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Chapter Two:

Casey and Derek stepped inside the house and were swarmed with a million old memories. They remembered fighting over the bathroom, fighting over cereal, fighting over the remote. Casey almost smiled at the last one. She remembered one time in particular when they had fought over the remote. She had ended up falling off the back of the couch and twisting her ankle. She shook her head at the memory and glanced about the living room. Not much had changed since the last time they had been there, except…

"My chair," Derek almost moaned.

Casey followed his gaze and noticed the new furniture that rested opposite the TV. She frowned. Had they actually gotten rid of Derek's chair? She knew that it was just a piece of furniture, but it meant a lot to Derek.

She was about so say something when there was a shrill shriek. Instinctively she covered he ears and looked up to see Marti standing at the top of the steps. Her hair was longer, running down to the middle of her back and she wore a jean jumper over a short sleeved shirt.

"Smerek!" the younger girl yelled, almost flying down the steps to cover the distance between herself and her brother.

"Smarti!" Derek took his sister in his arms and gave her a bear hug.

In no time at all the rest of the family was circling their arrivals. Lizzie had also allowed her hair to grow longer and her height had increased, but only about an inch or so. Edwin's voice had grown a little deeper and she smiled as Derek locked him in a headlock and gave him a nuggie. Edwin wasn't too pleased with his brother's greeting and he scowled, combing his ruffled hair with his fingers.

Her mom and George looked just about the same, except for a couple gray hairs, but she didn't find the need to point that out to them.

Casey gave her mom a long hug. "I missed you," she whispered in the older woman's ear.

"I missed you too, Case," Nora replied and then pulled back to look her daughter up and down. "How in the world do you look so much older? I don't understand how you can change so much in just eight months."

You have no idea, Casey felt like saying, but decided to hold back and merely shrugged in response. She glanced over at Derek who caught her gaze and gave her a short wink, before moving his eyes to his dad.

"So, how have our rivals been getting along?" George asked, motioning for everyone to sit down in the living room.

"Better than ever," came Derek's reply. Which was actually true, but his sarcastic tone told their parents otherwise.

Casey wasn't ready to start a 'pretend' fight with Derek, so just rolled her eyes and changed the subject. "So, what'd you do with the old living room furniture?"

"Yeah, where's my chair?!?"

Derek's angry voice almost made Casey jump, she had forgotten what it was like to hear him yell and hearing it now made her very grateful that he had stopped.

Nora laughed lightly and Derek turned his glare in her direction.

"I wanted to get rid of it, but your dad said that you wouldn't be too happy if we did that, so we got the new furniture and put the chair in your room," Nora explained, an amused smile playing on her lips.

Derek didn't waste any time going upstairs, obviously excited to reunite with the piece of furniture that he was so fond of.

Casey shook her head and stood up. "I'm going to take my bags upstairs and unpack."

George stood and picked up Derek's bags. "We were thinking about going out for pizza, how does that sound?"

"Why don't you guys go and then bring some back for me? I'm tired from the trip, so I think I would just like to relax in my room for a while," Casey replied slowly, hoping that she wouldn't offend anyone.

Nora patted her daughter's arm. "I understand. Maybe we'll just have the pizza delivered."

"No," Marti objected. "I want to play the video games at the pizza place!"

"You guys go ahead. I'll be fine here," Casey assured her mom as she began to ascend the stairs.

Nora bit her lip. "If you're sure, Case." She turned to George. "Since you're taking his bags up, will you ask Derek if he would like to go with us?"

George nodded and followed Casey up the stairs.

Casey reached the second floor of their house and smiled at the familiarity of it. She was glad that her mom and George hadn't changed much of the house since they left.

When she reached her room, her smile grew even wider. Everything was how she had left it. She dropped her bags and collapsed onto her twin sized bed. The blankets still smelled of the raspberry scented lotion that she used to put on before going to bed every night. She had loved that smell when she was in high school, but now she loved things that were rose scented; she had ever since Derek bought her a bottle of rose scented perfume right after they had started dating.

Casey had a sudden longing to be with Derek, to have his arms wrapped around her waist the way that he often did before kissing her. She sighed audibly, these two weeks for Spring Break were going to be harder than she had even imagined.

