A/N : Time to get these two kids together, and mix up a couple of episodes at the same time! Loving the reviews I'm getting on this fic, thanx - people who read and review always rock :-)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 7 - Prank Day
"Kelso could you be anymore lame?!" Hyde exclaimed as he, Eric, and Fez realised that their so-called friend had just pranked them all simultaneously.
"But it's Prank Day!" he repeated that which he had already said three times, and still nobody looked impressed.
"Oh my God, I think I might actually have a peanut, like, in my ear" Eric panicked as he held his headphones in his hands, the peanut butter on them starting to drip off one side as he stuck a finger in his ear to check for nuts.
"You son of a bitch!" Fez complained, spitting a large mouthful of Oreo back on the plate in front of him, "This is not delicious creamy goodness in my cookies!" he yelled, "This is toothpaste!"
"And a whoopee cushion, man" Hyde said holding up the offending item and shaking his head, "What are we in seventh grade again?" he asked.
In all honesty the tricks had been pretty funny, but he wasn't about to encourage Kelso in his stupidity, sometimes it all got very boring.
"Look, I need cheering up okay?" he sighed, "Breaking up with Jackie was really painful and so I thought if I invented a day of fun, and laughing at other people's pain, it'd help me feel better" he explained, "So now it's Prank Day, and you know what? I do feel better" he told them with a large grin, that barely fit on his face as he ran off to play tricks on some other poor unsuspecting people.
"Seriously, do you see a peanut in my ear?" Eric asked, forcing the side of his head in Hyde's face.
"No, but I do see a doofus right in front of my face" he complained, smacking Eric upside his head, "There is no peanut in your head, Forman, unless you count your brain" he smirked annoyingly, as Eric stormed towards the stairs and yelled up them for his mother. She was a nurse after all, she'd know how to check for peanuts in ears, and how to get them out safely.
"Sometimes Kelso is very annoying" Fez declared as he sat down in his usual chair, "But I must admit he is the King of Pranks"
"Yeah, he's a great big... pranker" Hyde smiled to himself as he re-inflated the whoopee cushion he'd sat on before and hid it back under the sofa cushion where Forman would probably sit on it later, hopefully in front of the gang or, even better, in front of a girl!
"But I am confused" Fez shook his head as he thought about the thing that puzzled him, "Why did Kelso say he broke up with Jackie? I thought she was the one who said they were broken up"
"She did, man" Hyde agreed, "Kelso's just being a man, and pretending like he was the one who ended things. See if he tells people that Jackie dumped him, he looks like an ass"
"And if he says he dumped her..." Fez began, only to have Hyde jump in and take over his sentence.
"Then he still looks like an ass, cos that's what Kelso is" he laughed, "but at least he looks like he was in control of his relationship with Jackie"
"Oh, that is funny" Fez laughed too, "Everybody knows that Jackie wore that pants in that relationship, just like she will wear the pants in yours"
"In my what?" Hyde frowned as he flipped through the comic book in his hands, he pretended not to know what his foreign friend was talking about, but in all honesty, he had his suspicions.
"Well, now Jackie is broken up with Kelso she is spending a lot of time with you" Fez told his friend, "And you are spending a lot of time with her"
"So?" Hyde shrugged, "I spend a lot of time with you and Forman, that doesn't mean we're dating"
"No, but you and Jackie have sparks and chemistry" he explained, "I would have liked it to be me she chose but, Moira has spoken" he sighed heavily as Hyde peered over the top of his comic book at him.
"Who's Moira?" he wanted to know, "And what the hell has she been saying about me and Jackie?"
"Moira is the personification on fate" Fez explained, "She decides what happens to us all, including who we fall in love with"
"Okay, no way, man, no way am I in love with Jackie" his friend denied it hotly, "I admit, she's not all bad, and we're kind of friends, okay? But there is no way I am in love with her, just no way, ever! I barely even like her, and..." he protested, realising half way through his rant, mostly thanks to the smirk on Fez's face, that perhaps he was arguing this point a little too much...
