Author's Note: I want to thank everyone who's reviewed so far. You guys definitely make my day and encourge me to keep writing. I hope you guys are liking the story so far. Without further ado, here's chapter 4!
Disclaimer:I'm starting to believe that I will never own Life With Derek :(
Chapter Four: …You Make Lemonade
July 5th
"Space-yyy! Why are we grocery shopping? I thought the goal was to 'join the living.' Believe me, anyone doing any kind of grocery shopping at our age isn't succeeding at the 'living' part," Derek whined as they made their way through the bread aisle.
"Well, I'm grocery shopping because apparently you have five stomachs and ate all the food we got last time already. And I got coerced into promising to keep you fed and alive this summer." She paused and picked up a loaf of white without crusts and a loaf of whole grain wheat. She looked over here shoulder to where Derek was holding up a box of Ho-Hos and giving her sad puppy dog eyes. "I have no idea why you're here."
He took her rolled eyes to assume it was okay to drop the snack cakes into the shopping cart. "I'm here to make sure you step outside the narrow box you live in and grab more than just rabbit food."
"Yeah, remind me to thank you again for all your help last time. I'm sure that clerk appreciated you checking her butt out." She paused for dramatic effect. "I know I sure appreciated your contribution. I had to do the entire shopping list and you simply added ten boxes of poptarts to the shopping cart."
"I'll have you know," Derek began as he picked up a box of poptarts, "these have fruit in them. Therefore, technically I took care of the fruit part of the list."
At her disbelieving expression, Derek turned the box around so the illustration was facing her and shoved it towards her face. "Look at the pictures, those are strawberry poptarts. They're made with strawberries."
"Please," she replied, swatting his hand away. "I doubt the filling in those poptarts are made with anything that ever remotely resembled a real strawberry."
"Real or not, it's still strawberry and it still tastes damn good." He dropped another two boxes into the shopping cart for emphasis.
"Okay, moving on," Casey said as she moved the cart to the canned soup and vegetable aisle to get the next items on her list.
Half an hour later, Casey made her way to the dairy aisle. She was down to the last three items on her shopping list: milk, cheese, and butter. She'd long lost track of Derek and while she was annoyed that she'd gotten stuck doing all the work (again), she wasn't upset that without him and their bickering, this had taken half the time it had last time.
She quickly sorted through the gallons of milk looking for the latest expiration date, grabbed a small block of all natural organic cheddar, picked out an all natural preservative free container of butter then proceeded to locate the missing thorn in her side so they could check out and head home.
She was making a turn into the chip aisle when she heard the sound of a very familiar voice. She stopped to listen.
"Well, you know, I've always been a fan of redheads." The redhead giggled and Casey fought the urge to gag. Normally she would have interrupted him just for the sheer joy of it, but she decided to wait and see if he did anything embarrassing she'd be able to use later.
"Really, Derek?" the redhead asked coyly.
"Of course. Set against those fantastic green eyes, it makes you look like a goddess." The "goddess" giggled again.
"If you felt that way, why didn't you ever ask me out? Every time your school played against mine, I was always hoping you'd ask me out."
"Well, Theresa, I was just too shy." Oh please, Casey thought to herself.
"Shy? I never heard about the Great Derek Venturi being shy."
"Yes, it's true. I mean, look at you. Gorgeous, a cheerleader. I just assumed you only went out with older guys." Casey rolled her eyes so far back she was afraid they would get stuck.
"Please tell me she doesn't fall for that load of BS," she muttered to herself.
"Me? Older guys?" She let out a half giggle. "Derek, you're making me blush."
"So does this mean you'll give me your number?" Derek smarmed.
"That depends, what will you give me to prove you'll call?" Casey could practically hear the practiced pout in her voice as an acidic taste began to creep into her throat.
"Well, I suppose I could –" That did it. Casey, afraid she could no longer keep down her gag reflex, decided to put an end to the disgusting display.
"Oh, Derek," she announced brightly, revealing herself from around the corner. "There you are. I've been looking all over for you. Who's your friend?"
