And here we are, bringing you Chapter 7 to your lovely homes all across the world. We hope you enjoy.
Your review responses:
Kerber- Thanks! We kind of believe that the JAM connection is one that's natural and easy in general--why would that change in the city that never sleeps?
KT- Yes, that was what we were going for, so thanks so much! The kids are definitely more in the plot coming up--we'd planned on it being JAM focused in the beginning, and then we'd slowly incorporate more Kadelette or Charde. Take your pick.
Literati- Thank you!
Elly- Because you love us. Katy doesn't mind (AG is speaking for her).
Alison- Thanks so much dahlin'! They're adorable. Period.
Yabberli- Thanks! We really are trying hard to stay true to who Jim and Pam are, which can be difficult seeing as we're not sure how Pam would really react, at say, Chuck E Cheese, but hey, we can only imagine.
Dean- Heh, us too! Thanks so much--we really enjoy our freedom, but at the same time, it's quite a journey to be on, knowing the characters as we do and trying to incorporate them in something that well, we don't.
JamLover- Right. He is like Jack, but at the same time, he's so completely Jim it's funny. Hah. And Pam is just Pam... haha.
Dancer- More Jam, comin' to ya.
iluvhalpert- Thanks!
LittleMiss- Thanks so much!
Flonkerton- Wow! Thanks for the long review! I'm going to PM you about it, it's way way long and there's just so much to say. :)
Kade grabbed Pam's left hand, and Charlotte grabbed her right as they pulled her over to the playground part of Chuck E' Cheese. "Mommy! Mommy! Watch me and Charlotte go up in the tunnels!"
She nodded. "Okay! I will!" she called as they both let go of her hands, racing up the makeshift stairs to the tunnel. She watched as they chased each other, through the blue tunnels to the red, into the yellow and the green and then back to the blue tunnels. She smiled as she watched them. I'm so glad Kade has found someone to play with. She heard Kade and Charlotte scream out in delight and she laughed gently to herself. And he definitely picked a good little girl to play with. She's so adorable. Pam walked around the tunnels watching the kids as they went into a different part. Not to mention she has a pretty adorable dad. She sighed to herself, following the kids with her eyes. She was lost in her thoughts when she felt someone tug on the side of her skirt. She looked down to see a small blonde girl staring up her, her face red from crying.
She bent down to the little girl's level and gave her a genuine smile. "Hi sweetie, I'm Pam. What's your name?" she asked. The girl didn't look any older than three.
"Anna," she said, breaking into sobs.
"What's wrong Anna?" Pam asked, patting the poor girl's head. Her blonde hair was in braids, and her blue eyes glistened with tears. She was wearing a uniform of some sort, blue and green plaid and an oxford shirt that said "Maclay Pre-School" on it. Pam instantly recognized it as one of the most expensive pre-schools in the area.
She sobbed something that Pam assumed was about wanting her mommy, so she picked the small girl up, rubbing her back. "It's okay, sweetie. We'll find her," she said, searching frantically for a woman that resembled the child. Anna was crying loudly in her arms, and all of a sudden, Pam felt her being taken away by a young girl—probably not older than 23 or 24.
"It's okay Anna banana," she said, singing lightly in her ear. "I'm so sorry; I was helping her brother on the other side with the basketballs. She just wandered off." The girl looked frantic. "I didn't even realize until I heard her crying, and by that time, she was all the way over here." She glanced back the other way, as if trying to keep an eye on the other child.
"Don't worry about it. I understand," Pam said, smiling.
"Anna, can you say thank you?" the woman asked the child, tickling her sides lightly.
"Thank you Pammmm," she said, giggling. Pam smiled as they walked off together, waving goodbye to the little girl before she turned around, looking back up at the tunnels. Where are they? She walked all around the tunnels, before she finally spotted Kade in a red one, giggling as he talked to a little girl, who did not look a thing like Charlotte. Trying to get that boy not to talk to strangers is like trying to get the Pope to believe in Buddha.
