"A Camping We a Go-Go"

By:  Mickys411 and Larrysgirl  Rated G

The last few months had been quite busy for The Monkees, between practicing and performing at gigs, the guys felt beat.
"Man, we sure have been playing a lot of gigs lately." said Peter one afternoon hanging around at the pad, and tuning his bass.
"Yeah, we sure have, but it's paying the bills," said Mike, tuning his guitar as well.
"True, but you know, it will be nice to take a break," said Davy, taking a bite out of an apple he was eating.
"Took the words out of my mouth," said Micky, polishing his drum kit.
"Yeah, a break does sounds groovy, maybe we can make it a vacation," said Mike.
"Neat! A vacation, where should we go?" asked Peter, who was grinning ear to ear.
"I already picked a place, Vegas." said Micky.

“How ‘bout England?” Davy suggested.
"Now hold on fellas, I know we made some money from all those gigs, but we don't have that kind of money to take vacation like that," said Mike.
The guys began to feel disappointed.
Mike then began to feel the same way himself, he hated to let his friends down.

He then began to think of something.

Early the next morning, just as the sun was rising, there was a loud noise.

It turned out to be Mike playing his harmonica.
The playing woke Davy, Peter and Micky up.
"‘Morning fellas," said Mike, with a big smile on his face.
Davy looked at his alarm clock and said "Mike, what's the deal, its 5:30 in the morning."
"I know, but we want to get a head start for our vacation." said Mike.
"We are?" asked Peter.
"Yep."
"Groovy man, where are we going?" asked Micky.
"We're going camping." said Mike.
The smiles on Micky, Peter and Davy's faces stood still, before returning to a very normal look.
"By the way, don't bother packing, I got our stuff packed in the Monkeemobile," said Mike.
Although it was nice of Mike to pick a vacation, neither Davy, Micky nor Peter wanted to go camping, however they also didn't want to hurt Mike's feelings. So the three just sighed, got dressed at went to meet Mike downstairs.
And with that the guys headed out to go camping.
The guys drove for awhile, before they got to the campgrounds.
"Here we are guys, this is the place." said Mike stopping the car.
"Yeah, real nice." said Davy, pretending to sound enthusiastic.
"Can we set-up camp now?" asked Peter, as if he wanted to get this thing over with.
"We gotta pick a good spot first," said Mike.
"I'll do it." said Micky.
He ran behind some trees and shouted, "Hey guys I, I,.. I..III!"
He stopped to see a skunk was sitting on a tree stump.
"Nice skunk, good skunk."
It was too late, for at that moment the skunk sprayed Micky.
"We've been here for three minutes and already I hate this trip."
Micky came out from behind the trees.
"What the heck did you say Mick?" asked Mike.
"Never mind," grumbled Micky.
"Man, what is the terrible smell?" wondered Davy.
"That would be me."
Mike, Davy and Peter came near Micky, then backed away from him.
"Gee, what happened to you?" asked Peter.
"I had an encounter with a skunk," Micky grumbled once again.
Just then, Peter noticed something.
"Hey look, berries!" he said.
"You know they look quite tasty too," said Davy.
"You guys go ahead, I'm gonna try and get the smell of skunk out," said Micky.
He went to the car and search for a few items.
"Hey where's the soap?" Micky asked.
"Didn't bring any," answered Mike.
"Why?"
"Something I learned in Eagle Scouts, never bring anything to hurt the land, water, or air.
Micky sighed, grabbed a towel and headed for the lake.

