BA/N:/b This is my first Dasey fanfic .. Or actually, my first fanfic. So, please be nice, and maybe dish out some constructive criticism? Also, I wasn't sure how long this would turn out to be, so if it's fairly short than I will make sure the next one is longer. That's all. :
"DER-EK!"
A screech racketed back and forth off the walls of the Venturi-McDonald household, the owner of such a shrill tone could be presently found slamming the door of her room and trudging the few feet down the hall that seperated her from the one person who could make her so on-edge. He was the one person that could make her lose all of her composure and erupt in shrieks of frustration, and he enjoyed every pitiful minute of it. Her constant annoyance was his goal every time, and every time his goal was achieved he would sit back, relax, and enjoy every waking moment. Even when he was not awake, he would plot situations over and over again in his mind while he slept, trying to get them perfect. Usually, though, his plans never had to be perfect; it was never a far drive to make her fall off the edge of the cliff that held all of her dignity. Endless hours of his amusement had come from watching her tear the house to pieces, or slam every door in the house trying to find him, anything that caused her to reach that point - the point of complete frustration, and even hatred, towards him - had been the best part of irking her, it had been the best part of watching her fall apart.
Derek Venturi currently lay in his bed, reading a magazine - or rather, staring at a magazine; he had secretly been waiting to hear the familiar tone of annoyance that meant his plan had worked - when his step-sister Casey burst through his door. He barely turned his head to look at who it was, he knew exactly who it was that had rudely obliterate his door from its prior position and slammed it into the wall. That poor door of his had seen better days, it seemed now that the only hope it ever saw was few and far between, seeing how Casey would take every chance she got to completely destroy it by slinging it as hard as she could into his wall. Speaking of his wall, he had yet to find out for himself if that, too, had seen better days. He would have not put it past Casey to have slung the door into it so many times now that it would have acquired a gaping hole from being abused so many times. One thing he would hand to the girl, would be the fact that once she was mad, she was much stronger and capable of slamming things well. If there was a contest for such a thing, she would definitely win hands down, or maybe that was a quality in all girls.
Turning his attention toward the source of the current shrieking, Derek raised a brow and tried to focus in on what exactly she was carrying on about. It was
an unfortunate habit of hers - unfortunate to him, at least - that once he had upset her, she would go off on a full-fledged rant about how this was something
that meant a lot to her, or how that was the only thing she was asking for, was it really so hard? Well, as a matter of fact, yes it was so hard. Why should he
have to listen to her whine about this and that, when she should be accepting the fact that he was always going to be there, bothering her. Their parents
had been together for however many years now (Derek had lost count, considering he really didn't care), and here she was still blabbing on and on about
how immature he was. Derek was aware of his maturity level, and had never needed her to remind him. The main reason he even bothered pulling these
pranks on her was so he could watch her being upset, so in reality if she did realize his motives, then she would probably just stop reacting all together.
Which, of course, would not be good for him, she was good practice for his latest pranks and seeing her reaction only made it ten times better.
She looked at him in bewilderment as he had said nothing thus far; her eyes narrowed at him coldly, "Derek! I'm only going to say this once, stop messing with Max."
Derek shook his head and chuckled audibly, "Case, you get too worked up about things."
Before he could stop her, Casey quickly lunged at him, quick to dig her nails into his arm, and drag him up before he could protest. The one thing he had
always hated about girls was their inability to cut their nails, they always had to keep them long because they considered it "pretty." Well, Derek might
have thought something relevent to that if it had not been for the fact that they seemed to come in constant contact with his skin. He had told Casey
time after time how she needed to cut her nails, but far be it for her to take advice from him. Could you consider it something unexpected, though? Day
after relentless day of him pulling pranks, and shooting out insults like they were going out of style, would anyone really put much thought into taking advice,
or even accepting it, from someone who was constantly fighting with you? For Casey, though, she seemed to do more of the fighting, Derek was more
of the kind to sit back and reply with simple, but witty, comebacks. He had found, after so many years, that doing so was the best way to get a reaction
out of his beloved step-sister.
She dug her nails in deeper when she noticed his look of contempt in the direction of his arm, and proceeded to drag him out of his room, "I want you to call and apologize to Max, it's the least you could do after what you did to his car!"
