Not Listening
by TheBucketWoman
Disclaimer: I do not own Life with Derek or anything else I may reference herein. No profit is being made nor is any infringement intended.
Chapter Thirty-Seven.
Part One: Casey.
Monday morning Casey all but ran to the bulletin board, before she even went to her locker. She took Emily along for moral support. Or dragged her along. One of those.
"I can't look!" Casey said, turning away at the last minute.
"Yes you can," Emily said. "You will look and then you will let go of me so I can go to the bathroom." Emily waggled her arm and Casey realized for the first time that she was cutting off her best friend's circulation. She loosened her grip. A little.
Casey turned her head toward the bulletin board once again, showing just enough hesitation for Emily to yell "Casey!"
"Okay! Okay!" Casey said, finally looking. "I'm in."
"Yep," Emily said, grinning at her.
"I'm in!" Casey repeated, hopping in place. Emily wasn't much in the mood to hop with her.
"See you in a few," Emily said, slipping away.
"No problem," Casey said.
A couple of other theater types came by and nudged her out of the way so it was a minute before she saw who she was partnered with. She'd assumed she'd end up with Wendall, so she didn't look twice at the list. Until.
"Casey McDonald? Who the hell's Casey McDonald?" Some girl said.
"Ahem," Casey replied.
"Water fountain's over there," the girl said, pointing.
"I'm Casey McDonald," Casey said.
"Oh," the girl said, looking her over disdainfully.
"Was there any reason you asked, or do you have to make that face a certain number of times every day to make your quota?" Casey asked.
Casey, being Casey, was immediately horrified that she'd said that out loud. This girl looked like a puncher. Casey was barely a hair puller.
This is going to hurt, she thought. I should be running. Like now. Any time now would be a good time to take a powder.
"Mreowrrr," somebody or other said. Meany McMeanypants was glaring at her, but the daggervision was broken by her friend, who got between them.
"Don't mind Cindy," the friend said. "You just got the part she wanted."
"Shut it, Jenna" Cindy said.
"Not to mention the co-star," Jenna said. Cindy glared at her.
"Hmm?" Casey asked. That was when she finally thought to look. "Who—"
Oh God, she thought. Please...that is not what I saw. I am not partnered with—
"Derek Venturi," she muttered to herself. She'd been on the verge of hyperventilating before, but now this was red alert.
"Yep," Jenna said, laughing at the look on Casey's face and patting her shoulder. "You get to work with Mr. Hottie. Merry Christmas."
"Jenna!" Cindy said, pausing in the middle of her dramatic exit.
"I'm coming," Jenna said, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry about Cindy. She just...um...has her moments."
"If you could call it that," Casey said, her mouth running once again without any input from her actual brain. She did a lot of that in the next couple of hours. She gave her teachers several answers when called on, but had no idea of what she was saying. There was no focusing on anything that anyone said to her. What she had was really just a couple of thoughts on a loop: Oh my God Oh my God Oh My God ran for a little while. Then she worried about whether he'd seen the list yet. She took a peek at him in English and he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, so she guessed not. There'd be hell to pay when he saw it. Or maybe not, she thought. Her Dad had a pet saying about not getting headaches because he gave them. Derek was just like that. He wouldn't sit there dithering about how Casey would react to having to act with him. He'd just quit. No fuss, no muss. He'd flick her off like a bug and go on his merry little way.
This did not make her feel better.
She didn't really spend much time on how she felt about being in a play opposite Derek. That was simple. He'd be a holy terror, but he'd be talented. She was pretty talented herself. But there was no way in Hell she was going to admit that she might like to try working with him, because there was no way in Hell he wanted to work with her.
And who does he think he is, rejecting me out of hand like that? She thought. And in front of everybody! The fact that he hadn't actually said or done anything didn't matter. Because in her head, he was being really mean. She wanted to tell him off, but even she knew how nuts that was, so she just avoided him instead.
Part Two: Derek.
Did Derek panic? No, he did not.
Not even a little.
Well, okay. Maybe he did for a second. When he saw his name right above Casey's, his heart did a couple of things that hearts probably weren't meant to do. First of all, the two of them would be on their own, carrying the whole piece. Second...it was with Casey. Which meant that he was somehow going to have to convince her, not to mention the audience at large, that he had some talent in this area.
He was hard pressed to remember what it was that made him want to do this acting thing to begin with. By Monday afternoon, all he'd been able to come up with was a little empty flattery that Mrs. Zeldin had tossed his way. That, coupled with his usual craving for attention made him do stupid things. Why should this be any different?
Mrs. Zeldin called a meeting later that day. Casey wouldn't look at him. At least, he reasoned, he hadn't come in on her begging Mrs. Zeldin to put her with anyone else. Not that he didn't think she'd do it in private later, if given the chance. He didn't blame her.
