" What's with this whole family meeting
Before It's Too Late
CHAPTER 1
" What's with this whole family meeting?" asked Derek, as he pushed his way past his stepsister.
" Maybe it's about your insufferable tendency to be inconsiderate of everything and everyone standing in a ten foot radius of you!" said Casey suggestively. She was Derek's stepsister. Since her mom had married Derek's dad, she had to make new friends, deal with new siblings, and crawl her way back up to the top of the social ladder while fighting Derek from pulling her back every step of the way.
"Kids, get down here!" called George, Derek's dad. Derek and Casey hurried a tad quicker down the stairs, pushing and shoving the whole way.
"Can't you get along?" Nora (Casey's mom) said under her breath.
"Mom," Casey said, " that's like asking a Neanderthal and Leonardo da Vinci to have a civilized discussion. Eventually someone is going to swing a club towards the other's head."
" If only I could," Derek said as a response to Casey's glare.
" Guys, try to get along for two minutes so that we can talk about what you're doing this summer." George said, "As I'm sure you two remember, you just ended your junior year of high school, so next year you will be seniors and applying for college, so this summer we are going to be researching colleges all summer."
" Yes!" Casey and Derek yelled together.
"Wow," Nora said, "you two actually agree on something."
" I'm just glad you guys are giving us a chance to think ahead and get a head start on all of this stuff. At least you're giving us a choice as to where you want us to fulfill our potential," said Casey.
"Yeah, and those college parties are wild!" Derek added.
"Oh no," said George, "you two are going to be doing some real research into these colleges. We are going to look at colleges all over Canada and even some in the United States. You will read some material on the schools you're interested in over seas because we don't have the money to go over there and look at them. Gas prices are already eating a hole in my pocket. Your research begins now." George handed them a large stack of DVDs sent out by the colleges. They were from what seemed every college from North America and then some. Then George and Nora left the room.
" Okay then. Let's get started." Casey said.
" Wait what?" said Derek, " this is the most boring junk anyone could ever get their hands on. I mean, all they say in these things are all the same. They are always talking about the great opportunities and what great classes they have and yadda yadda yadda. Wrestling is on tonight and I don't want to miss it."
" Professional wrestling is just acting. None of it is real. It's all set up. Besides, you're missing the student life category," Casey said slyly. Derek smirked. " What? The part where they tell you dorm room regulations and all of that?"
" No," said Casey, " the part where they show what the students do on campus which means plenty of gorgeous college girls to feast your eyes on. See? I get all the useful information, you stare at the college beauties you could never get, and everybody wins."
" I'm going to disregard that comment and let you turn on your little programs, but if I don't see any college girls in the first tape, I'm taking it out and watching wrestling while you can go watch your goody two shoes program elsewhere," Derek said. Casey smiled "done."
"This better bee worth my time" mumbled Derek, and Casey put in the disc.
" Don't worry it will be,' Casey reassured him.
CHAPTER 2
Derek groaned in frustration. " Casey, we've been watching this tape forever. When are girls going to be on the screen?"
" Patience Derek," Casey said, sounding like she was losing her own, " it's only been twenty minutes. They tell you all the academic stuff first and then at the end they talk about student life." Derek got up from the recliner.
" Whoa, where are you going?"
" To do something worth my time. Call me in when 'student life' comes on. That's all I'm even slightly interested in."
" Aw. Too bad because I'm not telling you when the student life section begins. If you want to see it, you'll have to sit through it all." Casey smiled. She knew how far Derek would go just to see a girl he could never get his hands on. Of course she also knew how easy it was for him to get girls you would think are way out of his league.
" Fine," he said reluctantly.
" Fantastic," said Casey. They spent the week watching videos all saying the normal stuff schools want you to believe. Everything about how they would give you an education like no other and the rest of all the normal things. Derek found it to be one of the worst things to spend his time on.
" I think I have been cheated." He said, "The student life sections are only the last tid bit. I'm getting out of here before you put on another tape."
" Well, all of them have been watched so now George and mom are going to want to know where we're thinking of going to school. That way they can plan the road trip and all the stops along the way. I'm thinking New York University in New York, New York, maybe Columbia, Harvard, the university here in Vancouver, and the school in Chicago. Oh! And I'm thinking also Stanford University down in California. What about you?"
" I'm thinking of looking into the University of Dallas down in texas and the school over in Toronto. I also was thinking of New York University and maybe not Stanford, but Maybe University of California, Los Angeles, or what they like to call it, UCLA. I was also interested in their foreign exchange programs. Maybe I could play hockey somewhere really amazing like Sweden or Russia."
" Derek, you surprise me," said Casey, " you really put some thought in your decisions, but why university of Dallas if you're interested in Hockey? Isn't that a little far south for Hockey?'
" Oh," Derek said, as if all of this was an afterthought, " I just wanted to go to see university of Dallas, I don't know that I would really go there. I just wanted to see if the girls there are as hot as they were in the video," he said, smiling the smile of what Casey considered scum as he got up from his chair leaving Casey alone on the couch with a disgusted expression on her face.
CHAPTER 3
"Alright," George said, obviously excited, " thanks to Casey's superb list of colleges you were interested in, Nora and I have finally worked out a road trip for you two to visit all the colleges. We will all be going together. Everyone will. We will drop Casey and Derek off at the colleges and they will visit them for three to five days to get the feel of each one. As they are doing that, the rest of us, being Nora, Marti, Lizzie, Edwin and I to see the sites!"
"I want to be with Casey and Smerek!" Marti said as she crossed her arms.
Don't worry Marti," Casey said, "we're only going to be there for a little while, and every time we come back from the visits to the colleges, you can tell us all about the sites you saw and all we missed out on."
"Yeah, it has come to one of the few times Casey has had a good idea. What do you say, Smarti? Shake on it?" Marti skeptically and slowly uncrossed her arms. "Okay!" she finally said, taking Casey's and Derek's hand.
Two weeks later, they found themselves packing up to go to Toronto, one of Derek's choices.
" Here Case, you forgot your journal;," Lizzie said, handing her the purple and green notebook that could mean her doom if Derek got a hold of it.
"Thanks Liz," Casey said.
The car trip wasn't too long, but Derek made it quite unenjoyable. Tugging on everyone's hair, even Edwin's, stealing Sir Monksalot from Marti, and of course verbally pounding Casey within an inch of her sanity. When they finally made it to the University of Toronto, Nora and George shooed Casey and Derek out of the Car. It didn't seem they could do it any faster.
" well, let's go to the administrative building," said Casey. As they made their way through the campus, they paid close attention to all the details. Derek paid attention to how many blondes there were in contrast to brunettes, and Casey admired the soft and yet defining architecture in all of the buildings.
After they had gotten to the administrative building, they were led to their dorms they would be staying at for three days, and then they went to tour classrooms and did the normal college routine. They saw the library, read material, and observed the ways the students interacted with each other(all of this was gladly done by Casey, but reluctantly by Derek.)
The three days finally came to an end. Nora came to pick them up. "George and the kids are at the hotel if you were wondering," she said. When she heard no reply, she looked in the backseat to see what had happened. She heard no fighting and that was never a good sign. When she turned around she saw Derek and Casey's heads together. They were completely out. she smiled to herself. If touring colleges made them so tired they couldn't stay awake to fight each other about something, then this would be a very pleasant car trip.