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The Boy Who Leapt Through Time Yet Again

Summary:

Marty's going back in time to do McFly July 2021 this month! Yet another eclectic drabble collection with moodboards for McFly July over at Tumblr! Enjoy!

Notes:

I didn't join Tumblr until June 2022, so I missed the first McFly July in 2021. I was going to go back last year and do it, but I was finishing the Time Circuits Series and got roped into other challenges, but I'm doing it now! That means when this month is over, it will be September 1st, and I'll officially be in my happy half of the year! Woo! Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Mountain Dew Hat Man

Chapter Text

i. mountain dew hat man

“Hey, Sherm, where’s the hat?”

Sherman Peabody adjusted his review mirror. He fixed his favorite liability on a skateboard with a bored, disapproving glare.

Didn’t he graduate high school last month?

“Late again, McFly?”

“I said, where’s the hat?” Marty shouted. “I thought I caught the wrong Jeep for a second!”

“I don’t wear it every day!”

“If you’re going to be Mountain Dew Hat Man, you have to wear the Mountain Dew hat, Sherm!”

What?

Sherman rolled his eyes as Marty waved at the jazzercise girls and they enthusiastically waved back.

He had to find another way to work.

Chapter 2: Arcade Games at 7-Eleven

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

ii. arcade games at 7-eleven

Wild Gunman was a wild success when the 7-Eleven on the corner of John F. Kennedy Drive decided to swap out Donkey Kong for one of the popular “light gun” games.

Marty couldn’t get enough of it. With every quarter he deposited, his low-key love of cowboys and proficient hand-eye coordination paired well, quickly ascending him to CRACK SHOT status.

But the top of the leaderboard eluded him.

“JGV” sat at number one.

Doc peered over Marty’s shoulder when happening upon him there one afternoon.

“Any closer?”

“No,” Marty growled at the screen.

Doc smirked.

“I’m sure you’ll get there.”

Notes:

"JGV" are the initials of Doc's favorite author, Jules Gabriel Verne :)

Chapter 3: Movie Night

Chapter Text

iii. movie night

In college, when Leslie decided they needed a break before they’d even started dating, Junior tried to be amicable.

So, he asked out the girl Leslie ranted about often – a staunch, blithe artiste that whispered at him the whole way through The Last Jedi about the “impeccable use of red” and how it “bordered on vulgar” depending which lens of color theory one employed because that ultimately affected the whole meaning of the film.

That night, Junior knocked on Leslie’s door.

“I’m not talking to you.”

“Good. Let’s go see Star Wars.”

He’d be able to hear it this time.

Chapter 4: Fireworks

Chapter Text

iv. fireworks

Marty sat atop the Chinese pagoda, careful to stay in the shadows as Doc and Einstein sat next to him. He pulled Einstein close, ruffling the fur between his ears.

“Not a bad way to ring in the Year of the Dog.”

Doc chuckled. “Braver than Nian himself.”

“Nian?”

“One legend says this monster, Nian, would come New Year’s Eve to destroy crops, but he feared loud noises and fire.” Doc gestured to the display in the distance. “And so, tradition is born.”

Marty smirked.

“Does that mean we set off fireworks to scare the British every Fourth of July?”

Chapter 5: Huey Lewis Concert

Chapter Text

v. huey lewis concert

Clara gave Marty a harmonica for Christmas in 1885. He was still lukewarm toward her, but his tepid smiles were the most he could manage after accepting he was stranded a century in his past. 

Marty turned the harmonica in his hand, trying to be excited about it for her sake. What was he supposed to do with this? Have a Huey Lewis concert at the next festival?

“I’m told Hohner is a well-respected name.”

“It is.”

He poked his tongue into it, absorbing a tinny taste before testing.

Huey Lewis concert…

Marty’s smile warmed at the idea.

“Thanks, Clara.”

Chapter 6: Learn to Skateboard

Chapter Text

vi. learn to skateboard

Things for the Pinheads stalled for a while when Andy got into an automobile accident a few days before they were due to leave for L.A. at the invitation of the producer. But the band stuck together; they’d try again once Andy was better.

Which led to Marty spending his first summer after college interning at Doc’s Institute of Future Technology.

It was a great summer. He liked the work.

Doc called him into the office one afternoon.