While Micky went to go get clean up at the lake, Peter and Davy went to get a closer look at the bushes with the berries on them.
"I wonder what kind of berries these are?" said Davy.
"I don't know, but they look good." said Peter, who was putting some berries into his mouth.
"Now remember guys, be careful about what berries to eat, warned Mike, as a former Eagle Scout, I learned what berries you should eat.”
"What kind should we eat?" asked Davy.
"Red ones with blue thorns, or was it the blues ones with red thorns?" said Mike.
Peter stopped eating the berries.
"Now I remember why I got kicked out of the Eagle Scouts," said Mike.
Peter's face began to turn green, then gulped a few times before it turned back to its normal color.
Davy didn't eat any berries, but dropped the ones he was holding.
A few moments later Micky returned to the group, he changed his clothes because the ones he was wearing still smelled of skunk.
And although he tried his best to clean up, he still couldn't get the smell off himself.
In fact, he smelled worse, and the guys backed away from him.

Although the guy have been camping for only a short time, Davy, Peter and Micky wished this trip was over now, so they can go back to the pad; however, they didn't want to disappoint Mike.
"Since we're not sure about the berries, what are we going to do about eating?" asked Davy.
"Please don't say eating." said Peter, holding his stomach.
"Don't worry, I packed some food in a basket, plus we'll go fishing later, said Mike, but let's see if we can find a place to camp."
"The last place I checked, I got skunked," said Micky.
"I'll check then, Peter you set up the tent, Davy you collect some wood for a fire, and Micky can fill the canteens up."
Mike found a spot for them to set up camp, and there were no skunks around; however Peter was having a hard time putting up the tent.
"Why did Mike put me in charge of setting up the tent, it's hard." said Peter grumbling, trying to place the covering over the wires and stakes.
It took some time, but Peter managed to get the tent up, with a little help from Mike.
At that moment, Micky and Davy returned to the spot with the water and wood.
"Man, where did you get all those twigs?" Mike asked Davy.
"Over there by the bushes," said Davy pointing east.
"Did those bushes have leaves with red shades on them?"
"Yes, why?"
"Because those aren't bushes, that's poison oak, but don't worry, I got some anti-itch solution in the car."
"Great, thanks."
Judging by his tone of voice, Davy sounded less than happy.

Later that evening, as it was growing dark, the Monkees settled down at their camp. Even though Mike had put the anti-itch cream on Davy's arms, Davy still was scratching away. Mike was warming up some beef stew from a can at the campfire. Micky was still sitting far away from the others because he still had the skunk smell on him and Peter kept looking around the camp fearfully. Mike noticed this and looked up from the kettle.
"What's the matter, Pete?" Mike asked.
"I get the feeling we're being watched." Peter said quietly.
"Nonsense, Peter!" Mike replied, "There's nothing out here for miles!"
Just then a mighty roar echoed through the camp. The Monkees looked at each other in terror.
"Well....I could be wrong." Mike said slowly.
"B..b...b...bear!" Peter stammered.
Peter, Davy and Micky came over to the fire next to Mike and looked fearfully into the woods. Everyone was too scared to notice Micky's skunk smell.
"Now...now don't panic guys." Mike said, trying to reassure his friends, but sounding on the verge of panic himself. "The bear's probably more frightened of us than we are of him."
"Probably?" Micky asked.
"He doesn't sound too frightened." Davy whimpered.
"The bear must be smelling our supper." Peter said, beginning to shake.
Just then another roar bellowed out, closer and louder than before. The Monkees could hear something crashing through the bushes and it was coming towards them...