Where is Charlotte? She kept walking, searching more frantically, even sticking her head up the tunnels at one point. She jumped back quickly, narrowly missing being hit by a small foot attached to a slightly chubby little boy who was on the way down one of the slides. Holy cow, that wouldn't have felt great. She straightened up and started looking up into the tunnels above again when she heard the screaming in a blue tunnel on the other side. She raced over there, looking up to see Charlotte, screaming her head off, stuck in one of the holes of the tunnel that were normally made for four year olds, not six year olds.
"Charlotte, honey, it's okay," Pam tried to reason with her, but at the same time, she was freaking out herself. "Stop crying, honey."
She was shouting. She knew she was, but it wasn't in a mean way. It was just in that I-gotta-talk-so-loud-she-can-hear-me-in-outer-space-over-her-screams way. It sounded loud. Charlotte started crying louder, and Pam put her head in her hands. What am I going to do? She saw Kade crawling toward Charlotte, and she wondered what he was going to do. She watched him stop just outside of the tunnel. His face contorted into something like fear when he saw her crying, stuck there. Instead of trying to help her out though, he thought it was of his best interest to go down the slide, run up to her, and say, "Mommy! Mommy! Charlotte's stuck up there! Get her down, Mommy!"
"I don't know what to do," she said softly, her mind whirling. Do I send Kade back up to get her? What if he gets stuck? I could get them to cut her out of there…. That's silly… Firemen? They rescue cats from trees… Charlotte's not a cat.
"Mommy, go up there and see her. Maybe she'll come down if you're with her!" Kade said, exasperated that his mother hadn't thought of this yet.
Pam looked around, sighing. There's no way my ass is going to fit up there in a tunnel for four year olds. She looked at Kade, his face expectant, and then up at Charlotte, who was on the verge of hysteria.
"Charlotte!" She yelled, and the little girl looked at her. "I'm going to come up there and get you, okay? Stop crying if you can." Pam ran toward the entrance of what she perceived to be hell, climbing up two stairs when she felt a pull on her leg.
"Ma'am, you can't go up there," a Chuck E Cheese employee said, her hair frizzed as she popped her gum.
"That's my kid up there," Pam said, kicking her off and crawling up the space, despite the shouts of several disgruntled employees telling her she wasn't allowed because she wasn't less than four feet tall.
Oh my god, I'm going to get stuck… She went through a few of the tunnels and then came to her biggest challenge yet. Oh, God, I shouldn't have had that slice of pizza… She wiggled through the opening of the smallest tunnel yet, pulling herself up army style until she reached Charlotte's face. "Charlotte, baby, are you okay?"
She wiped at her eyes. "I'm scared."
"What are you scared of, honey?" Pam's voice was calm, but she was frantic inside. What can I do to help this little girl? And her bigger question: How am I going to get both of us out of the tunnel?
"I…" she stuttered, "I don't know."
Pam smiled, chuckling lightly inside. "Well, then, I guess it's not worth it to be scared, huh?"
Charlotte shook her head lightly. "Will you help me? My butt's too big."
Pam leaned down and whispered in Charlotte's ear, "You're not alone. Every woman's butt is too big." Charlotte giggled, and Pam laughed, pulling lightly at Charlotte's waist until she popped through the small corridors of the tunnel.
She smiled up at Pam and took her hand, "C'mon, let's go down there so we can play with Kade. I don't think I want to be at Chuck E Cheese anymore."
Pam smiled. You and me both, sister! They inched their way down the tunnel until they got to the slide, and Charlotte went down easily, but her words rang true in Pam's ears. My butt is too big. She slid down the slide, sure that no part of her was actually touching the slide, and the friction hurt her too-big-butt.
"Ma'am," an employee approached her, just as Charlotte and Kade took her hands. "We do not allow adults to play on the apparatus."
"I wasn't playing! My kid was stuck up there!" she defended herself, looking at the man like he was crazy. He only mimicked and returned her look.
"Ma'am, we're going to have to ask you to leave our premises," the man replied, and she stared at him.