“Marty, did you actually go back in time to teach yourself to skateboard better?”

“Is the space-time continuum… cool?”

“For now.”

“…Yes.”

Chapter 7: Midnight Snack

Chapter Text

vii. midnight snack

Marty was more of a roller rink than a bowling alley kind of kid, but he could think of worse ways to spend a Friday night. He wasn’t half bad; he got fewer gutter balls than Steve.

Mick and Jennifer were so good that the rest of them enjoyed just watching the two of them go at it strike for strike.

Free shoes and French fries also came with Andy being the owner’s nephew.

They didn’t get free fries at the roller rink.

“Could you imagine The Pinheads being, like, in another universe, the best bowling team ever?”

“What? No.”

Chapter 8: Summer School

Chapter Text


viii. summer school

Marty stopped at the threshold of the storage closet — or rather an inexplicable library.

Marty spun around. This was Doc’s lab. Workbench, jukebox, wall of clocks, amp, “Ancient library…”

He made a fist, unable to quiet the raw energy coursing into his hand.

“Flux energy is mythical, Marty, even across the continuum,” Doc explained. “If you allow me to study and harness it, I could be home by summer’s end!”

Marty finally stepped inside the library. “You said flux energy was tied to my life force.”

The door closed.

Doc’s tone grew dark, solemn.

“And your life is but one.”

Chapter 9: Doc's Dogs

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

ix. doc's dogs

When Marlene and Junior flew the nest, they left Jennifer with a brown toy poodle to keep her company when Marty was on the road.

They were inseparable. Cinnamon quickly inspired Jennifer to retire a year early to open one of those trendy dog treat bakeries, and “Cinnamon’s Sugar” was an overnight success.

Doc chuckled as Marie devoured her Bacon Chicken Cheese “Pupcake”.

“Einie liked this one?”

“Yeah!” Marty scrolled through the list of official taste testers — Doc’s dogs. “I couldn’t sneak one to Copernicus without the other you noticing, but he and Edison loved the Peanut Butter Paw Prints.”

Notes:

Edison was the dog Doc had between Copernicus and Einstein according to the DeLorean Manual (in the comics, his name is Galileo, but as I firmly associate that name with Marty's horse in Part 3, I went with Edison).

Oh! And Marie is Doc's sheepdog later in life courtesy Marty from this drabble I wrote last McFly July: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40012386/chapters/100795236

Chapter 10: "Far Out"

Notes:

My favorite frenemies aren't frenemy-ing very much in my current fic at the moment, so they get this.

Chapter Text

x. "far out"

Near the California-Oregon border, Marty muttered under his breath as he lit the campfire, trying to wave away excess smoke from the damp wood.

You’d think after ten years stranded in the nineteenth century he’d be better at this. He dared Buford to say a word after he left Marty to single-handedly set up camp.

Marty found him sitting on a cliff overlooking a rocky beach and green-grey ocean. The reverence in Tannen’s eyes gave him pause.

“I’ve never seen the ocean before.”

“Never?”

Buford shook his head.

Marty sat next to him, intrigued and mildly amused.

“Can you swim?”

Chapter 11: Jennifer's House

Chapter Text

xi. jennifer's house

Marty went to Jennifer’s house for the first time in mid-December, three weeks after they started dating.

“We’re making Christmas cookies with my mom and grandma.”

While that sounded less intimidating than meeting the family at Christmas dinner, Marty still fretted about what shirt to wear. For some reason, he thought it prudent to bring his own oven mitt.

Jennifer’s family made gingerbread cookies, not sugar cookies. Embracing this culture shock, Marty practiced piping a little heart on a gingerbread man, sliding it to Jennifer when her mom and grandma weren’t looking.

On Christmas, the cookie hung on her tree.

Chapter 12: Band Practice

Notes:

Sorry I've fallen behind, folks. My nanny has called off every day since last Wednesday with a sick cat, now a sinus infection, I got Omicron covid, and I'm just really frustrated my routine has been so messed up lately. Hopefully I can get a little caught up on writing during nap times.

Chapter Text

xii. band practice

At the threshold of the lab, Doc did a double take seeing Marty passed out on the cot in the corner.

Doc narrowed his eyes, shifting them between Marty and the wall of clocks; school let out twenty minutes ago, but Marty looked to have been there longer.

