Author's Note: The final chapter for this story. But...I am working on another story (Jackie and Hyde centric) that I am really looking forward to sharing with you. But for now, please enjoy this final chapter. Thank you to every one who has taken the time to read my story and/or review. It really means the world to me.

"I can't believe school starts tomorrow," Jackie muses, lost in thought.

"That's tomorrow?" I ask her. Apparently time had gotten ahead of me.

"Yeah. I'm surprised Mrs. Forman hasn't been on your case. And Eric's, for that matter. Plus you should be excited," she gasps suddenly and turns to me. "You're going to be a senior. Oh!"

I still couldn't believe that school was starting tomorrow. The last few days had happened so fast. First, Forman had returned with Donna, Kelso in tow. Suddenly, Jackie and I started spending a lot more time together at her house, which is where we were now. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it turned out not to be too bad. After all, it gave us the opportunity to fool around without having to worry about our friends. And then there was the food.

The first day we spent at her house, she had also invited me to have dinner with her and her dad. Apparently she had tried working things out with him and part of their new arrangement was that she would come home for dinner every night. So she had asked me to come over that first night, nervous and thinking that having someone else there would make it easier. If it were anybody else, asking for any other reason, I would've said no. And I would never admit it, but moving in with Bud for that short time would have been a lot easier if someone had been by my side. So for this reason, I had told Jackie yes.

And then I had spoken with Leo right before that dinner while working in a few hours at the FotoHut.

"I better get going, man," I had checked my watch. I had known that I'd need enough time to go home and change out of the dirty, wretched old clothes I had been wearing.

"Where you going?" Leo had asked curiously.

Leo was the only one I had meant to tell about Jackie. Unfortunately, a few other people had found out too. But Leo was always so out of it, that with him I felt I could speak freely, if only so I could understand this thing with Jackie better.

"I'm having dinner at Jackie's house," I had admitted to Leo.

Then Leo had turned to me and gave me a strange look. "Well its about time."

I had stood there, momentarily stunned for a moment. A moment long enough that Leo had probably forgotten what it was we had talked about. Still, I had asked him.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He had dropped the pictures he had been holding to turn to me again. "I mean…you've been dating loud girl for so long. You're only having dinner with her just now, man?"

"Leo, its only been this summer," I had corrected him.

"Really?" Leo had looked baffled. "Huh, then who was that girl that you went to jail for? Or that girl you took out on Veteran's Day?"

Then it had been my turn to be baffled. For a confused man, Leo's head could also be really sharp.

"Well, that was Jackie but…" I had fumbled for an explanation. "We weren't together back then."

"Really," Leo had seemed lost in thought then. "Well, you could've fooled me. But…it is pretty easy to fool me."

I had thought about that for a moment. But Leo was wrong. It wasn't that I had fooled him into thinking I liked Jackie, it was that I had failed in fooling myself that I hadn't liked Jackie.

But I had liked Jackie, yet at the time I couldn't – wouldn't – believe it. But I knew now. And this time, I would admit it to myself and no one else that I did in fact, like Jackie.

That's why that night, after dinner and an evening filled with pretending we were just friends, I had kissed Jackie before I left, only slightly worried that Jackie's dad might've been watching.

And although I never found out whether or not Jackie's dad had found out about us, it wouldn't matter so much when no too much later Forman, Donna and Fez caught us. And that's when we found ourselves hiding out at Jackie's house again, although for an entirely different reason.

"Yeah, a senior," I say now, thinking about what Jackie said. "If it is anything like last year I might as well go to hell now," I mutter as we take our seats in her living room.

"Oh, is junior year really that bad?" Jackie turns to face me, worry written all over her.

"Huh? Oh, no. Sorry, I didn't mean school," I almost forgot Jackie was only a junior this year. She had been taking higher level courses throughout all of high school.

"Then…what?" she tilts her head to the side. I shrug it off. "Please tell me," she widens her doe eyes at me.

"Just a whole bunch of crap," the words were out of my mouth before I realize I've said anything. Jackie is silent, so I continue. "I lost both my parents last year, Jackie," I explain, keeping my voice neutral.

"I know," she says softly. If it were anybody else I would be cringing at this sympathetic gesture. But with Jackie, it was different. I wasn't sympathy, just understanding. "I hope you don't mind my asking. But whatever happened with Bud?"

I glance down to find my hand entwined with hers. I hadn't even noticed until now. "He took off with Edna."

