And The Winner Is...
by TheBucketWoman
Disclaimer: I have no claim on LWD or it's characters, and to make things worse, I'm a big reference junkie and will probably continue to be, so please assume I have no claim on any of that stuff either.
A/N: Must comment on "Show Off Tune." I feel so very unoriginal, but it really was only a matter of time before they did the school play plot. I just applaud the writers for not rewriting history and deciding to turn Derek into the next Jeff Freakin' Buckley. Leave the rewriting of history to us. :-)
Chapter Eighteen
Part One: Casey
Jack had a weird habit of yelling at people for not doing things that he'd forgotten to tell them to do.
"Casey!" he yelled. "Downstage! Did I not ask you to come downstage on that line?"
"No, you did not," she said.
"I didn't?" he said. He turned to Derek who shook his head.
"Whoops" he said. "Sorry. Maybe it's quitting time, cause I'm losing it."
Casey looked at her watch. It was almost ten o'clock anyway.
"Okay, I'm starving to death," said Chris from behind Casey. "Who's with me? Casey? Derek? Sheldon and Emily? Where do all these damn couples come from? Am I the only person left alone in the universe? Debra? How bout you, Mr. C?" He walked toward the vending machine, shaking his head as he got a Gatorade.
Several people ended up begging off, but Sheldon, Emily, David, Brianna and Melissa came to the diner with them. Several tables needed to be pushed together. Chris was sweet enough to help the waiters set up the tables, and while he did it, he sang a few bars of "La Vie Boheme."
"Just had to see who got that," he said after only a few people laughed.
"C'mon, Derek," Casey said, looking at his stone face. "You saw Rent."
"I did?"
"Rosario Dawson played a stripper," Casey said.
"Oh yeah," Derek said, a smile creeping across his face. Casey rolled her eyes and dragged him to a table.
"You're not gonna yell at him for that?" Emily said.
"Nah," Casey said. "I have the same reaction to Adam Pascal." Emily nodded.
"Which one was he?" Derek asked.
"Growly voice...flannel shirt," Casey said. "Puccini on the electric guitar." She hummed the guitar riff.
Derek nodded, then suddenly indignant, he said "Hey!"
"We're even," Casey said. She studied the menu. "Wanna split some fries?"
"And onion rings," he said. "Maybe some mozzarella sticks."
"You're kidding," she said, wrinkling her nose at the mental picture of all the grease it took to make the stuff Derek wanted.
"And nachos," he said. But then he winked to show that he was indeed kidding. Maybe.
While they waited for the food, most of the kids took the opportunity to pump each other for information. As Casey could have predicted, people seemed particularly fascinated by Derek because he didn't say much at first.
"So are you 'the quiet one,' Derek?" Brianna said, finger quotes and all.
Sheldon choked on his water. Several hands thumped him on the back until he regained his composure.
"Trying to say something, Sheldon?" Derek asked.
"Who me?" Sheldon said. "Nope, water went down wrong is all."
"I'm guessing that means you're not the quiet one, are you, Derek?"Chris said.
"Good guess," he said.
"So would you have tried out, if you hadn't been having voice troubles?" David asked.
Casey was mid sip when he asked that and it took heroic (and visible) self control for her not to spray the table.
"Does that answer your question?" Derek said, nodding toward Casey. "Me and musicals...don't mix."
"Oooh, is there a story there?" Chris said.
"Nope," Casey and Derek said in unison.
"There is a story!"Chris said.
"Let's just say I sing like the first week of Canadian Idol," Derek said. "Or American Idol. Either one."
"Ouch," Brianna said.
Melissa, who'd been pretty quiet, piped up, "You watch Canadian Idol?"
"In our house?" Derek said. He pointed at Casey. "This one and her mom and her sister? And my sister while we're at it? Dad, Edwin and I don't stand a chance."
"Wait a sec..." Melissa said. "What?"
"You live together?" Brianna asked.
Uh-oh, Casey thought. Her stomach dropped to the floor. "We're step-siblings," she said, eyes shut tight for the coming onslaught.
"Wow," Chris said. "That is so Brady Bunch! 'Cause you know what Marcia and Greg were really up to, right? Did you see A Very Brady Sequel? When they shared the attic room? Not as freaky as Flowers in the Attic, but what can you do?"
"Weren't they actually brother and sister in Flowers in the Attic?" Melissa asked.
"Yeah, think so," Chris said.
"Breathe, Casey," Derek said. She let out the breath she'd been holding. She thought her heart might have stopped for a second when they mentioned Flowers in the Attic.
"Think Drake and Josh actually get busy when the lights go out?" David wondered aloud. Derek barked laughter before covering his mouth to stifle it.
"Definitely," Emily said. Sheldon looked at her, surprised.
"You think so?" Sheldon said. "I don't see it."
"It's the way I would've written it, anyway," Emily said, shrugging.
"Sweetie, were you scared that we'd burn you at the stake or something?" Brianna said to Casey.
"Maybe a little," Casey said. She didn't know why she worried so much. Derek didn't seem worried at all.
"J'accuse!" David teased.
"Well, do they know at your school?"
"Everybody saw it coming," Emily said. She pointed back and forth between Casey and Derek. "They were the last to know."
"She was the last to know," Derek said, pointing at Casey.
"That is so cute," Brianna cooed.
"But it was sort of a big thing for a couple days," Sheldon said. "Till something else came along."
"So now Derek is our cinematographer," Casey said, desperate to change the subject.
"More like the Assistant Director," Sheldon said. People nodded.
