Chapter nine: Man With a Plan
Jackie, as always, was right.
When it was time for cheer practice, and all the girls headed to the locker room, Julie was already there with a sly smile on her face.
Not five minutes later the principal entered the room with a cop by his side. Jackie pretended to be in shock just like the other girls, and when the cop asked Jackie to open up her locker, he hadn't found anything.
Of course Jackie didn't miss her chance to make a show out of it, she started to cry on Kat Peterson's shoulder while Donna glared at Julie, who looked shocked. Jackie cried and started to ask out loud why would someone lie about something so serious?
The principal glared at Julie, and told her not to waste his time anymore. And that she's lucky he's not expelling her.
All the other cheerleaders were confused, but when the principal gave Julie his warning, they all turned to glare at her.
Some of them yelled, some of them wondered if she was crazy, but they all believed that Jackie was truly a victim.
After spending a good 10 minutes crying on Kat's shoulder, Kat kicked Julie off the squad, Jackie didn't even need to tell her that Julie was trying to sabotage her, everyone came to that conclusion on their own. Julie was being a complete bitch to Jackie in the last few weeks and it wasn't that hard for them to figure out what happened, even if some of them have the same IQ of an ameba.
Jackie very innocently asked Julie if she had anything to do with this, and Julie had the audacity of denying everything! That was Jackie's trigger. Donna had to hold Jackie back while Julie ran away, like the chicken she is.
Kat canceled practice for the rest of the day, claiming that the squad needs a day off to deal with the betrayal. And now Donna and Jackie were making their way to the Forman's, both of them very angry with the situation still.
"Have you seen the cop the principal brought with him?" Donna asked "You could've been arrested!"
"Don't even tell me about it" Jackie replied, still fuming "She tried to ruin my life Donna, and being kicked off the squad is definitely not enough of a punishment for her"
"I agree, what if she tries something like this again? You have to do something Jackie." Donna said
"I know! But to be honest I'm so stressed right now that I can't even think of a good plan"
"Want to see if the boys want to have a circle?" Donna asked with a grin
"That would be amazing" Jackie smiled and the girls quickened their pace. A circle would be the answer to all of their problems now.
"I don't see why you like her man, she's violent" Eric said from his seat on the couch. He was holding a bag of frozen peas to his left shin.
Hyde rolled his eyes "Stop being such a pansy Forman"
"But she kicked me! And she kicked you too!" He whined
"Because we were making fun of her" Hyde replied
"Whatever, I'm pissed" Eric said and Hyde decided he doesn't want to argue right now.
Besides, angry Jackie is a very hot Jackie.
He's going insane. That girl is slowly driving him nuts. She kicked his shins and the only thing he thought about was how hot she looked all riled up.
But he has to admit, her kicks did hurt like hell.
"She's been really angry lately" Fez said "And I'm glad you two sons of bitches laughed at her, it distracted her from the fact that I spilled chocolate milk all over her"
"Man I can't believe I missed this!" Kelso whined "Was she wearing a white shirt?" He asked with a perverted smile
Hyde stood up just to frog the boy in the arm.
"Ow! Hyde! You gotta stop doing that!" Kelso complained
"You're lucky he hasn't kicked your shins" Eric started to whine again "I'm surprised he didn't, considering the amount of time he's spending with the she-devil"
"Yeah, are you two dating and keeping it a secret?" Fez asked suspiciously
"What does that have to do with dating?" 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" Fez explained, "I would have liked it to be me she chose, but nobody wants the foreign kid" He sighed heavily as Hyde glared at him
The conversation topic caught Kelso's attention, is it possible that Jackie actually likes Hyde?
"Now, seriously man, how can you stand hearing that shrill, loud, bossy, annoying voice all the time?" Eric asked, gesticulating wildly with his bony arms.
"Pretty sure yours just went an octave above hers, Erica" Hyde pointed out irritably "And if you keep talking about Jackie like this, y'know Donna will never date your scrawny ass, right?"
"Dude why do you like her? I mean, I get it, she's like, really hot" Eric said, ignoring Hyde's last statement "But she's also the devil"
Before Hyde could think of a plausible lie to make it clear that he doesn't like her - even though he does like her, a lot - Fez jumped in the conversation "Oh my poor American friend" he turns to look at Eric "Are you that naive?"
