Chapter 3 - The Keg
That day at school Jen had heard that some teens had found an untouched abandoned keg and were throwing a house party down Sherman. She overheard that they were charging $2 a beer but she didn't care because IT WAS BEER! She tried to convince her group of 'friends' to come with her but they all wanted to go drink wine at Kat's house instead. Jen responded by rolling her eyes at their pretentious idea of fun.
As soon as the bell rung, the blonde hopped into her orange Mustang, careful not to catch her light white dress as she closed the door. Her tan platform covered foot stepped on the accelerator, hightailing it out of the school car park.
When Jen turned down Sherman, she was sure she didn't have the right address due to the lack of cars around, but she supposed that was the point. The car stopped outside the white house which had a Pam Burkhart for sale sign placed on the lawn. Switching off the rumble of the engine, she could then hear the almost quiet chatter of teenagers coming from behind the house. Grabbing her brown corduroy jacket on the seat next to her, she climbed out the car and walked towards the wooden side gate.
Arriving in the backyard of the house, she noticed a few things. Firstly, apart from her old group of friends, there were only two other people. Secondly, this 'house party' seemed to be a gathering in an empty pool with just a few chairs and the keg. Thirdly, the keg didn't have a tap, which meant NO BEER! After making her observations, Jen realised she was standing awkwardly by the gate, making a decision to either stay or go. The choice was made for her when Donna spotted her across the pool.
"Jen! Hey!" The redhead waved the blonde over. Donna stood up from where she was sitting on the edge of the pool with Hyde. Jen didn't miss the annoyed grimace that fell across Hyde's face as Donna stood up to greet her. Jen made her way over to embrace her old best friend and give a small nod to Hyde.
"I should have guessed it was you guys who found the keg." Jen stated, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets. She felt awkward as if she had intruded on a moment between the curly haired rebel and the saucy redhead. "Did you happen to find a tap too?" Jen tilted her head to the side with a small smirk on her lips at the lack of forward thinking from the group.
"Kelso's gone to a liquor store to buy one." Hyde informed Jen, mimicking her actions and putting his hands in his denim jacket. Jen winced at the new information.
"Kelso? Was he the best choice to go?" Donna laughed at the indirect burn, her chuckle faded as she thought about the statement, turning to Hyde for reassurance.
"Well luckily for the bone head, you don't need ID to buy a tap." Hyde chimed in, putting Donna's panicking to rest. Beer was at stake here people.
"Yeah you're right." Donna nodded, walking over to the ladder. "He couldn't mess this up." The redhead climbed down the ladder into the pool where Fez was collecting money and Eric was bullshitting Jackie.
Jen was left alone with Hyde again, but this time she really took in how good he looked. Her eyes trailed down at the outfit he was wearing. The patterned obnoxious jeans he wore made his legs appear muscular and the front bulge. It was paired with a brown round neck t-shirt, denim jacket and a black cord necklace. The look was totally different from his normal jeans and band tee combo and she was digging it. Her eyes moved back up to his face where a smug smirk laid on his lips.
"What?" Jen shrugged slightly.
"Were you just checking me out, King?" Hyde teased. Jen managed to roll her eyes, but inside she was dying from embarrassment having been caught. She silently cursed herself, hoping her cheeks didn't give her away.
"What?! No! I- I was… Urm …" Hyde's smirk deepened as Jen stammered trying to think of something to say. "Uh, fine!" She slapped her thighs, admitting defeat. Why was it that her brain seemed to malfunction around Steven Hyde? "Yes, I was!"
"Did you not get a good look at the rally?"
"Well, that trench coat did not do you justice." Jen crossed her arms which made her breasts rise slightly out of her dress, giving Hyde enough of an eyeful. Her plan worked, as she watched his head tilt down to follow her movement. Jen could just make out, through the tinted glasses, where his gaze was lingering.
"Well uh." Hyde's focus was somewhere else, getting a peek at her newly grown boobs. She saw his Adam's apple bob when he swallowed. Steven Hyde used to tease her about her flat chest, comparing hers to Donna's and sometimes even Eric's. Hyde cleared his throat, suddenly aware of what he was doing. His steely blue eyes met hers through his sunglasses. "Well, you look good too." He nodded making his way towards the ladder to join the rest of the gang, totally missing the reddening of her cheeks.
"I never said- uh, whatever" She approached the ladder to climb down and join him but realised he would get a good view up her dress.
