Disclaimer: That '70s Show copyright The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SINKING INTO THE GROUND

The junior and senior buses drove on the interstate, continuing the journey to Quartz Falls State Park. Susan Amborn had yanked Jackie onto her seat, promising a piece of class-A gossip. They were across from Patty Frumkin and Julie, whose face Jackie had glimpsed. It was full of a bliss that didn't belong to her. That was Jackie's bliss.

"This is an exclusive," Susan whispered in Jackie's ear, but Jackie tried to get a better look at Julie. Only Julie's fingertips, knees, and feet were visible with Patty blocking her from view.

Susan tugged Jackie's jacket sleeve, drawing her attention. "I don't have to tell you first, you know," Susan said. "I could spread it all over the bus, but I'm trying to be kind and give you the opportunity to dictate how this goes."

"How what goes?" Jackie's tone would not win her any congeniality awards, but her life had taken a frustrating detour. She should've been basking in new-relationship euphoria. Instead, she and Steven had chosen to spend their first full day as a couple apart.

"What I witnessed in the Fatso Burger bathroom." Susan tapped her temple. "As an investigative journalist, I'm always on the job."

Jackie inhaled deeply and suppressed her ego-slicing remarks. Susan worked on the school paper, writing the sports column. She was the first girl in Point Place High history to get that gig, and it gave her insider access to both the cheer squad and Vikings. But investigative journalist described neither her position on the paper nor her personality. Gossip monger fit her better.

"Technically, I should be talking to Valerie," Susan said and brushed her auburn hair from her shoulder. "She's got seniority on all levels, but this matter supersedes social standing."

She loved a good build-up. It obviously fueled a sense of self-importance, but Jackie's patience was a droplet of water. One more extraneous second, and it would vaporize. "Oh, my God," Jackie said to hurry Susan along, "this sounds big!"

"It's bigger than you can possibly imagine. Valerie took your ex by the balls—literally. But the question is: who's really leading whom on a wild goose chase?"

Susan fell silent, as if to let Jackie soak in the mystery, but Jackie glanced back at Julie. Her feet were resting on top of Jackie's makeup case. Jackie had wanted to grab it when she reboarded the bus, but Susan had grabbed her first.

"I don't know who's leading whom," Jackie said absently. She and Steven had chased each other in the dark, stumbling into thornbushes and rocky hillsides. But now that they were together, and the sun was up, they found themselves surrounded by hornet nests. "It's a problem we have to solve," she mumbled, and Susan began gossiping in earnest.

"She had him in his mouth from what I could hear," Susan said. "But she stopped halfway and whispered, 'I saw the way you looked at Jackie from the table. If you ever look at her that way again...' Michael screamed after that. She had to be squeezing his balls. I mean, what else could make a man scream like that, right?"

"Right."

Jackie slid the zipper of her jacket up and down. Valerie's insecurity was Michael's problem for now, but it could soon become Jackie's. From what Steven had told her yesterday, Valerie was beyond jealous. She was resentful, believing Jackie had stolen what belonged to her: athletic achievements, a father on the city council. She kept Jackie on the cheer squad as a means of control. Had gone after Michael to hurt her. Assaulted Steven to get more control over Michael and, ultimately, wound Jackie as badly as possible.

Only Jackie's mask served as any protection, that Steven disgusted her. But the moment Valerie learned she and Steven were in love, that protection would disappear.

Susan jabbed Jackie's side. Jackie's focus had drifted back to Julie, and Susan said, "You need to pay attention. I put myself at great risk to get this intel, positioning myself so my feet wouldn't be seen underneath their stall door. There's more you've got to hear."

"I'm listening," Jackie said, but her impulse was to jump up, shove Patty off Julie's seat, and take her place. To shake Julie until she repeated every syllable she and Steven had spoken to each other.

"You better be. The stall lock clicked open, and I rushed to the sink. Valerie came out, and if there hadn't been a line for the stalls, she would've spotted me. But Michael relocked the door as an old lady tried to get in. She shambled into the next available stall, and I went back to my listening spot.

"He started talking to himself..." Susan paused a moment. "Did he used to do that around you?"

Several memories rose in Jackie's mind. "Only when he was mad."

