One month later, Emily was sitting in French class hearing Brandon (she lost respect for him to call him Mr. Carr) discuss a project involving them cooking a French meal and bringing it to class. She was unable to comprehend why she couldn't be moved to another class. She had gone to the office a few days after her rape because it was torture to face the man that tore her world apart. She had requested to be moved, but the secretary didn't see the point in moving her in the middle of the semester, especially since she wasn't failing the class. So, she was stuck watching Brandon walk around pretending that he didn't rape her. She just wanted to shout out loud that he was a rapist. She wanted someone to know the pain she was going through, but she just couldn't do it. She was afraid to tell anyone, not even her best friend, Casey. In fact, she had stopped talking to Casey because she knew that she wouldn't be able to hide her pain from her. They had always known when each other were feeling down, and it they were there for each other. But, Emily felt as if she didn't have anyone that would know how she was feeling.

"Emily," Brandon said snapping her out of her thoughts and she started to shiver as she heard her name coming from his lips. "Your partner for this project will be Derek. You were paying attention, weren't you?" he said staring at her and she glared at him. He wore a smirk on his face that, to someone else, it would seem like a smirk of a teacher catching a student in the act of daydreaming, but, to her, she knew that he was smirking at her for a very different reason. She wanted to vomit as she knew his dark eyes was piercing into her practically screaming out with the smug satisfaction that he raped her and she was, slowly, breaking down…and no one knew it.

Suddenly, the bell rang and Derek was standing beside her desk as people filed out of the classroom. She still couldn't believe that she had such a huge crush on him after everything that has happened. She wished she could tell him…part of her wanted to tell him. She needed to tell somebody in case Brandon did this again to another student. But, her fear wouldn't let her.

"So, Em, here's the deal. How about you do the research and I present in class? Seeing that I work most of the time and I have hockey practice, I won't have time for any of this…"

"Derek, I'm not doing all the work…" she said flatly as stood up and they walked out of the room together and she started walking faster when she felt Brandon's eyes on her.

"But, I won't have any time to work on it and since you're being a mutant copy of Casey and getting better grades, maybe you could help me out. By the way, Casey says hello. She's a little upset that you don't talk anymore. But I understand."

"You do?" she said looking worried. How could he have known about what happened? She had never told anyone and she tried her best to seem as normal as possible. She even dressed the same in order to keep people from being suspicious. What was it that made it obvious that she had been raped?

"Yeah, Casey is super annoying and I'd move to Germany to get away from her."

"Oh…" she said feeling relieved that he didn't know.

"So, what do you want to do about the project? I think Nora has some French cookbooks. Maybe we could find a recipe out of one of those. Hey, how about after practice you come over and we could check that out. I'm sure Casey would be dying to see you…" he said rolling his eyes at the possibility of a mushy girl fest.

"Thanks Derek, but I can't."

"You know how much I hate doing research. Give me a chance to be the good guy for once. I'm pretty sure that would look good with the 'rents if I show them I'm working hard on my schoolwork. Maybe I'll even tell them about the party I'm going to next weekend even though I'm grounded or I will be…" he said laughing and she knew that he was joking about the telling his parents part. "you're coming to the party, right?"

"Next weekend? I don't know…I think I have to baby-sit Dimi."

"Oh come on…don't let Casey stop you from having fun. I'm pretty sure she'll mellow out once she sees you tonight and you two can go back to being the best of friends annoying you and me with her problems."

"Well, I do miss her…" she said hating how much she distanced herself from Casey. She missed her so much and she wanted to be friends again. She needed her friend right now. "How upset is she with me? Does she seem really hurt?"

"Does is look like I get involved with her 'feelings', Emily?" he said grimacing. "Look, all I know is that she mopes around and gripes at me for some reason that I don't know…Okay, I do know, but that's not the point. I'm just saying that she's worried about you and…I am too. Don't spread that around, I have a rep to protect, but yeah…I'm worried about you."

"She's worried about me?" she said knowing that she wasn't very good at hiding her pain. "And you're worried about me?" she asked in disbelief. She never thought that he would be worried about her since he had made it known that he didn't like her as anything more than a friend, and perhaps he was just worried about her as a friend.

"I am. I know it doesn't come across, but sometimes…I can be 'sensitive'." he said as he grimaced again and Emily laughed at how he hated to admit that. She realized that it had been a long time since she was able to laugh.

"Thank you, Derek…" she said trying to fight back the tears, but it wasn't working.

"Oh no…I don't do tears…gotta go." he said as he turned to walk away.

"Wait!" she said not wanting him to leave. He was the one person that was able to make her laugh in a long time and she didn't want to let that feeling go so quickly. "I promise to stop crying if you give Casey a message for me."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Tell her…that I miss her and if she wants to, we can be friends again. Oh, and tell her I'm sorry for…" she stopped as she saw Derek's face change and she was looking behind her. She turned around and Casey was standing there. "Casey…" she said a little unsure of how she would react. She knew that Casey was upset with her, and she didn't know if she would forgive her for not talking to her. Maybe she would understand if she knew what happened.

"Oh Em!" Casey said as she hugged her. "I've missed you, too!" Casey said as she cried and Emily felt horrible for what she did to Casey. The poor girl was lost without her, and she was lost without Casey.

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Derek said and Casey glared at him.

"Why do you have to ruin such a special moment?"

"I had to or I was going to blow chunks all over this floor."

"Gross, Derek! Come on, Em, we have a lot of catching up to do."

"Casey, do you think we could do that later? I'm coming over to your house tonight to work on a project with Derek. Is that okay with you?"

"Of course, it's okay! You have no idea how much I just wanted you to come over, but I thought…never mind. It doesn't matter. I'm glad we're talking again."

"Me too…" Emily said as she realized she was an idiot to shut Casey out of her life, but she knew she still couldn't tell her the truth.