A/N: Well, I'm finally glad I got this one up. Hope you guys and girls enjoy it (for some reason, it seemed to be a hard one for me to right). Things have been very crazy for me lately and have just distracted me a lot, especially in this chapter.

Don't know when the next update will be, because I'm starting up my new job, which will once again take away time from completing my fanfics. I will tell you that there are a few more chapters remaining, so consider this the turn heading into the home stretch for the story.

Disclaimer: Don't own LWD.

Now, on with the show.

(Wednesday evening – 7:45 P.M.)

Derek sat at his desk, drumming his fingers on a notebook. So far, all he had was the following written on it:

Topic: Obsession

Definition: compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety; a compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion

Examples: …

"Damn. Examples, examples, need examples…" Derek muttered to himself. The topic seemed simple enough two nights ago, when he thought it up. Now, he just couldn't put his thoughts onto paper. He sure as hell couldn't share the reason behind why he thought of the topic. As that thought went through his head, he glanced at the wall separating his room from Casey's. As his mind drifted off into thoughts of her, a voice suddenly snapped him back to reality.

"What in the world are you doing?" Casey's voice rang out from the doorway.

"I'm trying to get some of this stupid assignment done so I can watch the Leafs – Canucks game" Derek growled.

"Well, what do you have so far?" she asked, walking up to his desk.

"Practically nothing" Derek said, tossing the notebook in her direction. She picked it up and scanned over it. Derek let out a low, almost concealable gulp – he knew for sure that Casey was about to laugh her ass off at him.

"I see you have an idea and know what it means. How could you not come up with examples for this?" Casey said in a calm manner, handing the notebook back to him.

"I don't know. I'm not good at this academic stuff. I just wish I could come up with something in the next five minutes before the Leafs game starts" Derek said in an exasperated manner.

"Well, there's one example right there" Casey beamed.

"What? The part about me not being good at academic stuff, because…"

"Not that. I mean hockey. Face it Derek, when it comes to hockey, you're obsessed with it. You've played it since God knows when, and even have to watch it when it's on TV."

"Case, that's not true."

"Oh really. What about last June, when we had the fight over the remote because you wanted to watch the Stanley Cup?"

"Come on, it wasn't that bad" Derek protested.

"Derek, we were practically wrestling over the remote. You threw me over the couch, for crying out loud" was Casey's rebuttal.

"Okay…maybe it was a little excessive, but it was for a good cause…"

"Face it Derek, you're obsessed with hockey."

Derek shook his head. "Okay, so maybe I am" he said as he jotted it down in the notebook.

"Don't forget girls" Casey quickly added.

"Now, where would you get that idea from?"

"Let's see…the swimsuit posters on your wall, the magazines you read, the list of girls that you want to date before high school, your hockey groupies – need I continue?"

"That's all just coincidence, Space Case."

"Face it Derek, you're obsessed with girls more than you are hockey."

Derek and Casey's conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door. Both teens turned around to see Lizzie standing there. "Casey, can you help me with my homework?"

"Sure Liz" Casey said. Derek watched as the McDonald sisters left his room. 'You have no idea how wrong you are, Space Case. I'm not obsessed with girls at all – just you' Derek thought as he jotted down more information in the notebook.

(Friday afternoon – 12:15 P.M.)

"Okay class, please leave the rough drafts for your papers on top of your desks before you leave" Derek's English teacher said as the bell rang for lunch. Students got up and made their way out of the class and to the cafeteria. Surprisingly, only one was hanging around after everyone else left – Derek. "Mr. Venturi, is there a problem?"

"No ma'am. I just wanted to make sure you got my paper" he said, handing her his work.

"Are you okay?"

"Why?"

"This is out of the ordinary for you."

"Trust me, things have been everything but ordinary for me lately." With that, Derek adjusted his bookbag and headed on for lunch.

(Monday evening – 7:52 P.M.)

