A/N: here is the first chapter to the sequel to "Christmas Spirit." I hope you enjoy, this will be a few chapters long, since I have a few things planned for this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek…if I did…we all know Casey and Derek would be a couple by now and…I wouldn't be writing this.

The sun shone in through the slightly opened window, filling the room up with light. Casey's eyes fluttered open as if the light triggered something. She would always get up when the light entered her room. This morning though when she woke up she was happier than normal. She sat up stretching and looked around the room and let out a contented sigh. She felt like getting up and just dancing around the room, but she wasn't sure why. She tried to remember what happened yesterday or maybe even a dream she had last night but her mind came to a blank. She knew it was Christmas yesterday and she recalled all the presents she got but she was never THAT happy, even when she got exactly what she got for Christmas. She uncovered herself and grabbed a towel off the chair in her room and headed toward the bathroom. She heard some noise downstairs which meant her mom and George were up. She walked into the bathroom, shed her pajamas, turned on the shower and stepped into the warm water. As she stood under the pouring water she tried to remember anything that happened yesterday, but her mind just seemed to not click. It was bugging her, not that she didn't like being happy, it's just that when she doesn't know why she's happy it gets a little aggravating.

After she washed her hair and her body, she turned off the shower and stepped out. She shivered as the air came in contact with her wet skin. She quickly grabbed the towel off the rack and wrapped it around herself. She opened the door a crack, peeked her head out to see if any male members of the house were out there; the coast was clear so she stepped out and hurried off to her room, hearing Marti downstairs saying she was hungry.

She got changed into a pair of Jeans and a sweatshirt. She went over to her mirror, took out her hair dryer and spent a good 15 minutes drying her hair. She combed out all the knots and put her hair up; after she was content with how she looked she started to head downstairs. She saw Lizzie and Edwin were already up, talking quietly on their side of the table. Most likely about secret planning, Casey thought. She saw Marti tugging on Nora's pants still asking for breakfast while George was working on one of his cases.

"Good Morning all." Casey greeted happily and everyone turned to look at her as she walked in, smiling. She sat down at her normal seat. "Well you seem happy today Casey." Her mother said going back to making breakfast. "Yes, and I have no idea why." She shrugged.

Edwin raised an eyebrow at her and shook her head and muttered under his breath, "girls." And for that he got a shove from Lizzie. He gave her a look like 'what did I do?' and she just rolled her eyes.

Casey ignored the two preteens and smiled as Nora came over and placed a stack of blueberry pancakes onto the table. "Casey, Lizzie I made one of your favorite breakfasts."

"Blueberry?" Edwin looked at the pancakes like it was a disease. "Don't knock it till you try it." Liz said to him, taking a few and putting it on her plate.

"I'll pass." Edwin said still looking at the pancakes.

"That's alright Edwin; I know how much you love cereal." She took an unopened box of cereal and placed it in front of Edwin. He looked at it then up at Nora. "This is Derek's cereal."

Nora shook her head, "I know you like the same cereal as Derek so I bought you your own box…I'll be sure to inform Derek."

"Sweet." Edwin announced and opened the box and poured himself some cereal.

"I want waffles!" Marti announced stamping her foot on the ground. "alright Marti, just give me a second." Nora told her.

"I want waffles now!" Marti exclaimed putting a pout on her face, "Marti." George said looking over at his daughter, "you have to listen to Nora." Marti crossed her little arms and stood there stubbornly watching Nora's every move.

"Hey Derek," Edwin's said having a mouthful of cereal, Casey looked at Edwin in disgust then over to the doorway to see Derek standing there looking like he just woke up. Casey's heart started to pick up speed and she came to a conclusion that what she was happy about had to do with her step-brother. "sup?" Derek replied walking into the kitchen. Casey followed him with her eyes as he walked slowly across the kitchen to the refrigerator. He yawned as he opened the refrigerator and looked inside it, made a face then took out a brand new carton of milk. When she noticed that he didn't go for a cup, she jumped out of the chair and grabbed the carton from his hand. He stood there with his hand up like he was still holding something then he looked over at Casey. "what was that for?" he glared at her. "I am not letting you waste of perfectly good carton of milk just because you are too lazy to get a glass!" She slammed the milk down on the counter and blocked him from getting it. "no one cares." He shrugged. "I care." She crossed her arms.

