Chapter Text
This episode begins with Mike, Peter, Davy, and Micky on stage at a dingy restaurant. It is almost midnight and the boys have just finished a gig and are beginning to gather their instruments to head out. The restaurant has a raised stage where the band had been playing. The floors are dirty and several waiters are mulling about, seemingly doing the absolute bare minimum that their job requires. The floors and tables are sticky from drinks that spilled that nobody wanted to clean. There are discarded napkins and a haze of cigarette smoke all about the room. Several teenage girls are making small talk with each other in one of the back corners of the restaurant. As the girls excitedly chatter amongst each other Mike quietly says to Peter
"Man, those are some groovy-lookin' chicks. They've been here all night, but none of them have looked my way. Not even once! They've all been looking at Davy."
Peter, who is now putting his bass in its case, replies "Don't take it too personal Mike, Davy has always had a special effect on girls. I find it's easier to not get my hopes up whenever he's around. Much less heartache that way."
Davy, who had been attempting to help Micky put his drums in their cases, perks up at the mention of his name, but only catches the very end of what Peter is saying. He walks over to the side of the stage where Mike and Peter are chatting and says
"Hey, what are you lot on about? My ears were burning, so I know you've been chatting about me."
Peter, not acknowledging Davy's question, replies "Is that true?!? Do your ears really feel warm when people talk about you? That's so cool!"
"No Peter, it's just an expression, like-" Davy begins to explain when suddenly a large crashing sound comes from Micky's direction.
The boys turn just in time to see a cymbal rolling like a tumbleweed across the stage and several ducktape-and-rope-covered drum cases splayed across the stage. Micky, holding two large drum cases in his arms and two drumsticks between his teeth, looks as though he is about to collapse too. The dolly that Micky used to hold his drums is in about the same condition as his drum cases. It is held together by little more than Ducktape and blind faith. There are three matching rubber wheels on the bottom of the dolly and one wheel that appears to have been taken off of a shopping cart and clumsily stuck onto the bottom of the cart in a space where a fourth matching wheel had fallen off. Seeing that Micky was in need of help the other boys rush over. While the band assists the drummer four of the girls walk towards the stage while giggling excitedly.
After the mess had been sorted and the drums were put back on the dolly as best as they could be, given that the dolly was much too small for the massive cases, Davy turns towards the girls and says "Can we help you ladies with anything?" The girls blush and fall over their words for a few moments before one of them chimed up to say "We really dug your music tonight!" Quickly another girl adds "Yeah! Especially you Davy!"
Davy looks down and brushes his long brown hair out of his eyes. He is flattered by the girl's compliments and is just beginning to thank the ladies when the girl's boyfriends, who had been chatting amongst themselves in the back of the restaurant, push forward to the stage in jealous defense of their girlfriends.
"So, you weren't good enough to be a Beatle so you came all the way to America to play in dumps like this huh?" sneers the largest of the four men. He is wearing a large letterman jacket and blue jeans. He stands at about 6'3" and is quite muscular. According to the text on his jacket, he is a part of the "Midtown High Hornets" and given his size and the picture of an angry cartoon of a hornet wearing a football helmet and holding a football in its arms, Davy figures he is a football jock. Football jocks were a concept that Davy had only become familiar with after his arrival in America less than a year ago. He had not yet had any personal encounters with one, although he has heard horror stories of being shoved in lockers and pushed around in high school hallways from Micky, Mike, and Peter. He knows that he needs to think of a way to de-escalate the situation quickly. Thinking quickly he replies
"Actually, I came 'ere because I'm an insomniac and I'd always heard people talking about 'The great American dream.' I figure if all of America is having a great dream, then that's where I'll have to go! Unfortunately coming here hasn't helped my sleeping very much, but trying to keep up with these guys has. Nothing will tire a man out like trying to keep up with Micky all day and playing gigs all night!"
Davy turns to leave, hoping his jokes and jovial tone were enough of a distraction to the men that they might not notice. He mouths the words "Help me!" silently to his bandmates as soon as he has turned enough that the rude men would not see. Now knowing that their friend was in trouble the three boys approach and tried to usher Davy away while muttering an obvious lie about how Davy's Mother was expecting a call from him they had to get home right away. One of the smaller men looks confused and asked "Who calls their Mother at midnight?" Micky quickly replies with another lie about how Davy's mother was in England and something about the time difference actually made it so midnight was the perfect time to call. The large man in the letterman jacket quickly sees through the group's feeble attempts to leave and calls out "Hey Davy! If you or any of your long-haired weirdos ever look at my girl again, I'll pound you to a pulp!"
Peter stopped in his tracks. He honestly has not been paying much attention until now, instead choosing to focus on the leftovers he had hastily grabbed off of a table earlier in the night when the waiters weren't looking. He was rather excited about the doggy bag he had tightly strapped to Micky's drum dolly and his rumbling stomach never helped him focus anyway, but this dig at the group's appearance had snapped him back to reality. Peter didn't mind when people picked on him, but he couldn't stand it when people insulted his friends.
"Look man," says Peter, turning to address the Jock "I don't know what your problem is, but there's no need to be mean! Plus my Mother says that my haircut makes me look like a handsome young man!" Peter turns away and proudly smiles as he believes that he has just won this verbal altercation. Micky dramatically brings the palm of his hand up to his forehead and shakes his head side-to-side. Mike stares at Peter in disbelief and instinctively reaches his hand up to the wool hat he always wore. The men at the front of the stage burst out laughing, which confused Peter further as he doesn't see what is so funny.
Now it is Davy's turn to defend his buddy. He turns back towards the men, stands up straight, and puffs out his chest. "Right! If you've got a problem with me and my friends then let us have it all out in the open!" he declares. He walks forward and jumps off the stage, landing right in front of the jocks. The jocks pause for a few seconds while looking straight forward, confused. "Down 'ere" says Davy, prompting the jocks to look down to where he is standing. Davy, at 5'3" is easily at least a foot shorter than the four men. He is standing with his feet apart and his fists raised. In his stance, he looks like a heavy-weight boxer who had been put in the dryer for too long and shrunk. The men burst out laughing again. The man in the jacket looks Davy up and down and said "Sorry kid, I didn't realize I would be fighting someone so small. You looked bigger up on stage. I never pick fights with people who aren't my size. It's not worth getting your blood on my class ring!" The man pushes Davy to the ground with one arm and starts to leave. "Hey! I'm no kid! I'm 19 years old you know! I'm not afraid of you lot, you're just afraid of what your girl will think when you get beat by a little guy like me!" proclaims Davy. The man stops dead and turns on a dime. He quickly marches up to Davy who only has enough time to utter a single high-pitched "oop" before the man's fist comes crashing into Davy's left eye.
Davy goes crashing to the ground as Micky, now dressed as a boxing referee dramatically taps the ground three times. "A first-round knockout! David Jones goes down!" Mike, now dressed as a boxing coach, splashes Davy in the face with water from a water bottle and wipes Davy's brow with a towel hanging over his forearm while trying to encourage him to get up. Peter, now dressed as a wealthy businessman, says "I knew I never should have bet on the underdog" while ripping the sports section of a newspaper in half.