Work Text:
“Well. I think that’s it. I’m failing history.”
“Marty, there is no way you’re failing history.” Jennifer sighed fondly, rolling her eyes from her spot on the rug.
“Yeah, how can you fail history if you’ve literally been there?” Verne, sweet Verne, asked with genuine curiosity. Never grow up, kid. Never grow up.
“Because I’m pretty sure no matter what I do either my teacher or Strickland is going to find a way to fail me anyway,” Marty groaned, head in his arms as he flopped fully onto the carpet of the Browns’ living room, “it’s hopeless.”
The it in question was his history final. It was a presentation on a set of lesser known figures that all shared something in common. And by lesser known, his teacher clarified, they didn’t mean an underground musician or not talked about political figure. No, that would be too easy. His crazy teacher wanted them to find figures who amounted to local legends at best. The real “diamonds in the rough” as she’d called them. Finding one of those was already damn near impossible, but multiple? That all had something in common? Give him a break, lady!
“What class is hopeless this time?” If Marty ever doubted for a second that Doc and Clara were right for each other, it was always dispelled by their scarily similar ‘amused parent’ tone they used with him.
“I thought teachers were supposed to help struggling students, not mock them.”
“I’m not mocking you, Marty. Just asking a question.” And there was that warm smile that was impossible to stay annoyed with. Really, that thing was like a weapon, completely disarming whatever argument or point he might have had previously. It wasn’t fair!
“Doc’s corrupting you,” he huffed matter-of-fact-ly, then deflated again, “it’s history.”
“You’re going to fail…history.” Clara sounded like she believed it as much as the three - Jennifer, Jules, and Verne - who sat or laid on the carpet with him. Great.
“Yeah, I’m gonna fail history! My best subject and this stupid project is going to screw me over!” That wasn’t a lie. History really had become his best subject after his jumping through time. Sure, it was because he learned the decades he’d jumped to out of necessity, but still! A best subject was a best subject and when you spent the first 10 years of your schooling being called a slacker and barely scraping by with a D you took that best subject and ran with it.
“Now, I’m certain it’s not that bad, Marty.” Clara must’ve been one hell of a teacher back in the old west, because her frankly astounding levels of patience were never something Marty saw from his own teachers. Were it any of them in her position right now, he could guarantee it that he’d be told something to the effect of ‘sucks to suck, be better at school’ and that would be it. “What’s the topic?”
“Lesser known historical figures,” Jules supplied, eyes never leaving the textbook he’d stolen from Marty twenty minutes ago. It’s not like Marty ever really tried to stop him from taking it anyway. Hell, he practically shoved the thing into the kid’s hands when he’d asked to see him. At least he’d do well in school when he got there, unlike Marty currently.
“And not like- ‘a founding father no one talks about’ lesser known. My teacher decided that we should look for the most obscure historical figures possible and then try to find enough information on them to connect them somehow,” the teen clarified, tone nothing short of defeated.
“I keep telling him that he’ll find something to spark him, but so far we’ve got nothing,” Jennifer hummed, gently combing her fingers through Marty’s hair. If there was anything she knew, it was how to comfort her boyfriend. As frustrating as that super power could be when he was trying to be angsty like every teen had the right to be, Marty was eternally grateful for Jennifer’s ability to just understand.
“Yeah, and we’ve been looking through that textbook for ages!” Thanks for the vote of confidence, Verne. Really appreciate it, buddy.
“Hmmm, a series of barely known historical figures all of whom share something in common…” Clara paused, seeming to turn the prompt over in her head as she crossed the room. Her eyes flicked across the space as she thought, never stopping in one place for long. She briefly looked from lamps to pictures to clocks- anything that could offer a name to research.
They stayed like that for a solid minute, silence hanging heavy over the room as the five people within its walls collectively worked to try and create a list of historical figures that would fit the criteria. Every now and again a name would be offered, only for Marty to be able to explain why his teacher wouldn’t accept it. Founding fathers? Well, they still earned the title of founding father, didn’t they? Nope. Musicians? Underground bands don’t count as historical figures. Try again. Athletes? If they’re historical, they’re well known. Next. Artists? Getting closer, but art really wasn’t Marty’s thing. Surely there was something else. Scientists? Marty had already gotten a lecture when he’d mixed up Tesla and Edison one time for a project. Love you and all, Doc, but he was not going through that again.