"you don't count." He said trying to reach over her, but she pushed him off. "You are such a pig."

Suddenly as their eyes connected, Casey remembered what happened last night. But last night he acted so much different, today he was back to being a jerk. And as they started at each other they were both thinking the same thing, 'was last night real? Or did I dream it?'

Casey turned around and got a glass out of the cupboard, placed it down next to milk carton, opened the milk carton and poured him a glass of milk. She held it out for him, he glanced at the carton longingly, sighed than grabbed the glass from her hand. As he grabbed it, his fingers brushed against hers and they both felt it. A spark went through them and they started at each other in momentary confusion. He took the glass away from her and took his seat next to Edwin. He didn't comment about the cereal Edwin was eating, he didn't even seem to notice it. George glanced at his eldest son wondering why he was so quiet, the only annoying he did was when he was about to drink out of the milk carton but that fight was over with pretty quick. Derek stuck his fork into the blueberry pancakes and put some onto his plate, which caused both Edwin and George to stop what they were doing. They both knew that Derek HATED blueberry anything but here he was staring down at the table, eating the pancakes. "Derek?" George questioned.

"Huh?" Derek looked up, mouth full of pancake.

"You do realize that is blueberry pancakes…"

Derek looked down at his plate and shoved it away from him, almost knocking down the vase of flowers that was in the center of the table. He swallowed what he had in his mouth and got up from the table and left. "I'll be in my room." he shouted, running up the stairs.

"Well that was odd." Nora said handing Marti her plate of waffles. Marti grinned and ran over to her chair and looked at George as if expecting him to cut up her breakfast. George got her message and took a knife and started to cut her waffles into pieces.

"Yes it was." George nodded looking to where his son disappeared to. Casey continued her breakfast like nothing was wrong, occasionally talking with Lizzie or Edwin, but in the back of her mind she wondered why Derek was acting so weird…and why she felt so weird around him.

After breakfast Casey went back up to her room, she wanted to call Emily and discuss what they got. She heard music playing in Derek's room; she paused to hear what exactly it was he was listening to, it was the CD she made him of D-Rock. But more importantly it was one of the only songs that she sang in.

She sighed and went into her room. She jumped onto her bed, grabbing the phone that was on her night stand. She dialed Emily's number and waited for her to pick up, Emily always took long to answer the phone so Casey was always sitting there waiting. Normally Derek would try annoying her during that time, or take the phone away but sometimes she managed to get away from him.

'Hello?' A voice finally answered from the other end.

"Hey Em!" Casey greeted.

'Oh hey Casey, what's up?"

"Oh nothing, I was just wondering what you got for Christmas."

'You tell me what you got first!"

"What?"

"pleaseee."

Casey sighed, "ok fine…I got this really cool new stereo, since I was complaining about the one Derek wanted to give me, which he still hasn't got the speakers fixed and its sitting in his room like the pile of junk it is."

"It's just a stereo, Case…calm down."

"You're right…it's just Derek, he annoys the living daylights out of me. Like this morning, he tried to drink out of a brand new carton of milk!"

"so…?"

"Em! He wanted to actually drink out of it….like not use a glass."

"oh…well let it go Case, I mean as much as I want to hear about Derek…that's not what you called for."

"Ok. So you're turn to tell me what you got!" Casey said sitting up on her bed.

"Ok well I got this really cuuuute outfit…Casey you should see it, it…" Emily's voice seemed to fade away as something caught Casey's eye. The sunlight hit something on her desk, making it sparkle. She got up off the bed, with the phone still up to her ear, Emily still rambling on about her new outfit, and approached her desk slowly. Her hand went to her mouth when she saw the necklace sitting their in it's box. "Last night was real…" she meant to say in her head but instead came out as a faint whisper.