"Fine," she sneered at him, taking Kade and Charlotte by the hand and leading them out the door, not even bothering to have the young employee check their hands for the appropriate numbers.
"Mommy, what are we going to do now?" Kade asked, and Charlotte looked up at her expectantly. Oh God, what could they do? It was too cold to just go to the park or playground… She still had two hours before she turned them over to Jim, so she couldn't exactly take them to an activity, per say… Cookies!
She bent down to their level, "How would you guys like it if we went home and baked cookies? We can decorate them too!"
"YAY!" the choruses came from the kids, and Pam laughed, pulling them down the street and into one of the stores to buy some eggs and milk. After twenty minutes of explaining to Kade why they couldn't use chocolate milk, they walked out the door and into a cab, taking them back to the apartment. Pam led them upstairs and opened the door, chuckling as Kade grabbed Charlotte's hand and pulled her toward the back.
"My room is awesome!" he yelled, pulling her and she giggled, happy to be following him. While they were in the back room, Pam spread some cookie dough out on the sheet, put it in the oven, and headed into her room to get changed. I am not going to be wearing this same outfit to dinner tonight that's for sure.
Meanwhile, Kade and Charlotte sat playing with the toy trains. "Kade?" Charlotte asked, as she brought the blue train around the track.
"Yeah?"
"Do you have a daddy?" she asked.
Kade kept pushing the red train around the track. "Nope."
"Oh." She said, pushing her train. She had a thoughtful look on her face. "Do you want a daddy, Kade?"
He looked up and shrugged, "I guess so. But he'd have to be really nice. And treat my mommy real good. Mommy can't teach me how to play soccer or baseball, my daddy would have to be able to do that."
Charlotte kept pushing the tracks. "My mommy and daddy are divorced. I really want another mommy to have when I go to daddy's house. Daddy can never get my hair right."
Kade sighed, "All my mommy ever wants to do is play with my hair." They giggled, running the trains down the tracks and smashing into the conductor, until Charlotte stopped.
"Kade?"
"Yeah?"
"My daddy knows how to play soccer and baseball. And he's really nice." Kade looked up at her. "Can your mommy put my hair in a barrette?"
Kade laughed. "My mommy can put your hair anywhere she wants it to go!" Charlotte giggled.
"Wouldn't it be cool if your mommy was my mommy?" Charlotte asked.
"But that would mean my mommy would have to fall in love with your daddy, and I don't think my mommy's very interested in falling in love," Kade said, sadly.
"Well, let's make her!" Charlotte exclaimed, grinning. Kade turned to her, his eyes lit up with all of the mischief he could cause.
"We need a plan," Kade stated, and Charlotte grinned.
"Uh huh," she said, putting the train down, and hopping on Kade's bed.
Pam pulled the sugar cookies out of the oven, leaving them on top of the stove to cool for a moment while she pulled out all of the icing and sprinkles, along with two butter knives and a plate. She blew on the cookies for a few seconds before heading down the hall to Kade's room. "Kade?" she knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for the all-clear, surprised to see Kade and Charlotte sitting on the bed whispering.
They both looked up, right as she entered, guilty looks on their faces. "What's going on?" she asked, going into the room carefully and looking around.
"Nothing," they answered simultaneously, and just a little too quickly.
She eyed them suspiciously for a moment, before smiling, "Come on, hurry up. Cookies are done."
They turned to each other, grinning. "Cookies!" She laughed as they ran out of the room, nearly plowing her over on their race to reach the sugary desserts.
"Hey, don't touch! They're hot!" she called after them, running behind them to the counter. She quickly scooped the cookies off the pan and onto a plate, opening the frosting and handing each child a knife.
"I'm gonna make mine pink!" Charlotte declared, taking a large gob of the pink icing and spreading it on her cookie. She pulled out the sprinkles, emptying half the container on her cookie before Pam could stop her.
"Woah, that's enough sprinkles for now," Pam said, pulling the sprinkles out of Charlotte's hand as Kade spread blue icing across the top of the cookie. She put the sprinkles back up in the cupboard. Suddenly she felt something hit her back. She reached behind her, her face turning into a look of displeasure as she felt the sticky residue of icing on her fingers.
