A/N

Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to update! Senior year and everything else going on has kept me pretty busy. Idk if you guys are still interested in this, but if you are, here you go! Remember to let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I don't own that 70s show or its characters.

Right before Jackie's hand touched the doorknob, she stopped. She hadn't visited the basement in three days let alone stopped long enough in the hallways to have an actual conversation with them at school. They were bound to know something was up. She was basically a social butterfly, and everyone knew that she craved attention so they probably thought she couldn't wait to chat about her sudden absence. And she did love it. The attention. But not when the attention came from something so humiliating and depressing. She knew she would be bombarded with questions about her whereabouts and considering her current state, she doesn't know if she could handle that now without losing it. Just focus on Steven, she told herself. Regaining her courage, Jackie slowly opened the basement door and walked inside.

She looked around and saw Donna lounging in her usual spot on the worn-down sofa, casually flipping through the magazine in her hands. Fez was playing paddleball and looked somewhat upset that he kept missing.

Good, she thought. Everything's how it normally is. Just then Fez had noticed Jackie was standing next to him.

He stopped his pathetic game and gasped, "My goddess! I haven't seen you in so long!"

"Been busy" Jackie answered casually. "I know you might not know because you've never been popular, but its a lot of work. Takes up a lot of time and energy" she reasoned with Fez.

"Oh, you are right Jackie. I do not know" he frowned slightly.

Fez, however, quickly lost interest in her and once again became invested in his game. "Okay ball and paddle, you will not beat me anymore" he proclaimed as he began another series of failed attempts.

Jackie rolled her eyes as she moved away from the door and began to make her way across the room.

Donna looked up from her magazine and came to the same realization that Fez had a second ago.

"Yeah Jackie, its been kinda weird. I think I have missed you calling me lumberjack this week, which is something I never thought I would even say…" Donna's face gave into a puzzled look at the sudden realization.

"Donna, don't worry. The second the weekend hits and you start wearing your normal clothes instead of your uniform, you'll hear it again." Jackie nodded honestly.

"Yay, me" answered Donna sarcastically with a faint laugh. "No, but seriously, What's been keeping you so busy?" She said as she flipped to the next page in her magazine and began reading over it.

Jackie looked around nervously searching for a reason.

"Umm …. cheerleading!" She decided on. "Yeah, uh, there was this huge debate on Tuesday on whether we should get new uniforms and it had the team split in half in making a decision. It required all my undivided attention". Jackie nodded to herself as she was pretty satisfied with her own answer.

"Yeah this is why I was never a cheerleader"

"Yeah, that's why" Jackie quipped sarcastically.

Donna, finished with Jackie's antics, turned her head back to her magazine and the basement returned to silence. Jackie stood there kind of awkwardly. She began to wonder if Steven had been questioning her absence as well. She had talked to him over the phone on Monday night after her mother called but it was only to say goodnight and they had only really talked about their days in the broad sense. It ended up being a short conversation and Jackie had tried her best to make everything seem perfectly normal. She kinda hoped he had bought her performance.

Its not that Jackie was worried that Steven would brush Jackie off as overreacting about her mom, if anything he would say that she was under-reacting. She was just worried that he would start treating her differently and even worse, pity her. Jackie Burkhart did not need pity because she is a very strong and capable individual who had everything under control. She was also worried that Steven would tell the Formans and that would really start to blow things out of proportion.

She was pulled from her thoughts when she suddenly heard two voices coming down the stairs into the basement, the voice in which belonged to Eric and her boyfriend.

"I'm telling you again, man. Leia has eyes for Han, not Luke. You can just tell." Steven said as he made it the basement floor and over to the freezer for a popsicle.

"Believe what you want my friend, just know that you're wrong" Eric cheerfully and confidently responded.

With his popsicle, Hyde made his way over to his chair and sat down.

"Whatever, man"

Jackie casually walked up to Steven in his chair before he got a chance to notice her presence.

Play it cool she thought. Everything is perfectly fine, she tried to convince herself for the fiftieth time since her last conversation with her mom.

"Hey" she said, quickly pulling his attention away from his frozen treat. She noticed his demeanor slightly change from annoyed at his conversation with Eric to slightly surprised and concerned.

"Hey, whats up?. Uh, I haven't seen you since Monday when you went home. We were kind of getting worried" he said casually.

"Aww, look at that Donna." Said Eric pulling the redhead's attention. "Little Hyde missed his little girlfriend" said Eric in a baby voice as he began to chuckle. Donna, also thinking it was funny to see Hyde playing the concerned boyfriend role, joined in his antics.

"Get bent" Hyde barked towards his giggling friends. Blocking them out, Hyde returned to face Jackie. Jackie, in the meantime, had made her way to side on the arm of the couch, facing his chair.

"Seriously, everything okay?" he said, shifting a little uncomfortably in his chair but still managing to meet her eyes.

While Steven tried to hide it, his obvious worry over her spotty attendance this week made her heart flutter as she knew he cared. The thought of it made her smile. The smile slowly faded away as she remembered what she had wanted to tell him.

"Actually, um…" Jackie started.

She then started remembering her worries from before. She couldn't say it. The words just wouldn't come out. They showed weakness and Jackie Burkhart would not allow anyone, especially her boyfriend to see her as weak. She was anything but weak. The last few months had proved that.

She picked up her sentence when he looked concerned that she had stopped. "Just been a little busy with school. Its kinda made it hard to make time to come over." She lied. Well, it wasn't an exact lie…. The cheerleaders this week really have been pushing her more than normal. They said she had been slacking in the routine, which she knew was absolutely not true because she was the best one on that squad. Though to prove them wrong, she had been working a little extra to show them up. While it hadn't really been the reason she had been so preoccupied lately, it relieved her to know that she wasn't completely lying.

"Okay," he answered. He didn't look completely convinced though. He made a note to ask later.

"Well, how 'bout you and me go down to the Hub? We can talk there if you want."

Not really wanting to talk about her situation just yet, she considered saying no. But Jackie longed to catch up for the time they had lost with each other in the past two and a half days. He was also being really sweet…

"Yeah, sure." She decided.

She smiled up at him as he got up and helped her off the couch. Casually taking her hand, Hyde began to guide Jackie with him to the door.

"Later" he threw back at the gang as they made their way out the door.

While Jackie was slightly nervous about the conversation that may lay ahead, she couldn't help but be excited as they made their way to the Camino. Also, she was starving.