Rolly World
By Pinkmoon
Disclaimer: Well, if you haven't gotten the point by now that I don't own LWD then you never will.
AN: First, thank you so much for the wonderful reviews; you have no idea what it does for my self-esteem.
Second, I am so sorry this took so long to post but I have this major research paper for English so that's were my main focus has been.
Third, I also wanted to apologize for the last chapter. I went back over it after I posted it and saw some misspelled words or other grammar errors that I didn't catch during my editing process and it's mainly due to the fact that I was too lazy to really edit. So I'm sorry about that. Anyways, this chapter won't suffer the same grammatical mistake. Now on to the conclusion and I hope you enjoy it.
III
"Do you want a drink?" Derek asked Casey after five minutes of silence. Once she and Lizzie had joined us, talking had suddenly ceased except for Casey's question as to Marti's whereabouts.
Casey was sitting next to Derek and gazing at the skaters on the rink and humming along with the music. She slowly dragged her eyes toward Derek and regarded him for a moment. She then glanced over at Lizzie and me.
"Why don't we eat lunch instead?" she asked, blue eyes once again resting on Derek.
He shrugged, "If you want to. I'll go get Marti." He was sitting next to the wall across from me so Casey had to get up too. Once they we're standing Derek leaned over toward Casey's ear and whispered something to her. She did nothing. Then he skated off.
Casey sat back down and sighed. She stared off into space for a moment and then she looked at me.
"Edwin, you have one weird brother," she declared suddenly.
"I won't argue with that." I sipped my drink. Casey smiled. Lizzie shook her head. We remained quiet as we awaited Derek's return. After a minute, I saw him skating toward us, clutching the hand of a chattering Marti.
"And then Chris let me pick which songs to play," Marti exclaimed as she sat next to Casey.
"I'm glad you liked him," he mumbled and looked at Casey. "Did you decide what all of you wanted?"
After a collective head shake, Derek rolled his eyes and motioned for us to stand. Casey sent him an annoyed look but obeyed anyways.
We walked back up to the cashier and lucky us, no one was in line. I glanced at the menu as I heard Miss Perky gush, "Hello and thank you for skating at Rolly World. What can I get you?"
"Hello, Thalia. I want two slices of pizza, cheese nachos with jalapeño peppers and a Coke-Cola," Derek rambled off.
"That's it?" Thalia asked in a hopelessly confused tone. She looked horrified.
"I have to pay for five," Derek immediately began to explain, rushing the words out as quickly as he could. "It's not you're cookies. You know I love the cookies. I just want everyone else to get what they want."
Thalia looked close to tears. Strange chick.
"If you're sure," she mumbled, dejected.
"Thalia," Derek whined.
"Don't Thalia me, Mr. Derek Venturi. You always buy my chocolate chip cookies," she broke out sobbing. "I work so hard on those and you're the only one who buys them and I'm a horrible cook…."
Derek sighed and tilted his head back. He was counting to ten. I looked over at Lizzie who looked like she was about to start laughing. Casey looked hopelessly confused. Marti was just watching Derek. Time to save the day, Edwin. Yay, me.
"Um, Thalia, is it?" At her teary nod I continued. "You make chocolate chip cookies? Those are my favorite. I'd love to buy some."
She instantly stopped crying. A smile blossomed on her face and she exuberantly exclaimed, "Really? Let me go get them!"
She practically skipped into another room.
Derek turned to me and said in a semi-awed voice, "You are a genius."
Well, who am I to argue with The Derek?
"Explain," Casey demanded, gaining my attention.
"She's extremely sensitive," Derek shrugged and then tilted his head to the side. "Or bipolar. I haven't quite figured it out yet."
"I would say bipolar," Lizzie mumbled, laughter in her voice.
"If she is, she has very short manic-depression cycles," Casey grumbled, eyes on the menu.
"What's bipolar?" Marti asked, looking up at us.
"You're really happy and then you're really sad," Derek explained.
"Oh," she mumbled and then exclaimed, "I want pizza!"
