Hi guys! Yep a new Zailey story. I will finish The Game is Called Death, for those fans, because I have a plotline and the next chapter nearly finished. Just thought I'd have fun with this one. I think it will be about five or six chapters, this one. No vampires in this one, I promise! Hope you enjoy.
Five years to the day, Bailey found herself staring at a pair of twins she'd never imagined seeing again. One out of cold content and dislike, and the other because of a horribly ended relationship resulting with the glazed over pink scar across his forehead. Wincing internally, so he didn't see, she averted her gaze and pondered that she hadn't meant to throw the china so hard. She never thought he wouldn't have ducked, or that it would have broken either. It was clear after that night, when he had to get eighteen stitches, things were through with them.
She hadn't expected them at all, not showing up to her small apartment in Florida, not with the group of people that followed for that matter. So many people outside, all once friends and companions, but since graduating, she hasn't given more than a wayward Facebook message or Christmas card to. And this makes her feel guilty, but not enough to really care.
"Bailey!" Addison cried, throwing her arms around the girl's neck.
"Addison..." She greeted hesitantly, "Zach, Cody, London, Maya, Woody, Marcus, Maddie, Renia." She addressed each by name, half smiling half glaring, "What a...surprise." She was about to say pleasant but it was not pleasant in the least. She was unprepared to entertain house guests by a number of reasons. Her house was all cluttered because she'd recently painted the walls a happy spring-time mint color, she was dressed in unflattering yoga pants with her hair all up, and she'd been right in the middle of scrubbing the floor so she'd answered with yellow work gloves on her hands.
"If I may ask, why are you here?" She said pointedly, looking away when she knew Cody was looking at her.
"Can we come in? It's awfully crowded here." Maya asked with a tinge of a smile.
"Erm," Before Bailey could say any affirmative, Zach was moving past her into the modest apartment, furnished with wicker and gingham. The whole sea soon followed.
"So, what are you doing here?" She asked as they sat on couches and chairs pulled from around the house to the main room. Bailey leaned against the threshold, staring before her.
"The class reunion was yesterday, held here. The ship was docked in port Canaveral. I mean, it's not our ship anymore, but it's still a ship that we went to school on." Woody answered. Bailey nodded.
"Really? I didn't know it was here. My invite must have gotten lost in the mail." She mulled softly, biting the inside of her cheek.
"Yeah, it was awesome. Mr. Mosby wants to rent out out for our ten year, just think of what we'll be then. Drinks around, and I went to my old room. The dent in the wall was still there!" Zach laughed, and began regaling his friends with his new adventures from the previous night.
"Do you guys need anything? Food, drinks?" Bailey was in no mood to serve anyone, but she felt it impolite not to offer.
"I'll have a beer, if you have some." Zach said and a couple other people nodded in agreement.
"I'll have a low-fat chocolate caramel latte with coconut shavings and hold the wiped cream." London rattled off, throwing her pumps onto the foot table with an echoing crack.
"Rigggghhht." Bailey rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen. She hadn't realized someone had followed her until she closed the fridge door with beers and other drinks in her fingers.
"Lost in the mail, huh?" Cody asked, plucking off a thick card stock invite from under a magnet. Bailey winced; she'd known perfectly well it was going on, and had chosen not to come. She hadn't thought they'd track her down, by god.
"I was busy." She said tensely, struggling to juggle all the drinks.
"Let me." Cody offered, and Bailey shook her head.
"Really, it's fine." They were so civil to one another it scared her. Cody seemed not to say why he'd followed her, and Bailey did not want to talk to him. It was painfully silent.
"I'm going to change." She said abruptly, "I guess...will you...take these out?" She rummaged through her drawers and found a box of wafers, "And these? I wasn't expecting anyone." She said icily. Cody seemed not to hear her jab, and she was already walking to her bedroom before she could see his response.
