The next day, at school, Casey was anxiously looking around for her step-brother. She needed Derek to come soon, before Josh saw her alone. She was looking quite angry and was tapping her foot against the ground impatiently.

Where is that cad? Casey thought

Finally, Casey saw him walking down the hallway.

"You're late! I told you not to come late!"

"Who says you can tell me what to do?" replied Derek.

"Fifty bucks says I can tell you what to do. Now, hold my hand. Josh is coming."

Awkwardly Derek held out his hand.

50 bucks, this is all for the 50 buck. Derek reminded himself.

Casey could feel that Derek's hand was quite sweaty. She felt really weird holding Derek's hand like that, but she knew that she had to somehow look all cutesy and coupley with Derek so that Josh would believe her.

Josh was walking towards them, and then stopped right in front of them. "Oh, so this is the guy." Josh said as he looked at Derek.

"Yes. This is my boyfriend Derek." replied Casey as she put on a fake grin.

"I see. Well, I'm not giving up on you that easily, Case. Soon you will be my partner for the dance," Josh said as he left for his class.

Casey rolled her eyes, and gave Derek a little punch. "The one time I actually want you to say something, you don't."

"You never said talking was part of the deal." said Derek.

"It is, if you want the money,"

"Fine,"

Casey and Derek then went off to their English class, which was one of three classes they shared. In all of those three classes, they both always sat in the same spots. Casey sat in the front of the class because she thought she'd be able to learn better that way. Derek, on the other hand, sat in the back because he thought he'd be able to learn less that way.

"Derek, Casey, you're late!" said their English teacher, Mr. Adams.

Casey glared at Derek. There were only two seats left in the class, in the middle, right beside each other. When they sat in their seats, they exchanged their daily dirty looks to each other.

"Class, today we'll finish watching the Romeo and Juliet movie that we started last class." Mr. Adams said. After hearing this, the whole class was cheering, except for Casey, who preferred reading a book to watching a movie.

While the movie was playing, Derek was talking to one of his guy friends.

"Hey, dude. I heard that you and Casey are going out," said one of Derek's friends.

"Oh, that's not true. It's just that- owww" before Derek could finish his sentence Casey gave him another little punch and passed him a note.

Derek! If you tell anyone about our deal, Josh might find out. And if he does find out, I won't give you any money.

Derek rolled his eyes after he read the note and then wrote on the back of the note for Casey.

Alright, but this is going to cost you more than 50 bucks.

He passed the note back to Casey.

Fine. I'll pay you 75 bucks, but that's it.

When Derek read the note he grinned. Casey could see him talking to his friend, making up some story for him. Casey knew Derek was a good liar.