Chapter 10.

Monday, August 28th.
4:00pm.
The Formans.

Jackie's first day at Point Place High hadn't gone exactly to plan. She'd started off on a good note, worn what she had thought was the cutest outfit she owned (the pleated skirt with the blue button up sweater and her favorite heels) and made friends with a few of the girls who claimed to be on the cheerleading team.

It wasn't until lunch time when things started going south. She'd met the head cheerleader; Julie, who made it pretty clear from the start that she was threatened by Jackie's presence at the school. After some heated words in the cafeteria, where Jackie was promptly kicked off the cheer-squad's table, it was obvious Julie was going to be her main concern when it came to claiming the spot of most popular girl.

But if Julie thought some passive aggressive comments were going to keep Jackie from auditioning for the cheerleading squad in a few days' time, then she was crazy.

The school day ended quickly, and Jackie had only managed to procure 3 allies. 2 were on the cheer-squad, a girl named Trish (cute but needed to do something with her hair and makeup) and another named Heather (totally hot, but possibly a major skank based off some comments she'd made about certain boys from the football team).

The last ally was definitely her favorite, although he wouldn't help much in way of her overthrowing Julie's title as most popular. Troye was on the football team, he was tall with bleached blonde hair and incredibly handsome.

The two had met after Julie had exiled Jackie from the cheerleaders table. He'd offered her a spot at his table and the two got to talking about all the things she loved. Turns out they had the same taste in fashion and music and also shared a common interest for Donny Osmond and Grease.

He was popular and the girls at school loved him, on the surface he seemed like the typical all-American boy but Jackie could sense there was something under the surface, something he was hiding from the world. Still, she could see the two of them becoming friends quickly and if it weren't for him, she would have written today off as a huge failure.

She was returning from school later then intended, having to walk all the way home with her heavy book bag was a slower process then she'd anticipated. When she pushed the sliding door open and stepped into the Forman's kitchen, she spotted Donna Pinciotti at the opposite end of the room.

"Donna," Jackie stormed over to the red head and grabbed hold of her wrist, dragging her towards the kitchen table. "I'm so glad you're here."

She'd found out Donna had chosen to stay in Point Place, early this morning at breakfast and was beyond happy with the news. After everything that had happened at school, not to mention the weird moment between Steven and herself last night, she needed a girl who she trusted, to vent to.

"Uh hey Jackie, what's up?" Donna asked as Jackie pushed her into a chair and sat down across from her.

"Donna I've been thinking, now that you're staying in Point Place, you and I should be best-friends," Jackie got to the point quickly, eyeing the kitchen suspiciously. She knew Eric and Steven were currently at work, and that Mrs. Forman would be at the hospital for at least another hour, but Mr. Forman was home and could walk in at any moment and she didn't need him hearing about all of her troubles.

Not that he would care enough to listen anyway.

"Uh… Sure, whatever Jackie," She shrugged and looked on with an amused expression.

Donna probably thought Jackie was kidding, but she'd never joke about such important things. She needed a best friend and out of all the candidates she'd met since moving back to Point Place, the red headed giant lumberjack from next door was her preferred choice.

Call it personal growth, if you will.

"Okay, great. Now as my best-friend, you are required to ask me how my first day of school went."

"Okay… Hey Jackie, how was your first day at school?" She played along.

"Horrible!" Jackie cried, throwing her head down onto the kitchen table to add dramatic effect.

Donna shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

Jackie lifted her head slightly to stare at the red head. "Oh, you'd be surprised. I barely made any friends and the cheer-leading captain basically declared war against me."

"Really? What did she say?"

"It wasn't what she said Donna, but how she said it! Popular girls don't fight like normal people, we use passive aggressive comments and dig at people's self-esteem until they are so insecure they develop an eating disorder and get shipped off to rehab or something."

"Jackie, that's terrible!"

"Oh, I know. And that's what this bitch is trying to do to me! But I just got here, I have nowhere else to go and I've got nothing left to lose… Julie is going to wish she didn't mess with me. I'm going to make that cheer-leading squad and I'm going to befriend all of her friends, they're totally going to like me better then her and before you know it I'll be the captain and she'll be begging me to be friends with her." Jackie took a deep breath in, sucking the much-needed air back into her lungs.