The Monkees looked over to where the noise in the bushes was coming from. There was a loud snap...and a large and hungry-looking brown bear broke through the bushes and charged into the camp. The bear looked at the Monkees and growled. Terrified, the Monkees screamed, and to their surprise, the noise startled the bear and he backed off a bit.
"Hey, he's afraid of our screaming!" Mike said. "Scream again and wave your arms!"
The guys did what Mike told them. The bear began to back away and the Monkees followed him, yelling, screaming and waving their arms. Finally having had enough, the bear turned tail and ran back into the bushes.
"Hurray!" Everyone yelled, hugging each other.
"I told you the bear was more frightened of us than we are of him!" Mike said with a smile.
Suddenly, there was another roar and an even larger brown bear came crashing through the bushes.
"I guess that's the bear's big brother." Peter said.
"Never mind the family tree, let's split!" Davy yelled.
The Monkees took off into the woods with the bear in hot pursuit. It was quite dark out now and after leaving the campfire, and it was difficult to see where they were going. Sure enough, Micky fell over a tree root and fell to the ground. Before he could get up though, the bear was right over him.
Mike, Peter and Davy noticed Micky was gone and looked back and saw what was happening.
"Micky, play dead!" Mike yelled.
Micky covered his head with his arms and willed himself to stay still. The bear sniffed Micky's clothes....then suddenly, with a whimper, ran off in the opposite direction.
Mike, Peter and Davy ran over to Micky.
"Micky, are you ok?" Peter asked.
Micky slowly raised his head, amazed he was still alive.
"What happened?" He asked.
"The bear smelled your clothes and must've caught your skunk odor. He sure took off in a hurry." Davy replied as he helped Micky to his feet.
"At least something good came from that skunk incident earlier." Mike said.
Micky looked at Peter and Davy and the three of them then gave Mike a look that would've burned a hole through concrete.
"We want to go home, Mike." Micky growled, "Now!"
Mike stood there in complete shock, he couldn't believe the guys were so angry.
"You're guys are kidding right?" he asked.
"No, Mike we want to get out of here.” said Davy.
"Me too," said Peter.
"Fellas, I just wanted us to have a great vacation." said Mike.
"Great? You call this great? I got poison oak!" said Davy.
"I got skunked!" shouted Micky.
"And I'm still tasting those nasty berries." said Peter.
Mike let out a deep breath and said, "Look guys, why don't we just call it a night."
The other guys agreed with huge sighs as well.
However, as the guys were heading back to the tent, Davy walked into the poison oak plant, due to the darkness, and Micky had another encounter with the same skunk he saw this morning, so he had to sleep outside the tent.
But it didn't matter, for it was windy and it blew the tent apart.

The next morning, Mike looked at the remains of the tent. "I've taken this tent on camping trips for years, and nothing like this has ever happened." Mike said.
The others didn't answer him. They were still angry over all the bad things that had happened to them since they came out here. Micky and Davy walked down to the lake to wash up; Micky to get rid of that skunk smell, and Davy to maybe get rid of some of that poison oak.
Peter began to cook breakfast, while Mike opened up a tackle box.
"What's in there, Mike?" Peter asked.
"Fishing gear." Mike replied. "I'll catch us some nice fish for supper!"
With all the bad luck they had been having, Peter doubted Mike would catch anything bigger than a sardine, but said nothing. Davy and Micky came back from the lake. Micky still smelled terrible from the skunk while Davy still itched from the poison oak. Davy put some of the anti-itch cream on his arms; it helped a little. After breakfast, Mike told Davy and Micky what he planned to do and invited them along.
"No thanks." Micky said, "With the way things have been going, we'd probably get eaten by a whale."
Davy and Peter agreed. Mike simply shrugged and headed to the edge of the lake to do some fishing.

Davy, Peter and Micky hung around the campsite, while Mike was at the edge of the lake fishing.
"You know, I think this is the worst trip we ever been on." said Davy.
"What about that time we went to the beach and we all got burned?" said Micky.
"Yeah, you're right."
"Or the time we went to the snowy mountains and we all caught colds, after we crashed into a snow bank." said Peter.
"I think we've talked about one too many bad trips," said Davy.
Micky and Davy then noticed Peter putting something in his mouth.
"Hey Peter, what are you eating?" asked Davy.
"Oh, just some berries I found," Peter answered.
"Are those by any chance the same berries you ate the other day?" asked Micky.
Peter then looked at the berries in his hands, and threw them down.
His face began to turn green again, but gulped a few times, before it turned back to its normal color.
Time passed, and Mike still didn't come back from fishing.
"I wonder what happened to Mike." said Davy.
"I think we might have hurt his feelings." said Peter.
"Yeah you're right Peter," said Micky.
"Thank you."
"I think we should go and apologize," said Davy.
Peter and Micky nodded their heads in a yes manner.
And the three went to go find Mike.

