.
Jim was sitting next to Pam on his bed studying. Pam was sketching something for class.
“Did you have anything planned for your birthday?”
“My parents are coming in the morning to take me to lunch, but that’s it.” She stopped sketching to look at him. “Why?”
“Nothing. Just wanted to take you somewhere.” He smirked.
“Where?”
“Let’s just say that I had to make reservations. So wear your best party dress.” He playfully hit her on the leg.
She put down her sketchbook and turned to the side to face him. Her eyes were big with excitement. “Where?” She was never good with surprises.
“You’ll just have to wait till tomorrow.”
“Please Jim. I promise to act surprised tomorrow. I just need to know.”
“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you beg before.”
“I’m a legendary beggar. Don’t make pull out the big guns.”
“The big guns?”
She made a sad puppy dog face.
“That face does nothing for me.”
“Do you have a heart of ice?” She sighed in defeat and turned back to her sketchbook to start drawing again.
She would steal a glance at him every few seconds. She wanted to know so badly. “Please,” she squeaked.
“Nope.”
She placed two hands on his shoulder and gently shook him. “Please Jim.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Then I’m leaving.” She stood up.
“Are you serious?”
“We’ll if I go to bed now then I won’t have to think about it.”
“You’re kidding!”
She grabbed her bag off of the floor and shoved her sketchbook in it. He looked at her and expected her to be smiling, but she was serious. She was really going to go to bed.
“I thought we were going to stay up till midnight. Enjoy the last few moments of teenage hood.”
She looked up at his clock. 11:55. “Fine, but I’m not going to enjoy it.” She sat back down next to him.
He finished reading his page and then put down his book. “I can’t believe you were going to leave.”
“What can I say? I’m secretly a huge brat.”
“That’s not a secret.”
She groaned and leaned on him. “You’re no prize yourself.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Don’t feel bad, we can’t all be Jim Halperts.” It was nice to just sit next to her without wanting to kiss her. That was a lie, because the urge was still there, even if it was small. “So do I get to meet your folks tomorrow?”
“Did you want to meet them?”
“Why wouldn’t I want to meet the people that created the worst beggar in the world?”
“Shut up. You can come to breakfast if you want. They wanted me to bring Kelly. That was not going to happen though. Could you imagine the things she would say?”
“Can you imagine the things that I’m going to say?”
“Fine, go right ahead. But just be warned, my dad can be kind of scary.”
“Does he make the same face that you do? The pouty face? ‘Cause that was kind of scary.”
“You’re supposed to be nice to people on their birthday.”
“It’s not your birthday for another 2 minutes!”
“Maybe your clock is behind 2 minutes!”
“You have a point.”
They sat silently watching the clock tick down the final two minutes.
“Want to know my favorite thing about this last year?”
“Sure.”
“This.”
That urge wasn’t so small anymore. He pulled her closer to him.
“This is my favorite part too. Happy birthday Pam.”
“Thanks Jim.” She gave him a little squeeze on his waist and got up. “I’m going to go to bed now, but I’ll see you in the morning.”
“What time?”
“11ish.”
Jim was up early. He was nervous about meeting her parents. He wanted to make a good impression. He spent a lot time changing in and out of clothes. He wondered if this was what it was like to be a girl. He finally decided on a pair of jeans with a long sleeved dress shirt. He rolled up the sleeves. He thought it said ‘I’m casual, but I’m not a slob.’ He shook his head at himself as soon as that thought popped into his head. What was he turning into?
He headed down to Pam’s room a few minutes early. She had the door open. Their room seemed different. Not cleaner, but less Kelly and more Pam.
“Did a little redecorating?”
“Just a little.”
He walked over to a series of drawings hanging on the wall. “Did you do these?”
“Yeah, a few months ago. It was a project. Thought I’d show my parents that they aren’t paying for nothing. Just giving them their moneys worth.”
“Is that Ryan?”
“Yeah, and that one is Kelly. And the last one is...”
“That’s me! When did you do this?”
“February.”
They weren’t talking in February. It was right after that night. “Did you draw that from memory?”
She nodded her head. She was a little embarrassed that he now knew that she had memorized his face.
“Can I have that?” He wasn’t sure why he wanted it, maybe because it was a tangible representation of their friendship and the possibility of something more.
“I don’t know. They’re a set; you can’t separate them. Do you really want Ryan’s face on your wall?” She teased. He didn’t laugh. He just stared at the drawing. “Yeah, you can have it, but after my parents see them.”
“You’re really good at the whole art thing. Why are you just doing art history?” It was weird for him to think that there was this whole other side of Pam that he knew nothing about. He looked away from the drawing and glanced around the room for anything else new.
“Easier I guess. I’m just not that inspired. I couldn’t support myself with art so I majored in the next best thing.”
He wanted to tell her that she was better than she thought. That those drawings were proof, but her phone rang. She was talking to her parents. He turned back to the drawing. He thought that it was funny that she had memorized her face because he had memorized her face too. Sometimes right before falling asleep he would see her face as clear as day. Like she was right there with him.
“They’re here. Downstairs.”
She looked excited, he was still very nervous. Pam’s parents were parked right in front of the building. She skipped over to the car and Jim hung back a bit. He felt like he was intruding on their personal time. Her mother got out of the car first. Pam looked just like her. Then her dad followed. His smile, that was Pam’s smile. She hugged each of them. Then the attention turned to Jim.
“Mom, Dad, this is my friend Jim.” Her dad gave a knowing smile.
