Lucy Forman always hated small towns, even when she was a child. When she would visit her aunt and uncle at their small-ish house in Point Place, Wisconsin, she couldn't wait to go back to Chicago. The constant hustle and bustle of the big city soothed her in a way that a stagnant small town never could. Nothing moved in Point Place.
Except for Lucy.
Because when she found herself forced to move to Wisconsin with a healing broken wrist, a packed luggage, and a secret she didn't want to tell the Formans, she was anything but thrilled. But that was a story for another time.
And so there she stood in her everyday colorful patterned mini skirt, knee socks, and yellow platform heels, as if her Chicago styled clothes would protect her from this familiar place yet completely unknown situation that was moving to Point Place, Wisconsin.
She sat on an orange metal bench, simply watching people rush by. The Kenosha Regional Train Station was large and orange, very orange, much like her turtleneck.
Lucy Forman hated Orange.
But she wore it because it was happy and bright and nothing like how she felt at that moment.
Lucy tapped her bright yellow platforms impatiently, glancing down at her watch. 12:32 pm it read, which was thirty-two minutes past twelve, which meant that Eric was thirty-two minutes late. Lucy hated waiting. There was no time for waiting in Chicago.
And there was no time for thirty-two minutes past twelve.
Lucy huffed angrily and pushed herself off from the bench, taking her bright luggage with her. Stomping over to the phone, she fished a quarter from her coin purse and shoved it into the slot. Dialing the numbers, she called the Forman household. After many long, annoying rings, Lucy heard the voice of Kitty Forman.
"Hello?"
"Hello? Aunt Kitty?"
"Oh! Lucy! Uh…"
Lucy rolled her eyes as she heard chaotic rustling in the background coupled with frantic voices.
"Aunt Kitty did you all forget to pick me up?"
"What? Oh, no, dear! Eric left about an hour ago. Maybe he hit some traffic or got into an accident."
A loud, fake laughter could be heard from the phone.
"Alright, Aunt Kitty. Tell Eric to be careful on 32; there was an accident."
"Oh, my! Eric! Be careful on the highway! There was a terrible accident!"
Lucy smirked, chuckling as Kitty realized her mistake.
"I-I mean! Darn, I wish I could tell him but he's probably past it by now."
"Okay, then, Aunt Kitty. I'll see you soon."
Lucy hung up the phone, a little peeved that Eric had forgotten about her. He was probably doing something stupid with his friends when it slipped his mind. Shaking her head, Lucy plopped down onto the orange metal bench, arms and legs crossed.
Ten minutes later, Eric stumbled into the station, his annoying friends Kelso, Hyde and some foreign looking guy behind him.
"Lucy! I got caught in traffic because of that, uh… accident on 32," Eric stuttered as he stumbled over to where Lucy was sitting stiffly.
"There was no accident on 32, I made that up to mess with your mom," Lucy grabbed her coat and stood, eyebrow raised at Eric. Hyde chuckled as Lucy made her way past Eric.
"Steven," Lucy said matter-of-factly, arms crossed and glaring up at Hyde.
"Lucy," he smirked.
"Fez."
Lucy and Hyde turned over to the accented boy next to them.
"Who's he?" Lucy looked at the boys questioningly.
"Lucy, this is Fez. Fez, this is Lucy."
"Lucy," Fez said with an accent, pronouncing the "L" as a "Y", "It is an honor to be graced by such a beautiful, tiny goddess with such a short skirt."
Lucy gasped as Hyde and Kelso laughed.
"Just take this to the car, Shirley Temple." Lucy rolled her eyes and shoved her heavy luggage into Hyde's chest, which he caught easily, much to Lucy's annoyance.
"No problem, Wicked Bitch of the West," Hyde purposefully bumped into her as he walked out of the station. Lucy rolled her green eyes and followed Hyde out the station with her arms crossed and a sour expression on her face.
When they approached Eric's parked Vista Cruiser, Lucy froze.