"Casey," Derek ground out.
"Casey?" Theresa repeatedly angrily.
"That's my name," Casey answered, smiling at Derek's discomfort. To Theresa, she added, "And you are?"
"Leaving," she answered, giving them both a dirty look as she spun on her heels and teetered off.
"Theresa! Wait! You don't understand," Derek called to her retreating form. As Casey stood laughing at his expense, Derek slowly turned his death glare on her.
"Casey, why would you do that?" he demanded through clenched teeth.
"Because I knew it would be worth it to see that look on your face," she answered before launching into another round of laughter.
"You think that was funny?"
"Yes," she answered simply.
As he continued to glare at her, she regained her composure and retrieved their shopping cart.
"Come on, stop pretending like you're really upset," she told him as they made their way to the checkout stands. "It's not like you would have called her anyway."
"How do you know that? I might have," he said defensively which made Casey snort.
"Please, you never even called the girl from last time."
"Fine, maybe I wouldn't have called her," he admitted. "But I was doing it just to make sure I stayed sharp."
"Stayed sharp?" she repeated skeptically.
"Yes. Because once this whole summer school mess is over and done with and I'm not too depressed when I get home from the library to do anything but watch TV and make you cook me dinner, I am getting my life back."
At the part of his statement about her cooking him dinner, any guilt Casey had begun to feel for what she'd done, flew out the proverbial window and she reminded herself that the little stunt she'd pulled only paid him back for the hockey incident. She'd need to come up with a good and equal plan to pay him back for the horror shows. As her mind formulated a plan, she was careful to keep the smile off her face for fear of tipping him off.
July 6th
"Der-ek! Why the arcade?" Casey whined.
"Because," Derek answered. "Because it was your idea to 'rejoin the living' and as I argued yesterday, grocery shopping doesn't count as 'living.'"
"It needed to be done. You ate all our food," she reminded him.
"Fine, so today, after hours of stupid poems and chemical equations, I need some fun." Casey took in the atmosphere of the arcade Derek had dragged her to and it did not look like fun to her.
"Derek, these all look violent or are for kids Marti's age."
"They have the newest Babe Raider game," he taunted.
"They have 'Revenge of the Ancient Cyborg?'" Casey demanded, her mood suddenly doing a 180 and her eyes glinting with excitement at the idea of taking down ancient machinery hell-bent on stealing lost artifacts.
"They have the special edition director's cut with the hidden bonus levels," Derek replied smoothly. Casey smiled with delight at his comment.
"Get out of my way," she demanded, already taking out her wallet and heading to the change machine. She paused briefly to hand Derek several bills. "Order me a rootbeer float and tell them to keep them coming. I'm going to get quarters. Lots and lots of quarters."
Derek shivered a little in fear as he watched her shove her way to the front of the line for the quarter machine. He turned and headed towards to the snack bar to place Casey's order. He chatted up a couple girls as he waited his turn for the order window and was surprised to see Ralph at the register.
"Ralph?" he said when he made it to the front of the line.
"Derek? Dude, how's it going?"
"Terrible," he complained. "My dad totally went through with his threat about the daily tutoring. "
"Sucks, man," Ralph said, sympathizing.
"And it's totally killed my social life. I'm so exhausted and depressed everyday."
"I hear you man. Same here. I'm working day and night to save up for room and board."
"How's that going?"
"If I keep it up, I should have enough in time for school to start."
"That's awesome man because it just won't be right without you there with me and Sam."
"I know, D. But you gotta make sure you pass those classes."
"I'm trying, bro. Why do you think I have no life?" Ralph laughed at the anguish coming from his friend.
"Well, you're here tonight and I saw you chatting up the ladies."
"Not the same, just making sure to keep my skills sharp."
"Yeah, I get it. I make sure to keep my line fresh too. I say it every chance I get." Derek politely kept his opinion about Ralph's 'shoe line' to himself. If his friend wanted to believe it worked, who was he to tell him otherwise?