Mrs. Zeldin waved them all over, making them arrange their chairs into a circle. Casey sat as far away from Derek as possible, next to a skinny kid who was too busy wrestling with his backpack to notice her at first. But then he did, and it was all over for him. Casey didn't notice, but Derek sure did, because he was watching her just as closely. He tried to tell himself that it was for different reasons, but he was interrupted by Christine, thumping his arm to get his attention.
"Introduce yourself," Christine signed. "We don't have all day."
Oops, he thought. "Hey," he said, waving. Like a dork. "I'm Derek."
Another poke. "And who are you playing?" Christine prompted.
"I'm playing Jay..." he said, looking at Christine to see if there was anything else before she broke his rib.
"Name of play?" Christine signed. She was just one in a long line of women who liked to watch him squirm.
"In The Bedroom Door," he said. Then, finally they moved on to Wendall and Derek felt free to drift again. Until Christine moved her chair closer to him and informed him that he'd be tested on everyone's name later.
The skinny kid who was next to Casey was named Noel Covington. The name was way too big for him. It was a name right out of one of those novels Casey liked, the cheap ones with the foil letters on the covers, not the ones with the pictures of shoes and shopping bags. A kid with that name should be riding horses while wearing puffy shirts. Instead, he was slouching in his folding chair, wearing a beat up t-shirt with a leprechaun on it under an equally beat up hoodie.
Casey was next, introducing herself and trying her damnedest to come off calm and altogether unCaseylike.
"I'm going to playing Terri in The Bedroom Door," she said. Somebody asked her something and she answered,"Yup. With Derek." He could read her lips even with her teeth clenched.
He grinned at her. "Love you too," he signed.
"Long walk. Short pier," she signed back, with her best shark smile. This was much more like it. Insults were always better than the avoidance thing that she'd been doing all day.
The look of evil she'd just sent Derek's way should have been a signal to that poor Noel kid that the chick was crazy and to run while he still had the chance, but somehow, he seemed even more into her. The signing thing just made her sexier. Even if she did look like she might bite.
Derek guessed he knew the feeling.
Christine tapped him again. Dammit, he thought reluctantly coming back to earth.
"Derek," Christine translated for Mrs. Z. "Why don't you and Casey teach the group a couple of signs? As a bonding exercise."
As a what, now? He thought. What kind of dork does this woman take me for?
Christine, of course, thought this was the best idea ever.
"Go ahead, Derek," she signed. "Stand up, so everyone can see you."
He narrowed his eyes at her, but then noticed that Casey was already standing and he didn't want to look like some sort of wuss, so he got up.
"Okay," he said. "What do you wanna know?"
Mrs. Zeldin knew exactly what she wanted. "Make magic happen," she said.
Derek suppressed a groan, then turned to Casey. "You wanna?"
"What's the sign for 'magic'?" Casey asked.
Derek shook his head like she was hopeless.
"Shut up!" she said.
"Magic," he said, signing it. It was a total "alakazam!" gesture, taking both hands and balling them into fists before opening them up again. Casey nodded in a "why didn't I think of that?" sort of way.
"Okay," she said, imitating him.
"Do you need help with the rest?" he asked Casey. He signed "Princess?" before she could do anything else.
He was expecting a lot more violence from her than he actually got. She put her hand on the side of his head and shoved. Then she took over, like he knew she would.
"Make magic happen," she signed, having everybody follow. People seemed okay with it, or at least, nobody seemed as openly reluctant as Derek himself. He even saw an enthusiastic kid here and there. And then, of course, there was Noel.
If Casey told this one to pour ketchup on his sneaker and eat it, he would, Derek thought. Maybe even without the ketchup. This was neither funny nor cute, the way he was looking at Casey like she was a new shiny thingee that he needed to have right that second. Derek knew that feeling too, knew that the shine had yet to wear off for him, probably wouldn't wear off for a while. So he understood, but he still did not approve.
He didn't go through this every time a guy looked at her. Guys always looked at her. It was just the ones who might actually have a shot that made him itchy. Tinker Tomlin didn't bother him, nor did Max Miller (She's not gonna go for a dead fish like him, Derek figured.) Sam was practically his brother so he didn't count...much. He thought he'd managed to suppress most of his evil, jealous instincts around Sam, figuring the best man won. He trusted Sam, at least. This kid he didn't know anything about.
He tried not to dwell on it too much though, mostly because Christine would be merciless if he lost the thread of the conversation again.
Before splitting them up into groups, Mrs. Zeldin spent some time gushing over seeing "new faces" and being able to do some work with "two languages." She was being sincere, and something about how excited the woman looked stopped him from rolling his eyes at the "two languages" bit. He just hoped that she wasn't the type to make people stand around and mirror each other, or pretend to be a tree or something. There were only so many things he was willing to do for attention, pretending to be trapped in a box was not one of them. Then she split them up according to the play they were doing and talked stuff over with each group in turn.
