1Casey and Derek had managed to get themselves grounded over an incident that involved smashing a blender during another one of their many disputes. George and Nora were fed up and told them until they could learn to get along they would be forced to spend every single Friday night together. "But mom that's not fair! Derek is impossible to get along with!"Casey protested.

"Casey you guys are just gonna have to deal. My mind has been made up and I can't afford to lose anymore kitchen appliances because of you two. Now neither of you is to leave the house, understood?"

"Yes mom." Casey sighed in defeat.

"And Derek?"

"Yeah, yeah, got it. No leaving. Stuck with Casey." Derek didn't look up once because he was entranced in one of his video games.

"George let's go!" Nora called up the stairs. "Now I left the number to the party we'll be at on the fridge, but make sure to try to call us on our cell phones first."

"Okay mom I know."

George then walked down the stairs after changing his tie for the umpteenth time. "Okay bye kids. Try not to burn the house down while we're gone!" Nora said, scurrying out the door. Casey rolled her eyes. She'd heard that one from her mom so many times. She took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on her book, and ignore the fact that her stepbrother was in the room. But that was difficult to do considering he was noisily firing away in another one of his stupid video games. She wished she had Lizzie there instead, or even Marti or Edwin. Anyone but Derek. But their parents had made sure to keep all the other kids out at sleep overs as a part of their punishment.

After 5 minutes of listening to Derek talk back to the screen and vigorously work the controllers, Casey gave up trying to concentrate on her book. She headed to the stairs and decided to turn in early. Derek startled her by jumping up off the couch, throwing his arms into the air and declaring, "Victory is mine!" Casey scoffed and rolled her eyes. "What are you huffing about Space Case?"

"Nothing, I just find it pathetic how much time you put into these stupid games. They're all predictable and pretty lame if you ask me. What exactly do you get out of it?"

"The satisfaction of being the best of course. No one beats me."

"Puh-leez. Zombie Slayer VII? I played Edwin last night and destroyed him." It was true, she had beat him. Edwin had convinced her to play him, assuming she'd be an easy target and needing a boost for his ego. But boy was he surprised when Casey had crushed him. It had been so easy for her she almost felt bad.

"Big deal, you beat Edwin." Derek said, brushing it off like it was nothing. "He's no real competition."

"Oh and you are?"

"Like I said, I'm the best. And if you're so good, why don't you prove it and play me."

"As much as I'd love to, I have better things to do."

"Like what, homework? C'mon Case, what're you afraid of a challenge?" Casey should have just walked away, but she just hated how cocky he was. She wanted to beat him and see the look on his face when she did it. "Fine Derek. You're on." Derek smirked. He had known she would give in eventually. He knew her all too well. "All right Case prepare to meet your doom."

"Whatever, just start the game." Casey said settling in next to him on the couch and picking up her controller.

"Okay but before we start, why don't we make this a little more interesting." Casey sighed. She should have seen this coming. Derek always had something up his sleeve. "What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking we could invite a friend of mine over to spice things up a bit." He got off the couch and walked into the kitchen, grabbed a little key from its hiding spot under the coffee maker, and used it to open the liquor cabinet. "You may have heard of him, he goes by the name of Jack Daniels." Derek said, bringing out a large glass bottle filled with a brownish yellow liquid. He grabbed two small glasses from the cabinet and walked back over to the couch and set them down on the coffee table. "All right here's the deal. We play 10 rounds. After each round the loser has to take a drink."

Casey just stared at him in disbelief. "You cannot be serious?"

"What's the matter Casey? Are you scared?"

"No I just don't drink. It's a personal choice." Casey said in a haughty tone.

"And you won't have to drink if you're as good as you say you are..but if you want to go ahead and admit defeat right now be my guest."

"No way! Just start the game." Casey knew the whole thing was stupid. She'd never drank a drop of alcohol in her life. But something about Derek's attitude just annoyed her to her core. He needed to be knocked off his pedestal and Casey would be the one to do it.

They had played the first round and to both Casey and Derek's surprise, she actually won.

