Gerry settled down with a lemon tea, swirling the lemon impatiently as he waited for Pacey and Joey to begin. "So who wants to start?" he asked, pouring out some tea for the couple.
Joey glanced at Pacey and then at Mr. Walsh. "Are you sure you want to start from where we first met? We're going to be here hours! I'll probably give birth to the baby before we even get talking about college!"
"Hmm… don't temp fate," Gerry commented, slightly amused. "Don't worry, I've cancelled my appointments for the day, I'm all ears."
"I don't know…" Joey said, skeptically. "I mean, personally, I can't see how going through our entire lives would help our marriage. Actually it would probably send us straight to a divorce councilor! Maybe we should go."
"Witter's aren't quitters, Joey!" Pacey grinned.
"Gee Pacey, is that the theme tune of your life? Anyway if Witter's aren't quitters then why exactly are we here?"
"May I remind you that this was your idea, Joey and-"
"Okay, okay…" Gerry interrupted, "Enough already. The first time you met! Pacey?"
Pacey pondered, glancing at Joey from time to time. "Well the first time we met…"
Five- year old Joey was playing in the sandpit. It was her first year of Kindergarten, and the first day Dawson was off sick. Without her best friend to talk to, Joey began to use her artistic talents to build a sandcastle. It was an impressive construction for her age, with a moat and bridge. It had taken her the best of around 40 minutes to complete and when she was done, she stood back, gleaming, her sweeping brown hair falling loosely around her shoulders.
She nodded at her castle proudly, deciding to make some sand people as well. A King Dawson, and Queen Joey to rule the castle. But suddenly she heard some laughter behind her.
"What is that Josephine?" A young boy shouted.
She turned around to face the boy and recognised him as the guy who had been throwing paint at everyone earlier. Everyone called him 'Mad Matt.' a rather lame name to say the least, but he was the bully of the class, and although he was only 5 years old he was strong and mean to everyone.
"It's a sandcastle, Dumbo, and my name is Joey!" she replied, just as aggressively.
The boy grinned. "I tink it's rubbish!"
"Think Dumbo. The word is think," she corrected (she was bright for her age).
"Well do you think I could look?" he asked.
Joey rolled her eyes, flicked back her hair and took a step backwards for him to see.
The boy began to look at the castle, a smile breaking over his face. Without warning he suddenly jumped over it, knocking the castle to dust.
"Hey!" a voice shouted furiously, but it wasn't Joey's. This boy ran up and pushed Mad Matt over. "Get away from her!" he cried, trying to be heroic. He held Matt down and kicked him, before Matt ran away crying.
He then turned to Joey, victorious. "My name is Pacey!" he said, holding out his small palm. "But you can call me superman if you want!"
"Excuse me?" Joey asked.
"Well I did save you from Mad Matt!"
"I didn't need you!"
"You were going to take him out by yourself?" he laughed.
"You don't think I could?"
Pacey glanced at her amused. "Skinny arms, small bones, oh and you're a girl!"
"Yeah well I didn't know pigs could fight either! If you'd call that fighting!"
Pacey frowned at her, "You think you could fight better?"
"No I don't think so. I know so."
"I'd like to see that!"
"Well come on," she nodded.
Pacey stared at her, blankly. "I don't fight girls! Wouldn't want you to get hurt!"
"I won't."
Pacey smiled, "I won't fight you!"
"Umm… you just don't wanna loose!"
"Oh yeah!" Pacey threw himself at Joey, as they begun to scramble along the sat pit, stirring up a sandstorm as they went on fighting. Pacey fought lightly, not wanting to hurt Joey, but her brutal punches gave no choice but to retaliate. They rolled along the sand ferociously, until little Joey finally pegged Pacey down.
"Who's superman now?" she asked.
"I let you win!" he teased.
"Oh bite me, Pacey!"
"You asked for it!"
They began fighting even more, but this time they seemed to be having fun. They both began laughing as they rolled across the playground. Spectators began to watch fascinated, and Mad Matt wondered if he was still the real tough guy around.
Covered in sand and mud, Joey and Pacey were about to stop when…
"What are you two doing?"
They both looked up as Miss Stevens glared down at them. "Fighting in the playground? Inside both of you now."
They walked sullenly to her office, giving each other dirty looks as they went.
After listening to Miss Steven's lecture them about the dangers of fighting, they both had to sit outside her office in silence.
Pacey smiled at Joey, "Well that was fun!"
"Fun?" Little Joey repeated. "This is all your fault!"
"You enjoyed it!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!" Joey insisted.
"I heard you laugh!"
"I was pretending to make it sound fun!"
"Yeah well I pretended to let you win!"
They both turned away from each other but secretly smiled to themselves.
Suddenly a voice rang out loud. "Joey I go away for half a day, and you're in trouble? And Pacey, you're here too?"
They both looked up to find Dawson staring at them.
"Hi Dawson," they said in unison.
Joey and Pacey stared at each other.
"You know Dawson?" they said again, in unison.
Dawson looked confused, "You two know each other?"
Joey rolled her eyes, "Everyone knows superman," she joked
Gerry listened to the story intently, his tea untouched as he was listening so carefully.
"So who was Dawson?"
Pacey laughed, loudly. "Oh man… you'll get to know about him pal. He practically plagues the rest of our history!"
"Oh Pacey. Don't start on another Dawson thing! I'm pregnant, I can't take this!"
"Well if you can play the pregnant card Joey, then I can play the Dawson card!"
"Okay!" Gerry intervened. Let's not fight now. Maybe we should move onto another memory? Take another trip down memory lane?"
Joey rolled her eyes. "Pick a year, any year! And we'll fill you in about Dawson on the way!"
