Monday morning was weird.

On Friday, Principal Lassiter had mentioned over morning announcements that Casey and Derek had won Dance Mania, and stated how proud the school was of them, and Casey had gotten some congratulations from people in her homeroom and praise from teachers and a high five from Paul. And she'd thought that was the end of it.

But this morning, lots of kids were staring at her and whispering. She thought she heard Derek's name every once in a while. And it was giving her a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Finally, sitting in the cafeteria with Emily, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Emily, what's going on?" she whispered urgently. "Am I crazy or is everyone looking at me today?"

Emily picked at her salad, avoiding Casey's gaze. "Um…"

Uh oh.

"Please just tell me," Casey begged. "I don't know what I did!" Actually, she had an idea, but she was really hoping she was wrong…

Emily glanced from side to side, then met Casey's eyes and smiled nervously. "It's nothing. It's just that Dance Mania posted a video of you and Derek dancing online, and someone started spreading it around, so a lot of kids have been watching it. That's it, honestly. Don't worry about it."

"Me…and Derek?" Casey's mouth went dry. Oh, this was definitely what she thought it was.

But wait, maybe she was jumping to conclusions. Maybe everybody just thought their dance was dumb. And uncool. Yeah, she was pretty uncool! For once, she was hoping the entire student body just thought she was a lame freak, and not attracted to her stepbrother or anything-

Stop it! she internally scolded herself. She'd promised herself never to entertain that notion again. It had been really fun dancing with Derek, and of course he was very handsome (which of course anyone would notice, right?), but she liked him as her brother. And it felt so wonderful being in his arms because she liked dancing; Derek was no different than any other partner she'd had in the past. Obviously.

"You okay?" Emily suddenly broke into her thoughts.

"Um, yeah. Fine." Her voice sounded strangely far away.

"Well, like I said, don't worry about it. You don't need to confront anyone, or anything. People are just interested in you right now because you were on TV. It's really nothing else."

"Em, why do you sound like you're trying to convince me of something?" Casey snapped.

"I'm not!" she insisted. "I'm being serious! Look, I'm done eating. Let's just go to study hall early, okay?"

"Okay," Casey eyed her friend suspiciously, then accompanied her to throw out their trash and leave. She thought she heard a guy holler "Nice ass!" and whistle as she and Emily walked towards the hallway, but she refused to believe it was directed at her, even as her face flushed and her skin started to crawl with dread.

Casey didn't hear anything else inappropriate over the next few periods, and although the anxious feeling in her gut didn't completely vanish, she did start to relax. That was, until she made the mistake of using the girl's bathroom between French and math class.

While she was in the stall, she heard a couple of other girls leave theirs and cluster at the sink to gossip. She tuned in idly, half concentrating on the math quiz she had coming up next period, only to suddenly hear something that turned the blood in her veins to ice.

"Hey, did you see that video of Derek Venturi and his stepsister on Dance Mania?"

"No, I'm grounded from the computer. Again. Why, should I?"

The other girl giggled. "Well, I just watched it in the library, and let me tell you, it was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen."

Casey's breath was coming out in ragged gasps.

"So they're supposed to be stepsiblings, right? But the dance they did was so dirty! It made me so uncomfortable, God, you have to watch it."

"Ew, that's sick!"

"I know!"

"They live in the same house, do you think they're hooking up?"

Both girls giggled at that. Casey covered her ears, unwilling to hear anymore, convinced this must not be real. She was tempted to leave the stall and give those busybodies the shock of their lives, but it was like she'd been glued to the toilet seat.

She waited until they'd left the bathroom and their footsteps had completely died down before unlocking the door with shaking fingers. The girl she saw reflected in the bathroom mirror did not look well.

Then the tears started to fall.

Several minutes later, a tear-streaked Casey burst into the guidance counselor's office.

Paul jumped and spilled a little of his coffee. "Casey! What's wrong?"

"Everything, Paul!" Casey sobbed as she plopped down in her usual seat. "I'm in the worst trouble I've ever been in."

Paul was stunned into silence for a moment. "Okay, Casey, um," he gestured wildly. "Can you start at the beginning? What happened?"

"Well," (sniffle) "you know I won Dance Mania with D-Derek," (gasp)-

"Uh huh?"

"And I was so happy, and it was such a positive thing, and now everybody in the school," (hiccup) "thinks…thinks…" Casey burst into tears again, unable to continue.

Paul waited patiently for her to compose herself. "What are kids saying, Casey?" he asked gently.

"Well," Casey struggled to calm her voice. "Everyone keeps staring at me and talking about me behind my back, and I just heard some girls in the bathroom say that Derek and I are sick because our dance was too, um, romantic, and they think we're, um, together!" She took the opportunity to grab a tissue and wipe her nose, afraid to look at his face.

There was a brief pause. "Well, I didn't see you on Dance Mania," Paul finally said. "But Casey, just so we're on the same page…do you think you like Derek that way?"

Casey's head shot up. "Paul, he's my stepbrother!" she half-screamed, half-whimpered, followed by another onslaught of tears.