"Eric, please tell me this isn't your car…"
Hyde opened the back of Eric's Vista Cruiser with one hand and the other steadied Lucy's bright colored luggage onto his raised knee and glared over his shoulder at the petite girl behind him, "Oh, my apologies, Your Highness. The royal horse and carriage wasn't available today."
"Shut up, Steven," Lucy huffed, walking over to the back door and cautiously opening it, expecting it to fall off its hinges. Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she wiped off a few crumbs before daintily sitting on the leather bench-seat, her arms and legs crossed and her back straight as a board.
Her nose turned up in distaste as Hyde jumped into the backseat next to Lucy, bumping her out of place. She turned to him and glared, "Could you not have sat in the front seat-away from me?"
"Well, sweetheart, you see, I would. But, you're just such a ray of sunshine that I couldn't possibly stay away from you," Hyde smirked.
Lucy turned to the curly haired boy, a mischievous gleam in her green eyes and leaned in as close as physically possible without actually touching, gently taking his glasses off of his face and setting them on the empty seat behind him.
"You know, Steven," Lucy drawled, watching Hyde's eyelids slightly droop and slide out of focus, "I've always felt like," Lucy's small, perfectly manicured hand creeped onto his thigh as she leant even closer, her perfect lips almost touching his. She watched his dark blue eyes close and his lips part open in anticipation, "…felt like I wanted to puke every time you opened your mouth."
Hyde's eyes snapped open in confusion as Lucy pushed him away suddenly, giggling maniacally.
"Screw you!" Hyde yelled, turning away from her in frustration.
The rest of the drive back home was filled with awkward questions asked by Fez, dumb comments said by Kelso, and glares from Hyde. When they all arrived home, Eric grabbed Lucy's bags from the back of the Vista Cruiser. Lucy flounced through the sliding glass doors and into the fifties styled kitchen, where a cooking Kitty was.
"Oh, Lucy! Hello!"
"Hi Aunt Kitty," Lucy smiled, hugging her aunt and giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Christ, Lucy, what do you have in here, bricks?" Eric huffed, dragging Lucy's luggage into the house.
"Knowing you, Eric, that bag is full of feathers," Red joked, clunking down the stairs, "Hello Lucy, how are you?" Red smiled as he hugged his niece.
"Hi Uncle Red!" Lucy hugged him back.
"Eric, take your cousin's things upstairs to Laurie's old room." Eric nodded and silently trudged upstairs, dragging Lucy's luggage along the way.
"Laurie hasn't dropped out yet?" Lucy joked, feigning innocence and earning a chorus of chuckles as she bounced up the stairs, "I'm going to go unpack my stuff."
As Lucy walked into the room, she noticed the orange bedspread in distaste. That would have to go. Opening her suitcase, she started to take out her skirts and pants, folding them neatly and perfectly placing them in her new drawer. Mechanically, she took out her many platforms and clogs and stacked them methodically, organizing them by color. When she was finished unpacking the rest of her things, she plopped down onto her orange bed and sighed in approval. A few silent seconds passed before Lucy felt a tear fall from her eye.
Not a second later, Lucy was curled on her bed, silent sobs racking through her chest. Her mouth was open, yet no sound escaped. Lucy hadn't even bothered trying to wipe away her tears, knowing that for every tear she wiped away, two new ones would fall in their place.
A series of knocks came from the door and Lucy froze, slowly sitting up and bringing her knees to her chest.
"Lucy, Mom said that I have to ask you if you wanted to hang out with the rest of us in the basement but I'm sure you don't so I'm just gonna leave you alone now and…hey are you crying?" Eric rambled as he walked into Lucy's new room. When Lucy simply looked up at him with puffy, mascara stained eyes and didn't respond, he began to worry, "Are you okay, Jo?"
Lucy sniffed, "Do I look okay to you?"
Eric hesitated, "Well…uh…no."