"Wow," Donna blinked over at her in shock. "Or – And just hear me out here… You could make friends with a different, less popular crowd. And avoid all the drama, all together?"

Jackie scoffed. "Donna please. I'm Jackie Burkhart, I can't hang out with unpopular people."

"You hang out with me and the guys? We weren't exactly popular in high school. Well Kelso was, but just cause all the popular girls thought he was pretty… Oh and Hyde too, for the same reasons I guess. But they mostly pretended he didn't exist in public, then would try hook up with him outside of school."

Jackie bit her lip at the mention of Steven's name. The more time she'd spent with him, the more attracted to him she found herself being.

Last night had been totally embarrassing, she thought he was into her as well and had actually believed for a moment that he was going to kiss her, but instead he'd jumped away from her and acted like she had the plague or something.

This morning he hadn't said a word to her, they'd sat across from each other at breakfast and he'd spent the whole meal ignoring her presence.

Obviously, she had read the signals wrong and he wasn't interested in her. Maybe she just wasn't his type? He probably went for more of the rebellious 'rock-and-roll' kind of girls.

"So, uh- Steven was with a lot of girls in high school?"

"I guess so," Donna shrugged.

"Like… What type of girls?"

"I don't know. The usual, bad girl types… Actually, there were a couple cheerleaders, couple of the rich girls too… He says they just wanted to slum it with him. Nothing that lasted longer than a week anyway."

So he had dated girls like her before! Which meant she wasn't not his type, he just didn't like her personally. And that was so much worse.

"Oh… That's cool," Jackie nodded, looking down at the table. She shouldn't care whether he liked her or not, he was a dirty, poor hippie and she didn't need him… Except she wanted him.

Man, did she want him.

Being so close to him the night before, she'd felt a vibe or at least she thought she had. And in the moment, she'd never wanted to kiss someone as badly as she had wanted to kiss him. It just sucked knowing now that she couldn't have him.

She wasn't exactly used to not getting the things that she wanted. An unpleasant trait from her upbringing that made no sense now that she was poor and on her own.

"Why are you asking?" Donna wondered. "Did something happen between you two? I mean, we never really talked about the two of you spooning at Vanstock."

Jackie groaned. "No, nothing's happened. And nothing happened at Vanstock, Steven was just being nice and let me share his sleeping-bag with him because dumb Michael hid mine. I don't know how we ended up like we did, but there was like zero room in that sleeping-bag, so I guess it didn't mean anything."

"You guess?"

"Well I thought it might of, but after the highly embarrassing events of last night. I'm now 100% sure that it didn't."

Donna gasped with a smile on her face. "Jackie, what happened last night?" She asked, reaching out to lightly slap Jackie over her arm.

Jackie groaned again, embarrassed. "We were in the basement together, I thought there was- something, between us. Nothing was really said, but there was a vibe. Like a romantic vibe, you know?"

Donna nodded.

"I leaned in and he jumped away from me quicker then you could say 'rejected'."

"Okay… Getting past the totally weird and unnatural concept that is you and Hyde," Donna scrunched up her nose as if the thought of her and Steven hooking up was icky, but Jackie thought her, and Eric's relationship was a lot grosser. "I can't believe he would have rejected you like that… I mean, some would say that you're good looking."

"Uh Donna, I'm flattered but I'm not into girls."

"Ha-ha," Donna glared over at her and Jackie laughed back. "Maybe you just misunderstood the situation."

Jackie rolled her eyes; how could she misunderstand him literally jumping off the couch and moving to the other end of the room to get away from her? She thought his rejection was pretty crystal clear.

"Trust me, he couldn't have gotten away from me quicker. And this morning was so awkward at breakfast, he didn't even look at me. Things were already weird after Vanstock and now I've gone and made them worse."

"Look, Hyde's a guy. And in my experience, guys are pretty dumb. They also have like the shortest attention spans ever, he'll forget about it and you guys will go back to normal in a few days."

