It's been a month since Sage moved to Wisconsin, and things were going pretty great for her. She was so close to the gang. It was as if she grew up with them. Even better, Bryan had settled nicely into the town, and their father started working with Bob.

Sage wasn't on board with the move at first. After all, it wouldn't solve that without their mother, life was going to be different.

As true as that was still, she realized the move is something her family needed.

Happiness and contentment was something that Sage hadn't felt in a long time.

Putting the update of her family to the side, it's time for the juicy stuff. You know, the things you actually came to read about.

Hyde

Like Sage intended, the two are friends. Surprisingly, Hyde was a good friend too.

Not because he's a jerk, but because he's Hyde.

Hyde is the other person Sage felt closest to other than Donna.

They were so alike it's. It was comical.

They were the ones always harassing Kelso and giving everybody sarcastic answers.

Hyde was the guy best friend she never even thought about having.

Sage frowns at the television, confused.

She and the gang were in Eric's basement watching some weird TV show.

Kelso was sitting on the couch with Eric getting his hair combed by Jackie. Fez was sitting in the beach chair, and Donna on the floor in front of Eric's legs.

Then there was Sage, sitting in front of Hyde's legs as he sat on the small stool.

"Does it bother anybody else that these women live in Hooterville?" Hyde took the words out of Sage's mouth.

"Technically, Petticoat Junction is down the track from Hooterville." Eric corrects him.

Sage shrugs, "okay, does it bother anybody else that they live down the track from Hooterville?"

"It bothers me that they bathe in the town water tank," comments Donna with a look of disgust.

"With the dog," Kelso adds.

"It isn't the drinking water," says Jackie in an 'obviously' tone. "It is the water for the train."

"It's still three naked women with a dog," Donna says.

Sage nods, agreeing.

"I want to be the Hooterville dog," chuckled Fez.

Everyone glances at him, shaking their heads.

"Yoo-hoo! Coming down," Kitty's voice booms through the basement as her heels clicked on the wooden stairs.

Sage looks to see her with a laundry basket.

"Now, don't mind me. I'm just putting some clothes in." Kitty puts the laundry basket on top of the dryer. She takes out a blue short sleeve button down and holds it up. "Eric, honey, I thought you could wear this on your birthday. It's nice. You look so handsome in it."

"Why would I want to dress nice on my birthday?" Eric asked her.

Sage looks at him, surprised. "It's your birthday? It's my birthday!"

"Really?" Hyde asked, surprised.

Sage nods. When she opens her mouth to say something, Kitty's laugh interrupts her.

"One of Eric's friend's having the same birthday as him, that is so cute! Oh my god!"

Kitty suddenly looks up, as if she got an idea. "You know, Sage. You should wear a beautiful dress on your birthday. I remember when you wore that skirt the first time we met. Honey, you looked so beautiful in it!"

"Why would I want to wear a dress on my birthday?" scoffed Sage. "Why would I want to be uncomfortable on the only Sage Holiday I have a year? My birthday is the one day I get to be myself and have no filter. And there's not a thing anybody can do because, well, it's my birthday.

Kitty waves her hand. "You never know what's going to happen on your birthday."

Sage knew exactly with that meant.

"Mom, do not throw Sage or me a party," Eric tells her.

"Please," Sage begs.

"Listen to you two," Kitty finishes putting the clothes in the washer. "Like I have time to plan you a party."

She turns to leave only to stop, "By the way, your sister Laurie's coming home from college for the weekend. No special reason. She just is."

With that, she clicks her way back upstairs.

"Well, you're getting a party," Donna says.

"Correction," Hyde pokes Sage's cheek. "They're getting a party."

Sage sigh, leaning back on his legs. "And best of all, it's a surprise."

"I just realized Donna's older than you," Fez says to Eric.

Donna shrugs, "only by a month."

"Good for you, Eric," Fez pats him on the shoulder.

"Good for me, what?"

"In my country, it is good luck to fall in love with an older woman."

Everyone snickers as Donna puts her head in her hands, embarrassed.

Eric widens his eyes in an attempt to get him to shut up. "Fez? . . . Fez?"

Not surprisingly, Fez didn't get the message. He only kept talking.

