Author: Sorry this chapter took so long to get here. I wasn't really feelin' it, so I had to watch an episode (which I haven't in two weeks) to get back into the groove. Hope you enjoy.

Cruel Summer

-chapter five-

Eric's Kitchen, June 17, 7:08pm

Eric walked into the kitchen and rolled his eyes. Jackie was still on the phone with Hyde. She had jumped onto the phone at seven to call him (since the rates went down after seven) and had been on the entire eight minutes that he'd been gone.

What did they have to talk about, anyways? What would take eight minutes to talk about? It was Hyde and Jackie. Geez. They didn't do anything except for make out anyways—okay, bad thought.

Opening the fridge, he grabbed two cans of soda, one for him and one for Fez. Speaking of Fez, he was sitting at the kitchen table, hands folded, staring at Jackie. There was a strange little smile on his face. Eric could not help but smile himself. He knew what Fez was smiling about.

Fez had seen Jackie naked. It happened the other day when Eric had sent Fez to spy on Jackie's house. Right before Fez had been caught by an old neighbor, he had seen Jackie naked. That's right. Naked. That was something Eric wouldn't mind seeing himself. Even though Jackie was a pain, she was still totally hot.

But he had Donna and she had Hyde. Hyde was the only one who had seen her naked. Or so he told the guys. Only Eric knew the truth. He and Jackie had never had sex. Not once.

"Jackie's not as easy as I thought. She says we can't have sex yet."

That's what Hyde had said that Jackie had told him. Surprise, surprise. The girl wasn't as easy as Eric had thought. Well, Eric knew that Jackie wasn't a whore, but still. She didn't resist sex for—how long had she and Hyde been together? About a year? She didn't resist sex for a year. Jackie had morals after all.

Whatever. That still didn't change the fact that she had been on Eric's phone for—he looked at his watch—twelve minutes now. Thirteen minutes. It had to stop.

"…shirt that I got at the mall yesterday. Oh, and—"

"Okay, Jackie," Eric interrupted, standing up and walking to her. "Time to get off the phone."

"—I got these really cute pants to match. They're white, which is a good thing I bought them now so I'll have plenty of time to wear them before Labor Day—"

"Jackie, that's enough," said Eric. He glanced at his watch. "Look at that! Would you just look at the time, Jackie? Fourteen minutes and counting."

"—because you know the rules, Steven," continued Jackie, ignoring Eric, "no white allowed after Labor Day—"

"Fifteen minutes and counting!" Eric waved his watch in Jackie's face and received a menacing look.

"Steven," she said, glaring at Eric all the while, "I have to go because this skinny, ugly, blow pop thing is telling me to get off the phone."

Eric smirked. "Good one. That really hurt," he said, sauntering over to Fez. He chuckled a bit and then asked Fez, seriously, "I don't really look like a blow pop, do I?"

"Of course you do," answered Fez in an "everyone knows that" tone. "Why do you think I always come over? For your companionship?"

"Well…yeah."

"You're coming home tomorrow?"

Both Fez and Eric abruptly looked at Jackie at the sound of her words. She began to squeal and jump up and down. Meanwhile, the sliding door opened.

"Hey guys," greeted Kelso. "What's Jackie so excited about? Jackie. I've got to go—"

"Come now," said Eric while Fez moved to block the sliding door. Eric plastered a smile onto his face and gestured with his hand at an empty seat. "Sit a while. Have a drink." He glanced at Fez, who also smiled. They both knew that Kelso had been avoiding Jackie; he had not been to Eric's house since he'd gotten home and Jackie had continually mumbled curses under her breath whenever they mentioned him.

This was going to be great. Eric couldn't wait to see how Jackie would react.

"Come on, you," said Fez. He ushered Kelso to the empty seat.

"Guys, I'm trying to avoid Jackie," Kelso said in a loud whisper.

"Jackie? Sweet, innocent Jackie?" replied Eric.

"Yes! Except she's not sweet. And she's definitely not innocent." A smile began to grow on Kelso's face but it quickly disappeared. "Quick guys, before she gets off the phone—"

But it was too late. Jackie had already gotten off the phone. "Hello, Michael," she said, arms folded over her chest. Her tone was emotionless as was her gaze as she stared at him.

Kelso was intimidated. That look that she was giving him had always intimidated him in the past. It made him do things that he didn't want to do, like rearrange her unicorn collection in the shape of a "J." So, Kelso, thinking that he just had to match her manner, answered back, "Hello. Jacqueline." Of course, it came out sounding stupid, but that was noticeable to everyone except Kelso.

It looked to Fez like Jackie was trying to kill Kelso by looking at him. He loved every bit of it.

"Come on, Jackie," said Eric. "Don't you have anything to say?"

"No," answered Jackie, shrugging her shoulders. She walked to the refrigerator and began to rummage through it.

"Oooh, that was good—wait, no? Just no?"

 "Yeah. Just no."

"But…why?" asked Eric, incredulously.

Jackie walked over to the kitchen table with her own can of soda. "I don't know. Just because."

Eric glanced over at Fez, who looked truly crestfallen. He understood what Fez felt. He too had wanted to see Kelso get chewed out. Life just didn't go the way as was expected sometimes.  

"Oh!" Jackie smacked her forehead. "I forgot to tell Steven that I lost the necklace Fez got me."