"Really, Jackie, it's cool. You don't have to do this" Donna protested as her friend started unpacking all kinds of make-up and board games and more out of a large bag she'd brought with her.
"No, Donna, I do have to do this" Jackie protested as she finally emptied the bag and reached to put her hand over Donna's on the bed, "This is a hard time for you, being your parents Anniversary and all. I promised you twenty-four hours of Jackie time, and that's exactly what you're going to get" she insisted, "And it's going to be so much fun" she giggled as she reached for one of the many items of make-up she had strewn across the bed, "Now, let's start by making you look prettier"
"Jackie, it's great that you want to help me out" Donna said as she shied away from the mascara wand that came at her suddenly, "but I don't think looking like you is the way to go"
"Well, obviously that's not going to happen, Donna" Jackie rolled her eyes, "You can't ever be as pretty as me, but you can still look good" she said as she set to work on her friends face with various products.
Honestly, Donna couldn't be bothered to argue, and it was kind of nice to know at least one person kind of cared, today of all days. She'd tried calling Casey but to no avail, he was out, so his mother had said. Her only option for company was Jackie, and it wasn't as if there weren't advantages to that.
"So, Jackie" she said awkwardly around the lipstick that was being thickly applied to her mouth, "When you're done making me look like Coco the Clown's whore" she complained, pulling away, and checking the damage in a hand mirror, "We should, hey, we should make this like a real slumber party, and I don't know, play Truth or Dare or something" she smiled.
"Well, okay, I guess we could do that" Jackie shrugged, deciding that was better than nothing, and at least it was a real girls game, not something stupid and lumber-jack-ish which had been her fear when she offered to spend so long in Donna's company.
"So, I'll go first" the red-head grinned, "And you'll pick truth cos you always do, so whats going on with you and Hyde?" she asked, looking genuinely excited to find out the answer.
"What kind of question is that?" Jackie laughed, though it was as fake as Bob's hair, "Steven and I are friends, that's all"
"Oh, that is so not all" Donna argued, "I remember the big-ass crush you had on him, and that date where you two kissed, and..."
"Donna, I told you, that kiss meant nothing" Jackie told her firmly, though she couldn't look her in the eye right now, instead turning away and putting various items of make-up back into the case from which they came.
"I'm not buying this, Jackie" Donna shook her head, "We all know that there is no way you two are hanging out as often as this without one of you liking the other more than friends"
"Then did you ever think, Donna, that maybe it's Steven who has the crush on me?" her friend asked, knowing it was a stupid thing to say, and more than that, purely wishful thinking.
She'd love to think Steven Hyde liked her that way, but they'd made a deal about just being friends and nothing more.
"I guess it's not impossible" the red-head considered, as Jackie's eyes grew wide. She'd expected Donna to laugh, to agree that Hyde would never seriously consider dating her, but apparently not, "I mean, he did take you on that date before, and he's always there for you, like our first Prom, and when Kelso cheated, and when Kelso cheated again, and..."
"Wow, he really has been there for me a lot" Jackie realised perhaps for the first time, just how much Steven really must have cared about her all along.
He was often brutally honest and even came across as a little harsh with her sometimes but in the end he always did what she asked, be it attending the school Prom or taking her on a real live date to prove whether they should be together or not.
"You do still like him!" Donna exclaimed as she watched a smile appear on her friends face.
"Oh Donna, I do" she admitted, an uncharacteristic blush rising in her cheeks, "Do you really think I could have a chance? That he could like me too?"
"Well, I never knew Hyde be so nice, or do so many favours for one person before" her friend told her seriously, "Even when he had that little crush on me, he was never into it as much as he is with you" she recalled, "Jackie, Hyde doesn't do the obvious stuff. He won't buy you flowers or sweep you off your feet with big romantic gestures" she rolled her eyes at the thought of all the stupid, over the top things Jackie had so often expected from Kelso, "But he has a good heart, behind all the Zen and crap. I really think he's into you" she explained.