Eric frowned in confusion and Hyde tried to hide his discomfort "I'm sorry what?" Eric asked
"Let me explain" Fez cleared his throat and pointed at Hyde "Hyde is evil". Eric and Kelso nodded, agreeing with their foreigner friend, and Hyde just smirked "Jackie, is also evil". Again, Eric and Kelso nodded, and Hyde, noticing where the conversation was going, tried to focus on whatever was on TV "Evil attracts evil, that's why Jackie and Hyde are attracted to each other"
Kelso scoffed "There's no way Jackie is into Hyde, I mean, you all saw the way she looks at me, right?"
"With hatred and disgust?" Hyde asked, annoyed by Kelso's comment.
"Whatever man, if I wasn't so busy dating two girls at the same time, Jackie and I would be doing it all day"
Hyde tried really hard to control himself and not kick Kelso in the nads, the thought of Jackie and Kelso together romantically makes him nauseous.
She's clearly not into Kelso, she made that very obvious by the many insults and ass-kickings, that Kelso dumbly calls it foreplay. Hyde lost the count of how many times he frogged Kelso over one of his comments about Jackie.
But there's no way she's actually into Hyde, right? Sure, there is some playful flirting happening occasionally, but it's not intentional and she probably plays along just for fun, she's his friend. Yeah, they're just friends, the only problem is that all he wants to do when he sees her nowadays is kiss her until they're both out of breath.
"Oh my God…" Eric said with a horrified expression "You're like, in love with her!" He points at Hyde
"I am not!" He tried to defend himself
"Yes you are! Everything's starting to make sense now… I thought it was just a crush but..." Eric said, completely exasperated "Oh my God, can you imagine?" He looked horrified and Hyde raised an eyebrow at him "You two together… it would be like a couple from the depths of hell, you would be unstoppable, together the evil you two will emanate will be worse than Red's when he found out I accidentally melted one of his war medals" He said, in both awe and horror, earning a death glare from Hyde
"I think they would be sexy" Fez said, smiling perversely "Not as sexy as I would be with her, or Laurie, but very sexy"
"Am I sexier with Laurie or Julie?" Kelso contemplated "Do you think Jackie and I would be sexy?" He asks Fez
"Oh please, you would be her doormat" Fez scoffed "Now, Jackie with Hyde… that would be interesting"
"It would be so wrong! I mean, everyone knows they have the hots for each other for a while now, but I figured Hyde would never get the guts to actually ask her out..." Eric started "Can you imagine what would happen if they reproduce? Jackie would give birth to the antichrist!"
Hyde rolled his eyes and decided to put an end to the conversation, they were starting to get on his nerves "Enough!" He yelled, startling the three morons, who apparently forgot he was still in the room "If you three morons don't stop talking about me and Jackie in this second I'm going to kick some serious ass!" He takes a deep breath, calming himself "And seriously Forman, you should spend your time trying to figure out a way of asking Donna out before she loses her interest in you, and not imagining things between me and Jackie. Now, I'm going to have some circle time, if the three girls are done gossiping, you're welcome to join me"
Eric rolled his eyes, he knows better than to believe in Hyde's bullshit. He knows Hyde for a really long time, and he's never seen his friend like this before. He definitely has feelings for Jackie, maybe he even loves her. And Jackie clearly likes him back! If Donna would send him half the signals Jackie sends Hyde… Well, he wouldn't be in the basement hanging with three other guys, that's for sure.
But he decided to drop the subject for now, Hyde can kick his ass if he really wants to, and Eric knows better than to provoke him now. In less than two minutes the boys were in their positions, the joint passing between them.
Hyde closed his eyes and tried to forget the strange conversation from a few minutes ago. After many frustrating attempts, he gave up on trying to deny to himself that he actually likes Jackie. He doesn't know much about love, but he definitely feels something different for her, and there's no way in hell he's actually admitting that out loud, because he still doesn't understand how the hell that happened. She is the living representation of everything he hates, she's a rich cheerleader, who lives for shopping and Donny freaking Osmond.
But she's also badass, caring, smart and extremely cute. Deep down, he knew he was doomed the second he saw her kicking Kelso, on the day they first talked to each other. He tried to ignore those weird feelings in the beginning, and tried to convince himself that Jackie was just one shallow and superficial girl. Then he started to get to know her better, and turns out you really don't get to judge a book by the cover, she's pretty cool to hang with, especially when they're alone.
And she's so fucking beautiful. He could spend a whole day just staring at her, admiring her beauty. Her big mismatched eyes, her silky raven hair, her porcelain skin… After seeing Jackie, all the other girls turned into uggos in his mind.