As Micky, Davy and Peter got closer to the lake, they heard something that sounded like someone was yelling and someone else or something was growling.
The three then rushed to see what was going on. When they got there, they saw that it was the bear they encountered the night before.
And it was standing face to face with Mike.
At that moment, Mike slipped on some rocks, fell face forward, and cut his forehead on a stone.
It was also at that moment the bear was ready to attack.
"Mike!" shouted Peter, who was about to race to the scene.
However, Davy and Micky pulled him back, and explained if the bear heard him, it will find them too.
"We need to thing of a plan, and quick!" said Davy.
Just then, something came to Micky.
"I got it!" he exclaimed.
Micky then walked out from the bushes the guys were hiding behind, and made his way to the bear.
"What are you doing?" said a very nervous Davy.
"Relax, I know what I'm doing." said Micky.
He then walked up to the scene and shouted, "Hey bear!"
The bear approached Micky, but as it did, the bear took one sniff of Micky and ran off whimpering.
"I knew those skunk encounters would come in handy." Micky said with a laugh.
Peter and Davy rushed up to Micky to see if he was ok, they didn't even care that he smelled terrible.
"I'm fine, but we gotta go see about Mike.”
The three then ran to Mike, and helped him up.
"Uh, what's going on?” said Mike, who looked to see that the guys were there, “Hey fellas, what are you doing here?"
"We came to say we're sorry for the way we've been acting," said Davy.
"No, it's mainly my fault, I should have asked you guys about taking this trip before we went."
Peter noticed Mike had some blood dripping from his forehead from where he fell. He got a handkerchief from his pocket, placed it in the lake and gave it to Mike to place on his cut.
"Thanks old buddy," said Mike.
"No problem pal." said Peter.
Just then, a fish came up on shore, it was a good size fish, in fact it was big enough to feed all four Monkees.
However, since eating those berries, Peter wasn't really that hungry.
During the fish dinner, it was voted by all four guys that they leave for home tomorrow.
The guys were happy when they got home the next day.
Mike went to put medicine and a band-aid on his forehead, it was a good size cut, but nothing serious.
Peter drank some club soda to settle his stomach from eating the berries.
Davy was placing ointment on his poison oak, to reduce the itching.
Micky was upstairs taking a shower, to get rid of that terrible skunk smell, in fact he took a few.
"You know, I don't think this was such a bad trip," said Davy, placing more cream on his hands.
"Yeah, despite the berries, bears, wind, poison oak, and skunks, it wasn't too bad," said Peter, sipping on his soda.
"I'm glad you guys said that.” said Mike, “Maybe we can go camping again."
Peter and Davy looked at Mike as if he was crazy.
"But not that soon."
Micky came downstairs to see what the guys were up to.
"No good Micky, you still smell of skunk," said Davy.
"Aw man, I've already taken four showers since we got home," said Micky.
"Look on the bright side man." said Peter.
"Why's that?"
"Imagine what would have happened if you got sprayed by four skunks and at the same time."
The guys had to admit, after having a not too fun time camping, they found what Peter said to be funny and the four began to laugh.

