Yay!
x—x
"You got her Derek?" Casey asked for the fifth time.
Derek looked at her from the pool, holding a flailing Marti, who was enjoying splashing in the water. "Yeah. I think I've got her." Derek said sarcastically.
Casey rolled her eyes and looked over through her sunglasses to where Edwin and Lizzie was floating in the water. Seeing that they were getting along pleasantly, Casey leaned back in the plastic beach chair.
"Casey, why don't you get into the water?" Casey opened her eyes again, when she heard Marti. Derek had let her go over to where Lizzie and Edwin were, only a bit away.
"Yeah, Case. Why don't you?" Derek sneered.
Casey rolled her eyes at him again, but addressed Marti. "I'm just not in the mood to get into the water, Marti."
"That's a shame." Casey heard a voice say. She turned her head and her mouth almost fell open. It was like a Greek God had come down and landed beside her, dark hair in one of his blue eyes, and a killer tan was accompanied by some great abs.
The God smiled at her. "Hi, I'm Jason."
After a moment, Casey was able to find her voice. "I'm Casey." She managed to say.
Still smiling, he sat down in the beach chair next to her, and removed the towel from around his neck, and put it beside him. "You here on break?"
"Um, yeah. Almost like a kidnapping by the family." Casey smiled, but all she could think was, Wow, is he hot.
"Haha, me too." Jason nodded. "Me my mom, and my little brother, and my sister."
After a moment, Casey realized that he was waiting for her. "Oh, um, I'm here with my mom, my sister, my step dad, my step sister and my step brothers."
"Whoa." Jason nodded in acknowledgment.
"Tell me about it." Casey murmured, mainly to herself.
"So, what do you think of it here?" Jason asked.
"Oh, I don't know. We just got in last night, so I haven't seen much, so it's all pretty boring so far." Casey shrugged.
"Yeah, it is pretty boring." Jason nodded. "Well, it was up until now."
Casey blushed, and he smiled. She was racking her brain for something to say, when a shadow loomed over her. She looked up and saw Derek standing over her, dripping water onto the cement.
"Um, hi." Jason said to Derek, after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, hi." Derek said dryly. "She's not nearly as interesting as you're making her out to be."
"Der-ek-DER-EK!" Casey's yell of annoyance became louder when he leaned down and easily scooped her up bridal style. "Derek, don't you dare-" Casey yelled, but he already had her over the pool. Before she could protest any more, he had already thrown her into the water.
She screamed in shock from the water, and pushed herself above it. She pushed the hair out of her face, and looked up to glare at Derek. He was standing over the pool, laughing hysterically. Next to him, Jason was watching, not looking so amused. As soon as she reached the side of the pool, Jason reached his hand out to help her. She momentarily forgot about Derek, and smiled at him, taking his hand. As soon as he had lifted her out of the pool, he grabbed his towel of the chair he had set it on, and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Man, what is your problem?" He asked Derek.
Derek raised both hand in front of him, and then pointed one of them at Casey, shrugging. "She is."
Jason looked at her questioningly. "He's one of my step brothers." Casey said.
"And why did he throw you into the pool?" Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because he's a jerk." She turned back to glare at Derek.
"Hey, is that how you introduce me to strangers?" Derek asked.
"Is that how you're supposed to treat me in front of strangers, Derek?" Casey retorted sharply.
"Strangers? I could barely tell that's what you two were. You looked like you were about to climb into his lap." Derek scoffed.
Casey gasped. "Derek!" Derek merely shrugged.
Blushing, Casey turned to Jason. "Would you excuse me for a moment?" He nodded, looking somewhat confused.
"Derek, can I talk to you?" Casey asked through gritted teeth.
"Well, actually-" Derek began to say, but Casey had already grabbed his arm in a death grip, and started to drag him away.
She let go when they were on the other side of the pool area, by the gate, where no one could see them.
"What is you're problem?" Casey cried furiously.
"My problem?" Derek scoffed. "What about yours?"
"What are you talking about?" Casey asked impatiently.
"Like I said, it looked like you were about to jump him." Derek shrugged.
"Oh my God, Derek, I was talking to him!" Casey fumed. "A cute guy sat down and talked to me, and I talked back!"
"I'm just saying-"
"God, Derek, why can't you just stay out of my business for once? Do you know how embarrassing that was back there?" Casey asked.
"No, not really." Derek said dryly.
Casey threw her arms in the air. "I give up, Derek!" She cried in exasperation.
"Of course." Derek shrugged. "I always win."
Casey glared at him for a moment, before shaking her head. "Grow up." She spat before walking away.
--
Casey frowned as she walked with her family through a very boring park. Or, at least it was boring to her, since she didn't care.
"Case, you okay?" Casey looked beside her to her sister Lizzie. "You look kind of out of it."