As he takes another hit of his joint, he realizes how truly fucked he is. He never felt this way about a girl before, and he hasn't even kissed her yet. If only she could give him an actual sign that she's interested…
The basement door opened, and the boys jumped on their seats, if Red caught them they would all be sent to Cuba in a second. They breathed relieved when they saw that it wasn't Red, but two beautiful ladies, one of which was the topic of the group's conversation minutes ago.
"God, is that all you guys do?" Donna asked, taking a seat between Kelso and Eric
"We were literally coming to ask them if we can have a circle" Jackie said, sitting between Hyde and Fez
"Still" Donna complained "They should've at least called us"
"Give me a hit" Jackie demanded, taking the joint from Fez's hands and deeply inhaling the smoke, this is probably one of the sexiest scenes Hyde has ever seen. This girl is going to be the death of him "I had the worst day" she says, skipping Forman and passing the joint to Donna, who also took a large hit
"Your girlfriend is a bitch, Kelso" Donna says "Jackie and I almost kicked her ass a few minutes ago"
"Really?" Kelso grinned widely
"I think everyone here is aware of the fact that she hates me. Normally, I mostly ignore her" Jackie says angrily "But what she did today, oh boy, she's lucky Donna held me back, because I was about to rip her head off" Hyde closed his eyes and tried to control the many dirty thoughts that occupied his mind. He can't help it, she looks unbelievably hot when she is pissed off.
"Oh, so there was no girl fight?" Eric looked disappointed and Donna glared at him
"Because Julie is terrified of Jackie" Donna laughed, she gets too giddy when she's high, and Eric couldn't take his eyes off her "It's amazing how a tiny midget can inflict so much fear on people"
"What did she do?" Hyde asked, blowing some smoke in the air and passing the joint to Jackie again
"The bitch tried to get me kicked off the cheerleading team" Jackie said before taking another long, hard drag of smoke.
"Tell them the worst part, Jackie" Donna said, and the boys looked curiously at Jackie
"She planted drugs on my locker, Donna and I caught it when I went to change my blouse after Fez spilled his chocolate milk all over me" Jackie huffed "Fucking bitch"
They only knew Jackie for a few months, but they know that if the tiny girl is actually swearing she's in a whole new level of anger.
Eric gasped, and Kelso frowned, confused "Wait, why would she do that?"
Hyde scowled, he knew Julie was bitchy and petty, and he always disliked her, but this? This is fucking unacceptable "So she could call the principal and get Jackie kicked out of the squad" He explained to his moronic friend
"Exactly! God, I hate her! She told the principal that Jackie had drugs in her locker, and the principal showed up with a fucking cop next to him!" Donna yelled in frustration "If Jackie and I hadn't got rid of the drugs when we caught it earlier, Jackie could've been arrested! Kelso, I swear to God, the next time you see your girlfriend she won't look so pretty anymore"
"Aw man, just don't hit her in the face" Kelso asked, earning a glare from all the others occupants of the circle
"Man, that was low, even for her. I mean, this is some serious shit, it could've ruined Jackie's life." Eric said, taking the joint from Fez "So, devil, what are you going to do?" He asks
She stared at the ceiling, contemplating her options "I don't think kicking her ass would be enough, Kat already kicked her off the squad after the scandal from earlier" She looked at Donna "What did you said we should do?"
Donna laughed "I don't remember, I think it had something to do with Kelso"
Jackie's eyes widened in realization "Oh! I remembered! Kelso, you need to spill some dirt about Julie NOW" she demanded
Meanwhile, Hyde is still trying to control his dirty thoughts about the girl sitting next to him.
"But… but she'll be mad at me!" He protests, and Hyde punched his shoulder
"Who cares? There's no way you're still dating her after this, man!" Hyde growled
"I'm sorry Kelso but this is an ultimatum pal, if you don't break up with Julie you're no longer allowed in the basement" Eric said, not noticing how Donna was almost drooling all over him for defending her best friend.
"UH!" Kelso yells and looks at Fez "C'mon Fez, help me out, buddy!"
"No can do, Kelso" Fez answered "Some actions are unforgivable, no matter how hot the girl is"
Jackie smiled at the loyalty of these burnouts. She never would've thought that spending the time in a dirty basement with this group of weirdos would be her favorite part of the day. She glanced briefly at Steven, who grinned and gave her a little wink, almost melting her on the inside. That boy would be the death of her.