Paul sighed, and tapped his fingers on his desk, as if unsure how to continue. Then he looked Casey directly in the eyes.

"I'm sorry you're going through this, Casey. Let me just say a couple things." He cleared his throat.

"First of all, those girls were wrong. You and Derek are not sick. And if you did like him that way, it would be okay. You two aren't related." He held up a palm to silence her as she made to interrupt. "A lot of adopted families do see each other as related, and that's a good thing. But it's not the same for everyone."

"The second thing is this. You are a very smart girl, and have a bright future ahead of you. But you've always struggled way too much with what other kids think of you. This is your last year of high school. Next year you'll be in college, if you so choose. And I hope you'll find this out once you're there. Nothing this ragtag bunch of kids in high school says really matters that much. You're in charge of your own destiny. Do what feels right for you."

Casey was absolutely bewildered. This was not the direction she'd expected their conversation to go in.

"Paul," she said slowly, "That's very good advice, but I'm not going to date Derek, if that's what you're saying. You should know better than anyone how much he gets on my nerves. If I like him, it's only as a brother." There, that sounded pretty convincing.

Paul looked at her a little sadly, which made her tremble in indignation. "Well, all the same, I want you to just ignore those kids. You've done nothing wrong, okay? And," he continued, smiling, "I think it's pretty awesome you guys won that dance contest. Next time you hear kids gossiping, just remember who was on TV holding a trophy the other night."

Casey let out a breathless laugh, and wiped away a few stray tears still on her cheeks. As usual, Paul had known just what to say. "Alright. Thanks. Can you write me a note for math class? I'm probably missing a quiz right now."

Casey avoided Derek for the rest of the day. She got a ride home with Emily, ate dinner in her room, and didn't come down the rest of the night, claiming she had to study. She even timed her bathroom breaks to when she was sure Derek was downstairs.

But there wasn't much she could do about him suddenly barging into her room at nine PM.

"Alright, Space Case, what's up?" he demanded, helping himself to a seat on her bed.

"Der-ek!" she yelled. "You can't just waltz in here whenever you please! What if I'd been getting dressed or something?" She felt warmth creep into her cheeks as she contemplated what she'd just said. Not the time, Casey…

"Trust me. I have no desire to be anywhere near that," Derek let his eyes flit over body casually, which, oddly enough, made her stomach turn in circles. "I could hear you on your laptop. Plus, you waltz into my room all the time."

"Only when the door is open. Which my door was not."

"Whatever." He leaned towards her and appraised her carefully with his dark eyes. "Why are you hiding in your room?"

"Who says I'm hiding?" she sniffed.

"You're hiding. Did something happen at school today?" His tone seemed laced with a double meaning.

"Why do you care?" Casey narrowed her eyes. "Did something happen to you at school?" Her heart started beating rapidly in her chest as she realized she wasn't sure what the answer would be.

Derek held her gaze for such an uncomfortably long time that Casey squirmed in her seat. "If you count Cory Plunkett walking up to my locker and asking me if I fucked my stepsister, then yeah."

"Oh, God," Casey moaned, burying her face in her hands. "Are you kidding me?"

"Nope," Derek popped his P. "Guess we shouldn't have done a couples dance, huh?" He flashed her a grin.

Casey stood up and swatted him with a pillow from her bed. "Derek! Why aren't you taking this seriously? Half the school thinks we're having sex!"

Derek blocked the pillow with his arm, then shrugged. "Hey, it'll blow over, princess. Besides," he grinned again, his eyes twinkling. "It's kind of funny."

Casey stared at Derek with her mouth half open. "You think this is funny?"

"It's a little bit funny, you've got to admit."

Annoyed, Casey started to wonder if she'd massively overreacted. Maybe Derek was right. It was completely ridiculous that they'd ever sleep together. He was her stepbrother, after all. Yeah...it was funny! It was the most outlandish rumor anyone had ever told about her; there was no way any sensible person would believe it.

She sighed in relief, then laughed. "I guess you're right."

"So don't work yourself up over nothing, okay? Otherwise, kids at school might start to think it's true." He raised his eyebrows at her suggestively, and Casey scoffed in disgust.

"Get out," she grumbled, and threw the pillow at him. But she couldn't help smiling as he threw the pillow back at her, winked, and sauntered back to his room.

Casey's mood improved considerably throughout the rest of the night, but she started to wonder why the rumor had bothered her so much. The Casey from a couple years ago, she realized, would have died of laughter before becoming embarrassed at such a ludicrous idea as sleeping with Derek. What had changed? Why had she become so afraid?

Was it all because of her reputation? No, it was senior year, she didn't have time to care about that. Was it because she was single and didn't want to scare off potential boyfriends? No, she'd made that pact with Emily to stay single for a while. Hmm, what had Paul said? He'd only told her to live life the way she wanted. Was it because she actually…

Casey pushed the thought away in horror. No, she did not want to have sex with Derek. No, no, no. Her classmates were nowhere near the truth; they hadn't discovered anything about her. She had simply enjoyed dancing with him for one night. That was it! That was all. There was nothing there.

And if it turned out there was, well. She'd just keep that to herself.