Chapter one: A Little Help From a Friend

As it was nearing the day's end, the sun was beginning to sink and the air had begun to grow cooler. The lights throughout the city were slowly turning on to guide people home. Local teenagers were going out for what would be a night of fun. Everything seemed to be a typical night for this California city at the beginning of summer. But no one knew that this summer was going to be anything but typical; at least for one group of young people.

The doorbell buzzed loudly, surprising everyone in the house. It buzzed again and again as the person on the other side of the door frantically pressed the button.

"Coming!" Micky shouted from the top of the stairs

As the doorbell continued to buzz, Micky slid down the railing of the stairs. After landing nicely on both feet Micky quickly flounced over to the door. He opened the door to see the little redheaded young woman standing there. She stood grinning brightly and continued pressing the doorbell even though Micky had already opened the door.

"Hello Trixie my dear. Um…" He paused and watched her press the button some more "Are you having fun?"

"Yes I am." She giggled

Micky took her finger away from the doorbell "Don't do that."

"Sorry Mick."

"So what brings you here? I thought your band usually practices on Tuesdays."

"We do. Well that is we would be. I mean normally we would be but we can't tonight. Probably never again."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean?"

"Micky our singer split on us."

"He split? When? Why?"

"He just quit about 20 minutes ago. He didn't say anything as to why, just that he didn't want to do it any more."

"Oh wow what a drag. What are you guys going to do?"

"We don't know. We would like to keep the band going but we'll have to find a new singer of course."

"Oh of course. Is there anything we could do for you guys? I assume you didn't just come all the way over here to let us know that Domino quit your band."

Trixie let out a small laugh "Well no I didn't. Micky I know this might be a bit of a stretch but I have to ask, if you don't mind… would you come fill in for Domino? Just for tonight that is."

"Why me?"

"Well we thought that you had a similar voice that would fit our songs well."

"Oh. Well I'll have to tell the guys but I'll give you a call before I come over."

"Oh thank you Micky! This will mean a lot to us. See you in about an hour?"

"Right. I'll see you then."

Trixie waved as she walked away. Micky closed the door behind her and grinned a little to himself. He then walked over to the bandstand where his drums were set up. Casually running his fingers over the rim of one of the tom-toms he then sat on the stool with a drumstick in his hand. He twirled the drumstick in between his fingers before picking up the other stick to tap out a random beat on the snare. As he continued to drum he didn't noticed that Mike, Davy and Peter had entered the room and over to their instruments. He was startled when he heard the familiar strum of Mike's guitar.

"Oh," Micky said as he looked up at them "I didn't know you guys were here."

"Of course you didn't." Mike strummed and tuned his guitar "So who was at the door, Mick?"

"Oh that was Trixie McEuwin."

"The cute redhead who plays keyboard for The Nuggets?" Asked Davy, suddenly interested in what was being said

"The only girl who ever turned Davy down?" Peter snickered

"The very same. What other Trixie McEuwin do you know?"

Davy rolled his eyes "For your information, Peter, she didn't turn me down."

"Yeah she'd have to know you were alive in order to turn you down." Mike quipped

"Oh she knows that Davy's alive." Micky grinned "I just happen to be more her type."

"How would you know that?" Argued Davy

"I happen to know that she likes tall, funny men with brown eyes and dark curly hair."

Peter grinned "You really fit that description, Mick."

"Alright, alright." Mike got their attention "We've all established that Trixie was the one at the door, she may or may not have turned Davy down, and Micky fits the description of Trixie's ideal man. But what I would like to know now is, why was she at the door?"

Mike looked at Micky to see that he had started twirling his drumstick through his fingers again. It occurred to Mike that the drummer clearly was no longer paying attention to the conversation.

"Mick…" Micky twirled the drumstick some more "Mick…" Mike's patients were beginning to wear thin already "Micky!"

Micky jumped and then stopped twirling his drumstick "W-what?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt you but, would you mind answering my question?"

"What question?"

"Why was Trixie here?"

"Oh! Oh um… she told me that their singer quit the band today and she wanted to know if I would stand in for him while they practice tonight."

"Are you going to?"

"Well it's only for tonight so I didn't see anything wrong with it." Micky looked at his watch "We could get in a few songs before I head over there."

"Two band practices in one night. You think you can handle that, Micky?" Peter asked

"Sure, Pete. As long as I don't strain my voice I'll be fine."

Micky fallowed his statement by playing the snare drum for a few seconds. Then after a quick count off the other three guys joined Micky in a song.

Pulling the car into the driveway, Micky quickly tapped the horn a couple times before shutting the engine off. Trixie came bouncing out of the house with a big smile and her long red hair flowing behind her. She immediately wrapped her arms around Micky and placed a soft friendly kiss on his cheek.

"Micky!" She said with a squeal

"Hello Trixie. Nice to see you again."

"Micky you said you were going to call first."

"Well you see I was going to call but I decided that I uh, ok I forgot. Sorry."

"Oh it's not a big deal. Come inside and say hello to the guys."

"Does it bother you that you're the only girl in the band?"

"No. Should it?"

