The girls jumped to their feet and ran to the house, Davy running ahead of them. When they reached the door, Stephanie suddenly remembered the spare key they agreed to hide nearby and quickly grabbed it. Slipping it into the lock, it opened almost immediately. The girls rushed upstairs to Alysha’s room. The door was closed, but luckily it wasn’t locked. Mandy pushed it open and hurriedly ran inside. Alysha was standing there, walking over to pick up an object in the middle of her room.

"Are you alright," Mandy asked her quickly, "What happened?"

"Someone threw this through my window," Alysha said, holding up a small box, "I think it’s only a prank though, nothing serious."

"Who would do this," Stephanie asked as the other guys joined them.

"Probably one of the locals who decided it would be fun to play a trick," Alysha replied, "It wasn’t very funny though. I know I’m not laughing."

"Neither are we," Mandy said, "You don’t know how much you scared us out there."

"Sorry," Alysha said, "Luckily the window was open or we’d have a bigger problem." The other girls agreed with her, "I don’t see any reason to make a big deal out of this. You guys can go back to the beach if you want." They hesitated for a moment before turning around and walking back down the stairs.

Alysha waited until they were gone before pulling something out of her pocket. When she had first seen the box, a note had been attached on the outside. She took the time they were opening the door to take it off the box. Now, she unfolded it and read the contents.

It said ‘Now that you’ve had the chance to see life in this decade, it’s time to choose which life you want to live. I’m warning you though that some of your group probably wish to return to your own time. Choose wisely.’ Alysha ripped the note afterwards and threw it in the trashcan, with the other torn up note.

She then turned her attention to the box. She opened the flaps and reached inside. Her hand instantly touched something. Taking the object out, she saw that it was love beads strung together on a necklace in colors of red and white. She pulled out three more as well, but in different color combinations. Alysha took out another note as well. ‘Give these to your friends, keeping one for yourself. Think of them as good luck charms while you’re here.’ She took the necklaces and placed one in each of her friend’s rooms.

That night, the two groups got together. They decided to watch each other’s practices before the contest. The Flaming Lizards started with ‘Dreaming’ and then moved on to ‘Second Chance’. It was decided that ‘Dreaming’ was a better choice.

Then Alysha moved to the stage, the three members of the Monkees taking up their own instruments. She held the tambourine and maracas in each hand. She once again stepped up to the microphone and began the song they had agreed on, ‘Shades of Gray’. When they were finished, the groups separated to load their stuff into their cars. Then they drove down to the station for their live performance.

Alysha walked down to the dressing room she had been assigned. There was a good half-hour until they were to start and the girls had agreed to meet her there so they could talk. She had already forgiven Mandy earlier. She opened the door and stepped inside. Her friends moved to one side to let her in. Unfortunately the room wasn’t very large. She had barely closed the door when someone knocked.

Alysha gestured for her friends to hide somewhere. When they were, she opened the door and felt relieved when it was Davy. She motioned for the girls to get up. He was about to say something when he noticed the others. They quickly made an exit and left the two alone. He turned back to her.

"What are you doing here," Alysha asked him, "What will Mr. Blavat think of this? After all, we’re in different bands."

"I just came to say good luck," he replied, "You’re going to need it."

"How do you know that," Alysha said, smiling, "The way I see it, you might need the luck more than I do. So, how does it feel to work with my band?"

"Hard," he answered, "I never thought girls were so complicated before. What about my group?"

"Not too bad," she told him, "The song was easy to choose and we worked on it for a while, but that was it."

"Well," Davy said, "I should be going. Good luck." He said this with a hint of disappointment.

"Good luck," Alysha replied with the same feeling. She watched as he opened the door and walked away. She didn’t understand why he was acting this way. From the show, she assumed he was more open than that. But then again, she felt the same way. The note from earlier only reminded her that someone might want to leave and go back. She didn’t want that happening, but since she knew it was possible, Alysha hadn’t really tried to get too close to anybody.

She snapped back to the present as the door opened again and the girls walked in. This time, they didn’t tease her about Davy as they had before. They could understand that something was going on. They talked about other things for a few minutes and then left to get ready.

Minutes later, the two groups were backstage, waiting to be called forward. A few other bands were ahead of them and although their sound was good, the two didn’t think they would have any problem. Finally, the Flaming Lizards were called to stage. Mandy, Stephanie, Sara, and Davy walked onto the stage. The guys stared at Alysha after the name was revealed. She simply smiled and turned back to watch them play.

The Flaming Lizards got a near perfect score. Now it was time for Mike, Peter, Micky, and Alysha to take the stage. They set up quickly and got into their positions. She glanced at her band members for the moment and tried her best to relax. She knew that once she started, the nervousness would go away, but this was more than just a contest or a gig.

Here she was, actually playing with three members of the Monkees. Now if Davy were there too, it would have been perfect. Sadly enough, he was playing with her real band. How would people respond to a girl singing this song? Luckily, the song didn’t have the words like ‘girl’ and ‘she’ in there. That would have been even stranger than it already was. She started as someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder. She looked back to find Mike there, giving her a reassuring smile.

"You’ll do great," he told her, "Just relax and enjoy yourself. You won’t disappoint us." Alysha returned the smile a little less nervously than before, "Are you ready?" She nodded and the beginning music started up. Before she knew what was happening, the words were coming out of her mouth easier than she had at first thought.