Saturday January 13th 1980
A whole week had passed and Jackie and Hyde didn't get into any kind of arguments. They actually tried talking to each other and even listen to one another. The whole gang was thrown off.
Jackie and Donna were hanging out at Jackie's apartment. It was early afternoon.
"So how's the new job going?" Donna asked Jackie.
Jackie looked over at the red head baffled she didn't want to talk about Eric. "Oh my god Donna it's so awesome! I think I was like born to do this! Born to shop and report on bad customer service! Haha! Plus, I'm making a butt load of money! Just this week I made $600!" Jackie said practically jumping up and down.
"Whoa! $600! That's amazing! I think you're making like more than everyone else now." Donna said completely surprised and kind of angry at the thought that Jackie just started this job and she's making a ton of money.
"Yea I know!" Jackie said smiling ear to ear. She saw Donna's face she was looking defeated. Something else was going on. "How are you and Eric?" She asked concerned.
"I dunno. One moment we are fighting because he tells me I'm the reason he left Africa in the first place and now he has no money for school and then the next we are having sex on the basement floor." Donna replied downtrodden.
"You guys sound like me and Steven when we were together."
"I feel like that too. I dunno what to do Jackie but I do know I don't want to feel responsible for Eric not having any money for school and I also don't want to wait any longer to go to school."
"Something has gotta give though if you want to keep being with him." Jackie said sounding so mature.
"Since when have you been the logical one?" Donna asked perplexed.
"Since I've done a lot of reflecting on my relationship with Steven."
"Huh, well what do you think I should do?" Donna asked sincerely.
"I think Eric needs to get a job here and save up some money for school so he can attend in the fall and you should wait just one more semester and go with him. Besides this will give you plenty of time to get more radio experience and for you to find a radio gig in Madison. Then you two can get an apartment in Madison together and live happily ever after. Like you originally planned." Jackie finished and shrugged with a face that said 'seriously you couldn't figure this out.'
"Huh, that actually sounds smart… logical… compromising… easy." Donna said looking at Jackie like she never had before. "Who are you?" She asked sarcastically.
"Donna like I told you years ago I'm a genius. It would have been so much easier if you had just figured that out then and not now." Jackie said with a matter of fact look on her face.
Meanwhile…
Hyde and Eric just finished packing up Hyde's car with his stuff. They walked back into the kitchen. Kitty standing there silently sobbing and Red at the table looking like nothing is going on.
"Oh come on mom, he's just going to be 10 minutes away, it's not like its Africa." Eric said sarcastically.
"I know. I know." Kitty said but kept crying.
"Besides, I'm still here." Eric said.
"That's true." Kitty replied her crying slightly subsiding.
She hugged Hyde and pulled away. Eric ushered her lightly into the living room. Hyde stood there staring at the door they just disappeared through. Red stood up and coughed lightly.
"Well I guess this is it." Hyde said looking back at Red.
"Yea. And I just want to say I'm proud of you. You know mostly cause you didn't end up in jail." Red said sarcastically.
Hyde smiled.
"Uhh anyway, this is for you," Red said handing him an envelope.
"Whoa! Red that's a lot of money."
"Yea, well I know you bought Packers season tickets for me to try and get me to stay when Kitty and I were talking about moving to Florida. So I sold half of them and got back all of the money you spent on them. I get tickets and you get your money." Red said with a smirk.
"Win, win. Thanks man." Hyde said.
They hugged. Red gave Hyde a light pat on the back. They pulled apart.
"Steven, just know you have a home here if you ever need it."
"Yea I know thanks Red."
"Yea well try not to get kicked out of your apartment."
Both the men laughed.
"Foreman let's get going man!"
Eric and Hyde headed to Grooves.
Fez and Kelso were hanging out at Grooves waiting to help move Hyde into his apartment. Hyde and Eric walk in each with a box in their hand. A pretty brunette walks up to Hyde.
"Are you Steven Hyde?" The brunette asked.
"Yea, that's me." He said setting down his box.
"Okay well I'm Debbie." The brunette said shaking Hyde's hand.
"Old Lady Rene's granddaughter." Hyde said with a small smirk on his face.
"Yea that would be me." She said not sounding pleased. "So as you know there are stairs that lead from inside your office up to the apartment and stairs on the outside. Here is the key for the outside stairs and this is the key for the inside stairs."
"Why two separate keys?" Eric asked.
"Grandma Rene didn't want hooligans to get into her place, she thought different keys would have helped. Apparently it didn't keep the noise out. Or the smell." Debbie said not looking pleased.
Hyde gave her a smirk and grabbed the set of keys.