"Alright, Smarti. What about the rest of you?" Derek asked, looking at Casey. He always looked at Casey.
"I don't know…" Casey mumbled, disdain for the food in her voice.
"If pizza is fine with everyone, then I can order a whole one and it'll be cheaper," Derek suggested since no one was forthcoming with ideas.
"What, running short on cash?" Casey snickered. Derek grinned. "Just spending it on my dream girl."
Casey face turned so red, a rose would have been jealous. Her eyes snapped to his face and she gaped at him. Before either of them could do anything, Thalia returned. She carried a plate full of partly burnt cookies. No wonder Derek was trying to get out of buying those.
"How many would you like?" she gushed, gently placing the plate on the counter.
"Two," I answered, hesitantly.
"Just two?" she looked like she was about to bawl again.
"Well, maybe I'll get one for everyone, so five?" I half-asked, hoping she wouldn't start crying again.
"Great! That's fifty cents each!" she squealed. I handed her the money and took the cookies. Derek altered his order and Casey ordered hers and Marti's drinks. Thalia placed our order and rung up the price. Derek gave her the money and we stood around as she got everything together. Once everything was together, Derek and I grabbed it all and went to sit back down.
The girls slid into the booth first, Casey and Lizzie across from each other. Marti sat next to Casey. Derek and I arranged everything on the table and sat down. Then Derek proved that he is much bolder than I'll ever be.
He placed his arm on the back of the seat, letting his hand come to rest on Casey's shoulder. She stiffened and turned to him. The two did that weird conversation with the eyes thing and Casey turned to the pizza and started grabbing slices.
I glanced at Lizzie. Casey didn't shrug Derek's hand off.
Good grief, Derek doesn't play around, does he? Poor Casey, I can only imagine what she's thinking. Probably over analyzing it and coming up with a million reasons as to why his hand is right there.
"So Derek, how do you know about this place?" Casey asked, taking a delicate bite of her pizza.
"My grandmother likes to come here a lot. Her and Grandpa had their first kiss on the rink." At his words, Casey blushed and roughly tore another bite off. They hadn't…not already…have they?
This is too confusing.
"So, what games have you played or did you just battle each other at air hockey?" Edwin asked after minutes of silence.
"Just did the air hockey," Derek mumbled around his mouthful of pepperoni pizza.
"Derek, swallow before you talk," Casey reprimanded. Derek rolled his eyes and flicked her neck with the fingers resting on her shoulder. She jumped and turned to glare at him, but he was conveniently busy with Marti.
Marti, who didn't like pepperonis today, was peeling them off her slice and feeding them to Derek. She giggled each time his mouth grabbed one out of her fingers, playfully gnawing on a digit before he backed off.
He looked up at Casey and smirked. He bit into his slice and slowly started to draw patterns on her shoulder with his fingers. Casey looked away but still didn't move his hand. If he was that annoying then why didn't she do anything? I wondered.
"Mr. Parker bought this place with he was eighteen," Derek started speaking.
"That young?" I asked since no one else was forthcoming with conversional tidbits.
He nodded, "Mr. Parker bought it when roller skating was still big, especially in the States. Parents fought him, of course, but he didn't care. The night he opened he met Evangeline Massey, soon to be Mrs. Charles Parker."
"Are you trying to insinuate something?" Casey asked softly, staring at him disdainfully. Where in the world did that come from?
"No, I'm trying to hold conversation with our younger siblings who I don't talk to often. Do you have a problem with that?" His voice barely contained his annoyance and the hand on Casey shoulder tightened. They glowered at each other and I felt utterly confused. It was like I had missed something. Just what had the two of them been doing this whole time?
"Smerek?" Marti's voice ended the glaring contest as Derek looked down to see his littlest sister squished between him and Casey.
"Yeah?" he asked backing off some so Marti wasn't so confined.
"Do you think if Eric had kissed Ariel sooner the witch would have died and Ariel would have gotten her voice back?" she asked in all seriousness.