“How about local legends?” Jules offered, flipping through the pages on folklore within the textbook.
“Ooh! Yes, that could be an interesting topic!” Clara agreed, smiling brightly as she nudged Marty, “And it’s a topic you’d know quite a bit about, Mr. Eastwood.”
“Yeah, I’d love to,” Marty started, pausing to sigh deeply, “if someone wasn’t already using me as one of their people to kiss up to the teacher.”
“What?” Verne didn’t seem to like that answer very much, confusion pulling at his features, “shouldn’t you get the right to call using Mr. Eastwood first? You are him.”
“Yeah, I am, but what am I supposed to tell my teacher?” Marty pushed himself to a sitting position, putting on the most theatrical smile he could, “‘Hey, teach, I was just wondering if I could call dibs on using Clint Eastwood as one of my people because I’m literally him? Also time travel is real and that’s how I lived in the old west for a week—here’s a picture to prove it!’ Yeah, sorry, not happening.”
Marty’s little act seemed to be well received, as soon a chorus of giggles filled the room. As nice as it felt to lift the otherwise rather hopeless mood, he really would appreciate having a topic soon. Just because he could time travel to finish his project in time doesn’t mean that he wanted to. Or that Doc would let him, for that matter.
“She’d never let you leave if you dropped that on her,” Jennifer laughed, running her fingers over the blank poster board.
“Oh believe me, I know. Which means I’m stuck writing a project on a bunch of people I don’t know who didn’t amount to….” Marty paused, the sudden stop drawing the attention of the other four in the room just as he seemed to be jolted with a bolt of energy and inspiration, “That’s it!”
“What’s it? What did you come up with?” Well, even if studying wasn’t his passion like his brother, Verne definitely had the curiosity needed to succeed in school. Lucky kids.
“I’m going to do my project on a group of people who always happened to be present when a lesser known historical moment was going down! By some strange, twisted fate they’ve always managed to make a name for themselves by just being there!” He grinned as he uncapped a marker, scribbling a bold title onto the top center of the poster board. It took some maneuvering, but as the four others registered what he wrote they couldn’t help but smile.
There was no time to waste. The project was due by the end of the week and Marty needed to get pictures. Pride swelled in his chest as he looked at the blank poster. This was going to be the best project he’d ever done. And on an interesting topic no less!
“The most impressive band of slackers I’ve ever met.”
…………………………………………………………
“-and those are just a few of the lesser known town heros of California!” And that was the single longest presentation Marty had ever had to sit through in all his 12 years of schooling. That was saying something considering a third of it was about him!
“Thank you, Miss. Jackson. A lovely presentation.” It was only lovely because she pandered to your love for their town’s folklore, lady. Not to mention she’d been wrong about roughly 80% of the things regarding Clint Eastwood. But no, he couldn’t correct her, because how would he know that Clint wasn’t, in fact, the son of the town blacksmith but really just a friend- although that did make him wonder if that’s really the first impression people got from him and Doc. Huh, maybe he was more of the honorary third Brown kid than he thought. What do you know?
“Mr. McFly?”
I mean, he wouldn’t be against it if he was. Back in the days of the Twin Pine timeline Doc was more of a father figure to him then his dad was, and even with his family now he still confided in him things he never told his folks. Best friend and second dad. Wonder what Doc would say if he heard that? Did he already know that was how his best friend viewed him?
“Mr. McFly?”
Jules and Verne already looked to him like a big brother so it’s not like he wouldn’t fit in. Plus Clara, although naturally motherly which he had to guess had to do with having been a teacher, reminded him of his mom in how she talked to him sometimes- like when giving advice. Had he been adopted into the Brown family without his knowledge? Not the worst fate, he decided after some thought. Actually it sounded pretty nice-
“Mr. McFly!” Marty did not jump and almost fall out of his seat. He did not, shut up. “Do you have your presentation or not?”
“Ah- yes, ma’am. I do,” Marty coughed as he stumbled out of his seat, clumsily tucking the closed poster board and report under his arm as he made his way to the front of the class. Now if only his classmates would stop laughing. “It’s uh- right here. Got it, right here and all.”
