Time after Time by Cyndi Lauper

Lying in my bead I hear the clock tick

And think of you

Caught up in circles

Confusion is nothing new

Flashbacks-warm nights-

Almost left behind

Suitcases of memories

Time after-

Sometimes you picture me

I'm walking to far ahead

You're calling to me

I can't hear what you said-

Then you say- go slow-

I fall behind-

The second hand unwinds-

Chorus:

If you're lost you can look

And you will find me

Time after time

If you fall I will catch you

I'll be waiting

Time after time

Time after time

By: GuitarGurl

Casey untangled the lights and occasionally looked up at Derek to see if he was putting them up right. "Derek, those lights are too bunched up."

Derek rolled his eyes, "They are not Ms. OCD."

Casey rolled her eyes too and continued untangling the lights. She didn't know why her mom and George wanted Casey and Derek to put up the lights when they knew they couldn't get along. Derek wanted to hurry up and get off the roof so he could watch his show, and Casey just wanted to get done so she could meet Max.

Casey looked up at Derek again "Derek their crooked!"

Derek mimicked her "Derek!"

Casey couldn't take it anymore, "That's it, I'm doing it!" Casey climbed up the ladder to the roof where Derek was. "Give me the lights." she grabbed one end of them and tried to yank them away from Derek.

"No, go back and untangle!" said Derek pulling the other end.

"Derek!"

Derek mimicked her again "DEREK!"

They continued pulling on the strand of lights until Casey leaned backward and fell off the roof while Derek tried to catch her and pull her back but he just fell too. They landed on the grass which was good since that meant they weren't bleeding profusely but they were now unconscious.

They lay on the ground for about a minute then Derek slowly opened his eyes and looked over at Casey who had fallen right beside him. "Casey? Are you ok?"

Casey slowly her eyes and looked at Derek, "What happened?" she murmured.

Derek started getting up "We fell, I think."

Casey got up to then remember what had happened and snapped at Derek "Well, if you had given me the stupid Christmas lights then we wouldn't have fallen!"

Derek stood up completely "If you had stopped trying to control everything then maybe I wouldn't have had to pull the lights away causing us to fall!"

"You're such a child!" yelled Casey

"You're such a priss!" yelled Derek

Casey looked at him angrily "Fine, then put up the lights yourself, I'm going upstairs to get ready to go out with Max."

"Fine!" Derek yelled

"Fine!"

Casey walked in the house then stopped in her tracks. "Derek!" she said

"What now?" Derek walked in behind her and also stopped in his steps. "Whoa."

Derek and Casey looked around and saw a perfectly tidy house with antique furniture and beautiful paintings. "This isn't our house." said Casey. "MOM!" she yelled out.

Suddenly Nora walked out of the kitchen with an earpiece in her ear and typing away on her black berry. "Yes, I know Olivia it is going to be torture to see Sebastian but you simply must come to the party darling." Nora looked up at Derek and Casey "Olivia I have to go it's the caterers." she hung up the phone and put down her black berry and stuck out her hand "Hi I'm Nora McDonald you must be the caterers."

Casey and Derek looked at her then at each other then back again. Casey and Derek laughed a little "Funny Nora, real funny." said Derek.

Nora put her hand down and looked at them puzzled "What's so funny? I'm sorry, are you 2 from the catering business?"

"Mom, stop it, it's Casey and Derek…your daughter and step son?"

Nora was about to answer but her cell phone rang. "One moment please." she answered her phone. "Charlotte? Hi, listen I have to strange people here who are claiming to be my children." she walked in the kitchen leaving Casey and Derek standing in the living room puzzled.

"What's with Nora?" asked Derek

"I don't know, I'm going upstairs so I can ready for my date with Max." Casey walked up the stairs but stopped when she saw the family portrait by the stairs. "Derek…"

"What?" Derek ran up the stairs and looked at the portrait in shock. "What the…?"

They looked at the portrait which only contained Nora, Mr. McDonald, and Lizzie. There was no Edwin, Casey, Derek, or Marti.

"Derek, something is really wrong here." Casey began to panic then she heard Nora say "Ok, I'll be sure to do that. Talk to you later." Casey turned to Derek "We have to get out of here!" Casey grabbed Derek's arm and pulled him out the door.

Derek pulled his arm from Casey's grasp "Ok, let me go." He took one last look at the house. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. Everything's different, it's all backwards." Casey rubbed her head and felt a bump which probably got there from the fall. "When did this start happening?"

Derek thought which was a bit of a stretch for him. "Wait, this all happened after we fell from the roof." Derek thought some more. "What if we're delirious or something? Maybe this is all a dream."

"A dream? A dream to what, a parallel universe where my mom talks on the phone way to much and I was never born, and she never married George?"

Derek nodded "I think so."

Casey looked at Derek like he was insane "Ok, you've really lost it." Casey kept walking

Derek stopped her "No, listen. Maybe we did enter some kind of parallel universe or something. It's just like this movie I saw."

"What movie was that? When a perfectly normal girl gets trapped in another world with a complete idiot?"

Derek rolled his eyes "Casey, I really think-"

"Stop!" she interrupted "That's just it, you don't think. You know how crazy you sound?" asked Casey. "I'm going to Smelly Nelly's to meet Max and you can try to find a way out of this 'parallel universe'." Casey walked away still thinking Derek was really crazy.