'What?' Emily's confused voice came through the receiver and pulled Casey out her dream like state.

"Uh, nothing…I'm going to have to call you back ok?"

'But…' Before Emily could finish her sentence Casey hung up the phone. She picked up the necklace in her hand and flipped the heart pendant over to see the inscription. A small smile came to her face and she dropped the necklace in its box carefully. She ran to her door, pulled it open and ran down the hall to Derek's room. She knocked once, knowing Derek would be pissed if she didn't knock at all and swung his door open. She walked into his room and saw him on his bed, now looking at her with a confused expression on his face.

"What are you doing?" he asked slightly annoyed that she would just barge in here.

"Last night was real!"

He raised his eye-brow and pausing the music, sat up and continued to stare at her.

She let out a frustrated sigh, "Last night, I know you remember Derek! At breakfast I know you were thinking the same thing I was."

"And that would be…"

"Derek will you stop playing dumb for once in your life?" Casey crossed her arms and Derek smirked. "The present you gave me Derek."

Derek stared at his floor as something clicked in his brain; "you mean the necklace?" he glanced up at her.

She nodded, smiling brightly. "Yes! It wasn't a dream."

After he gave no response, her smile faded and she took a step toward him. "that wasn't a joke, right Derek?" She began to worry, what if Derek wasn't serious about it? What if he just did it to make her feel like an idiot the next day? Would Derek be that low?

He smirked and got off his bed and approached her. She turned her head to the ground, wanting to run out of there right then. Derek was always pulling pranks on her what could be the difference now? If she put that necklace on she bet it would have broken immediately, or done something to embarrass her.

She felt Derek's hand take her own, she wanted to pull it out but instead she just let him hold it. "Course not Case," she looked up at his answer. "I am the world's best liar but even I couldn't get through something like that without laughing if I wasn't serious. And I'm not that cruel, I wouldn't kiss you just to play a joke on you."

She took her hand out of Derek's and slipped her arms around his neck looking into his eyes, "I know…it's just, I actually really like you and the way you acted earlier and just a minute ago it made it seem like…"

"Like I didn't care?" he answered for her and she nodded. "That's because I thought it was all a dream. That someone like you could actually feel the same way about someone like me could be too good to be true."

She gave him a concerned look, "what do you mean that someone like me could like someone like you?"

He let out a sigh, "I mean…you're perfect, you're beautiful, you get the best grades, you dance like no other person I have ever seen, you sing like an angel, you're feisty and don't put up with my crap. While I am just a screw up, I don't get good grades, my father is often times disappointed in me, I treat my family like shit…"

"Derek," she started. "Look at me."

Derek lifted his head up slowly to meet her gaze. "Don't you ever talk that way about your self again! You are an amazing person, you just don't try Derek. You're smart, I know you are! You have to be in order to find that many ways to annoy me." He chuckled. "George would be proud of you if you would just stop caring what people think about you and concentrate on what is important in life. I don't mean to sound harsh Derek, but you won't get anywhere if all that is important to you is "babes" and "hockey." Not that hockey isn't important, it's good to have a hobby but grades are also good and I know you can do it if you try."

He tore away from her and started pacing the floor and she just stared at him, watching him silently. Finally he slammed his hands against his sides, and turned to face her. "You're right! I don't try, because I don't care. Because all I care about is what people thing of me. I am one of the coolest guys in school, the girls love me, and the guys wish they could be me. Yet with all that I have nothing! Where am I going to go in life with just hockey and girls? I'm probably going to have both those things but not the way I think, I will probably be the damn water boy for a famous girl's hockey team, where all the girls just look down upon me and just call me "water boy"." He fell back onto his bed covering his face with his hands, "this is not easy for me Casey! I don't want to be a geek!"

Casey shook her head, "you won't be a geek Derek, you don't have to be a geek to get good grades."

"I'm a rebel, what do you think my friends will think of me when I start following the rules, doing my homework, getting "A's" on tests."

"Does it matter?"

"Yes! I mean…" he let out a sigh, "I have nothing now…and I'll have nothing then."