In her room, she went into the little bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face. She was dreaming. Why the hell was her ex and all her former friends sitting in her living room, like it was yesterday they were running around that ship. But they were adults now, and she most certainty was an adult who would not let them see anything from her face. She would be strong and be nice to Cody, even though the very sight of him made her want to rip his hair out.
Walking in to her bedroom, she dug through her small closet and donned a pair of dark jeans and a simple tee shirt, and primped herself for a moment before she continued back out with all these people.
"Hi, everyone." She said as she tousled her hair out of the stiff bun, wishing she had time for a shower.
"Bailey, place looks great! What are you doing out here, though? What happened to Yale?" Maya asked.
"I majored in biology, graduated a year ago. I was going to start med school, but my great aunt fell ill. She lives about a blink away, and was rather estranged from my family. I suppose I am too, so I came down to watch her. Unfortunately the doctors say she doesn't have much time left, so I suppose I can be expecting to move back to Yale to continue soon enough." Bailey clamped her lips closed from saying any more, already horrified she'd said so much. There were coos and sorries from the group, and she sat beside Marcus.
"Have you dated anyone since...since..." Cody asked softly, and she knew what he was asking about. She stared at his forehead hard, regretting but not at the same time the sensation of being free of him.
"Well, Moose, for a bit. But we saw things differently." 'Differently' was perhaps the greatest lie she'd ever told. She recalled with a blushing face how she'd returned to Kettlecorn after her first year of college. Her family and Moose had been so glad to have her home, and he'd begun courting her at the beginning of the summer. By the end, he'd gotten down on one knee in the middle of a corn field.
"My mama says I'm gunna be running the family farm soon 'nuff. And that it's 'bout time I have settled down with a pretty lady, and I want that to be you, Missum Pickett." The same charm she had always recalled, but she just couldn't do it.
Seven Seas high had drastically changed things for her. It hurt, as he rambled on on one knee, that the shocking truth of it all stared her right in the face. She wanted her to come away from that 'silly stuck-up school' so far away and teach at the local middle school, or even volunteer at the hospitals where farmers who ran over their feet with tractors went. He wanted her to cook and clean and be a home wife to the little house he said he already had picked out so he could begin to oversee and become the main farm man. More importantly, he wanted her to be breed with many children to work the land as soon as they had wed.
He wouldn't ever want to go out and see the world, he wouldn't want a long engagement, and he wouldn't settle for just one or two children with at least five years in between. He would never stop being sexist, because she was his 'haystack hottie' who was made to clean and scrub the floors, and go out with the ladies every fortnight to gaze at the town's latest and biggest vegetables as a source of fun. He wanted to do what her parents and his parents had done as children- married at the age of 19 and become another generation at the farms.
She'd taken the ring for one night, not really with her heart, and in the morning she'd packed up and left everything including the ring. That had caused some strife in her family, as her parents greatly approved of this 'union' and how it would benefit her to marry such a well groomed and well endowed farmer. They loved her, of course, but all at the wrong times.
Since then, her dates had been nearly nonexistent, savor one or two nice men who had taken pity on her at the bars. So yes, her and Moose had ended badly.
"And you, Mr. Cody?" Addison asked, saving Bailey the embarrassment of having to ask herself, "How's your love life been?" There was a twinkle in her eyes.
"Well, I mean there was just Tanya and Ellie." He shrugged, but Zach cut in.
"And Lola, and Shawna, Emma, Louise, and Sue!" He chuckled, "My brother has more game than I do!"
Bailey felt her hands tighten around the beer bottle she was holding, and felt the need for something much stronger, like hard liquor or vodka at the moment. Cody saw her expression, and his eyes softened.
"It wasn't like that, Bales. Not really." He sighed.
"Not like that? You became legendary at Dartmouth, bro! God, you had girls falling into your bed at night." Zach continued, and Bailey started to stand, but Marcus pulled her back down.
"Zach's just exaggerating, you know how he is." He whispered soothingly.
"I don't know anymore." She replied. All she could think was 'i had him first, doesn't that count for anything?'
