Sorry about the delay.  The next chapter will hopefully be up by mid next week.

Four:  Jethro Is Hot….

"Oh, this is so exciting."  Fez bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for Eric to unlock the car door.  "I like going to concerts.  Fun things always happen."

"Yeah, like last time."  Hyde leaned against the side of the car, crossing his arms over his chest.  "Because who doesn't love getting arrested?"

"I know."  Fez smiled widely at Eric, who seemed frozen in his steps just a few feet away from them.

"Yeah, about that," he said.  "You guys don't happen to have any counterfeit material on you right now, do you?  Cause, don't get me wrong, nobody loves a good arresting like me, but it's the foot in my ass afterward that I'm opposed to."

"Relax, Forman."  Hyde stepped away from the door as Eric came forward to unlock it.  "The only selling we're going to be doing tonight is for Kelso's ticket."  He patted the extra ticket sticking out of his front t-shirt pocket.

Fez reached into the open car to unlock the back door.  "Yes, and that is the fun type of selling because Kelso's ticket equals beer money."

"Alrighty, then.  We're all set?"  Eric looked questioningly at the other two.  At their nods, he turned to walk to his side of the car.  "Then let's get going."

"Going where?"

Everyone froze at the familiar feminine voice.

Eric turned around slowly, flashing a too wide grin at her.  "Going?  We're not going anywhere.  What makes you think we're going anywhere?" his voice cracked.

Jackie's eyes narrowed at the three guys, her gaze shifting back and forth between them.  "Well," she started slowly.  "You guys are getting in the car, for one thing.  Plus, there's the whole you just said you were going somewhere."

Eric and Hyde glanced at each other, trying to work a way out of the situation, but upon focusing back on Jackie, they saw that she had already set her sights on Fez.  Fez was always the weak link, unable to keep any secret at all.

"Oh, Jackie."  Eric stepped forward and placed a hand on her arm.  His voice was just a little too loud as he tried to draw her attention away from the guilty look plastered on the foreign boy's face.  "Actually, we're just taking… um, we're actually, we're-"

"We're taking Fez home," Hyde broke in, his words forceful and rushed.

Eric snapped his fingers.  "That's right.  We're taking Fez home.  His host parents, well, they need him, so we're taking him home."

"Exactly."  Hyde placed a hand on Fez's shoulder and shoved him toward the door.  "So, we really should be going…  We'll be right back, though.  Really."

Jackie raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest, her high-heeled toe tapping against the cement driveway.  "Why do you have to drive Fez home?  He only lives like three blocks away.  Is it really that big of an emergency?"

Eric cringed slightly at her hard tone.  He really needed to get better at lying.  "Well, Fez… hurt his toe, so…"

Jackie's glare fell back on Eric as his voice trailed away.  She stayed in front of the three, silent and waiting for one of them to speak up.  Eric seemed content avoiding her gaze and Hyde merely glared back at her from behind his dark sunglasses.

"Alright, alright!"  Jackie smirked as Fez broke, ignoring the warning tone of Hyde's voice as he told him to shut up.  "We're going to see Jethro Tull."

The smirk wiped right of Jackie's face.  "What!?!"

"Fez!" Eric groaned, shaking his head at the punch Hyde slammed into the other boy's arm.

"Ey, I'm sorry."  Fez rubbed his arm.  "There is no need to hit, Hyde."

"I can't believe that you guys were going to go to a concert without me."  Jackie stamped her foot.

"You know, Jackie."  Eric hesitated.  Ever since their drinking binge, he'd had a hard time being too mean to her.  He was sure he would get over it eventually, he just hadn't gotten over that hump yet.  "It was only because… we didn't have any extra tickets."

"Really?"  She stepped forward and snapped the tickets from Hyde's pocket, flipping through them quickly.  "Then why do I count four tickets here?"

"Uh, well."  Eric glanced helplessly over to Hyde.

"Okay, Jackie, it's like this.  We didn't invite you because we didn't want you to go."  He smirked at her, reaching out to grab the tickets back.  Stuffing them in his pocket, he turned to get in the car.

"Well, fine then."  Jackie brushed past Fez to open the back door.  "I don't care if you want me to come or not.  I'm coming."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Okay, look, Jackie," Fez said, placing a hand on her wrist to pull her attention away from Hyde.  "You can not come because we are going to pick up on the ladies.  We can not pick up on the ladies if we have a lady with us."

