.
The sunlight danced on her arm as she gradually woke up. She looked over and Kelly wasn’t in bed. She wasn’t in the room. The room. What the hell happened to the room? Pam shoved the covers off and sat up. On the wall next to Pam’s bed was a giant poster of Orlando Bloom. There was what could only be described as a pink boa garland thing framing the window. And to top it off sitting on top of Kelly’s bed was the largest stuffed animal she had ever seen anyone over the age of 15 own. It was a big green frog. On the plus side it did break up the pink. Pam got up and glanced at the clock. It was 11. She never slept in this late. Normally she didn’t stay up that late either. She and Ryan had finished their work at 2 am. When she got back to her room Kelly was sleeping but the room definitely did not look like this.
Her feet hit the cold tile. She grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste off of her desk and she opened her door. Her room was right across from the bathroom. She wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing yet. She got to the bathroom door and pushed it open. She was suddenly pulled back by a hand.
“Watch it.”
She turned around to see whose hand was on her and saw Jim standing there. “Watch what?”
“The floor. Trust me, you do not want to stand on that without shoes. Bleach can only kill so many things.”
“Oh. Gross.” She was suddenly very self conscious about her feet. She tried to hide one foot behind her leg.
She turned around and walked through her open bedroom door. He stood in the doorway and watched her look for a pair of flip flops.
“Wow, I would not have pegged you for an Orlando Bloom fan. You should talk to Dwight. He will totally school you on all things Orlando Bloom. He’ll say it’s because he wanted to further his knowledge on elf culture. I think he has a little man crush, but don’t say I said that.”
Her head popped up from the under the bed. “Oh, that’s not mine.” She stood up with a pair of sandals in hand and she threw them down and slid her feet into them.
“When did the pepto-bismol monster come over?”
“I’m not exactly sure.” She stopped around the room again. “Some time this morning I guess.” She walked out of the room towards the bathroom toothbrush still in hand.
“After you’re done, do want to head over to the dining hall? I was going to ask Andy, but he wasn’t in his room.”
“Yeah, let me just brush,” she held up the toothbrush, “and I’ll be ready to go.”
He waited outside of her room standing against the wall. He felt like it was invading her space by staring in, but it wasn’t like she had a whole lot of space to invade.
“All done. Let me just grab my key. She reached her arm in and grabbed the key on her desk.
In the dining hall they went their separate ways. Jim headed toward the cereal and Pam went and stood in line for a waffle. He waved across the room and pointed to a table. Two minutes later she was placing her tray down in front of him. She had gotten a cup of orange juice and two sausage links along with her waffle. She looked over at Jim’s plate and saw two glasses of chocolate milk and a bowl of cocoa puffs.
“Going a little heavy on the chocolate don’t you think?” He dipped his spoon into his cereal and she saw chocolate milk dripping from the spoon. “Did you put chocolate milk in your cocoa puffs?”
He took another big bite. “Yeah.”
“You... Are... Sick,” she said in amazement.
“So this in no way turns you on?” He smirked.
“Yes, but only in the way that I’m totally amazed that anyone’s body can handle that much sugar in the morning.”
Pam finished everything except half of her waffle. She got up and he thought she was leaving but she only picked up the half eaten waffle. She walked up to the waffle station and covered the waffle in two inches of whipped cream. She sat back down and licked some whipped cream off of her finger.
“Pot calling the kettle black.”
“Oh, I forgot to add that I was totally turned on because someone other than me can consume this much sugar this early. My mistake.”
He finished his food and they both stood up. She had folded her waffle in half and was eating it like a sandwich. They walked back in silence. Every once in awhile he would look over at her and shake his head and laugh as she tried to keep from losing any whipped cream. She was holding the remaining piece above her head catching drops of whipped cream. She finally finished it as they headed up the stairs.
“Got any big plans for today?”
“Not really. I was just going to wander around campus and try to find all of my classes.”
“I was going to go buy some books. If you want to go with me I can give you your own personal tour of campus afterwards.”
“You wouldn’t mind?”
“Trust me, I am down for anything that gets me a break from this place. I was going to shower first. Is 30 minutes okay?”
She stopped at the third floor. “30 minutes works for me. See you then.”
30 minutes later he headed down the stairs to her room. She was sitting in her desk chair on her computer. She had clearly showered and she was wearing a white polo t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. She looked up at him and sighed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
There he stood in the doorway wearing khaki shorts and a white polo t-shirt.
Jim looked down now just realizing that they had essentially put on the same outfit. “Clearly we just have good taste.”
She thought about changing, but this was her favorite shirt. She grabbed a piece of paper with her schedule printed on it. He was studying the room. His eyes stopped on the photo on her desk. It was a picture of her and a tall burly guy. “Who’s that?” He pointed to the picture.
“Oh, that’s Roy.”
He wanted her to elaborate, but she stood up. “I think I got everything. Did you want a water for the road?”
“Sure.” She headed over to the small mini-fridge in the corner and grabbed to bottles. He stole another glance at the picture. The way his hand was wrapped around her waist he knew that it was her boyfriend.