"So what has everyone else been up to?" She asked, shutting out the look Cody was giving her. She couldn't handle Mr. I'm-suddenly-so-good-in-bed. Speaking spitefully, he was average.
Maya had finished her time in Chad and opted to move out there somewhat permantly to teach at the newly finished school, and help the town rebuild one of it's poorer sections. She was only back in the states for a week or so, just to get in touch with her family.
Woody had opened a Mexican buffet down in New York city and was a sucusessful salesman, if he could only stop eating the produce, he joked. He had a girlfriend who could fart 'Through the fire and flames' and had an apartment with her.
She knew what Marcus had been up to, as she had all his CD's and listened to his comeback where he went from a baby performer to a man that girls drooled over and sent locks of hair and weird stuff. She congratulated him, showing him her iPod with pride.
Addison worked as a police woman in Boston, and proudly showed everyone her gun, which scared not only Bailey but the majority of the room. She waved it around, laughing saying that it sucked that she couldn't have coffee in the morning otherwise her had would shake too much and she'd misfire. She also described in vivid detail what it felt like to be pepper sprayed to the point Bailey felt her own eyes hurt.
Maddie, although she was unsure on what she was doing here with the group, still lived in Boston as well and had ended up sharing a flat with Addison where she worked as the leader of a local homeless shelter and veterinarian.
Reina was learning to be a chef, and had a high paying job down in Los Angeles.
Zach said that 'school wasn't really his thing' even though he got a degree in history, and talked about joining the military, which Cody responded to with anger.
"It's great he wants to go off and do that, really, but I couldn't image losing him." Cody said, "I think his mind is set, though."
Cody was currently the head of Tipton Industries, as London's father had died only six months prior. London was inadequate as a heir to everything, so she'd hired Cody to be the acting man while she continued life as before, but a little more depressed, Bailey had noticed.
But it was London who won the prize for the most exciting news.
"I was going to tell you yesterday, with everyone, but we had to hunt you down." For the first time in her life, she seemed nervous. She carefully pulled out of her bag a ring and slipped it on her finger. Her ring finger. Everyone stared in silence until Maddie whispered, "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes! Hello world, London's getting married!" Bailey felt herself comfortable once again, and got out the good wine as a congrats as London began to gush about preparations.
"Well, Maddie and Bailey are expected to be bridesmaids. Maddie as Maid of Honor, and Bailey as Co-Maid of Honor!" She said, "Now that I know where to find you, shoving you into a diamond incrusted bridesmaid dress will be so much easier." She said.
"London, I'm honored." She said, and London grinned with bravado.
"That's not the only big news." London smiled.
"What? You're pregnant?" Zach joked. London threw a throw pillow at him ("Because Bailey, they're called throw pillows for a reason!") and laughed.
"No. I'm opening my own fashion line and store. Today's the grand opening." She smiled, "Here in Orlando. And...I want all my friends to be there for it. And for each of you to model the line created after you." She winked.
"Who knew London Tipton was sentimental?" Addison said, "This is incredible."
"Yep! So get you're best on Bailey, because we're heading over there now."
Bailey was floored. "London, I mean, this is nice and all but I don't think-," Bailey couldn't recall a time she'd been outside of her house casually. It was a funny thought, to go out to have fun. To go to the mall for gosh sake's!
"What? You have to go! C'mon!" These were the general responses as soon as the words left her lips. London stood and walked to Bailey.
"Bailey, if I really wanted to tell you just about the wedding, I would have called or done it later. But I really want you there. I mean, I want my best friends to share in my greatest triumph. It wouldn't be the same without you there." She whispered. Bailey saw the sincerity in her eyes, and that's what broke her. You couldn't fake the look London was giving her.
"Give me a moment." SHe sighed, and everyone cheered. Within the hour, she was locking her front door and stepping into a Tipton Limo. She couldn't remember the last time she'd rode in one of these.
