Pam woke up at 10:30 the next day, due to her late night spent chatting with Kelly. Ideally she would have set an alarm to wake her up at an earlier time, but Kelly had complained the last (and first) time she set one, exclaiming that "no one ever wake up at 7am, Pam!"

(Despite having a supposed array of 8am classes, Kelly herself usually woke up around 7:55 on days where she was required to be up early.)

Incidentally, her roommate was gone at the moment. To where, Pam had no idea.

With Kelly gone, Pam was able to get ready for the day in her own room, a luxury she hadn't had the ability to utilise until this moment. (When Kelly was around, Pam usually grabbed her stuff and fled to the communal bathrooms to get ready, because she just really, really didn't want to intrude on Kelly and give her any reason to dislike her.)

Once she had finished pinning her untameable, annoyingly frizzy hair down her back in one of her many black clasps, she unlocked her phone.

Roy had apparently drunk-texted her while she was asleep.

FROM: Roy Anderson

TO: Pam

wyd 2222222222nihgt aims out havignnhn dringnkign w brosssjhjfbjdgdd

fjdgndfjgnjwfw doadoa3746283742iwifhsjfsdjhfbh lfkdgdlf

Of course Roy would be out getting drunk on his third night spent at college. Privately, Pam didn't think that was the best choice, considering the fact that he was attending community college and still lived with his mother, due to being rejected from the very college she was currently attending.

(He'd begged her to stay closer to home, but she'd gotten into her first choice, and she knew chances like that didn't come round often. It caused a fight between them, one of the biggest ones they'd ever had, but she was proud that she'd stood her ground.)

FROM: Pam

TO: Roy Anderson

Good morning! How are you after last night?

She hit send, and waited until the little blue bar shot across the top of the screen to show the message had been delivered, before tossing her phone onto her bed.

After changing into a teeshirt and jeans, she checked her timetable for the semester. Today, she had History at quarter past 1, and then Art History at 4:30. Overall, the day wasn't looking too terrible.

Since she had time to kill, she figured she would just mess around on her laptop for a while, and perhaps call her mom if she had time.

Her plans were soon thrown out the window, however, as Kelly stormed into the room about an hour later.

"What's wrong?" Pam asked, startled from he noise Kelly made when she slammed the door shut.

"It was that asshole from last night. Dwight Schrute." She flopped down on her bed and crossed her arms, huffed.

"Oh?" Perhaps if Dwight was involved, Jim might have been, as well. She found it a little odd that she was perking up at any mention of a link to Jim, but assured herself that it was only natural. He was one of the strangest people she had met at college so far (or maybe the most normal?) so of course that would make her want to know more about him.

(A smaller part of her whispered that that wasn't the reason at all, that there was an entirely different - and infinitely more confusing - reason for her interest in him, but she paid as little attention to it as possible.)

"Yeah. He's convinced it was Ryan who set off the fire alarm last night. He wouldn't leave us alone during breakfast."

"You ate breakfast together?" Pam asked distractedly, hoping that Kelly wouldn't notice how she wasn't really participating in the conversation.

"Oh, Pam, it was like fate." Kelly gushed, flipping her dark hair over her shoulders. "I just walked into the dining hall and..." She sighed dramatically. "There he was." Her expression changed as she added: "And Dwight was there, too."

"Just Dwight?"

Kelly raised an eyebrow. "Who else would be there?"

"Um..." Kelly obviously know who I'm talking about. She thought, flustered. Why do I have to say it?

Her roommate wouldn't budge, just kept smirking at her knowingly.

"Jim? The underwear guy?" She cringed as she said his nickname. "Just, last night he mentioned that his roommate was Dwight, so maybe-"

"Okay, yeah, he was there." Kelly sighed, and shook her head disapprovingly. "You've known him for less than 24 hours, Pam. It's worrying how obsessed you are with him."

Pam only thought wryly that the irony in Kelly's statement was almost too much to handle.

Pam arrived early for her History class, setting her laptop and notes down on a desk near the back at only a little past 1. The professor wasn't even there yet, and she found it oddly peaceful to sit alone in the empty classroom.

Once she had everything set up, she impulsively checked her phone to see if Roy had texted back.

He hadn't, but she kind of expected that.

(If this were 4 years ago, she might have been disappointed, but after dating him for such a long time she'd just gotten used to him not texting back, especially after a night out.)

There was at least one message from her mom -

FROM: Mom!

TO: Pam

Hi, honey! How are things? Have you spoken to your roommate any more?

She couldn't help smiling as she read the message. Her mom always seemed to know how to cheer her up, even when she didn't know her daughter needed it.

FROM: Pam

TO: Mom!

Hi! i'm great, how are things at home? Yesterday night was... Interesting! I can't explain it over text, lol! And Kelly and I have been getting along fine! She's quite talkative, but I think that makes for a nice balance between us, you know? Can I call you later? :)

When she looked up from her phone, trying again to conceal her smile, the room was still empty. There was still another 10 minutes or so to spare before the lesson began, so she decided to pass the time by playing one of the repetitive, cutesy mini-games she'd installed in her phone.

(Roy was always going on at her to delete at least some of them, especially the level-based ones she'd already completed a billion times, but there was just something about so calming and peaceful about playing the levels over and over again, being congratulated for doing so even though at this point the moves were pretty much methodical. The music, also, was nice, and made Pam think about quiet nights spent at home with her mom when she was little.)

She was already on level 8 of the Pacman ripoff game when she heard the soft crunch of footsteps on the shoddy old carpet. A few students were starting to filter in, and Pam scanned their faces quickly to see if she recognised anyone.

She didn't know anyone, but the people she saw definitely seemed... Interesting. Most notably, a man around 5 or 6 years older than she who seemed to be constantly singing, a loud and rude-sounding English woman, and a quiet, out-of-place boy who seemed to be the same age as herself, fishing with a rainbow badge on his striped sweater, clearly a member of the LGBT+ Students Association.

With still a good few minutes to go until the professor would arrive, Pam was perfectly content to continue messing around on her phone and hoping no one would take the seat next to her, until a loud voice broke the silence of the room:

"Attention, all!" Some guy's voice rang out from the doorway, and Pam snapped her head back up only to realise that the crazy yelling guy was, of course, Dwight Schrute.

Once Dwight was happy with the amount of attention he was getting from the other students (everyone was staring at him in a mix of confusion and anger, and the singing guy from before had been stunned into silence) he continued whatever speech he had planned. "The man about to enter the room is an utter felon-" (Pam was sure she could see a few flecks of spit sly from his mouth at this) "-who is absolutely not to be trusted. I warn you!"

All eyes were still on him. Seemingly wanting to keep up his act, he stepped aside from the door only to mutter: "You can enter now, numbskull."

In the full clothing, daytime attire of a grey hoodie and jeans, in sauntered Jim.