"Let's go take a look shall we?" Debbie said walking towards the office where the stairs lead to the apartment.
The boys all followed Debbie. They walked up the stairs to a small hallway. The other stairs were directly across the landing with the apartment door directly in between the two. Debbie unlocked the door and then handed that key over to Hyde. She then swung the door open so everyone could walk in.
The boys entered and everyone's mouth dropped. When they opened the door they opened it up to a large living space, almost as large as W.B.'s. There was a reasonable sized television against the wall to their left. A coffee table sat in the middle between the TV and the large blue modern styled sectional. Slightly to the right of the couch was a yellow recliner. The pillows on the furniture were all stripped with yellow, orange and brown. An orange shag rug was laid out underneath it all. To the right was a wooden plated wall with a blue console table that matched the sectional, perched up next to the wall.
The boys continued to walk in. They passed the sectional to find a huge kitchen island. Three large orange lights dangled unevenly above the island. Three brown stools sat up against the island each had yellow cushions. The cabinets alternated between orange and brown with blue back splash. To the right of the kitchen and directly in front on the entry way sat a dinning/breakfast room table and chairs. The table was brown and the six chairs that surrounded were blue with yellow cushions.
"Where is the bedroom?" Eric asked completely bewildered.
"The two bedrooms are over to the left." Debbie replied pointing to the hallway on the other side of the sectional where there were three doors.
They all shuffled over and started with the door on the left. They opened that door up to the guestroom. A green bed sat to the left perched up against the far wall. There was a brown side table that set next to it with a mirror and brown dresser drawers on the other side of the bed.
They closed the door and opened up the middle door that was in the hallway. It was the guest bathroom. Full bath with a sink, and a big counter with cabinets underneath. They shuffled back out and opened up the far right door in the hallway.
That lead to the master bedroom. It was large with a king sized bed on the far wall. That wall was bricked. There sat two side tables on either side of the bed. On the wall to the left was a huge picture of Led Zeppelin with smaller band pictures surrounding the large Led Zeppelin picture, all framed. The whole room was dressed in black and red. To the right was the door to the large bathroom. That bathroom had a large bath and large glass shower. To the right of the shower stood a large mirror that was displayed over two sinks.
They all shuffled out to the living room and what they didn't see on the other side of the dinning/breakfast table was a sliding door that opened up to a large patio with patio furniture perched on top. To the right of the sliding door was a small built in wet bar.
"And the coat closet is behind the front door. In case you missed it." Debbie replied.
"Man, Hyde can you afford this place?" Eric asked Hyde.
"Yea man. It didn't look like this before. I told W.B. that I was buying it- "
"Wait you bought it man?" Eric asked.
"Yea, I own Grooves might as well own this too. Anyway W.B. sent his interior designer over this past week and completely redid it." Hyde said.
"Yea and thank god too cause I have to say this a major upgrade compared to the horrible décor and interior design my grandma had up here." Debbie replied a bit bewildered herself at the space.
Eric kind of whispered under his breath. "Still man this space is damn big and you can afford it, are you sure?"
"Foreman I've been living rent free at your parents for years and it's not like I'm mister big spender. It gave me time to save up. Two weeks ago I gave Grannie Rene the down payment which is the whole reason she gave it up so quickly." Hyde said.
"What about the mortgage payments and utilities?" Eric asked.
"The mortgage payments are actually cheaper than what the rent would have cost and I can roll in the utilities into the Grooves payments saving me money there. And now that I own Grooves it's all profit man." Hyde said.
"Man what happened to you?" Eric asked.
"Nothin just making smart investments man." Hyde replied with a smirk.
"Alright! We should totally throw a party!" Kelso practically screamed out.
"Nah man! This is my place I don't want it getting trashed." Hyde said.
"Ahhh come on!" Kelso said.
"Yes come on Hyde!" Fez asked giving a pout.
"No!" Hyde said sternly.
Fez and Kelso looked at each other, "Please, please, please, please, please…. "
They kept going in sync for about ten minutes.
"Fine!" Hyde yelled out. "But not for a few weeks' man I want to get actually moved in first."
"Alright!" Kelso yelled.
"You got it!" Fez screamed.
Eric, Fez and Kelso made their way down the stairs into the store. Hyde and Debbie stayed back to sign a few papers.
Donna and Jackie walked into the store.
"Hey guys where's Steven?" Jackie asked the boys.
"Oh he should be down soon!" Fez said. "Jackie you have to see Hyde's new place! It is so beautiful!"
Hyde and Debbie walked down the stairs together and were talking. They said goodbye to each other. Hyde gave Debbie a hug and she walked out the door.
"Donna, who do you think that is?" Jackie asked.
