Last day of seventh grade
Hyde's life had only gotten worse. It had started these last couple of weeks. He thought that not seeing Edna would be a good thing.
Wrong.
He thought that meant the house would be empty and free for him to do whatever he wants.
Wrong.
Multiple men had come trying to find Edna, and for multiple reasons.
The first was that she owed people money. He had boarded his room up again, but it was unsettling to know that while he was lying in bed that the noises in the other room were men looking for money or smashing things. He had put a tarp over the outside of the window, and it seamed to deter the visitors.
The second weekly visitor was Edna's parole officer. He would come to the house and ask questions. It was a good way to make him angry. He had to hide what remained of his stash under the porch, and even then it was a gamble to say the rats wouldn't take it.
Her parole officer was annoying. He asked Hyde the same three questions.
"Have you seen your mother lately?"
"No"
"Do you know where she would be?"
"No"
"Has anyone come asking for her?"
"You."
"Anyone else?"
"She owes people money, but I'm not talking to them"
So it was more like four questions. He always wondered what Edna had done, to warrant having a parole officer. She had never said anything to him about it. She never really told him anything. And anything she did tell him, was screamed at him.
Then the other night there was actually a fight in his front yard. It was between her uncle and Edna's dealer.
Eugene, the dealer, was one person who managed to scare Hyde. He remembered a time when there were warrants out for his arrest and they had come to ask Edna about him.
He was tall and skinny, and he had always made comments about girls. He remembered in elementary school how he would stand by the playground and tell the girls how he couldn't wait till they where eighteen.
He had scars from that man.
He had one in his eyebrow from a beer bottle.
He had a burn mark on his shoulder from where he had put out his sigarete.
The final one was really his own fault, but Eugene had given him a knife to play with and it ended in a scar about three inches long on his leg.
But when he got his ass kicked by some random guy, it felt good. But he knew why he didn't win. He couldn't reach his boot. He knew well that he had a switchblade strapped to his calf.
The entire time he watched as his long boney hand slink down towards his boot before being socked in the face again.
He mentally patted the man on the back as he watched Eugene left with a tail behind his legs and hate in his blood shot eyes.
But today was the last day of seventh grade and he celebrated well. The same way he would celebrate in the basement with the guys. And the rest of the day he hid in the bathrooms celebrating and spray-painting 'maple leafs' on the bathroom walls. It was a day well spent.
He went to the pep rally however to mess with someone.
He could mess with the football team. Or the marching band. Maybe pull a cheerleaders hair.
But on the way to the gym, he formulated a plan.
:)
Jackie was happy. She was the center of the pyramid and once they tossed her down, she hoped she had caught everyone's eye. She wanted to be liked. They started a new cheer and Jackie was in the front.
It was towards the end of the cheer when it happened.
A boy in the front row slid forward and pulled down her skirt. She screamed as she pulled it back up as she ran out.
The walls of fake came rushing down.
She had built them up so high and they were coming down and crushing her.
Jackie Burkhart was perfect, she was always smiling and she had a perfect family, her dad was hard working and her mom was practically a model. She lived in one of the nicest houses in point place and she got everything she wanted.
But in reality, she was miserable, her family sucked. She had only seen her dad once and she spent each holiday alone. Not even a call. Her birthday had come and gone. He had come for fathers' day. A day where you celebrate how good your father is. She was happy to see him but it was short lived.
So today she just went home and cried. She tried calling her dad. She tried calling her mom.
:)
Hyde felt accomplished. He had successfully harassed a cheerleader and had gotten scolded for it. He assumed there was a janitor very busy at work in the bathroom right now.
So he, Forman and kelso all walked home.
"Hyde, what you did to that cheer leader was really not cool."
"But it was hilarious."
Hyde nodded "I agree with kelso"
"Of Course you do. But how do you think Donna would feel if someone pulled her pants down?" Eric gave him a sideways glance.
"Oh stop talking about Donna. Donna this, Donna that, Donna is my soul mate blah blah blah. We've heard enough about Donna. And I think we would all enjoy to see Donna with her pants down." He said.
"Donna is my soul mate. I sent her a letter last night and she said a paper airplane was on her desk this morning."
Kelso screamed and everyone turned and looked at him.
"What the hell are you screaming about?" Hyde watched as his face turned red.
"MY FINGERS ARE STUCK" Hyde looked at kelso's hands, and both of his fingers were shoved in a Chinese finger trap. He grabbed kelsos wrist and pushed them towards each other as they watched the finger trap fall to the ground.
"Whoever your soul mate is, I feel bad for her" Forman shook his head.
"Or him" Hyde chuckled.
They got to the basement and celebrated in the only way they knew how.
The circle
"I'm going to date a cheerleader."
"Good luck with that. If they find out your friends with Hyde they'll pants you."
"Okay, so today do-"
"SHUT UP ABOUT DONNA" kelso and Hyde chimed symotanuosley.
"Okay. Fine. Lets talk about your soul mates. Hyde's is a bi-polar girl who cant decide between 'help me' or 'wow I love unicorns'." he rolled his eyes. "And kelso, hey kelso, what's yours like?"
"Well- I didn't understand what they were for, so I wrote it like a letter for my mom."
"What?"
"My mom handed them to me and told me to write her a letter, and I thought she was talking about herself. So she got a letter about how much I love hotdogs signed 'your favorite son'." He got up and grabbed a Popsicle from the ice chest.
"Have you sent her anything else?" Eric look concerned. All he cared about was love. Yuck.
"No. She just needs to know I like hotdogs"
"Because no one else likes hotdogs."
