Hello, warriors of testing season! (Finals, Midterms, AP, etc.)

Anyone abandon ship yet?

I know it has been a while, as I have been battling tests myself, but I am very proud of this one!

Thank you to those who reviewed and shared the worst first date experiences!

Disclaimer: I still, still do not own anything.

Casey bit the side of her thumb. It was a horrid habit she'd developed in college that took her three years to break. Dammit. Finals were forever haunting to her. She kicked at the side of her shoe as she waited, and glanced back to her table where Emily sat. She was typing away at her phone, trying to disguise her impatience. She'd loudly protested when Casey had gotten up for a second tea. But Casey reasoned that she needed something to do with her hands because chewing them to bits was just disgusting. Everyone knows that nail beds are breeding ground for bacteria, and not even the good kind. She was just asking to get sick.

Casey turned back to the counter as her order was called and tucked her thumb into her fist. She carefully grabbed the cup and two pieces of lemon from the dish before making her way back to the table. Emily cocked an eyebrow at her but didn't interrupt as Casey dug for her hand-sanitizer, cleaned her hands, put the lemon and an artificial sweetener into her tea, and sat back against the chair.

"Finished?" she asked, mocking Casey's process.

"Yes, Ms. Impatience."

"Okay. So, why did you freak out?"

"I freak out a lot, Em. I'm kind of good at it."

"Yes, this I know. But what made you freak out about getting along with Derek?"

"The core concept, obviously. To me, Derek couldn't be nice. Nice just wasn't in his programming and when he did nice things, there was always an ulterior motive that fueled them. So, because of historical data, I thought I knew enough to logically conclude that Derek would continue to be selfish and hurtful."

"Was he?"

"I couldn't tell. Things he did… he wasn't being normal."

Casey was fed up with the wind. She took pride in her appearance and when the wind decided to yank her hair out it was just upsetting. She and Allison hurried out of their last lecture with ducked heads and huddled shoulders. They made their way quickly toward the Student Building for lunch. Casey grabbed at her collar as Allison held her hood on with her whole arm. Casey turned sharply, thinking she'd heard her name, but her hair obstructed her vision, so she ducked inside after Allison. They stomped their feet to free the snow inside the first set double doors.

"Brrr," Allison shook her curls out of her hat, "I can stand just about every weather condition, except wind. I hate wind!"

"Arg, me too," Casey agreed, trying to smooth down her hair. She pulled the second door open and the girls shuffled in. Derek was sitting at a table just inside the door, surrounded by other students. He mock saluted Casey as she and Allison passed. Casey grinned and shook her head.

The eatery was noisy and full of students. The girls have to carefully maneuver through people to pick their lunch. Casey debated on what she wanted as Allison went to find something warm.

"Oh, Casey, look," Allison pointed as she left. "'Warm chicken Caesar salad in a spinach wrap.' That sounds tasty."It did and had sparked Casey's appetite. She meandered over to examine the wraps and had selected one in a sundried tomato wrap when she heard her name again. Nick Mortson entered through the same door she and Allison had moments before. Casey felt her face redden, her hair holding in the heat from her ears. She dropped the sandwich and looked around quickly. She wanted to be anywhere but here. Nick caught up with her as she rounded the fountain drink dispenser.

"Jeez, Casey, I mist have called your name like six times." He didn't seem to notice that he had basically chased her around the sandwich corner.

"Oh, hey, Nick," she said, trying to sound nonchalant. She wanted the tile grout to suck her up. Or to become invisible. She couldn't look at him.

"I had a great time on Friday," he commented, running the back of his fingers down her arm. She twitched involuntarily."Did you get home alright?"

"Yes, thanks, I did, thank you." Great. Now she sounded like an idiot, too. She grabbed a bottle of water and one of the wraps as Nick recounted the evening to her. From the date she'd been on. With him.

"We should hang out again, whenever you're free. I can show you where I make all my music." 'Really?' she thought, 'Does he think it had gone that well?' Casey could see that he was trying to play it smooth. He'd already told her that he made electronic music in his bedroom in his brother's house.

