February 12, 1982

Hill Valley, California

01:25 PM

There it was. An absolute dream. It was black and red, new and untouched. As if it was waiting for him to play its strings-

„Hey, McFly!"

Needles´ teasing voice snapped Marty out of his trance. Sighing and rolling his eyes, the 13-year-old turned around from the guitar of his dreams (which was not his yet, but soon it would be, Marty told himself) and faced his all time bully. „What now, Needles?", he asked annoyed. Don´t you see I´m busy here?

Needles grinned. „I need your help." „I´m not stealing coke from the grocery store again," retorted Marty unimpressed. Needles shrugged it off. „Naahh, not that. We were playing football and our ball flew a bit too far, y´know? And since you are around, we figured that you could help us getting it back. Whatcha say?" Marty raised an eyebrow. „From the way you look at me, I guess it´s not just hanging in some tree?" The boy once already had to get out a ball out of a big tree in the local parc and ended up falling off. His mother had yelled at him for getting bruises and scratches, and Marty wasn´t exactly enthusiastic by the imagination of having to do that again.

Needles looked mischievously at his two buddies, who were standing behind him. Then he turned to Marty again. „Better. It´s in The Loony´s backyard." „WHERE?!" „You heard us, McFly. And you better get it back from there or we´ll tell the teacher that it was you who broke the computer in the school library last week." „You forced me to!" „But they don´t know. And besides, do you want the whole school to think you´re chicken?"

Marty´s blood boiled. „Screw you, Needles!" His bully just laughed, accompanied by his friends. Damn! I don´t want to get in trouble because of the comps, but neither I want to step on Brown´s property! Marty sighed. He had no choice, as he didn´t want to get detention. „Alright, fine. I´ll get the thing."

„Thanks, McFly. You´re a real pal." „Yeah, you too, Needles," growled Marty, angry and annoyed.

The Loony is what most of Hill Valley called Dr. Brown, an inventor and scientist, who – from what the rumors said – never made to work any of his stuff. Kids were told to not go near him, as he sometimes used them as guinea pigs for his experiments. Marty didn´t know what to believe – actually, he never really thought about it, but now that he had to basically snuck into the guy´s yard, he didn´t really want to know whether that stuff was true or not.

A few minutes later, Marty arrived at the garage, Neeldes and the others following him. It was pretty quiet there, not a single sound could be heard from the inside. Only cars which were racing on the big street behind them and some pedestrians who were chatting. Marty gulped. He really wished he could switch places with the dude over there, who was holding a girl´s hand and walking with her towards the entrance of the Burger King next to the garage. Not only because he wanted to get outta this situation as fast as he could, but also because some grey, heavy clouds formed themselves in the sky.

„What are you waiting for, McFly? Come on, we want to go on playing!" Needles pushed him forward. Okay, here goes nothing…

With Needles watching him, he slowly climbed over the thin, metal fence which marked the border between the outside world and the one of Hill Valleys mad scientist. On tiptoes, he slowly circled the old, decrepit building and stepped onto the grass-

„May I ask what you are doing in my backyard?"

„Oh, shit!", hissed Marty quietly and turnd to Needles with a pleading face. To his frustration, Needles and the other two ran away, laughing like crazy.

„I...uh…" Scared of what may happen to him now, Marty slowly lifted his head and was met with a pair of dark brown eyes, which, to his surprise, looked more confused than angry. The eyes belonged to a tall older man with white hair sticking all over the place. He was wearing a loud hawaiian shirt, a lab coat over it and light brown cargo pants. „I...just wanted to get the ball back?"

„The ball?" The man turned his head and searched, finding it eventually. „Oh, I didn´t even noticed it got in here." He picked up the football and handed it to Marty. „Here you go. By the way, you can just knock at the door next time, I don´t bite."

„Uh, thanks."

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two, until Marty said: „Uh, I´m Marty McFly. Sorry for breaking in."

The other shrugged it off. „I´m used to that kind of stuff. Doctor Emmett Brown. Glad to make your acquaintance." He held out his hand to shake and Marty did so, wondering why on earth the whole town spread nasty rumors about an actually friendly-seeming man. „Same here."

Suddenly, it started raining. „Damn, I should head home." Marty cursed himself for leaving his skateboard home that day. Doc looked up. „I really wouldn´t recommend that right now. You can come in, if you want. I know what things they tell you kids about me, but I promise I won´t do you any harm."

Marty hestiated a moment, then decided to accept the offer. At least, it wasn´t a common thing to meet the town´s local inventor, as said didn´t really socialised with anybody. Maybe, if people would tell shit about me, I wouldn´t want to talk to anybody either.

„After you." Emmett unlocked the door which lead to the living area of the garage. In the back, Marty could see a few tables which in turn had an awfol lot of papers and wires loaded on them. „Please excuse the disorder, I don´t exactly tidy up often." „It´s fine, my room doesn´t look better either," replied the boy, placing the football on the floor.

Marty was just about to walk over to one of the tables to look what kind of equipment the guy had (after all, he couldn´t be blamed for being curious, every kid would be if they had a chance to be here), when a dog with long fur knocked him over, enthusiastically licking him all over the face.

„Einstein! Get off! That´s not the way a smart and well-behaved dog like you should greet guests," admonished Doc his pet, but couldn´t help grinning. Marty chuckled. „Hi Einstein. I´m Marty." He ruffled the dogs fur. Then he pulled himself back to his feet and turned to Emmett. „I always wanted a dog. You´re real lucky. He´s cute." „Thank you. He seems to like you, too." Einstein barked happily in agreement.

Marty spotted a jukebox. „Hey, that´s heavy-duty. You got any cool records?" He went over and turned it on. Doc nod. „Sure. They should be...over here." He pulled out a dusty box out of a pile of scrunched up paper. He put it next to Marty. „Pick whatever you like. I haven´t listened to music for quite a while." „Thanks, Doc!...Wait, is it okay if I call you „Doc"?" Emmett laughed. „Of course."

Suddenly, both had the feeling that they have found a new friend, or, in Marty´s case, two.