Monday, January 7, 1985. 7:58 AM
Hill Valley High School

The hall was noisy, filled with grouchy, bleary-eyed teenagers aged fourteen to eighteen. It was the first day back after Winter Break, and most wished that the school year had ended already...but it was only half over.

Only about a dozen and a half of the lot were actually happy to be back. Some had left sweethearts over Christmas. Some were looking forward to more Honors Calculus and Astronomy. Some simply preferred to be among their friends than at home.

Marty fell into the latter category. That Christmas had been the worst yet. Sam Baines, his maternal grandfather, died the weekend of Thanksgiving of a heart attack. Marty had never been particularly close to his grandfather. Neither had anyone else, even Lorraine. But such a fact seemed to make Lorraine take the loss all the worse. She drank more than ever...by New Years', Marty had forgotten what his mother was like sober. Alcohol had gone from a comfort to a crutch. She couldn't function without it...or so she seemed to believe. George had reacted to the situation with momentary sorrow and even a try at getting Lorraine to stop drinking...but he gave up in only a month and saw it as the new normal. He and Lorraine began drifting farther and farther apart. Family dinners were silent and painful.

It wasn't that Marty disliked his parents. He had occasionally tried to help them; leaving notes to his mother about Alcoholics Anonymous, giving his father pointers on how to stand up for himself...but none of it did any good. Marty spent more time than ever with Dr. Brown and his band buddies.

At the moment, the sixteen year old young man was standing by the bank of lockers. he had just pulled out his Biology textbook and shut the door when he noticed the perpetually empty locker beside his was no longer empty. A girl was standing there...a very pretty girl. Her hair was somewhere between light brown and strawberry blonde, her eyes pale brown. She was petite, standing about three inches shorter than Marty, and had a slim but feminine figure. She had an armload of books and was trying unsuccessfully to open her stubborn locker.

Marty found himself struck dumb. What luck, to have a gorgeous girl assigned a locker right next to his! But then, why should such a pretty girl take notice of him? No one else ever had. Marty was about to turn around and leave when the girl let out a frustrated sigh...she was near tears. Quickly the young man reached from behind the girl and gave the locker a little knock. Instantly it popped open.

The girl jumped and gave a little gasp, then realized the young man had opened her locker for her. "Oh! Thank you." A shy smile graced her pretty features.

Marty had no choice but to smile back. He shrugged. "Ah...it's OK. These lockers are pretty old. I don't think anyone's had that one in ages."

The girl's smile widened and she turned aside to shove the majority of her textbooks into her locker. Only the Biology book and her notebook remained. Her smile faded and she looked around helplessly. "Um...I hate to ask, but do you know where Room 71 is?"

Marty's eyebrows shot up and his smile widened. "Biology 101? Miss Avery?"

The young lady nodded eagerly, then tilted her head to the side. "Yeah, how did you know?"

"I got the same class. It's this way." Marty broke into a grin and nodded his head. He took a few steps, then hesitated. "Uh...you mind if I walk with you?"

That brilliant smile returned. "No."

Marty couldn't stop smiling as he walked next to the pretty girl. He noticed the glances she kept throwing his way and could hardly believe his luck. Here he was, walking with a beautiful girl. They were in the same class, with lockers right next to each other! Whether this would last or not, Marty had already made up his mind to enjoy it.

Marty's luck remained and seemed to increase throughout the day. He couldn't keep his eyes off the new girl and found himself staring. She, in turn, didn't seem to mind. They kept running into each other throughout the rest of the day and ended up sitting next to each other at lunch. The girl had been sitting alone, so Marty stealthily walked up to her, tray full of lunch.

"Hey," he greeted.

The girl looked up from her lunch in surprise. "Hey."

"Is this seat taken?" He flashed what he hoped was a charming grin.

"No." Another smile began rising on her face.

Marty slid next to her and set down his tray. Both made faces at the disgusting-looking lunch. "Doesn't look too good, huh?"

Wordlessly the girl shook her head. The only thing she had touched thus far was a soggy tater tot.

The young man raised his eyebrows comically. "You wanna trade?" He indicated his own equally disgusting lunch.

A sweet laugh rose from the girl, and she finally got a good look at Marty's face. He was not handsome in the traditional sense, but had a quirky grin and cute, boyish eyes...and his eyes were blue, matching his denim jacket. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were following me."

The young man flinched and put on a look of mock-innocence. "Who, me? Nah!"