"So it makes sense. He was super mad, muttering about being teased and how he'd do it with whomever he wanted, especially if his own girlfriend wouldn't put out. I think he's going to cheat on her." Susan laughed. "Can you believe it, the homecoming king cheating on the homecoming queen?"

"Michael's as slippery as a bar of soap," Jackie said, but he'd already cheated on Valerie. With Jackie. "Try to hold onto him, to hold him down on anything, and he'll fly out of your grip and slide over the next girl."

"Loose grip for a loose guy..." Susan's backpack was under the seat in front of them. She pulled a notepad and pen from it. "'Want to Keep a Loose Guy, Keep a Loose Grip,'" she said aloud as she wrote in her notepad. "That'll make a great headline for my first advice column—didn't I tell you?" She twirled the pen in her hand. "The editor of the school paper promoted me. Now I've got two columns a week. It's a lot of responsibility, but..."

She rambled on about the paper as an ever-changing patchwork of yellows, oranges, and reds streaked behind her head. A forest of trees hugged the highway, visible from the bus window. That pane of glass gave Jackie a peek into the outside world, a reminder that life existed outside this bus. Outside her social circle.

She and Steven hadn't shared their first kiss as a couple yet, but love was so much more than the physical expression of it. It was building a life together based on trust, fidelity, and joy. Her parents' relationship had started on that foundation, but their choices had rotted it away. She and Steven needed to better than them. She had to have faith in him.

"So what do you want me to do?" Susan said.

"With what?"

"Wow..." Susan circled her pen in the air around Jackie's face. "Your fall really did do a number on your head, huh? Your attention's all over the place."

She wrote something down on her notepad, ripped out the page, and handed it to Jackie. "Valerie's boyfriend, Michael Kelso, is going to cheat on her," the note said. "She's withholding sex from him, and he's going to retaliate."

"This story," Susan said. "Do I bury it or spread it? Valerie'll have no idea who initiated the rumor, and she needs to learn that she's as vulnerable as anyone to the power structure she set up. But I can't keep your name out of it. Jackie Burkhart and Michael Kelso are practically synonymous at this school, which is clearly why Valerie's torturing him."

Jackie's chest hurt, as if stalactites had grown from her ribs and pierced her heart. People would talk about her, Michael, and the inevitably of them having sex again. The effect that might have on Steven was a huge liability, but people would talk more about Valerie's inadequacies as a girlfriend. Made public, Michael's impending infidelity would shift power in Jackie's social circle. The consequences could destroy Valerie inside and out, a fate she was working hard to create for Jackie.

"Bury it," Jackie said and crushed the note.

Forman stayed true to his word. He began putting up Hyde's tent while Hyde snacked on Forman's cinnamon cookies. Their school's campground was set apart from the most publicly used places of the 3000-acre state park. With around a hundred students, that was best for everyone. Trees scattered throughout the site offered some protection from the elements but not the cold—or from the crappy situation Hyde and Jackie had snared themselves in.

The cheer squad was building a small tent city at the opposite end the campground. It couldn't be any farther from the area Hyde and his friends had claimed. A regiment of trees stood between him and Jackie, as would over fifty tents. Spending quality time with her this trip would be a battle, one he was more than willing to fight.

He'd caught sight of her earlier as she got off the junior bus. He couldn't read much from her body language except that she seemed tired. But they'd all gotten up at the ass-crack of dawn and been on the road almost seven hours. Fatigue was a consequence of the the trip, not a sign she'd developed a concussion.

"Oh, shit," Forman said and passed a tent stake to Hyde. "Ms. McGee's doing the rounds over here. Act like you're the one erecting the tent."

Hyde pushed a breath through his nose. Forman still needed to work on his word choice, but his fear of Ms. McGee was entertaining. From how Forman described her, she was hardass like Red, but she was also twenty-five-years-old and could be considered hot for a teacher. Blond, in shape, nice rack. Maybe part of Forman's fear came from attraction, but she did nothing for Hyde.

No chick had since he'd fallen for Jackie.

He gave Forman the tin of cookies and crouched in the dirt. He'd play along, if only to keep from actually setting up the tent himself.

"Hello, boys," Ms. McGee said as she approached them. A canvas tote bag was slung over her arm. "That's a mighty large tent you're erecting."

