Not Listening
by TheBucketWoman
Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek or anything else I may reference herein. No profit is being made nor is any infringement intended.
Chapter Three
Part One: Derek.
"Casey," Derek called as he got outside.
Casey stopped and turned around in surprise. For all of a second. A look of "Oh, it's you" came over her face before she turned and headed toward her mother's car.
"Come on, turn around," Derek said. "You know you want to."
He'd almost caught up with her when she whirled on him.
"Did you just say 'you know you want to'?" She asked. "Are you serious? Does that usually work with you?"
"You turned around, didn't you?" he asked.
That was stupid of him; she not only turned around but broke into a jog. Even with those shoes on. He was going to have to add "broke my step-sister's leg while thinking impure thoughts about her" to his ever growing list of sins. Luckily for him, she only ran a couple steps before the possibility of injury occurred to her, too. She slowed down to a walk, but didn't turn around again, so he took a couple of running steps until he was in front of her.
"Relax for a minute," he said, walking backwards in front of her.
She said something that he didn't catch.
"Say that again?" he said. She did, but it was no good because they'd gotten too far in between streetlamps. She made a twirling motion with one hand as she took another step or two.
"Yeah, right," he said. "So you can go off in the other direction? Don't think—ooof!"
He tripped over a concrete divider and went down on his butt. He laughed a little because he just couldn't help it. He didn't wipe out that often, but when he did, he did it big.
"Ow," he said, still laughing. He looked up to see Casey with her hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking.
"Great," he said. "Laughing at the handicapped. You're just a bad person."
And she stopped laughing. She really didn't have a sense of humor. Most people would have just flipped him off. This one looked guilty. He had his work cut out for him.
She held out a hand for him. Yeah, right, he thought. She would probably either pull away as he reached for her or help him up part of the way and let go before he got his balance. That was, if there was any hope for her.
Figuring he deserved it if she dropped him, he took her hand. And she helped him up. Did this girl want to make him feel guiltier for goofing on her? It was working, but he was damned if he'd let her know that.
She started to say something else.
"Okay, seriously? We need to get into the light, because I have no idea what you just said," Derek said. He put a hand on her arm to lead her over, but she pulled away from him and kept walking.
He stopped her directly under the light, maybe three cars away from Nora's little chickmobile.
"Okay now?" she said.
"Yeah," he said.
"I was saying that it's not our parents' fault that we can't stand each other..." Casey said.
"We can't?" Derek said.
"We can't," Casey said. "So I propose—"
"Propose? I thought you didn't like me," Derek said.
"You were so much easier to deal with when you weren't talking," Casey said.
"And here I thought you didn't have a sense of humor," Derek said.
"Who was joking?" Casey said.
Derek smiled in spite of himself. It was a good one.
"So, you were saying?" he asked.
"I think we should at least pretend to get along for our parents' sake," she said. "No need to ruin their wedding. We can avoid each other after that. Fair enough?"
"You really do need to lighten up," Derek said.
"You need to stop being an ass, but I don't think you will," Casey said. "So do we have a deal, or not?"
"Yeah, okay," Derek said. "You're just too much trouble."
"Good," she said. Then she smiled. Who was he kidding? He would put up with obscene amounts of trouble for her smile, even for a fake smile like that one.
"Where are you going?" Derek asked as Casey turned around and started walking back the way they came.
"You're not walking all the way back in those shoes are you?" Derek asked. She flipped him off and kept walking.
Part Two: Casey.
Creep, she thought. The apotheosis of creep. Google the word creep and up comes his myspace, I bet. And these shoes really do kinda hurt, but I'll freaking run a marathon in them before I let him see that. How could he hate me already? Gawd. Well, reject me and I reject you right back, buddy.
Her mom came outside.
"There you are," Casey said, just a little too brightly. "What kept you?"
"There was a line in the bathroom," Mom said. "Are you ready to go?"
"I've been ready," Casey said.
"Have you two had a chance to talk?" Mom asked.
"Yeah," Casey said. "Everything's okay." She didn't cross her fingers, but wanted to.
Edwin walked over. "Is it safe to go back in the parking lot?" he said.
"Very funny," Casey said.
"I do try," Edwin said. He looked past Casey, so she turned around, wondering what he was looking at—Derek was strolling back over to where they all stood.
"Is it safe?" Lizzie asked.
"For now," Edwin said, waving her over. Look at the two of them, Casey thought.
"Are you sure," Lizzie said. "Neither of them have holes that they didn't have before?"
Derek laughed. Casey forced herself to crack a smile. She had a sense of humor.
