I disclaim.

Woot, another fandom so soon? Go me!

Important Notes: Well, sort of important I guess. Like, I was at first going to make it so that this story is set in late summer, early fall, just starting to get cold, school's just about to start and then I realized, oh yeah, they aren't married yet.

Now, I don't know if it's just me and it very well might just be me, but I kind of figured that Casey started at Derek's school relatively early, if not the first month at least, in the school year. And if that's true, then Nora and George had to have gotten married in the summer sometime. And if that's true, then – dude, how long are engagements, normally? Uh oh – they had to have gotten engaged sometime like threeish months, maybe, before? Is that normal sounding? Hmm…

Ok, well, that's what I'm going with.

And so, if they got engaged three months before like July, right, then it would be like April. Right? April, May, June and then July.

Ok. Well, that's what I'm going with. So…:D

Evil Step-Sisters

By Hazel Maraa

-

"I asked Nora to marry me." George said. "And she agreed."

Just like that, he was getting married. Derek had heard vaguely about Nora, and he was happy for his dad, he was, really. But that was really just because he was too busy being lovesick over this Nora woman to nag him about his grades or his womanizing tendencies. Of course, he was only fifteen at the moment, but it wasn't like he was too young to be interesting – very interested- in girls. Derek was just having some trouble working this out. He was getting married?

"Does that mean I'll get two evil step-sisters, too?" was Derek's first snide comment. Edwin made a half-hearted smirk at this. George leveled a glare at Derek, which sort of surprised him. He was usually rather easy going in regards to Derek's snarky commentary. Clearly this Nora woman would be trouble.

Now, Derek wasn't really into the whole fairy tale scene. It wasn't even that he was unfamiliar with them, especially when Marti was born and his dad was busy with work and his mom busy with – whatever, so it usually fell to him as the oldest to take care of Marti and make sure she got to sleep on time and everything else. There was a stage when she wouldn't go to sleep without hearing a story and after a tiring day of school and then taking care of her, he wasn't really in the mood to be making stories up for his baby sister. So he read fairy tales.

Derek didn't actually own the books or the stories in print, so he'd had to Google some of the common ones he knew the names of off the top of his head. And once Derek had exhausted his brain of fairy tales, he just typed in the words, 'fairy tales' into the search engine and hope he found some new ones.

After months – and eventually Derek had to make up his own from Marti's prompts of what she wanted to hear – of story telling, Marti didn't need stories anymore so he, thankfully, gave that a rest.

But this had given him a full knowledge of many fairy tale rules. For instance, the prince always saves the princess from whatever terrible thing the evil character set up. They always lived happily ever after. There's always a magic answer to save the day. And the step-family is always, always, always evil.

Always.

There was no exception to any of these rules and Derek knew that. The step-sisters in particular were nasty, so he himself had a nasty feeling when he saw that not only did George look angry, he looked a little flustered. Derek studied him.

That look meant that Derek had just stumbled upon an interesting bit of information that his father had kept from him. But the only thing Derek said was –

Wait.

Evil step-sisters.

Did that mean - ?

No.

There's no way he wouldn't have said anything, Derek tried to argue. It wasn't even possible. No way. There wasn't any probability of his comment being true, but the look on George's face told a very, very different story.

No.

Maybe he'd been taking acting lessons, he reasoned feebly. Getting Derek back for some of the meaner pranks he'd pulled recently?

No.

It was possible, wasn't it, that this was just some big misunderstanding? Derek just stared at George.

No.

"Derek, they aren't evil," George said finally.

NO!

There's no way Derek was going to not only get a new mother but two freakin' new siblings.

A step-mother was one thing but sisters?

More sisters? Good God, what had he done to deserve this? Horrified, terrified, and stunned out of his mind, he looked at his brother.

Edwin's half-smirk was slowly, so slowly, fading into a mirror image of Derek's face.

How could you do this? Derek wanted to shout. How could you just drop this on us without any sort of warning whatsoever?