"Ms. McGee—" Forman's voice cracked, and Hyde stifled a laugh. "I'm just giving Hyde a few pointers. My tent's set up. See?" He waved to his tent. It was next to where Donna was putting up hers, one provided by the park.

Ms. McGee's eyebrows rose. "Really? I wouldn't have taken you for a nature boy."

"Well, you know..." Forman patted Hyde's shoulder, "being in the Cub Scouts taught me a lot about wilderness survival and community."

"That's fantastic, actually." She rummaged in the tote bag and pulled out two tags and a permanent marker. "Come find me after you're done helping your friends. I may have an opportunity for you." She handed Forman the marker and tags. "Write your names on these and tie them to your tents. We don't want students getting confused as to whose tent is whose."

She moved on to Kelso, and Hyde tried to stand. Forman, though, pressed on Hyde's shoulder. "Stay down, you bonehead," Forman whispered. "She's not done with our section yet. Just put in that tent stake yourself."

Hyde plunged the stake through the tent's corner flap and into the ground. "This wasn't the deal, Forman. You and Donna are gonna fool around tonight thanks to me."

"In a teeny, tiny tent."

"Teeny, tiny is all the room you'll need, man." Hyde stood up and swiped the tin of cookies from Forman. Ms. McGee was hard to spot now. The trees blocked her from Hyde's eyeline, meaning he and Forman had to be blocked from her eyeline, too.

"Finish up, would ya?" he said, indicating unassembled parts of his tent. "With all the 'fun' activities we're gonna do, you're bound to say something to screw up your and Donna's good time." He plucked a cookie from the tin and bit into it. "You want me to help you out when that happens, then stick to the damn deal."

Forman grabbed a tent stake from the ground. "What crawled up your cranky butt?"

Hyde ate his cookie with slow, deliberate chews. Not being with Jackie had wrecked his cool. They'd climbed a rocky mountainside consisting of a mistrust and bad choices and managed to reach the top alive. But predators stalked them from hidden places, waiting for him and Jackie to expose their newborn relationship. He needed to get close enough to talk to her, to touch her, and make sure they were safe.

The sun had sunk below the horizon, but enough light remained to distinguish trees from air. Two instructors from the park had led the senior and junior classes to a wooded area, not too far from the campground. Coach Ferguson and Ms. McGee were present, too, but Mrs. Fletcher and Mr. Wilcox were MIA.

Lucky them.

Team-building exercises were hell, especially when they were supervised. Hyde couldn't mess with anyone. He'd have to play this straight, whatever it was, but with so many students clustered together—and with the darkness as a cover—he'd finally have a chance to find Jackie.

The senior and junior classes were split up, with about fifteen feet between them. All Hyde needed was for this exercise to start, and he'd use the distraction to cross the distance.

Students were chattering. Girls complained about the cold, and the guys griped about being here at all. But Coach Ferguson blew on his whistle, and the wooded area became silent.

"Hi, everyone! Welcome to your first lesson," one of the park instructors said, and Hyde resented him already. He sounded like he'd never had a bad night's sleep in his life. "The next few days will be full of challenges and adventure, and you'll need to rely on one another to get through them. That means ignoring your school's social strata and treating each other as equals, which you all are."

More than a few laughs burst from both classes, and the second instructor said, "Interesting. That's not the response we experienced from Ft. Anderson."

Boos replaced the laughter, and Coach Ferguson blasted on his whistle until they died down.

"You're juniors and seniors," the second instructor continued. "You should have solidarity between you. Ft. Anderson's group has been showing terrific cooperation so far." Her words were goading, and her tone shifted to match them. "Don't tell me you've let levels of popularity weaken you as a whole."

Confusion swept through the seniors, including Hyde. Classmates asked one another what was going on, like any of them had the answer. Others turned their heads, as if scanning the woods for spying devices. If the same phenomenon was happening to the juniors, Hyde couldn't tell, but these park instructors apparently had intel about Point Place High's student body.

The teachers. They were more observant than Hyde gave them credit for. They'd witnessed popularity empires rise and fall for years, and now they were trying to do something to change it.

"All right," the first instructor said, "we're going to pair seniors up with juniors, and you'll be led into the darkness two-by-two." He pointed to a denser part of the woods. "Whether you get lost or not is entirely up to how well you work together—"

"Excuse me," Donna said not too far from Hyde, "but that's, like, fifty pairs of kids. Are we gonna be doing this all night?"

