The Law of Relatives

[allie9688]

Title: The Law of Relatives
Author: Allie
Rating: PG-13 (T), just in case.
Disclaimer: I do not own Strange Days at Blake Holsey High or Life with Derek or any of their characters.
Summary: When Lucas' popular, player cousin Derek comes to visit Blake Holsey, Lucas and Vaughn find themselves dealing with more competition than ever.
Author’s Note: I hope you like this… it’s my first crossover.

Chapter One



Lucas wet his hands and hurriedly ran them over his face and through his hair.

“Lucas?” Vaughn asked and he knocked on the door before he let himself in.

“Hey Vaughn! Thanks for lending me that game,” Lucas said and pointed toward his desk where a CD case lay amongst the books and papers. “It’s right over there.”

“So, how’d you do?” Vaughn asked as he collapsed onto Marshall’s bed.

“I did okay. I only got to level 27, so…” Lucas shrugged. “I couldn’t get past the cave, you know?”

“Ugh, yeah. It was awful.”

To be honest, Vaughn hadn’t even made it past level ten. But just because he hadn’t, didn’t mean Lucas had to know. He looked over to Lucas and noticed that he hadn’t moved from his spot in front of the mirror.

“What’s this, Lucster?” Vaughn asked as he looked at the array of things on the table. “Comb, brush, squirt bottle of water? And gel and hairspray! What are you doing? Getting ready for a hot date?”

“I wish. It’s not that at all. My cousin Derek from London is coming to visit for a couple of weeks. Uncle George, Derek’s dad, is thinking about sending Derek and Casey to Blake Holsey next year.”

“Casey? Guy or Girl?”

“Girl. Uncle George got married almost a year ago and Casey is on of his step-daughters. I haven’t met her, but Derek says she’s annoying.”

Vaughn looked puzzled for a moment. “But if Casey’s annoying…”

Lucas looked up from fixing his hair.

“What?” he asked.

“You’re clearly fixing yourself up for her, man. You hoping that she’ll like you?”

Lucas paused mid brush stroke. “That’s sick! She’s my cousin! Why would I want to date her? Anyway, Casey won’t be here for another week. She has some dance competition thing.”

“She’s your step-cousin. There’s a difference. Some people even get together with their step-brother or sister. It isn’t incest, you know.”

Lucas raised his brow and asked, “Do you even know what incest is?”

“What? Of course I do! I’m not as stupid as you think I am, Lucas. But here’s the thing, what is it about Casey that is so annoying?”

“Well,” Lucas began, thinking back to the rant that he had received via e-mail from his cousin. “She’s high strung, especially when it comes to her grades. She’s a perfectionist.”

“Hmm. That sounds familiar. Don’t you think?”

“Corinne?” Lucas asked. In all honesty, he could not think of a single person who fit the description.

“Yeah. But do you find her annoying? And I don’t mean just on occasion, I mean do you find her annoying like Derek finds Casey annoying?”

“No, but just because Corinne isn’t annoying doesn’t mean Casey won’t be.”

“No,” Vaughn allowed, “it doesn’t. But it doesn’t mean she will be annoying either. Look, what’s Derek like anyway?”

“Derek? Well, he’s cool, great at hockey… has dated more girls than he can count and than I can remember. The only ones that I can remember are Sandra, Stephanie, Shana, Melanie, Melissa, Logan, Jennifer, Alexis, and now he’s dating Kendra.”

“Wait… you’re trying to impress Derek, aren’t you? That explains the hair, wearing Marshall’s clothes, and,” Vaughn paused, poked Lucas in the forehead and looked at his finger. It had come back whiter and greasier, just as he had expected it to, “the concealer.”

“You can tell? Oh no… how can you tell?”

“It’s too pale. It looks like you have the chicken pox or poison ivy or something and you put that lotion stuff on it. Gosh, what’d you do? Borrow it from Josie? Wash it off man, it looks awful.”

Lucas quickly wiped off what concealer he had on and scowled when he saw that had only made his face redder. “I did not borrow it from Josie. She doesn’t even wear make-up. Well, other than stage make-up.”

“Hmm… I wouldn’t be so sure. She was wearing lip gloss… and I thought some other make-up when…” Vaughn trailed off.