Derek stared at her, trying his hardest to figure out what in the world she was talking about. He looked at Casey, but she was still mad at him, and merely cocked an eyebrow at him. He semi-glared and turned to me. I guess I'm just sweeter than Casey because I decided to help him out. I mouthed the words 'The Little Mermaid' to him and recognition entered his eyes.
The Little Mermaid was currently Marti's favorite movie and everyone had watched it with her at least three times. Though in Derek's case, it was more like twenty. But he always drifted off to sleep at some point during the movie so it equaled out. Luckily, he had seen enough to have a general idea of what Marti was talking about.
"Well," he began, "if he had kissed her sooner…well he probably wouldn't have killed the witch or Ariel might not have…have seen her dad again."
Marti's face scrunched up. "So it's a good thing he didn't kiss her?"
"Kind of."
And suddenly, I was glad Edwin and I hadn't kissed. I can't really explain it. It was kind of like I was glad that nothing happened while I was so confused about my feelings. I don't know.
But I took a bite of my pizza in better spirits.
"So," I began after I swallowed, "just how did Mr. Parker met his wife?"
Derek smiled that killer smile at me (just how could Casey resist him?) and continued his earlier conversation.
"Well, Mr. Parker was about to take a dinner break when in comes strolling Miss Evangeline Massey. Mr. Parker decides he rather stay and get to know this pretty red-head and walks over and begins talking to her. Before he knows it, they've spent the whole night together and most of the employees are getting ready to leave. So he walks her out to her car and gets her number."
"And he doesn't kiss her?" Edwin asked semi-seriously, tearing a bite off the crust.
"Don't know. Mrs. Parker's the one who told me that and she's the sort who doesn't kiss and tell."
"You're really close to the Parkers, aren't you?" Casey asked, leaning forward a little to look at his face. Derek shrugged, looked at the table, and mumbled, "Yeah, I guess so."
"So," Edwin broke in before Casey could question Derek further, "do they do couples only or stuff like that here?"
He and Derek shared a look for a split second before Derek answered. "Depends on who's doing the music and if there's some special occasion going on."
"Just how many people work here?" Casey asked, taking a sip of water. Derek finished the last of his pizzia
"Well," Derek began, leaning back and getting comfortable, "There's Mara, Thalia, Chris who's running the music, Damien who ran the music earlier, and Abigail and Heather, the clean up girls."
"And Mr. Parker," Edwin added smartly before swallowing a sip of coke.
"Obviously," Derek glared at him while Edwin merely smiled.
"Just six people?" Casey asked hurriedly, as though she was trying to avoid a confrontation.
Derek looked back over at her and his fingers began moving over her shoulder again. She glanced at him and they shared another weird look. That's getting kind of annoying.
"They hire more during the summer. Mr. Parker claims that with this kind of crowd, he doesn't need that many workers," Derek said, watching her the whole time while his fingers started to play with her earring. Casey broke her gaze and turned sip to her water.
The pizza was almost gone and Derek started to look like he wanted to leave. Casey was still consuming a slice and looked perfectly content where she was at. Marti, oblivious to the tension as always, chattered about some friend of hers from school. We gave non-committal answers and asked general questions. It isn't like we were trying to ignore her but she tends to use that wonderful imagination of her and usually sails past our comprehension.
Casey consumed her last bite and took one more sip of her ice cold water.
"Marti, do you want to stay here with Lizzie and Edwin and finish up your story?" Derek asked.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, horrified at loosing her most precious listener.
"Casey and I need to talk." He looked over at Casey as he said this, raising his hand to rub his fingers up and down her neck. She swallowed and turned to gaze at him. Just how many times have they stared at each other now?
"Okay," Marti sighed and frowned. She slouched down, despondent. He grabbed her chin and tipped her face up to him.
"Don't worry, we'll skate before we leave, just us two," he smiled. She smiled back. He slid out of the seat. Marti and a reluctant Casey followed suit. Derek extended his hand toward Casey. She stared wearily at it, than at him. With a sigh she took his hand and they skated away.
