[Hyde POV]
I bought an inflatable winter tent for 500 bucks in 2025, so it cost me like 100 bucks.
It was hand pumped, but I used a battery air compressor to set it up quickly. It has rectangular
walls and a canopy shaped roof, like a small cabin house.
The best part was I could install a chimney stove inside the tent. It was sold with the flue and
everything.
It was a vented propane heater with a metal flue, so I wouldn't suffocate as I slept.
The floor was padded, the outer walls were made with thick mesh. I also pumped up an inflatable bed for me to sleep on.
After hooking up the tent to the ground, I took out a folding chair and folding table from the van.
I set it up in front of the tent entrance.
There was almost no regulation at the venue so I could do whatever I wanted.
People were creating bonfires everywhere, so thick smoke hung low at the camp. That's also why we picked the edge of the camp. It was cleaner here.
"Hyde. This tent is so cozy." Donna giggled as she sat on the inflatable bed. Eric joined her, and
acted a little insecure again.
"Sure, the tent is big, and he has all of the stuff. But nothing beats sleeping underneath the
stars." He added, patting the two sleeping bags he zipped into one huge bag for him and Donna to
share.
I rolled my eyes and set up the stove. It was connected to an actual propane tank by a hose, the
kind people used for grills and campers.
I twisted the valve slightly and listened for the hiss.
"Hyde, you're cooking now? Great, cause I'm hungry." Eric said with a chuckle.
I looked at him flatly and said, "I'm not cooking for you."
"Well, sure. We made fun of you and all, but deep down, I do admire your resourcefulness… and hope you'll share some of the food you'll make?" He said nervously.
"No. Go buy your lunch like you said you would. I'm not sharing anything." I put the ice box beside
the table and took out a wooden cutting board.
I have a large canister of clean water next to me, some drinking water, pots, utensils, and even
snacks.
Kelso turned on the speaker I installed, so I enjoyed the music while cooking for myself.
Taking out the boneless chicken strip, I seasoned it with salt, spices, and grated garlic and left
them for five minutes. Then, I seared them in an enamel cast iron pot with olive oil.
After seven minutes, the delicious smell of chicken was already spread around the area.
Eric and Donna took a long sniff as they became increasingly hungry.
For the sauce, I used a mixture of low fat Greek yogurt, sriracha hot sauce, grated garlic, salt,
chili flakes, lemon juice and chopped coriander.
Then, I took out the tortilla wrap. I put thinly sliced cucumber and cabbages on it. The crunchy
golden brown chicken came next. Tomatoes, onions, lastly, I put the orange coloured sauce on it.
As I wrapped it, the idiot couple were already drooling beside me.
"Hyde, there's a lot of chicken left." Donna begged, glancing at the pot. "Come on, make some for
us."
"No. Then, I'm going to have to make it for everyone. And it will ruin my nice time." I said,
popping open a can of beer to go with the food, already committed to enjoying it.
Eric grimaced. "No one will know!" I pointed behind him.
He turned and froze. Kelso, Jackie, Fez, and Laurie were standing perfectly still a few steps away,
all of them staring at the chicken wrap with blank expressions, their mouths slightly open.
I took a bite while they were distracted. My eyes widened a bit despite myself. "Oh, this is so
freaking good."
It was exactly like the food I bought on the streets of New York. The wraps sold by those Middle
Eastern guys. It's hot and messy and perfect for cold weather.
"The crunchiness." Eric muttered, his eyes glued on the chicken. Jackie gulped visibly as she
watched me chew.
Eric leaned toward Donna and whispered desperately, "We still have that tuna sandwich?"
"No," Donna muttered sadly. "I ate it all before we even got off the driveway."
There was a short, hopeless silence.
"What if we make it ourselves?" Jackie asked, trying to sound optimistic.
"Do you know how to cook?" I asked back flatly. Then I looked around. "Does anyone here know how to cook?"
