𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐲.

🗝| one.

one
( the beginning & tradition )

༻᯽༺

IRÈNE'S family was traditional. not in the way one would expect, more so in a modern way. she knows this because her mother goes on and on about simple life skills, specifically of the housewife variety (even though they were basic life skills). saying that if irène ever did find herself wanting to care for a man or anyone at all (she didn't but her mother didn't care), she should at least have the skills and mindset to do it.

her oldest brother, Jax, was married and lived just on the outskirts of town. her mother made sure to use him as a perfect example.

well, 'town' wouldn't work for the small population of blywood, utah; an insufferably small town with neighbors who liked to peek and secrets that never stayed secrets for long. gossip ran rampant, especially among the older ladies.

irène almost wished people would acknowledge the existence of others around them, her especially, before spilling everything.

but the gossip her mother seemed so eager to soak up, gave her an unprecedented amount of advantages and opportunities. her mother's friends and acquaintances didn't talk as low as they thought they did. when someone was over, gossip was bound to happen, and irène always had empty notebooks on hand (and ears everywhere in the house).

so, to not only appeal to and please (no matter how much the woman scared her, something she couldn't even admit) her mother but also to learn of how small her town was, irène began to join her mother and her visitors.

normally she wasn't the people type, but she craved her mother's approval. that and her never-ending itch to know of all the town's latest rumors, to know everything about everyone, to have a constant upper hand in the confines of her existence.

people should be more careful of who's around who. they never knew who was listening.

that was how this all started anyways. because irène, for whatever reason, just had to listen in on her parents' conversation one night. and that stupid ball and her family's stupid history was how she'd found out information she'd for once wished she didn't know.

every year, as far back as she could remember (and maybe farther), the King family would host extravagant parties. though she never knew the exact reason why just that the celebrations were most common, and the reasons rare.

only the most elite of families from surrounding areas were invited, though the numbers of said families slimmed down as their generational wealth reduced to nothing. scandals, divorces, bankruptcy, bribes, affairs, any reputation they'd built or had down the drain.

but there were 2 particular families they had special ties with. a long rich history with one, and the other, only a few decades old.

the Nixon family, with their obscenely large children, and not just in numbers.

for generations, the Kings and the Nixons have forever been peaceful with one another, helping in war, famine, and other various disasters. and for the past 4 generations, the families have intertwined through marriage.

what she described as a tale as old as time, was also a tale no one had ever told her. something about 'lost history' or something along those lines, she didn't care.

the other, the Pelletier family.

the pelletier family was a french-korean family that moved to the states for better education in the 40s, coming just after the crippling effects of the great depression.