Jackie could barely take in what she was being told, after all Steven wasn't exactly forthcoming in talking about his feelings and so on. It had taken so much effort to even get him to be friends with her, and there was that stupid deal...
"Donna, if he liked me so much, why would he make me promise not to like him that way?" she checked, "We have this stupid deal that we'll never be more than friends"
"That's cos he can't stand you going psycho like the last time!" Donna exclaimed, unable to believe that Jackie hadn't realised this, surely she wasn't quite that stupid, "Jackie, you have to be cool about this, let things move more slowly"
"Slowly?" the younger girl frowned, not liking the sound of that at all, especially now that Donna was agreeing with her and saying she thought Steven liked her too. It was all the encouragement she'd needed to go for it, and yet here was her friend now telling her not to, "I can go slowly" she said with a certain amount of distaste.
"That's good, cos y'know..." Donna began only to find herself ignored and interrupted as Jackie leapt to her feet.
"Oh Donna, I can't wait, I have to go talk to Steven right now!" she exclaimed, bolting for the door.
She either didn't hear her friend calling her name behind her, or didn't care enough to stop.
"Oh, this is bad" Donna said to herself, but she was smiling - at least she'd gotten rid of Jackie for a while.
Jackie bolted from her friends house, running around to the Forman's residence. She got half way across the driveway when she almost rammed straight into the person coming the other way.
"Steven!" she gasped at the sight of him, "Well, what are you doing out here?" she asked, the wind completely knocked out of her sails now that she'd actually come face to face with him.
Hyde was suffering a similar problem. He'd been fine in the basement, talking to Fez, being reminded just how deep his feelings for Jackie ran. The gang were starting to notice, and it was getting harder to deny the more time they spent together. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just be with her, he'd realised, and she was a lot less likely to leave him than some other people in his life that he'd loved.
It hadn't taken as long as perhaps it should have for Hyde to be completely convinced he needed to go talk to Jackie and work this thing out. If she wanted to date him then maybe they should try it, see what happens. Now here he was, in the middle of the driveway, face to face with the young woman he was falling for and suddenly he wasn't sure what to say.
"I was, er,... nothing, I was doing nothing" he told her lamely as he turned away, removing his glasses as he did so and rubbing his eyes.
He was an idiot, man, he was like Forman! He couldn't even talk to her all of a sudden and it freaked him out that he could be so lame. Maybe he liked Jackie even more than he realised if she could make him feel such a fool.
"Steven" she called his attention back, "I... I have something to say to you" she said with slightly forced confidence, "You see, I was talking to Donna, and y'know that crazy lumberjack said that... well, she said, that maybe we spent so much time together because, well, we like each other" she explained.
"You and Donna?" he checked, pretty sure that wasn't what she meant, but saying it anyway.
"No, doofus, you and me!" Jackie told him, almost angry he wasn't getting it yet, "She thinks you and me should..." she began, suddenly realising how close they were standing together, how intense his eyes were as they looked down into hers, how much she really wanted to be with him.
"Thinks you and me should, what?" Hyde prompted, his voice sounding wrong even to himself, too soft and emotional.
Did he really want to be this guy? He wasn't sure and couldn't think as he and Jackie seemed to float closer together until finally their lips met.
"Mrs Forman!" Kelso yelled as he bolted through from the front door of the house into the kitchen, almost bowling Red over in the process, "Mrs Forman! Can I borrow some oatmeal for this really cool pr..." he stopped short when he spotted two people out on the driveway kissing.
Surely it couldn't be Jackie and Hyde?
"Kelso, man, what is it?" Eric asked from the his seat at the kitchen table.
He got to his feet and followed his friends eyeline as Kitty did the same, and they both watched as Hyde and Jackie put their arms around each other and kissed with an intensity that stunned them all.
"Oh, burn!" Kelso suddenly exclaimed, "Oh that is the best prank of the whole frickin' day, man!" he yelled, laughing loudly.
Eric and Kitty shared a troubled look. From what they were seeing, it didn't look much like a prank, it just seemed that Jackie and Steven were in love.
To Be Continued...