"Ha! In your face Venturi! Drink up." Maybe this wouldn't be so hard for her after all.

"Alright, alright. But this is nowhere near over." Derek filled up his glass halfway and downed the harsh liquid without even a wince. Casey could tell this wasn't his first time drinking. As determined as she was to win, however, unfortunately the next two rounds went to Derek. He had watched her in amusement as she forced down the alcohol. Her first shot had been awful and made her face scrunch up. It burned her throat so bad she started choking. The second shot, however, had gone down much easier. Still bitter, but better.

The next round Derek was beating her once again. Apparently her first victory had just been luck. Casey couldn't stand losing to him a third time, so she decided to play dirty. She knocked the controller out of Derek's hand, earning her a glare from him and a victory on her part. "That's not fair. You can't do that."

"Don't hate the player hate the game. Drink up Derek." Derek shot her another look and then poured himself another shot and downed it all in one gulp. Casey didn't know why but she couldn't stop smiling. She was feeling sorta loopy. The alcohol was starting to take its effect on both of them and it was getting harder and harder to concentrate on the screen. Pretty soon they were laughing hysterically and just stopped playing all together. They had lost track of who was winning anyway.

"Derek! Derek! Derek! I wanna chug!" Casey was bouncing up and down on the couch laughing stupidly. Derek was laughing too, as he handed her the half empty bottle. She drank for about 10 seconds, then put the bottle down and threw her hands in the air, letting out a big "Whoo!" loud enough for the neighbors to hear. Then she toppled over and fell off the couch, still laughing. It was official. They were wasted. "Klutzilla strikes again!" Derek said pulling her back onto the couch. Normally Casey would have been pissed at him for calling her that, but at that moment it seemed hilarious to her. She didn't know why she was so upset about it in the first place. It really was a funny name. "Derek! It's your turn now! Chug it all!"

Derek raised the bottle as if to make a toast. "To broken blenders, Zombie Slayer, and Jack Daniels!" He then preceded to drink it all while Casey cheered him on. When he was done she threw her arms around his neck to congratulate him. "That was awesome! This is so much fun!" Then she overly exaggerated a gasp as if she had just had an epiphany. "My mom....and your dad...are so gonna freak!" She paused to hiccup and said, "I wanna dance Derek! Let's Tango!"

She jumped off the couch and pulled him up with her. They had trouble keeping their balance and Casey kept sliding around on her socks, but they eventually managed to stand up straight. She threw herself against him and they tried to dance, but wound up stumbling around more than anything. In an attempt to dip her, Derek lost his grip and dropped her on the floor. She landed on her back. "That's gonna hurt in the morning." She said lazily. Derek reached down to help her up, but Casey grabbed his arms and pulled him down with her. He had managed to catch his fall, but wound up in a very compromising position with both his palms planted on the floor, on either side of her. Derek tried to look her in the eyes but he couldn't focus. He was getting dizzy. Casey giggled and reached both of her arms out around his neck. She pulled him down closer to her and kissed him. At first Derek pulled away, but she pulled him down again, deepening the kiss. They went into full-on make out mode. Hands everywhere, touching and feeling. It felt surreal to both of them. Derek broke away from her lips and moved down to her neck. Surely there would be a love bite there in the morning. Then Casey whispered something into his ear that he couldn't quite register in his brain. Casey said it again and this time he heard her loud and clear. "Let's go upstairs."

He jumped up a bit too enthused and nearly tripped again, causing Casey to laugh. He looked down at her, puzzled when he saw she hadn't gotten off the floor yet. "I want you to carry me!" She threw her arms up ditzily and laughed. Derek ran over to her, scooped her up bridal style, and carried her upstairs.

The next morning Casey woke up with the most intense headache ever. She jerked up when she felt someone moving next to her. The look on her face when she saw whose bed she was in was of pure horror. She immediately jumped off the bed, covering herself with his bed sheets. "Derek! Derek wake up!" Casey hissed.

He groaned and turned over in his bed. "Casey what the hell? I'm tired." He said covering his face with a pillow, not once looking up at her.