Jackie perked up. "You think?" She'd love for them to go back to normal! Just because he didn't want her the way that she wanted him, didn't mean they couldn't be friends.

"Yeah, I do Jackie."

Jackie squealed and wrapped her arms around Donna, pulling her into a hug. "Oh, I'm so glad you're staying! I don't know what I'd do here without you, lumberjack."

Donna rolled her eyes as the two pulled away. "Gee thanks, midget… I'm actually really happy with my decision to stay. I know community college won't be the experience that UW would have been, but Eric is worth it, you know?"

Jackie scrunched up her nose. "No, I don't know. In fact, I don't know what you see in that loser. You know he quotes Star-Wars in his sleep, I can hear him from across the hall! And you want to marry that."

Donna smiled. "Yeah, I really do."

Even though Donna and Eric's relationship utterly grossed Jackie out, she thought it must be nice, having someone you loved so much that you were willing to overlook something as dorky as Star-Wars themed sleep-talking.

"You really love him."

She'd never felt that way before, all of her old boyfriends she'd gotten sick of after a few months… She thought that she could feel that way about Steven, but he was being stubborn and was seemingly unwilling to fall for her charms.

His rejection had affected more than just her pride.

"What the hell are you two doing in here?" Red Forman groaned as he walked through the living room door into the kitchen. "Don't you two have anything better to do than gas-bag in my kitchen?" He grumbled, heading towards the fridge.

"Mr. Forman, we're talking about matters of the heart," Jackie pointed out as she watched Red grab a can of beer out from the fridge. It must have been Steven's, Mrs. Forman didn't let Red have any alcohol of his own in the house anymore.

"I don't need to know that… And I don't care, just do it somewhere else."

"I thought you weren't allowed to drink beer?" Donna questioned as Red cracked the can open.

"What Kitty doesn't know, won't hurt her."

Friday, September 1st.
4:45pm.
The Hub.

The Hub was noisy, always was after the school day was over. Teenagers filled the small burger joint, mostly high school kids occupied each table, but Donna, Eric and Hyde had managed to secure the best spot in the house.

They were in the corner table at the back, Donna and Eric were seated in chairs across from him while Hyde had snagged the booth to himself. The sound of the Steve Miller Band's 'Jet Airliner', pinball and overenthusiastic teens filled the small space, making it close to impossible for Hyde to hear anything Forman was saying.

He thought he heard something about their wedding and spaced out anyway. He couldn't think about his friends' wedding, couldn't focus on other people's love lives when his own was such a mess.

Plan; 'avoid Jackie to get over her', hadn't been working as well as he hoped. Avoiding Jackie had only managed to piss her off, his feelings for her (whatever they were) hadn't gone away. The most his plan had done was make her mad and him miss her.

And that was the complete opposite of what he'd been hoping for.

It had only really been a week since they properly hung out together, when she'd tried to kiss him, and he'd dodged her, promptly kicking her out of the basement. 1 week but it felt like the longest week of his life.

It was harder then he'd planned. Getting over her. She lived in the same damn house as him. Last night, he'd been heading to the upstairs bathroom to take a shower and he'd ran right into her, she was leaving the bathroom in nothing but a towel and his relaxing shower turned into an ice cold one.

Roy had given him the night off from work, he'd agreed to come to The Hub with Forman and Donna to get out of the house and away from another possible awkward encounter with Jackie. But the universe had never been kind to him and it had plans of its own.

Hyde saw her before she spotted them. She'd walked through the door in a cheer-leading uniform, she must have made the team earlier that day. The tiny brunette was joined by a group of girls, also in uniform and a few guys wearing matching varsity jackets.

But he barely noticed anyone but her. She looked fucking incredible in that uniform and he hated himself for thinking it.

"Hyde, did you just hear anything I said?" Eric complained loudly, getting Hyde's attention. His eyes darted from across the room at Jackie, to his friend in front of him.

He wasn't quick enough, both Donna and Eric picked up on what had been distracting him. "Oh, that's Jackie," Donna perked up and turned her body in the cheerleader's direction. "Jackie!" She waved a hand in the air and got the brunettes attention.

