Title:  Summer Exploits

Author:  Anni

Email:  [email protected]

Rating:  PG-13 mostly, but there will be some chapters of higher ratings due to sexual situations.

Summary:  This'll be a series of maybe 11 to 13 standalones following the gang and J/H during that summer between seasons 4 and 5.  It'll mostly be told from Jackie's third person POV (if that makes any sense), except for the chapters that aren't.  Those'll be from other people's POV.  Yeah.

Disclaimers:  Topher Grace is yummy, but I don't own him.  Or anything else involving That 70s Show.  Please don't sue me.

Feedback:  I'll forever think you're pretty if you feedback.

Distribution:  Please let me know.

Notes:  I started this story back in February, but the disk that it was saved on was stolen, so the first four chapters will be rewrites.  I've been majorly blocked on my writing for quite some time, so I'm just using this as a fun thing to get myself back into the flow.  It's not actually betaed, but I did get a nice thumbs up from the ever talented Tania (tanner).  She's nice.  It's supposed to be mostly humor, but I haven't written humor in awhile, so I don't know if it's funny.  And I've probably babbled enough, so here's chapter one which is pretty much just a set up chapter for the rest of the story.

One:  Cleaning Up….

Jackie flopped unceremoniously back onto the soft pink comforter that covered her bed.  Her feet were aching in the tacky high-heeled sandals that she was forced to wear for her job.  It was only a week into the summer and already she was sick of the eight hour shifts she had agreed to work.  She had thought that with the extra free time that came with summer, she could work more hours, and therefore, have more money to spend on her and Michael.

Michael.

All of her summer plans had been wrapped around him, around the things that they would do together.  Apparently, and this was news to her, her plans were subject to change by other people because Michael had wiped them all away without so much as looking back.

She groaned deep in her throat, willing the soreness out of her feet as she kicked her shoes off, not bothering to watch where they landed.  Her eyes fluttered shut, and for just a moment, she let herself bask in the anger that filled her stomach every time she thought about him.

How could he have done this to her?  After telling her that he loved her, after proposing to her and promising to spend the rest of his life with her, how could he just leave?  There was no good-bye, there was no note, there was no thought of how much this would hurt piled on top of all of the rest of the hurt their relationship had given her over the last six years.

He wasn't worth this.  He wasn't worth spending all of her time thinking about what she did wrong and what she could have done to make him stay and to make him love her.  If she wasn't worth so much as fricking good-bye, then he definitely wasn't worth wasting away her summer, boiling under this anger.

So, why couldn't she move past it?

She had had no problem hating him after their last break-up.  It had hurt, especially when he had started dating Laurie, but in the end, it hadn't taken her all that long to move past him and onto something new. 

So, why was she holding on so much now?

Pushing herself up into a sitting position, she told herself that it had only been a week.  You didn't get over the love of your life in just one week.  It took time.  There were steps, and all sorts of grieving and acceptance you had to get through.  It was a process, not just a quick fix.

Jackie leaned across the bed to the nightstand, picking up the large picture frame that sat there.  It was a picture of them at the Snow Prom, just before she had learned that she had not won the title that she so much deserved.  A flash of anger shot across her expression as she remembered that that was also just before he and stupid Steven had drawn her that horrible unibrow.

Pretty girls shouldn't ever have to deal with humiliation like that.  But it seemed like all her relationship with Michael ever brought her in the end was humiliation.

No.  Screw that.  Screw the process.  She wanted a quick fix.  She wanted this whole grieving thing to be over so that she could get on with her life just like he had.

Jackie tossed the picture down on to the bedspread.  She propped her head up on her hands as her eyes scanned over the expanse of her neatly kept room, searching for something that she could do to bring about the quick fix that she so desperately wanted.

Her eyes stopped at the large bulletin board that hung over her chest of drawers and all of the photos that were pinned into the cork.  Her gaze switched to the array of magazine pinups that surrounded the board, and the cutout of Michael's underwear shoot that he had taped up.  From there, she looked down at the surface of the chest of drawers and found the Cosmo that was supposed to have solved all of their problems in the first place.

And then it hit her.  She couldn't get over Michael because she was surrounded by him.  He was everywhere that she looked.

Panic hit her like an anvil and the need to get him out of the sanctuary that was her bedroom became over whelming. 

