The next morning found the Monkees heading straight out to the beach after eating breakfast, their surfboards in tow and their eyes bright as they headed down to the water.
"Tell me again why we're coming out here this early?" Mike asked Micky, straightening his wool hat and placing a hand on his hip. Micky shrugged as he stuck his board down into the wet sand near the shore.
"I felt like Davy needed another chance to redeem himself after yesterday's uneven surfing competition. And…it's a pretty nice day out here already." Micky gestured to where the sun had already semi-dried the muggy beach from the rainstorm the night before.
"Good thing I've got plenty of sunblock here, guys, because we'll probably be out here for a while." Peter said, slipping the beach bag he had packed off his shoulder and setting it down on the beach out of reach of the rising and falling tide. Davy, who had been silent in his early morning stupor, raised an eyebrow at his blond bandmate.
"What's that supposed to mean? Are we going to surf the right way today for once?" Davy said to him accusingly. Peter threw a look at Micky who was already scanning the beach in search for the mystery girl.
"Yeah we'll surf, alright. Not sure if there's really a right way of doing it though." Micky said playfully, swinging his gaze back to the shortest Monkee. Davy narrowed his eyes challengingly and then turned huffily to head down to the water.
"What are you doing, Peter?" Mike asked, looking confusedly down to where the other boy had pulled out a large picnic blanket from the beach bag and was now in the process of laying it out in the sand. Peter paused as he reached next for a large brightly colored beach umbrella.
"What do you mean, Michael?" Peter asked, using Mike's full name in his nervousness. He looked to Micky for support and immediately the drummer stepped in.
"Like he said, we'll probably be out here all day trying to make it up to Davy. He was pretty upset about losing one race yesterday, you remember." Micky explained. Mike frowned slightly and glanced down toward the water where Davy had thrown his surfboard down into the water and was climbing onto it to peddle out to the deeper water.
"You know Davy's all talk…he wasn't really that upset…" Mike trailed off. He threw Micky and Peter a critical look. Micky smiled at the tall boy innocently and Mike narrowed his eyes. "Alright…what have you two got up your sleeves?"
"We're not wearing sleeves, man." Peter said jokingly, gesturing to their shirtless beach attire. Mike rolled his eyes and picked his board up out of the sand and carried it down to the water where Davy was already waiting out in the shallows.
"Right – so both of us will each take turns staying up here to keep watch on the beach in case she shows up while the other will go out and surf with the guys." Micky said quickly once Mike was out of earshot. Peter nodded quickly and retrieved the last item in his beach bag – a pair of binoculars. Micky winked at him and clapped a hand on the blonde boy's shoulder before he turned and jogged down to join the other two Monkees in the cool morning surf.
That same morning found Jeannie and Major Nelson on the boardwalk shopping on their last free day at the beach before the other astronauts and government members were to show up for their weekend meeting. Between the two of them, they were already loaded down with four large shopping bags. Jeannie was clothed in a light green sundress with matching green heels, and a large bright pink bow tying her bright blonde hair back into a ponytail on the back of her neck. Tony smiled down at her as she excitedly pointed out to the ocean where several sailboats weaved back and forth around each other in sport past the forming waves.
"Oh look Master!" She exclaimed as she shuffled toward the wooden railing to watch the brightly colored boats on the water. Tony followed her eagerly, holding a hand up to his forehead to shield his eyes from the nearly noonday sun.
"Yes, they're sailing." Tony explained as Jeannie unconsciously leaned out over the boardwalk's railing trying to inch a few feet closer.
"Is that what parasailing is?" She asked after a few seconds. Tony blinked in confusion and then suddenly remembered the comment he had mentioned to her the day before.
"Oh! No Jeannie, what they're doing out there is just plain sailing. Parasailing is when someone is on a speedboat and they're tethered to the back of it by a long cable. Something like a large parachute is attached to the rider's back and as the boat picks up speed, the wind lifts the chute up into the air, and the person riding along with it." Tony found himself explaining. Jeannie's eyes locked onto him instantly and her pink mouth was pursed in thought as the gears of her mind were thrown into motion. Tony's voice stopped dead in his throat. "But Jeannie….now…you remember what you were apologizing to me last night for…don't you?"
Jeannie's blue eyes dimmed back to their usual bright color and her smile which had been growing wider at an alarming rate quickly reversed itself. She blinked back her enthusiasm slightly and cleared her throat as if it was a chore to keep herself contained. Her eyes followed the boats for several more seconds and Tony's heart rate slowed down as he realized that for the moment, he appeared to be safe from the threat of having to parasail.
"Maybe we can try it out one day." He suggested softly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders when she didn't speak after a moment. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she slowly tilted her head up to glance at him.
"But not right now." She finished for him bluntly. Tony smirked down at her and nodded.
"Not right now." He agreed casually. "Maybe once we get through our meetings, we can convince Roger to come with us."
