Micky was walking down the street, when he realized that he didn't have the address for Happy Humble House. He looked it up in a phone book at a near-by booth.
"Let's see," Micky said looking through the phone book, "Happy Hank's Used Car Lot, Happy Harry's Used Car Lot, Happy Herman's Used Car Lot, Happy Henry's Used Car Lot, Happy Hurbert's Used Car Lot, oops too far. Here we are, Happy Humble House."
Micky took the address and headed for the place.
Micky walked into the Happy Humble House, and got a very unexpected greeting.
"Surprise!!!" everyone yelled.
"Happy birthday!!" another man said.
There were people everywhere, all with balloons and confetti.
"Happy birthday!" said a man, as he tossed a handful of confetti at Micky.
"Wow!" said Micky "This is great!"
"Welcome to the Happy Humble House", said a woman "Where no one will ever forget your special day!"
"Gee thanks!" Micky said.
Micky was quite happy to see what the folks at Happy Humble House did for him.
"We wish you Mitch, a very happy birthday," said the man who threw the confetti.
"Thank you, but my name is Micky," Micky corrected the man.
"We hope you have a happy birthday Mitch," said the woman, "By the way that will be 5 dollars."
"It's Micky and 5 dollars for what?"
"One dollar for the greeting, 2 dollars for confetti throwing and 2 more dollars for the balloons," said another man.
"For another 8 dollars, we can throw in a cake, candles and a wish," said another woman.
The smile on Micky's face began to slowly fade away.
"No that's ok," he said, taking some money out of his wallet, and paid one of the men.
Micky then turned and left the building.
"Happy Birthday Mitch!" the people all shouted.
"Thank you, but my name's..." Micky stopped. He was in no mood to correct what they said to him.
Micky almost ran from the Happy Humble Home, he was feeling so upset. He should've known they would charge money for making him feel special! It was just a business, a business to make you feel happy and charge you for it. Micky sat down on a bench, never feeling so embarrassed and alone in his life.
"Some birthday." Micky thought to himself as he wiped a tear away. "My so-called friends forget my birthday and the ones who do charge me for it!"
A stray dog came over and sniffed Micky's hand. Micky smiled and tried to pet the dog, but the dog growled at him and ran away.
"Even dogs don't like me." Micky thought gloomily. Heaving a big sigh, Micky got up and headed back home.
"Maybe the guys finally remembered." Micky said hopefully, "I'll go home and they'll have the pad all decorated and yell 'surprise!' at me!" With that happy thought, Micky quickly walked home.
Micky walked through the front door of the pad, hoping the guys would be there to surprise him. Mike, Peter and Davy were there, but to his disappointment, the pad was undecorated.
"Hi Mick." Mike said, sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. Peter and Davy were playing checkers; they didn't even bother to say hi.
"Hi guys." Micky said sadly. "Anything new?"
"Don't worry, Micky." Davy said, concentrating on his next move, "We didn't forget."
"You didn't?" Micky said happily.
"We didn't forget it's your turn to cook," Peter replied, "and it's almost time for supper."
Micky looked down at the floor. It 'was' his turn to cook supper, but it seems his friends really had forgotten his birthday after all. Blinking back tears, Micky went into the kitchen and made spaghetti; at least they would eat something he liked today.
During supper, Micky tried one last time.
"Does March eighth mean anything to you guys?" He asked.
"Well, it's one week before the Ides of March." Davy replied, "The day Julius Caesar got it."
It took all of Micky's control not to scream 'It's my birthday!' at his friends. Micky simply picked up his half-eaten meal, threw it in the garbage, walked up into his bedroom and slammed the door.
Peter whispered to the other two.
"Don't you think we're carrying this too far?" He asked.
"I don't want Micky to feel bad, but we want this to be a big surprise." Mike replied quietly.
"Well, let's get this over soon, before he never talks to us again." Davy replied.
The other two agreed and quickly finished their meal and cleaned the kitchen. Later, Mike called up to Micky.
"Wanna go to a movie, Micky?" He asked.
Micky came out to the balcony.
"No thanks." He said sourly, "I just wanna be alone right now."
"We would like you to come with us." Peter replied.
"I said 'no thanks', Peter." Micky said, getting angry. "Do you understand what that means?"
"Alright, we'll leave you alone." Davy said, "See you later."
But Micky had already gone back into his bedroom.
Getting into the car, Davy looked at Mike.
"Great, now when we want him to come with us, he won't."
"Don't worry." Mike replied, "When we get to where we're going, I'll call Micky and tell him to come over. We're not going that far."
With that, Mike started the Monkeemobile and drove away.
Upstairs in his bedroom, Micky sat on his bed with his head in his hands.
"Go to the movies, yeah right." Micky groused, "Like I'd go anywhere with those false friends." He lay down on his bed. "There's gotta be somebody who cares about me, somebody who remembered my birthday." Suddenly he sat up in bed and snapped his fingers.
"I know!" He exclaimed, "Why didn't I think of it before? Then he got another idea.
"I'll go over to her house for a few days." He said to himself as he leaped off the bed and began to go through his cupboards. "Why should I stay here and be humiliated?" He asked himself as he pulled a duffel bag from under his bed and began to fill it with some clothing. "Let the guys do without me for a few days."
Soon Micky was all packed. He came down the hurricane stairs and debated whether or not to leave a note. Micky decided against it, "Let them worry about me." He thought with a smirk on his face.
Shouldering his duffel bag, Micky left the pad.
Chapter 1
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