Later that night, Alysha was back at the girls’ place, practicing guitar some more. She was even going over the tambourine and maraca part for ‘Shades of Gray’. She was just stopping for a break when someone knocked on the door downstairs. Figuring that it was one of the guys, she didn’t hesitate in opening it. But it wasn’t Davy, Micky, Peter or Mike behind the door, but Mr. Blavat. Alysha’s friends quickly hid, belonging to another band.

"Hello Mr. Blavat," Alysha said politely, "What are you doing here?" She paused, "As if I didn’t know." She said this part to herself.

"I’ve been thinking about you all day," Mr. Blavat said, "but please call me Jerry. You’ve flipped my mind." This sounds familiar, Alysha thought to herself.

"Jerry," Alysha said, as he produced flowers from behind his back and handed them to her, "I don’t know what to say. Thank you."

"Why don’t we go out sometime," he asked her, "Why do you think?"

"I’ll have to think about it," she answered, wanting him to leave.

"Until tomorrow, of course," Jerry said, "I’ll see you then." He grabbed her hand and kissed it. Now she knew why Davy had that reaction that one time. Jerry quickly left afterwards.

When Alysha heard his car leave, she ran into the bathroom, washing her hands, desperate to get rid of any germs he might have had. Her friends came out of their hiding places, laughing at her predicament, "It’s not funny," Alysha protested, "I know all about this, luckily. I’ve seen an episode like this."

"Gross," Sara exclaimed, "That guy is definitely strange when it comes to girls." Another knocking sounded on the door and Mandy ran to get it. This time it was the guys. They glanced quizzically at Alysha, "What happened to her?"

"Mr. Blavat, that’s what," Alysha said, "That guy is so gross." The guys exchanged knowing glances, "You know what I’m talking about?"

"Unfortunately we do," Mike said, "You see last time we entered a mix group contest, we didn’t have a girl, so…"

"Don’t Mike," Davy said.

"So we dressed Davy up as a girl," Micky continued, and Davy glared at him, "You said nothing about me telling them." The four girls burst into laughter, "That’s what the outfit is from."

"Be nice," Alysha said, "I feel for him on this one. I understand what he had to go through." Davy smiled gratefully at her.

"I’m sure he made a lovely girl," Mandy said, still laughing, "I just can’t imagine Davy in a dress."

"Cut it out," Alysha told her friends, "What are you guys doing for a song?" The three other girls glanced at each other.

"We thought we’d do ‘Dreaming’," Mandy finally answered, "I was looking at it today and added some of my own stuff. I hope you don’t mind."

"No," Alysha answered, "We need to work on our songs together. And as of now, that’s your song, not mine. I have to work on ‘Shades of Gray’. Are we ready for the contest tomorrow night?" Everyone nodded, "I only hope Mr. Blavat doesn’t try to talk to me before the contest. He gives me the creeps."

The next morning, Alysha was already gone by the time Sara woke up. She headed downstairs and to the kitchen. Sara knew that she liked Peter, but she just didn’t know what to do about it. It was strange for her to ask him if he wanted to do something. Besides, wasn’t there a chance that they could somehow return home? She didn’t want to become too involved. Besides, they didn’t want news getting out to the guys that they were from 2003.

Something else was bothering her too. Alysha seemed to be hiding something from the group. The bad thing was that Alysha was good at keeping secrets and it was hard to get them out of her. Sara remembered that it had been tough to get Alysha to admit some old secrets about some former friends. How would Sara get her to tell this one?

She didn’t have time to do anything now. Davy and Alysha walked through the door at that very moment. Sara walked back to the kitchen and got out the food for breakfast. Mandy emerged from her room seconds later, looking more upbeat than usual in the morning. Sara guessed that it was the excitement of the contest that night.

The knock on the door announced the arrival of Mike, Micky and Peter. Alysha rushed to answer it and allowed the guys inside. Even Alysha seemed more like a morning person now. Sara knew full well that one of Alysha’s dreams was to perform with the Monkees. She couldn’t remember how many times Alysha had told her how much she wished to meet them and get a chance to maybe open for them someday…and this was in the days when they were in their fifties and sixties. She had never seen anyone get so excited about a dream and their endless possibilities. And here her friend was living that dream.

This part worried Sara. She knew that they really shouldn’t stay in the sixties forever. It was great and all, but what about their other friends and their parents? Would they ever see them again? She glanced over at Alysha. Her friend was having such a great time in the sixties. Sara knew that her friend never felt like she belonged in the 2000s, but was this just an excuse to get away from it?