Was he there when I left this morning?

“Marty? You’re late for practice —“

Marty’s hair and collar were damp with sweat, face red with fever. Doc spied Tylenol next to the alarm clock and a tepid glass of water missing a sip or two.

Doc’s shoulders fell.

“Get some rest, kid.”

Chapter 13: Family Dinner

Chapter Text

xiii. family dinner

A little over a year after the Browns relocated to the twentieth century, Clara had an unfortunate encounter with an icy sidewalk and broke her ankle. This limited her mobility in the kitchen, so Doc, Marty, Jules, and Verne (with Jennifer’s help) decided to cheer her up with her favorite color.

It started off with a purple cake. A very innocent purple cake.

It then spiraled into purple sweet potatoes piped on a shepherd's pie, purple cauliflower soup, lavender sage rolls —

“Is this a taco?”

“Technically,” Jules said, “it is a blue corn tortilla, but aesthetically it follows our theme.”

Chapter 14: The Lake

Chapter Text

xiv. the lake

A week after Marty reappeared in 1985 on the other side of Eastwood Ravine, he sat in his truck bed watching the sunrise paint the mountainside pines a soft pink.

He was already thinking of ways to make it up to Jennifer. For all the good it did him, Marty tried to summon the same excitement he had for this trip pre-time travel, but his adventures ran rampant through his mind constantly, leaving him struggling to engage in a meaningful weekend away.

“It’ll be okay, Marty,” Jennifer said. “The lake isn’t going anywhere.” She kissed his cheek. “Neither am I.”

Chapter 15: Skitching

Chapter Text

xv. skitching

“Oh! Marty!”

Marty lowered his headset at the front door.

“Yeah, mom?”

“I have been hearing through the grapevine that you’ve picked up a new hobby.” Off Marty’s confused pout, Lorraine extended a sketchbook and package of felt tip pens, borderline giddy. “I had no idea you liked to draw! Dave was just saying last night how good you are at sketching –"

Skitching, Mom,” Linda said on her way to the table. “It’s where he grabs the bumper of a car while riding his skateboard.”

“What?”

“Linda!”

Lorraine glared at the skateboard in Marty’s hand.

“You’re good at it?!”

Chapter 16: Power Outage

Chapter Text

xvi. power outage

Marty paused mid-story as Doc and Clara approached.

“What’s up, Doc?”

“The power is out,” Emmett said, laying a blanket next to Jules, “so we thought we’d come hear a story since we can’t watch the movie we rented.”

Marty plastered on a tight grin.

“Uh, sure. Yeah.” He scratched the back of his head. “So, the, uh—“

“Princess,” Jules supplied.

Clara smiled at Doc, missing Marty’s wince. “I didn’t know you knew a princess.”

“I don’t,” Doc deadpanned. “Do you, Marty?”

Marty chuckled nervously.

Verne barreled on.

“Where did you take Princess Anastasia once you helped her escape?”

Chapter 17: Camcorder

Chapter Text

xvii. camcorder

Arthur McFly ages exponentially after being drafted in the Second World War. By the time he makes it ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day, he already feels immortal, and is tired.

Bombs and artillery fire become so routine that he’s captivated by the most mundane things he fixates on in the middle of combat: a caterpillar inching past his nose, torn aglets on bootlaces, the man with the handheld camera skipping atop the rubble in the streets for a better vantage point.

Eventually, they end up taking cover together.

“Smile, chief! You’re having a way better time than they are!”

Chapter 18: Fire on the Living Room Rug

Chapter Text

xviii. fire on the living room rug

Two hours after Doc and his family flew away on their Time Train, Marty approached the new beige sofa in his living room as if it were a hissing crocodile. He slowly sat, sighed, and took in the space; this was going to take some getting used to.

Yet it was familiar.

He nudged the coffee table off-center.

The black crater of charred carpet wasn’t there.

“Did Mom replace this carpet?” he asked when Linda sat down with her magazine “After I set it on fire?”

Linda made a face.

“When the hell did you set the rug on fire?”

Chapter 19: Wedding Photo

Chapter Text

xix. wedding photo

On Halloween, Biff’s casino was packed, but the museum was quiet.

