Disclaimer: I own nothing, just trying to continue spreading Christmas cheer.
Author's Note: Hey everyone! I've got good news and bad news. Good news, I updated! Yay! Bad news, this is not the last chapter as I was hoping for, this chapter was getting too long so I split it in two. More Good news: The final Chapter will be posted either Saturday or Monday I promise! It's that close to being done! Thanks for all the reviews and alerts and everything you guys, I will not let you down by making you wait too long for the last chapter. It'll be here before you know it! Oh wait was that bad news? Um anywoo thanks again and Enjoy!
"Alright." Donna said as she and Hyde, along with Eric walked away from the old projector camera, "Hyde and I set up the camera. It should work."
Eric cleared his throat trying to get his girlfriend's attention. However, Donna ignored him and sat back down on the floor. Hyde, on the other hand, noticed Eric and had to frown.
"Forman, kicking a box cause you couldn't figure it out what it was, is not helping." He said.
"Yeah it is!" Eric argued, "It made room for where to put the camera."
Hyde shook his head as Donna fought back a laugh. Jackie looked away from the old camera she had her eyes fixated on and turned towards Eric.
She tilted her head to the side, slightly, "You know Eric, I didn't think your parents were rich enough to afford a camera like this."
Hyde frowned at Jackie, for the insult towards their parents. Sure they weren't his blood parents, but they were his parents in every other way.
"Yeah well," Hyde began in his Zen tone, "maybe they returned a bunch of stuff and got enough to get the camera."
Eric saw Jackie glare at Hyde while Hyde kept his Zen expression. This would not go well. This was not what they had agreed on. They said no fighting. He had to stop them.
"And we're starting!" Eric quickly shouted before Jackie could say a word. He then walked closer to the camera and got ready to begin, "In ten…nine…eight…"
An impatient Hyde, got annoyed from the slow countdown, reached over and started the machine himself. All before Eric could reach four.
"Hey!" Eric exclaimed, but no one paid him any attention.
Their eyes were all on the white sheet that had been hung up over some boxes to create a screen.
"Down in front!"
Kelso shouted before throwing an old book at Eric. The book hit Eric right in the head and made him scurry to the open seat beside Donna.
After a few seconds of waiting, a black and white image appeared on the white 'screen.' It looked a lot like the Forman living room, the only difference was there was no yellow couch, no piano, no green pea coup colored chair, no nothing.
"Hey that's the living room!" Kelso pointed out his discovery.
Eric, along with the others, turned to look at Kelso. "Gee thanks for pointing that out, man."
Not sensing Eric's sarcasm Kelso grinned and nodded. Meanwhile everyone else went back to watching the movie, wondering just exactly was going on.
"You know," Jackie began as she continued to watch the shoots of the empty Forman house, "I think the living room looks better that way. It looks classier."
Donna frowned slightly, "Jackie, it's empty."
"I know." Jackie responded with a nod.
"Hey look," Laurie called out, "it's Daddy."
Sure enough a young Red Forman appeared on the screen. He had come out from behind the camera and came up close in front of it, as if he was trying to place the camera on an unseen stand.
"Oh, so Red was not always bald." Fez noted in an intrigued tone of voice.
The six heads turned to away from the home movie and over to Fez, a frown on each of their faces.
"Fez man," Hyde started to say, "you've seen like a thousand old picture of Red with hair."
Fez shrugged, "I thought it was colored in."
With a few eye rolls and a couple of shakes of the head, the group turned their attention back to the sheet. They had looked back just in time to see that the camera had been positioned to film the front door, where seconds later Red came through while holding Kitty bridal style in his arms. As they watched the happy couple on the screen, the girls—Laurie, Donna, Jackie, Fez, and Kelso—"awed" while Hyde gave a tiny smirk.
"Well that proves it." Eric said throwing his hands up in the air, "Dad use to be a nice guy until the aliens abducted him and turned him into the bitter old man he is today."
Donna slapped his arm playfully as everyone else ignored Eric's words and kept their eyes on the screen. After a few more seconds of watching Red and Kitty in their new home the film changed to a party that was being held in the Forman house. There didn't seem to be anyone the kids knew, not even Red or Kitty, just a bunch of smiling, laughing, drunk people.
"Great." Laurie said deep in sarcasm, "Now we can see the snooze fest in action."
"Yeah, where's the fast forward button on this thing?" Kelso questioned from his seat.
"Wait a minute you guys," Jackie began, "I think we should watch this. It could be interesting, if we get over the horrible clothes these people are wearing. And it must be important for Mr. and Mrs. Forman to film it."
"Fine."
"Ok."
"Whatever."