Marti sat back down. I caught Edwin's eye for a second and my stomach dropped. She started jabbering again.
Somebody curse that idiot of brother of mine. Idiot left me alone with my dream girl, who happens to be my step-sister and who I keep having awkward moments with, and with my six-year-old nonsensical sister. Please somebody curse him.
"Then Evan the elf grabbed Daphne and made her do this weird dance and…"
Yeah, I still have no idea what she was talking about. Bored, I glanced at the skaters and spotted Casey and Derek. They were on the rink standing against the railing. It looked like they were fighting (typical) but they were too far away and the music too loud for me to hear them. Which meant I had to get over there.
I had to know what was going on. I mean, if your older brother was on a date with your step-sister and they just started arguing, wouldn't you want to know what's going on? Wait. You know what, don't answer that.
I turned back to Lizzie and Marti. As soon as Marti paused to breathe, I jumped in the conversation.
"I have to go to the restroom," I mumbled. Lizzie nodded, though she looked a little peeved that I was leaving her alone with Marti. I stood and skated away as quickly as I could.
Since I didn't want Derek to kill me later, I tried to stay behind this group of girls until I reached my subjects. Once I was in hearing range, I sat at one of the seats in front of the rental skates counter, my back to them. They were ten or so feet away, but they were screaming so loud, it might as well have been ten inches.
"Look, princess," I heard Derek taunt, "just because your on a date with me, doesn't mean you can't at least pretend you're having fun. Edwin and Lizzie kept sending us weird looks."
"Well, maybe if you weren't all over me, they wouldn't have been 'sending us weird looks'," Casey argued.
"Oh, like you weren't enjoying that!" he shot back.
"I wasn't!" she declared, fiercely
"Oh, so you didn't enjoy it when I kissed?" he countered.
Wait, what? They've kissed already? Where was I?
"You jerk!" Casey screeched.
I waited for her to say something else but nothing came. After an agonizing few seconds, I couldn't take it, and risked looking at them. Casey had raised her hand, like she was going to slap him, but Derek had an iron tight clasp on her wrist. She was glaring at him, and he, well, he looked at her with a mixture of anger, want and something else, something unexplainable, unnamable.
Suddenly, Casey reached up with her free hand. She grabbed the back of Derek's head, jerking his face toward hers. Their lips crashed into each other and Derek instantly let her wrist go. His hands grabbed her waist, pulling her closer to him. Casey's fingers frantically pulled at his hair. He pushed her back against the railing, (how in the world did he manage that in roller blades and without breaking the kiss?) and his hands started moving up and down her back.
I sat, staring in amazement. Did mean…well, did it mean anything? Was Derek finally going to get what he wanted, Casey MacDonald? Or when the kiss ended, would they just start fighting again? And just how long were they going to kiss? Don't they have to breathe or something? And they're in public and Derek hates PDA.
Finally, after what seems like an hour, Derek pulled back. He said something but I couldn't hear it over the music playing. Casey smiled, said something, and then they kissed again. It wasn't as crazy as the one before, just quick and simple. Then they just started skating again, holding hands.
I stood and made my way back to Marti and Lizzie. I thought about telling Lizzie what I saw but figured it could wait it until we got home. I mean, I couldn't tell her in front of Marti and I didn't know if I could say anything when it was just us without Derek walking up on us and finding out I saw and then kill me for spying. So, the way I figured, it was just safer to wait.
As I rolled up to the table, I was just in time to her Marti ramble on about some fight at her school.
"…Camilla said that it started when Martin Smith saw Kyle Walker talking to his girlfriend, April Long, and he got really mad and…"
I sat down and began to process what I had just seen. The rest of the hour dragged by slowly. I snuck a few more glances at Casey and Derek but they eventually disappeared.
Marti dominated the conversation and by hour's end, I was ready to hand her off. I mean, there's only so much of a six-year-olds conversation I can take and anyway, Derek always had more patience with her than I ever did.
