Author's Note: This is my first submission to I've never written a LWD story. Please begentle on me, lol. Review if you can, I'd greatly appreciate knowing anyone is actually reading this!

I don'town Life With Derek or anything pertaining to it.

I never asked for a brother.

When Mom was pregnant, I prayed that it would be a girl. Thankfully, I got Lizzie. When Mom and Dad decided that they were set with just two kids, I was silently relieved.

Just a few years later, and now I have TWO brothers.

I was happy for Mom when she had started dating again. After Dad left, she had been so torn up that I really thought that she would be miserable forever. So when she met George, I was so glad to see that sparkle in her eye again. She totally came to life.

Then, we had to meet his kids.

George and Mom had figured that Derek and I would get along great since we were the same age and in the same grade. They couldn't have been more wrong.

Derek and I are COMPLETE opposites. I'm mature, he's not. I take things seriously, he doesn't. I am quite nice and sociable, he isn't. We're such polar opposites that it's like we are from totally different planets.

From the beginning, Derek discouraged me to the point where I wanted to rip the hair out of my head and scream. He always has something to say, and usually it's not of any intelligence. He's always in my business. He butts in to my life way too much. He constantly finds these little ways to just drive me completely insane.

"He's just teasing you," Mom would tell me, wanting me to lighten up on him. "He IS your brother now."

"I didn't get a brother, I got DEREK," I scoffed, and stomped my way back to my bedroom.

I slammed my bedroom door for emphasis and flopped down onto my bed. Life was so much more uncomplicated without Derek. I closed my eyes, letting myself space out. I could barely remember what it was like before Derek, when it was just Mom, Lizzie, and me.

I never thought I would look at Derek as more than an annoying, selfish, cocky guy whose father my mother just happened to marry.

I guess I was wrong.