Crash Landing in Scranton

Chapter 1

I Believe That I've Just Made a Crucial Mistake in Career Choice

Okay so the Scranton, Pennsylvania area wasn't anything new to me at all. In fact I'd grown up only an hour away from here. The four seasons were of no shock whatsoever. The quiet town atmosphere was nothing new to me at all. I drove through downtown Scranton that very first morning I was to begin my internship at Dunder Mifflin and the April sun was shooting tunnels of golden warm light through my windshield at my face. I squinted against the bright shock of it all and glared up at every street sign. Although I'd visited Scranton a few times before to take a peek at its world famous Lackawanna Coal Mine, every street name was so unfamiliar to me. My hands began to sweat against the steering wheel of my car. What if they didn't like me? The people in my business class definitely felt that way. Perhaps I was too eccentric? Or else just a pure failure. What if my professor had intentionally assigned me an internship at a company that would only bring me misfortune? I knew that he had always disliked me anyway.

I checked the piece of notebook paper with my block like teenager handwriting haphazardly dancing across the dark blue lines. I verified the number of the building with the number I had scrawled on the paper. I gulped down some of my nerves before choosing an empty parking space. I saw a couple of people across the parking lot chatting in a monotone fashion with bored looks plastered on their faces. My future associates perhaps? Nerves seeming to pump through my blood stream along with my now racing heart I gathered my purse and binders from the back seat of my car and stepped out onto the macadam. The wind seemed to react to my presence and disheveled my hair from my shoulders. I took a deep breath and began to walk towards the door of the building and my impending doom.

Before I could make the stretch, however, a beige Chevy Impala roared past me with Disturbia blaring out the windows and the bass seeming to scream through the asphalt. I blinked, completely horrified by my near excursion with death and began to observe the car park and its driver reveal himself. A man with short dark brown hair and wide darting eyes met my startled gaze.

"Sorry about that." the driver spouted. I nodded in forgiveness. Turning to leave I heard him mumble quite loudly, "Don't need to be running over anyone else in the near future."

Anyone else?! Okay so this was a bad idea. VERY, bad idea. I needed to get out of here before I was run over or even...worse. I cringed, settling my reeling subconscious as my feet directed me into the office building and into the elevator along with my almost assassin and an overweight man with a very pleased smile on his face that never seemed to leave.

My almost assassin turned to me, holding his hand out and smiling. "You must be the new intern, I'm Michael Scott, Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton and your new boss." I held out my hand nervously and looked this Michael guy in the face. He seemed nice enough, other than the fact he'd almost run me over. Well, I suppose I could forgive him for now. His music was far too loud for him to even notice anyway. But Disturbia? That was still kind of strange. Oh well, I'll just leave a mental note for myself for now to keep an eye on this Michael Scott.

"I'm Ashley Jones Mr. Scott. And yes I'm the new intern." I smiled at him and the other man that was in the elevator. I held my hand out to him too, being as professional as I could muster, "And you sir?"

"Kevin Malone. You can call me Kevin." he said, his happy smile still sitting on his face.

"Cause that's your name." I stated, withdrawing my hand and busying myself making another mental note about Kevin. I turned away to face the elevator doors as they opened onto our stop. I could still hear Kevin talking to Michael as I stepped from the elevator.

"She's almost as hot as Pam." he said quite loudly. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to hear this or not so I shuddered and basically ran from the elevator into the doors of the Dunder Mifflin office. I wrenched the door open with a louder snap then I really intended and everyone who was present in the office turned their attention towards me. Typing and all other actions seemed to cease and all eyes were on me.

I turned to the receptionist directly to my left and managed to stammer, "I'm the new intern, Jones. I mean Ashley Jones." The girl nodded kindly and stood up to meet me with a handshake.

"I'm Pam Beesly. If you need anything I'll be right there. All the time." Pam sighed and rolled her eyes while gesturing at her desk. I chuckled, realizing she was trying to be friendly. Should I tell Pam that Kevin thought she was hot? I mentally stroked out that option once Michael and Kevin entered the office.

"Ashley! You ran away from us you little booger you." Michael playfully punched my arm as he approached me. I rubbed the spot where he'd hit me and raised an eyebrow. "Everyone," Michael turned to the rest of the office whose attention was still turned on the front of the room. "This is our new intern Ashley Jones. Hey Ryan! Look another one! Just like you! Another little temp to do all my busy work! Another slave!" Michael ran his knuckles against the dome of my head and held me fast to him. I tried to squirm away but he continued.

"Um, Michael do you think you could let the intern go? She doesn't look too comfortable." I heard someone say, approaching the front of the room to help relinquish me from Michael's grip. I glanced up at my savior through my disheveled blonde hair and blushed. He wasn't too bad looking.

"Oh mind your own business Toby. No one likes you anyway." Michael snarled, letting me go and stepping away from me. I smiled at Toby and mouthed a thank you. He smiled and nodded in return.

"Well everyone, this is our new intern. Her name is Ashley Jones and she will be joining us to learn about the interworkings of our office life. Please make her feel welcome." Michael said, glaring at Toby occasionally and then giving me another clap on the shoulder before seating me at an empty desk and going into his office.

I began to set up shop when I finally noticed a camera man aiming a camera at my desk. I raised an eyebrow and turned to the person seated next to me, "Erm, is there a certain reason why there's an entire camera crew set up in this office?" She adjusted her glasses and smiled kindly in my direction. She sort of reminded me of my own mother.