"Derek! Get up now! We have a problem."

"Geez Case what is your deal?" He looked up at her, his vision still a bit blurry. "Holy shit!" He jumped off the bed, across the room, as far away from her as possible. This could not be happening. Casey was standing next to his bed...naked, clutching his sheets to cover herself. Derek, who was clad only in his boxers, ran over to his drawer and quickly threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, while Casey just stared at the ground, silently praying this was all just a nightmare.

"Umm Derek..?"

"Yeah Case?" She scanned the floor nervously.

"I kinda can't find my clothes."

"Oh, hang on a sec." He reached around in his drawer and pulled out a pair of sweat pants and a long sleeve t-shirt. "Here put this on." He tossed it over to her and turned around nervously so she could get dressed.

"Thanks."

The next few minutes were filled with awkward silence because neither of them knew what to say. Derek finally spoke up and said, "Soo...last night was kinda crazy." Casey gave him a weak smile and placed her arms protectively around herself.

"Should we go downstairs and inspect the damage?" he said speaking up again.

She gave him a weak nod. She really didn't feel right. All of a sudden the room started spinning and Casey was feeling extremely nauseous. Derek must have sensed she was about to puke because he ran over to her and steered her away from his bed. "Bathroom, Casey head to the bathroom!" He tried to push her out the door, but she fell to her knees and started throwing up. Luckily, Derek's trash can was conveniently placed right in front of her, and she managed not to get any on his carpet.

"You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. I just need to clean up." She scrambled out of his room and headed for the bathroom. When she got into the hall, she let out a small shriek, scaring Derek half to death. "I found my clothes." She said shyly, reaching down to retrieve her jeans, shirt, and other unmentionables from off the floor. "I'm just gonna go put these away." She quickly retreated to her room, glad to be away from him. God Casey how could you let this happen? You just slept with your stepbrother! How exactly did this happen anyway? Let's see, I remember drinking...playing video games...dancing...oh god did we do the tango?!

Meanwhile Derek was freaking out on his own downstairs. He was frantically running around trying to clean up the mess they made. Then he remembered something that nearly made his heart stop. Dad and Nora! They must have come home last night and seen this. Do they know? God I am so gonna get blamed for this. He was nearly scared to death once again, when he saw Nora walking down the stairs. "Nora! You look lovely. Tired suits you."

"Ugh spare me the sarcasm Derek. I had a long night and I'm exhausted."

"Yeah I know the feeling." Derek muttered. Nora then went on to tell Derek all about how George had gotten himself drunk at the party and she had to spend the whole night making sure he didn't make a fool of himself.

"It was awful, this is why I tell you and Casey not to drink."

"Me? I would never."

"You had better not. Hey speaking of you and Casey, how did things go last night? Did you get along okay?"

"Umm yeah I guess you could say that." This conversation was getting very uncomfortable for him.

"I was so tired last night I forgot to check on you guys."

"Don't worry about it. Casey checked out early and I played video games all night."

"Well at least the house is in one piece. I'm gonna go back to bed, I can barely keep my eyes open." Derek nodded, silently thanking God that they hadn't been caught. He was off the hook. Well at least he thought he was.

When Derek went upstairs to give Casey the good news, she was curled up in fetal position on her bed. He knocked lightly on the door, so as not to freak her out even more than she already was. "Here take this." He handed her two little white pills and a bottle of water. She just stared at him. "It's aspirin..for your head."

"Oh right. Thanks." He waited for her to swallow and then he began.

"Listen Casey, as far as I'm concerned..last night never happened." Casey let out a huge breath of relief. She hadn't even realized she had been holding her breath. "And you don't have to worry about my dad and your mom because they don't know."

"Thank god I thought I was gonna have to explain this to my mom." She was so relieved she almost wanted to hug him..but that was definitely a bad idea. Hugging Derek was out of the question. "And listen Casey don't go reading too much into this okay. It was a stupid mistake and it didn't mean anything." Casey just nodded and then watched him walk out the door.