Jackie is quiet for a long time. And then, just when I am about to say something to break the tension, she snaps back into her normal snarky, sassy self.

"Well, it's their loss," she flips her hair of her shoulder and smirks.

"Jackie," I urge her to stop, but when I look up at her open, smiling face, I know that I'd let her have this moment, just this once.

o-o-o

Having a mother who worked for some time as lunch lady in a high school cafeteria could make you refuse to ever touch that food again…especially if that mother was Edna. So I dropped my limp salad on the table and shoved it toward the middle as Forman and I took our seats.

"School cafeteria food. One of the many reasons I love high school," I sigh, unable to hold back my sarcasm.

"My favorite part was Donna, but now she's not even here," Forman grumbled into his Styrofoam lunch tray. Then his smile turned as sarcastic as my own. "Instead I'm stuck with the abomination known as you and Jackie."

"Shut up, Forman," I growl at him as I retrieve an apple from my backpack.

"No. Now that we're all back and school started…you've got to end things with her," he becomes desperate.

"Why don't you just let me make my own decisions, got it?" I say with a note of warning in my voice.

The conversation ends there, however, as Kelso and Fez join us at the table. Fez glances warily at his food, but begins to eat it anyway. Kelso looks annoyed as he looks to me and Forman.

"You'll never guess who I got for Homeroom this year," his words carry over the sea of voices and the echoes against the cinderblock walls. "Mr. Barry…who had my brother when he was in high school. So he already has it out for me. He wouldn't even let me throw pencils into the ceiling," Kelso whined, almost on the verge of tears.

"Ah, Kelso. See this is why I traveled halfway across the world. Nobody knows me, so nobody has it out for me," Fez smiles.

I'm about to tell Fez my thoughts about that claim when a huge – and I mean huge pile of binders slams against the table beside me, followed by a moping Jackie.

"Did any of you have Mrs. Eldridge for English last year?" she looks across the table to each of us, her gaze lingering longest on my own. I do my best not to smirk.

A beat later Forman speaks up, clearing his throat and forcing her gaze from mine. "Yeah, Hyde and I had her last year."

We did? Huh. "That was her name?" I had very few memories of eleventh grade English class.

"Yeah, well, she already assigned us a book and a paper we have to write on it. She's only giving us two weeks," Jackie explains as she pulls out her lunch box.

"What book?" Forman prompts.

"Um," I turn to watch her as she pulls the book out of her purse. I instantly recognize the cover. "Fahrenheit 451," she drops it on the table between us.

"Oh, I remember that paper," I nod my head, picking up the book and flip through the pages.

Forman pokes me in the arm and smirks. "Yeah, man, it was the only paper you did for that class."

"It was the only book worth reading," I refute.

"Because it was the only book that you had already read?" Forman says knowingly and I wave him off.

"Like I said, it's the only book worth reading from that class," I turn back to Jackie and hand her the book. "Here."

"Wait. You had already read this before you had to for school?" Jackie catches on immediately. She looks to me for conviction, but when she sees I'm not saying anything she leans forward to look at Forman on my other side.

"It's a book about government oppression. Of course Hyde has read it," Forman nods.

"Aw, I don't want to read a book about the government," Jackie stares down at the book in her hand, suddenly repulsed by it.

"That book's not about the government," Kelso 'helpfully' pipes in, rolling his eyes. "It's just about a bunch of crazy dudes who burn books for a hobby."

"No, Kelso man, its about censorship in the day and age and the government's role in suppressing free-thought. Their typical means of doing this is through burning the books. It's not a hobby," his stupidity was more than I could handle sometimes.

"And there he goes," Forman gestures to me. "Thanks for setting him off Kelso," he adds.

"Let me see that," Fez reaches and Jackie willingly hands him the book. "Fahrenheit 451…what's so special about that temperature?"

"It's the temperature that paper burns at," I explain it to him. His ignorance was more tolerable then Kelso's stupidity most the time. Like right now.

"451?" Fez laughs and shakes his head. "Oh, you silly Amedican's should just convert to the Celsius scale."

"And now we lost Fez," Forman continues.

"Fez, the Celsius scale was made for people who only know how to count to 100. Everybody knows that. Just like everybody knows that those guys just secretly enjoyed burning things," each word of out Kelso's mouth made me wish I was close enough to hit his arm. If only.

"And…there goes Kelso," Forman nods.