"I suppose not…"

Trixie took him by the hand and lead him inside the house. Right away he was greeted by a cloud of very fragrant smoke. The smoke seemed to be coming form the next room where the other three guys were sitting and laughing. Micky grinned as he took in a good breath of the very smoke.

"Well I see where your inspiration comes from." He laughed

"Isn't it the same for everybody?"

"So it seems."

They entered the room and Micky looked at the other guys. One very long-haired guy was seated on a small pillow on the floor next to a coffee table. He sat there picking seeds from a pile of marijuana to prepare it for the next joint he was going to roll. Two other guys were seated on the couch with questionable stains. One of the two was attempting to hit a rather large bong while the other was lighting it for him.

"This shit really grabs you by the balls." Laughed the guy with the lighter

The other guy pulled the bong away from his mouth and held the smoke within his mouth and throat. He began to cough and the smoke was released into the air.

"Yeah!" He coughed "You got that right!"

"What did I tell ya?" Chimed the guy on the floor "I always got the best shit."

Micky couldn't help but laugh to himself over the three guys before him. He knew that they had not noticed that he or even Trixie had entered the room. That was until Trixie cleared her throat and then proceeded to steal the bong from them.

"You guys remember Micky, don't you?"

"Micky? Oh yeah Micky the Monkee."

"Yeah that's me." Micky grinned and waved to them

"Groovy band, man." Said the guy who was now rolling his joint

"Thanks."

"Oh Micky that's Brownie on the floor, or John Stevens. On the couch is Tim Anderson but everybody calls him Tulip. And next to him is August Lauer."

Micky looked at August and smirked "So is that your nickname too?"

"No my name actually is August." He grinned "Nice to see you, man."

"So this is what you always do before you practice?"

"Before… after… during…" Brownie laughed before standing up "The way we see it, why should the smoke clear for music?"

Micky laughed "Good point." Trixie handed him the bong and lighter "But doesn't it get hard to see after a while with all the smoke?" He proceeded to hit the bong

"Not being able to see doesn't bother us. It's when we have to remember what song we're playing." Replied Tulip

Micky choked, causing the smoke to leave his mouth before he had a good chance to inhale it. The five of them went into a bout of laughter before they headed to the basement where the instruments were set up.

As the band played and Micky sang, the five of them really clicked. Often times Micky would glance over at the keyboards to see Trixie smiling back at him. He really could sense that she liked him more than as a friend but he still wasn't sure if he returned those feelings. The more he looked over at her, the more he realized that she was flirting. He had to admit that it did feel nice to have such a pretty girl liking him in this way, even though he really didn't give her anything in return. He felt it to be best not to string her along until he knew for sure how he felt about her.

When he wasn't paying attention to Trixie's flirtatious keyboard playing, Micky found himself getting lost to the enchanting jungle-like beats of Brownie's drums, as well as Tulip's unique take on the guitar. At the same time he found himself very moved by the steady, somewhat seductive rhythm of the bass as it was being played by August. The bass lines he played seemed to ooze of all kinds of emotions that drew Micky in and turned him on just as much as the expressions that fell upon August's face as he played. Micky began to find himself more and more drawn to August and the bass in his hands. There definitely was something very sexual about it that Micky couldn't ignore. At one point Micky found himself so entranced by August's bass playing that he stopped singing all together. This soon caught the attention of the other band members who stopped playing one by one. Once Micky realized that the music had come to an end he looked up at all of them with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry guys." He said as he placed the mic back on the stand

"No need to apologize, babe." Said Tulip "We all get lost when we're grooving on the music."

"It's about time to quit for the night anyway." Brownie chimed in as he sat a drumstick down across the snare

And with that cue they all began to unplug everything. Trixie remained mainly by Micky's side as they tore down everything for the night. She continued to flirt with him like she had done bfore, despite the fact that he wasn't doing the same to her. Instead he walked away to join the other guys one last time before he decided to leave.

As they all talked, Micky still felt as though he was drawn to August. But he didn't know why. In fact he really didn't care why. All he knew was, whenever he was close to him, he got a strange, but good, feeling in his stomach. He did, however, manage to pull himself away from August's side in order to walk over to the door to leave.

"Oh by the way," Said Micky as he held his hand on the doorknob "I've been wondering this for a while. Why do you guys call yourselves The Nuggets?"

"Because…" Said Brownie "Every one of our songs is like a nugget of golden sunshine. It's love and happiness rolled into one, baby."

"Oh I see. Well mystery solved then." Micky laughed

"Oh Micky before you go," Trixie walked over to him "We kind of wondered if you would come sing with us for our next practice."

"Well I'll think about it." He looked at all of them and gave them a wave "This was real fun. Thanks for asking me to sing with you."

"No. Thanks for singing." August said with a smile that caused tingles to go down Micky's spine "You have a great voice."

"Well thanks. I try."

Micky stepped out the door, closing it behind him before they could notice him blush. He leaned against the closed door and took in a deep breath. As he walked over to the car he knew that new feelings were beginning to develop for a certain someone inside that house. And although these feelings were nice, Micky didn't have the first clue what to do with them.