:)
Jackie was done crying hours ago. She had to act perfect in front of them. She looked at her record player, the ABBA music still playing. She stopped the music and put the record away. Pulling out her guitar instead, she was trying to learn a song but it wasn't going well.
She needed something exciting to do. She wanted to go out in public but she didn't want to act perfect.
She threw on a pair of jeans-cheer leaders didn't wear jeans- and red lipstick. She threw on a black tank top. She put on a packers baseball hat and went towards the hub.
She went up to the booth and ordered a cherry pop. She loved cherry. And then she sat down and read a magazine.
She heard the bell ring and watched as three boys walked in. they seamed vaguely familiar but she had met a lot of people though all of the cheerleading events. She watched them and was mesmerized. They were so bonded and in sync.
She returned her attention back to her rolling stone magazine.
"I'm just saying kelso that your teacher doesn't like you."
"She does too"
She looked at the two closest to her. One was tall and the other had curly hair. The perfect her would've liked the tall one. But she liked the curly haired one; she could tell he had a life similar to hers
She returned her full attention to the magazine.
:)
"Hyde-stop staring at her" kelso jabbed his side. He didn't know why he was so interested in her, but he just was.
"What? I'm not staring. Who's staring? Shut your pie whole."
He looked at her one more time but this time she looked up at him. She smiled and a shiver went down his spine. He shook his head and turned back to kelso.
"Watch this Hyde," he said as he stuck his tongue out. He strutted over to the girl's table and pulled up a chair across from him.
:)
"I'm Michael," he said as he wiggled his eyebrows.
"Hi Michael." She smiled a warm smile and across the room Hyde propped his head up on his hand.
"Lets make out," he said as leaned over the table. She pushed him back but he kept going.
"Get off me" she pushed him really hard this time.
"C'mon baby."
"If I throw a stick, will you go away?"
"Burn!" she looked across the room, a scrawny-headed boy had joined the other one, who was now staring intently at her. She stood up and walked to the door.
She looked at the curly haired one, "your friends an ass".
:)
kelso retuned to the table.
"She's right you know. You practically harassed her." Eric snorted, "She should've turned you in."
"I just wanted to kiss her" he looked at Hyde "because Hyde was looking at her"
Hyde punched him in the shoulder. "You did it because I was looking at her?" Michael nodded "if I looked at a ugly girl would you kiss her." Kelso fluffed his hair.
Obviously he was bluffing.
"How about big Rhonda over there. I'm looking at her."
"Uhhh…"
:)
Jackie was sitting on the playground when she heard the crunching of wood chips behind her. She turned her head and saw a tall lanky man standing about five feet behind her.
"Hello little lady. What are you doing here?" his voice sounded like he was drowning. It was scratchy and feeble, she recognized that sound. Cigarettes. Her mom had that rasp too. It was like her lungs were crying out for help. This man had a similar problem.
He wore long dark wash jeans, and a loose fitting white cotton shirt, except for the first three buttons were undone from the top. His eyes were red and bloodshot. His hands were twitching. Long boney fingers.
She didn't like him. He took a step forward and goose bumps ran up her arms.
"I have to go pick up. My little. Brother." she gestured behind her, taking steps back, gradually getting quicker. He lunged at her and she fell backwards. Kicking and screaming.
He grabbed her violently and put his hand over her mouth, starting to drag her away.
"Don't worry. I have a nice private place we can go to. No one is ever there" she could feel his breath at her neck, and it wafted to her nose. He was an alcoholic.
She was kicking and screaming. What had her karate instructor said? Aim for the eyes. She swung and clawed at his face, but she felt a blow to the back of her head and everything went black.
Eugene chuckled and walked on. After he hit her in the head with a beer bottle, her hat fell off. He would enjoy her hair once he got back to the house.
:)
Hyde was walking through the playground towards his house and saw something yellow sitting in the grass. He picked it up; it looked like the girls hat from the hub. Two feet ahead he saw a pack of Doral cigarettes and then heard yelling coming from his house.
Eugene smoked Doral's.
He also hung around the playground.
He followed the yelling back to his hose and ripped the screen door open. What he saw was horrifying. The small girl was pinned against the wall and Eugene was holding her there.
"What the hell do you think your doing?!" Hyde yelled.
Eugene dropped her and he heard as she gasped for air. He assessed the situation. Not only did she have a black eye but also her eyebrow was bleeding. He looked at the broken bottle on the floor.
He hated Eugene.
He went to throw a punch but Eugene beat him to it. He had socked Hyde in the nose, and he was pretty sure that something had just popped. He threw a punch and it landed on Eugene's cheek, and he grabbed the girl from the floor.
She was still gasping for air as they ran out. They stopped once they were a block away.
He collected his breath "are you okay?" he looked at her under the street light now. She had a bruise around her neck from were Eugene had been.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just going to go home." She looked him in the eyes. It was he. The boy from when her house had gotten egged. "Oh my. Well, at least my arm isn't broken this time." She looked up at the sky "I need to get home now. Thank you so much."
She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek before running off.
He couldn't believe he saw that girl every year. His cheek burned from where she had kissed him. He didn't like her though. In fact, he kind of hated her.
:)
She was going to write a letter to her soul mate, but for the first time she was at a loss for words. All she could do was lay on her back and think about her night.
this story is doing really well and I'm worried this chapter is going to be a disappointment :( i like the other chapters better so the next one will be more like them. also, thank you to all of my guest reviewers, and my first reviewer ! thank you for reading and let me know if you liked this chapter!