NOTES: Due to the recent death of J.J. Jackson – one of the original MTV VJ's – I dedicate this chapter to his memory.
Marty sat there, wanting to laugh at himself, amazed and very relieved that the impromptu vocal trick he had done seemed to work on Jennifer's dad. In a normal case, he may not have done that, but all he wanted to do was get some time alone with his girlfriend for crying out loud!
Seeing as though he wasn't supposed to leave the house on his 'camping trip with the guys' until close to 4 o'clock, he turned the music off and decided to get some sleep for a couple hours, setting the Panasonic alarm radio for 3:30. This had already been a long morning again!
Now was as peaceful of a time as any to get rest. George had probably gone back to bed himself, Linda was just sitting in her room doing nothing (as usual), and mom & Dave were both out separately. Letting himself drop onto his bed, and putting an arm behind his back like normal, the teen drifted off into a perpetual nap.
~~~
Meanwhile, less than a mile away, in a housing complex across the street from Lyon Estates, Jennifer Parker was watching TV on the couch in her living room. She was still reeling from the shock of the stunt Marty had just pulled. That would make this evening even more special, since both sets of parents believed each were going somewhere – but not with each other.
Not to mention, her 49 year-old father, Leonard, acted like he was 79 when it came to being hip. He'd never dream of letting her borrow the family car, even if she had her drivers' license. However, Jennifer often assumed it was partly due to him being a bit stressed after the 1983 divorce from her mother before they moved to Hill Valley from Folsom.
Leonard's own parents had separated before he was born, and he lived with his father in the suburban Sacramento area. However, his brother, Lester, and his mother were lifelong Hill Valley residents. Furthermore, Leonard Parker couldn't stand George McFly (whom his brother worked with at the Bank & Trust) and thought a grown man was a fool for letting Biff Tannen and practically the whole world walk all over him.
This was likely where his dissention of Marty originated from, on top of him playing rock & roll, not liking school, and being a slight troublemaker, even if he was a good person underneath. To even let Jennifer date the guy was something that was hanging by a thread, so she didn't want to push it with anything else, and just tried to keep him happy however she could.
Maybe he'll see Marty for who he really is someday she mused to herself, while the seemingly endless run of commercials played.
…For the low, low price of $27.99, you can own titles like, E.T., National Lampoon's Vacation, and, brand new on video cassette, Footloose. This weekend, at Kmart."
Finally, MTV came back on.
"Hey, J.J. Jackson back with you here. We'll be having a candid interview with Hall & Oates at 3 this afternoon, but for now, since the world series is going on, we're gonna play one of John Fogerty's comeback songs and the hit video. Still riding high on the charts from the former CCR frontman, hey, why don't we all go and play "Centerfield!"
As the claps began, her father came down the stairs again. "Now, Jennifer, if I may, I'd like to ask you something."
Geez! Why now, just when the music came back on? There was an hour of commercials you could have interrupted thought his daughter. However, it's not like she was gonna actually say that!
Somewhat downbeat and visibly annoyed, she went, "Yes, dad?"
"What kind of a tone is that to take to your father? I only wanted to ask when you girls were planning to leave. I assume Suzy will be escorting you to your other friend's house, right?"
"Mmm, yeah, I guess. She's got her own car, dad," she said, half mumbling and trying to look around him as he stood straight up, partially blocking the TV. "Unlike some other girls," she said under her breath so quietly she could barely hear it herself.
"And, what was the time you were leaving here?" he continued on.
After several seconds of silence, only broken by Fogerty's voice in the background ("The sun came out today"), Jennifer repeated, "Soon, sometime, yeah. Gotta be there at 4, so I'll leave here, I dunno 3:30."
Mr. Parker seemed to take that believably, but had more questions. "What are you planning to do there? If it's a slumber party like you told me it was, that won't start until later. There won't possibly be any boys at this party, will there be?"
This is clearly not good, Jennifer thought. He was strict and uncool enough as it was, but whenever the subject of the opposite s*x came up, this was no time for celebrations. His views on the subject were as old-fashioned as a Model T. After a good 10 seconds of further silence, the large, dull-looking man turned around and manually shut the early television set off (this was one of the push button models before remote control ones became commonplace).
"Hey! Daddy, I was watching that! You know, Marty really likes that song, he said it was a great comeback for him," cried Jennifer.
