Chapter 3
I don't own these characters, but it would be nice if I did.
Wait...In this story, I actually created some of them, so I do own them.
Anyways, I do promise to keep them true to themselves.
And as for the ones I did create, who they are is up to me, so...
The summer continued to crawl along. Cody might not have the plan he wanted going forward, but he thought he had one that would work. Zack, on the other hand, was no closer to finding out what he wanted to do. Carey had suggested he give college a shot, but after having just recently graduated, he really wasn't high on going to school when he didn't have to. He still had the car and the idea of heading out on to the open road to see what was out there for him. But his idea of driving across country had hit one rather large snag - gas prices. As it was, he wasn't sure he had enough money to afford enough gas to get him out of New England. Andt the more he thought about it, the more and more comfortable the couch in their suite got. He knew he should do something, but he still had no idea what to do.
The end of June finally arrived, and the twins were hanging around the suite on a Friday afternoon. Zack was just rolling his eyes as he listened to his brother talking with Bailey on the phone. He swore they were even more annoying now after they were back together. Of course, he did realize that he might be a bit jaded in that they were back together and the woman he loved was long gone. But almost as soon as Cody hung up the phone, Carey came into the suite with some groceries and that day's mail. As she looked through it, she looked up at Cody.
"Honey, you received a letter in the mail from Yale today..."
Cody looked up and sighed. "What do they want now? Do they want to punch me in the stomach again? Maybe kick me a little bit lower?" He shook his head. "I don't care to read them formally rejecting me again..."
"Mind if I open it then just to see what it says?"
He shrugged. "Go ahead."
Carey opened the letter and began skimming it. And as she did, the biggest smile broke out on her face.
"Ummm...Cody. I think you should read this..."
He sighed again and got up off the couch. Taking the letter from his Mom, he began reading it as well. "Dear Mr. Martin...yadda yadda yadda...on further review, we are pleased to accept you to Yale University with the enclosed financial aid package...yadda yadda yadda...Congratulations..." He looked up at his Mom. "See, they were just..." He paused in mid sentence and looked back down at the letter and read it again. "I got in..."
Carey smiled at him. "See, everything is working out after all..."
Zack came up and patted his brother on the shoulder. "Good job..."
Cody was still in complete shock. "But...but..." He shook his head and began laughing. Doing a little dance around the apartment, he began shouting. "I'm going to Yale! I'm going to Yale!"
Zack laughed. "I guess you can join the rest of your fellow nerds in your nerd...atorium..."
Cody was still laughing. "Fine with me! I get to be with Bailey after all, and that's the most important thing. And I..." He stopped laughing and dancing around. "Wait a minute..."
Carey looked at him. "What is it?"
He shook his head. "This makes no sense whatsoever. First, there is Ilsa's brother. He made it abundantly clear that he would never allow this. Second, even if it went to another person somehow, how does someone who was initially rejected and later admitted get full financial aid? I'm calling the Yale admissions office. Something doesn't add up here."
Carey and Zack just watched him pull out his phone and dial. And then they watched him have a conversation with someone in the Yale admissions office. When he finally hung up, he just turned back to his mother and brother.
"Its completely legit. I don't understand..."
Zack grinned. "Then just accept it and don't ask questions. Its not like someone blackmailed someone to get you in..."
Cody sighed and hung his head. "Zack...what did you do and will I need to find bail money?"
"Nope. I just paid you back for all the times I've screwed things up for you..."
Cody still looked at him wearily. "What did you do?"
Zack plopped back on the couch, kicked his feet up and explained to his Mom and brother what had happened with Hans in the admissions office. "And once you graduate, I erase the video..."
Cody sat down on the couch and shook his head. "I can't accept this then...I didn't earn it."
Zack just looked at him. "What are you talking about? Of course you earned it!"
"No, I didn't. I got in because you had blackmail on Hans..."
"And you got rejected because Hans had a vendetta against us. Don't you think that makes everything a wash? If he hadn't, you would have gotten in anyways. Now, because he did, you get to go for free..."
Carey spoke up. "Lets not forget that part!"
Cody stopped to think. What they said did make an awful lot of sense. And Hans was the one who took away the objectivity in his original application. So, he would never know if he would have gotten in based on his own merits, but was that really important? This was going to let him do what he truly wanted – go to his dream school with the girl of his dreams. He stood up.
"I guess I need to call Dr. Brown..." He smiled. "And tell him I won't be able to be his research assistant now..."
Carey sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. Are you going to call Bailey and tell her the good news?"
Cody nodded. "Yeah, I should call her first thing..." He pulled out his phone again. But before he called, he paused and smiled again. "On second thought, I'm not. I'll surprise her the day we move in. I'll call her like I'm checking in with her to see how moving in is going. And then I'll tell her I sent a special delivery for her, and it should be arriving at any time now. I'll knock at the door, and when she opens it up, I'll be standing there with a bouquet of her favorite flowers..."
