Sorry for the delay in posting – I went to my work yesterday and found I had lost this chapter so was typing furiously from memory to resurrect it. Thanks again for all the reviews – they make me look forward to checking my email each morning.

Chapter 6

"Steven," Jackie's strident voice sounded as she entered the basement. "You have to drive my to my hair salon at once! If I don't get my luscious strawberry delight hair treatment soon, there is a very real chance my hair could start to frizz at any moment." Hyde remained seated on his chair, arms folded, eyes glued to the television. "Didn't you hear me? Let's go!"

"The only place I'm driving you is hell," Hyde answered bitterly. "Not that you'd need me to find your way, what with it being your home town."

"What is up with you? Have you forgotten our deal?" Jackie said, hands on hips.

"I'm not the one whose failed to deliver, Jackie. Our deal was that I'd give you rides and you'd get me in with Blue. And yet I can't help noticing that in the three weeks since we struck that bargain, I've driven you to school, the hub, cheerleading practice, the mall – everywhere but the one place where I'd have a chance of meeting Blue off-stage, that is rehearsals." Jackie had kept the location of where the band rehearsed as top secret as a tool of the government.

"Steven, I've told you before, you're not ready to meet Blue yet," Jackie argued. "Besides, you can't say you've got nothing out of this. Aside from the immense pleasure of my company, how about all those tips about Blue I've been feeding you?" This was true; at the end of each ride Jackie would surrender a fact about the object of Hyde's desire as a kind of payment. He now knew her favourite flower (pink roses), her preferred donut (chocolate with yellow sprinkles), her original hair colour (brunette) and what tree she would be if she were a tree.

"Well, excuse me but I don't agree that being told the kind of useless trivia that sounds like it came straight from one of your Cosmo quizzes is keeping up your end of the deal." A thought suddenly occurred to Hyde and his eyes narrowed on Jackie with suspicion. "Hang on, do you really know this girl?" It occurred to him how unlikely it was that Jackie would ever move in the same circles as a chick as cool as his drumming goddess. Her reluctance to introduce him to Blue took on a new and sinister meaning.

"What? Of course I know her," Jackie asserted.

"Then introduce me to her."

"I can't do that," Jackie cried unthinkingly.

"Oh my God, I can't believe I fell for this! You don't know her at all, do you? You've just been playing me for a sucker." Hyde was working up into a fine rant as he strode angrily towards a wide-eyed Jackie. "I can't believe you would cheat me like this!"

"Cheat?" gasped Jackie. "I am not a cheat!"

"I don't know why I didn't twig before. As if a real woman like Blue would ever hang out with a stuck-up little girl like you."

"OK, I'm getting really tired of you calling me immature," Jackie said angrily. "And for your information, I was going to set you up with Blue tonight."

Hyde stopped in mid-tirade. "You are?"

"I was," Jackie corrected, "but after the way you spoke to me - "

"Now don't be like that." Hyde was trying for some damage control. "What was I supposed to think? One minute you're saying you can't introduce me and the next you're saying you've set me up with her?"

"I can't introduce you," Jackie was thinking fast "because I'm underage so can't be on the Club premises. But I talked her into meeting you after her gig tonight."

"Oh," Hyde replied uncertainly. "that's great! Thanks." Jackie said nothing but fixed him with a stony gaze. "Aww, c'mon, you know I didn't mean any of that stuff I said." Jackie's expression did not change. "Still with the look, huh? Well, I guess I'll just have to find another way to make you smile." Before Jackie knew what hit her, Hyde pounced on her so she was lying helpless on the couch as his hands mercilessly found her most ticklish places.

"Stop," she shrieked. "I can't stand.. ha ha..no! ha ha ha."

Hyde held her arms above her head with one strong hand wrapped around her dainty wrists while the other hand hovered over that most ticklish of areas, the underarm to ribs sweep.

"Apologise for being bitchy," he demanded. When she did not comply, his fingers tackled her ribs.

"No! I'm sorry," she laughed.

"Now say cheerleading is stupid."

"Steven, I am not – no! Cheerleading is stupid."

"And I'm the most awesome guy you've ever met."

"You're the most awesome guy I've ever met."