"Oh, please, Fez," she scoffed.  "It's not like any ladies would want to be picked up by you guys anyway.  Eric's all mopey over Donna, Steven's all scruffy," Jackie continued, ignoring the eyebrow Hyde raised at her.  "And you're foreign.  So, I'm coming."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Alright, fine," Eric broke in.  "We're not starting this again.  And if we don't leave soon, we're gonna miss the concert altogether."  Turning to Jackie, he spoke to her as firmly as he could.  "But you'd better not be annoying."

"Whatever, Eric.  I'm never annoying."  She settled down into the back seat of the car, smirking up at Hyde.  "So, Jethro Tull, huh?  I like them."

Hyde rolled his eyes and moved to get in the car.  "Yeah?  What?  You think Jethro's hot?"

******************************************

The group had long since left the town limits of Point Place behind as the Vista Cruiser pointed in the direction of Chicago.  The summer sun was set low on the horizon, painting the sky with soft yellows, oranges, and blues.

Fez clapped his hands excitedly and spoke over the soft strains of the radio.  "I am so excited about this concert."

"Yeah, man."  Hyde glanced over the bench seat at his friend.  "I hear Jethro Tull is great live."

"Oh, no.  Who cares about that?  It is the big city women."  He turned to Jackie with a wide, goofy grin.  "I hear that they are easy."

Eric and Hyde both laughed at that.  "That may be, Fez," Eric said.  "But no matter how easy the girl, there is still a cool factor that has to go into it.  You may want to, I don't know, ease off on the clapping, maybe."

Jackie scoffed.  "Oh, please, Eric.  What would you know about the cool factor?"

Eric glanced at her in the rear view mirror.  Her eyebrows were raised high in that pointed manor of hers and it was apparent that she was having no problems bouncing back from their night of bonding.  "Hey!  I'm cool, okay.  I'm like… Joe Cool."  He chuckled and looked over to Hyde for support, but his friend merely pursed his lips and stared back.  "What?  I am!"

Jackie rolled her eyes and shook her head.  She then turned slightly in her seat so that she could better face Fez.  "Listen, Fezzy.  As dorky as the stringbean is, he is right about the clapping thing."  She wiggled her finger at him.  "It doesn't exactly scream heartthrob."

Fez looked down at the hands clasped tightly in his lap.  "Well then, what am I supposed to do to attract the big city ladies?"

"Well," Jackie started.  She held her hands up, posing them in that way that said that she had a lot to say and she was going to be talking for quite some time.  Eric and Hyde both groaned at the gesture.  "All women want to be treated special… even big city, slutty girls."  Fez nodded at her, his brows drawn in concentration.  "We want someone who is sensitive to our needs and to our emotions, and we want someone who is also emotionally available to us.  Someone who is aware of interests and our desires, and is willing to listen when we talk."

"Fez, don't listen to her, man," Hyde broke in, turning in his seat to shot Jackie a look.  "Guys like that have no interest in anything but other guys."  He ignored Jackie's indignant huff and switched back to his friend.  "Women always say that they want that sensitive crap, but in reality, that's just another one of their tricks to try to get us to conform to their ideas on relationships and love.  But you don't want that, man, so the best way to get a chick is to be a real man, not a girly man."

"He's right," Eric piped in.

"Oh, shut up, Eric."  Jackie pushed her hair over her shoulder.  "Again, what would you know, you being the original girly man and everything?"

Eric fell into a sulky silence once again.

"No, Fez."  Jackie brought the situation back to the matter at hand by patting Fez's arm.  "Men tell themselves that women don't really want a sensitive man so that they don't have to open up and so that they can feel better about being such jerks and not listening to us or buying us pretty things.  But women so obviously do want a man like that.  It's the only thing that could explain couples like Joe and Marilyn… or Eric and Donna."

"Hey!"

She ignored Eric, pressing the tip of her finger into Fez's forearm.  "If you really want to get a girl, Fez, you need to listen to me."  She laid a hand on her chest.  "Seeing as I am a girl, I know what I'm talking about.  Steven, on the other hand, doesn't know what he's talking about.  I mean, he's never even really had a girlfriend."

Fez nodded.  "She has a point."

"Yeah, but Fez.  You're not looking for a girlfriend."  Hyde stretched his arm along the back of the seat as he turned toward the two in the back.  "You're just looking for an easy chick to hook up with.  Now," Hyde smirked at Jackie.  "I have plenty of experience picking up easy chicks.  How many have you picked up, Jackie?"

