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Jay’s mom answers the door, a glass of wine in her hand. She’s pretty. Like, really pretty. Leia feels her mouth open and close a couple times, trying to figure out what to say.
“Oh,” says Jay’s mom, and a smile blooms across her face. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“Hey,” says Leia, tripping over her tongue. She tries to act normal, leaning on the doorway, but realises too late that the action puts her way too far into Jay’s mom’s space, and has to abandon it halfway through. She shoots a pair of finger guns. “Uh, I was wondering if Jay was home.”
“Sure, sure,” says Mrs Kelso, and steps aside to wave Leia through. Leia squeezes past her in the hallway, and even her perfume smells too good to be true. She’s gotta be, like, a travel agent or news reporter or something. Leia bets her wardrobe is designer suit after designer suit, bets her makeup all comes in gold packaging and that she wears those really skinny sunglasses all the supermodels do.
Jay’s mom lays her hand on the stairway banister, leaning to look up through the house. Her hair falls over her shoulder in Hollywood waves.
“Jay, honey? Leia’s here.”
Shit, Jay’s mom knows her name. Swallowing, Leia tucks her hair behind her ears, and rocks on the balls of her feet. Jay’s answering call echoes back down to them, a promised five minute wait. At least Mrs Kelso looks a little awkward, too, although it’s probably just about having someone like Leia in the house. She crosses her legs to try and hide the rip in her jeans.
“You want a glass of water?”
“Um, sure,” says Leia, and follows her into the kitchen. She didn’t take off her sneakers, and the rubbery squeak of her soles sounds extra loud compared to the soft, barefoot footfalls of Jay’s mom. Man, Leia has got to find out her name.
“What are you kids getting up to today?” she asks, after she’s handed Leia a glass of water and a coaster. She’s holding her wine glass with both hands, drumming her pink nails on it, and Leia wants to be her so bad when she grows up. She has this warmth to her that makes Leia want to spill all her secrets, including the one about never having kissed a boy before last week (she really misses her mom).
“Oh, not much,” says Leia. Upon reflection, she decides that the combo of her sweaty palms and the cool glass is way too risky, and puts it on the coaster. “I think we’re going to the mall, to hang out, and stuff.”
Jay’s mom smiles. “That sounds nice,” she says. “We used to do that all the time when we were your age. Well— some of us, anyway.”
“Yeah?” asks Leia. “I bet you had good malls in, um, L.A., or wherever. New York?”
Jay’s mom laughs. Her eyes have diamonds in them. “Actually, I’m from Point Place.”
She swirls her wine glass, looking into it. “Born and raised,” she adds, with a little trill that Leia can’t work out, like it’s an old joke.
“Oh, wow,” she says, and then flushes. “Uh—sorry. I just mean, um. You’re really cool to be from Point Place.”
“Well, that’s a matter of opinion,” says Jay’s mom, teasingly. “After all, Point Place looks just like Paris in the right light.”
There’s a hop, skip and a jump overhead, and then the sound of feet on floorboards, taken two at a time. The gleam in Mrs Kelso’s eye returns.
“Sounds like that’s your date,” she whispers, conspiratorially, and Leia flushes, even worse when Jay sticks his head into the kitchen, his hair flopping into his eyes in just the right boy-band kind of way. Leia’s heart gives a wistful ka-thump.
“Hey, Leia,” he says. “You good to go?”
“Yup!” says Leia, “Ya-huh. Super ready. Also, this is embarrassing, but, um—I don’t know your name, I’m sorry.”
“Oh,” says Mrs Kelso. “Um, that’s okay. I’m—I’m Jackie.”
“Cool,” says Leia, relieved. “I’ve got an Aunt Jackie, I think. I don’t see her much.”
Then, because she started talking at two and never learned how to stop, she just keeps blabbing. “Not that you care, of course,” she says, quickly, in case Mrs Kelso takes offence at Leia likening her to Leia’s mom’s super old, probably dorky friend from high school. She forces a laugh. “Why would you? Uh. Okay. Stop talking, Leia. I’m just gonna, um. Go. Bye.”
She points in the direction of the front door, ducks her head, and powerwalks her way out of there. Jay catches up to her after only a couple of steps, swinging an arm around her shoulders in the hall, and poking at her burning cheeks.
“See you later,” says Jackie, from the kitchen.
*
The next time Leia meets Jay at his house, she makes sure to dress up in her nicest outfit—her best loafers and her flower-print dress—and shows up a little early on purpose. It’s warm out today, so the Kelsos’ door is propped open with a doorstop. It’s a really cute stuffed dog. Leia pokes her head in.
“Um, hello?” she calls, edging inside the house. “Jay? Mrs Kelso?”
