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It was Monday morning. Pam had been up for 2 hours. She couldn’t sleep. She was nervous that she would accidentally sleep through her alarm and miss her first class. She even left her room 30 minutes early for class. Her first class went fast. The professor spent at least half of the time going over the syllabus and then the other half explaining the difference between his two books.
She had a about a two hour break between classes. It was a beautiful day and she decided to sit out on the quad and draw. After an hour of sketching the buildings she stopped and took out her phone. She scrolled down the list and stopped at her mom’s number. She let it ring and eventually it went to voicemail.
“Hey mom, it’s me. I thought I would catch you during your break. I was just calling to say that everything is going okay. I have my first art class next so I’m pretty excited – kind of nervous actually. I guess call me later when you’re free. Love you.”
She hung up the phone and got up from the grass. As she cut across to the path she saw Angela walking at full speed towards her.
“Hey Angela.”
“Hello Pam.”
Angela stopped and this scared Pam a little. She had only said hi because she didn’t want to be rude. She had only had a few conversations with Angela and so far none of them had gone well.
On her second night at work Angela had stopped by the office to print out a bulletin board. Pam reached for the printed sheets after they came off the printer. When she was handing her the sheets she saw “Top ten ways to have fun in college and keep God in your heart.” Pam wasn’t going to say anything. She planned on ignoring it when Angela began discussing it with her.
“You should read these.”
“What?”
“You seem like an at risk student.” Angela pointed to the little bit of cleavage that Pam was showing.
Pam tugged at her shirt and left her hand there. “Wow.”
“Don’t be ashamed Pam. God wants us all to be good Christians, but some of us are more easily tempted than others. So anything I can do to help you find the right path I will do. Know that I’m just down the hall from you.”
Angela turned and walked out of the office and Pam was glad that she didn’t stick around because she honestly had no words for her. The next morning there was a post-it note in the shape of a cat on her door. It was an invitation from Angela to attend her prayer group the next night. Pam didn’t go and in return Angela would shoot her a dirty look whenever they were in the same room.
So now that Angela was standing in front of her and not giving her the death glare she wondered what had changed.
“How are your classes going?”
“Good. I have my next one in an hour. So I was going to grab some lunch.”
“We should sit together.” She said this so sternly that Pam wasn’t sure if it was a suggestion or a command.
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
The walk to the dining hall was quiet. Pam was actually trying to make a list of things to ask her while they ate. Angela on the other hand was just trying to muster up enough courage to ask her one question.
It was Pam who broke the silence first. “How do you like the people on the floor so far?”
Angela seemed distracted. She only gave a small nod. And then Pam heard Angela speak faster then was humanly possible. “Pam, what is second base?”
She choked on her water and her eyes doubled in size. ‘Did holier than thou Angela just say those words?’
“Umm... I don’t... umm... maybe you should...”
“Hey guys!”
Pam spun around and saw Karen standing with her tray behind her. She promptly took the seat next to Angela.
“Hey Karen.”
Angela looked nauseous. She hadn’t touched anything on her plate. There wasn’t really a whole lot on her plate either. They were serving tacos for lunch and Angela mentioned something about not liking foreign foods. As soon as Karen had settled into her seat she stood up.
“I just realized that I forgot to grab the book for my next class. I’ll see you later.”
“OK.” Karen said.
“Hey Angela, if you want to grab that paper from me later I’m done with classes at 4.”
A nervous smile spread across her face. Pam looked back to Karen who, thankfully, was oblivious to what just happened.
She liked Karen, well from what she had seen. Karen seemed to be a fairly grounded person. She wasn’t a religious nut like Angela. Unlike Katy, she didn’t think that Karen secretly wanted to be in a sorority. She still hadn’t really met Meredith, but her gut told her that she was definitely more normal than Meredith.
“So, how do you like everyone so far?”
“Everyone is really nice. Is this your first year as an RA?”