Wow, McFly. You really are the coolest guy around, aren’t you?
“Well, are you going to present it or are you just going to stand there?” Right! Presenting! He could do that. It was just like performing and he did that with his band so he could do this. He’d give this class the best presentation they’d ever seen. Now if only he could get the poster to stand against the chalkboard- Oh quit giggling, Susan! Not everyone has perfect balance!
By the time he finally got it standing on its own, the class was faced with a poster that was covered with multiple pieces of printer paper badly taped onto it to hide its contents. Most notable was the single most secured piece - as in, it has more than one pathetic piece of painter’s tape holding it on - which seemed to cover the poster’s title. Marty only grinned at his classmates’ and teacher’s confusion. Time for the show.
“Hello everyone, my name is Marty McFly, and I won’t lie when I say that I spent way too long trying to think of a good group of people to present on. Especially after Lisa took the whole town hero/local legends idea.” That got a chuckle from the class, and his teacher even smiled at him. Great start! “But, I’m proud to say that after many sleepless nights and a probably lethal amount of coffee I did, in fact, find a topic. Taking Mrs. Jones’ prompt as literally as possible, I found the most obscure figures in history I could find. My project is not on the main guys of history, but rather the people who got dragged along for the ride.”
He pulled off the first piece of paper, revealing a photocopied picture of a smiling man with a mustache and a hat.
“This is Seamus. Seamus was one of the first settlers out here in Hill Valley. More notably, however, was his involvement with the local legend Clint Eastwood as we heard about earlier,” yeah, they heard about it - incorrectly! - earlier and he lived through it. Time to recall his week in the old west! “A lesser known fact about Mr. Eastwood’s origins in town is that he was technically here for a day before he actually made it into town. See, Mr. Eastwood’s wagon got caught up in battle between the natives and a group of cowboys earlier that day, and while trying to escape said battle he tripped down a hill and knocked himself out on a fence. That fence happened to belong to Seamus and his wife, Maggie, who took Mr. Eastwood in and made sure he was okay before he went running into town. They stayed in close touch with him throughout his week, with Seamus even having been there when Mr. Eastwood took out the outlaw Mad Dog. Seamus had been directly involved in the things Mr. Eastwood and the blacksmith did, occasionally helping here and there, and has been quoted looking back on that week and his knowing Mr. Eastwood as, ‘one of the most exciting weeks of my and Maggie’s lives.’”
He pulled off another sheet of paper.
“For my next person, I found William here.” Okay, books and faint stories from grandpa, don’t fail him now, “William was a very influential figure in the early days of Hill Valley - yes, I really stuck to our town for this presentation, I know, but I didn’t mean to, I swear. Anyway, William is recorded as being an important part of Hill Valley becoming the town it is today! Part of one of the first generations born in our small town, William helped lead efforts to create a community in the young town and keep it safe from people like Mad Dog who his father had to live in fear of until Clint showed up. He’s remembered as a strong willed family man, willing to drop everything if it meant helping his wife or their son. This came into play with the rise of Kid Tannen, the leader of Hill Valley’s own mob back in the 1920s and early 30s, as he did all he could to keep his family safe.”
Evidently it wasn’t enough, as his grandpa still got involved. Speaking of- down came another paper.
“Which leads me to my third figure, Arthur,” Ah, 1931. Yeah, no, he’d rather not go back again. “Arthur, better known as ‘Artie’ by close friends and his wife, had been directly involved with Kid’s mob. He was the bookkeeper for the gang and was known for being Kid’s personal footstool with how much he was walked all over. ‘Now Marty,’ I can hear you all asking, ‘what about a pushover bookkeeper makes them count as a historical figure’? Well, I asked that too when his name first popped up in the books. As I read though, I found something quite interesting. In addition to being a complete wimp and punching bag, Arite here played another role in the mob: he was the one who took them down from the inside.”
Now that caught his classmate’s attention.