She can hear music, that song that was on the radio all the time last year. It was in a film, Leia thinks. Her mom and dad saw it and her mom thought it was boring and her dad cried. Hesitantly, she steps inside the house, and follows the sound down to the kitchen, and then out into the backyard.
Mrs Kelso is in the garden, in a really huge hat and tiny sunglasses (Leia knew it) and a brilliant white sundress. She’s reading something, a battered and dog-eared paperback. Leia’s mom is awesome, but she has never ever in her life looked like this, like a film star. Leia must make a noise, because Mrs Kelso looks up, and she smiles again, like Leia’s the most important girl in the world.
“Hey, Leia,” she says, and sits up. “When did you get here?”
“Just now,” says Leia, fidgeting with her bag. “I let myself in, I’m sorry. The door was open.”
“That’s okay,” says Mrs Kelso, and pulls her legs off the sunbed, so that her dress tumbles down around her legs. “Do you want anything? We have lemonade, or ice water. There might even be some pops in the freezer.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble,” Leia says, and Mrs Kelso smiles wider, tucking her bookmark into her book and getting to her feet.
“Don’t worry about it,” she says. “I’m getting a lemonade, if you’d like one too."
“Yeah, okay,” says Leia. “Lemonade sounds awesome.”
“Good,” says Mrs Kelso, and gestures her back into the kitchen. Leia does so, and then watches Mrs Kelso pull out a pitcher and two glasses. She looks into the fridge with her hip cocked, humming thoughtfully, and then pulls out a foil-wrapped dish.
“How do you feel about custard cake?” she asks, and Leia shrugs.
“I have nothing bad to say about it,” she says, and so Mrs Kelso gets it out, as well as two forks.
“There’s not much left, so I think we can finish it off,” she says. She divvies up what’s left of the cake into two, sliding half down the dish so that it’s closer to Leia. “Saves on washing up,” she says.
“Awesome,” says Leia, for the millionth time. It feels glamorous, and decadent, and so she sips on her lemonade to calm down. “This is so good. Did you make this?”
Mrs Kelso laughs. “That’s sweet,” she says, “but, no. Your grandma will tell you that cooking has never been my strongest skill, no matter how many times she’s tried to teach me. I don’t do well with eggs.”
“You know my grandma?”
“M-hmm,” says Mrs Kelso. “Really well, actually. Or, I mean. I used to.”
She frowns down at the custard cake and Leia finds herself leaning forward, hanging onto her every word. Something complicated flickers over her face, and she twirls her fork back and forth. When she speaks, it sounds careful, and it feels like Leia is being told a secret.
“Your grandma took care of me when I was a girl,” she says, eventually. “She and your grandad both did. And, uh, when I grew up, and I got stupid—don’t worry, you’ll do it too—I left.”
“Where did you go?” asks Leia, and Mrs Kelso beams.
“Oh, everywhere,” she says, and Leia believes her. “And I sent postcards, for a while, but I guess… I had a lot of hurt, that I left here. Not to do with your grandparents, they were always— really great. But after a while, it became easier to not send postcards, and to not call, and that was wrong.”
Mrs Kelso shrugs. She points her fork at Leia. “You know, grown-ups tell you all the time that you’ll figure it out eventually, but it’s not true.” She smiles again, light and breezy. “Most grown-ups are liars.”
“Wow,” says Leia. She eats some more of her custard cake. “Hey, so, if my grandparents raised you, you’d probably know my dad?”
“Yeah, I know Eric,” says Mrs Kelso, in a tone that Leia recognises immediately— it’s the same way her dad sounds when he talks about whether or not Auntie Laurie is going to make it to Christmas. Fond, and devious. “I knew your mom, too.”
Mrs Kelso cuts off another piece of cake with her fork, avoiding Leia’s eyes. “I’ve actually—I’ve met you before, too. You probably wouldn’t remember, though. You were really little.”
The idea that glamorous Mrs Kelso met Leia when she was some crying, snot-nosed baby is absolutely mortifying. “Seriously?” asks Leia, choked, and Mrs Kelso giggles.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” she says. “You were a cute baby. I was at your christening, I bought you this beautiful pink blanket, with lilies embroidered on it? You got a lot of things like that, of course, but mine was the best, even though Mrs Forman insisted homemade was better. Your dad wanted to get something Star Wars themed.”
Mrs Kelso laughs again, pink in her cheeks. “Your mom— oh, I’m sorry, honey. Your mom said it was bad enough that you got stuck with the name, they weren’t going to give you a whole personality to boot. And Michael—"
She cuts herself off, smile softening. “Well. It was a busy day, anyway.”
“That’s really cool,” Leia says. “Um— I’m sorry I didn’t know who you were, then. Mom and Dad said they had friends who still lived here, but I guess I didn’t put it together. I’m dumb like that.”