"Uh-huh." The girl rested her chin on her hand, eyes sparkling with humor.

"Why? Am I bugging you?"

"No." The bright smile remained where it was.

Marty's mischievous grin returned, and suddenly he was hard-pressed to keep from staring at the girl. They ended up talking for a long while, barely touching their lunch, and Marty offered to walk the girl to her next class, which he did. The fact that he was late to English class was besides the point.

When classes had ended for the day, Marty actively went looking for the new girl. For some reason he felt compelled to see her. He wanted to learn about where she had come from, what her name was...and if she was single or not.

He turned the corner before the lockers and saw her...surrounded by half of the football team. Her soft tresses and smoky eyes had not gone unnoticed after all. Hank, the tallest one in school, was leaning against the lockers, trying to be smooth and coaxed on by his buddies.

The girl did not look happy at this attention. She kept trying to leave, and asking the group to leave her alone but the football players were preventing it. Her expression grew more and more agitated, until one of the football players dropped in behind and tried to kiss her. She pushed him away and was grabbed roughly in return.

Marty scowled. He had been bullied by those same upperclassmen and knew they were trouble. He couldn't stand to see someone else suffer the same fate...especially a girl. Gathering his courage, he marched up to the scene. "Hey! Leave her alone, Hank."

Hank turned around and smirked. "What's it to you, McFly?"

Marty had to scramble to think of a reason to be defending this girl, who he hardly knew. "C'mon. Can't you see she doesn't want you around?"

Hank and his football buddies snickered. "Oh yeah? And how do you know?"

Now it was Marty's turn to scoff. "What are you, deaf and stupid? She said to leave her alone. Now get lost." His tone was commanding.

Hank's face hardened. "No girl says no to me...and no Irish runt tells me what to do."

"Yeah, well guess what? One just did." Marty turned to the girl and tried to usher her aside. "Let's go."

What happened next caught Marty, the girl, and half the hallway off guard. Hank suddenly grabbed Marty by the collar and wheeled him around, intending to hit him. Marty used his small size to his advantage and ducked, then came around with a punch of his own. It landed square on Hank's jaw, making the taller boy stagger. Hank was further angered and like a raging bull, dove for the little attacker. His fist connected with Marty's eye before a loud shout echoed through the hallway.

"Enough!" The commotion abruptly stopped and everyone turned to see Principal Strickland standing there with his eyes flashing and his arms crossed. "Who started this?"

There was no answer.

Strickland uncrossed his arms and stared in turn at both young men. "Both of you. My office. Now!"

Both scowling young men followed behind the principal. Only Marty glanced over his shoulder to be sure that the new girl had gotten away. His anger eased somewhat in seeing that she had.

Principal Strickland lectured both young men for a full half hour, called their parents, and then sent them to the nurses' office. Hank was embarrassed at having a boy shorter than he confront him, so he left immediately. Marty took the ice that the nurse gave him and then made his way outside. Who knew what his parents would say when they saw his second black eye?

Marty was very surprised to hear a feminine voice calling to him at the school steps as he exited. He turned around to see the new girl standing there, books in hand. "Now who's following who?" he joked.

The girl's smile was strained. "I just wanted to see if you were OK...and to say thank you."

"I'm fine. I just wanted to make sure you were OK." Marty frowned. "You gotta watch out for that Hank guy. He's trouble."

"So I noticed." The girl cringed. "But anyway, thank you. I told him to leave me alone, but he just wouldn't listen."

"He doesn't listen to anyone. Least of all girls...no offense," he added. "That jerk is a total chauvinist."

The girl nodded in agreement. A long, awkward silence followed.

It was broken by the honk of a brown car. An unhappy middle-aged man sat at the driver's seat. The girl sighed and turned briefly to Marty. "I got to go. See ya!" And she took off at a fast walk.

"Hey! What's your name?" hollered Marty.

"Jennifer!" hollered the girl. "What's yours?"

"Marty!"

"Bye, Marty!" Jennifer gave another brief smile and then was into the car.

Marty found himself staring at the car long after it had left. During that time he hardly noticed the pain in his eye and could only think of Jennifer and her pretty smile.

A/N: I must apologize for the lack of quality on this chapter. It is NOT my best work. :/ But I really don't have time to spend polishing Fan Fiction chapters with college in full swing. Maybe during Spring Break I can come back and make the story better...but until then, this is all she wrote. Literally.