"Derek!" shouted the familiar voice as he crossed the quad from the bus stop to where his friends and girlfriend stood.

"Rose," he said much softer than her, slightly mortified by the attention she had evoked. He planted a soft peck on her cheek, before turning around to Mark, who had his arm wrapped around the shoulder of a poor, unsuspecting junior. Another conquest of Mark's, he thought to himself, must be the sixth one in the last week.

"Derek, we're seniors!" Mark chanted, releasing the girl momentarily so he could hug his best friend and his brother.

"I hear you," Derek smirked, "I also heard you all last night and this morning."

"Then why aren't you excited brother?" Mark asked rhetorically. "Only one more year and then we're out of this hell hole, and onto college, where the supply of drunken girls is infinite."

Ignoring the latter comment, Rose said, "Yeah, Derek. This is going to be the start to the rest of our lives."

Derek couldn't help but wince at how clichéd she sounded. He simply grumbled to fake his agreement and the trio began to walk through the school. Mark had left his victim behind, not without scheduling a date though.

"Did you hear about the new sophomore?" Mark asked casually as they reached their lockers.

"No," Derek answered bluntly, yet he had a hint of curiosity in his voice, "Since when have you been interested in sophomores. I thought you lived by the motto: If she hasn't been driving for over a year, you're not in the clear. Not that I ever understood it."

Mark laughed, confirming Derek's thoughts, "It still is my motto. But I may have to make an exception. She's," he paused, wondering what word would best describe the mysterious girl, who had already garnered a reputation, "feisty," he concluded.

Rose, being one of the biggest gossip centrals of Seattle Grace High, had already heard about the girl in question. "The word on the grape vine is that she sprayed swears all over her principal's office. That and the rumour about the bike shed."

"I like that rumour," Mark said with a wild grin. He was obviously conjuring up dirty thoughts in his mind, not even trying to cover it up as he groaned slightly.

Rose continued, "I can't remember her name exactly. It's something like Mary or Mandy. I just know I don't want to be getting to know her. She's probably just a wannabe who feels the need to prove herself by doing these ridiculous things."

"It seems to be working in Mark's case. He's almost drooling," pointed out Derek.

"Well he's Mark, he's the manwhore. I'd be much more worried if he wasn't." Derek chuckled at Rose's joke, giving her a half smile. It was moments like these when they were involved in light-hearted humour, that he didn't dislike Rose and her ability to make him want to go hide in a hole. He knew she meant well, but her tendencies nearly always made him cringe. He couldn't remember, for the life of him, why he accepted her date in the first place. He reckoned he was coerced by his teammates on the football team to go out with the cheerleader, but the moment when it had happened was so forgettable, it made him doubt that they would ever last longer than the six months that they had been together.

"Shepherd! Sloan!" a voice roared from across the corridor. Both the boys in question looked up to see Elliot, their long-time friend and fellow football player, coming towards them with an unfamiliar student hanging out a few feet behind him. "It's senior year!"

Mark reached his muscular arm out to Elliot and engaged in the handshake often used between jocks, and shouted in agreement, "We're seniors!"

Derek moaned, "Not you as well. I swear at this rate, my eardrums are going to be bleeding by first period."

Elliot chuckled, "Lighten up, Shep. Get into the spirit."

"Give me one good reason."

"Chicks love it when you get enthusiastic. It makes them get a little enthusiastic themselves," Elliot proclaimed, while simultaneously winking. He noticed Rose getting closer to Derek, trying to make her presence known. "Oh, sorry, Rose."

Rose raised her eyebrow in an unflattering fashion, and said seriously, "Pfft, Derek and I are made for each other, and no little whore is going to get her hands on my man."

Trying to avoid her comment, Derek picked up on the teenage boy standing behind Elliot. "Who's this, then? Not another freshman you're trying to torment."

"No, this one's a sophomore. He's got good talent, though. He's definitely going to make the team this year. His name's, uh, …"

"Jackson Avery," the boy offered, feeling slightly awkward. This was the third time he'd had to tell the quarterback his name, and he had a feeling it wouldn't be the last. If only he could go and join people of his own age, maybe he could do something else than standing like a dog behind his owner. He had heard there was another new sophomore, and, by what he had heard, she was much more talked about than he.

Grabbing his neck and pulling him out of his daze, Elliot chortled, "Oh, yeah!" He began to play fight with Jackson, who was looking increasingly flustered. "Well, my boy Jackson is going to be the future of this team. His throwing arm is almost as good as mine. Sorry, boy, but that's still a compliment. No one's better than Redman."

Jackson tried to shrug out of Elliot's grasp, embarrassed by the antics of the quarterback. Derek noticed his struggle, and commented, "Ease up on the boy, Elliot. Not everyone wants to be sniffing your armpit."

