Disclaimer: I don't own Life With Derek. If I did, you'd know, because I have no problem going into Dasey territory.
Title: A Good Example
Summary: .post It's Our Party. After seeing Lizzie and Edwin fighting, Casey comes to the shocking conclusion that she and Derek may be setting a bad example for the two younger sibs. So she's got the perfect plan to change that... .Dasey.
Author: Silverflare07
Dedication: This one goes to Chibi, because when I told her my idea she laughed her head off and told me that it was the perfect Derek reaction to the Casey-induced situation. And just because she's my bestest friend ever!
Author's Notes: The idea for this fic came after seeing It's Our Party. I was watching Lizzie pin Edwin to the floor for teasing her about her boy friend Jamie (I think that's his name) and I thought Oh god, they're turning into Derek and Casey! Of course, Derek and Casey saw their younger sibs fighting and Casey, being Casey, would want to start setting a good example for Lizzie. So, she's going to stop reacting to everything Derek does. And when I asked myself what would happen to Derek when she did that, I thought...It would drive him nuts. And thus, you get this! Enjoy!
Stuff You Need To Know:
"Speech"
Thoughts
"Okay," Edwin turned on the light in the game closet and addressed the girl before him. "We know the situation,"
"Derek likes Casey." Lizzie supplied.
"Right. Now we just need to figure out what to do about it."
"Do about it?" Lizzie asked.
"Of course! As the middle children it's our job to intervene in the older child's daily life."
Lizzie raised an eyebrow. "It is?"
"Yes!" She continued to look at him, eyebrow raised. "Okay, no. But this is just too good an opportunity to pass up! Do you realize that we have blackmail on Derek for life! We have to take advantage of this!"
"I dunno," Lizzie looked unsure. "If he really likes her, isn't kind of mean to use it against him?"
"Mean?" Edwin looked incredulous. "After all the stuff Derek has done to me? And you're worried about being mean?"
"Well..." She seemed to be debating. "Maybe we could just give him a little time to adjust to the fact that we know. And that Casey knows."
Edwin's eyes bugged. "Casey knows?"
Lizzie looked guilty. "I might have mentioned it to her..."
"Wow, poor Derek..."
"What! You just wanted to blackmail him for it!"
"Fine, fine. We'll wait and let him adjust and to see what Casey's going to do about this. Deal?"
"Deal."
They did their secret hand shake and then left the closet, each going their separate ways until further notice.
"Hey Georgie?" George looked up from the book he was reading to Marti and glanced at his wife.
"Yeah?"
"Have you noticed anything weird going on with the kids?"
George looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, and why question the peace and quiet?"
Nora nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She smiled, her mind at ease.
"Of course I am." George went back to reading the fairy tale to his youngest child.
Beside her father, Marti rolled her eyes, grown-ups could be so clueless.
Casey paced back and forth in her room, wondering just what in the world she was doing. It had been three days since her eventful conversation with Paul and her discovery of her feelings for her step-brother. She's spent these past three days avoiding him like the plague (not a hard feat considering he seemed to be avoiding her as well) and trying to make some sense of the mess she found herself in. It had taken the better part of those three days, but she felt a little more level headed about the whole situation.
She had come to terms with her feelings for Derek and might have even figured out a way to tell him, without telling him. If that made any sense.
She looked at herself in the mirror one last time. Not to make sure that she looked alright, but to make sure she was still real and sane and honestly going through with her plan. She heard Derek and Sam strike a few cords on their guitars, warming up for practice.
Casey sighed and picked up the sheets of paper from her desk. There was no time for second thoughts; D-Rock was waiting downstairs for its lead singer so they could begin practice. Casey took a deep breath and opened her door, stepping into the hallway and making her way towards the stairs.
It was now or never, and Casey McDonald was about to do the craziest thing she'd ever done.
Sing a song for Derek Venturi.
Derek swallowed audibly as his step-sister came down the stairs, looking extremely nervous. This was officially the longest he'd been in a room with her since he had freaked out on Edwin after dinner, and it had only been half a minute. She walked calmly over to her band mates and handed them each a sheet of music-sans words.
"If you don't mind," She bit her bottom lip, a nervous habit she'd picked up a while back, "I'd like to try a new song I wrote." She saw their looks. "Don't worry, it's better than the other one, and if you don't like it we can throw it away."
Reluctantly the three boys nodded and Ralph began to hit a steady beat, Derek and Sam joining soon after. Casey smiled tightly before taking one more breath, closing her eyes, and beginning to sing.
