Your Desk Mate Dwight

Chapter 7: The Dundies

Today was a day that Jim was looking forward to and dreading. It was the Dundies. Pam told him all about it, and Jim was wondering what prize he was going to get. He suspected that it would be something inappropriate, and it could possibly be something that is linked to his weird 'relationship' with Michael.

Jim was staring at the wall in front of him in the annex, after a lousy day at work. Ever since he moved further away from Pam, his days had been worse. He only speaked to her a few times a day now, normally scheduling pranks on Dwight. His sales had gone up however, as he had been able to concentrate because he didn't have Pam in his line of sight.

"Hey, you ready?" asked Pam, standing behind Jim. "For the Dundies?!"

"Oh, God." Jim said, putting his head in his hands. "I don't think I am ready." Jim said dramatically looking at Pam. Pam smiled at him, before responding;

"C'mon Halpert, you were born ready." Pam said. Jim looked at her, before changing tact.

"Your right. Let's do this." Jim smiled, walking with Pam to the office, where Michael was getting everyone ready to leave for the Dundies.

"All right, you all ready? Let's go!" Michael announced, leaving with his co-workers reluctantly behind.

Jim was in a car pool with Kevin, Pam and Phyllis. Pam and Jim were the only two who were talking in a very awkward and long car journey. Pam nudged Jim when she noticed Kevin sleeping with his mouth open, making them both giggle silently. They arrived at Michael's 'beloved' Chillis 20 minutes later, startling a sleepy Kevin. Roy turned up in another car pool and walked over to them.

"Hey baby, how you doing." Roy asked Pam, kissing her on the cheek. This made Jim very uncomfortable, so he decided to strike up a conversation with Kevin about the 76ers. They walked into the restaurant where they saw Michael on the stage, getting ready.

After everyone got into their seats and settled Michael started the event. "Hello, everyone to the 1999 annual Dundies awards. I am your host, Michael Scott and my assistant Dwight Schrute is here is well. Drink as much as you want, it's going on the group tab. I want everyone to be completely wasted, lampshade on the head wasted by the end of the night." There was a silent and short flutter of claps, which gave Michael the confidence to start the event, with a asian sketch he called 'Ping'.

After a flurry of sketches which produced little laughs and a lot of awkward moments. Michael did his first award. "This award goes to one of the people who has an amazing personality in the office, and is one of our hardest workers. So….. The award for superb work goes to Staaaaaaaanley Huudson!" Stanley walked up to the stand, and had the microphone shoved in his face by Michael.

"So, thanks for this award Michael. It's better than my 'I Have a dream' award I got last year. That's it" Stanley concluded, walking back to his seat. Jim looked over at Pam, who was looking glum by Roy's side. Jim smiled at Pam, and she smiled slightly. Jim shook his head. He hated that expression on her face, he could tell that she was lonely.

The awards kept on piling in, with Oscar with the 'best Hispanic mathematician' award which made everyone feel a bit awkward.

"The next award, I think we can all see coming, the hottest in the office goes to Pam Beesly. GET ON DOWN HERE!" Michael announced.

Pam rolled her eyes at this, making it obvious that she didn't want to receive the prize and there was little to no applause. Roy didn't look happy but decided to pick up her award for her. Pam looked over at Jim, and rolled her eyes at him, due to what happend. Jim shook his shoulders at her, as it saying, "What you gunna do?"

The evening was a lot more boring that Jim had anticipated. He thought that it would be funny in an embarrassing sort of way. He had spent the whole night talking to Oscar, after Kevin decided to change seats so he could get a different view. Jim thought that Michael was a nice guy, but could not get a hint. He felt incredibly uneasy when he gave Catherine the tight ass award, which she refused to collect. He still didn't know that Catherine hated Michael.

Towards the end of the awards, Jim was waiting for his award. He hoped that it wasn't something as bad as he was expecting. He didn't have to wait long.

"The next award, goes to that guy. I am sure that you all know about, the tall good looking guy," Pam glanced over at Jim quickly. Michael continued. "Who has made such a great influence on the office. The award of…. Biggest influence goes to Jiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmm Halpert!" He yelled into the microphone and the Chili's exploded with applause. Jim got up to receive his award, and looked behind him to see Pam smiling and cheering him on. This gave him the confidence to go up and shake Michaels hand before speaking, "Hey, everyone these past few weeks has been interesting to say the least, " Jim stated, making Pam and his other co-workers laugh. " Thanks Michael for MCing tonight, you've done a great job. I wanna say thanks for everyone for being so welcoming. Even Dwight." Jim said, getting a few more laughs, and a deadly stare from Dwight . "Thanks everyone." He concluded before sitting down at his seat, and grinning back at Pam showing him his award, to which she showed him hers.

An hour later, everyone was getting ready to leave for the night. Some of them were very drunk, like Meredith and Devin who got a little out of control. Jim walked out with Pam, who was alone as Roy left early as he got bored. "So what did you think of the Dundies?" Asked Pam, putting her arms out in a jazz hands style.

"I don't think I will ever be the same Pam. Actually, my award was better than I thought it would be." Jim responded, looking down at her making her smile.

"Yeah. I guess-"Pam started before hearing the honk of Angela's car. "That's Angela. I better get going."

"Oh, yeah definitely." Jim said, looking into her face in the dark light. She was beautiful, and he lost his breath at the sight of her. "Have a good night Pam."

Pam put her arm on Jim's before responding, "I had a great night Jim, I'll see you tomorrow." She walked to Angela's car, and Jim watched every step she took to the car. He smiled to himself, as she watched them drive away.

It was little moments like that that kept him going. The only person he had admitted his feelings of Pam too was his roommate, Mark who had told him to sit tight and wait for the moment to tell her what he felt about her. That's exactly what he planned to do.