[Hyde POV]
The next morning, I woke up with a shadow on my face. I haven't shaved in three days, so my beard was coming in.
Donna kept bothering me last night, which added to my exhaustion.
I took a shower and changed into a Rolling Stone shirt before hanging out with the guys in the basement.
Donna also came to the basement, looking extra cheery.
"Hey. So I have 40 pages of the script. I think I can get it done today." Donna told me.
I grimaced and said, "So you're going to keep me up again?"
She thought about it and said, "Yeah. It's better for you to take a nap right now."
Eric laughed nervously and said sarcastically, "God. My best friend and my girlfriend are talking all night long in his bedroom. That's surely something I want to hear about."
I grimaced and said, "I wish we were doing other things. That will make being exhausted the next day worth it."
Donna giggled at Eric and said, "Yeah. If you really want to join in, I could wake you up every hour too."
"No." Eric said firmly. "Please don't."
"Too late. I will." Donna teased him.
I smacked my lips and said, "Tsk, It's quite hot today."
"It's sweltering hot." Eric fanned himself slightly.
It's hot, even when we were in the basement. Actually, the temperature wasn't very high. But we were so used to the Wisconsin cold weather that it felt quite hot. The humidity wasn't helping either.
"Want to go to the mall?" Donna asked everyone. "They have air conditioning."
"Eh." Eric rejected it without even looking at her.
"Oh! I know! We should get watermelon!" Kelso suggested excitedly.
"Do you know you can break a watermelon using a rubber band?" I asked him.
Kelso froze and his eyes turned determined. "Alright! Let's do that today!"
"I'm in." Eric said, which made Donna glare at him.
"Really? You don't want to go to the mall with me, but you're going to participate in Hyde's stupid experiment?" Donna said angrily and walked away from Eric, standing behind the couch.
"Hey. Don't call Kelso that." I snapped at her jokingly. Eric turned to me and snickered.
"What– Oh, you bastard." Kelso caught it and laughed. Fez turned to me and asked, "Call Kelso what?"
Suddenly, Jackie came into the basement. Everyone turned silent immediately.
"Okay you guys. I just got an advanced copy of the yearbook. And you'll all be happy to know that 1977 is my cutest year ever!" She held the yearbook and was really excited.
Eric turned to her and said with a sarcastic deadpan voice, "Jackie that is so weird. Because I was just telling the gang how there is no way that you can be cuter than last year."
"You were?!" Jackie leaned her head in, looking exhilarated.
Eric paused and said, "Yes."
Kelso turned to her and flirted, "I for one, totally believe that you are cuter this year."
"Yeah, since I dumped you." Jackie replied mercilessly.
Donna laughed and shouted, "Nice burn!"
Kelso was annoyed, "Donna, we've talked about that!"
Jackie made her way to my couch and sat on my arm rest. She patted me on the shoulder and said, "Hey Steven, want to pop some popcorn and look at all the yearbook pictures of me?"
I sighed, slowly turning to her and said, "No, I figure I do plenty of that when I die and go to hell."
Jackie laughed like it was a joke. "God, you're such a card!"
She was being clingy. Eric and Donna saw my reluctantness and snickered. I grabbed the book from Jackie since she was giving it to me.
Fez approached us and said, "This is so exciting. My first American yearbook! Show us some pictures of Fez!"
Jackie's eyes shifted uncomfortably, "Sorry Fez, there aren't any."
Fez snapped, "What the hell? So, they don't let foreigners in your yearbook."
"Uhuhhh…" Jackie turned to me.
I saw something interesting and showed it to everyone. "Look. They did my mugshot."
It was a photo of me holding my name and a side photo of me, just like in a mugshot photo.
"When did you take that?" Donna asked with a surprised look.
Eric chuckled and said seriously, "Most importantly, how."
"It's a secret." I laughed.
"Enough about that." Jackie interrupted and turned the pages for me. She turned to the Pep Rally section and pointed at an image with her index finger.
"Here's me cheering at the pep-rally last fall."
I looked at the picture and saw two white circles being smushed together. I thought it was a camera mistake at first , when I suddenly realized what was happening.