Were mumbled in response before they grudgingly went back to watching the movie.
For about a minute or two the screen displayed footage of nameless people enjoying themselves at the party. They were dancing, laughing eating, talking; but since there was no noise to the footage the actions just seemed boring.
"Ok, hurry up and find the dumb button." Jackie demanded, "They probably just didn't know how to turn off the camera."
Hyde smirked, "There's the Jackie we all know and…know."
Lucky for Hyde, no one caught what he had done. No one except Eric, who looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Hyde just scowled at him.
"What are you looking at, Forman?" he asked gruffly, "Look for the damn button."
Eric took one last look at his adoptive brother before walking over to the machine. He didn't put up any fight because he was hoping if he was on his best behavior he'd get his grades from Santa. It was a long shot but he was desperate.
"Hey that's me!" Laurie exclaimed happily as she pointed at the screen.
The recording of the 'boring' party had come to an end and another memory in the Forman house took over. It was of Kitty standing in the kitchen, smiling and waving at the camera before turning herself to give the camera better look at her pregnant belly.
Her ex-husband frowned as he followed her finger, "No it's not."
"Yeah., that's Mrs. Forman." Kelso scoffed, "And I like the picture I have of her now, she looks a little fat here."
"Yes." Fez nodded before realizing what his friend had said, "What do you mean you have? That picture is mine you sonofabitch!"
"It's mine!" Kelso argued
Fez glared back, "It's mine!"
"It's mine!"
"It's mine!"
The argument continued as background noise while the others kept their attention on Laurie's baby home movies. Even Eric had sat back down to watch the show, he told himself to do for the sake of his grades.
They watched as a smiling Kitty showed off the gurgling little baby in her arms. Then there was a shot of Red holding Baby Laurie, appearing to be singing to her. Some footage in the kitchen was shown as Kitty spoon-fed the now slightly older Laurie. And there was the clip of Red holding Laurie's hands as he helped her walk across the living room floor.
Laurie's baby footage was running longer than she would probably be in town. At last, Eric had had enough.
"Ok that's it." He said standing back up, "Where's that fast-forward button."
"Fine." Laurie replied with a shrug of her shoulders, "You were about to come out anyways."
"What?" Eric asked in a hopeful voice before turning around to the shot of Kitty, pregnant once again, standing in the living room.
Eric sat himself back down as the image of his much younger self was projected onto the sheet. He smiled slightly as he watched his mother cuddle him in her arms as she sat on the couch. A few seconds later little two year old Laurie climbed up to sit beside her. Little curly haired Laurie, leaned over her baby brother to kiss his forehead.
"Aw!" everyone said together, knowing it would annoy Laurie.
"Would you look at that?" Eric asked as he placed his hand over his heart and looked at his older sister, "Laurie does have a heart."
"Shut up." She ordered them all with a glare, "It was just because I didn't know what kind of dweeb you were gonna grow up to be."
Eric just smiled and titled his head to the side before turning back to the screen. He didn't want to miss his home movies. After all it was him and who knew how much footage his parents had actually shot of him.
Apparently more than he thought, but not more than Laurie.
Several footage of Kitty with Eric was shown, like her pushing Eric in the baby swing, her cuddling and cooing at him, there was also a clip of Kitty holding Little Eric on her hip and moving his left hand to wave at the camera before kissing his cheek. A few surprising shots were found of Red with Eric; like the one of Red bottle feeding Eric as he sat in his new arm chair. There was also an embarrassing clip of him playing with a doll while Laurie sat beside him with another doll in her hands.
"See, I told you he was not a cute baby." Jackie mumbled to Hyde causing him to chuckle.
"I remember that." Laurie shared as she watched the next home movie play on the screen.
It was in the Forman living room and it seemed to be some time close to Christmas. Red was sitting on the couch with three year old Laurie sitting on his left side and one year old Eric sitting on his right. In his hands was a book that he seemed to be reading from.
Eric smiled slightly, "Me too."
"Wow Eric, you must have a every good memory." Fez commented, some time during Eric's home movies his argument with Kelso had ended without being solved. "You were only a baby here."
"No, Fez." Laurie shook her head, keeping her eyes on the memory on the screen, "Daddy use to read us 'Twas the night before Christmas' every year."
"Yeah." Eric agreed, "Hey Hyde you came one year remember?"
"Oh yeah." Hyde answered after taking a few minutes to think it over, "Christmas at The Formans, more like Christmas at The Cleavers."
He laughed along with the others until he remember the situation they were in. He had to rethink his words; after all he doubted Ward and June would ever lock up Wally and the Beaver in the attic.
"Or it use to be like that." He added and the others nodded in agreement.