He shrugs, "No, they come with livestock."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was a typical morning in the Foreman household. Well, not for Eric. Knowing that his mother would throw him a party even when he told her not to had him walking on eggshells. He was getting too old for parties.

Either Kitty wasn't ready to come to terms with it, or she didn't care. It was always awkward, especially with his friends there. It was like being stuck at the kid's table, especially with the party hats.

Eric walks into the kitchen to see Kitty dancing.

She happily bobbed to the jazz rhythm on the radio as she poured some orange juice for Red.

"Morning," Eric greets them.

"Morning," Red, as usual, keeps his focus on the paper.

In the mood for cereal, Eric heads to the fridge.

Just as he's about to open the door, Kitty comes speeding over and stops him.

"I'll get it."

Eric frown as she opens the fridge slightly and passes him the milk.

Trying to ignore her behavior, he reaches for the cabinet to get the cereal when she slams it closed with a bowl already in her hand too.

"I'll get it," Kitty gives him the bowl.

Just like the fridge, she slightly opens the cabinet and takes out the cereal. Too bad for her, though, because Eric caught a glimpse of the potato chip bags anyway.

"Did I just see about seven bags of potato chips in there?" Eric takes the cereal away from her.

"They were on sale," Kitty gets him a spoon. Smiling, she goes over to the table.

"Please, don't throw me a party," Eric sets everything on the counter.

"I'm not throwing a party." Kitty lies as Erick is pouring milk and cereal in his bowl.

"Don't give him one," said Red, never breaking his eye contact from the newspaper.

"I'm not," objects Kitty.

"He's too old for a surprise party."

"I'm agreeing with you."

"Then stop yelling."

"I'm not yelling!" Yelled Kitty with an eye roll.

Eric joins them at the table with his cereal.

"Look, I know money is tight, so I don't want a big birthday," Eric begins to eat.

At his son's words, Red puts his paper down with a scold. "I'll decide when money is tight. Now, what kind of gift do you want? Don't worry about the cost. As long as it's reasonable."

Eric shrugs, "okay. I would like a cassette player for the car. A cassette. Not an eight-track. No eight-track, okay?"

Kitty shakes her head. "You know, I don't know why they don't just put record players in cars."

She chuckles, obviously amused at her wit, and Eric moves on. "The point is, I don't want an eight-track tape player."

"Then you won't get one," said Red, understandingly.

"But, honey, he wants one," Kitty didn't get it.

Somehow, they always managed to get Eric what he said he didn't want.

Eric shakes his head. "No, I want a tape player, just not an eight-track."

"You'll get a Delco," replies Red. "A genuine GM part for your genuine GM car." He even smiled, approving of his gift choice.

Eric takes a spoonful of his cereal. "It doesn't have to be a Delco. It's just for music."

Red puts his newspaper down again. "See, now there's your first mistake. Parts have to be compatible, Eric. You're not burning cheap gas in that car, are you?"

"No, sir."

Red looks at Eric for a long time before looking back at his newspaper.

That was Eric's cue to head out.

"I'm going out." He stands up with his bowl.

Kitty stands up as he's putting the bowl in the sink. "Good. I want you to run to the store for me." She hands him a twenty. "Get a large can of frosting and fifteen small bags of M&M's. Plain, not peanuts."

Eric frowns at Kitty's unawareness of how obvious she was about the party.

Kitty looks away for a moment. "They're for your sister."

Eric shakes his head, leaving.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sage lets out a yawn, scratching her head as she went into the kitchen. At the table sat Bryan and her father, already eating breakfast.

"Good morning." Her father greets her.

"Good morning." Sage kisses him on the cheek before sitting down. She frowns at Bryan, who was staring at her with a look of disgust. "What?"

"You look horrible," he spats.

Sage points to his fork, which contains a piece of a waffle on it. "Keep talking, and that waffle won't be the only thing you swallow."

Bryan sticks his tongue out, and she does the same in response.

"Hey, you two quit it," their father tells them.

Sage takes a waffle off the plate in the middle of the table and bites it.

One thing her Dad could do was use a toaster.

Her father suddenly takes out a ring box and puts it in front of her.

"What's this?" She takes one last bite of her waffle.

"It's a birthday gift. Open it."

Sage picks it up. "My birthday's not till tomorrow."

She opens it to see a beautiful yet simple diamond ring.