Alysha had always had a love for the sixties all these years. It seemed to suit her style and creativity, sometime Alysha wasn’t always recognized for in their time. No one seemed to care when she finished a new song or worked on a new story. The Monkees had actually been an inspiration for a few of her songs, since she loved the beat and styles it gave off. It was then that Sara decided to talk to Alysha about it soon.

"Let me do the toast," Alysha said, walking into the kitchen, "After that disaster yesterday, I’m not letting you do it. Where’s the bread?" Sara shrugged, "You should know, you went shopping, not me." Stephanie handed her the bread, which had been put in the pantry, "Thank you." She moved to the toaster and popped two pieces inside. Sara turned back to her eggs, something she could make easily. Minutes later breakfast was served, free of burns and scorch marks, and handed out at the table.

"What should we do now," Mandy asked after they had finished their meal. She turned to everyone gathered at the table. They in turn looked at everyone else.

"I think we should go to the beach," Stephanie said.

"Yeah," Alysha said, "We could go swimming."

"We could have a picnic," Sara suggested, "It’s a nice day today and I haven’t had one in a long time." The guys glanced at each other at this last suggestion. The girls began to think that they would reject it, but the guys soon smiled and nodded at the idea.

"We could get to know each other a little better," Mike said, "We live next door to each other and yet we barely know anything about y’all."

"Sounds good," Micky said, "We’ll each bring something with us for the picnic…as long as it isn’t Crème of Root Beer. I am not eating that again." Peter looked hurt at the comment.

"It’s okay Peter," Sara said, walking up to him, "Maybe someday we can try to improve the recipe, okay?" At this, Peter noticeably brightened. The guys looked at her with a mixture of relief and horror. Improve Crème of Root Beer soup? Was that even possible? They sincerely doubted it.

"All right," Mandy said, "We’ll meet you guys out there around noon, okay? We’ll go swimming afterwards." The guys agreed and left their place.

Around noon, the eight met at the beach, each carrying baskets of food. They chose a nice spot not far from the water and started setting up. They sat across from one another, girls sitting across from the guys. They began to set up the food. After they were done, only one item hadn’t been uncovered. The guys noticed this. The girls glanced at the guys and smiled.

"What’s in there," Micky asked, pointing to the covered dish. Mandy glanced over at him.

"Dessert," Mandy replied, and watched the guys brighten slightly, "but you’ll have to wait until later."

"What is it," Micky asked, glad at the thought of all the kinds of desserts that he knew.

"You’ll find out later," Alysha assured him, "Don’t worry about that right now." She watched as he attempted a puppy dog look at her, "Mandy help me! I can’t stand it." She turned away from Micky’s glance.

"Cut it out," Mandy told him, "Like she said, you’ll have to wait and see." He reluctantly stopped, "It’s safe now Alysha." Alysha slowly looked back and seeing that he had stopped, turned to the group.

The eight grabbed the items that they wanted and sat in silence for a second. Davy was the first to speak up, "Alysha told me that you girls are from Texas," he said, "What’s it like there?" The other girls glanced in Alysha’s direction.

"I’m from around there myself," Mike told them, "Grew up near Houston. How about you three?"

"Saginaw," Alysha answered, "It’s a pretty small town I guess, near Dallas and Fort Worth." Since Saginaw was small when she had moved in at first, she knew it had to be even smaller beforehand.

"Never heard of it," Mike answered, "Where did you say it was again?"

"About an hour away from Dallas," Alysha said, "Besides, like I said, it’s pretty small. Not much of a town, but it’s nice. I actually moved there when I was little. I didn’t meet my friends until middle school."

"What made you decide to move here," Davy asked.

"It was a spur of the moment thing," Alysha answered, "We’ve always wanted to move here and thought this was the perfect place to come."

"They never warned us about the guys living next door though," Mandy said, "If they had, we might have moved in sooner."

"Yeah Mr. Babbit came over one night," Alysha explained, "Told us that we were almost as bad as you guys. Of course by then, we had already met you. I take it he doesn’t like people too much."

"Not really," Micky spoke up, agreeing, "He’s always on our case about the rent. And we’re always on his case about the repairs that he hasn’t had the time to fix…or at least won’t take the time to fix." Alysha noticed he was eyeing the covered dish again. She motioned Mandy over and spoke to her quietly. Mandy smiled suddenly and seemed to agree with whatever Alysha had just said.