"Comeback?" he scoffed angrily. "I never paid attention to him originally. I don't know what it is with you kids listening to this noise, and I don't even want to bring up that bad influence of a boy right now. Go ahead and turn the TV back on as soon as I find out a few things. Now, I just want to make sure Suzy is a good driver and won't go joyriding or anything. You girls will just be going there and back, right? You know, this is the second night in a row you'll be away from home," he added.
Exhausted from listening to this speech for what seemed to be the millionth time, she still had no problem agreeing, especially if that wasn't what she really was doing! "Oh yeah, she's been driving for almost a year, never gotten a ticket at all. Never done anything to get one either."
Leonard walked down the hallway a bit, toward the stairs. With Jennifer following, he continued, "So, when will you be getting back tomorrow morning?"
This actually was something she hadn't considered. If she was going to the lake, she would have to either spend the night there (which actually would back up her story if she packed anything to take), or would have to come back late enough to sneak into bed.
After pausing to think, she came up with a relatively fast answer. This was probably inherited from seeing Marty do it so many times in school. "I think I'll be back before 8 AM. Early enough to make school, if I were going," she said with a little laugh, hoping to slightly improve her father's humorless mood.
Luckily it seemed to work a bit, as Leonard Parker smiled just a teeny bit. "OK, now that sounds reasonable. Listen, honey, I don't mean to sound like such an old square, which I'm sure I do sometimes. I just want to take care of my only girl, you know? I suppose I'm just not too hip on things today. That just makes communicating harder between us."
Stepping a bit closer and looking sincere, his daughter said, "Yeah, daddy, I know. It's not an easy match sometimes, but I try too. I just hope you can try to see things a different way sometimes. I mean, you were a teenager too, you know. You used to be cool, didn't you? What kind of guy could I expect to find if I got in a time machine and went back, maybe 30 years?"
If only she knew.
"Oh, just an already boring workaholic, I suppose," Parker said, a bit downbeat, as Jennifer still listened. "Bill Haley, Elvis and Chuck Berry were all popular when I was in my late teens and early 20s, but I wasn't much fonder of that kind of thing even then. It just never appealed to me. Maybe if I was born 10 years later, so that was in my childhood, it would have, but I have my doubts to that. Not everything suits everybody. I will do my best to think more youthfully for you," he said.
"Go ahead, turn the television on. I'm really not mad, I just wanted to have a little talk, and I think it helped. I'll be upstairs, just let me know when you leave."
"Yeah, I feel better too. And I will do that, thanks for the talk," she said, going back to the couch, and clicking the TV on, only to find another video now on, this one from Lionel Richie, featuring people partying and walking the nighttime streets.
"We were running with the night. Playin' in the shadows. Just you and I, till the morning light."
How true that statement would really be in her life soon.
~~~
3:40 PM.
Still dozing asleep after a rather tiring morning and night before, Marty faintly heard a telephone ringing, jarring him awake on the second ring. Even though the phone was right next to his head, and relatively loud, he was a very deep sleeper. This was something some people mistook for laziness.
Reaching for it with his right hand a bit sloppily and groggily, he pushed his way into a sitting position on the bed and was about to snatch it up before the third ring stopped.
"Hello, is Marty available at the moment?" called a raspy, upbeat male voice.
"Uhh, this is Doc Brown, right?" called the low key, somewhat whiny George McFly. "Sure, I believe he's in his room. Maybe he missed the call, I'll go tell him."
Marty was just about to speak into it, as he heard the phone set down and footsteps coming. Taking the time to hand brush his hair and wake up, he could see his dad knock on the door of his bedroom.
"Marty, telephone call for you, from Doc Brown."
"OK, thanks dad, I got it," he said, now awake and picking the phone back up. "Heya Doc. Did I sleep too late again? I mean, geez, what time is it now?"
"Precisely 3:41 PM. You seem to have a pensive if unintentional habit of sleeping late, so I figured I would give you a call," came Doc's answer, in a friendly way.
"Holy sh*t, you're right about that!" Marty said urgently, now standing up fast. "I need a louder alarm, I musta slept right through mine. Anyway, I think I'll meet you at 4:15, I've gotta pack a couple things and take a quick shower. I told Jen we may be there not until 4:30, so I think we're safe. Thank God we're all in the same neighborhood pretty much."