"So, if you're not here scamming on babes, who are you here with?" Ralph asked.
"That's the sad part. I'm here with Casey." He shuddered with disgust at her name.
"Casey? At the arcade?" Ralph said incredulously. "What is wrong with that picture?"
"She's over at the new Babe Raider game."
"Ohhh, I see." Ralph nodded approvingly. "Casey and Babe Raider. Now that brings back some good memories."
Derek threw him a look. "Ralph! Ew! That's my step-sister."
"I thought you admitted the 'Male Code' was fake."
"Why?" Derek asked suspiciously.
"Well, Casey is pretty cute," he said as he looked over to where she was annihilating the current Top Score and Derek covered his ears and began chanting "La La La La, I can't hear you!"
"Derek. Derek! I'm kidding, man." Ralph let out a laugh at his friend's discomfort.
"Whatever. Look, what time are you getting off? We're heading for pizza when we're done. You should join us."
Ralph checked his watch. "I should be done in about an hour."
"Okay, come find us when you're done."
"Yeah, I will. Oh uhh…did you want to order anything?" Ralph asked sheepishly, remembering where he was.
"Oh, that's right." He slapped down the bills Casey had given him earlier. "Casey wants rootbeer floats."
Ralph looked at the money Derek had put down. "That's way more than a rootbeer float costs."
"Yeah, I know. She wants them to keep on coming." They both looked over to where Casey was doing a victory dance as her opponent, a twelve year old boy, lost and began to cry.
"Scary," Ralph said aloud.
"Yeah. She is."
"I'll go make those floats."
"Thanks man," Derek said and headed back to make the kid stop crying.
"Casey, I am so bringing you down," Derek announced as they entered their second half hour of playing. He watched Casey toss back a rootbeer float and slam her glass down as a signal for another one to be brought over.
"Just try it, Venturi," she challenged back at him.
Their trash talking and constant changing of the top score attracted a crowd around them that egged them on.
"Come on, Casey! Show him what you're made of," called out one of her fans.
"I don't think so," one of Derek's fans rebutted. "Derek is going to wipe the floor with her."
"Hear that, Space Case?" Derek ribbed with a smirk. "I'm going to wipe the floor with you."
"Good luck with that. I just found my third bonus chamber and you still haven't found one."
Casey's fans cheered as her score skyrocketed past Derek's with her new discovery. Not one to be shown up by anyone, let alone Casey, Derek quickly pressed the buttons in a sequence he'd read about in a magazine and snickered when Casey let out a disbelieving squeal.
"What happened to my special weapon? I just upgraded to the Relic Slayer 2000. It took me the last twenty minutes to find the last piece to trade in for the Incan Curse bullets."
"Aww, it went back to the one you started with at the beginning of the game. Tough luck Casey," Derek mocked.
"I don't understand. I didn't do anything or pick up –" her voice trailed off as she happened to glance at Derek's screen and got a good look at the weapon his character was now holding. Her Relic Slayer 2000 with Incan Curse bullets.
"Der-ek!" she screamed. "You stole my weapon. You're such a lying, cheating, scheming, slimeball."
"You snooze, you lose, Case. Looks like your lead isn't going to hold up for much longer." A victory tune sounded from his screen. "And what's this? The Solomon Room bonus chamber. Must be my lucky day."
Casey ignored him and returned her focus to her own game. She guided Babe Raider through a series of tunnels, careful to keep tabs on Derek's character's location every few minutes. She had Babe Raider enter the Forbidden Temple of Hades and after entering the right button combination to activate the Unspoken Rites action sequence, found herself unable to keep her grin in check. She'd found it. The weapon Babe Raider fans the world over still weren't entirely sure whether or not had actually been included in the final edit of the Director's Cut of the game. The Apocalypse Magnum.
"Oh Derek?" she sing-songed.
"What?" he grunted as his fans held their breaths while his character made a narrow escape out of a pit of King Cobras.
"I'll be taking that lead back now."