Jackie sighed happily as she watched the Christmas Eve scene, "That is so cute. I wish Daddy had taken more time to read to me like that. He use to but only when I was really little."
"What, you returned that for a pony?" Hyde asked causing Jackie to glare at him.
Not wanting an argument to break out, things were going so great now, Donna changed the subject.
"So why did Red stop reading?"
"I said I was too old for that." Laurie informed, sounding a bit sad as she said so.
"Yeah, and I was too afraid to be left alone with Red." Eric added, "Still am."
Suddenly the movie stopped and the screen showed nothing. No one had noticed Hyde standing up there, until the noise from the machine had quieted down. They looked over at him to find the movie reel in his hands.
"Hey!"
"Hyde!"
"I don't know about you guys, but I was getting a cavity from watching that stuff." Hyde stated as he began searching through the box of movie reels they had found earlier. "I remember this camera being around whenever I came over here. There's gotta be some stuff of us in here too."
"Is somebody getting jealous?" Eric teased his brother.
"Shut up Forman, and put this on." Hyde ordered as he practically shoved a metal tin in Eric's hands.
Eric did as he was told and then sat back down in his seat. The sheet remained blank for a few seconds before Red's den appeared—well the way his den looked in the sixties, though there really wasn't much of a difference. This time the film was in color. Inside the room were four people standing at the doorway that led into the dinning room.
Young nine year old Laurie, her blond hair in pigtails and wearing a summer dress—that was short for any girl but Laurie—sat on the arm of the chair with her arms crossed as she watched the people in front of her. A tiny seven year old Eric was smiling and waving at his father who was behind the camera.
Laurie smiled as she recognized the scene, "This is when Mom use to measure us on that dumb door frame."
"Man, you guys were corny as hell." Hyde commented as everyone else watched with a smile.
"Hey look Hyde," Eric called out as he pointed to the movie, "there you are."
Hyde turned his head back to the screen and sure enough there was his seven year old self looking just as Zen as he did today. He had to smirk at that fact, and his smirk grew as he took notice to what else was going on.
Kitty was standing beside him, her hair styled in a much different way than today. It was his turn to be measured as he stood against the door frame and Kitty pushed down his small fro just a bit before marking his height with a pencil.
Hyde smiled as he watched his surrogate mother clap her hands and smile as she showed him just how tall he was now. It was one of the many times that Hyde had felt like home there in the Forman house. He was glad the feeling was still every much alive.
"I don't know how I always got trapped into that." He said with a shake of his head. He couldn't have his friends knowing just how sentimental he was.
"Gee, I don't know." Laurie said sarcastically, "Maybe because you always made sure to come on the days Mom would measure us."
"You know those markings are still there." Eric informed before Hyde could say anything, "I'm surprised Red never painted over them."
"I bet he wanted to." Hyde added.
"Yeah, but Mom probably threatened to leave him if he did." Laurie added her two cents.
The attic was quiet as the gang watched the rest of the footage of the three Forman children getting their height marked. The next scene that appeared after that was of the Forman back yard.
It looked just as it did today, except the small tree in the corner had now grown several feet high. There was also the difference in that the backyard in the video was decorated with balloons, streamers, kids running around with birthday hats on their heads, and a big birthday banner that read 'Happy Birthday Eric!'
"Hey this is Eric's eighth birthday you guys." Donna stated as she watched the clip carefully, "I think we might actually be in this one."
"Yes!" Kelso exclaimed happily, "Finally something worth watching!"
"Yeah," Jackie agreed as she leaned in closer to get a better view of the movie, "I better be in this one or we're not watching any more."
There were tons of kids laughing and playing in the backyard, there were even a few adults standing or sitting around talking, but no one could find themselves or their parents. At last a familiar face was seen but only for a spilt second. It was Laurie who could barely be seen at the corner of the screen. She was talking with some unknown little boy before she took his hand and the two ran off behind the garage.
That earned a couple of laughs and a few comments, all of which Jackie ignored. Why wasn't she in the movie? Sure she wasn't exactly part of the group yet but none of them were, they were just a bunch of kids. She was a Burkhart and the prettiest of all those kids at the party, the camera should have been on her the whole time!
Just as Jackie was about to give up and order Eric to shut off the darn machine the person holding the camera moved it over to a shoot that caught Jackie's attention.
It was Red standing at a table with a tiny six year old brunette little girl standing in front of him. The little girl stood with her arms crossed as Red looked down at her with annoyed expression. The little dark haired arguing little girl was no other than Jackie Burkhart.