"Not if you work well together," the first instructor said. "The more you cooperate, the faster this'll go."

"I am so relieved we already ate," Fez said beside Hyde. Their dinner had consisted of campfire hot dogs and potatoes. Not bad, but Hyde hoped the menu would vary from day-to-day.

He shoved his hands into his coat pockets. The night wasn't windy, but the air felt like ice. Jackie had to be cold, too, but she'd be sharing a top-of-the-line tent with Leslie Cannon. It would insulate her from the ground, and her sleeping bag would trap enough body heat to warm her up.

"Ft. Anderson finished this exercise in less than a half-hour," the second instructor said. "They're half as many students as you, but I bet you could beat their time if you band together. Should we get started?"

"Yeah!" students from both classes shouted. "Go, Vikings, go! Go, Vikings, go!"

The instructors pulled a senior and junior from the group and paired them up. They were little more than silhouettes, construction-paper cut-outs against the trees, and they disappeared into the darkness of the woods.

Jackie sucked in a breath as a hand grabbed at her coat sleeve. The park instructors just had to volunteer her first for this stupid, futile exercise. Worse, they'd paired her up with a someone who was evidently afraid of the dark. "Would you get off me?" she said when her partner's grip tightened. "The guy said we're going two-by-two, not arm-in-arm."

"Jackie?"

Her muscles tensed as Eric's voice entered her ears, but she wasn't entirely unhappy to hear it. At least the instructors had given her someone she could deal with.

"Don't spread it around," he said and let go of her sleeve, "but I'm glad it's you."

"You should be." Nothing existed in this park she couldn't handle, but they were losing time. She grasped his wrist and yanked him deeper into the woods.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"Winning." She used to be a Girl Scout. It was a fact she hid from everyone, but she could pitch tents, tie life-saving knots, and start campfires. Her "Ew, wilderness!" act was just that, an act, to fit in with the cheer squad. "How'd you end up getting picked first from your class?" she said. "You don't like standing out."

"I don't like being crowded by people, either. Or getting lost in the dark. When I was a Cub Scout, we had lanterns during night-time hikes."

She tugged him to the left, where the trees seemed to be less dense. "Shush!"

"I also don't like being shushed," he said.

She waved his wrist toward a lit patch of woods. "Don't you see that? It's light! That's the way out."

"It's too easy."

"No, it isn't. I've learned from experience that people make things way more complicated than they have to be. Let's go."

She increased her pace and maintained her grip on Eric's wrist, but he didn't fight her. He matched her speed as they ducked under thick branches and avoided tree stumps. Her foot sank into something soft, but she kept going. Whatever had just ruined her shoe would have to be dealt with later.

"Wait, Jackie. Wait!" Eric's fingers wrapped around her forearm, and he jerked her back.

"What—?" She tried to press forward, but he was stronger than he appeared. "Eric, there's no such thing as trolls or giants. No one's out to get us, okay?"

"Maybe no one but something. Check it out." He guided her a step forward and extended her arm straight ahead of her. Her gloved fingers hit a bramble. Its ends had to be sharp, and she backed up. "You don't want your face scratched, do you?" he said. "I think my cheek is bleeding."

She stiffened. Her mom had signed a permission slip, not a a Release of Liability form. "Whose genius idea was it to put a thicket in the middle of a dark forest?"

"It could be prickly pear, but it's more likely some kind of bush..."

"Enough with the botany lesson. How do we get around it?"

"This way."

He took the lead, and she followed, covering her cheeks with her free hand. If any part of her got scraped, this park and her school were getting sued, but the light brightened. The trees thinned out, and they arrived at a clearing.

Mrs. Fletcher and Mr. Wilcox stood in front of them, holding lanterns. "That was fast," Mr. Wilcox said, and Mrs. Fletcher raised a walkie-talkie to her mouth.

"I can't believe we did it," Eric whispered to Jackie.

"I can." She rubbed the top of his arm as warmth spread into her chest. For all the animosity they'd shared, she and Eric had a lot more in common than she thought possible. "Just don't spread it around."