"And how do you plan on doing that? Unless you've already forgotten, I have the Relic Slayer now and the code can only be used once every gameplay. Unless of course you're willing to reset and start from scratch."
"Oh you can keep the Relic Slayer," she said smugly.
"Why is that?" She knew she'd gotten his curiosity.
"Because," she said with a slow smile forming on her lips, "I found Apocalypse and like you said, unless we reset the code can't be used again so I guess you're stuck with the Relic Slayer, and I'm stuck with this." And with that she brought up the item screen to equip her newfound weapon as her supporters erupted into a round of applause. Derek snapped his focus to her screen to see the legendary weapon for himself and to his horror her screen now looked horribly familiar.
"Oh crap," Derek muttered just in time to see Casey's character appear on his own screen and raise her weapon.
"Oh yes," Casey agreed giddily as she poised her finger over the fire button.
"Casey, you wouldn't," he tried weakly.
"Yes, I would," she retorted and blasted his character away. "Game over Derek."
While her side cheered her victory, no one cheered louder than Casey.
Ralph looked awkwardly between his two dinner companions. Casey was positively beaming with happiness and Derek was sulking.
"Get over it, D. You knew she was a Babe Raider maniac. She even beat Sam's score. Sam! And that score had been up since the beginning of summer."
"Yeah, Derek," she added. "It's just a silly game. If it bothers you that much, I'll let you win next time."
Derek narrowed his eyes at her as he picked up another slice of pizza and shoved it into his mouth. Casey made a face and rolled her eyes at his childish display.
"If it was 'just a game' then why did you insist we all take a picture of you, your score and your character holding the Apocalypse?" Derek accused.
"Oh that?" she asked nervously. "It was just, you know, to commemorate the moment."
"Really?" Derek didn't believe her for a second. She was tapping her nails on the table indicating that she was uneasy and most likely lying through her teeth.
"Yup," she answered too cheerily as she sipped on her soda.
"Then why did you tell me you needed to save the picture to a disc so you could e-mail it to the Babe Raider forum and shove it in BabeFan437's face?" Ralph asked innocently.
"That's enough Ralph," she said quickly, avoiding Derek's knowing smirk.
"So, how are your summer jobs going, Ralph?" she asked to change the topic.
"Okay, I guess," he answered, easily going along with the topic change. "The job at the arcade isn't too bad and the job at Smelly Nelly's brings in some pretty good tips. But I will definitely be glad once it's all over."
"Well, if you need anything, just remember we're here for you," she told him.
"Thanks, guys. But I think just hanging with you guys once in a while will definitely be enough to make the summer suck less."
"Yes, definitely. And since we've decided to 'rejoin the living' we'll have to do it more often."
"Sure, as long as it's not expensive. I still have a long way to go."
"No problem, Ralphie."
The group finished off the pizza but were reluctant to head home yet. They ordered another pitcher of sodas and decided to keep talking.
"So, D, is your tutor really a sumo wrestler?" Ralph asked.
"He told you his tutor was a sumo wrestler?" Casey exclaimed.
"He might as well be," Derek insisted. "The guy is like seven feet tall and the size of a door."
"Please, he's only complaining because this tutor actually makes him do his work and doesn't give in to his manipulations or bribes."
"Wow, I didn't think your dad actually had it in him," Ralph confessed.
"Believe me, neither did I."
"What about you, Case? I heard about Max."
"Yeah, I can't believe you turned him down. I thought that was the kind of romantic moment you lived for," Derek said.
Casey let out a heavy sigh.
"You're not about to cry, are you?" Derek asked, slightly afraid it was the case.
"No, I'm not going to cry." She shot him a look. "It just didn't feel right. I mean, we just got out of high school. Getting married wasn't even on my mind yet. I just wanted to go on the romantic road trip. And then when he proposed so suddenly, I was caught off guard and didn't have time to think of a better answer other than just 'No.' I didn't think he'd break up with me though."
"Case, can you blame the guy?"
"Der-ek!"
"What? I'm being honest here. Asking a girl out is already a risk. Asking a girl to marry you? I have to hand it him, that was a huge leap he was taking."
