I DO NOT OWN LIFE WITH DEREK--no matter how much I WISH I did :(

Casey sat in school and for the first time, she didn't bother to pay attention.

She found it ironic how Derek sat on one side of her, and Kendra on the other.

She turned to her left and saw Derek absentmindedly taking apart a pen that he stole from George's office. She smiled as she remembered George yelling at him, telling him that it was his favorite one. But Derek just shrugged his shoulders and swore he didn't have it.

She looked to her right, and saw Kendra jotting down some notes into her notebook. She was possibly the only person actually paying attention to the teacher. Normally it was Casey, but Kendra's grades were slipping, and Casey remembered her father telling that if they didn't improve, she wouldn't be aloud out for the rest of the school year.

The bell rang, causing Casey to jump, and Derek to smile, for they could finally go home, and start their weekends.

She watched Kendra fold her books into each other, and walked out without even saying good bye. Casey didn't understand why she couldn't just at least send a wave over, or maybe even a nod… But there was nothing, making Casey's day, just a bit worse than had to be.

She turned to Derek, who was now throwing parts of the pen into the trashcan. She watched as everybody who walked by him smiled, or waved. He was so popular, and Casey found it so fascinating. She didn't know how he did it. Sometimes she wondered if he was just born that way, with popularity in his blood, other times she thought maybe he had to work his way up. Either way, he was one lucky guy.

"Finally Friday." He said as walked next to her, down the hall.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

She sat on her bed, not sure of what to do next, or where to go. Everything in life was just a giant blur right now. Everything that she was so sure she knew, she didn't know at all. In fact, she was pretty clueless about life, and every twist and turn it brought to her. She wasn't sure what she felt about Kendra, and what she felt about Derek. They were both two people that she never in a million years expected to fall for.

She heard a small knock on her door, and looked up to hind her mother with a bag of gummy worms and two bottles of cream soda—Casey's favorite.

"Peace offering." Nora said with a guilty smile, melting Casey's heart. She hated fighting with her mother, and hated having her mother mad at her, or not trust her.

"Thanks." Casey said, taking a soda into her hand, and scooting up on the bed so her mother could sit.

"Casey, I know you like Kendra." She whispered, almost not wanting to believe it.

"It was wrong of me to tell you that you couldn't." She sighed and took a bite of a green and white gummy worm. "I'm not going to say its normal, because, the truth is, its not. But when has this family ever been normal?" Nora asked, making Casey chuckle.

"But I didn't just come up here to talk about you and Kendra, I came to talk about you an Derek." Nora said quietly.

Casey felt her stomach flipping and took a deep breath, she just prayed that this wouldn't end in a fight.

"When George told me what he saw, I was in shock, but you cant blame me." Nora said. "At first, I kept saying, 'Their like cats and dogs, there's no way.' But, then I remembered the saying, 'Opposites attract.' And I realized that I probably should have expected it. Me and George were moving two teenagers in together, we should have known." Nora confessed.

But Casey disagreed. She shook her head and put a hand on her mother's shoulder. "How could you have known, Mom? I didn't even know." Casey fought the tears that wanted to come to her face so badly. She wanted scream and run around. She just wanted to be whole again, instead of this broken state she's been in since her and Kendra shared a kiss.

"Now I want you to sit here, and tell me--as if I were one of your friends--what happened between you and Kendra." Nora said, tucking her feet under her, and sending a pleasant smile at her.

"Well, at first it started out as friends. I mean, she was so pretty, and seemed so smart, it was like, I wanted to be her so bad. I wanted everything she had, and I wanted to follow her everywhere. I was like a dog, and she was my owner." Casey said, this was the first time she has ever told this story, in a way, it was pretty fun.

"One night, we were hanging out, and talking about boyfriends, relationships, and everything that can--and does--go wrong. We agreed on everything from hot guys, to flavors of popsicles. And suddenly, seeing her mother's last name pop up on the phone was my favorite part of the day." She sighed, and went on.

"Everything she said, seemed like it was all knew. Everything she did seemed like magic, like she had a way of doing something I could never in a million years do. She even talked differently then any normal person did." She felt tears coming to her eyes, but quickly blinked them away.

"Then she started to get distant. It started to feel like, when she was with me, she would rather be somewhere else, or she was only there because I wanted her to be, not because she wanted to be. It was horrible." She took a deep breath, and wished she didn't have to tell this part of the story.

"Soon I realized that everything I thought was 'magic' was really just normal stuff, that anybody could do. It was nothing special. But because I was so head-over-heels, I didn't see it that way. When reality sunk in, it was like somebody threw a brick at my head. Like I was just told that my whole life had been a giant lie, and everything that I was seeing was pure illusion." She wiped the tear that fell against her control. "It just didn't end up the way I thought it would."

Casey could tell it was hard for her mother to hear this, but talking about seem surprisingly easy and Casey didn't want to stop.

"And what about Derek?" Nora asked, she wasn't sure if Casey wanted to talk about Derek as much as she talked about Kendra, but she watched her daughter, and watched the small smile slowly creep across her face, and her cheeks start to turn a bright pink, she knew that she was in for another story.

Casey giggled as she shook her head back and forth. "He was so funny." She rolled her eyes. "I knew he cared, but he tried so hard not to show it… He failed horribly." She couldn't help the smile on her face. She tried repeatedly to get rid of it, but it just popped right back up. "He wasn't like what I was used to. He was sweet and nice, I wondered where the 'sensitive Derek' had been all these years."

"It seems to me that you're a lot more happy when you're talking about Derek." Nora said.

"I am." Casey confessed.

"Casey, I am happy that you feel that way about him, but you have to understand…" Nora took a deep breath and hoped her daughter wouldn't get mad at her again. "Having a teenage couple under one roof isn't smart. God forbid you got pregnant, Casey, then what would I do?" Nora looked concerned, but caring.

"Mom," Casey started, but Nora cut her off.

"I know you are smart, but people make mistakes, you never know… I want you to be happy, Casey, but just think about what it would be like if you two broke up. Think about me, and George… And Marti, Lizzie, and Edwin… Casey, we cant handle Monday mornings, how can you expect us to handle a break up with you two?" Nora asked.

Casey realized that her mother had a point. It would be terrible if they broke up. The kids would be torn apart, Lizzie taking Casey's side, Edwin taking Derek's, and Marti being nothing but confused.

"Maybe I shouldn't be with Derek…" Casey whispered.