It was the next day and Maya and Zack were cooking and Zoey and Kyleigh were making sure the house was clean for the guests to arrive soon "so are you excited about meeting nana?" asked Kyleigh as she vacuumed the living room.
Zoey shrugged "I met her before but she failed to mention to either one of us that she was my grandmother I just thought she was one of my mother's friends."
"How do you think she reacted about Lola?" asked Kyleigh.
From what mom used to say about Carrie was that she was a open minded person so hopefully it will be a better situation than when I met you and your mom" said Zoey as she stopped vacumming and walked into her room which Kyleigh followed.
"Look we shouldn't have treated you that way, mom was just hurt on what our dad did and I hated seeing her hurt so I lashed out on you I'm really sorry you really are a chill person" said Kyleigh.
"Thank you but we talked about that and its behind us now, you me and your mom were okay now, we just gotta hope all goes well with Carrie" said Zoey.
"You know grandad is off of his tour maybe he will come today and you can meet him" said Kyleigh.
"I'm nervous enough the more people the more nervous I'm going to get" said Zoey.
"You have no reason to be nervous Zoey I don't know if you know this but every since we moved to the Tipton and we met Maddie, obviously I felt a different way about her but mom grew to love her like a daughter of her own from day one and I know she will love you just the same, well you know like a granddaughter," said Zack standing at the door to the living room.
"I hope its that easy" said Zoey.
Zack walked up to her and smiled and gave her a hug "it will be you have nothing to worry about I promise," said Zack.
They smiled at each other when the doorbell rang and all three of them looked at the door and Kyleigh smiled "I'll get it."
She walked towards the door and opened it to reveal Cody and Bailey "hey uncle Cody" said Kyleigh.
"Hey Kiddo" said Cody as the two of them walked on in and then Cody walked up to Zoey "hey Zoey, you miss being back with us?" he joked.
"Of course how can I not miss a lovely healthy breakfast every morning" said Zoey.
Cody laughed at the comment and gave her a hug "its good to see you again." she then went over to Bailey and gave her a hug as well then the doorbell rang again and this time Zoey went to get it and Lola and London were standing on the other side.
"Lola!" said Zoey as she gave her a hug.
"Looks like we get to go through this together" said Lola.
"Thank god I don't know if I could do this alone" said Zoey "come on I'll show you to my room" the two girls ran on and went to talk while London stood in the living room awkwardly and then Bailey walked up to her "can I talk to you for a minute?"
London walked with her into the kitchen "look first I want to say Bailey I'm not going to get between you and Cody I had a crush on him at one point but that is long gone but if Lola is going to have a relationship with Cody all I ask is don't take what I did out on her Lola is the most important person to me" said London.
"I was wrong the way I acted and I want Cody and his daughter to have a relationship its only right, I will do whatever it takes to make Lola safe in our family,you are her mom I will never take the place of that or try to you and Cody will be her parents I just want her to know I will be there if she ever needs me" said Bailey.
"Okay thank you" said London.
"We alright now can we be friends again?" asked Bailey sticking out her hand.
"Of course we are" said London shaking it and Bailey pulled her in for a hug.
The two of them pulled apart and smiled and went to the living room and started catching up on life.
Zack and Cody were talking in Zack's room "have you talked to Lola?"
"No I'm letting her to come to me I don't want to overstep my boundaries you know?" said Cody.
"Maybe she is scared to overstep her boundaries you are the adult man you have to reach out to her" said Zack.
"You are right but I don't know how" said Cody.
'You have to figure it out" said Zack.
Meanwhile Lola and Zoey were talking a mile a minute when Kyleigh walked in "hey guys can I join you?"
"Why so you can be a bitch to Zoey again?" said Lola.
"Lola its okay were fine now, Kyleigh,Maya, and I were okay now" said Zoey.
"I still don't like her" said Lola.
"Can you all try to get along for me?" said Zoey.
"I guess I can try" said Lola.
"I guess I'll give it a shot" said Kyleigh.
Zoey hugged the both of them "I'm glad things are looking up."
"I just hope Bailey comes around to at least liking me" said Lola.
"I'm sure she will don't worry" said Zoey.
Meanwhile Maya walked in to see Bailey and London talking "are you ladies okay?" she asked sitting on the other couch.
"Yeah were fine and how are you Maya?" asked Bailey.
"I'm good everything has gotten so much better since I made up with Zack and Zoey" said Maya.
"You should have never taken it out on Zoey in the first place" said London.
"I know that now and I'm doing everything I can to make sure she is happy here" said Maya.
"That's all I ask" said London.
There was another knock at the door and Zack went to answer it and his mom was there followed by two unexpected guests "hey mom" he said as he gave her a hug he then looked at the other two guests Mr. and "hello Mr. and " he said in a confused tone.
The two didn't say a word as they stuck their noses up and walked on in without a single word as Zack rolled his eyes and shut the door.
Carey went over and gave Cody a hug "so where are the girls I want to see them?"
"They are in Zoey's room straight in the back Carey walked past him and knocked on the door and walked on in and she smiled at the three girls and Kyleigh got up "Zoey Lola this is our nana Carey."
Zoey and Lola got up and shook her hand "nice to meet you Carey" said Lola.
"Nice to see you again " said Zoey.
"Girls I understand if you don't want to call me nana just yet but you can call me Carey" she said.
Both girls nodded and Carey smiled "you both are giving me flashbacks of Maddie and London when they were teenage girls" said Carey trying not to cry "you know Zoey your mother was like a daughter to me and even yours Lola I loved London like my very own."
"That means a lot" said Lola.
"Well I assume we will have dinner in a little bit I'll let you girls get back to your gossip" said Carey as she went out the door.