She ended up squished between the twins, and noticed that they'd grown even taller and more like men in the years she'd been away from their world. Zach's hair was cut shorter and spiked up, and it looked like he hadn't shaved in a week or two. Cody was clean shaven with slightly longer hair slicked back just perfectly. Zach affectionately swung an arm over her shoulder, and for a moment she closed her eyes and pretended it was the old days. When she was only a teen, and not 23.
"Mosby will be happy to see you, Bailey." Zach chatted casually while Cody did his best not to set things off ease, "He and and that old teacher of ours have twins now. Twins! Ah, sweet justice." He chuckled.
"I designed a line just for them too. And their children. Those girls will be the best dressed babies if their godmother has anything to say about it!" She smiled happily and gleefully.
"Godmother?" Bailey spluttered.
"Of course! I was the obvious and perfect choice." London batted her eyes.
"She'll spoil them rotten, and they're not even two." Maddie chortled with her, "And they are the most adorable little tykes ever!"
The ride to the mall was much too short, and she figured it was too early in the day to be drinking so much. Heck, it was only noon. What was that phrase though? Oh yes, it has to be five somewhere.
But all her worries faded when they were escorted through the mall and the crowds of cameras like it was a movie premiere and she saw Mosby and the mrs each with a little caramel colored girl in their arms. She hugged them both and baby talked little Nadia and Helene for a moments, and Mosby commented how well they took to her, whereas when Woody got within five feet, they screamed their little heads off.
"They may be smelling that five day old no-shower stink." He said, eating a meatball sub. At that comment, London had him promptly carted off to be hosed down before he dare step foot in her clothing line.
"So, there's twelve different lines I'm showing with the opening of my first five stores today; one in DC, one in New York, one in Boston, one in Cali, and one here!" She said gleefully as a clean shaven and pleasant smelling scowling Woody with wet hair reappeared.
"The cameras will love you, because I pay them too! You're faces will be everywhere on the official billboards advertising my line. Because, who better than the faces of you guys? And me, of course. Yay me!" She paused as her phone rang, and she held up her fingers to answer.
"Hey, sugar muffin! Yeah, I'm here. Okay, oh you would not believe it! I can't wait for you to meet everyone!" She gushed over the phone, and Bailey realized it must be her fiancee.
"So, whose the lucky guy?" Bailey nudged Maddie, looking at where London was practically glowing as she talked over the phone.
"Even I don't know. I mean, she didn't tell me. I know she's been seeing someone, but they've kept it closely under wraps." Maddie seemed a bit hurt, but smiled with force, "She seems so happy though, how can I not be too?"
"I want a guy that makes me that happy one day." Maya smiled, "I guess that could have been Zach," She glanced over to where he and the guy were in stitches about something, "But it wasn't meant to be."
"Same with Cody and I." Bailey agreed.
"Okay, so my wonderful soulmate is coming to see us all in our clothes!" London gave a little skip and a happy dance, "He's heard so much about all of you, and met some of you." Bailey and Maddie looked at each, sharing a similar look. It either meant he meet the Hotel group or the Boat group, but Zach and Cody had probably both met him, as they were the only other tie between the group. But it was impossible to guess. London's taste were so unusual that the very idea of guessing her husband was something laughable, and London would probably laugh at them if they tried.
"Now- onto the clothes!" London waved her hand and twelve racks of clothes were shuttled out by various people in black, each with sparkly pink lettering on the board above it with unusual names...the names of the lines.
Bailey was sure that London hadn't meant to hurt their feelings, of course, but the names she choose showed the more mean side of London which she was sure that all the heiress had meant to do was poke some fun or reminisce in past memories.
For example, although Bailey had to admit the clothes fit their personality perfectly, she felt a little deflated at the name of her own line and those around her.
Maddie's line was by far the best tailored of all, you could see it in every stitch of perfect and flawless, elegant fabric. But the name was 'Candy Counter', which to the average eye would seem like an odd name or even avant gaud, but the look on Maddie's face which seemed like a mix between a grimace and a laugh showed it all.