A smile was quick to make its way to Jackie's lips as she watched herself and Red on the screen. Little Jackie Burkhart was obviously as stubborn as today's Jackie Burkhart. Everyone watched as Red sighed deeply before reaching into the prize bag and pulling out a small stuffed bear and handing it to Jackie.
"See," Jackie said with a smile as she watched her younger self throw her arms around Red causing him to look just as annoyed as he did when ever she hugged him today, "I was always his favorite."
"His favorite midget maybe." Laurie threw out with a hint of jealousy in her voice.
"Look that's me!" Kelso shouted cheerfully as he pointed his finger at the screen.
Sure enough on the white bed sheet was a movie clip of a young Michael Kelso. He was sitting on the floor with his arm around a big brown dog sitting beside him. Both he and the dog seemed to be smiling as they wore matching red and white cowboy hats on their heads.
"Who's dog is that?" Eric asked.
"I don't know." Kelso replied with a shrug, his smile never leaving his face.
Back over on the screen was some footage of the couple who still managed to make everyone sick once in awhile—but in this clip they were actually funny. The birthday boy and his crush were by the swing set that had long ago been taken down. Donna was standing behind Eric pushing him with all her might, sending Eric higher and higher in the air. The look on his face clearly showed he was not enjoying this.
The group laughed at young Eric's expression as Donna continued for several more pushes, until finally stopping. The only reason for the stop was because Eric flew off of the swing in mid air.
"Donna hurting Forman." Hyde said with a smirk, "Seems like only yesterday."
"That was yesterday." Donna informed with a smile.
Eric nodded sadly as he looked down, "I made a very sexist comment."
The scene of Eric quickly standing up and pretending to act tough in front of Donna changed to a young Hyde wearing a smaller pair of avatar glasses and his same smirk, as he pushed a grinning Kelso around in a wheelbarrow. Kelso cheered and laughed as Hyde pushed him along until finally the trip ended as Hyde turned the cart over to the side sending Kelso to the ground.
"Hey look the best part of Forman's birthdays is coming up." Hyde called out as the picture on the screen changed again.
The camera showed Kitty walking out of the back door in the kitchen with a large birthday cake in her arms, leading everyone into a chorus of 'Happy Birthday.' The camera continued to follow her as she neared the table full of smiling kids and placed the cake in front of Eric who smiled largely.
Eric blew out all eight candles when the guest had finished their song. He looked up and the camera and happily smiled young Hyde saw this and decided to join in, placing his arm around his friends shoulder he smiled at the camera only to playfully push Eric's face into the cake.
The kids at the party and the grown kids in the attic laughed as Eric came back up with chocolate cake all over his face.
"Hyde man when are you gonna stop with that?" Eric asked as he watched his mother wipe the cake off his face while trying not to laugh herself.
Hyde smirked and shrugged, it was true he had been doing it every year since he'd know Eric. "Don't know man. Maybe once you get too old and can't hold up your head, that way you do it yourself."
"I'll be sure to mark my calendar." Eric said with a nod.
"Man, it's so cool that all of us are in that old movie and we're still friends today." Kelso shared out loud and everyone smiled and nodded in agreement.
Well almost everybody. Fez sat off to the side with his arms crossed and his frown very deep as he glared at them all.
"Ehem." He said trying to get their attention and failing, "Ehem!"
The six heads turned to look at him.
Laurie frowned slightly, "Did you want something?"
"Yes, I would like you sonsofbitches to see that I am not in there!"
"Wait, so Fez wasn't the dog sitting next to Kelso with the hat on?' Hyde asked jokingly.
Fez glared at his frizzy haired friend as the others laughed; except for Jackie. Jackie was paying close attention to the birthday memory still playing on the sheet, trying to find their foreign friend.
"Huh, what do you know." She said with a small frown, "You're not there, Fez."
"You're damn right I'm not there." Fez answered in a huff, "Because while all of you were off playing and laughing and stuffing your faces with," he deepened his glare, "cake and candy, I was off fighting for my food from a lion."
The room went silent at Fez's seriousness. A few seconds passed before Kelso spoke up.
"You missed one heck of a part." He said with a dopey grin and the others soon nodded along.
Author's Note: There you go Chapter 20 of 'Stuck with You" the one before the last. Hope you liked!
BTW I am no expert on the whole home movies deal, so please don't get mad if I got anything wrong. My oldest home movies are on those little cassettes. I loved up some old videos on youtube and found film like this, and I have seen an old projector on Christmas Vacation (Scene that inspired story) and long ago when my dad brought one home. Who knows where that's at probably in our attic.
The song for this chapter was picked because at last it seems that our basement gang is now having a Merry Little Christmas—despite being locked in the attic.
Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, stay tuned, take care, have a nice day and remember only 339 days till Christmas!