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Chapter 11: Progeny Abound
Wednesday Morning
Yawn
Edwin rises from his dreamless slumber, stretching his arms and rubbing his eyes from his apparent short sleep. He didn't get much sleep last night, with all the possible scenarios that could occur after he presents his gift, running through his head. He started to have second thoughts also. But those thoughts quickly went away when he pictured Derek and Casey's faces.
This whole situation has seem to bring out a different side of Edwin, unbeknownst to his family, but not to himself. He clearly knows what he is doing, but has no qualms about it. It was this self-awareness that made Edwin think twice however. But it all came down to, would he ever get another chance like this again, a chance to prove that he's not just the mediocre little brother. And it's not like Derek and Casey will be portrayed in the usual taboo fashion under these circumstances. No, he knows the consequences of his actions would be even greater if he went about things that way, he's not that stupid, and villainous. Edwin just wants to leave his mark, in one of the most messed up ways possible.
Edwin rolls off his bed, landing on all four. He enters the hallway, a little dazed from his tumble.
He heads for the bathroom, full bladder in tow. He reaches for the doorknob, as it opens. Casey materializes in front of him cradling her stomach and moaning.
"Good morning?" He asks, uncertain if that's the appropriate greeting, judging from her body language.
Casey moans. "Stomach…ugh…ache…ugh." She continues to walk to her room.
"Oh."
Edwin clamps his nose with his hand, making sure he doesn't take a big whiff. He closes the door, and unclamps his nose. The bathroom smelled okay.
Edwin starts to do his business, and a pinkish-white box in the trash-can catches his eye, making him miss his intended target in the process. Bodily fluids shower the bathroom floor, "Ah! Not again!"
Edwin instantly stabilizes himself, careful not to hit the pink box. He finishes shortly after his little accident. After cleaning up his mess, he wraps his hand with toilet paper and grabs the pink box out of the trash bin to get a better look at it.
"First…response," Edwin reads quietly to himself. He continues, "Pregnancy test."
Edwin thinks for a second. He flashes right back to before he entered the bathroom, and how Casey acted, holding her stomach. An idea pops up in his head. Edwin opens up the already open box, and finds the test stick still in the box. He takes it out, grabbing the good end. He reads the instructions on the back of the box. Edwin looks at the indicator of the test stick. What Edwin sees overwhelms him.
"Oh."
"My."
"God."
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The kids are eating breakfast in the dining room.
Casey walks down the stairs to join them.
"Good morning everyone," she says jovially, taking a seat in her usual spot next to Lizzie. "Morning," everyone replies.
Edwin's quite interested in Casey's behavior, seeing as she seemed like she was going to throw up on him earlier that morning. "Feeling better?" He says, looking at Casey. She turns her attention to him, keeping the same gleeful expression, "Um…yeah, a lot better. I guess it was a morning thing."
"You're sick?" Derek says, with a mouthful of cereal.
"No, I'm not sick, I just wasn't feeling too well earlier," Casey corrects.
Derek nods his head, dipping his spoon in for more cereal.
"Alright everyone, we leave in ten minutes," Casey announces. Being the day of George and Nora's anniversary, they decided to take off work and sleep in. This means now, that Casey has to ferry everyone to school.
A dumbstruck look appears on Derek's face, "Wha— Why so early?"
Casey sighs, "Did you forget we have to drop them off," she says, looking at the other kids.
Derek glares at them, "Great." He resumes eating his cereal, as Casey takes a sip of juice.
"What's forbidden love?" Marti asks, taking everyone by surprise. Casey spits out her juice across the table on to Derek. Ignoring what she did to Derek, she turns to Marti with a nervous smile, "Wha—what was that Marti?" She asks, hoping she misunderstood her.
"I said, what's forbidden love," Marti repeats. A small grin forms on Edwin's face.
"Well it's…uhh…Marti, what made you ask something like that," Casey queries, now taking a glance at Derek who is wiping the juice off his face.
"I saw it on TV," Marti replies, not sensing the apprehension in Casey voice. A big sigh of relief comes over Casey and Derek. Casey begins to answer, but Derek beats her. He turns to Marti, "Marti, you see, forbidden love is when two people love each other, but society is against it." Marti stares at him, waiting for a better explanation. Derek forgets he's talking to a seven year-oldsorry, I'm guestimating her age), "Oh, uhh okay, let me give you an example." He looks at Casey then back at Marti, "Say me and Casey loved each other, more than siblings should love each other, in other people's eyes, it would be wrong, because we are family, well step-family, but society's stupid. They wouldn't see the difference." Casey stares intently at Derek, as if he's telling them their entire secret. Derek catches on, and continues, "I'm not saying me and Casey are that way, we're complete opposites, just giving you an example. Do you understand now?" Edwin snickers. Marti shakes her head no.