She turned around to see Charlotte throwing icing at Kade. He was giggling, throwing it back at her, when suddenly he saw Pam staring at him. He turned toward her, a sly smile. "Kade," her voice had taken on a warning tone, but he threw his hand back and lodged the blue icing straight at her face before she could get anymore of her threat out.
Her mouth dropped open, and she was about to punish him when she saw Charlotte throw some pink icing at Kade, and he laughed, throwing a glop right back at her. I can punish Kade, but I can't very well punish somebody else's kid! She opened the refrigerator, pulling out the third tub of icing—green—and stuck her hands inside. She ran over to Charlotte and Kade, smearing it on their faces.
Twenty minutes and four tubs of icing later, Pam was holding two very sticky, very dirty six-year-olds under the sink, trying to get their faces and hands cleaned off. She was covered in icing herself, and was mentally going through her wardrobe in her mind. I need to find something else to wear…again. I knew I was premature in changing my clothes earlier. She'd just finished cleaning up the kids when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She picked it up gingerly, noticing that she had a large glop of icing on her forefinger, and looked down at the number. She didn't recognize it.
She flipped open the phone, careful not to touch the icing to it, and said exasperatedly, "Hello?"
"Hey," he said; his voice sounded deeper on the phone than it normally did. "How are the kids? Is Charlotte behaving?" He asked it in a joking manner, which almost made it worse.
"We're getting cleaned up," Pam said, trailing off. "We were making cookies."
"Yum! Maybe you should bring me a few of those cookies," he said, and she laughed.
"I would do that," she answered, helping the kids down on the floor. She readjusted the phone between her shoulder and ear so she could put her hands under the water and get the icing off. "Except for the fact that they are a little more icing than cookie," she said.
Jim laughed. "That's the best part!"
Pam laughed and looked over at the kitchen table. It was covered in icing, dripping from almost all the surfaces within a 3 foot area of the table. She could see some little pieces of cookie peeking out between globs of icing and she sighed. "Maybe I'll get some to you tomorrow at school, once they've set," she said.
"Sounds good," he said. "Well listen, I just finished up here if you want to bring them on over. Or I can meet you halfway if you'd rather."
Pam contemplated for a second as she dried her hands off and then looked down at her icing-covered outfit. "How about we meet you there? I need to change real quickly and we can be there soon," she said smiling.
"Sure," Jim said into the phone and she could hear him rifling through some papers. "That would actually give me a few more minutes to go through some things here, just to make sure."
"Great," Pam said. She was in her room, kicking off her shoes and unbuttoning her suit pants. "Hey, out of curiosity, how did you get my number?"
Jim chuckled on the other end of the line. "It's this marvelous invention that phones have," he said and she could hear his smile. "It's called 'Recently Dialed'," he answered, and she felt a giggle rise to her throat. "So, I'll see you soon?"
"Yeah, see you soon," she replied, ending the call. She stood with the phone open in her hand for a moment before quickly pressing "Save" and programming his number into her phone. I can always delete it later, right?
Quickly she changed her clothes, pulling on yet another black pant suit, and slipped on a pair of shoes. I really need to take all of these outfits to the dry cleaner. I hope they can get icing out. She was holding the last pant suit in her hand and shaking her head lightly. She threw it down on the floor and rushed out of her bedroom, calling to the kids on her way, "Let's go you two! We have to meet Charlotte's daddy!" The kids came out of the room quickly, and Pam noticed an impish look on each other their faces. I wonder what they're up to. She helped them put their shoes on, and Charlotte grabbed her backpack from the hallway.
"Alright, do we have everything?" Pam asked, checking that the kids were presentable.
The kids looked up at her enthusiastically and shouted, "Yeah!"
Pam laughed. "Alright, then let's hit the road." She grabbed each of their hands after she had closed and locked the door and they hurried out of the building, trying to make it to the restaurant as fast as they could.
Hope you enjoyed! Review for 8, which, I must say, is pretty phenomenal.
