Chap 2 True Casey
The next morning Casey's friends showed up at the door again. This time they were planning to take Casey to the mall. "What do you say, Mrs. M.D., can we take her? We want old Casey back!"
Nora laughed as the entire Venturi clan looked puzzled. "I didn't make her change how she dressed, she can get whatever she wants."
All of the visitors now looked at Casey. "If she didn't make you wear pink, why are you wearing pink?" Chris looked as if she had lost her mind.
Casey shrugged but didn't blush, which surprised Derek. "I figured if I was going to act more like those preppy people I ought to dress the part. That's why I changed my look."
Chris looked hard at her for a moment. "I still think you're nuts."
"Then I guess you rubbed off on me."
Everyone laughed before Casey took her friends up to her room. As the four were getting ready to leave, Derek knocked on Casey's door. "Yeah?"
"Is it cool if I take the car, or are you going in it?"
"The car" was the one Casey and Derek shared and they had long since come to the agreement that they would have to ask about each other's schedules if they wanted to use it. This came from there being too many arguments and slamming doors. The last fight over the car came when Derek was going on a date and Casey and Emily, not knowing about his date, beat him to the car to go to the mall. He hadn't even realized it until he was ready to leave, then he'd had to call his date and tell her he couldn't make it. He had waited in Casey's room seathing for two hours before she came home and started yelling at her immedeately. She had started crying in anger because she was being yelled at and couldn't even understand what he was saying. She had finally figured out what he was mad about and started yelling back that he should have told her he had a date and she wouldn't have taken the car. The fight had culminated in Derek punching a hole in her wall. He hadn't broken his hand but it was bleeding and Casey had stopped yelling at him and took him into the bathroom, sticking his wounds under the running water. He just couldn't be mad at her after she had carefully cleaned and bandaged his hand, paying close attention to whether or not there were any signs that he had done more than cut his knuckles. It was during the bandaging that they had talked calmly about the car arrangement.
"We're taking Megan's car. Where are you going?"
"Mall to meet Sam."
"WHy don't you ride with us?"
He looked around her at her friends. "Mainly because Sam's parents are dropping him off. He's leaving town for the break right when his parents pick him up, so he wouldn't be able to bring me home."
"When are they picking him up?"
Derek shrugged. "Five-ish."
"Then it's settled!" Jasmine yelled from inside Casey's room. "We were planning to stay til 5 or 5:30 then get dinner. You come with us, we have to make sure you're treating her ok!"
He looked at them again. "But then I'll get beat up again."
Casey laughed. "Believe it or not, I was the only one ever brave enough to actually hit anyone. Come on, with us. It'll save gas and you just got fired."
Derek glared at her. "I was going to quit anyway, and it wasn't because I was doing a bad job!" He started grumbling and Casey distinctly heard the words "stupid jerk" and "just because of his daughter".
"Don't get defensive, I'm just presenting a logical argument for why you should ride with us."
Derek grumbled a 'fine' and went back down stairs.
Megan and Jasmine giggled, while Chris smiled at her. "Well," Jasmine said. "He's cute, I'll give you that. But he seems like a real smartass."
Casey nodded. "He is, and as you could see yesterday, he's also a massive prankster. But I still love him."
Her friends all nodded. "We can see that."
A few minutes later, Casey and her friends and Derek climbed into Megan's car. It was a bit tight because the car only fit five people in the first place, and the back seat was meant for kids. Derek managed to get smashed into the door with Casey in the middle and Chris on the other side. When they got to the mall Casey and her friends walked with Derek to the food court where he was going to meet the Sam. "So, how about meeting back here at around 5?"
Derek nodded and said goodbye to Casey and walked over to Sam as they walked away. "Who are those people with Casey?"
"Hello to you too! Those are her friends from Toronto." Derek watched as Casey walked off with them. "Apparently she used to be kind of a bad girl and Nora made her promise to not get into as much trouble when they moved in."
"Huh."
The two boys began walking off towards the stores they liked, even though Derek kept looking back to see Casey walk off with her friends. "So, when are you telling Casey you like her?"
Derek rolled his eyes. "Have I not told you never at least a hundred times."
"Yes, but the last time we talked you said you were going to tell her eventually. Don't tell me you have changed your mind since Friday."