Casey thought to the note that was in the pocket of her jeans.
Um, I don't know what's going on, but my mom just came and said we had to go. You know, family bonding and all. Didn't want to vanish without a trace, so my mom gave me some paper, thus this note. Don't kill your brother. (You still look cute, even soaking wet.) Hope to see you around, Casey. -Jason
She had found it on her beach chair when she came back after storming away from Derek.
She bit her lip. "Yeah, I'm fine, Liz."
"Yeah, she's probably just thinking about her lover." Derek said.
"What?" Both Nora and George snapped their gazes toward Casey and Derek.
"What's a lover?" Marti asked, innocently looking up at Nora.
"Um, ask another time, bunny." Nora said, still looking at the two teenagers. "What is Derek talking about?"
"Oh, just this guy that Casey-"
"Oh, no, you are not starting that again!" Casey cried, smacking Derek on the arm.
"I was talking to this guy at the pool earlier, and Derek threw me in the pool, and then accused me of being all over him." Casey seethed. Derek shrugged.
"Derek! You need to leave Casey alone!" George scolded his oldest son.
"Yeah, Derek!" Casey cried.
"But Casey, without me, you're boring." Derek said.
"Shut up, Derek!" Casey cried.
"When has that ever worked?" Derek asked, laughing.
"You're such a jerk!" Casey hissed.
"Geez, don't you ever come up with new material?" Derek asked, faking a yawn.
"Says the guy that still calls me Klutzilla, after a year!" Casey pointed out.
"But that's funny. As we've already gone over, everything about you is boring. No wonder things didn't work out with Sam and Max." Derek said.
He watched as Casey's eyes became slits. He could almost see the steam burst from her ears when she lunged at him. He quickly dashed out of her reach.
"You come back hear, you loathsome pig!" Casey cried, continuing to chase after him. She could hear the rest of the family calling after her, but she just didn't care.
Derek turned and began running from her backwards. "What? Did I strike a nerve?" He asked smugly. This only achieved to make Casey angrier.
Derek laughed as he continued to run from her backwards, but he didn't notice a man walking dogs that he was coming for. He hit them, tripping over the many dog leashes, knocking him, and the man over, as the dogs barked wildly. Still angry, Casey came up and pulled him from the entanglement, and then threw him back to the ground. But then the dogs, having no one holding their leashes, began to run wild, one succeeding in knocking Casey over next to Derek. Another accidentally hit a woman who was eating ice cream, knocking her over. The ice cream flew through the air, landing on another woman, who screamed in anger.
Within seconds, a dozen dogs were running around the park wildly, the dog walker had gotten up and started to chase after them. There was barking and shouting, and everything got worse when two quarreling dogs ran right into a small popcorn stand that was, incidentally right in front of where Casey and Derek had fallen, causing it to topple over and crash right on top of them, popcorn scattering everywhere, showering them.
"Casey! Derek!" Nora called, jogging up to where they were on the ground. They had pushed the small cart off of them, but they were covered in popcorn. Both looked up guiltily as the rest of the family caught up, and stared down at them.
They quickly got up from the ground, brushing the popcorn off of them. Around them, some of the dogs were still loose, but some the dog walker had caught, while passerby were working on helping to round up the rest.
"What were you two thinking?" Nora asked. "You're acting like three year olds, not sixteen year olds!"
Casey looked down at her shoes, while Derek brushed stray popcorn from his shoulder.
"I'm so disappointed." George shook his head. "It wouldn't kill you too to get along!"
"But-"
"No, Casey." Nora shook her head.
"It's still early. You two are going to spend the rest of the day together." Nora said.
"Oh, come on, can't you just send us back to our separate rooms as punishment?" Derek asked.
"Nope. You two, go." George said, shaking his head.
"What do you mean, go?" Casey asked, panic beginning to show on her features.
"Go as in, this is a small town. Go find something to do, together. And don't separate, because no matter how much you think we won't know, we'll know." Nora said warningly.
"What are we supposed to do?" Derek asked.
"We don't care. As long as you don't get into any more trouble. Just start walking." Nora said.
"But-"
"No."
"Can't we-"
"Go." Nora pointed in a random direction.
Derek sighed, and turned, walking away. Casey looked at her mom, pleadingly.
"Go, Casey." She said firmly.
Casey harrumphed and hesitated, but the grudgingly turned and followed Derek.
Nora and George looked after them.
"When will they ever learn?" Nora asked, shaking her head, sighing.
Little Marti watched their backs too, as they walked off toward a path in the trees in the park, where she had seen joggers go down earlier. She narrowed her eyes at them, and then after a moment, smiled.
"They won't be back for a while." Marti said, knowingly, before she began to skip ahead of her family happily.
x—x
Review, loves.
-Tarryn
