Chapter One
A piercing beeping noise woke Casey from her dreamless sleep. She sat up and blinked hard, trying to wake herself up. She reached over to her alarm clock and hit the off button, reading the time 6:30. If she was lucky, she would beat Derek to the bathroom, and the shower. She stretched and got out of bed, beginning to remove her flannel pajamas when she heard Derek's alarm, set to play the local rock station at full blast, go off. She groaned and reached for the supply of towels she kept stacked neatly in the corner of her room. She wrapped herself in one and raced to open her bedroom door. Standing there, across the hall from her, Derek had opened his door at the same time. Standing only in his sweatpants, his eyes met Casey's and narrowed. Casey took off and headed down the hall for the bathroom, but Derek was too quick and rushed past her, knocking her down on the way.
"DER-EK!" She yelled, trying to stand up without losing the towel from around her. Derek stuck his head out of the bathroom and snickered, "Snooze ya lose, Space." He closed the door behind him and locked it. Casey groaned and went back to her room. Now she'd have to wait until his was done, and just because he enjoyed being annoying, he always took super long showers.
Later, after Casey had finished her shower, both of them were called down for a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon before school. Derek pushed and shoved his way into the kitchen and got the biggest slices of bacon before the rest of the family had any pick.
"Derek, could you pass the pepper, please?" Casey asked, holding out her hand for the shaker. Derek just snorted, "Uh..no."
"Derek, you are impossible. Edwin, could you please pass the pepper?" Casey asked, looking towards Edwin expectantly. Edwin, who was sitting next to Derek complied and handed over the pepper shaker. Edwin and Lizzie finished their meals first, and were soon taken to school by Nora. Casey and Derek spent the rest of the meal exchanging harsh words and catty comments before they had to leave for school as well.
"I'm driving." Derek exclaimed, Casey, who had a huge Chemistry test to worry about, didn't argue. It disheartened Derek a little to not get any retaliation out of her, but he was just happy to get his way. It was Friday; after all, he had a big game tomorrow and a big date tomorrow night. If Casey didn't want to argue, it was fine with him. Except for the radio, playing the same rock station as Derek's alarm clock, the car ride to school was silent.
Casey spent the time she wasn't in class studying for her chemistry test by quizzing herself with index cards, neatly inscribed with questions on one side and answers on the other. Chemistry was her last class of the day, and she was going to use all the time she could studying. By the time lunch rolled around, she knew every answer to every question, but she was still nervous about the test. A voice behind her was the last thing she wanted to hear:
"Well, Librarian Casey, what are we learning today?" Derek asked, snatching the index cards from her hands. He stared at them for a second with a blank look on his face before Casey took them back. "I'm learning chemistry. Looks like you are learning absolutely nothing, like always." Derek smirked, "I happen to be very good at….certain subjects." He paused, trying to think of any subject that he was good at, but when he couldn't think of any, he settled for a lie. Casey just laughed and shook her head in
disbelief. Before she had a chance to ask which subjects he was talking about, Derek walked off towards the cafeteria.
When the last period rolled around, Casey was confident that she had done well on the chemistry test. At the ring of the bell, Casey stood up and gave her test another looking over before turning it into the teacher with a smile. She was pretty sure that she had answered almost every question right.
She made her way to her locker and stopped to chat with Emily for a bit. They planned on meeting later, at Emily's, but Casey headed to the rink to watch Sam and Derek in hockey practice. Derek was her ride home, after all, and it was fun to watch the boys knock each other around. It wasn't long before practice was over; Derek didn't have a great practice, and was grumpy on the way home. They avoided each other the rest of the evening, as much as possible, and were even civil to each other at dinner.
After dinner, Casey picked up Twilight and started reading it for the fifth time. She fell asleep an hour later, wondering why the guys she knew couldn't be more like Edward. She'd even settle for a Jake.