“It’s my second actually. I was in a different hall last year, so the whole staff is new to me.”
“Do you like everyone so far?”
“They’re great. Michael can be a little scary, but I heard stories about him last year.”
Pam finished her food and looked down at her watch. 12:30. “I have to get going, thanks for keeping me company though.”
“Any time. I’ll see you later.”
She walked briskly to her class. She was the first one to arrive in the studio. She took the seat closest to the window. Other people began to slowly filter in. She began pulling out a notebook when she saw someone sitting next to her. She looked up and saw and older man with short white hair sitting down. He had a plastic bag sitting on the desk filled with his art supplies. He looked up from his mess and gave her a smile and he looked back down and began to search through his bag for something.
The professor walked through the door 5 minutes later and pulled a stool to the center of the room. She didn’t sit on it, instead she placed her ceramic cup on it. She was a bigger woman. She was stocky, almost like she could compete in a lumberjack competition.
“Welcome to Art Foundations. I’m your instructor Madge. I’m here to teach you some basics and try to really get your creativity flowing.”
They spent the next twenty minutes introducing themselves to the whole class. After this Madge told them that she thought it would be a good idea to get to know the person sitting next them by drawing them. Pam looked to her left and knew she was stuck with the old man, Creed. Madge walked around the room handing each person a huge piece of paper, the kind of paper you would play pictionary on. Then she came back around with a stick and a piece of charcoal attached to the end with a piece of tape.
“Everyone stand up. Face your partner and place the piece of paper in front of you and draw your partner. But to really get to know your partner and your paper, I want you to draw your partner without looking at the paper. Keep your eyes on your partner the whole time. When this is done we’ll take turns showing our sketch and then we’ll each share 3 things we learned about our partner.”
Pam stood in front of this old man and he extended his hand to formally introduce himself. “Creed Bratton, friends call me William.”
“Pam Beesly, everyone calls me Pam.” She took his hand and shook it.
It was awkward staring at someone for this long. She was glad that they could at least talk to break the discomfort. “What are you in for?”
“Art history. I would’ve liked to go for art studio, but I’m not really creative enough for it.” She was surprised she was being so candid with this old man. “You?”
“I’m actually just auditing the class.”
“What is that?”
“Means I graduated and I’m just taking classes without receiving any credit. Gives me something to do during the day.”
“What do you normally do?”
“Nothing since the 60s.”
“You know that it’s 2005, right?”
He never answered. For the next few hours in the class while they did more exercises she wondered what she must have done in her past life to be stuck with the creepiest person in the class. Honestly, other than the creepy factor he reminded her of her grandpa. It was the beady eyes. It was sort of nice in a way, like she had a piece of home with her.
When she got back to her room she found Angela sitting outside of her door. She wondered how long she had been sitting there. She looked really comfortable.
“Hi.” She opened her door. Angela got up and followed her in and closed the door behind them. “What was it that you were asking before?”
She remembered the question clearly; she just wanted Angela to ask her again so she knew that she hadn’t imagined the whole thing.
“Pam, how far do you think it’s okay to go on the 4th date?”
“Are you dating someone?” Pam put a little bit too much emphasis on the ‘are.’ Angela didn’t seem to notice.
“Yes, someone is courting me.”
“Here’s a good rule to live by, don’t anything you’re not ready for. Don’t let things go further then you want them to.” Pam felt weird saying these things, but she was literally just repeating what her mother had said to her a few years ago. She wondered if Angela felt as uncomfortable as she did when her mom told her this.
“Thank you, that was helpful.” For the first time Pam saw Angela’s face soften. It was a little creepy. She wondered if the rest of the day would continue with more creepy moments. She wished it was tomorrow already, she had class with Jim tomorrow.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Pam makes some new friends.
Chapter End Notes:
I know there was no Jim in this chapter. I felt like Pam needed to branch out and build some different relationships. There will be more Jim coming up, and eventually I'll write a few chapters that follow Jim.