They’d talked about the kiss that had occurred between “Lucas” and Josie right after they were once again themselves once. They’d talked more about Vaughn’s dyslexia as well, but they still talked about that on occasion. Vaughn felt that it was a sore subject for Lucas, and his lips doing the kissing aside, they both knew that it was Vaughn telling the lips what to do… even if Josie later told Corinne she thought that she was sort of kissing both and Corinne had accidentally let it slip once to Marshall who accidentally told Lucas and Vaughn a few days later.

“When?” Lucas prompted.

“I must have been wrong. You’re right. She doesn’t. Hey Luc,” Vaughn said, having decided that it was time to change the subject. “If you want, I can keep your cousin off your back. You know, if you decide you don’t want him around while you do research on certain things,” he emphasized. “I’m sure that I can ditch him with the guys for the science club meetings so he won’t be in our way. Besides, if I know Madison, and your cousin is at least half of how you describe him… she’ll have her claws into him within two days.”

Lucas looked relieved and Vaughn almost had to laugh at how quickly his nervousness had disappeared.

“When’s this cousin of yours getting here anyway?”

“Uh, I’m supposed to meet Derek and Aunt Nora in front of the school at 12:00, Uncle George had to work,” Lucas said as he glanced at the clock. “And it’s now 12:30... Great, just great.”

Lucas tossed the game on the desk to Vaughn and made his way to the door. He could not believe that he was going to be late. When he opened the door, a woman who looked to be in her late thirties was standing next to a boy about his age wearing a leather jacket with a duffel bag slung over one shoulder.

“Hey cuz,” Derek said entering the room and dropping his duffel on the ground. He punched Lucas on the arm, “So, where am I staying?”

[allie9688]

Chapter Two


"Uh, hi. You must be Nora," Lucas said. "I'm sorry, I missed the wedding."

"It's fine, Susan told me that you were a camp with your friend, Marshall. It's nice meeting you now, and you'll be meeting my daughter, Casey in a week. I'll drive her here after her dance competition on Saturday. Oh, and of course you remember Marti. Right, Lucas?"

"Yes, I remember Marti." Lucas cringed as he remembered the last time he had seen her. At the time she had been almost six and his younger sister, Lindsay, had been three and newly potty trained. The two of them together were absolute terrors and Lucas and Derek had spent hours in Derek's room playing video games.

"Derek? Where is Marti?" Nora asked as she glanced around for the eight-year-old.

Derek shrugged and moved his duffel to Lucas' bed before he flopped down on it. "Last time I saw her was when we got out of the car."

At that exact moment Marshall burst through the open doorway and settled up against the wall. "Oh thank God! Lucas, Vaughn--you have to help me." He looked around the room. "He--hello," He said, clearly at a loss as to who the other people in the room were.

"Marshall, this is my Aunt Nora and my cousin, Derek," Lucas explained. "You wouldn’t by any chance have seen an eight-year-old girl with dark brown hair running around, have you?"

"What if I have?"

"Well, where did you see her?" Nora butted in, "I really need to leave soon, but I need to find Marti," she said.

"Oh, slaaave!" a sing-song voice called. "Where are you?"

"Oh please, hide me!" Marshall cried, hiding behind Vaughn.

"Marti?" Nora asked, stepping into the hallway slightly. Sure enough, there was Marti skipping down the hallway, glancing into every dorm room she came to that had the door open.

"Hi Nora!" Marti called and ran into the room. "Hey Smerek?" she asked as she jumped up onto the bed next to her brother. "Are you really going to live here?"

"There's about a snowball's chance in Hell that I'm going to live here," Derek bitterly replied. "A boarding school? Get real. No offense, Luc."

"None taken."

"But, but why don't you want to live here Smerek? It's so pretty. It's like a castle!" Marti looked around and spotted Marshall. "He even said that he would play Pretty Pretty Princess with me!"

"Hey, look kid. I never agreed to play Princess with you--" Marshall began.

"Pretty Pretty Princess!" Marti interrupted. "And yes, you did!"

"Okay, fine. Pretty Pretty Princess. And no, I didn't. All I said was that I would help you find your mommy or daddy. Then you said that I was pretty," Marshall glared when Vaughn snorted. "Hey, her words, not mine."

"Suuure." Vaughn drawled. "Why don't you go play dress-up with Marti here, while the rest of us talk?"

"You have pretty hair. It's almost as pretty as Smerek's," Marti said in awe.

"See? The kid thinks you have pretty hair, Marsh. That isn't something you get told everyday," Vaughn smirked.

