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Chapter1: Of mice and men

It was just a normal Friday evening in the MacDonald - Venturi household and everyone was seated at the dining table causing chaos as usual.

"Derek!" Casey bursted.

"What?" Derek questioned his mouth full of green beans.

"Stop tickling my leg!" she glared.

Derek lifted an eyebrow, "Whhat??"

"Calm down you two….Can we just have one normal quiet dinner?" George sighed and Nora shook her head.

"Casey be rational why would I ever touch you hairy legs?" Derek swallowed, "Plus I'm not even sitting near you this time."

Casey's eyes bulged out of their sockets… "Oh my god!" She stood up and started to dance around, "There's an animal in my pants!!" She shook her legs repeatedly and when she saw that the "thing" was not going to reveal its self she decided to do the most reasonable thing (in her mind)possible: she dropped her pants. Everyone sat in shock. Nora gasped. Lizzie's eyes were wide in embarrassment. Edwin's eyes were covered by George's left hand and his right was over his own eyes. And Derek well…lets just say the food he was chewing found its way back on his plate.

The silence was broken by an innocent voice, "Casey's naked!"

"No only half." Lizzie grumbled.

Casey was still preoccupied by her pants she had forgotten about everyone else. She lifted one of the legs of her jeans and out came a small rodent.

"OH MY FREAKIN GOD!!!" she yelled hysterically, "There was a rat in my pants!!"

"Squeakers!" Edwin removed his father's hand and stood to retrieve his furry little friend.

"Ew! Ew! Ew! Ewwww!" Casey whined.

"Casey please get a hold of your self.And put on your pants!" Nora raised her voice to her distressed teenager. Casey did as she was told and glared at Edwin secretly planning revenge.

"Sorry about that.." Edwin felt her evil gaze, "I guess he got out of his cage…I'm really sorry I just got him last week he's just getting used to the new environment.."

Casey rolled her eyes and sat back down at the table, "Yeah and his environment just happened to be my pants."

"Well that was an interesting distraction but can we please just continue dinner quietly?" George moaned.

"A very amusing distraction." Derek added.

Casey cursed at his remark and Derek smirked he could piss her off with just one sentence.

After dinner everyone had separated and Casey was sitting in her bed sulking. Her day had just gone from bad to worse. It all started this morning when she had gotten to school, Max had told her had to speak to her and she was happy and joyful until she found out why he wanted to talk. It was THE talk. The talk every love struck girlfriend wants to avoid .He decided that he didn't feel the same anymore that he wanted to try new things and some other crap she decided to block out of her mind. Then she felt like complaining to her best friend Emily who sadly too busy with her new beau Marshal [some new guy I made up… and had no time to listen to Casey's troubles. Then Casey went to go vent to her trusted councilor, Paul, but sadly he had stayed home today sick with the flu. And last but not least the little incident at dinner. How could she act so dumb? Tottally embarrassing herself in front of the whole family… Showing the world her whitie tighties.

Casey turned to lye on her stomach and put her pillow against her face she let out a small scream and sighed.

"Why me?" she grumbled. Suddenly there was a knock on her door and she sat up rubbing her eyes dry of the tears that were about to fall, "If it's George, Nora, Lizzie, Edwin or Marti. leave me alone!"

"You left me out..once again." Derek's voice came from the other side of the door.

"And Derek!" Cassie stood up and leaned against the exit.

"Let me in."

"No."

"Why?"

"Why should I?"

"Touché." Derek said in defeat and Casey could hear his foot steps leaving the doorway. She cracked the door open to see if he really left and he did. She sighed and slumped on the floor. She figured he came to tease her about the events earlier and didn't feel like dealing with him. Looking down at her pink carpet, she thought some more about the events...She slapped herself in the face.

"Come on Casey get a hold of your self!" She desperately tried to avoid the tears she knew were going to come sooner or later. She preferred later. She stood up and made her way to the bathroom.

She began to brush her teeth. While she was brushing she studied her self in the mirror. What was wrong with her? What would make Max break up with her? She poked her cheeks and pulled down her eyelids. Was she ugly? She tried to figure out what had gone wrong. Her efforts were futile. As she was poking and probing her face, Derek walked in and shut the door. she shoved her aside and began to brush his teeth also with out glancing in her direction.

"Hey! I was Here first." Casey shoved him back. He gave her a look of annoyance.

"Drama Queen." He muttered between brush strokes. there was a silence between them and Derek was the one to break it , "So.." he spit, "I now have another embarrassing story to tell your little boy toy Max."

"Go ahead." Casey remarked, "Its not like he's gonna care."

"Whatever." Derek shrugged, "I wonder why..." He thought. And before he knew it Casey had finished rinsing and spitting and walked out.

Derek sat in his bed, his stereo booming and his mind idle. It was 9:00pm, on any other Friday night he'd be chatting up a storm with Kendra at the local bakery or the park where ever she felt like hanging out. But this night he was alone they had broken up once again yesterday and she hadn't called him since. He feared that this time the break up was for good but reasoning took over and he figured she was just waiting for him to call her.

"Should I?" He rubbed his chin. His hand reached for the receiver and finally gave in to his urge to call her.

While dialing her number he still questioned his decision. He wasn't the type to call after a messy break up. Derek was always the one getting the calls not making them. He swallowed his pride and pressed the 'Talk' button.

Ringing…silence…more ringing…silence…he started feeling anxious. What if she didn't pick up? What if she was avoiding him? What if…the ringing stopped and a voice answered. He smiled , "There is a God."

"Kendra?" Derek asked hopefully.

"No. This is her mother, Kendra isn't here right now. Want to leave her a message?"

"No thanks. I'll again later. Good night." Derek hung up the phone and let out a groan. Now what was he going to do? He was bored and restless. Derek began to think of thigs to preoccupy him: "Comics? No. TV? Overrated. Videogames? Boring…"everything he came up he came up for another reason to not do it.

"Casey…" He grinned when a marvelous idea struck him. He quickly stood up, rushed out and walked into Edwin's room.