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 Fifty-One.
Part One: Emily.
The news broke early on Friday that Cindy Connors was getting expelled for the locker thing. Emily knew that Cindy didn't have the imagination to pull off such a prank, which meant that she could not have acted alone, if it was her in the first place. According to Tinker, the prevailing theory was that she was the one dumb enough to get caught.
"But if Lassiter thinks he's gonna smoke anyone else out now, he's nuts," Tinker whispered. Something in him would not allow him to say that out loud.
"Is he really gonna expel her or is it just an empty threat?" Sheldon asked. "So that she'll give someone else up?"
"Maybe," Tinker said. "All I know is he's dying to expel somebody, which I figured was a good reason to get the hell out of his office before he saw me."
It didn't take long before word got to Casey and Derek and, since neither of them had the faintest idea who Cindy Connors was, Emily had had to drag them to the library during lunch and show them an old yearbook.
Casey recognized her picture right away, but Derek still drew a blank.
"C'mon," Emily said. "You know."
"I really don't," Derek said. "And I know everybody."
"Well," Em said. "She definitely knows you."
"She was mad that I got that part in the play," Casey explained. "Opposite you. She wanted it."
"She's had a crush on you forever," Emily signed.
Derek shrugged. "Torturing my girlfriend was supposed to win me over?" he signed.
It was Emily's turn to shrug. "Probably not the best idea."
"Girlfriend," Casey said to herself. Derek wasn't looking at her.
"What's funny," Derek signed, when he saw Emily's face.
"Nothing," Emily signed. He turned around to see what she'd been looking at, but Casey had more or less wiped the goofy He-called-me-his-girlfriend look off of her face. Derek eyed her suspiciously, but moved on.
"Do you need a ride tonight?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Wait a minute!" Casey said, before being shushed by someone or other. She clapped her hand over her mouth. Derek snickered. She tapped his arm.
"What?"
"We have to talk about this."
"We have room in the car," Derek signed. "What's to talk about?"
"Not that," Casey signed. "This girl we don't know who hates me and now just got kicked out of school."
"Not our problem," Derek signed.
"Can they really throw her out for this?" Casey signed.
"Maybe they should bake her a cake instead," Derek signed. "Are you nuts?"
"They should have just suspended her," Casey whispered. "Next time you play a prank, you wanna get expelled?"
"I loosen salt shakers," Derek signed. "I put gummy worms in sandwiches. I don't commit borderline hate crimes."
Casey didn't have an answer to that.
"Why do you care so much?" Derek signed.
"I don't know," Casey signed.
"We didn't make her do anything," Derek signed. "We didn't even complain. She's the idiot who pulled this shit and was stupid enough to get caught."
"But," Casey signed. "What if she has friends?"
Good question, Emily thought. Except that this girl didn't inspire the kind of friendship that caused people to avenge her expulsion.
"What is this," Derek signed. "The mafia? You worry too much." Emily nodded in agreement.
"So what," Casey signed. "Are you saying it's over?" She looked skeptical.
Derek scrunched up his face a little. "Probably not," he signed. "But that was the worst of it."
"And Lassiter actually did something about it," Emily whispered. "So stop being such a Casey and tell me what time you're coming over!"
"I'm coming over?"
"Yeah," Emily whispered. "How else is Derek supposed to pick you up for your first date?"
"Date?" Derek signed.
"We haven't had one of those, have we?" Casey signed.
Derek began to argue, but then agreed that no, they had not. Derek, to Emily's endless amusement looked a little nervous about this. She made a mental note to charge her camera. There needed to be pictures.
Part Two: Derek.
He was most emphatically not a formal date kind of a guy. Why everything had to be so freakin ceremonial was beyond him, like it was really so awful to just hang out with someone and see what happened. That's what he usually did. There were no plans. In the past, he'd turn to a girl and say "hey, want pizza?" and then they got pizza. And then, if he was lucky, they might make out a little. Even with Kendra, they mostly just hung out around the house and necked. The system worked. He didn't see any need to mess with the system.
Date, he realized, was a four letter word. But Casey's face had really lit up when Emily used it. And then Emily went and blabbed to their friends that a date was about to occur, like he didn't have enough troubles.
"Get flowers," Sam signed, behind Casey's back. Ralph nodded.
"Compliment her shoes," Ralph signed.
