October 26th, 1985.
1:10 PM.
As he slid the window open as he did almost all the time (and thankfully his secret still was apparently unknown to anyone but Dave, who wouldn't bother to tattle on his brother anyway), he comfortably landed on his bed. Not wanting Biff to know he was in the house, Marty crept over to his bedroom door and, ever so lightly opened it, praying it didn't squeak or anything.
It did not, and he saw that Biff had apparently let himself in the house. Even for him, this was a bit nervier than usual. There really were times Marty had to resist the urge to charge the rude bully and kick the cr*p out of him. Now almost seemed like one of those times. He just watched through the cracked opening in the door, though.
George's 47 year-old athletic but a bit overweight supervisor strode down the hall, calling, "Hey, McFly, you home?" Getting closer to the back bedrooms, he continued, "McFly, it's Biff, if you're in here, speak up, I gotta show you something."
Still not hearing a response, Biff thought he'd go check himself. It was not in George's nature to avoid him. No matter what the case, he would always comply with Tannen, even if he visibly did not want to. His loud (but not that fast) footsteps continued down the hallway with Marty still peeking at him, unknowingly.
Without as much as a knock, he made his way into one of the bedrooms. Marty could tell it was his sister, Linda's. A second later, he heard her say a loud, "Hey! Biff, what are you doing in my room, you perv?"
Meanwhile, Biff just looked at her and sarcastically said, "So-rry" like an Elementary schooler might do. "It was a mistake. Now look, I just wanna know where your old man is."
In a downer voice, she just said, "He got home about an hour ago, maybe he's sleeping or something."
Turning away, the middle-aged immature man just said, "Well, that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Watching and hearing all this, Marty thought, Gee, Linda can have a short fuse a lot, but I don't blame her there.
Going several feet the other way, up another short hallway leading to the master bedroom, Biff knocked loudly on it. "McFly! Hey, you in there?"
Before long, George was stirred from an afternoon nap after coming home from Burger King. Whether he was sleeping or not, that voice was recognizable anytime. Biff had bullied him since they were 6 years old! Moving from his position, he said "It's unlocked, come in."
As the door slid open, George said, "I'm sorry, I-I must have just fallen asleep. Did you see the reports I left at your apartment?"
"Yeah, I got 'em, that's better late than never, they actually look okay. I even got my car back today. The workload is caught up, but I gotta go to the dry cleaners later on today, and you said you were paying the cleaning bill for my jacket last night. It don't look too good with Budweiser on it!" he emphasized, his voice getting a little louder, even if he was clearly in a better mood than yesterday.
Getting off the bed and standing up, George backed down in a heartbeat as usual. "Uh, sure, how much do you think the cost will be?"
"I dunno, but I gotta be covered. So, do you have 20 bucks?" he said, though it was more a demand than a request.
Going over to one of the nightstands where his wallet was, George reached in and got a $20 bill out. "Oh, sure, I've got it right here. I hope this covers it, I'm sorry about what happened."
Pocketing the money, Biff retorted, "And I'm sorry about the car, but s**t happens. We're even now. I'll see you at work on Monday, McFly," he called as he slowly made his way toward the front of the house. That was about as close to a real apology as he would ever come to giving.
Rather than get mad about this, Marty came to expect it. Although his feelings on Biff and bullying his father were the same, right now he just didn't have the patience or mindset to try and talk to George about it. Instead, he wanted to relax a little before the forbidden big date tonight. He still had to put up a facade of his camping trip, too. For starters, he reached over behind his bed and turned on his gray Sony dual tape boombox.
"I have tried before to tell her, of the feelings I have for her in my heart. Every time I come near he, I just lose my nerve as I've done from the start! Well, every little thing she does is magic…"
The simple act of listening to good music was already making him feel better. After a couple minutes, another line came up that really caught his attention.
"…My silent fears have grabbed me, long before I reached the phone. Long before my tongue has tripped me. Must I always be alone?"
