Edwin came down the stairs to find Derek kneeling outside Casey's door. Edwin was wearing a suit. "Um, Derek, what are you doing?"
"Waiting to see her reaction." Derek sniggered.
"What did you do? You know if you ruin today she's going to murder you." Edwin leant on the banister.
"I know. I turned off her alarm clock."
"You're gonna make her late for her own graduation? Where are we going to hide your body?"
"She'll be fine. Remember she's not nearly as uptight as she was when they first moved in." It was true. Casey had indeed learned to calm down and not take life too seriously.
"Casey?" Derek stood up and knocked on her door. "Case, are you ready yet? We have to leave in fifteen minutes."
"Not in this house." Edwin muttered as he headed downstairs.
"Fifteen minutes!!" he heard Casey screech. "Derek you are so dead!!"
Edwin sat on the couch and rolled his eyes at Lizzie who he couldn't help noticing looked very sweet and pretty, and yet very Lizzie at the same time.
"How the hell are they going to survive this summer?" Lizzie asked.
"Don't ask me. One of them's going to come back in a body bag."
"Wanna bet on which one?"
"Always." Edwin grinned. He never turned away from a bet, just like his older brother.
"Ten bucks on who's sibling comes back in a coffin? I bet on Casey, you bet on Derek?"
"No, you bet on Derek and I'll bet on Casey." Edwin held out his hand and Lizzie shook it.
By this point George was shouting up the stairs for the graduates. Moments later they rushed down, Casey still brushing her hair with her black mortarboard under her arm and the black and red gown in a better state than the one Derek was wearing.
"This is so weird. I can't believe we're graduating. You especially Derek." Casey said making a face at Derek who made one back. For all they thought they were very grown up at eighteen they still had occasional bouts of childishness.
"Well without you he probably wouldn't have done." Nora said with an apologetic look at Derek as she put the mortarboard on his head. Derek promptly took it off again.
Casey had spent most of the school year tutoring Derek which, on the one hand, made them hate each other more viciously, but, on the other, also helped them become closer. The relationship was very love-hate and that hyphen was terribly small. And it was widely known that she was the only reason he was graduating.
George rushed the whole family out of the house and pretty soon they were at school.
After the ceremony Derek, Casey, Emily and Sam shared a group hug, diploma's in hand.
"I can't believe this is happening." Emily said with tears in her eyes.
"Em, it's not goodbye. We'll see each other after the summer. We're not gone for all of it." Casey said stroking Emily's hair.
"I can't believe high school's over." Emily said. "No more sharing a locker. No more gossiping in the bathrooms. No more hanging out on the stairs."
"On the plus side, no more detention with Derek." Sam cut in, producing a small, tearful laugh.
"No more running for the school bus. No more complaining about Derek to Paul." Casey said.
"No more tossing a football in the halls and hitting Casey in the head." Derek said with a smirk. "No more D-Rock. No more hockey team."
"No more food fights in the cafeteria. No more lying to get out of trouble." Sam said.
"No more fights with Casey in the halls. No more summer camps at school." Derek said, smiling at the memories.
"No more school dances. No more prom. No more getting Derek's lunch by accident."
"No more Saturday detention in the library." Emily said.
"Yeah. I'll miss them. Fun times." Casey said, and then they both realised what they had said.
Derek and Sam looked at them in shock. "You guys got Saturday detention? A pair of goodie goodies like you?" Derek said.
"Who do you think pulled the fire alarm to focus everyone's attention away from your pranks? Who do you think staged all the coincidental distractions when you were pulling a stunt somewhere else in the school? We made sure we got caught and made sure it was understood that we did it as a rebellion; an outpouring of repressed badness that had to be kept under wraps. That just meant extra sessions with Paul." Casey said smirking.
"I'm impressed Case. I thought they seemed to be too much of a coincidence." Derek said.
"We feigned innocence in front of you. We were almost ashamed of it. We knew all about your scams and pranks. We didn't want you to be expelled so we created distractions. Drew the attention away from you so you could finish up and not get caught." Casey said, smiling gently.
"It earned us a couple of Saturday detentions when you thought we were out shopping. Not exactly a big price to pay." Emily grinned at the boys.
"We weren't being martyrs or anything. It was just a way to keep you out of trouble." Casey said speaking to Derek when they broke the hug.
"And you let me keep teasing you, and fighting with you about everything. Why didn't you say anything?" Derek pressured her.
"You wouldn't have believed me. I also knew you wouldn't understand."
"Understand what?"
"Nothing. Never mind. Maybe I'll tell you on the holiday."
"A tour of Europe. Who knows what could happen?"
"Let's just hope you don't get into too much trouble."