Derek sighs, "Marti, in a few years, ask me again." Derek gets up, "I think it's about time to leave."
Casey gets up as well, "Yes, yes it is." Derek and Casey grab theirs bags and head out the backdoor. Lizzie looks at Edwin with a questioning look; he just smiles back at her.
Casey and Derek enter the car first. Casey turns to Derek, "Whew, that was a surprise; Marti caught me off guard, and you didn't help using us to explain to her." Derek shrugs, "Hey, no one suspects anything, so I didn't think it would matter." Casey sighs. She looks out the window, "Okay, here they come."
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High School
Derek takes his usual stroll down the hallway, slapping fives with people he really doesn't know, eyeing the ladies as well, and shooting his trademark smile. He approaches Sam, who is at his locker, "Sammy my boy." He says, patting him on the shoulder. "You're in a peppy mood, what's up?" Sam laughs, closing his locker. "Just wanted to see if you can come to the anniversary thing tonight," Derek says.
"Oh my, Derek Venturi, are you asking my out?" Sam replies, in a mock expression. Derek's eyes widen, "Hey, don't raise you voice, and no, I'm not, don't flatter yourself." Derek looks around the hallway, making sure no one heard Sam.
Sam laughs, "Yeah, sure. Hey, is Emily going to be there too?"
Derek shakes his head, "Yeah, probably. Why?"
"Well, I've been meaning to tell you something, but I've been gone, and it hasn't been that long since—," Sam replies. "Hold that thought, I'll be right back," Derek interrupts, seeing Noel scurrying through mass blob of students.
"—me and Emily have been going out." Sam finishes, watching Derek dissolve into the crowd.
"Hey Noel, wait up." Derek yells over the hallway chatter, catching up to him. Noel looks back, "Oh it's you, what?" Derek walks beside Noel, "Oh, just wanted to…thank you again for the Casey thing." Derek obviously doesn't feel thankful to Noel, but to keep up appearances. "And also for coming to the party tonight, you know, with having Sally there. I guess it would kind of make Casey feel uncomfortable."
Noel keeps walking, "Yeah, well you're not welcome." Derek grits his teeth, "I guess I deserve that."
"Yeah." Noel says, walking away from Derek. Derek thinks out loud, "If only I could finish what we started Sunday night, if only…Oh! Sam!" Derek spins around, running back the direction he came.
Derek spots Sam in the distance, he runs up to him, "Sorry about, what we're you going to say?"
Sam smiles, "Oh, it's nothing big, I'll tell you later."
"Alright, well, I've got class to skip, see you at lunch." Derek waves. Sam just shakes his head.
Casey and Emily sit at an open table in the lunch room. Casey feels terrible that she can't tell her best friend about all that's been happening, but at least now she knows that Emily will probably be accepting of her and Derek. Still, she needs someone to vent to, or she might just explode from emotional nitro glycerin. Casey feels anxious just thinking about it. Emily's intuition flares, "Casey is something bothering you? You're just picking at your food." Casey sets her fork down and takes a deep breath, "Emily, I haven't totally been honest with you about Sunday night, I—," Casey gets distracted by Derek coming through the double doors of the cafeteria. He notices her and winks at her. Emily turns her head to see what Casey is looking at and spots Derek, who automatically springs his face the other direction. Emily turns back to Casey with an infectious smile, "I knew it." She whispers. Emily leans in closer to Casey, "It is what I think it is?" Casey nods. Emily gets up from the table and turns to Casey, "Well, come on, we've got a lot of talking to do." Casey giggles, "Yes, we do." She gets up.
"I've got some news for you too," Emily adds, walking out of the cafeteria.
The last bell just rang and Derek waits close by Casey's locker, waiting for her. Casey comes up to put her books in. Derek comes out of the darkness towards Casey, as a lioness creeps on its prey. He quietly comes up behind her. She's still unaware. Derek taps Casey's shoulder, leaving his pointer finger extended. She turns her face into Derek's finger. "Gotcha." Derek laughs.
"De-rek!" She whispers, looking side to side. "You can't do things like that, especially you, you never do that. It's uncharacteristic of you." Derek also glances left to right, "Hey, uncharacteristic isn't even a word in my dictionary. I say what I want. I do what I want. And I like who I want." Derek moves closer to her.
Casey steps back, placing her back on the locker, "De-rek. Remember the plan." Derek smirks, and steps back. "Yes, speaking of the plan. I said hey to Noel today. He didn't really appreciate my greeting though."
Casey steps closer to Derek, "What did you do?" Derek puts his hands up, "Nothing, just thanked for taking you back. He can be really cold though. I don't know what you ever saw in him."
Casey snorts, "He's only like that to you." Casey becomes unnerved, "Uhh Derek."
"Yeah," Derek replies concerned.
