SECOND
Disclaimer: So I'm not actually Daphne Ballon, the president of Shaftsbury, or even a member of the board at Astral media. But since the stock is currently 39 Canadian dollars a share, perhaps I should buy some so that I no longer have to claim that I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK.
Author's Note: I wrote this after re-watching "Ivanwho?" and thinking about what all the kids at school must think of Derek and Casey's relationship. Also, I kind of liked Amy and thought that she would be an interesting character to write.
It had been nearly a week since Max broke up with Casey and Amy knew that any day now he would call. After all, he always did. Well, almost always . . . She also knew that, against her better judgment, she would take him back. After all, that was their pattern. She and Max had been on-again off-again for as long as she could remember. He always broke up with her and she always took him back.
The thing with Casey had shaken her. Simply put, she hadn't seen it coming. Sure, he had hooked up with other girls during their previous break-ups but none of them had lasted for more than a day. Casey had been a different story. At first Amy thought it was only a fling, but days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Amy knew that she had been displaced.
Worse yet, Amy actually liked Casey. After getting to know her through cheerleading, Amy could see why Max had been so taken with her. She was smart, confident, and strong willed. Everything that Amy wanted to be. If only she had Casey's backbone . . .
Although Max had never been the picture of chivalry and didn't exactly undergo a complete personality change in the last few months, Amy could tell that he had been really into Casey. She also knew that, although Max had ultimately ended it, Casey was still first in his heart. But Amy was willing to settle for second.
That was the difference between her and Max, she thought. Max was able to walk away from an unhealthy relationship with his dignity in tact. That was more than Amy could say about herself . . .
Max had always been second with Casey. Amy saw it. Hell, the whole school probably saw it. Casey McDonald belonged to Derek Venturi. Max had unwittingly walked into their bizarre little relationship.
When Casey first arrived at Sir John Sparrow, no one realized she was Derek Venturi's stepsister, but it was clear that there was something off about her. Because although she was indisputably drop-dead gorgeous, the smoothest most popular guy in the school either avoided her like the plague or made fun of her whenever they came in to contact with each other.
When it finally came out that they were stepsiblings, things started to make a little more sense. Somewhere along the way, the public avoidance turned into very public teasing and pranking. One time she had even come to school wearing his clothes claiming that he had hidden all of hers. Like that family dynamic was normal . . .
Even when Derek was dating other girls, much of his attention seemed to be devoted to teasing Casey. That didn't change when she started to date Max. Derek covered her with post-it notes in class one day, silly-stringed her in the middle of the hallways, dumped food on her in the cafeteria, and published insulting poems about her feet in the school newspaper. And Casey was totally consumed with him. Amy had heard her ranting about how Derek had woken her up in the middle of the night and how she couldn't even get away from him in the school musical. Like she had even truly wanted to . . .
That was the reason that Amy had started dating Derek when Casey tried out for cheerleading. She thought that Casey was trying to take everything that was important to her and two could play at that game. If Casey was going to date Max and join the squad, then she was going to do the one thing that Casey didn't seem to have the nerve to—hook up with Casey's step-brother. And she did date the guy. And it was fun for a while. They were both hot and they both loved to bash Casey. Of course, Amy knew that Derek did it for an entirely different reason then she did. And once she and Casey became friends, Derek's fixation with Casey became just plain annoying . . .
Amy knew that Max must have noticed. She had seen him rolling his eyes at Casey whenever she brought up Derek. She realized that must have been why he finally broke things off with her when she suggested that they "take a break."
Amy had allowed herself to get lost in thought about Derek and Casey when the phone rang. It startled her and she knew who would be on the other end. It rang several times and she sat there looking at it, trying to decide if she should pick it up.