06/12/2007 00:18:00

Disclaimer: So I got a phone call from Daphne the other day and she told me that she was handing the rights to LWD over to me. I (as expected) was over the moon! But, as it turns out, it wasn't Daphne, creator of LWD, but in fact Daphne, Marti's imaginary friend. So the handing over of the rights wasn't valid. Sucks don't it? Oh and J.K. Rowling never told me that I had the rights to the Harry Potter franchise either. Just for clarification.

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Still Sunday

"Casey are you alright?" George asked eyeing his step-daughter.

She lifted her eyes from her plate and smiled softly at him, grateful that he had come to care so much about her.

"I'm fine George."

"Are you sure, Casey? You look really out of it." Nora stated gently, placing a hand on Casey's arm. "And locking yourself in your room all day usually doesn't mean that your fine."

"I am I promise. Emily and I just stayed up really late last night so I'm kinda tired and I had a lot of homework to do before school tomorrow, so I thought holing myself in would be the most efficient way to finish."

"Keener!" Derek coughed, making Edwin laugh.

Casey's eyes darted nervously to Derek's before she looked back down at her plate. He studied her, his brows scrunched in confusion at her lack of a retort to his insult.

She has been acting so weird since last night. Derek thought, averting his eyes from Casey to watch Lizzie play with her food. She was nice and normal, then she was rude to Jenna, then she got all bitchy and distant. Like Sam said, It's like the bitch switch just turned on out of nowhere. And what was with that 'happened all the time when I was dating her' thing about? Casey isn't dating anyone. Wait. Unless he meant…

His face outwardly scrunched in shock. "No freaking way!"

"…Jeez Derek, you don't have to be so rude!" Lizzie yelled suddenly, throwing her fork onto her plate and crossing her arms.

"Huh?" He said noticing that he had been staring blankly at Lizzie and that the rest of the family was now staring at him. Well the rest of the family meaning everyone except Casey who was still doing everything to avoid his eyes.

"Not cool man," Edwin said at the same time Marti yelled "Smer-rek!

Shaking his head, George added "Seriously Derek if you didn't want to go you could have at least been nice about it. If you don't learn a little respect—"

"Wait no. What'd I do?" Derek spoke frantically, interrupting his father.

"Lizzie just asked if you were going to be coming to her hockey game next week, and you shouted at her."

"I wasn't listening! I didn't even mean to say that out loud. I was just thinking about stuff."

"Well there's a first," Casey interrupted, her eyes still hesitant to look at him, but getting closer to their normal vibrancy.

He glared at her, annoyed on the outside but inwardly grateful that she was at least talking to him.

"Sorry Liz. I really wasn't listening," Derek said sounding genuinely upset with himself. "I'll go to your game."

"Ok," Lizzie said looking at him, confused by his genuine apology. "Thanks."

There was a few moments of awkward silence at the table before conversations started up again, Derek tuning them out to return to his thoughts. Once they were all done with dinner, Nora stood up and began clearing away the plates.

"You're not afraid of mice, freakazoid!" Derek blurted, his head shooting up to look at Casey.

"Yeah. So?" she stated, finally looking at him with her normal fire. "How does that relate in any way to the current topic?"

"When I went into your room last night, Emily said you saw a mouse. But you're not afraid of mice," he said, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously. "Why'd you really scream?"

Casey's eyes widened in a panic. She looked around at the questioning faces of the rest of her family, and chuckled nervously.

"Hey Mom! Why don't I take care of the dishes for you tonight?!"

Casey stood up quickly, not waiting for an answer. She avoided Derek's amused gaze as she took the plate from in front of Edwin, whose fork was halfway to his mouth.

"Hey! I wasn't finished!" Edwin yelled as Casey ran into the kitchen with the last of the dishes, closing the doors behind her.

"Women!" He stated, shaking his head. He looked up to see the remaining females at the table eyeing him. "Uh…I mean… I just meant that in a strictly…"

"Give it up Ed," George spoke, chuckling softly. "You don't stand a chance."

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A few minutes later, the doors behind Casey slid open before slowly closing again. The person paused before moving to sit down on the counter next to the sink, a smirk covering his face as he stared down at her.

"Can I help you?" Casey asked annoyed, as she put a plate in the cabinet, narrowly avoiding it falling to the ground.