During Study Hall, he got a text from Linda: Wear grownup clothes. No ironic tees. And one from Sheldon: Wanna borrow a tie?
People really seemed to enjoy his pain.
At home, he waited for Casey to hop into the shower, then he went out again in search of some flowers because a gesture was called for. Especially in case he ended up humiliating himself at the dance.
Roses were out—too much potential for personal injury. He knew that much, but that was all he knew. Walking into the first flower shop he came to, he forgot even that. The place was freakin intimidating, the air seeming to push at him as he looked around. He was hoping for it to be like the grocery store where he just got what he needed and left. Instead, a tap on his shoulder revealed a woman behind him. He smiled. She looked annoyed, asking (he guessed) if he needed help. He took a breath. It was going to be one of those transactions. He just hoped things didn't degenerate into charades.
She said some other stuff, looking impatient, so he pointed to his ear and said, "Sorry, I'm not understanding you-"
"Oookay," she began, then whatever followed was gibberish.
"I'm Deaf," he said, suppressing an eyeroll. "So how bout we do this." He pulled his emergency notepad and a pen out of his pocket and prayed that he could read her handwriting.
Sorry about that, she wrote. Said we're about to close. Can't take special orders but can help w/ other stuff if you like.
He nodded, told her the basics: first date, not too much money, no thorns. She smiled then, turning to an older lady behind the counter and saying something to her. The older lady smiled and said something that he didn't understand. It might not have been English, though. Next thing he knew, another woman came from the back to giggle at him. It was like they thought he was a little lost baby duck or something. They all stared and smiled, which didn't make him uncomfortable at all.
I'm going to get you for this, Sam, he thought.
The other women watched as the first one pulled out bouquets to show him. After several color combinations that hurt his brain and/or made him think of funerals, she showed him some blue things in his price range. So he decided on those.
Does she have pets? These could be poisonous to pets. The saleslady wrote. He shook his head and thought back to Nora's sister's wedding, feeling really glad that Marti was past the eating random stuff stage. The women fussed over him some more and he couldn't decide whether he was frustrated that he couldn't understand a word they said or if he was better off not knowing what they were chirping about. One reached out and patted his hair, so he decided that ignorance was bliss.
Once he was satisfied that Casey had left for Emily's, he came home and ran into Nora. The lost baby duck feeling washed over him anew.
"George!" she called. When Dad showed up, Nora did what she could to embarrass him some more and Derek looked for an escape route. Lizzie and Edwin thought this was hilarious, of course and Marti was puzzled.
"These don't really smell like anything," she said. "You sure they're not paper?" She poked one tentatively.
"If I wanted paper flowers, I would've asked you to make some," Derek signed. She seemed satisfied with that.
"Was this Sam's idea?" Lizzie signed.
"No," Derek lied.
"Ralph's?" Edwin signed.
Derek narrowed his eyes and admitted it was Sam's idea.
"Casey will love them," Marti signed.
"She better," Derek signed.
Dad pulled out his wallet and handed Derek some cash, ten bucks of which had to go immediately to Edwin. Then Derek had to jump into the shower, after which he spent ten minutes playing with one little piece of hair that kept hanging over his forehead in a non-sexy way and brushing his nose to boot. Maybe Nora was right. Maybe he did need a haircut. Usually, he told her that he'd get one when his Dad got one. Since he was currently putting on clothes that Nora picked out, though, maybe he could admit that sometimes she knew what she was talking about.
He messed with his hair for a while longer, trying to make it look like he'd just hopped out of the tub looking awesome, knowing full well that he wasn't fooling anyone but unable to stop himself. At least, he consoled himself, he didn't use any of the torture devices Casey or Nora used. Just his hands. And a hell of a lot of goo.
"What smells fruity?" was the first thing that Edwin said when Derek got downstairs. The kid was screwing with his head. Nothing was even the least bit fruity. Okay, Derek had to admit to himself, maybe some of the hair stuff was a little bit lemony but that did not give Edwin the right to—
There was a video camera pointed at him. It would not be good to do what he was thinking of doing to his brother in the presence of something that could be used against him in court.
He grinned his best look-how-innocent-I-am grin.
"Nora," Derek said. "What are you doing?"
Behind the camera, she grinned. "It's my (mumblemumble) as your wicked stepmother to embarrass you."
"Noraaaa," Derek said. Nora pouted.