Casey never stopped digging her nails into Derek's arm, as long as he remained quiet. Quickly, she pulled him unwillingly through the door out into the
hallway, she was hoping by now the pain was setting in. Unbeknownst to her, though, Derek didn't have as much of a problem with her digging her fingernails
into him as she thought, it really wasnt that painful for him when she did it. Despite how mad she was, she had never been one to cause pain to another
person, and even Derek was not an exception to this rule. So, even though she thought she was causing him an imense amount of pain, really it had never
phased him much at all. He had taken it into his own accord to tell her this many a time, but she never bought it, she had herself convinced that she was
really hurting him. It was quite funny, actually, to think that someone as petite as her could cause someone like him pain, but she never seemed to give up,
and eventually stopped bringing it to her attention.
Finally wiggling himself free of her grip, probably due to the fact that she was too busy trying to find the phone than tightening a grip on him, he reared
away from her and smiled at her arrogantly. Casey was momentarily lost, it took longer than usual for her to realize where he had gone, which wasn't
something he hadn't expected from her; she had the tendencies. Once she finally caught a glance of him, she turned on her heal and stomped right up
to him, a look of complete disgust on her face. After so many years of being around him, Casey knew his demeaner and at some points even thought
she knew his plots to make her fall apart, but still words had failed her. She had thrown just about every name and adjective in the book at him, trying
to make him understand how much she had truly been able to hate him at times, but nothing phased him. It was as if at points like this he was almost in-
human, a quality that he seemed to pick up more than several times in one day. Casey had often had a hard time convincing herself that he was her brother,
and somewhere deep, deep down he did actually care for her.
That was true, though, somewhere deep, deep down Derek did actually care for his sister. There had been many times when he had saved her from utter
humiliation at school, or even saved her from being fired from work back when they were working together at Smelly Nelly's. Derek was a good guy at heart,
and if anyone besides him ever messed with Casey, he would definitely have something to say about it, or rather something to do about it. Derek was more
of the type to make someone pay physically (and by this I mean, pulling a prank on them), than tell them how wrong they were. He had found it much more
effective this way, but that was probably due to the sole fact that he was just so good at pulling of pranks, endless ideas ran through his mind at any moment
and he made sure to carry them out on someone. If it wasnt for Casey's sake, than it would at least be for the sake of a new prank and a good laugh.
"Kids, dinner!" It was Nora's voice that jerked them out of the intense staring they were doing.
At once, Derek turned and raced down the stairs and to the dining room table, if not to get out of the situation he was in with Casey than because of his stomach growling louder and louder by each passing second. It was a fact that Derek could only be considered a human vaccuum, Nora had often blamed it on him being a "growing boy" and would go on to explain how he needed every ounce of fuel that he devoured, what with hockey and all that physical activity he was getting. Derek, however, couldn't have cared any less about what reasons there were to his constant state of hunger, as long as it was quickly fixed. He sat down in his seat just as Edwin came striding down the steps, a gigantic grin planted on his face, Lizzie was not far off and her features could have not been the complete opposite. Just as Derek had turned his head back to the table, anxiously awaiting dinner, he saw Marti flash out of the corner of his eye in a bright pink bunny costume. The outfits his little sister wore amused him to no end, but he had always wondered where she found them - and even more, why George or Nora would have agreed to such an extreme choice of wardrobe.
Just as Edwin and Lizzie joined Derek and Marti at the table, George came from opening the kitchen doors, so Nora could get through with the food. Derek smiled as he saw what was for dinner - mashed potatoes, peas (not that he would eat them), and steak! He had to admit that Nora was by far a better cook than his mother, though he would never say this outloud, it must have been the way she was raised because his mother had never made them a meal so extravagant. It was either that, or she must to have gone to some sort of culunary school because the food she made always made him dig for seconds, and on some occasions, thirds. He clapped his hands and rubbed them together with a hungry look plasted on his features, tonight was going to be a good night for Nora's cooking, especially considering what he had just had to go threw with Ms. Drama Queen upstairs. Derek's eyes fluttered to the top of the stairs, he wondered if she would even come down for dinner tonight, no doubt she had run off to her room in tears.
"Where's Casey?" Nora asked, heading for the foot of the stairs.
"Oh, you know her, probably off complaining into her diary." Derek let out an audible chuckle, while George scolded him for it.
Nora started up the stairs, but her plans were quickly thwarted when Casey came down the stairs with a slight bounce in her step, smiling no less, Derek noted
this quickly, he would have to do something about that. Nora strolled over to her seat at the table and they were all soon accompanied by Casey, who took
one look at the food and sighed softly. Casey had never been one for steaks, she was much more of a chicken person, but Nora had felt it proper to switch
things up a bit; most of the food they ate now a days consisted of chicken. Derek hurridly began scooping mountains of mashed potatoes onto his plate,
followed by only a small amount of peas, and the largest steak there was to offer on the plate. Everyone at the table ignored this, he had always been this
way at dinner time, and proceeded to get as much food as they could for themselves before Derek had started on second helpings. Casey had the least
amount of food by the end of it and, instead of eating it, began playing with her mashed potatoes with her fork. Nora noticed this right off, she had never
been the type of mom to be oblivious if her children were upset, no matter how small the difference in their actions were.
