Casey sighed as she heard the loud music coming from the room next to her.

For one thing she was a little confused. Today was Friday night and Derek wasn't out with a girl. He must be ill.

The loud rock music was in fact not Derek's stereo, but Derek himself. Recently he had taken up the electric guitar again. Presumably this was to annoy Casey even more than he already did.

Not that he needed to annoy her much, he did that anyway. The two had never got on since her mum had married his dad.

Although she would never admit it, she kinda had feelings for him and the only thing that was stopping her from telling him was that he was her stepbrother. She wasn't sure if what it would be if they got together. Would it class as incest? She didn't know.

Yes she did have feelings for him but it was either being completely head over heels in love with him…or wanting to curse him into oblivion for being such an arrogant brat. There was a fine line between them. They would be in supper for instance and he would be annoying her and then she really wanted to stick his head on a pole but then he would flash that gorgeous smile at her or play a little with her little sister Marti, and then the scales tipped the other way and she was in love again. It really got on her nerves as she couldn't decide whether she loved or hated him.

She tried to carry on studying though the noise but she just couldn't concentrate.

She got up and banged on the wall and yelled that he should have more consideration to the rest of the house and, indeed, the rest of the neighbourhood.

This was to no avail however and so she decided that immediate action was necessary, which brought her to the door of a certain Derek Venturi.

She decided to forgo the knock and barged right in.

What she saw made her jaw drop and then she had to suppress a giggle that was threatening to escape.

Derek stood there, on his bed, playing his guitar wearing nothing but a pair of red silk boxers.

He noticed she was there and very nearly fell off his bed in surprise.

"Casey! What the hell are you doing here?"

"I came in to tell you to keep it down a bit. I'm trying to study."

"Oh, sorry. Can't you take a night off, for once? I'll play you something."

"No Derek. I have to work. Aren't you supposed to be on a date anyway?"

"Um no. Hannah kinda blew me off tonight."

Casey actually did fall over at this news.

He put his guitar down and went over to her to help her up.

They stood there, only inches from each other. He was still holding her hand.

Just a few more inches…Casey was thinking. A few more inches and we'll be kissing. No stop it! Stepbrother! Yeah…STEPbrother. Oh, go away. Stupid voice!

They gazed into each other's eyes. He ran his thumb over her knuckles. The mere touch of his skin on hers sent chills down her back and yet still felt warm and somehow right.

Her mental battle was now going into overtime.

If Casey had been able to read his thoughts she would discover that they ran similar to hers.

They held the moment before they both remembered that he was dressed only in those boxers. They broke away from each other, embarrassed. Then Casey slipped back into her own room.

There was silence for a moment and then he heard her explode with laughter. He also thought he heard her squeal something along the lines of oh god this is so wrong.

He grinned to himself before picking up his guitar again. Before he started playing again he heard the laughter subside and assumed she had gone back to her work, shrugged and turned the volume up again.

"DEREK!" every voice in the house except Marti's yelled.

So, you wanna play like that, do you? Well, two can play at that game. Can't wait to see the surprise on their faces.

Something Casey had kept a secret from the male population in her house was that she two played electric guitar. She had inherited a green Gibson Les Paul SG from her dad after he died and he had taught her how to play it very well. She hadn't told them about her skill and she hadn't played it for a while.

She went to her wardrobe and pulled out her guitar case and amp. She plugged it all in and tuned it up.

She began to play the riff to Smoke on the Water. After a while she heard the guitar from next door stop playing. She switched to Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. Then smoothly into one of the guitar solos in Through the Fire and the Flames by Dragonforce. This solo was incredibly difficult and even Derek hadn't mastered it yet.

She casually switched again to Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen as she turned to see him standing in her doorway, still only wearing his boxers.

"Why didn't you tell me you could play?"

She shrugged and grinned, changing to the guitar solo at the end of We Will Rock You.

He just stood and stared at her.

He opened his mouth to say something, lost track and shut his mouth again. He then repeated this several times. It was rather cute actually.

He turned and walked forward as though to go back to his room. Unfortunately he forgot that he had closed the door behind him, and since he was still in shock that Casey could play guitar, he walked into the door and fell backwards.

He must have hit his head as he hit the floor because he passed out. When he woke up his head was in Casey's lap and she was dabbing something wet to his forehead.

"Welcome back." She said smiling kindly at him.

"Okay, that was embarrassing!"

"Funny though." He glared at her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't make fun of you when you're suffering from your humiliation that only your stepsister saw."

"Don't tell people about me being such a klutz."

"I won't. You wanna jam together sometime?"

"Sure, if I can keep up with you. Do you realise how long it's taking me to master Through the Fire and the Flames solos? But you have mastered it already. How come you're so good?"

"My, my dad taught me. It was his guitar. I don't know how I learnt songs so fast, though. All I need to do to learn a new song is to listen to the song for about ten minutes and test around a little on my guitar and I've learnt it. I need a new challenge."

"Wow, so everything you do really is perfect, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"Remember when Marti made us watch Mary Poppins when we were babysitting the brats? Well you're just like her. Practically perfect in every way."

"You think I'm perfect?"

"Oops! Forget I said that! I've gotta go. Night."

He dashed out of the room and back into his own, this time making sure to open all the doors.

Casey smiled and went back to her guitar. When she picked up her guitar she knocked over her case and out spilled all these song sheets.

They had been written by her dad, and a few she had composed. She gathered them up and read the title of the topmost one.

It read I Don't Know What To Do With Him.

She had written it after she had met Derek for the first time but she had yet to set it to music.

May as well do that now. Got nothing better to do anyway. She thought.