Disclaimer: I don't own Life With Derek, obviously.
A/N: I don't really know how much I like this chapter, if you think its sort of boring I'm extremely sorry; I kind of thought that myself. But I just wanted it to show mostly about their lifestyle, at least for a Sunday, and then by the end I wanted you to be aware of Derek's actions and how both Max (a little more than Casey, though) and Casey are aware. Other than that, I hope it isn't too terribly boring, please review! (And thank you to those of you that did review!)
Casey awoke to the blatant sound of her alarm clock droning out all of the commotion of last night's dream. Reaching a hand out from under her covers,she sleepily turned it off and began pushing her multi-colored sheets to her feet. It would be easy to say that Casey had always been a morning person, even when she was a child she would get up early to go outside a play. Unlike her younger step-siblings, getting up early wasn't for the sole purpose of watching cartoons, she found it far more interesting to go outside and run around. Even now, as a teenager, getting up early had stayed a habit of hers, she was never able to allow herself to sleep much past nine o'clock without feeling like she had wasted the entire day. Derek, on the other hand, would sleep considerably past noon and finale amble out of bed to do nothing but crash on his chair and watch sports the entire day. Casey had never even bothered trying to convince him that he could be doing so many more productive things with his time, she knew how he was. If he didn't give a care in the world about schoolwork, why would he care about how he spent his time on the weekends? His apathy had always made her feel sorry for him, she knew he would never realize how important school and learning to do productive things would pay off once he was an adult, but Derek probably never thought past the next weekend, let alone to what his adult life would bring him. In fact, most teenagers were like that now-a-days, Casey had never understood how they could live their lives not caring about
how they would turn out, the thought was always bouncing back and forth in her mind.
Stretching, Casey stood up and walked over to her dresser drawer to take out some of her work-out clothes. If there was anything she loved better than school, it would have been working out. The adrenaline rush it provided kept her in an all-around great mood, and also helped her stress level that had been induced by the sorry excuse for a step-brother snoring noisily on the other side of her walls. Quickly, Casey picked out the desired clothing and dressed herself for a warm-up, followed by a jog, and then a cool-down. Unlike most people, Casey tried to make sure she did everything right when it came to exercising - or really just about anything - and planned where and what time she was going to do everything. Planning was something Casey was always up for, it was almost a necessity for her to plan every aspect of her day, even her work-out routine. By this point, though, she had been doing it long enough to have her schedule memorized, and had no problem getting ready on time. Casey walked over to her mirror and examined her reflection carefully, like most girls she had insecurities, but tried to keep them hidden, the exercising helped, though, she was physically fit for a girl. It amazed Casey how some girls would go to extremes about things like weight, when all they really had to do was eat right and exercise, but it really wasn't her place to judge, she knew what it felt like to feel insecure about things like that.
Throwing her hair up in a messy ponytail, Casey walked over to her stereo and flipped open the top and stuck a random cd in the player. Exercising was a great way for her to start the day, it really brought up her mood when she was feeling down, and helped her burn calories. She hated how lazy all her friends were, always sitting on the couch and watching television or something like that, what they really needed to be doing was exercising, or going outside at least. The mounds of potato chips they consumed didn't help, either. Seeing how Derek ate made her sick, he would easily stick handful after handful into his mouth, not even coming up for air, and could devour a whole bag of chips in a matter of an hour, sometimes even half that. Even though Casey was a fan of chips and junk food, like most people, she knew it was far better to take care of herself now then regret everything later on in life. Thinking about the future was something she did all the time, sometimes it never ocurred to her how unusual that was, until one of her friends would call her on it. Emily had done that many a time, having to bring her back down to Earth and the present situation at hand, like the drama of not having a boyfriend. Casey, thankfully, wasn't having that problem anymore, or at least, she hoped she wouldn't have to worry about it anytime soon.
Slowly, her mind began to drift to Max and their current problems, their constant fighting and making up, fighting again and making up again was really put a gaping hole in their relationship. It had been the same routine with Sam and Casey was really wishing to avoid that whole conundrum; sure, she and Sam were still good friends, but she really wanted things to work out with Max, he was different. It was hard for her to allow her mind to wander into this subject, even thinking about the fact that her and Max might be over soon made her want to completely break down in tears, they hadn't been dating that long, why were things getting so messed up and confusing already? Their fights were over little things, just like how her and Sam used to fight: Max would say something in the wrong tone, or something would come out the wrong way, and Casey would take it to heart. She had learned, though, from her past experiences not to take things so seriously, so things like that had been happening less and less. It seemed, though, that Max's part in the relationship was falling, quickly. It might have been for the fact that he had schoolwork and football practice, but Casey was beginning to suspect something else was going on. There was obviously something Max wasn't telling her. Was it something along the lines of family problems? Or was it another girl? Casey didn't even want to know if the answer was the latter, something like that would only break her.