Derek remained silent, his amused eyes following her every move as she clumsily worked around the kitchen. He was enjoying seeing her squirm and he was planning on milking it for all it was worth.

After a few more moments of drying and putting away dishes in silence, Casey sighed and threw the dish towel on the counter, leaning against the island to look at Derek.

"What?"

Derek smirked at her, asking in a cheery voice, "What were you freaking out about last night?"

"Ugh Derek! Let it go! Emily and I were just talking and I had an interesting thought and it shocked me. You of all people should know what it feels like to be surprised by a thought, considering you have so few of them."

"Ouch. That hurts Case!" Derek said jumping off the counter to stand directly in front of her. "I'm gonna find out you know," he stated, staring down at her intently, brown eyes meeting blue in a battle for victory.

Casey stood her ground, trying not think about him in the way she had been all day. She was trying not to think about how she could feel his warm breath on her face. About how close they were. Trying not to think about how if she took just one tiny step forward her lips could touch his. How if she just reached out—

Suddenly feeling a strange kind of comfortable discomfort at their staring contest, he broke eye contact. As he turned to leave the kitchen, Derek could not understand what urged him to brush his body so closely against hers, and why it was that her breath seemed to catch as he did it.

Casey stood momentarily frozen, waiting until he had left the room to turn her head and watch him walk to the stairs. Once he was out of sight she groaned in frustration and slid down to sit on the floor.

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Monday

"So what happened?" Emily shrieked as she walked up to Casey's locker the next morning.

"Good morning to you too Em!" Casey said pulling a book out of her locker.

"Yeah yeah whatever. What happened last night? Did you tell Derek you like him?!" Emily squealed, even louder than before.

Casey waved her arms in Emily's face shushing her.

"Don't say that so loud! I don't want random people walking by to find out. And I especially don't want him to!"

"What do you want me to call him, He-who-must-not-be-named?"

"No, Emily Potter, We'll just call him… DJ Elbows."

"Umm…" Emily mumbled, cocking her head to the side in confusion. "May I ask how you arrived at that codename?"

"Well DJ because he has all those records up on his wall in his room—"

"And elbows because you find his to be oh so sexy?" Emily retorted smugly.

"No!" Casey stated defiantly, narrowing her eyes. "Because he has those weird posters with some freaky looking guy in sunglasses with the words Sore Elbows above his head."

"Alrighty then. Casey, did anything happen last night with DJ Elbows?"

Casey sighed glancing across the halls with despondency at Derek at Sam's locker.

"No."

"You mean you didn't tell him?!"

"Are you kidding me?! I just told myself that I like him, I'm not ready to tell him yet!"

"Oh. Sure. Makes sense I guess." Emily stated with disappointment, before a hopeful expression took over. "Nothing? Really?...Are you sure?" Casey shook her head. "Not even any special interaction your first time around him since you realized you like him?"

"Well actually…" Casey started a smile lighting up her face.

Emily clapped her hands in excitement and squealed, leaning in closer to her. "Do tell!"

Casey glanced up and noticed Sam and Derek approaching.

"Later," Casey whispered pulling back to greet the boys. "Hello Sam. Derek."

"Hey Casey," Sam said before giving Emily a peck on the lips. "Hi baby."

Emily smiled up at him breathing out a quick, "Hi."

"You guys are sick," Derek said shaking his head. "Casey! Nice to see your hair has improved from completely terrifying to only mildly horrific."

She rolled her eyes, slamming her locker shut, and turned to her best friend.

"Hey Em remember that thing I realized the other night?" Casey said, knowing that bringing up something that Derek was dying to know about would drive him nuts. "Yeah I changed my mind. Bye."

She left with a little wave, heading to her first class. Derek turned to watch her go. "I'm gonna figure it out!"

"No you're not!" she sang back at him merrily, not turning around.

"Later guys," Derek said, a small smile evident on his face as he patted Sam on the shoulder and walked away.

Emily and Sam looked at each other smirking. Emily glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

"After you dropped us off at their house on Saturday, Casey admitted that she likes Derek."

"It's about damn time!" Sam said throwing his hands into the air.

"Any progress with Derek?"

"Not yet. Still hinting at him like crazy."

"But did you just see them? That was definitely flirting," she said smiling widely as they started walking towards their class.

Sam chuckled, putting his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into him to kiss her forehead.

"Oh yeah."