#puzzlingsnark

Nicole, you absolutely love challenging me, don’t you dearheart?

El is the prettiest mermaid in the Undersea Kingdom. She always manages to find the best shells and flowers and she’s one of the fastest swimmers out there.

Mike, well...is not. He’s thin and lanky and more interested in tinkering with things humans have tossed in the ocean than typical merpeople activities.

El thinks he’s cute anyway and convinces him to always go exploring with her. 

Mike is always showing her some of the cool human stuff he finds, completely overexplaining what he thinks it’s all for and rambling uncontrollably. He feels like an idiot, but El reassures him by telling him he’s not and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

They go to the surface one day and spend too much time sunning themselves on rocks and playing in tide pools, having fun on their own, and Mike starts to see that maybe typical merpeople activities aren’t so bad, especially if the prettiest mermaid ever is with him.

They almost get caught by humans and, while they’re hiding, Mike’s freaking out - if everyone finds out they almost got caught, they’re going to be in so much trouble. But Mike freaking out is making it more likely they’re going to get caught, so El kisses him to distract him.

The danger passes, the humans go away, and after, Mike asks if she did that just to distract him. And, initially, that’s why El did it, but she also really liked it. Kissing Mike is the best thing she’s ever experienced. 

They go home and El tells Mike they should do it again sometime - the kissing, not almost getting caught, and Mike goes home feeling like the luckiest being under the sea.

This is such an interesting concept, both being friends since season 1. 

Brooke is two years Jackie’s senior and was friends with Donna, so in this AU we could work with the idea that maybe, Donna met Brooke through Jackie who may have gone to Brooke for help in school.

We know in season 2 to 3 that Jackie has good grades and considers having them important, kinda like part of her image. I can totally see her seeking for help, especially from other girls. 

Maybe she wanted help from a popular girl in especific at the beginning, but the girl turned out to be an ass and while she was frowning at her, Brooke got to her like, “you know, it’s not that difficult. Just look at this this way…” and bam! Jackie now follows her around with questions because she always hyperfixates on people who is nice to her.

So, while Jackie tries to befriend Donna, she gets adive from Brooke and soon introduces both girls. Donna being impressed Jackie is friends with BROOKE ROCKWELL and all, it kinda offends Jackie and Brooke believes she is rude, it may help her realize earlier how unfair she was to Jackie and how much in contradicts her own beliefs of equality and so.

The three of them being friends would had been such a dream, and as for Kelso and his relationship with both, Jackie and Brooke. I believe it’s almost impossible for jealousy to not be involved when it comes to early season Jackie and Kelso.

But because Brooke has been her friend before she started to date Kelso, she may be able to get into Jackie’s skull that hey, he is disgusting an I have zero interest in him.

Thsis may also give a little bit of more context to what happens between Brooke and Kelso years later. Jackie wouldn’t feel offended or betrayed, but angry at Kelso for getting her friend pregnant and would incist, alongside Hyde and the others, for him to take responsibility.

I’ve thought about this question quite a bit over the years, and my understanding of the reason behind Jackie’s shift from viewing Hyde as untrustworthy to trustworthy continues to evolve.

Until “Prom Night” (1x19), Jackie and Hyde have an antagonistic dynamic. She doesn’t go to him for comfort in “Ski Trip” (1x13). He offers to give it. She accepts, and he purposely upsets her further to get alone-time with Donna. The status quo of Jackie and Hyde’s antagonism.

But in “Prom Night,” Jackie’s main goal is to go to the upperclassmen prom because a) it would raise her social status in school and b) Kelso is going, and she wants to prove she’s over him, can succeed socially without him, and do better than him romantically.

Her desire to go to prom is stronger than the petty antagonism she feels toward Hyde. She sees in him an opportunity, and she’s acting as an opportunist when she asks – then manipulates – him to take her.

What makes him an acceptable option, beyond his availability, is that she considers him attractive and/or believes others probably find him attractive. He also likely has a reputation for being a “cool rebel” in high school, which counteracts how his economic and parental background might affect his social status among her friends.

One can reasonably interpret Jackie as finding Hyde attractive from her line in “The Best Christmas Ever” (1x12):

Hyde, if you wanna make out with me, the answer’s probably no

And what she tells him in “Prom Night”:

I bet you clean up real good!

If she found him repulsive, the answer would have definitely been no in “The Best Christmas Ever,” and saying she thinks he’d “clean up real good” suggests she finds him handsome if scruffy.

