𝑷𝑳𝑨𝒀 𝑫𝑨𝑻𝑬 - Steven Hyde

eleven

11|DUCK VS BEAR

Marigold sat in the basement on Hydes chair, watching Donna talk to Big Rhonda.

"Thanks for doing this." Rhonda patted Donna's arm gratefully. "I know you guys'll make me pretty and stuff."

"Rhonda, it's no problem." Donna replied, standing up beside the girl. "We'll just help you pick some nice clothes. Clean clothes. And, maybe do your hair."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Goldie said poetically. "I have no idea where I heard that from but it felt write to quote it."

"Okay, the beauty ambulance has arrived!" Jackie walked into the room excitedly with a travel box of makeup. "So, first things first. Let's get rid of those shoulder pads."

"What shoulder pads?" The girls eyes darted between everyone before asking.

"Okay." The short girl nodded, realising there was more work to be done. "Goldie, move. We need to teach her how to sit."

"But I just got comfy." Marigold sighed with a grumble and stood up before moving to the stool.

"Ladies sit up straight." Jackie began to teach the clueless girl after she sat down where Goldie just was.

"Candy." Rhonda tried to reach forwards and grab the bowl while Donna was curling her hair.

"Jackie, she doesn't have to sit like that." Donna snapped at the controlling girl, handing Rhonda the bowl of sweets.

"Yes, she does." Jackie snapped back, taking the bowl away and putting it back on the table. The two girl went into a war of putting the bowl between Rhondas hands and the table.

"Stop doing that!"

"You stop doing that!"

"Hey! If I don't get a freaking M&M, I'm gonna start swinging!" Rhonda broke the pair apart.

"You stay out of this." Jackie told the girl before walking behind her to place the dryer over her head and talk to Donna. Goldie sat with a second bowl in her lap, happily enjoying the show.

"Jackie, try to be more sensitive." Donna asked the shorter girl.

"Donna, I am not gonna send her on her date looking like Sasquatch." She defended her actions. This earned a confused noise from the bigger girl.

"She said you're very pretty." The ginger yelled to Rhonda over the hair dryer.

~•~

After finally doing the finishing touches on Rhonda, her and Jackie left the basement as Michael and Hyde showed up.

"You're in my seat." Hyde stared down at the quiet girl still eating M&Ms. "Move."

"Make me." Marigold instantly regretted saying that as the annoyed boy put her bowl on the table and threw her over his shoulder, dumping her on the stool beside him. "My chair."

"Its my chair." He grinned back, picking up her bowl and eating from it.

"Hey, guys. I got news." Eric walked into his basement and found Hyde and Goldie arguing over food and Donna and Kelso tying string around the boys fingers. "Turns out Stacy doesn't even like me."

"That's not news." Goldie chuckled, finally getting her half eaten bowl back.

"Yeah, we kind of expected that." Kelso added, still concentrating on what Donna was doing.

"I thought you said you had news." Hyde stated as well, earning a punch on his leg while Goldie mumbled a "that's what I said".

"Well, yeah. Here it comes." Eric said after a long pause. "She likes Red."

"Shut the front door!" Marigold exclaimed, crying from all the laughter.

"Oh, my God!"

"You're gonna have to leave town!" Kelso laughed loudly causing Eric to asked "why". "'Cause we're gonna tell everyone!"

"Tell me this. How'd the fifty year old guy get the girl?" Eric said over all the laughter. "Look at me. I'm an attractive man. Well, I got you."

"Technically, I got you." Donna stopped him. "And then you blew it."

"Which means you didn't lose it, 'cause you never had it." Hyde pointed out while everyone nodded along. "See, there's your silver lining."

"Eric, you have a lot of good qualities. I mean, you're funny. Like..." The ginger trailed off as she tried to think of an example. "Well, what just happened to you is funny."

"Look, that chick likes Red, 'cause he's a tough guy, a hard-ass." The frizzy haired boy continued to explain to Eric after the four had finished laughing. "You? You're soft."

"How soft is he, Hyde?" Kelso and Donna sang at the same time while stifling their laughter.

"Softer than Liberace at the Playboy Mansion." Hyde stated causing another uproar of laughter and Eric rolling his eyes at the four.

"'Cause he plays piano." Kelso added, not understanding the joke at all. "Wait." Donna leaned over and explained the joke to him. "Burn!"

"You guys kill me." Eric said monotonously. "Look. How come Red is such a hard-ass, and I am so, I mean, okay, when a bear has a baby, it's a little bear, right? My dads a bear, but I'm like, a duck."

"Eric, you were a bear when you were born, but Red pounded you into the duck that we know and love." Goldie informed him with dramatic hand gestures.

"So, what are you saying? Its Red's fault?" The boy said slowly.

"Yeah, but the good news is, as a duck, you can move more easily through the water." Kelso reassured him, trying to untie the string knotted on his fingers.

After they all had calmed down, Hyde ended up taking a nap on the sofa while Kelso and Eric looked through Jackie's makeup.

"I don't think I've seen guys so intrigued by makeup." Goldie whispered to the ginger girl. "I wonder if they are both secretly drag queens?"

"Well if you saw what they did you Hydes face, it would answer how they did makeup so well." Donna mumbled back, gesturing to the sleeping boy on the sofa.

"Man, look at all this stuff." Kelso picked up a curling iron and looked at it strangely, trying to understand what it did. "I just realised how happy I am not to be a girl."

"Well, that should have happened at a much younger age." Eric patted the boys back.

"How long was I out?" Hyde suddenly sat up, glancing down at his watch with tired eyes. The boys had attacked him with blush and purple eyeshadow.

"Long enough." Donna grinned, nudging Marigold who was having a hard time keeping in her laughter.

"You guys want to get a burger?"

"Out in public? Okay, I'll drive." Eric said excitedly as they all wandered out the basement and to the Vista Cruiser.