"Shut up, dillhole," Lucy grumbled, hugging her legs and resting her chin on her bare knees and wiping away a few stray tears. Eric slowly walked closer to Lucy and took a timid seat next to her on the bed.
Eric let out a long sigh before finally speaking, "Lucy…what's wrong?"
Lucy sniffed pathetically and wiped the makeup off from under her eyes, "My wrist is broken."
"What?"
"Keith did it…"
"What?!"
Lucy lightly grasped her wrist, wincing at the tenderness.
"Keith…broke your wrist?" Eric stared at Lucy.
"Yes."
"On purpose?"
"Yes."
"And that's why you're here?"
"Yes."
Eric stood up angrily, "That son of a bitch!"
"Eric keep your voice down!" Lucy grabbed his arm and yanked him back down to the bed, "You can't tell Uncle Red! Or Aunt Kitty! Or anyone else, for that matter!" Lucy's bright green eyes were wide with fear. Eric looked torn between his loyalty to his cousin and his anger toward Keith, "Please, Eric!"
"Lucy, what do you want me to do, then!"
"Shut up, Eric! God, you're such a dumbass," Lucy slapped Eric's arm, earning only a dead look from Eric, as if he was used to it, "I'm only telling you because you're my cousin and because you'd probably forget about it later after smoking pot in the basement with your dumbass friends."
"Hey! Only Kelso's a dumbass!" Lucy cocked her head to the side and arched a blond eyebrow, "…Okay Kelso and Hyde." Lucy's brow didn't move an inch, "Okay Kelso and Hyde and Fez."
Lucy smiled sweetly, "But mostly Kelso."
"Yeah, mostly Kelso," Eric nodded in agreement before a frown settled on his face, "…so…Keith hit you?"
"…yeah," Lucy hugged her knees tighter to her chest, "my parents sent me here so I'd be away from him after they found out about it." Lucy rolled her eyes, "…dumbass hit me where they could see it," she grumbled.
"Lucy, he hit you more than once?!" Eric yelled.
"Shut up, Eric! Jesus Christ, all of Kenosha can hear you!"
"He hit you more than once!" Eric whispered frantically.
"Yeah, he did," Lucy rolled her eyes, "I mean, it's not a big deal Eric, I'm not a baby. I could've handled myself just fine."
Eric remained silent, avoiding Lucy's penetrating gaze. A few awkward seconds of silence passed before Eric looked up again, "If you could've handled it then why were you just crying?"
Lucy stiffened and her eyes glassed over with unshed tears.
"Because I can't handle it anymore!" Lucy cried, sobbing loudly into Eric's shoulder, "If you tell anyone about this, I'll-"
"-kick my ass, I know," Eric finished, rubbing comforting circles into Lucy's back, her sobs muffled by his shoulder. When Lucy finished, she sniffed loudly and wiped the stray makeup and tears off her face.
"So…Lucy what about your car? You know, your cherry red customized 1975 Porsche 911 turbo with white leather interior and built in Magnavox 8 track," Eric rambled frantically, somehow knowing every single detail about her new car.
"My dad is dropping it off later this week," Lucy said nonchalantly, flipping her blond hair over her shoulder.
"Mhm, yeah, yeah," Eric chided, feigning coolness, "So when exactly is that, do you know? Like Monday or Tuesday? Thursday?" Eric's eyes lit up like an excited puppy.
"Eric listen to me when I say this," Lucy leaned in and grabbed Eric's shoulders roughly, giving them a shake with every consonant, "You'll see the inside of hell freeze over before you see the inside of my car."
"Got it," Eric nodded stiffly.
"Dumbass!" Lucy growled under her breath, sounding a lot like Red.
"Okay, I'm leaving," Eric stood, "We're down in the basement if you need anything."
"'Kay," Lucy said back. Before Eric went out the door, Lucy turned to him, "Hey, Eric," Lucy chided, "…thanks."
Eric smiled over at her, "You're welcome, Lucy."