“That’s right. See, there were a number of people who knew about Artie’s involvement in the mob. They also knew that, if given the safe chance, he would leave if he could. So that’s just what they offered him.” Translation: he damn near had to climb through a window to forcefully deliver the subpoena to his grandfather. “The leading judge in Hill Valley, Judge Brown, sent one of his clerks to call Artie to testify in court against Kid. First hand accounts of the clerk recall it as having been quite the task, as Artie refused to testify unless he knew he and his future wife would be entirely safe from Kid and his goons. Eventually, after what’s noted as a day’s worth of pestering, Artie did testify. Because of his testimony, Kid was locked behind bars for his crimes.”
At least he had been, but his sentence had been far too short if you asked Marty, considering he was wandering town a free man now.
“Now, I know I technically could stop there and I’d probably get some semblance of a passing grade - I see that smile, Mrs. Jones, don’t fail me out of spite now - but, considering our teacher’s affinity for local legends and tales, there’s one more person I wanted to include,” he pulled off another piece of paper, “This is George, better known to a lot of you as my old man. I get it, you’re all probably thinking I’m here to talk about his writing, but I’m not. That wouldn’t be in the spirit of the project, after all. No, I want to focus on another part of my dad’s life, back when he was way less successful and just another kid like us. See, back when my dad went here, something very strange happened that’s still talked about by our parents to this day.”
Pause for dramatic effect-
“A week before their school dance, a series of strange events happened. Mr. Peabody and his family say that an alien crashed into their barn and killed one of their pine trees, my dad says an alien visited him days later- crazy, I know, but what’s really important is the appearance of a student who went by Calvin Klein,” he saw his teacher smile and look up. Jackpot. “Calvin dressed weird, talked weirder, and was overall a complete mess, but that didn’t stop him from catching the eyes of everyone in school, especially when he made an example out of the school bully. And what does my dad have to do with this? Well, he was one of the two total people Calvin actually talked to for the week he was there. Hell, Calvin’s actions were almost always with the goal to, for some reason unknown to everyone, protect my dad or my mom. It’s thanks to him that my dad learned to stand up for himself, that the school’s bully got knocked down a peg, and that our parents now have a story to tell us when we misbehave.”
His class chuckled. Good, good. Haven’t lost them yet.
“Some say Calvin was an alien, some say he was a spirit who still haunts this school, protecting the weak. I think he was just another kid in a weird place acting on impulse, but what would I know? I wasn’t there,” He shrugged, nonchalant as if he wasn’t telling a blatant lie to his classmates’ faces, “Anyway, I wanted to include my dad because, in some ways, he was just like Seamus, William, and Artie. He too was some random guy dragged along by these movie heroes and villains. It’s a trait they all share. Well, that and one other thing.”
Drumroll please.
He ripped off the paper covering the title, revealing the words “How the McFlys Have Been Dragged into Every Major Conflict in the History of Hill Valley.”
“I didn’t forget their last names, Mrs. Jones. It just so happens they all have the same one as me,” he grinned, giving a little bow as his class clapped, “thank you, thank you.”
“Thank you for that lovely presentation, Mr. McFly,” his teacher beamed, scribbling something down on his grade sheet, “I had no idea your family was so involved in this town’s history!”
“Neither did I, Ma’am,” he explained with a shrug as he folded his poster and placed it along with his report on top of a pile of others, “I was always told my family were just a bunch of slackers who never amounted to anything, so imagine my surprise when I was looking for people to do this report on in the library and saw my last name come up that many times.”
“You sure it isn’t some other McFly then?” One of his classmates laughed. He just shrugged.
“Considering that I’ve met my grandpa, Arthur ‘Artie’ McFly, and that he and my grandma have told me about that very insistent clerk and his mysterious yet equally stubborn friend? I’m pretty sure it’s the same McFlys.” And he’s never felt prouder to say it, “didn’t mean for the project to become a family history one, but well- that’s what happened.”
“Well, you certainly did it well.” Haha yes! Take that stupid project, “You know, class, I was a freshman back when the mysterious Calvin Klein showed up here, and Marty is right. He was a very odd fellow.”
No kidding, he was 30 years out of his own time!
“Still, that didn’t stop every guy from wanting to be him and every girl from wanting to be with him.”
“How about you, Mrs. Jones?” Some jokester asked, “Did you have a crush on the school ghost?”