A hand waved somewhere off to his right. "Give up now, son," Dad signed. Nora swung the camera over to him. Then swung it back to Derek for his reply. This video would be shakier than The Blair Witch Project at this rate.
"Never," Derek signed. Nora was still pouting behind the viewfinder. He knew a losing battle when he saw one, but he had to protect his honor and fight the good fight.
"You look pretty," Marti signed. Edwin laughed at him, but Derek really didn't have the heart (or the time) to correct her. As for Edwin, he'd probably sleep with one eye open and spend the next week or so shaking his shoes out before he put them on. And Derek would have a good time watching him be paranoid.
"Thanks, Smarti," he signed, crouching down real quick to hug her and kiss the top of her head.
"Ooh, lemony!" she said, after he let go of her. He narrowed his eyes. Insubordination spread like an evil crusty rash if you didn't put a stop to it early. Derek vowed never to forget that again.
Before Lizzie could have a chance to say something wiseass, Derek decided it was time to get going.
Thinking he was slick, he grabbed his jacket and the flowers and took off like a shot toward Emily's. He was sure there was no way Nora'd go outside without first taking time to put a coat on. So he was feeling really satisfied with himself, sure he'd given her the slip. Then saw a familiar shadow behind him and turned around to saw her right behind him. She shivered a little, but was still right there, camera and all.
"Aren't you cold, Nora?"
She shook her head. He'd been about the ring the Em's doorbell, but instead, turned and faced his stepmother a little more fully.
"Are you sure?" he asked. The light wasn't the best, but he clearly lipread a "De-rek!" so he laughed and hit the doorbell so she could get her photo op and he,Casey, and Em could get going already.
Emily opened the door, hugged Derek real quick and waved them in. Emily's Mom waited by the stairs with a digital camera of her own, but there was, thankfully, no sign of Emily's Dad anywhere. Derek kept a wary eye out for the man in case he decided to get revenge for what Derek had done to the peonies that time. Or the incident with the snowball. Or the sandbox.
"Aren't you freezing?" Emily asked Nora. Derek chuckled, even though he hadn't exactly put his jacket on either and was feeling the abrupt change in temperature very keenly himself. His ears might actually have been on fire.
Emily was talking directly to the camera, and making big game show hostess gestures, but Derek was distracted by something swatting his arm. It was Emily's cat, who sniffed him and tried to crawl up his arm. He gave it a little scritch under the chin. Seemed only polite.
Something swatted Derek's other arm.
"Pay attention!" Emily signed. Then she did some more game show moves as he finally looked up to the top of the stairs.
The cat jumped onto his shoulder, nails digging in, but he had more important things to deal with. Like Casey in this little dress she had on. It was black and had no sleeves and a swingy skirt. She was about as covered up as she could be, but he couldn't believe how hot she was.
Somebody, maybe Emily's Mom, pried the cat off of Derek as he watched Casey slowly come downstairs. Part of it was Casey being dramatic, Derek knew. But, he also saw her looking down at her feet as she went along, trying not to trip.
"Hi," she said when she reached the bottom. He smiled. There would be no talking for him. He raised his hands to sign something when he remembered the bunch of flowers still in his right hand. It was a miracle that he hadn't dropped it when the cat jumped him.
"Oh my God!" she said when he gave her the flowers. He couldn't help but notice her inspecting them carefully, like she was afraid they'd shoot water or have hidden plastic bugs (or real ones). Then, when she was satisfied that they were okay, she kissed him, right in front of what seemed like every camera in the world. Not that he would have stopped her for anything. When she was done, she thumbed some of her lipstick off of him.
Emily nudged his arm again, reminding Derek that other people were in the room. He didn't necessarily like to be reminded.
"Casey looks beautiful, yes?" Emily signed
Derek nodded. It would have been cool to come up with something suave and James Bond-ish to say, but he had nothing.
"You look amazing," Casey signed. Later on, Derek wondered if Emily's Mom caught any of what they were saying. Seemed kinda rude, actually. If he could have gotten his mouth to work, he would've. Meanwhile, Casey picked some cat hairs off of his shoulder.
"The cat likes me," he signed. She nodded.
"Ready?" she asked, speaking and signing at the same time. So she must've remembered poor Em's Mom, too.
You have no idea, he thought. But he just nodded. He saw everybody laughing at him, had that baby duck feeling again, but this time, he couldn't have cared less.