"Oh, gosh, Nick, I don't think-" she started, but cut herself off as Derek loudly called her name and advanced on her with open arms. He gave her a big theatrical hug as she stood there, holding her lunch to the side in shock. He never hugged her. Ever. Not once. Her eyebrows furrowed as he twisted her back and forth. The zipper on his leather jacket was cold against her throat and his scarf was itchy.

"How are you?" he gushed, releasing her. She looked at him like he was an alien object.

"Uh," she started, flicking her eyes from the ernest and overly enthusiastic smile on Derek's face to the confused and upset expression on Nick's, "spectacular, D, how are you?" Her cadence made it sound like these were rehearsed lines; not at all natural.

"Oh, just peachy, Case," he slung his arm around her shoulders and grinned at her before turning to Nick. He jumped a little, as if he hadn't seen Nick standing there. "Oh, hey dude, I'm Derek." He held out a hand to Nick.

"Yeah," Nick said, slowly. "I know." There was silence. "How do you know Casey?" Nick didn't look like he knew what was going on.

"Oh! Case and I go waaaaay back, don't we, Princess?" He nearly put his nose in her ear as he squeezed her shoulder closer to his chest and looked intently at her. Nick's brows narrowed.

"Sure, Der," she agreed, moving her face away a little. They all stood there for a minute, Derek smiling at everyone.

"Well," he finally said, loudly, "This is lovely, but I gotta steal the Princess, bro." And Derek turned Casey out of the sandwich corner, stopping only to let her pay for her lunch.

"What the hell, Derek?" Casey whispered at him as he steered her towards Allison.

"That poor bastard didn't know when to stop!"

"Don't use that word, Derek."

"Plus, I don't think your face could have been any redder without bursting into flame, so really, I just saved humanity."

"Yeah, thanks, Der," Casey plopped down next to Allison, expecting Derek to leave, but he pulled out a chair and sat, too.

"Here, Casey, they had that really good creamy chicken and rice soup," Allison said, quietly, sliding Casey a cup and spoon.

"Really, Derek, what was that?"

"Eh," he shrugged, "thought I'd get you out of a second date you were blushing yourself into." Casey went to stab him with the plastic spoon. "You just looked like you needed an out, so I was being generous, Case. Enjoy it." Casey's phone vibrated from her pocket against her chair. Derek fished it out before Casey could and read her text. "Mission Accomplished," he stated, slapping the phone down on the table.

"Careful!" Casey warned, rescuing her phone.

Derek scooted his chair back and stood up. "Oh, you should call Nora."

"I do all the time."

"Yeah, well, mention that you've seen me alive and doing good things would you? She's got some weird concept of what it is I do at college and it's screwing with her subconscious." He backed away smirking, grabbed his bag from the now abandoned table by the door, and left.

"That was weird," Allison commented. Casey looked at her text. Nick had sent a long message stating that they probably shouldn't hang out if Derek had any interest in her because Derek could kick his ass.

"Extremely," Casey agreed. 'What the hell was that?'

"Aww, your first hug!" Emily cooed.

"Are you kidding?" Casey looked at Emily, incredulously. "He basically let someone think we had a thing. On purpose. For my benefit."

"I guess that's out of character. But, why was that worth freaking out?"

"Because that wasn't the only nice thing."

Casey could hear her cell ringing on the other side of the door as she struggled with the key. Her fingers were still wet and slippery, but she managed to twist the lock open to her empty dorm room.

"Hello?" she puffed into the receiver, hoping the caller was still on the line.

"What took you so long?" He was. Casey rolled her eyes.

"I'm not under contract to answer your calls, Derek."

"You have a psychologically unhealthy attachment to your phone, Princess. What are you doing?"

"I had to shower. I went with Kelsey to the gym before her volleyball intramural game and-"

"No, I asked what you were doing now, genius." He paused. "Oh, gross, did you answer the phone in a towel?" Casey blushed, unseen.

"Is there a dress code or something for telephone conversations of which I was unaware?"

"Oh, god, I did not need that visual, Casey."