"I told Emily everything. I told her about the contest, the party incident, and the plan, and that me and you are…you know." Casey looks up Derek with puppy dog eyes.
"What?!" Derek jolts.
"What did you just say Casey?" Casey and Derek look to their side. Their jaws drop in unison.
"Could you repeat that?" Sam asks in disbelief.
Casey and Derek stutter for something to say, "uhh…we….uhh…you see…I…uhh."
Derek and Casey turn to look at each other for an answer then turn back to Sam. Sam's shocked appearance becomes relaxed. Sam laughs. They look at him confused. Sam sighs, "Sorry, I just had to do that. And boy was it fun." Derek and Casey stare at him dumbstruck.
"Oh, Emily just texted me." Sam finally says, holding up his phone. Derek snaps back to Casey. Casey gives an apologetic look, "Sorry, I told her not tell anyone even Sam."
"Even Sam?" Derek cocks an eyebrow. Sam speaks up, "Oh since we all know each other's secrets, might as well tell you mine. I was going to any ways, but uhh yeah, Emily and I are an item now." Derek's jaw drops again, "What is happening today?!"
Casey puts her hand on Derek's shoulder, "How about we all go out and discuss this." Sam continues to laugh, "Yeah, let's go Mr. Venturi."
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Venturi-MacDonald Residence
"I feel like Spider-man now, with everyone knowing I'm Peter Parker," Derek pouts, opening the car door. "Go whine your way to the mail box," Casey orders. "It's only Emily and Sam who know, you should be happy you can talk to Sam about this now." She says, walking behind Derek.
"But I loved the dangerousness that is our secret, because it was just me and you." Derek opens the lid of the mailbox on the wall, and pulls out the mail, shuffling through it, "Not me…not me…oh me…and Casey." Casey looks over Derek's shoulder, "Aw how cute." Derek looks over his shoulder, "Cute? Liability is more like it. It's good we got to this, before Dad and Nora. Nice, Hawaii here I come." Derek blanks off into space. Casey snatches the mail out of his hands, "Do you really think they're going to let you go to Hawaii? I was thinking we give it to them, for like a second honeymoon."
"Ha! I did not enter into that contest to be generous," Derek replies flabbergasted, taking the mail back from Casey. Casey purses her lip, "It's not totally your decision," Casey grabs the mail. Derek steps back in defeat, "Alright, let's talk about this later," he opens the front door. "Fine," Casey enters the house, followed by Derek.
It' close to 4:30, and Nora and Lizzie are preparing for the party which starts at six. Casey and Derek hang their jackets on the coat rack. Derek flurries up the stairs, while Casey walks in to the dining room to help with the preparations.
Meanwhile in Edwin's room, the new addition to his gift has just been finished. Edwin ejects the disc, and neatly places it in a clear plastic slip. The title of the disc reads Happy First Anniversary by Edwin Venturi, in red permanent marker. Edwin spins in his chair, holding the disc up. Edwin makes a full stop with his feet, a sudden rush of thoughts cloud his mind. These are not new to him, just pushed to the back of his mind, forgotten. This well deserved epiphany paints a sour look on his face. Edwin lowers the disc from the air, keeping his eyes locked. At the height of his happiest moment before his surprise, a revelation is not what he wanted. Edwin throws the disc onto the bed. He covers his face with his hands, "I just came so close to suicide. Only gods knows what Derek and Casey would do to me, not to mention dad and Nora's reaction. I am really stupid sometimes. And it's not like the test was actually Casey's, it could've been—." Edwin stands up and turns to the door, "Well, I just saved my self a beating." He exits the room, deciding not to do what he had intended to the do for the past two days. Spending hours upon hours editing what would have become his masterpiece. Now it was just a plain marked disc lying on an untidy bed.
Its 6:26 and most of George and Nora's friends are already here, chatting it up with their offspring. Edwin and Lizzie feel claustrophobic with George's lawyer friends asking them so many questions.
Edwin signals to Lizzie, "Well, it was nice meeting you all, but I think I hear our names being called." Edwin wedges through them.
"Whew, I'm wishing we went to the movies instead. This isn't fun one bit," Edwin says.
"Tell me about it."
They speed walk to the stairs, to avoid more guests.
Derek walks up to the door, and opens, "Sup."
Emily and Sam come together, "Hey, look who we found on the way here." Sam steps out of the way, to show Noel and Sally. Derek stares at Noel. "Please tell me this was just a coincidence," he smirks. Noel smiles, "I'm not you." Derek eyes widen, and looks at Sally with a grin, "Well come on in." Derek waits for everyone to cross the threshold and stops Noel with his arm, "I see you have on a comedic demeanor tonight, let's hope that ends at this door step." Noel grins, "Is something wrong Derek? I'm here to keep Casey company." Derek drops his arm, "Yeah, yeah. Go on in." Noel walks past Derek.
