Chapter 6:

Cough. Cough. All he could do was cough and choke. Wheeze. Water was flooding his throat, blinding his vision. He was drowning. His hands slapped the water's surface as he tried to lift his head for air. Desperately he tried calling for help but to no avail. He was able to see a dock a few feet ahead of him, if only he could reach it, just grab onto safety.

Suddenly a dark figure appeared. It stood on the dock and stared at him. He blinked furiously to clear his vision.

"Casey?" was all he managed to whisper before his head went below the suface. Darkness surrounded him, his thoughts clouded with the image of her face.

Derek's eyes opened and he wiped his forehead. It was all just a dream. He flicked off the sweat from his hand and sat up. He turned his head to look at his alarm clock, 8:45 am.

He sighed there was no way he'd go to sleep after the nightmare he had. He lifted himself from his bed. He tiptoed out of his room trying not to wake Sam. Once he was in the hallway he silently made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth and what not.

Derek was gargling his mouthwash when he noticed something. He lifted the bottle and studied it closely.

"I could have sworn it was green yesterday," he thought to himself while holding the bottle containing a dark liquid. His eyes widened as he finally realized what this meant.

"Casey…"

Casey was sitting on the couch, writing in her notebook silently when her moment of peace was cut short. Derek stood before her.

"Why…you're up early." She stated with mock shock.

"What the hell is up with this, Casey?" Derek bared his teeth at her.

"Pfth…" was Casey's reply as she began to laugh.

"Yeah real, hilarious." Derek said sarcastically. His teeth were a bright shade of blue. Apparently Casey had snuck some blue food coloring into his mouthwash during the night.

"Aw man..." Casey held onto her sides, "My ribs hurt."

"Good." Derek seethed, "what the heck am I going to do about this?" He pointed at his teeth, "Sam and I were supposed to go to the mall today! How am I going to pick up chicks with blue teeth?"

"Be creative." She smirked. That'll show him. You don't mess with a MacDonald.

"Oh..." he pointed a finger at her, "I am so gonna get you back for this."

"Bring it on. That was payback for what you did to me yesterday." Casey said referring to when he had stuck the rat in her bed.

"That wasn't as bad as this!" he screeched.

He waited a moment to see if she'd reply, when she didn't he gave her a look of distain and walked off.

Casey sighed. Why did he have to make her feel this way? Putting her on the spot and then making her feel guilty. Maybe she did go a little overboard. Wait a minute! Wasn't she supposed to be mad at him? He was the one that started it. And when has he ever told her he was sorry? When? Never. Yeah he's the one who's wrong, and she's right.

Casey sighed, but two wrongs don't make a right, "Damn My conscience." She mumbled and made her way up the stairs.

Casey found her self in front of Derek's door wondering how to say sorry with out actually apologizing. She sighed for the fifth time. Nothing was coming to mind.

"I am so going to regret this..." She slowly turned the knob and peeked inside, to her surprise the only living thing in Derek's room was Sam sleeping peacefully on the floor.

She was about to shut the door when she heard a familiar voice, "Looking for me."

Casey froze. The small hairs on her neck stood and she slowly turned her head to see Derek standing rather menacingly behind her.

Casey gulped, rotated her body and faced him, "Um…I…"

"You what?" he asked rather annoyed. He had been in the bathroom brushing his teeth vigorously when he heard her come up the stairs. He had watched her little show of confusion.

Too nervous to speak she just stared at his mouth. Derek managed to dull the blue and now his teeth were a very light shade of green. She couldn't stop the smile that was now forming on her face.

"What? You came just to mock me some more?" Derek asked angrily .Casey was thinning his patience.

"…" All she could do was laugh. Derek gave her a look of utter confusion but began to laugh also .he just couldn't help himself. Just watching her try to hold in her giggles made him want to just squeeze them out of her.

It seemed like forever before Casey had finally stopped her laughter and they looked each other in the eyes.

"It was a pretty good joke." Derek admitted trying to regain his breath.

"Really?"

"You're learning quickly Grass hopper." Derek patted her shoulder, "but don't tell anyone I said so."

"Okay." Casey smiled. She found herself actually enjoying this moment with Derek. This was turning out to be one weird weekend. She wondered if he'd be the same on Monday at school.

The rest of the day went as usual. Derek was able to remove all of the color from his teeth and go to the mall, Casey studied, and every one else did their own thing. It was now 10:00 pm, Sam already left home, dinner was over, everyone was in bed and Derek was on his computer studying the screen.

The dream he had last night was plaguing his mind. He looked up "meanings of dreams" in every search engine he could find but not one website satisfied him.

He shut down his computer and stood from his rolling chair. He stretched a little and then let himself fall on his bed. He tried to figure out what his dream meant but couldn't. He ended up thinking about Emily. She was into that kinda stuff…about dreams and their hidden meanings.

He made sure he'd ask her about it at school.