Everyone lowered their heads at once, like they'd been scolded. "No," they said in unison.
"I do know a little bit." Laurie said suddenly, smiling expectantly, clearly hoping this changed
things.
"You mocked me the most. You called me a girl." I shot back.
"Uh– What– What kind of a man is so sensitive? You should share it with us poor girls if you're
really a man."
She tried to reach for the other wrap I made for myself. But I smacked her hand with a spatula.
Jackie stepped forward quickly.
"Hyde, you didn't share because everyone made fun of you. But I didn't." She said earnestly.
"I didn't even decide to come until this morning. So I'm a victim too, 'cause if they told me to
prepare, I would've done it." She added.
It was… surprisingly convincing.
I sighed. "Alright, Jackie. I'll make you one."
"YAY!" Jackie threw her hands up in celebration and rushed to my side before I could change my
mind.
"That's not fair!" Eric whined. "Although what she said is true, it's still not fair."
I ignored him and wrapped the tortilla carefully, handing it to Jackie.
She took a bite then stopped. She froze completely, eyes wide, like something had short-circuited
in her brain.
"Oh my God," she said softly. "This is so amazing. What even is this?"
"Spicy tortilla chicken wrap." I replied.
Jackie nodded slowly as she chewed, clearly overwhelmed. "The spiciness is warming up my body.
Guys, you should try this. It's really good."
"We want to try it but we can't, you little bitch!" Donna scolded her.
Jackie was taken aback and she hid behind my body.
"Fez, didn't you go to buy apple candy before?" I asked him.
"It cost 10 bucks. The vendor is so… I don't even know the curse word in English." he complained.
Suddenly, a naked lady approached us. She was a hairy nudist, like, every single part of her was
hairy. She has beads around her neck and has dreadlock hair.
"Are you sharing the food?" She asked with a dreamy tone.
"No, go away hippie." Laurie scolded her. "GO! GET!" She shooed the guest with both her hands.
The nudist whimpered and left.
"Laurie gets a wrap." I said immediately.
"YAY!" Laurie clapped her hand and rushed towards me.
"What– Why did she get it?" Eric asked whiningly.
Kelso got quite angry, "Yeah Hyde. What's your game here?" Since both of his girls were at my side,
he felt a bit weird.
"Nothing. She scared off the hippie. I don't want to do that, so it's good to have a guard dog
around me." I said casually.
Laurie nodded excitedly and said, "I can be the best guard dog ever as long as you feed me."
Laurie and Jackie continue talking about hair inside my tent. They drank my sodas too.
The other four people were destitute.
After I had my fun, I smirked and said, "Alright. I'll make you one too. But you'll have to share,
since I only have two wraps left.
"I love you Hyde!" Fez walked towards me with an open arm. I slapped his head with the spatula
immediately.
After they ate it, they complained. Kelso whined, "It's not enough."
"Yeah, it's too small." Donna added. "Eric, did you take the bigger part?"
"No. I took the small one, you glutton." He whispered the last part.
Fez licked his fingers and said, "One more please."
"I too am still hungry." Jackie said with a whine, flashing her puppy dogs eyes at me.
I grimaced and said, "I told you guys, I didn't bring much food. I can't afford to feed all of
you."
"FEED US! FEED US! FEED US!" Donna started chanting, and everyone followed suit.
"Fine." I rolled my eyes and took out some rice. "But all of you are helping me. If you don't help,
you don't eat."
I watched Youtube for the recipe as I did this. It's called one pot chicken & rice.
First I season the chicken with salt and pepper, paprika and a little bit of cumin.
Donna pan fry the chicken for four minutes on each side. Eric picked it up and set it aside.
Fez put in the shallot and minced garlic. Then, he sauteed it with the chicken oil from the pan
fry.
Jackie almost screwed up washing rice.
One might wonder, how do one even screw up washing rice? The answer was, she tried to use soap to wash it.
"You moron." I stopped her.
"Hey!" She snapped.