"Haha, yeah, laugh it up Vaughn, but I think Marti was talking about your hair."

"Can I brush it?" Marti asked and pulled out a small pink doll brush out of her little purple, plastic purse.

"Uh, yeah?" Vaughn squeaked. He didn't want to make the little girl cry, but he had spent thirty minutes fixing his hair this morning and he really didn’t want it messed up. "Sure, knock yourself out."

“Marti, leave poor Vaughn and Marshall alone. I’m sure they’ll play with you next weekend when we have more time and bring Casey, Lizzie, and Edwin with us, but right now we need to get home. Okay?”

Marti considered this for a moment and pursed her lips, “Can Daphne come too?”

Nora smiled and took Marti’s hand to lead her out the door. “Of course Daphne can come too.”

“And, and Dimi? And Emily too? And Daddy?” Marti asked excitedly.

“There’s only so much room in the car, Marti. Besides I think the Davises’ already have plans for next weekend and Daddy has to work, remember?”

“Oh yeah,” Marti said solemnly. “Dimi said he was going to the zoo.”

“That’s right. Now tell your brother bye and we’ll go home so you and Daphne can play, okay?” Nora said as she adjusted the strap of her pocket book on her shoulder.

“By Smerek! Have fun! I’ll see you next week.”

-----

“So what are you and Vaughn going to see tonight?” Corrine asked

“I don’t know, maybe Shrek the Third. We’ve both been wanting to see it. I guess it just depends on what’s showing.”

“I wish I could go, but I have a paper to write.”

Josie rolled her eyes. “And I don’t? I have the same paper due, but it isn’t due until next week. Today is Friday. Take a break… that‘s what the weekend is for.”

“I suppose… But if I don’t work on the paper today, when will I work on the History project that’s due on the twenty-seventh?”

“Corrine. Breathe. That project is due on the twenty-seventh… today is the thirteenth. You have a full two weeks before it’s due.”

“Okay. Can I at least stop by the boys’ room and make sure that Marshall has everything that we will need for the project?”

“Sure,” Josie said. “Knock yourself out. It isn’t as if I would be able to stop you anyway.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Go ahead. It isn’t like you needed to ask anyway… that was where we were going to begin with.”

“Right, of course,” Corrine responded and is suddenly embarrassed. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

Once they have reached the dorm they are surprised to see that the door is open. Lucas would never leave the door open.

Curious, Corrine rapped lightly on the doorframe and peeked in. Suddenly, her eyes went wide from surprise and she ran into the room.

“Derek!” she yelled and quickly embraced the boy in question before letting him go.

“Hey Corrine, I haven’t seen you since Emily’s eleventh birthday party when…” he soon trailed off however once he spotted Josie. “Say, who’s your friend?”

“My friend?” Corrine asked and looked confused. Then as if a light bulb went off in her head it dawned on her. “Oh! You mean Josie! Josie Trent, this is Derek Venturi… Lucas’ cousin and my cousin’s next door neighbor and former best friend.”

“Don’t say former, Cor,” Derek complained. “It makes me sound like a jerk.”

“Well,” she shrugged. “Can I help it if you are a jerk?”

Derek soon turned his attention back to Josie. “So, how long have you been stuck in this Hell hole?”

He doesn’t notice the inconspicuous coughing around the words ‘black hole’ from Marshall, the snort from Lucas, or the raised eyebrow from Vaughn.

“Well, this will be the end of my second year. And it isn’t that bad. Believe me… when I first got here I thought I would die… but when you get past the initial shock of it being another dull boarding school… it’s actually pretty fascinating.”

“Yeah right,” Derek scoffed. “The day this school is interesting is the day I start taking ballet with Casey.”




Chapter Three



“So you’re absolutely sure that Derek and Casey can borrow your room?” Lucas asked warily.

“Positive,” Vaughn assured. “It’d be the easiest answer. There aren’t any extra rooms in the school. I know that Durst probably wanted Derek to stay with you guys and then find another room for Casey… but I live really close to the school, and I know that there’re some roll away beds around somewhere.”

“Okay. So are you going to tell Principal Durst your idea or will I?” Lucas questioned.

“I guess I can. I’m going to show Derek where he can put his things, then I’ll talk to Principal Durst, and then I guess I’ll go home and tell my dad that I’ll be staying there for a couple of weeks before I go to the movies with Jos. Oh, and if you see her looking for me, tell her that I‘ll be a little late.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment at the mention of that, but Lucas broke it after a few minutes.