Derek walked through the front door, throwing his practice gear and bookbag down.

"Derek, where have you been?" George asked, shooting up from the couch.

"Relax Dad. Coach had a long practice today" Derek replied back, sliding his jacket off and tossing it on the coat rack.

"Well, there's some leftovers in the kitchen. After you finish eating, I want you to go upstairs and work on correcting that paper."

"Wait, how did you…?"

"Casey mentioned during dinner that you got your papers back to make corrections."

"Figures" Derek said as he walked into the kitchen. As George listened to the sound of dishes and silverware clatter, he thought about his son's current predicament. He noticed over the last week that Derek was really putting forth the effort on this assignment. Still, he wanted to see Derek do really good, not just do good enough to get by (which seemed to be a fine art for Derek). Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

"Hey son, I was just thinking…" George said as he briskly walked into the kitchen.

"Take cover, everybody" Derek said as he shoveled a forkful of meatloaf into his mouth. George glared at him, deciding not to respond to that comment at the moment.

"Anyway, I was thinking that instead of just doing good on your paper, that maybe you should ensure that your paper is stellar."

"Stellar?" Derek asked, giving George a questioning look.

"Yes. That way, by making a very good grade, you can give yourself a little breathing room with your grades."

"That sounds good and everything, but explain to me how I'm going to accomplish that."

"Well, I figured that maybe you could convince Casey to give you some pointers…"

"No way, Dad" Derek protested. "I am not going to go beg her for help."

"Maybe this will change your mind" George said, pulling out a 20 dollar bill. Derek looked and gave a smirk.

"Nice try, but you think I can be bought that easily."

"Okay, 20 dollars and I won't take the keys to the Prince for the remainder of the month" George replied, copycatting Derek's smirk.

"You wouldn't" Derek said as his eyes widened in horror.

"You're not in much of a position to negotiate." George's smirk had grown into a fill grin.

After several seconds of silence, Derek hung his head in defeat. "Fine."

"Good choice" George said as he placed the 20 on the counter in front of Derek.

(Monday Evening – 8:21 P.M.)

Derek stood in the hallway outside Casey's room, trying to bring himself into asking Casey for help.

'Man, I can't believe Dad sunk that low. Well, at least I know where I get it from. Okay, just suck it up and ask Casey to help you. I mean, at worst, she'll say no, then I can get on with my own existence.'

Derek finally summoned up the courage to open the door. Right about the same that Casey was changing into her pajamas. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head at the sight of her, already in her panties, sliding her shirt over her head and revealing the lace bra she had worn that day.

"DER-EK! GET OUT!" Casey screamed, trying to cover herself with her hands and arms. Derek immediately slammed the door shut and walked into his room.

"Okay, that's not going to help when I go to sleep tonight" Derek said to himself. A couple of minutes later, Casey (now clad in a t-shirt and pajama pants) stormed into his room.

"What is wrong with you?! Don't you know how to knock?!" she yelled.

"I was going to ask a favor, but I see that you're pissed, so why don't you go one back and …" he said as he tried to direct her to the door.

"Wait, what? What kind of favor do you want?" Casey asked.

Derek muttered an inaudible curse word under his breath. He really hoped she was mad enough to agree to leave his room. "Well, I was going to ask for some pointers about improving that paper for English, but I can see that you wouldn't want to go through with it."

Casey crossed her arms. "Wrong again, Venturi." Derek's eyes widen in horror.

'She's going to agree to this?! God, please, you can stop with the torment now!'

"Beside, I'm sure it will give me the chance to hold something over your head" she said, holding her hand out for Derek's paper.

"It's over there, on my computer keyboard" Derek muttered.

Casey walked over and grabbed the paper. Derek watched on as she looked through the paper with a grin. After a few seconds, the grin disappeared from her face. Several seconds later, Casey had her nose buried into the paper. As she neared the end, Derek noticed her cheeks turn a light shade of pink.

