Chapter Four:
Distractions

DEREK

I sat down next to Casey and smirked when she half-rolled her eyes. "So what now?"

She looked confused for once and she blushed slightly. "W-what do you mean?"

I smirked again. I was getting to her. Her shell isn't as hard as I'd thought. "What are we going to do in class? We're already done with the project."

"O-oh. Well, I'm going to finish some homework that I have. You can…um…do whatever," she replied, taking a math book out of her backpack.

My eyebrows furrowed. How could she act like she didn't care that I was sitting so close to her? It pissed me off. Girls fell head over heels for me as soon as I even looked at them. It's not like she's any different. She's just really good at hiding her feelings, I told myself.

I snatched her math book and leafed through it.

She sighed. "Derek, please. Give it back. I'm not in the mood."

I looked up at her. "Are you ever?"

Her cheeks turned bright pink and her eyes narrowed. "Just…please."

"Why are you always so wound up?" I asked her, licking my finger and turning a page in her book.

She turned away from and grabbed a notebook out of her backpack, opening to a page and starting to write furiously in it.

"What the—are you writing me a note?" I had to clamp my lips together to keep from laughing. A note. How third grade.

"No. I'm writing down my homework assignments," she replied crossly.

I leaned forward to get a better look at her notebook. "That's a bunch of scribbles."

Casey looked at me and seriously it looked like she was going to bite my head off. This girl has some anger management issues, I thought as our eyes met. I leaned forward more and said, "Calm down. Here. Take your book." I leaned away and patted her head. "Girls. So weird."

She laughed, clutching her book to her chest. "Look who's talking. The definition of weird."

Planet Earth, I made Casey McDonald laugh.

--

CASEY

I walked down the hallway and stopped at my locker, opening it and quickly shoving my books inside. Finally lunch time, I thought with a smile.

"Hey! I've been looking for you!" a voice behind me said.

I turned around, wondering who it was since I didn't exactly recognize the voice. I smiled as my eyes landed on Sam. "Hey," I said simply.

"You have lunch this hour?" he asked, walking towards me. I nodded. "Cool. Me too. Wanna sit together?"

"S-sure. Who do you usually sit with?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't say Derek.

He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I'll sit wherever you're sitting."

I smiled and my cheeks got kind of hot. "Okay," I said lamely.

We sat at a table away from everybody else. Sam sat down but I hesitated. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Changed your mind?"

"A-about sitting with you? No! I…I just…don't want to, um, take you away from your friends. You can go sit with them if you want," I said softly.

He smiled at me, his blue eyes like the sky on a sunny day. "I want to sit with you."

"Okay," I said again just as lamely, sitting down across from him.

As me and Sam talked, I became more and more comfortable around him. He was so easy to talk to. He was always smiling and laughing, and he used his hands a lot when he was talking. And he was cute. Oh gosh, was he cute.

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, and I gasped. I hadn't even eaten! Neither had Sam! I looked at him. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I—I hadn't even realized! A-are you hungry? Oh, I'm really sorry!"

He chuckled and took my hand lightly, helping me out of my seat. "Don't worry about it. I had eye candy," he said, winking and walking away.

I felt my face turn hot as it had ever been. Wow.

Can you say melt?

--

DEREK

I was almost out the door when my dad popped his head out of the kitchen and said, "Derek, where are you going?"

"Somewhere," I answered impatiently, sticking one foot on the front porch.

"Did you finish your homework?"

"Pretty much," I lied. I couldn't have cared less about my homework. "I'll be back later," I said dismissively, stepping out of the house and closing the door before he could say anything else.

I got into the car and drove over to Sam's house. I'd barely talked to him since that day he came over…the same day Casey and I worked on our paper. My eyebrows furrowed and I shook my head. Why the hell was I thinking about her?

Sam walked out of his house as I walked out of the car.

"Hey," he said, surprised.

"Hey. Where you going?"

"Freshmen hockey practice. You should be going there, too," he said.

I scoffed. "Whatever. Those freshmen get on my nerves. They don't know shit."

"You used to be like that."

"Yeah, centuries ago. I'm a beast now. So, come on. Ditch with me. Don't be such a wuss."

He shook his head. "I've flaked on all of the other practices. They need more upperclassmen."

I groaned. "When did you become such a pansy? Whatever. Get in. I'll drive you there."

As I drove Sam to the school, I noticed he was acting weird. Like spacing out, something he never did. I would ask him a question and he would just stare out of the window.

"Dude, are you on drugs?" I asked as he missed another one of my questions.

"What?" he replied, probably for the tenth time in five minutes.

"Why are you all spacey?"

"No reason," he said quickly. A bit too quickly. I was about to ask him again when we got to school, but he practically jumped out of the car and hastily waved goodbye to me.

"What a weirdo," I muttered to myself. I sighed and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, starting to flip through my contacts. Amy, Ashley, Brittany, Bianca, Carrie…Casey. I stopped at her name then quickly pushed past it. There were hotter girls I could get a quick date with, not some lecture on the importance of doing my homework or some other thing that Casey would say.

But even as I thought about how annoying she was, I found myself smiling. I frowned when I caught myself. "Okay. Kelly," I said, dialing her number.

She picked up with a shrill, "Hello?"

"Hey, babe. Meet me in front of the school?" I said coolly, so used to doing this.