“Sure, that’s, uh, fine. Just let me know if you can’t find a roll away bed. Marshall and I have a feather tick in here under his bed.”

“Thanks, Luc-head,” Vaughn said and punched Lucas in the arm. In the same place that Derek had earlier.

“Ow.”

-----

“Dad?” Vaughn asked and knocked on the door to his father, Victor Pearson’s, office.

The sound of footsteps were heard and Vaughn moved away from the door.

“Vaughn, I’m in a meeting. Can this wait?” Victor asked after he opened the door.

Vaughn peered into the room and saw several men and women gathered around a table.

“I just wanted to say that I’m going to be staying here for the next couple of weeks.”

Victor sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Vaughn, this isn’t really a good time for me. Can’t you just stay at the school for awhile? As you can see I have a very important meeting to attend to and if all goes well I will have several meetings to attend to for the next few weeks. I’m not sure that this will go that well if you are here in the way.”

“In the way?” Vaughn asked confused. “I-I won’t be in the way… I’ll barely be here, I’ll be at school most of the time.”

“Even so, it is very important that this meeting goes well. I can’t risk it by your being here.”

Vaughn closed his eyes for a moment. “Fine Dad, fine. I won’t be in your way, okay? I’ll go back to the school as soon as I find a sleeping bag.”

He turned around and started back down the hall that led to his room.

Victor turned to rejoin the meeting but paused for a moment when what Vaughn said registered.

“A sleeping bag?” he asked himself. “Why would he need a sleeping bag?”

Victor shook his head to rid himself of the question and walked back into his meeting.

-----

Derek heard a sound and looked up. He glanced around the room before he noticed the small sleek cell phone that rested on the computer desk. He walked over to it and flipped it open, allowing his curiosity to get the better of him.

The screen of the phone read ‘new text message from Josie’ and Derek hit okay, remembering the pretty little redhead from earlier.

Where the hell are you Vaughn? You told me to be in front of the school at seven. It’s past seven now and I don’t see you.

Derek stared at the phone for a moment and debated what he should do. Should he call the girl and tell her that Vaughn was at his dad’s or whoever’s and would be a few minutes late… like he had told him and Lucas or have some fun with what had fallen into his lap?

Derek tilted his head to the side for a moment and pretended to think. He laughed and collapsed into the desk chair before he expertly pressed a few buttons on the phone which lead him to the screen to write a text message.

Of course he would have some fun with what had fallen into his lap! He wasn’t some amateur, nice guy who would not take advantage of what cards he had been dealt. He was Derek Venturi. He got everything that he wanted and used everything and anything that it took to his advantage.

And if he was remembering this ‘Josie’ correctly, she was definitely someone that he would like to get to know better.

Hey, sorry, I thought I had called you. I’m not feeling well. Can we reschedule?

A slow, wide smirk began to spread across his face. There was another sound which signaled a new text and he read it.

Sure. Do you want me to come check on you?

Derek furrowed his brow and began to furiously write out another text message.

No thanks, I think I just need to get some rest.

Derek shut the phone and rolled back in the desk chair.

“My work is never done,” he sighed. “And you,” he said to the phone, “will thank me in the end.”

Derek pushed himself up from the desk chair and walked around the room. He stopped in front of the stereo and turned it on.

“Sweet!” he exclaimed.

He continued to rummage through Vaughn’s things and opened the closet to reveal a mini fridge in the floor. He opened the fridge and looked at what it held before he grabbed a bottle of chocolate sauce.

“Swizzle! I love this room!”

Derek threw back the bottle of chocolate sauce and downed half of it before he set it on the dresser.

“Let’s see what else Vaughn has in here…” he walked back over the computer desk and opened the drawer which was lined with video and computer games. “Babe Raider 3.0... You’ve got to be kidding me. I don’t think he’ll notice if this is missing…”

“Vaughn?” the door opened and Josie walked in. “Derek, right?”

Derek raised his eyebrow, “Josie, right? Yeah… it’s Derek.”

“Well, it’s Josie too. Have you seen Vaughn?”

“Nope. Haven’t seen him. He left a little while ago, said I could hang out in his room… but he hasn’t been back since. Not sure how it is at this boarding school, but where I’m from, Saturday night is date night. Maybe he’s on a date?”