Jeannie studied him for a moment to see if he was jokingly trying to get her hopes up.
"Really?" She asked, her voice hopeful but guarded. Tony smiled and nodded and excitement once more lit up her face. "Oh I would love that!"
Jeannie giggled, pulling him down to her level to give him a quick peck on his cheek. Tony laughed softly with her, knowing that she had just left him with a bright pink lipstick mark on his cheek. When she released him she looked at his face and burst into another quiet fit of giggles, confirming his thought. After a moment, she blinked and with the smallest sensation of a touch, he knew that the lipstick mark had vanished.
"Come on, Jeannie. There's still plenty of other shops I'm sure you'll enjoy along here." Tony said, taking her free hand in his. She allowed him to steer her away from the view of the sailboat races and grinned excitedly as they resumed their shopping trip.
"I think I fared pretty well on that round..." Micky said breathlessly as he stumbled up the beach toward where Peter had once more taken up post on their lookout blanket. Mike and Davy were still wading back through the shallows after their most recent surfing race.
"Yeah…uh… hey Micky? I really don't think we're going to see our mystery girl today." Peter said from underneath the large beach umbrella. Micky's shoulders and chest were bright red from the many hours that he and his fellow Monkees had spent out surfing and his head hung low onto his chest as he walked. He tossed his surfboard onto the sand next to the picnic blanket and flopped beside Peter with a frustrated huff.
"What time is it now?" He asked with his face smooshed into the blanket. Peter glanced at his watch which he had taken off in his taking turns racing out in the ocean.
"Almost one-thirty." He replied with a sigh. Micky raised his head up off of the blanket and rested it in his hand, propped up with his elbow.
"Can't we call it a day yet?" Davy complained as he joined the two on the large blanket. "I don't know how many more times you guys think you have to lose…I'm totally fine knowing I've won the past dozen races back to shore…"
"You say it's after one?" Mike asked in surprise wringing his wool hat out as he approached the other three boys. "We can't survive on potato chips and melted candy bars much longer…why don't we go get cleaned up and grab a late lunch back at the pad?"
Peter stuffed the half empty chip bag that he had been about to offer to Mike for the third time that day back into his beach tote. Micky cast one more weary glance around the beach, seeing no sign of anyone who could possibly be the blonde mystery girl he had seen the day before. He gave a halfhearted nod and Peter stood up from his spot on the lookout blanket.
"Hey, what are those?"
Davy had been about to grab one corner of the blanket to help fold it when he noticed what had fallen out of Peter's lap when the boy had stood up. He quickly darted forward and grabbed onto the binoculars before Peter or Micky could retrieve them.
"Um…binoculars." Peter said slowly. Davy's brown eyes shot from the binoculars in his hand to Peter, catching the pleading looks the blonde was throwing at Micky. Davy and Mike were now looking between the two boys accusingly, Mike with his arms crossed across his slightly sunburnt chest, and Davy still holding onto the object in question.
"For…what?" Mike asked slowly.
"…We had to take turns refereeing the races, didn't we?" Micky explained, gesturing widely with his arm as he stood up from the blanket to face his bandmates. "Some of those waves started pretty far out there…"
Mike turned to look disbelievingly back out toward where they had been surfing and then looked back at Micky with his eyes narrowed.
"Uh huh." He said thoughtfully. "What else were you using them for?"
"We were looking for that girl I saw yesterday." Micky admitted quietly.
"…And that's why we've been out here all morning and half the afternoon." Peter added.
"Right. Thanks, Pete." Micky said under his breath.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Mike deadpanned, shaking his head.
"This girl must've been something to get you two hyped up. That's usually my thing!" Davy said confusedly. Micky shrugged and started to help Peter gather their belongings and shove them back into the beach bag.
"I mean…it was really Micky's idea to take up the search for her…" Peter said slowly, trailing off when Micky threw him a dirty look.
"We've had nothing to do for so long, man, can you blame me for trying to get involved in something?" Micky protested.
"Well, no…but look, I'm sorry. I've been looking around for gigs, I really have." Mike said, his voice softening just a little bit.
"Yeah, well maybe you need to look somewhere else. That Chinese restaurant we performed at two weeks ago was dead." Davy said, closing the large beach umbrella as Mike and Peter folded up the blanket.
"The only reason they agreed to let us play there was because they thought we'd attract a better crowd for their business." Mike said matter-of-factly. Davy gave him a sarcastic look and scoffed.
"A band of nobodies like us attract a crowd?"
"We're not nobodies, Davy…" Peter said, with a pang of sadness in his voice.
"Look Davy, you know we take what we can get…" Micky tried to reason with the shorter boy. Davy sighed and solemnly nodded his head as he hefted the umbrella onto his tanned shoulder.
"Right." He muttered over his shoulder as the four boys headed up the beach back to the pad, a cloud of gloom hanging over each of them.