“Well, he was very attractive.” And now he wanted to die. Great. He slumped as low as he could into his chair. “Nevermind that, though. Mr. Stevens? You’re up next.”
Marty didn’t pay attention to anything until the bell rang.
…………………………………………………………
“Hey, wasn’t today the day of that history presentation you were freaking out about?” Linda hummed, nudging Marty.
“Oh yeah! The one you kept saying you were gonna fail!” Thanks Dave, appreciate the confidence in him there.
“Oh ha ha, very funny,” Marty rolled his eyes, taking a sip from his Pepsi. He really should’ve expected this conversation to come up. It’s a lot more common of an over-dinner topic- at least compared to time travel, “I only thought I was gonna fail because I hadn’t found anyone to do the project on at the time.”
“So you found someone then?” To tell the truth, it was still occasionally jarring to have his mother actually care about his school projects, grades, interests, and…well, him. Wording it that way made it sound terrible but English never was his subject.
“Yup! A whole line of people all connected and involved in history that I actually was really confident doing a presentation on,” he hummed, smiling, “I also may or may not have added an extra little thing because of my teacher’s love for folk tales. Pretty sure it got me extra credit.”
“You brought up ghost stories in your history assignment and got extra credit for it?” Dave didn’t seem to believe it. At least, he didn’t until Marty pulled his report out and tossed it on the table, a bright red ‘A’ marking it.
“Read it and weep, Dave.”
“Damn!”
“Language, David,” his brother nodded as his mother chided him, sinking into his seat, “Marty, how about you tell us about this topic of yours?”
“Eh, it’s nothing special. It’s all stories you guys know anyway.”
“Wasn’t the project on lesser known historical figures though, son?” George chuckled, raising an eyebrow. Gosh, again, his parents paying attention catching him off guard.
“Well, yeah, but we know the stories,” he shrugged, stabbing at a piece of chicken on his plate before gesturing to his paper with his fork, “look at the title.”
“‘How the McFlys Have Been Dragged into Every Major Conflict in the History of Hill Valley by Marty McFly.’ Huh,” George hummed as he picked up the paper, flipping through its pages, “They honestly let you do a family history report for history?”
“Well, the prompt had been to find three lesser known historical figures who all had something in common. Some girl already took Town Legends so I did the next thing I knew the most about: the guy who always gets dragged along by the super well known dude,” he pointed to the report again, “Which just so happened to be our family.”
“That’s lovely, Marty,” his mother started, although her tone suggested an incoming question, “but what ghost story has our family been involved in?”
“Yeah, is there something else from your travels you aren’t telling us?” Linda grinned, teasingly poking at her brother.
“Nah, you all know the story,” he rolled his eyes, swatting at Linda with a smile, “It was honestly just an excuse to put dad in the project too.”
“I’m in your project?” George had quickly taken to scanning the report for his name. Just what had his son written about him? How could he be considered a historical figure?
“Well, yeah, dad. Sure, maybe the guy you were dragged along by wasn’t some big town hero but the story is still told to scare kids nowadays,” he hummed, “Aliens, ghosts of dead kids, protective spirits- doesn’t really matter what you think he was, a lot of people still talk about the story of how George McFly was harassed by the mysterious Calvin Klein until he stood up to Biff.”
Hearing the silence sweep over the dinner table was nothing short of amusing at this point.
“You included your week in 1955 in your history project??” Marty honestly wasn’t sure what his father seemed to believe less: the fact that he so boldly reported on said week for a grade or the fact that he’d used George has the main subject of said section. Oh, Marty could just see the gears turning as his father remembered how that week had been. The teen really just remembered it as an adrenaline fueled disaster but he was sure his father remembered a lot more about his pre-confidence, geek central self.
“I included your knowing Calvin Klein in my report, that’s all. I didn’t go telling my class about how I time traveled and that Calvin was me.” Marty shrugged, shuddering slightly as memory of his class played in his head, “I don’t think I could’ve even if I wanted to after hearing my teacher admit she thought I was hot back in the 50s.”
Note to future Marty: don’t forget to still soften the blow when it comes to the awkwardness of your trip to the 50s. It’ll save everyone the discomfort…and the weird choking-gagging chorus that filled the dining room.