Chapter three

Jackie entered The Hub, giving a careful look around the room to make sure none of her rich friends were there. She then looked behind her and waved Epstein forward to join her. As soon as he entered, he looked at her, clearly not pleased, as she took him by the hand.

"Why are you always frowning like that when we get to a place? God you're worse than Hyde."

"Why are you treating me like I'm not good enough to be seen with you? I didn't come all the way here just to be hidden away."

"Oh Juan!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "Don't be so paranoid."

"I ain't paranoid. Jackie, what is so wrong with me where you don't want to be seen with me? Before I even came here you were talking about fixing me up in new clothes and trying to change my appearance. What gives? Why don't you want to be seen with me?"

"Oh Sweetie." She kissed him. "It's just that there are certain people I know here, who wouldn't understand our special relationship if they saw us together." She kissed him again. "Now, let's get a pop and we can hang out here."

She started to walk away, but he grabbed her by the hands, pulling her back to him.

"Hey! Hey!" He turned her to face him. "Are you sayin' you're ashamed of me? Because I ain't any different than any one of your friends. There ain't nothing about me that should make you ashamed to be around me. Like I said before, either you take me as I am or don't take me at all."

"You're right. I'm sorry." She kissed him. "I won't do this anymore. It's just going to take a little to get used to the idea of being with someone who's so… well, streetwise."

"Why are you worried about people that don't matter? What matters is you and me." He kissed her, holding her hand and rubbing his thumb over top of it.

She blushed a little as she smiled. "When you're right, you're right. Now, why don't you grab us a seat, and I'll go get us something to drink?" She turned and started to walk away, but turned back to face him again. "Oh and one more thing. My friends don't know you're here, and they don't know we've been dating."

Jackie quickly turned away again, and headed up to the counter, leaving Epstein bewildered. Instead of trying to argue further with her, he shook his head and then chose a table where they would sit. He sat down with a slight sigh and waited for her to join him.

The bell above the door dinged as a small group of people entered The Hub. Among that group was Hyde, Eric and Donna. At first, they carried on with a conversation and didn't notice who was there. Jackie left the counter carrying two pops. She stopped suddenly, when she saw her friends, and she let out a small panicked squeak.

"Jackie!" Donna exclaimed. "Where the hell have you been? You weren't in school today and now we find you hanging at The Hub?"

Eric smiled. "Not to mention, that's a lot of pop for one person." He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "I think Jackie skipped school and now she's on a day date."

"Skippin' school for a day date?" Hyde arched an eyebrow. "You're going to be in trouble little lady."

"No." Jackie said defensively. "I am not on a day date. And for your information, I was at school."

"When?" Donna asked. "Because I certainly didn't see you."

"And if you're not here with someone else, then who's that other pop for?" Eric asked.

"Ok fine. I wasn't at school. And I am here with a date. But it's none of your business."

Epstein strolled over to Jackie, not even acknowledging the other three. "Hey Jackie what's taking so long? You have me over there by myself, with nobody I know that I can talk to." He grinned at the other three, finally noticing them. "Oh hi."

"Epstein?!" The other three said in unified surprise.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Donna asked. She looked at Jackie. "Again, what the hell?"

"You couldn't get a date around here so you had one shipped out from Brooklyn?" Hyde asked

"I can get a date here! Please, I can be with any guy I want." Jackie rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Besides, I didn't have a date shipped out from Brooklyn. Juan came here for a visit. Now I'm showing him around."

"Still. You could have had any guy around here, but you went for some dirty little streetrat from back east." Hyde remarked.

"Hey!" Epstein spoke in offence. "I am not a streetrat! I am a Sweathog!"

"Yeah…" Eric replied "That's not much better."

Epstein waved him off and then stepped over to Jackie. He put an arm around her shoulders and took one of the pops from her hands.

"You got something against us being together?"

"None at all." Donna replied. "In fact just the opposite. We think it's great the two of you are together. We're just surprised that you're here."

"Well why shouldn't I be here? I came to see the girl I love." He brought Jackie a little closer to him.

The other three looked at him, shocked. "What?!"

"What? You got a problem with that?" Epstein asked before taking a sip of his pop.

"How can you possibly love her?" Eric asked. "You two haven't been around each other since the start of summer. Plus, she's scary and evil."

"Hey, Juan and I love each other." Said Jackie. "If you can't handle that then that's your problem. But you know what? I think you guys are just jealous." She looked at Epstein. "Come on, baby. Let's go someplace where people will appreciate our love."

Jackie and Epstein turned and brushed past them, heading out the door.

"Hey while you guys are at the jail, say hi to Hyde's mom!" Eric called after them before promptly getting punched in the arm by Hyde.

…

Kelso smiled brightly as he tossed the basketball in his hands. "Awesome!" He laughed. "That little guy from Brooklyn is here?"

Fez laughed and got off the hood of the Vista Cruiser. "And he's dating Jackie?" He laughed again, shaking his head. "I cannot wait to see this. Jackie and that dorky little guy."

"You know there are two little guys, right?" Eric said. "And one of them, I'm pretty sure can kick both your asses without breaking a sweat."

Kelso's smiled faded. "Wait I'm confused. Which little guy is Epstein? Isn't he the one with the weird laugh?"

"No. Horshack is the one with the laugh." Donna corrected. "Epstein is the one with the walk."

"Don't forget he can kick your ass." Hyde added.

"Hey now I bet I could take him." Kelso said hopefully.

Donna laughed. "Kelso you haven't won a single fight in your life. Besides, we're running out of eye patches."

"That is not true. I'm a good fighter." He looked down dejectedly. "Ok I guess I do keep hurting my eye. But that's only because Hyde keeps hitting me there."