"Oh well they just seem to want to tape us in our daily lives. We always get to watch the edited tapes after and stuff. It's actually almost fun. Bob Vance asked the same thing the first day he saw them too." she chuckled. I nodded and hesitantly stared at the cameras again. "They may ask you to go in for like one on one questioning and stuff. At least you get a break from working though." she held out her hand I took it. "I'm Phyllis Lapin. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too Phyllis." I said. People in this office seemed normal enough. All of them except for Michael. I was still cringing from being pinned against him and having him grind his fist into my head. It was almost traumatizing. Speaking of reveling over my traumatizing past five minutes I could hear someone talking about it excitedly with the receptionist. I turned my focus to their conversation.

"...Of course Michael screwed up his first impression with the new intern. I mean its totally his character. Watch the new intern develops a permanent fear of Michael like Ryan did. That would be almost hysterical." a man with hair covering his ears and a dapper smile on his face said happily to Pam. Pam laughed quietly and eyed Michael's office door.

"I kind of feel bad for the girl. Being pinned to Michael's body isn't something I want to experience. Let alone on my first day here." Pam smiled up at the other guy as they both just remained there laughing. Just by the way I was looking at them I could tell they were dating. Or at least liked each other. It almost warmed my heart to see two people locked in an office romance. It made the whole thing seem more real to me. I made another mental note within my mental filing cabinet that office relationships were in fact possible. I was just on a role with this whole learning experience that my professor had told me about.

My attention was then turned to a guy with large glasses and a seemingly nerdy aura rushing Pam and her beloved. He kind of reminded me of those guys back in high school who wasted their days playing Dream Cast and eating Cheetios. "Jim! Pam! You two should stop wasting your time talking about the new intern and use it getting back to work. Otherwise I might have to tell Michael how much you want to be pressed to his body, Pam." he rolled his eyes and gave Jim a shove. Jim, jostled by this guy's sudden appearance, brushed himself off and shrugged at Pam as he made his way back to his desk conveniently located only two steps away.

"Dwight man, you're like cramping my style." Jim said, facing his attacker as he took his seat across from Jim.

Dwight rolled his eyes, "Oh please Halpert. Like you have any style to cramp." Dwight didn't look at Jim, instead he focused on a couple of papers scattered in front of him.

Jim eyes were widened and a look of feigned shock sat on his face. "Dwight that was kind of rude."

"And?" Dwight shrugged.

"You don't want the new intern to think you're a jerk do you?" Jim said, eyeing me. I attempted too look away and act like I wasn't listening in at all.

"Don't you drag that girl into this Jim! You know it's about you and Pam and how you both waste all of your valuable working time chatting about idle things. You'd never make it as a Shrute." Dwight growled, leering at Jim from across their desks.

Jim looked over at Dwight and acted as if he was hurt, "Thanks for crushing my dreams Dwight. How savage of you." he sniffled and turned away. "How completely savage."

"Cry me a river." Dwight said, picking up his phone as it rang.

I turned away from Dwight and Jim and took another scan of the office. It seemed ordinary enough. Well maybe I was just telling myself that for reassurance. Perhaps, I was about to be faced with one of the most strangest and mentally demanding things in my life time. Perhaps my eccentricity would be put to the test by these over the top people. Oh God. Just as I was mulling in my thoughts I was approached by a younger man, around my age, with dark hair and striking eyes.

"I'm Ryan." he said, leaning onto my desk and holding out his hand. I smiled thoughtfully and took it in mine, shaking once firmly.

"I'm Ashley." I responded shyly, feeling my usually loud voice slip down a few octaves around this guy. He looked towards Michael's closed door and then leveled his head with mine.

"I know Michael can be kind of...intimidating at times. So if you ever feel really uncomfortable or something you can always come and talk to me. My desk is back over there." he pointed to the far back of the office where an Indian girl was watching Ryan and me with a hawk like vigilance. It almost made me nervous. I shifted in my seat and decided to ask Ryan about her.

"Erm, Ryan. I think that girl over there isn't altogether happy that you're talking to me." I said, gulping and imagining her ripping my organs out. She was probably his girlfriend or something.

"Oh that's just Kelly." Ryan said, rolling his eyes and twiddling his thumbs together. "She tends to get jealous when I'm talking to other girls. Even in friendly conversation." he sighed, chuckling slightly. I joined in with him, gazing up into his eyes. He was cute, but for now deemed forbidden because that Kelly chick scared the crap out of me.

Ryan walked away and back to his desk, leaving me to myself and my work. I cracked my knuckles and began to shift through all of my binders and papers I needed to fill out for my internship. I had planned on doing them now at the office. I gripped the pencil the way I normally did, however most people seemed to find it weird I clasped it between my pointer and middle finger and controlled it with my pinky. In fact I was complemented on it by someone walking by. "That's an interesting way to hold a pencil." I looked up to see Dwight.

"Hello Dwight." I said, giving him a glance before returning to my papers.

"I'm glad that you are already informed of my name. For being acquainted with me will be one of your most treasured assets here at Dunder Mifflin. I will be your guide and mentor. Consider yourself honored." Dwight said, looking around at the other members of the office rather than at me. I blinked and cocked an eyebrow.

"And what makes me so honored?" I said, almost amused by Dwight's self righteousness. I'd never known a nerd so oozing with confidence.

"I think you appear bright and well informed. Therefore, I think that confiding some of the ancient Shrute abilities in you will be an investment." Dwight pressed, a satisfactory smirk sitting on his face. Okay, this was getting almost weird. Even though I was somewhat flattered.

"Alright Dwight. Teach me your ways." I said, trying to stifle a laugh. I could hear in the near distance Jim and Pam trying to do the very same.

"Excellent. Follow me."