Chapter 15.

Friday night.
September 15th.
Point Place High, the football field.

The gang had arrived at the high school football game just in time to see the kickoff.

It was thanks to Donna that they weren't any later. She'd found the boys in Eric's basement watching Charlie's Angels, 10 minutes after the agreed upon time that they would leave for the game.

Now the friends were seated in the middle of the bleachers, watching grown men run up and down a field and fight for possession of a tiny ball.

Football was Donna's least favorite sport, but she had came to support Jackie. Even her fiancé (who was widely known to hate all types of sport) had agreed to come, but she guessed his attendance had less to do with Jackie and more to do with the fact that he didn't want to spend his Friday night alone.

Kelso and Fez, true to their word, had come along but it was Hyde's presence that was most surprising to Donna. Hyde hated all school events, never once during their high school days had he ever attended a football game, but yet here he was, begrudgingly seated on her right-hand side.

When she had asked what had changed his mind about attending, he'd remained zen and simply stated he had nothing else to do, but Donna knew him better than that by now.

She could tell he was there for the same reason that she was, and that reason was the tiny brunette who was currently prancing around on the edge of the football field in a cheer-leading outfit with pom-poms in both hands.

"What are we doing here?" Eric commented suddenly, a confused look on his face as he tried to follow along with the game happening in front of him.

"We're here for Jackie, you goon… She's performing at half-time," Donna reminded her fiancé, who hadn't stopped complaining since they had arrived.

"Can we leave after that?" Eric wondered but Donna didn't dignify his question with a response.

Jackie had just spotted the group in the crowd and was waving up at them, she looked like the epitome of an all-American girl in her uniform with her hair done up in a ponytail and a big smile on her face.

Donna waved back at her before turning to look at Hyde by her side. He was pretending not to notice Jackie, but she had caught him on numerous occasions looking in her direction since they had sat down. He must have thought that because he was wearing his sunglasses, no-one could tell where his attention was at, but he was forgetting that Donna knew certain things.

"Fez, look!" Kelso spoke up, pulling Donna from her thoughts and back to reality. He was pointed at a group of girls who were sitting lower down in the stands.

"What am I looking at?" Fez questioned back, straining his neck to see over the crowd. "Is it someone famous? Oh, is it Sissi Spacek?!"

"What? No man! It's that chick, Brooke!" he pointed out to Fez.

Donna squinted her eyes to get a better look and noticed Brooke Rockwell (old friend and Kelso's current girl crush), sitting with two of her friends at least 5 rows below from them.

"Think I should go over there?" Kelso asked a moment later.

"Why not Kelso," Hyde began. "She's told you to leave her alone, given you a fake number and called you an idiot on multiple occasions so yeah, I think you should definitely go talk to her."

Donna watched, trying not to laugh while Kelso looked over at Hyde with a confused expression on his face. She noticed that it was the same look he got whenever he attempted to do long division.

"You think so?" Kelso asked a moment later, totally oblivious to Hyde's sarcasm.

Hyde sighed and shook his head in response.

"Just go! You are Michael Kelso, the most beautiful boy of all the land. She would be crazy to not want to date you!" Fez exclaimed, forever Kelso's number one fan.

Kelso nodded his head. "You're right man. I'm going!" he exclaimed as he stood up from the steel bench-top seats.

"Kelso don't forget," Donna started, looking up at the tall boy. "Be smart," she reminded him but couldn't help the frown that formed on her face as she gave Michael Kelso the advice of showing intelligence that he clearly didn't possess.

"Right, thanks Donna," he seemed to appreciate the sentiment anyway and before she could say another word he had turned and left the group. Heading down the bleachers towards Brooke and her friends.

"That's going to be a disaster," Eric pointed out, watching his friend as if they'd just sent him on a suicide mission.

"Think of it this way man… We're about to be supplied with plenty of material to burn him with later," Hyde pointed out with a grin and Eric laughed.

"Fez is hungry," Fez said all of a sudden, standing up. "Hyde, let's go," he added, looking down at Hyde with an expectant look.

Hyde frowned back at him. "What the hell do you need me for?"

"Well I'm not going to go down to the food-stand all alone!" Fez shouted. "Get-up you lazy son of a bitch."

Hyde looked back at Donna and Eric with a confused expression and Donna shrugged back at him. Fez had been overtly emotional since his run in with Laurie at Vanstock a few weeks back and as a result had become extra needy.

