felt like she should accept that she'd reflected all she needed on her relationship with Roy, but it was also all she knew. She had been with him since high school, had come to the college with him. She knew it was ridiculous, but she wasn't sure if she really knew who she was on her own anymore. 

But maybe that was what college was for? She had Isabel, she had Marina... Angela too, she supposed. With a smile, Pam figured she also had Jim.