"I don't know." Donna replied giving Debbie the eye when she walked out.
"That's just Debbie." Eric replied to Jackie's question.
"Who the hell is Debbie?" Jackie asked sounding a bit jealous.
Hyde walked up behind her when she asked the question.
"Jackie. Debbie is- "Hyde tried explaining who she was.
"You know what Hyde, it's okay. We are just friends. I don't need to know who you are dating." Jackie said putting a hand up.
"Jackie I'm not- "Hyde tried to explain again.
"Seriously! Hyde it's okay." She said to Hyde then turned to Donna. "I gotta get going. I'll see you later Donna."
Jackie practically ran out the door.
"Jeeze Hyde! You and Jackie just started to try and be friends and you're already dating someone new. You couldn't wait a few more weeks to give your friendship a try?" Donna asked angrily on behalf of Jackie.
"Donna, I'm not dating Debbie. She's just handling her grandmother's apartment stuff."
"So she's Grandma Rene's granddaughter?" Donna asked.
"Yea." Hyde said matter-of-factly.
"Huh, well you might need to tell Jackie that."
"I just tried and she cut me off before I could explain. Same old Jackie."
"No, No Hyde she isn't the same old Jackie. She's like mature. She just gave me the best advice about Eric and I earlier. She's really grown up."
"Wait, what advice?" Eric asked butting into her and Hyde's conversation.
"I'll tell you about it later but it's perfect." Donna told Eric.
"Really?" Eric said sounding surprise.
"Really." Donna replied sounding annoyed.
"You should talk to her Hyde." Donna said turning back to Hyde.
"Oh I know! Talk to her tonight at the party!" Fez said excitedly.
"What party?" Hyde asked.
"The one we are throwing in your new apartment." Fez said. "We just talked about it up stairs." Fez was smiling.
"I said we were could throw one in a couple of weeks." Hyde said.
"Noooo, I specifically heard tonight." Fez said.
"Yea man you did say tonight." Kelso said egging Fez on.
Hyde punched Kelso in the arm. "No I didn't man. We can throw one in a few weeks."
"Hey I've got an idea!" Donna said. "How about we throw a party for Jackie. You know for her getting that new job!"
The guys looked skeptical.
"We have never thrown Jackie a party or celebrated her birthday and she loves the attention. She would never expect it and it will probably get you back in her good graces and she will have no option but to believe you about Debbie. And we get to party!" Donna said mostly to Hyde but the rest of the guys were listening in.
"Let's do it!" Kelso said with the biggest excited smile plastered to his face.
"But where?" Fez asked.
"How about your place?" Donna asked Fez.
"Yes, but Jackie lives there." Fez said sounding confused.
"I'll take her out, 'cheer her up', while you guys set up." Donna said.
"Sounds great." Eric said.
"Okay Fez you are in charge." Donna said.
"What? Why Fez?" Kelso asked.
"Cause he's helped Mrs. Foreman throw parties before." Donna said. "Okay, we need decorations, food, people to invite." Donna contemplated for a minute. "Okay, Fez you go tell Mr. and Mrs. Foreman what's up. Ask her if she can help with the food, I'm sure she won't mind. Eric you go get the decorations. Kelso go invite some of her cheerleader friends, not all of them just a few. Hyde unload all of your stuff here and invite Leo and Randy. Have everyone over at 8 pm and not a minute later. Decorations and food should be up by then too. Okay everyone! Break!"
Donna got up and stormed out of the store.
Donna found Jackie at her apartment sitting on the couch looking miserable and eating ice cream.
"Jackie I thought you had somewhere to be?" Donna asked.
"No I just couldn't stand to be there with Hyde and his new girlfriend anymore."
"Jackie, don't you think that you would know that Hyde was dating someone especially since you guys have been hanging out so much this week?"
"I dunno Donna. He could have been hiding it from me. Oh I don't know what to think."
"Well I think we should get off this couch and get all dressed up. You can even pick out my outfit if you want. Then we will go to a bar for some happy hour!" Donna said standing up and trying to pull her off the couch.
"Ehhh I'm good here with my ice cream feeling stupid that I gave Hyde, once again, another chance at even a friendship with me."
Donna did not want to say what she was about to say but she knew this was the only thing to get her off the couch. "You are Jackie Burkhart! You are pretty, fun and damn likeable and you don't need any man!"
Jackie smiled but she didn't look like she was going to get off the couch.
"Come on, you can completely dress me up."
"Clothes, hair and makeup?" Jackie asked.
"Yea sure."
"Alright I'm in!" Jackie said jumping up.
They went into Jackie's room so she could get ready.