The End

By: Mickys411 and Larrysgirl Rated G

It was a beautiful spring afternoon, in fact the weather was so gorgeous that not only schools were having classes outside, but some local businesses were as well.
Meanwhile, The Monkees were in the air-conditioned NRG Studios, working on their new album.
It was going to be their first new album in almost 30 years.
The guys were trying to work on some songs, however; they couldn't see to come up with any tunes.
Mike was on his phone and was writing down some numbers for business, Micky was drawing some sketches, and Davy was beating Peter in a number of games of tic-tac-toe.
Mike got off the phone and asked, "Did any of you guys come up with some new tunes?"
"No," said Peter.
"Me neither, said Micky.
"I can't think of anything too," said Davy.
"You guys remember when we worked on the Headquarters album and we had problems writing tunes?" asked Peter.
"Oh yeah,” said Davy, “We used every method."
"Meditating, writing junk down on pieces of paper," said Mike.
"Standing on our heads, staring contests ," said Micky.
"Which you always lost," said Davy.
Just then, there was a rattling sound coming from the air conditioning, and it died out.
"I believe that happened too." said Mike.
"Relax fellas, where there's a problem, there's a solution." said Micky.
"So, what's your solution?" asked Davy.
Micky then went under the table, and held a portable fan that was in the office, just in case the cooling system broke down, like what just happened.
The guys plugged in the fan and it began to cool off, but not too much, so the guys got sodas from a vending machine.
Micky, will you please stop tossing that cola can back and forth in your hands, it will explode." Mike warned.
"What can happen?" Micky asked, opening his can of cola.
And with that, the soda sprayed out of the can, on to Mike.
Mike was not too happy about that.
"Mike, I'm so sorry about that, I didn't mean to," said Micky, although sounding sorry he had to hold back from smiling, for an incident happen like that many years ago.
Mike then thought of a plan and began to smile, he then picked up his can of root beer and began to shake it a bit.
He then pulled the top to open it.
Micky knew what was going to happen, and he ducked under the table, and the soda got on Peter.
"Peter, sorry I was aiming for Micky," said Mike.
"That's ok Mike, I'm not angry," said Peter.
Mike noticed Peter was shaking his can of Dr. Pepper and then opened it.
Before any of the soda got on Mike, he ducked under the table and it got on Davy.
"Davy, sorry about that, I was trying to get Mike." said Peter.
"Sure you were," said Davy.
He then picked up his can of iced tea and shook it as well.
Peter ducked, because he knew what was going to happen.
As soon as Davy opened the can, Micky got up from under the table and he got sprayed with the iced tea.
Mike and Peter got up to see what happened.
"I guess what goes around comes around," said Micky.
Just then, Peter began to start laughing.
"What's so funny?" Mike asked.
"Remember when we were filming on location at the beach, and Bob and Bert were complaining about being in the heat?”
"Oh yeah, that's why this incident was familiar," said Davy, starting to chuckle.
"Yeah, they got back at us by dumping ice on our heads," said Micky, laughing.
Mike looked at his band mates, it was hard to believe that a bunch of grown men, covered in soda would only think of an event like this from the past and find it absolutely funny.
He then began to laugh as well.
After about ten minutes of laughing, they went to clean the soda off themselves.
At that moment, both Davy and Micky thought of a song they wrote in the past.
The tune was called "You and I”.
They sang it and added some new words to it, and Mike and Peter agreed to put the song on the album.
"Well, that's one song down," said Davy.
"And eleven more to go," said Peter.
"Hopefully after what just happened, we can come up with some more tunes," said Mike.
However, they became stuck in the same rut they were in earlier this morning.
Just then, a thought popped into Micky's head.
"You know, sometimes when I can't come up with anything to write, I take a walk on the beach, and for some reason, I come back thinking of different tunes to write," he said.
"That's sound's like a good idea, what about you guys?" asked Davy.
"Ok, it's too nice of a day to stay in doors any way, plus I do the same thing too," said Peter.
"I guess that means we're going to the beach then," said Mike.
And with that, the four headed out the door, and were on their way to Ocean Coast Shores.
Everybody piled into Mike's silver BMW and soon they were cruising towards the beach. Davy was sitting in the front seat next to Mike and decided to see what was on the radio. Maybe that would give him an idea for a song. He pushed what he thought was the 'on' button and.....
HERE WE ARE NOW! ENTERTAIN US! WITH SOMETHING STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS! YEAH!....screamed Kurt Cobain from the radio. Mike nearly lost control of the car.
"Turn that off!" Mike shouted at Davy.
Davy didn't need to be told twice. He quickly hit the button again and blessed silence was heard in the car.
"Sorry guys." Mike said sheepishly. "My son Jason had the car yesterday."
"What...was...that?" Davy asked, his ears ringing.
"Uh...Nirvana, I think." Micky replied, "My daughter Georgia listens to them."
"Nirvana?" Peter repeated. "Nirvana means 'heaven'. That sounded like..."
"Here's the beach!" Mike interrupted before Peter could finish. He pulled the car into the lot and found a spot not too far from the entrance. The Monkees got out and walked down the steps and onto the sand.
It was a beautiful day out; not a cloud in the sky. Many people were out walking along the beach like they were.
Micky spotted a flat stone on the beach. He picked it up and threw it in such a way that it skipped several times on top of the water before it sunk.
"Still have the magic touch." Micky said proudly.
Peter was about to answer when he heard several people screaming behind them. He and the other three Monkees turned around....and saw a large group of young girls racing towards them.
"Here we go again," sighed Mike.
"Just like old times mate," laughed Davy, as the young girls were running towards them.
However, the young women ran past The Monkees as if they weren't there, and the girls headed to a young man with dark hair and sunglasses.
"Hey! You're not Keanu Reeves!" one girl shouted.
The Monkees couldn't help put laugh by the embarrassment of the girls and the young man, who's real name was Kyle.
The women walked past the guys, hiding their embarrassed faces.
"I actually got that same mistake awhile ago," said Micky.
"What happened?" asked Peter.
"Somebody thought I was Steven Segal."
"If you lose the ponytail like I told you, you won't have that problem," said Mike.
"Ha ha ha, very funny," Micky said, sounding sarcastic.
"Come on, we got figure out what to write," said Davy.
The guys decided to split up to different parts of the beach, so they can have a better time concentrating writing.
A short time later, they met up and asked each other if they had any luck with writing.
Davy said he came up with a tune call "It's not too late", after seeing a few boats sailing on the ocean.
Peter thought of a song "Runaway from life", inspired by a witnessing a man serenading his girlfriend.
Mike heard some kids tapping on the boardwalk, and came up with words to a song entitled "Admiral Mike".
They then noticed that Micky wasn't with them.
"Have you guys seen him?" asked Davy.
"I thought he met up with you?" said Peter.
"Let's not worry you guys, for all we know Micky is either caught in his thoughts with writing, or he's planning on playing a trick on us, like old times,” said Mike, “My guess is trying to play a trick.”

