Marti Knows
Marti knew long before anyone else. Subconsciously at first, then it became more prominent as time progressed. She never quite understood why her family was such a scandal. They were just family after all. But she knew from the start, when the MacDonald's moved in with the Venturi's that her family wasn't exactly normal. Derek, the eldest and the favorite of her siblings, had started badgering her eldest step-sister Casey for no apparent reason. Although he would automatically say when anyone brought it up, that it was the fact that she was born to begin with.
Marti knew different however. Of course she didn't really know, but the thought did occur to her many times. Derek was like a little boy in Kindergarten pulling at Casey's pigtails because he liked her. Marti figured this was why he was so mean to her. And her suspicions were confirmed when one day; just before their graduation Casey and Derek came into the kitchen their hands interlocked. Marti couldn't help but giggle at the sight, and noticed the exchange of smiles between Lizzie and Edwin. And Marti still to this day never understood why her Dad and Nora got red faced and started shouting things that she didn't quite catch fast enough.
But even still the pair didn't break ranks and cower, like the adults probably expected, more so hoped. They held on tight until Derek calmly stated, in a most un-Derek like fashion, that they didn't care and that they loved each other. There was silence and Marti, even at her young age, could tell that the room was filled with immediate tension. After a while of this silence her dad and Nora left the room in a heated discussion.
Later that year, after Derek and Casey had moved out and into their own place, and shortly after their engagement; Marti knew something else. Something quite like the first only this time she was older and understood more than she had when her eldest siblings announced their love. It had started when she had opened the game closet and found Lizzie and Edwin locked together at the lips. Of course they broke apart quickly dragging her in and ordering her not to tell anyone about what she just saw.
And Marti never did. But it didn't really matter; because only two months after she learned this secret between those two unlikely candidates her dad and Nora found out. Not the same way however that they did with their eldest children but in a far more surprising way. They had walked in one night and caught Lizzie and Edwin on the couch, much like Marti had, with their lips locked. And also like they had with Marti, they broke apart embarrassed and quickly jumping away from each other. Marti knew, because she watched from the top step.
Unlike her dad and Nora reacted with hearing Derek and Casey's news they looked shock, and silence had filled the room. After an awkward five minutes Nora spoke in a shaky voice asking how long it had been going on. And Lizzie answered just as nervous that it started after Derek and Casey revealed their secret. And they left it at that, going their separate ways in the house.
Marti had known. Long before any of her siblings discovered it. Her family wasn't normal. But for some reason, that was okay with her. Because although when she walked through the hallways at school and heard the distinct whisperings of her scandalous family, Marti didn't understand. It's not like they were blood related, or had grown up together. They just inconveniently fell in love with each other. But even then it didn't matter to her. Her family was happy; even if it wasn't in the most original way. She didn't understand. Derek, Casey, Edwin, and Lizzie weren't a scandal. They were just in love.