Haha, sorry for the long update. Reviews make me want to write faster! :D Anyway, I think I am going to put this story on a hiatus because I want to work on another story. I will finish this story, just its on a pause right now. Anyway, I have no idea what to do in the next chapter. Any suggestions? Also, I noticed that I didn't really put a lot of dialogue in. Well, it takes me so long to write a chapter (I get distracted by various things) that it seems that I wrote a lot more. So I shall try to get more talking in there ;) I don't know if you got the Ohio joke down there. It's kinda confusing.

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Life with Derek, or its characters.

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"Noel offered to walk me to class, and I, of course, took it. As he and I were walking, I glanced at Derek due to my humongous crush on him and I was surprised to find him staring at me and Noel, a little concern in his eyes. Then he tore his eyes away as soon as he saw me looking back at him and he focused back on his talking friend. Was he jealous? No, it couldn't be. It just couldn't. He has about 3 girls standing next to him. Why would he be concerned with me?"

I finally walked out with a tray of food after spending 5 grueling hours dealing with paper airplanes, immature sexist jokes, and boring books filled with about a million words per page. As I filled my tray with what seemingly looks like mash potatoes and this orange gooey liquid, I scouted out the cafeteria for Emily and Noel. They weren't anywhere in sight. Man, I gotta get more friends. I really didn't want to look like a loner but I wasn't really prepared and too shy to go up to this random person and sit down with them. I'm really spineless. I looked around again and I saw Derek flirting around with a blonde. I think she's in my class. She wasn't exactly the brightest one. One time, she asked me how to spell Ohio, when we were in math class. I don't even know why she was thinking about it, but as soon as I told her, she seemed to be amused. "I know how to remember it now. Its easy, it's like running into someone and then recognizing them as your friend but then like realizing that she was your sleazy EX-best friend who made out with your like first boyfriend. Oh! hi, oh..."

Derek was using his classic moves to sway her. I predicted that he would first Smirk, Wink, Act Cool, then a Kiss. This was his "fool-proof" plan: S-W-A-C-K. He was preceding his plan but only got up to "S-W-A" because he suddenly interrupted his flirting ways when he saw me looking at him from across the room. I could tell my cheeks were turning bright pink as he waved to me. I, trying to be cool, smiled and waved to back to him. He was being surprisingly nice to me today, which really really creeps me out. Wow, after spending 2 years in the Venturi household, and I consider an act of kindness scary beyond all belief. The family had way too much influence over me.

I didn't want him to watch me as I made my way to an empty table, eating like some pathetic loner. But my tray was getting heavy and my stomach was getting louder despite the quality of the food and I wasn't about to eat standing up in all of this rush hour traffic. I walked up to an empty table and sat there and started to pick at my food, if you could call it that. Derek started to walk up to me and then jumped into the chair next to me.

"Sup, Case" he greeted me.

"Nothing much, Derek," I said back, still picking at the orange gunk with my fork,"Um, where's your new flirt at?"

"Well, Liza is-,"

"Lisa," I interrupted him.

"Lisa is buying me lunch, although, I'm not sure if I want it anymore," he spat at me, taking a look at my lunch. He poked at my orange gunk, "I'm guessing carrot soup?"

"No, I'm pretty sure its just peaches: liquid form. You can have it if you like instead of fooling Lisa into wasting two dollars."

"Hey, if it's keeping me full, why is it wasting?"

"You'll have even more energy to sleep"

"Case, you don't know what I do in my spare time," He said to me suggestively. I cringed. I knew what he did in his spare time, there were rumors all around the school.

"Well, maybe I want this white stuff too," he said as he pointed to my mash potatoes.

"And maybe you'll actually like a girl with brains."

"Hey, I try to be nice to you and you're insulting my dates?"

"It's in the compromise, remember?" I said back to him with a fake smile, "You don't need to be nice to me. I'm perfectly fine on my own."

"Oh, you'd rather hang out by yourself than with your favorite stepbrother?"

"No, I rather hang out with my favorite stepbrother, but there's one problem, Edwin not here"

"Ouch Casey burn, I bet you would rather have your kissing bag, Noel, here," Derek said with distain.

"Noel is just my friend!" I shouted back to him even though his face tells me that he doesn't believe me.

"Really?" He said quietly and sarcastically. He had moved his face so it was only millimeters away from mine. I think he was trying to get me to kiss him? This was not happening, not in front of the whole school!

"And you're just my stepbrother." I whispered to him, and I saw that his face fell a little. His eyes were full of disappointment, and his jaw was clenched up in anger.

"I know" he whispered out sadly.

We were thankful when Lisa broke the tension with her "Der Bear…." She seemed to not notice the limited space between me and my stepbrother.

"The lunch lady was really creeping me out with her mole, so I couldn't get you anything," She whined to Derek, with her lower lip puffing out, "I'm sorry."

"It's ok Lisa," Derek said, proud that he knew her name,"I feel already nauseated."

He stared daggers at me. I nauseated him? He was the one who tried to kiss me in front of all of our classmates and friends!

"Oh hey!, Ohio!" Lisa yelled happily at me.

I gave her a fake smile and shook her hand, "The name's Casey."

"Psh, I knew that," she assured me, waving her hand around,"Derry..I want to go to my locker now, I need to get my Sweet Pea Moisturizer or else my hands get seriously dry. And I always need my skin to be..,"she thought for a second about the opposite of dry,"wet."

Derek sighed out of annoyance. I could tell. He usually sighed that sigh when I yelled at him.

"Kay, Let's go," he agreed.

Lisa started to head off to the caf's doors, swinging her hips side to side as she walked on her 3 inch high heels. I looked nervously at my regular flat shoes. I looked up as I heard a shrill "Derek!"

"That's my cue to go," Derek said to me, "Bye, Casey McDonald."

He seemed to be pleased at my last name. He hardly ever said it though. I had a little relief flicker through me. When he said my last name, it was like we weren't even brother and sister. Maybe that's why he liked using it too. I smiled up at him and waved my hand. Then he did something totally unbelievable. He reached over and gave my cheek a little peck. He kissed my cheek. I looked around, blushing, and seeing if anyone saw. As I saw the cliques, they were caught up in their own conversations and there seemed to be no one that saw the PDA.

"You know, brotherly love," he said to me as I looked up at him and

We were gazing at each other, neither one of us daring to tear our eyes away.

"Yeah I know." I said back.

Then a very impatient voice interrupted the warm moment.

"Der-ek! Are you coming or what?" Lisa shrieked.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" He yelled back. He started to jog out of the doors. I was left there, still dizzy and blushing. Wow, he kissed me on the cheek. That is definitely something that he wouldn't do, well at least, to me. It started to tingle where he kissed me so I lifted up my hand to massage the area. With my heart pounding out of my chest, I silently admitted to myself that I was hopelessly and pathetically in love with Derek Venturi.

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ehh? So what do you think? I really liked this chapter! So fluffy :) and I know it's kinda short. It looks so much longer on my cmputer...So anyway review if you liked it and this story is officially now on hiatus. I will finish it though. I declare my life to it. Hehe. Review! please. It'll make me want to put if off of hiatus…