"Oh my God, someone in the crowd is mooning!" I laughed excitedly.
Everyone rushed to take a look, standing behind me. Jackie was pushed onto the three seater couch. She looked dissatisfied.
"You're all cheering away and the whole time you're getting mooned. Yeeeaahh!" I exclaimed teasingly.
"Oh my God. That's a girl-butt!" Eric laughed girlishly. "There is girl-butt in the yearbook!"
"Oh man, I can't tell who it is. I wish we had a magnifying glass." Eric added.
"Oh, here you go.: Kelso pulled out a magnifying glass from his back pockets.
We all turned to him slowly.
He was taken aback and immediately explained, "I was just playing with some bugs.."
Jackie scoffed, dissatisfied, "God, I can't believe it. Someone's nasty butt is in my picture."
Eric held a magnifying glass, fully excited. "Oh my God! That's not girl-butt…" His expression hardened. "THAT'S DONNA BUTT!" He blurted out.
"Yea," Donna nodded, smiling and proud. Fez, Kelso and I looked at Donna's butt, and then looked at the yearbook again.
Eric grimaced and went to sit on the opposite side of my chair, as if he wanted to get away from reality itself.
Donna looked at Eric, still laughing but a little concerned.
"Eric? Are you okay, cause you look weird." She giggled as she asked.
Eric looked at her without comprehension.
Kelso egged on, "Yeah could it be because of your girlfriend's naked butt?"
He held the yearbook and took a closer look with the magnifying glass.
"Kelso, you're not helping." Donna said angrily.
Kelso laughed, "I'm not trying to help!"
Donna tried to play it off like a prank. "Eric, it's no big deal." She sat close to him, while simultaneously close to Jackie too.
Jackie snapped, "It is too Donna! Your nasty butt ruined my picture."
Donna argued with her, "Hey, maybe your nasty face ruined my butt-picture!"
Jackie gasped without sound.
Fez seemed angry. He crossed his arms and muttered, "I know why I am not in the yearbook. It's because whіtеy is keeping me down."
That made me chuckle.
Kelso called him, "Hey Fez, just look at Donna's naked butt some more."
Fez peeked at the page and said, "Yes that's nice, thank you."
Eric finally snapped. He got up and took the yearbook from Kelso before walking back to face off with Donna. She looked upwards to meet his gaze.
"Alright. Okay. Donna, take me through the chain of events. Now, you're at the pep-rally, oh and at this point your pants are on…"
He was being sarcastic and serious at the same time.
"Right. And then they weren't." She argued back, not finding any fault with this.
"Donna mooning isn't something you just do." Eric said seriously.
"Especially around print media." I joked.
I was afraid for her internally. But I did notice that the rule also affects my friends. The drama would end after an episode rule.
Honestly, this sort of plot would die down and never be brought up again after this episode.
Donna and Eric kept arguing. I noticed the recording was paused.
So I walked up and faced Kelso and Fez.
"Hey. Just keep what happened here inside the room. Don't tell this to anyone else, you got it?"
"No. It's funny–"
I punched Kelso in the stomach.
"Don't tell anyone. Got it?" I said firmly.
"I got it." Kelso replied with a strained voice. Fez nodded fearfully too.
Just in case, I decided to do some damage control here. I turned to Eric and said, "You and Donna weren't at the pep rally. You were in your car, making out."
"Hyde. What are you doing?" Eric asked me with disbelief.
"Creating an alibi." I said seriously.
Eric went speechless for a few seconds before saying, "Okay. Let's do that."
…
–TV–
The Pinciotti's porch. Jackie and Donna sat side by side as they talked.
"Michael is such a boy. He doesn't even know who he is. You know who knows who he is? Steven Hyde."
"Jackie. That's never going to happen." Donna scolded her slightly.
Jackie was annoyed. She snapped back, "Oh really? If it's never going to happen, then why did Steven and I made out?"
"You guys made out?" Donna was shocked.
Jackie nodded excitedly. "Yes! On his bed! Ah, he's a really great kisser too." She looked forward, sighing in satisfaction.
"He's a man. He's not like Micheal. Micheal's a boy. But Hyde. He knows what he wants." She added.