"Are you coming?" Hyde huffed, peering up at her already. His smug grin returned when he noticed he could already see up her dress slightly.
"So you could get a nice eyeful? Yeah, I don't think so." Jen gave him a look before walking to the shallow end of the pool and walking down. She smiled hello at Eric and Jackie, who were crowding around the undrinkable keg. The bottom of her platforms clapped against the cement of the pool as she walked over but was stopped by Fez.
"Hello, my beautiful lady. $2 please." He held out his hand unexpectedly, waiting for her to pay the fee. The blonde was about to hand over the money, when she thought of a way to get out of it.
"$2? I didn't know there was an entry fee otherwise I would have brought money." Jen pouted, jutting her bottom lip out and peering at the foreign boy through her long black lashes. She had perfected the 'puppy dog' look over the years, finding it useful every now and again.
"Well I'm sorry but-"
"Isn't there anything I can do?" She put on her Marilyn Monroe voice, trying to appeal to the horny side of the brunette. "Please?" She leant forward to give him a peck on the cheek. Her soft lips brushed against his clean shaved cheek, leaving Fez wanting more.
"Yes, yes, yes." Fez muttered with his slight lisp. "You may enter." Jen smiled at him in return, walking past him to the deep end. "She wants some of Fez." He whispered, but not quiet enough to escape Jen's ears.
During the conversation, more teenagers had turned up at the promise of cheap beer. Kelso had also come back with a snapped in half tap, that Donna was currently holding. Hyde was watching, shaking his head disappointingly at Kelso.
"It's broken." Donna chastised Kelso, as Jen made her way to the dingy deck chair Hyde was sat in.
"I got duct tape." Kelso responded matter-of-factly, holding up an entire roll of silver tape.
"I can't believe you guys thought Kelso was the best option." She reiterated her point out loud, angry at the broken tap.
"Duct tape? Do you know how much pressure runs through that tap?" Hyde remarked from his chair.
"I got a whole roll of duct tape." Jen face palmed at Kelso's comment.
"Duct tape doesn't fix everything, Kelso." Jen spoke up. At the sound of her voice, Kelso glanced at her, finally noticing her presence. His whole demeanour changed from a small boy that had gotten into trouble to a Lothario.
"Hey Jen" He nodded, placing a hand on his hip. "Looking good in that dress." Jen rolled her eyes at his attempt at hitting on her in front of his friends. During Kelso's bad flirting, Hyde had jumped up to confront Eric.
"Forman, you need to get your dad's tap now!" The strong tone of his Hyde's voice, sent a slight shiver down her spine.
"My dad doesn't have a tap." Eric failed miserably at lying, his eyes looking at anywhere but Hyde's intense gaze. Hyde placed both of his hands on the tops of Eric's arms to patronise the young man.
"Red's got bicentennial swizzle sticks. He's got fake lemons with real lemon juice. He's got toothpicks shaped like swords. Red Forman is a cocktail man." The rebel's voice grew louder with every word. "And cocktail dads have beer taps." During Hyde's rant, Jen, Kelso and Donna had joined to almost surround Eric.
"Yeah, come on, Eric, we never ask you for anything." Kelso tried to reason with his friend.
"You guys ask me for everything." Eric shouted back.
"So, what's one more thing?" Jen rolled her eyes at Kelso's lame attempt.
"No, forget it. I've done enough today already. Count me out." Eric stood his ground. The teenagers sighed at their failure. Jen turned to the redhead next to her.
"Donna, think you can some of your magic on Eric?" Jen raised her eyebrows to emphasise her point.
"What? What magic?" Donna flustered.
"Seriously? You know he has the hots for you and I know you do for him. I may have been gone two years but that's the one thing that hasn't changed." Jen smirked at Donna, watching the blush deepened on the redhead's cheeks.
"Shut up, Jen!" Donna pushed the blonde slightly who giggled in return at the childish response. Jen had missed teasing Donna about her feelings about Eric and having nice moments with the tall girl. It was as if she had never left Point Place.
At the same time, the two moron jocks known as Destroy and Giveback started to harass Kelso about the broken tap.
"Hey, Kelshmo, what, your tap is broken?" Destroy questioned Kelso. "Why'd you do something stupid like buy a stupid, broken tap?" As Jen watched the idiots, she realised that she didn't actually know their real names. "What are you, stupid?"
