Author's Note: The first chapter of the dance scene. Includes... well, you'll see.
Disclaimer: I still do not own Back to the Future. I don't know what happened to cause it, but somehow, I never had ownership of it. As such, credit for the characters in this story will have to go to Robert Zemeckis and all others involved in the filming and producing of this trilogy.
8:Chapter Eight
Marty felt horribly nervous, as he drove the truck up to the Baines house. Sure, the whole power outage thing hadn't been easy, but actually going to the dance on a date with his own mother was going to be worse. He knew his mother was in love with him, and he couldn't imagine what she would do to him to express that. His conscious mind told him that he was just over-reacting, but he couldn't help it.
Also, there was the fact that, in order to get his plan to work, he'd have to sit in a parked car together with his own mother. He remembered that, in the future, his mother always complained about how she never sat in a parked car with a boy. Convincing her to do so wouldn't be easy, then. Of course, considering the way she'd treated him, and 'convinced' him to go to the dance with her, Marty wasn't sure whether all the tales Lorraine had told him were true.
He then stopped the truck, and tried to calm himself down, as he checked his watch. It was 8:32. Which meant that, considering that he'd told Emmett to tell George to meet him at 9 PM, he would have to spend twenty-eight minutes… twenty-seven minutes and fifty-four seconds, actually… with his teenage mother. Therefore, it was for a reason when he exited the car that he walked up to the Baines house as slow as possible.
Marty stared at the door for a few moments, unsure what to do. He could still run away. Hide somewhere. Lorraine would be horribly confused, but why should he care?
"You're being far from rational and reasonable in this, Marty" he told himself. "You're facing your mother, not the entire Red Army. Yesterday, Lorraine was very polite, and there's no reason she won't be the same now." He stared up at the door bell, and taking a deep breath, he rang it.
Walking away was no option anymore as it had barely been three seconds after the door bell had rang – it could be more, but Marty figured that his calculations weren't optimal in his current stressed position – that it was opened by Lorraine, smiling brightly at him. "Hi, Marty!" she exclaimed with obvious enthusiasm. "How are you?"
Marty winced slightly, and smiled at her. She was wearing a light pink dress which looked quite pretty on her, as well as a white jacket. "Just fine" he said, politely.
"Great" Lorraine said. "It's so good to see you. I've been looking forwards to this the whole evening. My parents say that I'm driving them mad." She chuckled slightly. "So, what have you been doing the past day?"
"Nothing significant" Marty said, as Lorraine and he walked up to the truck. As a reflex, Marty opened the door for Lorraine, allowing her to go in. Stupid! I'm not supposed to act as her boyfriend! I'm supposed to be as neutral as I can and make her fall in love with George easier that way! Oh, Great Scott…
Lorraine smiled at him. "Thanks, Marty" she said, with a look on her face that convinced Marty that tonight wasn't going to be easy. "Now, if you could go in, too, then we could get going." It wasn't out of angriness with him delaying their movement to the school by standing there and thinking – Lorraine was just stating the facts.
Marty tried to smile back, and somehow managed to produce a faint one. Trying to breathe as well as he could, he entered the car through the side door. Glancing at Lorraine, he started up the car and began to move the vehicle out of it's parked spot. Within seconds, they were heading over to the High School.
"So" Lorraine said. "How are you feeling about tonight?"
Marty froze. Had his nervousness been too obvious? "What do you mean to say?" he asked, slightly hesitant. "Why do you want to have knowledge of that?"
"Well, just – 'cause I'm curious" Lorraine said, shrugging. "Anything wrong with that?"
"No, fine" Marty said. He tried to calm down. "Um, I'm feeling… neutral, I guess. Still a little nervous, though." At least that was true, even though it wasn't just a little and it was for another reason than Lorraine thought, however the fact that he had never been on a date before also was bothering him. What if he said the wrong thing? What if he did something that would only encourage Lorraine to think he was willing to be her boyfriend? He was glad that Lorraine at least knew that this was his first date – she'd be a little more hesitant to do anything now. Still, though, Marty was feeling very uncomfortable.
"Marty, I can see that you're still feeling bothered" Lorraine said, shaking her head. "You should calm down. If you're really nervous, maybe we should stop here and let you relax for a while. But you really don't have to be nervous, Marty." She gave him an encouraging smile. "I don't bite."
Marty smiled slightly at that. "I didn't really expect that you would either."
Lorraine chuckled. "No, I can understand that" she said, giggling slightly. "But, serious now – I am not planning to do really weird things – we're on our first date after all. Relax. In those situations, you shouldn't worry. Everything will be fine and we'll have a great evening together." She patted him on the shoulder.
Marty nodded, a little uncomfortable still. He figured that now, it didn't really matter what Lorraine did to him. He was sure that she wouldn't do anything terrible to him. All what mattered was getting time to progress as fast as it could – it was just 8:39 PM now. The drive to the dance, and spending time there, wasn't going to be easy. That was something that Marty was sure of.
oooooooo
It was about eight-forty-six when the truck drove into the parking lot of the Hill Valley High School. Marty tried to make himself calm down, and reassured himself that it was all right, and that his mother wasn't going to do anything evil to him. Still, he felt very uncomfortable.
"What's the matter, Marty?" Lorraine asked, looking at him with a frown. "Are you still so nervous? Perhaps, we should park for a while, and wait to go to the actual dance."