"And he said that he didn't want you." Donna exposed the flaw in Jackie's logic.
Jackie glared at him and said, "He'll want me. Everybody does."
"I thought you hated him." Donna asked with disbelief.
"Feelings change Donna." Jackie replied annoyingly. "Remember when we first met and I hated you?"
Donna was taken aback, laughing with disbelief. "Wait, what?"
"Yeah, I thought you were like this big goon." Jackie added.
Donna went speechless.
Jackie chortled and asked, "Didn't we have this conversation?"
"Um. No." Donna replied.
Jackie laughed out loud and said, "I'm so sorry."
"That's okay. Because I hated you too." Donna said, still smiling.
"Yeah, that's because you're a big goon." Jackie clarified again.
"Bitch." Donna snapped at her.
"Goon." Jackie snapped back.
"BITCH!"
"GOON!" Jackie smiled and said calmly. "See, see we're closer than ever! I gotta go find Steven." She left, leaving Donna looking puzzled on the porch.
…
After creating the alibis, I went to work.
I didn't go to the cafe, or the auto shop, or the fotohut. Instead, I went to a community hall located in the center of the town.
The place was quite hot. We had to open all of the windows.
A hundred people were in the hall, waiting for my presence. They weren't my workers, but they were small business owners from all over town.
Leslie waited for me at the podium and nodded as I got into the hall.
"Now, we're going to start the meeting. The Festival will be held in 20 days. All of you have registered to open a stall during the Festival. I've reviewed your applications, and you all passed."
While Leslie was speaking, I was surprised to see a familiar face there.
"Amy?"
"Hyde?"
Amy wore a flowery, conservative white dress with a skirt that went to her ankles. She tied her hair into a bun, and wore multiple shells and wooden necklaces.
I sat next to her and she nervously stopped me, "Hey. someone is sitting there."
"Really?" I was surprised and narrowed my eyes at her skeptically.
She rolled her eyes and stressed, "Someone is really sitting there. It's not that I don't want to sit with you."
A dainty hand held my shoulder. "Hey Steven." A sweet voice called out to me.
I turned and saw Linda there, wearing an old school style, two piece beige dress with her hair curled at the tips.
"Huh?" I was confused. "Why are you here?"
"I'm here to help Amy. She's planning to open a stall—"
"No, I get that. Necklaces, right?" I turned to Amy quickly before turning to Linda again. "What I meant is, who's manning the store with both of you here?"
"Leo said he'll do it." Linda replied, slightly nervous.
"God damn it." I cursed slightly. Leo always caused trouble. Giving the wrong pictures, didn't register film, et cetera.
Leslie called me to the stage before I could do anything about Leo.
"Without further ado, I'm handing the stage to the man who made this possible. Our local Hero. Mr Steven Hyde."
The crowd applauded enthusiastically and turned to me. I smiled wryly and went up to the podium to address the people.
"Many of you are here because you're being impacted by the factory closing down. We're in a turbulent time in our country, and our town is severely damaged because of it." I said casually.
Everyone nodded as they heard it.
I checked the cue card Leslie wrote for me and just followed it.
"The Festival will be able to act as a cushion for our town's economy. Until we receive new investments, this will allow a new source of economic rigor being injected into our stagnant economy– I'm not saying this."
I turned to Leslie and looked at her with disbelief, putting the card down.
Then, I turned to the crowd and said, "Basically, our town has a limited amount of money pool. We're going to do the festival to attract people from neighboring towns and cities to come and spend money here, thus growing our money pool."
I said quickly, "I can provide tents for rent. It'll be for 10 bucks a day. The Festival will run for two days."
One of the people there, a middle aged man raised his hand.
"Yes." I called him.
"Hi. Jaime Gergrorian. From the Point Place Tribunal. This event is not a collaboration with the town hall. Why is that?" He asked.
"There's a long answer for that. The short one is red tapes. I can move freely compared to them. We did get permits from the town hall for this so there's no legal problem here." I replied casually.
"Is there another question?" I asked.
Amy raised her hand up and asked nervously, "About profit sharing–"
"You'll keep all the profit you made. Only beer sales will be taxed. Even that will only be 5%."
