In the face of despair, people have been known to react in different ways. Some rage, some rant, some wallow. Casey McDonald prides herself on continuing as if nothing has happened. Oh sure, she's raged, ranted, and wallowed…but not about anything important. No, when Casey McDonald is truly hurt, she takes the first bus to Denial Town and never looks back. Therefore, when Derek leans over as they're unpacking the Prince at Queens and tells her that he doesn't want anything to do with her, let alone have anyone know they share a family, she slams the door closed, wishes her mom and George a safe trip back to London, and walks briskly to her dorm.

Casey doesn't cry when she finds out that she will be the only one on her floor with no roommate.

Casey doesn't cry when she thinks about home and how much she already misses her siblings.

And Casey definitely does not cry when she – for only a brief moment – thinks about the fact that she thought she and Derek could finally maybe be…friends.

No, Casey does what Casey does best. She color coordinates her schedule, lays out her gym clothes for the run she plans on taking in the morning, shoots her dance coach an email letting her know how excited she is for the first practice on Thursday, and cracks open her textbook for some light reading before drifting off into an uneasy sleep.

After two weeks at Queens Casey makes a friend. Leah is a girl on her floor who Casey met through dance class. Although Casey longs for a roommate, Leah abhors hers and basically spends every waking minute at Casey's, even though Casey has pointed out multiple times that Leah's room is bigger, and it would make much more sense to take it back from the evil roommate. Casey really doesn't mind though; it takes her mind off the loneliness and Leah always convinces her to loosen up, even if only a little bit. Which is why, after Friday's dance practice, Casey reluctantly lets Leah convince her to go out with the rest of the girls for a drink.

"Casey!" Amy squeals into her ear, "you have to look at the guy to the right of us! He's so dreamy!" Amy is another girl on the dance team. She's nice enough; blonde, attractive, a bit of an airhead but flexible as hell. She's also persistent, so in order to get her off her back, Casey turns to look. Derek. Their eyes meet briefly as Casey freezes up, not missing the smirk on Derek's face as she quickly casts her eyes down to her drink. He saunters over to the girls and Amy squeals again; Casey's hand tightens around the rim of her glass. Derek slides between Amy and Casey and smiles wide at Amy while his elbow ever so "accidentally" knocks over Casey's drink, spilling it onto her lap. Tears spring to Casey's eyes but she ignores them, brushing off Leah's concern with a casual "I'll be right back." Casey doesn't come back. Instead, Casey goes to her dorm, changes into her gym clothes, and goes on her regular three-mile run…four times. Leah calls five times. Casey almost ignores the sixth call but decides she might as well answer as she can't run any longer.

"Hello?"

"Casey! You gave me a fucking heart attack!" Leah screams in her ear. Casey figures she deserves it. "You said, and I fucking quote, 'I'll be right back' yet all of us have left the bar and you're obviously still not back." Despite her friend's fierceness, Casey can't help but laugh at the colorful language used.

"I'm sorry Leah, I decided it wasn't really my scene and went on a run. I'll be back soon."

"You better be," Leah confirmed, "I've already spent ten minutes outside of your door looking like some kind of stalker."

As soon as Leah and Casey plop down onto Casey's bed, Leah turns her full attention onto Casey.

"Spill." She demands.

"Spill what, exactly?"

Leah scoffs at her friend's poorly feigned ignorance. "What was up with you and that guy Amy was drooling all over?"

Casey's heart stops, "I don't know what you're talking about." Leah gives her the look, so Casey sighs and continues.

"We went to the same high school and our younger siblings are friends, so our lives were pretty intertwined. He was popular, I wasn't, he made my life miserable. Then towards the end of senior year we started getting along and I thought maybe we could be friends since we were going to the same university. But he made it pretty clear on our first day that he wants nothing to do with me. Happy?"

Leah senses that Casey is done with the topic, so she graciously drops it as they argue over whether to watch Gossip Girl (Leah) or Dirty Dancing (Casey). They watch both.

After the night at the bar, Casey starts seeing Derek around more regularly. He picks Amy up after practice to go to a movie, he flirts with Marie (another girl on the dance team) at a party the girls convince Casey to go to, she sees him at breakfast in the mess hall. And every time she sees him, he's wearing that same insufferable smirk on his face. In order to counteract this, Casey signs up for the speech and debate club, which just so happens to start right after dance practice, and it's only coincidence that she has to leave right after practice ends with no time for idle chit chat in order to make it on time. Leah watches on with concern. It's around this time that Dennis finds out that Casey isn't on the pre-law track and decides that he won't be helping pay for Casey's schooling after all, so Casey gets a job and has no time for any parties. Leah tries to talk Casey into dropping speech and debate, which Casey says isn't negotiable "because people are depending on her." Leah tells Casey that she's full of shit. Between dance and her job and speech and debate, Casey starts sleeping less in order to get her homework done on time and stops going to the mess hall all together. Leah forces Casey to eat lunch with her on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It's unsurprising then, that the next time Casey and Derek accidentally cross paths on campus, Derek loses his smirk at the sight of how sickly Casey looks.