George emerged with Marti on one hip. She was leaning on him pretty heavily, and her eyes were drooping, but both of them seemed to look from Casey to Derek to see if the coast was clear. They didn't have to be so obvious about it.
Marti held out her arms and George handed her off to Derek.
"Hey Smarti," Derek said.
"Hey Smerek," Marti said. "Are you in trouble?"
"Probably," Derek said. "I'm always in trouble."
Smarti and Smerek? Casey thought. Derek cracked his second truly genuine smile of the night. It suddenly occurred to Casey that she could already tell the difference because of the way his eyes crinkled upat the corners. She almost expected there to be a little cartoon sparkle in his eyes, and maybe a little noise, like a bing. That only made her angrier.
But at the moment, her Mom and his Dad were still looking at the two of them expectantly. What did they expect them to do? Hug?
"So, Casey," George said. "Is Derek in trouble?"
"You heard him," Casey said. "He's always in trouble."
"Yeah," George said. "It's usually just a matter of degree. So what level are we at?"
"What level was he at before?" Casey asked.
"It's been a slow week. I'd say he's been about four out of a possible ten," George said.
"Dude, you're slipping," Edwin said. Derek gave him an little shove with his free hand.
"So I guess he can stay at four for now," Casey said. "I'm sure he'll go up to about twelve before long all on his own."
George laughed, in a "you have no idea" sort of way.
Good to know. Casey thought. Now if you don't mind I need to get home to spend one of the last nights I'll ever have in my own nice comfy room. Maybe if I'm really lucky, I'll get to fire off a couple of heartfelt goodbye emails to the couple of friends who won't be home in time to see me move away.
"It's past my bedtime," Casey said, yawning.
"You have a bedtime?" Marti asked. She said this at such a volume that everyone around her, except Derek, winced.
"Yeah," Casey played along. "Don't you?"
"Yes," George said. "She does, and it was half an hour ago."
"It's early," Marti said, yawning. Derek's smile widened as he shifted her a little higher on his hip. Marti put her head on his shoulder even though she wasn't sleepy.
They said their goodbyes. George gave Casey and Lizzie awkward hugs, as did Edwin.
"Casey?" Mom said. "Why don't you and Liz go ahead to the car, and I'll be right there." She handed Casey the car keys. Casey and Lizzie started to clickety clack their way across the lot.
Part Three: Nora.
After the girls headed off toward the car, George turned to his own brood and sent them off, too. He gave Edwin his keys, seeing as how Derek had his hands full with an increasingly droopy Marti.
Edwin signed something to Derek, who smirked.
"We just might if we want to, Ed," George said.
"Ew!" Edwin said as he walked away. "Ew, ew, ew!"
"What, does he think we're gonna make out?" Nora asked.
"How'd you know?" George asked.
"It's one of the few things that causes a twelve year old boy to go 'ew'," Nora said.
"Wanna?" George said, raising an eyebrow.
"Make out?" Nora asked. "Yes, I do, but we should probably hold off till tomorrow."
"Meanie," George teased. "So do you think they made peace?"
"What do you think?" Nora asked.
"Temporary ceasefire," George said. Nora laughed.
"I think that handing him Marti might have helped with the peace process," Nora said.
"Really?" George asked.
"Yeah," Nora said. "Don't tell anyone, but Casey's pretty susceptible to cuteness. It's gotten Lizzie out of trouble before. All she has to do is give her the face..." Nora demonstrated. "And it's all she wrote."
"Good to know," George said.
"Hey!" Nora said.
"But I'll keep it to myself," George said.
Part Four: Edwin.
They strapped Marti in and Edwin checked to see if his Dad was still macking on Nora. When he saw that the coast was clear, he flipped the light on in the car and Derek turned around from the front seat.
"What do you think?" Edwin signed.
"I don't" Derek signed.
"Lizzie was cool," Edwin signed. Derek nodded.
"Casey was okay," Edwin signed. "Should lighten up..."
"Have the stick removed from her butt," Derek signed.
"Not gonna happen," Edwin signed.
Derek shook his head.
"But you like her anyway," Edwin signed.
Derek gave him an "are you nuts" look. But Edwin could tell he liked her.
"She was hot," Edwin signed.
"You're crazy," Derek signed.
The door opened and Dad climbed into the driver's seat.
"Why's Ed crazy?" Dad asked, speaking and signing at the same time.
"Does he need a reason?" Derek said.
A/N: Thought I should take a moment to mention that any sign language used is a translation/approximation. I'm aware that the grammar and syntax of ASL is very differentfrom that of English. Since I'm not familiar with the structure of the language, it would be a total mess if I tried to write it the way it's supposed to be.