On several occasions that night, Jack had turned to Derek to ask his opinion on something to do with their performances and Derek had given good answers. Everybody had been suitably impressed by him.
"The guy keeps trying to recruit me for his next show, though," Derek said.
"He knows a star when he sees one," Casey said. As much as she wanted it to, it didn't come off the least bit sarcastic. Derek blushed a little.
"Actually, some directors and screenwriters take acting classes to learn how to be directors you know," Sheldon said.
"So I'm told," Derek said.
"Inside the Actors Studio?" Sheldon said. Derek nodded.
"James Lipton," Chris said. "Reminds me of my literature prof. I mean, he's head to toe tweed, so you think he's gonna be stuffy, but then he starts analyzing Hamlet in terms of sexuality or something and you find out that he's the coolest."
"But there is so much sex in Shakespeare!" Casey said.
"There is?" Derek asked. "Where was I when we covered that in English?"
Part Two: Lizzie
They managed to get home just before their curfew, sneaking away during a break in rehearsal, and hopping a bus. Edwin thought to pick up some candy and a comic book for Marti because, he explained, he was sure that she was starting to feel neglected lately. None of them seemed to be in the house when she was there, so she was stuck with only their parents and Sir Monks-A-Lot to occupy her.
Edwin also picked up drinks for the both of them and, without asking, knew that Lizzie had a weird thing for pineapple soda.
They walked in, said a quick hello to their parents and went upstairs. Edwin poked his head into Marti's room.
"You awake?" he stage-whispered.
"Uh-huh," Lizzie heard Marti whisper back. Lizzie poked her head in, too and saw Marti sitting up in bed, not the least bit tired. Her nightlight was on and they could see pretty well.
"Catch," Edwin whispered, tossing her the paper bag of candy. She caught it with no trouble. "Don't eat too much or you'll never sleep and Dad will kill me."
Marti tucked a Starburst into her mouth and put the rest in her nightstand. She got up, skirting the squeaky part of the floor and hugged Edwin and Lizzie real quick before climbing back into bed with the comic book from Edwin's pocket.
Lizzie then followed Edwin to his room in the attic. He put his backpack down on the bed and, plopping down next to it, reached in to pull the camera out.
"Let's see what we got," he said, as Lizzie booted his computer. He handed her the camera and she hooked the USB cable to it. There was a slight squeak next to her as he opened up a metal folding chair to sit on. She offered to switch seats with him, but he waved her off.
"That shot came out so great," Edwin said.
"Conceited much?" Lizzie teased.
Edwin pouted.
"It was a great shot actually," Lizzie said.
"I didn't think it would come out," Edwin said. "I think this calls for a happy dance!" He got up and did a quick Cha Cha Slide. His usual happy dance involved grabbing his ankle from behind and kicking it, but it was late and if he fell down,(the way he always did) his Dad would kill him.
Lizzie covered her eyes, peeking at him through her fingers. She really envied his confidence sometimes. It wasn't his most consistent trait—he did freak that time he had to do that rap at the assembly, but he danced at the center of the gym during every school dance they'd ever been to. This despite an almost total lack of grace and only a little rhythm. Lately she'd been learning not to care what she looked like on the dance floor either. That was mostly his influence, with maybe a little George thrown in.
He held out a hand.
"You do realize that there's no music on?" Lizzie said.
"So?" Edwin said. "Put some on."
"It's the middle of the night!"
"It's 10:00," Edwin said. "And you don't have to crank it."
Lizzie stared at him.
"Come on, Lizzie," he said. When she didn't move, he reached over her and opened up his music player, clicking on something old fashioned. She looked back at the monitor to check what it was: "'Everyday'—Rogue Wave" scrolled across the screen. He held out his hand again, and this time she took it.
Part Three: Derek
Having finally gotten rid of all the perky theater people, (He mostly liked them, but wasn't ready to admit it yet) Derek drove home while Casey nodded off in the passenger seat. It took a full ten minutes to wake her up enough to get her inside. He would have tried to carry her, but he hadn't worked out all week and felt more than a little out of practice. Anyway, she was almost as tall as he was. That made things awkward. He worried that he'd bang her into the doorjamb. Again.
"Case," he whispered in her ear. Nothing.
"Casey," he tried again, a little louder.
This time he got a little "huh?" out of her.
"Let's go inside," he said. She curled up to make herself more comfortable.
"Hmmmm," she said.
"Come on," he said, nudging her. "If we don't get you upstairs, then you'll sleep out here all night, with the bugs and the heat and you'll have a crick in your neck all day tomorrow, and somehow it will be my fault, so let's go," he said. "I'd carry you, but I might drop you...again."
She stretched and for a second he thought she'd get up, but she curled up again.
"I'm going inside to get ice cubes," he said. That did it.
"Bossy," she said.
They went through the living room, passing his Dad and Nora on the couch. They had a DVD on, something with Harrison Ford in it, and Nora was watching it. Derek's father was asleep and leaning heavily on her. Dad could never go to movies with the family when Derek was a kid because he'd be snoring halfway through the previews, no matter what the movie was. It was humiliating.
He half-dragged Casey upstairs and passed a humming Lizzie on the way.
"Night, Lizzie," Casey mumbled.
"Night," Lizzie said. She was smiling a lot and suddenly Derek was terrified.
"What?" Lizzie said, noticing the way he was staring.
We're gonna have to have a talk tomorrow, Lizzie, he thought, but couldn't force himself to say.
"Nothing," he said. "G'night."