"Fine, let's go… But I'm not buying you a pop!" Hyde exclaimed, standing up from the bleachers and walking off with Fez in tow.

Now that Eric and Donna were alone, she had the perfect opportunity to ask her fiancé about something that had been playing on her mind for over a week now.

"Hey Eric," she turned her body towards his and waited for him to look back at her before continuing. "Have you noticed anything… Different about Hyde and Jackie lately?"

Eric scrunched up his nose. "Uh, not really? I mean Hyde's beard has had cookie crumbs in it all day but Jackie's the same as she always is and by that I mean, literally the worst person ever."

Donna shook her head. "No, you dill-hole… Different like the way they're acting towards each-other. I mean Hyde's here watching a freaking high school football game, don't you think that's strange?"

Eric shrugged. "He said he had nothing better to do."

She rolled her eyes, sometimes he could be so oblivious.

"It's not just that, they've been acting weird when we're all hanging out together and the other day, they both left the basement together at the same time. I think something might be going on there."

"Donna what are you getting at? You think Hyde is in some sort of secret relationship with Jackie?" Eric questioned her, a look of disbelief on his face.

Donna paused to think for a moment. "I'm not sure… It's possible."

Eric shook his head quickly. "No, it's not possible and I'll tell you why… Because Hyde would never succumb to the dark side like that."

"Okay if you use one more Star Wars reference I'm sitting over there," Donna pointed in a random empty seat 3 rows down.

"Look maybe they had a fight or something but I'm telling you, there's nothing going on. Jackie and Hyde together would just be creepy and unnatural and wrong, even they know that." Eric tried to convince Donna. "Now can we stop talking about this unholy thing?"

"Sure… Whatever," Donna agreed and as Eric began to talk about the differences between his body and the typical footballer's physique, her eyes trained back to Jackie who was cheering on the team from the sidelines.

Eric may not think anything is going on between Hyde and Jackie, but he didn't know the things that Donna knew. If they were hiding something from the group, then she would do her best to uncover the truth.

Half-time.

Jackie had just finished up the half-time show with the rest of the cheer-leading squad and was rushing back to the sidelines with the rest of her team.

The routine had gone better than expected, she'd nailed every single move and was feeling pretty good about herself in the moment. Not even Julie could have faulted her.

There was still 10 minutes left of half-time, which allowed her just enough time to go and see Steven and the rest of their friends. She was dying to hear what they thought of her performance.

The rest of the girls were mingling by the bench, gossiping about their classmates but Jackie left the group with a different purpose. Standing in front of the section of bleachers where she'd seen her friends earlier, she began to scan the crowd in attempt to place them again.

She spotted Michael first, he was seated a few rows up from the ground with a group of girls she didn't recognize. He didn't seem to be with the rest of their friends, so she kept looking, straining her eyes and focusing higher up in the bleachers.

As she continued her search, Julie crept up and approached her from behind.

"Jackie, what are you doing?" She questioned suddenly, announcing her presence. "You should be with the rest of the team," she added, placing her hands on her hips.

Jackie turned to look at her briefly before moving her gaze back to the bleachers. "I'm looking for my friends," she told her bluntly.

"We're on duty Jackie. As part of the cheer-leading squad, we are required to spend the entirety of the football games cheering on the team," she responded snootily.

"It's half-time Julie," Jackie pointed out the obvious, still trying to spot Steven or Donna in the crowd of hundreds.

"That doesn't matter," Julie reached out and pulled on Jackie's elbow, forcing her to turn and face her. "As far as I'm concerned, you're still on probation until the end of this game. So, I wouldn't get on my bad side tonight."

Jackie tried hard not to roll her eyes, she was always on Julie's bad side and that was probably never going to change.

"Julie… I nailed that routine, so as far as I'm concerned, you can go ahead and try and kick me off the team but I think the other girls would have a lot to say about that. I'm one of the only girls on the team with a gymnastics background and the only person who can land a double back handspring tuck. You need me on this team," she pointed out.

Julie looked back at her as if she'd just told her to drop dead.

"You'll never be captain," she replied in a panicked manner.

"Who said I want to be?"

Having enough of Julie and her paranoid, jealous crap, Jackie turned her attention back to finding her friends in the crowd. Her eyes landed on Michael (who was flirting with a tall brunette), another three times before she finally spotted Steven in the crowd.

He was high up in the bleachers with the rest of their friends, looking bored out of his mind but totally foxy at the same time.