"Shut up," she chided, pulling on a Queen's hooded sweatshirt. Which was silly because he couldn't see her anyway."What do you want?"

"Well, for the fortieth time, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to review my Accounting homework and work on my Microeconomics paper. Why? What are you doing?"

"Killer Friday night, Case. Way to really get involved outside the classroom." She could hear his smirk from her room.

"I have club meetings all week-"

"Have you heard of the Toronto Symphony?" She ignored his rudeness in interrupting her. She'd scold him later.

"Of course, Derek. They're playing down at-"

"Yeah, well, do you wanna go?"

"What?"

"To the symphony?"

"The symphony?"

"Yeah, the place with all the classical music you love so much."

"I hadn't planned on going but-"

"I have to go for a class."

"What?"

"That week I had mono I missed a bunch of my Media Arts 212 assignments and I can get credit if I go to the symphony, and I thought since you like it so much…" he trailed off. Casey's eyebrows rose. He'd had mono?

"I'm not doing your assignment for you, Der."

"Nah, you can't. My prof knows the conductor and the theater director. I have to get them to sign something and vouch for me. And you can't pull me off; we're just not even near the same level."

"Gee, thanks, that's a nice thing to say when you're trying to ask a favor."

"I'm just saying, Case, that I don't want to feel even more like a dork and be the only one in the place under sixty."

"A lot of people enjoy the symphony, Derek."

"Name five at Queens." He had her there. She wasn't sure she could even count Kelsey. There might be a boy in her World Classics lecture, but he frightened her a little because he was perpetually trying to grow a mustache with little success. "And anyway," Derek continued, arrogance flooding the phone line, "I need someone to stop me from snoring through Chekov."

"It's Tchaikovsky, Derek. He's very famous."

"Yeah, whatever. Are you coming?"

"I don't know. I do have a lot of homework. And can your fragile ego handle music without a bass boost? Can your reputation stand being out with your evil stepsister?"

"As long as you don't make me clean the flagstone again, I'll make an effort." She rolled her eyes again.

"Why don't you take what's-her-name? Jolee?"

"Because she has a life. And I'd like to see her again and taking her to the symphony is not the way to do that."

"How do you know she wouldn't like it?" Derek was silent. Casey could picture him, his eyebrows near his hairline and his face incredulous. "Yeah, okay, dumb question," Casey conceded. Jolee had three or four visible tattoos, several piercings, and never wore long pants or close-toed shoes. She probably would have laughed at Derek if he'd asked her to the symphony.

"So, are you coming?"

"Are you buying my ticket?"

"You know, you could just stay and marinate in your own nerd. Just don't let Kelsey choke on it when she gets back; murder by nerd is a pathetic story to tell your future inmates. I just thought it was something you might enjoy. Forget I asked." Casey was taken aback. He'd gotten impatient and angry rather quickly. She weighed her options. She did owe him for picking her up at midnight last month.

The line was silent, but the dial tone hadn't started. Derek must have been stewing.

"Can you pick me up?" she asked, quietly.

"I'll be there in twenty." And the line went dead.

"Bye," Casey exaggerated, and snapped her own phone closed.

Emily held her coffee cup inches from her lips. "The symphony?" she asked. "You freaked out because he asked you to go to the symphony?" She sounded disappointed.

"And he paid. And he drove. And didn't sing along." Which he'd done before when he was bored. It didn't matter if he knew the song or not, or even if the song had words. It was how he'd gotten Casey to change the radio station when they drove together in high school. "It was weird. And I thought something was up. We couldn't hang out, that's just not what we did."

"So, what happened?"

"I was convinced he was planning something, so I called him out on it."

There was an urgent pounding on the door to her room. Kelsey looked up, startled. One of her earphones had fallen out when she'd jumped. Casey pushed away from her desk, pulled out her own headphones, and unlocked the door.

"Com'mon, Case, let's go!" Derek burst into the room and made a beeline for her wardrobe, rubbing his hands together.

"Jeez, Derek, I thought it was an emergency evacuation or something. You could knock like a normal person."