Elliot guffawed, and let of the sophomore, per Derek's wishes. The running of several freshmen around them demonstrated that first lesson was about to begin, with Elliot and Mark groaning in anticipation of the long day that awaited them. With all the rushing around, a girl with rose coloured hair bumped into Derek, almost knocking him down.

He held out a hand to steady the stranger, however she had managed to balance herself, her soft voice muttering, "I'm sorry," before she mustered off, leaving a subtle scent of lavender in her wake.


Crowded round their regular lunch table in the cafeteria, Derek admitted to Mark, "Someone moved into the old Grey house across the road."

Mark accepted the small talk Derek was trying to make to break the awkward silence. Rose had sat down in a huff, as had April Kepner, and it was fair to assume the usually close-knit friends had had some sort of falling out. As neither of the boys wanted to face their wrath, they just gave each other knowing looks across the table. "I'm glad someone finally did," Mark replied, "I was beginning to think it was going down as a Haunted House given all the cobwebs accumulating everywhere." Mark paused for a moment, as if hesitant, but continued anyway, "Last week I was walking past it and I swear a spider the size of my hand jumped out at me."

Derek chortled with laughter, "Jeez, Mark, sometimes I swear you're such a girl."

"Tell me something I don't know," smirked Elliot as he joined the group. He ignored the frantic attempts made by Mark and Derek to warn him about the high hormonal levels at the table, and looked between April and Rose suspiciously, "What's up with The Virgin and The Bitch."

That guy has no boundaries, thought Derek to himself, as he coughed a signal to Elliot to shut up.

"Fine, fine," Elliot surrendered, before questioning, "Where's my boy?" Since first period, he had invented a new nickname for his new lackey, and whenever he passed him in the corridor, he made sure to yell it at the top of his lungs.

"If you mean Jackson, then he's over there," Mark offered, waving in the general direction of the lunch queue.

Elliot noticed the girl with the pink hair in deep conversation with Jackson. "Who's that he's talking to?" he queried. "I mean good for him and all – he might just steal your reputation, Mark – but she looks like she belongs with Yang, not us."

Derek and Mark both crooned their necks to see the girl in question. Derek recognised her unmistakable hair and dark attire from the morning; she had bumped into him and left him thinking about lavenders for the next twenty minutes. Her face, however, took him back even further. He knew her from somewhere, he realised, but he just couldn't pinpoint it. "Does she look familiar?" he asked Mark, hoping the boy he had experienced most of his life with would be able to shed some light.

Mark was still surveying her face and body, trying to do the exact same thing as Derek. "Is that," he began, "Is that Meredith Grey? It can't be…" he trailed off.

"Meredith, that is what it was," said Rose, breaking her silence. "She's the new sophomore I was telling you about."

Derek took another look at Meredith. He couldn't believe that, after all of these years, she was back in Seattle, and at the very same school as he. Despite her distinctive facial features, she was hardly recognisable; her black shirt and pants were a far cry from the floral sundresses he was most used to seeing her in throughout her early childhood. Her heavy makeup also accentuated that she was no longer the innocent young girl, while her body had matured. Her chest was very prominent and her jeans clung to her slim legs. She was definitely hot. Which meant Mark would soon be in action.

"She's hot," Mark stated, as if reading Derek's mind, "I wonder how good her memory is." He winked at Derek.

"You have the ability to make anything sound dirty," Derek argued, hoping Mark would take his mind off Meredith.

Mark grinned lazily, "Did you not hear the rumours earlier? It turns out I'm not the only dirty one here."

Derek rolled his eyes, while Elliot was wriggling about, looking like he had ants in his pants.

"We're avoiding the major problem here," Elliot almost shouted.

"Which is?" Mark asked.

"Currently, this Grey girl and my boy are walking towards Hunt and Yang's table. I cannot have my potential replacement be inducted into the weirdo's gang. Knowing them, they would have a full ceremony and share each other's blood or sacrifice a goat to Satan."

Both Derek and Mark raised an eyebrow at Elliot's panicked state, and watched as he hurried out of his seat and over to where Jackson had now sat down. They looked over in awe as the scene unfolded in front of their eyes.

A/N: So, I wanted to talk about what happened in this chapter, but didn't want to spoil anything so my author's notes down here. But, if you reading this, you will have seen that it's at the bottom, and this is really unnecessary. Oh, well. I am so sorry for bringing Rose up after all these years, but Derek needed a girlfriend, and I didn't want to bring Addison into this story, so it was between Rose and creating a completely new character. But, you can see he gets irritated at her all the time, even though she technically hasn't done anything bad. The BEST thing, though, is that Derek recognises Meredith now. And the next update has a bit of drama in it. This is getting way too long now. Damn.

Disclaimer: You know the drill: I do not own Grey's Anatomy.

Oh and thanks for reading, and have a fab day, or night, or whatever...