Josie began to turn red.

“Oh, did I say something wrong? It’s just…”

“No,” Josie interrupted him. “You didn’t say anything wrong. You’ll let him know that I came by?”

“Of course,” Derek shrugged.

Josie nodded her thanks and left the room.

“Not," he finished and grabbed the bottle of chocolate sauce before he downed the rest.

-----

Vaughn looked at his watch. 8:00 p.m. He had been waiting outside in front of the school for almost an hour and Josie hadn’t shown. He couldn’t help but wonder if she hadn’t gotten his message that he would be a few minutes late.

He shook his head. No, that couldn’t be it. Lucas would pass on the message. Vaughn felt his pockets for his phone, but could not find it. His brow furrowed and sighed. Where had he left it?




Chapter Four



“Lucas, can you please turn down the volume?” Marshall asked. “I’m trying to work on some of these cell phones, but I can’t concentrate for Al. Really, I like Quantum Leap as much as the next person, but Al can be annoying sometimes.”

“Al is never annoying!” Lucas protested.

“Yeah, well. It’s still loud. He’s supposed to be an observer. Observers observe. They don’t talk constantly and make comments on women’s legs.”

Lucas pulled out a set of headphones and plugged them into his computer before he started the episode again.

Marshall popped off the back of a phone before he inserted one of the sim cards that he had found in the basement.

A knock sounded at the door and Marshall looked up, but continued to insert sim cards into the phones on his desk. He had to finish thirty phones tonight. He couldn’t stop.

“Lucas!”

Lucas laughed at something that Al had said and turned up the volume.

“Hey Lucas!”

Lucas still continued to laugh and gave no indication that he had heard Marshall.

Marshall rolled his eyes and set down the phone that he was working on for a moment.

“Who is it?” he called.

“It’s Vaughn, can I come in?”

“Yeah, it’s open.”

The door opened and Vaughn walked in with his duffle bag slung over one shoulder and a sleeping bag over the other. He tossed his stuff on the floor and got on the floor next to Marshall’s bed and started running his hand underneath the bed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Marshall said. “What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for the feather tick. Lucas said it was here.”

“Yeah, well, Lucas says a lot of things. Like Britney and Justin will be back together by Christmas. Everyone knows that Britney’s crazy like a fox. Justin would never want to get back together with her. After all, he brought sexy back. All Britney did was bring back the need for family counseling.”

Lucas looked over at Marshall at that moment and noticed Vaughn. He pulled off the headphones and stood up.

“Hey, what are you doing here Vaughn?”

“You said you guys have a feather tick. I was wanting to use it.”

“So you couldn’t get the cot? Why do you even need it now? Casey doesn’t get here for another week,” Lucas pointed out.

“Well, I was wondering if I could stay with you guys for those two weeks. I’m, uh, well… I don’t think I can stay at my house.”

Marshall put an arm around Vaughn and squeezed.

“Look, Vaughn. You know I love you, right?”

Vaughn shrugged out of Marshall’s grip and looked at him as if he had grown another head.

“Uh…”

Marshall waved his hand at the computer parts, cell phones, and sim cards that took up space in his half of the room.

“There really isn’t room. And if it’s going to be like a party every night or something, I can’t get the work that I need done on my products.”

“Your products?”

“Marshall thinks that people will buy cell phones from him after the wireless internet fiasco, which they won’t,” Lucas explained before he turned to Marshall. “I told you that no one is going to waste their money on that. I wouldn’t if you weren’t giving me the roommate/best friend discount.”

Vaughn picked up one of the phones and flipped it over.

“Cool,” he set it back down with the other phones. “I didn’t happen to leave my phone in here earlier did I? After I left my dad’s house I waited around for Josie and she never showed, so I was going to call her, but I couldn’t find my phone. Have either of you seen my phone or heard from her?”

Marshall walked back over to his computer desk and continued to work on the phones.

“No, sorry.”

“Yeah, I haven’t either,” Lucas informed Vaughn. “I’ll let you know if I do, though. And Marshall?” he continued, “Vaughn is staying here. His only other choice is staying in his room with Derek, and take it from someone who knows… staying in a room with Derek? Not so pretty.”

Vaughn nodded and picked his bag up off of the floor, “Say, Lucas, that watch of yours doesn’t triple as a cell phone, does it?”