Her lack of hesitancy as well as something in her blue/green eyes took Hyde aback for a moment. He realised that he was holding her captive in a very suggestive position and had the strangest impulse to convert that suggestion into a reality. Hastily he jumped away from Jackie. "Right, so you wanted a lift to the salon so… um… I'll just get my keys." Jackie looked back at him slightly dazed, unaware her skirt had ridden halfway up her succulent thighs. This prompted Hyde to move the lower part of his body out of view behind the sofa. "- just as soon as I've gone to the bathroom," he said, making a quick exit.

…………………………………….

Hyde was still unnerved by the recent tussle with the girl he had always considered repugnant to him which made him brusque with the source of his confusion. Still, when he told Jackie to get in his car and belt up, he hadn't thought she would take him so literally. But she had not spoken a word in the last 20 minutes. At first the silence was a welcome change from her usual nonstop babble, but after a while he felt he was in the presence of some unnatural force. Finally the tension broke his cool and he burst out "Will you stop that!"

"Huh? Stop what?" Jackie asked, bewildered.

"All this silence. It's freaking me out," Hyde complained.

"Well, you were so uptight I thought if I did make a sound you'd push me out of the car while it was moving," Jackie joked. "Besides, aren't you always telling me to shut up?"

"I know, you'd think when it finally happened I would enjoy it. I guess it's kind of like when my Uncle Earl from New York came to visit my family. He said he couldn't get to sleep at our place because it was too quiet. He lives next to the subway and is used to all the trains shaking his place with their noise."

"So the sound of my voice is like train noise to you? Oh, Steven," Jackie cooed, a hand over her heart.

"Now don't get carried away," Hyde said but the smile he threw at her knocked her out of the ballpark.

"It's OK, I understand why you were so curt," she excused him. "I'm guessing you're mind is preoccupied with a certain girl who is stunningly beautiful, has the delicately petite build of a ballerina and loves music."

"Damn it Jackie, does every conversation have to be about you?" Hyde said in exasperation.

"Steven, I was referring to Blue," Jackie said with a secret smile.

"Oh – right, I knew that."

"Oh, you have to turn up the radio! I love this song," Jackie cried as the twanging intro to 'Sweet Home Alabama' came on. Hyde did so, remarking with surprise "I wouldn't have pegged you as a Lynard Skynard fan."

"That's the power of this song. Don't really like the band, never liked the South but it's just so damn catchy you just can't help grooving to it." Jackie propped her shoes on the dashboard and started beating a tattoo on her knees in perfect time to the music. "Trevor says his life's ambition is to nail this guitar solo," she said absently as it came to that part of the song.

"Trevor? Isn't he the lead singer?" Hyde asked, wondering how many personalities this one small girl contained.

"Um… yes," Jackie admitted, realising she had wandered into dangerous territory.

"Is he the guy you're dating?" Hyde asked, annoyed that the thought disturbed him somehow.

"He could be," Jackie said cautiously. She had a feeling Trevor might be difficult about this deception so thought it best to hedge her bets. An even better tactic would be turning the tables. "So, are you looking forward to tonight?"

"Tonight? Oh, right, Blue." Hyde had not had the chance to think about finally meeting his Blue that night, but now it came to him that the girl he had fantasized about for almost a month would finally be within his grasp. An unfamiliar feeling came upon him at the thought – nervousness. "Do you think… never mind."

"Do I think what?" Jackie coaxed, touched by his boyish hesitancy.

"Do you think she'll like me?" he blurted.

Jackie smiled warmly at him. "I guarantee it."

The hidden compliment in her words sparked some warm fuzzy feelings in him that were as alien as the nervousness, so he tried for a lighter note.

"Somehow I can't see you and Blue being best buds," he said.

"Why not?"

"Come on – isn't a garage band a bit too gritty and rough for you? I'd think you'd put down any female who played in one as several rungs below a lumberjack. Plus I would have thought a kick-ass drummer wouldn't have much time for an Abba obsessed princess like you."

"For your information, Blue and I are alike in many ways."

"Don't say things like that," Hyde protested. "You're tarnishing my image of her."

"Oh, you're impossible," Jackie fussed. "You can set me down over there," she said, as they approached the salon.

As Jackie was opening the car door, Hyde impulsively said "So will I see you tonight at the Club? Are you going to be there to cheer on your boyfriend?"

"Steven, I told you, it is quite impossible for me to be there when you meet Blue," Jackie said with complete sincerity. "Don't worry, just wait for her after the performance – it'll be fine."

"Worry? I don't worry," Hyde muttered to himself, disconcerted by all the strange emotions Jackie and Blue between them had stirred in him lately. Why were women so complicated?