I put the washed rice into the pot and let it soak up the oils. Then, I put it back in the chicken.
Laurie scared off a few hippies as we cooked.
Using a chicken broth, I began cooking the rice for twenty minutes. Then, I made the sauce.
"What do I do?" Kelso asked, wanting to be given a task.
"I don't know. I feel like you're going to screw it up if I give you something to do." I said flatly
as I covered the rice. "Don't open it for twenty minutes, you can do that, right?" I told him.
"I can!" He nodded excitedly. But he opened it the second I turned my back on him.
"KELSO!" Donna scolded him.
"What? I just want to see how it looks!" Kelso whined.
"GO over there!" Donna chased him away.
"FINE!" He stomped childishly and left, sitting at the side sulkily. I made the sauce while we
waited for the rice to cook. Dark soy sauce, pinch of sugar, sesame seed, and a lot of black
pepper.
I drizzled it on the chicken and rice once it was almost cooked.
"It's done." I said, opening the pot. "I have some paper plates but not enough spoons and forks. So
handle that yourself."
They all ate inside my tent as we could all fit in there.
I made some drinks by pouring an orange concentrate on one of the mineral water I brought. They all shared the bottle while I drank my beers.
"Hyde, where did you learn how to cook?" Fez asked. "You could open a restaurant."
I didn't reply and just smiled at him. Jackie interjected, saying, "His mom was the school lunch
lady. So it's genetics."
I frowned a bit and threw a used tissue at her.
"Hey! I'm not a trash can!" She snapped at me.
Then, she got taken aback and fixed her attitude. "I'm sorry. Please don't cut me off from dinner."
"I only have some instant noodles for dinner. I don't think I could feed all of you again."
All of the ingredients for my dinner were used up at lunch.
Laurie gasped and exclaimed wildly, "Why didn't you bring extra food for us too!? You should've
already expected this!"
I leaned in and said loudly in front of her face, "I TOLD YOU TO PREPARE!"
She shrunk back, huffing with frustration and a bit of annoyance directed at me.
I walked around the place after lunch. Jackie and Laurie were talking in my tent, and they didn't
want to leave in case they were stopped by some hippies. Or worse, nudist hippies.
Kelso was talking excitedly with the half naked girl on top of the VW bus.
"Hey Hyde. Do we still have some leftovers?" He asked me.
"No, Donna devoured everything. I'm going to go watch some naked girls wrestling in the mud. You want to come?"
"No. Wait, I want to. But first, this is Laura. She's our neighbor." Kelso pointed at the girl
sitting on top of the VW van with a stupid grin on his face.
"Nice to meet you." She greeted me.
"You're frozen to the roof up there?" I asked, half-teasing.
"A little. My legs are numb," she replied casually. Then she smiled at me. "You're kinda hot."
"Thanks," I said. "I already know that."
I turned away from her and looked at Kelso. "I'm leaving."
"You guys party?" Laura asked, lifting her bong slightly.
"We do," I said. "Just not right now. Naked mud fighting is calling."
After getting rejected twice, she didn't call after us again.
I might've seemed rude, but a half-naked party girl high on acid and weed felt like more trouble
than fun.
If anything went wrong while she was tripping, the men would get blamed first. That's just how it
worked.
Kelso and I wandered off to watch the naked mud wrestling, smoking cigarettes while people slipped and grappled in the muck like feral animals.
After a while, we cut toward the edge of the woods. That's when we saw them.
A small group of people sprawled together in the grass, bodies tangled, blankets half-thrown aside.
No attempt at hiding. Just slow movement, murmurs, hands and skins everywhere.
Kelso laughed under his breath. "So this is the 'free love' people keep talking about."
I snorted. "Let's go. Most of them are old. I don't want to ruin my eyes."
"Yeah. Me too."
We turned around fast, laughing as we jogged away.
Kelso, because he's Kelso, tossed a small stone behind us for no reason at all. It landed somewhere
in the grass.