"Why? Where are all your normal-people clothes? And why do you have like fifty sweaters?" He flicked through her hangers. She quickly tried to push him out of the way. These were her clothes, around which Derek was usually dangerous.

"Get out of my closet, Derek." She shoved his shoulder again and he barely budged. "Der-rek!"

"Ah, didn't ya miss me, Princess?" He laughed. Kelsey just watched them from her bed with wide eyes.

"God!" Casey huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you want?"

"You've got a date. So, let's go! Bust out that blue eye shadow!"

"What?"

"Yeah, get a move on!"

"Derek, I don't have a date."

"Yeah, you do. The hockey banquet's a couple's thing and you told Kels that Landon was hot." Casey felt her face burn as she turned to glare at her roommate. Kelsey looked immediately immersed in her psyc paper, hyper focused on her notebook. Casey had made it to one of Derek's home games and only went because Kelsey had said one of the players was very attractive.

"I am not going on a date, Derek." Casey seethed.

"Oh, come on, Case. He's a nice guy."

"He has the most penalties in your league!" She felt ready to wring his neck. Why would he set her up and not tell her? Did he not recall the last date she went on?

"He's a cool kid. Hey, and plus, I said you needed to have a better person first date." He pointed his finger at her and grabbed her sweater dress. "Put this on."

"No, that's horrible when it's April and raining. I'm not wearing that. I'm not going."

Kelsey made a funny noise and hopped off her bed. She skidded to her own closet and pulled out a cocktail dress she'd used during the Greek Rush in the fall. She held out the dress to Casey.

"You like red, right?" she asked around the pencil between her lips.

"Perfect!" Derek boomed, clapping his hands together.

"No, no, I'm not going."

"Stop being a worry-wart, Case; you only have 20 minutes."

"No, Derek, no, I'm not going! It's probably some mean trick that will just have me feeling stupid or looking like an idiot."

"Good God, I'm not pure evil. I thought I'd help a buddy out. And, you know," he swallowed and grimaced as he gestured at her, "you." Casey arched her eyebrow and tapped her foot.

"What's the catch, Derek? Are you paying him? Did he lose a bet? Is it actually your assistant coach who's missing teeth?"

"What? Can I not do nice things?"

"No! You're Derek! There's always an agenda; you always have your little spin on it. I doubt very much that you've had an elation and decided to change your ways." Derek's face hardened. "What is it? If you're saving up brownie points, I'm not doing any of your final essays! And if you're pranking me, just do it already." He looked angry and confused.

"That's what you think? You think I can't do something nice for someone else? Unless it helps me? I'm completely selfish?"

"Yeah," she answered, giving a little shrug. She felt like she was missing something. He stepped away from her very quickly and clenched his jaw. She tried to ignore the hurt and anger on his face. "What?" He shook his head, opening the door.

"Landon'll be here at seven," he said. And was gone.

"Oh, my god." Emily's eyes were wide. "Oh, my god."

"Yeah," Casey agreed, sadly. "That was… not a good night."

"What happened?"

"Well, Landon showed up and I wore Kelsey's dress to the hockey banquet. And Derek didn't show up all night. You remember me telling you about Landon, right? Hockey player, really tall, kinda cute? We dated for almost a year."

Emily shook her head and waved a hand at Casey. "No, I meant with Derek. What happened with that?"

"Well, he was offended and angry; I was upset and confused. So, we didn't talk. We'd throw insults if we were made to interact, but we weren't speaking."

"For a year?"

"Yeah, I'd see him, obviously, but he was always so mad…" Casey trailed off and ran a finger around the lip of her cup. "He had a rough junior season, too. He'd gotten meaner or..." She shook her head. "We didn't really talk again until the night Landon and I exploded."

"Really? The couch thing?" Casey nodded. She supposed Emily remembered her phone call, sobbing hysterically at one in the morning.

"For some reason, catastrophic events seemed to bring us together."

That's five! Still with me?

Sooooo... what'd you think? :)

Let me know!

(Was the thing about the mail too creepy?)