"Sure!" she answered right away, then adding a quick, "Be right there."

I hung up without saying anything and stared out the window, waiting for her to get there. Red car, blue car, white car, silver car, red car, Casey was wearing that color shirt today, black car.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I grumbled to myself until I heard a quiet tap on my window. I opened the car door and Kelly slipped in, her blonde hair spilling over her shoulder. She raised an eyebrow and I edged closer, not wanting to waste any time.

I planted my lips on hers and relaxed mentally. Exactly what I needed.

--

CASEY

Emily sat on my bed and flipped through her history book, looking like it was so boring she wanted to cry. She slammed the book shut, startling me.

"Shouldn't we study? We have a test tomorrow," I said, looking up from my own textbook.

She waved her hand. "Blah. Casey, you know you're gonna pass this test! And I just don't care! Anyways! Where were you at lunch today?"

I blushed a shade of pink and looked away from her. I had been sitting with Sam for the past few weeks, and I had told Emily I was studying, but now she was getting suspicious. "In the cafeteria."

From the corner of my eye, I saw her face light up evilly. "Oh? With who?"

My blush deepened. I didn't really like talking about guys. Emily was the complete opposite. "Somebody."

"Casey!" she groaned. "Specifics! Please?" She pouted and looked at me hopefully.

I sighed, caving. "Sam," I said so quietly I barely even heard myself.

"Sam the hockey player?" she squealed. I nodded mutely. "Oh my God he's so hot! So, so, so?"

"So what?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "So how long has this been going on?"

"Like…two weeks?"

She paused and her eyes got so wide I seriously thought they were going to pop out of their sockets. "Two weeks? And you haven't told me about it?"

"Ah, well, I-I'm telling you now! Here, I'll tell you everything. He asked me out, we sat at lunch together, our first date was dinner and a movie, our second date was at that fair last weekend, and…I really like him," I rushed through everything, hoping Emily wouldn't mind. I wasn't too good at stating details.

Emily nodded smartly, soaking up my words. A huge grin spread across her face. "Have you kissed him?"

I started to sputter and blurt out random French verb conjugations when, thank God, Lizzie knocked on the door and said, "Emily, your mom wants you to go home for dinner!"

Emily stuck out her bottom lip, pouting. She sighed and got up. But before she stepped out of my room completely, she took a step back and said, "Don't think I won't get an answer, Case."

I groaned to myself as she walked out of my room and closed the door. I turned to the mirror and stared at my reflection; I looked I had just run a marathon. My cheeks were pink, my eyes wide, and I realized that I was breathing heavily.

I closed my eyes. How could I tell Emily that I hadn't kissed Sam yet? I hadn't let his lips get anywhere near mine. I felt bad. Of course I felt bad. I really wanted to kiss Sam, but every time our faces got too close, my heart would go into overdrive and I would start sweating like crazy. At first I'd thought it was some kind of romantic attraction, but then I realized that my heart was beating to the pace of a word that always ran through my head whenever I'd thought about kissing Sam.

No no no no.

--

Sam smiled at me and kissed my cheek as he dropped me off at my house and I opened his car door. "Thanks for the ride," I mumbled shyly as I stepped out.

He winked. "Anytime."

He drove away and I sat on my porch, not in the mood to do homework. A light breeze blew around and I reveled in the feel of the last few warm days of the year.

Suddenly I heard a crash and a high-pitched cry. My head snapped to the direction of Derek's house, where his little sister Marty was laying next to a small pink bike, clutching her knee and crying.

I didn't know what to do. I started to panic, getting up, ready to go help her, when Derek rushed out of his house. He picked Marty up, handling her so tenderly, like she could break at the slightest touch. He cradled her in his arms, kissing her forehead. Derek's face was so caring, so absolutely gentle it was like he was never the cocky, arrogant guy I knew.

And as wind blew his hair all around his face, I realized that…he was gorgeous.

Holy crap.

I shook my head and stood up abruptly. I needed a drink.

--

DEREK

I sat in math class, nearly asleep, the only thing keeping me from keeling over being all the hot girls in the room. My attention peaked a little when the teacher stopped blabbing and a young guy walked in, papers in his hands.

He and the teacher whispered for a few minutes, then he turned to us and plastered a smile onto his face. "Hi, kids!"

Where the hell did he think he was? Kindergarten? I rolled my eyes as he continued talking.

"We're offering counselor spots at Camp Fun in the Sun for the next few weeks! There will be transportation provided to and from camp, and all the counselors have cabins away from the campers," he said, still smiling.

I rolled my eyes again, thinking about how much crap this all was, when I saw several of the hot girls smiling and nodding to each. A smirk crept onto my features. Hot girls were going to be at the camp. A camp usually meant a lake. A lake meant skinny dipping.

Hell. Yes.

He gave the papers to the teachers and said, "Well, I hope you'll sign up for a counselor position! Thank you for listening!" He stepped out of the room and I turned my attention to the teacher, who was passing the papers down the rows, saying something about a great opportunity.

I grabbed a form and smirked again, skimming the paper.

Camp Fun in the Sun.
"Where you do things you never thought you'd do!"

--

These poor dears do not know what they want! Ha ha! Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Thank you, reviewers. Seriously, I'll make the next chapters so juicy and filled with Derek and Casey moments you might just explode!

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