After quite a bit more good-natured bickering and fooling around, the bell rings, signaling the end of lunch. At this point Kelso and Fez are arguing over who is going to get to put the whoopee cushion on Mr. Cole's chair this year and Forman was moping about Donna. Again.

I turn my attention to Jackie as we file toward the front of the cafeteria where a bottleneck has already formed as everyone rushes to make there next class before the bell.

"Hey," I tell her.

A smile breaks across her face and she shakes her head at me. "Hey," she parrots back at me.

I can tell she wants to say more, and so do I, but not only would Kelso see us, the whole school would. "Well, this sucks," I mutter.

A small laugh escapes her throat. "Yeah, well…" she shrugs. "There's nothing we can do about it though."

I turn back to our friends. Kelso and Fez had moved on to poking each other and Forman was struggling with pulling his schedule out of his backpack, so I shift my gait so that I fall into step with Jackie. Maybe there was nothing we could do about it, but I could do this. So I do.

o-o-o

"Guess what guys," Kelso sloppily dropped his lunch tray on the table. "Today I finally got a pencil stuck in the ceiling. Mr. Barry was so mad that his face turned as red as the detention slip he gave me," Kelso waved it proudly in the air.

"Nice," I appraise the slip. It had to be a record. Only one week into school and already a detention slip amongst one of us misfits.

"You guys," Jackie's shrill voice arrives seconds before she does. She flies into her seat next to mine, her cheeks flushed with excitement. "The back to school pep rally is this Friday."

"Yippee," Fez is the only one to express enthusiasm.

"Steven, you have to go. I'll be cheering," she clutches my arm.

"Jackie. You know I don't do pep rallies," I warn her.

She starts to pout. "But I'll be cheering."

Kelso pipes in. "Yeah, Steven. Your girlfriend is cheering. You have to go," he grins wickedly at me.

"This is getting real old, Kelso," I grind my teeth. Ever since finding out about me and Jackie, Kelso had been doing his best to be as miserable about it as he possibly could.

Forman finally arrives at the table, just in time for Jackie to speak up again.

"Yeah you're one to talk, Michael. You never came to the pep rallies for me when I was your girlfriend," Jackie crosses her arms and scowls across the table at him.

"Well that's because I always had something better to do," Kelso explains.

I couldn't believe what an asshole Kelso could be. In my periphery I see Jackie purse her lips and nod sadly. Then she turns to me.

"So I guess you are going to have something better to do too?" she says, disappointed.

I glance back at Kelso, at the cocky smirk spreading across his face. I would wipe it right off if I could. There was no way I was going to be like Kelso.

"No," I turn back to Jackie. "I'll be there, okay?" I tell her softly.

"Thank you, Steven," her eyes light up instantly and she reaches forward to kiss my cheek.

"You know what? We all should go to the pep rally," Forman pipes in. Kelso glares at him. "No. I just got off the phone with Donna, and she was saying that she wanted to go so she could see some of her other friends from the newspaper and stuff."

On the second day of school, Forman had taken to the payphones right outside the cafeteria where he discovered that he could call the ones at Donna's Catholic school where she was having lunch at the same time. Now, every day he spent the first half of lunch on the phone with Donna before joining us at the table.

"I think that sounds like a great idea," I tell Forman with exaggerated enthusiasm. Then I look over at dumbfounded Kelso who is glancing back and forth between Forman and me.

"Oh this is so exciting. You're all going to be there to see me cheer!" Jackie bounces in her seat, clapping excitedly.

When the bell finally rings, Kelso is down in the dumps, but he basically deserved it. Forman looked happier than he had all week, and Fez on the other hand, was already planning how he was going to avoid the football team at the pep rally.

"Hey," I turned to Jackie falling in step with her, like I'd been doing every day for the past week.

"Hey," came her usual response, along with her small smile. She bumped my arm with her shoulder as she shifted her books from one arm to another.

That's when I did something that wasn't part of our usual routine.

"Let me carry those for you," I hold out my hand.

"Really?" Jackie looked up at me, earnestly surprised. "Thank you," she said genuinely.

I took the books for her, then wrapped my free arm around her shoulder, no longer caring what anybody else thought; that was too exhausting.

"Thank you," Jackie says again.

"For what?" I ask her this time.

I feel her shrug under my arm. "I don't know. Just for being you, I guess."

I don't have a response for that. No one had ever thanked me for just being myself. It was strange, I'd admit. But I had a feeling I could get used to it.