Mirror Mirror

So this is what happens when I get bored in theatre class. -Sigh- I need to stop letting my mind wander during class. Anyway, read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Life With Derek'.

"The theatre demands more than the uncanny ability to capture the essence and personality of another on stage." rambled, a dreamy look in her eyes. "You must be able to work efficiently with those around you. A successful production requires that all of it's actors and actresses work together as a team, a well oiled machine, as-"

"-the most boring class ever." Derek groaned, letting his head fall back in frustrtion.

Sam smirked, keeping his eyes on their drama teacher he whispered to his best friend.

"You weren't complaining when you had all of those girls chasing after you after the musical." he reminded him, pretending that he was paying attention to 's little speech.

Derek smirked, but chose not to reply. He knew Sam's words were true; he had been even more popular amongst the female population of the school during the weeks following the play.

He let his eyes wander across the room to where his stepsister sat, her attention focused entirely on their teacher, making sure she took in every single word. He rolled his eyes at her all too perfect obsession with school, and looked away. Why did she have to be such a super-keener all the time? Didn't she realize that those sorts of things could reflect badly upon him?

Sighing, he turned away, uninterested in the life of his stepsister.

"Venturi!" he heard a shrill voice cry from above him. He looked up to see standing above him, a stern look on her face. He raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"You rang?"

"I said partner up." she said impatiently, ignoring his response. "The theatre requires your undivided attention and respect, . We have no time for slack in this course."

Derek ignored her rant and turned to his right to ask Sam to be his partner, but was surprised and a little bit offended to find that Sam had partnered up with Ralph.

"Sam!" he whined, annoyed.

Sam grimaced, and rolled his eyes at the boy behind him.

"Ralph needed a partner." he said, shrugging. He actually sounded apologetic. "He won't partner up with any of the girls anymore."

Derek raised an eyebrow, giving Ralph a weird look.

"Uh... why?" he asked, sounding worried about his friend's well-being.

Ralph glanced around at the majority of the girls in the room, his eyes darting left and right nervously.

"I dunno." he admitted, frowning. "They're just so... intimidating... don't you think?"

Derek blinked at him, confused.

"Uh, not really..." he said slowly, giving Sam a questioning look, to which Sam shrugged and turned away.

Derek sighed, turning his attention back to the other people in the room. His eyes scanned the circle quickly, trying to scout out a possible partner, but it was useless. His short attention span had finally been linked with consequences. Everyone else had already chosen a partner. Everyone except him and...

"Casey Mcdonald." he heard declare from someplace behind him. "Pair up with Venturi."

His eyes met with hers, and he wasn't surprised to see that she was no happier about this than he was. She grimaced, but stood up and tucked her binder underneath her arm, before crossing the room to sit in front of him, an ungrateful look on her face.

"Geez, Case; don't look so happy to see me." he said, smirking.

She rolled her eyes, sighing impatiently.

"Let's just start, okay?" she suggested, sounding annoyed with her stepbrother already.

He considered making some sort of a snappy remark, but decided against it, remembering that he needed her to be in a good mood that night. Sam and Ralph were coming over to watch a few horror movies, and he needed her to be in a negotiable mood; otherwise, he'd spend the night listening to her stupid chick flicks and soap operas. He threw his binder to the floor gently, turning to face her.

"Fine." he sighed, feeling completely unmotivated. "What do we have to do?"

She glanced down at the sheet in front of her, her eyes skimming over the first few lines casually.

"Okay, it says we need to do a mirror activity." she said slowly, not looking up. "One of us leads, and the other follows. After two minutes, we switch, and then the one doing the following switches to lead. Sound okay?"

Derek inwardly groaned; this had to be one of the stupidest assignments anyway. Unless he planned on persuing a career in miming, he'd never need to know how to copy someone else's actions. Remembering that he needed the TV that night, he nodded.

"You start." he said, sitting up straighter.

She nodded.

"I move, you follow my lead." she said, raising her right hand in front of her face, watching as he mirrored her actions as best as he could, falling behind a little bit.

"So..." she said slowly, raising her left hand up next to her right. "Any big plans for the weekend?"

Derek snorted, mimicking her actions.