Before she could make a break for it and ditch Julie for her real friends, the blonde cheerleader grabbed hold of her again, pulling hard on her arm and stopping her from moving.

"That's that guy who picked you up from school the other day," Julie's eyes shifted to the stands, landing on Hyde.

"So what?" Jackie wondered with a frown.

Julie smiled cunningly. "So, you're dating a burnout," she put two and two together and giggled as if there was something funny about the aspect of her and Steven dating.

"Firstly, his name is Steven Hyde," Jackie tried her hardest to sound zen, knowing that if Julie found out about her and Steven, she'd do anything in her power to destroy it. "And secondly, we're not dating. We're just friends."

Julie's grin widened. "So, I guess you wouldn't mind if I went out with him then?"

Jackie scoffed. "Why would you want to go out with him? You just called him a burnout."

"Well he is… But he's a foxy burnout."

Jackie crossed her arms over her chest, trying to control her temper. She had to make it seem like she didn't care about the possibility of them dating, if Julie realized that Jackie had feelings for Steven then she'd want him even more and make her life a living hell in the process.

"He's not into cheerleaders," she told her quickly.

Julie laughed. "You obviously don't know a lot about your new friend. He used to go to school here and word is he slept with like half of the cheer-leading squad. Apparently, he's an animal in the sack… I wouldn't mind finding out for myself."

Jackie paused, temporarily stunned by the information just shared. She had already heard that Steven had been with cheer-leaders before her, but to hear that he'd possibly slept with half of the team was a shock to her.

He'd been with countless amounts of women and she was still a virgin. Would she be enough for him or would he eventually get bored and look elsewhere to fulfill his needs? The thought of him sleeping with Julie filled her with dread and caused her to struggle in coming up with a good retort.

Julie smiled at her frozen form. "Half-time's almost over Jackie… You better go back to the team," she suggested, stepping aside to clear the path that would lead her back to the other girls by the benches.

Caught off-guard and slightly deflated, Jackie retreated back to the rest of her team-mates. She couldn't let Julie's threats get in-between her and Steven, because that's all they were… Threats with no basis. Steven wasn't interested in Julie, he liked her, he had real feelings for her and she trusted him.

After the game.

Hyde stood underneath the bleachers by the edge of the field as the crowd began to disperse, leaving in file towards the car park. He had told the rest of his friends that he was staying later to have a smoke, but really, he was just buying time to go and see Jackie.

Donna, Fez and Forman had left without any questions and he hadn't seen Kelso since he'd ditched them to go talk to the woman who hated his guts.

As he inhaled the last puff of his cigarette, he emerged from underneath the bleachers. Most of the crowd was gone by now, leaving only a handful of high school students left on the field.

Hyde spotted Jackie quickly.

He'd been watching her all night, he hadn't meant to but for some reason his eyes always seemed to find her in a crowd. She looked amazing in her uniform, and even though he'd never admit it out loud he had loved watching her dance.

He hadn't planned on sticking around and knew Jackie would probably be surprised that he'd bothered to stay longer than necessary but watching her all night long had filled him with desire and he wanted to be with her.

Briefly he considered the possibility that he was becoming addicted to her. She wouldn't be the first addiction of his, but she was definitely his favorite. He just couldn't decide whether she was good or bad for his health.

She was currently standing by the end zone, lost in conversation with a tall blonde football player.

He stopped at the edge of the field and watched the two interact. They were standing close to each-other and she was laughing at something he had said.

Hyde tried to ignore the burning feeling of jealousy that flowed through his body, but it became increasingly harder to do as he watched the footballer reach out and touch his chick's arm. Letting his jealous urges get the better of him, he made the move to head towards the two.

But before he could get very far, a tiny blonde cheerleader came out of no-where and stood in front of him, directly cutting off his route to Jackie.

"I was hoping I'd see you again," she said to him, a calculating smile on her face. Her voice was familiar and after a quick glance in her direction, he recognized her to be the persistent cheerleader who had been hitting on him the day he had came to pick Jackie up from school.

Her self-proclaimed arch nemesis and captain of the cheer-leading team. Josie- Julie, whatever the hell her name was.

"Yeah well here I am man, hope you had a good look," he stated as his eyes drifted from hers to over her shoulder where he could still see Jackie talking with the unidentified footballer.

He went to walk around the blonde, but she placed a hand on his chest and pushed back roughly, stopping him in his tracks. Surprised by her vigour he watched as she looked back at the couple by the end zone.

