Casey stood, head buried inside her locker before homeroom. She was gathering the necessary materials for her first class. Noel was standing to her right, talking to her about an English project they got appointed to do together the day before. At the moment, they were trying to compromise on a time to meet up and start the assignment. On her left was Emily, who was being uncharacteristically quiet. She looked over at her best friend to find her dreamily gazing across the hallway.

Casey rolled her eyes, knowing the particular action only warranted the presence of a certain other person who she had the displeasure of seeing every day. Humoring herself, Casey glanced over her shoulder to indeed see Derek in sight. He was leaning against his locker, chatting up with various people of his 'posse'.

Turning back to her locker, Casey resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. Her step-brother was obnoxious and messy and irresponsible. She didn't understand why people thought he was 'cool' or why Emily – and seemingly the rest of the female population at their high school – drooled over him.

"Ooh, Casey! He looked this way!" Emily excitedly expressed, swatting her hand in Casey's direction to gain her attention, but only managed to knock all of Casey's books out of her hands.

Casey closed her eyes in mild frustration before she bent down to retrieve the aforementioned books. As she stood back up, just like that, she could feel his presence behind her.

"Looks like Klutzilla is in the building."

Casey grinded her teeth. She was internally fighting over whether to slap away the smirk she knew was on his face or ignore him. Both sounded so appealing, though she hated giving him the satisfaction of riling her up. She began to count to 10 in her head to placate herself – a Paul technique.

"Is your own tongue falling over itself to the point you can't talk either?" he questioned knowingly.

"Shut up, Derek!" she screeched, turning around to face him. His lips were lifted solely to the right side in his signature smirk. "I am fully capable of talking! Maybe I just don't want to talk to you!"

She then realized her mistake. She succumbed to his teasing, again, like a damn fish to his hook. For reasons beyond her, Casey couldn't fathom how he could entice a response out her so easily.

Derek mockingly put a hand to his heart, as if her words had wounded him. "Ouch! That hurt, Princess."

Casey stared at him pointedly, huffing. "If you're only here to make fun of me, Derek, then I suggest you find something better to do and leave me alone!"

She went to turn her head defiantly away from Derek when she noticed that Noel was still there, off to the side. He gave her a sheepish smile when she made eye-contact with him. She smiled back, guilty for unintentionally positioning him in the middle of one her and Derek's quarrels. He preceded then to hand her a notebook of hers that must have fallen earlier. She mouthed a 'thank-you' to him as she tucked it in with the rest of her books. He was just a sweet guy, unlike some.

Derek lowly grumbled, making Casey turn her attention back to her step-brother. He was glaring coldly at Noel, but swiftly turned to Casey when he realized he had her attention. His eyes immediately flamed with arrogance again, picking up their fight from where it was hung momentarily. "Don't flatter yourself. I was just buying some time before 'something better' got here," he replied, his voice veering off as he sized up a blonde across the hall. Without another word, he strolled over to the girl, who more than willingly allowed him to guide her down the hallway.

"Pig," Casey muttered under her breath.

The brunette moved her gaze from Derek's retreating figure to Emily. Her best friend's eyes were glazed over as they usually were when she was thinking anything Derek related. Casey cheaply laughed at Emily's actions, but let her linger. It wasn't until a few minutes later when Casey said farewell to Noel that she promptly shook Emily from her world away.

"I thought you said you were over Derek," Casey sneered as the duo began their way to homeroom.

"I am, but you can't blame a girl for still liking to look! And you know, he really isn't that bad of a guy," Emily insisted. Casey snorted in disbelief. "Come on, you know I'm not lying. You've told me yourself about some of the nice things he's done for you, like that one time when he called your dad…or more recently when he helped at Marti's camp last summer or –"

"Okay!" Casey said quickly, before Emily decided to retell every little deed Derek has done that would pin him as a good – more like reasonably okay – guy. "He has his moments, sure, but the fact that I can count all of them is the problem! Everything he does is for a reason; the boy always has a hidden agenda."

Emily shook her head. "I think the main problem here is that you've never really given him a chance. Plus, you're never that nice to him either…"

Casey immediately stopped in her tracks at Emily's words. "Excuse me?! I have given him chances, but he's always his egotistical, selfish self! He's the one that has to ruin everything. And I am nice to him," Casey claimed, "…sometimes…" she added as an afterthought.

Emily amusingly snorted to herself. "I bet you couldn't go a week being nice to Derek."

"I so could!" Casey proclaimed, glaring determinedly at her friend. "And even if I did, he would still be an absolute jerk to me!"

"So, you up for it?," Emily insisted, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows in challenge, knowing fully well that Casey couldn't turn down a challenge when she's presented with one. "Can you go one whole week – 7 full days – not yelling, fighting, belittling, or putting down Derek?"

"Yes," Casey spat confidently, "I'll be completely nice to Derek for a full week – or at least pretend to – and that will show you that it really is his fault that we can't get along!"

Emily clicked her tongue, trying to will herself from grinning. "Alright, so if you can manage to be nice to him for a full week, I'll take you out on a little shopping spree with the money I got from my birthday. You're going to deserve a treat for holding in all that anger."

Casey's eyes lit up at the aspect, but then darkened as she eyed her friend. "But if I fail – even though I obviously won't – what do you get out of it?" Casey curiously asked.

"Some peace and quietness for at least a little while," she answered with a playful grin. Casey laughed, but accepted, making plans for her to start right after she got home from school that day.

…

A/N: I've been re-obsessing over Life with Derek/Dasey (and Michael Seater) since last summer, so it's only natural that I'd write something for them. This chapter and the next are a bit short, but they do get longer. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. Reviews would be appreciated and make me happy! :)