This fic is winding down; there is one chapter left after this one. I hope this fic satisfied your Dasey craving like it did for me! I miss this fandom but it's nice to know that there are plenty of us still around to enjoy these characters.

Chapter 9, Casey: The World According to Casey

The summer's almost over. We stopped counting how many days we had left after the incident at Smelly Nelly's—it ruined our streak, not that either of us mind the fact that we didn't have to go the whole ninety-one days. And in a way, I'm glad we stopped counting. It will be nice to get back to our apartment and be alone, but I'm also enjoying our family time, and I know Derek is, too. We'll be leaving for the Blue Heron Lodge in a couple of days, and then going back to Queen's.

Our friends are having one last party at Emily's house tonight. She calls a few hours before and asks if we mind that she invited Noel.

"Noel's in town?" I ask, surprised. We both messaged him at the beginning of the summer to see when he'd be home, but he told us he'd decided to stay at school for all of the summer class sessions.

"Just for the next few weeks. I guess he realized he needed a break from all that studying. You'll have to explain to him that you can bring textbooks home and get just as good of an education." She's teasing me for all the studying I did this summer, but it never, not once, interfered with our plans. I do have some self-control.

"Very funny. Did you tell him about Derek and me?"

"You didn't even come up, my dear. I ran into him buying the snacks for tonight and when I told him he should drop by the party, I explained about how we're going to videochat with my boyfriend, Sheldon. He had to leave then, but he'll come over at some point tonight, I'm sure."

I bite my lip. Emily's gotten a lot better about calling me out on my one-track mind. She claims it's okay that I think the world revolves around Derek and me as long as we remember that other people exist, too. "Sorry, Em."

"No worries. Just show up hoping Noel's over you, because now you have yet another person to break the 'bad' news to."

"See you tonight." I hang up with Em and let out a groan. It does seem like we're running into an awful lot of exes. Maybe it's just that between the two of us we have a lot of exes. I try not to think too much about it.

Sam, Ralph, Kendra, Emily, Derek, and I crowd around Emily's laptop screen to talk to Sheldon, which she's placed as far away from the pool as possible. We talk for awhile, but sign off when everyone agrees it's too hot to be anywhere but in the pool. Noel shows up when we're back on the patio taking a snack break, and I steel myself for yet another crazy reaction about us. I don't know how much more of this I can take.

We all say hello and he makes the rounds of handshakes, fist bumps, and hugs. When he gets to me, I blurt out, "Noel, I'm dating Derek." I kick myself for being so tactless, but Noel just shrugs and smiles at me.

"That's cool."

I guess I forgot that Noel is probably the most laid-back person on the planet.

"Cool?" Kendra yelps. "How can that possibly be your only reaction? Did you see this coming?"

Noel shrugs again. "No, but everyone knows how much they care about each other. It either turns into love or it doesn't."

"You don't think it's weird that they're stepsiblings?" Sam asks, and I know he's not doing it to be mean, just to test Noel.

"Nah. Why, should I?"

He passes the test.

"Oh, Noel. Please," Kendra scoffs. "You're a little shocked, admit it."

The rest of us snicker behind our hands. Kendra's just embarrassed that Noel's handling this a lot better than she did.

Noel looks at Derek, then me. "A little." A smile plays at the corner of his lips.

"For agreeing with Kendra, you get tossed in!" Ralph cries, and the guys band together to drag a still-clothed Noel into the pool.

I shield myself from their splashing with my towel, and Kendra and Emily burst into giggles when Noel flings his drenched shirt out of the pool and it lands on my head. "Hey!" I cry, and Kendra and Emily laugh harder when Noel, beet red, climbs out of the pool to retrieve it.

"Oops. Sorry, Casey."

I smile at him, pushing my hair out of my eyes. "It's Ralph's fault for throwing you in the pool."

"True." Noel spies a Super Soaker leaning against one of the deck chairs. "And for that, he must pay!" Noel launches himself back into the pool, holding the water gun.

Emily watches the guys goofing off. "Guess he really is over you, huh, Case?"

I nod. "I'm so relieved."

Kendra looks at us strangely. "Ladies, he hasn't had a crush on Casey since she broke his heart on that stupid 'friends only' double date."

I wrinkle my nose. "I did not! And how do you know? I always thought he still sort of carried a torch—"

Kendra barks out a laugh. "Don't be so dramatic, Casey, jeez. He started dating Swynn that summer and was with her all of grade twelve."

Emily looks at me blankly. "Did you know that? I didn't."

Kendra sniffs. "He was never on your Dr. Em radar."

"Oh, and what—he was on yours?" I ask.

"As a matter of fact, yes. Swynn is one of my best friends. Duh." Kendra flips her hair and shakes her head at us. "I do hang out with other people besides you losers, okay?" she smirks.

As a matter of fact, I did kind of wonder why Kendra and Noel weren't around much in grade twelve. Guess they were with Swynn. Makes sense now. "Sorry Ken, I didn't know."

Emily nods in agreement.

"It's fine. I'm not mad or anything. I think it's kinda funny, actually. I mean, Casey, really? You thought he might still like you?"

I chuckle. "Yeah, Emily tells me that I have a problem with thinking the world revolves around me."

"Oh, honey, it does," Kendra says, picking at fingernail and then looking up to give me an impish grin. Emily cracks up.

I'm really going to miss these girls.