"Oh, and please give specific details and examples, please," Fez piped up, the animation shining back on his face. 

Jackie rolled her eyes and made a face a Hyde before turning back to Fez.  "If all you really want is some slutty girl, than go ahead and follow his advice, but don't come crying to me when you get stuck having sex with some girl who has like… dry hair or fat ankles."

"Who cares about hair or ankles if I am finally having the sex?"  Fez laughed as though she had said the most ridiculous thing in the world.  He clapped his hands excitedly again.

*******************************************

The small concert hall seemed to be packed out as people hurried across the lobby, some gathering food and drinks from the concession stands and others just looking for their seats.  The group stood close together, surveying their surroundings. 

Eric scanned the numbers listed above the doorways, checking for the numbers that matched his tickets.  "Okay…"  He glanced down at the small piece of paper in his hands, and then back down up at the numbers.  "Is it just me or are these tickets impossible to decipher?"

Jackie pushed up beside him, rising up onto her tiptoes to see the ticket over his shoulder.  "It can't be that hard, Eric.  I mean, half of the people here are all stoned out and they can find their seats."

Eric shifted away from her, waving her off with his hand.  He looked up at Hyde to find him searching the crowds.  "What's up, man?"

Hyde turned to them.  "Where'd Fez go?"

They looked around to find that he had indeed disappeared.  Jackie looked over toward the food stands, thinking that he'd probably just gotten distracted by a hot dog or some candy.  Eric was the first to spot him, however.

"There," he said, pointed toward a group of young ladies.  "Looks like our little boy is going all out for big man status."  He smiled at the other two.  The grin faded as Jackie opened her mouth, but he waved her off again before she got the chance to speak.  "Right, right.  You don't have to say anything, Jackie.  I've already got it."

Jackie smiled smugly at him, then turned her gaze toward Fez.  The foreign boy was talking to a group of four blonde high-schoolers, probably sophomores or juniors.  They were all dressed fashionably, and their demeanors spoke of class and popularity.  "See now," she said, tapping Hyde on the arm.  "What we really should have taught Fez was about the idea of leagues, because those girls are way out of his."  She pointed toward a short red-head with glasses just to the right of the group.  "Like her."

Hyde shrugged off her touch, and smirked as one of the girls laughed at what Fez was saying.  "It looks like it's working for him.  Seems like a real man… Oh, crap, man."  The smile slid from his face as said girl reached forward and slapped Fez.

Jackie's hand slapped over her mouth as she burst into giggles.  "You're right, Steven.  It looks like being a real man was a real hit."

Eric and Hyde both rolled their eyes at her, but they couldn't stop themselves from joining in on her laughter as Fez came up to them, his expression written in incensed anger.  "What was she so mad about?  It was a compliment!"  He crossed his arms over his chest as he fumed before them.

"I'm sure it was, man."  Hyde slapped him on the shoulder. 

Jackie stepped forward to loop her arm through Fez's.  "But it was obviously lacking sensitivity, Fez, and as a very wise person just told you, that wise person being me, of course, women are looking for sensitivity.  It's key."  Her smile to Hyde was sugary sweet.  "And it pretty much guarantees not getting slapped."

Fez glanced down at her and then glared up at Hyde, who was still laughing at him.  "You bastard."

"Okay, guys, as entertaining as watching Fez get slapped was, we still need to find our seats."  Eric held up his ticket.  "Now, if I could just figure these damned things out."

Hyde snatched the ticket from him, looked over it, and then up toward the row of numbers at the top of the walls.  "We need to go up the stairs, man."

Eric took the ticket back from a Hyde, a bemused look on his face as tried to figure out how Hyde had known that.  After a second, he realized that it was probably just best to leave it alone.  "Alright then.  Let's go."

"Hold on."  Jackie grabbed Eric's arm to stop them from moving.  "I don't want to go all the way up to the top deck.  I did not come all of this way with you losers to sit up in the nosebleed section with the other poor people."  She pointed to the door nearest them.  "I want to sit in there."

The annoyance was clear on Hyde's features.  "We didn't even want you to come, Jackie."

"Oh, you did, too."  She waved him off.  Turning to the other guys, she asked, "Do you guys really want to have to walk all the way up to the top deck just to sit in horrible seats so far away that you can barely hear the music?"