He sat on Lucas’ bed and left his bag at his feet.

“Ha ha, very funny, Vaughn. Just call her. Here’s the phone,” he leaned over and picked up the phone, “I’m sure she won’t hurt you too badly,” Lucas joked.

Vaughn glared at Lucas before he dialed the number to Josie’s cell phone.

No answer.

He sighed and hung up the phone before he dialed the number to her and Corrine’s dorm.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Josie? It’s Vaughn.”

There was a long silence on the other end and Vaughn worried for a moment that she had hung up on him.

“What do you want?”

“Well, I was just sort of wondering where you were. I waited outside for you, but you never showed up. I thought we had plans.”

On the other end of the line Josie scoffed.

“Where was I? Where were you, Vaughn? I waited outside and you never showed up. Then I texted you and you said that--”

“Wait,” Vaughn interrupted, “you texted me? Josie… I didn’t think you texted people. The last time I tried to text you, you told me to never do it again because it’s a waste of brain mass or something like that. Oh, and that we were given opposable thumbs for a reason and that if the world continued texting thumbs would become, uh, non-opposable making primates the only ones with opposable thumbs.”

Lucas and Marshall stared at Vaughn as he ranted with raised eyebrows.

“Give me the phone,” Marshall demanded and he stood up from his desk chair to join Vaughn and Lucas on the bed.

Vaughn gave him an incredulous look and shook his head before he waved him away.

“No, just give me the phone… Josie! I’ll have you know that texting is not a waste of brain-whatever-you-told-Vaughn! And sure, it has been proven that opposable thumbs will eventual adapt, but that won’t be for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years,” Marshall yelled.

“Marshall, go away and be quiet!” Vaughn hissed.

He moved to the other side of the room with the phone.

“Sorry,” he apologized to Josie.

“Sorry for standing me up or for Marshall being Marshall?”

Vaughn heaved a weary sigh.

“Josie, for the last time, I didn’t stand you up! And even if you did text me, which is really strange and that in itself calls for a trip to see Z, I don’t have my phone. Lucas and Marshall can vouch for me on that.”

“Oh, and what’d you do to get them to do that? Buy them off with video games and money?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Vaughn insisted. “Look, if you’re just going to accuse me of things that aren’t even true, I’ll just hang up the--”

There was a click and then all Vaughn could hear was the dial tone.

“Oh, okay… or you could hang up, either one works.”

He hung up the phone and tossed it to Marshall who placed it back on its charger.

“So?” Marshall asked.

“So, apparently, she texted me to ask me where I was. A text that I obviously did not get because I do not have my phone,” Vaughn stressed. “She thought I was lying about that for some reason, I don’t know why…”

“Maybe she got a reply?” Lucas offered.

“A reply to a text that she sent to my phone, which I do not have? I doubt it.”

Marshall snapped his fingers and leaned back in his chair.

“I think I’ve got it! Lucas here is onto something,” he said and pointed to his friend. “I bet someone did text Josie back, but who? Where are the possible locations of your phone, Vaughn?”

“Well, I guess here, my house, and my dorm.”

Marshall nodded.

“Okay, good. And it isn’t here, so neither Lucas nor myself texted Josie. And no matter how entertaining it would be, I doubt your dad would have texted Josie a reply message. Which leaves it being somewhere in your room.”

“But the only person who is in there is Derek. I don’t think Lucas’ cousin would do something like that.”

“Derek,” Lucas said knowingly. “It was Derek.”

“Derek? Really?” Marshall asked.

“Derek.”

“Derek?” Vaughn questioned. “But why would he do something like that.”

“Just trust me,” Lucas assured his friends. “It was Derek. He loves to prank people, but even more than that… he likes girls. So if he thought that pretending to be Vaughn would get Josie mad at Vaughn and effectively make him seem like a good guy that she might be interested in, then, well, he would pretend to be Vaughn. Believe me, he pretended to be me once, when we were seven or something just so he could kiss Co…” he trailed off.

“What was that?” Marshall inquired. “Who?”

“My, uh, crush at that time,” Lucas informed and he began to turn red.

“Aw, Little Lucas had a crush on a girl,” Vaughn teased and the subject at hand was momentarily forgotten. “What was her name?”

“Uh,” Lucas squeaked, “her name?”

He cleared his throat.

“Her name was Corrine…”

Vaughn started to laugh while Marshall’s eyes went wide.