Mike, Peter and Davy started to walk towards Mike's car, each of them telling the others about his new song.
"So, each of us have a new song." Mike said, "Add those to the one we already have, that will make four. Still not enough."
"Well, let's hope Micky thought up a few tunes." Peter said, looking around the beach to see if he could spot Micky. There was no sign of him.
"Where could Micky be?" Wondered Davy.
Everybody just shrugged and walked over to the car, thinking Micky might be waiting there for them. As they came near, Mike spotted a piece of paper underneath a windshield wiper.
Puzzled, Mike pulled it free and read the note aloud to the other two Monkees.
"Hey guys." Mike read, "I've been asked to judge a beauty contest! Come on over to the pier, since I think they'll need more judges! Micky."
"A beauty contest?!" Davy exclaimed, "Without me there? Let's go!" He started off at a run towards the pier. Mike and Peter just shrugged and trotted off after him.
Fortunately, the pier wasn't too far away, and the three Monkees were soon there. They didn't see Micky anywhere, though. They walked to behind the small stage.
"Oh there you are." A young man with red hair said, walking over to them. He had three small signs with numbers on them. "You're just in time for the contest."
"Where do you want us to sit?" Mike asked.
"Sit?" The man asked, handing them the signs, "I need for you three to step behind that curtain."
"But..." Peter started to say, but the man pushed them behind the curtain before he could say anything.
Behind the curtain were several men holding small numbered signs as well, but the difference was that these guys were wearing bathing suits and were pretty muscular.
"What's going on?" Davy said, getting a funny feeling in his stomach.
Before anyone could answer, the curtain in front of them parted and they found themselves in front of a crowd of onlookers who cheered and applauded. The red-haired man came over to the microphone.
"Thank you all for coming to the muscle-man beach contest!" He said happily, "After our judges look over the contestants, I'll announce the winners."
The men with Mike, Peter and Davy began to flex there muscles, much to the appreciation of the women in the crowd. The three Monkees looked down at the judges table and saw none other than Micky sitting there with the other judges. He smiled and gave his three friends a 'thumbs up' sign and started to write down numbers on his notepad.
The three Monkees glared at him. If looks could kill, Micky would be dead and six foot under.