"Oh man, we can't get rid of her," Eric whined from in front of him, but Hyde wasn't listening. He was watching her as she sauntered across the room in that little skirt… She just had to join the cheer-leading squad. Was she trying to drive him insane? Cause she was doing a pretty good job at it.

"Hey there lumberjack," Jackie smiled as she approached the table, leaning down to give Donn a hug before turning to Eric and Hyde. "Losers."

"So, you got in," Donna motioned her hand over at Jackie's outfit.

Jackie smiled brightly. "Told you I would," she winked at the red head.

"That doesn't surprise me Jackie," Eric began, getting her attention. "I mean, bitches run in packs."

Jackie and Donna both moved quickly, slapping Eric over each respective shoulder. Hyde didn't blame them, he was about to reach over and do the same thing, except he would have hit him a lot harder.

"Jackie's not a bitch, Eric," Donna berated her fiancé.

Eric shrugged, bowing his head low and rubbing his shoulders, Hyde thought his pride was probably hurting a lot more then his arms were right now.

"Thank-you Donna," Jackie smiled over at her friend before moving her gaze back to Eric. Hyde noticed she'd been avoiding eye contact with him and he wondered whether it had something to do with what happened the night before.

She'd seemed embarrassed when he'd ran into her, naked except for the towel around her, but he thought he was the real victim. Now that he knew what she looked like in close to nothing, he was finding it hard to get the image out of his head. He'd been walking around with a halfy all freaking day.

"Eric, can you let your parents know that I won't be home for dinner tonight."

"Yeah, whatever," Eric shrugged, picking at the bowl of fries in front of him, not even bothering to look up at her.

"Why, where you going?"

The words left Hyde's mouth before he even realized he was saying them.

Jackie's gaze fell to him, she was looking at him as if he'd been the one to call her a bitch. "Why do you care?"

"I don't," Hyde shrugged, but thought better because he actually did care. "Mrs. Forman's gonna ask," he added quickly.

If she couldn't tell the Forman's she wasn't going to be home for dinner herself, that meant she wasn't going home to change. Which meant, wherever she was off to, she'd be going there in that tiny cheer-leading outfit.

The uniform left little to the imagination and also supplied no warmth, it might have been early September, but it got cold in Point Place during the night.

He hated to think of some football player keeping her warm.

"So, make something up," she placed her hands on her hips, the classic Jackie stance that Hyde had learnt meant she was pissed and liable to blow in any minute.

"Fine. I'll tell em' you're at a sex party having orgies with the football team."

If looks could kill, Hyde would have been six feet under by now.

"You haven't cared about me or my life all week… Why do you care so much now?"

"Yes Hyde. Why do you care so much?" Eric responded, staring Hyde down like he was insane.

He had to think quickly. "Cause', your parents told me to look after her ass and I'm not coping shit, if she gets roofied by some fucking Jock named 'Chad'," he addressed Eric, but Jackie's voice pulled his attention back to her.

"Firstly, Chad is a really nice guy and he'd never roofie me."

Hyde hadn't even known there was actually a Chad and if the situation were different he would have found that fuckin' hilarious. But Jackie was staring him down and he could feel both Forman and Donna's eyes on him as well.

He was showing his hand and it wouldn't be long before they realized how he really felt about the girl standing in front of them.

"Secondly… It's just a high school party. There's more drugs in the basement then there will be at the party, probably more beer too so you can tell Mrs. Forman, that I'll be fine."

She clearly wasn't buying that he was only asking for the Forman's benefit. Still, he felt better knowing where she was gonna be all night.

"Whatever," he responded.

Jackie paused, looking back over her shoulder at her friends who were all sitting at a table near the doors staring at her. Probably wondering what the hell she was doing talking to a group of burnouts like them, arguing with the towns resident bad-boy.

He watched as she looked back at him and bit down on her bottom lip. "It's an open invite. You could come, if you wanted… The party's going to be in the woods, by that big water tower."