Marty stuffed eight cans of spray paint into his black bookbag, slung it over his shoulder, and snuck the guys in through the emergency exit. They’d trashed the museum a few times already, but Marty was going for broke tonight.

While Andy and Mick decapitated Buford Tannen’s wax statue and Steve keyed the De Luxe, Marty glared at the six-foot-tall mural of his mom and Biff’s wedding photo.

He turned up his Walkman. Took out a paint can.

I see a red door
And I want it painted black

Chapter 20: Lorraine's Closet

Chapter Text

xx. lorraine's closet

Lorraine passes away quietly at the age of 91, two years after George.

While her mom and dad go through the boxes in the basement, Marlene puts on Cars for her kids in the living room, buys their silence with Capri Suns and trail mix, and sets to cleaning out her grandmother’s closet.

Marlene has most of it emptied on the bed when her father comes in to check her progress.

Marty opens a shoebox of photographs but drops the lid when Marlene lays out his mother’s Enchantment Under the Sea dress.

A lump forms in Marty’s throat.

He smiles.

Chapter 21: Sparks and Gasoline

Chapter Text

xxi. sparks and gasoline

“I am so sick of running into you.”

No Pines Marty laughed at that. He lit a cigarette and approached Marty.

“I don’t know how,” No Pines Marty said. “Every time I think I’ve won, you ride in in your little time machine and save the day like you’re Sir Galahad or some shit.”

“Someone’s gotta stop you.”

No Pines Marty blew his smoke into the night air.

“I already told you we’re the same person. Why not… align our ambitions?”

Marty glared at him.

“I want a truck,” he said. “You want to destroy time itself.”

“Only a little.”

Chapter 22: Burger King Drive-Thru

Chapter Text

xxii. burger king drive-thru

Because Marty was impatiently saving up for a new amp, Dave pulled a few strings and got his brother an after-school shift at Burger King.

“It pays more, and it’s easy. All you have to do, really, is show up and know how to count.”

In a moment of weakness, Marty agreed to give it a try on the afternoons he didn’t work for Doc, but he knew he’d have to commit to one or the other eventually.

It only took six hours of manning the drive-thru window and folding Burger King crowns for Marty to make up his mind.

Chapter 23: One Phone Call

Notes:

*throws more MP Doc at you*

Chapter Text

xxiii. one phone call

Emmett sighed when the phone rang in his Los Alamos residence but put the paper down.

“Hello, Emmett Brown speaking.”

“Hey, Doc.”

Emmett’s brow furrowed at Marty’s voice on the other end. He lunged back a step and craned his neck to see Marty’s bedroom was, in fact, empty.

“Marty? Where are you? I thought you were asleep!”

“Promise you’re not going to be mad.”

Emmett bit his lip. “What’s going on, Marty?”

“I’m being detained.”

“Why?”

“I, uh, punched Groves.”

Emmett blinked at himself in the mirror.

“Did you just say you punched —?”

“Yeah, I… I punched Groves.”

Chapter 24: Truth or Dare

Chapter Text

xxiv. truth or dare

“What’s Truth or Dare?”

“It’s a game.”

Buford raised an eyebrow. “What kind of game?”

Marty gestured to the campfire between them, shrugging. “You pick truth or dare. If you pick truth, you have to answer my question honestly. If you pick dare, you have to do what I dare you to do.”

“If I refuse?”

“Not allowed.” He’d tell Buford to take a drink, but then he’d just pass out. “Here, I’ll go first. Ask me: truth or dare.”

“…Truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

Buford tossed his chin toward the bridge.

“Go jump in the ravine.”

Marty leveled his brow.

Chapter 25: Something Without Sugar

Chapter Text

xxv. something without sugar

Clara adjusted well for someone living one hundred years into her future. The evolution of science captivated her at every turn, sometimes in the most peculiar places – ATMs, shampoo, Federal Express. Science touched everything that made everyday life more efficient, obtainable, and sustainable.

“They put vitamins in cereal?” she said, reading the Honey Smacks label.

Doc nodded. “Much like they do fluoride in toothpaste.”

Her eyes grew at the listed sugar content. “Fifty-six grams?” She put it back on the shelf like it burned her. “Isn’t there anything without sugar?”

Doc smiled. “That’s not the point of breakfast cereal, dear.”

