Chapter Two: But I Won't Be Home Again
It wasn't her room. It was Lizzie's room. But it looked exactly like hers; just smaller. That's why she had screamed. Now, as everyone crowded around her, she realized that screaming had been a bit overdramatic, but still, it was quite a shock.
"Casey, darling, what's wrong?" Nora asked, sitting beside her on her bed. Lizzie and Edwin were at the foot of the bed, looking at her with eyebrows raised. Marti was in George's arms as he stood behind Nora watching.
"Why am I in Lizzie's room? I went to sleep in my room last night…" Casey sat up and looked around; all her stuff was in here. It was as if Lizzie had moved out of the room, and Casey had stayed. But that didn't happen, did it?
Nora looked confused, "Casey this has been your bedroom for almost two years now. Lizzie's room is upstairs in the attic, remember?"
Casey shook her head, "No. Edwin's room is in the attic!"
"No, sweetheart, Edwin's room is next to our room."
"Bu- but your room is in the basement!"
"The basement? Why on earth would anyone have a room down there?"
"Because Derek wouldn't let me have his room, and so you two moved down into the basement, and I got your room!" Casey explained, wondering why they were all playing this prank on her, and when Derek would come in and laugh at her for being so confused.
Nora felt Casey's head, "Are you sure you're alright?"
She pushed her mother's hand away, "I'll be fine when you guys stop this. Was this Derek's idea? Is he 'trying to make me laugh' again. Well it's not funny. It's stupid."
"Casey, who is this 'Derek' you keep talking about?" Nora asked.
"Ha ha. Very funny, Mom. I know I was mad at him last night, but that doesn't mean you can pretend like you don't know him."
"I don't know him, honey. Do you George?" Nora asked her husband, her forehead furrowed.
"Never heard of him." George said, seriously, "Lizzie, have you?"
"This is the first I've heard of a 'Derek'. Is he your new boyfriend, Case? If so, good, you needed to get over Max." Lizzie and Edwin shared a grin.
"Derek, my boyfriend…? Gross! Come on guys, stop pretending. Where is he?" Casey said, sitting up taller, and looking around, expecting him to jump out at any moment.
"Casey stop this now! We are tired of this little joke. Now, George and I are going to go make breakfast, I suggest you get ready for school."
Casey nodded and watched her family leave her room. She then got dressed quickly, planning to go into Derek's room and yell at him for pulling a prank so early in the morning. She went out her door and instinctively turned directly to the right, and found herself face to face with her old door. She sighed and went to the next door over, Derek's room. She didn't bother knocking, she was too mad. She stormed in and was about to begin yelling when she noticed something different about the room.
It wasn't covered in all the posters like it had been just yesterday. It was, although, covered in pictures. Of Edwin. Edwin and his friends. Edwin and Lizzie. Edwin and the family. Edwin, Marti, and George.
Weird. Derek must have worked all night to pull this off. Why was he trying so hard? This made her even madder. She turned to his bed, but was caught off guard when she saw the desk there instead. She looked around and spotted the bed across the room, by the window. It was Derek's old bed, but it was made. Derek never made his bed.
Even weirder.
There was no one in the made bed, so she stormed out of the room and into Marti's. Thankfully that room was still the same, although Casey thought she saw less stuffed animals.
Marti was sitting in a corner, playing with a kangaroo and a giraffe, "Hi Casey."
"Hey Smarti."
"What did you call me?"
"Smarti. That's what Derek calls you all the time…"
Marti crinkled her nose, "Who's Derek. And why does he call me Smarti? That's dumb."
Casey's jaw dropped. She knew the rest of the family was good at keeping a straight face. But Marti could never keep a secret, especially about Derek. She was talking like she really didn't know him.
"Come on, Marti. The game's over. You can stop pretending you don't know who Derek is. We both know he's your big brother."
"OH! You mean Edwin. He doesn't call me Smarti either."
"No!" Casey was annoyed at how far Derek was making this go, "Marti! You have two brothers. One is Edwin, and then an older one, Derek."
Marti looked scared now, "No. I only have one brother."
Casey sighed angrily and left the room. She went to Lizzie's room to talk to her, but jumped back when she saw all her stuff in there. She let out a deep breath and tried to remember where her mother had said Lizzie's room was.
The attic. Casey smiled; they could never convert Edwin's room into Lizzie's last night as well. This was the place where she would be able to catch the prank. She ran up the stairs and threw open the door. Lizzie was sitting on her bed, her name spelled on the wall above her. It looked like her room. There was not a trace of Edwin's things anywhere.
"Hey, Case!" Lizzie said, smiling at her and setting the book she had been reading down.
"Hey, Liz. Why is your room up here? Why are you helping Derek with this prank?" Casey demanded, wanting the truth, and knowing Lizzie would give it to her.