Zach's line was no more than what he wore on an average day, but with a little more 'oomph', as she saw London try to explain layering to him and show him some tricked out pants and expensively dyed fabrics. It was called 'Zackattack'.
Cody's was a time before she met him, full of sweat-vests, pleated pressed pants, smart looking oxfords, and all done with a certain style that made her cheeks blush red and realize how attractive he- and his twin really were. Cody was calling over Woody to read the name of his line- 'Coholy Toledo', which Bailey remembered from the first meeting of the two former roommates when they retold it.
Woody's line was called 'The Woodster' and seemed fit for a man going out hiking or outdoors all day; not that Woody enjoyed any of those, but they fit him well. There was also some nice looking clothes, she supposed, for Woody when he went back to running a company.
Renia's was by far the smallest, and called the 'Modern Chef' and one can imagine the looks out of this line. It seemed vintage, like she was a housewife and filled with dresses, polka-dots, and light fabrics.
Addison's was called 'On Coffee' and was as eccentric as the long-legged girl was, filled with deep purples and stars and somewhat looked straight out of some sort of fantasy movie. But it was totally fashionable, Bailey thought as the girl pulled on a pair of sky print leggings that made her legs seem to reach miles.
Maya was 'Out In Mr. Chad' and reflected a more global type of style, filled with African, Asian, and European inspired pieces, and ended with a very american punk-rock look filled with leather, studs, and cut up shirts.
Marcus was the 'Little Entertainer' and his outfits could be described anywhere from 'ghetto' to hip-hop clothes full of wild graffiti everywhere and baggy pants with chains abound.
After carefully inspecting each of their wardrobes, Bailey turned her attention to her own. It was called 'Little Haybail' and she touched each western inspired look with tentative fingers. The name alone wanted to make her barf, as that's what Cody used to call her. And she would have loved this look before, but now, it fell flat in her eyes after the family's falling out. There were perhaps two or three pieces, though, that she found accecptable, and at these marveled at London's class and beauty and talent.
London quickly had them in their first outfits, and Bailey wore a chambray top with no sleeves, highwaisted red pants with a white jacket over it all. She thought it almost looked like something from a 4th of July poster.
In the chairs on which they sat to get hair and makeup, Bailey couldn't help but feel like a aristocrat and reminisced the earlier day when she thought all she would do today was clean her flat.
Beside her, London and a helper were debating wether to shave off Zach's slight beard.
"I think it makes him look dangerous." The male helper, clearly gay, said licking his lips.
"Yes, but is dangerous what we really want to go for?" London was contemplating.
"Don't I get a say in this?" Zach asked weakly.
"Yes, I think it's the perfect look!" They ignored Zach.
"Well, let's ask someone. Bailey!" London spied her at the next chair, "Do you think that we should make him clean-shaven? Or is he fine the way he is?" Bailey looked at him and a hot blush ran up her cheeks.
"I...uh...he's...," She blubbered on and the male helper gave a triumphant smile.
"See! She's speechless! Red in the face, so clearly she thinks it's attractive too!"
"I never said that!" Bailey grit her teeth, embarrassed.
"Oh, honey, you didn't have to." Bailey avoided Zach's looks and tilted her head.
"London, shush. What was that?" She asked, craning her neck to hear something that she couldn't place.
"Just the paparazzi. They want the first looks at my collection, but they won't get in. I hired the best body guards." London said, brushing away her concern.
"No, I hear it too." Zach jumped out of his seat, against the protests of London and the stylist, and walked around. Now it seemed that everyone in the tiny room could hear the patting sounds that penetrated the walls.
"That's not just paparazzi." Woody stated the obvious. Zach looked around, and grabbed a sharp item from one of the tables and approached the door. Right as he began to open it, Addison got a terrified look on her face and threw herself out of the chair.
"Zach don't!"
But it was too late and Bailey knew exactly what the sound was as the door was opened.
Guns.