Author's Note: I wasn't planning on updating again this soon, but I figured I would because I've gotten such nice feedback from readers. Thank you so much! So here's the next chapter... it's short but I promise the next chapter will be longer ;-) Hope you enjoy!


Casey woke up just as the sun was coming up. Her skin had warmed up and dried off, so, while Derek was still sleeping on the dew-sprinkled grass, she quietly pulled on her now-dry clothing. As she was pulling her sweatshirt over her head, she heard Derek stir.

"Nice thing to wake up to," Derek grinned as he watched Casey struggle to put her top on.

She finally got the sweatshirt on and gave him an exasperated look. Then she pouted. "I'm hungry, Derek."

"Me too," he yawned and stretched, then stood up. He didn't notice Casey's jaw drop as he shamelessly let his blanket fall to the ground while he grabbed his own dried clothing.

She blushed a deep crimson as her eyes followed his every move as he pulled his clothing on. He finally turned to her as he yanked his T-shirt over her head and saw her red cheeks. He smirked, teasing her, "Like the view?"

Her cheeks only reddened, and she quickly looked away, not responding.

"We should start looking for the campsite," he continued after a minute, glancing around the area he was in. He could see much better now with the sun actually up.

"Mom and George are probably looking for us," Casey said quietly.

"Let's start moving anyway," Derek looked over at Casey. She looked…different. More fragile and vulnerable than usual. She still looked like that frozen, needy girl from last night. He averted his eyes, not wanting to think about their kissing last night just yet. Right now he had to figure out what direction to start moving in. "I'm thinking… that way is west." He said finally, and Casey's eyebrows knit together as she looked up at him from where she now sat.

"How do you know?" she questioned. She knew it was just a random guess.

He shrugged. "Just a feeling."

She rolled her eyes. She didn't want to go on "just a feeling."

"Well, then, what direction do you think we should go in?" he glared at her in annoyance.

Casey's lips pursed together as she stared at each option. Every direction looked the same to her—full of trees. "I think maybe we should stay where we are and wait for a search party to find us," she said sensibly.

Derek just stared at her. "Just stay here? What good will that do us!"

She ignored him. "And maybe we should look for some berries or something to eat."

He now looked at his stepsister as if she was completely bonkers. "What if they're poisonous!"

She sighed heavily. His yelling really wasn't helpful. "At this point I don't care. I'm starving."

Derek studied her. She looked sad and worn out. And, as surprising as it was, he felt kind of… bad about it. His tone getting much softer, he told her he would go look for berries and she should stay here.

"Don't go too far," she told him, her eyes looking a bit anxious. She was afraid he would get lost, too, and that they would be separated.

Derek gave her a comforting smile of understanding. "I won't." And he set off in search of food.

Casey stared at her dirty hands. She felt like she was on some kind of stupid reality show. Or even Lost or something like that. She did feel lost. And now with Derek gone, she felt alone, too.

Trying to get her mind off of things, she began building random shapes with twigs and fallen leaves. She got so into her designs that she nearly missed the sound of a stick snapping not too far from where she sat.

Alerted by this, Casey stood up quickly. Hugging herself, she asked, "H-hello? Derek is that you?"

Nothing.

"Derek, this isn't funny," she said a little bit more firmly.

Casey backed up against a tree, looking around wildly. She suddenly had this horrible feeling that it wasn't Derek that was approaching her. He liked to scare her, that's true, but he would have come clean by now…

"Derek?" she asked weakly one more time.

And what came out of the woods to her left was definitely NOT Derek…