Chapter 4- Gettin' In
Mike took two large strides towards the front door. As he turned the doorknob, Peter and Davy appeared at his side, both intent on finding out who it was. The door opened, revealing a young brunette, looking sheepish from one face to the other.
"Hello," She said, not sure who to focus her attention on. "My name is Melissa Neal. My uncle and I just moved into the neighborhood and he's hosting a barbecue tonight at our house. He is inviting the entire neighborhood."
No one replied for a moment. Peter noticed right away that Davy had that look in his eyes, but was surprised to see that Mike had a more surprised yet similar look on his face. Peter sighed. It was bad enough that Davy was in love, but Mike? "We appreciate the invitation, Melissa," Peter spoke for the group. "But, uh, which one is your house, exactly?"
Melissa turned and pointed a few houses down on the other side of the street. "That one with the mailbox labeled 'Duncan.' That's my uncle's last name."
"Great," Peter said, "We'll be there. It's nice to meet you Melissa. Uh, my name's Peter, this is Mike and-"
"Davy," Davy said, lost in her eyes. "Davy Jones."
Peter groaned. "Davy…"
"Uh…" Melissa took a step back from Davy's lovestruck appearance. "Well, it was great meeting the three of you. So will we be expecting you?"
Suddenly there was a rumble from behind. The four turned to see Micky falling down the stairs on his rear. It was apparent that he had just simply missed a step and the rest of his trip down was tragic. When he hit the floor, he smiled proudly and jumped up to his feet, ignoring the intolerable pain in his hips. He joined his bandmates at the front door. "Hi! I'm Micky," He introduced himself to the girl.
"Melissa," Melissa smiled at him, amused by his failure.
"What are you doing here?" Micky asked.
"Well, I was just inviting you all to a barbecue my Uncle Andrew is hosting tonight."
"We'll be happy to go!" Micky said, oblivious to the fact that she and Peter had already had this conversation.
"We'll see you there," Peter said, interrupting Micky before he could speak more. "What time?"
"Five o'clock," Melissa smiled at them.
"Five o'clock at the house with 'Duncan' on the mailbox. Got it!" Peter said.
"Thanks, see you there," Melissa said, turning and walking back up to the street. Peter shut the door and turned to the two men who were still awestruck by the young brunette.
"What's up with him?" Micky asked, pointing at Mike.
"Same thing that's up with him," Peter said, gesturing towards Davy. "Davy?"
"She's beautiful, magnificent…" Davy mumbled.
"Mike?" Micky asked. Mike stayed silent, but still stared at the door as if she were still there.
Micky reached up and slapped Mike and Peter did the same with Davy. Both men were shaken out of their daze and focused in on Peter and Micky. Mike was rather sour about the whole thing.
"What was that for?!" Mike asked.
Micky couldn't help but laugh. "Mike, I think you caught a little bit of Davy-itis there."
"Hey!" Davy yelped in offense.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Mike asked, rubbing where Micky hit him.
"You're in love," Peter teased.
"Do you blame him?" Davy quickly jumped to the rescue. "She was beautiful! Elegant, marvelous, the most graceful thing I have-"
"I think they get the point," Mike said, blushing.
"Well you two are going to have to keep your wits about you, since we're going to her house later for her uncle's barbecue. Especially you, Davy," Peter said.
"Nothing good happens when you fall in love," Micky added.
"Which is a lot," Peter added.
"Hey! Nothing bad is going to happen tonight," Davy said, arms wide in defense.
"You promise?" Peter asked.
"I promise that my love-struck luck will not cause any problems," Davy said defensively.
"And there goes trouble," Peter moaned.
"At least it's not Davy who is causing all the trouble," Micky said.
"Well he's over there flirting with… I think Mrs. Gray's daughter? I can't remember if that's her niece or daughter. She told me about so many in that short amount of time I talked to her," Peter complained. They were at Andrew Duncan's trying their best to enjoy themselves, as well as gather up as much information as they could on the local residents.
Andrew Duncan was a very cheerful, middle-aged man. He and Micky got along nicely, joking around and laughing uncontrollably. They learned that Andrew had custody over Melissa since she was a little girl, after her father died in the war and her mother died in an automobile accident. They moved to Pleasant Valley because of a new job opportunity that was offered in the area. Melissa was going to go to school for an undergraduate in education, but when her uncle broke his arm a month before the move, she decided to take a year off to help take care of him.
Mrs. Gray was a little old lady who had lived in Pleasant Valley since she was born. She was raised, educated, and married in the town and never left. Her career was her family. She raised seven children, five boys and two girls to be exact, and made sure they all left her nest with the best spouse and the best future. One of her girls, Briahna, came back a year ago with her husband to take care of Mrs. Gray in her old age.
Briahna and David Squire lived right next to the Monkees. They haphazardly learned that every morning David mows his lawn promptly at 9:30, the same time that the band is supposed to begin rehearsal. (They discovered this fact when David called them out on their missed rehearsal time.) His favorite part about the daily chore was listening to the band rehearse. As he mows his lawn, his wife spends the morning at her mother's, helping her with her medications. David was a lawyer by trade and his wife was a school teacher. Mike had made a note to himself to talk to her later about the whole teaching business that he was thrown into.
