A bright white light hit Derek's face. He put his hand up to block it, attempting to lessen the light and increase his vision, but as the light was coming from every direction, it was a hopeless cause. He couldn't see where he was at or where he was heading, but his feet seemed to lead him, as if they had eyes of their own for seeing. The light dimmed as he walked further down the narrow hallway. As he came to a halt, at what he could only assume was a bedroom door, he heard what he best deciphered as a very dramatic song with lots of pianos and violins emitting from the other side. Derek stood there for a moment, not exactly sure what he was supposed to do next. He attempted to walk away, but his feet wouldn't move. Since his feet had led him here and apparently wouldn't let him leave, he figured, he might as well knock. Perhaps the person on the other side would understand why he was here.

The music stopped and he heard footsteps walking towards the door. He felt his heart hammering at an alarming rate as the doorknob opened and a girl appeared at the other side.

He stood there for a moment, taking her in. He looked her up and down. She was wearing yoga pants that had the smallest trimming of purple at the waistline. And he saw, as his eyes came further up her body, a black and purple almost skin-tight shirt that matched. Damn, he thought, this girl has got an amazing body. She looked vaguely familiar, but, he wouldn't have been able to tell you where he knew her from. He must have stared at her breasts for a minute too long, because the girl cleared her throat. "Ahem?"

He looked at her face.

"Can I help you?" She said, raising her eyebrows suspiciously.

It was like he was watching himself as if he were outside of his body. He stood there awkwardly, not entirely sure what to do, which, for him, was weird. He somehow felt an automatic need to impress her.

"Why are you listening to that stupid music?" Derek sneered at the girl.

The girl stepped back. "For your information, that 'stupid music'" She started, putting air quotes around the words 'stupid' and 'music'"is one of the best classical pieces in the world. It's also good music. But of course, you wouldn't know anything about that, now, would you, Der?" She smirked as if she'd won a battle and put her hand on her hip.

Woah, wha - ? Okay, seriously who is this girl and why is she insulting me? Better question, in fact: Why am I insulting her?! Derek, man! Snap out of it! She's hot! Tell her something! Maybe about how hot she is! Something!

Derek snorted. "I've heard better sounds come out of dogs."

Before Derek could yell at himself again, the entire scenery changed. He was suddenly on the other side of what he assumed to be the same girl's room, yet, not entirely sure how he'd gotten there. It was obviously a different day, as the girl was wearing a completely different outfit. And somehow, Derek thought, if it were even possible, she looked even hotter than she had before. She'd traded the yoga pants for a pair of jeans that hugged her every curve, and a long sleeved pink button down shirt. Her hair, which had previously been up in a very tight bun, now fell in sweet brunette curls at her chest. This time, however, Derek stopped himself from staring for too long.

She was looking at him like she was ready to fight again. "Wh-what?" Derek said, trying but horribly failing confidence. What was it about this girl that made him act this way? He wasn't like this with most girls!

Snap out of it, Derek!

The girl raised her eyebrows at him and smirked.

I wish she would stop doing that. It's obviously making me nervous or.. something.

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but before she could -

BEEP BEEP BEEP

The alarm was screaming determinedly in his ear. Derek moaned begrudgingly and turned over in his bed. Without bothering to look at the time, he slung his arm around his body and slammed the snooze button on the clock. Why couldn't that alarm have waited five more minutes to go off?! He turned back on his side and silently prayed that he could fall back asleep. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to go back to that dream. Who was that girl? Derek wondered, as his mind drifted aimlessly back into sleep. He didn't have much time to think any more after that, however, as 15 minutes had already passed and his alarm was going off again.

"Derek!" He heard, followed by a loud banging at his door, which meant that his step-mom, Nora, was attempting to wake him up and get him to shut off the alarm. "I'm up! I'm up!" Derek took a lot of energy to yell. Nora had gotten him the stupid alarm clock for his birthday last month, after she'd found out about Derek's 7th tardy at school. He'd planned on keeping it in the box it came with, and never really using it, until his step-sister, Casey, came and set it all up for him without his knowledge. Derek finally sighed and shut the alarm off. He almost thought about falling back asleep, that was of course, until he heard his dad asking Nora if he was awake yet.

Derek sighed heavily and threw the blankets off of his body. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and went straight for his dresser and opened the third drawer down. Pushing untidy clothes out of the way, he pulled out a pair of jeans and slipped them on over his boxers.

The rest of the morning went on just like normal. Well, as normal as Derek's life ever was, he supposed. When he walked into the kitchen, his dad and Nora were hugging and kissing each other goodbye as Nora readied herself to leave for work. "Ew, no." Derek said simply, covering his eyes and grabbing the first thing he saw on the counter - an apple - and rushing himself out the door before his other step-sister Lizzie could tell him to stop being so immature.