"It wasn't broken until you broke it." Kelso defeated, making a face at the two to show who was the stupid ones.
"Oh. man." Destroyed turned around to face Giveback. Giveback put an arm around his shoulder to comfort his dumb friend.
"Don't beat yourself up. You had no way of knowing. Anyways, we gave it back." Giveback said.
Yeah because that was going to fix things. Jen thought to herself.
"Yeah, broken!" Eric interjected. His friends saw the frustration of today was getting to the young man and was on the cusp of snapping.
"Hey, lay off him, all right? He feels bad enough already." Giveback told Eric off to defend his idiotic friend.
"Oh, he should because he's a moron." Eric had snapped. The blonde heard Donna suck in a breath, worried that the poor lanky boy was going to get his fragile bones shattered.
"What did you say?"
"I said that you're both morons." Eric straightened to the same height as the two jocks. "What are you going to do? You're going to beat me up? What, you weigh 400 pounds together? It doesn't matter. The fact is that the tap is broken and it's your fault. Morons!" Eric shouted. Destroy pushed Giveback aside to confront Eric.
"You are so rude. Give us our 4 bucks back." Destroy demanded. Fez had wandered over during the commotion to stand with Donna and Jen.
"Okay, Fez" Eric took the money off Fez, who was standing next to him. Eric ripped the dollar bills in half, his eyes focused on the two boys in front of him to see their reactions. "Familiar?" The two idiots stormed off.
"Wow, Eric, you just tore their money." Donna moved to stand in front of the scrawny boy, showing how impressed she was. "And you gave it back. That was great." She was jumping on the ball of her feet, excitement coursing through her.
"Yeah, that was so not Eric Forman like. It was almost …" Jen stopped to think of the right word. "Hot?" Donna nodded along with her and Eric just looked at the blonde a little offended.
"That was awesome but enough of this levity, wench!" Eric ran across the pool to the ladder on the other side. He stood on the bottom step to address the larger crowd. "We came here to have a party, and as God is my witness, there will be a party." Eric declared, smiling at the horde of teens.
"Huzzah!" Everyone cheered, raising their fists in the air as Eric ran off to get his father's tap. Someone had turned on a cassette player to play some tunes so the party could begin. The teens began to dance to the music, but as soon as it had begun, it stopped.
The lights inside the house came on followed by Jackie rushing into the back yard. "Everybody in the deep end! My mother is showing the house." She shouted quickly as she descended the ladder into the pool.
"Now?!" Donna exclaimed.
"People work."
"Okay, quiet down, everybody." Donna shouted, turning off the music and ushering everyone into the deep end. The large group of people tried to push against the wall to hide themselves as best as possible. Jen was side on, facing Fez, not wanting to give him any access to anything. As the crowd continued to push to make themselves as small as possible, she felt a hand grab her waist as if to steady themselves.
"Sorry." A husky voice whispered in her ear, their breath just skimming her ear. She knew who it was straight away, not wanting to face the curly haired boy as she felt her cheeks warm. The crowd pushed the other way, causing Jen to clutch onto Hyde's hand to steady herself.
"It's no problem." She was suddenly aware her bum was brushing against the front of his jeans, as she felt the rough material through her tulle dress. Before she could react, Pam's voice broke the silence.
"The deck is new and this lovely tile walkway leads directly to the pool." Pam Burkhart walked out the house with a couple behind her. When the realtor gestured to the pool, all three adults saw the teens jammed together like sardines. "Which is filled with some of the local kids. Heavily Caucasian. It's a nice neighbourhood." She tried to put a positive spin on the unexpected party but could tell by the shocked faces of the older couple that she had lost out on the sale. The couple departed from the back yard quickly. "Well, I'm calling the police." Pam looked at her daughter annoyed, stomping away the from the pool.
"Mom! No!" Jackie tried to chase her mother but couldn't reach the last step of the ladder, so opted to walk out the shallow end.
"Everyone for themselves!" Some random kid shouted as teens started running in different directions. Jen looked around panicked at the chaos in the small area. The blonde turned to her group of friends.
"Well, it was great seeing you guys but I think I'm going to go." Jen waved goodbye to the group, running up the pool and exiting the backyard quickly.
Whilst putting her key in the ignition, she couldn't help but laugh at the hi-jinks her old friends got themselves into. She drove away from the house with a smile on her face, her mind turning to one person in particular.