Mr. Green lived on the other side of the Monkees. He did not go to the barbecue, but Mrs. Gray made it a point to tell his story even though everyone else at the party had heard it a million times. He had been here for a while, before Briahna Squire went off and got married. He moved into Pleasant Valley with his wife Michelle, but she passed away a few months back. Since then he has locked himself away in his house, doing nothing but immersing himself in television. To make his point, he purchased a television for almost every room in his house. If he was not watching television, he was either taking care of one of his needs, or aggressively yelling at his neighbors. Usually the Monkees…
Then there were the children the Monkees had met earlier that day. None of them were sure of where they came from, but they were common sights in the neighborhood. So common that they attended the barbecue as well. There were five of them; Alexis, Christina, Dylan, Cole, and Scotty. If you saw one, the other four were usually somewhere close by. They were all students of Mike's, apparently, and took English with Briahna. From their age, the Monkees could guess they were probably in the 6th or 7th grade. All of the neighbors adored them, except for Mr. Green, of course.
Davy was purring and falling for the young lady who was visiting. Aurora was the youngest of Mrs. Gray's girls. Davy came in with his eyes set on the young Melissa Neal, but once he caught the attention of Aurora, who was equally into Davy as he was her, he made a beeline for the picnic table she sat at. Peter and Micky had just noticed that Mike was sitting at a picnic table as well, talking with none other than Melissa.
It started with Mike and Andrew talking near the grill, about the ins and outs of cooking and grilling, surprisingly. Then Melissa walked over, just for the need to be by someone she knew. Mike almost froze up again. He tried to focus on his conversation with Andrew some more, but then Andrew left to get more meat from the house, leaving both Mike and Melissa in an awkward position.
"So… What was with your friend earlier today?" Melissa asked, nodding towards Davy who was two inches away from kissing Aurora Gray.
"Davy? Oh, he has a medical condition," Mike deadpanned.
"Oh yeah?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Yeah, he falls helplessly in love with every woman he meets," Mike smiled, indicating the joke. Melissa laughed at it, igniting Mike's affection even more.
"So he had fallen for me?" Melissa asked with sass in her voice.
"Yeah, but it looks like he has moved on already," Mike pointed out.
The sass continued back and forth. Eventually they sat down at the nearest picnic table and continued talking throughout the night. Micky and Peter kept a close eye on them, eavesdropping every once in awhile to make sure nothing too serious was blooming. They did the same for Davy, but something told them that Davy wasn't going to be a problem like he normally was in these situations.
The sun had set and Andrew had built a fire for his new neighbors to sit around. The food was moved inside and everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. Davy and Aurora had now moved on to talking with Mrs. Gray and Briahna. Peter had been talking with the children, educating them on singing and music. Micky was joking around with David and Andrew. Mike, to everyone's surprise, was still engaged in an exciting conversation with Melissa. That was, until Micky tripped himself while trying to exaggerate the story of their fight against the Russian spies who were after a microfilm in Davy's maracas. He fell backwards, hitting his head on the rim of the fire pit ring. Davy, who was closest at the time, pulled Micky away from the fire before anything on his body caught fire. Mike and Peter dropped their conversations immediately and ran over to Micky and Davy. The entire party was silenced and all eyes were on the Monkees.
"Micky are you alright?!" Mike exclaimed as Davy lead him over to a picnic table.
Micky answered in a groan, touching the back of his head. He flinched at the touch, drawing his hand forward. There were splashes of blood on his hand. Davy examined the injury from behind. "Doesn't look too bad, Mick. We just need to wrap this up quick and you'll be good as new."
"How long?" Micky asked quietly, his head throbbing in pain.
"Not long," Davy said, still picking at Micky's head.
"You think so?" Micky mumbled.
"You have to," Davy said, giving concerning glances to Mike and Peter.
Melissa suddenly emerged from the house with a large case in her hands. "First aid kit anyone?" Without a response she handed it to Mike, who then handed it to Davy to hold. Mike began to work on wrapping Micky's head to stop the bleeding, for no one was sure what else to do.
The shock of Micky's plight gradually wore off and soon everyone began to head home one by one. The Monkees were one of the first, thanks to Micky's whining. Andrew and Melissa showed them out, thanking them for coming. Peter escorted Micky home as quickly as he could, while Mike and Davy hung back, fitting in last minute small talk. Davy fished for a goodbye, and finally got one from Andrew, who went inside to join the others. Mike turned to go, but was stopped by a hand gripping his arm.
"Mike," Melissa said quickly, "Would… uh…"
"Tomorrow?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, maybe out at the local diner?"
"I'd love that," Mike said, smiling.
Melissa let go of his arm and gave a shy smile, quickly turning on her heel and darting inside. Mike turned back towards the road, where Davy was looking on in bewilderment. When Mike reached the road, Davy asked him, "What was that all about?"
"Well," Mike started, shoving his hands in his pockets and avoiding eye contact. "I think I just landed a date with Melissa for tomorrow."
"You think?" Davy said, doubt in his voice. "It looked to me you both knew full well that it was going to happen before she asked."
"Well," Mike said again, releasing one hand from his pocket to rub his neck. "We have been talking about going out and gettin' to know each other more throughout the night. That just kind of sealed the deal, I guess."
Davy cocked an eyebrow, still in disbelief. "Did you forget that we're here to complete this trial and get home?"
"No," Mike said quickly, "I... I don't know..." Mike had to admit, he had forgotten. He felt overwhelmed with her. He didn't want to admit that he had feelings for her, because when Davy mentioned he he remembered that they did have bigger fish to fry. He had to keep his mind out of the gutter. However, Mike couldn't stop thinking about her...
"Well, let's go to bed mate, I think we have bigger problems that will demand our attention tomorrow. Just don't forget why we're here."
"Right… tomorrow," Mike said to himself as the two walked back to the Monkees residence. That Sunday ended for the Monkees, but no one seemed to care. For the rest of the neighborhood, they had no idea what was going to be in store for them the next morning.