“Hey, no,” says Mrs Kelso, and grabs her hands. “You do not get to say that, okay? You are a smart and wonderful girl, and you can do anything you want to do, alright?”
Leia blinks. “Oh, you really do sound like Mom.”
Mrs Kelso grins. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Were you one of her feminist friends, or something?”
Mrs Kelso laughs again, big and bright. “Oh, no. No, no, no. No, your mom had plenty to teach me about that. She did a really good job, though. Just like she’s done a really good job with you."
Leia doesn’t really know what to say to that— somewhere along the line, Mrs Kelso has lost her shiny glow to become another adult Leia doesn’t really get how to talk to. She’s still really awesome, obviously, and super beautiful, but like, come on. There’s no way Mrs Kelso and her dad grew up together without her inheriting some of the Forman dorkiness.
“I guess I should call you Aunt Jackie, huh?” she asks, and Mrs Kelso’s face does something unexpected again, creasing up into something that looks sort of like pity.
“You don’t have to do that,” she says. “But you can if you want to.”
“Okay,” says Leia. She tries to reconcile Mrs Kelso with the swoopy, loopy Aunt Jackie signature she’s seen before. Mrs Kelso doesn’t look like she dots her ‘i's with hearts. “Um, thanks for the birthday cards, then.”
“Of course,” says Mrs Kelso, but she looks sad. “I hope you got yourself something nice. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, after all.”
*
Later, hanging out with Jay at the water tower, Leia is resting her forehead on one of the bars, looking down to the ground below.
“I found out today that your mom is my aunt,” she says, finally.
“What?”
“Not by blood, or anything,” adds Leia, quickly. “But she was friends with my mom in the seventies, or something. So she’s kind of my aunt now.”
“Woah,” says Jay. “That’s weird.”
“Yeah,” says Leia, and frowns. “Yeah, it is weird.”
*
The next time Leia goes around to see Jay (and, considering he doesn’t know she’s coming, it might be easier to just admit that she’s totally abusing this pretext), Mrs Kelso has one of her friends over, and they’re both lounging and eating tiny cheeses and drinking wine. It is so cool.
“Hi,” says Leia, with a little wave. Mrs Kelso said she could just let herself in whenever, so she’s hovering awkwardly in the doorway to the living room. At least she took off her shoes, this time.
“Hey, Leia,” says Mrs Kelso. They were both laughing when Leia got here, and Mrs Kelso had her hand on her friend’s arm, and the living room feels like fireworks are going off in it. “How are you, sweetheart?”
“I’m good,” says Leia, and Mrs Kelso points between her and her friend, for some reason.
“Have you two met?”
Leia shakes her head; so does the other woman, although she does it with a smile.
“Not yet,” she says, standing so she can shake Leia’s hand, like Leia’s a real lady who could totally fit in at their little soiree. “I’ve heard lots about you, though, hon. Jay’s really sweet on you.”
Leia blushes. “Oh,” she says, “um, thanks, I guess. I just thought I’d come and say hi to Jackie, unless you’re busy hanging out with, um—”
“You can call me Brooke,” Jackie’s friend says. “Do you wanna sit down? I can get you a soda if you want, or we’ve got lemonade, I think? I probably have orange juice in there somewhere too. Did Michael have a chance to go shopping?”
“Oh, you bet he did,” says Mrs Kelso, and then they both laugh like it’s a hilarious joke. “Took some convincing, but I busted out that old Jackie Burkhart charm, and whaddayaknow? It still works a treat.”
“I’ll say,” says Brooke, and then she floats out of the room into the hall, her long brown hair swishing behind her, like a horse’s tail. Not in a bad way, either. In like, a really majestic, wonderful way. There is literally no part of Mrs Kelso’s life that isn’t amazing, including her friends. Leia sidles over to perch on the edge of a seat, her hands in her lap.
“You can relax,” says Mrs Kelso, knowingly. “It’s okay, Brooke already loves you. No need to worry.”
“Who’s worried?” asks Leia, genuinely, but Jackie just holds out the cheeses for her, and so Leia tucks in, picking one up by its toothpick. There’s also an olive attached, which she eats to be classy, and then has to fight to keep the disgusted expression off her face.
“Yeah, I don’t like them either,” says Jackie, “They taste better in martinis. Don’t tell your mom I said that.”
“Scouts honor,” swears Leia, and Jackie beams again.
“You know, you really remind me of your dad, sometimes.”
“Oh,” says Leia, and then Brooke comes back in, with three glasses of lemonade, soda and orange juice respectively. She holds them out on a tray for Leia.
“I forgot to ask which one you wanted,” she says, shaking her head. “Baby brain, it’s a thing.”
“You’d think third time would be the charm.”
“Yeah, well, with these genes, I don’t know.” To Leia, she says: “You just take whatever you want, and Jackie and I’ll have the others.”