"Got it," Mandy whispered and then looked at the guys, "Do you guys really want to know what’s under that?" They nodded enthusiastically and watched as she walked over to the dish, "I don’t know guys, should we trust them with our recipe?"

"I don’t know," Alysha responded, "I’m not sure if they could handle it." By now, the four guys were glaring at her for taking so long, "I guess we can let them have some." Mandy lifted the cover off the top, but still kept it shielded from the guys’ view, "Who gets the first piece?"

She scanned their faces one by one, all of them looking terribly pathetic. She motioned for Peter to come forward first and he stood up, walking over to Mandy. She waited for another moment and agreed to let the other guys see what it was. Together, the girls had made a chocolate cake, it being one of the few desserts they could cook and had the ingredients for.

After talking a little longer, the group finally decided to go swimming. The girls were going to meet them shortly. Out of the four, Alysha was the only one who was the least excited about the swimming, even though it was her idea.

"Come on," Mandy called to her friend, "I thought you wanted to go swimming."

"I don’t like oceans," Alysha replied, "Are you sure there isn’t a swimming pool somewhere nearby?"

"There’s one right outside the door," Mandy replied, "Everyone else will be there. It’ll be fun, trust me."

"The last time I trusted you, I ended up spending twenty bucks on a horrible wardrobe."

"It wasn’t that bad," Mandy told her, "Hey, you got nominated for an award."

"Getting nominated for weirdest outfit doesn’t seem to be something I’d want to remember," Alysha answered back, "That was humiliating enough, without the other students pointing and laughing."

"At least hang out on the beach," Mandy pleaded with her friend, "You don’t have to go swimming with us, just be there." She heard her friend sigh and step out of her room.

"Are you happy now," Alysha asked, "I don’t even know why I listen to you. I don’t like oceans, lakes and any other bodies of water. At least I don’t like being in them." She came down the stairs in her suit, a towel hung over one arm.

"You’re coming then," Mandy asked. Alysha nodded hesitantly and walked over, "The others are already outside. Let’s go." Mandy dashed out of the house, Alysha following less enthusiastically. The group looked up as the two walked closer. Alysha spread her towel out on the sand and sat down.

"Aren’t you coming in," Davy asked her. She shook her head, "Why not?"

"I’m don’t like swimming in oceans," she replied, "I never have before. I’ll just stay up here and watch, okay?" Davy looked a little disappointed, but turned back to what the guys were doing.

A few minutes later, Alysha looked up as a beach ball landed nearby, "Throw that back over," Mandy called to her friend. Alysha knew that she couldn’t possibly throw the beach ball that far, so she stood up and grabbed it. Then she headed for the shore to throw it to her friends.

As she reached down to hand it to Mandy though, she felt someone grabbing hold of her arm and pulling, causing her to fall into the ocean. She stood up and looked around. Her friends were off to one side, laughing at how they had pulled it off so neatly. She glared at them and walked back to the beach.

"Next time get it yourself," she told her friends, "If you need me, I’ll be back at our place." She walked off and her friends watched her. Then they started laughing all over again. They didn’t even seem to notice when she slammed the back door. The silence that followed was enough to see that their friend wasn’t there. The four girls glanced at each other.

Mandy glanced at each of them, "Okay, I guess I’d better go apologize to her. I didn’t mean for her to get mad at us." She stood up and walked to the house. She knocked on the door and waited. Listening carefully, she heard guitar music coming from upstairs. Mandy knocked once again, but the music continued. Clearly, Alysha wasn’t ready to forgive her quite yet…or she simply couldn’t hear her knocks.

"Alysha," she called, "Can I talk to you down here?" There was only silence, "Will you let me inside at least?" Still no answer. She sighed and knocked loudly, "If you won’t let me in, I’ll be forced to kick this door in."

"Go away," she heard Alysha say, "I’m not ready to talk to you yet."

"No," Mandy replied, "I just came to say that I’m sorry for what I did to you. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I did it anyway."

"Come back when I’m ready to forgive you," Alysha responded, "Maybe then I’ll like to talk." Mandy gave up at that point and walked back to the beach.

The others looked at her quizzically, "She won’t let me in," Mandy explained, "I guess I’m stuck out here until she’s ready to open the door."

"Let me give it a try," Davy said. Nobody objected and he stood to walk over. Before he reached the house though, the group heard an ear-splitting scream.