'She must've read that one section. Probably just blushing from the face that I would actually admit to something. I hope – Lord, please don't let her figure out it's her that I'm talking about' he thought to himself.

"Well, um…" Casey struggled to find the right words to say. "That was interesting. I can't believe you used examples that involved our family."

"Well, how horrible is it." Derek's eyes were focused on the ground.

"Actually, it's not too bad. If you fix up the grammatical errors marked on here and make a few tweaks here and there, this could easily be a B paper. Maybe an A." Casey said, a faint smile on her face.

Derek looked up at her. He gave a smile back. "Just a few tweaks. You sure?"

"Mmm-hmm." Suddenly, she rolled the paper up and smacked him on the head.

"Hey!"

"You can start by removing the sentence that says my obsession is being a joy-killing, grade-grubbing klutz!"

(Monday evening – 10:05 P.M.)

Surprisingly, Derek and Casey managed to work together in completing his paper. Although, knowing those two, there had to be moments like the ones that follow.

--like--

"Der-ek! Please remove that sentence about me!"

"But I thought killing joy, grade grubbing, and klutziness were your obsessions."

"Why I ought to…"

"Okay, Princess. How about being a neat freak?"

"That's manageable. Oh, how about dancing as my obsession?"

"No."

"Come on, dancing is for me like hockey is for you."

"You just did not compare hockey and dancing. God, could you be any more of a loser."

"Der-ek!"

--or--

"That's not how you spell psychoanalysis."

"Shut up keener."

"If you like, I can just leave."

"No, wait. I'll stop."

"Why? You don't want to lose my company."

"Sure, whatever you've got to tell yourself."

"Derek enjoys my company" Casey said in a sing-song tone. She stopped when she noticed something in the paper. "I can't believe you said that my sister and your brother need psychoanalysis!"

"Why? I think they have issues, especially when they get into their spying modes."

"That may be true, but that's still a mean thing to say. Get rid of it."

--and--

"So, who is this person you're talking about?"

"What person?"

"The person referenced here. And I quote: 'Everyone would probably believe that my biggest obsession, except for hockey, is girls. A while back, I would've agreed with that, but today, everyone would be wrong. There's really only one girl that I'm obsessed about. She's so far out of my league when it comes to looks, brains, and beliefs. My inner idiot – that little voice that tells me I'm not good enough, or smart enough, etc. – goes beserk when I think about her. I know nothing could ever happen between us, but still doesn't stop my thoughts and dreams being invaded by her'."

"I don't think that's any of your business."

"C'mon Derek, tell me."

"Fine. I'll tell you if you'll tell me why you haven't been up Max's butt lately."

Both of them got quite after that.

--of course, Derek's imagination went on an alternate tangent after that--

"Max was alright, but the connection just wasn't there between us" Casey finally said, breaking the silence.

"Okay. Then, what are you…"

"Not so fast. Now, you get to tell me who the girl in the paper is, and no lying either."

It was then that Derek noticed the close proximity between them. Casey was knelt down on the floor beside him as she helped him make corrections. 'No lies, huh? Well, most everything that comes out of my mouth is a lie, so I guess I better go with plan B.' Without warning, Derek grabbed Casey and pulled him up into her lap.

"Der-ek! What the hell are you…?" Casey whined before Derek cut her off with a kiss. Casey's jaw dropped as she just sat there, staring at him.

"The girl in the paper – it's you."

"You…you think that about me?"

Derek nodded.

"You really think that nothing can happen between us?"

"Well, I mean there are a million reasons why we shouldn't be together…"

"But there's only one reason we should." With that, Casey leaned back in for another kiss.

"Der-ek! Are you even listening to me?!" Casey complained, snapping Derek out of his stupor.

"Sorry. Brain fart."

She shook her head. "You're hopeless."

--finally--

"Well, I believe that should do it" Casey said as Derek made one last correction to his paper.