Leia picks up the orange juice, and Brooke places the tray on the coffee table with the cheese.
“You’re pregnant?” she asks, sipping on it. Brooke relaxes back onto the sofa, and Aunt Jackie is poised elegantly with an elbow on the armrest, so Leia tries to mimic them and make her posture a little less robot like.
“Jay didn’t tell you?” asks Brooke, and Leia shakes her head. Brooke smiles fondly.
“That kid,” she scolds, and Jackie grins.
“Brooke’s been in Chicago these last two weeks with her mother,” she explains, “but she’s back now, thank god. I missed my BFF."
It should be dorky, like when Leia’s parents get all gooey and romantic, but it should come as no surprise to anyone that Leia thinks Jackie could make anything charming, and so instead it’s just really awe inspiring. Maybe when Leia’s forty, she’ll be the one sitting on the couch with Gwen and a glass of wine.
“You guys have been friends for a while, then?” she asks.
“Oh, since we were teenagers,” says Brooke, and Jackie nods her agreement.
“Yeah, I actually lived with Brooke for a time, back when I first moved to Chicago. That was, what, late seventies? Early eighties.”
“Mostly eighties,” Brooke says. “Betsy was only a toddler. Jackie and I managed to get this crummy little apartment, and for the longest time the only furnished room was the baby’s.”
She laughs, so Leia does too. Jackie’s eyes light up. “Yes, that’s right. Sometimes I can’t believe we did that!” She looks at Leia; “That was my first proper TV gig. I was eighteen, and Brooke and I were splitting shifts so we could always have someone at home with Betsy but still afford to pay rent. That’s before Michael was in the picture.”
Brooke shakes her head, and picks up the tale. “I’d been living with my mom for a while before that, but— a million things. You really showed up for me, Jackie.”
“So did you,” says Jackie, and squeezes Brooke’s hand. It sounds like something out of a novel, and Leia realises that she’s been leaning forward this entire time, and has to dial it back. “That was a really bad time for me, but you and Betsy made it all worth it.”
“You guys should be on Dateline,” says Leia, who has never seen Dateline, but has heard people say things to that effect. “What about Michael? That’s Jay’s dad, right?”
“Yeah,” says Brooke, with a grin that puts dimples in her cheeks. “He moved up to Chicago about a year later, and moved in with us. That made it easier. He was making more money than me and Jackie combined, and we needed the third pair of hands.”
“Oh, god, did we,” says Jackie. “Although the Three’s Company jokes were excessive.”
Brooke laughs. “Yeah, I think that lasted as long as the lease. But after that, I dunno. It was just— history. And now here we are!”
“Here we are,” echoes Jackie, and they clink glasses. Leia wants to be just like her when she grows up.
*
“Hey, mom?” asks Leia, lying on bed and kicking her feet, trying to figure out how to ask why she never hears about the woman who features in at least forty percent of Grandma’s photo albums. “Do you remember Aunt Jackie?”
Mom laughs, kind of surprised. “Jackie? Yeah, of course I remember her. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, she, uh, she lives in Point Place, now. I’ve seen her around a couple of times.”
Mom is silent for a little too long, the kind of pause that Leia still doesn’t know how to read. She can never tell if Mom’s about to back her dad up or passionately and defiantly take her side.
“Oh,” says Mom, eventually. “I didn’t know that.”
“Really?”
“Really,” says Mom. She sounds like she’s frowning, and Leia picks up the photograph that Grandma let her keep, the one of Mom and Dad and their friends, celebrating Thanksgiving ’78. Everyone is laughing and no one is looking at the camera, and it looks just like the friend group Leia was hoping to make this summer, where everything is easy and nothing is difficult. “We would’ve visited her if we knew.”
“Right,” says Leia. “She’s like, really cool, Mom.”
Mom laughs. “Yeah? You think so?”
“Uh huh. She has all these designer clothes, and she drinks wine, and she has all these stories about the places she’s been. Did you know she’s been to India?”
“Well, your dad’s been to Africa,” says Mom, and Leia says:
“Yeah, but that’s dad. Aunt Jackie is like… famous.”
Mom laughs. “Yeah, that’s Jackie. She always did have star-power, even when we were kids.”
She can hear Mom smiling at the other end of the line, so she waits. Mom takes a big breath.
“What, uh. What’s she doing, these days? Is she alright?”
“Can’t you ask her?”
Mom laughs again, though this time it sounds strained. Like when her dad does something that he is so going to be in trouble for later, but Mom doesn’t want to make a scene in public.
“I don’t know, kiddo. Jackie and I haven’t talked in a really long time.”
“Well, why not?” demands Leia, indignantly. “She’s better than all your other friends.”
