It had been a pleasant weekend for Emily, but Monday was a different story. She was nervous about how Derek would act in class now that he knew about Emily being raped by their teacher. She wanted him to make sure he would control himself when he saw Brandon in class.

"Derek," Emily said as she walked by him holding a container of their French dessert dish. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked with an unsure look on her face.

"No. Em, he raped you. Like I said, I don't know if I can just sit there knowing what he did to you." he said looking very angry. Very enraged.

"You have to. I don't want anyone to know what happened. I don't want him to know that you know. Something like that gets out…they'll blame me if he gets fired. Everyone likes him…they would never believe that he would do something like that. They won't believe me."

"Okay. I'll be cool. Are you sure you're going to be okay? It must be hell staring at him everyday knowing what he did to you…"

"Pure hell, but I deal with it." she said knowing that was a lie. Derek was right about her, she didn't deal with her rape, she ignored it. Nothing she did to distract herself from her pain covered up the fact that it happened.

They had presented their dish and passed out the samples out to the class. Emily was doing the presentation speaking about the ingredients and some of the history of the dish. Derek had handed out all the samples to the class and was about to give the sample to Mr. Carr. He wanted to punch him in the face, but he promised Emily that he would be chilled. He just glared at him and just kept his fists balled up at his sides in the pocket of his jeans. He stood next to Emily keeping his eye on the sick bastard. He hated the way he stared at Emily…it was so creepy. It was as if he was raping her all over again. Emily was finished talking about her part of her presentation and waited for Derek to speak.

"Derek?" she whispered making him aware of his turn to speak. She stared at him with a pleading look, pleading with him to cool it. He began talking about his part in the presentation and she looked around the room seeing the smiles of several people who loved their dessert. She avoided looking in Brandon's direction knowing that he just did his best to find some obscene way to eat the dessert taunting her about that night he raped her. Derek and Emily finished their presentation and everyone clapped as they took their seats.

"That was great, Derek and Emily. And what better way to end the presentations with dessert. Now, I hoped you all learned a little something about the French. They take pride in the culinary art. They are well-known for their pastry dishes and tarts. Now, when I was in France, I've had the pleasure of eating some of the best food in several restaurants. I admit…I pigged out, but you have to know that it important to eat at places new and different. Because anyone can go to a fast-food chain anywhere and order a burger, but it takes real guts to taste the food prepared by a world-class chef. It is much sweeter to taste the forbidden fruit than to taste the mundane…" he said as he stared at Emily and she wanted to vomit. "Anyway, don't forget about the homework. I want you learn all of the vocabulary terms on page 300. Class dismissed." he said as the bell rang and Emily shot up out of her chair as if a gun had been shot. She rushed out of the class and Derek followed her.

"Emily, wait up! Does that asshole do that all the time?!" he asked wondering if Mr. Carr had always been so cruel and he never noticed it.

"Yeah…I usually try to ignore it. Doesn't work, huh?" she said with a slight chuckle.

"It took everything in me to stop myself from killing him. Em, he was staring at you…I didn't like it. I hated the way he was staring at you. It was almost like he was reliving…you know…that night. Wanted to kill him, but I promised you."

"Thanks. He stares at me a lot. It's like he obsessed with making me remember that night. He always references things and looks at me. Those eyes piercing into me…it makes me sick." she said as she shuddered. She couldn't believe she was telling Derek those things.

"He should be in jail right now. Why didn't you go to the cops after it happened?"

"He threatened me. I was frightened. And…I had believed in the things he said about me. That I was a tease. I thought maybe someone would think that I wanted it because of my crush."

"That still doesn't give that asshole the right to rape you."

"I know…" she said as she saw Casey coming their way. "Hey, Casey."

"Hey, Em. How did your presentation go? Did Derek make you do all the work?" she said as she glared at Derek.

"No, he didn't, and it was nice. People loved our dish."

"I bet they would love it even more if they saw Derek in the kitchen making it."

"Ha, ha, klutzilla. Why don't you go grade grub some teacher or something?" he said and Casey glared at him before turning to Emily.

"So, Em, guess what wonderful thing happened to me today."

"What, Casey?" Emily said trying to hide that she was annoyed with all the wonderful things that always happened to Casey. She stared at Derek and he smirked at her. He must have picked up her annoyed vibe and she was sure he found it funny.

"I got the lead in the new play! We're doing My Fair Lady! I'm so excited!"

"That's great! Congratulations, Casey!"

"Yeah…Space Case," Derek said rolling his eyes and he smiled when he saw Casey glaring at him. "I'm sure it would be a hilarious play. I mean, Queen klutzilla is in it after all."

"Derek! You are such a jerk! Anyway, Emily, are you coming over today?" she asked and Emily looked at Derek. She could have sworn that she saw the same curiosity and interest on Derek's face that Casey wore. She began to wonder if Derek was serious about that being closer friends thing. If so, that would be the best thing to happen to her because, hopefully, eventually, he would want her as his girlfriend instead of as a girl who was a friend.

"Yeah, I'm coming over. I might even study with Derek a little…" she said as she laughed at the nervous look on Derek's face when she said study. She knew he hated to study.

"That's a great idea, Em!" Casey said with a tone that suggested she loved the thought of Derek being tortured with school work. "I'm sure Derek is in need of a study partner."

"Yeah…looking forward to it…" Derek said not even hiding his cringe at the thought that he was…studying. But, he realized that it was a way to get closer to Emily. Ever since she told her secret to him, he wanted to be closer to her. Be near her, as much as possible. He was starting to like her, really like her. She had to be brave to face her rapist everyday, and shrug off the little things he did to taunt her. He like that about her. Though, at first, he thought she was coward for not telling anyone about it, but he knew she would be blamed if he was fired. Like she said, everyone likes him. Well, almost everyone…he used to think he was kind of cool, but now that he knew he raped his friend, he hated him.

"Okay, I'll see you two at your house. See you then." Emily said as she walked to her next class. She didn't know why, but she was starting to feel a lot closer to Derek than she felt to Casey. Maybe sharing a dark secret really did bring people closer together.