Marty almost got lost multiple times on the way to school. He took one turn too soon because there were more cross-streets. He missed another for lack of the usual landmark. It looked as if every house that could have sublet a bedroom for more than a certain amount had been knocked down and replaced by apartments - every house except the McFlys' and a few of their neighbors. Yet the roads were narrower, lined by wide sidewalks and segregated bike lanes. After honks from cars and complaints from pedestrians, Marty skateboarded in the bike lane. The bicyclists seemed to match his speed. So many bicyclists. Hill Valley felt like Copenhagen. But with flying cars.
High school still stood in the same spot, though Marty had to read its sign to know that it was the place because the building was twice as large and almost as new as the construction he'd passed on the way here. It looked so well funded, Prop 13 really must have failed.
As other students entered the building, Marty stepped aside to dig through his backpack for a class schedule. If the layout of his school was this different, no way were his classes still the same. He sighed with relief when he saw that it also listed room numbers.
He looked for the Cullens but didn't find them. 'They made the time machine without me!' he thought. 'How did they build it so quickly? They're vampires, not superheroes!'
He saw some of his friends and chatted with them. His classes were slightly different, but not so far off that he couldn't bluff his way through until he read the textbook at home.
He didn't have a big truck, but his mother hadn't married Biff either. His siblings being able to move out was a nice touch. He started to think he could live with this timeline. The only thing missing was Jennifer, but with a school this big, he supposed that his girlfriend might simply not have any classes with him. Maybe not even lunch because lunch breaks were staggered.
Then history class happened.
"So we started on the Second World War last week," the teacher said.
Marty relaxed. He'd studied this one before.
"Yesterday we discussed the fallout from Hitler's assassination in 1941. Today we'll move on to Baltimore."
Marty had not studied this. He opened his book to the relevant page and saw a photograph of nuclear devastation. Hiroshima? No, Stalin's attack of a city on the East Coast.
"Hey, Marty," the girl next to him whispered.
It was Jennifer's cousin. "Oh!" he responded. "Do you know where Jennifer is?"
"Who's Jennifer?" the girl asked. Then she shrugged and said, "Anyway, you see that picture?" She pointed to the nuclear devastation and Marty nodded. "My grandfather took that. Only one of his children survived the blast, and he took that."
Marty dimly recalled that Jennifer's father was from Baltimore. Jennifer's father, the child who hadn't survived twenty years before she was born.
Marty got up and left the class. He didn't care if the teacher marked him for it. He had no intention of staying in this timeline.