How Hyde treats her once he agrees to take her to prom is what builds a foundation of trust in her toward him. He actually shows up on his porch on prom night at the time she tells him she’ll pick him up. He’s dressed in a tuxedo, as terrible as it is, and he buys her a corsage. Clearly, he’s put effort into being her prom date, spending what little money he has to give her a good night.

At the dance itself, he tries to protect her from seeing Kelso dance with Pam, makes a true attempt to comfort her about Kelso, and then facilitates Jackie and Kelso reconciling. All night, Hyde puts his own discomfort aside to bring her some joy, and then – in the ultimate sacrifice of his own desires – does what he can to reunite her and Kelso.

One of Hyde’s main goals, up until this point in the series, is for Kelso to break up with Jackie. He gets what he wants in “The Pill” (1x17), but ending her misery becomes more important to him than prolonging his lack of it. She knows he doesn’t like her or the fact she’s dating/dated one of his best friends. That he would put all that aside for her happiness, out of compassion, shows her who he really is.

Oh man so I was like instantly inspired by this and wrote almost all of it last night at midnight!! Thank you so much for sending this in, I hope you like it!

Bursting outside, the cool air sent a rush of goosebumps down Max’s arms as she pulled Lucas out of the hallway and into the parking lot. Behind them, prom continued on as it had just moments ago when they had been rocking out to the Talking Heads on the gym floor with everyone else.

Max had wanted a breath of fresh air though and Lucas was hardly going to deny her request (plus he could use a breather after that dance off that he and Dustin had just been in against each other). There were maybe a couple other classmates outside as well, scattered in the shadows as they snuck a quick smoke in or maybe even a drink of something a little stronger than the punch inside.

Max had other ideas though.

She was humming to herself, practically dancing as she made her way to the large area of grass that spread out behind the high school. Her long dress, “sea foam green” as she had described it, seemed to float around her ankles as she glided across the pavement. She moved like she was on her skateboard even when she didn’t have it.

Lucas walked leisurely behind her, his hands shoved in his pockets as he watched his girlfriend reach the grass. Even after years of dating he hadn’t been convinced she’d be interested in prom. But it was senior year and she had said “fuck it I can wear a dress for one night.”“I’ve always wished I learned how to make flower crowns,” Max said breathlessly, dropping down to her knees onto the ground. Her hands delicately began to pull some of them out of the ground.Lucas shrugged, still standing as he contemplated if it was worth getting the rented tux dirty. 

“They’re really not hard actually.”

Max’s head cocked curiously at him and he sighed. Looked like he was going to get the tux dirty. 

Squatting down, Lucas took some of the flowers she had grabbed and found a couple more before fully seating himself on the ground. Max watched mesmerized while Lucas’ hands began to deftly weave them together.

“You mean you’ve been hiding this from me all this time?” Max’s eyes sparkled teasingly, even in the darkness.

“Hush,” Lucas replied back, his tongue just beginning to poke out of his mouth as he focused on the stems in his hand.

Music flowed through the air as they sat outside in the grass.

“It’s all because of Erica,” he explained as the crown began to take shape in his hands. “She always wanted to be a princess. There are barely any black dolls that are princesses though, especially when we were kids, so we’d sit in the backyard and I’d make these for her so she could wear them.”

It’s such a Lucas thing to do for his sister that Max feels a rush of love for him course through her and her heart melted.

Before she could say anything though, he readjusted himself and held his hands out. The mix of daisies and dandelions manage to glow even out of the way of the moon and the fluorescent school lights. Max’s face lit up and she ducked her head so that Lucas could softly place it on her head, careful to not rip it apart. 

With Max’s long red hair and the dress El had managed to find for her that magically had fit her perfectly, she looked beautiful. 

“You look like a hippie princess,” Lucas teased affectionately. 

Max blushed and waved her hand off as if he was being ridiculous, clearly pleased with herself though. Lucas jumped up and proceeded to mock bow, causing her to let out one of her big laughs where she clutched her stomach and her eyes would scrunch up. 

“A dance, my lady?” He asked, dropping his voice into a deeper baritone. 

“Yeah, you’re not going to say that again,” she warned, getting up all the same though and place her hand in his and her other on his shoulder. 

As they swayed gently back and forth in the parking lot, the music from the dance could be heard just in the distance. Dirt stains dotted the hem of Max’s dress and her mother would later sigh and just say oh Maxine. Some of the flowers and began to drop out of the crown and tangle in her long hair, flashes of yellow and white as she moved her head to the music.