“You had a crush on Corrine?”

“I was seven,” Lucas defended. “I was seven and my family went camping with Derek’s family and with the Baxters and Davises. Don’t worry, Marshall. Corrine is all yours.”

Marshall blushed and was soon a deeper red than Lucas.

“I don’t like Corrine like that,” he insisted.

“Uh huh, sure.”

“Well, this has really been nice, guys,” Vaughn interrupted, “but what am I supposed to do about Derek?”

“Nothing,” Lucas responded. “You do nothing about Derek.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

Vaughn raised an eyebrow.

“I do nothing about Derek? Why is that, Lucas?”

“Because Derek is immune to any and all types of revenge. What Derek wants, Derek gets… no matter what.”

Vaughn scoffed.

“Well, sorry to inform you, Luc-head, but your cousin is messing with the wrong people. At the wrong place.”

He turned to Marshall.

“Wormhole?” he asked.

Marshall nodded in agreement, “Wormhole.”

“What? You can’t just throw my cousin in a wormhole. How would I explain that to Uncle George?”

“Lucas, Lucas, Lucas,” Vaughn shook his head. “Did we say anything about throwing Derek into the wormhole? No. It’s just a little… scare tactic.”

“It won’t work,” Lucas said confidently. “Derek doesn’t scare easily. And… how are you going to get Derek to even go near Professor Z’s office? He won’t budge.”

“Don’t sweat it. I’ve got everything under control,” Vaughn promised.

He noticed Lucas’ computer and tilted his head to the side.

“Wow, nice suit. What is this show?”

[josiebhgirl]

come on!!!
you have to keep writing
your story is great!!!

[allie9688]

Author’s Note: Okay, so there’s Derek in this chapter, but it’s still mostly Vaughn, Marshall, and Lucas. Heavy on the Vaughn and Marshall. After you read this chapter, and hopefully after reading the one before this, I think you should be able to see what is going to happen in the next chapter. Yes, I will be using a few episodes from season two, and if this story goes over well I will be writing a sequel which will be of Casey and Derek in seasons three and four (yes, I did say season four, it would probably end up being a twenty-six chapter sequel with each chapter being one episode) of BHH. Let me know what you guys think of that idea and of this chapter.

Chapter Five



Lucas grabbed a towel and some clothes.

“I’m going to take a shower, you guys. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Marshall barely looked up from the phone that he was working on, but he waved a hand in acknowledgment.

Vaughn mumbled something incoherently from his place on the feather tick and rolled over.

Lucas shook his head and walked out of the door and to the bathroom.

“Vaughn!” Marshall yelled and threw a pillow at the boy on the floor.

Vaughn stirred, but did not wake up.

“Are you serious?” Marshall asked himself.

Once again he threw something at Vaughn. This time, however, it was a binder.

The binder hit the sleeping teen on the head and he scrambled out of the tangled sheets that covered the feather tick on the floor.

“Ow, what the hell was that? What did you do that for?” he asked once he was sitting upright.

Vaughn rubbed his head where the binder had hit him and glared at Marshall.

“Good morning, Starshine!” Marshall greeted. “Do you mind passing me that box that’s next to you? I need to program one of these phones with what’s in it.”

“You woke me up to hand you something?”

“That’s not the only thing,” Marshall said defensively.

Vaughn grumbled and picked up the box next to him before he carried it over to Marshall.

“Right. Well, here’s your box. Can I go back to sleep now or are you going to throw more stuff at me?”

“Well, before you go back to sleep I would really like to have my binder back.”

“I don’t have your binder,” Vaughn told him.

“Yeah you do, it bounced off of your head and hit the desk.”

“You threw a binder at my head?”

“Uh, yes?”

There was an awkward silence before Marshall spoke again, “But that’s beside the point. The whole Derek thing? I’ve got an idea.”

“You do?” Vaughn asked excitedly. “What’s your plan?”

Marshall shrugged as he tinkered with one of the phones on his desk.

“It’s simple. You don’t do anything.”

“That’s your plan? I don’t do anything. How would that even work?”

“Like I said, it’s simple. You be nice to Derek, introduce him to Madison, Kubiak, Tyler, you know… your friends. Eventually he won’t want to be here anymore. Josie or no Josie.”

“I don’t get it… why wouldn’t he want to be here?”

