The Hardest Change is Within
Derek went home right after school and hoped he would get there before anyone else came home. He had to think about what he wanted to do. He did not want to do "too much" work, but he wanted it to be something to let his family know that he was not always a jerk that only cared about his own self. He needed to let them know that he really did care about all of them, even if he hardly ever showed. He sort of felt bad. Maybe he needed to show more love more often. He vowed that he would start doing more "little things" for the people he loved. He got a brilliant idea- in his opinion- and ran up to his room to write it down.
Later that day right before dinner-
"George dear, where's Derek," Nora asked while setting the table.
"He has been in his room all night. I have not seen him all day."
"Huh. That's weird. Maybe I should sent Casey to check on him."
George shrugged.
"Casey! Will you check on Derek? I am getting worried."
Casey was reluctant at first but agreed when she saw the worry lines showing on her mother's face. She started walking up the stairs.
"Thanks Casey," her mother shouted while Casey was already at the top of the stairs.
"No problem," Casey muttered under her breath as she made her way to Derek's room. The door was open a crack so she took that as a sign that she was able to come in. She stood there at his doorway and watched the strangest scene she had seen since living in the Venturi household. There was Derek Venturi sitting at his computer desk writing as fast as she could type. She wondered what he was intently writing about, but she was almost afraid to ask.
She cleared her throat and Derek jumped a foot in his chair before turning around. He hid what he was writing under his books and faced Casey.
"What do you want?"
She walked to his bed and sat down on it. "My mom is concerned because you have been spending the whole day in your bedroom. Why?"
"Why what?"
Casey rolled her eyes and looked at him like he was stupid. "Why spend so much time in here? What were you writing?"
He raised an eyebrow and cleared his throat. "You know that I was writing? Did you see any of it?"
Casey raised her eyebrow back at him and then replied, "No, but why are you so jumpy?"
"No reason."
"Come on Derek, I know you better then that. Something is totally up." Casey got up and went towards him, looking around at his desk. "I want to see what you are up to?"
"NO Casey," He said a little to sudden and anxiously.
Casey gave him a weird look.
Derek tried to regain his composure. "I mean… they are just hockey notes. Ya know, boring hockey notes. You would have no interest in them what so ever." He smirked but Casey could tell he was lying.
"Fine… just come down for dinner. I'll find out what you are doing soon enough." Casey left the room with a sigh.
Derek let out a sigh of relief. When he knew she was downstairs, he took out the papers from underneath his textbooks and set them on his desk. There were 6 different papers. As he looked at the top of the stack, he noticed something was wrong. There were only five papers.
"Oh no! Not this. This is not happening." He started to pace the room and bite his nails as he tried to think about what could have happened to the first letter.
Downstairs in the living room-
Casey looked at her hand with the folded piece of paper in it. She had taken it when Derek was trying to come up with his really good excuse. She figured he would not even notice it was gone. She unfolded the paper and read the first line. She gasped and threw the paper away from her as if it were on fire. After a few moments of shock, she grabbed it again and re-read the first lines.
"Dear Casey,
I want to let you know that I love you, Klutzilla. You mean more to me then I will ever know how to tell you…."