"It was your mother's when I asked her to go steady with me."

Sage smiles, putting it on. "Wow, thanks, Dad. I love it."

Her father smiles sadly. "I think your mother would want you to have it."

Sage smiles, emotion filling her eyes. "I wish she was here."

"You know," Bryan stands up with his plate in hand.

They watch him go to the sink and set his plate inside.

"This is the perfect moment. Why ruin it by telling Sage that Kitty is having a surprise birthday party for her and Eric?"

"What?!" Sage smile disappeared.

She had been praying Kitty was just all talk.

Sage looks at her father, who let out a deep sigh as he closed his eyes.

"And you have to wear a dress," added Bryan mischievously.

"Bryan!" Their father yells angrily.

Bryan smiles, patting Sage's shoulder. "Happy birthday, sis."

He turns to walk away, but she puts her foot out, tripping him up. "Ow!"

Ignoring him, Sage stands up. "Dad, you know I hate parties! You have to tell her to cancel it!"

"The party is tomorrow, Sage. I can't just tell her to cancel, besides I think it'll be fun. All your friends will be there."

"Dad," Sage groans.

"Come on," her father encourages her, "moving here was suppose to be to a fresh start. Doing things differently. And this is barely any different than what we usually do. We always use to go out and have a party for you with the family - with us."

"But that was when mom was alive!" Sage blurted out without thinking.

Her father sighs, "Sage."

"Dad, I just don't think I deserve a party," she confesses. "I mean, I haven't done anything. I'm only getting older."

He stands up and takes her hands. "Sage, you have got to stop beating yourself up about your mom. We've all made mistakes, but sweetheart, you can't live with guilt all your life. It wasn't your fault, okay?"

Sage only nods slightly.

"So, you're going to put on the dress Kitty is giving you. You're going to look pretty, and we're going to celebrate you, because it's your day. Alright?"

Sage pulls her hands away from him. "Well, I don't have a choice, do I?"

"You'll have fun, I promise!" he yells as she leaves the kitchen.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"So?" Jackie asked as she and Donna leaned on the Vista Cruiser, watching the boys play basketball.

"What?" the redhead questioned.

"What are you going to get Eric for his birthday?"

"I don't know," Donna shrugs. "Nothing seems right. I want to give him something special."

It's never been this hard finding him a gift before, but since kissing Eric after the Rundgren concert, Donna had been confused. They hadn't talked about the kiss, so she didn't know what it meant.

All while she was in thought, Jackie had been staring at her.

Being the "genius" to relationships, she thought it was. Jackie could tell something happened between the two childhood friends.

"He kissed you!" she blurts out loudly.

"Shhhh!" Donna beckons her to keep it down.

Jackie points to the cruiser, demandingly. "Get in the car. Donna, get in the car so we can talk."

Annoyed and knowing Jackie wasn't going to let up, Donna gets in the front seat, leaving the brunette in the passenger.

"Okay, what happened?"

"Jackie, I'm not gonna talk to you about this," Donna causes her to scoff.

"Then, who are you gonna talk to?"

Right on time, Sage gets in the backseat of the car.

Donna didn't even realize she had arrived until she greets them, "what's up?"

The redhead looked from Sage to Jackie, who raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you serious?"

Was she only willing to spill the beans if Sage was in the car?

Yes, she was.

Donna looks back at Sage. "When Eric and I got home from the Rundgren Concert, we were sitting on the hood of the car, and I kissed him."

Sage: Are you guys like dating now?

Jackie: French or American?

Right then and there, Jackie proved why Donna would rather talk to Sage instead of her.

Sage asks essential questions.

Donna sighs, looking out of the window. "I can't believe I'm talking about this at all. I mean, I should be talking to Eric."

Suddenly, the boys pass the car, giving Fez a wedgie.

That's a reason Donna couldn't talk to Eric.

Boys were idiots.

"Okay, so, look," Donna begins to vent.

"I've lived next door to Eric my entire life, and we talk about everything together. We love the same music. We love the Packers. Then I kissed him, and everything changed. Now I don't know if he's my boyfriend or best friend. If he's my boyfriend, I'd lose my best friend. If I screw it up, I lose both. Now I have to get him this gift, and I don't know."

