Since sophomore year, Casey has always been the one with the plans, the goals, and the long to do lists. Unlike Ashleigh's desk, which is buried under a mountain of graded essays, old ZBZ social schedules, and scraps of paper, Casey's is neatly arranged with file folders, in and out boxes, a large calendar with every event and due date written on it, and a notepad for quick scribbles.
So Ashleigh wasn't surprised when Casey created a file folder entitled 'September Surprise,' printed out page after page of information on adoption and single motherhood, and typed up a flow chart of all her options and their perspective outcomes.
"I've purchased a plane ticket for next weekend so I can go home and tell me parents face to face," Casey says as she wraps up the presentation of her plan to Ashleigh.
"Case, there's a major flaw with your plan," Ashleigh tells her from her place atop her bed. "You haven't told Evan. Or Cappie."
"Cappie already knows," Casey absentmindedly tells her best friend as she sinks down onto her own bed.
"You told him? What did he say?"
"Wade told him," Casey informs her.
"Wade knows? How did he find out?" Ashleigh badgers.
"I don't know," Casey says as she gives Ashleigh an accusatory glare. "But Cappie knows and he wants us to get married and be one big happy family."
"So what's the problem?" Ashleigh asks. "He loves you. In a really big pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, stand outside your window with a radio over my head, that makes me hate you love you kind of way."
"Now is not the time to be quoting Grey's Anatomy, Ash."
"Come on, Case. Cappie's your McDreamy. I don't know why you broke up with him in the first place."
"Have you forgotten the all-Greek ball freshman year? Or when he decided karaoke was more important than walking me home? Or the fact that he never goes to class?"
"But yet you had sex with a sixteen-year-old to make him jealous," Ashleigh reminds her.
"And what if the baby is Evan's?" Casey asks trying to change the subject. "I'm not going to stick Cappie with Evan's child."
"Like he would care! He loves you. He'd probably sell his soul to the devil if it meant he got to be with you," Ashleigh says. "Besides, I know you, Casey. And I know Evan. You two would never forget a condom. You would never lose yourself in a night of passion because something like this, something as big as this, could ruin a bid for the White House in fourteen years."
"It's not like that, Ashleigh," Casey spits back.
"Yeah because you lov…" The slam of the front door cuts Ashleigh off and Casey sends her an all too familiar glare.
"I know. Silence is golden."
Wade was used to girls storming from Cappie's bedroom at night. Usually their frustration over Cappie calling out Casey's name during sex would result in Wade getting a harsh slap to the face.
But on a Tuesday afternoon when Rebecca Logan stormed out of Cappie's bedroom, Wade attributed it to another reason.
"Afternoon, Rebecca," Wade says with a tip of Cappie's borrowed ten-gallon, cowboy hat.
"Oh, shove off," Rebecca spits back at him as she runs down the steps of the Kappa Tau house. Without a second glance, Wade makes his way to Cappie's room.
"You didn't tell her about the bun, did you?" Wade asks as he strolls through Cappie's open door.
"Nah," Cappie says as he dunks his ratty, cleaning cloth into the bucket of soapy water.
"Cleaning? Again?" Wade asks with a touch of concern floating in his voice.
"Yep," Cappie replies with a shrug.
"Come on, Cap. She's not worth it," Wade tells him.
Cappie stops his precise, circular movements and turns around to glare at his fellow fat brother.
"Don't ever say that again," he spits out through gritted teeth.
"Alright," Wade says trying to calm his friend down. "Alright, Cappie. Any word, yet?"
"No…" Cappie trails off as he stands up and throws his arm over his brother's shoulders. "But I'm glad you're here. I'm figuring that I'm gonna have to get an apartment, since a frat house is no place to raise a child. And, since rules say the president has to live in the house, I'm going to have to step down. And with you being second in command, I want you to be president."
"Cap, you're talking crazy. She's probably already with Chambers, getting married, buying a house in the 'burbs, and what not," Wade informs him as he turns to face his friend.
"Maybe so," Cappie mutters before his voice rises back to it's usually octave. "But if the baby's mine, I'm going to be a dad. I'm going to be there. Casey can do what the heck she wants. But I'm going to be a dad."
"Casey's pregnant?" A voice interrupts their conversation and they both turn to find out where it's coming from.
"Spitter…" Cappie trails off.
"Casey? As in my sister, Casey? Pregnant?" Rusty asks with a look of sheer panic on his face.
Not surprisingly, the door to ZBZ is unlocked but Rusty is surprised there aren't girls on hand to scream an immediate, "Boy in the house."
"Casey!" Rusty yells as he shuts the door behind him. "Casey! Casey Cartwright!"
"Rusty?" His sister questions from the top of the stairs. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to you," he tells her from his place on the third step of the staircase.
"Can't it wait?" Casey asks as she starts to ascend the staircase.
"No. I know about it," Rusty says with a raised eyebrow.
"Know about what?"
"I know about you and the… I know you're knapped." Casey's eyes open wider as she processes her brother's words.
"Wait there," Casey says before she turns on her heels and rushes to her room to slip on a jacket and a pair of ballet flats before returning to her younger brother. She grabs his hand and pulls him out of the house, letting the door slam behind them.
"Where did you hear this?" Casey hisses as they walk briskly down Greek row.
"So it's true?" Rusty asks. Casey brushes him off. "Case! It's it true?"
"Ugh," Casey groans. "Yes."
"And it's Cappie's?"
"Is that who told you?" Casey asks coming to a dead stop.
"No," Rusty says, his nostrils flaring. A sign that Casey is all to familiar with. A sign that Rusty is lying.
"He did!"
"No," Rusty reassures her.
"Yes, he did. You're lying to me."
"He didn't mean to, Casey."
"Did he send you over here?"
"No," Rusty sputters. "I find out my sister might be pregnant. I, naturally, want to know if it's true."
"You're pregnant?" A voice from behind them asks, breaking Casey's attention from the flaring of her brother's nostrils to the face of her ex-boyfriend, Evan.