Chapter 26: Strickland’s Nite Out

Chapter Text

xxvi. strickland’s nite out

For weeks, Strickland wrung the rumors from the hoodlums in the halls, those snickering over backpacks and lockers and exchanging various contrabands like gum, cigarettes, and Playboys.

One day, he finally got his hands on it: a videotape titled “Strickland’s Nite Out”.

The tape was as expected – raunchy, explicit, vulgar. Nothing to do with him. It reminded him of the cheesecake magazines he confiscated where someone put a piece of masking tape over the title and wrote things like “Strickland’s Eyes Only” and “Strickland After Dark”.

Mr. Strickland knocked on Room 217’s door.

“I need to borrow Douglas Needles, please.”

 

Chapter 27: Boombox

Summary:

Another No Pines/ Evil!Marty for you. He’s got his own tumblr now @nopinestimeline — go follow him! But not too close or he might stab you :)

Chapter Text

xxvii. boombox

Rolling a cigarette side-to-side between his lips, Marty spun the metal housing of the facedown boombox perpendicular to himself and gave it a good shake. Confident all the components were snug, he sat the radio up, flipped the power on, and smiled as Freddie Mercury belted from the speakers.

The lab door opened. Marty snuffed out his cigarette on the underside of the workbench.

“Hello, Marty!”

“Hey, Doc.”

“What’s that you got there? A little repair?”

Marty turned off the boombox, laid it facedown again, and causally positioned the back panel over the pipe bomb before Doc saw it.

“Upgrade.”

Chapter 28: Purple Dress

Chapter Text

xxviii. purple dress

Doc leaned into the patio door’s frame, perplexed but intrigued by the scene before him.

Two picnic tables were pushed together with a wagon in front of them. Verne, in a cowboy hat and serape, jumped up and down in the wagon while Jules “struggled” to reach Marty, who hung upside down from the bench by his knees in what looked to be one of Clara’s dresses.

“Catch it!”

Verne slid Marty’s skateboard under the picnic benches. Jules jumped but missed, falling off the “train”. Marty melodramatically followed.

Verne harrumphed at his giggling playmates.

“You guys aren’t doing it right!”

Chapter 29: Breakfast

Chapter Text

xxix. breakfast

The prefects met them in their common rooms the first morning to make sure they didn’t get lost going to the Great Hall. Two of Marty’s dormmates went to sit with older siblings, but he, Steve, Andy, and Mick sat together, wordlessly gauging one another as they plated their breakfasts.

“Hey, McFly!”

Marty turned, glaring at the kid who heckled him on the train yesterday. “Hey, Needles.”

“How’s it hangin’ in Hufflepuff? The yellow suits you.”

“For your information,” Professor Brown interrupted as he passed, “Hufflepuff’s house color is black, accented by yellow gold. Far more intimidating than that dull emerald, wouldn’t you say?”

Chapter 30: Vaya con Dios

Chapter Text

xxx. vaya con dios

Doc caught the branch of a scraggly tree with the hand under Clara’s back and slowed them to a stop. He stepped off the hoverboard with her in his arms, delighted in the kiss she bestowed, and put her down. She opened her mouth to say something when a very distinct sonic boom echoed throughout the countryside, momentarily deafening them.

A triumphant laugh leapt from Doc.

Hearing the train plummet into the ravine, Emmett raised an invisible hat off his head in the direction of the explosion, grinning ear to ear.

He did it. Marty was home.

Vaya con Dios!”

Chapter 31: Pepsi Free (Free Day!)

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

xxxi. pepsi free (free day!)

“D.B. Cooper was six feet tall,” Jules said.

Marty threw his paper plate into the fire and shrugged. “People under duress are terrible at judging anything, let alone height. I probably did look six feet tall to them.”

“You’re not D.B. Cooper.”

“Yeah,” Verne said, lying on his sleeping bag. “Even I’m not buying this one.”

“Do you even know how to use a parachute?”

“Do you?”

“Why would I need to know how to use a parachute?” Jules asked. “I’m six.”

Marty tsked. “I jumped out of my first plane when I was five –"

“You’re not D.B. Cooper!

Notes:

And with that, I have completed all three sets of McFly July prompts! I hope you've all enjoyed these bite-sized BttF moments! Now it's time to get ready for Sicktember and The Maladies of Marty McFly!

Series this work belongs to: