"Outatime" - Chapter Eight

            There was hardly much sleep to be had in the Brown residence that evening. The possibility of Phineas being erased from existence mortified everyone, rightfully Phineas himself. Something that he, Marty, and Ferb did the other day – their first day in 1985 – endangered the Flynn timeline. The only way to get to the bottom of it was to visit Hill Valley High.

            The school didn’t look all that dissimilar to its 2025 counterpart, once Marty and the boys showed up there, the following morning. There was still graffiti on the lower half exterior, but it was of low quantity. The school janitor – someone Marty didn’t recognize – did his best to conceal it all with a fresh paint job at the time of their arrival.

            “Good luck with that, dude,” Marty scoffed from a distance.

            “Now, remember,” Phineas recounted, “we need to find out what it was that we changed about yesterday’s events. Ferb and I will find your dad, Marty, while you find our mom.”

            “Got it,” Marty confirmed, prior to taking her smartphone out from her back pocket and adding, “Let’s keep in touch through text.” She then only realized, “Not that kids ever texted on their phones in 1985.”

            Phineas snickered. “It’s not a bad idea, Marty. But let’s just do it in secret.”

            On that agreement, Marty and the brothers parted ways.

            It was lunchtime in the cafeteria when Phineas and Ferb discovered George McFly there, sitting alone at one of the tables in the corner. He was penning away on a notebook to his left while munching on his lunch (a burger and fries with chocolate milk) from his right.

            “Hey, George,” Phineas called.

            George looked up from his work and food when he heard his name, noticing the redheaded boy with the acutely shaped head and his green-haired companion seating themselves at his table. “Do I know you fellas?” he asked.

            “Eh, kinda,” Phineas said. “We met yesterday at Century Café.”

            George’s brow narrowed on the duo. “Wait a sec…you’re the guys who were with that girl! You embarrassed Linda in front of Tiff Tannen! It’s because of you that she’s not gonna perform in the Battle of the Bands!” He began to gather his notebook and food tray, motioning a rapid departure from the table. “I don’t know what you guys want, but I want you to leave me alone!”

            “George, wait!” Phineas stopped him. “Just hear us out. We want to make up things with you and Mom—I mean, Linda.”

            George kept himself glued to his seat – more out of interest than courtesy. “And how exactly do you intend on doing that?”

            “Well…” Phineas thought fast. “You mentioned the Battle of the Bands. Is there any way we can convince her to change her mind?”

            George sighed. “You think I haven’t already tried that? I mean, I wrote a whole song for her to sing at the Battle.” He briefly held up his notebook to Phineas and Ferb.

            “You’re a songwriter?” Phineas beamed at the notion. “I never knew that!”

            “Why would you?” George inquired.

            “Erm, no reason,” Phineas covered. Quickly changing the topic, he requested of George, “Can we check out your notes?”

            “I, uh, don’t usually let anyone but Linda read them,” George said, “but under the circumstances, I suppose I can let you read the first page I finished, a couple of days ago.” He handed the notebook over to Phineas.

            The Flynn-Fletcher brothers scanned through all the musical notes and lyrics that George composed on the completed page. It looked so professionally done that it might as well have been sheet music off a maestro conductor’s stand. Halfway through scanning, however, Phineas and Ferb began to recognize the song George composed for Linda.

            It was the “Lindana” song – Linda’s one-hit wonder.

            They heard the tune enough times to remember the beat and words.

            Although Phineas couldn’t say it aloud to Ferb, the brothers were on the same thought process: Linda Flynn’s performance in the 1985 Battle of the Bands was a pivotal moment in the family timeline. It was what led to her success as “Lindana” that in turn convinced her to become a mother. Without that conviction, Linda never followed her destiny, and neither Candace nor Phineas were ever born.

            “Could you excuse us for a minute, George?” Phineas entreated.

            George passively shrugged. “Uh, yeah…sure.”

            Phineas led Ferb into the closest bathroom. After checking the stalls and locking the door, he pulled out his phone and proceeded to text Marty the same thing that he verbally told his stepbrother: “We have to get Mom to perform her song on that stage, if we wanna fix the timeline and prevent me and Candace from being erased.”

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            Marty roamed the halls along the other side of the school when she received Phineas’s text message, double-checking to see if anyone was around before she read it off her phone. As she read the message, her ears picked up on some noises coming from the school auditorium. She brushed her hair back behind her left ear to listen more clearly, ultimately drawn to the sound.

            Entering an empty building with only the stage lit, she found a girl standing there and singing acapella to Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Marty squinted from the rear section, hoping to see who the lone performer was. To her surprise, it was Linda Flynn.

            Marty smiled. Linda’s singing was out of this world, which came as no surprise to Marty, who listened to “Lindana” quite often, whether it was on the radio or whenever her parents played it in their living room stereo.

            She couldn’t help but to applaud as soon as Linda wrapped up her singing.

            “W-Who’s there?!” Linda jolted from the applause, not anticipating anyone else to be in the area. It was usually this empty during lunchtime, before the drama club students arrived for fifth period. The spotlights made it virtually impossible to see beyond the first few vacant rows.

            Her admirer immediately stepped forward – a redheaded girl about her age, dressed in a velvet solid corset top, a cropped denim jacket, and blue jeans. Of course, Linda better recognized her from the down vest she wore yesterday at Century Café.

            “You!” she hissed at Marty. “Are you following me?! Who are you?!”

            “Easy, Linda,” Marty said, her hands held up peacefully. “I’m not here for trouble.”

            “How do you know my name? I’ve never even seen you before!”

            “I kinda know George McFly. I’m his…neighbor.”

            Linda eyed Marty shiftily, her arms crossed. “Uh-huh. What do you want?”

            “To apologize for yesterday…and to insist that you go through with your performance at the Battle of the Bands.”

            Linda scoffed. “You really do know George, doncha? Did he send you?”

            “Nope. I came here on my own. We felt guilty about embarrassing you in front of Tiff Tannen.”

            “And by ‘we’ you mean yourself and those two weird boys you were with?”

            Marty tried not to laugh at Linda’s description of her future son and stepson. “Right…those guys.”

            “Well, I appreciate the thought, but I don’t know if I have it in me to go through with it anymore. What Tiff said really got to me, ya know? Do you know how terrifying it is to be rejected?”

            Marty stiffened with a frown. “Yeah…I think I have a good idea.”

            “Then you should know how tough it is to get back that confidence once you’ve lost it. Before yesterday at the café, I would’ve been thrilled at the idea of singing in front of the whole school. But now…I just…I don’t know.”

            Seeing Linda stand on that stage and look so discouraged broke Marty’s heart.

            She kept seeing herself up there, particularly the other day at the auditions for the 2025 Battle of the Bands. In both cases, Tiff Tannen robbed a young woman of her self-esteem with a few hurtful words.

            “So…why not start with a smaller crowd?” Marty suggested from an idea that just popped in her head.

            “Like who?” Linda asked.

            “Like the one at Century Café this Saturday,” Marty devised. “They have an open mic stage there. Why not try it out?”

            Linda was deeply hesitant of the idea, hugging herself apprehensively.

            Sensing her uncertainty, Marty sweetened the pot. “Tell you what – those two weird boys and I will help you practice. We’ll even perform with you.”

            As Marty expected, Linda warmed up to the plan. “Really? That’s sweet of you. I…I don’t even know your name.”

            “It’s Marty.”