A/N: Hope you all enjoy this little addition to "The Problem with Rumors." Think of it as the "special features" portion of this fic. :P

Epilogue

(and a sort of Prologue, too)

Marti

"Hey, Space Case, give me a hand in here, will you?" The voice belonged to Marti's oldest brother, Derek. Smiling to herself, Marti turned off the flashlight within the tent that she had been playing in. It was time to play "spy."

"What is it, Derek?" Casey responded, her voice sounding annoyed. Marti put a hand to her ear, listening.

"I need you to, uh, help me with this paper," Derek said, a little too loudly. Marti repressed a snicker, knowing full well that Derek needed no such help.

Casey's voice dropped to a whisper, but Marti had excellent hearing (not to mention, she had an imaginary friend to help her out in situations like these!). "Derek, be careful!" Casey hissed. "Do we even know where Marti is?" Marti let out a tiny snort at the question.

"She's probably in her room, sleeping," Derek drawled. "Figuring that it's almost eleven at night."

"I know, I know…" Casey sighed, and Marti made a tiny peephole in the tent door with her finger. She watched as Casey took Derek's hand and pulled him into her bedroom. The door closed behind them.

Marti jumped out of the tent and rushed to the door. Yep. She definitely heard kissing noises. Perfect. Her plan had worked after all. She grinned to herself, rubbing her hands together. It had been tough, but thanks to Marti's itsy bitsy nudge in the right direction, things were looking great between the oldest pair of stepsiblings. Marti smiled to herself as the kissing noise intensified, remembering back on the fateful dinner conversation that had started her newest craze: matchmaking.

Three months earlier

"Guess what, everyone!" Casey cried, bounding down the stairs in excitement.

The rest of the family looked up from their places at the dining room table. "What is it, Casey?" Nora asked, smiling.

"I officially have a boyfriend!"

Casey clapped her hands, and Marti asked, "Well, who is it?"

"Truman!" Casey chirped, grinning.

There was a loud noise from Derek, and suddenly milk was everywhere. He'd taken a huge gulp right before Casey announced her boyfriend's name, and had sprayed it everywhere.

"De-REK!" Casey screeched, dabbing her shirt with her napkin. "That's disgusting!"

"Wait, you don't mean Truman French, do you?" Derek demanded, wiping his chin with the back of his hand.

"As a matter of fact, I do." Casey sniffed, dabbing once more at her shirt before setting down her napkin.

"What's wrong with Truman Fudge?" Marti asked, totally confused. She raised an eyebrow at Derek's odd behavior.

"It's Truman French, sweetie," Casey corrected, "And nothing is wrong with him. I don't know what Derek's problem is, but it can't be my choice of boyfriend."

Marti saw Derek roll his eyes. "Whatever, later gang." He got up and left the table, no doubt heading to his room.

As the rest of the family finished their meal, Marti tilted her head, thinking. She silently snuck out of her chair and headed up to Derek's room.

"What's wrong, Smerek?" she asked her brother, climbing onto his bed next to him. He was looking at a magazine about video games, but she didn't think he was really reading it because he had it upside down.

"Nothing, Smarti," he smiled at her, tickling her stomach. "I just don't understand why Casey would want to be with a guy who's not very nice, is all."

"Oh." Marti hid a smirk (something she had picked up from a certain relative). She understood now. Derek was only pretending not to care, but from the way his eyebrows furrowed, or how he kept tapping his finger on his bedspread without realizing it…. Marti understood. She understood very well.

The next day after that

"And then, Scott was like, 'Your hair is really pretty like that.' I died, Casey, I really did!" Marti made a face at the way Casey's best friend was screeching up a storm. Emily and Casey were watching movies on the couch downstairs, eating popcorn and gossiping as they did so.

"Scott's a great guy," Casey responded, nibbling at a kernel of popcorn. "Isn't he friends with Truman?"

Hidden from view underneath the dining room table, Marti noticed Emily roll her eyes and say, "I don't really know. Hey, the movie's over. Can you go grab Clueless from your room? I haven't seen that movie in forever, and I'm in the mood for some Paul Rudd action now." Emily paused, her eyes glazing over and a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "Scott looks a lot like Paul Rudd, you know…"

Casey laughed and went upstairs to find the movie. Marti knew that she had a very small amount of time to act, so she leapt up from her hiding place and bounced onto the couch next to Emily.

"Hi!" she grinned, staring at Emily.

"Hi," Emily replied, smiling and looking a little weirded out. "How's it going, Marti?"

"Great!" Marti piped back, eating a piece of popcorn, before asking, "Did you know that Casey likes Derek?"

Emily had been reaching for more popcorn, but upon hearing this piece of news, she knocked the entire plastic bowl onto the floor. "WHAT?!" she gasped, her eyes growing huge and her mouth dropping open. A piece of popcorn fell out of it, but Emily didn't even notice.

"Yeah, I read it in her secret diary," Marti said, eating some popcorn off the floor as though nothing odd was going on at all. "But you can't tell her about this conversation, because she'll kill me if she finds out I read it."

"I—I won't…." Emily was spacing out, looking like she'd just learned that Disney Princesses were real (which they obviously were).

"Ok, great!" Marti scooped up one last handful of popcorn before skipping up the stairs to her room. She passed by Casey on the way up (and got her hair ruffled), and was able to hear Casey's query about the spilled popcorn. Emily sounded nervous as she made up some excuse about dropping the bowl. Marti smirked to herself; there was no way that Emily would be able to keep the secret. The news would be all over the high school by Monday morning….

Present day

Sure that Casey and Derek were, in fact, kissing in Casey's room, Marti pulled her ear away from the door and smiled to herself, a mischievous glint back in her eye. Things had all gone according to plan.

She cocked her head and thought for a moment, wondering what her next plan of action would be. Casey and Derek seemed to be going strong a month into their "secret" relationship, so Marti was obviously meant to be a matchmaker!

Hearing a noise from the attic, Marti smiled. I bet Edwin needs some help securing a new girlfriend, she thought to herself, letting her eyes fall on Lizzie's closed door. Perfect.

A/N: Ok, that's the back story of how the rumor actually got started! Hope you liked this little addition. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! Don't forget to review this epilogue and let me know what you think. :)