Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own nada.

Part 1

Derek cringed; even he hadn't heard her voice reach decibels like that before. She was ranting and raving about how embarrassed she'd been and he had no idea what she was talking about anymore.

It had started when they had gotten in late, past curfew of course because she just had to go and get herself involved with a stoned Max. So when they had to sneak in, because of her inability to find a decent boyfriend for once, she of course turned klutzilla on like a switch and crashes into their mother's favorite vase. Then he'd had no choice but to yell at her (in a whisper of course) which had only made her cry instead of yell at him like she normally would have done. Why the hell that happened, he had no idea. What mattered now is that Casey, or rather the exorcist-princess, as he had taken to calling her that morning, had woken up with fire in her eyes. She was absolutely angry with him and was hell bent on making him miserable and suffer for something he wasn't sure he did.

As he heard another door slam, he tensed again. The little withering glares, slamming of doors and hisses whenever he entered a room she was in were really starting to piss him off. Why was this different from all of the other times he was a jerk to her?

She knew she was supposed to be the mature one in their kindergartner- like relationship but after last night and his general condescension towards her, she couldn't help it. There he was, actually looking out for her for once and dare she say it… rescuing her from potential disaster with police and marijuana? And on the way home they had actually been having a good time. She blushed, aside from the times they had spent practicing with each other, that is. But then of course, Derek had gone and ruined the nice moment between them. They were in the midst of sneaking in, and he had leaned in to tell her to watch her step as they entered the house. Having his voice so close to her ear had surprised her, especially the hot gust of air on her neck from his voice. So even though he had remained unaffected as always, she had felt the klutzilla unleash inside of her and an "oh no" pass in her head before she went stumbling into the house.

But still, he had known her for three years! Didn't he understand the clumsy side of her yet? Was it really necessary for him to yell at her so much when the vase fell? She wasn't that stupid and innocent; she would make up some sort of lie that her mom would buy over how it was all a big accident that occurred the night before. Instead of letting her explain, he had seemed determined to yell at her and be frustrated with her, like she was a huge, idiot burden.

That morning when she woke up, she felt stupid for crying over yet another boy. What was her count up to at this point? She didn't even want to know, especially where Derek Venturi's tally's stood. This all brought her back to her current angry mood in which she generally hated men, including poor Sheldon who tried to offer her chocolate before realizing that her anger wasn't about her period. As Casey ranted and raved about how men always assume women are mad because of their periods, Emily pushed him away to safety.

"It's the thought that counts Shel." She tried to convince him while soothingly rubbing his back.

Meanwhile, Derek smirked and thought "better him than me" before continuing to half-listen to the blonde hanging off of his arm as he stood watching from the other side of the room.

Several hours later, Casey was experiencing a personality change 180 and enjoying herself immensely as she watched Derek get smashed into the boards repeatedly at the hockey game. Their little game of ignoring each other and Casey sending him heated glares continued all afternoon until George had announced that they were all going to Derek's hockey game that evening as family bonding. Initially, Casey had been less than thrilled and had made this evident until Derek had snapped and quote told her to "shut the hell up" before stomping up to his room to get ready for his game. Her mood had brightened considerably when Derek had finally stepped out onto the ice and proceeded to play like shit.

"I don't know what the hell's wrong with him" George muttered as they watched Derek get slammed again into the glass.

"Dad swore!" Marti gleefully cried as she bounced in her seat next to Casey excitedly. Leaning in close again she whispered conspiratorially to Casey: "What do you think is wrong with Smerek? He's been really upset since last night and now he sucks!"

Casey looked down at Marti in surprise. Since when did Marti sound so observant and well, old? And since when did Derek suck at hockey?

"No idea" was the only thing Casey could think of in reply to Marti's question. She muffled laughter again as Derek was pulled off of the ice for high sticking and put into the penalty box.

"Aw man, Casey. What did you do to him this time?" Marti whispered suddenly in her ear.

Jumping a little and more than a bit shocked, Casey huffed out an indignant "What?" to a little, smirking Marti. She was starting to creep Casey out with her eerie similarities to Derek's personality and her precociousness.

"Come on Casey, we all know that you are the only one who can ever throw off Derek this much and mess up his hockey 'zone' that he goes into."

"Huh?" was the only response she got. Signaling to Edwin, who had clued into their conversation, Marti bowed out of the situation and decided to go bug her dad for some ice cream.

Really, those two are so stupid!

After Casey had finally shooed Edwin away and back to Lizzie's side, she was able to sit and try to sort out Marti's cryptic elementary logic. She checked the hockey score again, even with Derek's craptastic playing, the team was still winning 3-0 though many, many players and fans looked confused as to why their beloved star and captain was spending a majority of his time pressed up against the glass or in the penalty box. Even worse, after speaking with Marti, Casey felt a weird twinge of guilt when she looked down and saw Derek sulking in the penalty box, again. Something was off and though she didn't think she was the cause of it, it was definitely strange that he wasn't skating around in his usual jackass style shooting pucks and smiles at his beloved fans. Instead he was sulking. Derek Venturi didn't do sulking. Not even when a girl decided that she wasn't that interested in him, and even that wasn't that often.

Wait, was he looking at her? She turned her head to try to see if he was really looking at her, and not at some bimbo behind her or Nora or someone sitting around her. Nope, he was looking at her. And it seemed like he was glaring at her.

Derek really hoped that she could feel his glare. It was her fault that he was so off tonight and that thought alone bothered him but not as much as the thought that his team was so fed up with him right now, that they had taken to ignoring him because he just kept ending up in the penalty box. The crowds around him cheered as someone on his team scored another goal ensuring their win even more. Sighing he checked the time left on penalty- 96 seconds. 96 seconds left for him to plot Casey's demise. Now 95 seconds left for him to plot how she should be punished later. He looked up once more and smirked at his Dad's glaring face. George was clearly giving him the 'you better get out there and start playing for real' look but Derek decided not to let this bother him. He did need to think of something to get Casey back with later.

Okay, I know this is sort of short, but I've been ridiculously busy lately and writing sporadically late at night because that is the only time I have. Part two of this chapter is already formed in my head, I just have to put it down and post it so hopefully it will be up really soon!