He let out a long sigh of relief. Casey picked out every single little thing that could be reworded, corrected, removed, or added. She was worse than their teacher! "Finally."

Casey let out a yawn. "Well, it's getting late. I think I'm going to call it a night." As she started for the door, Derek's voice interrupted her.

"Case…"

"Yeah" she said, turning back around to face him.

"Um…thanks for the help."

"You're welcome" she said, giving him a huge smile.

Derek watched as she turned around and walked out the door, mesmerized by one area in particular. 'Damn, I could watch that ass for days' he thought. 'Well, I guess I better get a shower and call it a night.'

(Thursday afternoon – 12:20 P.M.)

Casey ran up to her best friend's locker. "Hey Em!"

"Casey, are you okay?"

"Yeah. By the way, remember last week when we were talking about something being wrong with Derek?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, I figured out what it is."

Emily's eyes widen at Casey's statement. "You do?"

"I read his paper that he had to do for English, and he mentioned being obsessed about some girl."

"Did he say who it was?"

Casey shook her head. "No. Guess he didn't want people finding out the name. All he said was that she's out of his league and he feels that there isn't a chance of anything happening between them. That's got to be what's wrong with him."

"Wow. Derek really thinks a girl is out of his league?" Emily said. In the back of her mind, she was thinking 'Damn, that boy has it bad for Casey.' Suddenly, another thought popped into her head. "Wait, how did you find out what was in his paper."

"He came to me for help to make sure everything was correct. George probably put him up to it."

"Really. Derek coming to you for help on an assignment…"

"You know, it's weird. The way he let it out in that paper, I could help but get the feeling that…" Casey's sentence was cut off by the sound of yelling down the hall.

"YEAH, BABY, YEAH!!!" Derek yelled as ran out of his English class. Everyone in the hall watched as Derek continued to yell, jump, fist pump, then ramble incoherently about finding the hockey coach. Most people were stunned by the sight before them. Casey and Emily laughed at this display. As Emily took a moment to catch her breath, she noticed out the corner of her eye the look on Casey's face. She was still laughing at Derek acting like a total goof, but there seemed to be a sparkle in her eye.

'Hmm…I wonder…' Emily thought as she continued to watch what was occurring.

(Thursday evening – 6:04 P.M.)

Derek walked in through the front door, dropping his gear and bookbag next to the coat rack. "Hello, anybody home?" he called out. No answer.

'Shit. Nobody's even here for me to tell them that I'm playing tomorrow night.' Derek thought as he headed into the kitchen. As he walked into the kitchen, he noticed Casey was in there emptying the dishwasher. "Hey, where is everyone."

"They went to pick up something for dinner" Casey replied as she stacked up plates to be put away in the cabinet.

"Well, guess they should've thought about that before we went out" he said.

Casey immediately turned around. "What do you mean we?"

"We are going to go celebrate my glorious 'A' paper and my return to the line up just in time for the biggest game of my life!" Derek exclaimed.

"An 'A'?! Wow, congratulations Derek!" she squealed in excitement. "Wait, why are you taking me along?"

"Because I most likely wouldn't have gotten that A if it wasn't for your helpful hints." Casey just stood there, a light blush developing on her cheeks in response to Derek's statement. "Now, let's go before I come to my senses" he said as he walked out of the kitchen, making it seem like he was in a hurry to leave. In reality, he couldn't stay in the room with her any longer with her blushing like that. It was setting off too many desires.

"Hey, wait up!" Casey exclaimed as she followed suit.

A/N: Just to clarify the format for this chapter - I pretty much took the two week time frame between Ch. 8 and Derek's upcoming game and crammed it into one chapter. That's probably why I felt like I was struggling real bad with this chapter (along with the recent distractions mentioned in the 1st author's note above).

Also, the moment of Dasey is drawing closer and closer. How will it happen? How will everyone react? Stay tuned to find out.

- the OD