Casey hates pity. She despises it. She doesn't need it. So, when Derek of all people looks at her with fucking pity then walks past her like she wasn't even there, Casey loses it.

"How dare he pretend I don't exist…like he doesn't even see me?!" Casey seethes, pacing back and forth across her dorm room.

Leah snorts, "don't you specifically go out of your way to ensure that he doesn't see you?"

Casey splutters, "that's not…I just…arghhhh!"

"I think," Leah smirks uncannily like Derek, "that you want him to notice you."

Casey's face starts to get an unnatural shade of red but Leah forges on, leaning closer, "I think you want him to beg your forgiveness, I think you want him to beg to be your…" Casey's phone rings and she's never been more relieved. She grabs her phone from the desk and sees 'MOM' flashing in bright letters across the screen. Casey guiltily lets it go to voicemail like she has done for the past week, promising in her head that she'll at least text back later. She knows that if she answers she'll have to explain more in detail why she has a job (that's "keeping her from answering the phone" in the first place) and if Casey knows anything about herself, it's that she'll cave to her mom's rapid fire line of questioning.

Leah narrows her eyes, "You can't ignore her forever, Casey."

Casey looks down at her hands, "I know," she whispers, "I'm just…busy right now." She finishes the sentence lamely, not able to voice her fear of adding additional stress to her mom and George as a result of Dennis not paying for what he should.

"I love you Casey," Leah stands up, "but you need to get your priorities in order." Casey doesn't look up so, with one foot out the door, Leah harshly tells her to "grow up."

Leah immediately regrets it when she hears a sob pierce the air as the door swings shut behind her.

Ever dedicated to maintaining her residency status in Denial Town, Casey adds one more person to the ignore list: Leah. Casey knows it's not fair, the redhead definitely doesn't deserve the Ice Queen Treatment, but Casey can't handle anyone else being disappointed in her. She drops speech and debate (no, this has nothing to do with the fact that she heard Amy crying about how Derek dumped her) but replaces that now empty time slot with more shifts at her job. She starts studying (sleeping) in the library to avoid being near her dorm. She even calls out of dance practice on Friday feigning an illness. After a week of receiving the cold shoulder, Leah can't take it anymore and apologizes. Casey apologizes as well, and they spend the rest of the evening crying together over a tub of Ben & Jerry's while promising to never fight again. Leah even promises not to bring up Derek anymore, and proves it by not commenting on the hockey tickets she finds for the first home game of the season buried under a mountain of homework, nor does she say anything other than, "I'll be there," when Casey pleadingly offers her the second ticket.

Derek's phone buzzes on the nightstand, waking him from his post-practice nap. His nerves have been at an all-time high due to their first real game being in a week and he desperately hopes it's not his mom on the other line.

"Hello?" he answers groggily.

"Derek –" relief floods his veins when he realizes it's Nora calling.

"Hey Nora, what's up?"

"Derek…" Nora begins.

At the sound of Nora's serious tone, Derek beings to panic, "Did something happen to Marti? Are Edwin and Lizzie ok?"

"Derek, Derek, everyone here is fine!" Nora reassures and Derek breathes a sigh of relief. "But I haven't heard from Casey in a while. I know she's busy, she got a job…Lord knows why…" Derek didn't know she had a job "but I've called a bunch this week and she hasn't answered." Nora continues to ramble, and it almost makes him smile, Casey definitely got that from her mother.

"Nora," he politely interrupts, "I'll check in with her and have her give you a call. Klutzilla most likely broke her phone or something." Derek knows this isn't true, but the white lie is worth easing Nora's mind. Though he'll never admit it, Nora has always been nothing supportive of him and he feels he needs to repay her kindness.

"Thanks Derek," she gushes, "I knew I could count on you! I'll text you her dorm number so you can stop by."

They say their goodbyes and Derek pulls up a blank text to Casey, thinking about how rundown she looked the last time he saw her before typing:

'Why did you get a job? You already look…' delete.

'Hey spacecase, don't you know only idiots double major AND get a job?' delete.

'Are you ok?' delete.

'Call Nora.' Send.