For a festival, usually the organizer takes a cut. I didn't need any of that since I didn't make this festival to earn some money.
The crowd murmured in amazement.
Another person raised their hand. "How about the security during the Festival?"
I replied calmly, "We're going to coordinate with the police. And also, we're going to hire a security team, maybe around 100 people to ensure the safety around town. I'll pay for that myself."
That'd be around 5 grand. Huge money for any of these people here. Tiny for me.
"We'll also install lights around the perimeter of the festival. Especially around the concert area. There's also security around the Porta-potty since most crimes happen around there."
My safety protocol was decades in advance compared to the security in the festivals around this era.
I would even install CCTV on the command center container unit, coordinate with the Red Cross, and make sure that the festival wouldn't turn into a riot.
For that, I needed to buy a container unit too.
I could even buy an Amazon house if I wanted too. But it was too expensive. I could buy twenty Chinese prefab houses for that value.
I had looked into the mobile houses option for my construction company. This was in case they needed to stay at the job site while doing the work.
After searching for it for a while, I found the command modules for festivals. It has beds, an HVAC system and it could be connected with another unit.
The command center would be used to hide the generators, adding solar panels on top, clean water, and become a place for people to regroup when there's an emergency.
It would also be the control unit where all of the CCTVs were connected. One person would monitor the festival to ensure there's no problems. And if they found a problem, they could just contact the security through the walkie talkie.
After answering all of their answers, I called the meeting to an end. We'll meet again next weekend to discuss logistics and stall placements.
Amy and Linda approached me.
"Hey Steven. Are you mad at us?" Amy asked nervously.
"No. Just have your break. I'll cover the store." I smiled in understanding.
Linda laughed and said, "Hey. I need to give my two week's notice for the Fotohut."
Amy turned to Linda in shock. "You're quitting?"
Linda nodded and said, "I got a job offer at an accounting firm. The pay is much better, and this is a career. So I have to take the job."
"Oh." I smirked slightly. "You're not doing this just to date me, are you?"
Linda blushed. "No. Don't think too highly of yourselves."
"I mean, you have to admit. I'm a huge catch." I laughed.
Amy interjected, "You sure are. You're doing better work for the town than the mayor."
"Shh." I cupped Amy's mouth instantly. Her eyes looked at me with puzzlement.
I slowly released her and whispered, "Do not say that. Ever. The Mayor is a nasty guy. He'll definitely cause trouble if he thinks I'm after his job."
Amy and Linda's eyes shook slightly.
Amy made a zipping gesture in her mouth and said, "I'll make sure never to blurt this out again."
"Good." I waved goodbye to them and left.
As I got to the Fotohut, I grimaced instantly as I saw Jackie's car there.
Leo was looking at some photos while standing. Jackie was talking to him while she sat at the back of the counter.
"Yeah, there's a lot of things about Steven that I used to not like. But now, I really like." Jackie drooned on. Leo didn't even pay any attention to her.
"Like…well I thought his pork chop sideburns were a sign that he was poor and dirty and living in a shack. But then…but then I realized that Elvis had sideburns and he lived in Graceland. Well that was an eye-opener." She was talking to herself.
I entered through the door. Jackie sprung from her seat and greeted me. "There he is! Hi Steven!"
I asked Leo, "What is she doing here?"
Leo replied, " I think she is hitting on me man. But I ain't interested. Tell her I ain't interested and make her go away."
Jackie turned to Leo angrily. "Hitting on you?! I'm not hitting on you, you relic!"
"Hey name calling is no way to win someone's heart." Leo told Jackie.
Jackie snapped, "What are you talking about?"
Leo asked back, "What are you talking about?"
"What are you talking about?" Jackie got angrier.
"What are you talking about?" Leo repeated again.
Jackie fumed, snapping at Leo. "What are you talking about?"
I rolled my eyes and left.
"What are you talking about?" Leo argued angrily.
Jackie saw that I was gone. "GREAT! Now he got away! Steven!" She went after me quickly.
Leo muttered to himself in confusion, "What was she talking about?"
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