Let's just get down to the point: I don't own Drake & Josh characters or anything like that. "Collide" is sung and written by Howie Day.

Drake meets Cassandra's parents. Keep in mind he hasn't spoken to them since the "rock incident" outside Cassandra's window in "Measure of a Man." :-) Oh yes, for this chapter, I do not own the characters of the "Desperate Houswives" either.

Drake stood at the door of Cassandra's parents' house on Saturday evening. He was really nervous. He had to make them like him. What if they wouldn't let Cassandra see him again? He wanted to run away and hide. He would have brought them presents, but Josh told him after his first dinner with Mindy's parents, it wasn't such a good idea. Something about daisies being a flower of death. Drake sighed and rang the doorbell.

Cassandra opened the door.

"Hi Drake," she said. "You look nice." He was dressed in a navy button up shirt with dark jeans. Normally, around school he'd wear jeans and a t-shirt or a long sleeve shirt. Today, he really wanted to make a good impression on Cassandra's parents. "Don't look so nervous," she laughed. "It'll be fine."

"Easy for you to say," said Drake.

"Come in, Drake," she said.

Drake stepped inside. He was really nervous. He felt like he was going to be sick. These people had forbidden their daughter from seeing him. He didn't know how welcome he would be.

"Cassandra," called her mother. "Will you come give me a hand?" she asked.

"Sure Mom," called Cassandra. "I'll be back," she said to Drake. "Have a seat." She walked into the kitchen to see what her mother needed.

Drake sat on the couch and wondered what was going to happen that night. In a few seconds, Mr. and Mrs. Blane walked through the door. Mr. Blane seemed nice enough. Drake knew he just really cared about his daughter. The problem was, Drake did too. Why couldn't Mr. Blane have seen that? Mrs. Blane reminded Drake of Marcia Cross's character from that Desperate Housewives show his mom watched, which, when he thought about it, was a little scary.

"Drake," said Mr. Blane. "We'd like to talk to you."

Uh oh. Were they going to tell him he couldn't see their daughter again? Wait, why would they invite him to their house then? It wasn't like they were polite about it that summer. Cassandra was right, he was scared of rejection.

"Okay," said Drake. "About what?"

"We'd like to apologize for what we did," said Mrs. Blane.

Drake couldn't believe his ears. They were apologizing? They felt bad?

"Yes," said Mr. Blane. "We should have realized our daughter wouldn't choose someone who wasn't right for her. It's her life. We shouldn't have interfered like that. Will you accept our apology?"

"Of course," said Drake.

"Oh wonderful," said Mrs. Blane giving him a small hug.

"Thank you Mrs. Blane," said Drake.

"Oh, call me Laura," she responded.

"Okay, Laura," said Drake.

"You can call me Tom," said Mr. Blane.

"Tom, got it," Drake replied.

Cassandra walked back into the room.

"Mom, Dad, were you interrogating him?" she asked.

"No dear," said Laura. "Let me go finish dinner."

"I'll help you dear," said Tom. They headed into the kitchen.

"Your parents just told me to call them by their first names," Drake told Cassandra.

"Oh," she said. "I think they may be a bit excited. You're my first real serious boyfriend in a long time, and I guess they're really happy now. I don't know. They confuse me. Did Mrs. Haifer help you with your essay yesterday?"

"Oh yeah," said Drake. "Josh helped me send it out this morning. They should have everything. Mrs. Haifer said she'd even send a letter of recommendation to my first choice."

"That was nice of her," said Cassandra.

"Yeah," said Drake. "And all this time, I thought she hated me."

"Drake, a teacher can't hate you."

"Well, when a teacher repeatedly tells you she hates you, you tend to believe it."

"True."

Laura walked back into the room.

"It's time for dinner," she said.

"Okay Mom," said Cassandra. She took Drake's hand and led him to the dining room.