Lizzie looked at her curiously, "My room's been up here since we moved in. And who's Derek? Come on, you can tell me!"
Casey shook her head; why were they all taking this so far?! "Liz! Stop, okay?! I'm tired of this. I know I wished Derek was never born, but he didn't need to react like this!"
Lizzie's eyes widened, "Casey. I think you need to go back to bed, you might have caught something. Something that makes you hallucinate and say crazy things…" she got off her bed and hurried over to her sister.
"URGH!" Casey cried and ran out of the room, leaving Lizzie standing by herself, thoroughly confused.
Casey ran downstairs to confront her mother, "Mom! I'm tired of this stupid prank! Just give it up!"
Nora looked over at her, a spatula in her hand, the other hand on the handle of a frying pan, "Casey, you need to give it up. You need to leave in a few minutes, I suggest you finish getting ready."
"Oh my gosh!"
Casey hurried over to the door to the basement and ran down the stairs.
"Casey, I thought you hated basements!" Nora called after her.
There was no way they could undo Nora and George's bedroom. They wouldn't do it. Casey flung the door open and turned on the light.
Her jaw dropped. They had. They had undone the bedroom. For a stupid prank? That was so unlike them. She left the dark and dank basement and hurried into the kitchen.
"Emily's waiting for you at the front door," George said as he sauntered into the kitchen, following the smell of frying bacon.
Emily! She would remember Derek. She wouldn't have gone along with this stupid prank.
"Emily!" Casey cried, hugging her best friend.
"Good morning to you too!" Emily said, laughing and backing away.
"Okay, so something weird is going on. Everyone in my house is acting like they don't remember Derek. They've even redid all the bedrooms to make it look like he never existed!"
Emily looked confused, "Who's Derek?"
"Why do people keep saying that?! Derek! The guy you've had a crush on for like ten years!"
"Ten years? That's pretty long for a crush, don't you think? If it was that long, you think I would remember it, wouldn't you?"
Casey groaned, "Not you, too, Em! Why did you agree to go along with this?"
"Along with what?"
"The prank that Derek is playing, because I wished he was never born!"
Emily's face was scrunched up, "I'm not going along with any pranks. Especially any pranks that have to do with nonexistent crushes. Come on, Case. We're going to be late for school."
"Sam! Sam will remember Derek, he has to!"
"Sam? You mean the blonde kid?"
"I used to go out with him, Em. Don't you remember?"
"No, you used to go out with Max."
"Yeah, cuz I met him at the party Derek and Kendra threw for me."
"No. You met him at the party he threw, and my boyfriend, Eric got invited to. He brought me, and I brought you."
"Okay, never mind. Why don't you remember Sam?"
"Casey, you never went out with him."
"Okay, but you do know him, right?"
"Yeah, everyone does. We had this whole assembly after it happened."
Casey stared at her, "After what happened?"
"He died. He was driving home after a party. He was drunk. His friend, Ralph survived, he didn't… What is with you today, you were all torn up at the assembly, saying that no teenager deserved to die like that, no matter how stupid his choices were."
"Emily. Please tell me you're joking. Please tell me Sam did not die."
"Casey, you act like he was your friend or something. We had never heard of him until the assembly."
Casey put her hands on her face, "I can't believe this. I just can't. This is all just some big horrible dream."
Emily took Casey's hand, "Come on, girl, we got to go to school now." And she dragged her away, Casey still in shock.
"What about Kendra?"
"Kendra? The girl you partnered with last year for the poetry project?"
"Yeah. What happened to her?"
"Well, she got you an "F" on the assignment because not only did she not contribute; she lost all your work."
"No."
"Yes. And after that, well, rumor is she slept with Brad Niglen, and then dropped out because she got pregnant. Either way, no one's seen her all year."
"No! Kendra, pregnant? No way!"
"You act like you know her. Besides, you said you hated her for making you get your first "F"."
"No, no, I don't hate her!"
"Whatever."
"Okay, remind me, why did I break up with Max?"
"You didn't break up with him, Space Case." Emily looked over at her, concern on her face, "He dumped you for Amy. Don't you remember? When you failed cheerleading tryouts, he decided he wanted her back. You said you never wanted to talk about it. I didn't think you really forgot about it."
Casey shook her head, "But I didn't fail tryouts. Edwin helped me and I made it!"
Emily laughed, "Edwin! Help you?! Ha! That's a joke; Edwin wouldn't be caught dead helping somebody with cheerleading. He's a man's man."
"Oh no."
"Oh yes. Now come on, it's like you got some form of amnesia, or something. I just hope you remember what classes you have."
"Hey, where's my locker?"
"Where it's been ever since you moved out of mine. By the boys' washroom. I really wish I could forget it too." Emily laughed, "Well, I got to split. Eric's waiting for me at the stairs. See you at lunch, okay?"