Once she was finished with her warm-up, Casey turned off her stereo and began out into the hallway. As she closed the door to her bedroom, though, she felt her body collide with something solid. Confused, Casey turned on her heel to see someone she had never expected to be up this earily: Derek. Her face gave her confusion away, and her brow arched slightly, the look on her face obviously asking the question as to why he was awake at this hour. Derek, who had only just realized that she had bumped into him, rubbed at his eye lazily and let out a loud yawn. She could only assume that something else had woken him up, otherwise he would be asleep in his bed, probably dreaming about some new girl that had just entered the picture, or maybe even another plot to ruin her day completely, most likely the latter. His eyes met hers and they stared at one another for quite a while before he decided that it was too awkward, and averted his gaze in another direction. Casey could only assume that it was too early for him to be able to read her facial expression, and figured she was going to have to ask him why he was up so early on a Sunday of all days, a day he made sure to sleep in on. It was very uncharacteristic of him, unless maybe he had to use the bathroom, or again, something else had awoken him from his relentless sleeping pattern.
"What are you doing up?" She finally managed to get out after such a long, almost endless, silence.
He rubbed his eye again and shrugged lightly, "Couldn't go back to sleep."
Casey was surprised, usually he had no problem sleeping late, which she assumed would mean he would have no problem going back to sleep, either. Regardless, she didn't really have the time to care, and neither did he considering he left her standing by her door, heading down the stairs. Casey followed, close behind him, their encounter had only put a delay in her schedule, and she was in need to catch up. When she reached the stairs, she watched him veer towards the kitchen to get something to eat, she continued in the opposite direction before calling over her shoulder that he should tell her mom, if asked, the she had gone out for a jog. When she didn't recieve a reply, she rolled her eyes, and continued out the front door. Leave it to Derek to fail to receive any sort of information this early in the morning, it probably hadn't even registered in his brain that he was awake yet. Hopefully, though, Nora would automatically assume, or at least Derek would remember and if she asked, he could give her an answer. Knowing him, though, he would probably just eat breakfast and go back to sleep, and Casey would be left coming home to a worried Nora, and having to explain why she didn't leave a note. If only she had left a note, which is what she usually did, she might be able to avoid some trouble from her mother, but maybe things would work out in her favor and she wouldn't have to worry about it at all. It didn't really matter, though, Nora should be used to Casey's morning jogs by now, and be able to figure out where she was.
Back at the house, Derek sleepily made himself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the island counter to eat it. A few moments later, he was joined by Marti, today in a fairy costume, who went to the refridgerator and got out chocolate milk and her own cereal from the pantry. Derek didn't even bother to notice when she began mixing them together and walk off with an over-filled bowl of chocolate milk with chocolate cereal. It wasn't like he would have cared, anyway, he did the same thing, even now. As he shoveled the cereal into his mouth, he drifted in and out of consciousness, his body on autopilot the whole time. He was more in a dream-like state, probably from his lack of sleep, and had failed to notice Casey even say anything to him after he had arrived in the kitchen, but that thought was far from his mind, which had moved onto the dream he had had last night. It wasn't really anything knew, just the same thing he had been dreaming about for the past however long: pulling endless pranks on Max that only grew worse and worse. For some reason, unbeknownst to Derek, these recurring dreams about finding new and more amusing, almost cruel, ways to upset Max were becoming more and more frequent and had the same common variable, Casey. In each dream, she would grow even more mad and frustrated at Derek, and Max would do the same, but take it all out on Casey. Quickly, Derek could see, their relationship was starting to crumble at both of their feet, and it was all Derek's fault.