Eric cleared his throat.  "Well, no… but I'm thinking that crappy seats are better than messing with that gigantic security guard over there, so I'm good."  He started walking toward the stairs again, but stopped when Jackie didn't follow.  Her gaze seemed to be trained on the guard and a slow smile was drifting across her lips.  "Come on, Jackie.  Let's go."

"Actually, how about you boys wait here.  I'll be right back."

"No, Jackie…" Hyde's warning went unheeded as Jackie stepped around them and walked toward the guard, her hips sashaying with each step that she took.

The guys watched as she got the big man's attention.  Hyde shook his head irritably and turned to his friends.  "My vote is to just leave her here.  She'll find us eventually."  He grimaced.  "She always finds us."

Fez nodded his agreement.

"Well, normally, I would be all for that, but if Red were to find out that I took Jackie across state lines and then ditched her, I'd be starting my senior year with a small yet fashionable asshat."  Eric crossed his arms and sighed heavily, rolling his eyes as he observed Jackie giggling and tossing her hair over her shoulder.  "So, we wait."

Hyde's eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses, training on the small hand that Jackie had flirtatiously laid on the guard's big beefed-up arm.  The corners of his mouth pulled down in a frown.

"Maybe that's how I should do it."

Fez's voice pulled Hyde back to the situation at hand.  "Do what?"

"Maybe that is how I should go about picking up the easy chicks."  Fez looked at him and batted his eyelashes.  "What do you think?"

Hyde hit him once on the arm before turning back to Jackie.  She was still talking to the guard, but was pointing the three of them out to him.  "This is getting ridiculous, man.  Let's just leave her."

Eric's response was cut short by Jackie sauntering up to them.  She didn't say anything, but instead looped an arm through Fez's arm and the other through Hyde's, pulling them in the direction she had just come from.

Hyde tried to pull away from her, but she had a surprisingly firm grip on his arm.  He looked over his shoulder at Eric, but his friend simply shrugged helplessly, following behind. 

Jackie wove them through the crowd, bringing them closer to the entrance.  "Now boys, I want you to remember that without me, you would be viewing this concert from an entirely different and less better place."  She smiled widely at Hyde.  "See, I do make your lives better."

She pulled them through the door and into the auditorium, releasing Fez's arm long enough to give one last wave toward the guard.  "Thanks again, Dave!"

"Sure thing, sweetie."

The guys followed her in shocked silence, but Eric was the first to recover.  "Are you telling me that you got us seats all the way up here?  Alright!"

"Jackie, I think that you are very pretty," Fez told her with a wide grin.

"Thank you, Fez!"  Jackie stopped next to the first row with open seats and waved the guys inside. 

Hyde was the last to pass, and he merely rolled his eyes at the haughty look she shot him.  "Hey!"  His headed whipped around at the sharp slap she had aimed at his ass.  Her smile simply got wider.

"You're welcome," she told him.

*******************************************

Hyde leaned up against the door to the Vista Cruiser, looking out the window.  The concert had been great, and as it was now past mid-night, they were headed back to Point Place with very little chance of getting in before the house curfew. 

Glancing in the side view mirror, Hyde caught sight of Jackie.  She had fallen asleep soon after they had hit the highway, and her face was pressed up against the window.  Fez had fallen asleep also, and his head was resting against her arm.  He smiled slightly as he thought about how pissed she was going to be when she realized that he had drooled on her sleeve.

"So."  Eric's voice broke into his thoughts.  "That was pretty awesome, huh?"

"Yeah, man."

Eric nodded, keeping his eyes trained on the dark road before them.  "Jethro Tull is awesome live… and it's always fun watching one of you're best friends get slapped."

Hyde looked over at him and chuckled.  "That was great."

Eric glanced in the rear view mirror at the sleeping pair in the back.  "And I can't believe I'm saying this, but it actually wasn't that bad having Jackie with us."

Hyde simply nodded, but opted not to say anything that time.

"Yeah," Eric continued.  "She got us better seats, she paid for the beer, and she certainly fit in with all of the Satan worshippers."

Hyde laughed again.  "That's true."

Eric's fingers drummed against the steering wheel.  "Will wonders never cease," he murmured.

Hyde let the silence drop between them again.  His forehead fell against the window and his eyes went back to the side view mirror, watching Jackie breathe lightly in her sleep.