"You knew we were getting serious," George defended.

Oh, Derek thought dully. Did I say that out loud?

He felt, detached, almost. Like he was an outside observer just sort of peeking in at this family moment. He pictured himself as a ghost, a spectral version of himself, leaning casually against the counter, a sympathetically amused look on his transparent face. It would be funny if it weren't happening to him. It would be funny if it were happening to – to Sam, it would be hilarious because he already has sisters, doesn't he, and why does Derek need more sisters, he's got Marti, he's got Marti, he's got Marti and she's sister enough, isn't she, isn't she?

"Serious is not what this is," Edwin said. "Serious does not mean marriage. Serious means dating a lot. Serious means starting to meet the other person's family."

"Serious is learning there is another family," Derek added, anger once again overcoming the distance his mind was trying to create. "It isn't finding out one day that 'oh, by the way guys, you're getting a new mother and some new step-sisters.' It isn't – it's not…I can't even – this isn't happening." He finished somewhat faintly, stumbling backwards.

His head felt funny. Foggy. Smokey? No, foggy. Foggy. What a weird word. Fog. Fooooogggg. Hah, foog. Goof backwards. Goof was a – a whatchamacallit, a noun. And then, then, goofy makes it a – not a – makes it an adjective. Grammar was so weird, Derek thought, finding his way to the couch and breathing shallowly. So many different rules and different scenarios that change the meaning and it was so complicated.

Abruptly, Derek stood again, his mind not quite back to normal but what was normal, anyway, right? He brushed by his father who had followed him from the kitchen into the living room and his brother who hovered at the door a bit worriedly, though since he wasn't near him he didn't really brush him off. He went outside, feeling the slight coolness of early spring, and suddenly he couldn't just stand still and he was running.

Keep in mind, while Derek was no track or football star, he was a hockey player, so running wasn't exactly his forte, he was upset and restless and people feeling like that can run longer than you might expect. And that's why he found himself seriously out of breath some ten minutes later, just running and running and running and running.

He stopped, breathing heavily and he sat. He was somewhere near the school – the school to which his new sisters depending on their age would be going – in front of some random houses he didn't care about.

He just lay back, in the middle of the street, like Noah and Allie except he wasn't Noah and he didn't have an Allie but maybe he'd get hit by a car, he thought unthinkingly, maybe he'd just get run right over.

And ironically, it was honking that brought him back to reality.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" A brunette, wide-eyed girl his age said, rushing up to him after the car stopped. Another woman jumped out of the car, running up to him as well. "What are you doing just laying in the street?" the girl demanded, having determined he was unhurt.

"Pretending I was Noah," he murmured, having actually seen the movie on a date with a girl he liked enough to stomach the chick flick. He continued laying in the street, not caring about the two women.

"Noah?" the girl repeated. She frowned in thought, then gave him a "what the heck are you on" look. "From The Notebook?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah." Derek said. He looked at her, and just as suddenly as he had started running, he sat up. The girl leaned back quickly, startled by his sudden action. "Thanks for not running me over." He said to the older woman, sincerely. He didn't really want to die or be injured.

"Um, sure," she replied, confused. "I'm Nora." Derek, who had been almost standing, fell right back down.

"Ow," he said.

"Are you okay?" the girl repeated, raising her eyebrows.

"Um, yeah, sure," Derek said distractedly. "You aren't Nora…the Nora who's dating a guy named George, are you?" Derek realized he didn't know her last name, but whatever. That worked just as well. Now both if the women had raised eyebrows.

"How did you – " Nora started.

"I'm Derek," he interrupted. "One of George's son. Excuse me," He finished, not wanting to speak to her, her, his soon-to-be step-mother. He stood, and began walking briskly away. The girl's eyes bugged out at Derek's rudeness and stood as well, and began following him. Nora blinked. Well, it was good that her daughter wanted to get to know George's son, right?

Right?

"I'll just…wait here, then," Nora called.