“I—okay,” says Mom, sounding taken aback. “Cool your jets, Pinciotti. It’s great that you’ve met her and that you like her, but it doesn’t mean we’ve been hiding her as part of some big conspiracy. Sometimes people just drift apart.”
“But why?” asks Leia, looking at her Mom’s frozen face, and the way Aunt Jackie has her arms looped so, so tightly around Mom’s neck. Mom sighs.
“It’s complicated,” she says. “Jackie… she moved away. I guess that’s it, when it comes down to it. Some stuff happened, for her and for me, at pretty much the same time. Neither of us were doing our best. But Jackie, she got out of Point Place, and she went and did something about how she was feeling. But I was just—stuck. And I guess I resented her for that, a little, so I didn’t make as much of an effort to keep in touch as I should’ve. It was wrong, I know that, but it’s what happened. Sometimes this stuff just happens.”
“Yeah, that’s what Jackie said,” she admits. “That it was wrong, I mean. I think she really misses you, Mom. You should call her.”
“Yeah, maybe,” says Mom, and then: “No, you’re right. I’ll call her. Do you have her number?”
Leia leaps off the bed, knocking off a pillow as she does. “Yep, uh-huh! I sure do, it’s—here—”
She reads off Jay’s number, written in scratchy boy-writing on the back of a video store receipt. Mom does another one of her pauses.
“Four-six-three,” she repeats, slowly, and Leia hums. “That’s Kelso’s number.”
Leia pulls a face. “Yeah,” she says. “Duh.”
“Okay,” Mom says. “Yeah, I’ll chat to her. Thanks, kiddo.”
“Anytime,” says Leia, and finger-guns herself in the mirror.
*
Gwen is really cool, almost as cool as Aunt Jackie, though in a totally different way, obviously. She’s interested in all these awesome bands and girl power, although apparently girl power means something different now to what Leia thought it did, and involves getting really mad about everything and also not washing your hair. Gwen doesn’t do that, though. She has really nice hair and when she’s mad about stuff she’s usually right.
Leia watches her fingers flick through the CDs, her rings flashing with the movement. Every now and again, she’ll pull something up and look appraisingly at the cover, then maybe scan the song titles on the back. So, she’ll do everything that’s totally normal to do while browsing CDs. Gwen has this way about her where it kind of feels like she’s inventing whatever it is she’s doing.
The CD store is okay, but Leia likes the ones at home better. There’s not as much variety here. Leia glances around, and then has to do a double take at the sight of Aunt Jackie, dressed more casually than Leia has seen her so far, in dark jeans and a tank top. It’s very off-duty supermodel.
“Oh, crap,” says Leia, and Gwen looks up.
She follows Leia’s eyeline, and the whistles. “Oh, wow,” she says. “Check out the babe.”
Leia whacks her arm. “Gwen, gross! That’s my aunt.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Yeah,” says Leia, and tugs her into a different aisle, where they can hide behind a cardboard cut-out of Take That.
“Why are we hiding?” asks Gwen, and Leia shushes her.
“Because,” she says, “She’s all worldly and has diamond earrings. I’m embarrassed.”
Gwen pulls a face. “Leia, that’s crazy. Surely she doesn’t care.”
“She might!” says Leia, and ducks down even further. “I haven’t seen her in years, so we’re kind of only just getting to know each other, and it would be really awesome if she could meet a version of me who is not a total dork!”
“Oh my god,” says Gwen, and yanks her back out from behind the cardboard hidey hole. Leia trips a little and crashes into it, but Gwen catches them both. “Leia, would you listen to yourself? You’re not a dork, you’re cool, and I bet your aunt knows that. Anyway, you’re about to find out.”
“Huh?” says Leia, but then Gwen shoves her, and Leia trips right into Aunt Jackie’s arms.
“Woah, steady on, girl,” says Aunt Jackie, catching her, and Leia flushes from her roots to her toes. Jackie smooths her hair back on her forehead. “You okay, Leia?”
“Yeah,” says Leia, breathlessly. She clears her throat. “Um, yeah. I just—tripped. What are you doing here?”
“Oh,” says Jackie, her face twitching in a smile. “I was just— exploring, I guess. I used to come here when I was a teenager. I figured it was about time I paid a visit to all our old haunts.”
“They had a CD store in the seventies?”
Jackie giggles. “Well, it was records, back then.”
“Oh, right,” says Leia. “Duh.”
Jackie shrugs. “It’s definitely different,” she says, and then: “Hey, you wanna see something cool?”
“Yeah, always.”
“Okay.” Jackie darts a look over her shoulder, then hurries over to the nearest wall, which has a bunch of framed posters on it. She appraises it for a second, finally lands on one for Green Day, and with a flick of her fingers neatly plucks it from the wall. Leia gasps.
“What’re you doing?” she says, grabbing her arm, but Jackie waves her off.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m too pretty to get in trouble. But there, see?”
