A/N: So last night...crazyness! Here's two quick updates :) And for those of you who are reading my other fic (sometimes life is just too much), I'll try to update it soon, but I don't have everything written out the way I want it yet.

Friday and Saturday night went by and she avoided seeing Derek. She realized that she stood a better chance of avoiding Derek if she stuck to parties that were primarily undergrad students, so she refused to go to bars or any place off campus where she might see him. Tuesdays in class were a different story.

When Meredith and Christina arrived at their chemistry lab that day, Meredith quickly noticed that their lab leader, Matthew, was absent. "Great…" Meredith mumbled under her breath.

"What?" Christina asked.

"Matthew isn't here, but look who is," she said as she nodded toward Derek who was setting up some lab equipment.

"Haha, today will be especially interesting," Christina smiled as she took her seat.

"Alright students," Derek started. "Today we're going to try to identify two unknown organic substances, a ketone and an alcohol, through chromatography and then FT-IR analysis." Derek continued to explain the experiment as Christina scribbled down instructions and Meredith tried to avoid eye contact.

The girls started working on their experiment when Derek came over to supervise. "Good job Christina, but be careful when you try to separate the substances. Very nice Meredith, you seem like a natural" he said as he brushed against her with his shoulder as he walked by. She couldn't tell if it was intentional or not.

"Very nice Meredith," Christina mocked. "He's totally favoring you." Christina's sarcastic comment prompted Meredith to elbow Christina in the ribs. "What, you can't deny that."

"Hey, maybe I'm really a natural."

"At this? Seriously? He so wants to get in your pants."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGGAGAGAGGAGAGAGA

After class Christina and Meredith went to the student union to eat lunch. Christina went straight for the pizza line, while Meredith opted for the salad bar. "Well it looks like someone likes to eat healthy," Derek said as he came over next to her, adding cheese to his own salad.

"Seriously? Are you following me?"

"No, not at all. We just happen to end up at the same places at the same time. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I'm inclined to believe otherwise."

"What?"

"I, for one, am a believer in fate. I take everything on faith—faith that I will see you again, outside of the chem lab of course, even though I'm sure you are trying to avoid me at all costs."

"I'm not avoiding you," Meredith tried to sound convincing.

"You're a bad liar. Look, you clearly suck at avoiding me, so why not just give up already." He leaned over in front of her to get some salad dressing, brushing her arm on the way back—this time she knew it was intentional. She just stared at him. "You know, we could go out to dinner someplace, I pay for food, big chunks of carbs in a basket…"

"Seriously? You're seriously asking me out…again?"

"Yes."

"We had sex, once," she said.

"And we kissed in an elevator."

"And we kissed in an elevator, once."

"No seriously, go out with me."

She looked at him for a second. "It's the chase."

Derek looked at her quizzically. "Come again?"

"It's the thrill of the chase, isn't it? I've been asking myself…why are you so hell bent on getting me to go out with you? You know you're my TA, you know it's against the rules, or at least frowned upon, you know I keep saying no…it's the thrill of the chase."

"Well it's fun, isn't it?"

"See? It's all a game to you. You're in medical school—people respect you. I still have to get through undergrad, and dating the guy who grades my organic chem tests is not going help win me any respect." Meredith turned to walk away from him.

"Meredith, just consider it."

"No." She walked away and met up with Christina at a table.

"What the hell took you so long?" Christina asked when Meredith finally sat down at the table.

"I ran into Derek at the salad bar. I seriously can't escape him."

"And?"

"And he asked me out, yet again. He's all about the chase."

"Meredith, who are you kidding, you know you'll eventually give in, so you may as well get it over with now. Although I still say it's a bad, bad, bad idea to get involved with him since he's our TA, but you're Meredith, and you get drunk and horny."

"Christina!"

"What, are you denying it?" Meredith just looked down at her salad. "Yeah, I didn't think so."