Jim, a character in the High School Story series, is a dentist and the boyfriend of Ajay's mother, Shruti. He is first seen in Class Act, Book 3, Chapter 5.
Appearance
Jim has short brown hair, light skin and grey eyes. He wears a brown polo shirt.
Personality
Jim can be described as funny, kind and friendly. He's very understanding towards Ajay for not accepting him in the beginning. Still he's protective of him and Mohit nonetheless.
He is very outdoorsy and sporty. He was the captain of the swim team in high school, and nowadays, enjoys hiking and competing in triathlons. He was also an actor in high school, and loves theater and reading poems too.
Chapters
High School Story
Class Act, Book 3
- Chapter 5: Cold Feet
- Chapter 7: Who Are You?
- Chapter 8: Boiling Over (Mentioned)
- Chapter 9: Race Against Time (Mentioned)
- Chapter 10: London Ho!
- Chapter 12: The Heist, London
- Chapter 14: The Actual Tempest (Mentioned)
- Chapter 15: Cruise the Night Away (Mentioned)
Relationships
Your Character
You first meet him in Chapter 5 when he shows up at the library with Shruti and Mohit. Throughout the book, you have the choice to either be nice to him, or side with Ajay. In Chapter 5, you have the option to go glow-in-the-dark-bowling with them. Jim is nice to you, and he helps you escape the hotel when you get back Prospero’s staff from the Statton kids.
Ajay Bhandari
From the moment he shows up, Ajay has no hesitations showing how much he can’t stand Jim and that he counts the days until the older man breaks up with his mother. He also describes Jim as boring (his name is boring, his shoes are boring, his job is boring, and he has terrible taste in shirts) and too friendly (so he must be hiding something), which makes it difficult to completely despise him. Jim, however, is always nice and tries to warm up to Ajay despite realizing how Ajay feels.
- "Building a bridge, so to speak, takes time. I understand that being around me is difficult and conflicting."
- —Jim to Ajay
In Chapter 7, they go hiking together, and you can join them. If you do, you can ask him questions about sports or theater. The second option lets him reveal that he cast as Hamlet in the Shakespeare play in high school. He also played Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
In Chapter 9, Ajay is thrilled because he believes Jim and his mother broke up. He says he was beginning to tolerate Jim, but when he heard them arguing, he felt so happy like a three-year-old with an ice cream cone. In Chapter 10, Ajay discovers that Jim volunteered to help chaperone the school's trip to London with his mother. The reason Jim and Shruti were arguing was because Shruti didn't want Jim to take time off work to come out of obligation in a way to impress her. However, as they talked, she realized that Ajay means a lot to Jim and Jim tells Ajay that he didn't want to miss his Spotlite debut for the world.
In Chapter 12, Ajay apologizes to Jim for being harsh and for misjudging him. Jim tells Ajay that he understands that being around him is difficult and conflicting, but he hopes that one day they’ll become friends.
Shruti Bhandari
They met at a grocery store and began to date. She suggests Jim and Ajay to go bowling and get to know each other better; Ajay asks you to join because he can’t go alone. In Chapter 9 they have a fight, but they resolve their differences by the next chapter.
Mohit Bhandari
Mohit and Jim seem to like each other and they have fun together. Jim also helps him with his school projects, something that Ajay doesn’t approve of, and Mohit says that Jim is going to be his "dad number two", which embarrasses Shruti.
Trivia
- His character model resembles a version of Stephen.
- He shares the same first name as Jim Kelly from the Endless Summer series and Jim Jennings from My Two First Loves.
- In college, he bowled often on the weekends with friends.