"Once upon a time
Is always how the story starts
Boy meets girl
Both feel something in their hearts
There's a witch with an evil dragon
Or boy makes mistake
And girl is always understandin'"
Derek found himself bopping his head to the beat. It wasn't half bad considering her last venture into the song writing business. It was something he could even picture himself listening to on a regular basis.
"But once upon a time
For us, wasn't like that
No one ever
Rolled out the welcome mat
Ever after was the
Last thing on my mind
But as we go on
It's strange how I find"
The beat changed for the chorus and Derek glanced over at Sam and Ralph. Both were smiling in approval.
"That you're just tryin'
To get my attention
So gonna let you know
Exactly what I'm thinkin'
Don't worry
There's no hurry
Cuz no matter what you do
Baby my eyes are you"
Derek's eyes widened in surprise. That mark had hit a little too close to home for him, but he brushed it off as coincidence. After all, what else could it possibly be?
"You're stupid antics may
driving me crazy
But you're the only one
who ever made me feel this way
Next time I see
that look in your eyes
Not gonna fool around
I swear, I'm gonna recognize"
Derek almost messed up the cord he was supposed to be playing from shock and having to deal with the unfamiliar sensation of having his jaw drop.
"Cuz maybe you and I
have somethin' goin' on
And if that's true then
baby it won't be long
'Til you and I
can come together
And we stay
that way forever"
Both Sam and Ralph were really getting into the song, both grooving to the beat with their respective instruments. But all Derek could do was stand there, wordlessly gaping like a fish while his body automatically played his designated part.
"So if you're tryin'
to get my attention
Goin let you know
exactly what I'm thinkin'
My eyes are on you!"
Derek was frozen in place, completely forgetting about the end note he was supposed to hit. Casey turned to face Sam and Ralph who whooped in approval, breaking out into applause as she reluctantly smiled. Then she turned to Derek, her face shifting into nervousness.
"Well...?"
Say something! Derek's mind screamed at him but his body wasn't responding.
"Derek?" She asked again, beginning to look even more nervous if that was possible.
Nice song Casey, he heard himself say in his head, it doesn't happen to be about me, does it? But his body was not cooperating, and all he could do was gap at his step-sister, open mouthed.
"O-kay then," she seemed to realize that she wasn't going to get a response from him anytime soon and slowly began to back up. She gave one more quick thanks to Sam and Ralph before turning and racing towards her room.
"Casey!" He finally seemed to snap himself out of his daze and raced after her.
He managed to catch her door just as she was slamming it shut. "Wait, Casey." She turned at the sound of his voice. "Sorry about that," He told her while slipping inside and closing the door behind him. "You just caught me off guard."
She looked up at him and smiled weakly. "So... are you going to tell me what you thought of my song?"
"Only," Derek swallowed again. "Only if you tell me what it was about."
Casey looked up and searched his face, filled half with hope and half with disbelief. She took a deep breath to calm herself and repeated her mantra from earlier.
It's now or never.
Sam was messing with his guitar, trying to tune it even though it didn't need it. Ralph was attempting to twirl the drum stick in his hand and not drop it. The silence was thick because neither boy was sure exactly what to say. Both Derek and Casey's departure had been so abrupt that neither boy knew what to make of it.
"So..." Ralph decided to break the silence after dropping his drum stick for the fifteenth time, "Do you think we should go check up on them?"
Sam looked at the ceiling, as if trying to see into the room above them. It had been too quiet, and Derek and Casey had been acting so strangely lately... "We should just give them their privacy."
There was silence for a few more minutes before there was an audible thump! from the floor above them.
Ralph glanced questioningly at the ceiling. "Are you sure we shouldn't go make sure they're okay."
Sam, who had a pretty good idea of just what was going on, shook his head. "Nah dude, we're probably better off not knowing."
Ralph shook his head. "It's good thing Lizzie and Edwin aren't here. They're setting a really bad example."
There's the end of my fic! I hope you guys liked it. I want to credit Chibi for helping me figure out to finish this fic! And I want to apologize for the crappiness of the song. I mumble mumble Er, that is, I wrote it myself. And I am so not a song writer so, um, sorry if it sucks! And I'll leave what the thump! was up to you. But just for the record, I didn't have anything particularly nasty in mind when I wrote it.
And the part with Nora and George and Marti was just something silly I threw in becuase I realized I hadn't written about them hardly at all this entire fic, and I just love Marti's perceptiveness (Snott!) and George and Nora's cluess parent thing.
R&R! Come on send me a smile!