The first victims had been in the woods for a minute, and Hyde used those sixty seconds to push through dozens of seniors. Bumping into people and tripping over their feet had taken up most of his time, but the path to the junior class was clear. A sprint across the gap would bring him fifteen feet closer to Jackie.

He eyeballed his target, a group of shorter students. It had to be made up of mostly girls, but a staticky crackle broke through the air, followed by Mrs. Fletcher's voice: "They're here. Repeat: they are here. Over."

Ms. McGee's silhouette raised its arm to its face. "So quickly?" Ms. McGee had to speaking into a walkie-talkie. "Over."

"Yes. Over," Mrs. Fletcher's voice said.

"Ten-four."

The second instructor laughed. "I did not expect that. Well, then, who volunteers to go next?"

"We all do!" Timmy Wilson shouted. "It's a trick! Go, Vikings, go!"

"Go, Vikings, Go!" the senior and junior classes shouted together. "Go, Vikings, go!"

Hyde remained silent, but he joined his class as it surged forward and merged with the juniors. They moved together like they did during a fire drill, not panicked but orderly. Darkness enveloped him when he entered the woods, and as the students ahead of him veered to the left and right, shouts of shock and pain reached him.

"Thicket!" someone yelled. "Sharp turn to the left! To the left!"

The line of students followed the instruction, but a girl directly in front of Hyde was too far to the right. He shoved her to the left, and a thorn scraped the top of his wrist. Another scar to join the rest.

The woods opened up into a clearing. It was lit by lanterns dangling from Mrs. Fletcher and Mr. Wilcox's hands, but Hyde couldn't see much else. Students leaving the trees were spreading out to make room for those who hadn't yet. He followed the girl he'd saved from a nasty scratch, but she spun toward him, and he cursed inside his skull. Of course it had to be her.

"You," Valerie said and cupped her cheek protectively, but he didn't react. Not even a shrug. Had he known her identity in the woods, he might not have saved her face. She was a predator, out to wreck whatever—whomever—she perceived as a threat.

Walking away was his best defense, and he strolled past her as his wrist stung. His cut was the least of his concerns, though. Jackie was in this crowd, and he searched for her unsuccessfully until the park instructors emerged from the woods, applauding.

"You finished this exercise in less than five minutes!" the first instructor said. "Who's the MVP, here? Who led Point Place High to victory?"

"I did!" Timmy Wilson said from somewhere.

"No! I did. With Eric."

Hyde's fists clenched. That was Jackie, and he maneuvered through the crowd as she continued to talk.

"We were the first pair to get through the woods, so we're the MVPs."

Forman and Jackie … the cosmos had a strange sense of humor, and Hyde chuckled as he pushed through student after student. His girl and his best bud should've killed each other in the woods, but they'd changed enough to work together. Or Jackie had seized control, and Forman acquiesced.

Either way, Jackie's brain seemed to be functioning normally. She'd had to think to do this exercise, and her current attitude suggested no sign of concussion.

A chant started up in the clearing: "Jackie and Eric! Jackie and Eric!" It was a sentence Hyde never thought he'd hear, but he moved faster. If he didn't get to Jackie now, he'd have to wait until tomorrow, but Coach Ferguson blew on his whistle, and the chant died out..

"It's time to get back to the campground, people!" Ferguson said. "We have an early-morning hike. Miles of walking ahead of us, so you better get some quality sleep!"

The senior and junior class groaned, and Hyde gave up his search. He and Jackie had lost tonight, but he aimed on taking advantage of tomorrow.

Jackie and Eric were school heroes. For the moment, at least.

Their victory in the woods had conjured a spirit of gratitude among their peers. Girls let Jackie be first in-line to use the park restroom, and when she found the toilet stalls occupied by Daddy Long Legs, girls used their shoes to run them off. She had hot water during her shower, a sink where she could brush her teeth, and energy left to spare.

She pulled her woolen hood over her wet hair and began the quarter-mile walk back to the campground. Her coat protected her well from the chilly night. She'd switched to it from her jacket at sunset, but her face was cold. She used her flashlight to supplement the park's bare-minimum lighting, clutched her canvas bag of toiletries close, but she would've preferred Steven's arms.

He should've been waiting for her outside the restrooms. He would have had they been able to talk, but their choices were separating them. They'd exalted fear over love from the start, worshiping it like some kind of god.