"Yeah, so, if by some chance you were to fight Epstein, you'll want some way to protect your eye." Hyde said. "Seriously man, you'd think by now you would learn to defend your vulnerable spots."

"Yeah you'd think so!" Kelso said with a laugh in his voice.

"Well Epstein is actually pretty cool." Donna spoke up. "I got to know him better during those two weeks I was working in Brooklyn. If you stay on his good side, he'll have no desire to fight you." She explained. "Besides, he and Jackie are on their way over here. While he's here, I say we should show him a good time. Welcome him."

"Donna is right." Fez said, stepping forward. "We should treat our guest right. And if some reason he isn't happy during his visit, then maybe we can set something up so that he punches Kelso in the eye." He finished with a snicker.

"Come on now, Fez." Eric said, cautiously. "We don't need to get Kelso unnecessarily hurt here."

"Hold on, Forman." Hyde replied. "I say my foreign friend is onto something. We need to show Epstein a good time while he's here. Give him a little taste of what we do for fun. Which means, having him hit Kelso in the eye should be one of the highlights."

"As much fun as watching Kelso succumb to acts of violence is, I don't think it should be a top item." Donna said. "Now we should sit down and think about ways we can show Epstein a good time while he's here."

The group sat in the basement, surrounded by smoke. Donna scratched her head, a ditzy expression fixed upon her face.

"So what were we supposed to be thinking about?"

Eric, who shared the seat with Donna, looked at her part in a daze and tried to appear serious. "Come on, Donna. We need to focus. We need to think of fun things for Epstein to do while he's here."

"Oh!" Kelso exclaimed excitedly. "I know! We should introduce him to Laurie!" He nodded with a laughing expression. "She's always fun when I do her."

Eric leaned over to whisper something to Hyde. Hyde then reached over and punched Kelso in the arm. Kelso grabbed his arm in pain and let out an offended shriek.

"Rude!"

Hyde laughed. "I think it's pretty clear what we need to do."

"Oh!" Fez smiled. "We should take him to the Piggly Wiggly to get candy!"

Hyde looked at Fez with a disproving frown. "No."

"Why not? I think it's fun. Plus I need to go. Since I'm out of candy."

"We're not doing that, Fez." Hyde looked at the others. "What we need to do is what we're already doing. We already know he's down for it. He usually keeps one or two joints hidden in his afro for emergencies." Hyde laughed.

It was then when the basement door opened, causing everyone to look up towards it, partly in a frozen panic. They all laughed a bit in relief once they saw the two newcomers were Jackie and Epstein.

"What's going on?" Jackie asked, an air of offence in her voice. "You guys just couldn't wait until we got here to have your precious circle?"

Epstein looked around the basement, spying the smoke. "You mean you just now noticed what they were doing?" He shook his head a little. "I smelled it before we even reached the steps outside."

"Well then come sit, join us!" Hyde said. "You're never too late for a circle."

"Sure." Eric said while standing. "We can make room for both of you."

The others stood and rearranged their seating to make sure there was enough room for everyone to sit comfortably. Once seated, Epstein took Jackie and held her on his lap. He laughed a little as he looked at everyone.

"Hey now you guys weren't kiddin' when you said this is what you do for fin around here." His smile quickly became an expression of confusion. "But, ah, your folks don't mind you doing this in the house?"

"Nah." Eric waved it off. "I mean, well, they don't really know this is what we're doing. After all, my mom's still convinced that smell is incense."

"What about your dad?"

The others responded with grim comments, expressions, or by making some sort of motion that indicated that this was a dangerous territory to enter.

"Epstein, man," Hyde said while leaning forward in his seat. "Let's just say if Red ever found out what we were doing, he would come up with a fun new game. I believe he would call it something along the lines of, 'Guess how I'm going to stick my foot in your asses'."

"That bad, huh?"

"Bad?" Eric laughed. "That's just one of his good days. Trust me, when it comes to angering Red, don't."

Epstein nodded. "I see, I see. So what about your mom? What would she do if she found out?"

"Oh Kitty?" Donna said. "She's usually pretty cool. She might be disappointed. Maybe nervously laugh it off. Then she'll just try to ignore it and go bake some cookies or something."

"Yeah." Kelso said with a laugh. "And the real beauty is, you go upstairs with the munchies while she's baking the cookies, and she'll always let you have some of the batter. And if you complement her, she'll let you have an extra cookie."

Fez sat with a dreamy, blissful smile. "Ah, I could go for one of Miss Kitty's cookies right about now. And whatever she takes out of the oven." He finished by laughing at his own joke.

"Ok, ok, I got it now." Epstein said. "Don't mess with Red even on a good day. And, ah, be nice to Kitty and she'll give you a cookie." He smirked "And probably some action on the side." He laughed.

Eric looked at him in disgust. "Dude! That's my mom!"

"Juan you are so bad!" Jackie lightly scolded with a smile.

"Aw come on!" Epstein laughed again. "I ain't goin' after nobody's mom. I may go after lots of chicks. But moms are off limits. No matter how foxy they are."

"You should teach that to Kelso." Said Hyde. "He'll do anybody with boobs and a pulse."

"Hey! I have my standards." Kelso replied. "But I can't help it if women get turned on by my looks! It's a blessing and a curse!"

The others laughed and some of them threw things at Kelso. Though upset at first, Kelso let it go by joining in. This caused a small battle around the table as random objects flew through the air. Laughter followed, as well as the notion to start the circle again once things calmed down. It was during the circle when everyone agreed that Epstein, no matter how long his visit turned out to be, was a great addition. They just had no idea what Epstein had in mind for his stay in Wisconsin.