Despite Marty's usual coolness, he really was a bit shy about these things sometimes, especially calling a girl. Even if he did know her for almost a year and they were practically inseparable. He thought Sting and the guys must have practically crawled inside his head and used a mind reader on him when they wrote that song. He did not want to be alone, and he wanted to go on that date tonight. Now was the perfect time!
He turned his mix tape down and dialed her number. He assumed she should be back from her grandma's house by now. Heart beating a little faster, he waited for her strict dad to pick up and basically tell him to buzz off just because he was calling the house, and was male.
RING. RING. On the third ring, a young female voice picked it up. "Hello."
Marty was never totally sure with voices, especially over the phone, even though he was pretty sure who it was. "Yeah, um, is this Jennifer?"
"Yeah,"
"Yo, it's me, Marty! You got home from grandma's, huh? How did the visit go?" he said, now feeling fine.
"Yeah, we got back this morning. It was nice spending the night there for a change. I feel so much better getting a chance to talk to you again. It's really too bad about Biff and the car. Maybe we can just celebrate my birthday next weekend."
"Hey, Jen, good news. I was talking to Doc and he said he'd take us up there. I'm still gonna take some sleeping bags so it looks like I'm going camping."
On the other end of the line, her voice perked up a bit. "That's great, Marty! What time?"
"He's gonna come by with me. I'm gonna meet him at his lab around 4, so I dunno, maybe 4:15 to 4:30. Just one thing, though, how are we gonna get this by your drill sergeant, I-I-mean, dad?"
Not worried in the least, she insisted, "Don't worry, I told him I was staying over at my friend, Suzy's house for a slumber party. Yeah, right? Maybe when I was 10 I would've done that. My father is not that hip, though, so that works to our advantage, right?"
"You got that, right! You know, I think my mom and your dad should've gotten together. Can you imagine all the rules in that household?" he asked with a laugh.
"Oh, come on, I don't think they're quite that bad, just old-fashioned."
"Well, hey, listen, I'm gonna relax here for a couple hours and I'll meet you around 4:15."
Just as he was about to hang up and expected her to say goodbye, he detected an adult male voice over the line. "Jennifer Jane Parker, whom are you speaking with?"
"Don't worry, daddy, it's just Suzy, she said she's gonna meet me here at 4:15 to go up to the la-little slumber party she's having."
The stern man wanted to be sure. "Well, if it truly is her on the phone, surely you won't have a problem with me confirming it, would you?" he said as he picked up the receiver. "Hello, am I speaking with Susan?"
Oh, s**t! Marty said to himself. He clearly was not prepared for this and his options were a bit limited. He could say he had to go and hang up, but if that happened, he might be back to square one, and her strict dad would surely suspect something. However, as nervous as he could be, one thing that could be said about Marty is that he was surprisingly good at coming up with stuff in pressure situations such as this.
Mustering up all his courage and pretending like he had taken in some helium, he disguised his voice and spoke into the phone.
"Yes, Mr. Parker. This is Suzy! Hi there, heeheeehehe," he did an impromptu high-pitched girlie giggle. He hoped it was convincing, he didn't want to overdo it either, but by his age, doing a female voice was something he really had to work on. If he was 12 instead of 17, that could've been easier.
Suzy was a girl Jennifer knew from school, who was a cheerleader. Marty knew her a bit, but couldn't quite remember her voice to a T. Not completely recognizing the voice, Parker spoke up again to clarify.
"Suzy, are you okay? I'm going to give the telephone back to Jennifer now, but I just wanted to check in."
Still trying his hardest to not laugh, as well as keep this charade up, Marty continued the girlie voice, "Oh, now, that's totally fine, sir, have a nice day!"
Jennifer still didn't want to give it away, even though her dad apparently was convinced by it and walking away. "M-Suzy, great job!" she said, trying not to laugh herself. This was on a speakerphone, so she heard the whole thing.
"Yeah, I didn't know I could still sound like a real girl, I-"
Suddenly he was cut off. "Shhhh. Shhhh, not now!" Jennifer loudly whispered.
"Oh, yeah, sorry," said Marty quietly. "So, I'll see you soon."
Jennifer couldn't wait. "Yeah, b-bye," she said, clicking the hang-up button.
