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Step Three: We Talk About Things Other People Don't Understand

Casey's room had blank, pale walls. She looked around, examining them, contemplating the reasons why she never did anything to them. Then the answer came upon her. She always figured Nora and George would end quickly. Why should they stay together and be happy for such a long time? It couldn't happen like that…Casey still had a real dad. She didn't need a George too.

But as Casey looked around at her walls she sighed to herself and began searching the internet for room décor ideas. She was growing up. Casey had gone from being an uptight freshman to an uptight cheerleading sophomore to a slightly more grown up junior and it was time for a change. No more pinks, no more purples, no more color coded drawers. Just…something else.

"Case?"

Casey looked up from her desk to the door. It was Lizzie. She smiled.

"Hey, Liz, what's up?"

"Ed."

Casey frowned. She had known for a while about Lizzie's small crush on Edwin. She hoped it would go away. Liz and Ed had always had a good relationship with one another, unlike the relationship Casey shared with Derek. Casey always figured one would start to like the other. She just hoped they would form too close of a platonic bond before anything of that sort happened. But then again, even she and Derek never formed a platonic bond. She knew that could never happen the night they got stuck in the bathroom together. That night Casey felt something toward Derek that she couldn't quite explain.

When she met Sam she was hit, head-on, with the same feeling.

She never felt that sort of thing for Derek again after that, but just knowing it was there, knowing that at any moment it could come back…

Casey shook her head and motioned for Lizzie to sit on the bed.

"Lizzie, what happened?"

"It sucked…God, why me, Case? Why am I the one that this has to happen to? I mean why couldn't Edwin be the one…I mean, it's incest right? Or well, no it's not because we're not actually related…but…God, I feel like I'm in Cruel Intentions or something. All I need is a bitchy attitude and a crack cross…"

Casey rolled her eyes. She didn't like it when Liz talked like that, but Lizzie was a freshman in high school, what could Casey do?

She got up from her desk seat and sat down next to Liz.

"But, what exactly happened?" she asked in thought.

Lizzie had had few boyfriends and crushes in general. Sure, a lot of guys liked her. She was a cute, spunky tomboy who played Babe Raiders and rocked it out at skateboarding and soccer. She was ideal, but she was also picky. Casey was surprised to find out it was Liz who liked Edwin and not the other way around.

"Well," Liz said quietly, "he…god, sometimes he can be just like Derek, it makes me so angry!"

Casey knew what she was talking about. They all went to the same school. Even though Derek and Ed were polar opposites, they both had the same charm. It ran in the family. While Derek schooled the world in the likes of sports and music Ed schooled the world in the likes of art and romance. As stupid as it happened to sound, Ed had grown up and out of his bodily function phase and into something that was almost better than his older brother. He was tapping out the frosh population one by one.

Every girl, except Lizzie.

"Uhg…I hate school. I HATE school…I wish I could just…just…I don't know, be apart of a different family or something."

Casey smiled to herself at her sister's words. She felt like that every day of her life when she was younger. And there was always one person she knew she could count on. Casey put her arm around Liz reassuringly and grinned.

"Lizzie, now that you are a high school student I think it's time I pass my legacy on to you."

"Case, you have a legacy?"

"Well…not really…but I do have a friend that can help you with whatever you need."

"You're not gonna like…give me pot or something, are you?"

"Liz, I'm Casey not Derek, please, Casey and pot have never been in the same sentence before."

"Yeah, momentary lapse of judgment, sorry."

"Liz, next time you're feeling a little annoyed at life take a cool turn down corridor B and make a left into room 46. His name's Paul. He's a life-saver."

"Hey Derek."

Derek ducked his head out of the fridge and looked at his brother.

"Hey man, what's up?"

Edwin shrugged and jumped up onto the counter. Feet laced up into high tops dangled half a foot above the ground.

"Shit's gone down, bro."

Derek raised his eyebrows, face adorned with a mile Cheshire grin.

"What kind of shit?" he asked, as he took a carton of orange juice from the fridge and drank from it.

Ed reached up and brushed his hair off his face. It had grown out a lot. He had curls, just like his and Derek's mom.

"Well," he said quietly, "a certain couple broke up in the caf today. It was brutal."

Derek frowned.

"Uh, what certain couple?"

The sound of the front door to the Venturi/McDonald house slamming shut echoed throughout the house into the kitchen. Derek and Edwin looked at each other with wide eyes. Edwin jumped off the counter and pulled up the sleeves of his plaid flannel shirt. They both watched, Ed backing away toward the kitchen door, as Casey stormed inside and promptly walked to the refrigerator door. Derek stared.

"Get out of my fucking way," said Casey menacingly, looking her step-brother right into his brown, playful eyes. She didn't even care about the hint of a grin still present on Derek's face ase he tried to keep from laughing. At least, that's what she thought she saw. Sometimes she felt she was mistaking h derek's kindness for cruelness, but other times She was positive that there wasn't a kind bone in his body. .

Derek backed away from the fridge in surprise as he watched Casey grab a Monster and down the entire thing in one gulp. She grabbed another one before stalking out of the kitchen and stomping her way up the stairs.

"Oh shit…" whispered Derek to himself. He remembered when Casey had broke things off with Max. She was like hell. He actually had to sleep in her room one night to keep her from freaking out all over the place. He slept on the floor, but something had come over him that night. She fell asleep in his arms and something about that freaked Derek out. Girls did not freak Derek Venturi out, but the way Casey looked in his arms did. It took him three days to shake the feeling off, but every once in a while he got it, and it still made him feel uneasy.

"Yeah, well, guess you got shit to clean up," said Edwin with a grin before walking out of the kitchen.

Derek sighed to himself.

Yeah, he had shit to clean up, and it was scaring him half to death.

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