invisible string

year 11

Meredith threw her books onto the table and announced, "I need to graduate middle school, like now." Then she plopped into the seat. Derek laughed. The idiot was laughing at her misery. "Oh you think this is funny, do you?" She asked.

"In fact, I do." He said, as he continued to read from his textbook.

"And why is that?" She glared at him.

"I remember a certain sixth grader being extremely pissed at a certain innocent middle school graduate for deciding to go to high school." He said.

Meredith smirked at him. "It's not my fault you were a wimpy eighth grader who needed a sixth grader to defend you."

"Hmmm." He smiled at her and continued to study. Meredith officially had a full blown crush on Derek. She hated the word crush. All the other girls in the grade had crushes on the dumb boys in the grade. Even Chuck had a crush on Thomas, who, to be fair, was the least annoying boy in the grade, but that was a low bar. But the only word that Meredith could use to describe her feelings towards Derek was 'crush'. And it sucked. He was a junior in high school who dated other juniors in high school. Granted the girls he dated were always some variant of horrible.

Meredith happened to be very proud of the fact that none of Derek's girlfriends had lasted more than three days after meeting her. Although she had gotten a lot smoother about chasing them off than she was with the first girl. Maybe if Derek had brought home a girl who didn't suck, she wouldn't chase her off, but there was no guarantees.

Derek had some sort of self esteem issues. Meredith got why, he didn't really have the qualities that made people popular in high school. But in her eyes, there was no one better. He had bright blue eyes, and a really big smile, not that he smiled all that often. He constantly got made fun of because of his nose, but Meredith liked it. It made his face look more Dereky. His hair was always a giant mess but she honestly thought it was cute. He was really smart too. He was always studying for AP tests and the ACT and SAT because he really wanted to go to Columbia University. It was completely across the country, but Meredith was really proud of him. It always felt good to be around Derek. He would listen to her complain about school and her stupid classmates or teachers or mother. And he always would return some snarky comment that didn't actually help but made her laugh.

Whenever she complained to Chuck about anything, Chuck would try to comfort her and tell her it sucks. Which she guessed was generally the right thing to do, but she liked Derek's method a whole lot better. But both options were better than telling her mother anything. Whenever she complained to her mother, it just ended in a long lecture about working harder in school and not being distracted. Meredith didn't know what her mother wanted from her. She had never not gotten an A in school, and she had never gotten in trouble. She wasn't a teachers pet or anything, but she really didn't need to try in school to get A's and the teachers were generally too stupid to catch her doing anything wrong. But her mother still thought she was unfocused. Her mother probably only thought that because she wasn't around enough to even notice Meredith's grades or reports.

"I quit." Meredith announced as she shut her textbook.

"You quit?" Derek asked.

"I do." Meredith said as she stood up from the Shepherd's kitchen table.

"Well if your quitting, then so am I." He announced as he let his head fall into the textbook. Meredith grabbed his hand and said, "Come on." As she dragged him to the living room. "TV time." She let go of his hand and flung her body onto the couch, then Derek did likewise... on the same couch.... On top of her.

"Derek!" She said as she tried to squirm out from under him.

"What?" He responded pretending that he didn't know what was going on. "This couch is much less comfortable than I remember it. It's all bony and movy."

"But you're just as assy as I remember." She said as she tried to move from under him.

"What did you say to me?" He said pretending to be angry. Meredith took this chance and moved slightly to the side, almost escaping, until Derek held onto her right at the side of the couch.

"You're an ass." She said as she moved slightly, finding a comfortable position lying next to him.

"That is a very rude thing to say Meredith Grey." He said as he grabbed the remote and flicked the tv on.

"It's accurate." She said as she nuzzled herself closer to him and quietly watched the tv. After a few minutes they were both fast asleep, in each other's arms.