"Kelso," I muttered.
"What? I want to see if it'll spook them," he said, grinning.
"It did not." I said flatly.
We headed back toward the van after checking out most of the venue.
People were hooking up, drinking beers, doing acid, smoking weed, dancing around the bonfire nude, having an orgy, blasting music out of their van, drinking beers again.
"Why do we even come here?" I asked Kelso.
"W–What? Are you kidding me? This place is awesome!" he shouted.
When we got back to the van, Eric and Fez were surrounded by a few guys—real van people. They were asking questions about the ventilation fan, the custom decals, and the setup.
They nodded seriously, impressed.
They were the true Vanstock audience. People who genuinely loved vans.
And somehow, they made me more uncomfortable than the hippies ever did.
I entered my tent to avoid them all since they were asking Eric who did the artwork and if they
could get it for free on their van.
…
The day passed by quickly, and it turned cold in the venue. The temperature dropped to 7 degrees
Celsius.
I cooked instant noodles in a large pot, cracking some eggs in there too. And I ate it with the
sausage I brought.
Five ramen noodles were shared by seven people. They really didn't have enough, even eyeing the
bread I kept behind for breakfast tomorrow.
"We should eat everything tonight." Fez said. "And leave once we wake up. Then, we can eat
breakfast at a diner."
"That's a great plan, Fezzie!" Jackie played along before turning to me. "What do you think
Steven?"
Everyone nodded hintingly. I sighed and said, "Fine. Just eat it."
"YAY!" Everyone celebrated. They used my jam to spread on bread, made the omelets, and even stole
my beers.
I didn't mind it since I actually have an emergency ration inside my system storage.
The night was cold, so the hunger felt sharper. Hell, even I was getting really hungry so I ate
more.
Eric and Donna laid on the large sleeping back in front of my tent with hundreds of other people,
all sleeping like them– uncomfortable and on the bare grass.
I could see them from my tent as I drank beer and watched Netflix on my internet system.
I was watching the last episode of Stranger Things, and was pretty disappointed with how it turned
out.
Outside, Eric stared up at the sky. "Wow. Look at the stars."
"Yeah," Donna said, then turned to him flatly. "Your sister's kind of a slut."
"I noticed that," Eric agreed.
Donna laughed, teasing. "How is it that she turned out so awful, and you turned out so nice?"
"Oh, well…" Eric sat up, suddenly serious, and turned toward her. "Okay, Donna. There's something
you should know."
"Oh my God," Donna interrupted, laughing immediately. "You're pregnant."
Eric froze.
She burst out laughing harder when she saw his face. "It's nice to laugh, isn't it?" Eric said
weakly. Then his head dropped.
"Because I kind of knew about Kelso and Laurie all along… and I didn't tell you."
Donna sat up. "Excuse me?"
"Which was wrong," Eric rushed on, panic evident on his face, "But now I'm being honest, which is
right. Right?"
"Get out of this bag."
"No—wait, Donna, just—"
"Fine. I'll get out."
She got out of the sleeping bag and stormed off into the dark.
Eric lay there alone, staring up at the sky.
"Oh," he muttered to himself, "this is the worst Vanstock ever!"
Donna took a circular turn and arrived at my tent like magic.
Even she was shocked that she had returned to her initial spot.
"Hey. How's it going?" She sat on the stump Kelso found and used to sit before.
I raised an eyebrow, saying, "I don't have any more beers left. Or food."
"I'm not here for that." She replied in disbelief.
"I don't believe you. But… What are you doing up?"
"Punishing Eric. He knew all about Kelso and Laurie, didn't even tell me."
"What a bastard." I pretended to agree with her.
"Oh, like you didn't know." She accused me with a scoff.
"Of course I knew. Everybody knew. You're the only one who didn't know." I said flatly.
She almost burst into laughter at my delivery, "Shut up, Hyde, I'm mad at him."
I sighed and said seriously, "Look, you don't rat on your friends, and that's just the way it is."