Part Three: Casey.
Casey owed Emily a loonie. She'd spent half the night fretting over her dress. It was a little too prissy, she said. Even for her.
"Knew I should've gone with the halter dress," she said, holding it up and frowning. The halter dress dipped a little lower, showed more skin.
"This is perfect," Emily said.
"You're just saying that because we don't have time to go back to the store."
"I'm saying it," Emily said, taking a deep breath, "because it's true. You loved that dress yesterday."
"I know."
"And Derek would love you no matter what you wore," Emily said. "Whatever dress you put on, he'll only be thinking of one thing."
"What's that?" Casey asked.
Emily looked disappointed in her. "How to get you out of it," she said. "Duh!"
"Oh my God," Casey said, covering her face.
"And he's been thinking the same thing since he met you, probably."
"Oh please."
"And you've been thinking the same thing about him."
"I have not!"
"Come on."
"It's true," Casey said. "It was the furthest thing from my mind."
"Until when?" Emily asked.
"The wedding," Casey admitted.
"When you danced?" Emily asked, climbing up onto her bed and sitting cross legged.
Casey hung the dress back onto the hook behind Em's closet door and sat down next to her. "A little bit before that," she said. "Edwin was teaching Lizzie all the dirty signs and I was all ready to stop him when Derek stopped me and lipread what Lizzie was saying to Edwin. And Derek was leaning in to talk to me and all I could think was 'he has blond eyelashes'..."
"Yup," Emily said. "What else?"
"I dunno," Casey said. "He seemed so sure of himself—I mean, now I know it's all part of the act, but I was so jealous then."
"Anything else?" Emily teased. Casey shook her head. "Come on," Emily said again.
"You're gonna think it's weird."
"Spill."
"His accent" Casey said. "The way he says—"
"Anything with the letter -s in it," Emily said. "And -r sometimes, too."
"Well, yeah," Casey said, guiltily. "You notice that, too?"
"It's just so Derek," Emily said, shrugging. "It'd almost be sad if he lost it. But you know what's cuter?"
"What?"
"When you render him speechless sometimes?" Emily said. "I did it to Sheldon once, but he recovered way faster than Derek usually does. Though with this dress..." She pointed at her own dress, which was burgundy with lace. "I'm hoping to pass the thirty second mark. Bet you a loonie you get two minutes easily. Now are we getting ready or what?"
So, when she came downstairs and saw a cat-covered Derek staring up at her, she knew she'd lost the bet.
"You owe me a loonie," Em sing-songed blatantly behind Derek's back. "I-I-I told you so."
Em's Mom, Linda, pulled Neville off of Derek, with a small amount of struggle. Casey, had had Neville Furbottom climb on her often enough to know how much it could hurt, but Derek didn't seem too bothered. He handed her this huge bunch of irises, which even seemed to impress Emily's Mom. Casey stared down at them in disbelief then grabbed Derek and planted one supremely awkward kiss on him, getting some flakes of supposedly smudge-proof lipstick on him.
Emily asked him if he liked Casey's dress and he nodded, causing giggles from both Moms.
"Two minutes, thirty seconds," Emily said.
"What's two minutes and thirty seconds?," Mom asked, taking the flowers off her hands.
"Nothing," Emily lied. Linda smirked, but didn't call her on it.
After picking some fur from Derek's shirt, Casey decided that it was too hot in the Davis's foyer. Derek's face was turning the same deep red of his shirt and her own face couldn't have been too far behind. And it was all being captured on video.
When they got outside, the cold air felt incredibly good and Casey wasn't in much of a hurry to get into the car.
"Guys?" Emily asked, after they stood there for a minute. "Really cold out here." She waved her hand at Derek then put up both fists and shook them like she was freezing to death. Derek went around the back of the car and opened both passenger side doors like a real gentleman.
"Ooh?" Emily said, looking pointedly at Casey before climbing into the back. Casey knew that that was Emily's way of reminding her about all the ranting she'd done about Derek's bad manners in the past. Derek, luckily, saw none of this as he busied himself with getting the car started so he could put the heat on.
