The gang was stranded outside of a gas station that looked like it had been here since before any of them were born. Steven Hyde, Eric Forman, and Michael Kelso were leaning against the Vista Cruiser with the hood of the car popped open. Fez on the other side, also leaning against the car, biting his fingernails. Donna Pinciotti stood next to one of the rolled down windows in the backseat, where Jackie Burkhart was currently sitting inside and checking her pocket mirror and fixing her lipstick.

Hyde was leaning against the car with his left arm and using the right to hold up his mostly gone orange pop. He was chewing on the straw out of both frustration and boredom. Eric was standing to Hyde's left, with his arm's crossed, thinking about how much the universe hated him. To the left of Eric was Kelso, who thought it would be helpful to put his opinion out there for everyone to know... again.

"I'm telling you, we're out of gas." It had already been such a long night, and it wasn't even 9:00 yet.

"We're not out of gas", said Eric, and judging by the tone in his voice it was not the first time that night.

It had to be the day from hell. Eric had just gotten the car from his parents, and the first time they take it out, it dies. This is what happened to Eric when he broke the rules. Not anyone else, just him. If Hyde did something, he had a cool story to tell. If Kelso did something, they all had something to laugh at for at least a day. If Fez did something, well, they usually didn't even know what he was talking about, so it didn't matter. If Jackie did something, she was always focused on how it made her look. If Donna did something, she looked either cool or hot.

(Usually both…) Eric shook that thought from his head as he cleared his mind to get back to the situation at hand. Anyway, the point was that when Eric tries to defy God, otherwise known as Red, his life turns to hell. And now, on top of the car trouble, the ruined night, and the inevitable grounding of a lifetime, when Red finds out that they went out of town after he told them not too, Eric was going to have a foot shoved up his ass.

"It's the battery. It's six years old and shot to hell", said the scruffy mechanic, stating the reason why the Vista Cruiser had decided not to take them to the concert.

"I know what. I'll just call my dad," said Jackie, as she got out of the driver's seat of the Cruiser. She, for one, was tired of sitting there in her new dress doing nothing but looking pretty. She usually didn't mind doing that on a normal basis, because it typically brought meaning to unfortunate poor people's lives, but this was interfering with her social plans. Social plans make social lives. No popular cheerleader ever built her glory out of a social life that included sitting at a gross gas station. No, she was either going to a concert or going home to her stuffed unicorns and listening to her favorite album. In fact, she wondered for a moment why they hadn't done exactly what she just suggested in the first place.

"Kelso, tell her!", Eric said in a frustrated voice as he pointed toward Jackie and looked at Kelso to explain the obvious to his younger date.

Kelso barely moved as he glanced to Jackie and said, "He can't take the car out of town."

"I'm not calling his dad", Jackie said with a slight 'duh ' look on her face, pointing to Eric.

Donna stood behind Jackie, looking down at the ground, letting this play out. Normally she would be on board about figuring out what the next move would be in this kind of situation, but she put makeup on, damn it. She put in plenty of effort for this night already and it crashed and burned before it could begin. (Let Jackie take care of arguing with an angry Eric for the night), she thought to herself. She knew better than to jump into that battle with Red Forman's son unless she knew for certain she could get through to him or at least prove him wrong. Most people didn't know because of his geeky and clumsy ways, but he had a temper and stubbornness that lived up to his father's any day of the week. She was getting a headache already.

Hyde had lifted himself off of the car to take a step toward Jackie's direction while looking at her.

"Jackie...", he said in a tone as if he were talking to a child. "Parents talk to each other, about how we screw up ." He said the last part in a tone mocking her valley girl voice while rolling his eyes. He turned around to go back to leaning against the car again. (Honestly, what the hell was Kelso thinking bringing this girl), he thought to himself. Hyde would almost think she was as dumb as Kelso if he didn't know the type she was. She was a cheerleader, a daddy's girl, a rich princess who never needed squat. She wasn't stupid, per se, she just didn't know anything about the real world because she never had real problems to deal with. He almost felt sorry for her. Then she would open her mouth and start talking, like she was now, and he would remember why he hated people like her.

"Why would he talk about that", Jackie asked as she thrust her arms out to the side in a questioning way. She looked to Eric for an answer, truly not understanding.

"They can't help it. Look, say there's a party, see, and all our parents are there, together." Eric had begun to explain this to Jackie, while going into a very descriptive scenario.


The guys finished their story, which somehow ended up with all of them, except for Jackie, doing The Hustle.

"Okay. Guys? We ... Are in the middle of nowhere , and I have to go to the ladies' room." Jackie was able to break them out of their little fantasy long enough to explain their situation. As Jackie turned to leave and began to walk, she did not hear the expected footsteps behind her. She stopped and turned back around. "Donna ", she said with an exasperated voice.

Donna rolled her eyes as she turned around to walk in the direction Jackie was headed for.

As the girls walked away from the car, the guys were left in their new positions. Eric was standing two feet from the car with his arms crossed, waiting to hear if the mechanic had anything else to say about the car. Hyde was to the mechanic's right, still holding his pop, in a much cooler stance, but also waiting to hear the guy talk.

"So", said the mechanic, as he turns toward Eric and Hyde, "where are you going?" It had been a long night of nothing for him until the old Cruiser pulled up with a bunch of kids in it. Well, three guys pushing it, two jailbait chicks walking behind them, and one guy controlling the steering wheel.