"They're cute together aren't they?" Julie wondered, and Hyde's jaw twitched as he attempted to suppress his anger.

"What are you talking about?" He questioned.

"Jackie and Troye… I mean it's not official or anything but the whole school are convinced they're dating," she informed him.

He knew he shouldn't be listening to this girl, let alone talking to her. He knew she was out to get Jackie and that he couldn't trust anything she said but against his better judgement he remained standing in front of her.

"Why?"

"They're always together… Whispering to each-other in the hallways," her voice lowered as if she was filling him in on some big secret.

Rumors could spread like wild fire in high school, Hyde had learnt that much from his time at Point Place High and he knew that 90% of the time those rumors turned out to be false. But he'd also learnt that rumors always started somewhere, and the idea of Jackie fooling around with some other guy made him feel sick.

"They aren't dating," he stated, turning his attention to Jackie across the field.

"Are you sure?" Julie questioned back, and he could feel her eyes on him.

His rational side was telling him not to say another word, that talking to this chick would only add fuel to the fire but the side of him that breathed jealousy was making it impossible for him to move.

"Yes, I'm sure," he spat back at her, the zen completely gone from his tone.

She took a step back and folded her arms across her chest. "Well you would know better than me," she shrugged as if she couldn't have cared less but there was a calculating look in her eyes that told him otherwise.

He paused while trying to work out her angle. Her words had been chosen carefully to fuel his jealousy and he was falling for it, even though he knew better than to get himself caught up in petty high school drama.

It was obvious that Julie had caught on to the fact that his relationship with Jackie was more than it seemed and that she was using that knowledge against the both of them but he wasn't going to let her get her way.

And as he went to leave, he heard her say, "Well I guess I'll see you at the homecoming dance then!"

Against his better judgement, he turned back to look at the blonde, who was grinning widely as if she knew something he didn't.

"What are you talking about?"

"The dance?" She started with a fake frown. "Jackie's been super hush-hush about her date, I just figured you would be taking her."

Hyde had never even heard Jackie mention a dance, he certainly wasn't her date but if he wasn't then who was? And why had she been hiding this from him?

"Oh, did I just put my foot in my mouth? Opps," Julie continued and the smile on her face proved to Hyde that she'd accomplished exactly what she was hoping she would, starting a fight between him and Jackie.

He stormed off and left the blonde cheerleader by the edge of the field. As he headed towards Jackie and the footballer, who he'd learnt was named Troye, he felt his blood boil. His eyes zeroed in on Troye as he approached the couple.

"Steven," Jackie commented in surprise as he reached them.

Hyde ignored her and continued to size up the football player in front of him. The guy was slightly taller than him and had the looks of a pretty boy that reminded him of Kelso, and if he were anything else like Kelso, Hyde knew he could probably beat the crap out of him if it came to it.

"Hey, you must be Hyde," Troye began, sticking out his hand for Hyde to shake. "I'm Troye, I've heard a lot about you."

He eyed the footballers outstretched hand and paused. Red had taught him to be respectful, but he'd also taught him not to take crap from anyone and Hyde didn't trust this guy, so he made no move to shake his hand.

"Yeah well that's funny considering I've heard nothing about you," he responded coldly, turning his gaze to Jackie who was standing by his side and looking uncomfortable.

"Steven," Jackie whispered to him in a stern tone. She had many ways of pronouncing his name, each way signified a different meaning, this time it had been a warning. She didn't want him starting a fight with her friend, but he'd make no promises tonight.

Troye had now retracted his hand and his eyes had begun to dart back and forth between the couple standing in front of him. It took Hyde all the will power he had not to tell the guy to fuck off. Lucky for him, the footballer could take a hint and began to back away on his own volition.

"I'll let you guys talk… Nice meeting you man," he nodded at Hyde before turning to Jackie. "See you at school Jackie," he added and turned to leave.

"What the hell was that?" Jackie turned on Hyde as soon as Troye was out of ear shot.

"Nothing man… Who the hell was that?" Hyde responded.

"He's just a friend, Steven," she informed him as she folded her arms across her chest. "You don't have to be jealous of him," she added.

Hyde stepped back. "I'm not jealous," he lied and knew she could probably see straight through him.

He hated that he was this jealous about some jock, but she'd been keeping shit from him when he thought they were close enough to share everything with each-other. Clearly, he'd been wrong.

