Thank you to adcgordon for being my sounding board! You're awesome and I love you! Again, I don't own anything. Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Stepping through the back door, it didn't take long for Zac to spot Vanessa. She was sitting in one of the lawn chairs that sat around the patio table big enough to fit six. He was familiar with the table and the fact that it was the location of many of the Hudgens family's discussions. He stood at the door watching her for a moment, trying to gauge the blank expression on her face. How much of what happened in the dining room was anger? Or was it more hurt? Not quite sure how to start Operation: Cheer Up Vanessa, he slowly came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders and started to gently massage. She allowed herself to relax into his loving gesture and released a deep breath.

"Hey, Babe," she started, breaking the silence first.

"How did you know it was me?" he asked curiously.

"I know your hands," she said, leaning her head over to the side to place a gentle kiss on his knuckles.

"Kinky," he replied, with a smirk.

"Zac-" she started.

"I'm sorry, Baby," he said with a small chuckle, as he leaned down to place a loving kiss on the top of her head. Removing his hands from her shoulders, he helped her to stand up and took her place in her empty chair and pulled her down into his lap and waited until she leaned her head against his chest, listening to the soothing sound of his heartbeat, before continuing. "What happened in there?"

She released a sigh as she mentally began to relive the past several minutes. "I honestly don't even know. I was sitting there listening to our moms go on and on and on about- well, about everything! They couldn't even concentrate on one aspect of this party for two minutes before demanding a decision from me and moving on to the next one! Anything I had to say, it was like I was talking to the china cabinet across the room. They can do this without me. In fact, they have been doing this without me! I was beginning to think that they were just asking me my opinion on stuff just to say that they had asked."

"Yeah, I could tell. You know, I honestly think that they didn't realize how much pressure they were putting on you. They love us and just wanted to give us a relaxing party, a time to celebrate our engagement with our friends."

"But that's just it, Zac. With the direction they were taking everything, it wasn't going to be relaxing. I tried to tell them what we had talked about, and all I got was a 'That's nice, Sweetie. What do you think about this?'. I probably should have tried to talk to them about it again, but… I don't know, I just snapped, I guess."

"Honestly, I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did."

"Yeah, well, I guess I should go talk to them, but I'm not doing it without a plan."

"What sort of plan?" he questioned.

"We need to discuss what we want before we go back in there."

"Wait, you're pulling me into this?" he asked skeptically. She didn't hesitate to give him the pout that she knew would cause him to crumble. "Ah, geez, Van! Not the pout, please?" he declared, closing his eyes to try and avoid her brown puppy dog eyes. Feeling that she relented and he was in the clear of the puppy dogs, he slowly opened his eyes, only to see that the pout was still present. He closed his eyes once more and leaned his head back so it rested on the back of the chair. He began shaking his head back and forth, muttering "No, no, no, no, no, no" over and over until he felt his fiancée catch his chin in her hand and hold his head still, so she could look the love of her life in the eyes.

"Zac," she started, "this is your party, too."

As he opened his eyes again, the two lovers had a private stare down. Zac narrowed his eyes; Vanessa raised her eyebrows. They each knew what the other was saying in their silent conversation. It was a language that only they knew and had practiced so much that it was pure perfection. Finally, Zac gave in first.

"Fine," he said with a frustrated sigh. "You win, of course. Let's discuss this."

"Thank you. I can't confront them without you beside me," she said as she stroked the side of his face lovingly.

"Dylan's right."

"About what?"

"I am whipped, aren't I?" he asked, wincing as she pinched him with a scowl on her face. "Ow!" Zac let out a chuckle as he rubbed his upper arm watching as Vanessa crossed her arms across her chest.

"Zac, I'm serious! I need your help! We need to talk about this."

"You're right, I'm sorry." He leaned forward to place a gentle kiss to her temple. "You know that whatever you want at this party, I'll be absolutely happy with it. I'll be happy even if it's just the two of us celebrating."

She turned to face him, giving him a small smile, not able to deny the love that swelled in her heart every time she looked at him. "I love you," she told him quietly.