After the contest was over, Micky tried to blend in with the crowd to escape his three friends. Just when he thought he was clear, a hand grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. Micky wasn't surprised to see Mike, Peter and Davy standing there, but was a little rattled to see the angry looks on their faces.
"Going somewhere, Mr. Judge?" Mike smiled nastily.
"Don't be sore at me, Mike." Micky pleaded, backing away, "At least you got an honorable mention. Heh heh."
The other three Monkees rushed Micky. They picked him up and carried him over to the water.
"Wait! Wait!" Micky shouted, "Can't you guys take a joke, y'know, just like old times?"
"And this is what we used to do with you in old times!" Peter replied with an evil smile.
With that, Mike, Peter and Davy tossed Micky into the surf, soaking him. Micky was tossed by the waves for a few seconds, then pushed ashore. He got up and walked over to his friends, who were laughing.
"Very funny." Micky said with a scowl, "Let's hope the water didn't erase the ink in my notebook. I had a new song in there that I was writing while waiting for the contest to begin."
The other three finally stopped laughing as Micky pulled the notebook out of his shirt pocket. It was soaked, but fortunately the water hadn't absorbed all the way through yet. He smiled as he showed the slightly smudged lyrics to his friends.
"I'm gonna call this song 'Regional Girl'." Micky said proudly.
"That's good, Mick." Davy said, "So now we'll have five songs for the album."
"Let's go back to the studio, then." Mike said, "And get started on those songs."
The others agreed and began to walk back to Mike's car.

"Say guys, you think you can drop me off at my place so I can clean up?” I still smell like the ocean, no thanks to you guys," Micky grumbled.
"Serves you right," laughed Davy.
"You got what you deserved," added Mike.
"I said I was sorry,” said Micky, “By the way, since we're heading to my house, you guys want to hear some other tunes I've been working on?"
"Sure," said Peter.
The Monkees headed to Mike's car and drove to Micky's house.
"I'll play the tape, after I finish cleaning up," he said, when he and the other Monkees entered the house.
Mike, Peter and Davy waited in Micky’s home studio, while he was cleaning up.
A short time later, Micky entered the studio, wearing different clothes and drying his hair with a towel.
As he dried his hair, Micky found a seaweed leaf.
"You know, I read somewhere that sea weed is good for the hair," laughed Davy.
Micky just gave him a smirk look, and tied his hair back.
"So where are the songs?" asked Peter.
Micky then opened a cabinet that was on a wall, took out a tape and began to play it

Micky sat down next to Mike and listened with the others as the tape played. It was just Micky playing a guitar as he sang two songs. After a few minutes, the tape ended. Micky got up and shut off the tape recorder. He turned to the others.
"Well, what do ya guys think?" Micky asked.
"I liked the first song, Mick." Davy replied, "But the second one needs more work."
"I agree." Peter said as Mike nodded his head.
"Let's go over that second song then." Micky responded, "I have some extra guitars here."
The others agreed, and while Micky went behind his drums, Mike, Peter and Davy picked up guitars. Soon, Micky's house was filled with music, as the Monkees tried to improve upon Micky's song. They also worked on the songs they had written during their time at the beach. During a short break, Mike looked at the clock on the wall.
"Whoa! Look at the time!" He exclaimed, "We've been at this for almost three hours!"
"It's supper time!" Micky said happily, "I'll order some pizza!"
The other three Monkees cheered as Micky went over to the phone.

