A/N- Hey everyone! It's been a very long time! I feel...so bad... I'd just like to extend my greatest apologies to all of you readers...I really appreciate your support. I know that there is hardly justification for taking this long, but...just for later reference... I am newly elected student body president and I have a lot on my plate. I play travel softball and soccer and I play with the my school's basketball team...and I'm in band and choir...lol. I hope you don't hate this chapter. It probably has a lot of typos...I'm so sorry, but I wanted to get this posted tonight, so I didn't exactly take a lot of time to proof read. Once again I'm sorry for the wait...and as you can see this is really short! I'm so sorry...but I'll try to update soon! Thanks for the support! (Reviews are always appreciated!)

Summary: Derek's estranged mother, is diagnosed with a rare, terminal disease and the doctors are giving her two weeks to live. With this Derek must deal with old emotions surfacing as well as old memories he'd like to forget. But, you know what they say, with all pain, there comes love. Dasey!

Disclaimer: I do not own Life With Derek

Life With Derek: Depths of our Beings

Chapter Four:

Dead Eyes

They say you can know a lot about a person by looking directly into their eyes. They say that even when you're laughing and seemingly having a good time, if one was to look into your eyes…they'd know if you were scarred. Not like a tiny scar, that's hardly even noticeable, but like a scar that figuratively takes up your entire face. I never believed that, I mean no one ever figured me out…but maybe they did. I mean, really, I think everyone figured something was obviously a little off about me…I did fail grade one. They just don't know the particulars, but they know deep, deep down that there's something wrong. I mean it's like that kid that has the unruly hair, the baggy clothes, and spends all their time reading…you don't know if there's something wrong, but you know. I guess everyone expresses emotional dysfunctions in their own way, and my way just happened to make me the most popular guy in school.

Shitty doesn't even begin to describe what I was feeling like when I woke up. I woke up to my dad screaming at me to wake up, after I while I finally pushed myself out of my bed and tripped over various things on my way to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and was shocked by what I saw. I was white as a ghost, with deep dark circles under my eyes, which made me look like I hadn't slept for days. I rubbed my hand over my face about ten times and I already knew that the day wasn't looking too hot.

After I took a sluggish shower and got dressed, I sauntered down the stairs, taking my sweet time.

"DEREK! WOULD YOU HURRY UP?" My dad screamed from within the kitchen.

"I'm coming!" I crooked out; I was shocked how terrible my voice sounded.

I entered the kitchen to find everyone sitting at the table eating a hurried breakfast; no one looked up when I entered. Nora rose from her seat to rinse off her plate. I walked, with much effort to the cabinet above and to the right of the sink and reached for a glass, since I didn't think eating was such a good idea.

Nora turned to look at me and let out a loud gasp, "Derek, you look terrible!"

Everyone turned to look at me.

"Thanks…" I said sarcasm dripping in my voice.

Nora and everyone else starred at me for a moment, until Nora reached over to feel my forehead.

"I'm fine!" I said defensively as I was pulling away from her sudden demonstration of maternal affection.

More stares shot my way, "Hello, don't you people have somewhere to be or something to do…GOD!" I croaked.

Everyone's heads shot back around, "THANK YOU!"

"Hey Der!" Sam greeted me when I reached my locker.

"Hey man…" I said quietly.

He turned to look at me properly, "Whoa, what happened to you?"

I stared him down, "What are you talking about?"

He sighed, "I dunno, but you look like you haven't slept in days."

I shook my head, "I'm fine, just stressed…"

He laughed, "Oh yeah? What does the great Derek Venturi have to be stressed about?"

"Lots of things…" I said defensively.

He laughed, "Whatever you say man."

With that we parted to go to class and I knew that the rest of the day was going to be basic hell.

Well, I went to algebra…yeah, I'm taking remedial math… It was so fun! We learned about radical numbers! YAY! Okay, I'm done. But, on a serious note I don't know how I made it through the day…I was practically falling asleep during the middle of class, not that I haven't done that before…it's just, I couldn't fall asleep there, for obvious reasons.

"Derek!" Casey called to me as I was walking from algebra to my next class.

I stopped tentatively, "What?"

"We need to talk…" she said almost inaudibly.

I laughed sarcastically, "Umm, no we don't…"

"Yeah, we do…"

"No"

"Yes…"

"NO!"

"YES!"

The bell rang and the students remaining in the hall scurried quickly to class and Casey and I were left with the hall to ourselves.

I turned to leave but Casey pulled me back.

"We really need to talk about this…" she stated

"There's nothing to talk about!" I said anger rising.

"Derek! What are you talking about? You know as well as I you're going to kill yourself if you keep carrying on like this!"

"Oh yeah! Who gives a fucking shit, Case! Sure, I'm cool now…but I'm probably never going to make it in the pros…and I'll end up be a garbage man…no one gives a shit about what happens to me…so run along!"

She stood still.

"NOW!"

"Derek, c'mon think about this you need help…"

"No, Case you "c'mon"! Look, you need to get something through that thick skull! You may think you can help everyone, but you can't. Get over yourself and take your suck-up, goody-two-shoe's ass to class and go learn so you can find the fucking cure to cancer!"

Once again she stood frozen.

"Go!"

She quickly whipped around and shot down the hall. Immediately after she was out of sight, I plopped down against the nearest lockers…having no intention on going to class.

A/N- Well, there you are chapter 3! I hoped you enjoyed it! If you didn't I'm sorry and tell me and I'll try to improve for my next chapter! Thanks for reading!

-chickenboyssuck