The bursary stuff mentioned is, wait for it, made up! Wow, you never saw that warning coming, did you? Sorry if I sound repetitive. I just don't want anyone to think that certain things I claim as 'fact' in a fictional story are research-based answers. I based it off of what I DO know, after my researching failed rather miserably, but if anyone knows otherwise, please feel free to correct me and I will adjust accordingly.

Thank you so much to all of you. I appreciate you all.

I do not own Life With Derek.

MOTIVATION

"No, Derek, we're putting it on the fridge! I don't care what you say!" Nora sing-songed at him the following weekend, wrestling him for his 92% math test.

"It was the highest mark in the class!" Casey piped up, unhelpfully in his opinion.

He sighed dramatically. "You guys need to give it a rest. Just because I'm working harder at school so I can actually pass the year, doesn't mean we need to broadcast all of my marks all over the place!" he told them stubbornly.

Thankfully Casey knew him better. She knew he was loving all of the positive attention. He had a new glow about him since he started doing better in school. Even now, he was trying to hide a smile as Nora moved the fridge contents all around so his was centered for everyone to see.

"Derek, we're just so proud of you. You've really come far after everything." Nora told him, moving forward to kiss him on the cheek, but he batted her away so she settled for patting his shoulder affectionately, her eyes beginning to glisten with pride.

"YEP so I'm going to go far now, literally. I'll be back later." he told them, wheeling up the ramp to get to the front door.

"Where are you heading on a Saturday morning? I thought physio was only in the evenings." George asked in confusion.

"I'm just going out. Be back in a while." he called, smirking mischievously before disappearing out of the door.

Casey started marching up the stairs.

"Now where are you going?" George asked, not understanding teenagers in the slightest.

She sighed but kept walking. "I've seen that look before. I'm going to hide all of my hair products before I end up with blue hair again…" she explained, as if it was obvious.

Nora linked an arm through George's. "Don't bother trying to figure them out, Georgie. We never will."

He simply shrugged.

Derek rushed upstairs just over an hour later, as fast as the lift would take him. Then he wheeled excitedly down to Casey's room to find her sitting at her desk, picking through a list of some kind, various windows open on her computer.

She looked over when she heard him practically panting behind her from his overexertion. He was a lot more in shape now but he raced the entire way home, which was pretty far.

"What's up with you?" she asked amusedly, turning towards him to give him her full attention.

"I have exciting news!" he exclaimed, grinning giddily, looking much less like the usual cocky ladies man and more like a child on Christmas morning.

Casey's eyes lit up. If Derek was this excited, it had to be something big.

"What?"

He was practically beaming now. "You are looking at the new front desk person for the downtown sports center! I do registration for classes, bill payments, answering the phone, give out any information, all that stuff! And it pays way better than Smelly Nelly's ever did!"

Casey jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around him, squealing excitedly.

"Derek! I knew you could do it! This is so exciting! We have to celebrate!"

She settled more comfortably in his lap and found his face inches from hers. "How do you propose we do that?" he asked quietly, hint of a smirk on his lips as he leaned closer to her.

Casey bit her lip nervously, trying not to show Derek how scared she really was. "Um… you could take me out to dinner?"

He sent her a look. "And why am I the one taking YOU out to dinner? We're celebrating ME getting a job."

She clicked her tongue at him. "Yeah, which means you'll be making far more money than jobless me, which means you should pay." she teased.

"Sorry honey, that's not how it works. I don't do chivalry."

"Well then… we could each pay for ourselves?" she suggested.

He mulled it over. "Here's an idea. You rent a couple movies, I'll pick up take-out." he compromised.

"So we'll have a little date night." she hummed happily.

She felt Derek stiffen beneath her, realizing her word choice must not be what he wanted to hear. She back-pedalled.

"Maybe we should invite Sam and Emily over for the movie too? I'm sure they'd want to celebrate with you."

He seemed to relax after that. "Yeah… that might be a good idea." he agreed half-heartedly. "So, what are you doing?" he said, changing the subject.

Casey looked back down at her list. "Trying to cut out which universities I shouldn't apply to. Mom says applying to fifteen schools is too expensive. Each application is between sixty to a hundred dollars."

"Wait, you have to PAY to apply to university?" he asked, flabbergasted.

She laughed. "Yes. You have to pay for them to look over your application and take the time to decide whether or not to admit you."

Derek supposed that made sense but it seemed like a steep price.

"Where are you thinking of applying?" he asked, seeing the long list.

