"Remember class, your six word memoirs are due next class. I hope to be impressed," she looked at Derek scrambling to pack his things and get out of the stiflingly boring class and said, loudly, "Or else."
Whatever, he thought as he made his way out the door and over to his locker where Sam and Ralph were waiting for him. He hadn't started working on the assignment, but its only six words; how hard can it be? Derek dropped his bag nonchalantly into his locker, grabbed his hockey gear, and slammed his locker shut without giving the project a second thought.
Casey, on the other hand, in her typical keener fashion, had started on the assignment the second it was given and had come up with a few six word memoirs that she felt were particularly profound and meaningful. She saw Emily across the hallway talking to Noel, so she went over, apologized quickly to Noel for stealing her best friend away, and dragged Emily to the benches outside.
Emily, who long ago stopped being bewildered by her friend's odd antics, simply followed compliantly and, once they were seated, waited patiently for Casey to tell her exactly what was so important. She didn't have to wait long.
"Ok Em. So I have three memoirs that I want to read to you and then I want you to tell me which one you like best," Casey said anxiously.
Emily looked at her friend like she'd lost her mind, but when Casey didn't register the semi-annoyed look on her friend's face, Emily simply sighed and answered resignedly, "Ok, fine."
Casey took a pristine sheet of lined paper out of a folder, looked down at her list, and cleared her throat. "Number 1: Life is hard but always improves. Number 2: Dancing means happiness because I'm good. And number 3: Canada beats out America any day." She looked at Emily expectantly but before she could say which she preferred Casey blurted out "I'm leaning toward the second one, but I want to know what you think."
Emily rolled her eyes. "I don't really like any of them. Mrs. Harris said the six word memoirs were supposed to be about our lives and things that are important to us. They are supposed to tell our life story, and none of those do. I mean Canada's better than America? Really, Casey?"
Casey huffed, but answered Emily's concerns so quickly that it was clear she'd thought about this beforehand. "Em, that's why I like the second one! I dance, it makes me happy, and I'm good at it."
"Whatever, Casey. It's your choice, but I think you should start over and write about something important to you like your Mom or Lizzie. Or even your life now that you've moved here and live with Derek, George, Edwin and Marty. Of everyone in our class, I would think you'd be the last person without something to write about."
"Fine, Em, I'll think about it at least. But if I work on this tonight, when it's due tomorrow, I'll be no better than Derek! We've had this assignment for two weeks and he probably hasn't even thought about it once!"
Just like Casey, Emily thought, to take a completely unrelated conversation and bring Derek into it somehow. If those two don't start dating soon, I'm going to lock them in a broom closet until they get their act together.
"Speaking of Derek," Emily said, attempting to change the subject, "he should be done with hockey by now; let's get our stuff so we can go home when he gets out of the locker room."
Derek was finished by the time the two girls were done getting their stuff and was leaning, impatiently, against The Prince, waiting for them so they could all get home.
When Casey and Emily finally exited the school and made their way to Derek, the first thing Casey said was, "Derek, you need to start, and finish, your six word memoir. If you don't hand it in tomorrow, or if Mrs. Harris doesn't like it, then you'll get a bad grade. Again."
Like this is something new, thought Derek, annoyed. Hockey had been particularly challenging that day and he was in no mood to be lectured by keener Queen Casey; so he ignored her, said a brief "Hello" to Emily and drove home.
Later that night Derek was in his room wearing a hole in the carpet, attempting to create a six word memoir that would be good up for the stuck-up English teacher. Actually, now that he thought about it, she reminded him of Casey. But thinking of Casey made him remember the memoir assignment and the cycle started all over again, so he tried to avoid that topic altogether.
It was difficult though, for Derek to write a memoir about his life, but not think about Casey, who had come in unexpectedly and changed everything so dramatically. He'd already called Sam, who wouldn't help him; Ralph, whose memoir consisted of "wow, nice shoes" and "D-Rock rocks;" and even Emily, who wouldn't tell her his in case he stole it. Finally he resorted to thievery and paid Edwin 10 bucks to steal Casey's list of memoirs from her bag so that he could use one of them as his own.
Derek looked over Casey's list and chuckled to himself. These were so like her, and she'd be furious when she found out that he'd used one of her memoirs; Derek couldn't wait.