"Rundgren concert", said Hyde, in a slight scratchy voice.

"Cool," the mechanic replied. (At least these kids had decent plans after this), he thought. He turns his head to ask, well, any of them, really. "So… What, do you want a battery? 'Cause I can get you a battery." No sense in beating around the bush. The sooner he could get done here, the sooner he could find out if his date was still on.

"Are they cheap? Or possibly free?" Leave it to Forman to try and make an awkward moment worse with a bad joke.

(Even if it was a little funny…) Hyde left that thought to himself.

"32 bucks. Minimum." Even if he wanted to cut the kids some slack there was no way the mechanic could go any lower on the price, his boss would chew his ass.

"Alright, I'll tell you what. We'll trade you our battery, plus five bucks for one of your batteries." Kelso had decided to step in with his amazing negotiating skills, plus it would only help them if he leaned in close enough so the mechanic must look at him. After all, he was so foxy, that if the mechanic was a chick, he would have already been all over Kelso. Kelso decided that this could at least distract the mechanic with jealously while Kelso got the price down so they could get to the concert already. Kelso had been looking forward to the concert ever since Jackie deman- I mean, begged , to go with them to the concert. The low lights, Rundgren's tunes, the big crowd squeezing them together. It was the perfect opportunity for a make out session for him and Jackie. And, if they were kissing for long enough, Kelso could totally get away with grabbing Jackie's ass. She generally didn't like it when he tried to do that while they were in public, but if anything could make her forget about it, it would be Kelso's irresistible kisses. (Man, we need to get out of here soon), Kelso thought.

The mechanic got a very sarcastic smile on his face. Did this kid take him for an idiot?

"Well, that's a really sweet deal, my friend…", then the mechanic got an idea, "But how about this? How about one battery for two concert tickets?" It seemed like the kids were a little desperate, plus he was going to have to do something for his date since he had to cancel twice before because of work. This might just get him out of the doghouse, and back into the bed of the best waffle maker he's known since he was 20.

"No. We can't give up two tickets." The moron with the pretty face spoke for the group. The mechanic looked back at the driver and the more burley kid to make sure that was it. Eric and Hyde had unreadable looks on their faces, but neither one said anything.

"Okay", the mechanic said with no fight. He was planning on canceling the date anyway, but it would have been nice to go home without having another fight about the late hours that his boss sets. Besides, he was probably going to have to wait until one of the kids' parents showed up with either a ride or the money for the battery, unless the kids plan on sleeping in the car. He walked back into the station to check on some other stuff for the car.

Eric watched as the mechanic walked inside, wondering how the hell the night ended up like this. Eric stepped up to Kelso, hoping to make this quick. They have a chance of not only getting away with this without Red and Kitty finding out about the car, but they could still make it to the concert. If Eric knew any of his friends, then he would bet all the concert tickets in the world on their group selling out two of their friends to get what the rest of them want. It wasn't like they were ditching them; they were just- well, they wer- they… Okay, they would be ditching some of their friends in this scenario.

"It's either that or none of us go", said Eric.

"So, who's out", asked Kelso with, what Red would call, a 'smart' face.

(Probably the only way he could be smart at this point), thought Hyde.

"Well, there's always Jackie." Hyde could admit that he was a jerk sometimes, and normally leaving the small, ignorant girl out on her own would give him that weird feeling at the bottom of his gut, the one he couldn't stand but Mrs. Foreman likes to call sweet. That same feeling that did not make him punch Lenny Rows in the face when he was making certain comments under the bleachers about Jackie during a football game when she was wearing her cheerleading uniform. It was because he owed Hyde money. And he smelled weird, like Donna's dad's cologne. But not because of Jackie…. Where was he going with this? Oh, right. Normally, he would at least feel…off… about making Jackie stay out of the group like this. But she was running her mouth in the car for a freaking hour, man. She went on and on about who was dating who at school, what girl was banned from the lunch table for wearing the wrong shoes, and on and on and on. He could drown out all her mindless babbling, but when she had started the humming, which led to singing, which led to her talking about the one thing that sealed the deal. ABBA. She had to go.


Donna rolled her eyes as she turned around to walk in the direction Jackie was headed for. If she was being honest with herself, Donna would admit that sometimes it was best to just go along with the girl stuff that Jackie made her do. It was a lot easier than having to hear her complain in the car ride back. (That is, if we ever get out of this place), she thought. She and Jackie had made it three fourths of the way to the bathroom when Jackie came to a sudden stop, that almost caused Donna to run into her tiny body.

"Shoot! I left my purse in the car." Jackie couldn't believe she left her lifeline in the back of Eric's hand me down, and now broken, car. She turned around to look at Donna, who looked back at Jackie with slight annoyance, and confusion.

"Can't you just go to the bathroom without your purse", asked Donna. Jackie gave Donna her 'are you kidding me' face. Donna then heaved a sigh, too tired to get into this argument with Jackie. They turned around and started walking back to the car. When they got close enough to hear the guys without being seen, they had both slowed to a stop. It sounded like they were arguing about something.

"Of course, Jackie. I mean, Jackie's gone. But who else?", said Kelso who, ever the gentlemen, was quick to throw his date under the bus. Eric was the one to answer his question. "Oh, I don't know. Jackie's date," he said the last part sarcastically as though the answer were not obvious.

"Come on! You guys know I'm breaking up with her!" Kelso said these words not knowing what was just a few feet away from him.

"WHAT?!"