~
It was Sunday. Check in day had finally arrived. Jim had just begun his shift and he was already annoyed. Michael and Kevin had warned him that today would be one of the worst days. Today was one of the few days that there would be this many parents present in the hall. He was tired. No one told him how tiring all of this would be. Getting up at 7 for stupid bonding activities, like roll call. Going to bed sometime after 2 because he was trying to hang up things on his bulletin boards. He felt like he could sleep for days, but knew he wouldn’t get any sleep until the night before classes started. If it weren’t for the free room and board he would have quit that first day.
A lady in her early 50s interrupted his thoughts. “Hi, I’m checking in for David Brent.”
“Is David actually present?”
The lady moved her glasses further down her nose so she could get a clear look at Jim. “I’m his mother.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you his things if he isn’t here to sign for them.”
“Where’s your boss?”
Jim suddenly thought it would make for a good laugh to send her over to Michael, but figured Michael would take the power to his head. Instead Jim leaned back in his chair and looked for his boss. “Stanley! This woman wants to speak to you.”
Stanley was sitting on a couch behind his RAs doing a crossword puzzle. He sighed louder than he talked. He slowly got up from his seat and walked up behind Jim. “Is there a problem?” He said with a slow drawl.
“Yes, this young man won’t give me the keys to my son’s room.”
“Ma’am, it clearly stated in the...”
Jim tuned out the conversation and helped the next person in line. Stanley would set her straight. He knew why you couldn’t give a key to someone that it didn’t belong to. Common sense told him that. Jim, however, would do this several more times during the day, mainly because he hated arguing with other people’s mothers. Also, he thought it was good for Stanley to move a little bit during the day. Keeps his heart pumping.
At the end of his shift he wandered into the office. Pam was sitting behind the desk on her computer. He laid half of his body on the counter and closed his eyes.
“Tired much?”
He opened his eyes and gave the weakest smile she had ever seen. “I think maybe I might go to sleep,” he paused, “for the next month. Can you make sure to put all of my mail in Dwight's box while I rest up for the month?” He lifted his head as he got an idea. “Actually, can just go ahead and do that anyway.”
She laughed. He lived to hear her laugh. Not because she had the cutest laugh in the world, but because she laughed with all of her being. He loved her laugh even more when it was him that made her laugh. His weak smile broke into a full grin. “What are you watching?”
“Memento. Kind of a weird movie, but I’ve never seen it and it was here in the office. So, yeah. Want to watch with me?” She offered up one of her ear buds to her headphones.
He got up off of the counter and pulled a chair behind the desk next to Pam. He watched with her for 10 minutes until he finally fell asleep in his chair. His legs were stretched straight out in front of him and he had his arms folded across his chest. Occasionally he would let out a small snore and she would smile. She waited till the end of her shift at 6 to wake him up. She knew that if she woke him any earlier he would just return to his floor and end up talk to residents instead of sleeping.
“Jim.” She shook his shoulder lightly. Nothing. “Jim,” she said it louder this time. Nothing again. She pinched his arm and his eyes shot open. He instinctively wiped his mouth with his arm hoping that hadn’t been drooling.
“How long was I asleep?”
“It was like an hour and a half. Feel better?” She was gathering her things.
“Actually, yes. Now I know what people mean when they talk about a power nap.”
She put her computer into her bag and squeezed past Jim to put her time card away. She squeezed past him again to grab her sweater off of the chair. Ryan walked in and smiled slightly. He wondered about these two. Every time he walked in the office there they were. They had only been here for a week and he figured that it would be a little soon for them to already be dating, but they could be just messing around with each other. Friends with benefits... scratch that, co-workers with benefits. He shook his head when he saw Jim helping Pam put her sweater on.
“I’m going to head over for dinner. Do you want to come with me?”
“I would, but I told Kelly that I would meet her with some of the other girls on the floor for dinner. She’s afraid that I’ll become that creepy girl that sits in her room all day.”
“Good, just don’t become one of those girls from your floor or I can’t be friends with you anymore.”
“So let me get this straight. If I start wearing uggs with my skirt you’ll disown me?”
“Faster than you can say Michael Gary Scott.”
“I’ll try to remember that.” She put her bag over her shoulder and walked out of the office. She waved to them both when she walked past the window.
Ryan moved the extra chair to the side and sat down at the desk. He put the book down that he had been carrying on the desk. He glanced up at Jim. He was deep in thought.
“So, you and Pam, huh?”
“What?” He said with a confused look.
“You and Pam. Are you guys... umm... you know?
“What? I thought YOU and Pam were for awhile, but...”
“Gross. Me and Pam, that would never happen. She looks just like my sister.”
“Oh, I mean I know you guys aren’t... I saw a picture of her boyfriend. Forget that I mentioned that.” He laughed nervously.
“So you guys aren’t doing whatever?”
“No. She’s just cool to hang out with, you know. Like a good guy friend, but she’s a girl.”
Ryan was skeptical, but didn’t really care enough to spend his whole shift figuring out Jim and Pam’s relationship.
.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Pam and Jim spend the weekend hanging out.
Chapter End Notes:
So I know I said that Pam would meet someone in her class this chapter, but clearly we did not make it to any classes. This chapter was running a bit long and I wanted to end it in a good spot. Next chapter, I promise.
