Morning Rituals
Casey was the first one to wake up that Saturday morning. Everyone was going to be up soon, except for Derek. Go figures.He doesn't even have the decency to try at school.
She quickly dressed out of her pajamas and put on some sweats and a normal t-shirt. She wasn't going to bother with dressing up since she planned to just lay back for the day. Casey thought she deserved to relax after a long week of finals anyways. She descended the stairs and walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of orange juice. I am so glad it's winter break. Two weeks of relaxing and a head start of school when it starts in the new year. She enjoyed her peace and quiet while it lasted when Derek came running down the stairs wide awake, much to Casey's surprise.
"What are you doing up right now? You know it's a Saturday, and you're supposed to be lazy, right?" Casey asked.
"You know, some people would think sisters should say 'Good morning' on the first day of winter break," Derek shot back. He flinched at his own choice of words calling her his 'sister.'
"Step-sister," she corrected. "No way am I going to be related to you. But seriously. Why are you up? It's only 7 o'clock, and you have trouble getting up at 8 on school days."
"That's because if it's a school day, that means I have to actually go to school and pretend to learn. While on weekends I get to lay back and do nothing and watching hockey," Derek answered while drinking milk out of the carton.
Casey grabbed the carton from Derek's hand when some milk spilled onto him. "Derek, why can't you just drink like any normal and civilized person would? You know, it's not that hard to just get a cup and pour it."
"And it's not that hard to just stay out of the way." Derek snatched the milk from Casey and was about to continue drinking it.
"You're repulsive! You're such a pig!" Casey took the carton one last time when the milk spilled onto the floor and onto Derek. "Hmm. Serves you right for acting like an animal."
Derek looked up and down at her and began to chase her around the counter for dumping milk on him. They circled around twice when the second time Casey slipped and landed with a thud.
"De-rek!" Casey yelled.
"Whoa! Looks like Klutzilla's back once again," Derek said laughing at her still sitting on the floor.
Casey groaned in frustration, took his arm, and pulled him on the floor with her. They both began wrestling on the floor when George and Nora came running up from their bedroom in the basement.
"What is going on in here?" Nora demanded looking at the two teenagers. Derek had Casey pinned on the floor beneath him, and they were both red in the face from the fight.
"Seriously, you two. Can't you guys get along for once? This is the first thing that happens everyday. Fighting!" George added.
"Derek started it!" Casey yelled as she stood up slipping a bit.
"I started it? You're such a neat freak that you can't even let me drink from the carton, so you decide to drown me in it instead?" Derek exclaimed. Casey scoffed at Derek's sudden anger.
"That's it, you two! Go upstairs and get washed. We'll discuss your guys' issues when you come down," George demanded. Derek stared at him in disgust with a challenging look. "Now," George repeated.
Casey and Derek both groaned as they made their way up the stairs pushing and shoving each other along the way muttering over whose fault it really was.
"George, what are we going to do about those two?" Nora questioned. "I was hoping they would actually get along considering it's winter break and Christmas is approaching."
George sighed in frustration. "I'm not sure, but we have to make it clear that they can't continue with this kind of behavior in the house. They're both juniors in high school, for crying out loud. They should be more responsible," George reasoned.
"Oh, I know. It's just…I worry they'll never start fighting. I mean, Lizzie and Edwin get along just fine without disagreements-" Nora was interrupted by a loud 'De-rek!' from upstairs. Casey came storming into the kitchen with Derek trailing behind her.
"Mom! Derek stole all my clothes and won't give them back!" Casey explained.
"Derek…" George threatened giving him a stern look. "Why did you take all of Casey's clothes?"
"Because. I knew that by today she would've done something to get me mad, so I decided to plan ahead and stole them in the middle of the night when she was sleeping for some early revenge," Derek said in a tone expecting the three to already know.
"Derek…" George started again.
"Fine. Geez," Derek scoffed. "But I'm not going to just hand them over. You're going to have to find them, Casey."
"Derek. Where. Are. They?" Casey asked with a strict tone.
"My goodness, Princess. Don't explode on the way up," he said while turning to head upstairs.
Casey groaned and stomped after Derek. Derek stopped in front of his bedroom door and motioned for Casey to go inside. She entered with hesitation and saw her clothes dumped all around his room in various places.
"Have fun picking them all up, Princess," Derek laughed and headed towards the bathroom.
Casey sighed in annoyance and bent down to begin gathering her clothes. Why must he always make my life miserable? Does he find joy in getting me mad all the time? She just finished gathering all her clothes when Derek appeared leaning against the doorway with his Venturi smirk across his face.
"Had fun with my little scavenger hunt for you?" he questioned.
Casey just simply bumped into him on her way out and retreated into her own bedroom and began to change out of her drenched clothes. By the time she went back downstairs, everyone was up and excited for the two week long vacation. Lizzie, Edwin, and Marti were all eating cereal while Nora was cooking some bacon and eggs in the pan.
"Daddy! What's the surprise? I want to know!" Marti demanded.
"Surprise? What surprise?" Edwin suddenly asked. He turned to Lizzie and whispered, "How come we don't have a file on this?" Lizzie replied with a simple shrug.
"Hold on, guys. I want everyone to be here for me to announce the news. And by everyone I mean Derek," George said just as the last teenager walked into the kitchen.
"I heard my name. What's going on?" Derek asked as he lifted Mart onto his lap on a stool.
"Well, now that I see everyone's here, I have an exciting announcement to make," George started.
Derek groaned. "Ugh. Can you just get to the point?" he asked with some of Marti's cereal trailing out of his mouth. Casey looked at him in disgust.
Nora finished, "For New Year's Eve, we're going to New York to see the ball drop!"
"Really?" Casey started. "We get to see the performance and everything? And New York has such an amazing history…"
"Ugh. Casey. How can you even make New Year's at Times Square sound boring?" Derek questioned.
"We're not going to have to take him are we?" Casey asked her mom.
"As much as we don't want to, we can't trust him to stay home," George replied.
"Hey! That hurts," Derek mocked. "But I'm glad I'm going. Who knows? Maybe there's some hot girls to kiss when it turns midnight."
Everyone turned to give him a disapproving stare while Derek continued with the smirk on his face. This was going to be a long winter break, Casey thought.