Casey nodded and watched her leave. She never moved lockers? But Derek had made sure she got a new locker… Wait. Derek. Everything was making sense. Everything that had anything to do with Derek was changing.
Man. He really was going all out for this prank. But why did Sam have to play dead? She'd see him in school; Sam wouldn't skip school for a prank. She could probably even talk to him; figure out why Derek was doing all this.
Yeah, that's what she would do. She didn't need to worry. Derek probably got here early to put the finishing touches on changing the school to make it look like he was never there. So, she would probably see him at lunch.
--
He wasn't at lunch. And neither was Sam. She hadn't seen either boy at all during the day. But Emily was at lunch, with a tall, black-haired boy, she called Eric, her boyfriend. It was weird to see her with someone that wasn't Sheldon, but she got over it, it was all part of this twisted prank. Just as she was finishing up her food, she saw Ralph sitting by himself at a table, not eating. He looked oddly serious, which was odd for him.
Casey excused herself from the couple and approached his table. He didn't even look up at her. She cleared her throat and his eyes moved to see who she was.
"Hey, Ralph, may I sit?"
He looked a little confused, which made Casey smile, that was normal Ralph, but he nodded as well.
"Ralph, I need to talk to you." She said, with a very business-like manner.
He looked up, "Who are you?"
"I Derek's step-sister…"
"Good for you. But that doesn't tell me who you are."
"My name's Casey…" she sighed, even Ralph was playing along. He was a good actor.
"So, about this prank…"
"What prank?"
"The one where everyone pretends Derek doesn't exist so he can get back at me. I'm tired of it. Can you please tell him to stop?"
"I don't know what you're talking about Catty."
"Casey. My name's Casey." She said, through gritted teeth, "Where's Sam? I need to talk to him."
Now Ralph was mad, "Shut the freak up, woman! You come over here, interrogating me about some 'Dylan' guy that I don't even know, talking about a prank! Yeah, that's stupid, but I thought you had just confused me with someone else! But, now you ask me where my best friend is, as if he's still alive. You're just a cruel person! I want you to leave me the heck alone. Leave. Now!" he roared and Casey scurried away, truly afraid of the look in Ralph's eyes.
Man that was good acting! She had no idea Ralph was so talented. Emily and Eric watched her curiously as she left the lunchroom. She ignored them and went to where she knew Derek's locker was. She planned to wait there until he came. He had to come there sometime today. This was his normal 'flirting' area.
But the bell rang, and people passed her. Not one of them Derek. But, a boy with glasses and an odd walk came up to her.
"Why are you standing at my locker?" he kind of looked hopeful, like she was waiting for him.
"Your locker?"
He nodded, "Yes. That's my locker."
"Okay, how much is Derek paying you?"
"Excuse me?"
"How much is Derek paying you to pretend this is your locker?"
"I don't know any Derek's. That is my locker, and I'm not getting paid…"
Casey groaned again, and hurried away. She then got struck by a brilliant idea.
Paul.
He wouldn't be apart of this! He would never do something so cruel.
She hurried into his office and immediately started venting.
"Big trouble, Paul! Big!" she cried, but then stopped at the look on his face.
"Casey McDonald?" she nodded, impatiently, "I haven't seen you since your first day almost two years ago."
"Ha ha. Very funny. You know, I thought you were above pranks like this."
"Pranks like what?"
"What did Derek say? Did he give you that 'I'm trying to make Casey laugh' story? Cuz that's rubbish!"
"Miss McDonald, what are you talking about?"
"Ha! 'Miss McDonald', man you really are getting into this role."
"What role? Your guidance counselor?"
"Oh come on, Paul. I've been coming to you for almost two years complaining about Derek. I know it probably wasn't interesting, but you couldn't have forgotten overnight!"
"Casey, who's Derek?"
"My step-brother, Derek!"
"If my memory serves, I thought your step-brother's name was Edwin."
"Well, that's one of them. The other is Derek."
"When did he join the family?"
"When he was born, seventeen years ago…!"
"Oh." Paul looked confused, and Casey was now running low on patience.
"Paul, come on, I've had a long day, and I'm tired of this."
"Would you like to talk about it?"
"NO! I want it to stop! You're not helping!"
He looked taken aback. "I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make things worse."
Casey softened, "No, I'm sorry; I shouldn't take my anger out on you. I just wish this prank would end." She took a deep breath, "I just need to know one thing: did Sam Jones really die?"
"Sam Jones? Oh, yes, the drunk driver. Yes, I remember the assembly. There was a lot of crying that day."
Casey collapsed into the chair, "This isn't happening. This just isn't happening."
"What?"
"Last night I wished that Derek had never been born."
Paul looked confused, but nodded and motioned for her to continue.
"I- I think my wish came true."