Carey laughed. "I like it. It sounds very romantic. I'm sure she'll love it." She went back to unload the groceries and Cody fell back into the couch again. He turned to his brother.
"You know, Zack...You're right. Somehow, things did turn out alright. It did for me this time, now its your turn."
Zack looked at him. "My turn? What are you talking about?"
"You and Maya. Let me help..."
Zack stopped him. "Don't! The solution to your problem landed in my lap by accident. But there is no solution to mine. If you really want to help, then leave it alone! I'm moving on with my life. There is no more Maya and me! Accept that!"
And with that, Zack got up and stormed out of the suite. Cody got up to follow him out, but by the time he got out into the hallway, he saw no sign of Zack anywhere. He began looking around for him, and eventually made his way down to the lobby. And when he got there, Zack was still nowhere to be found. Cody asked Esteban if he had seen him, but Esteban said he saw Zack head out the front door of the hotel. Cody just sighed and shook his head. He was about to head back upstairs when the front door opened and in walked a familiar face. No, it wasn't Zack...it was London.
"I'm back! Little old me is back from Paris!"
Cody just shook his head and walked over to her.
"London, have you seen Zack anywhere?"
She just looked at him funny. "Of course I have. I'm standing right here talking to him..."
He groaned. "No, not me, Zack."
"You are Zack..."
"No, I'm Cody..."
London just shrugged. "Ehh...either way. Is he missing?"
Cody sighed. "I tried to talk to him about Maya, but he just ran out of the suite. He refuses to talk about her, and when I try to bring her up, he gets angry and upset..."
London just looked at him again. "And you're surprised by this?"
That caused Cody to pause. "What do you mean?"
She laughed. "You and Bailey were the same way when you two were on your break. You two were miserable without each other, but you refused to talk about it. You just got defensive about it..."
He paused. "Well, I guess I did, but I'm just trying to help..."
"Like everyone was for you two, but neither of you would let go of your anger and pride long enough to listen to them."
"I guess so..." He paused to think. "It took me doing the stupidest thing I've ever done before I realized that I had handled everything completely wrong. But when I called her and heard she was in trouble, there was no question in my mind I was on my way to Kettlecorn..."
London shrugged. "Sounds easy enough. Get Maya trapped in a tornado, and I'll bet Zack goes running after her..."
Cody shook his head. "Not that easy. She's in Chad right now, and I can't control weather. But you're right, London. Zack helped me out, so I'm going to repay the favor. I needed something to light a fire underneath me. I need to find a way to light one underneath him too..."
She gasped. "You're going to set him on fire?"
He just looked at her. "Of course not. I need something to make him jump in to action. Either way, he needs a kick in the butt to get him off the couch..." He paused to think. And then his smiled. "And I think I have an idea..."
London shrugged. "Okay. I'm heading back to my penthouse..."
Cody got in her way though. "Uh uh...I need your help!"
"Cody...You know me. I don't help people!"
He smiled at her. "Sorry, London. I don't believe that at all. I saw how you stood up to your Dad to save the Pickett family farm. That excuse won't fly anymore..."
She sighed. "I knew that would come back to haunt me...What's in for me?"
"I'll resume producing Yay Me! until I leave for college in August."
She paused and shook her head. "Fine. What do you need me to do?"
Cody grinned. "Alright. Here's my plan..."
Meanwhile, in Kettlecorn, Bailey was finishing up her afternoon chores. And as she had done them all so many times before, she could do them while letting her mind wander to other things. The main thing on her mind was college. Even though Cody was telling her things were going to be alright, she still wasn't happy about it. It just wasn't fair, and Cody still wouldn't let her give up Yale and join him at Brown. She understood his reasoning, but she knew in her heart she would never resent him. It wasn't like there was something he could do about the situation. Yale just was not a possibility for him, and the more she thought about it, she came to the conclusion that she didn't want to go somewhere that would scheme to keep Cody out.
"Bailey...You've fed the same sheep three times already..."
She snapped out of her thoughts and turned to see her Dad standing there. "Sorry, Daddy."
Clyde paused. He sat down on a hay bale and motioned for her to join him. And when she did, he turned to her. "Alright...I can tell there is something on your mind. What is it?"
Bailey sighed. "I was just thinking about college. I don't like the idea of me going to one college and Cody to another one. I know we'll only be a hundred miles apart, but it won't be the same..."
He nodded. "Well, Cody didn't get into Yale. Not much can be done about that..."
She shook her head. "But it wasn't his fault!" Bailey told him the story of Ilsa and her brother Hans. "And that's why he was denied acceptance to Yale..."
Clyde just looked at his daughter. "Are you serious? He didn't get in because some guy got upset because all of your friends teamed up to help that Moseby get his job back from that guy's sister? That's so...so..."