"Good," she said. "If this is going to work, you need to be able to trust me." He scoffed back at her words and she frowned. "What?"

"You want me to trust you?... When were you planning on telling me about your secret date to the homecoming dance?"

Jackie sighed and looked around at the empty field. "Who did you talk to?" she questioned.

"Doesn't matter man."

"Yes, it does because clearly they've lied to you," she took a step closer to him. "Whoever it was, got it wrong. I don't have a secret date… And I hadn't brought up the dance yet because I'm not even sure I'm going to go."

"Why not?" He questioned, if he knew Jackie (and he thought he did), he knew she wouldn't miss a high school dance for the world.

"Everyone has dates already and besides, the only person I'd really want to go with, I can't…" She looked up at him and bit her lip. "The dance is in 2 weeks and we're not ready to go public yet."

He looked around the football field to make sure no one was watching them; Julie and Troye were no-where to be seen but there were still a few other high school students lingering around.

She was the one who wanted to keep this thing between them a secret, he couldn't care less about going public or not, but even if their feelings for each-other were public knowledge, he didn't do high school dances and she needed to know that.

"Jackie… I'm not the kind of guy who goes to dances," he informed her. "If that's what you're looking for than we've got a problem."

She shook her head. "I know that, and I don't care…I knew what I was getting into when we started this and I don't need you to take me to the prom or buy me shiny things. Maybe the old Jackie would have but I've changed."

Her words seemed sincere, but he wasn't sure he could believe what she was saying. People didn't change that drastically so quickly, even if they wanted too.

"So, you're saying you don't care about going to the dance alone?"

"No… No-one wants to go to a dance alone. Which is why I said I'm not sure if I'm going to go yet," she shrugged like she didn't care about the possibility of her not attending a high school event as socially important as the homecoming dance, but he knew her better than that.

There was no way she wasn't going to go to that dance, but Hyde was serious when he said he didn't do dances. He caved on a lot of shit when it came to her, but this wasn't going to be one of those times.

She sighed before he had a chance to respond. "Can we just talk about something else? Like how great I looked during the half-time performance?" She smiled at the change of subject.

Hyde spotted a few of Jackie's fellow cheer-leaders to their right, they were heading towards the parking lot but had all turned to look in their direction as they passed by, reminding him suddenly of her vindictive arch-nemesis.

"I think you outta' be careful man… That Julie chick's really got it in for you," he told her abruptly, catching her by surprise.

"What are you talking about?"

"She was the one who told me about your 'secret date' to the dance… Also told me the whole school thinks you and your pretty-boy friend are dating."

He watched as Jackie rolled her eyes. "Of-course she did," she replied with a huff. "If there is a rumor like that going around, I haven't heard it. She knows we care about each other and she just said those things to hurt me."

Hyde nodded, he knew good and well how full of crap the cheer-leading captain was, even if her words had temporarily gotten to him earlier.

"I know, just saying be careful…"

"I will be… I've dealt with girls like her before, I can do it in my sleep now," she grinned, and he felt himself relax. As much as he hated to put any validity in stupid high school drama, this Julie person meant business and it was nice knowing Jackie could hold her own.

"Right on man… Come on, let's get the hell out of here," he nodded towards the parking lot and made a move.

Jackie fell in step beside him. "Where are we going?" She asked with a confused look on her face.

He didn't blame her surprise, they'd had nothing planned for after the game. He was supposed to be back in the basement by now and she had probably planned on going out to some after-party with her school friends but after all the drama, he thought they could both use some time alone together.

"To eat… You must be hungry after all the prancing around you've been doing."

She laughed. "I'm starving," she said, and they fell into a comfortable silence as they headed towards his car.

Later they'd eat dinner inside the Camino and then drive up to Mt Hump, he'd kiss her underneath the stars and she'd look up at him tenderly. Everything would seem back to normal for the two, but Hyde couldn't ignore the unsettling feeling inside his stomach.

They'd agreed to keep their feelings secret under the impression that it would make things easier, instead it only seemed to be working against them. When the truth came out, he wasn't sure how much longer they'd last or if he could be the kind of boyfriend that Jackie deserved.

In his experience, good things never lasted and with that knowledge, along with the drama circulating their first official fight, he could feel her slipping through his fingers.

Thanks for reading!

Sorry for the delay in this chapter, I fell slightly behind in schedule but hopefully it was worth the wait.