Chapter 30

Again, I don't own any of these characters

Cody and Bailey just stood there in total shock.

"They're married?"

Ellie smiled. "Yep."

"But...but..."

"Don't worry, no one knows except Michelle and I. They did need two witnesses afterall..."

Cody shakes his head. "But why not tell anyone?"

Ellie shrugs. "They just wanted something simple and quiet..."

Bailey smiled. "Well, I guess that answers the question of where those two stand now..."

Ellie laughs. "Tell me about it. But, I'm happy for them, and all I can say is that is was about time..."

Cody nods. "I can see that..."

Ellie grins. "And by 2014, everyone will be saying the same thing about you two!"

Bailey smiled. "Probably...But, we will have been together for over five years by then. That sounds about right..."

Ellie rolls her eyes. "Yeah, right. For all practical purposes, you two have already been married for a year and a half now..."

Thanksgiving dinner that afternoon was delicious, and everyone got a chance to meet Chef Paulo's guest – his newest girlfriend. She was his new sous chef and protege. He had to pull Cody aside and explain that she was now his newest favorite protege. Cody just laughed and said he understood. After dinner, Cody and Bailey kept waiting for Mitch and Amy to make an announcement, but they never did. But neither were going to force anything as they knew what it was like to keep their future plans to themselves.

Friday was spent just spending time with the family. At one point, Bailey was able to pull Amy aside and secretly welcome her to the family. Amy was surprised she knew but smiled, and said it looked like Bailey was the next to join. And on Friday, the four teens received a phone call from their second cousin, Katie's and Zoey's mom. They all four took turns convincing her of the merits of Seven Seas High and finally got her to agree to it. After the phone call, Zack wanted to immediately call Mr. Moseby, but everyone else convinced him that it would be a lot better if he was surprised by their arrival.

Saturday morning saw the departure of Ellie, Mitch, Amy, Michelle, Katie and Zoey back to Seattle. Everyone promised to keep in touch, and Katie and Zoey thanked the four teens for their help with their mom. And not long after the six departed for the airport, Max and Tapeworm arrived. Both took their time taking in the Tipton again, and they said their hellos to Esteban, Carey and Arwin. Soon, they all piled into Zack and Cassie's SUV for a day of tailgating. Along with them, they had an assortment of goodies Cody had made as well as a cooler full of cold drinks and a large thermos of hot chocolate. Zack had also managed to borrow a set of cornhole boards for them to have fun with.

To say that tailgating was the highlight of the game experience would be an understatement. The tailgate was a full on party where the heated rivalry did escalate into shouting matches. However, the game itself couldn't match that muster. For two storied programs of lore, both had fallen on hard times. Zack had been right – it did resemble two mules fighting over a turnip. Both offenses were anemic, but it wasn't due to any great efforts by the defenses. Finally, in the fourth quarter, Yale was able to return a kick to the Harvard 5-yard line. Three plays later, they were forced to kick a field goal which gave the final score – 3-0. Of course, leaving the stands, the level of enthusiasm by the Yale alums would have made you think it had been a blowout.

Returning back to the Tipton, everyone hung out before they headed out into the city. Max and Tapeworm hadn't been back to Boston in so long, they wanted to see some of their former hangouts. So, after a night of just doing that, everyone returned back to the suite where Max and Tapeworm each took one of the couches in the living room area.

The next day, everyone had brunch with Carey and Arwin before they loaded up all of their vehicles to make their ways back to campus. Around noon, a convoy of three vehicles made their its west. Before too long, the convoy split as Zack and Cassie left the interstate to head back to Storrs. Cody, Bailey, Max and Tapeworm continued on to Hartford before heading south towards New Haven. Once back in New Haven, the two cars split as Cody and Bailey made their way home. Once there, they let Porkers out to stretch and walk around while Cody unloaded the car.

Once home, they proceeded to finish up the reading for their Monday classes. After that, it was just a quiet evening at home getting used to being back on campus. The next week went by without any problems. They finished their final Chemistry and Biology labs and were happy to have two of their classes done for the semester. Further, they both felt really good going into reading week knowing that they had both already done all of their assigned reading for the semester, so they could use it as a time to just study.

Saturday was their Jeopardy test. They were in a conference room with about ten other teams of two. Both had expected that they would both have to take a test, but were surprised when the ten teams were separated into ten different rooms so they could take the test as a pair. Well, being able to work together, both felt really good about how they did. There were some off the wall categories like 18th Century French Poetry, but of course, that was something both knew quite a bit about.

After the test, they were surprised that there was a short interview process. Cody and Bailey found themselves in their testing room with an assistant show producer.

"So, how long have you two known each other?"