He didn't eat the apple, but instead handed it off to his best friend Sam when he met him in the school parking lot. School was never Derek's strong suit, and the only thing that stopped Derek from skipping most of his classes, in all honesty, was the fact that he was popular. You know how the saying goes, girls wanted him and guys wanted to be him. And Derek thoroughly enjoyed the attention that he got.

As he and Sam walked through the front doors of their school and towards their locker, Sam's girlfriend, Jenna, came running towards them with Jenna's best friend, Kate.

"Sammie!" Jenna exclaimed as she ran and jumped into Sam's arms. Sam's face reddened as he hugged her, and Derek pretended to be barfing behind her back. Kate rolled her eyes and Derek abruptly stopped as he saw Kate watching him.

"Uh.. okay, well yeah.." Derek said awkwardly, as he turned to walk away. "I'll see you later... Sammie." Derek winked and Jenna let go of Sam immediately, shooting Derek a very nasty look.

Derek, however, simply laughed quietly and walked away. Kate was Derek's ex girlfriend, and for some reason, never forgave Derek for breaking up with her. Even though he was sure she understood that their relationship wasn't anything serious, she apparently thought differently. Derek just didn't "do" serious relationships. Never had and probably never will.

The average school day was never overly entertaining so Derek wasn't expecting much out of his day. He went to class after boring class, barely understood a word of what was going on in his Spanish Language class as his teacher, Mr. Garnot, had recently established a new rule in the classroom that if you were to speak, you could only speak in Spanish, and sat through what felt like the most boring lecture of his entire life in Government and Economics. As the bell rang at the end of his last class, he was one of the first out of his seat.

He had almost forgotten about the dream completely, that was.. until he saw her.

Standing at her locker, trying to fit way more books than would fit into her backpack, was Casey. Derek furrowed his eyebrows curiously as he remembered the dream he had the night before. Why, though, he wondered, was Casey the one who reminded him so clearly of it?

"Dude, move" Derek, who hadn't realized he was standing in the middle of the hallway, stepped to the side and said "Sorry, man" to the guy trying to get by with a girl.

Derek watched Casey for a second longer before simply muttering "Hmm" and calling it off as pure coincidence.

"Guess whooooo?" A giggling girlish voice suddenly appeared behind him. He felt his backpack slide off his shoulder, and somebody's hands slide up to cover his eyes. Derek smiled. Feeling his way up his face, he removed the girls hands from his face and turned around. "Lisa, hey."

"Damn it, Derek! You were supposed to guess!" Lisa said, faking utter disappointment and pouting her bottom lip up at Derek.

Derek laughed, "Sorry."

"So," Lisa said in a loud voice, "are we still on for tomorrow night?"

Admittedly, Derek had forgotten all about his date, but he played it cool. "Of course! Right now though, um, I gotta go," He said, pointing behind him, but I'll pick you up tomorrow, say, around 7?"

"Can't wait!" She replied, winking and turning to walk away. She caught up with a friend halfway down the hall who had been watching and giggled excitedly. Derek turned to walk away and saw that Casey had left. The hallway was slowly dying out of people as Derek slung his backpack back over his left shoulder and walked out the door.

Derek spent a few hours hanging out with Sam and their friend Ralph before heading home at around 6:30pm. When Derek walked through the front door and in to the living room later that night, his first view was of his little brother Edwin, and then Lizzie, sitting on the couch watching TV together. They weren't fighting over the remote, which struck Derek as odd, but brushed it off. They were bound to agree to watching some shows together at some point. As Derek walked further into the room, dropping his backpack onto the floor next to the coat rack, he saw Marti, his little sister, sitting on the floor next to Lizzie, coloring in an apparent newly bought coloring book. She was the only one to look up as he came into the room. "Hey, Smarti." Derek smiled at her. "Hi, Smerek!" She said joyfully as Derek made his way up the stairs.

He was halfway up the steps when he saw Nora putting food on the table. "Food time?" Derek asked excitedly.

Nora giggled, "Yes. Could you tell Casey to come downstairs for dinner too, please?"

Derek huffed as he made his way up the stairs and towards Casey's door. He picked up his hand to knock, but was caught off guard by the music he heard playing in the background. Familiar music. Something like pianos and violins. He froze in mid-air, and, then, just as quickly as that happened, wrenched the door open and found Casey dancing around her room, stopping almost immediately as Derek entered.

"Casey?" Derek whispered, after a moment of stunned silence, looking at her like he'd never seen her before. Casey furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Derek expectantly. "Uh, what?"

Derek didn't know what to say. And he found that sensation increasing as he looked her up and down. Derek felt as though his entire world was spinning, and he hung on to Casey's door for dear life. He suddenly remembered every detail of the dream he'd had the night before.

"Um... d-dinner. Dinner's ready." said Derek, getting himself together and walking slowly out of Casey's room. But he didn't walk downstairs for dinner, instead, he turned the other way and walked straight into his room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Derek threw himself onto his bed and turned to face the ceiling.

Taking a deep breath and burying his hands into his head, he muttered "The girl was Casey."