"Hey!" Derek heard a voice say, slightly heatedly. He turned, uninterested.

"What?" he asked flatly.

"What's your damage?" the girl, one of the evil step-sisters, Derek thought.

"I have no damage." He said. "Leave me alone."

He had about a fifteen minute walk if he walked fast enough, he figured.

"You have no damage? Then why you were so rude to my mom?" she said. Just as he had suspected, an evil step-sister.

"I just found out some really frustrating news, so if you could go away that would be just peachy." Derek said sarcastically.

"And that has something to do with my mother?" the girl would just not give up.

"What's your name, anyway?" he changed to subject.

"Casey," she said, "and what did your 'news' have to do with my mother that made you so rude to her?"

"Well, Casey, I found out that my father is getting married to your mother."

"What's wrong with my mother?" Casey asked, slightly offended.

"Nothing's wrong with your mother!" Derek replied, exasperated. "Just, leave me alone, okay? I don't want to talk about it."

"Ask me if I care." Casey said. "Go on, ask me." Derek glanced at her, and she was looking at him angrily, eyes narrowed. They both had stopped walking.

"Do you care?" Derek asked obediently, rolling his eyes.

"No. Now tell me what your problem is."

"Why won't you leave me alone?" he asked, irritated, beginning to make his way back home.

"I don't feel like it." She said, following him still.

"Whatever." He muttered.

"So you're George's son." She said after a while.

"If you're just getting that now, then you are so going to be scammed out of everything you own by my brother." Derek said, half trying to ignore her, half trying to annoy her into leaving.

"What's your brother's name?" she said, attempting to focus the conversation into something neutral.

"Edwin. Evil sister's name?"

"Lizzie – and she's not evil!" Casey exclaimed.

"You're an evil step-sister." Derek offered. "Which means your sister is also an evil step-sister which in turn makes her an evil sister so I'm right, now leave me alone."

"What, you don't have anything to say about my dad?" Casey asked sardonically.

"You mean, my dad?" Derek said.

"No, I mean mine. I just thought that since you had insulted my mother, my sister, and me, that you were about to insult my father too." Casey said.

"Well give me a second and I'll think something up just for you." Derek said, mock-sweetly. Casey's face showed that she was pretty much disgusted by him. Good.

"You know what? You are so not worth my time. In fact, if I didn't wish my mother all the happiness in the world I would hope that our parents got a divorce so I wouldn't have to see you every day!" Casey spat. Derek half-shrugged.

"Ask me if I care." He said, looking her in the eyes. She glared at him, and turned on her heel, marching back to the car and her mother.

"Wait!" Derek called. Casey turned around again.

"What?"

"You never asked me if I cared." He said, smirking.

"Ugh!" Eyes flashing, she stomped onward to the car. Derek rolled his eyes, shaking his head and had a feeling about the next few years of his life:

If that Casey girl was that easy to mess with, maybe having evil step-sisters wouldn't be so bad.

Derek wandered back home, his brother and father waiting for him anxiously. In a curious sort of thought, Derek wondered where Marti was, but remembered she was at the Davis's house, playing with Dimi.

"Derek, are you all right?" George asked in concern as he walked back home.

Strangely, this brought a grin to his face.

"You know what," Derek said, still grinning. It was not a nice grin. It was more of an evil grin, actually. "I think I am okay with this step-sisters thing."

Little did George and Edwin know…

-

"Der-rek!"

Cackling maniacally – he borrowed Marti's evil person laugh – he ran into the bathroom and locked the door, cheerfully ignoring Casey's banging on the door.

Ah, life was good.

Ok, that was majorly weird.

Was it just me, or does Derek like go from really mad, to distant for a second to really mad again to running out of the house and then laying in the street randomly to meeting Casey and Nora and then walking away and then sort of amusedly angry at Casey and then evilly happy that he'll get to mess with her for a while?

Like, basically, did I make Derek's moods shift faster than a pregnant woman's?

Oops?

Oh well.

Review, eh?

Cheers all.