"I don't really plan for the weekend, Case." he reminded her, moving his hand in a circular motion like hers. "I mean, Sam and Ralph are coming over tonight to watch a few movies-"

"Pfft." she laughed, causing him to cringe at the words he knew would come next. "And which TV do you plan on watching these movies on?"

He bit his lower lip, grinning suggestively.

"The one at my house, in my living room, on my TV." he said arrogantly, causing her to frown.

"I live there too, you know." she reminded him, pouting as she raised her entire right arm in the air. "I have for the past year and a half, if you haven't noticed."

Derek snorted, secretly wanting to yell at her. Of course he had noticed! It would be hard to ignore the presence of a sixteen year old girl walking around their house all the time, flaunting her practically flawless body in front of him, using the living room to rehearse her dance numbers when she knew full well that he was right in front of her. Like had hadn't taken notice of the female presence who constantly challenged his power and authority, who consistantly threatened his place as boss. Of course he'd noticed. Her win at all costs attitude was a part of what attracted him to her, her amazing body was just an added bonus.

But of course, he'd never admit any of these things. Not to Casey, not to Sam or Ralph, not to Edwin... it had taken him long enough to admit it to himself.

"I know where you live, Casey." he said, rolling his eyes at her stupidity. "I'm just saying, I need the TV. I let you and Emily use it last weekend-"

"You were gone out!" she argued, but he rushed on.

"-when the playoffs were on."

"You watched it at Sam's!" she cried, disbelieving.

"Two minutes are up." called enthusiastically, clapping her hands together. "Switch roles."

They barely took notice of the fact that Derek was now leading their almost subconcious movements, and Casey didn't even notice that she was following them. It was instinct.

"That's beside the point." he argued, leaning forward slightly, for the pure purpose of not having to speak so loudly, but she took it as a movement that she was supposed to mirror, and followed his actions, finding herself a mere five inches from his face. He could see himself reflected in her eyes, and he tried to look away, but found he couldn't. "Besides, you'll just use the living room to invite your precious Noel over. You won't even be watching TV; you'll be too busy making out with him, like usual."

Casey blushed, clearly unaware that her stepbrother was even aware of this occurance. She hadn't even known he'd been home then. Then again, she lived with Edwin and Lizzie; anything could be discovered and passed around the house.

"It was once." she admitted, and he cursed himself when he felt disappointment flicker across his face. He had hoped that Edwin had been mistaken, or else lying. "He kissed me and..."

"And what, Casey?" Derek asked, leaning even closer to her. She leaned forwards as well, and he could feel her breath against his lips now. He wasn't even moving his hands anymore, like he was supposed to be. Neither of them took notice of the fact that they had given up on the assignment. "Your lips just happened to fall on his, again and again? You felt obliged to-"

She cut him off, anger flashing through her eyes.

"I don't kiss people I don't like." she said firmly, shaking her head. When his face fell, she rushed on. "And... at the time, I liked Noel."

He knew that hope was evident in his eyes, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

"So you're saying you don't like him anymore?" Derek asked, allowing himself to feel hopeful.

Casey didn't even have to think about it. She nodded quickly.

"We're just friends." she said quickly, sounding completely confident. "Nothing more. Noel knows that. It was just too weird."

Derek nodded, relief washing over him.

"So who do you like, Casey?" he asked, unable to stop the words stumbling out of his mouth. "Come on, tell me. Who is it this month?"

"Derek, stop-"

"No, really. I want to know." he laughed coldly. "Who is it? Sam, Max, Scott, Trevor. I want to know. Humor me."

"You have no right to make me out to be some sort of..."

"Some sort of what?" he challenged, his heart beating wildly in his chest as he attempted to clear his mind of all anger, and just return to their exercise. He should never have allowed himself to start this conversation.

"Some sort of... slut." she said, the word new to her lips. She wasn't one to usually curse.

Derek let out a low whistle, chuckling coldly.

"Wow." he mused, grinning. "Dating a different guy every single month, using dirty language... keep it up and you'll soon be like a female version of me."

Casey was surpsingly unphased by this. She raised an eyebrow, a smirk forming on her face.

"Oh yeah?" she challenged, leaning in as far as she could possibly go without her lips touching his. "And what are you going to do about it?"

"McDonald, Venturi!" called out, noticing that the stepsiblings had stopped the activity completely. "Back to the exercise. Come on, one of you has to lead eventually. Venturi, make a move."

