""It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."— A Tale of Two Cities , by Charles Dickens

V. Variety

When Jackie wakes up the next day, she feels the refreshing balm of the knowledge that it's a new day. A fresh, new day where she's not going to get severely disappointed again by someone she thought loved her. Again.

Although, today it's considerably harder to find the energy to get out of bed, even though her pillows and covers and stuffed animals are damp from the amount of tears she's shed.

Her heart still feels tender, but today she has a grasp of the fact that Michael Kelso is a piece of shit, so that takes some of the edge away.

She spends the whole day brooding in her room, getting up sometimes and making it to her door for food, before abandoning it and just roaming around her room, picking things up she's gotten from Michael Kelso, the piece of shit, and throwing into an old shoebox. The shoebox isn't even hers, it's too big, it's Michael's, from the time she bought him converses. The palm of her hands itch to think about how much money she's spent on this jackass.

Except. He wasn't really a jackass.

Jackie had much to choose from in the dating pool in point place, being the daughter of a councilman and all, but she choose Michael because despite his shortcomings he could be so sweet. Like the night he proposed, when he said he chose her out of all the girls in the hub. That's was what relationships were made of, choosing each other out of everyone else. Jackie wanted Michael to choose her, forever.

And that's why he left.

For the variety of choices to do it with in California.

VI. Vacation

Jackie manages to make her way down the stairs foggily one day. She hasn't bothered leaving her room in almost a week, Michael was gone, and all of her rich friends from highschool had probably already started their vacations, and lord knows she wasn't wanted in Eric Foreman's basement.

She stops abruptly at the bottom of the staircase at the sight of her Mother's elegant Louis Vuitton suitcases stacked on top of each other in the foyer. She tilted her head and frowned, and a moment later, her mother herself came sweeping in from her father's study, two maids following her and gathering her bags and taking them outside.

"Mom?" Jackie said, frowning.

Her mother's head snapped towards her, a disgusted scowl plastered onto it, that quickly filtered into the pleased, hazy thing her mother got whenever she looked at Jackie. Jackie ignored it.

"What are you doing? Where are you going?" She asked.

"Oh," Her mother said, raising a thin hand and waving it in the air as if to wave her question away, "Just on a small more important thing is what you are doing? I haven't seen you in days! Not since you came home screaming about you were marrying...um…"

"Michael Kelso." Jackie said, stepping down to be level with her mother, whose hands raised up and caressed her face gently as she said:

"Yes, hm, Keslo! Whatever happened to that?"

"It's...c-." Jackie stopped herself from saying 'it's complicated.' It was most certainly not complicated. It was just Kelso.

She cleared her throat, "That's...off, Mom."

"Oh. Well not to worry Jacquelyn, I'm certain you'll find someone even better to get married to. After all, you've got my looks!" She said, patting her face. Jackie smiled. The door opened, and one of the maids stepped inside and told her mother her car was ready.

"Oh well, I'm off now Jackie! I'll see you soon darling, tata!" Her mother whirled away in a flurry of soft silk and blonde hair, and the maid waved goodbye to her, and Jackie wondered briefly why her mother was taking their maids before she was left alone again.

The silence of the foyer seemed loud suddenly, pushing against her ears and making them ache. Jackie went back to her room.

VII. anger

Jackie's bright pink scissors sliced through michael's face with harsh precision one good time before she realized he just wasn't worth it.

cold anger chilled her bones and crept it's way over her heart. she felt a sense of calm that had alluded her since her and michael's reunion, and she carefully placed the scissors down among the pictures that had already been obliterated. she picked up the remaining ones and leaned across her bed to the trashcan, forcing herself to toss them into the bin nonchalantly. Jackie flicked the ruined pieces off the bed for the part-time maids to get, then she stretched and got up and prepared for the day like she would any other even though it was now nearing noon.

She showered, and spent a ridiculous but perfectly necessary amount of time picking out her outfit; she didn't know where she was going yet, but wherever she was going she was going to look put-together. She was going to do what she always did, because she was jackie burkhart, and the abandonment of a man who had continuously cheated on and lied to her was not going to throw her off of her game. Not one bit.

as im rereading this im noticing how like dramatic it is and im kind of sorry? kind of not? i wanted a story where jackie feels the loss of kelso very harshly, but heals thanks to her own self and then moves on thanks to the help of others and then proceeds to have a summer where she just experiences things. so thats what you have to look forward to if i don't run out of steam because I just got back to season 7 and i actually watched it this time and towards the ends the characters just get so annoying that i didn't even laugh at any of the jokes anymore and went back to season 5.

anyways rant over! please leave a comment! tell me how i'm doing! tell me how i can improve! tell me if you hate it so i can stop! also jackie's mom says keslo on purpose. next chapter has hyde/jackie at the beginning