She points with one manicured hand, and Leia stops freaking out enough to look where Jackie’s pointing: at the faint indent of the letters “EF”, painted over a couple of times but definitely there.
“Woah,” says Leia, forgetting about the store manager. “EF, like, Eric Forman?”
“Yup,” says Jackie, pleased. “And see there, that’s your mom, and Michael, and Fez. This was for Angie, we had to work really hard to convince her to do it. She was a bit uptight.”
She points to each of them in turn, tracing the letters with her fingertip. She settles on the last two, lingering on her own initials. “And Steven, and me.”
“Those were your friends?”
“Yeah,” says Jackie. She looks back over her shoulder, and re-hangs the poster, forcing Leia to stop tracing over her dad’s initials. “Sorry, that’s probably totally lame. I promise I don’t spend most of my time reminiscing over my teenage years. It’s just—being back here, it brings old feelings up.”
“No, it’s really cool,” says Leia. “My mom and dad don’t really talk about when they were young. I can’t believe you guys vandalised a store.”
Jackie laughs. “Well, it wasn’t really vandalism. Steven and Angie, they ran this place for a while, and one time when we got snowed in after hours, Michael thought we should leave a way to identify the bodies.”
She shrugs, soft smile on her face. “Anyway. You want me to buy you a CD or something? The best part about being a Godparent is spoiling your darling Goddaughter.”
“You’re my Godmother?” asks Leia, feeling faint, but Jackie shakes her head.
“In spirit,” she assures her, and squeezes Leia’s cheek. That’s definitely something she picked up from Grandma Forman. Leia fends off her offers of a gift, and so instead Jackie smiles that funny smile of hers, and waves goodbye. Leia is still reeling when Gwen sidles back up to her.
“Sooo,” she says, “What’s the verdict? Does your aunt still think you’re cool?”
“I don’t know,’ says Leia, and before she can think twice about it, she takes down the poster again. She touches each of the initials, trying to match them up with the photo from Grandma Forman in her head. How weird, to think that her dad did something like this. Her mom she’s not surprised by, because her mom is cool, but it’s still neat to see the evidence. She runs her eyes over the Jackie’s initials, and double checks the groove right above them, below the ‘SH’. It could just be a dip in the wall, thinks Leia. It’s hard to tell with all the paint covering it.
It just looks like a plus sign, is all.
*
They meet Jay’s sister when she comes back home from her summer vacation at her grandparents, and she promises to buy them beer.
“Yeah, she’s pretty cool,” Jay is saying, while he, Leia, and Gwen hang out in his kitchen. “But you can’t tell my mom and dad that. They think she’s like, a total goody-too-shoes, and she does use that for evil. It’s awesome.”
It’s also the first time Leia properly meets Jay’s dad, which would be nerve-wracking, except for the fact that he’s super distracted by Betsy’s arrival, and so doesn’t seem to have the ability to deal out a shovel talk. Which, thank god.
She’s seen pictures of Jay’s sister before, there are a bunch of school photos tacked up in the hallway and the living room, but she isn’t expecting Betsy to be so tall. She must be at least six feet, and it seems so incredibly unfair that all the Kelsos would be this attractive. They’re so picture perfect they might as well exist in a science textbook.
“There’s my baby girl!” calls out Mr Kelso, as soon as Betsy knocks on the door. He disappears down the hall, Brooke and Jackie snickering. Jay rolls his eyes.
“Michael, don’t crowd her,” chides Brooke, sipping down on (what Leia has discovered is) non-alcoholic wine. “She’s probably exhausted.”
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t pick her up from the airport,” Mr Kelso is saying, and Betsy, emerging into the kitchen in all of her good-looking, basketball-playing glory, says:
“Because, Dad. I wanted to manage this whole adventure by myself.”
“It’s child endangerment, is what it is,” he protests, indignant, and Jackie rolls her eyes.
“Oh, give it a rest, Michael. When you were sixteen you drove a van to California.”
“Yeah, and I endangered many children on the road.”
Jackie scoffs.
“Yeah, Dad, but I’m smarter than you,” says Betsy, lightly, and Mr Kelso tucks her under his arm.
“Burn,” says Jay, as Mr Kelso says: “You sure are, button. You’re lucky you got your mom’s brains.”
“Speaking of,” says Brooke, and bats them all out of the way. “Come here, honey.”
“Hi, Mom,” says Betsy, wrapping Brooke up in her arms. Leia’s brain breaks a little. Betsy squeezes her tight-tight, then turns her head to look at Jay. “Hey, Squidbrain. Hey, Squidbrain’s friends.”
“Hey Betsy,” says Gwen, and Leia waves. She leans backwards, as close as she can to Gwen’s ear while still standing a little in front of her.