With that, Derek grabbed the back of her head and pulled her forwards roughly, his lips crashing onto hers passionately.

He heard a sharp intake of breath from their drama teacher, followed by her shrill cry across the room.

"That wasn't what I meant!" she cried, clearly surprised. "Venturi! McDonald! I never meant... ah, forget it."

Derek heard her, but didn't much care what she had to say. He was more focused on Casey's reaction than their zany Drama teacher's. He was taken aback when he felt her lips press even more firmly to his, and her hands came to rest on his chest lightly, pushing him ever so slightly every few seconds, almost as though she was debating on whether or not she should end this right now. His hands rested lightly on her hips, pulling her closer, as though begging her not to end it.

But finally, she came to her decision, and wrenched her lips away from his, staring at him with a mixture of shock and confusion. She gasped for breath, and he did the same, not bothering to look around to see if anyone else had noticed what was happening. He didn't really care at this point.

"D-Derek, we can't..." she whispered, sounding defeated. "We... we're..."

He smirked, knowing that she too, was battling a confliction of right and wrong, one that he had overcome months ago.

"I move, you follow my lead." he whispered to her, repeating her words from before.

And with that, she allowed him to pull him into another kiss, this one securing the knowledge of their feelings for each other. He could feel her smiling against his lips as he tangled a hand through her hair, and he instantly knew who it was that she liked, and why she hadn't told him. It was him. There was no doubt in his mind about that now.

The only thing that broke them apart was the return of 's hysterical sounding voice sounding from right above them.

"The theatre is not the place for romancing... or... whatever this is!" she begged, relief washing over her when the two finally seperated from their kiss. "Venturi, other side of the room now. Don't let this happen again."

"No M'am." he agreed happily as he stood up and moved to the other side of the room, ignoring the smirks and looks of shock that were plastered across his classmate's faces. Throughout the rest of the class, his eyes were only on Casey.

When the bell rang, Derek practically flew out the door to catch up with Casey, who had gotten out before him, but he relaxed when he saw that she had waited for him. She was leaning up against the wall, one foot propped up behind her. She smiled when she saw him coming, but she didn't move. He knew that she was purposely trying to torture him, making him bring up the topic, but that was a part of what made her so damn difficult to get along with. And it was also a part of why he liked her so much.

He grinned suggestively, shifting his bookbag onto one shoulder, and placing a hand on the wall on either side of her, leaning in closely.

"Some class, huh?" he smirked, trying to hold back a laugh. "Gotta love mirror exercises."

She laughed slightly, blushing a bit.

"Yeah." she agreed. "I don't think Mrs.Z is too impressed with us though."

"Who cares about her?" he snorted. "We just won't let her see us next time."

He froze, worry crossing his face instantly. He hadn't really asked her whether or not she wanted to continue things from there. How could he just assume something like that. He cleared his throat, chewing his lower lip nervously.

"I mean... you know... if you want to..."

She smirked at his inability to form a full sentence, and he knew that she knew full well how nervous he was. He waited expectantly for her to respond.

She thought a moment, before biting her lip, and shifting her binder to her other arm slowly.

"Like I told you..." she said, showing no emotion in her voice, which Derek hated, as it made it almost impossible to predict what she was feeling. She gave him a very serious look. "I can only kiss people that I like..."

He froze, and she went on.

"And I mean really, really like." she informed him, watching as his face paled. He could feel his heartbeat slowing down, and he was sure that he was going to pass out from nerves at any given second.

After a moment, she burst into laughter, and pushed herself up off of the wall.

"You're so cute when you're nervous." she informed him, smiling happily.

He let out a breath that he hadn't been concious of holding, and felt his body relax entirely. He grinned out of relief, and gave her a playful shoulder shove.

"You're absolutely sadistic, you know that?" he said, giving a shaky laugh. "I like that." he finished. He allowed himself a second to regain his composure, before giving her a serious look. "So can we..."

She smiled at him, before entwining her fingers with hers and pulling him to her, kissing him quickly.

"Come on, superstar." she said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "Let's go to class."

Derek grinned then, walking down the hall with his hand clasped tightly in Casey's, ignoring the shocked stares of all of their classmates.

So maybe Drama wasn't as boring of a class as he'd thought it was.