Derek shrugged. "I don't know. WIth these friends coming in, I think I want to get to know the real Casey before I actually say anything."
"Dude, she wouldn't have changed how she thinks, just supressed some of her old actions. By the way, where'd the shiner come from?"
Derek gave a hollow laugh. "Casey."
"See, she still gets annoyed with you, she just shows it physically instead of vocally. What did you do?"
Derek laughed. "Took her tops again. Do me a favor, and don't talk about Casey anymore for a while. I imagine I'll get to know the real her more later. I'm going to dinner with her and her friends."
Casey had felt someone watching her as she walked away from Derek. As she turned a corner she took a quick glance back and saw Derek staring at her. She smiled, knowing that he didn't feel the same as she did, but glad that he was staring. The first place she went was to replace the majority of her clothes. Her friends had pooled together their money and were trying to buy her a whole new wardrobe, but she wouldn't let them. She had never been one to take charity and that was what she considered it. She did end up with at least 3 full weeks of new tops, plus a new jacket, a couple of belts, a pair of black jeans, and a bunch of new make-up.
At 4 they went to their final stop, the salon. As they were discussing what she should do with her hair they came across the option of returning her old streaks. "You could do green or red or blue, do you want to?"
Casey nodded and they narrowed the colors down to three, red, blue, and purple. Casey couldn't decide what color she wanted and each of her friends chose a different color. "Alright, you know what, I'll call Derek." She flipped open her phone and dialed his number.
"What?"
"How rude."
"Sorry." And he hung up.
Casey looked at her phone in shock. She looked at her friends. "He hung up on me! Jazz, let me borrow your phone." The girl handed it over and Casey dialed Derek's number again.
"Hello?"
"You hung up on me!"
There was laughter on the other end. "Yeah, well, I was being nice to just answer the phone in the first place, knowing it was you, so if you thought I was being rude, then I was going to be rude. What did you want?"
"Red, blue or purple?"
"Huh?"
"Red, blue or purple?"
"For what?"
"Just answer."
"Blue."
"Thank you." She hung up before he could say anything else. "Blue. And I got him back." Her phone started buzzing but she ignored it. "Derek. I'm not answering."
Chris shook his head. "That's the same thing you did to your mom when you got streaks the first time."
"Yeah, and she liked them."
"So, now Derek will, is that your thought?"
Casey nodded as she sat waiting for her name to be called. "there is a really long line today. I hope we're not late."
At fifteen til 5 Derek said goodbye to Sam and got a pretzel in the food court. As he was sitting down at one of the tables his phone starting buzzing in his pocket. It was Casey's number again. "Green."
Casey laughed on the other end. "No, no colors this time. I'm at the salon and the line is longer than we expected. My name is next, so I don't want to leave, but I was going to tell you that either you can wait for us in the food court, or you can come to the salon and wait with us. I don't know when I'll get done. I'll call you when I am, though, if you don't come here."
Derek nodded even though he knew she couldn't see him. "I'll finish my pretzel and head over there, k?"
"Sure, later."
As Casey hung up her phone she heard her name called. "Derek will show up here in a little while," she told her friends as she walked off.
They nodded and waited til she was out of ear shot. Jasmine turned to Chris. "Ok, you have to make Derek jealous. Put your arm around Casey or something. I can tell he totally likes her just as much as she likes him and we have to get him to say something. The only way he will is to feel like another guy is invading his territory."
"Jazz, you can't go messing with the relationship. Casey will figure out what we're doing."
"Yeah, and then she'll play into it until Derek isn't around. Then she'll fuss at us and if we continue, she'll keep playing along, because it is something she wants to do, she just would never admit it. Come on, Chris, let's do this. It will help Casey."
Chris sighed and nodded. WHen it came to Casey, his surrogate little sister, he couldn't resist any plan that would make her happy.
They soon spotted Derek walking towards them and waved him over. "What were the colors for?"
They all laughed. "You'll see."