Drake hadn't seen much of the house, except the living room. It was kind of big. He felt a little less nervous now that Cassandra's parents had apologized and asked him to call them by their first names. He still had to get through this meal though.

Cassandra pointed out a chair for Drake to sit in, but he thought it would be better to help Cassandra into her seat before sitting down himself. Then, he felt kind of bad, because he didn't do it that often for her. He'd done it the night of Homecoming. Not so many times before though. He wondered if she'd say anything to him. Jeez, was he nervous. He sat down in his own seat.

"Drake, calm down," said Cassandra.

"I am calm," he said.

"No you're not.You're jiggling your leg up and down."

"Oh, am I?" he asked. He stopped. How was he going to get through this? Yes, they'd apologized, but he could still ruin everything.

Cassandra's parents came and sat down at the dinner table.

"Well," said Mr. Blane. "I'm really hungry. Why don't we begin?" He picked up a plate of ham and passed it to Drake.

"Everything looks really good Mrs. Blane," said Drake.

"Thank you Drake, but I told you, call me Laura, please," Mrs. Blane responded.

Drake slid some meat onto his plate. He wasn't quite sure where to pass it. Cassandra poked him in the leg, and he handed the plate to her. Tom handed him another dish with potatoes and he took some of those. Soon, they were all eating.

"So," said Laura. "Have you decided on a college yet Drake?"

"Uh, no," said Drake. "I mean, it's only October. I just finished submitting some applications this morning."

"Good to get it done early," said Mr. Blane. "You know, I applied to a college too late, and they couldn't let me in because of space."

"Oh," said Drake. "That's too bad."

"Yes, well, I got there the next year. Of course, my wife was at a different college. It's so wonderful that we lasted."

"Yeah," said Drake. Talk of college bothered him. Talk of rejection bothered him too.

"Now Drake," said Mrs. Blane. "What did you say your parents did?"

"Uh, my dad's the weatherman."

"Oh, Walter Nichols, that's right. I like him better than our last weatherman in New York."

"Yeah?" said Drake. He wasn't the best at making conversation with a girl's parents. In fact, he'd never gotten to this stage in a relationship before. Fortunately, he was able to get advice from Josh before he left. Show them you care about their daughter and everything will be fine.

They continued the meal, with Drake trying the best he could to get Cassandra's parents to like him. They appeared to be acting very friendly toward him.

After dessert, they cleared the table and Mr. Blane went off to read the paper, while Mrs. Blane sat down with her book.

"Come on," said Cassandra. She pulled Drake upstairs to her bedroom. She closed the door behind them.

"Um," said Drake. "If your parents find out I'm up here, won't they be a little upset?"

"No," said Cassandra. "They know about my morals. They also trust me. It's fine. You okay? You look ready to fall over."

"I feel like it," said Drake as he sat in the chair at Cassandra's desk. "I'll be honest. I've never made it to that stage of a relationship."

"Well congratulations," said Cassandra, smiling. "I think you got through it okay." She sat down on her bed.

"Good to know," said Drake. "It's just hard. They didn't let me see you for a while, and then..."

"I know Drake," said Cassandra. Drake got off the chair and sat next to her on the bed.

"Cassie," he said.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think we'll make it past high school?"

"I wish I could say I knew, but I don't. I want to, but who knows what'll happen."

"Yeah. I'd like to make it too. I don't know how this long term thing works though."

"You're doing a good job so far," said Cassandra. She leaned forward and kissed him.

"Um, is that a good idea with your parents downstairs?"

"Oh, Drake, lighten up."

"Sorry, I just...I don't know what to do when I'm around them. I worry that they're judging me. Like they're trying to find one little thing that'll be enough for them to say I'm not good enough for you."

"Drake, we've been through this."

"I know. This is the rejection thing talking isn't it? How do you know me so well?"

"Because I love you."

Okay, so how's the nervous Drake? Hehe. I wanted to write him in a situation like that because his character has never been in that situation. Please, review, and chapter four will be here very soon!