“Vaughn, you yourself had the idea. The wormhole. Only instead of taking matters into our own hands, because that would never work, we just wait it out.”

“We wait it out…”

“We wait it out,” Marshall repeated.

“So, how long is this going to take?”

“Don’t know. It may take the full two weeks, but as long as he doesn’t come back next year, our mission will be accomplished, right?”

Vaughn chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment and thought it over.

“Right.”

-----

“Who’s your friend, Vaughn?” Madison asked from her place in the bleachers.

She, Wendy, and Cassie had been discussing the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie and who was hotter, Orlando Bloom or Johnny Depp while Katya wrote in a notebook when Vaughn and Derek casually walked by. Or at least to Derek and the girls it seemed casual.

“This is Derek,” Vaughn introduced. “He’s Lucas’ cousin. He’s visiting from London for two weeks and his sister’s coming on Saturday.”

“Step-sister,” Derek interrupted and place a big emphasis on step.

“O-kay… his step-sister,” Vaughn corrected.

“So, you’re Louie’s cousin?” Katya questioned the guys.

“Louie? Who the hell is Louie?” Derek laughed.

“Um, that’s Lucas…”

Derek laughed harder at Vaughn’s information.

Madison raised an eyebrow and looked at Derek doubtfully.

“He’s Randall’s cousin?”

“It’s hard to believe isn’t it?” Derek agreed.

Madison, Wendy, and Cassie all nodded in agreement with Derek.

“There is no resemblance whatsoever,” Wendy said. “The two of you look absolutely nothing alike. How can you be related?”

Vaughn’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He thought they looked like they were related to each other.

“You look like his brother,” Katya commented.

“Lucas doesn’t have brothers. He just has his sisters. He has three of them.”

“No…” she corrected in frustration, “you look like you and Louie are brothers. The only difference is the hair and the glasses and you are twins!”

Vaughn laughed out loud at Katya’s comment. He didn’t think that was what Derek wanted to hear.

“Uh, thanks?”

Vaughn elbowed Derek.

“Take it as a compliment. She likes Lucas. At least… I think she does. She used to.”

“Sweet.”

“Well, uh, I have to go… and I think there’s a science club meeting soon? So I’ll just leave you with these girls, okay?”

His comment was met with silence and he shrugged before he turned around to walk back to the school.

-----

Vaughn walked into Marshall and Lucas’ dorm room and collapsed onto the feather tick.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Marshall protested from his desk.

Vaughn rolled his eyes and pulled the pillow over his head.

“It’s Sunday. I’m tired. I would have slept in this morning, but someone kept throwing things at me.”

“You know you shouldn’t be throwing things, Marshall,” Lucas spoke up and looked up from his computer.

“Oh bite me, Mom,” Marshall retorted. “You’re distracting me from my work. You two need to leave.”

“Excuse me?” Lucas asked. “We need to leave? This is as much my dorm as it is yours.”

“Okay, you can stay. As long as you’re quiet, but it isn’t his,” he nodded at Vaughn.

“What? You’re kicking me out?”

“Don’t look at it as me kicking you out. You can come back when I’m finished working at these phones. I just have to have them ready for tomorrow. Tyler said that he’d take a look at some and buy one and maybe tell some of his friends. Do you know what that could mean?”

Vaughn frowned, “No, not really.”

“Marshall’s selling all of these phones to earn money to pay for college,” Lucas explained.

“Oh, well, I’m sure I could tell a few people too, Marsh.”

“That’s okay, I’m sure that once Tyler tells everyone there won’t be anyone else to tell. Would you want to buy one though? I already have Lucas and Corrine down for a phone each, and you can have a small discount too. You know, as a fellow science club member and a temporary roommate.”

Vaughn shrugged.

“I already have a phone that I still have to get from my room. It’s already caused me enough trouble, I don’t need another one. Are you selling anything else?”

“No, not right now. But I’ll let you know when I have something. You’ll buy one of Magnet 360°’s CDs, right?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.”

“Good. Now, go. You’re distracting me.”

“Wait,” Vaughn asked confused, “I still have to leave?”

“Yes, and you leave too, Lucas. You’re distracting me too.”

Lucas stood up, “Hey, this is my room! You can’t tell me when and when I can’t be here.”

“Do you want a free cell phone or not?”

He pouted, “Fine, fine. Let’s go, Vaughn. I’m sure we can play foosball or something.”