“Yeah, I’m sure,” Adriana answered, grunting a bit as she picked up the box and put it on her bed. “I like packing.”
“No,” Micky said with a laugh, tapping the box stuffed with clothes, “I mean take that many turtlenecks. California doesn’t really have a lot of turtleneck weather.”
Adriana chuckled a bit and sat down on her bed, which was completely stripped, and looked around her room. The walls were bare. It was amazing to her how much could get done in just a few short days.
“I just hope I can fit all of this stuff into the van,” Adriana said, glancing at the boxes that surrounded her.
“Well,” Micky said with a knowing grin, “I have a feeling that everything will make it just fine.”
“Now,” Adriana said, pushing her blonde hair behind her ears as she looked at her friends, “you’re sure this is going to work?”
“It has to,” Micky said, putting an arm around her and kissing her on the top of her head. “Link’s worked really hard on this.”
Link nodded and blushed a little. “Are you ready,” he asked.
“Yeah,” Adriana said, nodding a bit and taking a deep breath before she opened the door to Chicago record studio. It seemed like only yesterday that the Monkees and she were excitedly entering those doors to record their first album. She never would have thought that she would end up back here after all that had happened, especially to do something like this.
“Just push the button if you need us,” Micky said before the door closed behind her.
Adriana smoothly and slowly passed first floor receptionist and entered the elevator. Gratefully, there was no one else in the car as the doors closed and it made its way up to the fifteenth floor.
As she waited, Adriana caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection of the steel doors. She felt odd. It was totally unlike her to wear what she was wearing. She donned a very short black mini-skirt and a v-neck white sweater along with black knee-high boots. Wearing more makeup than usual, she fluffed her hair once more before the elevator stopped and opened on the desired floor.
“Anything to get this done,” she thought to herself as she strode down the corridor until she reached Tyler Stevenson’s office. Reaching into her purse, she double checked to make sure the beeper was set if she needed help.
Taking another deep breath, she knocked quietly and opened the door to reveal Tyler sitting in a black leather chair, speaking to someone on the phone.
“Just get it done,” he said, gruffly, his eyes opening wider as he watched Adriana enter. He couldn’t help but stare at her as she made her way into the room, shutting the door behind her and slightly leaning on it.
He ran a hand though his greased red hair and Adriana had to stop from retching as she faked a smile, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and smiled as she looked at the smarmy record producer.
“Look, uh, Billy,” Tyler said, turning in his chair to completely face her, “I’ve got a very important client that just walked in…”
Adriana inwardly groaned as he winked and motioned for her to take a seat in front of the desk. Grateful for having taking some acting classes in high school, Adriana sat and coyly smiled at him while he finished his call.
“Well, well, well,” Tyler mused after he had hung up the phone, “I never imagined seeing you here again.”
Adriana laughed deeply and crossed her long legs. “I never thought I would either, but I just couldn’t stay away. I guess you could say I have quite a proposition for you.”
“Hmm,” he said, folding his hands in front of him as he looked her up and down in a way that made her want to smack him, but at least the plan appeared to be working. “Do tell.”
“Well,” Adriana said, standing up and slowly pacing in front of him, “I have something you want…in more ways than one.”
“Go on,” Tyler said, his eyes following her around the room.
“I never should have let her go in there,” Micky said, leaning his head against the brick wall of the back of the building.
“She’ll do fine,” Jessie said, looking at Micky, who was pacing with worry.
“I hope so,” Ursula said, standing next to Micky with folded arms, waiting against the wall.
Suddenly the back door opened and they heard Adriana’s voice. “It’s right out here,” she said.
Micky, Jessie, Link, and Ursula quickly hid behind a garbage can as Adriana and Tyler walked pass them and towards the van.
“And it’s mine,” Tyler said, looking at the time machine, “…I mean, ours, right, baby?”
Adriana coughed and nodded her head after a moment. “Sure...I mean,” she continued with a deep voice, “absolutely.”
“So, how does this thing work,” Tyler asked as he opened the driver’s door while Adriana stood nearby.
“Well, once you get in, if you look to your right,” Adriana began, “you’ll see a flashing, hand held computer devise. You just input the data into it and hit a button behind the rearview mirror.”
Tyler turned to her for a moment and grinned evilly.
Adriana shuddered inside.
“And that’s all,” he asked.
“That’s all,” she answered.
“Okay, let’s go,” Tyler said, moving as if to enter the van. But, he quickly turned and shoved Adriana. She lost her footing and hit the concrete hard. As she fell, she heard Tyler slam the door of the van.
“Lock it,” Adriana heard Jessie shout as her friends came out from behind the garbage can.
The last thing she saw was Tyler’s frustrated face as he tried to get out of the van, and the last thing she heard before she drifted out of consciousness was Micky’s voice saying her name.
Hours later, Adriana woke to the smiling faces of her best friends as she slowly tried to sit up on the couch in her living room.
“Adrian,” Micky said, kneeling on the floor beside her as she rubbed the back of her head. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, looking around at her friends, still a bit dazed. “What happened? Did it work?”
“Yes,” Ursula said, handing her an ice pack, “but don’t try to get up yet.”
“Yeah,” Jessie said, “you’ve got a bit of a bump on your head, but my Mom was here to look at it and she says you’re going to be just fine.”
“Good,” Adriana said, leaning back on the couch as Micky took her hand.
“I was so worried,” he said, brushing his hand along her cheek. “If anything would have happened to you, I don’t know what…”
“I’m fine,” she said, laughing a bit as he brought her hand up to his mouth for a kiss. “You know I don’t like being fussed over. I just want to know how it all went.”
“It went great,” Link said from a chair on the other side of the room. “We won’t be seeing Tyler Stevenson any time soon.”
Adriana smiled and patted some space next to her where Micky finally sat. Everything was in its place. Link had miraculously rigged another black van with nearly the same components as the original time machine. This rigged van, however, had external controls, which allowed the passenger absolutely no control over where they would end up. As soon as Tyler had been locked in the van, Link had hit the external remote control and sent him away. The plan had worked and not only were they free to come and go in the real time machine as they pleased; they were free to do it without the watchful eye of Tyler Stevenson.
“You still want to go to 1966,” Jessie asked her friend, sitting on the arm of the couch.
Adriana looked at her friends, and then at Micky. He smiled at her and she could feel her heart beating with anticipation again at the thought of being in her favorite time period, and not only with her favorite guys, the Monkees, but with someone she had just begun to love.
“Yeah,” she said quietly as Micky squeezed her hand.
“I only have one question,” Adriana asked a few minutes later as the group laughed and discussed the future and the past. “Where and what TV show did you send Tyler to?”
Micky, Ursula, Jessie and Link looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Come on, guys, where,” Adriana begged.
“The New Monkees,” they all shouted at the same time.
“Oh, that is so mean,” she answered after she stopped laughing.
“Yeah,” Micky said with a nod, “but you’ve got to admit, he deserved it.”
Adriana smiled and shook her head. "Unbelievable," she thought.
But, the unbelievable was becoming reality to her lately. In fact, it began to be not so hard to believe that in a few days she would be saying goodbye to the 21st century, and hello again to 1966.
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