She sprang up from her bed, the soreness in her feet momentarily pushed away, and raced toward the closet.  After a moment of digging through the recesses of clothes and shoes, she found it:  her special Michael box.  It was a tradition.  After each break-up, she had taken out this same shoe box, wrapped up in pretty pink flowered wrapping paper, and stuffed it full of all of her Michael things.  It helped before, and it would help now.

Heading over to that bulletin board, she pulled the taks free, dumping them into the trash can.  Each picture came down and was tossed carelessly into the box.  Across the expanse of her chest of drawers were other tiny gifts that he had given her over the years:  the rubber chicken for their first anniversary, a chatter mouth from the fair, a pair of disguise glasses, a yo-yo, a cheap trinket box full of super balls, and then, a plastic bag full of tiny, green army men.

"Moron." 

Opening her jewelry box, she pulled out the earrings.  It had been his Valentine's gift to her, and at the time, she had seen it as the surest sign that they would be together forever.  He was maturing; he was putting her needs and wants before his own.  They had talked about someday having kids together.  She remembered being so happy that day.

Placing the lid tightly on the box, Jackie backed up until she felt the edge of the bed pressing against her calves.  She dropped heavily down onto the mattress and glared.

All that she new of love stuffed into a prettily wrapped shoe box.

The knot in the pit of her stomach wasn't going away.  She'd been here before, heartbroken and lonely.  She had stuffed all of those things in her special Michael box before, and she had told herself each of those times that she would never let him do this to her again.  Yet, here she was, and he had done it to her again.

As much as she wanted to believe that putting all of his stupid little gifts into a stupid little box would make all of that pain go away, she knew that it wouldn't work.  It hadn't worked before, and it wouldn't work now, but she knew that no matter what, she didn't want to be back here again.  She didn't deserve to feel this way again.

Her eyes began to water as she looked around the room and a flood of memories washed over her.  This was the room that she had first given herself to him in.  There was the Bowie dancing, preparing for the Miss Dairy Pageant, the sleepover where he had been dreaming of their wedding.

There were so many good memories that pulled at her heart and had her chest constricting in pain.

But then, there were also the not so good times.  This was the room she had cried herself to sleep in every night after she found out that he had cheated on her with that skank, Laurie, and this was the room that he had told her that they weren't right for other in.  This was the room where she had learned that he had abandoned their love once again.

Jackie shook her head and forced herself to not give into the tears.  No, she wasn't going to be back in this place again.  This time it was final, and it was over, and that meant getting rid of everything that was Michael.

Standing up, she unpinned the cap from her hair and tossed it onto the desk.  That job would be the first thing to go.  Since Michael was gone, that meant that she was back in Daddy's good graces, and that meant the return of the dearly missed checkbook. 

She reached back to unzip the dress, and then shimmied out of it, tossing it carelessly over the back of her desk chair.  Going over to the chest of drawers, she pulled out her newest pair of Jordache jeans and put them on.  It had taken her three paychecks to be able to afford this necessity of life.  Well, there would be no more of that.  She went over to her closet and picked out her favorite rainbow shirt, and set about to work.

First, she went over to her picture wall and ripped down that stupid underwear ad that had started all of their problems in the first place.  She crumbled the paper in her hand and tossed it on the floor in the center of the room.  Next came the school folder that she had written their names all over, followed by that stupid Cosmo.

Going over to her bed, she picked up that overstuffed teddy bear he had bought her that time she had gotten sick from the reservoir.  She rolled her eyes at the memory of how he'd run screaming from the room.  How could she have ever thought that he would be mature enough to be in a relationship with her?

Jackie surveyed her room.  Anything and everything that held any special attachment had to go because she was finished with this.  She was finished with hanging on to Michael when he apparently didn't want her to be.

The pile in the center of her floor was growing larger so she left her room, bounding down the stairs and through the foyer to get to the kitchen.  For the first time, she wished that she paid a little bit more attention to the way the house was run so that she would a have a better idea of where the trash bags were.  After a moment of shuffling through various cabinets and drawers, she found what she was looking for.  Pulling three large bags free, she headed back to her room.

Once she reached her room again, she tossed two of the bags onto her bed and, with the third, she took on her closet.  The shirts that he had liked, the skirts that showed off just a little bit more leg for him, the dresses that he had used her own money to buy; they were all stuffed away in the bag.  It hurt to part with some of the articles as she knew that half of the high school girls would kill to own most of them, but she knew it was worth it.  She could finally put that idiot behind her and it would take more than a few shopping sprees to replace all of these clothes.