"That's an advantage I took into consideration as well. The time isn't a problem either, Marty, I'll be waiting here for your arrival."
"OK, cool, thanks Doc. I'll see you soon," he said, hanging up and quickly running to his bathroom just a step outside his door.
~~~
4:00 PM.
After a practically Navy Shower and packing a few things to give the impression he really was camping –- a couple sleeping bags, his skateboard, and a small suitcase filled with a day's worth of clothes and some cassettes and the like – Marty headed down the narrow hallway toward the front door. He now was simply dressed in an orange T-shirt and Guess jeans.
His mom, Lorraine, was preparing an early dinner and had her typical glass of Vodka. George was watching an old TV show as usual, hardly paying attention to the world around him, but without Biff's work for the moment.
"Hey guys, I'm gonna head over to Scott's house, I heard he'll be able to borrow his parents' car after all," Marty said, leaving it at that, just in case questions came up.
"Well, why doesn't he come over here to pick you up?" asked Lorraine, not angry at all, but simply curious.
"Ahh, well, ya know, I don't think his dad wants him to put many miles on the car, and he does live out near the new Hilldale area."
Reaching for the door, Lorraine persisted, "Marty, that's still only 3 miles at the most. Surely where you boys are going is much further than that. You're saying his father can't afford to put another maximum of 6 miles on his car, just to come get you? Or is he sneaking it out without his dad's permission?"
He turned and briefly dropped his stuff on the floor lightly. "Mom, that's unheard of. If he were sneaking it out, you're right, the lake is way further than it is to here, so he wouldn't do that either. He just won't be home for another half hour or so, and if I left now I could meet him there at about the right time," he told her while hand gesturing a little. "Plus, I, you know, uh, could use the exercise."
In effect, that's not something he would usually say, but Lorraine apparently bought it. "Okay honey, but you already went out to see Brown this morning to work on some car of his. When I was your age, I never went out this much, but just have a nice time. Call me if you can before you come back."
"Okay, I will. Sometime tonight," Marty assured, as George made his way to the refrigerator to get a drink.
"Have a nice time out there, son. Once again, I really am sorry about the car," he said, not knowing if Marty would buy it.
"I think I will. Dad, the car is already done, it's okay, I just wanna forget it for now. I'll see you in the morning."
With that, he got ahold of his belongings and shut the front door behind him. Standing in the afternoon sun, he breathed a sigh of relief and opened his 'suitcase' to take out his high-powered Aiwa Walkman and put in a mix tape of his. Setting the board down on his driveway, he skated off in the direction of Doc's house.
Not long before turning left and heading for Doc's house, he was caught up in the flow of weekend traffic, so he couldn't use the much easier method of car surfing he often did. Besides, that would be harder anyway, with carrying things. For the most part though, he was pretty content: Cruising through the streets on a nice day, on the way to his best friend's house, about to spend time with his girlfriend, while listening to a song from the band Loverboy. Life wasn't too bad.
With the speed he racked up, however, he recalled he really was "Working for the Weekend," just as his current song suggested. While at a busy intersection, though, he could hear the rumble of a loud engine he recognized almost right away. It was filled with 4 loud and rowdy teens, 2 of which were riding in the back in a really unsafe looking way.
"Hey, McFly! Where the h*ll you going today if you got all that stuff? What's the hurry, you off to meet your girlfriend for the night?" the driver, Douglas Needles, asked in a teasing voice, as his buddy in the front seat hi-fived him.
Stopping the tape deck and lowering the headphones so they sat around his neck, he simply said, "Yo, Needles. Just headin' to Doc's place actually. I might see her later, though."
He really wanted the light to turn green so these jerks could just beat it. He knew them all for years, having gone to school together since 6th grade, when the Needles family moved to Hill Valley. The other three he had known since early childhood, and they were hardly much better, if at all. All of the guys rarely actually showed up at school, and when they did, they caused trouble left and right. Marty always tried to stay out of their way. Unlike his father, though, he would never back down from a fight with them if need be.
"Oh yeah, well, what are you doing with the crazy old f*rt now, huh? You guys gonna go kidnap someone and do an experiment on 'em just like he did on his mansion in the 60's? Aaooowww!" he yelled, again earning him the laughter and praise of his friends.
Marty suddenly changed his expression. "Hey, listen to me jerk*ff, you're not gonna talk that way about my friends! I'm in a good mood, too, so don't make me open that door and kick your a*s!"