“I’ve missed something,” she whispers.
“What?” mutters Gwen.
“I thought Jackie was Betsy’s mom.”
“What?” whispers Gwen, again. “Your aunt? Why?”
“Because she’s Jay’s mom,” says Leia.
“She’s what?” says Gwen, and then grabs her hand, sneaking them out of the kitchen amidst the family reunion. Outside, she crowds into Leia’s space, so they can keep whispering. “Leia, what are you talking about?”
“Jackie,” says Leia again. “Mrs Kelso?”
“Mrs Kelso is Brooke,” says Gwen, with a face. “Brooke has always been Mrs Kelso, like, forever.”
“Are you serious?” asks Leia, and Gwen nods.
“Yeah. And she’s definitely Jay’s mom. Who did you think she was?”
“I thought she was Jackie’s friend who was staying with them!”
“Ohhh,” says Gwen, all long and drawn-out. She shakes her head. “No, your Aunt Jackie is Mrs Kelso’s friend. I can’t believe you didn’t know this.”
“Well, I don’t know!” says Leia, in her own defence. “She was here every time I came to the house, I guess I just assumed!”
“That’s hilarious,” says Gwen, and grabs her hand again. “Come on, we gotta tell Jay.”
“No!” cries Leia, “No, that’s too embarrassing, you can’t.”
“It’s hilarious,” repeats Gwen. The charm on her choker bobs when she talks, which Leia’s never been close enough to notice before. She’s still holding onto Leia’s wrist, and she gives it another tug.
“Promise you won’t tell anyone,” says Leia, firmly, and Gwen rolls her eyes.
“Fine,” she says. “I promise.”
Leia holds up her free hand. “Pinkie swear?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Leia glares at her. Gwen glares back.
“Ugh—fine. I’m so glad you can’t pout, that would be lethal.”
“I could pout,” protests Leia, as Gwen leads her back to the kitchen. She sticks out her bottom lip. “See?”
“Not looking!”
*
When Mom and Dad come back to get her towards the end of the summer, Leia rings Jackie from her grandparents’ kitchen, because she doesn’t feel like she can go home with this loose thread. She didn’t stay in Point Place to retrace her parents’ steps, and she definitely didn’t expect to, but maybe if she can mend her parents’ friendship group, she can mend whatever boy trouble mess she’s gotten her own into.
“Oh, sweetie,” says Jackie over the phone, when Leia asks her to come over. “That’s really cute of you, but I don’t know. I’m a little bit past the age of showing up in Mr and Mrs Forman’s kitchen unannounced.”
“But they’d love to have you,” protests Leia, and then tucks the phone under her chin. “Grandma Forman? You’d like to see Aunt Jackie, right?”
“Jackie?” cries Grandma, and jumps up from her seat with surprising speed. “Jackie Burkhart?”
“Um, yeah,” says Leia. “She’s on the phone right now—”
Grandma Forman’s eyes go wide, and she makes such desperate grabby hands at the phone that Leia has no choice but to surrender it. Grandma’s voice is high pitched.
“Jackie Burkhart is that you?” she asks, clutching the phone, and Leia feels her eyebrows climb up her forehead. “Oh, sweetheart. Oh, my goodness. Oh, honey. Oh, no. No, no, no. I’ll brook no argument, young missy. Mm-hm. Sweetheart, when you’re as old as I am, you can call whoever whatever you like. Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Okay. No, don’t you worry about that, Red and I would love to see you. Uh huh. Mm-hm. Well, that’s a to-do.”
Leia sits down on a bar stool, chin in hands. The friendship bracelet Gwen gave her presses into her skin, a silver flower bead on leather cord. Grandma Forman makes more noises of assent, and behind Leia, the sliding door opens.
“Who’s on the phone?” Red asks, right as Grandma Forman hangs up with a flourish, rounding on them both with her hands on her hips.
“You will not believe who I just spoke to,” she says, out of breath, and gestures at Red. “Only your favourite of all the children we’ve raised.”
“Steven?” asks Red, and Grandma shakes her head, her lips pressed together in a line, her eyes wide and encouraging. “Not Jackie?”
“The one and the same,” says Grandma, while Leia looks between them. Grandpa looks actually happy, for once, which is really weird. Leia didn’t know they’d be this excited about it.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” says Grandpa. “Jackie Burkhart. Where is she?”
“She’s coming to dinner. Do you think—would it be too much for me to invite—”
“Kitty,” says Red, warningly, and Leia senses something important is occurring, but her grandparents are like steel traps when they want to be.
“Who?” she asks, but they ignore her. “Invite who?”
They stare each other down a moment longer, and then Grandma snaps back into action, apparently having lost. Maybe. Leia can’t tell.