Lord, how she had missed the shopping sprees.

A light layer of glisten began to form across her upper lip, but for once, she simply wiped it away and kept on with what she was doing.  Tying off the first bag, she deposited it at the foot of her bed and headed to her bathroom.  There, she sorted through all the lotions, perfumes, and soaps, pulling out all of the ones that she bought especially for him.  The bottles clanked against each other in the bag as she headed back into her room.

Jackie got down onto her hands and knees on the floor and began cramming the large pile into the garbage bags.  It wasn't long until the bags were full and the room had been stripped to nearly empty.  Rocking back to put her weight on her heels, she surveyed her work.  So much of her life had been wrapped up in him.  Now, as the majority of her memories of him now sat in garbage bags with the rest of their relationship, she finally felt a little bit of release.

It wasn't as much of a quick fix as she had wanted because she knew that this hurt would continue for a long time, but at least maybe now, she could put him out of her mind for a little bit.  Maybe now, she could go a whole hour without having to deal with this anger that seemed to have made its permanent home in her belly.

And there was now tons of shopping to be done in order to replace all of the things she was getting rid of, and that was always a plus.  Shopping would definitely help to put him out of her mind.

Tying off the last bag and dropping it next to the others, she lay back onto her bed.  Jackie gazed up at the ceiling and let the calm of the quiet house surround her and coax the beating of her heart back down to a more normal rate.  Whoever knew that cleaning could be such exercise?  Maybe that's why she had avoided it all of these years.

She reached over her head and grabbed the nearest stuffed unicorn.  She pulled Fluffycakes into the cradle of her arms and rubbed her cheeks over the soft material.  It took her a moment to realize which unicorn it was that she had grabbed, but when she did, that heavy feeling that she had spent all afternoon working away was suddenly back.  She sat up, placed the precious stuffed animal on her knees, and stared the soft pink unicorn in the eyes.

Michael had given Fluffycakes to her shortly after the first time they had proven their love.  His phones were being cleaned that week, and he had wanted to apologize for not calling her after something so amazingly special had taken place.  And since that time, she had been one of her absolute favorite of all of her favorite unicorns.  She didn't want to part with something so precious.

Jackie was mildly surprised that her eyes stayed dry.  She had gotten rid of so many things that she loved, but she could throw away everything in her room, and that still wouldn't erase what she and Michael had had.  He would always be apart of her.

He just wouldn't be her boyfriend anymore.

She calmly placed Fluffycakes back at the head of the bed, making certain that she would be comfortable amongst all of the rest of the stuffed animals, and then went over to her desk.  Sitting down, she pulled out a few pieces of her stationary and sat down to say exactly what it was that she needed to say.

She wished that she had some other design of stationary because, quite frankly, the pretty purple paper with pink unicorns, clouds, and rainbows wasn't exactly portraying the feelings of anger and betrayal, but as it was all she had, it would have to do.

As soon as Jackie put the pen to paper, the words just seemed to flow.  All of the hurt, and the anger, and the pain that he had caused her came to mind as she told him exactly what it was that she was feeling.  He had told her that they weren't right for each other because she made him feel bad about himself, but she was certain that she had never hurt him in the ways that he had hurt her.  And she didn't care just then if she stepped on his feelings.  He had done far worse than that.

When the paper was full, and she had had her say, she placed the pen down, not taking the time to reread the letter, and folded it neatly.  Stuffing it into the matching envelope, she wrote down the address that Donna had given her, and sealed it up.

Jackie rose from the desk, went to her closet to grab a clean shirt, and headed to the bathroom to clean up.  She let her hair out of the clip to brush it out and pull it back into a neat ponytail.  She washed her hands and face, rinsing away all remnants of her hard work.  She then carefully reapplied her make up.

Giving herself one last look over, she nodded in approval.  Michael was gone, they were over, she was getting past it, and she looked great.

She pulled on a pair of high-heeled boots and placed the letter in her purse.  Grabbing a hold of the three garbage bags, she dragged them from the room, slamming the door behind her.  Hauling the bags down the stairs and into the kitchen, Jackie left them by the back door for the maid to take care of later.  She was done with it.