"Casey," Nora started, looking concerned for her eldest daughter, "is everything all right."
Casey looked up from playing with her peas, she had started to put them on her fork and drop them onto her potatoes, a small smile met her lips. In all
actuallity, she really wasnt alright, but she didn't see the point in dumping all of her problems (most of which were centered around Derek) onto her
mother's lap. Besides, she could sort these things out herself, she just had to act like everything was okay for the meantime. Though Derek had not done
anything out of the ordinary, it had just seemed to be getting to her a lot more lately, for whatever reason. All of his little pranks seemed to be intensified,
every insult he said to her was a blow to the stomach. It was not unlike Casey to get like this at things that he had done or said, but she had thought she'd
moved past that stage, and moved onto the stage involving her getting back at him at all costs, she was obviously not so lucky. Turning her attention
back to her mother, who now looked even more concerned than before, she broadened her smile and told her no, that everything was just fine. Nora
shot her a look of disbelief, but knew Casey well enough to know that if she needed her, she would come and talk to her.
Dinner quickly came to a hault as Derek had devoured the rest of the food, Casey waited until everyone had left the table and began to collect the plates and silverware. She hauled the first load of it into the sink, and then went back for the next, failing to notice the looks Nora was giving her from the top of the staircase. Despite Nora's better judgement, she quickly came down the stairs and followed Casey into the kitchen, a loving look sprawled across her face. Casey had always loved that her mother noticed things like when she was upset, but lately it had been annoying her greatly. It seemed a common emotion for Casey to be feeling lately, actually. Regardless, Casey knew very well that once Nora got on a role about asking her question after question about what was wrong, she would eventually have to cave in and tell. As patient a mother as Nora was, she was still a mother, and always found it necessary to know what was wrong with her children, so Casey knew that there would be no point in beating around the bush with the matter, though, she didn't exactly know what to say to her mother; she didn't even know what was wrong with her. Most likely, she was just down about things with Max, and of course that would in turn affect her everyday life at school, at home, with friends that's how it usually worked out.
"Honey, please tell me whats wrong." Nora said softly, leaning against the island counter in the middle of the kitchen.
Casey let out a small sigh, "Things are just off with Max and I, but I think things might clear up in a couple of days."
She nodded curtly, and turned around to smile at her mother, Casey truly did believe that things would get better in a few days, or at least she hoped. With
the way things had gone with Sam, though, the constant fighting and making up, fighting and making up agian, Casey couldn't be too sure. She and Max
had been going through the same patterns lately, and she couldn't just shrug it off as minor relationship faults, the end of their relationship seemed to be
looming around every corner. Casey, at this point, was still trying to convince herself that things were going to work out with him, she was going to try her
hardest to keep Max as long as she could, he was such a great guy. When Casey had been dating Sam, it was easy to see the differences, but she believed
that her and Max were much better for eachother, they had more in common, they were both wanting the same things out of life, though, they did get them
accomplished in different ways. Regardless of how they accomplished their goals, though, Casey knew the Max and her were definitely compatible, there
had been doubts with Sam. Casey had plenty of facts to back up this statement, but she also had the cons to prove that things might be coming to a close,
so she was trying to stay positive.
Nora simply nodded her head and left Casey to do the dishes, and think. Most of the thoughts pulsating through her brain at the moment consisted of Max,
but then her mind slowly took her in the direction of the annoyance she thought she had left upstairs, Derek. She had remained dumbfounded as to what
his possible motives were, why would he continue to pester her endlessly. Could it really be for the simple fact of seeing how frustrated and maddened she
became with each and every new prank he pulled on her? He couldn't have been so shallow, but then again, it was Derek. Casey rolled her eyes at the
thought, his maturity level had seemed to only shrink over the past few years. Though, she did have to admit that he was more willing to help her when the
situation called for it, that she was thankful for. During the first years of their new family's merge, Derek had seemed completely heartless towards her, but
once he figured out he was going to have to live with her for a long while, he warmed up a small deal. She assumed part of his prank pulling problem was
due to the sick idea of his that he was her step-brother and he could do that to her and it would be okay, at least he hadn't failed to recognize that if anyone
else were to mess with her, he would be the one to step in. Some of his actions could at least prove that he wasnt completely cold-hearted and shallow,
he did care for her a small amount more than she had thought.