“Well, I have to go shopping,” she says, bustling about. “I missed her so much, I have to— I have to make a pie. Or a cake! I should make a cake. Leia, come with me, come on, we’re going to the store. I need those young arms of yours to help me carry the groceries.”
“On it,” says Leia, and follows her out.
*
Leia manages to convince her parents to have Thanksgiving at Point Place this year, which is awesome.
Aunt Jackie is already there—Leia sees her as soon as she walks into the room, probably because she’s looking for her. She’s just as done up as usual, in seasonal Autumn tones (she’s so cool), looking like she just walked out of a magazine. Leia says ‘hi’ to her grandparents and then tries to sneak over there, trying to see if Jackie is wearing the matching hair clip to the one she gave Leia in the summer (she promised that she would).
“—good to see you, Jackie,” Uncle Hyde is saying, gesturing a little with his beer. Aunt Jackie is smiling at him, those diamonds sparkling in her eyes again.
“Yeah,” she says. “It’s good to see you, too. Although…”
She reaches out and pokes at one of Uncle Hyde’s sideburns, which he has told Leia many a time are a symbol of his ongoing resistance to the man and conformity, which were all words Leia didn’t really understand when she was four. Since then, she’s heard her dad berate Uncle Hyde’s facial hair at least twice a year, but he never seems to care. Leia doesn’t think she’d recognise him without them.
Now, though, Uncle Hyde ducks his head, grimacing. “Yeah, I know. Relic of a bygone era, huh?”
“Just a little,” says Aunt Jackie, but not in a mean way. “I mean, it’s good to hold onto stuff sometimes, but… other things are better left in the past.”
Uncle Hyde’s mouth twitches. Moving as stealthily as she can, Leia reaches down to the coffee table, grabs a handful of popcorn, and straightens back up. She is at least half hidden by a pot plant.
“Want me to shave them off for you?” asks Uncle Hyde, and a piece of popcorn drops out of Leia’s mouth.
“What, as one last, silent gesture?” asks Jackie, quirking an eyebrow, and Uncle Hyde shrugs.
“Could be.”
“That’s sweet, Steven,” says Jackie, “but I don’t need that anymore.”
“Yeah,” says Uncle Hyde, looking down. “It’s just that, uh, the drugstore doesn’t do cards for people who haven’t talked in a decade. The sideburns are all I’ve got.”
”You could grow a beard.”
”Could do.”
There’s a long pause, long enough that Leia should really take the opportunity to interrupt, but something keeps her rooted. Suddenly Uncle Hyde speaks again, all in a rush, like he’s not sure of the next time they’ll get a chance to talk to each other.
“You’re happy, right?” he asks. “You’re—you’ve been happy?”
Jackie smiles again, but not like any other smile Leia’s seen her do. Sometimes Aunt Jackie’s smiles look sad, and sometimes they look too big to be real, and sometimes Aunt Jackie’s smile says that she loves Leia so, so much, even if they’re not related by blood. She doesn’t know what this smile is saying, but it looks a lot like the love one.
“Yeah,” says Jackie. “And— were you?”
Uncle Hyde looks at her. “Yeah,” he says. “I mean— yeah.”
“Good,” Jackie says. Leia is about to open her mouth again to interrupt, but again, Uncle Hyde beats her to it. He ducks his head, frowns, and then looks back at Aunt Jackie, and it’s obvious even to Leia that he wants to say something.
“Hey,” he says, quietly. “While we’re confessing to things, I didn’t— I didn’t get to tell you, before you moved, but… I would’ve married you. I was gonna marry you. Didn’t seem right that I never got to telling you.”
Leia feels her eyes go wide. Jackie cocks her head. Leia has no idea what she's thinking.
“Yeah,” Jackie says, just as soft. “Thank you, Steven. I would’ve married you, too.”
”Yeah,” he says. “I know.”
He nods, and Jackie nods, and then they both laugh. They're nervous sounds that bring the rest of the party back to Leia’s ears, reminding her that she actually is still in her grandparents’ living room and not watching a soap opera. She looks around to see if anyone else has noticed the drama occurring, but only Grandma Forman winks at her, and then she puts a finger over her lips right after. Leia looks back at Aunt Jackie, just in time to see Uncle Hyde offer her his arm.
“So,” he says, and clears his throat. “You wanna try and give Forman a conniption, tell him we’re friends again?”
Jackie beams big and bright, and loops her arm through his.
“Friends it is,” she agrees, and as they wander over to Leia’s parents, she can see it again, suddenly. The 1978 photograph, a little dusty, but still colourful underneath. And if her parents can keep their friends way into their thirties and forties, Leia can totally keep her new group together, and she sees that now. They’re all gonna be alright.
“Hey, Aunt Jackie,” Leia says, finally unsticking her tongue from her mouth, and jogs to catch her. “Wait up!”