Once the car was warm and Casey'd found a decent radio station, they set off to pick up Sheldon, who klutzed his way into the backseat and was rewarded by Emily opening her coat and giving him a peek of her dress. At least Casey hoped it was just a peek of the dress and not anything else. Based on the full ninety seconds (she counted) of total incoherence (and giggling) from Sheldon, Casey wasn't so sure. She'd assumed that Derek hadn't noticed this, but, as they crossed the parking lot, Derek turned to Emily and signed "dirty girl." She flipped him off, then put her arm around Sheldon, presumably leading him so that he'd make it to the door without incident. Casey giggled at the thought, then tripped, with Derek catching her before she could hit the ground.
Damn shoes, she thought. Derek leaned in close so she thought he was being solicitious, but then he called her Klutzilla.
"Jerk," she said, grinning and shoving him. He stumbled into a car, thankfully one without an alarm, but recovered quickly and fell into step next to her.
"Need help walking the rest of the way?" Derek signed.
"No," Casey signed. "Do you?"
"Don't know," Derek said. "I might have hurt myself. Maybe I shouldn't try to dance—"
"Nice try," Casey said. Derek snapped his fingers—curses, foiled again.
Casey stopped just outside the door. Derek looked at her questioningly as she reached into her bag and pulled out a little plastic container which contained earplugs. He didn't look surprised by this; after all he was the one who told her that he and Kendra had left the last dance because of the noise level. And if the music was cranked up enough to annoy someone with a more than a hundred decibel hearing loss, it was too loud.
She handed him a pair.
"For what?" Derek asked.
"You have eardrums," she said. "They can still rupture."
He looked at her in disbelief and shook his head. "It gets loud in there. Not that loud," he signed.
She looked skeptical. "Make me happy," she signed, giving him big, sad puppy eyes until he rolled his own eyes and took the earplugs from her.
Protecting her hearing was all well and good, but it made her life a little difficult when people decided that they wanted to stop and talk in the hall outside the cafetorium. Derek, of course, really enjoyed watching Casey walk right by people who were talking to her. She heard voices, of course, but they were just background noise, without any relevance to her. She even vaguely heard Derek's voice right behind her before he tapped her.
"What?"
"Sheldon says you should wait until you're ready to go inside before you put the earplugs in," Derek signed. "Cuts down on confusion." She turned around. Sheldon and Emily waved at her.
"I have extra," she said. "Do you guys need any?" They laughed at her.
"What?"
"Talking too loud," Emily signed. Casey rolled her eyes and took one plug out. Derek was absolutely loving this. She decided to ignore her the amusement of her so-called friends and boyfriend for the moment.
"Seriously, I bought, like, six pairs."
"We're good," Sheldon said, and when Casey protested further, pulled out a little plastic container of his own. "I'm a musician. Of course I have earplugs."
Derek's eyes widened just a little, and he looked from Sheldon to Casey and back again. Emily laughed.
"What the hell's funny now?" Casey wanted to know.
"It's just that Derek and I really seem to have similar taste," Emily said. Sheldon looked at Casey dubiously and she looked back at him with what was probably the same look on her face, further cracking Derek and Emily up.
"I don't have to listen to this," Casey said, putting her earplug back in.
"You have a nicer ass than he does," Derek signed. Sheldon flipped him off. It took her a second to realize that Derek had not said that out loud and that Sheldon had understood. She took the earplug out again.
"Hey!"
"Hmm?" Sheldon asked.
"You understood that?"
"Yeah," Sheldon shrugged. "I've been in the same class with Derek, Sam, and Ralph for years. Think I wouldn't pick anything up?"
"Yeah, but I thought you only knew the dirty stuff," Casey said.
"Like 'ass?'" He grinned. Casey shrugged. Point taken. She popped the earplug back in for the last time.
The dance didn't have any particular theme to it, but somebody or other had tried to make it festive. The caff was filled with balloons and crepe paper. Some of the balloons were randomly floating against the ceiling and Derek, unable to resist, reached up and grabbed one. He tried to tie the ribbon somewhere onto Casey's person, but couldn't find anything handy to tie a loop around without her getting wise and fighting him off. Otherwise, he was bizarrely gentlemanly, taking her coat and hanging it up (in full view so that she could see that he wasn't stuffing anything weird into her pockets) and getting her a drink. Later on, she would learn from both Linda and Kendra, that this was how he treated dates, that he'd never been that Neanderthal she thought she knew, except around her, whenever it was most likely to piss her off. But for the moment, she was being cartoonishly suspicious, thinking that he loved her, but sure that he was physically unable to resist pranking her. Hence, she held the soda he brought her far away from her body when she pulled the tab.