The pizza arrived in less than thirty minutes. Micky paid and tipped the delivery boy and went inside. The four of them quickly sat down to eat. Mike opened the box.
"Oh man!" Mike exclaimed, "What's on this pizza?"
"Everything!" Micky said, reaching for a slice, "It's my favorite: Supremo Deluxe!"
Mike, Peter and Davy looked at all the extra stuff piled on top. They didn't want to be rude, so they simply took a piece and ate without saying a word. Micky was smiling as he got pizza all over his mouth.
'Now I remember why I didn't like to eat with Micky too often' Davy thought to himself.
"Can I get myself a soda?" Peter asked Micky.
"Sure, help yourself." Micky replied around a mouthful of pizza. "Get some for all of us, I think we'll need it after all these anchovies."
Peter simply smiled and got the sodas. Later on, the Monkees sat in Micky's living room.
"That was....good...Micky. Thank you." Davy said.
"Yeah, it about makes up for entering us in the Muscle Man Beach contest." Mike added.
Everyone laughed as Micky threw a pillow at Mike.
"C'mon, guys, let's go back to the studio." Micky said, giving a mock-glare to Mike, "I think we have the songs ready enough to record."
Everyone agreed and piled into Mike's car for the trip back to the studio.

The Monkees headed back to the studio, and lucky for them it was still open.
As they walked down the halls, they saw a group of young men in their 20's recording a song.
The guys thought about when they used to spend all hours of the night in the recording studios working on new material, and it bought smiles to their faces.
"Well, let's get to work," said Mike.
"It's gonna be a long night," said Peter.
"You know, with eating all that pizza and soda, I think we'll be able to stay awake," said Davy.
"Better put some coffee on just in case," said Micky.
The guys got themselves set up for recording, they decided to only work on the music tonight and the vocals tomorrow.
After a few minutes of tuning guitars, basses, and drums, the guys began to record.
In fact, they worked all hours into the late night.

The next morning, after an all nighter of recording, there in the control booth were four sleeping Monkees.
Mike was fast asleep, sitting in a chair, Peter was sleeping on the floor, after falling off his chair during the night, Davy made a bed out of other chairs in the room and Micky was asleep with his head down at the control board.
Mike woke up, rubbed his eyes and checked his watch to see what time it was.
"8:45 a.m.,” he said, “The last time I checked it was 12:16a.m."
Just then, Peter got up, to find himself on the floor.
"What's going on, how did I end up here?" he wondered. "The last thing I remember I said we were going to take a short rest, but I guess we must have dozed off."
Davy then got up from the home-made bed and said, "I can't believe we actually fell asleep here."
They turned to Micky, who was still asleep at the board.
Davy crept over to his band mate to wake him up.
"Come on wake up," Davy said, tapping Micky on the shoulder.
"5 more minutes," Micky muttered in his sleep.
"Watch this." Davy said.
Davy took the chair that Micky was sitting in, and pulled it from under him.
"Whoa!” Micky said falling off the chair.
"Good morning sleepyhead." said Davy with a laugh.
Peter and Mike began to laugh as well.
"Be nice to me Davy, or I'll have to enter you in another contest." Micky said.
"Watch it Skillet face."
Micky took a playful swing at Davy, who ducked.
The guys began to laugh.
"Come on guys, let's get back to work." said Mike.
The guys drank some coffee to wake themselves up, and got back to recording.
The guys worked on the vocals. They all sounded great and everything went well, even though Micky broke a microphone because of the strength of his voice.
It took some time, but soon they were finished with everything.

When it came time to name the album, the guys decided to name it ‘Justus’ since they wrote and played all the songs.
And soon, ‘Justus’ was released.
It got some great reviews, and sold a good amount of copies.
The Monkees agreed that this was the best album they made since Headquarters.

P.S. The album Justus was recorded almost ten years ago, and those who wonder whether The Monkees will record another album again, I guess we'll have to wait and see.