(If you haven’t already, please make sure you read Chapter Two first.)
CHAPTER THREE: Let’s Get The ‘Ole Gang Back Together Again!
Taylor McFly couldn’t find his rollerblades. He always kept them hidden behind the bench outside of the Freshman Hallway entrance at the high school. This had been where he kept them for years. But today, when he cut school two hours early, he came outside to find them missing. Someone had stolen them.
I must have told Kendra when we were dating, and she must have blabbed. He thought. How else would anyone know my super secret hiding place?
The Taylors had no memory of the reality in which Kendra and Kori had been perfect girlfriends who loved their boyfriends very much, despite the fact that literally everyone else hated them. As soon as the Taylors had returned from their time traveling trip to discover this new and exciting life with girlfriends, Bogg had whisked them away and rundown the janitor, inadvertently making the girls dump the Taylors and join the rest of their peers in passionately hating them. In fact, they were practically the leaders of the “We Hate The Taylors” Club these days. Their trip in the time machine had been so short and abrupt, that they had no idea what had happened. From the girls’ point of view, the gang had just gone bogging real quick and then murdered someone.
But such was life. It’s not like they could remember any of the happy times with the girls anyway. In fact, in the reality in which they now existed, their 2008-2009 school year was significantly different than the one they had experienced and remembered. The only person that did not hate them, but did experience this new reality was Bogg. Unfortunately for them, Bogg’s main priorities that year had been inventing time travel and hitting on Ms. Wilhour, not focusing on the Taylors’ personal lives. Which meant he was not very helpful in explaining to them what they had missed.
So they had been forced to simply deal with their new life. Taylor Marty focused on making sure he graduated all of his classes, while Taylor McFly began preparing for his senior year without his only friends. In just a few short weeks, they had mostly figured out how their new lives worked.
Mostly it consisted of hiding from bullies, former friends, and even one teacher, who still held a grudge against them for punching him in the face (even though, as the Taylors had pondered many times, clearly it was Patrick who punched him and Mr. Gunn definitely saw, as it happened right in front of his face).
Then of course, the school year ended. Taylor Marty graduated (barely), along with Bogg. The good news was that a number of the bullies graduated as well, including Kendra, Emma, Maddy, and once close friend-turned head bully, Mason Becker and his posse (which had once been Maddy’s until Mason beat her in a fight and they all immediately switched loyalties). Taylor McFly had hoped that with the majority of the people who hated him graduating, that maybe the beatings and harassment would stop.
But alas, new, younger bullies rose to take the mantle of those before them, and Taylor McFly began what was supposed to be his year as top-dog, in a dumpster with a wedgie so large, he was afraid it would be stuck that way.
“You can expect a lot more of that this year!” He remember Mr. Gunn shouting, as he slammed the dumpster lid shut. “So watch your back, Taylor!”
“Alright!” Ethan, one of the many freshmen who had helped Mr. Gunn exclaimed. “High school is going to be awesome! You suck, Tyler!”
“His name is Taylor, not Tyler…” said Sheila, another one of the freshmen. The others turned to look at her, as if confused that she would stand up for Taylor. She continued, “But yeah… He sucks! What a loser!”
“Alright,” Mr. Gunn said. “Let’s leave him in there to rot now. Get your drums, it’s time to get out onto the football field and begin marching band practice.”
They all left, except for one. Sheila waited until the others were gone and then opened the dumpster lid.
“Thanks…” Taylor said, as he climbed out of the dumpster.
“Just because I’m your sister, don’t expect me to help you very often.” Sheila said. “I have to uphold my reputation. I don’t want people to know I’m related to one of the most hated guys in town.”
“I’m sorry.” he replied, while trying to pick the wedgie out of his butt. “I’ll try not to ruin high school for you.”
“You know, what you really need to do is make up for what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Taylor,” she said with a lecturing tone, “Unless you can explain who did punch Mr. Gunn in the face, lock Chaning in a car trunk, and ruin the Sadie Hawkins Dance, people are going to hate you. And since you can’t do that, you need to make people forget that it happened.”
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” Taylor asked, bewildered.
“I don’t know. Do something for the greater good. Show everyone that you’re not a completely terrible person.”
“I have no idea how I’m going to do that.”
“You’ll figure it out.” she said with a wink, as she began to walk away. Then louder, in case anyone was around, “And don’t let me catch you around here again! Or I’ll throw you back into that dumpster and lock you in there!”
He thought about that conversation a lot over the following eight months. Do something for the greater good. What is that supposed to mean?
For a while he had considered taking on the role of a vigilante superhero. Ratman, they would call him! He would patrol the hallways and parking lots of the high school and protect those who couldn’t protect themselves! But that plan was ruined when Chaning found his sketches of the costume in his notebook in class one day. Chaning took the drawings and showed them to everyone. It was weeks before people stopped making fun of him for the drawings. Then they just moved on to mocking him for something else.
And so Taylor McFly continued his life of hiding from bullies and keeping to himself, in hopes that people would just leave him alone. That is until today.
He had been sitting in class working on his assignment when all of the sudden, there was a scream from down the hall. Everyone turned to look out the door and try to see what the commotion was all about.
“Everyone stay where you are,” the teacher said. “I’ll go see what’s wrong.”
As soon as he left, the room erupted with sound as people began to discuss what was going on. Was someone hurt? Was there a gunman in the school? Had someone left a nasty surprise in one of the bathroom toilets? Only moments later, the teacher returned.
“Quiet down, quiet down. No need to worry, students,” he said with a slight chuckle. “Mrs. Marsaglia thought she saw a ghost in the library. It’s nonsense. Clearly, she is just looking for an excuse to get out of supervising study hall.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” one of the students said, “I thought I felt a strange presence in there last Monday while I was looking for a book!”
“Yeah!” said another student. “I had a book fall on my head from the very top shelf last week. There was no one else in that aisle! It had to have been a ghost.”
“Me too! A book fell on my head just this morning!”
Suddenly the entire room was chiming in with strange stories of ghosts, not just in the library, but all over the school. Taylor McFly sat in the back, silently taking it all in. An idea had just occurred to him.
“Enough!” the teacher shouted over all the other voices. “I’m not sure what you all claim to have experienced, but I assure you, there is no such thing as ghosts! Now get back to your work!”
As soon as the class ended, Taylor McFly headed straight for the Freshman Hallway. He dodged the group of Mr. Gunn’s cronies and slipped out the door to go find Taylor Marty so he could tell him about his new idea.
Since his rollerblades were not in their usual spot, he decided he would have to walk to the park to find the other Taylor. While Bogg had gone off to study science at some fancy university in another town, Taylor Marty had stayed local, enrolling in the local community college. That way, he always said, “I can still hang out at my favorite park bench!” So Taylor McFly knew exactly where to look to find him.
Hours later, Taylor McFly finally made it to the park. As he walked up the hill, he saw the figure of a large body lying sprawled out on the park bench. Good ole’ Taylor Marty… He thought. Never change.
“Taylor!” he said, excitedly as he shook him awake. “Taylor, I have a brilliant plan!”
“Umph…grrr… what?” Taylor Marty groaned as he started to wake up. “I’m trying to sleep. What do you want?”
“I came up with a brilliant plan to make everyone stop hating us!”
“You did!?” Taylor Marty said, snapping his eyes open the rest of the way. “What is it?”
Taylor McFly recounted the entire story from class that day.
“And then somebody else said, ‘Me too! A book fell on my head just this morning!’ After that the whole room went off with crazy stories about ghosts, or whatever!”
“So…” Taylor Marty said hesitantly, “What’s your plan?”
“Don’t you see!?” Taylor McFly exclaimed. “Multiple students who bully us were hit on the head with books! That had to have hurt!”
“And…?”
“We’ll need Bogg’s help, of course. But I think this might just work–”
“Taylor!” Taylor Marty interrupted, “What is your plan!?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet?” Taylor McFly said, impatiently. “If we can help these bullies, they won’t hate us anymore! All we need to do is…”
He paused to see if Taylor Marty could figure it out. Taylor Marty stared back at him blankly. After a solid minute of silence, he figured it out.
“All we need to do is invent a helmet that the bullies can wear to protect themselves from falling books in the library!”
Taylor McFly stared at him with his mouth slightly opened.
“Exactly!” he said suddenly, with a smile. “Great minds do think alike!”
“Well, we better get started.” Taylor Marty said, jumping up from his bench. “Let’s get the ole’ gang back together again!”
“We have to find Bogg first. Do you know where he goes to college?”
“No…” Taylor Marty replied. “Let’s go to his lab and see if we can find out where he is.”
“Of course!” Taylor McFly said. “Let’s go!”
“Yeah! Let’s go!”
“Alright, let’s go!”
They started to go.
“Wait,” Taylor Marty said, stopping. “We’re walking? Where’s your car?”
“Oh yeah…” Taylor McFly said. “I forgot I had a car. And someone stole my rollerblades.”
“Well, that sucks. I guess we have to walk then.”
And so they walked.
THE STORY CONTINUES IN CHAPTER FOUR, COMING SOON…