Bailey smiled. "Almost three and a half years now..."

The producer turns back to her notes. "Let me get this straight...You two went to high school on a cruise ship?"

Cody nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Seven Seas High. It where me met, fell in love and both graduated as valedictorians."

The producer looks up. "Fell in love?"

Bailey nodded. "Yes. Cody and I are engaged right now."

"Really..."

"Yes."

The producer sits back and smiles. "So, let me get this straight in my mind. The country girl from Kansas meets the city boy from Boston at a high school on a cruise ship, fall in love, get engaged and now are both at Yale together..."

Cody smiles. "Pretty much..."

The producer just shakes her head. To herself, she thought if their test scores were in the top three, she had just found her Team Yale. These two were too good to pass up. "Well, I appreciate you both coming in for the test today. We'll be in touch."

Bailey smiled as they gathered their things. "Thank you for the opportunity..."

The rest of the weekend was spent taking it easy, and a final double date with Max and Tapeworm on Saturday night. After that, everyone was going to be in study and finals mode. One last night of doing nothing but having fun was definitely on the menu. Monday of reading week brought with it Cody and Bailey's meeting with Bill for spring scheduling.

Bill smiled as they walked in to his office. "I hope you two aren't too heartbroken about not being in class this morning..."

Cody chuckled. "I think we'll live...But, we do need to get back and continue studying..."

Bill rolled his eyes. "I hope not for my exams. You two could not show up for them and still get B's..."

Bailey smiled. "We don't want B's..."

Bill laughed. "I didn't think you did. Alright, let's get down to business then. Fortunately for you both, med school and vet school and have many of the same pre-requisites. With your AP credits and courses this semester, all you have left to take is a second semester of Organic Chemistry with lab, Genetics and Biochemistry..." Bill chuckles. "You both were really lucky to take care of your Physics and Inorganic Chemistry requirements already."

Cody nods. "Sure looks that way..."

"Well, I would suggest finishing off Organic Chemistry and then choosing Biochemistry or Genetics..."

Cody turned to Bailey. "What do you think?"

Bailey paused. "Well, I would prefer Genetics, but I think we should see which one fits our schedule better..."

Cody nodded. "Good idea."

Bill nods. "Moving on, as for your economics side, you both have AP credit for intro micro and intro macro, and you're completing Intermediate Micro and Intermediate Macro this semester. Yale requires 12 courses for the degree, so you will both already have four completed after this semester..." Bill paused. "Have you two thought about graduating in three years?"

Bailey nodded. "Yeah, if its possible."

"Alright, that means eight more courses in 5 semesters. If I were you, I would go with a course in Econometrics. You have all the math requirements out of the way, so I would say go for an elective that interests you..."

Cody paused and smiled. "What are you teaching next semester?"

Bill laughs. "Can't get enough, huh?"

Bailey smiled. "Nope."

"Well, I am teaching a course in Econometrics..."

"Perfect!"

"And I'm teaching a course in Intro to Probability and Statistics..."

"Perfect again!"

Bill laughed. "I hope you guys like being up early then. One is Monday/Wednesday 9-10:15 and the other is Tuesday/Thursday 9-10:15..."

Cody grins. "Even better. If a bad snowstorm hits, we'll be the first to know if you can't make it to class..."

"That's true..." Bill turns to his computer and types in a few things. "Alright, you're both in those courses." He clicks a his mouse a few times. "Alright, Organic Chem II has classes on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays at 11:00, how does that work?"

Bailey nods. "Sounds good."

"Alright, we'll, we still have your afternoons open...There is a Genetics course on Tuesday/Thursday at 11-12:15...Leaving afternoons open again for labs..."

Cody and Bailey nod again. "Looks like all we need is labs then..."

Bill clicks away on his keyboard again. "Alright, four down now. There is an Organic Lab II on Tuesdays from 1-3 and a Genetics Lab on Thursdays from 1-3. How about those?"

"I think we've got it..."

Bill enrolls them and turns to print out their schedules for them. "Alright, six classes, 16 hours again, and only one class on Fridays..." Bill looks up at them. "Most seniors would kill for a schedule like that..."

Bailey smiled. "Well, they need a better adviser then..."

Bill laughs. "Maybe so..." He pauses. "But I should tell you both. You are both right on schedule to graduate in May of '14."

Returning back to their apartment, Bailey and Cody are discussing what Bill had said.

Bailey paused. "Should we announce our plans now?"

Cody thought for a minute. "Well, that would be us taking a risk that nothing will happen..." He paused and smiled. "We don't we wait and announce it at Christmas?"

Bailey just smiled. "Of course, this also means we need to make a phone call to London..."

To be Continued...