Casey sat down next to him, finally, but did her best to ignore him while they waited. He amused himself by playing a rousing game of "I'm Not Touching You" until she turned on him.
"Is it too much to ask that you not bug me?" she asked. "Do you really want everyone to know how immature you are?"
"What do you think?" he asked.
"This better be worth it," she said. "If it's not, I'm so gonna get you."
He laughed. "You're gonna, what? Slap me silly?"
"You really wanna find out? Keep bugging me," she said. It went against everything he believed in to pass up a challenge like that, so he did indeed continue to bug her, a little nudge here, a little eyecross there, while she was trying to look dignified and actressy. All she needed was a beret or something to complete the picture.
Christine, probably a little bored with this, patted him on the shoulder.
"If she beats you up," she signed. "I'm just gonna sit here and watch."
"I live to entertain you," Derek said.
"Right," Christine said. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but she didn't. Instead, she started looking around the room to see what everyone else was doing. Derek decided that that was a good idea as any, so he followed her gaze.
What he saw was a whole bunch of people who seemed to have lost all sense of humor. One group was actually taking turns falling backward into each other's arms.
He nudged Casey and pointed to the kids he'd been watching. "Wanna try that?"
She rubbed the back of her head in anticipation. "No."
"Don't trust me?" he signed, poking out his lower lip.
"Do you trust me?" she signed. Then she held out her hands for him and it was obvious that she was just aching to let him fall on his ass. He laughed.
"Didn't think so," she said.
He turned back to Christine after a second and saw her nodding and laughing at something Mrs. Zeldin was saying. Casey, when he turned back to her, looked exasperated.
"What's she saying?" he signed.
Casey huffed. Derek was about to ask her again when Mrs. Zeldin herself turned toward Derek and Casey.
"I get the feeling you two are wondering why I put you together?" she said.
"Yeah," Casey said.
"Because of the signing," Derek said. It was obvious.
"The signing was part of it," Mrs. Zeldin said. "I'll give you that. But I could have put anyone with you and had you feed them a few signs, so they could fake it. It's not just that."
For a second, Derek actually worried that the woman was going to say something about his glaring crush on Casey in front of God, his interpreter, and the whole damn drama club. He'd been getting an awful lot of the "who are you kidding" speech lately. He knitted his eyebrows together in what he hoped was a look of confusion.
"What else could it possibly be?" Casey asked.
"Well," Mrs. Zeldin began. "The two of you are very natural on stage, two of the best I've seen in a while."
Bullshit, Derek thought. Look at her thinking that she's gonna get me again with the empty flattery thing.
"The piece doesn't have any kissing, or even much physical contact between the leads," Mrs. Zeldin said. "So if that's what you two were worried about..."
Casey shook her head, eyes wide. Lest anyone doubt her commitment to the theater, Derek thought. Sure, you say that now, but if she told you there was kissing you would've gone nuclear.
"Okay then," Mrs. Zeldin said. "So I'm putting my faith in the two of you to be professional—"
Heheheehee, Derek thought.
"And be the knockout performers that I know you can be," Mrs. Zeldin finished. "Now, can I count on you guys?"
There was a really long painful moment where Derek and Casey just looked at each other. Derek didn't want to be the first to speak, and, he figured, neither did Casey.
"I'm okay, if he's okay," Casey said, finally. "Because I am such a professional."
"Derek?"
"I'm okay," he lied.
Part Three: Lizzie.
At the dinner table that night, Lizzie was in a gloating kind of mood. She and Edwin had been given a test in one of their classes. She'd aced it and Edwin had not.
"It didn't count or anything," Edwin said.
"It was still funny," Lizzie said. "We got this test paper and on top it said, 'Read all directions before taking this exam.'"
"I think I know where this is going," George said. "But go on."
"It was so bogus," Edwin said.
"So it had all these commands on it, like 'sign your name in the upper right hand corner,' and 'put the date directly under your name.' But then it said to do stuff like jump up and down and cluck like a chicken. And half the class was doing it..."
"Middle school rocks," Marti said. "I wanna go."
"No you don't," Edwin said.
"Finally, at the end of the test it said to disregard everything but the first two commands," Lizzie said. "So, Mr. Johannson starts laughing his head off and telling us that this is what happens when you don't read directions."
"You fell for that, Ed?" Derek asked.
"Shut up," Edwin said. "I don't know what you're laughing at, Master Thespian."
Marti giggled, but Lizzie would've bet that she had no idea why she was laughing. Meanwhile, Derek glared at Edwin and Casey picked at her tuna casserole, avoiding eye contact.