Casey comes down the stairs, and sees the new guests, "Hey guys."
She hugs Noel, "Hey Noel." Derek notices the embrace from the corner of his eye.
Sam and Emily stand between them alternating their attention from Casey to Derek.
Derek takes Sally's coat, "Cold out there?" He asks to take his mind off of Noel and Casey.
Sally smiles, "Yeah. It is winter after all."
"Since everyone's here now, we have some news," George broadcast across the rooms. All heads turn toward him. "First, we would like to thank you all for coming," Nora interjects. "Oh yeah, forgot that," George laughs.
"And thank you kids for the wonderful picture," Nora continues. "It's surprising to see Derek in it though."
Laugh laugh
"So what's the news?" Casey asks. "Well," Nora looks over at George, "We're—."
"Wait!"
Marti comes running down the stairs. She zigzags to the DVD player, putting in a mysterious disc.
"What is it, Marti?" Nora asks.
Marti pushes play, "It's a surprise." She turns on the TV.
"Oh, I like surprises," George smiles. The whole room turns their attention to the TV.
Music plays in the background, and Edwin's voice appears. Edwin jumps, "Oh crap." He mutters, walking towards the TV. Derek grabs him by the shirt, "Hmm, this might be entertaining." Edwin looks up at Derek with dilated eyes, "Trust me, you won't find it entertaining."
The video continues.
Hello, dad and Nora, Edwin here. First off, let me congratulate you two on making it a whole year. Bravo. It must have been hard. And second, hats off to you two for keeping us from killing each other, or mainly just Casey and Derek.
George and Nora smile at each other.
Oh, Casey and Derek, that brings up something interesting. Since Derek and Casey have known each other they have been at each other's throats, in more than one way possible, ha-ha. They are the epitome of polar opposites, the dark side and the light side, good versus evil, they form duality.
A Casey and Derek slide-show plays on the video. Casey and Derek direct their attention away from the video to Edwin. Edwin hides his face.
It's the law of nature here in this household, or so I thought.
The video switches from the slide-show to the hidden camera footage of Casey and Derek in the living room. Though, the audio from the footage is taken out.
I think the absolutes have been faded away in this case. As you can see, they're getting along, talking about what ever they are talking about, in complete peace and harmony. It's a miracle really, or is it?
In the footage Derek gets up from his chair to move by Casey on the couch, placing his hand on hers.
Now they're really getting along. Look at your work here, dad and Nora; you guys have made so much progress. You two even helped love blossom.
George and Nora cock an eyebrow. Edwin dips his head even lower.
You know the saying opposites attract?
On the video, Derek leans into Casey, grabbing the edge of the couch, guiding his lips on to hers. Casey grabs the back of his head, combing her fingers through his hair.
Casey and Derek's mouths open at the same time. Everyone gasps and turns their heads to them. Casey and Derek turn to each other then turn to George and Nora, who are still staring at the TV.
Isn't it beautiful? Just like you, I was surprised too. This right here is like water and oil mixing. Life is a phenomenal thing. But I just want you two and everyone else watching this, to accept them and what ever comes from it, I did.
The video goes black.
By the way, Casey's pregnant.
Edwin comes on to the screen holding up the pregnancy test kit he found in the bathroom that morning.
Well, I guess that's a whole surprise in and of it self. Ha-ha. Oh and Derek, Casey, please take mercy on me, I want to live to see my nephew or niece.
Happy First Anniversary dad and Nora!
The video stops, and Marti stands up, "I'm going to be an aunt!" Everyone looks at Marti. Edwin slowly backs away towards the backdoor.
"Well, I'm completely and utterly surprised." George says, in shock.
Derek looks back and forth between George and Nora, and Casey, ignoring the puzzled expressions from Sally and Noel, "You're pregnant? How?"
Casey looks just as confused as Derek, "I'm not!" She shakes her head. Nora lowers her head, "I'm pregnant. That was my test kit." Everyone in the room gasps again.
Nora raises her head and turns to Casey, "Care to explain?" Casey snaps her head to Derek, looking for an answer. Derek looks around the room, knowing sooner or later they're going to want an explanation, especially, the parents, Sally, and Noel. Derek looks at George and shrugs his shoulders, "uhh…sorry?"
"Derek?" George replies.
Derek runs to Casey, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him towards the front door, "We'll talk later." Derek yells before exiting the house. Sam and Emily look at each other for a second, and then run out after Derek and Casey. Noel and Sally join the chase.
George and Nora slump in to the chairs in the dining room. Nora turns to George, "That kind of ruins our good news." George smiles half-heartedly, "Yeah, kind of."
A/N: So there you have it, it's complete...just kidding. One more chapter to go.