A/N: Wahoo, the next chapter! Hope you like it

Casey sat on the couch. Waiting for someone to come home. Anyone. She was tired of being alone. She just didn't feel like it that night. She wanted someone to talk to. And now she definitly needed to talk to her mom. She still clutched the picture.

Finally, at 10:30pm, her mother came in the door, with a smile on her face. She looked over at the couch at Casey. Casey and her not so happy smileing face.

"Casey, what's..."

Nora walked over to her daughter, then saw what she was holding. Casey stared up at her.

"...wrong."

Casey just stared at her mother. "So where did this guy come from?"

Nora sat down on the cusion beside her. "Casey, you knew I have been dateing a man for the past couple of months."

Casey turned to her. "Yeah, I knew, but I didn't know that you guys were spooning on some random picnic table, AND to find out about it from the REFRIDGERATOR!"

Nora looked at her daughter with sadness. "Casey. I was afraid to tell you myself. I'm very sorry, now that I look back on it, it was a foolish way for me to deal with this. I should have told you upfront. I'm very sorry."

That still did not please Casey. She wanted to know this guy. How come she had never once met him? And how serious were they? "So when's the wedding," Casey said in anger.

Nora sighed. "September 23rd."

Casey's eyes widened. "Mom, I was only kidding!"

Nora's face dropped, then innocence came on her face. "Oh. Of course. I was only kidding too. Haha. What wedding?"

There was a door slam before Nora could lie some more. Casey sat on her bed. How could she lie to me? Casey could sense her life comeing to a complete halt. And by September 23rd, it'd be doing a 360.

----

"Lizzie! Casey!," Nora called from downstairs. Casey put on her butterfly necklace as Nora called them. Sometimes Casey herself couldn't beleive she was doing this. She had agreed to go and meet George (aka Step dad to be), Marti, Edwin, and Derek (aka Step sibs to be) at their house today. As Nora put it, it would be a "nice quiet dinner and bonding time with your future siblings" (aka, non-related terrors living in the same house with her).

The plans were all set.

The wedding would be in Cape Cod (Nora's idea) and afterwards they all would move into the Venturi's (George's idea).

And Lizzie and Casey would live with them. Their...Their...No, Casey was not even going to face it. They were not her step siblings. Just room mates.

Casey went downstairs. Nora and Lizzie were by the door waiting. Casey took her sweet time putting on her sneakers. Laceing them up slowly. When Casey was finally finished, they all got into the car, and drove to George's.

When they finally arrived, Casey took a look around. There were bikes, and children's toys everywhere out in the front lawn. There were weeds in the flower garden. And some sort of bucket on the steps with something hard in it. Casey looked away with disgust.

They all walked up to the door, and went inside (Nora not even knocking, Casey noticed). But no one was to be found. "Maybe they stood us up," Lizzie whispered.

Casey could only hope.

Nora laughed. "Their probably just in the back. Come on."

Casey and Lizzie made their way through the slightly cluttered house, through the living room, the dining area, the kitchen, and finally through the laundry room.

When they reached outside, there was George with plate's of burgers hot off the grill. George nervously got off of the picnic table,

Ah, so that was the one, Casey thought to herself.

"Hi, Casey. Hi Lizzie. I'm George."

No sooner did George say that a little girl came bounceing in. "Dad, look, I took the bristles from my toothbrush and made a collage!"

George took the sheet of paper, and set it down, embaressed. Nora spook up.

"And this is little Marti. She is a little messy, aren't you sweet pea?"

Marti stood up taller. "I'm not messy, I'm creative!"

Lizzie smiled at her, and went to go play with her.

Great, Lizzie already is in with her new family.

Casey spook up next. "Hi George. It's nice to meet you."

Next a boy about 12 came in. George pulled his son in front of him to present to Casey. "And this, is Edwin."

"Hello Casey." Edwin shook Casey's hand, then handed her a business card.

Casey tried not to laugh, and said thank you.

They all sat down to eat. Casey noticed something wasn't right. "Um, I thought you had a son around my age. Is he eating with us tonight?"

George looked around. "Oh, he's not here. Oh, yeah. Derek. Sorry, I'm a little nervous, I forgot about him. Would you like to go get him?"

That sounded great to Casey. Get out of this situation for a minute. "Sure."

Nora whipped her head around to George and mouthed "Do you think that's best?," as Casey wet inside. Casey went up the stairs. Once she got to the top she heard loud rock music. She figured that'd be the door to Derek's room.

She knocked on the door "Uh, Derek?"

She heard the music go down, and shuffleing. Then, a guy with brown hair and brown eyes answered the door. "You Casey?"

Casey smiled. "Yes, I am."

Derek frowned, as he looked her over. "Joy. Nice Necklace. Your a preppy aren't you?" He said it like it was the most disgusting word in the world, but with an amused smile on his face.

All Casey could do was smile, as Derek walked away and sat on his bed.

Casey couldn't beleive that was him. He was rude. Arrogant. Full of himself.

And everything Casey was looking for. This was definitly a beginning. A beginning of what, she had yet to find out...

All she did was call out "Dinner!", and head back downstairs to go eat her Burger smothered in barbeque sauce, with spicy fries on the side.

A/N: Crappy chapter, but it's late and I'm tired. Tried my best with my theory, although it didn't turn out all that well. Hope you got the metephor of the burger at the end.

Thanks for reading!