48I do not own life with Derek or the characters
First real love
Chapter 1
The icehall
Casey McDonald was just doing a little ice skating when suddenly a lot of guys entered the hall, wearing uniforms. She considered that it was the local high school's hockey team because they started playing hockey right away and of course because of the uniforms, their protection and because the guys all seemed to be her age, around sixteen. So she had to leave the ice, to prevent one of the guys shooting accidentally a puck at her a puck at her.
She just had moved here with her mother Nora and her sister Lizzie. After her parents got a divorce her Mum decided that it would be the best thing to start over, so they moved London and left Toronto and Casey's old school behind. She actually did not want to leave and go to a new school, because she had been really happy and satisfied at her old school. It had been an all girls private school, she always had been the best student of the year and had nevertheless been very popular. She knew that this was very seldom, because ambitious students were anything but popular at public schools. Now she had to go to John Sparrow Johnson High, the local public high school of London, where she did not know anybody. After not having anything to do at home because all of her books were still packed in boxes because there were no shelves yet and her mother was still trying to organize everything at their new house, which was a total chaos, she decided to go ice skating. At the moment her Mum was driving her crazy with all her running around to tell the removal men were to put all the furniture. But now it looked like she had to stop that, too. Not knowing what else she could do, she decided to stay, to sit down on a bench and to watch the boys play.
She only sat there for about five minutes when noticed that one of the guys looked at her more than once. He seemed to be the forward because he made almost all of the goals his team shot and he was wearing a C on his chest and the number nine at the back of his jersey. His family name seemed to be Venturi. When he did not look at her, she looked over to him, he looked really cute. He had brown hair, that he wore a little longer and he was smaller than his teammates, who all seemed to be giants, but he still had an athletic build and he had a normal height. He kept looking at her during the whole practice and when they finally walked off the ice to go the locker room, so that they could have showers and change into casual clothes, Casey stepped on the ice again and started skating.
She was a pretty good skater and was very fit because she had been dancing since she was five. After a little while she noticed that she was not alone anymore and she turned around to find out who was watching her. There was the hockey forward that looked at her during his practice and he came towards her, not skating, but walking on the ice.
"Hey.", he said with a smile on his face and Casey bet all of her money that he could get every girl he wanted with that smile and that he knew that.
"Hey yourself", she answered and stopped skating. Now they were standing in front of each other on the big, empty rink and Casey did not really know what to do. After all she did not know him and boys like him always made her nervous. She was not really experienced with boys and he was a good-looking athletic guy who seemed to be very popular because after practice everybody on the team shook hand and they all joked around with him on their ways out. She did honestly not know what to say because she did not talk to boys very often, but at least she knew that he was not her type.
"My name is Derek Venturi."
"I'm really happy for you."
His reaction was incredibly funny because he suddenly stopped smiling and looked a little surprised by her response. He was asking himself if it could happen that he had lost his touch. He seemed to be the type of guy who got every girl he wanted just snipping his fingers. She did not like guys like that, they were arrogant and too fond of themselves and she was not the kind of girl to fall for a player like that. She wanted a boyfriend who was funny, smart, caring, and sweet and who had a good sense of style, though the outer appearance was not so important to her, her future boyfriend should not look like an idiot. Of course she thought he cute and good-looking, but he was exactly the type of guy Casey wanted to avoid, so she decided to stay as far away from him as she possibly could and to give annoying answers, so that he would realize that he should look for another girl to play his games with. Just because of his way of talking and his cute gestures, how he combs with his hand through his hair, she knew that he was a player who probably already had dated all the girls at school at least once and never had a girlfriend for longer than a week.
Though he was surprised by her answer he was not demotivated. Maybe he had to make more an effort to find out more about this girl and to make her go out with him. That had never been necessary because all the girls at school wanted to go out with him, but something made this girl different and he really liked that. Something made her a lot more interesting than the other girls that he had dated before. Of course all the girls he had dated had been very pretty, but normally they had not been the smartest once and usually he had them in the palm of his hands after using his famous Derek Venturi smile. She challenged him right away and he actually liked the fact that she was not so easy to get.