I added, "Now, I'm laying traps left and right to try and get Kelso caught, but I'm not gonna tell
on him, 'cause then I'd be a rat. And that's what Forman would have been if he had told you."
"He still should've told me." She said seriously.
"Give him a break, Donna. I mean, the guy kisses your ass. He does everything for you, and you're
not even sleeping with him." I said seriously.
She nodded jokingly, "Yeah, I guess that's true."
"You're lucky he even talks to you." I added teasingly, but kept a serious face.
"Ah!" She scoffed in disbelief.
"In fact, I would've dumped you months ago. But, you know, I'm old-fashioned, so…" I shrugged
slightly.
"Ookay, Hyde, thanks for the heart-to-heart." She teased, laughing slightly.
"Ah, get bent." I muttered, shuddering slightly from the cold. "By the way, I'm mad at you too."
"What? What for? Is this cause I ate all of your puddings?"
"No– Wait, you found the puddings?" I was shocked.
She froze, and shrunk back. "No.."
"You glutton. But that's not it. You didn't tell Jackie about Kelso and Laurie."
She scoffed angrily, "Why is that on me?!"
"Because, Jackie's your best friend. I thought you're going to end it this morning. We're all going
to finally be free of this nightmare. But you also didn't tell her. Coward."
[-2 favorability]
"Hey! Jackie's not my best friend!" She pointed her finger at me threateningly.
"Oh really? Who's your best friend?" I asked casually.
"It's…" She froze. After thinking back, she realized I was telling the truth. "Oh damn it! Jackie's
my best friend!"
[+2 favorability]
I thought the counter wasn't moving, but I guess I was wrong.
"What should I do?" Donna asked quietly. "I don't want to hurt Jackie."
I sighed. "You cut letters out of a magazine or newspaper. Spell out what you want to say. Glue
them onto paper."
She stared at me. "I want to help Jackie. Not blackmail her."
"Then, I don't know." I replied. The scene ended, but our conversation didn't.
"By the way, Mrs Forman also knows."
"She knew?!" Donna was shocked. "Why didn't she tell Jackie then?"
"Believe me, she tried. She led Jackie to Laurie's room, but Kelso jumped out the window."
"Why– Didn't she just say it?"
"Cause I accidentally told her. And if she told Jackie, that means I'm the rat. So I made her
promise not to tell."
"That's… just overcomplicating things!" Donna scolded me.
I nodded in agreement with her and said, "That's true. But at the same time, think about this. If
Mrs Forman said to Jackie, 'Your boyfriend is cheating on you with my daughter, Laurie.' How do
you think Jackie would react?"
"Well…" Donna thought about it and said, "She might call Mrs Forman a lying whore."
I nodded and said, "See. Unless Jackie caught them in the act, she might not even believe us. If I
said it, she'll think I'm doing it to make a move on her. Fez is also like me. You or Eric, she
might believe it."
"Why?"
"Cause you guys are squares–"
Donna threw things at me quickly. She left to rejoin Eric, her mood was already better now.
I would hold this conversation I have with Donna over Eric's head, and use it once I needed his
help to calm my girlfriend down.
They made up and cuddled. Suddenly, I saw Kelso trying to join them in their sleeping bags.
They threw him away, and he came in my direction. I held a BB gun at him and said, "Walk away pal."
"But Hyde. I don't have a place to sleep!"
"You're wet, and you smell like a dog." I said seriously.
He smiled and said, "I saw these two dogs by the woods and I wrestled with them."
He laughed, not a single thought running in his head. "You can borrow my sleeping bag. Sleep next
to Eric and Donna."
"Alright!" He celebrated excitedly and left.
"Wait, I forgot to ask him why he's not sleeping in his van– Oh well."
The episode ended shortly after that. The ratings didn't change, so I didn't get any rating points.
[Episode: Vanstock. Rating 7.6
Sub-main character level up episode (3/10)]