Derek laughed at her. He was doing a lot of that. When she finished her little mini can of punch, he asked if she wanted another.
"No wasting time," she signed.
"Who me?" he mouthed.
"Time to dance," she signed. Very few people were dancing so far, most, by the looks of things, were trying to talk over the noise. She could hear the music quite well with the earplugs. She could only imagine what it'd be like if she took them out. She pulled Derek by the arm and suppressed some deja vu as she led him to the dancefloor. Something slowish was playing. Sounded like it might have been Regina Spektor. She could feel the stuttery rhythm coming up through her chest, and she knew Derek could feel it, too. He let her lead again, but this time he was looser, more self assured, less likely to bolt. This was a good thing because if the next song was good, he was stuck dancing with her for a while.
The next song was a bhangra song she couldn't identify, but it brought more people onto the floor, mostly to grind, causing chaperones to threaten them with garden hoses and such. But the whole thing was too unfamiliar and clearly made Derek a little uncomfortable, so Casey let him sit it out, preferring to see if she and Emily could remember any of the Bollywood stuff they'd seen. They didn't remember much, but both Derek and Sheldon seemed transfixed, all the same.
Come to think of it, it really didn't take much to entertain them, Casey mused.
The DJ transitioned the bhangra into Jennifer Lopez and Casey was able to drag Derek out of his chair. They left Emily on Sheldon's lap, where she'd made herself at home, and hit the floor once again.
He put his arms around her and they moved in sync. She decided not to tell him that suddenly he was leading. It would be like telling a baby elephant that his lucky feather wasn't really magic. He'd forget how to fly if she did that.
She wanted to be a wiseass and ask him where he learned how to dance like this, just to see what he'd say, but she didn't want to break his concentration. His eyes didn't leave hers and one corner of his mouth started to turn up, following shortly after by the other one. He was having a good time.
Part Four: Ralph.
Ralph was running late, having helped his Grandma with some stuff, namely shopping and prep for a moussaka they were having for a family dinner the next day.
"This is how you get the girls, Ralphie," she told him. "Don't let anyone tell you any different. A woman likes a man who will cook for her once in a while." He believed her. He also believed his Mom who told him that one day he'd move out and he needed to learn to cook for himself because he sure as hell wasn't coming home for dinner every night.
Also, he just liked hanging out with his Grandma. She knew all kinds of interesting stuff and knew how to teach it to him. But she'd sent him on his way when she realized how late it had gotten.
"You have that dance, don't you?"
"Eh," Ralph said.
"Don't 'eh' me," Grandma said. "You're not old enough to 'eh!' When you get to be over fifty, you can 'eh' all you want, but now you're sixteen. So go dance." She swatted him lightly with a dish towel.
He pecked her on the cheek and took off. He was on his own for this one. He didn't have a date and this time he couldn't even third wheel it with Sam and Lana because Sam had stayed home sick that day and Ralph guessed Lana was over at his house feeding him soup or whatever. If his sisters let her near him. He texted Sam to make sure he didn't need any food or anything. Sam texted that he never wanted to hear the word food again. But otherwise he was okay. Lana had been there for a little while, so all was okay.
I'll come over tomorrow, Ralph texted. He would have offered some of the moussaka, but he couldn't spell it. He went home, showered and dressed quickly, borrowing one of his Dad's dress shirts to put over his dark jeans.
"Midnight," his Dad said, as he headed out. He was hanging out in the recliner. His Mom had fallen asleep on the couch already, Hagrid, their Great Dane, under her head.
"Midnight?" Ralph asked. He'd only asked to confirm, to make sure he'd heard right. His curfew was usually eleven.
"Okay, one o' clock."
"Thanks, Dad," he said. His Dad took his hand off the dog and held out a fist for him to bump. Ralph bumped it, then gave the dog's ears a good scratch before he left.
For a change, it was hard finding unattached girls to dance with. People were paired off left and right, but Ralph wasn't too bothered. There was always someone to hang with.
At any rate, Sam wasn't too happy that he wasn't gonna get to see Derek dance, so it was Ralph's job to report on it at the very least. That was, if he couldn't get video.
He walked in on some Daddy Yankee thing playing. Casey was bouncing around to it, but Derek was sitting on the floor with his back up against the wall. He was all sweaty.
"I missed it?" Ralph signed to Casey.
