Okay, this actually began as an idea for a drabble suggested to me by TemporaryInsanity76, but it quickly took on a life of its own. After about ten minutes of writing, I knew that there was no way that this could just be a drabble.

Enjoy!

.I own nothing.

x—x

"Okay, everyone. By the end of the week, you should all be CPR certified." Casey watched in horror as her teacher, Mr. Wallace, spoke to the class.

"First thing's first, I need you all to pair off. Boy, girl, if you don't mind. Remember to keep this professional. You're getting a grade on this, people."

Immediately all the students began buzzing, getting up and finding a partner. Casey stood to the side, watching with wide eyes. Who was she supposed to partner with? Max wasn't in this class. And was she really going to have to put her lips on some person? Gross.

She surveyed the room trying to find a semi-decent person she could pair off with. As her eyes roamed the room, she saw a handful of girls standing around Derek batting their eyelashes and pushing their cleavage toward him. He simply smirked. How typical.

"Ms. McDonald." Mr. Wallace said as he walked to stand beside her. "No worrying about finding a partner." He said.

"Excuse me?" Casey asked.

"Last parent's day I talked to your mother and stepfather and they requested ahead of time that all future pair projects would involve you and Derek working together." Mr. Wallace explained.

Casey's jaw dropped. "Y-you don't really think that they meant this included?" Casey asked.

"Actually, I asked. They said they don't care. Anything that gets the two of you working together." Mr. Wallace said.

"Oh, this is so wrong." Casey murmured to herself.

"Mr. Venturi, come here." Mr. Wallace called out.

Derek sauntered up. "Can I help you, Mr. W?"

"Actually, yes. I'd like you to meet your CPR partner." Mr. Wallace said, motioning at Casey.

Derek looked at Mr. Wallace, and then looked at Casey, then back to Mr. Wallace, and then he began to laugh. "No, really, Mr. Wallace. What is it?"

"This is it." Mr. Wallace said, explaining his father and stepmother's request.

Derek stared at his teacher, slack jawed. "But, but, it's Casey." Derek said, motioning to Casey. "And it's me." He pointed to himself. "And, and it's Tiffany, and Sarah, and Julie, and Rachel..." Derek trailed off, pointing weakly at the group of girls that had been surrounding him moments ago.

"And it's your grade, Mr. Venturi." Mr. Wallace said. "And your parents."

Derek gave a great sigh. "Isn't this like, illegal, or something?" Derek asked.

"Go sit with Casey, Derek. I'm about to explain procedure." Mr. Wallace said.

Derek gave another heavy sigh, but he and Casey did as they were told, and sat down at one side of the room.

"This is your-"

"This is not my fault, Derek, so don't even try it." Casey said, cutting Derek off.

"Well, it's not my fault, so don't try and say that it is." Derek snapped.

"I wasn't going to, because I know it's not. It's my mom and George's." Casey retorted.

"Damn straight." Derek murmured. "But it was probably Nora's idea to begin with."

"Derek, don't even start. The situation is bad enough as it is." Casey fumed, shooting a seething glare at him.

Derek sucked in his breath, ready to say something, but Mr. Wallace began to speak.

"Alright everyone. I know a few of you might be wondering why you had to partner off, but there was a certain, erm, incident last year, involving the CPR dummies and the Seniors. We didn't have the funding to buy new ones, thus, you have partners." Mr. Wallace explained. "I just need you to listen and pay attention, and the follow the directions."

Derek scoffed beside Casey, and Casey elbowed him in the side. He turned to glare at her, but they both remained silent.

"Obviously, you are going to learn to preform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The first steps are to lightly shake the person and ask if they are alright. Then ask someone to call 911, and bring an AED, or an automated external defibrillator. Then before giving breaths and starting compressions, you tip their heads back and listen to see if they are breathing." Mr. Wallace said, writing the instructions on the board. "But today, we're going to practice the actual CPR. Could I have a team come here for a small demonstration?"

Mr. Wallace was answered with silence. "This isn't effecting your grade, it's just so everyone knows what to do." When nobody said anything Mr. Wallace sighed. "Or I could just pick one of you, and I could demonstrate."

Suddenly, the room was filled with raised hands. Mr. Wallace chuckled to himself. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Ms. Sanchez, why don't you and your partner come up?"

A girl named Lily and her partner Kevin got up and went to the front of the room. Once, there, Mr. Wallace had Lily lie on the floor, while Kevin leaned down next to her. Then Mr. Wallace explained to Kevin how he was to hold Lily's nose and give her two breaths, checking to see if she was breathing briefly in between both breaths. And then he showed Kevin how to begin compressions.

"Alright," Mr. Wallace said, stopping Kevin. "And you do thirty compressions. Check to see if they are breathing, two breaths, and then thirty more compressions. These are the directions you follow. Right now, I just want you and your partner to find a spot and take turns doing five sets of two breaths, thirty compressions on each other." Mr. Wallace explained.

The students all remained motionless, and Mr. Wallace sighed.

"I'm not giving these directions to hear myself talk, people. Get up!" Mr. Wallace said.

Slowly, everyone started to get up and find places around the room to begin the procedures. Grudgingly, Casey and Derek stood. They both looked at the floor.

"I am not lying on that gross floor." Casey shook her head.

Derek rolled his eyes. "Well, don't think I'm going to. I'm not doing anything."

Casey turned to him and smacked his arm.

"Ow!" Derek said, his hand rubbing where Casey had smacked him.