Marty didn't know whether to be relieved, stunned or horrified. While he liked the fact that Lorraine had taken the need to ask whether she wanted to park away from him, he was astonished and somewhat disgusted by the fact that she spoke so easy about parking, while in the future, she always said that she'd never sat in a parked car with a boy when she was a teen. Whereas Marty didn't see anything that could be wrong with sitting in a parked car with someone else, he'd done that quite often, mostly with his brother and sister when they were driving through the country and their parents were going off alone for a minute or two, to purchase something, he was horrified by the fact that his mother had lied. "You mean," he stammered, "you mean… you want to… to park? Really? You do?"
Lorraine burst into laughter. "Oh, Marty" she said, shaking her head. "Quit staring at me like that! You're acting so uneasy around this. I'm almost 18 years old, it's not like I've never parked before."
That stunned the teen even more. "Really?" he asked.
Lorraine nodded, and patted him on the back. "Marty, Marty…" she muttered, shaking her head with a smile. "You must be really uneasy, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I suppose I am" Marty said, with a faint smile.
"I've got something to cure that" Lorraine said, reassuringly. She reached into her bag, and her hand came back holding a bottle of liquor.
"Lorraine!" Marty called out, disgusted. "Don't tell me you actually drink those alcoholic liquids!"
Lorraine rolled her eyes. "Marty, I know you must be uncomfortable, but you really shouldn't be such a square" she said. "Everybody who's anybody drinks!"
Marty gave her a disapproving glare. "I fully disapprove with that statement" he said, angry. "I do not think that it would be correct to think that one is somebody important when one drinks alcohol. This so called 'social ladder' is a load of nonsense. Equality does not depend on being rich or famous. Drinking alcohol doesn't make one more important than another person. And besides, it's unhealthy."
"I guess that you're right, sort of" Lorraine said, after a long pause. "But it's not unhealthy – well, maybe a bit, but the benefits outweigh the negative aspects. Everyone knows that alcohol and smoking are good for you as they help you calm down."
"Then you've never watched a drunk person before" Marty said. "I haven't either, but I've seen it on television and read about it." He took the alcohol bottle and put it down. "Lorraine, I appreciate your willingness to help calm me down, but I'm not accepting those drinks and if you continue to drink it, I think I should go."
As he spoke his final words, he realised that, with this, he could've just given himself the perfect opportunity to just sneak away and have a valid reason for it. Could have. After all, he was now supposed to stay if Lorraine stopped drinking, and most importantly, it wasn't time yet. The clock on his dashboard said 8:49, clicking to 8:50, while Marty's plans included him leaving around 8:55. He sighed. He'd just have to have some patience. At least most of the time had passed already.
"Don't, Marty" Lorraine urged. "You should learn how to interact with other people more, I think. Come on, calm down, everything is going to be all right. I'm putting the bottle away already." She then smiled faintly. "So, what should we do now?" she asked, looking innocently.
Marty shrugged. "I don't really know" he said. He did need a way to pass the time. "Do you have an idea?"
Moments later, he wished that he hadn't said that. Lorraine grinned broadly. "You bet I have" she said. Within moments, she moved her face down to Marty's, ready to kiss him.
Marty let out a short yelp and rolled out of the way just in time. Lorraine had already moved her hands to his shoulders to hold him still so he couldn't move much, but with all the strength he had in him he managed to just avoid Lorraine's kiss, which came down on his left shoulder instead, Lorraine's brown hair brushing against his cheek.
His mother lifted her head and moved her head over to Marty, looking at him confused. "Marty!" she called out. "What's going on with you? I just wanted to kiss you! That's all part of dating you, isn't it?" She moved her face an inch or two closer to Marty's, leaving little space between them, but remained frowning.
Marty rolled his eyes at that. "I'm sorry" he apologised. "I, um, I just… I wasn't ready, I guess. I'm feeling a little sick, now."
"You mean, you're ill?" Lorraine said, confused. "You'd want to throw up?"
"Yeah" Marty replied. "I'm going outside for a moment, to the small park behind the gym. I'm feeling a little faint as well… I might even faint. If I'm not back in five minutes" – the clock now said 8:52 – "you'd better come after me."
"Should I call a doctor?" Lorraine said, worried.
Marty abruptly shook his head. "That's not necessary at all" he assured her. "If you find me out, just try to revive me. It's probably nothing serious, and I don't think the risk is too big, but I might faint. If I'm not back by 8:57, come after me first and then call my uncle or a doctor. You might want to make sure that you're not making a mistake."
"Yeah, I guess so" Lorraine said, still a little shaky. "See you, Marty."
"See you." With that, Marty exited the car, and started to walk away from the truck, pretending to be ill. As he'd disappeared around the corner, though, he released the breath he'd been holding all the time. "Great Scott" he whispered. "I'm lucky I got out of there. Early, too – I guess that I'll have to wait a little. Well, I hope that everything will turn out to be fine." With that, he headed over to his preparation set.
After about a minute, he reached the tree underneath he'd hidden a bunch of clothes and other articles. The clothing had been tied together to look other-worldly and was covered with strange garments with the sole purpose of making it look more strange. He'd included a hair dryer and a tape with 80's music on it and a device to play it off on. He was glad that he'd prepared himself well for the future in 1985 – at least now, it was paying off. Marty put the 'alien suit' on, and prepared himself as best as he could, taking out the other things he'd taken along. If his plan went well, George and Lorraine might be scared right into each others arms.