Hyde froze. Trying to work out whether he'd just heard her right. Was she asking him to go to the party with her? Why would she still want to hang out with him after he'd been a dick to her all week?

Eric's laughter rang through the small area. "We'd rather sit and stare at the wall all night… Right, Hyde?"

Everyone turned to look at him, although Jackie's eyes had never moved from his. "Uh… Yeah, Jackie why would I want to go to some lame high school party?"

To hang out with her… And to make sure no other guy put their hands on her. The list went on, but he couldn't admit that in front of their friends.

"Whatever. I'll see you later Donna," she said goodbye to her friend before turning and leaving their table. He watched as she was welcomed back to her own table full of cheerleaders and football players.

"I gotta tinkle," Eric informed the two as he stood and left Hyde alone with Donna.

He tried to ignore the look Donna was shooting him. He knew what she'd be thinking right now. But he didn't want to hear it.

"I'll get us some more fries," he grabbed onto the empty basket of fries and went to stand, but Donna's hand came shooting forward and grabbed hold of him before he had the chance to escape.

"What was all of that about?" She kept her grasp on his forearm and nodded her head in the direction of Jackie's table. He tried to wrestle his arm free but her hold only tightened. He wasn't getting out of this easily.

"What are you talking about?"

Donna rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'm just going to say it because clearly, you'll never admit it." Her voice lowered, and Hyde's jaw tightened, his eyes darting from the red head in front of him to the tiny brunette across the room. If Donna was about to do what he thought she was, he didn't want Jackie to overhear anything.

"You're into Jackie," she whispered but the huge smile that spread across her face showed Hyde what her true feelings on the subject were.

He paused to think about his next move. Even if he denied his feelings for Jackie, Donna wouldn't buy it. Once she had her mind set on something there was no changing it. But if he admitted to his feelings, she'd want to talk about it and Forman was probably a minute away from coming back to the table.

If Eric found out, then their whole group would know by the end of the day. He wasn't sure if he was ready for that, in fact he knew he wasn't ready for that. Up until 5 minutes ago, he was still hoping the 'avoid Jackie' plan would work, and he'd never have to deal with these feelings again.

But that was before the tiny cheer-leading uniform. Now, all he could think about was her in that outfit, at that high school party and a hoard of football players trying to get under that little skirt.

Before he had the chance to make his decision, Donna was talking again.

"Save the excuses Hyde. I know you. You like her but you're in your head too much. You don't have to admit it to me but I'm just going to say this… She likes you too."

Hyde felt his stomach drop. He looked over at Jackie, who was currently in a conversation with some other guy, he could hear her laughter from across the room. The guy was hanging off her every word and he didn't blame him, Jackie's smile could pull anyone in.

How could someone like her, be into someone like him?

It just wasn't right.

"Just drop it Donna… It would never work."

Hyde spotted Eric walking towards their table from the bathrooms and prayed that Donna would for once listen to him. But as he approached them, she leaned closer into Hyde and whispered, "you'll never know that for sure unless you try".

"Try what?" Eric questioned as he took his seat next to Donna. Hyde watched as he wrapped an arm around the back of Donna's chair and reached across to steal some of her pop.

"Uh…"

"Roller disco… Hyde wants to try roller disco," Donna interjected, and Eric burst out laughing.

"Yeah right Donna."

Eric wasn't buying Donna's lame cover up story, but he didn't pry any further. The couple fell back into their previous conversation about their up and coming wedding while Hyde leaned back against the booth and tried not to watch Jackie from across the room.

Soon she'd be off at her party, spending her night drinking and dancing with her friends while getting hit on by a bunch of guys who were probably a lot better than him. And he just had to be okay with that, cause' she might have a crush on him now but sooner or later she'd realize girls like her didn't belong with guys like him.

He'd just have to distract himself all night from thinking about her, because the more he thought of her at that party surrounded by football players and preppy guys, the worse he felt.

10:30pm.
That night.
The Basement.

Hyde was coming down from a circle way too early into the night. Kelso and Fez hadn't been the distraction that he was hoping they'd be. For as long as he'd known, he'd spent his nights in this basement with the same idiot friends and that had been enough for him.