She walked over to the bed and sat beside him, "No Derek, you have me now." He uncovered his eyes, and looked up at her and saw him smiling down at him. "And you'll have me forever."

"And you'll have the whole family, friends come and go Derek, but family is here forever." Derek slowly sat up, keeping his eyes on hers.

"Can I keep you to that?" he asked.

She smiled, placing her hand on top of his. "Yes, you definatly can."

Without warning, Derek brought his hand up, cupped her cheek and pressed his lips against hers. Casey responded to the kiss almost immediately and tangled her hands up in his hair. He pushed her down onto the bed, still kissing her. she brought her hands down so they rested on his shoulders, and she started rubbing her hands up and down his arms. Derek found deep pleasure in this and moved from her lips down to her neck. He started placing feather light kisses up and down her neck and on her jaw line.

"mmm…Derek?" she whispered hoarsely, noticing something.

His only response was a deep moan, as he traveled back up to her lips. "Derek, the door is open."

He immediately stopped and his eyes shot open, he looked up at her and saw she was smirking. He raised himself off of her and saw that she was right, his door was wide open. He sat up, moving completely off of her and ran his hand through his messy hair. She sat up next to him, grinning. "I don't think anyone saw us."

He looked over at her eyebrows raised, "you don't think?" He let out a sigh and stood up. "Well there's only one way to find out." She nodded, standing up beside him. Casey smoothed out her slightly ruffled clothes and flattened her frizzy hair. She turned to Derek and she sniggered, biting her lip. "What?" he questioned.

"You've got a little lipstick," she reached up and with her thumb wiped away the light layer of lipstick that rubbed off onto his lips. She wiped it off on her pants and Derek stared at her amused. "Well aren't you the little flirt?"

She shrugged, "apparently you don't know everything about me, Mr. Venturi."

He smirked, "perhaps not, but I plan to find out Miss. Macdonald." She raised her eyebrows and with out a single word, turned and left the room. He shook his head and followed her.

When they got downstairs they found everyone doing normal things. George was still working on his case, Nora was cleaning the dishes, Marti was watching television, singing along with whatever was on, and Edwin was doing something at the kitchen table while Lizzie was in the back yard bouncing around her soccer ball. Everything seemed normal. They both let out a sigh which got attention from George, Nora and Edwin.

"Everything alright you two?" George asked.

"Yep, everything's cool. I was just a little tired at breakfast, wasn't really in the mood to bug anyone."

Edwin raised his eyebrow, "You? not in the mood to bug anyone."

Derek shrugged, "Everyone has their time to wake up on the wrong side of the bed Ed." He looked over at Casey, and decided not to make anything more suspicious than it already was. "But I'm all better now."

Edwin stared at him in anticipation, waiting for him to do something to Casey. Derek stayed silent for a second, looked at Casey, noticed her hair was starting to frizz up again and smirked. "Case, you might want to do something about that frizziness quality you're hair has to it. It turns people off…then again maybe it's not the frizz that does." Casey looked at him her jaw dropping. She tried reading him. Then she saw it, something in his eyes that told her he was just doing this to throw off Edwin. Casey pretend glared at him and stormed off in the other direction, Derek smirked and turned to follow her, then he popped his head in the doorway. "Oh and Ed, never eat my cereal again."

He followed her up the stairs until they were safe out of view, then he took her in his arms and she giggled. "Now," he whispered huskily in her ear, "let's say we pick up where we finished." He went to kiss the side of her neck but she tore her self away from him. "Nope, I told Emily I would call her back." She told him giddily, she shrugged and headed off to her room.

"Now that wasn't fair." Derek pouted staring after her.

"Now who ever said life was fair Derek." She winked at him and shut the door, and he groaned in annoyance and headed back to his room. He jumped down on his bed, for a few minutes listened to Casey talking to Emily about Christmas, and going to the mall later until finally he got bored of the girl talk. He pressed play on the stereo and once again Casey's voice filled the room, sending him into momentary heaven.

A/N: So there was the first chapter, please tell me what you think! Reviews make me a very happy person!