"You are not going to ruin my perfect grade in this class. Even though I would rather throw up, eat it, and squeeze it all back out through my eye sockets, I'm going to get through this with gritted teeth and rolled eyes, just like you will." Casey growled.

"I won't suck face with you on the floor for my grade, and I definitely won't do it for yours." Derek said.

He didn't even see her coming before she shoved him with both hands on his chest. He stumbled and caught his balance, and quickly stepped backwards as Casey took a fierce step forward.

"One, we are not sucking face. It's CPR, you dimwit. And two, I don't give a damn what you want. I am acing this class, and you are not going to mess that up, dammit! Do you understand?" Casey asked, her eyes were slits.

Derek looked at her with wide eyes. As much as he didn't want to do a thing she said, he really didn't want to argue with her and have her yell at him so that the whole class saw that he was being pushed around by his Grade-Grubbing, Klutzilla-ing stepsister.

He sighed, and gritted his teeth. "Fine." He murmured. "But I am not lying on the floor."

"We're both going to have to anyway." Casey pointed out.

"Well, then why don't you do it now?" Derek argued.

Casey glared at him, and then stared at the floor for a moment before her shoulders slumped. "Fine. Whatever."

With another pitiful look at the floor, Casey began to lower herself to the ground. In a moment of panic at the thought of the germs and grime that must be coating the ground, she began to jump back up, but Derek nudged her side with his leg, and she lowered herself completely, lying on her back.

"This is so gross." Casey shivered.

"Would you shut up?" Derek requested, kneeling by her side.

Derek remained motionless by her side for a moment before he groaned. "God, I don't want to do this."

"Shut up, you have no choice." Casey said.

"I don't even know what to do." Derek said.

Casey rolled her eyes, and lifted herself to sitting position. "Don't you ever pay attention in class?" Casey asked, but didn't wait for a reply.

"Just give me two breaths and start on the compressions, like this right here." Casey explained, showing Derek how to have his hands and where to do the compressions.

Derek sighed. "Okay."

Casey leaned back down, grimacing at the fact that she was still on the floor, and that Derek was about to come way closer to her than she would have liked.

Derek eyed her warily for a moment before leaning in toward her. His lips lightly touched hers and he quickly breathed into her twice, pulling away and placing his hands where she had directed him, pushing down lightly.

"You need to count out loud." Casey murmured.

Derek rolled his eyes, but began to count out loud until he reached thirty and moved so his face hovered over hers. His lips met hers again, but he felt her stiffen slightly, realizing that he had accidentally pressed his lips against her more than the first time. He pulled away and counted out the compressions. The third time his lips met hers he didn't know why but he noticed that her breath smelled like the mint of her toothpaste and the strawberries he had watched her eat that morning in the kitchen. When he started the third set of compressions, he realized how close his hands were to her breasts.

When his lips pressed against her for the fourth time he lingered there, unmoving for a moment before giving her the two breaths. His compressions were much slower, and he noticed that she was still tense, breathing as if she needed air, not like he had been giving her some.

Without thinking, when his lips pressed against hers again, his mouth twitched and pressed against hers. Instead of two breaths, he gently began to caress her lips with his. As he kissed her, he could almost feel her thinking about what she would do, and he was moderately surprised when she began to kiss him back, although he was surprised that he had initiated the kiss in the first place. Besides the occasionally-often dreams he had about her, he didn't allow himself to think about Casey outside of the annoying stepsister context. So the wave of emotion that hit him when she began to kiss him back confused and pleased him at the same time.

With her encouragement he deepened the kiss, placing one of his hands behind her neck. He felt her arm wrap around his neck, pulling him closer to her. He let his tongue slide over her lips, and half a second later she had welcomed him into her mouth where he could taste the strawberries he had smelled. Just as he could feel her thinking, he could immediately sense that all her thinking had ceased, and that she was allowing herself to melt into the moment. Derek let himself press his chest against hers as his fingers began to get tangled in her hair as they moved across her scalp.

Casey sighed against his lips, feeling strangely comforted by Derek's touch. As soon as she had begun kissing him back she knew that she shouldn't have, but without her heads consent, Casey internally muted all her thinking, letting her body ease and her lips dance with his.

Derek and Casey would have happily continued kissing if it hadn't been for the sound of someone clearing their throat in their close proximity. As soon as Derek's mind wasn't completely focused on Casey and her lips he was able to sense that someone was hovering over them. His ears tuned in to the silence that was surrounding them. He lifted his lips from her, but kept his face hovering close to hers so he could look at her. He could tell that she had just become aware that they were in their classroom, which was now silent.

Closing his eyes, Derek breathed in before pulling farther away from Casey and looking up. There whole class had stopped and was staring at them. Some wide-eyed, some smirking, some with mouths agape. All fixedly staring at them. Mr. Wallace was standing close to them looking down at them with a look that said he had no idea what to do about the situation.

"I don't think this is what your parents expected to come out of the situation." Mr. Wallace murmured looking slightly dazed. He raised his eyebrows and he took a breath and let it out slowly. "There was never anything in the teacher's manual about this."

x—x

Right now I am not sure if I should make this into a story, or if I should leave it as a one shot. I'm going to leave the status open and pending until I hear what you guys want me to do with this. If you want me to continue, I will work to get you some new chapters. If not, then I'll just change it's status to 'complete'. So I'm looking for a good amount of feedback from you guys so I can know!

Anyway, I would love to hear what you guys think, so go ahead and tell me.

Review, loves.

-Tarryn