"Wrong? Unfair? I know. And I can't help but to think. If it had happened on the ship, I would have been just as involved in helping Moseby get his job back. And I would have been blacklisted from Yale too. I was able to be judged on my merits just because this happened a couple of years before I met them, and this Hans guy didn't know I was connected to them. But Cody..."
Clyde paused to think. "Well, from everything you've told me, it seems like Cody is trying to make the best of a bad situation. Didn't you say he's going to be working on some project with some professor or something?"
Bailey nodded. "Yeah. And he won't let me give up Yale to go to Brown with him. Its a project I'd love to be working on with him." She sighed. "He says he doesn't want me to resent him later on though..."
Clyde paused and nodded. "Well...I can actually understand what he's thinking..."
She looked at her Dad in surprise. "You can?"
"Yeah. When you first got accepted to school on the boat, I didn't want to let you go. You were my little girl, and I was afraid of what could happen to you without me there to look out for you. Plus, I knew I'd miss you a whole lot. But I also knew this was an opportunity that you were so excited about. I loved you too much not to get in the way of your dreams. Bailey, you've always been different from your other sisters and pretty much everyone else in this town. I always knew you're future lied outside of Kettlecorn. If I kept you here for my own selfish reasons, I was afraid that you would eventually resent me for it. So, yeah...I can definitely understand what Cody is thinking."
Bailey paused to consider that. "I hadn't thought about it like that..."
"I guess even though I'm a farmer and Cody is a city feller, we have more in common than I thought. We both love you so much that we don't want to get in the way of your dreams even if it will hurt us not to have you around. And I know that boy loves you. I mean, he did drop everything he was doing and come here to find you when he thought you were in trouble. And then he did everything he could think of to help us save the farm..."
She smiled. "I know, Daddy. I love him just as much. And that's why I don't want to be apart from him. Beyond loving him, he's also my favorite study partner. I know I went away to the boat and didn't know a soul there, but I was quickly welcomed in to their group that already knew each other. I guess I'm looking at the same scenario when I go to Yale, but things are different this time. When I left for the ship, following my dreams was priority number one. But this time, being with Cody is one of my dreams..."
Clyde nodded. "I can understand that. More than you realize..."
"What do you mean, Daddy?"
"Well, you know I've told you that being a farmer has always been what I've wanted to do with my life, right?"
Bailey nodded. "Yeah."
"Well, that's mostly true. I have always wanted to be a farmer. But I had a dream after high school to join the navy for a couple of years. I wanted to go see the world before it was time for me to settle down and become a farmer." He smiled. "So, I think that's where you get that from..."
She smiled. "I would say so. So, why didn't you join the navy?"
He smiled back. "Because I met your mother. And after meeting her and falling head over heels in love with her, my plans changed. She actually encouraged me to still go to the navy and that she would be right here waiting for me. But I wouldn't do it. I couldn't picture myself being apart from her for that long. I didn't want to. So, I said 'No' to the navy and your Mom and I got married instead."
Bailey just looked at him. "Wow! I never knew any of that..."
Clyde shrugged. "It never came up. My point is we all have our dreams. Its just sometimes, our dreams change. What you think you want doesn't really measure up when you compare it to what it is you truly want..."
Bailey paused to think. "Do you ever regret not going into the navy and seeing the world?"
He smiled again. "Never. If I did, something might have happened, and I might not have married your mom and had all of my girls. And I would never give up any of you for anything in this world. Pumpkin, I have not and will not ever regret the decision I made. In the end, I got the most important things in the world to me. But, it did mean the world to me that your Momma understood it was what I thought I wanted and supported me in it..."
She nodded. "Like what Cody is doing now..."
"Yeah."
Bailey stopped to think. Then she shook her head. "But my situation isn't the same..."
Clyde was confused. "Its not?"
Bailey smiled. "Nope. Because I can still have all of my dreams. Brown is an Ivy League school too, so I can still get a great education. But there, I can have my most important dream of being with the man I love." She stood up. "Daddy, I'm going to Brown!"
He smiled back. "Alright. Are you going to call Cody and tell him your decision?"
She shook her head and grinned. "No. I have a better idea. I'll surprise him the day we move in. I'll call him like I'm checking in with him to see how moving in is going. And then I'll tell him I sent a special delivery for him, and it should be arriving at any time now. I'll knock at the door, and when he opens it up, I'll be standing there with a basket of his favorite moisturizers..."
Clyde laughed. "Sounds like you have a plan then..."
Bailey nodded. "Yeah. I'll just tell him he's going to have to accept that I'm going to get a great education AND be with him everyday because I won't be going anywhere."
He grinned. "Something tells me he won't mind..."
"I hope not. I need to hurry up and finish feeding the sheep so I can call Brown and let them know I'm coming..."
Clyde smiled. "Go call them now. They sheep will still be here when you finish your call..."
Bailey smiled and hugged Clyde. "Thanks, Daddy!" And with that, she got up and ran towards the house doing a little dance and singing. "I'm going to Brown! I'm going to Brown!"
To be Concluded...