Needles managed to weave around the space he was in, and double-parked on the side of the street. His friend Ike, Biff cronie 3-D's teenage son, got out first because the passenger side of the truck was facing Marty's side of the street. Needles came out the same side as well. Ike and the two other guys watched intently as their leader approached Marty.
"So, what's the deal, punk? You really wanna fight me, here's your chance, McFly. I hope you're not chicken, are ya!" he barked, rolling up his sleeves.
His opponent clearly was not afraid of this. He had actually fought the three other guys before, but never Doug Needles directly. Still he wasn't afraid. "Nobody calls me chicken, you got that?" he called out, now angry at that word. Ever since he was real little, he couldn't stand being considered cowardly in any aspect and always wanted to prove himself. This was also because he, above all else, did not want to be compared to his dad in that way. George was a chicken in almost every way possible.
"Look, McFly, you might've been able to take my buddies here before, but that don't mean you can take me and win!" the bully said rather loudly. Just as he got close to Marty, he heard a voice.
"Attention slackers! What do you all think you're doing? Just because you're not in school doesn't mean you can't be disciplined on Monday," called Gerald Strickland, who was also driving nearby and heard the commotion.
Somehow, even Needles and his gang backed down to the 68 year-old bald yet mean vice principal of Hill Valley High School. That didn't mean he liked him though. "Uh, sorry Mr. Strickland. Yeah, baldie, whatever you say. I'll serve your dumb*ss detention, if I'm there," he proclaimed with a smirk.
Moving closer and grabbing the teen's leather jacket, he still tough as nails man barked, "Don't give me any attitude or violence, or it will be worse than detention. How does prison sound to you, Douglas Needles? For everything you've done, you deserve it. If I wanted, I could have you in Juvenile hall until August 6th of next year, than on your birthday, you'll be sent to a real jail cell where your inmates will hate slackers. If you hoodlums want to avoid punishment, you best all pile into Mr. Needles truck right now, drive off and don't let me see you causing trouble again!" he yelled authoritively.
"Yeah, yeah, let's get going. McFly, this ain't over yet," he snapped as he started the engine, peeling off in a U-turn seconds later, heading down JFK Drive toward Twin Pines Mall.
Mr. Strickland than turned to Marty. "McFly, what were you doing? You know better than to hang around those troublemakers. You're in detention next Monday."
That made a lot of sense. "B-but Mr. Strickland, sir, I didn't do anything. And, I wasn't hanging around them, I hate those jerky guys even more than you do."
"Is that so? At least you recognize them for what they are, Mr. McFly, but how do you explain the physical fight you were both about to get in?" the disciplinarian asked.
He decided not to tell him about the insult of Doc, especially since Strickland wasn't exactly best friends with the guy himself. Also, he wanted to deimplicate himself as much as possible. "I was just going along here and the punks all stopped and, uhh, insulted me. I just walked away, but then the guy challenged me to a fight. I'm not gonna just let somebody hit me."
"I believe parts of your story. But if that's true, why were you preparing to hit Needles as well?" he asked coldly.
"Didn't I just tell you? I wasn't gonna do anything until he insulted me. Even than, I walked away from it and he called me a chicken, and said I should fight him. I was just preparing to defend myself."
"Don't get smart with me, Mr. McFly. Now, knowing how Mr. Needles and his little friends can be, I do believe your story, but any scr*wups within the following week, and you'll be in for a long detention. I'll also see to it that your band won't play at the dance auditions, or any other school event for that matter. I've never been much of a rock and roll fan myself, but if good kids are in the bands, I will accept their music and performance. I don't take it from slackers, though. Besides, Mr. Lewis told me you were too loud yesterday, so just watch yourself, McFly, you're on very thin ice. I'll see you Monday morning, don't be late again!" he yelled as he stormed off, toward his parked VW van.
"Oh, yes sir. Thank you, I'll be there," said Marty half-sarcastically and half-thankfully. Before much more could happen today, he picked his board back up, along with everything else. Within 5 minutes, he breezed past Future Glass and into the Burger King parking lot, coming to a stop outside Doc's fence and looking at his watch.
A good day was slowly turning bad again. He hoped from this moment on, it would change back. It was 4:11. He still had 4 minutes before the time he said he'd be there. He actually was not only on time, but early for once. It was already looking to improve.