"How did it go?" asked Cody when he saw his mom walk out.
"They look just like London and Maddie" said Carey.
"Gee thanks" Zack and Cody both said at the same time.
"Well I will say when I saw Zoey when she was younger I saw some of your features but I never questioned it which I should have" said Carey.
"We can't go back and redo things everything happened the way it did for a reason but now I'm just trying to make up lost time with her" said Zack.
"I'm proud of you for that, it has showed me that you grew up" said Carey.
"So why are Maddie's parents here?" asked Zack.
"I think they want to make things right with her" said Carey.
"What did they do, were they not in her life?" asked Zack.
"Honey when they found out she was pregnant and not married they disowned Maddie" said Carrie.
"They disowned her just like that, over nothing" Zack said in an angry voice.
"They very strongly believe in marriage and any child that is conceived out of wedlock is out of the family," said Carrie.
"Then why the hell are they here, I made so many sacrifices for her from the second I found out about her even risking my marriage to make things right for her and they disown her then have the nerve to show up here" said Zack.
"Maybe they have seen the light and want to make up for lost times, just give them a chance" said Carrie.
"Alright one chance but they better not be awful to her in the slightest we just got our family in a good place" said Zack.
"Well we can only hope for the best" said Carey patting her son's back.
Zack then decided to go ahead and start the dinner and it was alright as far as Carey went she talked to the girls, Cody tried to open up to talk to Lola a lot more and even Bailey jumped in and tried to get to know Lola as well.
Maddie's parents wouldn't budge or say a word and Zoey tried to step up to the plate and break the ice "so well um its nice to meet you my name is Zoey I'm a senior this year and have a 4.3 GPA average and have been accepted into NYU for film this fall just a few facts about me," said Zoey.
"That isn't a career, how is that stable?" asked .
"Well my mother always told me to follow my dreams" said Zoey.
"And she should, she should do what makes her happy" interjected Zack.
"She should have a legit stable career that can pay her bills and with Film there is so much competition she may not make it" said .
"Now wait a second I thought you were here to catch up with your granddaughter not shame her on her decisions on her future" said Carrie standing up.
"These are the reasons we are going to fight for custody of Zoey she will not go the right direction if she stays with Zackary" said .
"WHAT!" yelled Zack, Maya, Carrie and Zoey at the same time.
"Yes he doesn't have any morals, or religious beliefs he even slept with someone while with someone else, and most importantly you support this crazy idea of film school you are setting up your child for failure and she needs a better environment" said .
"So that is why your here, we had dinner and you haven't bothered to take the time to get to know Zoey once and now your demanding custody of her?" yelled Carrie enraged.
"I'm not letting him screw her up and she is already going down a road she don't need to be," said .
"She has a 4.3 GPA, she is going to college to make something out of herself how can that be a bad road I for one am very damn proud of her" said Zack clearly pissed off.
"I'm not looking down on her for going to college, I'm looking down on her putting time in a field that will not give her a stable career" said .
How the hell does taking Zoey away from her father change that? " yelled Maya.
"Zack is not a good example that she needs he cheated on someone he was married to, and abandoned the child in the progress" said .
"I didn't know about her, Maddie never told me about her I had no idea that I had a child until she showed up on my doorstep, if I would have known about her things would have been different I would have been involved in her life and what I did has nothing to do with what kind of parent I am I will go out of my way to make sure she has everything she needs and that she is happy" said Zack.
Zoey couldn't stand to hear them talk anymore and she snapped "You know what ..." said a voice at the end of the table everyone turned their heads to Zoey and she continued "Zack didn't know about me but you know who did the two of you, you two were the first ones mom went to when she found out she was pregnant and you know what you said that I was a mistake because I was born out of wedlock and unless my mom married my dad you wouldn't even acknowledge either one of us in your family, you disowned her and everything, I've known Zack for a week and he's done more for me than you have in my entire life, even at risk with his own family he still stood up for me and went out of his way to make sure I would be a part of this family you don't give a damn about me, its not about me or whats best for me its about him and how you don't want him to have me, I'm happy here in less than 3 months I'm going to go to college and I will be a an adult in less than three weeks where I can officially make my decisions and my decision is I want to stay here with my dad and my sister until I go to college" said Zoey.
"You are a foolish girl" said .
"No you are, Mrs,Fizpatrick because you missed out on one of the most incredible people I know" said Zack standing up and walking next to Zoey "and the best part of all this Maddie did well with her without you and she will turn out fantastic without you too."
"She will ruin her life if she is not steered in the right direction" said .
"If I may part of life is not living it in a set plan, living life is taking those chances film is her passion, she is taking that risk, she may succeed she might not but if she doesn't take that chance she will never know, and its better to try and fail then to not try at all Maddie lived her life so much by pleasing you all she gave up a lot of things just to live to your standards I will not let my granddaughter do the same thing she will live her life her way and she will be happy" said Carey standing on the other side of Zoey.
"I think we should go back to Boston" said .
"Yea I think you should" said Zack.
The two of them left without another word.
Once they left the dinner continued and everyone had a good time getting to know each other and once everyone else left Zack was sitting in the living room watching tv when Zoey walked up to him "hey" she said sitting down on the couch in her night clothes.
"Hey kiddo you heading off to bed?" he said turning off the tv.
"Yeah but first I just want to say thanks for everything you have done including standing up for me against mom's parents" said Zoey.
"No problem I will always be here for you whenever you need me I'll be here" said Zack.
Zoey stood up and hugged Zack "I love you dad."
He smiled and hugged her back "I love you too Zoey more than you will ever know."
"I know that now" she said as she stood back up and went to her room Zack smiled for this moment everything was perfect.