"What?" said Fez and Eric at the same time.

"It's okay, guys…" Jackie reassured. "I can just tell him when he comes home tomorrow."

"What?" Eric said again, clutching his head. "Am I ever going to be ungrounded?"

"Jackie, how could you lose Miss Kitty's necklace?" demanded Fez.

Jackie walked over to the kitchen table, standing in front of Fez. "You mean to tell me that that necklace is Mrs. Forman's necklace?"

"Yes," answered Fez.

"He stole it!" exclaimed Eric.

"So you brought me stolen merchandise?"

"Yes…" replied Fez, not as confidently as before.

"And somebody wore it before me?"

Kelso, who had no idea what was going on, was enjoying the moment. For once, Jackie wasn't yelling at him.

"I can explain, Jackie," Eric piped in. "You see this poor, misguided, foreign boy doesn't understand that a person just can't take something out of someone's car without asking and replace it with a piece of candy because that's stealing!" exclaimed a hysterical Eric. It was as if he had just discovered the necklace was missing all over again, except worse.

"Fez!" growled Jackie, a menacing look in her eyes.

"I…I…Eric saw you naked!"

"What?" screamed Kelso, his voice getting high pitched. He stood up abruptly and tried to push the chair in, but caused a commotion.

Jackie gasped. "What is he talking about, Eric?"

"Wait a minute!" As Jackie and Kelso advanced on him, he could see Fez with his arms crossed over his chest and a smug smile on his face. "That's not true, it was he who saw you naked! Not me! He!" he exclaimed, pointing at Fez. "He was spying on you."

"Fez!"

"I am going to kill you, Fez," threatened Kelso. "No one spies on Jackie except me!"

Jackie gasped again, turning to Kelso. "Michael!"

"I was just kidding, Jackie, damn!"

Eric cleared his throat. "I think you should get back to yelling at Fez," he suggested.

Jackie took a breath, turning to Fez. "I want you to tell me the truth. I'm not going to yell at you."

"Yes you are," he replied.

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not!"

"See!"

"Fine, Fez," said Jackie. "I give you my word, I will not yell at you. Just tell me when you were spying on me."

Fez was hesitant, but then said, "Two days ago. You were changing in front of your window."

"That's not true; I never change in front of my window!" She thought for a moment. "Wait a minute…Mrs. Evans did say that she caught someone watching my house from across the street. But I wasn't home."

"Then who could it have been?" asked Eric.

"The only one who was home was…" Jackie began to giggle. "Eww! You were spying on the maid!"

Eric started to laugh at Fez, who had a stormy frown on his face.

"Fez, she's like, forty-five," said Kelso, who too began laughing.

Jackie suddenly stopped giggling. "What was she doing changing in my room?" she asked herself aloud.

A thought came to Eric. "Jackie, when exactly did you lose the necklace?"

Her eyes grew wide. "No," she moaned. "She couldn't have."

"She could've," said Eric. "She must've."

"You're right, Eric," agreed Jackie. "She's foreign."

"Oh, I see what is going on here," said Fez. "You think that the maid stole the necklace. What is with you people? Blame it on the foreigner every time. Well, you know what? Screw you guys, I'm going home." He marched through the sliding door in a huff.

Kelso, Eric, and Jackie stared after him for a moment before looking at each other.

"Hey Eric," said Kelso, breaking the silence. "Got any whipped cream?"

"Yeah, in the fridge."

"So, then, what do we do? How do I get my necklace back?" Jackie asked Eric.

"Your necklace? Ho, ho, whoa there, little lady. That's my mom's necklace. If we don't get it back, I'll never step off my property again."

Jackie shrugged. "And?"

Eric sighed. He knew that he wouldn't get any sympathy from Jackie. She was too self-centered. "Jackie, remember that rainbow key chain I bought you?" he asked, planning to use that against her.

They could both hear Kelso coughing on the whipped cream that he was spraying into his mouth. He slammed the bottle onto the table. "He's buying you stuff? Well. Aren't you just a little…pimp!"

"Michael, you are a jerk!" exclaimed Jackie. "Why is it now, all of a sudden, you care?"

"I don't!" he argued.

"Well, I can see that this is going to go on for a while, so I'll just go," said Eric.

But the two did not notice. They did not even hear him. Eric sighed and walked outside to the curb. He tried to remember how the street felt underneath his feet.

And then, he got an idea.

Review Corner

kenzimone: Yay! You reviewed! And you might be upset at Donna in the next chapter or so.

L.J: Thank you, I love long reviews. Yours was real nice. And Hyde comes home in the next chapter, so you'll have plenty of Jackie and Hyde. I just hope you're not too mad at me for what Hyde does in the next few chapters. Oh no, I've said too much.

Candy.7: Yeah, I think Fez is pretty freakin' hilarious. In general.

sugarRay_babY: Oh sugarRay, sugarRay, sugarRay. You totally read my mind. *wink wink* And thank you. That was really sweet of you to say (that you actually read the story instead of just skimming).

fawkes: Thank you for the compliment!

End Note: I feel like this chapter was lacking something, but don't worry. You'll love the conflict that I'm 'bout to bring up. Now you tell me, can you handle it?

February 17, 2003

Copyright, theMuse