"Do you have a name?", he asked hoping, that she would give him a normal answer this time, but she seemed have made the decision never to give him an answer that he expected.
"Yes." Fine, she wanted to keep playing, but one time she had to give him a real answer, she was not able to avoid his questions forever.
"So, we finally figured out that you have a name. Why don't you tell me your name then?"
"Because you didn't ask for it."
"Okay", he said with a big smile forming on his lips, which looked like an apology and even Casey had a little on her lips by now.
She thought that it was very funny to be that quick-witted and how she tried to annoy him a little so that he would give up, but in that case she was apparently not successful. He in fact seemed a little annoyed, but he did not show the smallest sign of resignation. He had to be the most patient person in the entire world and he was so incredibly stubborn, she did everything else but expect that. Instead of just giving up and finding somebody else, he put on a even brighter smile, if that was possible, and tried again.
"You're right, my fault. Why should you tell me your name, when I wasn't clever enough to ask for it. Let me start over again." He held out his right hand for her to shake it.
"Hey, my name is Derek Venturi. What's your name?"
To her own surprise she took his hand to shake it and the even bigger surprise was the tingle she could feel where both of their hands touched. She tried really hard not to blush, but she could really feel her cheeks reddening. Derek noticed this with satisfaction, she did show him the cold shoulder, but he had to have an effect on her, or she would not react like that. Maybe she could feel the same tingle in her hand that he could feel in his. Her reaction motivated him to keep flirting with her, because now he knew that there was something not only from his side. She could deny it as much as she wanted to, she had feelings for him, even if she did not know about it.
"My name is Casey McDonald.", she answered letting go of his hand, but she could still feel the tingle. She tried to ignore the feeling in her hand and this strange and unknown sentiment in her stomach. What was that feeling? Never, in her whole life, she had felt that way and she was confused about it.
"Hi Casey, that is a really pretty name that you have there." She rolled her eyes, but he just ignored it, though the phrase normally had shown a better reaction. Another thing that was different about Casey McDonald.
"Are you new in town? I don't think I have seen you before and I'm sure I would remember a girl like you." Wow, when he kept talking like this she would never be able to stop rolling her eyes, for the rest of her life. Probably guys all had the same book with phrases to hit on girls, but the phrases Derek used were really the most ordinary once. Everybody had used or heard them, how could they still be successful?
"Yeah, we just moved here Toronto." Suddenly she couldn't not think of anything quick-witted anymore, her mind was a total blank. It was like all the deep thoughts she usually had had disappeared and were nowhere to be found. Something like this had never happened before.
"Really? What high school will you go to?", he asked this question expecting a special answer. There were just two high schools in London, so he had a fifty-fifty chance.
"John Sparrow Thompson High." And he got the special answer he had hoped for.
"Well, I go to the same school, so I think we'll see each other pretty often there. Oh no, she thought, going to the same school like him won't make my plan easy. How can I get out of his way every day of the week for about eight hours? That is impossible. Hopefully we don't have classes together or the same lunch time, he seems to be a junior like me.
When she did not say anything she decided just to go for it.
"Hey, would you like to go out with me on Friday night? We could go catch a movie or something." Though a part of her really wanted to accept his suggestion, the part that had these strange feelings, Casey answered with her other part, the rational part.
"No, thanks."Without giving him a reason why she did not want to out with him, she turned around and skated to the exit. That really surprised him because he thought that he had her. Obviously he had been wrong, but that did not discourage him. Once in his life it was not easy for him to get the girl he wanted, but he wanted to take the challenge and to change her mind, so that she would go out with him. That could not be that difficult, could it? He did not doubt that he would get her because what Derek wants, Derek gets. And with a plan already in his head he walked off the icehall.