"Well I wanted to apply somewhere close to home, in case I chicken out of living in res, which is why Western is on here. And Queens would be really great, but also really hard to get in to. It's like the Ivy League of Canada. And, well, York University. McGill, although I'm really unsure about that one since it's in Montreal. And of course U of T."

Derek nodded. "Montreal's drivers are insane. You'd have to have a bodyguard to walk the streets what with your clumsiness." he teased. She whacked him with her day planner.

"Well then maybe I'll apply to UBC after all."

Derek shrugged. "Whatever you think is best for you."

"What about you? Have you thought at all where you want to apply?" she asked him cautiously, knowing the future was a sensitive subject for Derek.

He exhaled. "Yeah, a little. I really should get on that, applications will be due soon. Although even if I do start work soon, I don't know how I'll be able to afford tuition AND housing with no scholarship."

Casey smiled sympathetically at him. "You know Derek, I looked into it, and you can get bursaries for being disabled. And a lot of the time, they're pretty big. You'll have to write them a letter of what happened to you but it could take a big chunk off of your cost. It'd definitely be worth a try."

"They have bursaries for that?" he asked, surprised. He really didn't know much about the university stuff. That was Keener Casey's job.

She nodded. "Yeah. Like if I get a scholarship for academics, I'll have to keep my marks at a certain level. You, however, will just get a bursary and that will be that."

He sat in silence, shocked by this discovery. He had never even considered that he could get a scholarship for something other than sports or academics. But he remembered now that his cousin had gotten a bursary for being diabetic, and it was about half of their tuition.

Casey was watching his face change amusedly. "You know, I've got some time. We could look into some programs now if you want?"

Derek grinned. "Let's do it."

Suddenly the future didn't seem so bad.

When Derek told the rest of the family that he got a new job, they all wanted to join in celebration, so George went out and picked up Derek's favourite, Chinese food. It ended up being one of the most upbeat dinners they had had in a long time. There was a lot of chatting and laughing among the family members.

Derek and Casey of course spent half the meal throwing chicken fried rice at each other, while Edwin and Lizzie snickered at their parents attempts to intervene, and Marti opened everyone's fortune cookies for them and started to read them out loud above all the chaos.

"SMEREK! THE ONE YOU LOVE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!" Marti shouted over all of the noise. Everyone gradually stopped chattering as they looked at her in surprise, not understanding at the best of times what Marti was doing, but the random quote definitely caught them off guard this time.

"Casey." Marti continued, speaking at a much more normal volume now that everyone had quieted down. "This ones for you. It says: Love is like wildflowers. It is often found in the most unlikely places."

Marti continued on with the rest of the family, while Derek and Casey avoided each other's eyes. Nora had: Ideas are like children; there are none so wonderful as your own; George: It takes more than good memory to have good memories; Edwin: Make two grins grow where there was only a grouch before; Lizzie: Fame, riches and romance are yours for the asking; Marti: You find beauty in ordinary things.

"Well, uh, thanks for dinner. Sam and Emily are coming over, we're going to watch some movies." Derek said awkwardly, before wheeling backwards out of his place at the table, putting his dishes on his lap and heading towards the kitchen.

Casey picked up her own and headed in the same direction, although didn't speak to Derek, even when he started the water and some splashed off of his plate onto her shirt.

She loved Marti like a sister now, but couldn't help wishing she had picked a different fortune cookie for her. She knew fortune cookies were mostly for fun, at least for those not in the Chinese culture, but after earlier, she didn't need Derek thinking she was in love with him or anything. Because that would be crazy… right?

Sam and Emily thankfully came over before long and broke the awkward tension. Derek and Casey went back to bickering over which movie they should watch first while Emily and Sam rolled their eyes and made themselves busy getting the food ready since the hosts were preoccupied.

Emily peered through the gap in the kitchen doors to see Casey losing a tickle fight to Derek, again.

"They're getting too obvious." Sam commented amusedly, noticing her distraction as he pulled cans of pop out of the fridge.

Emily looked over at him in surprise.

"With their feelings for each other. They must be realizing it now that they're friends."

She smiled. "I figured that's why they fought it for so long. They knew they couldn't fight their feelings if they let themselves like each other."

Sam chuckled. "Now they can't keep their hands off of each other. Although they were never that good to begin with."

Emily laughed. "Tell me about it. I always feel awkward being around during one of their fights, because I'm just waiting for them to tear off each others clothes and go to it."

"They better get together soon. This has been going on for too long." Sam said seriously, looking out to see the light in both friends' eyes.