Leaving the house, she locked the door behind her and headed out to the Lincoln that her daddy always let her drive.  The shopping could wait until tomorrow.  A quick stop at the post office and one at the Cheese Palace was all that was needed, and then she would head to the one place that she had been avoiding like the plague for the last week.

***********************************************

Jackie pulled up next to the two-story white house and shifted into park.  Getting out of the car, she took a deep breath and smiled widely.  For the first time in the last week, she felt good.  No, scratch that.  She felt great.  She had quit her job, she had dumped Michael, and she was still caught up in the bravado that told her that she was going to be okay.

She walked across the driveway and around the beautiful blue Corvette that was parked there.  Squaring her shoulders, she told herself that it would all be okay.  It was just Eric, Hyde, and Fez, and she had never been intimidated by them before.  She wasn't going to start now.  She hopped down the stairs and opened the basement door.

Jackie faltered.  The basement was empty save for one very depressed looking Eric Forman who was staring at her as though he couldn't quite figure out who she was or why she was there.  Giving him a withering look, she closed the door behind her and stepped over him to sit on the far end of the couch.

So what if she and Eric had never really been friends?  So what if she hadn't stepped foot in the basement since being abandoned by both Michael and Donna?  She had been hanging out in there for almost as long as the rest of them, and she could be there if she wanted.

A few moments passed in silence.  Jackie stared intently at the television, and though she had always complained in the past when they insisted on watching baseball games, she was now focused on it as though it were the most fascinating thing in the world as she tried to ignore Eric's stare.

"What're you doing here?" The question was straightforward, and even though there was no love lost between the two, Jackie was surprised that he would get to the point as quickly as he had.  "What're you doing here?" He asked again.  "Kelso and Donna aren't here anymore."

Jackie looked down at her hands, and all of the feelings that had been pushing at her for the last week came rushing back.  Her whole life had been wrapped around Michael to the point where his friends had become her friends, but for the first time, she realized that it hadn't been their choice.  Hell, back when they had first started dating, not even Donna had liked her.

"I know," she whispered.

So, maybe this isn't where she belonged.  Maybe she didn't have the right to just come bursting down here.  Maybe she had never had that right.

The tears sprang back into her eyes and she was just about to bolt when she felt something brush against her arm.  Looking over at Eric, she saw that he had turned his attention back to the game but was offering her some of his chips.  She sniffled once, pushing the tears back, and smiled. 

"Thanks," she said, taking a few chips.

He nodded, not looking at her, and took a few chips himself.  Silence fell back between them, the only sounds in the room coming from the television and the crinkling of the bag of chips.

The quiet boredom settled down over Jackie as she munched her chips thoughtfully.  Now she remembered why it was that she always complained so loudly whenever they wanted to watch baseball.  It really was very boring.

The door leading from the kitchen slammed open and the room echoed with the thump of footsteps on the hard wooden stairs.  Jackie turned to see Hyde and Fez coming down.  She raised an eyebrow expectantly as they both paused at the sight of her, but neither said anything as they came into the room and took their respective seats.  Hyde looked at her, not blinking an eye at her sudden appearance, and leaned over to steal the bag of potato chips that were now sitting on her lap.

Jackie sighed heavily, rolling her eyes at the guys who were all sitting sullenly, staring at the ongoing game.  They really did need her in their lives after all because their worlds were apparently very dull without her.

She turned back to the television and rolled her eyes once again.  "Jeez, that guy is such an ugo."  She laughed as they turned their blank gazes toward her.  "I mean, seriously.  That sweating is so unattractive.  Yuck."

A short silence passed.

"And what is up with those pants?"  Jackie pointed at the screen, looking at Fez for support.  "It's like, there should be a weight limit on those things."

The three boys exchanged short looks before Hyde turned to her.  "Yeah, Jackie," he said.  "If you're going to want to be down here, you're going to have to not talk."

She stuck her tongue out at him, but fell quiet as their blank stares shifted back toward the television.  She leaned over and snatched the chips back out of his hands, sending him a look daring him to try to get them back.  He simply shook his head and went back to the game.

Jackie smiled as Eric took another chip, Fez stuck his feet out onto the table, clicking his toes together to some beat inside his head, and Hyde snapped his fingers at her, pointing to the bag of chips. 

So, Michael was gone, and the relationship that had been her whole life was now over.  That just meant that it was time for her to start building her own life.