"I love you, too. Now, let's talk about this party. Small?" She nodded. "Buffet?" Another nod. Not able to resist the one question that he knew would probably get him another pinch or even smacked across the chest, he took both of her wrists in his hands as he felt the corners of his lips twitch and he said the words: "What color napkins?"

"Shut up!" she exclaimed, trying to wriggle free from his grasp so she could reprimand him properly. Seeing that he wasn't willing to let go, she finally settled her squirming, causing him to laugh.

"I'm sorry, Baby. I couldn't resist," he began to explain. "Dj or band?"

"I don't care, honestly. Actually, maybe a dj, now that I think about it. That way we'll have a variety of music that we can dance to all night long."

"See, now we're getting somewhere," he told her as he ran his fingers through her long curls.

Feeling the calming effect, she leaned in to give him a gentle kiss. Placing his hands on the back of her head to hold her there for a moment, he deepened the kiss. Just as the couple was about to let themselves get lost in the emotions they were all too familiar with, Vanessa pulled away.

"Hey, what about Stella?"

"Yeah, see, when we're on the verge of a make out, I really don't want to be thinking about either one of our siblings."

"Did you talk to her?" she asked, ignoring his smart-ass comment. Noting his deep sigh and the hurt in his eyes, she could only guess what his answer was going to be before he said anything.

"I tried to," he said solemnly.

"What happened?" she softly asked him, as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"I went up there to talk to her, only to have her yell at me that I'm one half the reason she's upset, and shove me out of her room, slamming the door in my face."

"What?!"

"Yeah. If the music blaring from her stereo doesn't tell you that she's upset, then I'm sure her kicking me out will."

"Baby, I'm sorry."

"There's nothing you can do about it. It's just something she has to work through, I guess. I mean, I don't know how teenage girls work. If it were Dylan, I'd just go tell him he better talk to you and straighten out whatever it is before I kick his ass."

"Why would you kick his ass?"

"Because we're guys. That's what we do." Vanessa just looked at him and shook her head in amusement.

"Well, that's not what girls do. We talk it out. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to go and talk to our moms, and then we're going to go talk to Stella together. She can yell at us separately, but together we can overpower her. We're a lot stronger then she is."

"So, what do you suggest? I grab her while you tie her up and we shine a light in her face and sweat the truth out of her? Yeah, I think that might work!" Vanessa just rolled her eyes at her fiancé's joking comments about her younger sister.

"Why don't we just play it by ear and let the conversation take its own course? We'll handle it as it goes. Without knowing what exactly it is that's bugging her, we can't know how to talk to her."

"I think I like my plan better," he said sulkily.

"Why? Are you scared of a fourteen year old girl?"

"No, I'm scared of a fourteen year old Hudgens."

She leaned forward so her lips were mere centimeters from the shell of his ear as she whispered seductively.

"I'm sorry, Baby. I'll make it up to you later." She watched as his eyes went from their normal brilliant, sky blue to the sexy gray that she loved so much to see. Smiling at the effect that she knew she always had on him, she took note of the way his eyebrow quirked as he verbalized his thought.

"I'll hold you to that," he said as he brought their lips together once more. After a few minutes of their embrace, they finally pulled apart and sat in silence for several more minutes, just enjoying each other's company. Finally, Zac made the decision that it was time to go back inside and not put off the inevitable any longer.

"Okay, Babe, I think we've put this off long enough." He gave her leg a small pat letting her know to stand up, which she did, holding her hand out to help him stand as well. As they opened the single French door, everyone in the room turned to watch the couple.

"Um, Mom, Starla, can Zac and I talk to you two in the other room?" she tentatively asked. The young couple watched as the two older women stood from their position on the couch and walked into the dining room where all of their notes were still spread out. Gina and Starla sat down, watching as their older children copied their actions. Not exactly sure what to expect from the request of Zac and Vanessa, the two mothers sat patiently, waiting on them to start the conversation.

Vanessa sat there, playing with her engagement ring- which has become a nervous habit of hers lately- working to gather her courage. After a long moment of silence, Starla spoke first.