He shook her dad’s extended hand and then her mom’s hand. “It’s great to meet you.” His voice cracked and he hoped that they didn’t notice.
“It’s nice to meet you too. It’s good to know that Pam was actually talking to someone on the other line during Christmas break.” Her dad said.
“Thanks dad.”
“You guys ready to go?”
“Yep.”
They got in the backseat and Pam gave him a reassuring smile. She could see that he was nervous. At the restaurant Jim sat next to Pam, right across from her dad. He wasn’t sure if she was joking last night about her dad being scary. He was afraid to look at him in the eye, but that became hard to do when he started asking him questions.
“What’s your major Jim?”
“Architecture, sir.” Should he have said ‘sir’? Was that too kiss ass of him?
“Pam’s grandfather was an architect. That’s where I think she gets her artistic side from.”
“She never mentioned that.”
“He didn’t do anything big, just some hotels, things like that. He designed the house that I grew up in, the one we live in now.”
Pam glanced over while talking to her mom. They were deep in conversation. It was cute. It was like two old friends catching up. She was happy that he agreed to come.
Their food had come and the conversations slowed down a bit. Pam’s dad watched as his daughter and Jim casually ate off each other’s plates. He turned and smiled at his wife and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
When they got back to Dunder Hall Jim felt confident that her dad didn’t totally hate him.
“Thank you for the meal.” Jim said to Pam’s mom.
“No problem, it was good to finally meet you.”
“You should come and visit this summer. I’d love for you to see the house.” Pam’s dad said. He couldn’t believe that he was afraid of this man two hours ago.
“Absolutely. Have a safe drive back. Pam, I’ll see you in a few hours.” He waved to them and went back inside.
“He’s a nice young man.” Pam shot her dad a surprised look.
Her dad never approved of any boy. Not even her fake boyfriend in the second grade. She walked her parents up to her room. She cringed a little when she saw the door open. Kelly was back. She didn’t even have time to introduce her parents before Kelly was up and hugging them.
“Oh my God, you must be Pam’s parents.” Pam’s dad wasn’t a big hugger, but he lightly patted Kelly on the back.
She showed her parents’ around her room. There wasn’t really much to see. She walked her parents down to the office and showed them where she worked. Then they wished her happy birthday a few more times and said their goodbyes.
She hurried back to her room and sent a message.
bees_knees: they really liked you.
jimjam76: your parents are great.
bees_knees: thanks.
bees_knees: when should I get ready for tonight?
jimjam76: sometime before 5.
bees_knees: where are we going?
jimjam76: can’t tell you.
bees_knees: is it just us or will other people be there?
jimjam76: I cannot disclose that at this time.
bees_knees: does Kelly know?
bees_knees: Kelly does know, doesn’t she!?!?
jimjam76: Pam, don’t ruin the surprise. We only have like 4 more hours.
bees_knees: :-(
Waiting for her surprise was grueling. Her and Jim had left the hall at 4:30. She felt a little overdressed, especially since Jim was wearing the same thing he had on earlier. She was sitting in his car looking out the window, trying to guess in her mind where they were going.
When they pulled up to Chuck E. Cheese’s she laughed out loud. Why didn’t she guess this? He kept talking about the end of her childhood and this just fit perfectly with that.
“Awesome choice.”
“I knew you would like it.”
He got out of the car and opened her door for her. Inside she saw a table set up for her. Everyone from Dunder Hall was there except for Stanley, Meredith, Katy (thank god), and Phyllis.
“Jim, you didn’t have to do all of this. It’s too much,” she whispered to him as they neared the table.
“Its fine, my buddy Mark works here.” He pointed to a guy behind the counter.
She took the empty seat by Kelly and Jim sat next to her. He grabbed the birthday hat sitting in front of her and he put it on her head.
Pam watched as Michael came back to the table carrying two pints of beer. “I didn’t know they served alcohol here.” Karen said from across the table.
“I did. This Chuck E. Cheese’s got their liquor license in 1992.” Pam noticed the flash in Angela’s eyes when Dwight spewed out this fact.
“How would you even know that?” Michael sounded annoyed.
Jim leaned over and whispered in Pam’s ear, “Sorry that Michael and Dwight are here.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She picked up the hat in front of him and placed it on his head. “Just so you know, this is by far the coolest birthday party I’ve ever had.”
Michael walked over with his camera. “Get together you two and say body shots!”
Neither of them said it, but Andy yelled it for them.
“Can you send me a copy of that?” Pam asked Michael.
“Yeah, if you want I can photoshop myself into the back. It’ll be just like the three amigos.”
“We could just take another one with you in it.” Jim wondered what happened to Michael during his childhood that would make him think that he had to go back and photoshop himself into pictures from a party that he attended.
Jim looked over at Pam. She was smiling from ear to ear as she talked to Angela. He knew all this planning was worth it if Pam was smiling while talking to Angela.
Later Andy was chatting up Kelly and she was eating it up. Ryan was hitting on a girl in an animal costume. Kevin was killing at skee ball while Dwight showed Jim the proper way to toss a skee ball.
The girls were sitting at the table with Michael and Toby as they picked at the remain pieces of pizza.
Pam stole a glance at Jim who was now tossing the ball like a basketball and she watched as Dwight again showed Jim how to toss the ball again.
She was glad that no one was paying attention when Angela asked her a question. "You like him, don't you?"
"He's my best friend," but Angela knew what she meant, she didn't have to say it.
.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Pam celebrates her birthday and her parents come to visit.
Chapter End Notes:
Next chapter Finals!