"Yeah, Case. I gotta agree with D. It not only broke his heart, it broke his ego."
Casey let out a groan as she put her head on the table. "Do you think I should have said yes?"
"Uh, D, I'll let you take that one."
"Fine. No."
Casey sat up and raised an eyebrow at Derek. "No? That's all you have to say?"
"It's simple. You're only eighteen, you just graduated from high school, you're starting college in the fall, it takes you an hour to decide on how to do your hair everyday and you're working at some snooty clothes boutique. How, from all that, would you even think you might be ready to get married? Besides, you just said it didn't feel right. You gotta go with your instincts."
Ralph and Casey sat dumbstruck staring at Derek.
"What?" he demanded defensively.
"Oh my god, that was actually good," Casey said appreciatively.
"D, I'm speechless," Ralph added.
"Hey, I'm not stupid."
"No, you're not," Casey agreed.
"Just lazy as hell," Ralph joked, breaking the uneasiness that had crept up on them and returned them to the shared camaraderie of making the most of a summer that had gone all wrong.
July 7th
"I don't trust you," Derek stated flatly and refused to move. "You're up to something."
"Der-ek! I already bought the tickets," she argued as she managed to shove him into the theater.
"Yeah, because you told me this was a burlesque show," he reasoned. He took a look at the crowd around them as she ushered them into their seats. "And now, I'm thinking you took advantage of my half-sleep state."
"Derek, I swear I'm not lying. It's going to be chock full of girls parading around in their underwear," she said matter-of-factly. Derek eyed her warily. He didn't notice any of her usual tells but she was definitely hiding something.
"Okay, so then why are you so eager to see it? It's one of your artsy things, isn't it? It'll be like one second of a girl in her underwear and the rest will be a bunch of weird looking people claiming they can fly and singing some weird opera music. I'm going home," he announced, getting up from his seat. "You can take a cab."
She reached up and pulled him back into his seat.
"Sit down and stay," she ordered. He crossed his arms and grumbled under his breath until she leaned over and tapped on the shoulder of an older gentleman seated in front of them.
"Excuse me sir," she said when he turned around. "But will you please tell my step-brother that this is a burlesque show?"
"Well, yes, I suppose you can call it that," he affirmed.
"Really? Lingerie, sexy dancing and all that?" Derek asked, his eyebrows raised.
"Oh yes, pretty much what the show is centered around."
"Thank you for clearing that up, Sir," Casey politely thanked him and the gentleman returned his attention to his companions.
"Well?" Casey asked, quite pleased with herself.
"Okay, fine," Derek acceded. A moment later, a strange thought occurred to him.
"Why do you want to see this?"
"I heard the musical score was phenomenal," she answered vaguely.
"Casey, is there something you're not telling the family?"
"What?"
"About why you always find ways to sabotage your relationships?"
"Huh?" she asked, now lost.
"Are you eager to watch the burlesque dancers too? Are we on the same team?" he asked, giving her a slow wink.
"Ew! Der-ek!" she yelped, understanding his implications. "No. I'm here purely for cultural purposes."
"Okay, whatever you say, Case." He decided that teasing her was truly one of the finer joys in his life.
"Just sit back and enjoy the show, Derek," she said, now eager for it to begin. A moment later, the lights dimmed and the curtains rose.
"Case, what's this show called, anyway?"
"Hmmm, do you remember a little movie called 'Moulin Rouge?'" she said, grinning in the dark.
"Moulin Rouge? CASEY!" She relished in his anger.
"Shhh. Do be quiet Derek. And you should try to enjoy the show." Casey cheered as the performers started the first act. Now, she decided, they were even. And as she sat back and enjoyed the romance made famous by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, she focused on the fact that she was having fun and quickly pushed aside the little detail that she was having fun…with Derek.
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I hope you guys enjoyed Chapter 4. I know I had fun writing it. If you haven't checked out some of my other stories already, I hope you guys do. As always, any reviews would be much appreciated!
- SugarRune