"Well? You two wanted to talk to us?" Zac reached to take Vanessa's hand in his showing his support.

"Um, yeah. Zac and I just wanted to talk to you about the party."

"Go on," Gina said.

"First of all, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to go off the way I did. I was trying so hard to enjoy myself and let you two have your fun, but I wasn't. It wasn't fun for me. I felt like every time I voiced my opinion on something, you weren't listening to me and I just snapped. I'm sorry."

The two older women shared a look before turning their attention back to their children. "Sweetie, we love you. When you stormed out like that and Zac went to talk to you, we realized that we were getting to be a little overbearing," Gina told the couple.

"A little?" Vanessa asked, with a pointed look on her face.

"Okay, a lot," Gina continued. "We're sorry that we were taking the fun out of it for you. We want you two to enjoy yourselves at the party, and we were just-"

"- doing it all for us. I realize that now. I'm sorry I overreacted, and I hope you can forgive me."

"Honey, of course! We love you and we want you two to be happy," Starla told them. "But can you forgive us for being so-"

"Party Nazi?" Zac supplied for his mom. The mother and son duo allowed their blue eyes to meet, and Starla gave a slight shake of her head.

"Zachary…" she warned.

"Sorry, Mom, but you were."

"Okay," Vanessa interrupted, "now that that's all out in the open and done, Zac and I did set a few stipulations about the party. We'll tell you what we came up with, and then the rest will be up to you two. Sound fair?" After the mothers nodded their heads, Gina picked up her pen to make notes of what her daughter was about to tell them.

"Okay, first of all, buffet. We want a buffet. That will give people choices of what to eat instead of feeling like we're telling them what to eat. The mood will be casual. We want to wear jeans and be comfortable, so everyone else should be able to, too. We also want a dj, so there's a variety of music. Are we all on the same page so far?"

The mothers responded in the affirmative, so Zac continued. "It will be small. Van and I will get the guest list together today before we leave so you two can have it and get the invitations out."

"Okay," Starla spoke up. "All of this sounds fair. We will go by what you've told us just now and will take care of the rest."

"Remember, casual. Don't go overboard, please? No ice sculptures, no black tie tuxedo whatever or anything. Please? Even if it's just a cookout in the backyard or whatever," Vanessa begged their moms.

"We won't," Starla promised the two young adults sitting before her. "One more question for you, though. Photographer- yes or no?" The other three people in the room knew the underlying meaning in Starla's question. Do you want the paparazzi there? Zac and Vanessa shared a look in silent communication before Zac answered his mom's question.

"We'll have to talk about that one. We'll let you know."

"Okay," Gina said. "Is that all?"

"Yeah, Gina, I think that's it," Zac said, looking at Vanessa for confirmation. When he saw her nod, he continued. "Just tell us where to be and when. Now, if you two will excuse us, there's a teenager upstairs that needs our attention."

"What's wrong with Stella?" Gina asked, her eyes widening in shock. "I hate this. I've been so engrossed in this party today, that I didn't even notice that she wasn't down here. Is everything okay?"

Zac opened his mouth to tell Gina about the boy, but Vanessa held her hand up stopping him and spoke up first. "She will be, Mom. She's just having a teen moment. We don't know what's going on, but I think Zac and I need to talk to her, so…"

"It's okay, Sweet Girl. You two go ahead and talk to her. Cheer her up. We'll deal with all of this and we'll let you know what we come up with," Starla assured her future daughter-in-law.

"Well, don't tell us everything you decide. We want some surprises at the party," Vanessa told them.

"Sounds fair," Gina said. "Now go. Be big sister. We'll talk about the guest list before you two leave."

Zac and Vanessa stood from their seats and walked around the table to where their mothers were sitting, gave both women hugs and kisses on their cheeks, and left the dining room. The young couple made it to the bottom of the stairs before they heard the loud music filtering down and reaching their ears. Pausing on the bottom step, they shared a concerned look with each other before making their way up to the second floor. Reaching Stella's bedroom, Vanessa took a deep breath and reached up to knock on her sister's door.