Hill Valley High School
8:33 A.M.

"Yeah, well, history's gonna change," Marty McFly said slowly yet confidently as he stared down his vice-principal -- now standing an uncomfortable couple inches away from his own face -- slightly annoyed at the man for consistently putting him down (among others).

"Take that tone with me one more time, young man, and you'll be in detention every day until 1986! Assuming you graduate at all," Gerald Strickland shot back, a little surprised by his student talking back to him to that much of an extent (even if he did have a loud mouth).

"Now, if you know what's good for you, get to class and be on your best behavior, Mr. McFly. I need to have a word with your young lady friend here."

Turning to Marty's ever-attentive girlfriend, as he walked briskly away, Strickland's demeanor was a little different. Jennifer usually didn't cut classes or even get tardies, for that matter. "Miss Parker," he began calmly, "I'm frankly disappointed in you. I realize you're dating a McFly, but why were you plotting to help the hooligan sneak onto school grounds this morning?"

Jennifer blushed a little, clearly embarrassed and torn between whose side to take.

"I'm sorry about that Mr. Strickland. It's just that the last three days, Marty was late because his watch isn't working that good. Plus, you know how he can get carried away with the slightest thing," she said, half-jokingly, but in an attempt to get him on her side as much as possible. "Umm, anyway, I kinda saw a pattern and figured he might be late today too. It's not really my nature to get anyone in trouble, but I didn't want him getting his 4th tardy slip."

"I can buy that, Miss Parker. Just don't allow that to happen again. I personally think it's a waste of time dating a kid like that, but I won't involve myself in your business, as long as it doesn't affect your behavior or your school performance. Now, I should contact your father about this, but I'll let it slide, simply because you made the honor roll last semester and I know you're a different class of person than he is. By the way, how long have you been dating that McFly boy?" he suddenly asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"A couple weeks before last Christmas. December 12th, I think," she said, matter-of-factly. True, she didn't care for him talking about her boyfriend like that, but ironically she wasn't mad at him in general.

"Well, that proves your knowing him didn't stop you from getting there. I just think it's turning into a vicious cycle. He hangs around his friend Doctor Brown enough to start becoming influenced by him, then Marty McFly starts to influence you into getting in trouble. As I stated, though, unlike those two, I think you're smart enough to do the right thing. Maybe you can reverse the trend and turn him into a good student." Noting the time, he concluded the conversation with, "You can go to your first class now."

Giving each other a simple nod to acknowledge a goodbye, the disciplinarian stiffly and uprightly walked away, muttering to himself, "I'm gonna finally get that slacker!"

Walking down to the music history class on the upper floor of the building, the balding man opened the door and (although it was now a good 5 minutes into class time, and students were starting to study that morning's assignment) simply walked in and said, "Mr. Cregg. I need to have a word with you if that's okay."

Anthony Cregg, a man in his early 50's with a semi deep, loud & powerful voice and graying hair, said, "Keep workin' guys. I'll be right back."

"Hey Gerald, what can I do for ya?" he said, as they stepped just outside the classroom.

"Sorry to disturb you, Tony, but I've got a little favor to ask," he said, and without a segue or wasting any time, he continued, "You know a Martin McFly here? Was he ever in your class?"

"Certainly. Last year, he had my class on 19th century musical history. I admit I think he's a good kid underneath, but boy was he a smart aleck. He had the nerve to say that he knew it was gonna 'bore the hell out of him' because it 'didn't have rock & roll or anything since Elvis'. I joke you not, some of these kids have no appreciation for anything before 20 or 30 years ago."

Strickland nodded in agreement. "That sounds like something that slacker would say! Speaking of this, his band, The Pinheads, is slated to perform at the dance auditions today. I know you'll be there. If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to ask you permanently disqualify them. That young man needs to learn a few life lessons the hard way."

Anthony Cregg smiled a bit, but asked, "C'mon Gerald. I know he's not the most scholastic or best behaving kid, but is that fair? Besides, what should I say? I can't just say they can't perform."

"I'm confident that you'll think of something. McFly sure likes to show off in front of people, especially his friends. Simply tell them they're out of tune, or that his choice of an even louder rendition of a song from Loverboy or Bryan Adams, or any other of those noisy bands he listens to, is not appropriate material for a school dance."

Laughing a bit, the teacher said, "I doubt it'll take him long to break one of those rules. You're right about the showing off too. He even told me I sounded like Huey Lewis in front of the whole class just for a laugh one day."

"He won't last long at any job he has with that attitude. Thank you for your troubles, Tony," Strickland said as he walked back down the hallways, actually cracking a bit of an evil smile.