"Donna! Donna!" Sage and Jackie both shout, stopping her excessive rambling.

"I've solved it," Jackie smirks. "Get him a scented candle."

"A scented candle?" Donna and Sage asked in disbelief.

Jackie nods, "It's practical and romantic." She squints, staring at Donna lustfully."Oh . . . Yeahhhh."

Jackie pats Donna's shoulder, thinking she's solved the problem. Then again, maybe she did. Perhaps a candle is a perfect gift to give to Eric.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kelso, Fez, and Hyde walk into the basement, coming from outside to see Laurie, Eric's sister. The blonde was doing laundry in a red sweater and her underwear.

"Holy Mother." Fez stares at her, entranced.

Hyde, on the other hand, wasn't at all impressed. And it wasn't just because he hadn't been impressed with any girl since meeting Remy.

He just so happen to hate Laurie with a passion.

Laurie smiles at a stunned Kelso, and he steps forward, trying to look manly. "Hello, Laurie." he greets her in a deep voice.

"Hello, Kelso." She shoots Steven a glare. "Hyde."

Hyde rolls her eyes at her, not replying.

"Who is the goddess?" Fez asks, still staring. He was almost drooling, just like Kelso, who says, "the goddess is Eric's sister."

Hyde stuffs his hands in his pocket. "She's not a goddess. She's more the earth mother whore type, which works for me."

He smiles, and Laurie shoots him that non-ending glare. She goes over to the laundry basket on top of the dryer and starts folding her clothes.

Eric comes downstairs and stops midway when he sees Kelso and Fez, drooling over his big sister. "Laurie."

"Eric," she replies as he walks over to the boys.

"Shouldn't you put some clothes on?"

"Why?"

"Aren't you a little cold?"

"No, in fact, I'm hot."

Eris nods before yelling, "then why don't you go upstairs!?"

Laurie stops folding and looks back at him. "I am waiting for my jeans to come out of the dryer. And I want you to stay off my case. It'll only take me a minute."

Eric glances at a starstruck, Kelso. "I don't think Kelso's gonna last that long."

Laurie turns around, walking over to Kelso. "Too bad. It's not like I'm completely naked under this." She pulls up her sweater showing her panties. "I'm wearing underwear. See?"

Eric and Hyde look away in disgust as Fez and Kelso moan in pleasure.

"If we were at the beach, you wouldn't even notice me."

"If we were at the beach, Kelso would be in the water right now," Hyde sips from his flask.

Laurie ignores him and turns her attention to Eric. "So, I understand you have the wagon now. I want to borrow it tomorrow night. I need it."

Eric nods. "Okay. But I need a favor."

Laurie shakes her head. "For you? I don't think so."

Eric pushes Kelso out the way, making him sit on the couch. "Come on. Look, just tell mom I'm too old for surprise parties."

Laurie smirks, "but you're the baby, and Mama loves her baby."

"If you do it, you can borrow the Vista Cruiser."

"All night," she bets.

"All night? Fine." Eric says after hesitating.

Laurie squeezes his cheeks. "Then, it's a deal, baby."

Eric pretends to laugh, and Hyde sits down on the arm of the couch, sighing.

"Guys, I need help. I don't know what to get Sage for her birthday."

"How about a condom?" Kelso asks, "Oh, wait. You're not getting any."

Hyde punches him in the arm. "Shut up, dude!"

"You know Hyde," Eric says. "I give you props, man. You've officially been friends with the girl for a month. That's better than most guys. Let me tell you, it's worth it, learning everything about her before actually getting into a relationship with her, you know?"

They all frown at him.

"Eric, you do know that you and Donna are not in a relationship, right?" Fez asks.

Eric freezes for a moment, "Yeah, I . . I know . . I was just saying . . you know, being friends is a good thing."

"It doesn't matter anyway," Hyde sits next to Kelso. "Even though we're friends, she doesn't open up to me. It's like I'm in, but I'm not, you know? I can only get so far with her."

"Then go to somebody else who knows about her. Someone she probably opens to all the time." Fez suggests.

Hyde thinks for a moment. He doubted that she talks to her dad or her brother. She hates Jackie, so that leaves -

He snaps, "Donna."

****

Sorry, it's taken me so long to update in this book. More coming! I just wanted to give you guys something! :))