"Don't worry," Casey signed. "He'll do it again."
"No way," Derek signed. "She's crazy."
"Or I can dance with Ralph all night," Casey signed. Ralph grinned at Derek, but Derek only shrugged. So Casey grabbed Ralph's arm and they danced for three songs straight before Derek couldn't stand it anymore and cut in.
A couple of people stared at Derek. Ralph thought it was because he was a better dancer than they thought he'd be. And Casey was just plain hot in her little dress. Still, Ralph found himself losing interest in them after a while because there had to be a girl around. There just had to.
Ralph danced once with Emily, once more with Casey, and once with Linda (who was there with Tinker Tomlin, Go Tinker, Ralph thought to himself) before he sat down next to a tiny little blond niner. She was drinking a soda and bopping her head to the music. She looked up at him and smiled, showing a mouthful of braces. Ralph smiled back.
"How come you're not dancing," he asked, leaning over to talk directly into her ear. She smelled like fruit punch.
"I dunno," she answered.
"Wanna?"
"Okay," she said. Her name was Amanda and during a slow song, she told him that she did Irish step dancing.
"Do you like dogs?" Ralph asked randomly.
"Yeah," she said.
That was just about all he needed to know.
Part Five: Derek.
After the dance, Derek had one thought running through his head on a loop. It was a totally inappropriate thought, mainly involving Casey and one of their not entirely darkened bedrooms. It wasn't going to happen, he knew better than to think that it was, especially with entire family so close by. Even without the fam in the house, Casey would say no. She wasn't ready.
Derek was ready. He was always ready. It wasn't a secret, either, but there was not thing one he could do about that. But he would wait for her as long as she wanted him to, because he wanted her. He'd wanted her for pretty much ever.
But he needed to stop thinking about these things if he wanted to be able to walk. He was sitting on the cold floor in an attempt to cool off. This was why it took him almost ten minutes to cut in on Ralph and even after that, he hesitated to get too close to Casey. During the last dance of the night, he thought he'd die, but then the dance finally ended and they got to go outside in the cold air.
On the way to the car, he put his around her shoulders and she was tense as hell. He pulled back a little and played at giving her a little massage.
"Get a room," Ralph signed. If only, Derek thought.
Meanwhile, Casey was still stiff as a board.
"What's the matter?" he signed.
"Nothing," Casey said. She'd taken the earplugs out as the first opportunity and that had relaxed her a tiny bit. She was able to talk to people, anyway.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yeah," Casey said. "Why?"
"Are you cold?"
"Yeah," she said, closing her coat. "We should go home." She waved Sheldon and Emily over and got them into the car so they could leave. Derek toyed with the idea of putting on the air conditioner. But he put the heat on, like a good little boyfriend and felt himself get hotter and hotter until he finally dumped off Schlep and watched Emily go up her driveway and into her house.
When she was out of sight, Derek turned to Casey, but before he could even think to say anything, she had his face in her hands and her tongue in his mouth. He could feel her moaning, but neither of them made any move to separate. She finally came up for air and said something but he didn't understand. She pulled him toward the house.
This is not gonna happen, Derek told himself. It's just not. Get the thought out of your head. His mind started working on the possibilities of what Casey might let him do.
They had sense enough to separate before they got the door open, and it was a good thing, too because Nora was on the couch, watching a movie. Dad was asleep, his head in her lap. The only light was coming from the TV, so Nora didn't say anything, until she leaned back and turned on the lamp.
"How was it?" she signed.
Derek shrugged. "Okay," he signed. Casey nudged him, pretending to be annoyed.
"It was awesome," she signed. "Wish I knew how he learned to dance."
Derek rolled his eyes; she was laying it on a little thick. Somebody, maybe Marti, maybe Lizzie, would have told Casey about the dance lessons. It was cool of her to pretend she didn't know, but if she hadn't found out, she never would have made him dance so much.
"I'm glad you guys had fun," Nora said.
Casey went into the kitchen to make herself some tea or something, while Derek excused himself to go upstairs. Both of them knew better than to go upstairs at the same time on a night like this.
He toyed with the idea of sitting on her bed and waiting for her, but instead just went into his own room and started to change into some pajamas, still telling himself that nothing was going to happen. Around forty five minutes later, Casey showed up at his door.
TBC.
A/N: Again, I apologize for leaving this hanging so long. And for the cliffie.