"You don't even like her, man. You've been cheating on her with my sister for months" Eric added
"Fine!" Kelso agreed
"Now, talk or get out" Hyde said, looking at his dimwit friend in the eyes
"What do you want to know?" Kelso asked Jackie
"Hey, you're the one dating her!" Jackie glared at him "Doesn't she have a dirty secret or something?"
"No, she doesn't trust me with the important stuff, so no dirty secrets" Kelso laughed dumbly "She is kind of fake though" He frowned
Everyone looked at him expectantly, waiting for the rest of the information.
"What do you mean?" Jackie asked
"She stuffs her bra. Like, a lot. Her bra has so many tissues in it, it's really weird" Kelso grimaced "And her nose isn't really her real nose. I was at her house one day and I saw a picture of her when she was 12, and man, that was a huge nose!"
All the other occupants of the circle frowned.
"Remind me again why are you still dating her?" Eric asked his intelligence-deprived friend
"I figured she looks okay now, so why not? And the bra thing was weird but she said that if I didn't tell anyone she would give me head" Kelso shrugged, then he noticed everyone was glaring angrily at him "Geez, relax, I told you I would dump her"
"Good" Donna said, turning to Jackie "Now what?"
"I don't know, I haven't thought that far ahead… but I'm sure this information will be useful at some point" Jackie answered
Hyde gave Jackie the last hit of the joint before putting it out on the ashtray sitting on the coffee table. Everyone was silent, trying to think of something to get revenge on behalf of Jackie, when Hyde grinned perversely.
He placed his arm around Jackie's shoulders, and Jackie tried to ignore the goosebumps caused by his touch.
"See Jackie, you came to the right place" He said "The art of the burn is very appreciated in here, and we are about to perform one of the biggest burns in the history of Point Place"
Everyone was looking curiously at Hyde, he is just as evil as Jackie, if not more, so they knew that whatever he had in mind, it would be brilliant.
Donna smirked at the sight of Hyde's arm around Jackie's shoulder, Jackie has the best poker face she ever saw, because if she knew the midget, she's freaking out on the inside.
Eric also noticed the scene in front of him, he was about to make a snarky comment when he noticed how relaxed his friend seemed with his arm around Jackie's shoulder, he also noticed the way Jackie was trying to hide a smile. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad if they got together.
"Jackie, have you ever heard of vandalism?" Hyde asked
"Oh! We must paint the water tower again!" Fez jumped in
"Wait, that middle finger in the water tower, was that you?" Jackie asked the gang of misfits, they all smiled and nodded, proudly, except Donna, who seemed just as lost as Jackie.
"It was supposed to be a pot leaf" Eric said nonchalantly "Kelso is a bad painter"
"Oh, the water tower will be nothing compared to this" Hyde smiled devilishly, squeezing Jackie's shoulder before telling everyone about his plan.
A/N: Alright, I know I said I would post this chapter last week, and I'm really, really sorry, but I have a good explanation, I swear!
Here's what happened: I woke up in the middle of the night a few days ago with an idea for a new story. I know, I shouldn't work on new stories until I'm finished with the current ones (especially since I was already working on two extra stories) but I just had to write what was in my mind because I was terrified I was going to forget it.
And… well, things started to flow. A lot. In a span of two days, I wrote over 10,000 words, and the inspiration simply won't stop coming. And I'm sorry but I'm not wasting it. It's so rare for inspiration to hit me this hard, I just had to write.
It's a beautiful story and I'm actually really proud of it, it's a zennie story (duh) and it's far from finished because everything is so messy and I have no idea how to organize it. Should I organize it chronologically? Or can I alternate between the present and flashbacks? I have so many doubts. It's such a different story than WTLB and RYLH, and I hope everyone likes it when I finally post it.
I will probably post that story as soon as I'm done with it and I'm fully satisfied. If the inspiration keeps coming the way it is right now, I'll probably post it this year. I will only post it after it's finished though, because I can't handle having three fanfics in progress at the same time.
I hope everyone liked this chapter, it is very cliche, and the next chapter will also be very cliche as well. I stole the idea of Julie's stuffed bra from another fic called Season 8 redo. It's the most famous fanfic in the fandom and if you haven't read it I highly recommend it.
A huge thank you to everyone that's been reading and commenting on this story. I know I always say this but your comments really make my day.