Derek shrugged and sat down. He expected Casey to come out of the salon with maybe some highlights and shorter hair, perhaps a top that was the color he chose. He never thought she would come out looking the way she did. She had on rather tight, black jeans and a black, studded leather belt. She also had on a shirt that was obviously bought in a section he would normally shop in that was a little tight and a choker around her neck. The shirt looked almost as good as when she wore one of his shirts. While most of her face had her normal amount of make-up her eyes were extremely dark. But her hair was what shocked him most. It was cut jagged, the shortest sections only chin length, the longest barely brushing her shoulder. And there were bright blue streaks in her hair. He noticed the leather bands on her arms as walked towards him and her friends. "Alright, I'm ready and I'm hungry. Let's eat." She looked at him and smiled. "What?"
Derek closed his mouth and shook his head. "Nothing. Food is good, let's go."
Her friends nodded and started yelling out different places they could go. Derek just watched Casey as she walked in front of him. At one point she turned around and faced him. "Derek, we can't decide, where do you want to go?"
Derek shrugged. "I don't care."
Casey made an annoying buzzing noise. "Wrong answer, you have to name a place."
He shrugged again and sifted through the places in his mind. "I want a burger."
"Decided, Ben's!" Casey yelled, punching her fist in the air. "I win!"
Her friends started laughing at her and Derek allowed the corners of his mouth to turn up a bit. At least until he noticed Chris. He had gotten next to Casey and draped his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him. Derek felt a pang of jealousy in the pit of his stomach and briefly thought about tackling the man and ripping his heart out, but he decided that doing that would probably make Casey mad at him. So he followed the group out to Megan's car in silence.
When they all piled in Chris made sure that he sat on one side of Casey and Derek sat on the other. The whole way to the burger joint Derek kept glancing at Chris's arm still draped around Casey's shoulder. He had also kicked it up a bit and kept whispering in her ear and brushing hair out of her face. By the time the got to the restraunt Derek had both his hands in tight fists and excused himself to the bathroom as soon as they sat down just so he didn't hit someone.
As soon as Derek's back was out of sight Casey turned to Chris and glared at him. "Ok, so you're trying to make Derek jealous, I get that, now stop."
All her friends shook their heads. "No, way. You have been hurt too many times to really go after him, but I don't think this guy would ever hurt you." Jazz looked at her and shrugged. "Besides, didn't you see the way he was glaring death at Chris? Our plan is totally working!"
"A little too well, maybe. You guys do realize that Derek is ready to kill Chris. Did you see his fists when he got out of the car?"
Megan waved her hand. "No worries, he won't do anything. He's too scared you won't like him."
Casey shook her head. "You guys don't know him the way I do. He's angry and even if he doesn't actually hit a person, he'll end up hitting something and hurting himself."
Her friends looked at each other. "Look, we're trying to help. And we won't stop."
Casey smiled, knowing they wouldn't but wanting them to be careful. "Ok, but tone it down a little. Derek can have kind of a temper and he always comes out better in fights. I don't want blood."
Megan sighed again. "He won't do anything."
Casey shook her head. "Look, there have been times that he has controled temper for a long time, but if you keep going he will blow up. Even if he wants me to like him, he will eventually snap. Seriously, back off a little."
Her friends nodded and Megan warned them all that Derek was on his way back. He took his seat next to Casey and they waited for their food to be ready. The rest of the evening passed with out event, but only because Chris did tone it down a little and Derek found himself better able to control his temper.
Megan dropped the pair off at their house and Casey covered her hair with a hat she had taken from Chris before they went in. "What's that for?"
"I want to do a big reveal for my hair."
They went in a Lizzie and Nora just smiled as the rest of the Venturis gawked at her. Then she stood in the middle of the room and said "Ok, now for the hair." She pulled her hat off and let her hair drop. Marti jumped when she saw the blue in Casey's hair and started sqealing.
Nora nodded. "Much better than the black you had last time."
"Thank you."
"How did you pick blue, Casey? Smerek likes blue!" Marti bounded over to her.
"Actually, Derek picked it."
Everyone looked at Derek. "I didn't know what I was choosing. She just called me and asked me to pick a color."
Nora laughed. "That's what she did to me the first time she got streaks in her hair."
"Ok," Casey said just before yawning. "I'm going to bed, see you in the morning."
Derek watched as she went upstairs, then plopped into his recliner. This new side of Casey was intriguing. He couldn't wait to see what she would surprise him with next.
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