As much as Derek hated to admit it, he enjoyed every minute of it, watching their relationship fail made him feel somewhat exuberant. Of course, the reason for this, he thought, was that it was upsetting and ruining Casey's life, and that was his job after all. Over the years, the pranks might have become less, but they were much more harsh than they were previously. Sometimes Derek might find it necessary to go back to middle school ways of thinking, just because the mere act of pranking Casey was fun, but for the most part, his pranking consisted of well-devised, thought out, plans to make her crack. Actually, of late, most of his time had been spent pranking Max, instead of Casey. But, in Derek's mind, by pranking Max, he was pranking Casey, so it was basically the same thing. Casey got just as mad when he pulled his constant pranks on Max, sometimes even madder, than when he pulled the pranks on her. Derek assumed she would have rather him pull the pranks on her, but it was so much more fun to do it someone else, someone that Casey cared about. For some reason, seeing her suffer didn't make him happy, it was seeing their relationship fall apart that was making him happy. He would never have admitted it, though, mostly because he thought it couldn't be true. There had to be a reason, just one he hadn't thought of yet, to why he was consciously (and subconsciously) trying to sabatoge Casey and Max's relationship. So far he had sufficed it to be just a simple brother looking out for a sister sort of deal, he was willing enough to leave it at that.
Roughly one hour later, Derek had still found himself unable to sleep, and had started watching an old hockey game. This consisted of what he did most of the day, after he got up, that is. Watching sports was always a good way to pass the time, even though he wished it wouldn't pass, he would definitely not want to be out doing something productive with his free time, or any of his time. There were other things he enjoyed more than watching sports, though, and that was girls, something that was far beyond obvious. After his relationship with Kendra had ended, he was actually very okay with being a single man again, why would he want a nagging girlfriend after he just got rid of one? He did really like Kendra, he would admit it, but after so long he just needed someone new, he couldn't handle one girl for more than two weeks, it was just too much. Plus, what was the thrill in having the same girlfriend forever, he wasn't looking for marriage, he was just looking for some fun. After all, Derek was a teenage boy, what else could be expected from him? Most girls, at least the ones that seemed to clinge to him, were looking for longer term relationships, which ruined everything for him, and he seemed unable to escape them. Luckily, though, things with Kendra had blown over and he had been keeping an eye out for someone new, though no one had come along yet.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and closing, he looked up to see who it was and looked right back down after finding out. Casey was back from jogging - luckily, Nora had never even been around to ask - and sweat was dripping off her face, Derek paid no attention, or tried not to, and started focusing his attention back to the hockey game. It was hard, though, seeing that he had seen this game over twice now and knew every play by heart, he knew exactly what was going to happen, who was going to win, everything. Picking up the remote control, he began flicking lazily through the channels, only to find that there was nothing on due to the time. He sighed and turned off the television and threw the remote onto the couch, it was quickly picked up by Edwin and Lizzie who, until now, Derek hadn't noticed sitting on the couch beside him. Derek made his way into the kitchen, just as Casey had closed the refrigerator door, with a bottle of water in her hand, he looked her up and down momentarily. Shaking his head to himself, he left just as quickly as he entered, the look on Casey's face showed him that she had not had the best of jogs, and he really wasn't in the mood to deal with her this early in the morning, or whatever time it was, he had lost track. Derek headed up the stairs, in an attempt to go back to bed, hopefully now he could finally fall to sleep.
Casey noticed him looking at her, and then watched him leave, shaking his head as if wanting to avoid her. Obviously, it wasn't so early that he couldn't tell what sort of mood she was in. Unfortunately for Casey, her face always gave away how she was feeling at that time and often caused her unwanted confrontations with her mother, or sometimes Emily. Despite that, though, Casey made her way up the stairs and into her room, she quickly grabbed up the phone and dialed Max's number. During her jog, she had decided to call up Max and confront him, she needed to figure out what exactly was wrong before she could make an attempt to fix their relationship. Besides, they weren't exactly fighting right now, and if he didn't want to talk about it than she could play it off by asking if he wanted to hang out later in the day, maybe then they could get some girlfriend/boyfriend time in. They hadn't really been able to go out on a date lately, Casey had had too much going on at school, while Max was doing a lot of football things. It was hard for Casey, dating a football player, it seemed like that always had to come first, which of course meant that she would come second. Though, things were like that for Casey, too, school was always first, and boyfriends were always second, at least that's how she usually treated things. She had thought about changing that, though, right now it seemed like it was going to have to be done if she was going to be able to save their relationship at all.
The phone rang three times before he answered, "Hello?"
"Hey, Max." A smile met her lips, she was glad he had actually been awake.
"Oh, hey, Case." Max sounded slightly less enthusiastic.
