Jackie Burkhart's whole life came crashing down on September 14h 1979. That day, one of her father's attorneys, who had been hiring to defend him against an embezzlement accusation, told her the odds of him winning the case were almost non existent. Up to this day, Jackie had comforted herself with the though all those things her father was accused of having done with the city's fund where false, almost ridiculous, and that it was only a matter of time before her father came home with a clean name. This disillusion was no more. Giving Jack Burkhart's public profile and the importance of the accusations against him, his case remained undisclosed until no final judgments were made. Jackie now knew it was only a matter of days until the case went public. Her father was going to prison, he was going to prison for having stolen thousands of dollars from the city taxpayers, while he was already richer than all of them, because he was that kind of asshole, and soon, all the city would relish in the misfortune of those snob bourgeois (her family) who had always snubbed them. And Jackie, Jackie for who popularity had once been so important, will probably become a social pariah and the biggest source of ridicule of the school.

With all of this in mind, Jackie drove her dad's Lincoln to the basement where she hoped she could get some comfort from her boyfriend Steven or Donna, her best friend.

'Oh my God, you guys! Something terrible just happened!' she cried at the second she stepped foot in the basement.

The reaction wasn't the one she had anticipated however. There was a collective sigh of impatience.

'Damn Jackie! Not during Charlie's Angels!' Kelso screamed.

'Yeah, Jackie, if you broke a nail, you can handle waiting until the commercials to hear it.' Hyde said.

'What the hell?' thought Jackie. That was the words her boyfriend had for her when she arrived in the basement with terrible news? Making her wait for the commercials to say what he assumed what non-important and superficial crap. That was his reply? Wasn't he supposed to be better than Kelso?

She opened her mouth to insist, but Fez shushed her. Bewildered, she sat next to Donna on the couch. 'Donna, it's really important, can we go talk somewhere?'

Donna barely looked at her. 'I guess we can, but Eric's going to arrive any minute now and we have a date. So, hurry up.'

And, as if on cue, Eric arrived seconds later, calling Donna: 'Ready?'

'But, Donna, it's really important!'

'Oh, come on Jackie, you're always so dramatic. I'm sure it can wait until tomorrow.'

Donna said, before leaving the basement with Eric's arm around her waist.

Left alone in the basement with Michael, Steven and Fez, Jackie made a last attempt to be heard.

She was shushed again by Fez with a 'Shush! There's boobies!'

Jackie couldn't believe it. Since she had started to go out with Kelso years ago, she had put aside her cheerleading 'friends', who she had realised were just a bunch of selfish bitches for the basement gang. Seeing them act together, helping each other out between merciless teasing sessions, listen to each other problems, all in all, care for each other, she had thought that this was real friendship. And, she wanted a part of it. So, even when she had broken up with Kelso, she had kept up hanging out with his gang. She was close to Donna now, or she thought she was, and the rest of the gang seemed to have gotten use to her. However, confronted to their reaction in a time where she really needed support, she found none. It seemed that when it came to her, it wasn't like when Fez was rejected by a girl or bullied by the jocks, when Steven's mom abandoned him or when Donnas' parents divorced: the gang didn't care. That was a hard thing to digest.

Nevertheless, fed up with lies like she was, Jackie didn't shy away from that truth: those people she had spent so much of her time with weren't really her friends; they didn't care about her, just like her parents. She had to stop being a child and confront the hard reality that she was all alone.

Her father's attorney had been very clear: her dad was going to jail. As for her mom, she had left for the beaches of Cancun as soon as trouble had started. Jackie hadn't heard from her since. She didn't expect her to come back anytime soon. Even when her husband had a ton of money and a perfect reputation, the woman was never in town long enough to loose her precious tan. There was no way she was going to stick around Point Place with him away in prison. And, now, Jackie had no friends. No boyfriend either.

Soledad, along with the rest of the help, had been fired. There was no Burkhart wealth to pay them with anymore. Soledad had talked to her before she left. She had told her that people didn't know her mother wasn't there to take care of her and that, if she could make sure nobody find out, Jackie wouldn't be send to a foster family. She had told her she knew her to be stronger and tougher than anyone thought. She had been there all of these years to witness Jackie growing up by herself, without parents to love and care for her and all this time, never letting that fact known. Soledad had said that if she really, really, didn't want to be taken away to a foster family, which Jackie seemed to fear above all, she will have to keep on fighting and take care of herself all on her own. Soledad had showed her how to do laundry and to cook a few things. Jackie had her phone number in case she had questions. Soledad was moving to Oregon where she was going to live with her sister's family, but her friend that worked as a maid two houses away from the mansion was going to come over once in a while to see if everything was alright. There was at least that.

If that was the deal: going to school as usual to come back to an empty house every night, pretending there was a mother there to take care of her, while, in reality, she had to cook and clean for herself, well maybe it was better to be all alone. She wouldn't have to keep up a charade in front of any friends.

A loud cheer let out by Kelso as the Charlie's angels started to run awoken Jackie from her thoughts. She had forgotten she was still in Eric's basement. She had no reason to be there anymore. Jackie took a last look at the room and its inhabitants: Fez the pervert who was allegedly so into her, Kelso the idiot she couldn't believe she had ever dated, and lastly, Steven, the Zen master, who she loved so dearly. They didn't belong in her life no more. Without a dramatic tirade they would have expected from who they thought was nothing but a superficial princess, Jackie stood up and left.