Tonight, was different.

Kelso was attempting to build a pyramid out of a deck of cards and was failing miserably, the cards had gone crashing to the ground on multiple occasions. Little did he know that Fez was the one sabotaging him, blowing air from his spot on the couch, in the direction of the others pyramid to ensure its downfall.

Normally Hyde would be helping Fez knock down the tower of cards. Or at least make a remark about how dumb Kelso was for not figuring out what was actually going on. But he was finding it hard to focus on anything.

Jackie was still out. And it was early so of course she wouldn't be back yet, but Hyde couldn't stop hoping she'd show up in the basement. He wondered what she was doing right now? Whether she was wasted or whether she was getting cold in that getup of hers, maybe someone was wrapping their jacket around her right now…

Maybe she was looking at that guy the way she looked at Hyde in the basement the other night, the thought left him feeling sick. But, maybe she was waiting around on her own, hoping that he would show up suddenly. She had invited him after all, so clearly, she had wanted him to come.

Maybe it wouldn't be the worse thing if he showed up? He could say he was just checking up on her cause Mrs. Forman had asked him too. She probably wouldn't buy it but at-least his mind would be put to ease.

If he did go, he'd have to get rid of Kelso and Fez first. The two would get suspicious if they knew Hyde's real reasons for suddenly wanting to go to a high school party and he couldn't have them asking a bunch of questions that he wasn't ready to answer.

He looked over at his friends, contemplating his next move as Kelso's tower of cards came crashing down again.

Kelso groaned loudly as he watched the deck fall to the ground around him while Fez tried to hide his laughter behind a series of fake coughs.

"That's it. This suck's, I'm done." Kelso began collecting the cards from the floor.

"Let's play Candy Land!" Fez suggested loudly, and Hyde groaned. Fez always wanted to play that dumb board game.

"I'm not playing that game again Fez. Let's just get high or something," Hyde suggested instead, he really thought another circle would be beneficial to his current mental state. Flashes of Jackie hooking up with random asshole jocks filled his mind and he needed the clarification of a drug induced haze.

Plus, if he got Kelso and Fez high enough, they might not even notice him sneaking out the basement afterwards.

"I am still loopy from the last circle," Fez informed him with a frown. There were times when Hyde enjoyed having a higher tolerance then his friends, this was not one of those times.

"I'm bored. Let's go out," Kelso stood up from the lawn chair suddenly.

Fez joined him and jumped up from the couch. "We could play pinball at The Hub?"

Kelso shook his head. "We do that all the time. I say we go to the water tower… I'm thinking that giant pot leaf is looking a little lonely up there."

Hyde sat up in his chair. Kelso's suggestion was thought-provoking. He knew the water tower was close by where Jackie was, she'd said so much when they had spoken at The Hub earlier. This could be the perfect opportunity that Hyde was looking for.

The group would get to the water tower and they'd run right into the party. He'd get to see Jackie and put his mind to ease without Kelso and Fez getting suspicious.

"Oh, yes. Let's do that." Fez agreed and the two turned to face Hyde while he thought his options over one last time.

He had wanted to use the night to distract himself from thinking about her but that hadn't been working anyway. He could stay here on his own and continue his 'avoid Jackie' plan, or he could go help his friends illegally tag government property and if that meant running into her and possibly showing his cards, then so be it.

Fuck it.

"Let's go."

Once again thank you so much for reading and thank you to everyone who has taken their time to leave a review or fav/follow this story, your feedback really means the world to me!

So I've said before this story is going to be a slow burn for Jackie and Hyde (clearly I meant it but hopefully you guys are enjoying the build up) but we're almost there! The next chapter will see Hyde crashing Jackie's party and our favorite couple getting closer.

On that note, I'll be overseas for the next few weeks and wont be able to update until I get home, so the next chapter wont be out until towards the end of June but don't worry it is coming! I promise i'm not abandoning this story or anything.

I'll see you all in a few weeks! Until then, don't forget to leave a review and fav/follow this story if you haven't already.