"Marti, do you want to go find Derek and Casey?" I asked the moment there was a break in her monologue. She nodded and the three of us stood and began to search out our older siblings.
We found them in the arcade, playing one of those pinball machines. Casey was playing the game, Derek stood behind her, hand on her hip. He was whispering in her ear, the other hand playing with her earring. She glared at the game and hissed, "Shut up." He just laughed.
"Smerek!" Marti cried, running toward him. He looked down at her, surprise on his face, then at Lizzie and me. Casey stayed focused on her game.
"Hey Marti," he said, lightly while glaring at us. Well, at me really. He continued, barely containing his annoyance, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, hour's up so see ya," I hurriedly explained and grabbed Lizzie's hand. Best thing to do in a situation like that was get in and get out fast.
"So," Lizzie asked once we left the arcade, "Did you really go to the bathroom earlier?"
I looked at her, slightly surprised that she knew me that well. "How?"
"I saw you sit down, and I saw Casey and Derek," she mumbled, looking at the ground. That's right. I had, surprisingly, forgotten about her crush on Derek through out the chaos of the day. If she still liked him that had to hurt to see. It would be like the Scott thing all over again (minis the cheating and three angry sisters).
"And?" I prompted.
She shrugged and smiled softly at me. "I'm fine with it, if that's what's you're wondering. I don't…think of him like that anymore."
I nodded and dropped the subject. Then we just kind of wondered around for a while. After ten or so minutes, Lizzie glanced over at the rink and a determined look passed over her face.
"Do you want to go skating?" she asked. Oh, no, I thought. How do I get out of this one? I'm a horrible skater; I hate it. Add in the fact that I didn't want to break someone's arm that day, then you could realize my reluctance.
"Uh…"
"Great, let's go." She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the rink. Yeah, can someone explain to me how she got yes out of "uh"?
Then over the speakers, I heard the opening the notes of a song I really didn't like.
"There you see her
Sitting there across the way…"
I looked at the back of Lizzie's head and mentally groaned. Prefect timing.
So I like skating and Edwin, for some reason, had been avoiding the rink all day. I was going to skate before we left. Nothing was going to deter me, even the fact that my date seem to have an aversion to it.
We hit the wooden floor and Edwin grabbed the rail. Weird. My hand was still in his and I noticed we weren't skating very fast.
"Ed? Is everything okay?" I asked. He nodded vigorously but he had a death grip on the rail. And he wasn't picking up his feet; just kind of scooting them along.
"Edwin, can you skate?" I asked. I was willing to get off if he couldn't. I mean, knowing Derek, he probably never thought about if any of us could skate when he picked this place.
"Of course, I can!" he snapped at me. That angered me. It was pretty obvious that he couldn't and yet, he was going to be typical male and not admit it.
"Then lets go to the center, there's less people," I suggested as sweetly as I could and pulled him toward the center of the rink. He protested of course. And I didn't listen.
"Lizzie…" I was not listening.
"Lizzie…" Sorry, I was still mad.
"Lizzie!" Okay, I was annoyed now.
"What?" I finally snapped around only to have him ram into me. His hands grabbed my waist as he tried to maintain his balance. My arms instantly wrapped around his neck as I felt myself slip downward. Our legs tangled as we finally found our stability. How do I always end up in these types of situations?
I looked up into his face, inches from mine, and was drawn into those brown orbs. His breath brushed against my lips. My eyelids slowly drifted shut and his face inched closer. His breath rushed over my face and then, I felt the softest brush of his lips. My eyes cracked open and I saw him staring at me mystified. I wanted him to kiss me again. So I did something I never thought I be bold enough to do. I leaned up the short distance between us and kissed him. He kissed me right back.
Maybe Derek's plan wasn't such a bad idea after all.
Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this and thank you for reading the story.I hope it didn't seemed too rushed or anything. And again, I'm sorry this took so long to get out and I hope the wait was worth it. Please review.
Pinkmoon