She considered searching for his tent, but finding it amid seventy others would take more time than she had. She'd just have to dream that he was holding her tonight.

The cheer squad was set up in the northwest corner of the campground. She shone her flashlight on different tent tags until she found her name and Leslie's. Leslie's tent was huge and insulated, but if Jackie got any sleep with the raccoons and skunks scurrying around, it would be a miracle.

Once inside, she changed into her silk pajamas, braided her wet hair, and put on a pompom hat. A beauty queen she wouldn't be in the morning, but she'd still be prettier than most.

She was already snuggled in her sleeping bag when Leslie arrived. "This has been some day, huh?" Leslie said. Her hair was wet, too, and fell onto her shoulders in ropey strands.

"Mm-hmm," Jackie said as her eyes drifted closed.

Leslie's movements jostled the tent a little. She must've been preparing for sleep herself, but instead of doing so silently, she gossiped. Sharon Wheeler got wounded by the thicket. Band-Aids now covered her forehead. Neil Rooney hadn't broken anyone's stuff for days, and it could mean bad news for the Vikings. Coach Ferguson was seen sneaking off the campground—

The tent shook more wildly, and Leslie screamed. Jackie sprang up, heart pumping hard as Leslie shouted, "A bear! A bear's outside the tent!"

"It's just one of the jocks being an idiot," Jackie said, but she grabbed her flashlight. If a bear were outside their tent, hopefully she could blind it.

The tent's front flaps opened, and Valerie's face appeared in the beam of Jackie's flashlight. The sight was as scary as any bear, but Valerie ducked inside the tent, and the chill of night came with her.

"Jackie," she said, shielding her eyes, "get out."

Jackie turned off the flashlight. "Excuse me?"

"Get out!"

Valerie unzipped Jackie's sleeping bag, and her long fingers wrapped around Jackie's ankles. Jackie held onto the flashlight and tried to find traction with her free hand, but she glided over the tent floor. Valerie was dragging her outside.

"What the hell?" Jackie shouted as Valerie cast her into the cold. The tent flaps zippered closed. Jackie went for the outer puller, but the zipper wouldn't open. Valerie must've had a grip on the inner puller, waiting for her to slink off.

Jackie crouched in front of the tent, shivering. One strong bash of her flashlight, and Valerie would let go, but Jackie stood up. She couldn't risk breaking Valerie's fingers. That would be the same as committing social suicide.

Leslie's head popped out of the tent. "Jackie," she said. "I'm sorry. I can't let you back in. This is serious. I'm sure one of the other girls'll let you share their tent."

"Leslie!" Jackie said, but Leslie disappeared inside the tent and zippered it shut.

Bitches. Jackie's social circle was full of them, but if she showed any weakness, she was finished.

The teachers' tents were at the center of the campground. They could fix her current situation, but that would put her in a worse one tomorrow. Not that she wanted to sleep outside. Her pajamas, wool socks, and pom-pom hat weren't enough to keep her warm. The temperature was supposed to hit the low thirties tonight.

Her only way back into Leslie's tent was to force her way inside and beat Valerie's brains in with the flashlight. Turning the cheer captain into a drooling vegetable might cement Jackie's place on the cheer squad, but it would also land her in prison.

Shivers wracked her body. Fear had put her in this position, but she was sick of acting on fear. She had a warm place to sleep tonight, but only if she claimed it.

Trees were scattered everywhere. Bumping into one could knock out her teeth or give her an actual concussion, but she dug her feet into the dirt and sprinted across the campground. Most everyone was in a tent by now. Only a few stragglers were left, but Steven wasn't among them. She shone her flashlight on tent tags as she sped by, but none of the names written on them were his.

She reached the southeast corner of the campground. The last cluster of tents was set up here. They had to belong to her friends; otherwise, she'd freeze to death. Her neck, shoulder, and back muscles were a tense knot. Her feet were so numb that every step felt like sinking into the ground, but her flashlight lit up Fez's name on a tent tag. Michael's was next, followed by Donna's, Eric's, and finally Steven's.

Being found in a tent with a boy by the teachers would mean suspension, but Jackie's fingers, toes, and nose were about to fall off. Icicles had to be forming on her eyelashes, but she grasped the front of Steven's tent, ripped open the flap, and thrust herself inside.