"Oh yeah," George said. He gave Derek a light poke. "Forgot all about that. So what part did you get?"
Derek told everybody which part he got in the fewest possible words, not looking at all enthusiastic about it. But if he looked unenthusiastic, Casey looked catatonic.
Mom asked if the look on Casey's face meant that she didn't get the part. Casey shook her head and said that she got a part.
"Okay," Mom said. "So spill! What'd you get?"
"I'm in the same play as Derek," she said, looking down at her plate.
Lizzie knew that there were only two characters in that play. Which meant...
"You're the girlfriend?" Lizzie blurted. Everybody looked at her, even Derek, after a beat, when he noticed everyone else turning. She put her hands over her mouth, ten seconds too late.
"The what?" Mom asked.
"Oh God," Casey said.
"What?" Derek asked.
"Ooh," Marti said.
"Okay, so listen," Casey said. "All we do in the play is fight, and I get to slam the door in his face. Mrs. Zeldin put us together and pretty much said take it or leave it. So I took it."
Edwin turned to Lizzie and shook his head in disbelief. This was huge.
"So you're playing a fighting couple," George said.
"Yeah," Derek said. "All that bickering. Dunno why she picked us." That got Mom laughing and seemed to break the tension in general.
"'Least I got a couple of phone numbers out of it." Derek said.
"Sure," Casey said. "Isn't that why we all get into the theater? Not looking for artistic expression or anything."
Derek rolled his eyes. "You telling me that Noel kid didn't try to get yours?"
Everybody turned to Casey.
"What are you talking about?" Casey asked. Derek smirked.
"Is he cute?" Mom asked, all interested.
"Which one was he?" Casey asked.
"Burn," Derek said.
"He's the really tall one, right?" Casey asked.
Derek shrugged.
"No," Casey said. "Now you gotta tell me."
"Do I?" Derek asked, grinning.
"Yes!" Casey said. "There was a guy and I didn't notice?"
Yeah, that's a real shocker, Lizzie thought.
"Unless you're just making this up so that I'll go up to him tomorrow and find out that he's gay or something," Casey said.
"What's gay mean?" Marti asked. Nobody wanted to touch that. It'd take three hours to explain.
"De-rek!" Casey said.
Derek said nothing, shoveling some casserole into his mouth instead. Casey's face got redder with every bite he took.
"Probably making it up," Casey muttered, going back to her own dinner.
Everybody watched the two of them for a minute to make sure that they didn't start up again.
When he was sure it was safe, George changed the subject, "There's a new Jamaican restaurant on Oak. I wanna try it this week, what do you think, Nora?"
After dinner, and after Lizzie and Edwin got stuck with the dishes again, Lizzie overheard Casey on the phone with Emily, trying to pick her brain about the guy Derek mentioned.
"But I don't get it Em," Casey said. "I thought you knew about every boy in the school. How could you not know about Noel Covington?"
"That's it?" Casey said, gesturing at nobody. "That's all you got? He's quiet? You realize that that's what they say about serial killers, right? Gonna tell me he's a loner, too?"
Lizzie thought that somebody really should get video of Casey on the phone at some point. With all the flailing and the faces she made, she said enough to tell most of the story.
"I'm not reading too much into anything, Emily," Casey said. "I'm just trying to keep my New Year's Resolution. What's so funny?"
"But I thought that the first step is admitting I have a problem," Casey said. That was when Lizzie alerted Casey to her presence. The laugh started as Edwin-esque puppy whimpers that she tried to conceal behind her hand, but then Casey turned around and tried to give her a dirty look and it turned to guffaws. The more Lizzie tried to conceal her laughter, the worse it got. It was like trying to suppress a sneeze.
Derek, if he'd caught Edwin eavesdropping, would have wasted no time in picking him up by the beltloops and tossing him out of the room. Casey wasn't even able to manage a proper Intimidating Look.
"It's not funny!" Casey said, laughing a little herself. Lizzie could hear Emily laughing over the phone.
"See ya tomorrow, Em," Casey said, hanging up. Then she tried the Intimidating Look again, with no more success.
"So? Are you gonna go after this boy?" Lizzie asked.
"I haven't even talked to him yet!" Casey said.
"But you wanna?" Lizzie said, sitting on Casey's bed.
"I'm curious," Casey said. "I mean, it's not like I'm about to take Derek's word for it or anything,"
"Why not?" Lizzie said. Then she realized how stupid that question really was.
Casey raised her eyebrow.
"Point taken," Lizzie said.
"But this still might be a chance to meet a nice guy," Casey said. "I wanna check him out. There aren't too many guys in Drama Club."
Guh, Lizzie thought. It must be really exciting to be Casey. But then again Lizzie worried that Casey would never figure out who she was and how she affected people. All of this was wasted on her.
TBC.
A/N: Sorry for the wait.