For a full ten minutes they talked about trivial things, like school and football, she was making an attempt to warm him up so maybe he would be more willing to talk to her about what was going on with him. It wasn't as easy as she had thought, she was so anxious to figure out what was going on in his mind that her impatience had gotten the best of her more than once, but she was trying to avoid a fight at all costs. The topic of their conversation began to drift to his family, and he was actually sounding fairly happy about it, so Casey was quick to rule out that family issues might be the cause to his problems. She knew well him well enough to know that if he was down about something, he would try to avoid talking about it, she was like that, too, sometimes. The only other thought that had crossed her mind thus far was another girl, but she was fairly reluctant to bring up any talk about his ex girlfriend, or even friends of his that were girls. The thought of him wanting to leave her for another girl, of even something as audacious as cheating on her, made her cringe and almost break down into tears, so she was carefuly to avoid that subject completely. If that was the truth, she would rather found out later. Most of the time, it would be vice versa, but with how real that possibility might actually be, she was wanting to just pretend that there was another reason for his odd demeanor. Finally, she had assumed it long enough to at least address the problem.
"Max, what's going on with you?" She asked, a serious tone in her voice.
The line was quiet for a while before she heard him sigh, "It's nothing..." He trailed off, slightly.
Casey knew that he was lying, "Come on, I know there is something going on. Just tell me, maybe I can help?"
He took a deep breath, but never said anything. There was a silence on the line for a long time, and Casey mind began to fluster. Questions were racing through her mind at a mile a minute, she couldn't even begin to control them. What if it was another girl? It had to be another girl, what other explaination could there possibly be? Then Casey almost knew what the reasons for his isolation had been, he was planning to break up with her! Why else would he be acting so out of character towards her? There might be another girl, things might just not be working out, it could be a number of things, but the main point was that he was definitely thinking about breaking up with her, she knew it. Casey was working herself up, and she knew she was going to break past the point of hysteria soon, she had to calm herself down. Breaking down infront of Max, or in the case over the phone, would not be a good thing, she had to act strong at least for now. Besides, if they did break up, she couldn't say she hadn't been expecting it. What with the way he had been acting and the fact that they were fighting so much lately, but that didn't make up for any of it. Max was one of the best boyfriends she had ever had, and would ever have, he was defintely a great guy and she had intended on keeping him for a long time, but things never seemed to work out the way she intended.
"Max," she began slowly, still trying to calm herself down, "you aren't planning on breaking up with me, are you?"
He remained silent yet again, but managed a reply this time, "It's just ... Well, I keep getting the feeling..." He trailed off again.
Casey was reaching that point again, and couldn't help herself, "Getting the feeling that what?"
"I get the feeling that Derek isn't okay with our relationship." He said finally.
Casey couldn't help but start laughing uncontrollably at this, it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard in her entire life. Derek trying to break them up? Puh-lease! That would never happen in a million years, the only reason he ever did the things he did was because of how immature he was. The hockey team and the football team had never gotten along, and since Derek was the captain of the hockey team, and Max of the football team, he was bound to pull pranks on them. And if there were any other reasons than that it had to be because Derek was trying to be "brotherly" or something completely idiotic like that. The latter, though, Casey doubted extremely, the first choice had to be the reason for it all. At this point, Max had remained silent, and Casey could tell that she had hurt his feelings by laughing at him so harshly, it was just that the whole idea of the thing was one-hundred percent absurd, could he honestly believe that Derek was trying to ruin their relationship? And even if he was, why would it matter? It was Derek for crying out loud, Casey really couldn't careless if Derek was trying to be brotherly or not, or if he was just immature, that would never stop her from being with Max, they were just too good together. She would just need to pound that into Derek's brain, he could easily find someone else to mess with, or he could at least stop messing with Max and mess with her instead, it kept the drama of their relationship to a minimum.
Once her laughing ceased, Casey sighed softly, "Max, Derek is just a jerk, you have to understand that."
"I guess you're right..." She could sense the uncertainty in his voice.
After another hour of conversaton, they had come to the decision that Derek was in fact "just a jerk," and that they would continue to ignore him at all costs. Not only was it easier, and less frustrating, that way, but they were both hoping that he would just give up in the end. Even though Casey knew that Derek wasn't going to give in so quickly, she did know that he got bored eventually, and gave him only a couple weeks to finally give up and move on to someone else that he could torment. If so, she and Max would be able to continue their relationship, maybe then they wouldn't have to worry about fighting so much, Casey was hoping they would just stick to the regular relationship fights, the ones that were few and far between. Casey had made it very clear to Max how much he meant to her, and tried to get him to understand that Derek really had no life and that he needed to ignore him completely, that's what she had learned to do. Max was reluctant at first, but after all of her convincing, he agreed that it would be for the best. Casey was really hoping that this new revelation would keep them from fighting so much and let them focus on making their relationship better, something she had never gotten to do with Sam. It seemed Derek was always a key factor in the ruining of her relationships, and she knew she'd have to put a stop to that.