She sat up and looked about her room. A picture on the nightstand suddenly caught her attention and her eyes widened. The picture was of a guy Derek's age with blond hair and blue eyes. Sam! She couldn't believe that the picture was still there. Hurriedly she rushed over to her nightstand and picked up the picture, shoving it into the drawer. There was no way Derek was going to know that it had still been there. He wouldn't be upset with her, but he would tease her to no end.

There was a soft knock from the doorway and she turned to see her mother standing there.

"Yeah?" Casey asked, sitting back down on her bed.

"We're leaving now, are you sure that you don't want to come?"

Casey nodded. "Yeah, I'm really tired and nothing sounds better right now than a nice warm bath."

A smile pulled up the corners of her mother's mouth. "All right. Derek declined our invitation too, so he should be in his room. We'll be home in an hour or so."

Casey tried to hide the excitement she felt about Derek remaining at home with her. "Okay, I'll be here," she replied, returning her mother's smile.

Nora started to leave, but then stopped to look back at her daughter. "And, Case?"

"Yeah?"

"It's nice to have you home, even if it's just for a couple of weeks."

Casey stood and hugged her mom briefly. "Thanks, Mom, it's good to be home."

Ten minutes later the rest of the family was gone and Casey was standing in front of Derek's bedroom door. Before knocking she thought of how she used to just barge in and how that had always caused a fight. Why had they hated each other so much going through high school? They were both so much happier now than back then. Why hadn't they reconciled sooner?

Casey fisted her hand and lifted it to knock on the door, but the door was opened before her knuckles even made contact with the wood. She smiled when she saw the grin that instantly appeared on Derek's face.

"I was just coming to see you," he said, stepping into the hall and wrapping his arms around her petite figure.

Casey clasped her hands behind his neck and leaned into him. "It's only been an hour since we were alone together, but it seems like forever."

Derek nodded. "I feel like I can't even look at you, cause I'm afraid that as soon as I do, everyone will see how we feel and our whole secret will be blown."

"This is a lot harder than I expected it to be," Casey admitted, a sigh escaping her lips.

"We're just not used to the hating each other thing anymore. And we've been alone together a lot in the last couple of months, so it's just different. Maybe we'll adjust."

Casey's eyebrows rose and she shook her head. "I hope not. I don't want to ever hate you again and I plan to find several times that we can be alone together while we're here." She ran her fingers through his silky hair before pulling his head down so that their lips could meet. They slowly deepened the kiss and Derek pulled her closer to him.

Neither of them wanted to pull away, but finally Casey did, desperately needing a breath. She smiled slowly and took his hand. "Let's go watch some TV."

They made their way down to the living room and sat down on the couch. Casey made herself cozy against Derek's chest and she inhaled, loving the smell that the aftershave he used gave him.

If only they could cuddle like this in front of their family. If only their family knew the truth. About a million of those ran through her head before she finally forced herself to pay attention to the TV. Hockey. That's one thing about Derek that hadn't changed. He still loved hockey. She didn't mind though. He had changed in all the important ways and that's what made her the most happy. If he still watched hockey sometimes, than that was absolutely okay with her. She wasn't going to complain.

Casey tilted her head back and planted a light kiss on Derek's jaw. He looked down at her and a contented smile crossed his face.

"I love you, Case," he whispered, kissing her forehead.

She reached up and ran her fingers across his cheek, memorizing all the lines of his face. "I love you too."

She leaned back against his chest and within fifteen minutes Derek felt her body relax completely. He looked down and chuckled softly when he saw that she was asleep. Carefully he maneuvered out from under her and placed a pillow under her head and a blanket over her sleeping body.

A lock of her brown hair escaped and slid over her closed eyelids. He gently tucked it back behind her ear and leaned down to kiss her forehead for the second time. "Goodnight, Casey." He gave her one last look before turning and jogging up the stairs to his bedroom.

I usually re-read chapters before putting them up, but I was in a hurry, so I didn't, sorry if there were any mistakes! PLEASE REVIEW!

LanaLang79